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diff --git a/old/7matt10.txt b/old/7matt10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e9d481 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7matt10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,23875 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Expositions of Holy Scripture, by Alexander Maclaren +#2 in our series by Alexander Maclaren + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Expositions of Holy Scripture + St. Matthew Chaps. IX to XXVIII + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7351] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 19, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + + + + +Produced by Anne Folland, Charles Franks and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + + +ST. MATTHEW + +_Chaps. IX to XXVIII_ + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + + +ST. MATTHEW + +_Chaps. IX to XVII_ + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHRIST'S ENCOURAGEMENTS (Matt. ix. 2) + +SOUL-HEALING FIRST: BODY-HEALING SECOND (Matt. ix. 6) + +THE CALL OF MATTHEW (Matt. ix. 9-17) + +THE TOUCH OF FAITH AND THE TOUCH OF CHRIST (Matt. ix. 18-31) + +A CHRISTLIKE JUDGMENT OF MEN (MATT. ix. 36) + +THE OBSCURE APOSTLES (Matt. x. 5) + +CHRIST'S CHARGE TO HIS HERALDS (Matt. x. 5-16) + +THE WIDENED MISSION, ITS PERILS AND DEFENCES (Matt. x. 16-31) + +LIKE TEACHER, LIKE SCHOLAR (Matt x. 24, 25) + +THE KING'S CHARGE TO HIS AMBASSADORS (Matt. x. 32-42) + +A LIFE LOST AND FOUND (Matt. x. 39) + +THE GREATEST IN THE KINGDOM, AND THEIR REWARD (Matt. x. 41, 42) + +JOHN'S DOUBTS OF JESUS, AND JESUS' PRAISE OF JOHN (Matt. xi. 2-15) + +THE FRIEND OF PUBLICANS AND SINNERS (Matt. xi. 19) + +SODOM, CAPERNAUM, MANCHESTER (Matt. xi. 20) + +CHRIST'S STRANGE THANKSGIVING (Matt. xi. 25) + +THE REST GIVER (Matt. xi. 28, 29) + +THE PHARISEES' SABBATH AND CHRIST'S (Matt. xii. 1-14) + +AN ATTEMPT TO ACCOUNT FOR JESUS (Matt. xii. 24) + +'MAKE THE TREE GOOD' (Matt. xii. 33) + +'A GREATER THAN JONAS' (Matt. xii. 41) + +'A GREATER THAN SOLOMON' (Matt. xii. 42) + +FOUR SOWINGS AND ONE RIPENING (Matt. xiii. 1-9) + +EARS AND NO EARS (Matt. xiii. 9) + +'TO HIM THAT HATH SHALL BE GIVEN' (Matt. xiii. 12) + +SEEING AND BLIND (Matt. xiii. 13) + +MINGLED IN GROWTH, SEPARATED IN MATURITY (Matt. xiii. 24-30) + +LEAVEN (Matt. xiii. 33) + +TREASURE AND PEARL (Matt. xiii. 44-46) + +THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN (Matt. xiv. 1-12) + +THE GRAVE OF THE DEAD JOHN AND THE GRAVE OF THE LIVING JESUS (Matt. +xiv. 12; xxviii. 8) + +THE FOOD OF THE WORLD (Matt. xiv. 19, 20) + +THE KING'S HIGHWAY (Matt. xiv. 22-36) + +PETER ON THE WAVES (Matt. xiv. 28) + +THB CRUMBS AND THE BREAD (Matt. xv. 21-31) + +THE DIVINE CHRIST CONFESSED, THE SUFFERING CHRIST DENIED (Matt. xvi. +13-28) + +CHRIST FORESEEING THE CROSS (Matt. xvi. 21) + +THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY (Matt. xvii, 1-13) + +THE SECRET OF POWER. (Matt. xvii. 19, 20) + +THE COIN IN THE FISH'S MOUTH (Matt. xvii. 25, 26) + + + + +CHRIST'S ENCOURAGEMENTS + + + 'Son, be of good cheer.'--MATT. ix. 2. + +This word of encouragement, which exhorts to both cheerfulness and +courage, is often upon Christ's lips. It is only once employed in +the Gospels by any other than He. If we throw together the various +instances in which He thus speaks, we may get a somewhat striking +view of the hindrances to such a temper of bold, buoyant cheerfulness +which the world presents, and of the means for securing it which +Christ provides. + +But before I consider these individually, let me point you to this +thought, that such a disposition, facing the inevitable sorrows, +evils, and toilsome tasks of life with glad and courageous buoyancy, +is a Christian duty, and is a temper not merely to be longed for, +but consciously and definitely to be striven after. + +We have a great deal more in our power, in the regulation of moods and +tempers and dispositions, than we often are willing to acknowledge to +ourselves. Our 'low' times--when we fret and are dull, and all things +seem wrapped in gloom, and we are ready to sit down and bewail ourselves, +like Job on his dunghill--are often quite as much the results of our +own imperfect Christianity as the response of our feelings to external +circumstances. It is by no means an unnecessary reminder for us, who +have heavy tasks set us, which often seem too heavy, and are surrounded, +as we all are, with crowding temptations to be bitter and melancholy +and sad, that Christ commands us to be, and therefore we ought to be, +'of good cheer.' + +Another observation may be made as preliminary, and that is that +Jesus Christ never tells people to cheer up without giving them +reason to do so. We shall see presently that in all cases where the +words occur they are immediately followed by words or deeds of His +which hold forth something on which, if the hearer's faith lay hold, +darkness and gloom will fly like morning mists before the rising +sun. The world comes to us and says, in the midst of our sorrows and +our difficulties, 'Be of good cheer,' and says it in vain, and +generally only rubs salt into the sore by saying it. Jesus Christ +never thus vainly preaches the duty of encouraging ourselves without +giving us ample reasons for the cheerfulness which He enjoins. + +With these two remarks to begin with--that we ought to make it a +part of our Christian discipline of ourselves to seek to cultivate a +continuous and equable temperament of calm, courageous good cheer; +and that Jesus Christ never commands such a temper without showing +cause for our obedience--let us turn for a few moments to the +various instances in which this expression falls from His lips. + +I. Now the first of them is this of my text, and from it we learn +this truth, that Christ's first contribution to our temper of +equable, courageous cheerfulness is the assurance that all our sins +are forgiven. + +'Son, be of good cheer,' said He to that poor palsied sufferer lying +there upon the little light bed in front of Him. He had been brought +to Christ to be cured of his palsy. Our Lord seems to offer him a +very irrelevant blessing when, instead of the healing of his limbs, +He offers him the forgiveness of his sins. That was possibly not +what he wanted most, certainly it was not what the friends who had +brought him wanted for him, but Jesus knew better than they what the +man suffered most from and most needed to have cured. They would +have said 'Palsy.' He said, 'Yes! but palsy that comes from sin.' +For, no doubt, the sick man's disease was 'a sin of flesh avenged in +kind,' and so Christ went to the fountain-head when He said, 'Thy +sins be forgiven thee.' He therein implied, not only that the man +was longing for something more than his four kindly but ignorant +bearers there knew, but also that the root of his disease was +extirpated when his sins were forgiven. + +And so, in like manner, 'thus conscience doth make cowards of us +all.' There is nothing that so drapes a soul with darkness as either +the consciousness of unforgiven sin or the want of consciousness of +forgiven sin. There may be plenty of superficial cheerfulness. I +know that; and I know what the bitter wise man called it, 'the +crackling of thorns under the pot,' which, the more they crackle, +the faster they turn into powdery ash and lose all their warmth. For +stable, deep, lifelong, reliable courage and cheerfulness, there +must be thorough work made with the black spot in the heart, and the +black lines in the history. And unless our comforters can come to us +and say, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee,' they are only chattering +nonsense, and singing songs to a heavy heart which will make an +effervescence 'like vinegar on nitre,' when they say to us, 'Be of +good cheer.' How can I be glad if there lie coiled in my heart that +consciousness of alienation and disorder in my relations to God, +which all men carry with them, though they overlay it and try to +forget it? There is no basis for a peaceful gladness worthy of a man +except that which digs deep down into the very secrets of the heart, +and lays the first course of the building in the consciousness of +pardoned sin. 'Son, be of good cheer!' Lift up thy head. Face +smaller evils without discomposure, and with quietly throbbing +pulses, for the fountain of possible terrors and calamities is +stanched and stayed with, 'Thy sins are forgiven thee.' + +Side by side with this first instance, illustrating the same general +thought, though from a somewhat different point of view, I may put +another of the instances in which the same phrase was soothingly on our +Lord's lips. 'Daughter,' said He to the poor woman with the issue of +blood, 'be of good cheer. Thy faith hath saved thee.' The consciousness +of a living union with God through Christ by faith, which results in +the present possession of a real, though it may be a partial, salvation, +is indispensable to the temper of equable cheerfulness of which I have +been speaking. Apart from that consciousness, you may have plenty of +excitement, but no lasting calm. The contrast between the drugged and +effervescent potion which the world gives as a cup of gladness, and the +pure tonic which Jesus Christ administers for the same purpose, is +infinite. He says to us, 'I forgive thy sins; by thy faith I save thee; +go in peace.' Then the burdened heart is freed from its oppression, and +the downcast face is lifted up, and all things around change, as when +the sunshine comes out on the wintry landscape, and the very snow +sparkles into diamonds. So much, then, for the first of the instances +of the use of this phrase. + +II. We now take a second. Jesus Christ ministers to us cheerful +courage because He manifests Himself to us as a Companion in the +storm (Matt. xiv. 27). + +The narrative is very familiar to us, so that I need not enlarge +upon it. You remember the scene--our Lord alone on the mountain in +prayer, the darkness coming down upon the little boat, the storm +rising as the darkness fell, the wind howling down the gorges of the +mountains round the landlocked lake, the crew 'toiling in rowing, +for the wind was contrary.' And then, all at once, out of the +mysterious obscurity beneath the shadow of the hills, Something is +seen moving, and it comes nearer; and the waves become solid beneath +that light and noiseless foot, as steadily nearer He comes. Jesus +Christ uses the billows as the pavement over which He approaches His +servants, and the storms which beat on us are His occasion for +drawing very near. Then they think Him a spirit, and cry out with +voices that were heard amidst the howling of the tempest, and struck +upon the ear of whomsoever told the Evangelist the story. They cry +out with a shriek of terror--because Jesus Christ is coming to them +in so strange a fashion! Have _we_ never shrieked and groaned, +and passionately wept aloud for the same reason; and mistaken the +Lord of love and consolation for some grisly spectre? When He comes +it is with the old word on His lips, 'Be of good cheer.' + +'Tell us not to be frightened when we see something stalking across +the waves in the darkness!' 'It is I'; surely that is enough. The +Companion in the storm is the Calmer of the terror. He who recognises +Jesus Christ as drawing near to his heart over wild billows may well +'be of good cheer,' since the storm but brings his truest treasure +to him. + + 'Well roars the storm to those who hear + A deeper Voice across the storm.' + +And He who, with unwetted foot, can tread on the wave, and with +quiet voice heard above the shriek of the blast can say, 'It is I,' +has the right to say, 'Be of good cheer,' and never says it in vain +to such as take Him into their lives however tempest-tossed, and +into their hearts however tremulous. + +III. A third instance of the occurrence of this word of cheer +presents Jesus as ministering cheerful courage to us by reason of +His being victor in the strife with the world (John xvi. 33). + +'In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I +have overcome the world.' + +Of course 'the world' which He overcame is the whole aggregate of +things and persons considered as separated from God, and as being +the great Antagonist and counter power to a holy life of obedience +and filial devotion. At that last moment when, according to all +outward seeming and the estimate of things which sense would make, +He was utterly and hopelessly and all but ignominiously beaten, He +says, 'I have overcome the world.' What! Thou! within four-and-twenty +hours of Thy Cross? Is that victory? Yes! For he conquers the world +who uses all its opposition as well as its real good to help him, +absolutely and utterly, to do the will of God. And he is conquered +by the world who lets it, by its glozing sweetnesses and flatteries, +or by its knitted brows and frowning eyes and threatening hand, +hinder him from the path of perfect consecration and entire conformity +to the Father's will. + +Christ has conquered. What does that matter to us? Why, it matters +this, that we may have the Spirit of Jesus Christ in our hearts to +make us also victorious in the same fight. And whosoever will lay +his weakness on that strong arm, and open his emptiness to receive +the fulness of that victorious Spirit for the very spirit of his +life, will be 'more than conqueror through Him that loved us,' and +can front all the evils, dangers, threatenings, temptations of the +world, its heaped sweets and its frowning antagonisms, with the calm +confidence that none of them are able to daunt him; and that the +Victor Lord will cover his head in the day of battle and deliver him +from every evil work. 'Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the +world, and play your parts like men in the good fight of faith; for +I am at your back, and will help you with Mine own strength.' + +IV. The last instance that I point to of the use of this phrase is +one in which it was spoken by Christ's voice from heaven (Acts +xxiii. 11). It was the voice which was heard by the Apostle Paul +after he had been almost torn in pieces by the crowd in the Temple, +and had been bestowed for security, by the half-contemptuous +protection of the Roman governor, in the castle, and was looking +onward into a very doubtful future, not knowing how many hours' +purchase his life might be worth. That same night the Lord appeared +to him and said, 'Be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified +of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.' That is +to say, 'No man can touch you until I let him, and nobody shall touch +you until you have done your work and spoken out your testimony. +Jerusalem is a little sphere; Rome is a great one. The tools to the +hand that can use them. The reward for work is more work, and work +in a larger sphere. So cheer up! for I have much for you to do yet.' + +And the spirit of that encouragement may go with us all, breeding in +us the quiet confidence that no matter who may thwart or hinder, no +matter what dangers or evils may seem to ring us round, the Master +who bids us 'Be of good cheer' will give us a charmed life, and +nothing shall by any means hurt us until He says to us, 'Be of good +courage; for you have done your work; and now come and rest.' 'Wait +on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine +heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.' + + + + +SOUL-HEALING FIRST: BODY-HEALING SECOND + + + 'That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on + earth to forgive sins (then saith He to the sick of the + palsy), Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine + house.'--MATT. ix. 6. + +The great example of our Lord's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount is +followed, in this and the preceding chapter, by a similar collection +of His works of healing. These are divided into three groups, each +consisting of three members. This miracle is the last of the second +triad, of which the other two members are the miraculous stilling +of the tempest and the casting out of the demons from the men in the +country of the Gergesenes. + +One may discern a certain analogy in these three members of this +central group. In all of them our Lord appears as the peace-bringer. +But the spheres are different. The calm which was breathed over the +stormy lake is peace of a lower kind than that which filled the soul +of the demoniacs when the power that made discord within had been +cast out. Even that peace was lower in kind than that which brought +sweet repose in the assurance of pardon to this poor paralytic. +Forgiveness speaks of a loftier blessing than even the casting out +of demons. The manifestation of power and love steadily rises to a +climax. + +The most important part of this story, then, is not the mere healing +of the disease, but the forgiveness of sins which accompanies it. +And the large teaching which our Lord gives as to the relation +between His miracles and His standing work, His ordinary work which +He has been doing all through the ages, which He is doing to-day, +which He is ready to do for you and me if we will let Him, towers +high above the mere miracle, which is honoured by being the signal +attestation of that work. + +Therefore I would turn to this story now, not for the sake of +dealing with the mere miraculous event, but in order to draw the +important lessons from it which lie upon its very surface. + +I. The first thought that is suggested here is that our deepest need +is forgiveness. + +How strangely irrelevant and beside the mark, at first sight, seems +the answer which Christ gives to the eager zeal and earnestness of +the man and his bearers. Christ's word is 'Son,' or as the original +might more literally and even more tenderly be rendered, 'Child--be +of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.' That seemed far away from +their want. It _was_ far from their wish, but yet it was the +shortest road to its accomplishment. Christ here goes straight to +the heart of the necessity, when, passing by the disease for the +moment, He speaks the great word of pardon. The palsy was probably +the result of the sufferer's vice, and probably, too, he felt, +whatever may have been his friends' wishes for him, that he needed +forgiveness most. Such a conclusion as to his state of mind seems a +fair inference from our Lord's words to him, for Christ would never +have offered forgiveness to an impenitent or indifferent heart. + +So we may learn that our chief and prime need is forgiveness. Amid +all our clamours and hungry needs, that is our deepest. Is not a +man's chief relation in this world his relation to God? Is not that +the most important thing about all of us? If that be wrong, will not +everything be wrong? If that be right, will not everything come right? +And is it not true that for you and me, and for all our