set going a train of circumstances, but even the strong man vainly tries to check their unfoldings; they become masterful; and he must see the misery he has made, and be punished by seeing it. Our life is so ordered that good, sooner or later, inevitably unfolds good; and evil, sooner or later, inevitably unfolds misery. Let a man do the prudent, the thoughtful, the self-restrained, the good, and he will never know the misery of vain regrets.-R. T. Ver. 13.-Theforst impulse of the sorrow-stricken. There may have been more than one reason for our Lord's retirement on this occasion. He may have designed to secure a time of close persona.I intercourse with the apostles. They had just returned from their trial-mission; they were in a very excited frame of mind, and sorely needed a time of quiet guidance and teaching. He may also have felt that the violent death of John the Baptist, of which very imperfect accounts must have reached him, put hi.; own life in peril, and made it advisable to remove from more public scenes for a while. But the accounts leave on us the impression that our Lord was specially affected by the news of John's death, and felt the longing for quietness and seclusion, which is the first impulse of the sorrow-stricken; in this showing himself tempted and tried even as we are, and so having a "fellow-feeling of our infirmities." The point on which we dwell is that the first desire of the sorrow-stricken is a mixed one. He both seeks quietude and he seeks company; and often he restlessly changes from foe one to the other. This peculiarity we find in Jesus, in" the Man Christ Jesus." I. THE IMPULSE TO SEEK LONELINESS, This perhaps always comes first. Sorrow sends us into retirement. The stricken care to see nobody, Leave them alone in their grief. This is illustrated in two scenes of Christ's life. 1. In the case before us, when Jesus received the sad news of the violent death of a. friend and fellow-worker. He wanted to be alone. He went into quietude. He passed across the lake, to the lonely eastern side, awa.y from the pressure of the crowds. Silence, separation, are the felt needs of such a.n hour. 2. In the case of Gethsemane, when Jesus was in immediate anticipation of calamity, and overwhelmed with mental distress. Then he sought the quiet of the garden, the shade of the olives, and even separation from the trusted three. None may see the Man in his sublime soul-wrestlings. He must be alone. II. THE Dl:PULBE TO SEEK COMPANY. This is quite as marked. The stricken man want, to be alone, and yet cannot bear to be alone. He wants to feel that friends are near; that he can reach them. He must sometimes speak out the woe to them, or it would grow unendurable. This is illustrated in the same two scenes of Christ's life. In the first, our Lord must have the apostolic company with him. "Come ye into a. desert place, and rest a while." In the second, he must feel that the chosen three were close ·at hand. Truly a "fellow-feeling of our infirmities."-R. T.
Ver. 22.-The necessity for constraint. Thomson puts together the narrative so as to bring out the reason for Christ's constraining the disciples; or, rather, a first and external reason which prepares for the discernment of the deeper reason. I. THE EVIDENT NEOESBITY FOR THE CONSTRAINT. "As the evening was comin~ on, Jesus commanded the disciples to return home to Capemaum, while he sent tlie people away. They were reluctant to go and leave him alone in that desert place; probably remonstrated against his exposing himself to the coming storm and the cold night air, and reminded him that he would have many miles to walk round the head of the lake, and must cross the Joraan at Bethsaida before he could reach home. To quiet tbeir minds, he may have then told them to go on toward Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd, promising to join them in the night, which he intended to do, and actually did, though in a manner very different from what they expected. Still they were reluctant to leave him, and bad to be constrained to set sail. In this state of anxiety, they endeavoured to keep near the shore between this and Bethsa.ida, hoping, no doubt, to take in their bbloved Master at some point a.long the coast. But a violent wind beat off the boat, so that they were not able to make Betbsa1d,i, nor even Capernaum, but were driven past both; and when near the Plain of Gennesaret, at the north-west corner of the lake, Jesus came to them walking on the sea." This illustrates well the surface-explanation of these events; but it does not satisfy, because 92 THE GOSPEL AOOORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [ea. xw.1~8.
1t does not give any reason for our Lord sending tho disciples away, Why did he not keep them to help him in dismissing the orowd? IL THE REAL NECESSITY FOR THE CONSTRAINT. We must look below the surface, and then some interesting things come to view. The miracle of feeding the thousands excited the people, and led them to regard Jesus as the delivering Messiah and there and then proclaim him as the expected King. And our Lord's disciples: instead of repressing this excitement, were carried away hy it, and would have joined in this mi~taken acclamation. Herein lies the explanation of the following thin"'s. 1. Their uselessness as helpers in dismissing the excited crowd, seeing they wer~ themselves excited. 2. Christ's determination to get them out of the way. 3. Their unwilling- ness to go. 4. Our Lord's constraint. 5. The revelation of bis mystery and spiritu- ality, in the walking on the sea, as corrective of the material notions to which they were gi,ing room.-R. T,