This particular point gives us an opportunity to consider generally our Lord’s method in teaching. We have been brought up against one conspicuous instance in which our Lord appears to contradict Himself; and the explanation of this lies in His method. At times we must notice His method was metaphorical. When we were considering what He says about asceticism, for example, we saw that the instances given were plainly metaphorical. “If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee.” That is a metaphor for violently putting under restraint any faculty which has been misused. But here His instances are not metaphorical. They are such as quite admit of actual and literal application. They are, however, _proverbial_. You may notice in the proverbs of all nations that they easily admit of appearing to be contradictory and yet of being perfectly intelligible in the guidance they give us. One day you will hear a man condemned as “penny wise and pound foolish”; another day it is “take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves.” One day it is “look before you leap”; another “nothing venture, nothing have.” The suggestions involved in these pairs of proverbs are contradictory. The important matter according to the one is to be careful about large sums, according to the other to be careful about small sums: according to one to think before you act, according to the other to be ready to run a risk. But each gives what is obviously the right guidance to certain characters in certain situations, and gives it after the manner of proverbs. A proverb embodies a principle of common, but not universal, application in an absolute and extreme form. Another proverb may embody another principle in a similar form. And thus expressed they may easily appear contradictory, and both alike impracticable, if taken literally, because all the qualifying circumstances are left out. Our Lord then teaches by proverbs. In emphasizing one principle He expresses it as an absolute direction in an extreme instance: “If a man will take thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.” In emphasizing another principle He expresses it in a similar form: “If thy brother trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault” and follow the matter up to its extreme consequences. And every one must recognize that the right application of each proverb depends on the question, What is the particular principle which at a particular moment is to be brought into play? No proverb could be ever taken as a rule for constant action, but only as a type of action when a particular principle is to be expressed. Now we may take the injunctions which our Lord gives, and ask ourselves how we can apply these particular proverbs to-day. “But I say unto you, Resist not him that is evil: but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”