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We try to soften this terrible prophecy by our comments. As if we could explain facts which are notorious to every reader of history, to every one who has had experience of what is passing in his own time I As if we could convince any reasonable persons that there have not been, that there are not, these strifes in families; that the gospel of Christ has not provoked them, and does not provoke them still t Or as if our Lord, supposing He is the Prince of Peace, as we say He is, wanted our help to vindicate Him from the charge of being the Author of war t Surely we may trust Him with His own character. All that is required of us is, that we should let His words come to us in the fulness of their power and their condemnation. Goodness and gentleness do stir up what is opposed to them in us; we know that they do. Our sectarian animosities are kindled by the message of God's goodwill to men; we know that they are. Can we not understand then, how, coming among a set of hostile factions, which abhorred one another, but observed a conventional decency in their strife, Christ stirred up their rage to its very depths? Cannot we understand how the fury of both burned for awhile against Him — a hollow truce being established between them by the presence of a common enemy? Did it not revenge itself for that restraint afterwards? Did not every hearth and household become a battle-field in that war? This was the state of Jerusalem, as its own historian describes it in the latter days. He can give us the narrative calmly, Jew though He was. When Jesus looked forward to it, He was straitened with agony. He felt in every fibre of His own being what was coming upon His land. There may have been moments when the evil spirit thrust the thought full upon Him: "Would it not be better to shrink from Thy task? If this is the effect of the peace which Thou proclaimest, why not let them welter on without any announcement of God's kingdom?" Such suggestions have been continually made to His followers, when they have spoken of peace, and when those to whom they have spoken have made them ready for the battle. If He was tempted in all points like them, He cannot have been free from this kind of anguish, Nor will He have overcome the tempter with any other weapons than those with which He has furnished them. He must have said, for Himself and for them, "My work is with the Lord, and My judgment with My God. In His own time My Father will accomplish His purpose. The hollow alliances of sects will end in more fierce and frantic war. But through that war wilt come the discovery of the peace which passeth understanding, the peace which lasts in the midst of the world's tribulations; that peace will be established through the whole creation."

(F. D. Maurice, M. A.)

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KJV: Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:

WEB: Do you think that I have come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, no, but rather division.