The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 461

approval of Christ, but the he.ppiness is reserved for him of a fUblio approbe.tion before an B11Bembled universe: "Well done." (3) He is blessed m the promotion whloh de~~ds UJJ<?n the.t public approbe.ti_on. Having been faithf?-1 in his ee.rlier oppor- turut1es, he 1s further trusted. "Verily I say unto you, He will set him over all that he hath." The bliss of hee.ven is not the fancied bliss of inactivity. The bliss of heaven is still the bliss of service. 2. The evil wul be relegated to punishment. (1) His death will be a degradation, It is separation from the communion of se.ints, and from all the giftll he had abused. (2) " I will cut him asunder." Some take this in the sense of severe 1100urging (see margin, Revised Version). It may be taken in the sense of discerning and exposing the thoughts of his heart. So the Word of God is compared to a sharp sword, which "pierces to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. iv.12). Such exposure to a hypocrite is a terrible mortification. Note : Death literally cuts asunder the animal soul and the rational spirit. (3) " And appoint him his portion with the hypocrites." The hypocrite will be punishe<l with his kind. The associations of perdition are mono- tonous. " If the devil ever laughs, it must be at hypocrites. They are the greatest dupes he has. They serve him better than others, and receive no wages ; nay, what is still more extraordinary, they submit to greater mortifications to go to hell, than the sincerest Christian to go to bee.van" (Colton). (4) "There shall be weeping." Not, however, the weeping of contrition. It is the weeping that is associated with "gnash- ing of t.eeth.'' It is the weeping of helpless rage and of hopeless despair.-J. A. M. Ver. 3.-" The end of the world." This term is a figure of speech. It represents something. It does not describe something. The actual ending of the world is an almost impossible conception. So far as we are able to trace Divine dealings, there are no " endings ; " there are stages. But what we call an "ending,. from one point of view is a "beginning n when seen from another point of view. What we ought to inquire is-Was this a familiar figure of speech in the time of our Lord? and· if it was, what ideas were attached to it as familiarly used ? The patriarchal age came to an end, but there was no abrupt scene which can be called an ending. The same remark may be made concerning the closing of the Mosaic age. And we need imagine no catastrophe as the close of the Christian age, The coming of Messiah was, in Jewish thought, con.:. nected with the " end of the world," and vague, wild, and extraordinary were the things associated with that "wming" (see Stapfer's 'Palestine in the 'l'ime of Christ,' eh. v.). L THE END OF THE WORLD IB THE END OF THE A.GB. Distinctly present the truth thai God ever works in stages, making each stage prepare the way for another and a higher. This may be shown by the revelations of the primeval ages made by geologic.al researches ; or by the history of separate nations ; dynasties and royal houses represent distinct ages or dispensations. So we find stages within the history of Mosaism, the Jewish Church passing through several dispensations. Those who can read the philo- sophy of the Ohristian centuries can trace stages in them. One such stage was nearing completion in the time of Christ; and, with a very human tendency to exaggeration, men were imagining that an end of a partico.lar polity for a small nation was to be the "end of the world." II. THE E!,'1) OF THE AGE IS ALWAYS THE BEGINNING OP A NEW AGE. If we did but fully grasp thi.l! idea, we should be delivered from many hindering mistakes, 1, Endings are always local. There never has been any ending that concerned the whole world. 2. Endings insensibly glide into the new l!cenes. Abrupt endings may belong to man's spheres, hi.I! dynasties, and his systems ; but abruptness seldom, if ever, cha- racterizes God's ending. His 11pring has an eading, but it is a gliding into summer. If we can think of an actual" end of the world,,. we must think of a gliding into the new and eternal age.-R. T. Ver. 6.-The Ohristian attitude in time, of civil commotion. There is always a tendency to exaggerate their importance. It is strange to find Christian people able to find aome high prophetic allusion for every little war or social disturbance within the sphere of their knowledge. Every national trouble is manufactured into a sign of the " coming end. • Precisely of this strange tendency our Lord so anxiously warned on. xx1v, 1-61.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, MATTHEW. ~7