Learn hence —

1. That till God reveals Himself, His nature and will, no man can know either what He is, or what He requires — "Thou hast revealed."

2. That the wise and knowing men in the world have in all ages despised the mysteries of the gospel, and have therefore been judicially blinded by God — "Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent." When men shut their eyes against the clearest light, and say they will not see, God closes their eyes and says they shall not see.

3. That the most ignorant, if humble, and desirous of spiritual illumination, are in the readiest disposition to embrace the gospel revelation — "Thou hast revealed them unto babes."

4. That this is not more pleasing to Christ than it is the pleasure of His Father — "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight."Observe — Our Saviour magnifies Himself:

1. His authority and commission — "All things are delivered unto Me"; that is, all power is committed unto Me, as Mediator, from God the Father.

2. His office to reveal His Father's will to a lost world — "No man knoweth the Father but the Son, or the Son but the Father"; that is, no man knoweth their essence and nature, their will and pleasure, their counsel and consent, their mutual compact and agreement betwixt themselves, for saving a lost world, but only themselves, "and those to whom they have revealed it." Learn thence, That all saving knowledge of God is in, by, and through Christ; He, as the Great Prophet of His Church, reveals unto us the mind and will of God for our salvation.

(W. Burkitt.)

1. Let me ask you if you resemble Christ in rejoicing at the success of true religion? He greatly rejoiced in spirit, and gave thanks to His Father, that Satan was dethroned, and that, though some were obstinate, others were blessed with a saving discovery of Divine things.

2. Beware of being proud of your own wisdom and prudence, and cherish the humility and teachableness of babes.

3. We should learn, from the twenty-second verse, never to separate the truths of what is called natural religion from the gospel. The idea that there is, or can be, any true and acceptable religion whatever, apart from the revelation of Christ, is here shown to be quite preposterous. The true Witness declares that no man can know the Father except he to whom He shall reveal Him.

4. Let us be thankful for the precious religious privileges which we enjoy, and careful to improve them. " Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see."

5. Lastly: Are we blessed, because our eyes see, and our ears hear these things? — then, Christian benevolence should lead us to feel for those who enjoy no such privileges, and to do everything we can to extend them to the utmost corners of the earth.

(James Foote, M. A.)

The sublimity of this joy we feel the more, when we compare with it that of the seventy. They rejoice in the great things, He in the good brought to pass; they have their joy directed to the outer, Jesus His to the moral world; they rejoice alone in the present, Jesus also in the past and the future; they are disposed to self-praise, Jesus to thankful adoration.

(Van Oosterzee.)

1. An example of the joy which the Lord sometimes experienced upon earth.

2. An image of the joy which He now experiences in heaven.

3. A presage of the blessedness which He shall hereafter taste when the kingdom of God shall be fully perfected.

(Van Oosterzee.)

It is remarkable that this is the only instance on record in the Gospels in which our Lord is said to have rejoiced. Yet I do not think it would be fair to infer from the fact of a solitary mention of His rejoicing that He did not rejoice at other times; on the contrary, our Lord must, despite His sorrow, have possessed a peaceful, happy spirit. He was infinitely benevolent, and went about doing good; and benevolence always finds a quiet delight in blessing others. Moreover, our Lord was so pure that He had a well of joy within which could not fail Him. Besides, Christ Jesus was a man of faith; faith's highest exposition and example. He it was, who "for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame." His faith must, therefore, have anticipated the reward of His passion, and have brought the joy thereof home to Him even while He sorrowed here. It is clear that joy was not a distinguishing feature in our Lord's life, so as to strike the beholder. Peace may have sat serenely on His brow, but nothing of the exuberant spirits which are seen in some men, for His countenance was marred with lines of care and grief. The words here used are very emphatic. "He rejoiced." The Greek word is much stronger than the English rendering; it signifies "to leap for joy." It is the word of the blessed Virgin's song, "My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." Strong emotions of delight were visible upon our Lord's face, and were expressed by the tones of His voice as well as by His words. It is clear that He was greatly glad. The text also says, He "rejoiced in spirit": that is, deep down in the very centre of His nature, in that largest and moat capacious part of His human being, the Redeemer rejoiced.

