of Him who called the "heavy laden" and gave them "rest;" who "Himself bare their infirmities and carried their sicknesses;" who "bare their sins in His own body on the tree!" But these were likewise hypocrites, and the Lord convicts them; instancing a case in which they gloried, but which really testified against them. By this ostentatious rearing of monuments to martyred prophets, they showed what manner of spirit they were of. Now that these witnesses were dead and gone, their memory was popular; and they joined in the popular applause in order to obtain credit for themselves. Had they lived in the days of their fathers, they would in like manner have joined in the popular outcry against the very men whom now they pretend to honour. The persecuting spirit of the fathers survived in the sons. The one killed the Prophets, the other build their sepulchres, yet God knew that there was no difference between them. Their conduct presently to the Apostles and Prophets of the New Testament Church proved this. They filled up the measure of their fathers. God in His wisdom, Christ who is the Wisdom of God,2 foreknew and foretold as much. That boastful generation shared to the full in that rebellious spirit which has even persecuted the saints of God, from the first martyr Abel down to Zacharias, the last commemorated in the Canon.3 day, but because it was connected specially with the cry of a dying man... Compare Gen. iv. 10. This death of Zacharias was the last in the arrangement of the Hebrew Canon of the O. T., though chronologically that of Uriah, Jer. xxvi. 23, was later."Alford. He suggests that the " son of Barachias" of St. Matt. xxiii. 35, may be the interpolation of a copyist who remembered that Zechariah the Prophet was the son of Berechiah. Possibly Barachias was, according to Jewish usage, only another name for Jehoiada, as we speak indifferently of Cicero and Tully. CXCIV. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. Luke xi. 52-54. Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things: laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him. Last of all the Lord denounces those who professed to explain the Law, and yet obscured and misinterpreted it. They who should have made men know the right, actually conveyed away the key of knowledge. The Doctors of the Law among the Jews were formally admitted to their office by the presentation to them of a key; which thing signified that that which was as it were locked up to the greater part of men, they were to open. But this key in such hands was useless. They neither entered into the Temple and Treasury of Divine knowledge themselves, nor helped, but rather hindered, those who applied to them for admission. His just reproofs have no effect upon these crafty and casehardened men. They urge question upon question, and provoke Him to give unpremeditated answers to cunningly devised questions; hoping in that tumult that He may be betrayed into passion, or commit Himself to some statement which they might make the ground of an accusation against Him before their own Council or before Cæsar; like those sons of Belial, and suborned false witnesses, who said of old, "Naboth hath blasphemed God and the King." This was the disposition to which these succeeded. Let those who may be disposed to indulge in the unamiable practice of what is called drawing a person out, or drawing him on, in other words exposing him to contempt or ridicule, consider whether such conduct does not resemble what the Scribes and the Pharisees, without success, attempted here. CXCV. AGAINST HYPOCRISY AND FEARFULNESS. St. Luke xii. 1-5. In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. While our Lord was within at the house of the Pharisee, a crowd seems again to have gathered without; myriads1 of people, as we say; coming together again in the afternoon, as they had already come2 in the morning, though He had not flattered them; neither prophesying smooth things through desire of popular applause, nor shrinking through fear of man from saying, where necessary, severe ones. speaks to "His Disciples first of all."3 First to the clergy, afterwards to the congregation. For the minister of Christ must be a pattern to other men. Fresh from the scene He had just witnessed, the Lord takes up again His parable," So in the original. The "insomuch, &c.," is very graphic, and quite in St. Luke's manner. One tradition, already mentioned, is that he was a painter. He had at all events the painter's quick, observant eye. 2 St. Luke xi. 29. And so in the Sermon on the Mount. 41 Tim. iv. 16. He On the repetition of our Lord's sayings, the author of A Plain Commentary remarks, " Although a given expression may seem to be simply repeated on two distinct occasions, yet, on closer inspection, it will be often found that there are minute but important differences between the first and second wording of the place, whereby it is in fact made new... and bids them beware of "the leaven of the Pharisees." Hypocrisy, like leaven, soon spreads,' and wherever it reaches it corrupts. Men may cover their corruption with a seemly veil, but one day it shall be drawn aside, and the hideous reality be revealed. They may hide from human eyes their deeds of darkness and of shame, but one day they shall be made known to the world, and to angels, and to men. In the East the Criers go up on the flat roofs of the houses to proclaim judgments, to make public what has been discovered concerning criminals. So deeds done in the blackness of night, "the hidden things of dishonesty," shall be exposed to the light of day. And lest they should shrink through fear, He urges them by an awful consideration to their duty; addressing them as His friends; for he is not become our enemy who tells us the truth. Rather it is a mark of friendship. The power of man extends only to the mortal body. God has power over both body and soul. The power of man is limited by death. The dominion of Him with whom we have to do is felt in the world beyond the grave. Let Him be your fear. The Lord with emphasis repeats His saying. CXCVI. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. Luke xii. 6-12. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more The great depth and fulness of the Divine sayings is forcibly suggested, as well as the variety of their intention, when we make the discovery that words in substance the same, are found sometimes to recur in a wholly different connexion. Thus, although the saying in St. Luke xii. 2 is the same which is found in St. Matt. x. 26 ... 11 Cor. v. 6; Gal. v. 9. value than many sparrows. Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven. And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say. Our Lord encourages His hearers by considerations drawn from the providence of God; shown even in the case of sparrows sold for a trifle for the sacrifices of the Temple.1 This even is by His appointment. Not one of these is forgotten before God. His providence extends even to these 2 Doth God care for sparrows, and shall He not much more care for the souls of His servants? Nothing connected with these is too trivial for His care. All things that concern them, as many and as minute as the hairs of their head, have each their place in His plan concerning them.3 Knowing too what was coming upon them, the temptation to deny their Lord, He holds out to them the recompense in store for those who shall confess their faith in a crucified Saviour; who shall acknowledge Him that took upon Him our flesh, and was made man, to be their God. And He warns them of the awful consequences of denying Him. What a contrast between men and angels! Let them realize the court of Heaven; it will dwarf to its true proportions the tribunals of earth. And again he returns to that blasphemous 1 Lev. xiv. 4, marg. 2 We have here a hint that the sufferings of the brute creation are noted by the Creator, helping us towards the solution of the mystery of pain. Dr. Chalmers has remarked that if the telescope reveals to us worlds greater than our own, suggesting to some a suspicion that we are beneath the notice of God, the microscope which reveals creatures more minute than ourselves, and as wonderfully made, might serve to correct the error. 3 "Thou art as much His care, &c."-The Christian Year, Monday before Easter. "The sun and every vassal star."- Id. Ascension Day. |