If ye have faith, and doubt not. — The promise, in its very form, excludes a literal fulfilment. The phrase to “remove mountains” (as in 1 Corinthians 13:2) was a natural hyperbole for overcoming difficulties, and our Lord in pointing to “this mountain” — as He had done before to Hermon (Matthew 17:20) — did but give greater vividness to an illustration which the disciples would readily understand. A mere physical miracle, such as the removal of the mountain, could never be in itself the object of the prayer of a faith such as our Lord described. The hyperbole is used here, as elsewhere, to impress on men’s mind the truth which lies beneath it.

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