7. From judging our brother, our Lord passes to the somewhat different but kindred procedure towards him, of “beholding the mote that is in his eye." This procedure implies a close and prying inspection, for without such inspection a mote that is in one's eye is not beheld. And, when we narrowly inspect our neighbour's character, it will be found that we do not bestow any inspection on our own. On this fact our Lord founds the remonstrance, "Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" The only advantage to be gained by beholding blemishes is, that, beholding, we shall be the better able to correct them, and to prevent their evil consequences. But should it not be our first care to perform this office for ourselves? And, if we do not, while the blemishes of our character are great and glaring, take, by beholding them, the first step towards their correction, what can move us to take it on our neighbour's behalf, while the blemishes of his character are in comparison inconsiderable? The truth is, that, when we are more quicksighted to behold our neighbour's sins than to behold our own, it is not properly as sins that we view them, but as deeds that are discreditable to him; and our quicksightedness is exercised from a desire to find ground for disparaging and condemning him. Our Lord's question seems to glance at this motive.

8. Inconsistent as it is to be solicitous to pull out a mote out of a brother's eye, while we leave a beam in our own, still, if we behold the mote in his eye, we shall doubtless pretend that it is from such a solicitude that we behold it. But who does not see the absurdity of offering to our neighbour the benefit of a service which we are incapable of performing, until we perform for ourselves a similar service, still more needed in our case? "How wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam in thine own eye?" To pull out a

mote out of a brother's eye, we should need to have good eyesight ourselves; but he that has a beam in his eye is blind.

And, further, while he that offers to pull out a beam out of his brother's eye acts as if he hated sin, and desired to effect his brother's deliverance from it, it is plain that he does neither, if he leaves a beam in his own eye. He is, therefore, a hypocrite. Our Lord accordingly addresses him as such, giving to him such direction as his hypocrisy renders necessary: "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

9. There is, however, an opposite extreme, against which it is also necessary to guard,-the extreme of renouncing all discrimination, so as to "give that which is holy unto the dogs, and cast pearls before swine." If, when Peter denied Christ, those who were present concluded that he was not a believer, they should have been guilty of the judging condemned in our passage; but, if he had continued ever after to deny his Master, it would then have been no reprehensible judging to pronounce him an unbeliever; it would, indeed, have been no judging of any kind, but a mere statement of what had been witnessed. When we treat dogs as dogs, and swine as swine, we do not judge, we merely take notice of what we see, and proceed accordingly. He that refuses to do this, gives way to a sickly charitableness. If he is influenced by kindness to his neighbour, it is mistaken kindness; and he betrays a sad want of faithfulness to God and to his cause.

10. If we refuse or fail to discriminate, we shall expose both ourselves and all we should esteem as most precious to serious danger. When we do not regard and reprobate as evil, or, in other words, do not refer to its proper class, and treat according to its distinctive character, the evil we are compelled to witness and with which we have to deal,

we not only to no small extent make it our own—a most solemn consideration-but shall unavoidably be contaminated by it; and, besides, shall sometimes, perhaps often, afford it scope and advantage for exerting its malignant and destructive influence. Accordingly, in enforcement of the prohibition, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine," our Lord adds, "Lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."

SECTION II.-RESUMED DISCRIMINATION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AS REGARDS THE PERFORMANCE OF POSITIVE DUTY

REFERENCE TO GOD.—(C. d. e.) VII. 7-12.

66

1. In the passage here resumed (vi. 1-18-See Intro. sect. ii., par. 11, 12), our Lord discriminates righteousness as regards the performance of positive duty, one of his illustrations, the illustration on which he most insists, being derived from prayer. Having there shown what kind of praying is comprehended in the true righteousness, he here enjoins that kind of praying as a means of mighty efficacy and indispensable necessity in cultivating it. "Ask, and it shall be given you." Those who are created in Christ Jesus unto good works," receive, in this great change, "the spirit of grace and of supplications" (Zec. xii. 10; Acts ix. 11, ii. 41, 42); and, at the same time, they are awakened to such a sense of their wants, and obtain such a discovery of the provision made for the supply of their wants and of the manner of applying it, that, while they have been enabled, they are constrained and encouraged to pray. And the exercise thus originated and necessary, they do not find unprofitable. It is in answer to prayer they are enlightened and strengthened to "walk in newness of life.”—(James i. 5; Eph. vi. 18, comp. 10-17; Ezek. xxxvi. 37, comp. 27.) And, while prayer is thus inseparably connected with the dis

tinctive righteousness of Christ's subjects, both as an effect and as a means, it is also comprehended in it as an essential element. Prayer is the dutiful procedure on the part of believers, with whom alone we are here concerned, in reference to certain prominent and pervasive peculiarities of their condition and of the relations in which they stand to God.

2. Our Lord issues in our passage a threefold direction or injunction, "Ask-seek-knock." At present, however, it is only the first branch of this injunction, and the enforcement of it, that claim our attention.

Prayer has its origin in our wants; and hence it consists fundamentally in asking. Asking is its essence. It is quite in accordance, therefore, with our Lord's design of purging it and preserving it pure from all foreign admixtures, to enjoin it, as he does here, under the notion of asking— "Ask, and it shall be given you."

3. Asking sincere bona fide asking-implies a sense of the presence and pressure of the evils under which we labour, an appreciation of the blessings of which we stand in need, and a discovery that it is glorifying to God to bestow those blessings,-this sense, appreciation, and discovery comprehending in them, or awakening the legitimate exercises of soul within their respective spheres. And, further, that there may be right asking, it must be known and believed that God offers and promises to bestow all that is asked.

Desire, accompanied by expectation, springing from the sources now indicated, asking is the expression of it.

4. In our passage our Lord promises that, if we ask, we shall receive. It is true, indeed, that we shall receive what we ask only when we ask things agreeable to the will of God; but, then, we never truly ask what is not agreeable to the divine will. It is by the Holy Spirit that we are led to the sense of present and the discernment of impending evil,-to the appreciation of needed blessings,-to

the discovery that it is glorifying to God to bestow those blessings, to the believing recognition of his offer of them, and his promise to bestow them,-in short, to all the exercises of soul that result in asking, and that give to asking its true character; and, if the Holy Spirit conducts us to those exercises and the asking in which they result, it must follow, from the harmony of the divine designs and operations, that God will give us what we ask. Our asking may indeed be more or less specific; but, when it is most specific, our desires pointing distinctly to particular blessings, if it be real asking, we shall still receive what we ask.

5. The promise, "It shall be given you," is founded upon the universal truth, that " every one that asketh, receiveth." This is the law upon which God universally proceeds in dealing with our prayers,—if we ask we shall receive. When and so far as there is asking on our part, there is, ever and without fail, giving on his. We may seem to ask, and yet not receive; but we shall ever receive, when we ask in reality;-"Every one that asketh, receiveth." This is the law, the established order in God's kingdom; and his testimony and his promises assure us that he will adhere to it. Those who ask are in Christ, and they appreciate and desire spiritual blessings. They are thus in such a position, relatively and morally, that the divine mercy may have free access to them, and it will accordingly be exercised towards them, and "supply all their need."

6. From the fact that the blessings of the kingdom of heaven are so precious and altogether such blessings, that the bestowal of them displays amazing love and bounty, the apprehension may and often does arise, that God will not bestow them on vile and guilty rebels, for in this light those, whom a sense of their spiritual wants impels to pray, ever and justly view themselves. Great and precious, however, as the blessings to be obtained are, they are