the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: Luke 16. 13. 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 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 thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. 10 Psal. 55. 22. Luke 12.29. 1 Pet. 5. 7. Verse 5. "They love to pray standing in the...corners of the streets." - The practical regulation was, that persons ought to go to the synagogues to pray at the appointed hours: for prayers offered there were thought more proper and prevailing than in any other place. However, it was provided that if the appointed time overtook a man unexpectedly, he should pray where he was at the time. If in the street, there; or a workman, or one upon a tree, or one mounted on an ass, was to descend and pray. Therefore we see that the practice of the hypocrites, to whom our Saviour alludes, was to take care to be surprised by the hour of prayer when in the street or some public place, and, preferably, "at the corners of the streets," or where two or more streets met, for the sake of greater publicity. Sometimes, to convey the stronger impression of their devout character, they made such long pauses, both before they began, and after they had finished their prayers, that very frequently they might be seen in a praying habit and posture for three hours together. (See Lightfoot's larger statement on this subject.) Things are exactly the same still in the same country, and in the other countries of Mohammedan Asia. This seems to be one of the many things which the Mohammedans have borrowed from the Jews. The regulations are essentially the same, and the practice different only in form. Properly, the people should go to their mosques at the hours of prayer: but they may pray wherever they happen to be when the hour overtakes them. Many therefore rarely visit the mosques at all except on Fridays. Some neglect them altoge ther, but are supposed to pray in their own houses; but those who wish to appear devout before men take care to be seen to pray in the streets and public places. The most public places are usually chosen for this purpose: appearance, which is thus presented to the passers by, of many persons going through, with so much parade of devotion, the varied postures of Mohammedan prayer, in the broad eye of the world, is most distressing to a serious Christian, who has learnt from the Author and Finisher of his faith, how to pray to his Father in secret. 7. " Use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do."-It is well to distinguish that this is not directed against simple repetitions, which may often arise in the fervour and urgency of earnest supplication, but against the "vain" repetitions of such as think, whether in theory or practice, "that they shall be heard for their much speaking." The idea that a prevailing merit was attached to much speaking in prayer, with multitudinous repetitions, has been and is found in most of the false systems of religion. Perhaps we find it among Baal's worshippers, who "called upon the name of Baal from morning to noon, saying, O Baal, hear us!" (1 Kings xviii. 26.) The practice was certainly common among the classical heathen, and is noticed by some of their more serious writers with disapprobation, and laughed at by their satirists. The Jews adopted this and other bad practices, insomuch that it was one of their maxims, "He that multiplies prayer shall be heard." The same idea was inculcated with much earnestness by Mohammed, and is at this day exhibited in full force among his followers. Witness the following, from the Mischat ul Masabih: "The Prophet said, 'Shall I not teach you an act by which you may attain the greatness of those who have gone before 1 you; and by which you shall precede your posterity, excepting those who do as you do? Then they said, Instruct us, O Prophet of God. He said, Repeat after every prayer, Subhan Allah! (O, most pure God!) eleven times, and Allaho acber (God is very great) eleven times, and Alhamdo lillahi (Praise to God) eleven times." Compare this puerility with the sublime instructions of our Saviour. But again: "Whoever says Subhan Allah and Bih'amdihi a hundred times in a day, his faults shall be silenced, though they be as great as the waves of the sea." "Whoever says, morning and evening, Subhan Allah and Bihamdihi a hundred times, no one will bring a better deed than his on the day of resurrection; except one who shall have said like him, or added anything thereto." To these instructions the Mo hammedans have been most attentive. " and which of course disfigured or blackened their faces also. 16. They disfigure their faces."-Perhaps this is explained by 1 Kings xx. 38: " He disguised himself with ashes upon his face." At all events it was customary among the Jews to put ashes upon their heads during the public fasts, Hence the Jewish rabbins speak of some of their famous doctors whose faces were constantly black by reason of fastings. The allusion also, when taken in connection with the preceding, "sad countenance," may be understood to refer to the heavy and seemingly penitential aspect which they thought it necessary to assume on such occasions. 27. " Can add one cubit unto his stature." The sense, as appears clearly from the context, as well as from Luke xi, 26, 18 is to be understood diminutively, expressing the impossibility of man's doing, by any degree of anxiety, a matter in itself of very small importance. But this sense is not conveyed in the version, since to add one cubit to the stature is not a small but a great thing. Therefore, as the original word (ἡλικία) also means the age or life of man, in its extension ; and is so translated in some other places; it seems better so to understand it here. Then the age of man being understood as a a line indefinitely extended, the phrase becomes diminutive, as the sense requires, and might be paraphrased, "Who can add one cubit to the measure of his life?" The idea of man's age being an object of measurement was familiar to all antiquity, and is found in the Hebrew Scriptures. Compare Ps. xxxix. 4: "Behold thou hast made my days as an handbreadth." 28. "Lilies." See the note on Sol. Song ii. 1. A cut of the Amaryllis lutea, there mentioned, we now introduce. Much discussion has arisen from this text, upon the notion that it is necessary to find a gorgeous flower, or royal in its colour, to correspond to the allusion to the glory of Solomon's attire. Hence some have contended for the tulip, and others for a purple kind of lily. We do not see the necessity of seeking any such specific allusion, nor find anything in the discussion to alter our previous considerations. The original word (κρινα) is the same which the Septuagint employs in the Canticles, and this word means a lily. Perhaps the Arabic translator, who renders the present text by "a flower" (e)anti cipated the modern difficulty; but the Syriac, a better authority, does not hesitate to translate by مهم shushanna, which, making a small allowance for dialectical variation, is the same as the שושנה of the Canticles. The Syriac translators seem to have considered. with modern versions, that the "lily" of Solomon and the "lily" of Matthew were identical; for which conclusion, indeed, this authority is scarcely needed. What kind of lily is intended no one can tell; but, concluding that it was a lily, the Amaryllis lutea offers a fair alternative. We know that this flower abounds in Palestine ; and the gorgeous display of the green vales, embroidered with a profusion of the yellow Amaryllis, at a time when most other flowers have faded, was well calculated to furnish the subject of an allusion to the spontaneous bounty of God. Amaryllis lutea. 