look those whom all other governors overlooked. This was equivalent. to sayin" tha\ no !rnman necessities were beyond the relief he. brought. He was to bring in a r;ligion available for all men-for those who bad notbrng but humanity to recommend, aid, or support them. Until bis kingdom was fully established this could only be a proclama- tion of- good news, and so works of beneficence went hand in hand with the preaching to show that the promise was not mere word. The miracles were thus actual prO: damaUons. To the report of what they saw and heard the messengers were to add 'tb:e ·words, "Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me." As if he would 1lay, "I have chosen my methods of action, Blessed is he who understands the -characteristic fea.tures of the kingdom and can rejoice in them. Blessed is he who does not take offence at the Saviour of the world because be comes with mercy and not with jud,,"1Ilent. Blessed is be who understands that the most penetrating, last- ingly efficacious powers in the world are forgiveness, tenderness, and pitiful ministering .to the common wants." This word of warning applies to several kinds of misappre- hension. 1. There are those to whom it seems unintelligible that Christ's work is so slow, that he is so tardy in making any marked impression on the world, that things should go.on so much as if he had no power in heaven or on earth, In times of need they are tempted t.o .ask, "Art thou he that should come?" But blessed are ye who, thus tempted, are able t.o accept Christ's way, not in sullen resignation, but believing -that it is unintelligible to you only because his aim is higher than yours, his love ,greater, his wisdom more unclouded, his methods more radical. He will not always -explain; he expects you will trust him warmly and lovingly, and so grow to understand his spirit; he will trust you for coming at last to see a.she sees, and he leaves with you this loving word. • 2. Christ here shows in what spirit he meets honest doubt about. his Person and work. He knew that beneath that question of John's, which so shocked the bystanders, there was a heart more capable of loyalty to him than waa to be found in any of those '"ho gave their easy assent to claims they scarcely under- stood. That question of John's was of more value to him than the unreasoning ho~annas of thoughtless followers; for through that question he saw a man in terrible earnest, to whom the answer was eternal life or eternal darkness. Nothing can be more contemptible than -the doubts which are paraded, as if to doubt were an intel- lectual achievement, as if the· man who lives in doubt were in a more advanced stage than he who has found the truth. Of such doubters, who question truth not that -they may be answered, but for the·sake of display, we have more than enough in these ,days. But there ·a.re also doubters, like the Baptist, whose doubt is wrung from an .agonized haart, whose whole happiness ie bound up in the question they put, and who. ,jf, iJ csus ·be not the Christ, will sink in infinite despair. They try to fit in Christ's Word and salvation to what they actually find in their own life; they try to make -Ohrist's rule as real as their own worldly business, and find the1Il58lves forced to ,wonder whether Christ is indeed meaning to rule on ea.rth. Then Christ shows them that the power he desires on ea.rth ls just that power he ie actually and all round put- ting forth, in bringing light to darkened souls, life to the dead. This is the real work he came to do, and by doing which he proves his claim. If anything were needed to prove the absence of resentment with which our Lord viewed John's question, it is his defence of John from the reflections of the people. He points out to them that he had never been a man with whom the idea of weakness could be associated-a reed shaken with the wind. He was the very last whose opinion would be moulded by hill position, But it was- of small moment what they thought of John as a man compared to their right understanding of the comparative value of the preaching of John and the preach- ing of the kingdom-of the difference between the reformation urged by John and the ·regeneration procla.imed by himaelf. In order sharply to mark this he says, " Among them that are born of women there bath not ri:ien a greater than John the Baptist: -notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." He was a true prophet, yea, more than the greatest prophet had been, but all his zeal for righteousness, for the unflinching application of the Law, had, as it now appea.red. unfitted him to appreciate the temper and spirit of the new era. Any one in the kingdom animated by the characteristic spirit of love is gre:iter than he. It is not so much a comparison of any individual with John as of the new era with the outgoing .era. It is rather the inHtrument than the man that is spoken of. John could poini 168 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTIIEW. [cu. u. 1-3(.\
out a thousand wrongs that needed to be redressed, a thousand sins that must be abandoned; but Jesus, without much denunciation of sin, gave men a love for himself that ejected the love of sin. John put the righteousness of God in the front of hie teaching; Jesus put the love of God. And he who has the smallest tincture of the spirit of Jesus has more influence than one who has the inflexible righteousness of John.-D.