The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 422

Ver. 15.-!'M peril of '111,(J,ki,ng prow.yea. The term "proselyte11" is used, and. not "converts" or "disciplee." It is employed when the idea to be conveyed i& " persuasion" to accept some particular opinion or hobby, or to join some particular system or party. "Conversion" suggests an inward change and renewal; "proselytin"". suggests outward association with a party. "Conversion" is full of hope; "pro:e- lyting" is full of peril The word was used by the Jews for persons who had been heathen, but had accepted Judaism, a.nd they distinguished between (1) proselytes of the gate, who received the t.eachings of the Old Testament, but not the ceremonial Law; and (2) proselytes of righteousness, who conformed to the whole Law. Our modem term "pervert" conveys something of the idea our Lord attached to "proselyte." Dean Plumptre gives an historical reference, which 11kilfully brings out the point of our Lord's- reproof. "The zeal of the earlier Pharisees had shown it.aelf in a propagandiem which reminds l1ll rather of the spread of the religion of Mahomet than of that of Christ. John Hyrcanus, the last of the Maccabean priest-rulers, had offered the Idumieans the alternative of death, enle, or circumcision. When the government of Rome rendered such measures impossible, they resorted to all the arts of persuasion, and exulted when they succeeded in enrolling a heathen convert as a member of their party. But• the- proselytes thus made were too often a scandal and proverb of reproach. • There was no real conversion, and those who were most active in the work of proselytizing were for the most part blind leaders of the blind. The vices of the Jew were engrafted on the vices of the heathen. The ties of duty and natural affectiou were ruthlessly snapped asunder. The popular Jewish feeling about them was like that of the popular Christian, feeling about a converted Jew." I. THE Pl!:Bil, OF )[AXING PBOSELYTEII FOB THOSE WHO JU.KE THEH. Open• such- points as these : 1. A m&n must exaggerate sectarian differences before he can· try to win proselytes to an opinion. 2. A man must make more of the outw!!,rd form than the inward apirit. 3. A man is only too likely to 1l8e bad means in gaining such an end. 4. A man who makes proselytes honours himself rather than God. 5. And such a man is only t.tio likely to be deceived in the result he attains. II. THE PERIL OF JU.KING PROSELYTES FOR THOSE WHO ABE HADE. Open theRe· points: 1. Men may be overpressed to accept opinions on which they have really formed no judgment. 2. Perverts notoriously exaggerate the formalitiu of the new creed they adopt, and become bitterest partisane.-R. T. Ver. 24.-7?ie Br:t'Upl.a of tM Jornwl,i,e. "Strain at a gnat, and swallow a camet"· The proverbial character of this sentence is manifest, but the precise form is disputed. Trench thinks "straining out a gnat" is better; and he suggests reference to the 6crupulous anxiety shown in drinking water. A traveller in North Africa reports, that a Moorish soldier who accompanied him, when he drank, always unfolded the end of his turban, and placed it over the mouth of his bota, drinking through the muslin, to strain out the gnats, wb ose larvlll swarm in the water of that country. Tho, "camel" ii only used in the proverb as the representative of something big. The- on, nm, 1--30.] TilE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW 427