ono period of I.ho Church's history possessed I will show you to whom he is like, ho is a epccic,l importnuco. It was used as one like a man which built a house,, and <l.igged of the fouud£Lti11ne of the eyetem of dual• deep, and le.id the foundation on a rook , and Ism taught in the onoe wicleeprend l\fani• when the ftood arose, the stream be!lt vehe- chroan hereey, which app£Lrently reacho<l ita mently upon that house, and oould not shake culminating period of popularity in the it: for it was founded upon a rook. But he fifth century. Thie hereticnl school taught that heareth, and doeth not, is like a mau that there were two origino.l principles that without a foundation built a house -one good, from which good proceeded ; upon the earth; against which the stream one evil, from which evil co.me; that thne c!.id beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; were two rncee of men, having severally and the ruin of that house was great. their descent from the one and from !he "The surrounding scenery may, in thia fl8 other. The Mnnichman teachers, while in other instances, have snggesterl the illus- rejecting many of the Christian doctrines, tration. As in all hilly countries, the streams me.de muoh of the sermon on the mount, of Galilee rush down the torrent-beds <luring calling it the "Divine discourse," mainly the winter and early spring, sweep all on account of the statement we are here before them, overflow their hanks, and leave rliscussing. Yet here, when the wor,ls of beds of alluvial deposit on either side. Jesus are carefully eoneidercd, there is no When summer comes their waters fail (comp. assertion ofl\fanichmo.n dualism, neither does Jer. xv. 18; Job vi. 15), and what had the Master hint that there is an) thing seemed a goonly river is then e. tract covered irrevocably fixed in men's natures, so that with Mbri8 of atones and sand. A stranger some can never become good, and others coming to build might be attra.cted by the never evil, but only that ,so long as a man ready-prepared level surface of the sand. is as an evil tree, he cannot bring forth good It would be easier to build there instead of fruit; that if he would do good he must working upon the hard and rugged rock. first be good (see here Augustine, 'Contra But the people of the land would know and Faust.,' xxxii. 7 : e.n<l ' Do Berm. Dom. in mock the folly of such a builder, and he Mon.,' 11. 24; 'Contra Adimant.,' 26, etc., would pase (our Lord's words may possibly in Archbishop Trench's 'Exposition of refer to something tliat had actually occurred) the Sormon on the Mount,' pp. 309, 310). into a byword of reproo.ch. On such a For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of hoW!e the winter torrent !:ad swept down a bramble bush gather they grapes. This in its fury, and the storms had raged, and imagery is taken from what is a common then the fair fabric, on which time and sight in Palestine; behind rough hedges of money ho.d been expended, had given way thorn e.nd of the prickly pear, fig-trees a.re and fallen into a heap of ruins" (Dean often seen completely covered with the Plumptre). Augustine has some weighty twining tendrils of vine branches. and practical collllllents on this simile or Ver. 46.-And why ce.11 ye me, Lord, Lord, the Master's, with which, as a picture of and do not the things whioh I say 1 It is what they had no douM seen with their own evident from this heart-stirring appeal of eyes, the listening multitude would be sin- Jesus that he had e.lreo.dy obtained a lnrge gularly impressed. The greo.t Latin Father measure of recognition from the people. We calls special attention to the fact that in this should hardly be prepo.red to aver tho.t any picture of our Lord's the declared rejecters large number of the Palestinian inhabitants of the truth do not appear mirrored. In looked on him as l\Iessiah, though probably Loth the co.see here instanced there is a some did: but that genemlly o.t this period readiness to hear the truth. Both the men he was looke<l on by the common folk, at all of the parable-story built theiY hotIBe, but in events, and by o. few perhaps of thuir rulers, one case the building ends in terrible dis- o.s a Being of no ordinary power, ae a aster. " Would it have been better," asks Prophet, o.nd probably as One greo.ter than Augustine(' Sorm.' clxxix. 9), •• not to ho.va a prophet. It is scarcely likely that even built at all if the building is thus to perish?" they who rego.rded him with the deepest He answers, " Scarcely so; that were not to reverence wlien ho spoke the mount-sermon hear o.t all-to have built nothing. The would hnve been able to dofino their own fate of such will be to he swopt away naked, feelings towards him. ]Jut underneath the exposed to wind and rain and torrents. Lord's words lies this thought: "Those 'fhe doom is similar in both co.sea; the blind guides of whom I lrnve been telling lesson of the Lor,i is one easy to grasp. you, they with tl,cir lips profess to ntloro The wise mi\n will hear, o.nd, when he hears, tho okrnal God or lsl'ael, nnd yet live their will do, that is, will translate his impres• 1i ves of sin. You, ruy followers, do not the sions into e.otious. This will be to build a Barno thing." house upon a rock" (see Archbishop Trench, Vera. 47--49.-Whosoever oometh to me, • Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount,' aud heareth my sayings, and doeth them, drn1rn tr_om Augustino ou )hlt. vii. 2-l-27). 150 'Til'E GO~l'EL ACCORntNO TO ST. LUKE. [en. vt. 1--40.
TheNl ie 8{)mrthi11g vrry striking in the this lut word, might think thBt he heard the word@ with which our MMter ooncluded his orash of the fRl!ing edifice, and say within greRt eermon, "Rnd the ruin of that house himself,' This disD.llter will be mine, if I prove wss great." "After Rll," men would ny, hypooritiORI or inconsistent'" (Godet). In "it wu only the destruction of OM bamo.n ver. 48 eome, though not all, of the ancient being." But oar Lord's saying reminds us authorities, instead of the words, "for it thst in his eyee the ruin of OM immortal WBS founded upon a roclt," J't'o.d, 11 because eonl is a thought full of unspea.ksble 801TOW, it LRtl bren well built." This text is ndopted "Jesus, in olosing hie dieooaree, leaves his in the Revised Version, the old rr.ading, ea bee.ran under the impN!llllion of this solemn less probablJ oorrect, being relegated to the thought. Each of them, while lilltening to ma.rgin.