THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. CHAPTER IV. VERSE 7. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. THOU SHALT NOT TEMPT] All the oldest MSS. read, ouk ekpeiraseis, except Codex D, which has ou peiraseis. The ek gives greater force to the verb peiraō, which then takes the sense of 'I try out' 'I put strongly to the proof.' Ekpeirao is the word selected by the Lxx. as a translation of the Hebrew thenassu (from nahsah, ‘to tempt' or 'prove') in Deut. vi. 16, which the Saviour here partially cites-'Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God,' etc. When we put ourselves into needless danger, with the expectation that Divine power will be exerted for our preservation, we are tempting God-asking Him, in fact, to manifest His power simply to remedy our imprudence or sanction our neglect. Whether the danger incurred be physical or moral makes no difference, except that, where moral interests are at stake, the consequences of our thus tempting God will be more seriously noxious; still, it is not to be forgotten that the state of mind which leads us to tempt the Most High, even in regard to things physical, is displeasing to Him. Instead of being glorified, He is insulted by a presumptuous reliance upon His grace or power when His revealed will is disobeyed. Men often allege that "they are not afraid of using intoxicating liquors, because God (or 'the grace of God') will preserve them from injury." But this statement is devoid equally of sense and sanctity, unless it can be shown that danger is absent from the use of such drinks, or that the danger is incurred from necessity, or from some superior moral obligation. If alcoholic liquors are prejudicial to health, to expect that Providence will interpose to arrest their physical effects upon a believer, is to 'tempt God' as truly as Satan urged Christ to tempt Him; and if the intemperate appetite, with all its immoral issues, be the result of a physiological action of alcoholic drinks upon the nervous system, to expect its prevention or eradication while such liquors are consumed, merely because the consumer is pious or piously disposed, is a still more aggravated form of the same temptation. It is not enough to say that the liquor has not yet created the appetite, or that, in society, indulgence is the exception and not the rule. The answers to this plea are several. (1) The intemperate appetite is so frightful a curse, physical, mental and moral, that even the avoidance of the risk is incumbent upon all. In epidemical visitations of disease the great majority escape; but who would be justified in needlessly running into danger? How much more censurable, then, is it to incur any risk of an evil that kills soul and body together! (2) Were the average risk of becoming a drunkard much smaller than it is, no one can know beforehand that to himself it may not be personally great. That men are more careless of moral than of corporeal danger is due to their moral blindness, but cannot argue against the fact; and so, in respect to intemperance, those most in peril are usually the most self-confident. One of the worst effects of even 'moderate' draughts of a narcotic is to render the drinker insensible of the danger they induce. (3) The intemperate appetite exists in very varying degrees, and though its most awful manifestations-as in dipsomania-are limited, taking all ages into account, yet its lesser degrees are by no means infrequent; and the numerous cases of religious apostasy from this cause, prove that, to the Christian profession, the risk is neither nominal nor intangible. Far short of sottish intemperance, there may be, and often is, an appetite for strong drinks, and an indulgence in them, which sensibly impair spiritual perception, and diminish spiritual feeling and power; and the extreme difficulty which many Christians experience in the effort to renounce them is practical evidence of the hold they unconsciously have of their subject. As a physical disease, this alcoholic craving has its lower as well as its higher types, and, in one form or other, it is very extensively diffused among all classes and both sexes. The hazard of incurring it, therefore, is not small, either absolutely or relatively considered; and God is not honored by the presumption which relies on His protection while the infecting agent is used as an article of diet or enjoyment. Upon every barrel and decanter of strong drink this text might be inscribed, to testify like a beacon-light — Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.' The fact of connection between use and abuse, is not only admitted by drinkers, and even by the champions of drink; it is explained by philosophers and physiologists, as the following will witness:"The frequent use of things which stimulate the nervous system, produces a languor when their effect has gone off, and a desire to repeat them."