The Pharisees and Scribes looked upon all publicans, whether they were Jews or not, as heathens, unfit to be even spoken to: they would not even try to make them better, as they chose to think that God had quite cast them off. Jesus taught a very different lesson, and showed that God is ready to receive all who will repent of their sins and follow Him. Jesus, who sees what thoughts and feelings are in the heart of every one, made choice of Matthew as a fit man to be one of His constant attendants, and therefore, when he saw him sitting at the receipt of custom, "He said unto him, Follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him." At once, without doubt or hesitation, Matthew left all and followed Jesus: now, Jesus calls all of us when we are baptized; but how few of us try to follow Him really and truly? We might perhaps think that it was wrong of Matthew thus to leave his business and go away, because then the people who crossed the sea would not pay the tax required by the Romans: but as he had paid money to the Romans for the situation, they would not be cheated out of the tax: he himself would be the only sufferer. If this had not been the case, he _would_ have been wrong to go away before some other person was appointed in his place: for the Bible teaches us, that we must do our duty to man fairly and faithfully, in whatever state of life we are. By doing our earthly business honestly and well, we serve God: if our business takes up too much of our thoughts, and makes us forget God and neglect His worship, then we must give up our business; for we should always think _first_ of pleasing God. The next event we hear of in our Saviour's life is, that with His usual obedience to the Law, He went up to Jerusalem to keep a "feast of the Jews": most probably the feast of Tabernacles; a feast celebrated in the Autumn, as a thanksgiving for the harvest or in-gathering of corn, grapes for wine, and all other fruits of the earth: this feast was also intended to remind them of the journeyings of their forefathers in the wilderness, where they lived in booths or tents for forty years; and therefore they were to keep it, by dwelling for seven days in booths, made of the branches of trees.