labour to remove them. So, too, He warns against "false prophets, who come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves "(ver. 15); that is, teachers who come forth to teach righteousness, and have the appearance of virtue and piety and of being true prophets, whilst in heart they are evil, and out of their heart rise evil deeds which do not harmonise

with their teaching. Jesus gives the rule: "By their fruits ye shall know them" (ver. 16),-meaning that the actual works of those teachers of righteousness will prove if they are true prophets sent by God, or false prophets who have taken their pious teaching only as a mask for self-seeking purposes.

But since, in Jesus' view, the existence or nonexistence of righteousness depends on whether or not the heart is set on righteousness, He estimates the greater or less merit of good works and the culpability of sins according to the heart, and not according to the external appearance. No doubt, generally, the greatness of the external action, good or bad, is intimately related to the goodness or badness of the heart. On this ground, Jesus, in heightening the early commandment against murder by forbidding even the thought of hatred, makes the following gradation: "Every one that is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca" (that is, "Thou goodfor-nothing"), "shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool" (that is, "godless "), "shall be in danger of the Gehenna of fire" (Matt. v. 22). He presupposes that the hatred expressed in word is greater than that which is unuttered, and

that the violence of the language corresponds to the intensity of the hatred. But Jesus was also well aware that the degree of outward expression was no decisive standard for judging the heart. Therefore He laid special emphasis on the significance which the mere word has as an utterance of the inward mind. Though mere good words, unaccompanied with corresponding acts, do not suffice for true righteousness (Matt. vii. 15 f.), yet an evil word of itself, even if unaccompanied with an evil action, is a valid proof of an evil heart and a culpable fault. Jesus applies this to the Pharisees, who, blaspheming His work, pronounced it to be of the devil; and declares that the use of such an expression of opprobrium is a very culpable form of enmity: "Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. The good man, out of his good treasure, bringeth forth good things; and the evil man, out of his evil treasure, bringeth forth. evil things. And I say unto you, That every idle. word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Matt. xii. 34-37). So also it holds good in regard to works of righteousness, that their value is not to be measured by their external greatness. Jesus sets the highest store by externally insignificant acts if they have sprung from a pure and good heart. The poor widow who cast two mites into the temple. treasury, gave, in Jesus' estimation, more than all the others who cast in of their abundance; because in making her small offering, which constituted her

whole means of living, she showed a more selfsacrificing spirit than the others (Mark xii. 41 ff.). Analogous to this is the way in which Jesus spoke of the reception of a little child, which also is an externally insignificant act. If it were done in His name, that is, with conscious reference to Himself (since His disciples are bound to love), this act had the same value as if men should receive Himself and the Father who sent Him (Mark ix. 37; cf. Matt. x. 41; xxv. 40). Again, whosoever shall give even a cup of cold water to His disciples, because they belong to the Messiah, shall not lose their reward (Mark ix. 41). Even the smallest act of love, though uncostly and of no value from an external point of view, and though not worthy of reward, if prompted by a spirit of friendliness to the Messiah and His kingdom, has value in God's eye, and has a sure reward from Him.

4. We can well understand how Jesus, on the ground of this truly ethical mode of judgment, which determined the quality of all righteousness from the state of the heart, should feel driven to abhor and severely condemn that external legalism, so austere and petty, never sincerely honest, nor taking into account the true spirit of the law and the heart of men, which the scribes and Pharisees had made so prevalent in Judaism at that period. Here He encountered a form of righteousness which bore the most pretentious appearance of piety and regard for the fulfilment of the will of God, but whose leading motives were in reality vanity and self-seeking, and its result human self-complacency. Jesus saw in it a mighty hindrance to their attaining the ideal and

practice of piety belonging to the true kingdom of God. In His moral indignation against the use made of the temple-worship for purposes of covetous traffic, and against the degradation of the house of God-" the house of prayer"-into a den of thieves, He executed the condemning act of cleansing the temple (Mark xi. 15 ff.). He also again and again with words of stern rebuke castigated the false piety of the Pharisees and Pharisaic teachers of the law, namely, in the discourses, Luke xi. 39-52; Matt. xxiii. 13 ff.,' and also Mark vii. 6-13; xii. 38-40; Matt. xxiii. 1-7. Besides the point which we must more particularly consider afterwards, viz., that the Pharisees, by their legal ceremonies, set aside and annulled the moral duties of love to their neighbour, Jesus directed His accusation to this other point, that their legal zeal was merely external, and did not spring from a true interest in the Divine law. Therefore He not only called them "blind" (Matt. xxiii. 16, 17, 19, 24, 26), since, with all their supposed knowledge of the will of God, they were wholly in the dark on the subject; but He characterised them as "hypocrites," that is, actors in a special sense. For they concealed their real character under a mask, and appeared before men other than they really were. He applied to them the words of Isaiah (xxix. 13): "This people honour me with their lips, while their heart is far from me" (Mark vii. 6). He compared them to whited sepulchres, which have a fair outward appearance, but within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness (Matt. xxiii. 27). He reproached the Pharisaic scribes for 1 Cf. Log. § 13, L. J. i. p. 104 ff.

the impure and selfish by-ends which they aimed at in their doctrine and actions: "All their works they do to be seen of men: for they make broad their phylacteries" (pieces of parchment carried by the Jews on their forehead and arm to remind them of the law), "and enlarge the borders of their garments " (worn upon their tunic for the same purpose) (Matt. xxiii. 5). In other words, with those visible signs they paraded their zeal for the law, and, by making them specially large, they made the greater pretension to strictness.

They love to walk in long robes, and to have salutations in the market - places, and chief seats in the synagogues, and chief places at feasts; they who devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers," that is, the forms of piety were used by them as a cloak for covetousness (Mark xii. 38-40). Jesus perceived that they were not truly occupied with the will of God, since they disregarded the commands of God, and substituted for these their own human traditions (Mark vii. 8 ff.). He adduces as a striking example of the pure externalism of their teaching as to the law, their absurd distinctions in regard to the binding character of different forms of oaths: "Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! Ye fools, and blind! for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that hath sanctified the gold? And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gift that is upon it, he is a debtor. Ye blind! for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth