sake, but also to familiarize their minds beforehand with the terrible images of torture and death which he was to meet. Here, as in other places (Matthew xvi. 24, John iii. 14, viii. 28, xii. 32), though they did not fully understand him at the time, the cross threw its darkening shadow before them, and he was thus preparing their minds, unconsciously to themselves, that when he had been crucified, and had risen from the dead, these words, which at first had awakened only vague and unintelligible forebodings, should stand out in their prophetic character, as pointing all to the same result.

39. LIFE OR SOUL.

He who findeth, i. e. who seeketh to find, his life, shall lose it; and he who loseth, i. e. who is willing to lose it, shall find it. Here is another instance, in which Jesus, whose soul was full of thoughts which the earthly language that he spoke had no terms to express, used the same word to express very different meanings. At least the Evangelists so represent him. The word ux, which is here rendered life, like яveûμa, and the Latin words anima and spiritus, as well as the corresponding Hebrew words w and, means primarily breath or air. It is used in the New Testament: 1. For the animal life, common to beasts and men (Matthew ii. 20, vi. 25, xx. 28). 2. It stands for the rational as well as sensitive, animating principle, a something, it has been thought, between the animal and spiritual principle of life. "The first man Adam was made a living soul," psyche, in contradistinction to the second Adam, who was a life-making spirit, pneuma. used as nearly synonymous with our word soul. wilt not leave my soul in Hades." (Acts ii. 27.) under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God." (Rev. vi. 9; see also Rev. xx. 4; 1 Peter iv. 19; Matt. x. 29.) It naturally bears all these meanings;

3. It is

"Thou "I saw

for strictly speaking, the word yuxý stands for the vital, sentient principle in which our consciousness resides, and with it our sense of personal identity. It is that which constitutes a man's self, and might better be translated by the word self than by any other single word in our language. It is the sentient, conscious principle which pervades our whole being, animal, intellectual, and spiritual, and which may be considered in its relation to either one, or to all, of these departments of our nature. It may, therefore, refer to our physical, our intellectual, or our spiritual life. In v. 29 of this chapter Jesus uses it as we do the word soul, as something distinct from our physical life. In v. 39, he passes from one meaning to the other; and the better translation would be: He who findeth, or (John xii. 25) loveth himself, shall be lost, and he who loseth himself shall be saved. That is: He who is bound up in himself shall perish; but he who, in his devotion to me, is willingly exposing himself to death, as if (John xii. 25) he hated himself, shall live. The expression goes deeper than is intimated in our common version. There may be a selfish regard to our souls and spiritual interests, as well as to our earthly life and bodily interests. The Saviour's words are directed against every form of selfishness and self-seeking, whether in relation to body or soul, to this world or the world to come. Whosoever seeketh first himself, though it be his own soul, shall perish; and he who is willing to cast away everything, even his care for his own soul, in his devotion to me, shall be saved. He who is saving his soul in this selfish way shall lose it; and he who is losing his soul, in this unselfish devotedness to me, shall save it. At the same time the connection with the cross of v. 38 implies that there is a reference here to the loss of life, in our sense of the word life; and so there is a passing from the lower to the higher meaning of the word, from the mortal to the immortal life, and the verse may be thus paraphrased, "Whosoever seeks first of all his life (an earthly one), shall lose it (as an im

mortal inheritance); and he who (in his supreme devotion to higher things) is ready to cast his life (his earthly life) away, shall find it (as an immortal inheritance).

This practice of so using language that it shall reach from its primary and narrow meaning, spiritually up into higher realms of life, or prophetically on to more distant scenes and events, is one of the greatest difficulties in the way of the commentator, who would give a precise and definite meaning, and only one, to every expression that he meets. The charm, as well as much of the power that lies in the words of Jesus, consists in the fact that they open before us worlds of thought and being into which we may enter, but which are too full to be emptied of all their treasures, and too vast to be bounded by any exact definitions of ours.

40-42.-DIFFERENT DEGREES OF REWARD.

And while men may thus save or lose their souls, there are different degrees of recompense, and not the smallest act shall be permitted to go unrewarded. To receive the Apostles is, of course, not merely to give them a hospitable reception, kindly supplying them with food and shelter; it is to receive them with their instructions into the heart and life. In so doing men receive Christ, who is represented by them, and whose life-giving doctrines. they teach; nay, they receive God himself. The reward would depend on the kind of reception that was given. He who is far enough advanced in the Jewish religion to recognize and welcome a prophet or righteous man as such, because he is a prophet or a righteous man, shall In receive the reward of a prophet or righteous man. receiving him as a prophet, he is made partaker of the prophet's thought and life, and of course will share the prophet's reward. But he who has enough of the spirit of Christ to receive a little child as his disciple or repre

sentative, shall in no wise lose a disciple's reward, for in so doing he is receiving the spirit and the life of Jesus into himself. Perhaps there were children present. The term "little ones" is applied by Jesus to children (xviii. 2--6). Or it may be, as Mr. Norton and others suppose, that by "little ones" Jesus means his own inexperienced disciples; as if he had said, "whosoever shall give a cup of cold water to one of these, my children," &c. In either case the fundamental meaning is the same. There is a climax from the prophet, who, though a special messenger of God, was sometimes meagre in spiritual attainments, through the just man in his legal righteousness to the disciple in whom, as coming from Christ, is the fulness of a diviner life and through it of a larger reward. "Many a benevolent, pious Jew," says Olshausen, "might receive the Apostles as prophets or righteous men, because, from his point of view, he could not recognize anything higher in them; but he who was able to recognize in the messengers of Christ that specifically new thing which they brought, and who, from love to it, would receive them, received the full blessing from Him." The prominent idea in these. sentences relates to the different kinds and degrees of reward which men shall receive according to their different attainments in the Jewish or the Christian life.

NOTES.

AND when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease.

1-4. We have four different cata

logues of the Apostles, viz.: Matt. x. 9-4; Mark iii. 16-19; Luke vi. 14-16; Acts i. 13. That the dif

ferent accounts may be easily compared, we subjoin the following table:

2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: the first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James 3 the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alpheus, and Lebbeus, whose surname was Thaddeus; 4 Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed