5:21, 22. "You have heard * you." But I tell In these verses our Lord mentions three gradations of offence and judgment. Anger is liable to break forth into act and so put a man in danger of its adequate punishment. Abusive language brings the man who gives way to it into the danger of a severe punishment. Unrestrained anger that breaks forth into the more malignant language of reprobate or villain brings a man into the power of the highest court of the land. It subjects him to the danger of the judgment of death. For it is to be noted, the word here translated fool is not at all adequately so translated. Fool does not express the full malignity of the word used by our Lord. Anger such as our Lord here refers to is likely to issue in a crime which makes a man guilty of death. Our Lord shows in these words the guilt of the angry and malignant spirit from its danger and its tendency. No passion deprives a man so utterly of self control and even of reason, as this one. If not changed by divine grace it makes havoc of spiritual life. For, "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." We must see to it, then, that we bear no malice nor hatred in our hearts. 5:23. So if you are offering your gift at the altar," etc. The time for worship is the time for recollection and self scrutiny. It is the time for the worshipper to ask himself, not whether he has a ground of complaint against another, but whether another has some ground of complaint against him. What injury have I done my neighbor? Have I given my neighbor good cause of offence in thought, word, or deed? Have I spoken bitter words against him? Am I allowing bitter thoughts of any one to rankle in my heart? 5:24. "First be reconciled to your brother." To be reconciled to a brother is not only to remove ill will from our minds concerning him. Open confession of all wrong done him is necessary. Restitution to the extent of our power is required. Only thus can the reconciliation here taught be attained. 66 5:25. Agree with your adversary quickly." This truth holds between man and man. between a man and his God. It is also true A wise man at law with any one who had a just cause of complaint against him would do his best to settle the matter before it was actually brought into court. For then it would be too late. So the soul of man should make its peace with God while it is called to-day. Before the judgment is set and the books are open this should be done. For then we must be all judged for the deeds done in the body. "Judge therefore yourselves brethren that ye be not judged of the Lord." For "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God." 5:27, 28. "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Not the passing glance, nor the momentary impulse of desire is here referred to. It is the continued gaze by which the impulse is deliberately cherished till it becomes a passion. The realization of this great truth enables the Roman Poet to say in accord with our Lord: "Who in his breast a guilty thought doth cherish, 5:31. "Whoever shall put away his wife," etc. These injunctions respecting divorce naturally follow upon the deeper law of purity laid down in the last few verses. There can be no purity of heart and life unless the purity of home life is preserved. This can be done only by respecting the sanctity of marriage and the indissolubility of the marriage contract. The Jew of our Lord's time could put away his wife for any cause whatever. That generation therefore was an adulterous generation. Even the Apostles, holy men though they were, when they heard Jesus put forth a similar statement, exclaimed: "If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.” See note on Mark 10:9. 5:33-37. "Thou shalt not for swear thyself," etc. Not a few interpreters and even whole Christian communities such as the Society of Friends, see in these words and in James 5: 12, a formal prohibition of all oaths either promissory or evidential. Such people, accordingly, look on the general practise of Christians, and the formal teachings of the Church of England in her thirty-ninth article as simply an acquiescence in evil. But the context here shows that the sin our Lord is speaking against is the light use of oaths in ordinary speech with no real thought of their meaning. Such oaths of course involve irreverence and are inconsistent with a genuine fear of God. The real purpose of an oath duly administered, however, is to intensify such a fear. It is meant to bring the thought of God's presence forcibly home to men. When oaths attain this, therefore, of course they are rightly used. The needless multiplication of oaths on trivial occa sions, however, has tended, and it must be admitted, still tends to weaken awe and to impair men's reverence for truth. In the ideal Christian society they are altogether needless. When we have come to such a state of existence they may readily be dispensed with. It will be many a day, however, before we come to such a state of bliss. 5:39. "But I tell you: Do not resist him who is doing you harm." It must be kept in mind in considering such precepts as this, that the Sermon on the Mount in which it is found, is not a code of laws, but the assertion of the fundamental principles of life. What then is the principle involved in the teaching of this verse? It teaches us clearly and explicitly to entertain the very opposite of a spirit of spite and retaliation for a wrong done us. This teaching however does not do away with the fact that a wronged man has duties to society as well as to himself. Society must be protected. The offender is to be reclaimed. These duties call for protest, prosecution, punishment. Yet all these, without bitterness, strife of base passions, or the assertion of an evil temper. See also notes on S. Luke 6: 29, 30. 5:40. "If any one would go to law with you." Better to yield, than to stand up stoutly for one's rights. It is wiser to surrender more than is demanded than by wrangling and debate so to disturb our peace of mind and the calmness of our spirit as to lose our true self in the vortex of self assertion. 5:42. "Give to him who asks of you." Here again is a seeming paradox. This principle is binding upon us all in its spirit and in its intention, but not in its actual literal interpretation. For were we to give to all men whatever they ask we should be cursing them instead of blessing them. "Often we see men's homes and hopes laid low, Through gifts they ask for, and the gods bestow." Thus spoke the Roman Juvenal, and so gave voice to a universal fact of the experience of men. Our heavenly Father gives to those who ask him, but sometimes to their hurt. When he withholds from us our desires, it is for our good. ask of us not So we, too, must withhold from those who because we are selfish, but because having a true fraternal spirit we cannot grant the petitioner's request. The ideal perfect life we are to aim at is the loving and giving temper. Such a life must give heed to every call made upon it. It must strive to meet every expressed want. Whether we give what is asked or whether we refuse the request, we must at least give it attention and base our action upon the good of the petitioner. The precepts of Christ lead us to look upon all men as actually our brothers of the same family, of the same flesh and blood, as those we have been accustomed to consider as the nearest and dearest to us. In the question of giving or withholding, this must always be kept in mind. So, too, in the question of borrowing. Sometimes we can do no better or holier act of charity than in lending our influence, our time, our money, or whatever else is at our disposal and needed by our brother man. At such a time lend and seek not for any immediate return. Then sweet will be your reward in the life eternal. Cases where the business of the world calls for loans, not for the relief of want, but as a matter of commercial activity, are not in the mind of Jesus in giving this pre |