THE K I N G ’ S BUSINESS and ascended into heaven. (Jn. 7:39; Acts 1 :5).—Mauro. v. 8. Heal the sick. Christ was the first medical missionary. The king dom of God deals not only with our eternal welfare, but with the condi tions of human life.—Devo. Com. Raise the dead. This clause is wanting in many manuscripts. The first instance in which the dead were raised by apos tolic energy occurs in the book of Acts (9:36).— Gerlach. Freely give. It is noted that the work of ministry to the body was to be free. Any divine heal er or Christian Scientist who charges a fee for his services thereby shows the cloven foot, and. how about the preacher who will declare the glorious Gospel only on condition of being paid so much?— Torrey. The Lord had not stinted them in giving them blessings. Neither were they to hold back the blessings from others. Those who have received the grace of God should pass it onlpj-Marsh. v. 29. Two sparrows for a farthing. Compare Luke 12:6. Five sparrows for two farthings— one thrown in when two farthings’ worth were bought. Jesus is quoting the market price on sparrows. The odd one thrown in em phasizes its insignificance, yet not even one falls without the Father’s notice.— Farr. God’s care extends to preserving things far beneath men. Creatures so worthless in men’s eyes that they part with them sometimes for nothing, (cf. v. 29; Luke 12:6) are far from despic able in His sight. Well therefore may we leave that which is vital to us in those all-Fatherly hands. (1 Pet. 4:19.) — Booth.—One shall not fall. Two de ductions may be drawn. Human life is more precious in God’s sight than the life of the lower animals and kind ness to animals is a part of God’s law.— Carr. v. 36. Foes in his own household. The new life changes the old relation ships. There will be divisions in fara-
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unconnected with the false culture and pomp of the world.— Lange. Go not to the Gentiles. This prohibition was not laid on the seventy (Luke 10:1-16). They are expressly commissioned to carry the Gospel to cities and places which our Lord Himself proposed to visit.— Camb. Bible. The limitation was confined to the mission on which they were now sent. He did but recognize the divine order (Rom. 2:9, 10). Fur thermore the disciples were as yet un fitted to enter on a work which re quired wider thoughts and hopes than they had yet attained.— Plumptre. v. 6. House of Israel. For the pres ent the twelve, were to confine them selves to the Jews because the Lord’s ministry was the climax of the Jewish probation and it was desirable that every opportunity should be given to the lost sheep of the house of Israel to repent.— Meyer. Home first is the dictate of a true philanthropy. We have greater facilities for giving the Gospel to our neighbors than to foreign ers. The stronger the forces in the center the more powerful the influence will be felt at the extremities.—D. Thomas. Until Christ’s death which broke down the middle wall of parti tion (Eph. 2:14) the Gospel commis sion was to the Jews only, who though the visible people of God, were lqst sheep, not merely in the sense in which all sinners are (Is. 53:5; 1 Pet. 2:25; Luke 19:10) but as abandoned and left to. wander from the right way by faithless shepherds (Jer. 50:6, 17; Ezek. 34:2-6).— Jamieson. v. 7. Kingdom of heaven at hand. That kingdom began when the disciples were baptized with the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. John the Baptist in an nouncing it at hand pointed to Christ as the Lamb of God and said, “ He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire.” The kingdom of heaven could not take place until after Christ should have died as the Lamb of God, risen
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