I. Our Lord's joy was JOY IS THE FATHER'S REVELATION OF THE GOSPEL.

1. I call your attention to the fact that He ascribed all that was done to the Father, and joyed that the Father was working with Him.

2. The Saviour's joy was that through the Father's grace men were being enlightened.

3. Further, our Saviour's joy lay very much in this, that this revelation to men was being made through such humble instruments.

4. And yet, further, His great joy was that the converts were of such a character as they were.

5. Our Lord's joy sprang from one other source, namely, His view of the manner in which God was pleased to save His people. It was by revealing these things to them. There is, then, to every man who is saved a revelation, not of anything over and above what is given us in the Word of God; but of that same truth to Himself personally and with power. In the word is the light; but what is needed is that each man's eye should be opened by the finger of God to see it.

II. OUR LORD'S MODE OF EXPRESSIVE HIS JOY.

1. His joy finds tongue in thanksgiving.

2. He found expression for His joy in declaring the Father's sovereignty.

3. He delighted in the special act of sovereignty which was before Him, that the Lord had "hid these things from the wise and prudent, and had revealed them unto babes." His voice, as it were, went with the Father's voice; He agreed with the Father's choice, He rejoiced in it, He triumphed in it.

III. Thirdly, and briefly, I want you to see OUR LORD'S EXPLANATION OF THE FATHER'S ACT.

1. The Father had been pleased to hide these things from the wise and prudent and to reveal them unto babes, and Jesus Christ is perfectly satisfied with that order of things, quite content with the kind of converts He has and the kind of preachers that God has given Him. The Lord Jesus does not need prestige.

2. See how the Lord explains it yet further, by showing that human wisdom cannot find out God. Next, learn that the sovereignty of God is always exercised in such a way that the pure in heart may always rejoice in it. God never did a sovereign act yet that the loving Christ Himself could not rejoice in. The ultimate honour of the gospel is secured unto God alone, let that be our last lesson.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

The babe is the representative of the receptive spirit. Its characteristic is trust, openness to impression, and freedom from prejudice. The disciples were babes who lay open to the Divine message, and did not interpose theories and traditions. They were poor and knew it, and were willing to become rich. To them God revealed. But the revealing to a certain disposition is of necessity the hiding from its opposite.

I. TO REVEAL TO BABES HARMONIZES WITH GOD'S CHARACTER AS A FATHER AND ILLUSTRATES IT. "Babe" is the counterpart to "Father" — "wise and understanding" has no such relation. The wise and understanding might have a special relation to an almighty Taskmaster, an infinite Schoolmaster and Prizegiver; but certainly not to an infinite Father. A father's heart is not attracted to the brilliance or power in his family, but to the want. The gospel is salvation by the free gift of God. Any true conception of the evil of sin, and its effects on the soul, renders other ideas of salvation incredible. We call God Father, and ask His forgiveness. Salvation by grace is bound up with the Divine arrangement, which reveals to babes. The distinction of the babe is just here — he is adapted to salvation by grace.

II. IT GLORIFIES GOD AS LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH TO REVEAL TO BABES. That God is Lord of heaven and earth makes His lowliness not less, but more needful and credible. The more you extend the empire of God, the more necessary it is for the heart to feel that God is lowly, and to have abundant proof of it. The higher and mightier you conceive God to be, the less it will appear credible to you that He should show preference to force of any kind.

III. BY REVEALING TO BABES THE FATHER AND LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH MANIFESTS THE SUPREMACY OF THE MORAL ELEMENT. What a calamity it would have been if the highest blessing had been in any way specially associated with intellectual qualities. This would have been to confirm and glorify the false estimate already so prevalent and so disastrous. But when God passes by the soaring imagination, the lofty intellect, the keen understanding, and puts His main blessing into the lowly heart and open spirit, when He comes down to the very lowest form of the moral and spiritual, the mere sense of want, the mere hunger for better things, and gives infinite eternal wealth to that — what a rebuke He conveys to pride of intellect; what honour He confers upon plain heart and conscience. Now is the false judgment of the world reversed. Now substance is put in place of show. Now spirit is exalted over form. Now right is put on the royal seat.

