way; and strengthen my faith by perceiving how He works in them to will and to do of his good pleasure. [2] Let my heart be teachable, and my faith be simple, so that I may receive with meekness and gentleness the word which is able to save my soul, however strange to my natural mind. And whatsoever in thy Holy Word I may profitably learn, enable me in deed to fulfil the same. [3] And whensoever through the fault and corruption of my nature, I may be inclined to rebel against any part of thy teaching, give thy Holy Spirit to overcome this evil in me: that all resistance being subdued, I may receive that blessing which Jesus has promised to whosoever shall not be offended in him. AMEN.

Our Father, &c.

FIFTY-SEVENTH PORTION.

1. BEGINNING PRAYER.

MAY GOD, for the sake of JESUS CHRIST, give me the HOLY SPIRIT, that I may understand this portion of his Holy Word, and that I may profit by it. AMEN.

II. THE SCRIPTURES.

Read St. Matthew's Gospel, chapter xi. verses 7 to 19; and St. Luke's Gospel, chap. vii. ver. 24 to 35.

III. THE MEANINGS.

or sense in which some words are used in this portion. MATTHEW Xi. verse

17, &c. piped means here played music

19. &c. a winebibber..

justified

LUKE vii. verse

17. rumour

a man given to drinking honoured-approved of

as right

report-account

25. gorgeously apparelled.. dressed in fine rich

IV. THE EXPLANATION.

As soon as the disciples who brought the message of John the Baptist had received our Lord's answer, they went away from Him to take it to their master. His answer might perhaps have made those

who were around him consider that the ministry of John was of small account. If this were the case, Jesus Christ presently gave them a different notion: for, as soon as the messengers had gone, he made a discourse to the people concerning the Baptist. He asked them what it was that had made people go out into the wilderness in such crowds, when John had first begun to preach. (see Matt. iii. 5, 6; Mark i. 5; vol. i. p. 104.) Was it a trifling matter which had drawn them together? Was it as though they had gone to see the reeds and rushes by the river's side shaken by the wind? Or, if not a trifling matter, did they go to see something as a show Did they expect to find a man living in luxury, and encouraging others to do the same? one finely dressed in comfortable and rich clothing? To find such a person, they ought rather to have gone to the palaces where kings live. What was it then that had drawn such crowds together? Was it that they went to hear a person preach, who was a Prophet sent from God to teach them? This our Lord said was the true state of the case; John was indeed such a one, and a person of much more importance than the prophets of old, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the others: for he was that very person who had been spoken of by the prophet Malachi (Mal. iii. 1.) as God's messenger, who was to go before the face of the Lord; and to prepare the people's minds to receive Him, when He should come to visit his temple. Christ then assured them, that up to that time there never had been a greater prophet than John the Baptist. This was because he was the person who first plainly preached to the people the doctrine of repentance and the forgiveness of sins, through faith in Jesus Christ. (Acts

xix. 4; Matt. iii. 1-12; Luke iii. 3-5.); and who had the high honour of beginning that ministry which was carried on by our Lord himself. But Jesus added that, when the kingdom of God should be established that is, when, after the coming of the Holy Ghost, the plain doctrines of the Gospel should be preached to all people without distinction, even the least of the ministers of that Gospel, would have a higher privilege in preaching the salvation of Christ, than John had in his ministry.

John the Baptist had been the person to open first of all the preaching of the Gospel-kingdom. From the time he began to preach, the Gospel power (called the kingdom of heaven), might be said to be like a kingdom or country that was invaded by an army of soldiers. For the offer of forgiveness and salvation even to the outcast and worst of sinners, had made many such to snatch, as it were, at it, and rush on with eagerness to hear and lay hold of any news concerning so great a blessing. (Luke xvi. 16.) The former prophets, in every part of the Old Testament, had merely foretold of this salvation; but John had declared that it was actually come. (John i. 26-36.)

Having thus explained the high character of John's ministry, our Lord told the people that, if they would rightly understand who John was, (and were willing properly to apply the last words of the prophet Malachi,) this John was the person he had foretold, when he had said that Elias, or Elijah the prophet should be sent "before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." (Mal. iv. 5,6; Matt. xvii. 10-13; Luke i. 13-17; vol. i. p. 11.) To this our Lord added that earnest expression, (to call particular attention to the importance of what He was saying,) which he afterwards

made use of so frequently, "he that hath ears to hear, let him hear.' (see Matt. xiii. 13—17; vii.

24-27.)

He said further, that the crowd of people who went to hear John, (even the most notorious sinners amongst them, such as the Publicans,) by receiving baptism from him, shewed that they honoured God, and were convinced that the doctrine John taught was right; but the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of Moses, by not coming to be baptized, shewed that they would not acknowledge what he preached to be the will and truth of God, because it was against their way of thinking and acting; and made (as regarded themselves) God's gracious designs of none effect. (Matt. xxi. 24-26.)

Our Lord then shewed how wayward and unreasonable the people were who lived at that time, and especially these Pharisees. What should He say they were like? Why, it was with them just as if a company of boys, wanting to play in the streets, had tried to make another company of their playfellows come and join them; and after proposing all sorts of games to induce them, but all to no purpose, they should at last say, "we have played merry tunes to you, and you would not dance we have played solemn tunes to you, and you would not be grave." This comparison was a just reproof of their perverseness. When John the Baptist preached in the wilderness, he lived in a very strict and self-denying way-he used very simple food, eating the common insects, called locusts, and the honey made by wild bees (Mark i. 6.), and he drank neither wine nor strong drink. (Luke i. 15.) This strict way of living made people reproach him, and