press increased earnestness. The idea is, that in our prayers we should be urgent, persevering, and engaged, and then we shall be heard and answered. Luke xi. 5 -8, xviii. 1-8.

8. In temporal affairs, those who wish for any thing ask or seek for it, and, as a general rule, they obtain what they want. So in spiritual concerns, if we pray aright, our requests are granted. But it is of course implied, that we ask in a proper spirit, sincerely, humbly, and devoutly. And, also, that we ask what is consistent with God's will to bestow, and best adapted to our good, on the whole, to receive. The prayer of filial faith and submission, which sums up all by saying, "Not my will, but thine be done," is never breathed in vain.

9. Luke xi. 11-13. What force and beauty in this mode of reasoning! It has been observed that the word man is emphatic here. Who of you men? Who of a fallible race of creatures could treat their offspring with such hard-heartedness as to give a stone for bread? How much less would the Divine Parent be guilty of such unnatural treatment! Whom. Should be who, grammatically.

10. Luke, in xi. 12, adds yet another illustration: "Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?" Such metaphors were com

mon.

11. Being evil. The imperfec

tion of earthly parents is contrasted with the perfection of our Heavenly Father. Parents may be selfish, unfeeling, partial, fickle, or passionate, but God is absolute, unchangeable, wise, and kind. Is. xlix. 15.

Good gifts. In the parallel place in Luke xi. 13, the expression is, the Holy Spirit. This is an intimation that the best things we can ask, or God bestow, are spiritual blessings. The Holy Spirit, as used in the New Testament, often signifies miraculous powers and influences. Though these are not shed abroad now, as they were upon Jesus and his Apostles, yet the natural workings of the Holy Spirit of God upon us are a proper subject of prayer. What touching pursuasives our Master addresses to us to be constant and persevering in our devotions-to supplicate for spiritual blessings, and to resign ourselves trustfully into the arms of a Father, so mighty and so good, who, though he denies us the things we ask, will grant us what we really need!

12. Luke vi. 31. He had been alluding to the kindness of parents to their children. But he now says, Let what is right be done to all men. In all circumstances, everywhere, to every person, do as you would reasonably desire to be done by. The sense is, not that our wishes, however unjust, should be the measure of our conduct towards others; but that we should act to

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others as we might properly wish them to conduct towards us. Rightly construed, the precept is of universal obligation and application. It is an abridgment of social duty. The common iron rule is, to do to others as others do to us. But this golden one of our Saviour is more noble, to do to others as we would that others should do to us. It is said to be a rule found extensively in classic and rabbinical writings, Tobit iv. 15: "Do that to no man which thou hatest." And the idea is so consonant to truth and justice that almost all languages contain it. We can better learn our duty in this way, because we see more clearly what is just and right, when we reflect what others owe to us, than by asking what we owe to them. By changing places, our judgments are rectified. It has been well said, "that this law is what the balance wheel is to machinery. It would prevent all irregularity of movement in the moral world, as that does in the steam engine. It would destroy avarice, envy, false conduet, treachery, unkindness, slander, theft, adultery, and murder." —This is the law and the prophets. This is not to be cut to the quick, as interpreters say, not to be taken too literally. Similar phrases occur in Rom. xiii. 8-10; Gal. v. 14; 1 Tim. i. 5. The same language was used by our Lord, Matt. xxii. 37-40. Love to God and man is the substance of law, prophets, and, we may add, Gospel. And where one prevails in its vigor, the other can hardly be wanting; so that, in a free sense, either love to man, or love to God, might be called the fulfilling of the law, and the sum of the prophets. It is related in the Jewish Talmud, that a Pagan came to Hillel, a great

Rabbi, and offered to become a proselyte, provided he would teach him the whole law while he stood on one foot. The Rabbi took him at his word, and made him a proselyte by saying, - "Do not to another what is odious to thyself: this is the whole law; the rest is but explanation; go away perfect." The ten commandments," said Luther,

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are the measuring lines of God; they are written in our flesh and blood; the meaning of them is: What thou wouldst have done to thyself, the same thou oughtest also to do to another. God presseth upon that point, and saith: Such measure as thou metest, the same shall be measured to thee again. With this measuring line he hath marked the whole world."

13. This verse is connected with the foregoing rule of social conduct, which is hard of observance to thoughtless, sinful man. The figures of the gate and the road are taken from the ancient cities, some of whose passages and entrances were broad and thronged, and others narrow and unfrequented. The cultivation of a true, disinterested, selfrenouncing love, and its constant exercise under all circumstances, is difficult indeed. How few walk in the straight path of love! How many hurry along the broad road of selfishness! The lesson conveyed in general is, that virtue requires choice, care, and effort. - Enter. It must be an act of choice and preference. Strait gate. Close, narrow, difficult of entrance. Caution will be demanded to walk in it uprightly. — Broad is the way. The temptations to a thoughtless, worldly life are numerous and obvious; widely thrown open are the facilities to vice. •Leadeth to destruction.