IV. IT GLORIFIES GOD AS FATHER AND LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH TO REVEAL TO BABES; FOR IT SHOWS HIS DESIRE TO REVEAL AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, AND TO AS MANY AS POSSIBLE. Had God then revealed to the wise and understanding, He would have hidden from the world as a whole. By revealing to babes He gives hope to universal humanity. The babe slumbers in every soul however artificial or proud, and may be wakened up by some simple touch of pathos, or glimpse of memory, as well as by disaster. God who reveals to babes shows that it is man himself that He wants, not man's accomplishments, not man's energies, and distinctions and elevations, but man.

V. THE APPOINTMENT OF A PERSONAL SAVIOUR GLORIFIES GOD AS FATHER AND LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, AND IS PECULIARLY ADAPTED TO BABES. Jesus is the typical original Babe, the perfect, infinite example of the receptive spirit; therefore He reveals the Father, and is the refuge of men and the rest for the weary. On account of the very vastness of the lordship of heaven and earth a person is needed to bring God near, to show that it is a lordship, and not a mere system; and that there is a heart at the centre. The gospel is salvation by a person. Trust in Christ saves us. This suits the babes, and, therefore, at bottom, all men.

(J. Leckie, D. D.)

I. THE INTELLECTUAL CONTRAST. The world, Christ would tell us, is divisible into the simple and the wise. Our Lord rejoices that the larger section is not excluded from participation in the things of the kingdom of God; that men do not need worldly wisdom and the prudence of experience in order to knowing the truths of salvation. No exclusive sentence is written over the portals of Christianity. It is adjusted to the lowest and meanest capacity. Christ's mission was to all humanity, and He rejoiced in that fact.

II. THE MORAL CONTRAST. He wishes to tell us what is essential — that it is only to the child-heart that revelation will be made. We know the contrast between the childheart and a heart sophisticated by life. Worldly and hardened hearts cannot receive the revelation of the things of heaven.

1. It is even so in regard to the world of beauty around us. We fill our hearts with cares, and immerse ourselves in business, so that we cannot see the beauty of a landscape which entrances the child-heart.

2. It is true also of noble actions or ideas: only the care-free childheart feels their beauty and sublimity.

3. When a great evil is to be dealt with, we notice how slowly the consciences of worldly-wise, practical men rise to a great public duty, and how swiftly the child-heart perceives the line between right and wrong.

III. THE PRACTICAL RESULT. Christ rejoices that none are excluded from His kingdom. But no gigantic effort of intellect will enable us to climb over the battlements of heaven. Wisdom is nearer to us when we stoop.

(Bishop Boyd Carpenter)

I. THE FACT.

1. A childlike mind is required in those who would receive Christ and His kingdom.

2. The first disciples were children and men of childlike mind.

3. In the present day, the gospel is for the childlike.

II. THE SECRET.

1. The nature of the truth revealed requires a childlike mind for the reception of it.(1) Its novelty. It is not contrary to true reason; but it is aside from and different from the old results of human reason.(2) Its unwordliness. The eyes that are wearied with poring over earthly lore are often too worn to bear the light of heavenly truth. This requires a healthy, fresh vision.(3) Its lowliness. A gospel for the simple is not necessarily a simple gospel.

2. The method of the revelation requires a childlike mind for the reception of it. It is not given by logical demonstration, but through act and life. We must see it with the soul's eyes. For the clearness of this spiritual vision we need

(1)simplicity and self-forgetfulness,

(2)trustfulness,

(3)purity — children's graces.

III. THE THANKSGIVING. Why?

1. It is according to God's will.

2. It redounds to the glory of God.

(1)As an evidence that the revelation comes from heaven and is not got by man's wisdom. It is not stolen Promethean fire.

(2)As a proof of the power of God. He can teach highest truth to lowliest scholars.

(3)As a sign of the goodness and condescension of God.

3. It proves the breadth of revelation.

4. It brings to us the best discipline in revelation.

(W. F. Adeney, M. A.)

1. This is not different:

(1)In the days of the Saviour;

(2)In later ages;

(3)In our time.

