&c. 19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, h James v.1, where 1moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 but lay up for yourselves i treasures in heaven, where neither moth i ch. xix. 21. Luke xii. 33, 34: xviii. 22. 1 Pet. i. 4. j Luke xi. 34, nor rust 1 Tim. vi. 19. doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22 The light of the body is the eye : if therefore thine shall be full of light. 36. eye be single, thy whole body 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that k Luke xvi. 13. darkness! 24k No man can serve two masters: for either krender, how dark is the darkness! does not seem to be necessary; the one might afford just as much occasion for ostentation as the other. 19-34.] From cautions against the hypocrisy of formalists, the discourse naturally passes to the entire dedication of the heart to God, from which all duties of the Christian should be performed. In this section this is enjoined, 1. (vv. 19— 24) with regard to earthly treasures, from the impossibility of serving God and Mammon 2. (vv. 25-34) with regard to earthly cares, from the assurance that our Father careth for us. 19, 20. rust] The word is more general in meaning than mere rust it includes the wear and tear' of time, which eats into and consumes the fairest possessions. The laying up treasures in heaven would accumulate the "bags that wax not old, a treasure that faileth not," of Luke xii. 33, corresponding to the "reward" of ch. v. 12, and the "shall reward thee" of vv. 4, 6, 18. See 1 Tim. vi. 19: Tobit iv. 9. break through] usually joined with "a house," as in ch. xxiv. 43, where the word in the original is the same. 21.] The connexion with the foregoing is plain enough to any but the shallowest reader. The heart is, where the treasure is.' But it might be replied, I will have a treasure on earth and a treasure in heaven also: a divided affection.' This is dealt with, and its impracticability shewn by a parable from 22, 23. The light] as lighting and guiding the body and its members: not as containing light in itself. Similarly the inner light, the conscience, lights the spirit and its faculties, but by light supernal to itself. nature. single, i. e. clear, untroubled in vision, as the eye which presents a welldefined and single image to the brain. evil, i. e. perverse, as the eye which dims and distorts the visual images. full of light, rather, in full light, as an object in the bright sunshine; full of darkness, rather, as an object in the deep shade. If therefore &c.] Render, as in margin, If then the LIGHT which is in thee is darkness, how dark is the DARKNESS! i. e. 'if the conscience, the eye and light of the soul, be darkened, in how much grosser darkness will all the passions and faculties be, which are of themselves naturally dark!' This interpretation is that of nearly all the ancient fathers and versions. Stier expands it well: "As the body, of itself a dark mass, has its light from the eye, so we have here compared to it the sensuous, bestial life of men, their appetites, desires, and aversions, which belong to the lower creature. This dark region-human nature under the gross dominion of the flesh- shall become spiritualized, enlightened, sanctified, by the spiritual light but if this light be darkness, how great must then the darkness of the sensuous life be!" The A. V., which agrees with the usual modern interpretation, makes the words a mere expression of the greatness of the darkness thereby occasioned, and thus loses the force of the sentence. 24.] And this division in man's being cannot take place-he is and must be one-light or dark -- serving God or Mammon. serve] Not merely 'serve,' as we now understand it, but in that closer sense, in which he who serves is the slave of, i. e. belongs to and obeys entirely. See Rom. vi. 16, 17. for either or] is not a repetition; but the suppositions are the reverse of one another as Meyer expresses it, "He will either hate A and love B, or cleave to A and despise B:' the one and the other he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve 1 Gal. i. 10. James iv. 4. 1 John ii. 15. 1 Pet. v. 7. God and mammon. 25 Therefore I say unto you, m1 Take m Phil iv. 6. 1 render, Take not anxious thought. keeping their individual reference in both 26.] The two examples, of the birds and 41. Ps. cxlviii. 9. m render, anxious thought. • render, anxious thought. anxious," "be not in suspense” Luke xii. 24). your Father, not their Father-thus by every accessory word does our Lord wonderfully assert the truths and proprieties of creation, in which we, his sons, are His central work, and the rest for us. of the air, and afterwards of the field, as Tholuck remarks, are not superfluous, but serve to set forth the wild and uncaring freedom of the birds and plants. I may add,-also to set forth their lower rank in the scale of creation, as belonging to the air and the field. Who could say of all mankind, "the men of the world?" Thus the à fortiori is more plainly brought out. 27.] These words do not relate to the stature, the adding a cubit to which (= a foot and a half) would be a very great addition, instead of a very small one, as is implied here, and expressed in Luke xii. 26, "if then ye be not able to do that thing which is least," but to the time of life of each hearer; as Theophylact on Luke xii. 26, "The measure of life is with God alone, and each man cannot set the measure of his own age." So the best Commentators: and the context seems imperatively to require it; for the object of food and clothing is not to enlarge the body, but to prolong life. The application of measures of space to time is not uncommon. See Ps. xxxix. 