fore if thou bring thy gift to the

the east.

The brook Kedron ran through it. Horrid sacrifices of the heathen god Moloch were performed in this valley. On this account, the place was afterwards held in such abhorrence, that it was made the common receptacle of the filth of the city. The carcasses of animals, the bodies of executed criminals, were thrown into this place. Fires were kept constantly burning to consume these things, and prevent the atmosphere becoming pestilential. Worms were frequently to be seen preying upon the remains of the filth and rubbish of the populous city. Hence very severe and disgraceful punishments, and the retributions of the future world, in some places, are depicted by the figure of the Gehenna of fire, or the constantly burning fires of the valley of Hinnom, and the worms that are always to be found there. In using this term, our Lord employed the current language of his day and nation. His idea seems to have been, that for the most opprobrious words, and the corresponding temper which prompted their use, a man would be subject, whether in this life or the future one, to the punishment of God, a punishment as much severer in degree than those aforementioned, as the burning fires and undying worm of the valley of Hinnom, would exceed in severity the punishment, inflicted by the tribunal of Seven and the Sanhedrim. Three degrees of anger are specified, and three corresponding gradations of punishment, proportioned to the different degrees of guilt. Where these punishments will be inflicted, he does not say, he need not say. The man, who indulges any wicked feelings against his brother man, is in this world punished, his anger is the torture of his soul, and unless

altar, and there rememberest

he repents of it, and forsakes it, it must prove his woe in all future states of his being. Jesus thus illustrates the principle of his religion, in contradistinction to the erroneous instructions of the Scribes and Pharisees, that not only the outward act, but the inward feeling and the words of the lips, are subject to the laws of God. Unjust or immoderate

anger, contemptuous epithets, and passionate reproaches, were in fact breaches of that law of social duty, every violation of which was an offence of greater or less magnitude against the Supreme Lawgiver and Judge.

23. It is said that the Scribes required restitution in money matters, but that in other things, they held that gifts and sacrifices would expiate all offences not cognizable by the judge. But our Saviour takes a different ground. He teaches that reconciliation is better than sacrifices, and that a gift to God is vain and unacceptable, so long as the giver is in the practice of violating his social obligations. Having in the preceding verses warned his hearers against anger and scorn towards their human brethren, he now points out the true course of conduct, when the offence has actually been committed; it is, first of all, to be reconciled; even to postpone the services and sacrifices of divine worship, till the broken chain of brotherly love is again united. The duty of benevolence is paramount to ritual observances. But the Jewish teachers inculcated the reverse. If thou bring thy gift to the altar. The freewill offering and sacrifices of the Jewish worshippers were called gifts. The altar was situated in front of the temple. If a person had gone so far as to bring his gift to the very altar, to the place where it was to

be offered, and there, just before he made his offering, recollected that there was matter of difference and ill-will between him and his brother, he was to turn back from the temple of God, and seek reconciliation with his fellow-man, and then he might reasonably trust that his gifts would be accepted by the Almighty. - Rememberest should be remember, grammatically. That thy brother hath aught against thee, i. e. has, or thinks he has, any just cause of complaint. Jesus mentions the case of one who has offended, not one who has been wronged. The person who has done wrong to another, or who, that other believes, has done wrong, is to seek reconciliation with his injured brother rather than perform ceremonial observances. But if it be the other way, and his brother has wronged him, there is nothing in the lessons of Jesus to show that his offerings will be unworthy until the affair is settled. It then devolves upon the man who has done the wrong to seek the reconciliation. Still it is the fruit of a Christian spirit to forgive, to forget, to be always ready to receive the advances of reconciliation from those who have ill used us; to desire most earnestly to have others in charity with us, as well as to be ourselves in charity with them.

