The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 227

the tnormi'.ty of that which had been remitted to himself. There Is something almost incredibly mean as well as savage in this man's quick remembrance of the pence that arc due to himself, while be sc easily puts from bis mind the ten thousand talents be owes. But our incredulity gives way when we think of the debt we owe God and the trifles committed against us which we find it so hard to forget. What are the causes of quarrel among men? Often a word, a look, an expression unwittingly dropped. Or measure even the deepest injury that bas ever been done to you; the wrong that has darkened or obstructed your whole life with that for which you yourself need to ask forgiveness of God, and say whether you ought still to be implacable. No doubt you may detect in the injuries done to you more malice and intention to wound than in your own sins against God; but you will certainly not find more dishouourinu0 neulect, more cnlpable repudiation of what was due. And what was the harm done in ~om~ parison with giving false impressions about God or counterworking his will? Is our shame for sin against God as intense and as real as our indignation at injuries done to ourselves? 2. But the chief aggravation of this man's conduct lay in the fact that he had just been fwgiven. He thought mercy a good thing so long as he was the object of it, but in the presence of a debtor be is deaf to the reasons that filled his own mouth immediately before. And how hard do we all find it to deal with others as God has dealt with us ! ,ve go from his presence, where we have felt it is mercy, which is the most needful gift in a world like this-it is mercy which gives us hope at all-and we go straight to our fellow-servant and exact all our due. Here, then, our Lord enouncee the law of unlimited forgiveness as one of the essential laws of his kingdom. Men are to be held together, not by external compnlsion, but by the inward wposition of each member of the society to forgive and be on terms of brotherly kindness with every -0ther member. We lose much of the power and practical benefit of Christ's teaching by refusing to listen to what he says about his kingdom as cordially as to what he says .about individuals. We are not, perhaps, too much, but too exclusively taken up with the saving of onr own souls, neglecting to consider that the Bible throughout takes to do with the Church and people of God, with the kingdom; and with the individual only as a member of the kingdom of God. And so it is not for the individual Christ legislates. To llllite us individually to God he recognizes as only half his work, Our salvation consists, not only in being bronght into reconciliation with God, but in our becoming reconciled to me~ The man who is content if he is sure his own soul is safe has great cause to believe it in danger, for in Christ we are knit one to another, But how are we to get into a right state of feeling towards other men; to find it natural to forgive always, not to stand on our rights and exact our dues, but to be moved by the desire to promote the interests of others ? The true way to a forgiving spirit is to be forgiven, to go back again and again to God, and count over our debt to him, though the man, whose mind is filled with a true view of his own wrong-doing, always feels how much more he has been forgiven than he can ever be called on to forgive. We must begin, therefore, with the truth about ourselves.-D. Vers.1-5.-Heavenlv greatness. AB they journeyed to Capernaum the disciples ot Jesus, like their countrymen, ever disposed to regard the kingdom of Messiah as secular, reasoned and disputed together as to which of them should be the greater in that kingdom (cf. Mark iL 33, 34). The knowledge of this contention probably influenced the conduct of Jesus in the matter of the tribute, in which he astonished them with an exemplification of supreme greatness in submission (see eh. xvii. 22-27), A similar lesson is embodied in the discourse now before us. Note-- I. THE DISCIPLES KNEW THAT THEBE AilE GRADES OF HEAVENLY GREATNESS. l, This was assumed in tl,eir reasoni111J. (1) It was the basis of that reasoning and the stimulus of the ambition which prompted it. (2) It wae itself based upon the analogy of secular kinudoIDB in general. in which there are princes and nobles, ministers of state and civic°magnates. 2. The fact wae not disputed by the lord. (1) He did not say they were mistaken, much less assert that all saiuts in light stand upon an equal platfor!Jl. (2) '!'he arguments urged in favour of this view are far from being satis- factory. There is no relevancy in the inference from the fact that every Hebrew gathered an omer of manna, neither more nor less. Every labourer receiving exactly a penny, whether he had worked one hour or had borne the burden and heat of the  011. xvm. 1-35.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 231