The sermon on the mount, as it is commonly called, seems the Lord's
first free utterance, in the presence of any large assembly, of the good
news of the kingdom. He had been teaching his disciples and messengers;
and had already brought the glad tidings that his father was their
father, to many besides--to Nathanael for one, to Nicodemus, to the
woman of Samaria, to every one he had cured, every one whose cry for
help he had heard: his epiphany was a gradual thing, beginning, where it
continues, with the individual. It is impossible even to guess at what
number may have heard him on this occasion: he seems to have gone up the
mount because of the crowd--to secure a somewhat opener position whence
he could better speak; and thither followed him those who desired to be
taught of him, accompanied doubtless by not a few in whom curiosity was
the chief motive. Disciple or gazer, he addressed the individuality of
every one that had ears to hear. Peter and Andrew, James and John, are
all we know as his recognized disciples, followers, and companions, at
the time; but, while his words were addressed to such as had come to
him desiring to learn of him, the things he uttered were eternal truths,
life in which was essential for every one of his father's children,
therefore they were for all: he who heard to obey, was his disciple.

How different, at the first sound of it, must the good news have been
from the news anxiously expected by those who waited for the Messiah!
Even the Baptist in prison lay listening after something of quite
another sort. The Lord had to send him a message, by eye-witnesses of
his doings, to remind him that God's thoughts are not as our thoughts,
or his ways as our ways--that the design of God is other and better than
the expectation of men. His summary of the gifts he was giving to men,
culminated with the preaching of the good news to the poor. If John had
known these his doings before, he had not recognized them as belonging