CHAP. XXXV. the revolution in religious conceptions which the new faith involves. Temporal evil, which, under the former dispensation had been the mark of divine displeasure, became, in the teaching of Jesus, the mark of fellowship and pledge of heavenly reward. The opinion of the day regarded poverty, hunger, trouble, and persecution as punishments for sin: He enumerates them as blessings. Throughout the whole Sermon, no political or theocratic ideas find place, but only spiritual. For the first time in the history of religion, a communion is founded without a priesthood, or offerings, or a Temple, or ceremonial services; without symbolical worship, or a visible sanctuary. There is an utter absence of everything external or sensuous: the grand spiritual truths of absolute religious freedom, love, and righteousness, alone are heard. Nor is the kingdom, thus founded, in itself visible, or corporate, in any ordinary sense; it is manifested only by the witness of the Spirit in the heart, and by the power going forth from it in the life.47 In the Bibel Lex. ii. fine words of Herder,48 Christianity was founded in direct opposition to the stupid dependence on customs, formulæ, and empty usages. It humbled the Jewish, and even the Roman national pride: the moribund Levitical worship and idolatry, however fanatically defended, were wounded to death. 47 Schenkel, Gemeinde, 376. 48 Geist des Christenthums, 95. 49 John 7. 15. Matt. 13. 54. Nothing can be more certain than that Jesus had never studied under the Sopherim, or Scribes. His contemporaries, the Rabbis of Jerusalem, leave no doubt of this, for they frankly avowed their wonder at His knowledge of their theology, and power of Scriptural exposition, though He had never learned theological science in their schools.49 The same minute acquaintance with the opinions and teachings of the day is seen through the whole of the Hill Sermon. Apart from His mysterious divinity, He was a man like ourselves,"growing in wisdom" with His years, and, therefore, indebted in a measure, at least, to the influences and means around Him, for His human knowledge and opinions. It speaks volumes for His early training by His mother and Joseph, that he should have known the Scriptures as He did, for it is in childhood that the memory gets the bent which marks its strength in manhood. The synagogue school, and constantly recurring services, must, however, CHAP. XXXV. have been the great seminary of the wondrous Boy. Passages of the Law had been His only school-book, and, doubtless, the village teacher, steeped in reflected Rabbinism, had often flattered his harmless vanity by a display before his young charge, of his knowledge of the traditions and glosses, which won so much honour to the Scribes. The Sabbath and week-day homilies of the Synagogue had made Him a constant listener to local or travelling Rabbis, till, in the thirty years of His Nazareth life, His mind and memory had, doubtless, been saturated with their modes of thought, and the opinions of all the different schools. Theology, moreover, was the staple of village conversation in Nazareth, as elsewhere, for his religion was also the politics of the Jew, and the justification of his haughty national pride. Doubtless, also, in Joseph's cottage there was a manuscript of the Law, and a soul filled with devotion to His Heavenly Father, like that of Jesus, would find some of the Prophets, either there or among His family friends. Rabbis from Jerusalem, or resident in Galilee, must often have come in His way, during the thirty private years, and how much would such a mind and heart learn of their "wisdom," even in such casual intercourse? His clearness of intellect, His transparent innocence of soul, His freedom of spirit, and transcendent loftiness of morals were all His own, but they must have used, for their high ends, the facilities around Him. The very neighbourhood of a heathen population may have had its influence in breaking down the hereditary narrowness of His race, and who can tell what ardours may have been kindled by the wondrous view from the hill-top of Nazareth? Free from all thought of Himself: filled with a divine enthusiasm for His Father above and for humanity, these mountains, that azure sky, the sweeping table-land beyond the Jordan, the wide glory of heaven and earth, veiling, above, the eternal kingdoms, and, at His feet, revealing the enchanting homes of wide populations differing in blood and in faith, but all alike His brethren, may have coloured not a few of the sacred utterances of the Sermon on the Mount. CHAP. XXXV. 50 John 5. 31; 13.52. 51 John 13. 4. 8. 22; 12. 49. Luke 8. 21; 11.27. This unique example of our Saviour's teaching displays in one view nearly all the characteristics presented by the more detached illustrations preserved in the Gospels. Never systematic, the discourses of Jesus were rather pointed utterances of special truths demanded by the occasion. In perfect inner harmony with each other, these sententious teachings at times appear to conflict, for they are often designed to present opposite sides of the same truth, as the distinct point to be met required.50 The external and sensuous in all His teachings, however, was always made the Matt, 9.17; vehicle of an inner and heavenly lesson. He necessarily followed the mode to which His hearers were used, and taught them as their own Rabbis were wont, that He might engage attention. At times He puts direct questions; at others He is rhetorical or polemic, or speaks in proverbs, or in more lengthened discourse. He often uses parables, and sometimes even symbolical actions; 51 is always spontaneous and 52 Matt. 4. 19; ready52; and even, at times, points His words by friendly or cutting irony.58 But while thus in many ways adopting the style of the Rabbis, His teaching was very different even in outward characteristics. They delivered, painfully, what they had learned like children, overlaying every address with citations, in their fear of saying a word of their own; but the teaching of Christ was the free expression of His own thoughts and feelings, and this, with the weight of the teaching itself, gave Him power over the hearts of His audience,54 With a minute and exact knowledge of the teaching of the schools, He shows, by repeated use of Rabbinical proofs and arguments, that He was familiar, also, with the current modes of controversy. His fervour, His originality, and the grandeur of the truths He proclaimed, were enough in themselves to commend His words, but He constantly supports them by the supreme authority of the Scriptures, which were familiar to Him as His motherspeech. Simple, as a rule, in all He says, He yet often opens glimpses into the infinite heights, where no human thought can follow Him. The spirit of His preaching is as transcendent as its matter. Tenderness and yearning love prevail, but there is not wanting, when needed, the stern 53 Luke 7. 47. Mark 7.9. Luke 13. 33. 54 Matt. 7. 28. Mark 1.22. John 7. 46. ness of the righteous judge. Throughout the whole of His CHAP. XXXV ministry, and notably, in the Sermon on the Mount, He bears Himself with a kingly grandeur, dispensing the rewards and punishments of the world to come; opening the kingdom of heaven to those only who fulfil His requirements, and resting the future prospects of men on the reception they give His words. Even to read His utterances forces from all the confession of those who heard Him, that "Never man spake like this." CHAP. XXXVI. 525. THE CHAPTER XXXVI. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT (CONTINued). THE opening verses of the Sermon on the Mount mark the contrast between the New Kingdom of God and the Old. There is no mention of forms, for the whole life of Jesus was one unbroken service of God. The Temple Service, and the burdensome laws of sacrifices, are passed over, for the Sermon was delivered in Galilee, far from the splendour of the one, or the vexatious minuteness and materialism of the other. The great question of clean and unclean, which divided the nation within itself; made life a slavery to rules; and isolated the Jew from all brotherhood with humanity at large, is left to sink into indifference before the grand spiritual truths enunciated. The Law came with threats, prohibitions, and commands; the "Sermon" opens with benedictions, and moves in an atmosphere of promises and 2 Luther,quoted enticements.2 Its first sentences are a succession of lofty congratulations of those whose spirit and bearing already proclaim them fit for the new society. by Meyer. Matt. in loc. The virtues thus praised are not the active only, but the passive; not those of doing alone, but of bearing. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven blessed the meek, for they will inherit the earth; blessed they that mourn, for they will be comforted; blessed they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be satisfied; blessed the merciful, for they will find mercy; blessed the peace-makers, for they will be called sons of God; blessed they that have been persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye, when they shall reproach and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My |