2. This cannot be different.

(1)Objective cause in the nature of the gospel.

(2)Subjective cause in the human heart.

(3)Supernatural cause in the counselor God.

3. This may not be different; for, even in this way —

(1)The divinity of the gospel is confirmed;

(2)The requirements of the gospel are satisfied;

(3)The trial of the gospel is assured.

(Van Oosterzee.)

Whilst Jesus deemed it needful to warn His disciples against self-exaltation because of what they had been the means of doing, He Himself found in the successes which had accompanied their labours a ground for grateful rejoicing. In these successes He saw the firstfruits of a rich and glorious harvest; and He broke out into the exclamation — "I thank Thee, O Father!" &c. By the expression, "these things," our Saviour meant the great Divine truths which He had come into the world expressly to reveal, which He had commissioned these seventy disciples to announce in the towns they visited, and for the rejection of which He had a little while before upbraided the cities of Galilee. With respect to these Divine truths, Christ here makes a two-fold statement.

I. HE SPEAKS OF THEM AS HAVING BEEN HIDDEN FROM SOME.

1. Divine truths were not hidden from these people through any want of outward revelation.

2. Nor through any lack of intellectual ability to understand them. They were "the wise and prudent."

3. Nor through any influence exerted by God for the purpose. "Thou hast hid," &c., must be interpreted in the broad light of our Saviour's teaching as a whole.

4. In what sense, then, are we to understand that Divine truths were hidden from these people? To answer this question we must first answer another, namely, Who were the wise and prudent from whom these truths were concealed?(1) They were not really the wise and prudent.(2) They supposed themselves to be so, and gloried in the supposition. There is in such a case an element of retribution of which we must not lose sight. The retribution consists in this — that these people, having wilfully shut their minds against the revelations of God's truth, are left by God to the consequences of their self-inflicted blindness.

II. HE SPEAKS OF THEM AS HAVING BEEN REVEALED TO OTHERS. The word "babes" is clearly intended to be antithetic to the words "wise and prudent." As by the wise and prudent, the Saviour meant those who were proud, ostentatious, self-sufficient, thinking of themselves more highly than they ought to think, and looking down on others with a cold indifference or a supercilious contempt; so by babes He meant those who were humble, teachable, self-distrustful, feeling themselves to be destitute of all real good, and being willing to receive help and blessing from whatever quarter or in whatsoever way it might come. To such as these Divine truths were revealed, and only to such.

1. It was not because they had been favoured with a greater amount of light respecting these truths.

2. It was not because they had been supplied with better means of preparation for the reception of these truths.

3. It was not because they had been made the exclusive objects of a selecting love.

4. It was because they were in a fit and proper mood for the reception of spiritual truths. With respect to this revelation of Divine truths to the humble we have to notice two things, each of which suggests a practical lesson well worth learning:(1) It was a source of grateful joy to the Saviour's heart.(2) It had His cordial and unqualified acquiescence. In conclusion, let us remember that if we would be as babes to whom Divine truths are revealed, we must not only bow before God in self-abasement and contrition, but we must look for the revelation of those truths through Jesus Christ. This point comes out in ver. 22, "All things are delivered," etc.

(B. Wilkinson, F. G. S.)