5: Job ix. 25: 2 Tim. iv. 7. Mimnermus, a Greek poet, speaks of "a cubit's length of time." See other examples in my Gr. Test. 28.] Consider, implying more attention than "Behold." The birds fly by, and we can but look upon them: the flowers are ever with us, and we can watch their growth. These lilies have been supposed to be the crown imperial, (fritillaria imperialis,) which grows wild in Palestine, or o see 1 Kings iii. 11-13. Mark x. 29, 30.1 iv. 8. im. they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31 Therefore P take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (for after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first ¶ the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Take therefore no rthought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take P render, take not anxious thought. The Vatican MS. reads, His righteousness and kingdom: the Sinaitic, His kingdom and righteousness. the amaryllis lutea, (Sir J. E. Smith,) whose golden liliaceous flowers cover the autumnal fields of the Levant. Dr. Thomson, "The Land and the Book," p. 256, believes the Huleh lily to be meant: it is very large, and the three inner petals meet above, and form a gorgeous canopy, such as art never approached, and king never sat under, even in his utmost glory. And when I met this incomparable flower, in all its loveliness, among the oak woods around the northern base of Tabor, and on the hills of Nazareth, where our Lord spent His youth, I felt assured that it was this to which He referred." Probably, however, the word here may be taken in a wider import, as signifying all wild flowers. 29.] We here have the declaration of the Creator Himself concerning the relative glory and beauty of all hunian pomp, compared with the meanest of His own works. See 2 Chron. ix. 15-28. And the meaning hidden beneath the text should not escape the student. As the beauty of the flower is unfolded by the divine Creator Spirit from within, from the laws and capacities of its own individual life, so must all true adornment of man be unfolded from within by the same Almighty Spirit. See 1 Pet. iii. 3, 4. As nothing from without can defile a man, (ch. xv. 11,) so neither can any thing from without adorn him. Our Lord introduces with "I say unto you" His revelations of omniscience see ch. xviii. 10, 19. 30. the grass] The wild flowers which form part of the meadow growth are counted as belonging to the grass, and are cut down with it. Cut grass, which soon rrender, anxious thought. withers from the heat, is still used in the East for firing. See "The Land and the Book," p. 341. the oven] "a covered earthen vessel, a pan, wider at the bottom than at the top, wherein bread was baked by putting hot embers round it, which produced a more equable heat than in the regular oven." Wilkinson and Webster's 32. for your heavenly Father knoweth] This second "for" brings in an additional reason. 33. seek ye first] Not with any reference to seeking all these things after our religious duties, e. g. beginning with prayer days of avarice and worldly anxiety, but make your great object, as we say, your first care. note. his righteousness] Not here the forensic unto you] There is a traditional saying thought for [ the things of] itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. q xiv. 3, 4, &c. 12. VII. 1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For p Rom. ii. 1: with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and James iv. 11, 9 with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured a Mark iv. 24. to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brothe 's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy s omit. to-morrow itself: do not then increase those of to-day by introducing them before their time.' A hint, as is the following evil thereof, that in this state of sin and infirmity the command of ver. 31 will never be completely observed. CHAP. VII. 1-12.] Of our CONDUCT TOWARDS OTHER MEN: parenthetically illustrated, vv. 7-11, by the benignity and wisdom of God in his dealings with us. The connexion with the last chapter is immediately, the word evil, in which a glance is given by the Saviour at the misery and sinfulness of human life at its best; and now precepts follow, teaching us how we are to live in such a world, and among others sinful like ourselves:-mediately, and more generally it is, the continuing caution against hypocrisy, in ourselves and in others. 1.] This does not prohibit all judgment (see ver. 20, and 1 Cor. v. 12); but, as Augustine, enjoins us to interpret others charitably in all cases where doubt may exist as to the motives of their actions. judge has con been taken for "condemn" here; and this sense then is, that you have not to an- foot produces instances of this proverbial out, a voluntary act: considerest not, 5. Thou hypocrite] "He calls this man a hypocrite, as usurping the office of a physician, when he really fills the place of a sick man or as in pretence busying himself about another man's fault, but in reality doing it with a view to condemning him." Euthymius. shalt thou see clearly, with purified eye. The close is remarkable. Before, to behold the mote was all-to stare at thy brother's faults, and as people do who stand and gaze at an object, attract others to gaze also:-but now, the object is a very different one-to cast out the mote-to help thy brother to be rid of his fault, by doing him the best and most r Prov. xxiii. 9. brother's eye. Acts xiii. 46. see ch. xiii. 10, 11. s ch. xxi. 22 John xiv. 13: XV. 7: xvi. iii. 22: v. 14, ye 6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend and parallels. you. 7 8 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? 10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that 15. difficult office of Christian friendship. The (ver. 7), ask of God, and He will give to each of you: for this is His own will, that you shall obtain by asking (ver. 8),-good things, good for each in his place and degree (vv. 10, 11), not unwholesome or unfitting things. Therefore (ver. 12) do ye the same to others, as ye wish to be done, and as God does, to you: viz. give that which is good for each, to each, not judging uncharitably on the one hand, nor casting pearls before swine on the other? 7.] The three similitudes are all to be understood of prayer, and form a climax. 8.] The only limitation to this promise, which, under various forms, is several times repeated by our Lord, is furnished in vv. 9-11, and in James iv. 3, "Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask 9.] There are two questions here, the first of which is broken off. See a similar construction in ch. xii. 11. The similitude of bread (a loaf) and a stone also appears in ch. iv. 3. Luke (xi. 12) adds the egg and the scorpion. amiss." 11. evil] i. e. in comparison with God. It is good |