The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 465

baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Wl)rld waited for that in waiting for the advent of Christ. Christiana live under the new dispensation of the Spirit. John belonged to the servitude of the Law; Christiana enjoy the sonship of the gospel.-W. F. A. Vera. 16-19.-0hildren in the market-place. Our Lord must have watched the children at play in the market-place, and have been grieved when a discontented spirit had been manifested by some of them. He had seen how no effort on the part of their companions could move these obstinate children from their sullen mood. And now he finds the behaviour of the children to be typical of that of their parents. Elder people may learn from children. The unconventional mannerR of children may reveal some- thing of the character of tbe age, or something of human nature itself, that is too ofte!l hidden under the veneer of mere fashion. I. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SATISFY THE UNSTIIPATHETIC. The disagreeable children can be enticed by no action of their companions. They will not dance to the gay music nor join in the mock mourning. A third method would be equally unsuccessful, because they are not to be pleased. They are sitting; there is al ways something wrong with children when they sit down for long; the life has gone out of them. Similarly there are people who are dissatisfied with all methods of religious work. Old staid methods are dull and gloomy to them; new and more lively methods are unseemly and irreverent. From the sobriety of the Quakers' meeting to the unrestrained fervour of a Salvation Army meeting they cannot discover any worship to suit them, and they find fault with all ways of conducting Church services. If some one could invent a new style of worshipping God this would be of no use for the discontented people. Their dis- content lie<J deeper. The children had no mind to play; these people have no mind to pray. Therefore we shall not reach them by new methods. They a.re in a hopeless condition unless we can touch their hearts and lead them into a better state of mind. It is useless to pander to their prejudices. Perhaps at present all we can do is to pray for them. II. UNSYMPATIIETIC PEOPLE lll8TAXE AUSTERITY FOB INSANITY. In our Lord's day these people could only explain John the Baptist by saying that he was possessed by the devil. There are men and women to whom the very idea of self-denial is absmd. They have always lived a self-indulgent life, and they cannot understand why any- body in his senses should do otherwise. Such people have not the least conception of the high claims of duty. Moreover, they do not understand the dnrker Bides of life. To them Gethsemane is a perfect enigma. III. UNSYMPATHETIC PEOPLE MISTAKE SOCIABILITY FOB SELF-INDULGENCE. The very people who ea.y that the austere prophet is mad, when they see Christ, who is not allljtere, accuse him of laxity of conduct. This is enough to show that their opposition is insincere, or at least that it springs from their own state of mind, and not from any defect in those whom they presume to criticize. It is much to learn thnt the highest religion is not ascetic, and yet that it is not self-indulgent. The real reason why Jesus ate and drank with all sorts of people was not an indifference to moral distinctions, a hunger for popularity, or a love of ease-all vices utterly foreign to his character. It was just his brotherly love seeking to help and bless everybody. We cannot under- stand the story of Jesus till we catch his spirit. 'l'hen we see that the safest protec- tion against the evil of the world is not ascetic isolation, but a self-forgetting life spent for the good of our fellow-men.-W. F. A. Vere. 20-24.-.A. lament over wasted privileges. Jesus is already approaching the sadder stage of his brief ministry; already to the eye of sense it begins to look like a failure. 'l'o some it was a failure. 'l'he seed had fallen by the wayside, and the birds had carried it away. A similar lament to that of Christ might well be uttered over many regil>ns of favoured Christendom. I. THE GREATNESS OF THE PRIVILEGES. No places on earth had been more privileged than these Galilrean towns. Here Jesus had lived and worked; here his greatest miracles had been performed, and every miracle was an object-lesson setting forth before the eyes of men tb,~ blessings of the kingdom. 1. Privileges of knowledge. The inhabitants of these ciths had beard the gospel from the very lips of the Saviour. They had seen the spirit of his life and the laws of the ~ingdom in everything he di<i  462 TilR GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [cH. n. 1-30.