24. Leave there thy gift before the altar. Gifts were delayed or rejected sometimes on account of their impropriety, or because they had some blemish, or the person offering them was disqualified by uncleanness, or for some other cause. But Jesus speaks of delaying the gift for a new reason, the moral unfitness and unpreparedness of the giver. Such an idea had not probably en

tered the minds of the Jewish teachers, wedded as they were to technicality and ceremonies. Go thy way. Seek reconciliation. Do not wait till the injured person, or he who supposes himself injured, comes to you. But go to him. And this would be practicable for those who came from the farthest parts of the land, for these gifts were offered on general festival days, when the nation was together at Jerusalem, and every man could find his neighbors and acquaintances. - Be reconciled. Not only cherish right feelings yourself, but make reparation, explanation, or whatever will satisfy, within the bounds of reason, your offended, injured fellow-man, and thus obtain his pardon and love. Let there be reconciliation on both sides. —Then come and offer thy gift. Having discharged your duty to man, you will be prepared to worship God. The spirit of these instructions, though wrapped in Jewish phraseology and imagery, is for us as well as for them of old. If we would worship our Maker acceptably, our prayers must rise from hearts baptized into the love of man, as well as into the belief of God. The tongue we use in devotion must not utter cursings towards mankind, as well as blessings towards the Father; else the cursings will devour the blessings, and our supplications will fall to the earth dead. If faith be one of the wings of prayer, love is the other.

25. See Luke xii. 58, 59. Jesus, having already shown, that to indulge in malevolent feelings, and use opprobrious epithets, is highly criminal, and that the exercise of a conciliating temper should take preIcedence of ritual observances and

acts of worship, now goes on to show, that, merely as a matter of self-interest, we should seek to live in brotherly love, and settle all difficulties immediately with our fellowcreatures. - Agree with thine adversary quickly, &c. Be, or make friends with him. This probably had reference to the Roman law concerning injuries, by which the plaintiff, the adversary, as it is here translated, could, without the formality of a summons or writ, drag the of fender with his own hand before the court. On the way he had however an opportunity of settling the affair, if he pleased, and of being set at liberty. But if the case were brought before the judge, a fine would be imposed, and, if unable to pay it, the prisoner would be held in confinement until the debt was discharged. It is a maxim of prudence, therefore, as well as a dictate of love, to seek reconciliation with those whom we have offended and injured, and to do it at the earliest opportunity. The ill consequences of not being reconciled to our fellow-men are pictured forth in judicial phraseology. The longer the difficulty was delayed, the harder it would be to be settled, the more aggravated its evil consequences. The passage is designed rather to point out the importance of early reparation and reconciliation in regard to our fellow-men, than to be violently construed as an admonition against delay in religion, in general, or in our duties more especially to our Maker. In the interpretation of Scripture, there is as much dan

-

ger of attributing a sense to a passage which was never in the writer or speaker's mind, as of mistaking the sense; as much danger of erring as to the degree, so to speak, as to the kind of meaning. - Ất any time. These words are superfluous; not in the original. The officer. The one who executed the sentence; the sheriff, or prison-keeper. Reference is supposed to be made in this verse to the oppression of the Romans, which rendered it expedient to settle difficulties in private, rather than to resort to "hood-winked justice."

26. He describes the evil of delaying to be reconciled, but the advantages of regaining peace and good-will are obvious, and therefore not mentioned. In this verse the language of the courts is still kept up.

There would be no deliverance from jail till the last farthing was paid. If reconciliation is not early sought and secured, irreparable troubles will befall the injurer. He will not escape until he has expiated fully the offence. He will be visited with unmitigated retribution, who seeks not by penitence and confession to avert it beforehand. - Paid the uttermost farthing, i. e. paid the whole debt. What is here called a farthing was a small brass coin, equal to about four mills of our money.

27. The last paragraph relates to the sixth commandment, to Murder, and the violation of social goodwill. This one treats of the seventh, of Adultery and Divorcement. - By them of old time. Should be, to them of old time. But the words

are not considered genuine in this place, since they are not found in a large number of the most ancient versions and manuscripts. The distinguished critic Griesbach therefore rejects them as spurious. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Ex. xx. 14. Our Lord would not, by thus quoting the commandments, weaken their authority, but aims to prove that they should be kept in the spirit as well as the letter, and that the Jewish maxim, that the thoughts and desires were not sinful unless acted out, was false and dangerous. Our Father takes the will for the deed, both in the virtuous and the vicious.

