.
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 a
claim to have voluntarily appeared among men, as well as to be the
long-expected Messiah. With absolute decisiveness He states the purpose
of His coming. He knows the meani