Academic Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. On the order of topics in the Sermon on the Mount. TN entering upon this discussion of our bless- -- ed Lord's Sermon, Matth. v.?vii., it may be right to premise that we approach the subject not as critics but as reverential admirers; not to carp at or amend any part but to observe its plan and...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. On the order of topics in the Sermon on the Mount. TN entering upon this discussion of our bless- -- ed Lord's Sermon, Matth. v.?vii., it may be right to premise that we approach the subject not as critics but as reverential admirers; not to carp at or amend any part but to observe its plan and reflect upon its object, in order that we may, if possible, collect its fuller meaning, and impress the whole discourse more clearly upon the understanding and more deeply upon the memory of the reader. If one will take the pains to refer to our Lord's principal discourses as they are related in the Gospel according to S. Matthew, he will observe that the Evangelist has in each instance been careful to state explicitly what was the condition of those persons to whom He was speaking: moreover, if the speeches themselves be examined, it will be further perceived that they are singularly adapted to the audience then present. The mass of hearers of the Sermon on the Mount were the multitudes from Galilee, and Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judaea, and the country lying on the east bank of Jordan, who, seeing the miracles of our Lord, had followed him rather from curiosity than faith; thoughHis disciples came near His person as He sat and taught (See Matt. iv. 25, v. 1,2, vii. 28). Those to whom the charge contained in ch. x. was addressed, were the twelve chosen Apostles (See x. 5). Those whom He taught by parables from the boat as they stood on the sea-shore, ch. xiii., were a large and mixed multitude, some of whom He had been reproving in strong language for their hardness of heart and their prejudice against Him. (See xii. 38?45). In ch. xxi. 23, xxii. 14, He is in the temple and is addressing in appropriate parables the chief priests and elders of the people; and in...