The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 268

(3) Christ did not e"timate the attachment of his disciples to him by the quantity of thmgs they relinquished, but from the mind and intention with which they relin- quished them. "And every one that bath left houses," etc., viz. either by giving them up when they could not retain them with a clear conscience, or by refraining from acquiring them, "for my Na'm$8 sake" (ver. 29; see 2 Cor. viii. 12). (4) The compensation then is "a hundredfold," viz. not in kind, but in spiritual blessings. Here is cent. per cent, multiplied a hundred times. Such, even in this life (see Mark x. 30), is the advantage of the spiritual value gained in this blessed exchange! 2. In the life to come. (1) "The regeneration" commences in the millennium. That will be the great day of judgment, or reigning. It will be a theocracy, as in the times of the ancient judges (cf. Isa. i. 26). !rename says that the reward of the hundredfold is to happen in the millennium (cf. Isa. xxxii. 1; Dan. vii. 18, 27; eh. x.xvi. 29; Acts iii. 20, 21; Rev., xx.). (2) The Lord's glorification is the pattern of human regeneration here; for those who follow him are morally risen with him and resemble him. Hereafter also, for we shall in our regeneration from the power of the grave be in the likeness of his resurrection. So the "redemption of the body" will be the" manifestation of the sons of God" (cf. Luke xx. 36; Rom. viii. 23; 1 John iii. 2). (3) The "regeneration" which commences in the millennium will culminate in the •• new heaven and earth" in which the "new creation," under the headship of the second Adam, will be finished. The reward of that glorious state is "life everlasting."-J. A. M. Vers. 6, 7.-Natwral laws and human infirmities. The law of marriage must be thought of as fixed for human beings before the Fall. Natural laws are not fixed in view of man's wilfulness and sin. They remain natural laws after man has sinned; but their application and practical working are modified by the new conditions and relations which sin has introduced. God made man male and female. God designed single pairs, God proposed lifelong faithfulness of the wedded pairs. There is no natural provision made for divorce, because such a thing has no place in the natural order. In the Divine idea human society is based on the mutually helpful relation in which one man and one woman may stand. Instability of human society comes when the family bond can be easily broken. The human infirmities which _have necessitated modifications of the natural marriage laws are- I. CBUELTIEB. It became necessary for woman to have some defence against man's violence. Natural law makes man and woman equals. They are different; but their faculties and sympathies are relative, and each is head in a way. But sin took first shape as masterfulness; and man, the stronger, took advantage of woman 1 ~he weaker, and made her his slave. There had to be adjustment of law to meet this condition and give due protection to the weaker one. "But for the possibility of divorce, the wife would have been the victim of the husband's tyranny; and law-social law- which has to deal with facts-not with what ought to be, but wit-h what is-was compelled to choose between two evils." Woman's lot, even in civilized times, would often be intolerable but for the possibility and the fear of divorce. II. INFIDELITIES. Thie subject needs to be touched very wisely in a general audience; and yet there is no subject on which wise words are more pressingly demanded. It is one of the most serious of the mischiefs wrought by sin, that it h:i.s loosened men's control of bodily passion. And the mischief is wrought, not in man only, but also in woman. Infidelities make the continuance of natural relations impossible, though the modification of law, which permits divorce, makes no attempt to deliver man or woman from the power of their infumity.-R. T. Ver. 11.-Varieties in receptiveness. "All men cannot receive this saying." It is not quite clear to what tne term" this saying" refers. It may be the rule laid down by our Lord in ver, 9. lt may be the exclamation of the disciples in ver. 10. It may be that our Lord refers generally to marriage, and intends to say that the question of entering into the marriage state is one which each man must settle for himself, according to natural capacity, material circumstances, and cult11.red disposition. It is one thing to give good nnd wise counsels; It is quite another thing to receive them and act upon them. It is easy to say, "It is good to marry j" but it is not everybody who can receive the saying.  272 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, MATTHEW. [en. xix. 1--.10~