BEING LESSONS FROM THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW.

CHAPTER IV. (Continued from page 94.)

The manifestation of the Lord's fitness for His work is now complete. From opposite sides He is declared what even the devils henceforth own Him, the Holy One of God. He can now go forth to His appointed work; and we have here a brief summary of His preaching, after the close of John's public testimony. The herald of the kingdom was now only to seal his witness with his blood; and the Lord, too, was on the way to the cross, which for Him was contemplated from the beginning. He was to be both Priest and Sacrifice; and for Him death would be not merely the seal of His testimony, but that upon, which all blessing for man must depend. Still His life-work had also its absolute necessity, though of a very different kind:and it is of the deepest consequence to distinguish things that differ so essentially as these do. This, however, will be better left to be considered at another time.

What we have in this place is not any detailed history, but simply the fact of the announcement of the kingdom by the King Himself, with the gathering of disciples by it, and the signs accompanying it. The word is proclaimed in Galilee, from Capernaum as its center, the word of the prophet being thus fulfilled. And though Galilee was now Galilee of the Gentiles, testifying thus to the ruin of God's people, it was Israel that sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. Zebulon ("dwelling") dwelt no more in Galilee; and Naphtali, the "straggler," "sat,"with-out struggling, in the darkness. In the land of Zebulon and of Naphtali, according to Isaiah's words, light was sprung up. There had come to Capernaum a dweller, in whom God on His side could dwell with man, and One who would be more than a straggler, the typical Conqueror, the woman's Seed.

Man had, indeed, failed, and lay prostrate, under that which was no mere absence of light, but a Satanic power of darkness; but another power had manifested itself,-the kingdom of heaven was at hand, though for the realization of its blessings man must repent. But the "goodness of God" was "leading to repentance." How new the word would sound on the lips that were now uttering it! How simple and plain a requirement when urged with the persuasive tones of a love so manifest, so truly seeking men!

The call of disciples follows this proclamation. Andrew and Simon, James and John, simple fishermen, chosen to be "fishers of men," illustrate the Lord's chosen methods for the salvation of souls. These first followers are certainly not men of position, or of wealth, or learning; and in this there is emphasized for us the truth, that none of these things can be essential, therefore, for even a foremost place among the messengers of the King of glory. The qualifications are spiritual, not natural; and He who sends them out is all-sufficient to them. On the other hand, the call of Christ to-day is as much needed as ever it was, and none can be a minister of His without it.

His call requires prompt, unhesitating obedience. This he emphasizes Himself elsewhere. Here we see it yielded:"immediately they left the ship and their father, and followed Him." How great a thing is promptness, when once we are assured of the Lord's will. There is, then, nothing else to be considered; while moral hesitancy may soon so cloud this assurance as to make obedience then impracticable. "Add to your faith virtue" is the exhortation of the apostle, ("virtue" being here the soldier-quality, "valor,") '' and to virtue knowledge." With bow many would the present darkness of their way be clearly intelligible, if they could face honestly their past history. And that history must, after all, be faced one day.

The gospel preached by our Lord has "signs" accompanying it. This is one of the common Scripture words (though not used in this place) for what we call "miracles." Such a word is used in Scripture also, but it emphasizes the "wonder" element only, and is of infrequent occurrence in the gospels. Important even the power to produce wonder was, as a bell to gather an audience, but the words rather chosen for the Lord's works speak of that in them which was to make its impress on the conscience and "the heart. As "signs" they spoke not obscurely, evidencing themselves as "powers"-acts of power- revealing God. The kingdom of heaven which the Old Testament prepared men to expect was, in fact, an interference of divine power on behalf of men which would free the earth from the burdens which sin had imposed on them, and from the curse which follows sin. Miracles, therefore, formed an essential part in "the kingdom and glory," and are thus called by the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews "the powers of the world to come." Most suitably, therefore, did they accompany the message that the kingdom of heaven was at hand.

Yet John, its first proclaimer, had done no miracle. His simple call to repentance required none. He saw and announced the kingdom, but was not to introduce it. He emphasized the testimony and embodied the spirit of the. old dispensation, which itself pointed beyond itself for the completion which would of necessity set it aside. He was the judicial summing up of the past, though in near view of the predicted future; and men needed only conscience to be called into activity to confirm to them the truth of what he said. They needed not and were not called to have faith in John, but to judge their own condition, and thus be ready for the coming King.

But now here was the King,- the One to whom the world was to be subject, the whole realm of Nature submissive to His hand. Here miracles were the natural sign then of His presence; to Him what man called supernatural was natural:not to have manifested it would but have discredited His claim. True and needful testimony it was to Him, when "all manner of disease and all manner of infirmity" yielded to His power, showing Him thus master of the whole condition of things into the midst of which He had come. All the consequences of sin had found their remedy:to earth the long-lost paradise might be restored. Sin, therefore, itself, as presently it was to be publicly proclaimed and certified, had found in Him its conqueror also. And, not passively content with receiving all who came, this grace in Him went forth with ceaseless activity to find its objects. God's heart was pouring itself out in such a way as if to preclude all possibility of resistance. Who could refuse such ministry to need so manifest, in which the very flesh of man cried out for the living God:and how could, then, his soul be silent?

