in the kingdom of heaven. 20.  For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. 21.  Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:  22.  But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire. 23.  Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; 24.  Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. 25.  Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. 26.  Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.’—­MATT. v. 17-26.

This passage falls naturally into two parts—­the former extending from verse 17 to 20 inclusive; the latter, from verse 21 to the end.  In the former, the King of the true kingdom lays down the general principles of the relation between its laws and the earlier revelation of the divine will; in the latter, He exemplifies this relation in one case, which is followed, in the remainder of the chapter, by three other illustrative examples.

I. The King laying down the law of His kingdom in its relation to the older law of God.

The four verses included in this section give a regular sequence of thought:  verse 17 declaring our Lord’s personal relation to the former revelation as fulfilling it; verse 18 basing that statement of the purpose of His coming on the essential permanence of the old law; verses 19 and 20 deducing thence the relation of His disciples to that law, and that in such a way that verse 19 corresponds to verse 18, and affirms that this permanent law is binding in its minutest details on His subjects, while verse 20 corresponds to verse 17, and requires their deepened righteousness as answering to His fulfilment of the law.

The first thing that strikes one in looking at these verses is their authoritative tone.  There may, even thus early in Christ’s career, have been some murmurs that He was taking up a position of antagonism to Mosaism, which may account for the ‘think not’ which introduces the section.  But however that may be, the swift transition from the Beatitudes to speak of Himself and of the meaning of His work is all of a piece with His whole manner; for certainly never did religious teacher open his mouth, who spoke so perpetually about Himself as did the meek Jesus.  ‘I came’ declares that He is ‘the coming One,’ and is really