In that hour Jesus rejoiced in Spirit. How few such occasions occurred in His life! What hour was it? When He saw, humanly speaking, a glimpse of God's method of unfolding His governmental purposes, and His beneficent plans and designs. "I thank Thee that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent," from intellectual giants, from merely clever people, from so-called genius, and sagacity and intellectual power. "Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" Jesus did not summon the proudest king, or the mightiest thinker, but He set a child in the midst of them, and said, "The child is always the greatest." So you will find it all throughout life, that when you have been most happy, when you have been most childlike, you have seen things most clearly; not when you have put on the cap of your genius, and have taken the sceptre of your power, and robed yourself in the official dignity of a passing moment or a transient situation; but when you have stripped yourself of your own greatness, and have sat down, and said, "Lord, teach me." Religion, as propounded to us by Jesus Christ, is not a riddle to be solved by the intellectually great. It is a revelation to the heart; it is a word spoken to sin; it is a gospel breathed upon sorrow; it is a word of liberty delivered to those that are bound; a subtle sympathy — something not to be named in high-sounding phrases, or to be wrought out in pomp of words. If you have been in the habit of going to church for the purpose of settling some critical argument, for the purpose of hearing the minister through the medium of your scholastic accumulations and of your native power of intellect, I do not wonder you are numbered with the lean kine who, having devoured much, are none the better for their gluttony; but if you go hungering and thirsting after righteousness, if you have left your big self outside, and have come in, just enough of you to breathe and confess sin, just enough to be a mere spot on the floor of the sanctuary — a mere cripple, with only breath enough to say, "God be merciful to me a sinner," you were never disappointed. If in hymn, or psalm, or high anthem, or exposition, or reading of the Word Divine, you have received satisfaction, great answers, infinite gospels, you have secretly blessed God for His revelations. The disciples were compared to babes, and the babes received the great revelation. It will be found that simplicity itself is the chief mystery of God. Some things are so simple that we won't believe them. I know sceptical minds who, if they were asking me which is the way to the Thames, and I were to say "This," would doubt the answer because of its brevity and simplicity. If I could have conveyed the indication of the route by a roundabout process, they might, perhaps, have been led to believe that I meant what I said, though they did not know what I meant. Do not look so far from home for your blessings; do not make mysteries where God intends you to find simplicity.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

Observe, I am speaking about the beginning, in developing this doctrine of the babe-spirit, and not about the end. And even at the end thou shalt find out the great mystery of the unity between the man and the child that He, the child Jesus, and the man Christ Jesus are one and the same. The greater his modesty; the more wonderful his power and influence, the greater his readiness to consider, and oblige, and do good. From the greatest expect the best; from the master more than from the servant; from the disciple rudeness and rejection, from the Master, "Forbid them not, let them come."

(J. Parker, D. D.)

That the sage should miss what the infant can see seems at first but little possible, and still less a subject for thankfulness. It would appear to discourage the highest attributes of our nature, to throw contempt on the patience of thought, and cruelly to visit the prayer for light with the deeper darkness. Can it be that the more pains we take to know, the less will the truth be found; that the rich and practised mind is at a disadvantage compared with the inexperienced and empty? And if so, why exult in the frustration of the noblest of human aims, and the confiscation of the prize to those who have no aim at all? dwells with a savage satisfaction on the supposed exclusion from the kingdom of God of whatever we hold fair and great in the old heathen world, and richest for the adornment of all time; and exults in peopling it with hordes of triumphant barbarians like himself. Is this the spirit of Christ's thanksgiving? Are we required, out of sympathy with it, to believe Socrates an outcast and clap our hands as he vanishes from hope? to stifle our reverence for AEschylus and Plato, for the Scipios and Antonines — and declare God's preference for mendicant monks and illiterate missionaries? Must we condemn as secular and carnal our own natural admiration for the gifts of wisdom — the disciplined powers, the large and supple thought, the accurate expression, of a wellcultured nature — and force ourselves into harmony of taste with the raw religion of unmellowed sectaries, their loud voice, their rude speech, their narrow zeal, their tumultuous aspirations? Far from it. It is not intellect from which God hides Himself, but selfishness and pride; which may belong alike to taught and untaught, and darken the soul of sophist or of clown. There is light both in the "base" and in the "wise": but in the former it is wholly spontaneous; in the latter it is chiefly derivative. In its infancy the soul simply apprehends what is given it to perceive, lies confidingly in the bosom of nature, and lets the morning beams come into the full and wondering eyes. It is the loss of the habit of natural trust, the tendency to anxious quest of something distant instead of pure repose on what is here, that according to Christ's prayer, hides God from the wise and prudent. And, conversely, it is the surrender to spontaneous light and love, the simple passing out upon it into life, without doubt of its guidance or scrutiny of its claims, that reveals Him unto "babes." How profoundly true this is — that in Divine things the little child may know what the great philosopher may miss — will appear if you only think what God is, and whether He is likely to be discovered on any explorer's track or by any artifice of calculation. Two things science enables us to do, from which all its triumphs spring. It shows us how to put the parts and products of nature into true classes; and it qualifies us to foresee phenomena else unsuspected. But God is neither a being to be classified, nor a phenomenon to be foreseen,

(Dr. Martineau.)

that the completest self-sacrifice gives the completest self-possession; that only the captive soul, which has flung her rights away, has all her powers free; and that simply to serve under the instant orders of the living God, is the highest qualification for command. This is the meaning of that great saying of Cromwell's: "One never mounts so high as when one knows not whither one is going": a saying which the wise and prudent scorned as a confession of blindness, but which reveals to simpler minds the deepest truth.

(Dr. Martineau.)

there — the Pagan and the Christian — the moral and the religious — the secular and the Divine. The former has its root and essence in trying hard; the latter, in trusting gently: the one depends on voluntary energy; the other on relinquishment of personal will to cast every burden upon God.

(Dr. Martineau.)

there is need of no subtle thought, no foreign tongue, no newest philosophy: "the pure in heart shall see" Him; and Fox and Bunyan can more truly make Him known, than "Masters of Sentences" and "Angelic Doctors."

(Dr. Martineau.)

A man came to his pastor one night to learn the way of salvation. He was a very learned man, but he said: "I know nothing of Divine truth. I come to you to learn — as a child. I come to learn the very alphabet of religion." His pastor replied: "My friend, when you return home, open your Bible and read prayerfully the third chapter of John. Think of it. Study it. That will be A. Then turn to Isaiah, fifty-fifth chapter. Study it. Believe it. That is B. A B, ab, almost Abba Father."

(Handbook to Scripture Doctrines.)

The curate who attended Pascal on his dying bed, struck with the triumph of religion over the pride of an intellect which continued to burn after it had ceased to blaze, would frequently exclaim, "He is an infant — humble and submissive as an infant!"

(Life of Pascal.)

The Rev. John Foster, whose sceptical tendencies were the source of much distress of mind, was finally led to say: "I have felt the necessity of dismissing subtle speculations, and of yielding a humble, cordial assent to mysterious truth, just as and because the Scriptures declare it, without asking 'How can these things be?' The gospel is to me a matter of urgent necessity. I come to Jesus because I need pardon."

I. THE MYSTERY OF DEITY IN SELF-EXISTENCE. He is an unknown God where there is no supernatural revelation of Him. Reason is baffled, because it is under the fall. Eternal self-existence. How wonderful! It exceeds all power of calculation.

II. THE INCARNATE SON OF GOD REVEALING. NOW mark, I beseech you, that all this glory of the Father, made to shine in the face of Jesus Christ, is unknown to the sinner as long as he is blinded.

III. THE SALVATION SECURED THEREBY. Contrived and bestowed by God the Father. Carried out by God the Son. It is, therefore, infallible, and it secures the glory of Jehovah.

(J. Irons.)

1. Unlimited.

2. Legitimate.

3. Beneficent.

4. Ever-enduring.

(Van Oosterzee.)

1. How far it is the object of our faith.

2. How far it can be the object of our knowledge.

(Van Oosterzee.)

1. The highest mystery.

2. A revealed mystery.

3. Even after the revelation yet continually a partially concealed mystery.

(Van Oosterzee.)

Christ, as you see here, speaks of Himself. What does He say of Himself?

1. Does He not claim to be Divinely constituted as a Revealer of God? "All things are delivered to Me of My Father."

2. Our Lord speaks here also of the glorious mystery of His own person and character. No man, nor angel, nor archangel, nor any intelligence in this or in the heavenly world, knoweth who the Son is but the Father. It takes an Infinite Being to comprehend an Infinite Being.

3. Christ alone knows God in perfection — "No man knoweth who the Father is but the Son." What an awful sense of loneliness — a loneliness which is unutterable — would be involved in our idea of God, unless we had some light given to us by Jesus Christ, concerning His relation to the Father.

4. Jesus Christ is and can alone be the Revealer of God to us — "And he to whom the Son will reveal Him."

(1)He can be known to whom the Son will reveal Him.

(2)The way to the knowledge of God is by meekness, humility, submission, trustfulness, love.

(W. Dorling.)

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