He spake “not as the scribes.”—No doubt they were remarkably correct in their addresses, and could tell you all about everything. They had literal exactitude—that would be most interesting and most intellectual; but while He had that in a way beyond theirs, He had a power which always made the word of God to be the sword of the Spirit. In His hand its connection and its application were perfect. It always suited the occasion. It may have been resisted, and was so; for both His words and Himself were rejected. But none the less they had to own that “never man spake like this Man.” May we covet the grace that will make a difference between our mode of speaking and our usual scribish and powerless method. May we be not less literally exact, but more spiritually fresh and plain and vigorous, and, above all, far more tender.