Here then was the teacher whom the world wanted-bearing a message from God to each, portioning out distinct specifications of duty, and leaving all without excuse for rejecting the application to their own cases, while they readily adapted it to that of others. 'He always had in view the posture of mind of the persons whom he addressed. He did not entertain the Pharisees with invectives against the open impiety of their Sadducee rivals; nor, on the other hand, did he sooth the Sadducee's ear with descriptions of Pharisaical pomp and folly. In the presence of the Pharisees he preached against hypocrisy to the Sadducees he proved the resurrection of the dead. In like manner, of that known enmity which subsisted between the Jews and Samaritans, this faithful teacher took no undue advantage, to make friends or proselytes of either. Upon the Jews he inculcated a more comprehensive benevolence. With the Samaritan he defended the orthodoxy of the Jewish creed '.'

Paley's Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Carlisle,

Hear the language in which he reproved the besetting sins of the Pharisees. Ye transgress the commandment of God by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. They be blind leaders of the blind. 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. 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 to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. 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. Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves. Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy and faith. Ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extor

tion and excess. Ye justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts 2.

Do

As

Hear his language to the Sadducees. ye not, therefore, err, because ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God. touching the dead, that they rise, have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living; ye, therefore, do greatly

err 3.'

To the Herodians- Render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God the things which are God's 4.'

+

To the Jews as a nation-O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often

2 Matt. xv. 3, 7, 14. xvi. 6. xxiii. 3-7, 13-15, 23,

3. Mark, xii. 24, 26, 27.

4 Matt. xxii. 21.

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 ".

Respecting the Scribes, in the presence of that Scribe who questioned concerning the first commandment-Beware of the Scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the market places, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts; which devour widow's houses, and for a pretence make long prayers".'

Addresses of this kind are all intelligible to the conscience, because they are directly aimed at the proper mark. They specify the characteristic faults of every description of hearers. They expose distinctly and with precision what is inconsistent with Christianity in the practice of each, and settle the exact point at which the work of reformation ought to begin, as well as the spirit in which it should be effected.

s Matt. xxiv. 37, 38.

6 Mark, xii. 38-40.

The same forcible conviction must have attended our Lord's close application of the word to the consciences of individuals. • What man

is there of you, whom if his son ask bread will he give him a stone. If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him. Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day". In his conversation with the Samaritan woman, without entering into generals, he points his discourse at that particular sin of which she was guilty, and the direct charge upon her conscience affects her with an immediate sense of her own wickedness. Twice in the presence of Judas did Christ plainly declare that the intention of his betrayer was known to him. Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? "The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him; but woe unto that

7 Matt. vii. 9, 11. Luke, xiv. 5. Imitated too by the apostles' whom ye have taken.' Acts, ii. 23. Ye have crucified.' 36.