But the course is a dangerous one, and will lead to the most fatal consequences. Many go in thereat. Yet, strange and sad to say, it is the very way multitudes are flocking, and it will require resolution not to be borne away into the heedless crowd, yielding to the seduction of their example. But we must not follow a multitude to do evil.

14. Because strait is the gate. The reading of Griesbach is,-How strait is the gate! This exclamation more energetically expresses the difficulty of the way of virtue. - Leadeth unto life. Conducts to that goodness which is the life and happiness of the soul, in this and all future states of being. Find it. It is said of the broad way, many go in thereat. The right way is something to be found, to be sought after; it does not come of itself. Holiness, piety, benevolence, are not the result of chance, but of choice. The two verses have been paraphrased thus:

"Aim at entering in at the strait gate though there be a gate that is wide, and the way to it is broad, and many are travelling along it; yet it leads to perdition; therefore take it not. And though there be a gait that is strait, and the way to it narrow, and few are they that travel thereto, yet take it, for it leads to life and eternal happiness."

teachers and false pretenders would arise, Christ and his disciples predicted, Matt. xxiv. 11, 24;` and described, Acts xx. 29; Rom. xvi. 18; 2 Peter ii. 1, 3; 1 John iv. 1. If any character of distinguished excellence in any pursuit or art arise, there is usually a school of imitators and sciolists who spring up after him. In this respect religion holds an analogy with other things. Sheep's clothing. In the garb of in nocence, and fair appearance; not literally a dress of sheepskins, though some have supposed that reference was made to the dress of the prophets, but in the aspect of goodness and meekness. Heb. xi. 37. — But inwardly ravening wolves. A wolf in sheep's clothing is a proverb to express a cruel hypocrite. The teachers here described make fair pretensions, are pure and innocent outwardly, but inwardly are_ready to prey upon their victims. In this description, Jesus referred perhaps to the Jewish teachers, who made long prayers, but devoured widows' houses; innocent, pure, and harmless as sheep to all appearance, but in reality full of extortion and excess, rapacious as wolves. 1 Tim. vi. 5.

16. Know them by their fruits. Though so deceptive in their appearance, there was one way by which their hypocrisy would be unmasked; their lives would belie their professions. Their fruits, their works, would betray them. It has been said: A man's works are the tongue of his heart, and tell honestly whether he is inwardly corrupt,

bution. Prophesied in thy name. Not necessarily predicted future events, but preached in thy name, preached the Gospel. — In thy name. By thy power and authority. The Apostles appealed to the authority of Christ, when they performed miracles. Acts xvi. 18. Cast out devils. See note upon Matt. iv. 24. It was a common superstition at that time that the spirits of deceased wicked persons dwelt in some men. They were called, however, demons and not devils, in the present popular meaning of that word. This sort of miracles is specified, because it was more difficult of performance. Matt. xvii. 21. — Wonderful works. Miracles, so called because they created wonder and awe in those who beheld them. We learn from the New Testament that some were hypocritical in their profession of Christianity from the beginning, and that miraculous powers were claimed by some who were not worthy of the trust. - Goodness is the only key to unlock the gate of heaven. 1 Cor. xiii. 1-3; Gal. vi. 15.

23. Will I profess unto them. Plainly and publicly declare to them. To give greater vivacity and force to the truth, Jesus throws it into the form of a dialogue between himself and these false claimants. --I never knew you, i. e. never approved and recognised you as my disciples; for such is the meaning of know in some cases. Ps. i. 6; 1 Cor. viii. 3.- Depart from me, &c. Ps. vi. 8. The dramatic semblance is continued. Work iniquity. The sense of the original is

stronger than to do iniquitously; it is, to make a trade and business of iniquity, as these false teachers did, who converted the holy office of preaching the Gospel into an instrument of selfish aggrandizement. The great end of Christianity, whether in teacher, or taught, is a good life. Nothing short of this, be it faith, or zeal, or profession, or even martyrdom, can meet the purposes of Heaven, or the wants of the soul.

24. We come now to the epilogue and peroration of the Sermon on the Mount, and it harmonizes, in its sustained beauty and energy, with the preceding part, and concludes all in a manner worthy of one who was a teacher from the Father of Lights. Similar figures were used by the Jewish teachers, but inferior in power and elegance. The following is one: "The man who studies much in the law, and maintains good works, is like to a man who built a house, laying stones at the foundation, and building brick upon them; and though many waters come against it, they cannot move it from its place. But the man who studies much in the law, and does not maintain good works, is like a man who, in building his house, put bricks at the foundation, and laid stones upon them, so that even gentle waters shall overflow that house.". · Wise man. Prudent, considerate man.

25. The beauty of the comparison is enhanced by knowing the reference which is here made to the soil and climate of Judea. The