why,' but simply to believe, and swiftly to do. Rabbis might split hairs
and quote other rabbis by the hour; philosophers may argue and base
their teachings on elaborate demonstrations; moralists may seek to sway
the conscience through reason; legislators to appeal to fear and hope.
He speaks, and it is done; He commands, and it stands fast. There is
nothing else in the world the least like the superb and mysterious
authority with which He fronts the world, and, as Fountain of knowledge
and Source of obligation, summons us all to submit and believe, by that
'Verily, I say unto you.'

Verse 18. Next we have to notice the exuberant testimony to the
permanence of the law. Not the smallest of its letters, not even the
little marks which distinguished some of them, or the flourishes at the
top of some of them, should pass,--as we might say, not even the stroke
across a written 't,' which shows that it is not 'l.' The law shall last
as long as the world. It shall last till it be accomplished. And what
then? The righteousness which it requires can never be so realised that
we shall not need to realise it any more, and in the new heavens
righteousness dwelleth. But in a very real sense law shall cease when
fulfilled. There is no law to him who can say, 'Thy law is within my
heart.' When law has become both 'law and impulse,' it has ceased to be
law, in so far as it no longer stands over against the doer as an
external constraint.

Verse 19. On this permanence of the law Christ builds its imperative
authority in His kingdom. Obviously, the 'kingdom of heaven' in verse 19
means the earthly form of that kingdom. The King republishes, as it
were, the old code, and adopts it as the basis of His law. He thus
assumes the absolute right of determining precedence and dignity in that
kingdom. The sovereign is the 'fountain of honour,' whose word ennobles.
Observe the merciful accuracy of the language. The breach of the
commandments either in theory or in practice does not exclude from the
kingdom, for it is, while realised on earth, a kingdom of sinful men
aiming after holiness; but the smallest deflection from the law of
right, in theory or in practice, does lower a man's standing therein,
inasmuch as it makes him less capable of that conformity to the King,
and consequent nearness to Him, which determines greatness and smallness
there. Dignity in the kingdom depends on Christ-likeness, and
Christ-likeness depends on fulfilling, as He