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CHAPTER XXIII.

JAN. 26, MAY 25, SEPT. 22.

For

THEN spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat*: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one your Master, even Christ. "But he that is greatest

5 Their whole care was to gain the praise of men. How much more noble his aim, who loves the praise of God.

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9"Let not your love for your earthly parents be superior, or equal to the love you bear to your heavenly Father: nor let any service stand in the way of that, which you owe to me as your divine Master."

11 The Pharisees themselves rejected Christ, and allowed not others to receive him.

among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men : for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. 14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye deyour widows' houses, and for therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. 15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the

14 They professed much devotion to God, and much love to man; but were in practice, tyrannical and cruel. a pretence make long prayer:

15 They zealously sought proselytes, only to pervert and corrupt their minds.

*The office of an authorised ministry is thus shown to be sanctified of God and blessed to man. No unworthiness in the minister can weaken the blessing of the message entrusted to him. Even the Pharisee, as far as his ministry was authorised, was to be reverenced in his office.

16 Our Lord proceeds to expose the heart-sin of the Pharisees in all its meanness; all its deformity; all its inconsistency.

child of hell than yourselves. 16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. 23 Woe unto you, scribes and 23 Even this obedience is vainPharisees, hypocrites; for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extor- 26 Cleanse the heart-the rest will tion and excess. 26 Thou blind follow. Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may 27 No reproof could be more cutting be clean also. 27 Woe unto than this.

being defective and partial. The lesser duties are punctiliously per formed; the greater, omitted.

you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness, Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 30 and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can

30 We too say-" Had we lived in the days of Christ, how gladly should we have followed him." Yet is he not with us, now ?-daily; hourly! -Then, let us follow him!

ye escape the damnation of hell. Wherefore, behold,

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34 "Anxious for your salvation, I leave behind me those who will still I send unto you prophets, continually call you to repentance; and wise men, and scribes: though, alas! they will endure scofand some of them ye shall fing, and contumely, and death.” kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. "7Ŏ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent whom he was about to die. unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate, 39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

37 Never was so pathetic a lament! His patriot heart, weeping the forthcoming fall of his countrymen, for

39 Blessed day! when, this painful life ended, we shall hail the glorious Messiah-Lord of lords; God blessed

for ever; our life, our joy, our glory!

CHAPTER XXIV.

JAN. 27, MAY 26, SEPT. 23.

The last days of Jerusalem are foretold; and are a type of the last days of the world.

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AND Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to

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pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against

Roman empire being fearfully shaken This was literally fulfilled-the by foreign wars, and intestine com

motions. And these calamities were naturally followed by famine, and its attendant, pestilence. (Acts xi. 28.)

All these are the beginning of

The acts of the Apostles, and other histories, declare the sufferings of the early followers of the Cross. for my name's sake. And then shall betray one another, and 11 False teachers or prophets were

numerous.

12 It is an awful fact, that in seasons of public calamity, iniquity, as if freed from the usual restraints of law

and order, ranges uncontrolled, and rejoiceth in the desolation *.

13" To the end" of the existence of Jerusalem.

14 That is, in all the Roman world. all the world for a witness unto

nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. sorrows. 9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations shall many be offended, and shall hate one another. " And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all nations; and then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) then let them which be in Judæa, flee into the mountains: let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great

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15 By "the abomination of desola tion"-are meant the Roman armies. (Dan. ix. 27 +.)

time, no, nor ever shall be.

22 The siege was shortened: the besiegers being much aided by the dissensions and contests among the besieged.

* How dreadful and cruel a sin do they commit, who stir up men to strife.

+ The Roman armies not only desolated Jerusalem, but abominably polluted the holy temple-offering up in that place, their own heathen sacrifices, with all the profanation of an impure and unholy worship.

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signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before, Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 28 For where28 As the eagle tears the carcase of soever the carcase is, there his fallen prey, so the Romans did will the eagles be gathered to- tear and rend the fallen Jerusalem *. gether. Immediately after 29 The word" immediately ". the tribulation of those days points out to us, that it should be the shall the sun be darkened, very next revelation of the Son of and the moon shall not give Man. None other should intervene+. her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

33

Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto

32 As when spring gives its buds, we augur the full leaf in due season; so from the day of the Lord in the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews were to augur the certainty of the last great day, of which the former was a type.

34 Forty years had not passed, ere these judgments were executed against Jerusalem.

you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words

*This was a very apt figure of speech-an eagle being the ensign of the Roman armies.

The complete destruction of the Jewish state-its laws, its governors, its religious and civil polity utterly confounded and overthrown-was a significant type of the great and terrible day which is yet pending; when the Son of Man shall come to sweep away all his enemies. And it would seem as though this and the two following verses related to the last day of the world, and the last judgment: the subject of the fall of Jerusalem being resumed in subsequent verses. At our Saviour's first advent, there was universal peace. His second advent shall be heralded by an universal agitation of the kingdoms of the earth: and as in executing this temporal judgment upon the Jews, the instruments of his vengeance were the Roman armies, so at the judgment day, they will be the angels.

This distinction of subject appears clearly marked in ver. 36.

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