fellows, +whatever be the surface diversities of character, civilisation, +culture, taste and the like, there is one deep experience common to +every human spirit, and that is the fact, and in some sense more or +less acutely the consciousness of the fact, that 'we have sinned, +and come short of the glory of God'? + +There is the fontal source of all sorrow, for even to the most +superficial observation ninety per cent., at any rate, of man's +misery comes either from his own or from others' wrongdoing, and for +the rest, it is regarded in the eye of faith as being sorrow that is +needful because of sin, in order to discipline and to purify. But +here stands the fact, that king and clown, philosopher and fool, men +of culture and men of ignorance, all of us, through all the ages, +manifest the unity of our nature in this--I was going to say most +chiefly--that lapses from the path of rectitude, and indulgence in +habits, thoughts, feelings, and actions, which even our consciences +tell us are wrong, characterise us all. + +Hence the profound wisdom of Christ and of His Gospel in that, when +it begins the task of healing, it does not peddle and potter on the +surface, but goes straight to the heart, with true instinct flies at +the head, like a wise physician pays little heed to secondary and +unimportant symptoms, but grapples with the disease, makes the tree +good, and leaves the good tree to make, as it will, the fruit good. + +The first thing to do to heal men's misery, is to make them pure; and +the first step in the great method by which a man can be made pure, +is to assure him of a divine forgiveness for the past. So the sneers +that we often hear about Christian 'philanthropists taking tracts to +people when they want soup,' and the like, are excessively shallow +sneers, and indicate nothing more than this, that the critic has +superficially diagnosed the disease, and is wofully wrong about the +remedy. God forbid that I should say one word that would seem to +depreciate the value of other forms of beneficence, or to cast doubt +upon the purity of motives, or even to be lacking in admiration for the +enthusiasm that fills and guides many an earnest man and woman, working +amongst the squalid vice of our great cities and of our complex and +barbarous civilisation to-day. I would recognise all their work as +good and blessed; but, oh! dear brethren, it deals with the surface, +and you will have to go a great deal deeper down than asthetic, or +intellectual, or economical, or political reformation and changes +reach, before you touch the real reason why men and women are +miserable in this world. And you will only effectually cure the +misery, but you certainly then will do it, when you begin where the +misery begins, and deal first with sin. The true 'saviour of society' +is the man that can go to his brother, and as a minister declaratory +of the divine heart can say--'Brother, be of good cheer; thy sins be +forgiven thee.' And then, after that, the palsy will go out of his +limbs, and a new nervous energy will come into them, and he will +rise, take up his bed, and walk. + +II. Now, in the next place, notice, as coming out of this incident +before us, the thought that forgiveness is an exclusively divine +act. + +There was, sitting by, with their jealous and therefore blind eyes, +a whole crowd of wise men and religious formalists of the first +water, collected together as a kind of ecclesiastical inquisition +and board of triers, as one of the other evangelists tells us, out +of every corner of the land. They had no care for the dewy pity that +was in Christ's looks, or for the nascent hope that began to swim up +into the poor, dim eye of the paralytic. But they had keen scent for +heresy, and so they fastened with true feline instinct upon the one +thing, 'This man speaketh blasphemies. Who can forgive sins but God +alone?' + +Ah! if you want to get people blind as bats to the radiant beauty of +some lofty character, and insensible as rocks to the wants of a sad +humanity, commend me to your religious formalists, whose religion is +mainly a bundle of red tape tied round men's limbs to keep them from +getting at things that they would like. These are the people who +will be as hard as the nether millstones, and utterly blind to all +enthusiasm and to all goodness. + +But yet these Pharisees are right; perfectly right. Forgiveness +_is_ an exclusively divine act. Of course. For sin has to do +with God only; vice has to do with the laws of morality; crime has +to do with the laws of the land. The same act may be vice, crime, +and sin. In the one aspect it has to do with myself, in the other +with my fellows, in the last with God. And so evil considered as sin +comes under God's control only, and only He against whom it has been +committed can forgive. + +What is forgiveness? The sweeping aside of penalties? the shutting +up of some more or less material hell? By no means: penalties are +often left; when sins are crimes they are generally left; when sins +are vices they are always left, thank God! But in so far as sin is +sin, considered as being the perversion and setting wrong of my +relation to Him, its consequences, which are its penalties, are +swept away by forgiveness; for forgiveness, in its essence and +deepest meaning, is neither more nor less than that the love of the +person against whom the wrong has been done shall flow out, +notwithstanding the wrong. Pardon is love rising above the ice-dam +which we have piled in its course, and pouring into our hearts. + +When you fathers and mothers forgive your children, what does it +mean? Does it not mean that your love is neither deflected nor +embittered any more, by reason of their wrongdoing, but pours upon +them as of old? So God's forgiveness is at bottom--'Child! there is +nothing in my heart to thee, but pure and perfect love.' We fill the +sky with mists, through which the sun itself has to look like a red +ball of lurid fire. But it shines on the upper side of the mists all +the same, and all the time, and thins them away and scatters them +utterly, and shines forth in its own brightness on the rejoicing +heart. Pardon is God's love, unchecked and unembittered, granted to +the wrongdoer. And that is a divine act, and a divine act alone. +Pharisees and Scribes were perfectly right. No man can forgive sins +but God only. + +And I might add, though it is somewhat aside from my direct purpose, +God _can_ forgive sin; which some people nowadays say is +impossible. The apparent impossibility arises only from shallow and +erroneous notions of what forgiveness is. God does not--it might be +too bold to say God cannot, if we believe in miracles--but as a +matter of fact, God does not, usually interfere to hinder men from +reaping, as regards this life, what they have sown. But as I say, +that is not forgiveness; and is there any reason conceivable why it +should be impossible for the divine love to pour down upon a sinful +man who has forsaken his sin, and is trusting in God's mercy in +Christ, just as if his sin was non-existent, in so far as it could +condition or interfere with the flow of the divine mercy? + +And I may say, further, we need a definite divine assurance of pardon. +Ah! if you have ever been down into the cellars of your own hearts, +and seen the ugly things that coil there, you will know that a vague +trust in a vague God and a vague mercy is not enough to still the +conscience that has once been stung into action. My brothers, you +want neither priests nor ceremonies on the one hand, nor a mere +peradventure of 'Oh! God is merciful!' on the other, in order to deal +with that deepest need of your heart. Nothing but the King's own +sign-manual on the pardon makes it valid; and unless you and I can, +somehow or other, come to close grips with God, and get into actual +contact with Him, and hear, somehow, with infallible certitude, as +from His own lips, the assurance of forgiveness, there is not enough +for our needs. + +III. So I come to say, in the next place, that the incident before +us teaches us that Jesus Christ claims and exercises this divine +prerogative of forgiveness. + +Mark His answer to these cavillers. He admits their promises absolutely. +They said, 'No man can forgive sins but God only.' If Christ was only a +man, like us, standing in the same relation to the divine pardon that +other teachers, saints, and prophets have stood, and had nothing more +to do with it than simply, as I might do, to say to a troubled heart, +'My brother, be quite sure that God has forgiven you'; if Christ's +relation to the divine forgiveness was nothing more than ministerial +and declaratory, why, in the name, not of common sense only, but of +veracity, did He not turn round to these men and say so? He was bound, +by all the obligations of a religious teacher, to disclaim, as you or +I would have done under similar circumstances, the misapprehension of +His words: 'I use blasphemies? No! I am not speaking blasphemies. I +know that God only can forgive sins, and I am doing no more than +telling my poor brother here that his sins are forgiven by God.' But +that is not His answer at all. What He says in effect is--'Yes; you are +quite right. No man can forgive sins, but God only. _I_ forgive sins. +Whom think ye, then, that I, the Son of Man am? It is easy to say "Thy +sins be forgiven thee"--far easier to say that than to say "Take up thy +bed and walk," because one can verify and check the accomplishment of +the saying in the one case, and one cannot in the other. The sentences +are equally easy to pronounce, the things are equally difficult for a +_man_ to do, but the difference is that one of them can be verified +and the other of them cannot. I will do the visible impossibility, and +then I leave you to judge whether I can do the invisible one or not.' + +Now, dear brethren, I have only one word to say about that, and it +is this. We are here brought sharp up to a fork in the road. I know +that it is not always a satisfactory way of arguing to compel a man +to take one horn or other of an alternative, but it is quite fair to +do go in the present case; and I would press it upon some of you +who, I think, urgently need to consider the dilemma. Either the +Pharisees were quite right, and Jesus Christ, the meek, the humble, +the Pattern of all lowly gentleness, the Teacher whom nineteen +centuries confess that they have not exhausted, was an audacious +blasphemer, or He was God manifest in the flesh. The whole context +forbids us to take these words, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee,' as +anything less than the voice of divine love wiping out the man's +transgressions; and if Jesus Christ pretended or presumed to do +that, there is no hypothesis that I know of which can save His +character for the reverence of man, but that which sees in Him God +revealed in manhood; the world's Judge, from whom the world may +receive divine forgiveness. + +IV. Jesus Christ here brings visible facts into the witness-box as +the attesters of His invisible powers. + +Of course the miracle was such a witness in a special way, inasmuch as +it and forgiveness were equally divine prerogatives and acts. I need +not dwell now upon what I have already observed in my introductory +remarks, that our Lord here teaches us the relative importance of the +attesting miracle and the thing attested, and regards the miracle as +subordinate to the higher and spiritual work of bringing pardon. + +But we may widen out this into the thought that the subsidiary +effects of Christian faith in individuals, and of the less complete +Christian faith which is diffused over society, do stand as very +strong evidences of the reality of Christ's professions and claims +to exercise this invisible power of pardon. Or, to put it into a +concrete form, and to take an illustration which may need large +deductions.--Go into a Salvation Army meeting. Admit the extravagance, +the coarseness, and all the rest which we educated and superfine +Christians cannot stand. But when you have blown away the froth, is +there not something left in the cup which looks uncommonly like the +wine of the Kingdom? Are there not visible results of that, as of +every earnest effort to carry the message of forgiveness to men, +which create an immense presumption in favour of its reality and +divine origin? Men reclaimed, passions tamed, homes that were +pandemoniums made Bethels, houses of God. Wherever Christ's +forgiving power really comes into a heart, life is beautified, is +purified, is ennobled; and secondary and material benefits follow in +the train. + +I claim all the difference between Christendom and Heathendom as +attestation of the reality of Christ's divine and atoning work. I +say, and I believe it to be a valid and a good argument as against +much of the doubt of this day, 'If you seek His monument, look +around.' His own answer to the question, 'Art thou He that should +come?' is valid still: 'Go and tell John the things that ye see and +hear'; the dead are raised, the deaf ears are opened; faculties that +lie dormant are quickened, and in a thousand ways the swift spirit +of life flows from Him and vitalises the dead masses of humanity. + +Let any system of belief or of no belief do the like if it can. This +rod has budded at any rate, let the magicians do the same with their +enchantments. + +Now, Christian men and women, 'ye are My witnesses,' saith the Lord. +The world takes its notions of Christianity, and its belief in the +power of Christianity, a great deal more from you than it does from +preachers and apologists. _You_ are the Bibles that most men +read. See to it that your lives represent worthily the redeeming and +the ennobling power of your Master. + +And as for the rest of you, do not waste your time trying to purify +the stream twenty miles down from the fountainhead, but go to the +source. Do not believe, brother, that your palsy, or your fever, +your paralysis of will towards good, or the unwholesome ardour with +which you are impelled to wrong, and the consequent misery and +restlessness, can ever be healed until you go to Christ--the +forgiving Christ--and let Him lay His hand upon you; and from His +own sweet and infallible lips hear the word that shall come as a +charm through all your nature: 'Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.' +'Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened; then shall the lame man +leap as an hart';--then limitations, sorrows, miseries, will pass +away, and forgiveness will bear fruit in joy and power, in holiness, +health and peace. + + + + +THE CALL OF MATTHEW + + + 'And as Jesus passed forth from thence, He saw a man, + named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and + He saith unto him, Follow Me. And he arose, and + followed Him. 10. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at + meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners + came and sat down with Him and His disciples. 11. And + when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto His disciples, + Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? + 12. But when Jesus heard that, He said unto them, They + that be whole need not a physician, but they that are + sick. 13. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will + have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to + call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 14. Then + came to Him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we + and the Pharisees fast oft, but Thy disciples fast not? + 15. And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the + bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with + them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall + be taken from them, and then shall they fast. 16. No + man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, + for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the + garment, and the rent is made worse. 17. Neither do men + put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, + and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but + they put new wine into new bottles, and both are + preserved.'--MATT. ix. 9-17. + +All three evangelists connect the call of Matthew immediately with the +cure of the paralytic, and follow it with an account of Christ's answers +to sundry cavils from Pharisees and John's disciples. No doubt, the +spectacle of this new Teacher taking a publican into His circle of +disciples, and, not content with such an outrage on all proper patriotic +feeling, following it up with scandalous companionship with the sort +of people that a publican could get to accept his hospitality, sharpened +hatred and made suspicion prick its ears. Mark and Luke call the +publican Levi, he calls himself Matthew, the former being probably his +name before his discipleship, the latter, that by which he was known +thereafter. Possibly Jesus gave it him, as in the cases of Simon, and +perhaps Bartholomew. But, however acquired, it superseded the old one, +as the fact that it appears in the lists of the apostles in both the +other evangelists and in Acts, shows. Its use here may be a trace of +a touching desire to make sure that readers, who only knew him as +Matthew, should understand who this publican was. It is like the little +likenesses of themselves, in some corner of a background, that early +painters used to slip into a picture of Madonna and angels. There was +no vanity in the wish, for he says nothing about his sacrifices, +leaving it to Luke to tell that 'he left all,' but he _does_ +crave that his brethren, who read, should know that it was he whom +Jesus honoured by His call. + +The condensed narrative emphasises three things, (1) his occupation +with his ordinary business when that wonderful summons thrilled his +soul; (2) the curt authoritative command, and (3) the swift obedience. +As to the first, Capernaum was on a great trade route, and the +custom-house officers there would have their hands full. This one was +busy at his work, hateful and shameful as it was in Jewish eyes, and +into that sordid atmosphere, like a flash of light into a mephitic +cavern full of unclean creatures, came the transcendent mercy of +Jesus' summons. There is no region of life so foul, so mean, so +despicable in men's eyes, but that the quickening Voice will enter +there. We do not need to be in temples or about sacred tasks in order +to hear it. It summons us in, and sometimes from, our daily work. Well +for those who know whose Voice it is, and do not mistake it for some +Eli's! + +No doubt this was not the first of Matthew's knowledge of Jesus. +Living in Capernaum, he would have had many opportunities of hearing +Him or of Him, and his heart and conscience may have been stirred. +As he sat in his 'tolbooth,' feeling contempt and hatred poured on +him, he, no doubt, had had longings to get nearer to the One whose +voice was gentle, and His looks, love. So the call would come to him +as the fulfilment of a dim hope, and it would be a joyful surprise +to know that Jesus wished to have him for a disciple as much as he +wished to have Jesus for a Teacher. The ring of fire and hate within +which he had been imprisoned was broken, and there was One who cared +to have him, and who would not shrink from his touch. In the light +of that assurance, the call became, not a summons to give anything +up, but an invitation to receive a better possession than all with +which he was called to part. And if we saw things as they are, would +it not always be so to us? 