The Blasphemy of the Pharisees.

MATT. xii. 22-30.

“ΤΗ HEN was brought unto Him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and He healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the Son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This Fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.' And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: and if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house. He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth abroad.” 2

I

"It was the hearing of the effect of the miracle upon the people, who began to wonder whether Jesus might not be the expected Messiah, which caused the Pharisees to make this wicked accusation. They did not really believe what they said, but scrupled at no blasphemy which might destroy Christ's influence with the people."-Canon How.

"They did not, like some later unbelievers, question the fact of our Lord's miracles; or rather they could not possibly do this whilst the miracles were being daily performed by Christ. They ascribed, therefore, His mighty works to the agency of the evil spirits, to the very power which He assaulted and subdued."

2

"My object is to do good; Satan's, to do evil to the souls of men. How can it be, then, that he, whose design is so opposite to Mine, should in any respect work with Me?' Here we see how watchful we ought to be against every thought, connection, or pursuit which helps us not forward in our Christian course. Either it is with Christ or against Him. If it forms no part of our duty; if it tends not to make us more holy, more heavenly-minded, more helpful to man our brother, or more serviceable to our Master Christ; then we may be sure it is against us, it is against our souls, for it is a hindrance to their salvation. . . . Let us beseech Him to cast out of ourselves all blindness of mind, all deafness, all dumbness of heart, that would render us unfit for His service; that we may thus better see His truth, hear His Word, and sound His praise, and that there may be in us no divided empire but only the Kingdom of God through Christ."-Girdlestone.

"O Lord, touch our hard hearts that they may feel, and open our blind eyes that we may see."--Keble's "Sermons."

Sins of the Tongue.

MATT. xii. 31-37.

́HEREFORE I say unto you, All manner of sin and blas

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phemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.' Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.2 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle 3 word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."

1

:

"No one who reads our Lord's terrible words can help anxiously asking, What is this unpardonable sin? Observe, it is not merely sin against the Holy Ghost, it is blasphemy.'. . . It is a sin which the Pharisees were at least in great danger of committing. They stood on the brink of the precipice, if they had not yet fallen over. Now they had wilfully ascribed to Satan the work of the Spirit of God. (Observe Mark iii. 30). If the Holy Spirit ever ceases to strive with a man, and leaves him to a reprobate mind, it would be in the case of one seeing and knowing His Divine Power, but so hating truth and holiness as to wilfully set himself to ascribe them to the devil. In these days perhaps this dreadful sin is most nearly approached by those who from sheer hatred of goodness, or for mere party purposes, cry down and blaspheme either holy truths or holy persons."-Canon How.

"He who praises God with the tongue, but not with the heart, who will bear testimony to the truth without purity of soul in its obedience, lies against the truth, and blasphemes."-Stier.

2

"The tongue is the truest sign of the state of the heart, which accounts for words being spoken of as of such momentous importance. The fountain within will overflow in the words of the mouth, and show of what sort it is." Read James iii. 2-12.

3 "Idle."] "That is, light, thoughtless, careless. What a jealous watchfulness over our least words does this sentence enjoin! And if for thoughtless words we shall give account, how much more for wilfully wicked words!" -Canon How.

"Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; and keep the door of my lips" (Ps. cxli. 3).

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The Danger of trifling with "the Truth."

MATT. xii. 38-45.

ERTAIN of the Scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from Thee. But He answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign' be given to it, but the sign of the Prophet Jonas; for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonas ; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.”

"No sign."] "No special sign, no new miracle, no wonder in the heavens, to prove what there was sufficient proof of already. Possibly no such sign would have really convinced the obstinate hearts of those who asked for it, and it might have been said of them, 'If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.' That sign, however, they were to have given them, as is said in the next verse.'

2 This parable "should teach us that when we cast forth some crying sin, we leave ourselves in great danger of falling into even worse, if we are not careful to see that our hearts are filled with God's Holy Spirit. Thus a drunkard may reform, and cast forth, with pain and difficulty, the demon of his drunkenness; but if he leave his soul 'empty,' and 'garnished' only with an outward decency of conduct, not only will his old enemy be likely to return with new power, but he is in danger of being taken possession of by new enemies, such as pride, self-righteousness, hypocrisy, or some other form of evil, which lurked in him before unsuspected."-Canon How.

“Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. x. 12).

Christ's Mother and Brethren.

MATT. xii. 46-50, and xiii. 2-9.

"WHILE He yet talked to the people, behold, His mother and

His brethren stood without, desiring to speak with Him.

Then one said unto Him, Behold, Thy mother and Thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with Thee. But He answered and said unto him that told Him, Who is My mother? and who are My brethren? And He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples, and said, Behold My mother and My brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of My Father Which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother.'. . . And great multitudes were gathered together unto Him, so that He went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. And He spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower2 went forth to sow; and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: and when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: but other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundred-fold, some sixty-fold, some thirty-fold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

I "We must observe that our Lord is by no means drawing a contrast between His Mother and brethren on the one side, and those who do the will of His Father on the other, as though the former were shut out from the blessing of the latter. There can be no doubt that His own blessed Mother possessed the double blessedness, firstly of the closest earthly relationship, and secondly of the nearest heavenly union, through obedience to the will of His Father in heaven."-Canon How.

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This promise is not to a few favoured ones, but to all who will do His will quietly, each in his own place. There is not one here, nor in any other Christian congregation, to whom this hope is not held out, that he may be accounted the brother, sister, or mother of Christ. Blessed hope! God grant that we may none of us wilfully throw it away."-Keble's "Sermons for the Christian Year."

2 "A sower."] "Christ's entrance into the world was a going forth to sow : the Word of the kingdom, which Word He first proclaimed, was His seed; the hearts of men His soil. Others were only able to sow because He had sown first; they did but carry on the work which He had begun."-Trench "On the Parables."

"THE

The Reason for speaking in Parables.

MATT. xiii. 10-17.

'HE disciples came, and said unto Him, Why speakest Thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath,' to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them (Isa. vi. 9, 10). But blessed are your eyes, for they see and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men2 have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them." 3

"For whosoever hath."]"The disciples had won the privilege of further light by accepting and using that which had been offered them. The others had forfeited the privilege by refusing it. . . . It was a judgment—a punishment -a taking away from those who had not, because they would not have-a locking up of the well to those who refused to taste of the waters of life. It was no arbitrary rejection of those "without." They had rejected themselves, and this was only their deserved punishment. Jesus would have saved them, had they been willing; but they had refused His repeated invitation, and now to reveal to them the blessed truths of His kingdom would only be to cast 'pearls before swine."

2 "Many prophets and righteous men."] "This verse is yet more true of us; for our knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom' is greater than that which even the most favoured Apostles at this time possessed. Let us remember that 'unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required'" (Luke xii. 48).—Canon How.

not.

3 "Let us, then, be ever on our guard, lest we seeing, see not, or hearing, hear Let us be aware, that on our own attention and willingness, depends the degree of profit we shall derive from God's Word. Let us apply all we see and hear to the case of our own conscience, and the nourishment of our souls.”. Girdlestone.