cific. His birth-song was, "On earth peace." But it would be the unavoidable result of his coming and the gradual spread of his religion in the face of a sinful world, to stir up opposition, hatred, and party spirit. The Gospel would divide men into sects before it would finish its work and produce a state of union. Severe diseases need powerful remedies. As the world was deeply corrupted, the purifying fire, Mat. iii. 11, Luke xii. 49, and the separating sword of the Spirit, must go forth to purge the earth and cut off its abominations before there could be a reign of peace. There can be no peace, until the conditions of peace are complied with. This prophecy of Jesus has been fulfilled on every page of ecclesiastical history, and is now fulfilling.-I came not to send peace, but a sword, i. e. shall send a sword, rather than peace. The consequences temporarily of my advent will be as warlike as if I had come on purpose to produce dissension. But those consequences were not chargeable to religion, but to the prejudices and passions of men. In the end, Christianity produces peace in the soul, peace in the world, peace towards God.

35. Micah vii. 6; I am come to set, i. e. the temporary effect of my coming will be to set the nearest relatives at variance with each other. As all cannot think alike and feel alike, as there will be some

faithful to the injunctions, and others not so, there will inevitably arise ill will, contention, treachery, and persecution, even amongst families and between friends. But the Apostles were not to be terrified when they beheld the engine of division at work, for they had been forewarned what to expect.

36. The ordinary law of enmities would be reversed. Foes would spring up in the bosom of the family itself, more bitter and treacherous than strangers. See verse 21.

37. But a caution is added, that they should not be deterred from religion by these feuds and divisions. They were to triumph over private feelings, over the partialities of friendship and relationship, in espousing the cause of truth. Nothing was to stand in the way of their becoming followers of Christ. The cause of God should be dearer than peace purchased by ease and indifference. Father, mother, brother, sister, wife, child, are dear ties all, but there are even holier than these, a Heavenly Father, a Divine Brother.-Is not worthy of me. Is not entitled to be called my disciple. "He who could not rise above the strongest ties of kindred and affection, and surrender all relatives and friends for the sake of the Gospel, was not fit to be its advocate."

38. Taketh not his cross, and followeth after me. Here is a distant allusion, perhaps, to the manner of

Christ's death on that instrument. It was the custom for the criminal to carry his own cross to the place of execution. So did Jesus Christ. It has been said that what was usually carried by the doomed was not the whole cross, but the piece put at right angles near the top. This was a refinement of cruelty and disgrace, to compel the individual to bear the instrument of his own torture. Jesus signifies in this vivid manner that his followers were to be daunted by no hardships and dangers, but to be fearless in their profession of his religion, even in the prospect of exquisite suffering and death. And many did follow their Master to the cross and the stake, and died in vindication of his holy Gospel.

39. The word life is used in this verse in two senses, as the word dead is in Mat. viii. 22. The meaning is, that he who preserves his earthly life by base compliances will lose his spiritual one, and that he, who, faithful to duty and religion, undergoes suffering and death, will secure spiritual and eternal life. The renunciation of self, of life, of this world, in the cause of religion, will secure life everlasting.

40. But in the midst of difficulty and discouragement, they would have the satisfaction of meeting with some good men who would receive them, and in receiving them

would receive the Gospel of God and his Messiah. Respect to the ambassador is respect to the sovereign who sends him.

41. Prophet. Used here in the sense of a public teacher of religion.-Righteous man. A private Christian. Those, who, in times of peril, hospitably entertained the persecuted, would be entitled to equal rewards in the sight of God with their guests.-In the name of. In the character of; to receive as a prophet, as a righteous man, i. e. treating them kindly on that account.

42. These little ones. As if he had said, My children. A phrase of endearment; or perhaps one of humility, signifying his lowly, obscure disciples.-A cup of cold wa ter only, i. e. the smallest office of kindness and hospitality. He shall in no wise lose his reward. If so slight a favor was done to a person because he was a disciple of Jesus, it would show an interest in religion, and would not, therefore, go unrewarded. The value of human actions consists in the motive with which they are performed. The least deed, if performed in reference to the will of God, under a sense of duty, is more honorable and more rewarded, than the greatést, done with selfish views.

CHAP. XI.

1. This verse would be more properly attached to the tenth chap

2

A

ter, for it is connected with it in sense, and it is not particularly related to the next verse, which begins a new subject.-Had made an end of commanding. Had finished giving his instructions.-Thence. He was now in the vicinity of Capernaum. Thence he went forth to teach and to preach, to instruct privately and publicly, in their cities, i. e. in the cities of Galilee. see that our Master imposes no duties on his disciples which he does not readily undertake himself. He enforced his injunctions by his own example; a model worthy of imitation by all who instruct or command others, whether parents, or teachers, or ministers, or rulers.

We

2-19. See Luke vii. 18-35. 2. John had heard. By means of his disciples, Luke vii. 18.—In the prison. Rather, in prison. John had been thrown into prison in the fortress of Machærus, which was a short distance north-east of the Dead Sea. See Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, B. 18, chap. 5, sec. 2. The cause of this act of Herod Antipas was the freedom with which John reproved him for marrying his brother's wife unlawfully. See Mat. xiv. 3, 4.-The works of Christ. These stood out prominently to public notice, and awakened the wonder of multitudes. They were even borne to the dungeon of John.-He sent two

of his disciples. His disciples still adhered to him in his adversity, and obeyed him as before. Those friends who continue faithful in the day of trouble are friends indeed.

