7. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, 8. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from

me.

9. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

10. And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear and understand:

11. Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man ; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. 12. Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying?

13. But he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.

14. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

15. Then answered Peter, and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable.

It is so much easier, and costs so much less selfdenial, to observe certain ceremonies, and even to submit to certain privations, than to control the heart and mortify sinful desires, that there is always a tendency in man to treat such observances as piety. The Mahometan, who knows not what it is to govern and subdue his passions, will be most exact in prostrations, in ablutions, and in formal repetitions of prayer. And the apostles, it seems, had been so accustomed to attach importance to these outward things, that they could not conceive them to be no necessary part of real religion: they could not understand that the observance of them did not recommend a man to God, or the neglect of them defile him. Declare unto us this parable.

16. And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding? 17. Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught.

18. But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart: and they defile the man.

19. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20. These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

Out of the heart proceed murders. The first murder, for example, proceeded from the envy and malice which had got possession of the heart of Cain. "Wherefore slew he Abel? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." It was not then the weapon stained with his brother's blood which defiled Cain: nor would the water which might cleanse his hands from that defilement, wash away the guilt which he had contracted. It was the envy and malice of his heart which really polluted him.

Pilate washed his hands before the multitude, requiring them to attest that he was "innocent of the blood of the just person" whom he allowed them to crucify. But the real stain was in his heart, when he sacrificed conscience, duty, and justice, to his supposed interests in the world, lest he should be accused of not being "Cæsar's friend."

"Judas, which had betrayed Jesus, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned, in that I

3 1 John iii. 12.

have betrayed the innocent blood. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed." "And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them in the treasury, because it is the price of blood."

But it was not the thirty pieces of silver which defiled Judas, or would have defiled the Pharisees, if they had put them in the treasury. Judas was defiled by the covetous heart out of which thefts proceed, and which sought every opportunity of gain: and it was rancorous malice, and deep-rooted prejudice which defiled the Pharisees, when they persecuted him who told them that their deeds were evil.

The defilement, therefore, is at the source; at the seat of malice, and envy, and hatred, and covetousness, and adultery, and blasphemy. The heart is the fountain which sends forth the polluted stream. Not because God made it thus: but because Adam corrupted it. From the sinful parent the sinful offspring is derived. "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh" is "very far gone from original righteousness," and requires to be renewed after the image which has been defaced, in which it was at first created.

To effect that renewal, Christ came into the world: and he does effect it, in all who "receive him." "The Spirit of God dwells in them," "leads" them, "guides them into all truth." They have still a heart from which those evils would proceed which defile a man: the corruption of nature remains even in them that are regenerate. But Matt. xxvii. 3—6.

5 Rom. viii. 9.

they "mortify the deeds of the body, through the Spirit" they keep down the risings of envy, and pride, and jealousy; they "set their affections on things above;" they cultivate those better principles, and they show the fruits of those better principles, by which it is seen that "if any man is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature;" "old things are passed away;" that is, things that are natural to his heart, and would be allowed in his practice, if he were left to himself, are exchanged for higher desires and heavenly views. And thus they are gradually prepared to leave a state of being, in which, after all, so much remains that is polluted, vile, and unsatisfactory: and to begin a glorified state of "spirit, and soul, and body," in which nothing shall enter that defileth, or worketh abomination."

All this depends upon the heart: out of it "are the issues of life." But the state of the heart can only be known by what proceeds out of it; by the words which it prompts, by the thoughts which it suggests, by the practice which it influences. Examine and judge yourselves by these, the sure token of what is within: and make David's prayer your own, "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be always acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer."

LECTURE XXXIX.

THE SUCCESSFUL FAITH OF THE CANAANITISH
WOMAN.

MATT. XV. 21-39.

21. Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts Mark vii. of Tyre and Sidon.

22. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David: my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.1

23. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away: for she crieth after us.

24. But he answered and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

It was part of the design of God, that the offer of salvation should be first made to the Jews, his chosen people. So our Lord commanded his twelve disciples, not to "go into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans; but to go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."" And Paul and Barnabas told their countrymen, “It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken unto you."3

1 St. Mark says, the woman was a Greek, or a Syrophœnician, by nation: i. e. she was a Gentile.

2 Matt. x. 5.

3 Acts xiii. 46.

24-30.