At the same time "his" disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat." "But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of." My meat is, to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work."

yet

It is also highly probable that it was seed time, when, during the course of this transaction, he thus addressed his disciples; "Sayi ye not, There are four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto everlasting life: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together, And herein is that saying true, One soweth and another reapeth.'

Simon and Andrew his brother were employed in their occupation as fishermen, and astonishment had seized them at the wonderful draught of fishes which they had taken, when Jesus thus called them; "Follow me, and I will make you to become * fishers of men:" and when in particular he said to Simon, who, agreeably to the warmth of his feelings, might most strongly express his admiration; "Fear 'not: from henceforth thou shalt catch men."

"From his power exerted in raising the impotent man, our Lord makes an easy m transition to his power of raising the dead; and from thence takes occasion to instruct the Jews in the doctrine of a general resurrection and future judgment."

It must also be observed that our Lord was addressing fishermen when he said, "What man is there among you, of whom if his son ask

a fish, will he give him a serpent?" And that he was speaking to the same hearers, ° immediately after sitting in a ship and teaching the multitude that stood on the shore, when he compared his kingdom to "a P net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which when it was full they drew to shore, and sat down, and collected the good into vessels, but cast the bad away."

Maundrell informs us that not far from the mount of beatitudes was the city of Bethulia, which stood on a very eminent and conspicuous mountain. Our Lord might therefore direct the eye to it, when he said, "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.” It has been further supposed that he might observe husbandmen manuring the soil with that material, when he called his disciples the salt of the earth :" and that he might point to the objects themselves, when he bade them "behold the fowls of the air," and "consider the " lilies of the field;" when he instructed them to judge of false prophets as of " trees, by the fruits which they brought forth; and when he compared hearers and doers of his word to houses founded on a rock, and forgetful hearers of it to ruinous houses which had been erected on the sand.

48.

X

W

P ib. 47, ib. 13.

" Matt. vii. 10.

• See Mark iv. 1. Matt. xiii. 36.

a

We find the same exhortation from the fowls of the air and the lilies of the field y repeated, when the words were probably spoken in Capernaum, or between that place and the adjoining lake. We have not sufficient grounds to fix the time of this repetition; Jesus's teaching from a ship being an equivocal mark in such a country as Galilee, and the tempest, which immediately succeeded, being no less so, in a lake surrounded with mountains, like that of Tiberias. It seems plain, from the scries of events in the gospel history, that the discourse on the mount was delivered soon after the second passover in Christ's ministry, and perhaps about a month after the vernal equinox. But yet I incline to think that the general scene of the transaction, and the usual occupations of the Jews in their fields, vineyards and gardens of herbs, suggested some of the images which are ingeniously supposed to have arisen, not from familiar but from present objects.

*On healing the servant of a Centurion, who, though a Gentile, was more eminent for a rational faith in Jesus than the Jews, our Lord foretold the admission of many Gentiles into the kingdom of heaven, and the exclusion and punishment of the unbelieving Jews.

When our Lord compared the progressive guilt of the Jews to the malady of a demoniac returning on him with seven fold fury, it is ingeniously remarked, "that he did not introduce this comparison abruptly,

2 Matt. xiii. 2. < See Farmer on the

y Luke xii. 24, 27. viii. 11, 12. 22, 43, 44, 45.

a Mark iv. 37. Demoniacs, p. 330.

b Matt. Matt. xii.

but soon after curing a demoniac, who perhaps was then standing before him."

When one said to him, "d Behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee;" he answered, "Who is my mother? and who are my brethren ?" "And he stretched forth his hands towards his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."

e

Sir Isaac Newton, and many after him, have supposed that the parable of a sower going forth to sow was spoken during seed time, about the month of November: and the series of events does not contradict the supposition.

When one of our Lord's disciples excused himself from becoming his immediate and constant attendant, by saying, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father; [to wait for his death, which in the course of nature cannot be distant;] Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their dead:" [let the spiritually dead, thy brethren or thy kinsfolk, perform this office:] "but go thou and preach the kingdom of God."

In allusion to the miracle of feeding a great multitude with five loaves and two fishes, and to the attendance of the multitude that their returning wants might be again supplied, our Lord said to the people the next day, "Labour not for the s meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto

d Matt. xii. 47-50. Luke ix. 60.

e Matt. xiii. 3, &c. & John vi. 27, 35, 51.

f Matt. viii. 21.

everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. "" "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." And afterwards in the synagogue: "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the

world."

* Immediately after the Pharisees had censured his disciples for heating with unwashen hands, our Lord, referring to Pharisaical ablutions and fear of outward defilement, thus solemnly taught the multitude a most instructive and seasonable moral lesson:" "Hear and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man."

The disciples having forgotten to take bread with them on crossing the lake of Tiberias, our Lord cautioned them against the leaven of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and Herod; meaning their doctrine, hypocrisy, and subtle cruelty.

At the feast of tabernacles the Jews filled a golden vessel out of Siloam, a fountain near mount Sion. When they came with it to the water gate of the temple, they sounded their trumpets, and sang, "With 'joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation:" and, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." This traditionary custom of drawing water, and pouring it on the morning sacri

h Mark vii. 2.
Isai. xii. 3. lv. 1.

i Matt. xv. 10, 11..

* Matt. xvi. 6.