'Follow Me' does mean, Forsake earth and +self, but it means still more: Take what is more than all. It parts +from these because it unites to Jesus. Therefore it means gain, not +deprivation. And it condenses all rules for life into one, for to +follow Him is the sum of all duty, and yields the perfect pattern of +conduct and character, while it is also the secret of all blessedness, +and the talisman that assures a man of continual progress. They who +follow are near, and will reach, Him. Of course, if His servants +follow Him, it stands to reason that one day, 'where I am there shall +also My servants be.' So in that command lie a sufficient guide for +earth, and a sure guarantee for heaven. + +'And he arose and followed Him.' That is the only thing that we are +told of Matthew. We hear no more of him, except that he made a feast +in his house on the occasion. No doubt he did his work as an apostle, +but oblivion has swallowed up all that. A happy fate to be known to all +the world for all time, only by this one thing, that he unconditionally, +immediately and joyfully obeyed Christ's call! He might have said: 'How +can I leave my work? I must make up my accounts, hand over my papers, +do a hundred things in order to wind up matters, and I must postpone +following till then.' But he sprang up at once. He would have abundant +opportunities to settle all details afterwards, but if he let this +opportunity of taking his place as a disciple pass, he might never +have another. There are some things that are best done gradually and +slowly, but obedience to Christ's call is not one of them. Prompt +obedience is the only safety. The psalmist knew the danger of delay +when he said: 'I made haste and delayed not, but made haste to keep Thy +commandments.' + +Matthew does not tell us that _he_ made the feast, but Luke +does. It was the natural expression of his thankfulness and joy for +the new bond. His knowledge was small, but his love was great. How +could he honour Jesus enough? But he was a pariah in Capernaum, and +the only guests he could assemble were, like himself, outcasts from +'respectable society.' In popular estimation all publicans were +regarded without any more ado as 'sinners,' but probably that +designation is here applied to disreputable folks of various kinds +and degrees of shadiness, who gravitated to Matthew and his class, +because, like him, they were repulsed by every one else. Even +outcasts hunger for society, and manage to get a community of their +own, in which they find some glow of comradeship, and some defence +from hatred and contempt. Even lepers herd together and have their +own rules of intercourse. + +But what a scandal in the eyes not only of Pharisees, but of all the +proper people in Capernaum, Jesus' going to such a gathering of +disreputables would be, we may estimate if we remember that they did +not know His reason, but thought that He went because He liked the +atmosphere and the company. 'Like draws to like' was the conclusion +suggested, in the absence of His own explanation. The Pharisee +conceived that his duty in regard to publicans and sinners was to keep +as far from them as he could, and his strait-laced self-righteousness +had never dreamed of going to them with an open heart, and trying to +win them to a better life. Many so-called followers of Jesus still +take that attitude. They gather up their skirts round them daintily, +and never think that it would be liker their Lord to sweep away the +mud than to pick their steps through it, caring mainly to keep their +own shoes clean. + +The feast was probably spread in some courtyard or open space, to +which, as is the Eastern custom, uninvited spectators could have +access. It is quite in accordance with the usage of the times and +land that the Pharisees should have been onlookers, and should have +been able to talk to the disciples. No doubt their colloquy became +animated, and perhaps loud, so that it could easily attract Christ's +attention. He answered for Himself, and the tone of His reply is +friendly and explanatory, as if He recognised that the questioners +genuinely wished to know 'why' He was sitting in such company. + +It discloses His motive, and thereby sweeps away all insinuations +that He consorted with sinners because their company was congenial. +It was precisely for the opposite reason, because He was so unlike +them. He came among these sinners as a physician; and who wonders at +_his_ being beside the sick? He does not spend his days by +their bedsides because he likes the atmosphere, but because it is +his business to make them well. Now, in that comparison, Jesus +pronounces no opinion on the correctness of the Pharisees' estimate +of themselves as 'righteous,' or of publicans as sinners, but simply +takes them on their own ground. But He does make a great claim for +Himself, and speaks out of His consciousness of power to heal men's +worst disease, sin. It is a tremendous assertion to make of oneself, +and its greatness is enhanced by the quiet way in which it is stated +as a thought familiar to Himself. What right had He to pose as the +physician for humanity, and how can such a claim be reconciled with +His being 'meek and lowly in heart'? If He Himself was one of the +sick and needed healing, how can He be the healer of the rest? If +being a sinful man, as we all are, He made such a claim, what becomes +of the reverence which is paid to Him as a great religious Teacher, +and where has His 'sweet reasonableness' vanished? + +Jesus passes from explanation of His personal relation to the +publicans to adduce the broad principle which should shape the +Pharisees' relation to them, as it had shaped His. Hosea had said +long ago that God delighted more in 'mercy' than in 'sacrifice.' +Kindly helpfulness to men is better worship than exact performance +of any ritual. Sacrifice propitiates God, but mercy imitates Him, +and imitation is the perfection of divine service. Jesus here speaks +as all the prophets had spoken, and smites with a deadly stroke the +mechanical formalism which in every age stiffens religion into +ceremonies and neglects love towards God, expressed in mercy to men. +He lays bare the secret of His own life, and He thereby lays on His +followers the obligation of making it the moving impulse of theirs. + +The great general truth is followed, as it has been preceded, by a +plain statement of Jesus' own conception of His mission in the +world. 'I came,' says He, hinting at the fact that He was before He +was born, and that His Incarnation was His voluntary act. True, He +was sent, and we speak of His mission, but also He 'came,' and we +speak of His advent. 'To repentance' is omitted by the best editors +as being brought over from Luke, where it is genuine. But it is a +correct gloss on the simple word 'call,' though 'repentance' is but +a small part of that to which He summons. He calls us to repent; He +calls us to Himself; He calls us to self-surrender; He calls us to +Eternal Life; He calls us to a better feast than Matthew had spread. +But we must recognise that we are sinners, or we shall never realise +that His invitation is for us, nor ever feel that we need a physician, +and have in Him, and in Him alone, the Physician whom we need. + +The Pharisees objected to Jesus' feasting, and could scarcely in the +same breath find fault with Him for not fasting, but they put +forward some of John's disciples to bring that fresh objection. +Common hatred is a strong cement, and often holds opposites together +for a while. It was bad for John's followers that they should be +willing to say, 'We and the Pharisees.' They had travelled far from +the days when their master had called the same class a 'generation +of vipers'! Their keen desire to uphold the honour of their teacher, +whose light they saw paling before the younger Jesus, made them +hostile to Him, and, as is usually the case, the followers were more +partisan than the leader. Religious antagonism sometimes stoops to +very strange alliances. The two questions brought together in this +context are noticeably alike, and noticeably different. Both ask for +the reason of conduct which they do not go the length of impugning. +They seem to be desirous of enlightenment, they are really eager to +condemn. Both avoid seeming to call in question the acts of the +persons addressed, for the Pharisees interrogate the _disciples_ as +to the reason for _Jesus'_ conduct, while John's disciples ask +from _Jesus_ the reason of His disciples' conduct. In both, mock +respectfulness covers lively hatred. + +Our Lord's first answer is as profound as it is beautiful, and +veils, while it reveals, a lofty claim for Himself and a solemn +foresight of His death, and lays down a great and fruitful principle +as to the relations between spiritual moods and outward acts of +religion. His speaking of Himself as 'the Bridegroom' would recall +to some of His questioners, and that with a touch of shame, John's +nobly humble acceptance of the subordinate place of the bridegroom's +friend and elevation of Jesus to that of the bridegroom. But it was +not merely a rebuking quotation from John's witness, but the +expression of His own unclouded and continual consciousness of what +He was to humanity, and of what humanity could find in Him, as well +as a sovereign appropriating to Himself of many prophetic strains. +What depth of love, what mysterious blending of spirit, what adoring, +lowly obedience, what perfection of protecting care, what rapture of +possession, what rest of heart in trust, what dower of riches are +dimly shadowed in that wonderful emblem, will never be known till +the hour of the marriage-supper of the Lamb, when 'His bride hath +made herself ready.' But across the light there flits a shadow. It +is but for a moment, and it meant little to the hearers, but it meant +much to Him. For He could not look forward to winning His bride +without seeing the grim Cross, and even athwart the brightness of +the days of companionship with His humble friends, came the darkness +on His soul, though not on theirs, of the violent end when He 'shall +be taken from them.' The hint fell apparently on deaf ears, but it +witnesses to the continual presence in the mind of Jesus of His +sufferings and death. The certainty that He must die was not forced +on Him by the failure of His efforts as His career unfolded itself. +It was no disappointment of bright earlier hopes, as is the case +with many a disillusionised reformer, who thought at the outset +that he had only to speak and all men would listen. It was the +clearly discerned goal from the first. 'The Son of Man came ... to +give His life a ransom.' + +But our Lord here lays down a broad principle, which, if applied as it +was meant to be, would lift a heavy burden of outward observance off +the Christian consciousness. Fast when you are sad; feast when you are +glad. Let the disposition, the mood, the moment's circumstance, mould +your action. There is no virtue or sanctity in observances which do not +correspond to the inner self. What a charter of liberty is proclaimed +in these quiet words! What mountains of ceremonial unreality, oppressive +to the spirit, are cast into the sea by them! How different Christendom +would have been and would be to-day, if Christians had learned the +lesson of these words! + +The two condensed parables or extended metaphors, which follow the +vindication of the disciples, carry the matter further, and lay down +a principle which is intended to cover not only the question in +hand, their non-observance of Jewish regulations as to fasting, but +the whole subject of the relations of the new word, which Jesus felt +that He brought, to the old system. The same consciousness of His +unique mission which prompted His use of the term 'bridegroom,' +shines through the two metaphors of the new cloth and the new wine. +He knows that He is about to bring a new garb to men, and to give +them new wine to drink, and He knows that what He brings is no mere +patch on a worn-out system, but a new fermenting force, which +demands fresh vehicles and modes of expression. The two metaphors +take up different aspects of one thought. To try to mend an old coat +with a bit of unshrunk cloth would only make a worse dissolution of +continuity, for as soon as a shower fell on it the patch would +shrink, and, in shrinking, pull the thin pieces of the old garment +adjoining it to itself. Judaism was already 'rent' and worn too thin +to be capable of repair. The only thing to be done was 'as a +vesture' to 'fold it up' and shape a new garment out of new cloth. +What was true as to the supremely new thing which He brought into +the world remains true, in less eminent degree, of the less acute +differences between the Old and the New, within Christianity itself. +There do come times when its externals become antiquated, worn thin +and torn, and when patching is useless. Christian men, like others, +constitutionally incline to conservatism or to progress, and the one +temperament needs to be warned against obstinately preserving old +clothes, and the other against eagerly insisting that they are past +mending. + +But a patch and a worn garment do not wholly describe the relations +of the old and the new. Freshly made wine, still fermenting, and +old, stiff wine-skins which have lost their elasticity suggest +further thoughts. Now we have to do with containing vessel _versus_ +contents, with a fermenting force _versus_ stiffened forms. To put +that into these will destroy both. For example, if the struggle of +the Judaisers in the early Church had succeeded, and Christianity +had become a Jewish sect, it would have dwindled to nothing, as the +Jewish-minded Christians did. The wine must have bottles. Every +great spiritual renovating force must embody itself in institutions. +Spiritual emotions must express themselves in acts of worship, +spiritual convictions must speak in a creed. But the containing +vessel must be congruous with, and still more, it must be created by, +the contained force, as there are creatures who frame their shells +to fit the convolutions of their bodies, and build them up from their +own substance. Forms are good, as long as they can stretch if need be; +when they are too stiff to expand, they restrict rather than contain +the wine, and if short-sighted obstinacy insists on keeping _it_ in +_them_, there will be a great spill and loss of much that is +precious. + + + + +THE TOUCH OF FAITH AND THE TOUCH OF CHRIST + + + 'While He spake these things unto them, behold, there + came a certain ruler, and worshipped Him, saying, My + daughter is even now dead: but come and lay Thy hand + upon her, and she shall live. 19. And Jesus arose, + and followed him, and so did His disciples. 20. And, + behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of + blood twelve years, came behind Him, and touched the + hem of His garment: 21. For she said within herself, + If I may but touch His garment, I shall be whole. + 22. But Jesus turned Him about, and when He saw her, + He said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath + made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from + that hour. 23. And when Jesus came into the ruler's + house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a + noise. 24. He said unto them, Give place: for the maid + is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed Him to + scorn. 25. But when the people were put forth, He went + in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. + 26. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land. + 27. And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men + followed Him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, + have mercy on us. 28. And when He was come into the + house, the blind men came to Him: and Jesus saith unto + them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said + unto Him, Yea, Lord. 29. Then touched He their eyes, + saying, According to your faith be it unto you. 30. And + their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, + saying, See that no man know it. 31. But they, when they + were departed, spread abroad His fame in all that + country.'