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51 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division;

52 For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.

53 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

So it was when the faith of the Prince of Peace was first preached, for the enemy came and "sowed tares among the wheat;" and so alas, it is now: but He Who maketh men to be of one mind in a house is with us still. Do Thou unite us, holy JESUS, in one blessed bond of faith and love, of truth and charity, for Thy own pity's sake.

54 And He said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is.

55 And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass.

56 Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?

57 Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?

Why do ye not, taught as ye have been by the oracles of GOD in the Old Testament, see what is right to be done, see that ye ought to receive and to believe in Me. Alas, they had hardened their hearts and closed their eyes.

If the Holy One spake thus to the Jews, how much more may He say the same to Christians, who "have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things."

58 When thou goest with thine adversary to the

magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison.

59 I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite.

Here "the adversary" is the devil; "the way" is this mortal life; "the judge" is our LORD JESUS CHRIST; "the officer" is the angel of punishment; "the prison" is hell.

LORD JESU, may we take Thy warning, and do at once, while we are "in the way," what Thou wouldst have us do, and live as Thou wouldst have us live, before we go hence and are no more

seen.

CHAPTER XIII.

1 There were present at that season some that told Him of the Galilæans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

These Galilæans were probably followers of Judas of Galilee, of whom we read in Acts v. The meaning of the verse is, that Pilate had slain some of them while they were engaged in offering sacrifice.

2 And JESUS answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilæans were sinners above all the Galilæans, because they suffered such things?

3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

This does not mean that those who were then listening to our LORD would perish, unless they repented, in the very same way as the Galilæans: it rather means that if they continued in sin they

would as certainly perish, and that everlastingly; though in truth the end of many of the Jews, when the Romans took their city, was very similar to the end of these Galilæans; some perished in the very act of preparing sacrifices, others were crushed under the ruins of the Temple and city.

Again, it should be observed, the Redeemer does not say the Galilæans were not sinners; He only warns His hearers against the thought that they were to be considered as specially hateful to GOD, because such a judgment had fallen upon them.

GOD punishes some sinners here, to show that there is a just Judge; He leaves others unpunished here, to show that there is a judgment to come.

4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem ?

5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Our LORD here repeats His warning, only putting it in a different form in both He says to us, "judge not," "condemn not,” "take heed to yourselves."

With regard to these accidents, as we call them, let us remember that it is no business of ours to ask why they are allowed to happen. All men are sinners, all deserve to suffer; and if from time to time GOD chooses to make examples of some, it is not for us to ask of Him an account of His doings: if He has not so made us examples, let us fall down and worship Him, and pray that He would be pleased to continue His mercy to us, and give us grace to amend our lives.

6 He spake also this parable: A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.

7 Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?

It not only bore no fruit itself, but it drew off to no purpose

the goodness of the ground; moreover it occupied the room of a good tree.

8 And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: 9 And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

Here the vineyard is the world; the owner of the vineyard is the ALMIGHTY, and the fig tree the Jews, who not only failed to bring forth fruit, but also caused GOD's Name to be blasphemed among the Gentiles (Rom. ii. 24); the three years may be the time of our LORD's earthly ministry, now drawing to a close; He is the dresser, and He was pleading for them,1 and gaining time for them, that they might repent and turn to GOD and do works meet for repentance; if they failed to do so, even He would give them up, and Himself the Dresser of the vineyard, the SAVIOUR of the Church, would cut them down.

In applying this parable to ourselves, we may take the three years to be the past years of our lives: now we have remaining to us only that time which the pity of our Advocate has won for us.

LORD, in this Thy mercy's day,

Ere it pass for aye away,
On our knees we fall and pray.
Holy JESU, grant us tears

Fill us with heart-searching fears,
Ere that awful doom appears.
LORD, on us Thy Spirit pour,
Kneeling lowly at the door,
Ere it close for evermore.

By Thy night of agony,
By Thy supplicating cry,
By Thy willingness to die,
By Thy tears of bitter woe,
For Jerusalem below,

Let us not Thy love forego.

Grant us 'neath Thy wings a place,

Lest we lose this day of grace,

Ere we shall behold Thy face. Amen.

10 And He was teaching in one of the synagogues

on the sabbath.

1 Heb. vii. 25.

11 And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.

Men would have said that this poor woman was simply suffering from very great weakness, or some muscular contraction; but He Who sees what man cannot see, saw that in very truth her infirmity was one of Satan's bonds: the binding of him who is the author of all evil and misery; he in his fierce hatred of all which God loves had bound her and kept her bound, but now her mighty Deliverer is here about to set her free.

12 And when JESUS saw her, He called her to Him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.

13 And He laid His hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.

He looked upon her, called her, touched her, healed her: Even so look on my soul, most holy One, tied and bound with the chain of sin; call me by Thy Spirit, speaking within: heal me by forgiving all my sin; lay Thy hand upon me, that I may be strengthened with Thy might in the inner man, so in Thee and through Thee, shall I be upright before Thee, and glorify Thy Holy Name.

14 And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that JESUS had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.

15 The LORD then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite,

For he was only pretending reverence and respect for God's law, he was in truth full of envy and malice: he would rather that the poor woman should have continued bound by Satan, than that our LORD should be magnified.

doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?

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