I

Matthew gathered together at one point, and the discourse is so modelled as to recall the Sevenfold Woe of Isaiah. In the discourse on the end of all things the three evangelists follow so closely the same order of thought that the division of the paragraphs in all three correspond; but while Mark and Luke stop with the fifth of these paragraphs, Matthew adds parables and additional foreshowings until the number of divisions has reached seven. It must not be supposed that there is anything strange or artificial in this repetition of the sevenfold structure. have pointed out in previous volumes how widely such arrangement prevails in the Old Testament. Most of the prophetic books lend themselves to a sevenfold arrangement; the great Isaiahan Rhapsody not only has seven main divisions, but the first of them contains a movement seven times repeated; the last discourse of The Wisdom of Solomon supports its theme with seven illustrations, one of which is broken by a sevenfold digression. All that is implied in such a feature of style is an extreme sense of orderly arrangement; and to the Hebrew mind order suggests the number seven.

The other distinguishing feature of St. Matthew is his philosophic grasp of the ministry of Jesus as a great historic movement. All the three evangelists use repeatedly the phrase 'the kingdom of heaven' or 'the kingdom of God,' which must have been a regular expression of Jesus himself. But Matthew is wholly occupied in tracing the

development of this kingdom of heaven': its development as a conception, from the mere idea of a counterpart to Roman empire, which animated those who first hailed the Baptist's announcement, to the conception of a spiritual kingdom founded on service and self-denial, which Jesus with such difficulty inculcated in the minds of the inner circle of disciples; the development again of a visible kingdom of heaven in human society, in antagonism with the ruling powers which crushed it only to give it its power of finally rising. It is natural that an historian of this type should give special prominence to the discourses of Jesus; further, it is the practice of St. Matthew to gather together from different parts of the life of his Master details of teaching that have a mutual connection, and to mass these together in a single discourse at the point where they will be most effective. It is the same with regard to incident. Modern harmonists who curiously enquire into the exact succession of incidents in the life of Christ find St. Matthew the least historic of the gospels. But this is only because the mind of this writer is intent on the philosophic sequence, and a grouping of incidents that brings out their connection and significance. As we follow his narrative we catch a majestic movement of events that draws the whole life and ministry of Christ into a clear unity.

The Gospel of St. Matthew is in the present edition divided into what appear to be its twelve natural sections

— I must not call them chapters, since that name has been appropriated by the traditional divisions. Of these the first two are preliminary, relating the Birth of Jesus, and his first appearance in public under the Ministry of John the Baptist. Here Matthew confines himself to the barest outline of narration, except in one respect: that in the first section more than anywhere else is found this writer's characteristic use of the Old Testament. There is a striking contrast between the narratives of Matthew and Luke at this point. The latter seems to have carefully collected all that was to be learned of the early life of Jesus, and he relates the incidents with special fulness. St. Matthew, on the other hand, seems guided in his very selection of incidents by the thoughts of prophetic literature which they call up.

The third section opens the ministry of Jesus with the extended discourse which venerable tradition has styled the Sermon on the Mount. Yet this is obviously no serInternal evidence and com

mon in the modern sense. parison with the other gospels show that here, as elsewhere, Matthew is drawing together into one view characteristic examples of the teaching of Jesus; in the present case his earlier teaching is exemplified, and it is likely enough that an outward characteristic of the same period might be the discourse from a mountain slope. The teaching is the teaching of Jesus; the arrangement is that of St. Matthew. It is natural that a Hebrew philosopher should make the

basis of his arrangement a literary form prominent in the Hebrew philosophy we call Wisdom literature. This is what I have termed the Maxim a proverb-like text supported by a prose comment; not only are such texts with comments prominent in Ecclesiasticus and Ecclesiastes, but the form persists to the time of the Epistle of St. James. In this form of text and comment the Sermon on the Mount presents seven divisions, elaborating the foundation ideas of the new and heavenly wisdom. The shock of the opening text makes us feel how by the doctrine of Jesus the centre of gravity of human life and character is wholly shifted. It is to the 'poor in spirit' that the exaltation of the new kingdom comes; and this phrase of the text gathers fulness with its sevenfold expansion — the mourners are blessed, and not the gay; the meek, and not the mighty; those who hunger after a righteousness they have not attained, and not the satisfied Pharisee; the merciful, and not the oppressor; the pure and not the worldly; the peacemaker, and not the conqueror; the persecutor is beneath his victim. Again, in contrast with the received ideal of a personal righteousness that would outshine that of others, the second and third maxims, with their images of the salt and the lamp, put forward an exaltation that is exalted only so long as it exerts its purifying and illuminating force upon others. The central article of the discourse brings out that the gospel is no relaxation of the law, but its intensification; the exposi

tion of this thought is the paradox that the new righteousness must exceed the righteousness of Scribes and Pharisees, and its final word is perfection. The fifth article prescribes the heavenward reference of our worship, in contradistinction to the righteousness that would be seen of men; the sixth calls for a heavenward trend of our desires in contradistinction to laying up treasure upon earth. It is in strict accordance with Wisdom literature that the final section should be a series of miscellaneous precepts; and the discourse finds a closing note in the impressive image of the builders on the sand and on the rock.

In the philosophic arrangement of St. Matthew's Gospel the connected teaching of Jesus has been first exhibited, and its consequences remain to be regularly traced. The new doctrine has been, as it were, flung into the still waters of Jewish society; subsequent portions of the narrative watch the widening circles of effect. Or there is a better image to be found in the book itself. John the Baptist, in one of the sayings recorded by Matthew, describes his successor as having a fan in his hand, with which he will throughly purge his floor, gathering the wheat into his garner, and burning the chaff. This image of winnowing the wheat from the chaff seems to underlie the whole story of the developing kingdom of heaven, as St. Matthew tells it from the first moment there appears an ever-widening rift between those who accept and those who oppose.

In the fifth section of Matthew's narrative, which gives