--MATT. ix. 18-31. + +The three miracles included in the present section belong to the +last group of this series. Those of the second group were all +effected by Christ's word. Those now to be considered are all +effected by touch. The first two are intertwined. The narrative of +the healing of the woman is embedded in the account of the raising +of Jairus's daughter. + +Mark the impression of calm consciousness of power and leisurely +dignity produced by Christ's having time to pause, even on such an +errand, in order to heal, by the way, the other sufferer. The father +and the disciples would wonder at Him as He stayed His steps, and be +apt to feel that priceless moments were being lost; but He knows His +own resources, and can afford to let the child die while He heals +the woman. The one shall receive no harm by the delay, and the other +will be blessed. Our Lord is sitting at the feast which Matthew gave +on the occasion of his call, engaged in vindicating His sharing in +innocent festivity against the cavils of the Pharisees, when the +summons to the death-bed comes to Him from the lips of the father, +who breaks in on the banquet with his imploring cry. Matthew gives +the story much more summarily than the other evangelists, and does +not distinguish, as they do, between Jairus's first words, 'at the +point of death, and the message of her actual decease, which met +them on the way. The call of sorrow always reaches Christ's ear, and +the cry for help is never deemed by Him an interruption. So this +'man, gluttonous and a wine-bibber,' as these Pharisees thought Him, +willingly and at once leaves the house of feasting for that of +mourning. How near together, in this awful life of ours, the two +lie, and how thin the partition walls! Well for those whose feasts +do not bar them out from hearing the weeping next door. + +As the crowd accompanies Jesus, His hasting love is, for a moment, +diverted by another sufferer. We never go on an errand of mercy but we +pass a hundred other sorrowing hearts, so close packed lie the griefs +of men. This woman is a poor shrinking creature, broken down by long +illness (which had lasted for the same length of time as the joyous +life of Jairus's child), made more timid by disappointed hopes of +cure, and depressed by poverty to which her many doctors had brought +her. She does not venture to stop this new Rabbi-physician, as He +goes with the church dignitary of the town to heal his daughter, but +lets Him pass before she can make up her mind to go near Him; and +then she comes creeping up behind the crowd, puts out her wasted, +trembling hand to the hem of His garment,--and she is whole. + +The other evangelists give us a more extended account, but Matthew +throws into prominence, in his condensed narrative, the essential +points. + +Notice her real but imperfect faith. There was unquestionable +confidence in Christ's power, and very genuine desire for healing. +But it was a very ignorant faith. She believes that her touch of the +garment will heal without Christ's will or knowledge, much more His +pitying love, having any part in it. She thinks that she may win her +desire furtively, and may carry it away, and He be none the wiser nor +the poorer for the stolen blessing. What utter, blank ignorance of His +character and way of working! What gross superstition! Yes, and withal +what a hunger of desire, what absolute assurance of confidence that +one finger-tip on His robe was enough! Therefore she had her desire, +and her Healer recognised her faith as true, though blended with much +ignorance of Him. Her error was very like that which many Christians +entertain with less excuse. To attach importance to external means of +grace, rites, ordinances, sacraments, outward connection with Christian +organisations, is the very same misconception in a slightly different +form. Such error is always near us; it is especially rife in countries +where there has long been a visible Church. It has received strange +new vigour to-day, partly by reaction from extreme rationalism, partly +by the growing cultivation of the aesthetic faculties. It is threatening +to corrupt the simplicity and spirituality of Christian worship, and +needs to be strenuously resisted. But the more we have to fight +against it, the more do we need to remember that, along with this +clinging to the hem of the garment instead of to the heart of its +Wearer, there may be a very real trust, which might shame some of +those who profess to hold a less sensuous form of faith. Many a poor +soul clasping a crucifix clings to the Cross. Many a devout heart +kneeling at mass sees through the incense-smoke the face of Christ. + +This woman's faith was selfish. She wanted health; she did not care +much about the Healer. She would have been quite contented to have +had no more to do with Him, if she could only have stolen out of the +crowd cured. She would have had little gratitude to the unconscious +Giver of a stolen good. So, many a Christian life in its earlier +stages is more absorbed with its own deep misery and its desire for +deliverance, than with Him. Love comes after, born of the experience +of His love. But faith precedes love, and the predominant motive +impelling to faith at first is distinctly self-regard. That is all as +it should be. The most purely self-absorbed wish to escape from the +most rudely pictured hell is often the beginning of a true trust in +Christ, which, in due time, will be elevated into perfect consecration. +Some of our modern teachers, who are shocked at Christianity because +it lays the foundation of the most self-denying morality in such +'selfishness,' would be none the worse for going to school to this +story, and learning from it how a desire for nothing more than to +get rid of a painful disease, started a process which turned a life +into a peaceful, thankful surrender of the cured self to the love +and service of the mighty Healer. + +Observe, next, how Christ answers the imperfect faith, and, by +answering, corrects and confirms it. Matthew omits Christ's question +as to who touched Him, the disciples' reply, and His renewed +asseveration that He was conscious of power having gone forth from +Him. All these belong to the loving method by which our Lord sought +to draw forth an open acknowledgment. Womanly diffidence, enfeebled +health, her special disease, all made the woman wish to hide herself. +She wanted to steal away unnoticed, as she hoped that she had come. +But Christ forces her to stand out before all the crowd, and there, +with all eyes upon her,--cold, cruel eyes, some of them--to conquer +her shame, and tell all the truth. Strange kindness that; strangely +contrasted with His ordinary desire to avoid notoriety, and with His +ordinary tender consideration for shrinking weakness! He did it for +her sake, not for His own. She is changed from timidity to courage. +At one moment she stretches out her wasted finger, a tremulous +invalid; at the next, she flings herself at His feet, a confessor. +He would have us testify for Him, because faith unavowed, like a +plant in the dark, is apt to become pale and sickly; but ere He bids +us own His name, He pours into our hearts, in answer to our secret +appeal, the health of His own life, and the blissful consciousness +of that great gift which makes the tongue of the dumb sing. + +His words to her are full of tenderness. She receives the name of +'daughter.' Gently He encourages her timidity by that 'Be of good +cheer,' and then He sets right her error: 'Thy faith'--not thy +finger--'hath made thee whole.' There was no real connection between +the touch of the robe and healing; but the woman thought that there +was, and so Christ stooped to her childish thought, and allowed her +to prescribe the road which His mercy should take. But He would not +leave her with her error. The true means of contact between us and +Him is not our outward contact with external means of grace, but the +touch of our spirits by faith. Faith is nothing in itself, and heals +only because it brings us into union with His power, which is the +sole cause of our healing. Faith is the hand which receives the +blessing. It may be a wasted and tremulous hand, like that which +this woman laid lightly on His robe. But He feels its touch, though +a universe presses on Him, and He answers. Not the garment's hem, +but Christ's love, is the cause of our salvation. Not an outward +contact with it or with Him, but faith, is the condition on which +His life, which knows no disease, pours into our souls. The hand of +my faith lifted to Him will receive into its empty palm and clasping +fingers the special blessing for my special wants. + +The other evangelists tell us that, at the moment of His words to +the woman, the messengers came bearing tidings of the child's death. +How Jairus must have grudged the pause! A word from Christ, like the +pressure of His hand, heartened him. Like a river turned from its +course for a space, to fill some empty reservoir, His love comes +back to its original direction. How abundant the power and mercy, to +which such a work as that just done was but a parenthesis! The +doleful music and the shrill shrieks of Eastern mourning, which met +them as they entered Jairus's house, disturbed the sanctity of the +hour, and were in strong contrast with the majestic calmness of +Jesus. Not amid venal lamentations and excited cries will He do His +work. He bids the noisy crowd forth with curt, almost stern, command, +and therein rebukes all such hollow and tumultuous scenes, in the +presence of the stillness of death, still more where faith in Him +has robbed it of its terror, in robbing it of its perpetuity. It is +strange that believing readers should have thought that our Lord meant +to say that the little girl was not really dead, but only in a swoon. +The scornful laughter of the flute-players and hired mourners +understood Him better. They knew that it was real death, as men +count death, and, as has often been the case, the laughter of His +foes has served to establish the truth. That was not worthy to be +called death from which the child was so soon and easily to be +awaked. But, besides this special application to the case in hand, +that great saying of our Lord's carries the blessed truth that, +since He has come, death is softened into sleep for all who love +Him. The euphemism is not peculiar to Christianity, but has a deeper +meaning on Christian lips than when Greeks or Romans spoke of the +eternal sleep. Others speak of death by any name rather than its +own, because they fear it so much. The Christian does so, because he +fears it so little,--and, as a matter of fact, the use of the word +death as meaning merely the separation of soul and body by the +physical act is exceptional in the New Testament. This name of +sleep, sanctioned thus by Christ, is the sweetest of all. It speaks +of the cessation of connection with the world of sense, and 'long +disquiet merged in rest.' It does not imply unconsciousness, for we +are not unconscious when we sleep, but only unaware of externals. It +holds the promise of waking when the sun comes. So it has driven out +the ugly old name. Our tears flow less bitterly when we think of our +dear ones as 'sleeping in Jesus.' Their bodies, like this little +child's, are dead, but _they_ are not. They rest, conscious of +their own blessedness and of Him 'in whom they live, and have their +being,' whether they 'move' or no. + +Then comes the great deed. The crowd is shut out. For such a work +silence is befitting. The father and mother, with His foremost three +disciples, go with Him into the chamber. There is no effort, repeated +and gradually successful, as when Elisha raised the dead boy; no +praying, as when Peter raised Dorcas; only the touch of the hand in +which life throbbed in fulness, and, as the other narratives record, +two words, spoken strangely to, and yet more strangely heard by, the +dull, cold ear of death. Their echo lingered long with Peter, and +Mark gives us them in the original Aramaic. But Matthew passes them +by, as he seems here to have desired to emphasise the power of +Christ's touch. But touch or word, the real cause of the miracle +was simply His will; and whether He used media to help men's faith, +or said only 'I will,' mattered little. He varied His methods as the +circumstances of the recipients required, and in order that they and +we might learn that He was tied to none. These miracles of raising +the dead are three in number. Jairus's daughter is raised from her +bed, just having passed away; the widow's son at Nain from his bier, +having been for a little longer separated from his body; Lazarus +from the grave, having been dead four days. A few minutes, or days, +or four thousand years, are one to His power. These three are in +some sense the first-fruits of the great harvest; the stars that +shone out singly before all the heaven is in a blaze. For, though +they died again, and so left to Him the precedence in resurrection, +as in all besides, they are still prophetic of His power in the hour +when they 'that sleep in the dust' shall awake at His voice. Blessed +they who, like this little maiden, are awakened, not only by His +voice, but by His touch, and to find, as she did, their hand in His! + +The third of these miracles, which Matthew seems to reckon as the +second in the group, because he treats the two former as so closely +connected as to be but one in numeration, need not detain us long. +It is found only in this Gospel. The first point to be observed in it +is the cry of these two blind men. There is something pathetic and +exquisitely natural in the two being together, as is also the case in +the similar miracle, at a later period, on the outskirts of Jericho. +Equal sorrows drive men together for such poor help and solace as +they can give each other. They have common experiences which isolate +them from others, and they creep close for warmth and companionship. +All the blind men in the Gospels have certain resemblances. One is +that they are all sturdily persevering, as perhaps was easier for +them because they could not see the impatience of the listeners, and +possibly because, in most cases, persistent begging was their trade, +and they were used to refusals. But a more important trait is their +recognition of Jesus as 'Son of David.' Blind as they are, they see +more than do the seeing. Thrown in upon themselves, they may have +been led to ponder the old words, and by their affliction been made +more ready to welcome One who, if He were Messiah, was coming with a +special blessing for them--'to open the blind eyes.' Men who deeply +desire a good are quick to listen to the promise of its accomplishment. +So these two followed Him along the road, loudly and perseveringly +calling out their profession of faith, and their entreaty for sight. + +The next point is our Lord's treatment. He let them cry on, apparently + unheeding. Had, then, the two miracles just done exhausted His stock +of power or of pity? Certainly His reason was, as it always was, their +good. We do not know why it was better for them to have to wait, and +continue their entreaty; but we may be quite sure that the reason for +all His delays is the same,--the larger blessing which comes with the +answer when it comes, and the large blessings which may be gathered +while we wait its coming. Christ's question to them, when at last +they have found their way even indoors, holds out more hope than they +had yet received. By it, Christ established a close relation with them, +and implied to them that He was willing to answer their cry. One can +fancy how the poor blind faces would light up with a flush of eager +expectation, and how swift would be the answer. The question is not +cold or inquisitorial. It is more than half a promise, and a powerful +aid to the faith which it requires. + +There is something very beautiful and pathetic in the simple brevity +of the unhesitating answer, 'Yea, Lord.' Sincerity needs few words. +Faith can put an infinite deal of meaning into a monosyllable. Their +eagerness to reach the goal made their answer brief. But it was +enough. Again the hand which had clasped the maiden's palm is put +out and laid gently on the useless eyes, and the great word spoken, +'According to your faith be it unto you.' Their blindness made the +touch peculiarly fitting in their case, as bringing evidence of +sense to those who could not see the gracious pity of His looks. The +word spoken was, like that to the centurion, a declaration of the +power of faith, which determines the measure, and often the manner, +of His gifts to us. The containing vessel not only settles the +quantity of, but the shape assumed by, the water which is taken up +in it from the sea. Faith, which keeps inside of Christ's promises +(and what goes outside of them is not faith), decides how much of +Christ we shall have for our very own. He condescends to run the +molten gold of His mercies into the moulds which our faith prepares. + +These two men, who had used their tongues so well in their persistent +cry for healing, went away to make a worse use of them in telling +everywhere of their cure. Jesus desired silence. Possibly He did +not wish His reputation as a mere worker of miracles to be spread +abroad. In all His earlier ministry He avoided publicity, singularly +contrasting therein with the evident desire to make Himself the +centre of observation which marks its close. He dreaded the smoky +flame of popular excitement. His message was to individuals, not to +crowds. It was a natural impulse to tell the benefits these two had +received; but truer gratitude and deeper faith would have made them +obey His lightest word, and have shut their mouths. We honour Christ +most, not by taking our way of honouring Him, but by absolute obedience. + +The final miracle of the nine (or ten) marshalled in long procession +in chapters viii. and ix. is told with singular brevity. There is +nothing individual in our Lord's treatment of the sufferer, as there +was in the previous healing of the two blind men, and no details are +given of either the appeal to His pity or the method of His cure. +The dumb demoniac could lift no cry, nor exercise any faith, and all +the petitions and hopes of his bearers were expressed in the act of +bringing the sufferer thither, and silently setting him there before +these eyes of universal pity. It was enough. With Jesus, to see was +to compassionate, and to compassionate was to help. In the other +instances of casting out demons, the method is an authoritative +command, addressed not to the possessed, but to the alien personality +that has seized on him, and we conclude that such was the method +here. Jesus undoubtedly believed in demoniacal possession, if we can +at all rely on the Gospel narratives; and it may be humbly suggested +that there are dark depths in humanity, which had need to be fathomed +more completely, before any one is warranted in dogmatically +pronouncing that He was wrong in His diagnosis. There are ugly facts +which should give pause to those who are inclined to say--'There are +no demons, and if there were, they could not dominate a human +consciousness.' + +But the effects of the miracle are emphasised more than itself. They +are two, neither of them what might or should have been. The dumb +man is not said to have used his recovered speech to thank his +deliverer, nor is there any sign that he clung to Him, either for +fear of being captured again or in passionate gratitude. It looks as +if he selfishly bore away his blessing and cared nothing for its +giver. That is very human, and we all are too often guilty of the +same sin. Nor was the effect on the multitudes much better, for they +were only struck with vulgar wonder, which had no moral quality in +it and led to nothing. They saw 'the miracle,' that is, the +wonderfulness of the act made some dint even on their minds, but +these were either too fluid to retain the impression, or too hard to +let it be deep, and so it soon filled up again. We have to think of +Christ's deeds as 'signs,' not only as 'wonders,' or they will do +little to draw us to Him. Wonder is a necessarily evanescent +emotion, which may indeed set something better stirring in us, but +is quite as likely to die barren. + +The Pharisees did not wonder, and did look into the phenomenon with +sharp eyes; and in so far, they were in advance of the gaping +multitudes. They were much too superior persons to be astonished at +anything, and they had already settled on a formula which was +delightfully easy of application, and had the further advantage of +turning the miracles into evidences that the doer of them was a +child of the Devil. It appears to have been a well-worked formula +too, for it is found again in chap. xii. 24, and in Luke xi. 15, in +the account of another cure of a dumb demoniac. It is possible that +the incident now before us may be the same as this, but there is +nothing improbable in the occurrence of such a case twice, nor in +the repetition of what had become the commonplace of the Pharisaic +polemic. But what a piercing example that explanation is of the +blinding power of prejudice, determined to hold on to a foregone +conclusion, and not to see the sun at noon! Jesus in league with +'the prince of the devils'! And that was gravely said by religious +authorities! They saw the loveliness of His perfect life, His gentle +goodness, His self-forgetting love, His swift-springing pity, and +they set it all down to His commerce with the Evil One. He was so +good that He must be more than humanly bad. + + + + +A CHRISTLIKE JUDGMENT OF MEN + + + 'But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with + compassion on them, because they fainted, and were + scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.' + --MATT. ix. 36. + +In the course of our Lord's wandering life of teaching and healing, +there had naturally gathered around Him a large number of persons who +followed Him from place to place, and we have here cast into a symbol +the impression produced upon Him by their outward condition. That is +to say, He sees them lying there weary, and footsore, and travel-stained. +They have flung themselves down by the wayside. There is no leader or +guide, no Joshua or director to order their march; they are a worn-out, +tired, unregulated mob, and the sight smites upon His eye, and it +smites upon His heart. He says to Himself, if I may venture to put +words into His lips, 'There are a worse weariness, and a worse wandering, +and a worse anarchy, and a worse disorder afflicting men than that poor +mob of tired pedestrians shows.' Matthew, who was always fond of showing +the links and connections between the Old Testament and the New, casts +our Lord's impression of what He then saw into language borrowed from +the prophecy of Ezekiel (ch. xxxiv.), which tells of a flock that is +scattered in a dark and cloudy day, that is broken, and torn, and +driven away. I venture to see in the text three points: (1) Christ +teaching us how to look at men; (2) Christ teaching us how to feel at +such a sight; and (3) Christ teaching us what to do with the feeling. +'When He saw the multitude, He was moved with compassion, because they +fainted and were scattered abroad.' 