-Prof. THOMAS REID, D.D., 1780. "Alcohol is a dangerous and tricksy spirit: it oils the hinges of the gate leading to excess."— G. H. LEWES, 1855. "Indigestion being relieved by alcoholic stimulants, lays the foundation for an ever-growing habit of taking them."-Prof. LAYCOCK, M. D., 1857. "Nearly all those who employ them experience their exhaustive effects before they know what they are doing, and so are insensibly trained to crave renewed excitement."-Dr MANN, Guide to Life. "It allures men into a vicious indulgence, and then mocks their folly."-Dean RAMSAY, 1859. "The use of Wine is quite superfluous to man. It is constantly followed by the expenditure of power. The drinker draws a bill on his health, which must always be renewed."-Baron LIEBIG, 1859. Alcohol is a disturber of the system, and cannot be regarded as a food. The influence of wine begins in a few minutes, obtains its maximum in less than one hour, and soon after disappears, or manifests its secondary influence. Alcohols decrease consciousness, sensibility, and voluntary muscular action; are followed by reaction and a miserable feeling. The dose only affects the degree, not the direction of the influence. Alcohol neither warms nor sustains the body by the elements of which it is composed."-Dr EDWARD SMITH, 1860. "A moderate dose of wine would, in most cases, at once diminish the maximum weight which a healthy person could lift, to something below his teetotal standard. A single glass will often suffice to take the edge off both mind and body, and reduce their capacity."-W. BRINTON, M. D., On Dietetics, 1861. "It is clear we must cease to regard Alcohol as in any sense an aliment. The primary action is anaesthetic. The exhilaration is nothing more than a blunting of the sensations to the half-felt corporeal pains and petty cares of life. The evidence shows the action of alcohol upon life to be consistent and uniform in all its phases, and to be always exhibited as an arrest of vitality."Dr T. KING CHAMBERS, 1861. The want or craving of the drinker is the result of this law of lowered life and tone, which forms the real temptation to drink more and more. 'Use' is the seed, and 'excess' is the harvest to which it tends and grows. CHAPTER IV. VERSE 23. And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. In this proceeding we are constrained to admire the union of wisdom, benevolence, and power; power equal to the cure of every sickness (pasan noson) and every disease (kai pasan malakeen)'; benevolence that set in motion the wonderworking hand; and wisdom that made the sensible and acknowledged benefit the introduction to spiritual influences for the removal of moral evil. To this day in the East, the hakim (physician) can gain access where all other persons would be excluded; and hence the importance of a plan now increasingly recognized by missionary institutions, of uniting, whenever possible, in the same person a knowledge of at least the rudiments of medical science with the ability to preach the 'Word of life.' The example of the Saviour is a direct sanction to the use of means for improving the temporal condition of men, with a view to their higher and spiritual good. Both from duty and policy the Christian Church should exert itself for the removal of whatever renders mankind miserable and degraded; and where every variety of wretchedness and vice is traceable to the diffusion of one particular class of drinks, it seems a perfect infatuation that the Church, as a whole, should not only fail to protest against their diffusion, but by the customs of its members should extend its patronage to them, and promote their circulation. Surely this conduct resembles the propagation rather than the cure of sickness and disease among the people. With abstinence as an instrumentality, honestly and fearlessly applied by the entire Christian Church, wonders, little short of miraculous in their results, might be performed among a population such as ours, where the drink-engendered maladies of body and mind are literally 'legion.' CHAPTER V. VERSES 29, 30. 29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. OFFEND] Skandalizei is from skandalizein, 'to cause to stumble or fall.' It is related to skandalon, 'a crooked stick on which the bait is fastened, which the animal strikes against, and so springs the trap'; hence 'anything which one strikes against' a stumblingblock, impediment. In the N. T. the noun and verb are employed in a moral sense only, occasionally with the meaning of 'giving offence,' and 'scandalizing' others. Ver. 30 is absent from Codex D. The principle embodied in this metaphorical instruction is too plain to be misconceived. Anything, however dear, and even of real and great value, is to be renounced as soon as it becomes a cause of evil, just as at sea everything is cast |