reply is, that though their afflicted and bereaved state might justify their fasting, yet no such necessity was yet laid upon his disciples, their Master being still with them. But, he adds, the day will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. The children of the bed-chamber, o viol tov voμpwvos, the sons of the bride-chamber, or perhaps Tov vʊupiou, as some versions have it, the sons, or friends, of the bridegroom, were those who formed a part of the marriage procession, and were admitted to the festivities which followed. Images, to express seasons of rejoicing, are constantly drawn by ancient writers from marriage feasts. Nuμpiov Bios, "the life of a bridegroom," is a Greek proverb for feasting. To these friends of the bridegroom our Lord compares his disciples. Whilst he remained with them it was a period of great rejoicing, as appears from the sorrow they manifested when they had the first intimation of their Master being taken from them. To such a season frequent fasting, as implying mourning, would have been obviously unfit; and the Jews would well understand the force of his reply, because it was a maxim with them to relax their rules of fasting, and other strict ceremonial services, in favour of those who were engaged in attending marriages. But after Christ's departure from them, then he intimates seasons of mourning and persecution should come, either rendering fasting proper, as a religious act, or obliging them to fast, in the sense of suffering hunger and thirst for righteousness' sake; to the latter of which, also, our Lord may refer, and perhaps principally. Thus, St. Paul puts it among his

sufferings, that he was "in fastings often, in cold and nakedness."

Verses 16, 17. New cloth,-new wine. -The argument is, that his disciples were not yet trained up to a severe discipline; which renders it probable that by their future fasting, in the preceding verse, he speaks figuratively of their various persecutions, and the sorrows consequent upon them. For if he spoke of fasting literally, what reason could be given why the disciples of Christ should not be able to fast, even to austerity, as well as the disciples of John, who were probably taken out of the same classes of society? Some, indeed, have supposed that these disciples of John were of the sect of the Essenes, who, as well as the Pharisees, were severely trained to fasting; but this is a mere conjecture, for which no evidence appears. Christ rather takes occasion, from this interlocution of the disciples of the Baptist, to show that, as a tender Master, he gradually trained up his disciples to endure hardships good soldiers," by not placing them in the outset in circumstances of such formidable trial as might have been injurious to them; and it appears that through the whole time of his ministry and continuance with them, they were exposed to no serious persecutions, not even "scourging in the synagogues." new cloth has been rendered, unfulled, or undressed, cloth, ayvapos, for the sake of heightening the idea of harshness or rigidity, and so accounting for such a piece of cloth sewed to or upon an old garment making the rent worse. This is somewhat hypercritical, as the word by implication means simply new; and any piece of strong new cloth sewed to an old and

as

The

tender garment would be likely to make the rent worse. The bottles here mentioned were made of skins. These skin bottles were used by the people of the east to preserve their water on journeys, their milk, wine, and other liquids; and from Homer it appears they were also in use among the Greeks at the siege of Troy. They are still used in Spain, and are called barrachas. New bottles of this kind were stronger than those which had been some time in use, and were, therefore, more fit for new wine, which was apt to ferment; whilst old wine, having passed the state of fermentation, might be put into old and weaker skins. These sayings of Christ have the character and form of proverbs; they are maxims of concentrated practical wisdom, adapted for instruction in cases besides that to which they were first applied. In the religious education of children, in dealing with new converts, and in having regard to the different habits and prejudices of men in general, we must have respect to the strength of the bottle and the quality of the wine we put into it. All things should be suited to persons and to circumstances; and greater care is often necessary in attempting to do good, than in abstaining from injury.

Verse 18. A certain ruler.—He was the ruler of one of the synagogues at Capernaum, and his office was to preside over the assembly, and direct the worship. He would also be one of the council or court of three. For the courts of judicature among the Jews were the great Sanhedrim of seventy-one at Jerusalem; the lesser council of twenty-three judges in the

larger cities; and in the smaller towns a court of three judges, which appertained to the synagogue. A synagogue was not formed, except where there were "ten men of leisure;" men read in the law, who were the elders of the synagogue : from these the judges of the court of three were to be selected. These were collectively called apxiovvaywyoi, rulers of the synagogue; though this title was given by way of eminence to the president, who also presided over the synagogue worship. The ruler and judge of one of these synagogues now applies to Christ; and though, being a resident in Capernaum, he knew the poverty in which our Lord lived, yet he comes publicly and worships him, that is, pays him the most profound reverence as a superior; and though he had left his daughter dying, and believed that she had already expired, yet such is his faith, that he doubted not that Christ could raise her to life.

My daughter is even now dead.-Luke informs us she was his "only daughter;" Mark calls her his "little daughter." According to the Jewish rule, a daughter, until twelve years of age, is called “a little one," and at twelve years and a day she is called a young woman. When the father left the house she was, as it is expressed in Luke, "a dying," and the words apti eteλevтnσev ought to have been rendered, not is even now dead, but, is even now dying, at this very moment; or, she is by this time dead, which appears to have been his persuasion, and indeed proved to be the fact.

Verse 20. And, behold, a woman which was diseased, &c.-This occurred in the street of Capernaum, or in the immediate

fame in all that country.

that of Matthew, which he had left, in order to try their faith, and that they might be a testimony against the inhabitants, who, it appears, generally rejected him, by proclaiming him through the streets as the "Son of David," one of the most usual designations of Messiah. In the house, and not till then, he healed them, on profession of their faith in his power, which, in such case, seems always to have implied the belief that he was the Messiah, and not a mere ordinary prophet, and for that reason, among others, to have been required. But he straitly, that is, earnestly, charged them, See that no man know it. The charge was strict; but not, as many translators have taken it, harsh and minatory, making our Lord act and speak in a threatening character, quite out of keeping with the occasion and his usual manner; for, as Campbell observes, "the Syriac translator, who better understood the oriental idiom, renders the Greek verb by a word which implies simply he forbade, he prohibited." He had already wrought sufficient miracles in Capernaum to convince those who sincerely desired to know the truth, and greater publicity could only have produced a malicious resentment in those whose state of heart had indisposed them to be influenced by the clearest evidence. He might wish also to repress the popular feeling in his favour, which might have led them to proclaim him as their civil prince, according to their mistaken views of the Messiah, when he should be fully manifested. In the excess of their feelings these men restored to sight disobeyed the injunction; but the knowledge of the fact that he had forbidden them to publish the miracle might lead the people to think

that the time for manifesting himself in that exalted regal character in which they expected he would invest himself was not fully come, and therefore the end of the injunction was not frustrated.

Verses 32, 33. They brought to him a dumb man, possessed with a devil, &c.-He was dumb in consequence of the possession; for they who argue from the circumstance, that the demoniacs of the gospel were often afflicted with other diseases, that the possessions themselves are only to be understood of these maladies, according to a superstitious mode of speaking, forget that even the Jews did not say of every dumb man, nor of every insane and epileptic man, that he had a devil. Those were particular cases only, in which the disease and the possession are distinctly mentioned, and the former was manifestly the consequence of the latter. Some were possessed who do not appear to have had any particular disease, as Mary Magdalene; others had maladies induced by diabolical agency; and a third class might have their infirmities exasperated. When, therefore, it was said reproachfully, "Thou hast a devil, and art mad," the meaning was, not that in their view madness and possession were the same thing, but that in his case both occurred; for all madness they certainly did not attribute to possession, any more than all cases of dumbness. In the case of the text, possession had been manifested by its peculiar indications, and the dumbness was one of the corporeal effects; hence, as soon as the demon was cast out, the dumb man spoke.

Verse 33. The multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel.This was not an hyperbolical exclama