Matthew 15:5 I. There ought to be no conflict between the Divine and social claims. The family has its claims; society has its claims; God has His claims, and they are all righteous. They are all on the same line of rectitude. There ought to be no conflict between them. This conflict exists among u... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 15:7 These words call us to look at three points, the first of which is the importance of plain speaking on all questions affecting the interests of truth. Jesus Christ was pre-eminently a plain speaker. He did not round His sentences for the purpose of smoothing His way. When He had occasi... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 15:13 God the Uprooter of Sects. I. The disciples needed this lesson, that they might not be startled by the fading away of much which had seemed to them fair and vigorous, but still more that they might understand what there was in the Jewish soil which could not be rooted out what there w... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 15:22 This story admits us into one of those curious and subtle phases of character in Christ which, when dwelt on and understood, make Him very near to us. I. We ask why He said these harsh and cruel things so unlike Himself; and the answer we may give is this: That He desired to get to t... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 15:22 Mother's Love. I. Our Lord judged this woman after He had tried her, as gold is tried in the fire. Why He did so we cannot tell. Perhaps He wanted by the trial to make her a better woman, to bring out something noble which lay in her heart unknown to her, though not to Him who knew w... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 15:23 Out of many lessons to be drawn from the terrible and touching narrative of the Gospel for the Second Sunday of Lent we notice three. I. With respect to the disciples. We may learn from what is not written as well as from what is written what a lesson they received upon _want of sympa... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 15:28 The Greatness of Faith. I. Observe first, how widely prevalent the principle is which comes to its consummation in the giving of Himself by Christ to men. Everywhere faith, or the capacity of receiving, has a power to claim and command the thing which it needs. Nature would furnish u... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 15:33 Christ's direction was, "How many loaves have ye?" And of this sentence it has been strikingly observed that it is characteristic of the way in which all Christ's nature was wont to move together at once. Christ felt and thought, pitied and weighed, at the same moment. He never did mi... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 15:34 In this act of our Lord's there were two principles so fundamental that the Divine power of Jesus worked by them almost of necessity, so important that they must be made prominent even in all His impetuous eagerness to help those starving men. The first is the principle of continuity,... [ Continue Reading ]