"Jesus would not have been 'Son of God,' and 'Son of man,' had not his words, like his works, with all their adaptation to the circumstances of the times, contained some things that are inexplicable,-had they not borne concealed within them the germ of an infinite development, reserved for future ages to unfold. It is this feature, and all the evangelists concur in their representations of it,which distinguishes Christ from all other teachers of men. Advance as they may, they can never reach him; their only task need be, by taking him more and more into their life and thought, to learn better how to bring forth the treasures that lie concealed in HIM."-NEANDER.

PREFACE.

Ir is a growing conviction in my mind, that vital and influential Christianity consists, much more than is ordinarily apprehended, in an intimate personal acquaintance and friendship with our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the great revealer of God; he is the revealed Divinity. The man knows the Father who knows the Son-that man alone knows the Father. Christ is himself "the way, the truth, and the life;". and it is only in so far as we really know and love him, that we are in "the way," or that "the truth" and "the life" are in us.

To be a Christian, it is not enough that we know and acknowledge a system of doctrine and of law, deduced from the sayings of our Lord and the writings of his apostles. It is necessary that we be acquainted with his person, his character, and his work; that we know the doctrines of Christianity as his mind, the laws of Christianity as his will. The very life of Christianity consists in loving, confiding in, obeying him, and God in him; and he plainly can be loved, confided in, and obeyed, only in the degree in which he is known. Speculation about the person and work of Christ, however correct, is not the "excellent knowledge" in comparison with which the apostles counted all things loss; assent to abstract

1 Phil. iii. 8.

propositions, however true, is not Christian faith; conformity to ethical rules, however good, is not Christian obedience.

Dr. OWEN did good service to the cause of Christianity, two hundred years ago, by showing the pre-eminent place the person of Christ holds in that religion, in opposition to the British rationalists of that age, who had almost lost sight of him in speculation about evidences, and dogmas, and ethics; and SCHLEIERMACHER, and his noble followers, NEANDER and THOLUCK, have done a similar service in opposition to the German rationalists of our times. A personal Deity is the soul of natural religion; a personal Saviour the real living Christ-is the soul of revealed religion. How strange that it should not be impossible -how sad that, through a perverted ingenuity, it should not be uncommon, in reference to both of these to convert that into a veil which was meant to be a revelation!

A firm belief of the real existence of Jesus Christ, that is, the belief not merely that a person bearing that name lived in a particular country and age, but that the Jesus Christ of the New Testament really did and does exist, that the strangest of all pictures-the gospel historyrepresents a reality; this living faith of a living Christ (not by any means so common an acquirement as the former) lies at the foundation of true Christianity; and the superstructure is composed of that transforming intimate acquaintance with him, with his person, his character, his mind, his will, which is to be obtained by a careful study of that "Scripture given by inspiration of God," which is His word-he being at once its author and its subject-under the promised influence of His Spirit the Spirit of truth and of holiness.

Every part of the inspired volume may be, and ought

to be, turned to account in the search after this "excellent knowledge." The study of no portion of Scripture leads more directly to its attainment than that of the gospel histories. Were we carefully pondering these wonderful records, supposing us in possession of the fundamental faith just referred to, we might become better acquainted with our Lord, than any of us is with his most intimate friend. His mind and will are there expressed on a great variety of subjects, with a surprising union of clearness and depth; and we see him placed in an endless variety of circumstances of the most trying kind, which bring out in strong relief, all the features of his character. We see him, indeed, in far more situations fitted to test the character, and disclose its component elements, than we ever have seen-ever can see any man. And in his case we have this advantage-we are quite sure of two things, of neither of which we can be perfectly certain where a mere man is the object of knowledge, and human testimony is the medium through which our knowledge is obtained: We know, and are sure, that Jesus Christ was exactly what he appeared to be, and that his biographers represent him exactly as he was. In him there was nothing assumed-all was real; and with them there is no misrepresentation. They state exactly what took place," what they saw and heard, that they declare to us," without extenuation, without exaggeration. He could make only a partial revelation of himself for the capacities of men enabled them to receive only such a revelation,-but the revelation was perfect so far as it went. His biographers could tell us only what they knew, but they tell us that to the life. With these convictions, I have always held that the study of the gospel history, and especially of "The Dis

courses and Sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ"-into whose "lips grace was poured,"--who had “the tongue of the learned," and "spake as never man spake,"—is one of the most probable means of promoting real vital Christianity in ourselves, and that an exposition of these is one of the most probable means of promoting it in others. It is in the hope of, in some degree, contributing to these ends, that the following Expositions have been prepared, and are now given to the public.

These remarks will be misunderstood, if they be considered as, in the slightest degree, disparaging the epistolary part of the New Testament. In some points of view, that, as the completion of the code of divine doctrine and law, given by its Divine Author, not on earth, but from heaven, is peculiarly valuable; but there is comparatively little, if anything, in the apostolic epistles, of which the germ is not to be found in the gospels. The declarations of the apostles are but the development of their Master's thoughts,-a commentary-an infallible one-on his sayings; and we do not rightly estimate these divine writings, if we do not consider them as a part of his word; nor rightly use them, if we do not employ them for the purpose of better understanding his mind and heart, and so bringing our minds and hearts into conformity with his.

The general name of EXPOSITIONS has been given to the discourses contained in these volumes, because no other designation in common use could have accurately described them all. There will be found among them specimens of what are usually in Scotland called LECTURES, in all the forms which they ordinarily assume— scholia, on particular words and phrases-continuous comment, and illustrated analysis; and the illustrations