In fact, great multitudes flocked after Him from all the country round:from Galilee itself; from Decapolis, Rome's ten colonial cities, now an utter desolation; from Jerusalem, valuing itself for privileges which, misused, were bringing ruin upon all connected with it. Could, then, these various grades of a common humanity, one in the sad inheritance of the fall, which had yet so strangely divided them, find now in one Saviour-King their restoration to one another and to themselves ? So it must surely seem as if it would be. But history has been slow in justifying such a verdict. Prophecy, on the other hand, declares it shall be, and that this is the one hope for the world which shall have fulfillment.

CHAPTER V.

We shall be called back to these thronging multitudes again, to learn in detail their various needs, and the way in which God has thus provided for them. But first the inspired history bids us to listen to the Lord's own statement of what His kingdom is; not in the form it should take, but in its inner spirit. Old Testament prophets had already announced the form it would, and will yet, assume when the "promises " still belonging to Paul's "kinsmen according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:3, 4) shall be fulfilled. Introduced by a coming in glory which every eye shall see, the kingdom of that day shall be established in power that shall smite down all opposition as with a rod of iron. The law will then go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, once more -and then to be acknowledged by all-the place of His special manifestation upon the earth, to which men shall come from every side to worship Him. The whole picture is one so unlike, in some of its features, that state to which Christianity has introduced us ; is, in fact, so much a retrogression when seen as coming after this, that many find it impossible to understand it except as figure; but as such no one will find it possible to understand it really. It is not Christianity, nor the heaven in which our portion is, but a future-and still not final-state of the earth. It is a last dispensation before eternity, of sight rather than of faith, and in many ways lower in character than what faith now enjoys. " Blessed " in a higher sense truly "are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." Yet in perfect accordance with this the glory is then manifest and visible, as now it is not; and once more, and beyond all in the past, Jerusalem will put the light upon a candlestick, where all may see it. Granting the apostle's interpretation to be the true one, that to Israel in the flesh the promises belong,-and the prophets themselves unmistakably show this,-no other reading of the Scripture is possible than the plain and literal one.

When John the Baptist proclaimed the kingdom as at hand, he had before him no vision of Christianity, but what the prophets of old had announced. And when the Lord takes up, with more emphasis and fuller demonstration of it here, the Baptist's message, He is still speaking of the same thing. But Israel rejected Him through whom alone those promises could be fulfilled to them:"He came, unto His own, and His own received Him not." The consequence was, that, as far as Israel's blessing was concerned, the fair vision vanished. The world also, and not merely Israel, understood not the day of its visitation:"He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." Thus the predicted blessing of the earth also is delayed, and only after nearly twenty centuries are the streaks of dawn beginning to be seen on the horizon.

Yet the kingdom has come, but come in how different a way ! Grace repelled must still triumph over all hindrances; and out of that world which has taken Satan for its prince, and crucified the Son of God, God has been all this time taking for Himself a heavenly people-a people to share with Him rejection upon the earth, yet to share with Him also His reign over it, and to have with Himself a place of dearer, tenderer intimacy than even this might imply-"that where I am," He says, "there ye may be also."

These things we shall find the Lord beginning to unfold to His disciples as soon as it is clearly seen that Israel will have none of Him; and here, when He speaks of '' things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world" (chap. 13:35), we shall have no difficulty in finding our own special portion -a fullness of blessing that Israel's portion does, indeed, figure, and only figure. This-the nation's as such-is earthly; ours is heavenly. There is to be a "new earth" also, "wherein dwelleth righteousness," as well as a "heavenly city" for God's pilgrims of today.

In the " sermon on the mount" we have, then, the principles of the kingdom of heaven, with very plain reference to the millennial earth. It is the earth that the meek inherit (ver. 5), though there is also a reward in heaven," at which we shall have to look in its place (ver. 12). The first statement here is from the thirty-seventh psalm, the application of which is evident ; Jerusalem, also, is "the city of the great King" (ver. 35)-not in its disowned, desolate condition; and we shall see further indications of this nature as we go through what is here.

Yet this docs not take away from us the constant application everywhere to ourselves. The fuller revelation only completes the more partial one ; the higher blessing but transcends the lower. Through all dispensations God is the same God; even amid cloud and darkness He is still the Light. Blessed be His name that we have the manifestation in Him in whom the glory tabernacled among men, glory without a veil, save only, to dim eyes, the excess of light. F. W. G.

(To be continued.)