The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 466

They who dwell in Christian lands have privileges denied to the heathen.' Still more have the children of a Christian home. If we have kn:>wn Christ from our childhood, have been trained in Christian truth, have reen the work of Christ in the society in which we have lirnd, ours is the condition of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. II. THE NEGLECT OF THE PRIVILEGES. These cities had heard, but they had not heeded. They he.d seen, but they had not followed. The gospel had come to their doors, but the foolish people had not received it into their hearts. The explanation of this indifference is given in the earlier verses of the chapter. The negligent people were unsympathetic-they were like listless children sitting in the market-place. 'l.'heir condition is representative of that of multitudes in our own day. The labours of the Church are expended on them in vain. They have had the truth of Christ's gospel preached in their ears time after time. Yet to them it is nothina-, Their very familiarity with the words only Mems to render them callous to the m°eaning. They could pass an examination in religious knowledge with credit; eomeof them have done so, and have won high places and carried '.off prizes. Yet they are utterly indifferent to Christ. Here is an appalling condition I It is due to the hardening: effect of sin or to the deadening that comes with wilful worldliness. If men and women will absorb themselves in questions of money-making, amusement, and fashion, they cannot receive Christ or feel the blessedness of his gospel. . III. THE MELANCHOLY DOOM OF THOSE WHO WASTE GREAT PRIVILEGES, The cities are to be cast down. The prophecy of Christ has been literally fulfilled. All three cities have disappesred, and have left scarcely a ruin behind. Or at least there is a dispute as to what ruins may be identified with them, and Caperne.um in·particular has occasioned much trouble to the map-makers. The neglect of Christian privileges cannot continue for ever. He who has buried his talent will most assuredly be called to account for it. Then the doom will be proportionate to the privileges neglected. The vices of the three cities of Galilee may not have reached the hideous blackness of the wicked cities of the plain, nor the notorious corruption of Phamicia. But the greater privileges will be thrown into the scale and will weigh it down. Decorous, respectable people who enjoy Christian privileges and neglect them will be more heavily condemned than the most degraded heathen.-W. F. A. Ver. 25.-The revelation to babes. St. Luke associates these words with the return of the seventy from their triumphant mission (Luke x. 21). Therefore we see that our Lord is not thinking only or chiefly of children, but rather of the childlike. To these God has revealed great truths which he bas not given to the worldlywise. So, following the context of St. Matthew, we are reminded that the citizens of Capernaum and other towns missed the truth which a handful of fishermen had laid hold of. At first the gospel began to spread among the lower classes of the Roman empire. The same is seen in India to-day. I. WHY THE REVELATION I8 HIDDEN FROM THE WISB. This cannot be owing to e.n arbitrary decision of God without need or reason. We must look for the explanation in the character and conduct of the wise. Now, it ie not to be supposed that our Lord would depreciate intellect as such, because that would be to speak ill of one of the great works of God ; moreover, he had e. great intellect himself. Neither could he wish to discourage mental activity, to praise indolence and carelessness of thought. Where, then, do the disadvantages of the wise lie? 1. The wise have no special privilege in regard to religious truth. This does not reach us through intellectual efforts, nor does it rest on a foundation of scientific or literary aciuirements. 'l'he child and the philosopher, the simple and the learned, must find Gods greatest truth in the same way, and that a way as open to the babe in intellect as to the intellectual giant. 2. Th6 wise are tempted to loole in the wrong direction for reUgious truth. The man of science cannot easily escape from the thraldom of hie scientific methods; the scholar is ofion eo buried in his learning that he finds it hard to lift up hie eyes from,his books-e.nd, alas! the tniiil be most needs ie not in them ; the thinker cannot escape from the notion that oo by his thought must reach truth more readily than those who have not his trained faculties, and he tries to climb to religious truth on the aerial ladder of specula- tion. 3. The wise are in dOln.fJl'f' of priM. It ie difficult for them to confess their ignorance and helplessness. The truly wise are perhaps most ready to do this; but <lll. xr. 1-30.J THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 463