'Then He said unto His disciples, +the harvest is plenteous, the labourers are few, pray ye the Lord of +the harvest to send forth labourers unto the harvest.' And then there +follows, 'And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave +them power against unclean spirits to cast them out.' There are, then, +these three points;--just a word or two about each of them. + +I. Here we have our Lord teaching us how to look at men. + +The picture of my text is, of course, in its broad outlines, very +clear and intelligible, but there may be a little difficulty as to +the precise force of the language. The obscurity of it is in some +degree reflected in the margin of our Bibles; so, perhaps, you will +permit one word of an expository nature. The description of the +flock, 'Because they fainted and were scattered abroad,' is couched +in the original in a couple of words, one of which means properly +'torn' or 'fainting,' according as one or other of two readings of +the text is adopted, and the other means 'lying down.' Now, the +former of these gives a very pathetic picture if we apply it to the +individuals that made up the flock. We have then the image of the +poor sheep that has lost its way, struggling through briars and +thorns, getting out of them with its fleece all torn and hanging in +strips dangling at its heels, or of it as lacerated by the beasts of +the field to whom it is a prey. If we take the metaphor, as seems +more probably to be intended, as applying not so much to the +individuals as to the flock, then it comes to mean 'torn asunder,' +'thrown apart,' and gives us the notion of anarchic confusion into +which the flock comes if there be no shepherd to lead it. Then the +other word, which our Bible translates 'were scattered abroad,' +seems to mean more properly 'lying down,' and it gives the idea of +the poor, wearied creature, after all its struggles and wanderings, +utterly beaten and dejected, having lost its way, at its wits' end +and resourceless, flinging itself down there in despair, and panting +its timid life out anywhere where it finds itself. So it comes to be +a picture of the utter weariness and hopelessness of all men's +efforts apart from that Guide and Shepherd, who alone can lead them +in the way. And then both of these miserable states, the laceration +if you take the one explanation, the disintegration and casting +apart if you take the other, the weariness and exhaustion, are +traced to their source, they are 'as sheep having no shepherd.' He +has gone, and so all this comes. With this explanation we may take +the points of view that are thus suggested simply as they lie before +us. + +First of all, notice how here, as always to Jesus Christ, the +outward was nothing, except as a symbol and manifestation of the +inward; how the thing that He saw in a man was not the external +accidents of circumstance or position, for His true, clear gaze and +His loving, wise heart went straight to the essence of the matter, +and dealt with the man not according to what he might happen to be +in the categories of earth, but to what he was in the categories of +heaven. All the same to Him whether it was some poor harlot, or a +rabbi; all the same to Him whether it was Pilate on the judgment-seat, +or the penitent thief hanging at His side. These gauds and shows were +nothing; sheer away He cut them all, and went down to the hidden heart +of the man, and He allocated and ranged them according to that. +Christian men and women, do you try to do the same thing, and to get +rid of all these superficial veils and curtains with which we drape +ourselves and attitudinise in the world, and to see men as Christ saw +them, both in regard to your judgment of them, and in regard to your +judgment of yourselves? 'I am a scholar and a wise man; a great thinker; +a rich merchant; a man of rising importance and influence.' Very well; +what does that matter? 'I am ignorant or a pauper'; be it so. Let us +get below all that. The one question worth asking and worth answering +is, 'How am I affected towards Him?' There are many temporary and +local principles of arrangement and order among men; but they will +all vanish some day, and there will be one regulating and arranging +principle, and it is this: 'Do I love God in Jesus Christ, or do I +not?' Oh! for myself, for yourself, and for all our outlook towards +others, let us not forget that the inmost, deepest, hidden man of the +heart is the man, and that all else is naught, and that its whole +character is absolutely determined by its relation to Jesus Christ. + +But this is somewhat aside from my main purpose, which is rather +briefly to expand the various phases which, as I have already +suggested, are included in such an emblem. The first of them is +this: Try to think for yourselves of the condition of humanity as +apart from Christ--shepherdless. That old metaphor of a shepherd +which comes out of the Old Testament is there sometimes used to +indicate a prophet, and sometimes to indicate a king. I suppose we +may put both of these uses together, as far as our present purposes +are concerned; and this is what I want to insist upon. I dare say +some people here will think it is very old-fashioned, very narrow in +these broad and liberal days; but what I would say is this, that +unless Jesus Christ is both Guide and Teacher, we have neither guide +nor teacher but are shepherdless without Him. There are plenty of +rulers. There was no lack of other authority in the days of His +flesh. There were crowds of rabbis, guides, and directors. The life +of the nation was throttled by the authorities that had planted +themselves upon its back, and yet Christ saw that there were none of +those who were fit for the work, or afforded the adequate guidance. +And so it is, now and always. There have been hosts of men who have +sought to impose their authority upon an era. Where is there one +that has swayed passion, that has ruled hearts, that has impressed +his own image on the will, that has made obedience an honour, and +absolute, abject devotion to his command a very patent of nobility? +Here, and nowhere beside. Besides that Christ there is no ruler +amongst men who can come to them and say to his servant, 'Go,' and +he goeth, and to this man, 'Do this,' and he doeth it. Obedience to +any besides is treason against the dignity of our own nature; +disobedience to Him is both treason against our nature and blasphemy +against God. 'Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ, Thou art the +everlasting Son of the Father.' _There_ is the deepest reason +for His rule. + +And as for 'teacher,' whom are we to put up beside Him? Is it to be +these dim figures of religious reformers that are gliding, +ghostlike, to their doom, being wrapped round and round about by +ever thicker and thicker folds of the inevitable oblivion that +swallows all that is human? Brethren, by common consent it is Christ +or nobody. Aaron dies upon Hor; Moses dies upon Pisgah; the +teachers, the leaders, the guides, the under-shepherds, pass away +one by one; and if this Christ be but a Man and a Teacher, He too +will pass away. Shall I be thought very blind to the signs of the +times if I say that I see no sign of His dominion being exhausted, +of His influence being diminished, of His guidance being capable of +being dispensed with? You may say, 'Oh, we do not want any teacher +or guide; we do not want a shepherd.' I am not going to enter upon +that question now at all, except just to say this, that the instincts +of humanity rise up in contradiction, as it seems to me, of that cold +and cheerless creed, and that we have this fact staring us in the +face, that men are made capable of a devotion and submission the +most passionate, the most absolute, the most mighty force in their +lives, to human guides and ensamples, and that it is all wasted unless +there be somewhere a Man, our Brother, who shall come to us and say, +'All that ever went before Me are thieves and robbers; I am the Good +Shepherd; follow Me, and ye shall not walk in darkness,' 'He saw the +multitudes as sheep having no shepherd.' + +Still further, take that other phase of the metaphor which, as I +suggested, the text includes, namely, the idea of disintegration, +the rending apart of social ties and union, unless there be the +centre of unity in the shepherd of the flock. 'I will smite the +shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered,' says the old prophecy. +Of course, for what is there to hold them together unless it be +their guide and their director? So we are brought face to face with +this plain prosaic rendering of the metaphor--that but for the centre +of unity provided for mankind in the person and work of Jesus Christ, +there is no satisfaction of the deep hunger for unity and society +with which in that case God would have cursed mankind. For whilst +there are many other bonds most true, most blessed, God-given, and +mighty, such as that of the sacred unity of the family, and that of +the nation and many others of which we need not speak, yet all these +are constantly being disintegrated by the unresting waves of that +gnawing sea of selfishness, if I may so say, which, like the waters +upon our eastern coasts, eats and eats for ever at the base of the +cliffs, so that society in all its forms, whether it be built upon +identity of opinion, which is perhaps the shabbiest bond of all, or +whether it be built upon purposes of mutual action, which is a great +deal better, or whether it be built upon hatred of other people, +which is the modern form of patriotism, or whether it be built upon +the domestic affections, which are the purest and highest of all--all +the other bonds of society, such as creeds, schools, nations, +associations, leagues, families, denominations, all go sooner or +later. The base is eaten out of them, because every man that belongs +to them has in him that tyrannous, dominant self, which is ever +seeking to assert its own supremacy. Here is Babel, with its +half-finished tower, built on slime; and there is Pentecost, with +its great Spirit; here is the confusion, there is the unifying; here +the disintegration, there the power that draws them all together. +'They were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd,' and one +looks out over the world and sees great tracts of country and long +dismal generations of time, in which the very thought of unity and +charity and human bonds knitting men together has faded from the +consciousness of the race, and then one turns to blessed, sweet, +simple words that say, 'there shall be one flock and one shepherd,' +and 'I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.' +Drawing thus, He will draw them into the eternal, mighty bond of +union that shall never be broken, and is all the more precious and +all the more true because it is not a unity like the vulgar unities +that express themselves in external associations. You know, of +course or if you do not know it will be a good thing that you should +know, that that verse in John's Gospel which I have quoted has been +terribly mangled by a little slip of our translators. Christ said, +'Other sheep I must bring which are not of this fold,' the fold +being the external unity of the Jewish church--an enclosure made of +hurdles that you can stick in the ground. 'I shall bring them,' says +He, 'and there shall be one'--(not, as our Bible says, 'fold,'--but +something far better)--'there shall be one flock'; which becomes a +unity not by wattling round about it on the outside, but by a +shepherd standing in the middle. 'There shall be one flock and one +shepherd'--a unity which is neither the destruction of the variety of +the churches, nor the crushing of men, nationalities, and types of +character all down into one dead level beneath the heel of a conqueror, +but the unity which subsists in the many operations of the one Spirit, +and is expressed by all the forms of the one inspired grace. + +Then passing by altogether the other idea which I said was only +doubtfully suggested by the words--namely, that of laceration and +wounding--let me say a word about the last of the aspects of +humanity when Christless, which is set forth in this text, and that +is, the dejected weariness arising from the fruitless wanderings +wherewith men are cursed. As a verse in the Book of Proverbs puts +it, 'The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because +they know not how to go to the city.' Putting aside the metaphor, +the plain truth which it embodies is just this, that there is in all +men's souls a deep longing after peace and rest, after goodness and +beauty and truth, and that all the strenuous efforts to satisfy +these longings, either by social reforms or by individual culture +and discipline, are pathetically vain and profitless, because there +is none to guide them. The sheep go wandering in any direction, and +with no goal; and wherever one has jumped, a dozen others will go +after him, and so they are wearied out long before the day's journey +is ended, and they never reach the goal. Put that into less vivid, +and, therefore, as people generally suppose, more accurate, +language, and it is a statement of the universal law of human +history that, after any epoch of great aspirations and strong +excitement of the noblest parts of human nature, there has always +come a reaction of corruption and a collapse from weariness. What +did 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity' end in? A guillotine. What do +all similar epochs end in, when they do not take the Christ to march +ahead of them? An utter disgust and disillusion, and a despair of +all progress. That is why wild revolutionists in their youth are +always obstinate Conservatives in their old age. The wandering sheep +are footsore, and they fling themselves down by the wayside. That is +why heathenism presents to us the aspect that it does. There is +nothing about it that seems to me more tragical than the weary +languor that besets it. Do you ever think of the depth of pathetic, +tragic meaning that there is in that verse in one of the Psalms, +'Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death'? There they +sit, because there is no hope in rising and moving. They would have +to grope if they arose, and so with folded hands they sit like the +Buddha, which one great section of heathenism has taken as being the +true emblem and ideal of the noblest life. Absolute passivity lays +hold upon them all--torpor, stagnation, no dream of advance or +progress. The sheep are dejected, despairing, anarchic, disintegrated, +lacerated, guideless, and shepherdless--away from Christ. So He +thought them. God give you and me grace, dear brethren, to see, as +Christ saw, the condition of humanity and our own apart from Him. + +II. And now let me say a word in the next place as to the second +movement of His mind and heart here. He teaches us not only how to +think of men, but how that sight should touch us. + +'He was moved with compassion on them when He saw the multitude'--with +the eye of a god, I was going to say, and the heart of a man. Pity +belongs to the idea of divinity; compassion belongs to the idea of +divinity incarnate; and the motion that passed across His heart is the +motion that I would seek may pass, with its sweet and healing breath, +across yours and mine. The right emotion for a Christian looking on +the Christless crowds is pity, not aversion; pity, not anger; pity, not +curiosity; pity, not indifference. How many of us walk the streets of +the towns in which our lot is cast, and never know one touch of that +emotion, when we look at these people here in England torn, and anarchic, +and wearied, and shepherdless, within sound of our psalm-singing in +our chapels? Why, on any Sunday there are thousands of men and women +standing about the streets who, we may be sure, have not seen the +inside of a church or a chapel since they were married, and that not +one in five hundred of all the good people that are going with their +prayer-books and hymn-books to church and chapel ever think anything +about them as they pass them by; and some of them, perhaps, if they +come to any especially disreputable one, will gather up their skirts +and keep on the safe side of the pavement, and there an end of it. But +Jesus Christ had no aversions. His white purity was a great deal nearer +to the blackness of the woman that was a sinner, than was the leprous +whiteness of the whited sepulchre of the self-righteous Pharisee. He +had neither aversion, nor anger, nor indifference. + +And, if I might venture to touch upon another matter, compassion and +not curiosity is an