30, " If God so clothe the grass of the field."-As Doddridge notes here, the word αμφιέννυσιν, which we render clothe, properly expresses the putting on a complete dress that surrounds the body on all sides, and is used with peculiar beauty for that elegant, yet strong external membrane, which (like the skin in the human body) at once adorns the tender structure of the vegetable, and protects it from the injuries of the weather. He adds, "Every microscope, in which a flower is viewed, affords lively comment on this text." It does indeed. The most gorgeous attire, the most curious embroidery, fall far short of the beauty displayed by a single flower, when submitted to the microscope. A countless variety of unlooked-for deformities then present themselves in the most finished and delicate works of human art; while in the flower, a world of delicate tissues and splendid ornaments are at once disclosed to us. The eyes of the multitude may be dazzled with the imposing effect of rich and gay attire; but the nice judging sense of one who has been exercised in the ways of nature, can more completely appreciate the force of this comparison, and he say from experience that "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." CHAPTER VII. a 1 Christ ending his sermon in the mount, reproveth rash judgment, 6 forbiddeth to cast holy things to dogs, 1 exhorteth to prayer, 13 to enter in at the strait gate, 15 to beware of false prophets, 21 not to be hearers, but doers of the word: 24 like houses builded on a rock, 26 and not on the sand. JUDGE not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: "and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 1 Luke 6.37. Rom. 2. 1. Mark 4. 24. Luke 6. 38. 3 Luke 6. 41. or 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 brother's eye. 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 you. 7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; Chap. 21. 22. Mark 11.24. Luke 11.9. John 16. 24. James 1. 6. 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? Il 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 ask him? 12 Therefore all things 'whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the Law and the Prophets. 13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. 15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, "I never knew you: "depart from me, ye that work iniquity. 24 Therefore "whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. 28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were asto nished at his doctrine: 29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the Scribes. Chap. 3. 10. 10 Rom. 2. 13. James 1.22. 11 Luke 13.27. 14 Mark 1. 22. Luke 4.32. Verse 3. "Mote...beam," &c. -Lightfoot has shown that this was a common proverb among the Jews, as applied to the greater sins of one prone to censure the small faults of another. The mote" (κάρφος) is understood of a splinter lodging in the eye and causing distress and annoyance, and opposed, in the proverb, to a beam for contrast. 9. "Will he give him a stone?" - "Bread," and presently "fish," are mentioned together, because, in this part of the country, as we may collect from other passages, fish was a common article of food, from its abundance in the neighbouring lake; and bread of course was common every where. Madox notices that there is plenty of lava on the mountains along the Sea of Galilee. Now pieces of lava have much the look of bread, particularly when rounded by torrents, or other causes, into a form analogous to that of loaves or cakes. May it not be possible that this resemblance, as a matter of common observation, suggested the present comparison? Lava might well be called "stone." 10. "Will he give him a serpent?"-Perhaps this comparison is founded on the circumstance, that while a serpent is noxious, it more resembles a fish than any other land animal does. The law excluded eels from the food of the Jews, else there might be supposed a reference to it, as contrasted with and yet similar to a serpent. CHAPTER VIII. 2 Christ cleanseth the leper, 5 healeth the centurion's servant, 14 Peter's mother in law, 16 and many other diseased: 18 sheweth how he is to be followed: 23 stilleth the tempest on the sea, 28 driveth the devils out of two men possessed, 31 and suffereth them to go into the swine. WHEN he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. 2 'And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 3 And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to 1 Mark 1.40. Luke 5. 12. the Priest, and offer the gift that "Moses | commanded, for a testimony unto them. 5 And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, 6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. 8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. 9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 2 Lev. 14. 4. 3 Lake 7. 1. 11 And I say unto you, That many shall | side into the country of the Gergesenes, come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour. 14 And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever. 15 And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them. 18 Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side. 19 And a certain Scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. 20 And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. 21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead. 23 And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. 24 And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep. 25 And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. 26 And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. 27 But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him! 28 And when he was come to the other there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. 29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? 30 And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. 31 So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. 32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. 33 And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils. 34 And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts. Mark 1, 29, Luke 4,33. Mark 1.32. Luke 4.40. 6 Isa. 53. 4. 1 Pet. 2.24. 7 Luke 9.57. 8 Mark 4.37. Luke 8.23. Mark 5. 1. Luke 8.26. |