greatest fastee of the one day is the greatest feastee of the next; and in the Romish Church the Carnival and the Lent play at see-saw, the one compensating for the other. "When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces”—they put on a melancholy appearance. Now, it appears to me that a joyous face is more like the index of Christianity than a melancholy one. And then he says, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." Some Christiansnot, I think, of enlightened consciences, but of what are called scrupulous consciences, that is, who have feverish consciences, have said, “Then we ought not to lay up anything at all; we ought not to insure our lives." I know some excellent ministers, who have said that it is positively sinful to insure one's life. Now, I do not think so: I think it is right to labour for the bread that perisheth; and if, after having given what your heart shows to be right to the claims of beneficence and religion, there be a surplus, what are you to do with it? throw it at the bottom of the sea? or give it where you do not see it right to give it? No; insure your life; and that seems to me the very perfection of social Christianity it is letting the burden that would crush one be distributed over twenty; it is making a thousand bear the burden that, if concentrated upon one, would have crushed him. And, therefore, I say it is the duty of every young person, and every newly married person, to insure his life. There are opportunities of doing so now that ought not to be neglected. I know that some cannot do it; it is very sad, yet let them be : still steadfast, and still hope on; and a day may come when they can, and if not, God, who feeds the ravens, will feed you. But you are not to have your heart in the insurance office; this would be trusting it, not God: just insure, and leave it alone, and think no more of it. The whole prescription at the close of this beautiful chapter, the ideas of which it would take days to exhaust,-is to guard against over-anxiety, not against proper and just provision; for if that expression, "Take no thought for your life," "Take no thought for the morrow," were to be interpreted according to our translation, it would be absurd. We must take thought; there is not a master of a house of business who has not to take thought before he can pay what is just, and complete all his engagements and arrangements in the world. We must think, and the man who does not think will soon have to taste the bitter consequences of it. The expression is μépuva; and if you will refer to a Greek Lexicon, you will find that it does not mean "thought," but "carking and vexing anxiety." To take thought of a thing is a Christian duty, but to indulge in carking, irritating anxiety, is sin. Many persons are not satisfied with meeting to-day's duties in to-day's strength, but they cast the net into the unsounded future of to-morrow; they draw it in-shore, and in it are all venomous reptiles that sting their hearts with a thousand anxieties. Now, what is the use of tacking to-day's troubles on to-morrow's troubles, when you have only to-day's strength? God has not promised strength for two days at once, but for each day as it dawns-" Sufficient for the day is the trouble" (for that is the translation) "thereof." And besides, thinking painfully o. to-morrow does not lighten the burdens of to-morrow. Let us, therefore, do the duties of to-day, and draw from the Fountain of strength, to-morrow, strength for to-morrow; and then we shall find that, by thus seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, to-day's and to-morrow's things shall be added unto us, for He has promised it. O blessed Lord, help us in all our ways thus to act ! NOTE.-[28.] These lilies have been supposed to be the crown imperial, (Fritillaria imperialis,) which grows wild in Palestine, or the Amaryllis lutea (Sir J. E. Smith, cited by F. M.), whose golden liliaceous flowers cover the autumnal fields of the Levant. Probably, however, the word here may be taken in a wider import, as signifying all wild flowers. Tŵs is not interrogative, but relative: "how they grow." [29.] We here have the declaration of the Creator himself concerning the relative glory and beauty of all human 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 (Matt. xv. 11), so neither can anything from without adorn him.-Alford. CHAPTER VII. INSPIRED TEACHING-JUDGING-SEASON FOR EVERYTHING THE chapter I have read, closes that magnificent sermon delivered from the mountain pulpit I have already explained, as reported, or recorded, in the 5th and 6th, and now, lastly, the 7th chapters of the Gospel according to St. Matthew. It is plainly the practical conclusion and winding-up of the whole discourse. This chapter contains prescriptions and directions that, if carried out in actual and living society, would make every desert rejoice, and the world's most wilder ness places blossom even as the rose. This one chapter if we had nothing else in the New Testament, would be evidence, not simply that our Lord spake as never man spake, but that he spake as God in our nature might be expected to speak. The morality is so pure, the motives so deep, and true, and real, and the practical fruits of these motives and of this morality so fragrant and beautiful wherever it is carried into fruitage, that one cannot believe it possible that the publican Matthew, an illiterate, uncultivated, inexperienced tax-gatherer, ever could have conceived or written such sentiments out of his own mind. The thing is absurd. You might as well expect Newton's Principia from the humblest peasant on a hill-side, as expect the Sermon on the Mount from the mind of a publican. The fact is, that the publican was but the trumpet, the breath that spake through it was Divine. Matthew was but the amanuensis; the Author was the Lord Jesus Christ. This sermon, which appears to us quite natural, because we are so accustomed to it, when compared with anything that ever was known, er spoken, or written amongst mankind, will give the clearest and the most irresistible evidence that the publican Levi, the Apostle St. Matthew, spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, and that he recorded the very words and truths that Jesus spake. The first prescription is, "Judge no:, that ye be not judged." This does not apply to public and judicial persons, any more than "Swear not at all" applies to evidence in courts of justice. The prohibition is, not against judicial decisions, but against that uncharitable, carping, acrimonious censure, which the world is too prone to indulge in; and certainly, it means that where you can possibly form a good opinion, do not form a bad one; and where the evidence is equally balanced respecting any individual, or any fact in that individual's conduct, rather than form a bad opinion, do not judge at all. Do not be rash or hasty to pronounce censure, but wait, and watch, and study; and if you can find no reason for pronouncing an eulogium, at least, wait, and see if what seems to indicate an opposite character may not be explained satisfactorily, and vindicated, where reproach and censure seemed at first to be deserved. "Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's |