especial lesson for the day to the more thoughtful +and cultivated amongst our congregations. I have just said that the +appropriate Christian feeling in contemplating the state of the sheep +without the Shepherd is compassion, not curiosity. That reminder is +particularly needful in view of the prominence to-day of investigations +into the new science of Comparative Religion. I speak with most +unfeigned respect of it and of its teachers, and gratefully hail the +wonderful light that it is casting upon ideas underlying the strange +and often savage and obscene rites of heathenism; but it has a side of +danger in it against which I would warn you all, especially young, +reading men and women. The time has not yet come when we can afford to +let such investigations be our principal occupation in the face of +heathenism. If idolatry was dead we could afford to do that, but it +is alive--the more's the pity; and it is not only a curious instance +of the workings of man's intelligence, and a great apocalypse of +earlier stages of society, but, besides that, it is a lie that is +deceiving and damning our brethren, and we have got to kill it first +and dissect it afterwards. So I say, do not only think of heathenism +in its various forms as a subject for speculation and analysis; as +much as you like of that, only do not let it drive out the other +thing, and after you have tried to understand it, then come back to +my text, 'He was moved with compassion.' And so pity, and neither +anger, nor aversion, nor curiosity, nor indifference is what I urge +as the Christian emotion. + +III. Let us take this text as teaching us how Christ would have us +act, after such emotion built and based upon such a look. + +It is perfectly legitimate, although it is by no means the highest +motive, to appeal to feeling as a stimulus to action. We have a +right to base our urging of Christian men and women to missionary +work either at home or abroad, upon the ground of the condition of +the men to whom the Gospel has to be carried. I know that if taken +alone it is a very inadequate motive. I believe that any failure +that may be manifest in the interest of Christian people in +missionary work is largely traceable to the blunder we have made in +dwelling on superficial motives more than we ought to have done, in +proportion to the degree in which we have dwelt on the deepest. We +have been gathering the surface-water instead of going right down to +the green sand, to which the artesian well must be sunk if the +stream is to come up without pumping or wasting. So I say that a +deeper reason than the sorrow and darkness of the heathen is--'the +love of Christ constraineth me'; but yet the first is a legitimate +one. Only remember this, that Bishop Butler taught us long ago, that +if you excite emotions which are intended to lead to action, and the +action does not follow, the excitation of the emotion without its +appropriate action makes the heart a great deal harder than it was +before. That is why it is playing with edged tools to speak so much +to our Christian audiences, as we sometimes hear done, about the +condition of the heathen as a stimulus to missionary work. If a man +does not respond and do something, some crust of callousness and +coldness comes over his own heart. You cannot indulge in the luxury +of emotion which you do not use to drive your spindles, without +doing yourselves harm. It is never intended to be blown off as waste +steam and allowed to vanish into the air. It is meant to be conserved +and guided, and to have something done with it. Therefore beware of +sentimental contemplation of the sad condition of the shepherdless +sheep which does not move you to do anything to help them. + +One word more. Take my text as a guide to the form of action into +which we are to cast the emotions that should spring from this gaze +upon the world. I will only name three points. Christ opened His +mouth and spake to them, and taught them many things; Christ said to +His disciples, 'Pray ye the Lord of the harvest'; and Christ sent +out His apostles to preach the Kingdom. These three things in their +bearing upon us are--personal work, prayer, help to send forth +Christ's messengers. There is nothing like personal work for making +a man understand and feel the miseries of his fellows. Christian men +and women, it is your first business everywhere to proclaim the name +of Jesus Christ, and no prayers and no subscriptions absolve you +from that. In this army a man cannot buy himself off and send in a +substitute at the cost of an annual guinea. If Christ sent the +apostles, do you hold up the hands of the apostles' successors, and +so by God's grace you and I may help on the coming of that blessed +day when there shall be one flock and one Shepherd, and when 'the +Lamb that is in the midst of the throne'--for the Shepherd is +Himself a lamb--'shall feed them and lead them, and God shall wipe +away all tears from their eyes.' + + + + +THE OBSCURE APOSTLES + + + 'These twelve Jesus sent forth.'--MATT. x. 5. + +And half of 'these twelve' are never heard of as doing any work for +Christ. Peter and James and John we know; the other James and Judas +have possibly left us short letters; Matthew gives us a Gospel; and +of all the rest no trace is left. Some of them are never so much as +named again, except in the list at the beginning of the Acts of the +Apostles; and none of them except the three who 'seemed to be pillars' +appear to have been of much importance in the early diffusion of the +Gospel. + +There are many instructive and interesting points in reference to +the Apostolate. The number of twelve, in obvious allusion to the +tribes of Israel, proclaims the eternal certainty of the divine +promises to His people, and the dignity of the New Testament Church +as their true heir. The ties of relationship which knit so many of +the apostles together, the order of the names varying, but within +certain limits, in the different catalogues, the uncultivated +provincial rudeness of most of them, would all afford material for +important reflections. But, perhaps, not the least important fact +about the Apostolate is that one to which we have referred, which +like the names of countries on the map, escapes notice because it is +'writ' so 'large'--namely, the small place which the apostles as a +body fill in the subsequent narrative, and the entire oblivion into +which so many of them pass from the moment of their appointment. + +It is to that fact that we wish to turn attention now. It may +suggest some considerations worth pondering, and among other things, +may help to show the exaggeration of the functions of the office by +the opposite extremes of priests and rationalists. The one school +makes it the depository of exclusive supernatural powers; the other +regards it as a master-stroke of organisation, to which the early +rapid growth of Christianity was largely due. The facts seem to show +that it was neither. + +I. The first thought which this peculiar and unexpected silence +suggests is of the True Worker in the Church's progress. + +The way in which the New Testament drops these apostles is of a piece +with the whole tone of the Bible. Throughout, men are introduced into +its narratives and allowed to slip out with well-marked indifference. +Nowhere do we get more vivid, penetrating portraiture, but nowhere do +we see such carelessness about following the fortunes or completing the +biographies even of those who have filled the largest space in its pages. + +Recall, for example, the way in which the New Testament deals with +'the very chiefest' apostles, the illustrious triad of Peter, James, +and John. The first escapes from prison; we see him hammering at +Mary's door in the grey of the morning, and after brief, eager talk +with his friends he vanishes to hide in 'another place,' and is no +more heard of, except for a moment in the great council, held in +Jerusalem, about the admission of Gentiles to the Church. The second +of the three is killed off in a parenthesis. The third is only seen +twice in the Book of the Acts, as a silent companion of Peter at a +miracle and before the Sanhedrim. Remember how Paul is left in his +own hired house, within sight of trial and sentence, and neither the +original writer of the book nor any later hand thought it worth +while to add three lines to tell the world what became of him. A +strange way to write history, and a most imperfect narrative, surely! +Yes, unless there be some peculiarity in the purpose of the book, +which explains this cold-blooded, inartistic, and tantalising habit +of letting men leap upon the stage as if they had dropped from the +clouds, and vanish from it as abruptly as if they had fallen through +a trap-door. + +Such a peculiarity there is. One of the three to whom we have +referred has explained it in the words with which he closes his +gospel, words which might stand for the motto of the whole book, +'These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Son of +God.' The true purpose is not to speak of men except in so far as +they 'bore witness to that light' and were illuminated for a moment +by contact with Him. From the beginning the true 'Hero' of the Bible +is God; its theme is His self-revelation culminating for evermore in +the Man Jesus. All other men interest the writers only as they are +subsidiary or antagonistic to that revelation. As long as that +breath blows through them they are music; else they are but common +reeds. Men are nothing except as instruments and organs of God. He +is all, and His whole fulness is in Jesus Christ. Christ is the sole +worker in the progress of His Church. That is the teaching of all +the New Testament. The thought is expressed in the deepest, simplest +form in His own unapproachable words, unfathomable as they are in +their depth of meaning, and inexhaustible in their power to +strengthen and to cheer: 'I am the vine, ye are the branches, +without Me ye can do nothing.' It shapes the whole treatment of the +history of the so-called 'Acts of the Apostles,' which by its very +first sentence proclaims itself to be the Acts of the ascended +Jesus, 'the former treatise' being declared to have had for its +subject 'all that Jesus _began_ to do and teach while on earth, +and this treatise being manifestly the continuance of the same +theme, and the record of the heavenly activity of the Lord. So the +thought runs through all the book: 'The help that is done on earth, +He does it all Himself.' + +_So_ let us think of Him and of His relation to us as well as +to that early Church. His continuous energy is pouring down on us if +we will accept it. _In_ us, _for_ us, _by_ us He works. 'My Father worketh +hitherto, said He when here, 'and I work'; and now, exalted on high, +He has passed into that divine repose, which is at the same time the +most energetic divine activity. He is all in all to His people. He is +all their strength, wisdom, and righteousness. They are but the clouds +irradiated by the sun and bathed in its brightness; He is the light +which flames in their grey mist and turns it to a glory. They are but +the belts and cranks and wheels; He is the power. They are but the +channel, muddy and dry; He is the flashing life that fills it and makes +it a joy. They are the body; He is the soul dwelling in every part to +save it from corruption and give movement and warmth. + + 'Thou art the organ, whose full breath is thunder; + I am the keys, beneath thy fingers pressed.' + +If this be true, how it should deliver us from all overestimate of +men, to which our human affections and our feeble faith tempt us so +sorely! There _is_ One man, and One man only, whose biography +is a 'Gospel, who owes nothing to circumstances, and who originates +the power which He wields; One who is a new beginning, and has +changed the whole current of human history, One to whom we are right +to bring offerings of the gold, and incense, and myrrh of our +hearts, and wills, and minds, which it is blasphemy and degradation +to lay at the feet of any others. We may utterly love, trust, and +obey Jesus Christ. We dare not do so to any other. The inscription +written over the whole book, that it may be transcribed on our whole +nature, is, 'No man any more save Jesus only.' + +If this thought be true, what confidence it ought to give us as we +think of the tasks and fortunes of the Church! If we think only of the +difficulties and of the enormous work before us, so disproportioned +to our weak powers, we shall be disposed to agree with our enemies, +who talk as if Christianity was on the point of perishing, as they +have been doing ever since it began. But the outlook is wonderfully +different when we take Christ into the account. We are very apt to +leave Him out of the reckoning. But one man with Christ to back him is +always in the majority. He flings his sword clashing into one scale, +and it weighs down all that is in the other. The walls are very lofty +and strong, and the besiegers few and weak, badly armed, and quite +unfit for the assault; but if we lift our eyes high enough, we, too, +shall see a man with a drawn sword over against us, and our hearts +may leap up in assured confidence of victory as we recognise in Him +the Captain of the Lord's Host, who has already overcome, and will +make us valiant in fight and more than conquerors. + +When conscious of our own weakness, and tempted to think of our task +as heavy, or when complacent in our own power, and tempted to regard +our task as easy, let us think of His ever-present work in and for His +people, till it braces us for all duty, and rebukes our easy-going +idleness. Surely from that thought of the active, ascended Christ may +come to many of His slothful followers the pleading question, as from +His own lips, 'Dost thou not care that thou hast left me to serve +alone?' Surely to us all it should bring inspiration and strength, +courage and confidence, deliverance from man, and elevation above the +reverence of blind impersonal forces. Surely we may all lay to heart +the grand lesson that union with Him is our only strength, and oblivion +of ourselves our highest wisdom. Surely he has best learned his true +place and the worth of Jesus Christ, who abides with unmoved humility +at His feet, and, like the lonely, lowly forerunner, puts away all +temptations to self-assertion while joyfully accepting it as the law +of his life to + + 'Fade in the light of the planet he loves, + To fade in his light and to die.' + +Blessed is he who is glad to say,' He must increase, I must +decrease!' + +II. This same silence of Scripture as to so many of the apostles may +be taken as suggesting what the real work of these delegated workers +was. + +It certainly seems very strange that, if they were the possessors of +such extraordinary powers as the theory of Apostolic Succession +implies, we should hear so little of these in the narratives. The +silence of Scripture about them goes a long way to discredit such +ideas, while it is entirely accordant with a more modest view of the +apostolic office. + +What was an apostle's function during the life of Christ? One of the +evangelists divides it into three portions: to be with Jesus; to +preach the kingdom; to cast out devils and to heal. There is nothing +in these offices peculiar to them. The seventy had miraculous powers +too, and some at least were our Lord's companions and preachers of +His kingdom who were simple disciples. What was an apostle's +function after the resurrection? Peter's words, on proposing the +election of a new apostle, lay down the duty as simply 'to bear +witness' of that resurrection. They were not supernatural channels +of mysterious grace, not lords over God's heritage, not even leaders +of the Church, but bearers of a testimony to the great historical +fact, on the acceptance of which all belief in an historical Christ +depended then and depends now. Each of the greater of the apostles +is penetrated with the same thought. Paul disclaims anything beside +in his 'Not I, but the grace of God in me.' Peter thrusts the +question at the staring crowd, 'Why look ye on us as though by +_our_ power or holiness _we_ had made this man to walk?' John, in his +calm way, tells his children at Ephesus, 'Ye need not that any man +teach you.' + +Such an idea of the apostolic office is far more reasonable and +accordant with Scripture than a figment about unexampled powers and +authority in the Church. It accounts for the qualifications as +stated in the same address of Peter's, which merely secure the +validity of their testimony. The one thing that _must_ be found +in an apostle was that he should have been in familiar intercourse +with Christ during his earthly life, both before and after His +resurrection, in order that he might be able to say, 'I knew Him +well; I know that He died; I know that He rose again; I saw Him go +up to heaven.' For such a work there was no need for men of +commanding power. Plain, simple, honest men who had the requisite +eye-witness were sufficient. The guidance and the missionary work of +the Church need not necessarily be in their hands, and, in fact, +does not seem to have been. In harmony with this view of the office +and its requisites, we find that Paul rests the validity of his +apostolate on the fact that 'He was seen of me also,' and regards +that vision as his true appointment which left him not 'one whit +behind the very chiefest apostles.' Miraculous gifts indeed they +had, and miraculous gifts they imparted; but in both instances +others shared these powers with them. It was no apostle who laid his +hands on the blinded Saul in that house in Damascus and said, +'Receive the Holy Ghost.' An apostle stood by passive and wondering +when the Holy Ghost fell on Cornelius and his comrades. In reality +apostolic succession is absurd, because there is nothing to succeed +to, except what cannot be transmitted, personal knowledge of the +reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. To establish that fact +as indubitable history is to lay the foundation of the Christian +Church, and the eleven plain men, who did that, need no +superstitious mist around them to magnify their greatness. + +In so far as any succession to them or any devolution of their office +is possible, all Christian men inherit it, for to bear witness of the +living power of the risen Lord is still the office and honour of +every believing soul. It is still true that the sharpest weapon which +any man can wield for Christ is the simple adducing of his own personal +experience. 'That which we have seen and handled we declare' is still +the best form into which our preaching can be cast. And such a voice +every man and woman who has found the sweetness and the power of Christ +filling their own souls, is bound--rather let us say, is privileged--to +lift up. 