CHAPTER XIX.

POPULARITY OF TRUTH-DIVORCES-CHRIST ANSWERS FROM SCRIPTURE -GOD'S TOLERATION OF EVIL-BABES BROUGHT TO JESUS-THE

RICH YOUNG MAN-SACRIFICES FOR CHRIST, AND REWARD.

JESUS, it appears, left Galilee, where he had been teaching, and crossed the Jordan "into the coasts of Judæa." Pleased with his miracles and impressed by his teachings, great multitudes," we are told, "followed him.” Wherever an earnest word is spoken, a word that goes to a man's heart, and awakens within him a sense of his lost greatness, and the possibility of reinstating himself, there will be multitudes to follow and to listen. It appears that such of them as were diseased he healed. The Pharisees also came to him; but they came, not asking to be cured of their diseases, in their difficulties, but with their old habit, " tempting him," that is, endeavouring to ensnare him. They said unto him, "Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?" The word "every" is a wrong translation. The Greek adjective mâσav, in this peculiar construction, means any." And therefore the translation ought to be, "Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for any cause that seems to him satisfactory?”

nor to be satisfied

Now, you ask, how could this be tempting Jesus? It was a very plain and Scriptural question, and the

answer, one would suppose, must be free from any risk, and a very easy one. The secret of the difficulty in answering was this. At that time Jesus had entered the territory of Herod Antipas, who had put away his wife, and was living with a woman who was not his wife; and therefore, they thought that Jesus by their question would be put in a great dilemma, and either way get into trouble. If he had said it was lawful, he would have been sanctioning sin; and if he said it was not lawful, he would be put in prison for offending Herod, as John was. Jesus answered them, however, evidently irrespective of any governing power, and fearless of any snare. He ever showed, what we should ever feel, that the path of truth and right and duty and principle, is always, in the long run, the path that leads to safety. "He answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female?" Now, mark how striking this is. When Jesus was asked the most intricate and delicate questions, instead of answering from the depths of his own wisdom, as he might have done, he referred the inquirers almost invariably to the Bible. I do not know a more striking proof of the greatness and value of this Book, than that the living Author of it referred every question for a solution to "It is written," "How readest thou?" And if He, the Author and the Inspirer of the Book, so valued it, does it become us to put tradition on a level with it, or to neglect, or undervalue it? It is the Book of books. "Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female?" There is here first of all a direct and distinct recognition of Genesis as inspired. Secondly, there is a distinct recognition

of Genesis as a literal narrative. You know that some of the Germans, who try to get reasons for saying all sorts of strange things, assert that the book of Genesis is μôbos, a myth or fable; but I need not say that their conclusion, like their premises, is altogether false. We have here, however, the Lord of glory distinctly asserting that the recorded facts in the book of Genesis are, not parabolic, or a fable, but literal and historical events; and also that the historian of those facts was an inspired penman; and therefore, that the book he wrote is part and parcel of the inspired Word of God. Such incidental allusions as these are most precious. They are, not only the New Testament casting light upon the Old, but the New Testament pronouncing that itself with the Old are the twin witnesses of the will and word of God, and the duty and obligations of man.

You will see by what our Lord refers to, that man was made originally to have one wife,-that this was God's ordinance and great law,—that it not only lies in the constitution of human nature, but that it is also sanctioned and consecrated by the express record of God. It is very remarkable that in nations where this great law has been overlooked or trodden under foot, the results have been invariably, even physically and temporally, the most disastrous. Such nations have utterly degenerated and declined, till they have sunk into the most contemptible of the nations of the earth. Around us are many proofs. Our Lord having thus given an answer from the Book that they themselves dared not repudiate, and from that part of the Book which neither Sadducee nor Pharisee dared reject; the Pharisees of course could not tell Herod that Jesus had said so, but

they must tell him, if they reported the conversation at all, that Moses said so long before, and that Jesus quoted only their own Scriptures.

66

But still cavilling, they said, "Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?" Why was divorce so easily accomplished, and so clearly permitted by Moses? Our Lord gives them an answer which unfolds a principle. He says, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not so." God suffers many things which he does not sanction. He allows things to be in the infancy of the race, which he expressly reprobates and prohibits in its maturer growth and development, and always in principle. God suffered, not sanctioned, this in special circumstances, and for special purposes-the hardness of the people's heart rendering such permission, not necessary, but at least expedient, in the circumstances in which it occurred. We must not suppose that because God suffered it then, it was meant to be always so, or that it was even right; for our Lord refers back to the first institution, and shows what the law is, what duty ever was, what the law should be in Herod's palace, and what the law, when man is most enlightened, ever will be, and what in our land it now is. But that there may be no mistake, and lest they should suppose that the permission or sufferance of Moses was to be regarded as one for after ages, the great Lawgiver steps in, and gives to the written word its complement, perfection and meaning, by saying, "Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put

away doth commit adultery." That is the law of the marriage relationship now,

His disciples then said, evidently preferring the laxer mode that was suffered by Moses for the hardness of their hearts, "If the case of the man be so with his wife," that is, if he is to be tied to one woman all his life," it is not good to marry." But Jesus said, "All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given;" and then he shows that marriage must be left to every one's taste; that there is no excessive sanctity in celibacy, and no compulsion to marry; but that every one, priest and people, must act according to their own personal discretion, constitution, feelings, nature; either come under the law by which marriage is regulated, or have nothing to do with it at all.

"Then were there brought unto him little children -Taidía, babes-" that he should put his hands on them," for they were incapable of being taught. But "the disciples rebuked them." They could not see in what way these babes could receive a blessing. But our blessed Lord knew better, and he said, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Now, whilst there is a most respectable and excellent section of the Christian Church who say that baptism should not be administered to infants, it does seem to me that it is a most impressive sight to see, as we do in this church from time to time, parents bring their babes, and present them to Christ amidst the prayers of his assembled people, all uniting in supplicating the blessing of Him who still lays his hands upon these tiny babes, and pronounces blessings that will last through life, and, it