Commonwealth of Massachusetts. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, BOSTON, Jan. 16, 1878. DEAR SIR,- By a vote of the House of Representatives, passed Jan. 11, the undersigned were appointed a committee to express the thanks of the House to you for the able and eloquent sermon preached before the executive and legislative branches of the government on the second instant, and to request a copy of the same for publication. It gives us great pleasure to communicate the above vote and request. Your obedient servants, SAM. S. McGIBBONS, Rev. JAS. L. HILL. Committee. LYNN, Jan. 24, 1878. GENTLEMEN, -I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the sixteenth instant, in behalf of the House of Representatives, requesting for the press a copy of the sermon preached before the executive and legislative departments of the State Government upon the first Wednesday of this month. In response to your request so kindly expressed, I herewith place the sermon at your disposal. With sentiments of respect for the honorable body which you represent, and for yourselves personally, I am, gentlemen, Your obedient servant, JAMES L. HILL. To Hon. SAM. S. MCGIBBONS, BAALIS SANFORD, Jr., LUCIUS R. PAIGE, Committee of House of Representatives. SERMON. "Other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors." WITH characteristic delicacy our Lord here alludes to the work which he himself has accomplished, by ascribing it simply to "others;" that is, to another agency than the disciples.1 As they lift up their "Who are 1 The word "men" does not occur in the literal text. the others? To regard Moses and the prophets as sowers, would derange and disjoint the whole saying. Christ is the sower." — Stier. "Jesus was the laborer. While self-evident from the connection, . with self-evident renunciation is half concealed under the 66 'Christ is led to reflect on the relation in which his labors stand to those of the apostles. It is best to understand the others as referring essentially to Christ alone, and to suppose that he adopts this form of expression merely in reference to the proverb, v. 37. — Tholuck. "By others here, he cannot mean the Old Testament prophets." -Alford. The plural is used to make the clauses of the text corre spond with each other. eyes to look upon a field white already to harvest, an incitement is given to men to enter into the labors of God. "He prepared and sowed the field," says Meyer: "they were called upon to do what was still further necessary, and to reap." Men are encouraged to work because of what God hath wrought. The Lord has sown, the disciples shall reap, and all shall rejoice together. Whether made manifest by revelation or in nature, or in the mysterious guidance of individuals and nations, man's work is to accept, interpret, and voice. the works of God. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: it was the gift of God. And as such, this revelation of Himself has made neither advancement nor development; but, receiving the divinely completed work, men, on their part, having learned the simple alphabet of the Old Testament, and the briefly comprehended lesson of the New Testament, have stimulated and aided one another, by what they have discovered and thought and felt, to think after Him the great thoughts of God." Interpretation is begun. One doctor comments on another doctor of the law. The law, being as it is the law of God, is fixed; but its exposition, being the work of the race universal, is enriched by the diversified and accumulated experiences and thoughts |