3. We learn from the narrative that John and Jesus did not proceed in concert, but acted independently. Whatever testimony therefore either gave to the character or claims of the other has the value of impartial and independent evidence. There could have been no collusion between them.-Art thou he that should come? A phrase answerable to "Art thou the Messiah ?"—Or do we look for another? Are we to expect another? A Messiah had been long foretold, and the Jews were in eager anticipation of his coming. He was usually spoken of, therefore, as He that should come, the Great Coming One. Various views have been taken, by different writers, of the motive which prompted John to send this message to Jesus. Some hold that he wished to identify Jesus, and ascertain whether he was the one whom he had baptized, and whom he knew to be the Messiah. Some, that he wished to satisfy his own mind whether Jesus was the Messiah. Some, that, being convinced himself, he wished to confirm his doubting disciples, and attach them to Jesus, if he himself should be destroyed. Others, that having

originally, when he had baptized Jesus, and seen and heard the testimony from heaven, and declared him to be "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," been persuaded that Jesus was the actual Messiah, yet that his delaying to assume the outward sovereignty supposed to belong to that office, and delaying to rescue him so long imprisoned, which he could so easily effect by his miraculous power, had shaken his previous belief, and that he now wished to decide the matter by a reference to Jesus himself. The last seems the most rational interpretation of John's conduct. His ideas of the office of the Messiah were similar to those of his countrymen at large, who were looking for a temporal kingdom. This seems to be indicated by Jesus himself in this chapter, verse 11. Languishing in confinement, his active inind became impatient and perplexed, he longed for the speedy establishment of the Messiah's reign, under which he would probably obtain his liberty, and witness the great objects of his mission advanced. He sends to Jesus, in his trouble and disappointment, to learn his movements and plans. His message was, "Art thou the real Christ, or are we disappointed in you, and must we still look for another to come?" A vein of impatience, therefore, and also of rebuke, runs in the question. This solution comports best with the declarations of John, the circumstances in which he was placed, his probable conceptions of the Messiah, the ardor of his character, and the language of the message,

the reply to it, and the subsequent remarks by Jesus on the office and character of his Forerunner.

4. Go and show John again. Again should be omitted. This seems to indicate clearly that John asked this question and waited for a reply for his own satisfaction, rather than to strengthen the faith of his disciples in Jesus.-Those things which ye do hear and see. The messengers came at a favorable hour; for we learn from the parallel passage in Luke vii. 21, that Jesus was then in the very act of healing the sick, and casting out demons. Hence, according to his usual manner of teaching, he drew an answer from the events of the moment and the spot.

5. See Is. xxxv. 5, 6. lxi. 1, 2, 3. Luke iv. 18, 19. The answer of Jesus was calm, prudent, and to the point. It arose spontaneously from the circumstances of the occasion. It foreclosed priestly rage, or the equally embarrassing popular enthusiasm, to which an explicit declaration, in so many words, that he was the Messiah, would have exposed him. It presented the solid foundation of his claims, both to John and to after generations. He mentions two kinds of evidence, that of miracles, and that of the philanthropy of his religion. One includes the various specifications of healing the sick and raising the dead; the other, the fact that he preached the Gospel to the poor. He applied the same rule to himself that he gave to test others. Judge the tree by its fruits. His life was his demonstration. His deeds were his arguments. As Nicodemus said,

7 offended in me.

X.

"No man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." Jesus often appealed to his miraculous deeds as proofs of the divinity of his mission. And he must have best known on what grounds it rested. John v. 36. 25, 37, 38. xiv. 11. xv. 24. Again, his impartial love and labors for the poor, as well as the rich, for the slave, the beggar, the outcast leper, as well as the powerful and refined, could only have proceeded from him who dwelt in the bosom of God, whose mercies are free to all his creatures. He rose above the narrowness of his age and country, the ignorance of Galilee, and the bigotry of Scribes and Pharisees, who despised the people, John vii, 48, 49, and taught with the inspiration and authority of the impartial Father of all. In saying that the poor had the Gospel preached unto them, he did not mean that it was not also preached, and to be preached, to the rich; or that he had any different Gospel for the poor from that for the rich; but that the glad tidings of heaven, the highest good, the happiest privileges of which human nature was capable, were to be brought by his Gospel within the reach of the poorest as well as of the richest. He taught no exoteric or public doctrine to the poor and ignorant, and an esoteric or secret doctrine to the learned, like most of the ancient philosophers. It was a new era, when all men, without distinction of nation or condition, were called to all the highest blessings and hopes of the children of God. None but a divinely commissioned teacher could have conceived or effected such a mighty revolution in human affairs.

Let the Gospel continue to be preached to the poor, till no unhappy, suffering soul, in the dark haunts of our cities, or in unknown heathen wastes, shall pine in ignorance of its blessed tidings. Missions, and ministries to the poor, are at once the fruits and the proofs of the divinity of the Gospel.

6. Blessed is he, &c. Mingled in this beatitude is a slight tinge of reproof, that John should be scandalized that he had not assumed the temporal sovereignty supposed to belong to the Messiah. But the idea is conveyed in the most delicate and inoffensive manner; even in a benediction.-Not be offended in me. Finds no cause of offence or stumbling in me, though I act contrary to his wishes and hopes. Blessed is he who cavils not at my mode of proceeding, or character, or doctrine, who finds nothing in me to drive him away from truth and God; but who, whatever violence may be done to his preconceived notions of the Messiah's kingdom and worldly glory, regards me with a docile, trusting, loving disposition. This answer was adapted "to awaken John to new patience, thought, and faith."

7. As the messengers of John were going away, Jesus generously pronounced a high eulogium on him, and expressed his confidence in John as of firm integrity, and consistency, and more than a prophet in his office. Perhaps he wished to avert any prejudice which might arise against John on account of the nature of his inquiries, and his own reply to them, and to renew the people's impressions of John's preaching and predictions.