28. To lust after her. Or, more explicitly, in accordance with the original, in order to cherish impure wishes and feelings. 66 Men, who can only judge by external actions, give the name of a crime merely to the last act; but in the estimation of God, who searches the heart, he hath committed the crime who hath intended to do it, or hath wished it done. The law of the ten commandments does not expressly prohibit all offences, but only such as are most atrocious of their kind. Thus it does not prohibit all falsehood to our neighbor, but false witnessing against him; nor every injury to his property, but theft; nor all unlawful commerce between the sexes, but only adultery. Christ, however, here informs us, that whoever indulges himself in any thing which may lead to that offence is guilty in a certain degree of the crime of adultery." The impure desire is therefore to be abhorred and shunned as being akin to the criminality of the actual deed. 2 Peter ii. 14. "By obscene anecdotes

and tales; by songs and jibes; by double meanings and innuendoes; by looks and gestures; by conversation and obscene books and pictures, this law of our Saviour is perpetually violated. If there be any one sentiment of most value for the comfort, the character, the virtuous sociability of the young, one that will shed the greatest charm over society, and make it the most pure, it is that which inculcates perfect delicacy and purity in the intercourse of the sexes. Virtue of any kind never blooms where this is not cherished. Modesty and purity once gone, every flower that would diffuse its fragrance over life withers and dies with it. There is no sin that so withers and blights every virtue, none that so enfeebles and prostrates every ennobling feeling of the soul, as to indulge in a life of impurity. How should purity dwell in the heart, breathe from the life, kindle in the eye, live in the imagination, and dwell in the intercourse of all the young! -Barnes.

29. Right eye. The mention of the eye is naturally connected with the preceding verse, where it speaks of inflaming unlawful emotions by looking on an object of desire. The organ of vision might become an instrument of sin. The Hebrews were accustomed to compare lusts and evil passions, and also good affections, with different members of the human body. The bowels, heart, and eye, were thus used. 2 Cor. vi. 12, vii. 3; Mark vii. 21, 22; Rom. vi. 13, vii. 23.-Offend. Here is an instance where the meaning of the word has changed during two centuries, so that it does not now express what it did at the time our English version was made. It

then meant to cause to fall, or to sin ; it now means to affront. The original clearly signifies to make to stumble, to seduce, to tempt to sin, or to ensnare. If the right eye, or hand, if the best member in the whole body, led its possessor into sin, it were better to lose it than to perish entirely as to the moral nature. It is said that the right eye was indispensable to a soldier, as war was then conducted, and that to lose it would be more than to part with the other. Pluck it out. This cannot be understood with any propriety as an injunction to be literally performed, but as a strong mode of saying that the greatest loss was preferable to the loss of holiness; that any hardship was to be endured rather than that a sinful habit should be tolerated; that the dearest object was to be relinquished, if it was a stumbling-block to our virtue. By self-denial, though it be painful as the plucking out of a right eye, or the cutting off a hand, must the vicious propensities be restrained. The darling inclination, the easily besetting sin, must be renounced, however great the sacrifice. Matt. xviii. 8, 9; Mark ix. 43-47; Rom. viii. 13.

30. The same in substance as the last verse. Reiteration is one of the figures of good speaking and writing. The deeply moved mind overflows with powerful imagery. It is profitable, i. e. it is better, it is preferable. One of thy members should perish. Men with diseased limbs hesitate not to have them amputated

in order to save life. They willingly yield up a less good to retain a greater. So, is the reasoning of our Master, should men do in spiritual things. It is better to crucify the most cherished desires, if sinful, than by their indulgence to endan ger the salvation of the soul itself, and lose eternal life. - Hell. This term, in the original, Gehenna, has already been commented on, verse 22. The main idea here conveyed is that of severe punishment, extreme suffering, and no intimation is given as to its place, or its duration, whatever may be said in other texts in relation to these points. Wickedness is its own hell. A wronged conscience, awakened to remorse, is more terrible than fire or worm. In this life and in the next, sin and woe are for ever coupled together. God has joined them, and man cannot put them asunder.

31. After showing that the laws of his religion included the heart, as well as the outward conduct, and that no sacrifice was too great to be made for virtue, he proceeds to contrast the practices and opinions of the times in relation to divorces, with the strictness of his principle.

- It hath been said. Deut. xxiv. 1; Jer. iii. 1, 8; Matt. xix. 3-9; Luke xvi. 18; Mark x. 2-12. Moses had given a law in reference to divorcement, but it was designed for the then existing condition of the Jews; it was adapted to the hardness of their hearts. Mark x. 5. Jesus would inculcate a stricter principle. On the interpretation of