'This honour have all the saints.' Christ is the true worker, +and all our work is but to proclaim Him, and what He has done and is +doing for ourselves and for all men. + +III. We may gather, too, the lesson of how often faithful work is +unrecorded and forgotten. + +No doubt those apostles who have no place in the history toiled +honestly and did their Lord's commands, and oblivion has swallowed +it all. Bartholomew and 'Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus,' and +the rest of them, have no place in the record, and their obscure +work is faded, faithful and good as certainly it was. + +So it will be sooner or later with us all. For most of us, our +service has to be unnoticed and unknown, and the memory of our poor +work will live perhaps for a year or two in the hearts of some few +who loved us, but will fade wholly when they follow us into the +silent land. Well, be it so; we shall sleep none the less sweetly, +though none be talking about us over our heads. The world has a +short memory, and, as the years go on, the list that it has to +remember grows so crowded that it is harder and harder to find room +to write a new name on it, or to read the old. The letters on the +tombstones are soon erased by the feet that tramp across the +churchyard. All that matters very little. The notoriety of our work +is of no consequence. The earnestness and accuracy with which we +strike our blow is all-important; but it matters nothing how far it +echoes. It is not the heaven of heavens to be talked about, nor does +a man's life consist in the abundance of newspaper or other +paragraphs about him. 'The love of fame' is, no doubt, sometimes +found in 'minds' otherwise 'noble,' but in itself is very much the +reverse of noble. We shall do our work best, and be saved from much +festering anxiety which corrupts our purest service and fevers our +serenest thoughts, if we once fairly make up our minds to working +unnoticed and unknown, and determine that, whether our post be a +conspicuous or an obscure one, we shall fill it to the utmost of our +power--careless of praise or censure, because our judgment is with +our God; careless whether we are unknown or well known, because we +are known altogether to Him. + +The magnitude of our work in men's eyes is as little important as +the noise of it. Christ gave all the apostles their tasks--to some +of them to found the Gentile churches, to some of them to leave to +all generations precious teaching, to some of them none of these +things. What then? Were the Peters and the Johns more highly +favoured than the others? Was their work greater in His sight? Not +so. To Him all service done from the same motive is the same, and +His measure of excellence is the quantity of love and spiritual +force in our deeds, not the width of the area over which they +spread. An estuary that goes wandering over miles of shallows may +have less water in it, and may creep more languidly, than the +torrent that thunders through some narrow gorge. The deeds that +stand highest on the records in heaven are not those which we +vulgarly call great. Many 'a cup of cold water only' will be found +to have been rated higher there than jewelled golden chalices +brimming with rare wines. God's treasures, where He keeps His +children's gifts, will be like many a mother's secret store of +relics of her children, full of things of no value, what the world +calls 'trash,' but precious in His eyes for the love's sake that was +in them. + +All service which is done from the same motive and with the same +spirit is of the same worth in His eyes. It does not matter whether +you have the gospel in a penny Testament printed on thin paper with +black ink and done up in cloth, or in an illuminated missal glowing +in gold and colour, painted with loving care on fair parchment, and +bound in jewelled ivory. And so it matters little about the material +or the scale on which we express our devotion and our aspirations; +all depends on what we copy, not on the size of the canvas on which, +or on the material in which, we copy it. 'Small service is true +service while it lasts,' and the unnoticed insignificant servants +may do work every whit as good and noble as the most widely known, +to whom have been intrusted by Christ tasks that mould the ages. + +IV. Finally, we may add that forgotten work is remembered, and +unrecorded names are recorded above. + +The names of these almost anonymous apostles have no place in the +records of the advancement of the Church or of the development of +Christian doctrine. They drop out of the narrative after the list in +the first chapter of the Acts. But we do hear of them once more. In +that last vision of the great city which the seer beheld descending +from God, we read that in its 'foundations were the names of the +twelve apostles of the Lamb.' All were graven there--the inconspicuous +names carved on no record of earth, as well as the familiar ones cut +deep in the rock to be seen of all men for ever. At the least that +grand image may tell us that when the perfect state of the Church is +realised, the work which these men did when their testimony laid its +foundation, will be for ever associated with their names. Unrecorded +on earth, they are written in heaven. + +The forgotten work and its workers are remembered by Christ. His +faithful heart and all-seeing eye keep them ever in view. The world, +and the Church whom these humble men helped, may forget, yet He will +not forget. From whatever muster-roll of benefactors and helpers +their names may be absent, they will be in His list. The Apostle +Paul, in his Epistle to the Philippians, has a saying in which his +delicate courtesy is beautifully conspicuous, where he half apologises +for not sending his greetings 'to others my fellow-workers' by name, +and reminds them that, however their names may be unwritten in his +letter, they have been inscribed by a mightier hand on a better page, +and 'are in the Lamb's book of life.' It matters very little from what +record ours may be absent so long as they are found there. Let us +rejoice that, though we may live obscure and die forgotten, we may +have our names written on the breastplate of our High Priest as He +stands in the Holy Place, the breastplate which lies close to His +heart of love, and is girded to His arm of power. + +The forgotten and unrecorded work lives, too, in the great whole. The +fruit of our labour may perhaps not be separable from that of others, +any more than the sowers can go into the reaped harvest-field and +identify the gathered ears which have sprung from the seed that they +sowed, but it is there all the same; and whosoever may be unable to +pick out each man's share in the blessed total outcome, the Lord of +the harvest knows, and His accurate proportionment of individual +reward to individual service will not mar the companionship in the +general gladness, when 'he that soweth and he that reapeth shall +rejoice together.' + +The forgotten work will live, too, in blessed results to the doers. +Whatever of recognition and honour we may miss here, we cannot be +robbed of the blessing to ourselves, in the perpetual influence on +our own character, of every piece of faithful even if imperfect +service. Habits are formed, emotions deepened, principles confirmed, +capacities enlarged by every deed done for Christ, and these make an +over-measure of reward here, and in their perfect form hereafter are +heaven. Nothing done for Him is ever wasted. 'Thou shalt find it +after many days.' We are all writing our lives' histories here, as +if with one of these 'manifold writers'--a black blank page beneath +the flimsy sheet on which we write, but presently the black page +will be taken away, and the writing will stand out plain on the page +behind that we did not see. Life is the filmy, unsubstantial page on +which our pen rests; the black page is death; and the page beneath +is that indelible transcript of our earthly actions, which we shall +find waiting for us to read, with shame and confusion of face, or +with humble joy, in another world. + +Then let us do our work for Christ, not much careful whether it be +greater or smaller, obscure or conspicuous; assured that whoever +forgets us and it, He will remember, and however our names may be +unrecorded on earth, they will be written in heaven, and confessed +by Him before His Father and the holy angels. + + + + +CHRIST'S CHARGE TO HIS HERALDS + + + 'These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, + saying, do not into the way of the Gentiles, and into + any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: 6. But go + rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7. And + as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at + hand. 8. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the + dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely + give. 9. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in + your purses, 10. Nor scrip for your journey, neither + two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the + workman is worthy of his meat. 11. And into whatsoever + city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is + worthy: and there abide till ye go thence. 12. And when + ye come into an house, salute it. 13. And if the house + be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be + not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14. And + whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, + when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the + dust of your feet. 15. Verily I say unto you, It shall + be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in + the day of judgment, than for that city. 16. Behold, I + send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye + therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.' + --Matt. x. 5-16. + +The letter of these instructions to the apostles has been abrogated +by Christ, both in reference to the scope of, and the equipment for, +their mission (Matt. xxviii. 19; Luke xxii. 36). The spirit of them +remains as the perpetual obligation of all Christian workers, and +every Christian should belong to that class. Some direct +evangelistic work ought to be done by every believer, and in doing +it he will find no better directory than this charge to the +apostles. + +I. We have, first, the apostles' mission in its sphere and manner +(vs. 5-8). They are told where to go and what to do there. Mark that +the negative prohibition precedes the positive injunction, as if the +apostles were already so imbued with the spirit of universalism that +they would probably have overpassed the bounds which for the present +were needful. The restriction was transient. It continued in the +line of divine limitation of the sphere of Revelation which confined +itself to the Jew, in order that through him it might reach the +world. That method could not be abandoned till the Jew himself had +destroyed it by rejecting Christ. Jesus still clung to it. Even when +the commission was widened to 'all the world,' Paul went 'to the Jew +first,' till he too was taught by uniform failure that Israel was +fixed in unbelief. + +How tenderly our Lord designates the nation as 'the lost sheep of +the house of Israel'! He is still influenced by that compassion +which the sight of the multitudes had moved in Him (chap. ix. 36). +Lost indeed, wandering with torn fleece, and lying panting, in +ignorance of their pasture and their Shepherd, they are yet 'sheep,' +and they belong to that chosen seed, sprung from so venerable +ancestors, and heirs of so glorious promises. Clear sight of, and +infinite pity for, men's miseries, must underlie all apostolic +effort. + +The work to be done is twofold--a glad truth is to be proclaimed, +gracious deeds of power are to be done. How blessed must be the kingdom, +the forerunners of which are miracles of healing and life-giving! If +the heralds can do these, what will not the King be able to do? If such +hues attend the dawn, how radiant will be the noontide! Note 'as ye +go,' indicating that they were travelling evangelists, and were to +speak as they went, and go when they had spoken. The road was to be +their pulpit, and each man they met their audience. What a different +world it would be if Christians carried their message with them _so_! + +'Freely ye have received'; namely, in the first application of the +words, the message of the coming kingdom and the power to work +miracles. But the force of the injunction, as applied to us, is even +more soul-subduing, as our gift is greater, and the freedom of its +bestowal should evoke deeper gratitude. The deepest springs of the +heart's love are set flowing by the undeserved, unpurchased gift of +God, which contains in itself both the most tender and mighty motive +for self-forgetting labour, and the pattern for Christian service. +How can one who has received that gift keep it to himself? How can +he sell what he got for nothing? 'Freely give'--the precept forbids +the seeking of personal profit or advantage from preaching the +gospel, and so makes a sharp test of our motives; and it also +forbids clogging the gift with non-essential conditions, and so +makes a sharp test of our methods. + +II. The prohibition to make gain out of the message, serves as a +transition to the directions as to equipment. The apostles were to +go as they stood; for the command is, '_Get_ you no gold,' etc. +It has been already noted that these prohibitions were abrogated by +Jesus in view of His departure, and the world-wide mission of the +Church. But the spirit of them is not abrogated. Note that the +descending value of the metals named makes an ascending stringency +in the prohibition. Not even copper money is to be taken. The +'wallet' was a leather satchel or bag, used by shepherds and others +to carry a little food; sustenance, then, was also to be left +uncared for. Dress, too, was to be limited to that in wear; no +change of inner robe nor a spare pair of shoes was to encumber them, +nor even a spare staff. If any of them had one in his hand, he was +to take it (Mark vi. 8). The command was meant to lift the apostles +above suspicion, to make them manifestly disinterested, to free them +from anxiety about earthly things, that their message might absorb +their thoughts and efforts, and to give room for the display of +Christ's power to provide. It had a promise wrapped in it. He who +forbade them to provide for themselves thereby pledged Himself to +take care of them. 'The labourer is worthy of his food.' They may be +sure of subsistence, and are not to wish for more. + +All this has a distinct bearing on modern church arrangements. On +the one hand, it vindicates the right of those who preach the gospel +to live of the gospel, and sets any payments to them on the right +footing, as not being charity or generosity, but the discharge of a +debt. On the other hand, it enjoins on preachers and others who are +paid for service not to serve for pay, not to be covetous of large +remuneration, and to take care that no taint of greed for money +shall mar their work, but that their conduct may confirm their words +when they say with Paul, 'We seek not yours, but you.' + +III. The conduct required from, and the reception met with by, the +messengers come next. Christ first enjoins discretion and +discrimination of character, so far as possible. The messenger of +the kingdom is not to be mixed up with disreputable people, lest the +message should suffer. The principle of his choice of a home is to +be, not position, comfort, or the like, but 'worthiness'; that is, +predisposition to receive the message. However poor the chamber in +the house of such, there is the apostle to settle himself. 'If ye +have judged me to be faithful, come into my house,' said Lydia. The +less Christ's messengers are at home with Christ's neglecters, the +calmer their own hearts, and the more potent their message. They +give the lie to it, if they voluntarily choose as their associates +those to whom their dearest convictions are idle. Christian charity +does not blind to distinctions of character. A little common sense +in reading these will save many a scandal, and much weakening of +influence. + +Christian earnestness does not abolish courtesy. The message is not +to be blurted out in defiance of even conventional forms. Zeal for +the Lord is no excuse for rude abruptness. But the salutation of the +true apostle will deepen the meaning of such forms, and make the +conventional the real expression of real goodwill. No man should say +'Peace be unto you' so heartily as Christ's servant. The servant's +benediction will bring the Master's ratification; for Jesus says, +'_Let_ your peace come upon it,' as if commanding the good +which we can only wish. That will be so, if the requisite condition +is fulfilled. There must be soil for the seed to root in. + +But no true wish for others' good--still more, no effort for it--is +ever void of blessed issue. If the peace does not rest on a house +into which jarring and sin forbid its entrance, it will not be +homeless, but come back, like the dove to the ark, and fold its +wings in the heart of the sender. The reflex influence of Christian +effort is precious, whatever its direct results are. How the Church +has been benefited by its missionary enterprises! + +Jesus encouraged no illusions in His servants as to their success. +From the beginning they were led to expect that some would receive +and some would reject their words. In this rapid preparatory +mission, there was no time for long delay anywhere; but for us, it +is not wise to conclude that patient effort will fail because first +appeals have not succeeded. Much close communion with Jesus, not a +little self-suppression, and abundant practical wisdom, are needed +to determine the point at which further efforts are vain. No doubt, +there is often great waste of strength in trying to impress +unimpressible people, or to revive some moribund enterprise; but it +is a pardonable weakness to be reluctant to abandon a field. Still +it _is_ a weakness, and there come times when the only right +thing to do is to 'shake off the dust' of the messenger's feet in +token that all connection is ended, and that he is clear from the +blood of the rejecters. The awful doom of such is solemnly +introduced by 'Verily, I say unto you.' It rests on the plain +principle that the measure of light is the measure of criminality, +and hence the measure of punishment. The rejecters of Christ among +us are as much more guilty than 'that city' as its inhabitants were +than the men of Sodom. + +The first section of this charge properly ends with verse 15, the +following verse being a transition to the second part. The Greek +puts strong emphasis on 'I.' It is He who sends among wolves, +therefore He will protect. A strange thing for a shepherd to do! A +strange encouragement for the apostles on the threshold of their +work! But the words would often come back to them when beset by the +pack with their white teeth gleaming, and their howls filling the +night. They are not promised that they will not be torn, but they +are assured that, even if they are, the Shepherd wills it, and will +not lose one of His flock. + +What is the Christian defence? Prudence like the serpent's, but not +the serpent's craft or malice; harmlessness like the dove's, but not +without the other safeguard of 'wisdom.' The combination is a rare +one, and the surest way to possess it is to live so close to Jesus +that we shall be progressively changed into His likeness. Then our +prudence will never degenerate into cunning, nor our simplicity +become blindness to dangers. The Christian armour and arms are meek, +unconquerable patience, and Christ-likeness, To resist is to be +beaten; to endure unretaliating is to be victorious. 