The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 533

to express the e.ge of Meesie.h, The age to come, then, is the gospel a:re, which <lid not set in fully until the great Sacrifice was offered upon Calvary and the Si,irit poured out on the Day of Pentecost, and which was contrasted with the Levitical age then current. (2) The Jews expected a freer forgiveness of sins in the age of Messiah than they enjoyed under the Levitical dispensation. (3) The import of our Lord's words, then, simply is that the difficulty is extreme in bringing to repentance a malignant and unreasonable blasphemer. (4) And if he pass the age of Messiah unforgiven, then he will have to encounter the horrors of "eternal damnation" (Mark iii. 29), or, as the New Version puts it, "is guilty of an eternal sin."-J. A. M. Vers. 33-37.-The heart in the tongue. The subject of the Pharisees' blasphemy is continued in these verses. From them we learn- I. THAT THE LIOENCE OF THE TONGUE 18 A PREGNANT EVIL. 1. It is fruitful in. robl>ery. (1) Slander filches the reputation of the innocent. A man's character is his reputation with his Maker, whatever may be his reputation with his fellows. Reputa- tion is a man's character as estimated by his fellows. Next to the favour of God men esteem that of their fellows. It is a moral power the loss of which is serious injury. (2) Slander robs a man of hie friends. We are constituted for society. Solitary con- finement is intolerable. No man can afford to be deserted of his friends. But who would be the friend of a blasted reputation? (3) Slander deprives a man of property. The robber may not be enriched, but the robbery is real. A man without a character is shut out of the markets. 2. It is prolific in murder. (1) Murder is held among men of all crimes the most heinous, and is therefore visited by the extreme penalty of law. But hatred is incipient murder (cf. eh. v. 21, 22; 1 John iii. 15). Slander is the hatred of the cowardly knave. The Pharisees who first maligned Christ then took counsel to destroy him (see ver. 14). (2) If slander does not aim at the life of the body, it stabs the life of character. Character is moral life. It is a more sacred thing than the life of the animal. A virtuous man would part with tho life of the flesh rather than sacrifice his character. (3) The poison of the nettle or of the sting of an insect is not the less real because it may elude the tests of chemistry. The murder is not the less real because it is not overtaken by the civil law. 3. It is emphatically diabolical. (1) Calumny is the favourite weapon of the "father of lies." This is expressed in his very name. " Devil" means traducer. Satan slandered God to Eve (see Gen. iii. 1, 4, 6). Satan slandered Job to God (Job i. 11; ii. 4). (2) Therefore the blasphemy of the Pharisees is here fittingly compared to the venom of the serpent. " Ye offspring of vi pars, how can ye, being evil, speak good things ? " (see also eh. iii. 7). (3) The me.lignity of the slanderer is devilish, Its wickedness is as gratuitous as it is cruel. A burglar may benefit by his plunder; but this species of robbery benefits nobody. A man whose reputation is preserved mo.y replace his property; but filched of his "good name" he is "poor indeed." II. THAT THE CONQUEST OF THE TONGUE 18 A WORTHY AMBITION. 1. Words are the vehicles of thought. (1) They a.re the instruments of thought. We think in words. We cannot think without them. Try. Clear ideas are shaped in appropriate language. The vocabulary of the savage is too rude for him to be capable ofprofouud or philosophic .thought. (2) They are the conveyancers of thought. Perceptive ideas may be con- veyed by other signs, ns gesture, or facial expression ; but profound thoughts and delicate distinctions require the more perfect instrument of speech. 2. By words thought stirs worlds. (1) The world of c.ommera. Educated hands and iuventive minds are linked by words. Words guide the transport of the products from the factory to the market. In the market they preside in e.11 exchanges. (2) The world of politics. The speech of an orator may sho.pe the destinies of an empire. lly a word the peace of e. continent may be settled or disturbed. Words have created revolutions. (3) The world of morals, Witness the connection between the preaching of Peter the Hermit and the Crusades ; the relation of the preaching of Luther to the Protestant Reformation. 3. What an engine/or good or evil is here I (1) Skilfully used, steam will set a factory in motion. Mismanaged, it will wreck it. So words. (2) Eternal happiness or misery turns upon the quality of a word. A good word may awaken memories and start trains of thought to issue in a regenerated life. A maliguant word, at a moment of indecision, ma;y so determine the will as to damn o.n immortal cicstiny.. UATTB.EW. 2 Jf 630 'l'HE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [oH, xn. l-60.