II. SUPERIORITY llAY GIVE A IUGHT To REPROACH. Superior knowledge; superior chRracter. The competent m1m may reproach us, the saintly man may reproach us. Then had these visitors from Jerusalem either of these forms of right to reproach? Wero they superiors of Christ in the knowledge of Divine things? Were they superiors of Christ in holy living? This at least may at once be tested. If they wero really holy they would be jealous of God's honour and God's claims. That they were only sh11.m holy, our Lord made clear enough by his searching question to them. They c11.red for forms and ceremonies, they cared little or nothing for truth, or righteousness, or charity. They would reproach another; they should have reproached themselves. III. LoVE MAY GIVE A RIGHT TO REPROACH. No man rightly reproaches unless he loves. No man well receives reproach save from those whom he is sure are full of love to him. The vital wrong in the reproach of the text is this-there is no love in it.-R. T. Ver. 5.-Schemesfor ehirking obligatum. Human relationships involve oblig11.tions. Our relations with God bring the snpreme obligations. But here is the patent fact-- response to our obligations toward God always carries with it response to our natural obligations toward man. The pious man cannot be pious if he is unfaithful and unkind to his father and mother. All the professions men ever made would form n« excuse for the neglect of our natural duties to our parents. And this tests the seeming religiousness of our Lord's time. Men might be very pious, but were they shirking their natural obligations? We can well imagine the indignation of our Lord when he found the misery that the shameless system of "corban" was working. A man wanted to shirk all responsibility for the well-being of his parents, and yet keep the public repute of being a pious man; so he brought a gift to the priest, in presenting it used a particular formula., and wiped out all his obligations. The false religious sentiment of those times actually led to men's regarding such a man as extra pious. St. Paul is severe, with a very righteons severity, on such wickedness: "If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse iban an infidel" (1 Tim. v. 8). , L SCHEMES DEVISED BY SELFISHNEBB. These are specially hateful in relation to parents, because of their self-denials for our sakes in our earliest years. They take such forms as: 1. Leaving the neighbourhood or the country. 2. Spending all a man has on his own gratification. 3. Delaying present help under plea. of the excuses that it will be wanted much more by-and-by. Selfish souls are marvellously clever at making excuses. II. SCHEMES DEVISED BY TEllPER. There arise quarrellings and disputings in families, and these are made into reasons for refusing to fulfil natural obligations. It may even be that the conduct and character of parents make us angry, and lead us to threaten the withdrawal of our help. Character may make advisable readjustments of our ways of meeting our obligations, but even bad character cannot excuse our shirking them. IIL ScHEllE8 DEVIBED BY sPmnous PIETY. Illustrate by a man who excuses his neglect of his father and mother by saying that he has bad to give such a large sub- acription to the new church. Honourably meeting our human obligations is the sign and expression of piety. He deceives himself who claims to serve God while he is not doing his duty to his fellow-men.-R. T.
Ver. 6.-The evil influence of man-marle rules. " Thus have ye made the command- ment of God of none effect by your tradition." Sincerely enough, and with a view to helping the people to apply the revealed principles of truth and duty, the national teachers had begun to supply commentaries on, and applications of, the Holy Scriptures. These became ever more and more elaborate; controversies were excited by them, and an authority was claimed for the minute, man-made rule rather than for the compre- hensive and searching principle. One part of our Lord's mission was to liberate men from the painful and worryful pressure of these man-made rules, and recover for man the genuine unalloyed moral force on moral beings of God's commands. It was some- times necessary for him to be severe in dealing with the claims made on behalf of tradirion!!. We can but little ronceive how religion was affected, in our Lord's time, on. xv. 1-39.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 125