Matthew 7:6

Give not that which is holy unto dogs.

I cannot see the immediate connection of this command with what precedes, unless the Lord proposes to warn against another extreme. He has just forbidden the unholy to preach holiness, the impure purity, the vicious virtue, &c. He demands that the preacher shall be free from the faults he labors to correct, and shall illustrate in his own life the virtues he enforces. He must be. better man than his hearers. At the same time he must consider the character of those he seeks to address. They may be such reprobates that he can do nothing for them. He must determine whether his labors will be wasted, and even harm rather than good be done. The forcible metaphor which presents this lesson is, "Give not that which is holy unto dogs." The dogs of the East are outcasts, living in troops about the cities and towns upon garbage, and without ownership. They are. much more repulsive animal than the dogs of our country. Besides, the dog, according to the law, was an unclean animal. "That which is holy is. designation of what was placed upon the altar, the sacrificial meat, the provision for the priests. To give it to an unclean animal would be sacrilege. Dogs probably represent snarling, scoffing opposers, enemies of the truth. The characteristic of dogs is brutality. To try to instil holy things into such low, unclean and sordid, brutal minds is useless.

Neither cast pearls before swine.

The swine were also unclean. The Eastern swine are more savage than ours, and they are everywhere sluggish and low. They would have no use for pearls, and would trample them under foot, and perhaps would rush upon those who scattered the pearls. So, too, there are men so dull, imbruted and senseless, as to reject the pearls of truth. They might not only treat the truth with contempt, but destroy those who sought to preach it. Those "whose gods are their belly," who are the slaves of passion, can hardly appreciate the most sacred truths until they have been led by degrees to love something besides the husks upon which the swine are fed. It is our duty to help and to try to save others, but we must use common sense. We must not foolishly give rebuke and advice when it will do no good, but rather harm. It is. characteristic of Pharisaism to cast the pearls before swine. It has been, in every age, prone to both faults condemned by the Savior. It will seek to cast out motes from the eyes of others, regardless of its own beams, and will engage in unwise rebukes, appeals and preaching, or cast pearls before swine.