to remember that the men on whom our Saviour's words made this deep impression did not regard Him as being in any special sense the Son of God. To them He was simply the son of the carpenter, whose mother was called Mary, and whose brethren and sisters were well known amongst them, and their astonishment is declared to be chiefly due to the fact that such wisdom should proceed from the lips of one so humbly born. The power and weight of our Master's words proceeded, not, as we should naturally be inclined to think, from the majesty of His presence, but from the truth and excellence of the words themselves. The men of whom our text was spoken did not begin to reason as most of us would probably do now: "The Being who stands before us has evidently come from God, therefore we must bow to the authority of every word that issues from His lips;" but, "The words that issue from the lips of the new Teacher that has risen up amongst us are evidently of God: whence can the son of the carpenter have obtained the wisdom to utter them?" On the other hand, the scribes, their accredited teachers, with whose method of instruction that of our Saviour was contrasted, had a great deal of what, in many quarters, is even still regarded as the only authority worthy of the name. They sat in Moses' seat; they had the authority of prescription and tradition; they knew the sacred writings almost off by heart, and whenever a question was propounded, were always ready with a text which

seemed applicable to the case in point, as though a man would be both wicked and unreasonable who did not regard a quotation as equivalent to a proof, and who could not see why a statement must necessarily be true because it had been originally uttered a great while ago. Yes, the scribes had a great deal of authority of a certain kind. They had the authority of an expert-of the man of one book who has got a good memory, and can always be depended upon to tell you where a certain set of words may be found. Such an authority can exclaim, "It is written-it is written!" but can never enthral the heart. But when our blessed Lord had finished what we are perhaps warranted in regarding as His chief, if not His first, address to the people of His own country, we read that their verdict was that "He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." His teaching did not convey the impression that it was only being repeated at second hand, nor that it consisted of a string of texts which the speaker had tacked together for the sake of their sound, and for lack of any ideas of his own; but the one impression it did convey was that it must come home to the heart of every honest man, and for no other reason than because it was true.

Let us listen for a moment to some of the words of our Master's sermon, which made so deep an impression -the sermon which He delivered at the very opening of His ministry, and in which, therefore, one would

suppose He must have deliberately intended to strike the keynote of the preaching which He meant should follow, and describe the principles and characteristics which must belong to those who desired to be enrolled amongst the citizens of His Father's kingdom.

You know the blessings with which our Saviour began His address-His blessings on the poor in spirit; on those who, so far from being puffed up with a sense of their own spiritual fulness and importance, feel that they have need to receive all things from God; on the unselfish, the chastened by sorrow, the gentle; on those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, who long for a stronger, fuller, and more generous life, and who never hear or read of "generous deeds or generous characters higher than their own" without longing to follow in their steps; on the merciful; the pure in heart, who are clean and sincere and true in thought and deed, who wish neither to deceive others nor to be selfdeceived, but to pursue the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, whatever the consequences may be; on the peacemakers, and on those who are content to suffer in a righteous cause. And then you know how our Lord went on to bring his own unsparing truthfulness and sincerity to bear upon the traditional piety with which His people were familiar—even the piety of those who were accounted the best and holiest in their nation. "Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever

shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Again, ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you; and why? That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven; for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Again, Judge not, that ye be not judged: for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Is it not evident that the authority of such teaching as this is simply the authority of truth; that it has only to be uttered to strike home with unmistakable weight to the heart of any man who is not morally insane? And is it wonderful that men whose ears had been wearied with such conventional teaching as that they were accustomed to hear-such teaching as conveyed the impression that the speaker had no brain, or heart, or common sense of his own, and could only repeat like a parrot what somebody else had said—

should declare of our Lord that He spake with authority, and not as the scribes? For if the end and aim of religion be the consecration of the inner man of the heart to God—that is, to all that is right and just and true then it is as clear as daylight that the very highest authority that can be claimed for any religious teaching lies in its own intrinsic excellence, and the question that we have to ask respecting it is, not what somebody has said about it, but in what degree does it come up to the highest standard of goodness that the Spirit of God has enabled human beings to discover.

Does a man, therefore, crave for some visible infallible guide or law which will enable us to prove those who are not like-minded with ourselves in the wrong, and to make our own narrowness and ignorance a measure of the faith of those who are every way superior to ourselves? We are bound to tell him at once that there is no such visible infallible authority or guide on earth, and that one of the first things that those who wish to grow in the knowledge of God have to try and be fully persuaded of in their own minds is, not the accuracy of their own beliefs and opinions, but the depth of their own ignorance and infirmity, and their need of beginning from the beginning as a little child if ever they would enter the kingdom of heaven.

The best chance that any of us can have of gaining an assured hope that we are on the right track for the

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