(rather, the teacher, Sidonaños") is come, and calleth for thee.'

Nor are many other instances wanting in which, when a peculiarly important or difficult doctrine was to be uttered, our Lord seems to have chosen to familiarize it to the understanding by some illustration arising from temporary circumstances.

It is not easy to conceive how that intimate union can exist between Christ and his people, which results from the love entertained by the Redeemer for those whom he has ransomed from the power of Satan. He took an opportunity, therefore, of comparing it with the strength of natural relationship; and when one said unto him, that his mother and his brethren stood near desiring to speak with him, he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples and said, 'Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever

6 Christus a Deo missus ut homines doceret veram religionem dúoxaños vocatur xar' ižoxv. John, xi. 28. Schleusner in voce διδάκσαλος.

shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my father and sister and mother". He thus practically revealed in a way which would be understood by all, that whatever there was of instinctive attachment in the nearest connexions of social life, all was to be concentrated in the person of Christ, and transferred in idea as the fittest measure of his regard for the weakest and humblest of his sincere disciples.

In Ezekiel's vision of the holy waters springing from under the threshold of the temple, and communicating life even to the water of the dead sea, a representation had been afforded, under the image of a great multitude of fishes, for which the fishers should spread forth their nets, of the future efficacy of the Gospel to quicken and enliven the darkest hearts, and to render the most unlikely portions of the earth productive of a spiritual harvest 3. But this figurative prophecy has nothing of peculiar fit

7 Matt. xii. 46-50. Compare also Luke, xi. 27, 28. Ezek. xlvii. 6-10.

ness connected with the context to recommend

it, beyond the propriety with which the language of the emblem serves to describe the object intended. On the contrary, when our Lord borrows the same metaphor, for his call to Peter and Andrew, and summons them to follow him that he might make them fishers of men, nothing can be more appropriate than such a mode of address to men who were at that very time casting their nets into the sea in the prosecution of their ordinary employment 9.

With a similar propriety, after the conversion of Zaccheus the publican, and in his presence, he delivered the parable of the pounds, where under the figure of the improvement of money lent for commercial purposes at a fair rate of interest, the proper use is inculcated of the several natural gifts entrusted to men.

On another occasion, when a Pharisee who had invited him to dinner marvelled at his not

9 Matt. iv. 18, 19.

complying with the customs of the Jews respecting the previous washings which their traditions required, he digressed from the mention of external ordinances to the necessity of inward purity, and exposed the hypocrisy which made clean the outside of the cup and the platter, while the inward part was full of deceit and wickedness'.

Thus with a consummate wisdom, which, though it were vain to expect to find it in the same degree in any other teacher, all teachers are bound to examine and imitate, Christ accommodated the circumstances of his hearers to the furtherance of the grand objects of his ministry, and, at least in one sense of the words, became all things to all men.' And as God called the Magi with a star because they were skilled in the observation of the heavens, and such a phenomenon would be suitable to excite their attention to the purpose of its appearance, so did his beloved Son borrow from above the

Luke, xix. xi. 37-39.

same superhuman intelligence, and avail himself of the accidents of each particular character to approach the heart and captivate the understanding of every description of hearer.

III. It may be further observed, in connexion with this subject, that the expressions of our Lord were not only often borrowed from the objects or persons around him, but his actions were at times purposely designed to attract attention to some doctrine which was to be established on them.

The symbolical actions of the prophets will immediately occur, as having been founded on a similar principle. Joash taking his bow and arrows- Jeremiah hiding the linen girdle, or breaking the potter's vessel, or putting on bonds and yokes-Ezekiel carrying out his household stuff, or reclining on his left side for three hundred and ninety days, with a representation of Jerusalem before him, were all impressive signs intended to call the observation of the Israelites in a lively manner to the hidden meaning which