'Be not +overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.' + + + + +THE WIDENED MISSION, ITS PERILS AND DEFENCES + + + 'Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of + wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless + as doves. 17. But beware of men: for they will deliver + you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in + their synagogues; 18. And ye shall be brought before + governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony + against them and the Gentiles. 19. But when they + deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall + speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what + ye shall speak. 20. For it is not ye that speak, but + the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. + 21. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to + death, and the father the child: and the children shall + rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put + to death. 22. And ye shall be hated of all men for My + name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be + saved. 23. But when they persecute you in this city, + flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye + shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the + Son of Man be come. 24. The disciple is not above his + master, nor the servant above his lord. 25. It is + enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and + the servant as his lord. If they have called the master + of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call + them of his household? 26. Fear them not therefore: for + there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; + and hid, that shall not be known. 27. What I tell you + in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear + in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. 28. And + fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to + kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to + destroy both soul and body in hell. 29. Are not two + sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not + fall on the ground without your Father. 30. But the + very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31. Fear ye + not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.' + --MATT. x. 16-31. + +We have already had two instances of Matthew's way of bringing +together sayings and incidents of a like kind without regard to +their original connection. The Sermon on the Mount and the series of +miracles in chapters viii. and ix. are groups, the elements of which +are for the most part found disconnected in Mark and Luke. This +charge to the twelve in chapter x. seems to present a third +instance, and to pass over in verse 16 to a wider mission than that +of the twelve during our Lord's lifetime, for it forebodes +persecution, whereas the preceding verses opened no darker prospect +than that of indifference or non-reception. The 'city' which, in +that stage of the gospel message, simply would 'not receive you nor +hear your words,' in this stage has worsened into one where 'they +persecute you,' and the persecutors are now 'kings' and 'Gentiles,' +as well as Jewish councils and synagogue-frequenters. The period +covered in these verses, too, reaches to the 'end,' the final +revelation of all hidden things. + +Obviously, then, our Lord is looking down a far future, and giving a +charge to the dim crowd of His later disciples, whom His prescient +eye saw pressing behind the twelve in days to come. He had no dreams +of swift success, but realised the long, hard fight to which He was +summoning His disciples. And His frankness in telling them the worst +that they had to expect was as suggestive as was His freedom from +the rosy, groundless visions of at once capturing a world which +enthusiasts are apt to cherish, till hard experience shatters the +illusions. He knew the future in store for Himself, for His Gospel, +for His disciples. And He knew that dangers and death itself will +not appal a soul that is touched into heroic self-forgetfulness by +His love. 'Set down my name,' says the man in _Pilgrim's Progress_, +though he knew--may we not say, because he knew?--that the enemies +were outside waiting to fall on him. + +A further difference between this and the preceding section is, that +there the stress was laid on the contents of the disciples' message, +but that here it is laid on their sufferings. Not so much by what +they say, as by how they endure, are they to testify. 'The noble +army of martyrs praise Thee,' and the primitive Church preached +Jesus most effectually by dying for Him. + +The keynote is struck in verse 16, in which are to be noted the +'Behold,' which introduces something important and strange, and +calls for close attention; the majestic '_I_ send you,' which +moves to obedience whatever the issues, and pledges Him to defend +the poor men who are going on His errands and the pathetic picture +of the little flock huddled together, while the gleaming teeth of +the wolves gnash all round them. A strange theme to drape in a +metaphor! but does not the very metaphor help to lighten the +darkness of the picture, as well as speak of His calmness, while He +contemplates it? If the Shepherd sends His sheep into the midst of +wolves, surely He will come to their help, and surely any peril is +more courageously faced when they can say to themselves, 'He put us +here.' The sheep has no claws to wound with nor teeth to tear with, +but the defenceless Christian has a defence, and in his very +weaponlessness wields the sharpest two-edged sword. 'Force from +force must ever flow.' Resistance is a mistake. The victorious +antagonist of savage enmity is patient meekness. 'Sufferance is the +badge of all' true servants of Jesus. Wherever they have been +misguided enough to depart from Christ's law of endurance and to +give blow for blow, they have lost their cause in the long run, and +have hurt their own Christian life more than their enemies' bodies. +Guilelessness and harmlessness are their weapons. But 'be ye wise as +serpents' is equally imperative with 'guileless as doves.' Mark the +fine sanity of that injunction, which not only permits but enjoins +prudent self-preservation, so long as it does not stoop to crooked +policy, and is saved from that by dove-like guilelessness. A +difficult combination, but a possible one, and when realised, a +beautiful one! + +The following verses (17-22) expand the preceding, and mingle in a +very remarkable way plain predictions of persecution to the death +and encouragements to front the worst. Jewish councils and +synagogues, Gentile governors and kings, will unite for once in +common hatred, than which there is no stronger bond. That is a grim +prospect to set before a handful of Galilean peasants, but two +little words turn its terror into joy; it is 'for My sake,' and that +is enough. Jesus trusted His humble friends, as He trusts all such +always, and believed that 'for My sake' was a talisman which would +sweeten the bitterest cup and would make cowards into heroes, and +send men and women to their deaths triumphant. And history has +proved that He did not trust them too much. 'For His sake'--is that +a charm for _us_, which makes the crooked straight and the +rough places plain, which nerves for suffering and impels to noble +acts, which moulds life and takes the sting and the terror out of +death? Nor is that the only encouragement given to the twelve, who +might well be appalled at the prospect of standing before Gentile +kings. Jesus seems to discern how they shrank as they listened, at +the thought of having to bear 'testimony' before exalted personages, +and, with beautiful adaptation to their weakness, He interjects a +great promise, which, for the first time, presents the divine Spirit +as dwelling in the disciples' spirits. The occasion of the dawning +of that great Christian thought is very noteworthy, and not less so +is the designation of the Spirit as 'of your Father,' with all the +implications of paternal care and love which that name carries. +Special crises bring special helps, and the martyrologies of all +ages and lands, from Stephen outside the city wall to the last +Chinese woman, have attested the faithfulness of the Promiser. How +often have some calm, simple words from some slave girl in Roman +cities, or some ignorant confessor before Inquisitors, been +manifestly touched with heavenly light and power, and silenced +sophistries and threats! + +The solemn foretelling of persecution, broken for a moment, goes on +and becomes even more foreboding, for it speaks of dearest ones +turned to foes, and the sweet sanctities of family ties dissolved by +the solvent of the new Faith. There is no enemy like a brother +estranged, and it is tragically significant that it is in connection +with the rupture of family bonds that death is first mentioned as +the price that Christ's messengers would have to pay for +faithfulness to their message. But the prediction springs at a +bound, as it were, from the narrow circle of home to the widest +range, and does not fear to spread before the eyes of the twelve +that they will become the objects of hatred to the whole human race +if they are true to Christ's charge. The picture is dark enough, and +it has turned out to be a true forecast of facts. It suggests two +questions. What right had Jesus to send men out on such an errand, +and to bid them gladly die for Him? And what made these men gladly +take up the burden which He laid on them? He has the right to +dispose of us, because He is the Son of God who has died for us. +Otherwise He is not entitled to say to us, Do my bidding, even if it +leads you to death. His servants find their inspiration to absolute, +unconditional self-surrender in the Love that has died for them. +That which gives Him His right to dispose of us in life and death +gives us the disposition to yield ourselves wholly to Him, to be His +apostles according to our opportunities, and to say, 'Whether I live +or die, I am the Lord's.' + +That thought of world-wide hatred is soothed by the recurrence of +the talisman, 'For My name's sake,' and by a moment's showing of a +fair prospect behind the gloom streaked with lightning in the +foreground. 'He that endureth to the end shall be saved.' The same +saying occurs in chapter xxiv. 13, in connection with the prediction +of the fall of Jerusalem, and in the same connection in Mark xiii. +13, in both of which places several other sayings which appear in +this charge to the apostles are found. It is impossible to settle +which is the original place for these, or whether they were twice +spoken. The latter supposition is very unfashionable at present, but +has perhaps more to say for itself than modern critics are willing +to allow. But Luke (xxi. 19) has a remarkable variation of the +saying, for his version of it is, 'In your patience, ye shall win +your souls.' His word 'patience' is a noun cognate with the verb +rendered in Matthew and Mark 'endureth,' and to 'win one's soul' is +obviously synonymous with being 'saved.' The saying cannot be +limited, in any of its forms, to a mere securing of earthly life, +for in this context it plainly includes those who have been +delivered to death by parents and brethren, but who by death have +won their lives, and have been, as Paul expected to be, thereby +'saved into His heavenly kingdom.' To the Christian, death is the +usher who introduces him into the presence-chamber of the King, and +he that loseth his life 'for My name's sake,' finds it glorified in, +and into, life eternal. + +But willingness to endure the utmost is to be accompanied with +willingness to take all worthy means to escape it. There has been a +certain unwholesome craving for martyrdom generated in times of +persecution, which may appear noble but is very wasteful. The worst +use that you can put a man to is to burn him, and a living witness +may do more for Christ than a dead martyr. Christian heroism may be +shown in not being afraid to flee quite as much as in courting, or +passively awaiting, danger. And Christ's Name will be spread when +His lovers are hounded from one city to another, just as it was when +'they that were scattered abroad, went everywhere, preaching the +word.' When the brands are kicked apart by the heel of violence, +they kindle flames where they fall. + +But the reason for this command to flee is perplexing. 'Ye shall not +have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come.' Is +Jesus here reverting to the narrower immediate mission of the +apostles? What 'coming' is referred to? We have seen that the first +mission of the twelve was the theme of verses 5-15, and was there +pursued to its ultimate consequences of final judgment on rejecters, +whilst the wider horizon of a future mission opens out from verse 16 +onwards. A renewed contraction of the horizon is extremely unlikely. +It would be as if 'a flower should shut and be a bud again.' The +recurrence in verse 23 of 'Verily I say unto you,' which has already +occurred in verse 15, closing the first section of the charge, makes +it probable that here too a section is completed, and that +probability is strengthened if it is observed that the same phrase +occurs, for a third time, in the last verse of the chapter, where +again the discourse soars to the height of contemplating the final +reward. The fact that the apostles met with no persecution on their +first mission, puts out of court the explanation of the words that +refers them to that mission, and takes the 'coming' to be Jesus' own +appearances in the places they had preceded Him as His heralds. The +difficult question as to what is the _terminus ad quem_ pointed +to here seems best solved by taking the 'coming of the Son of Man' +to be His judicial manifestation in the destruction of Jerusalem and +the consequent desolation of many of 'the cities of Israel,' whilst +at the same time, the nearer and smaller catastrophe is a prophecy +and symbol of the remoter and greater 'day of the Son of Man' at the +end of the days. The recognition of that aspect of the fall of +Jerusalem is forced on us by the eschatological parts of the +Gospels, which are a bewildering whirl without it. Here, however, it +is the crash of the fall itself which is in view, and the thought +conveyed is that there would be cities enough to serve for refuges, +and scope enough for evangelistic work, till the end of the Jewish +possession of the land. + +In verses 26-31, 'fear not' is thrice spoken, and at each occurrence +is enforced by a reason. The first of these encouragements is the +assurance of the certain ultimate world-wide manifestation of hidden +things. That same dictum occurs in other connections, and with other +applications, but in the present context can only be taken as an +assurance that the Gospel message, little known as it thus far was, +was destined to fill all ears. Therefore the disciples were to be +fearless in doing their part in making it known, and so working in +alliance with the divine purpose. It is the same thing that is meant +by the 'covered' that 'shall be revealed,' the 'hidden' that 'shall +be known,' 'that which is spoken in darkness,' and 'that which is +whispered in the ear'; and all four designations refer to the word +which every Christian has it in charge to sound out. We note that +Jesus foresees a far wider range of publicity for His servants' +ministry than for His own, just as He afterwards declared that they +would do 'greater works' than His. He spoke to a handful of men in +an obscure corner of the world. His teaching was necessarily largely +confidential communication to the fit few. But the spark is going to +be a blaze, and the whisper to become a shout that fills the world. +Surely, then, we who are working in the line of direction of God's +working should let no fear make us dumb, but should ever hear and +obey the command: 'Lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be +not afraid.' + +A second reason for fearlessness is the limitation of the enemy's +power to hurt, reinforced by the thought that, while the penalties +that man can inflict for faithfulness are only corporeal, +transitory, and incapable of harming the true self, the consequences +of unfaithfulness fling the whole man, body and soul, down to utter +ruin. There is a fear that makes cowards and apostates; there is a +fear which makes heroes and apostles. He who fears God, with the awe +that has no torment and is own sister to love, is afraid of nothing +and of no man. That holy and blessed fear drives out all other, as +fire draws the heat out of a burn. He that serves Christ is lord of +the world; he that fears God fronts the world, and is not afraid. + +The last reason for fearlessness touches a tender chord, and +discloses a gracious thought of God as Father, which softens the +tremendous preceding word: 'Who is able to destroy both soul and +body in hell.' Take both designations together, and let them work +together in producing the awe which makes us brave, and the filial +trust which makes us braver. A bird does not 'fall to the ground' +unless wounded, and if it falls it dies. Jesus had looked pityingly +on the great mystery, the woes of the creatures, and had stayed +Himself on the thought of the all-embracing working of God. The very +dying sparrow, with broken wing, had its place in that universal +care. God is 'immanent' in nature. The antithesis often drawn +between His universal care and His 'special providence' is +misleading. Providence is special because it is universal. That +which embraces everything must embrace each thing. But the immanent +God is 'your Father,' and because of that sonship, 'ye are of more +value than many sparrows.' There is an ascending order, and an +increasing closeness and tenderness of relation. 'A man is better +than a sheep,' and Christians, being God's children, may count on +getting closer into the Father's heart than the poor crippled bird +can, or than the godless man can. 'Your Father,' on the one hand, +can destroy soul and body, therefore fear Him; but, on the other, He +determines whether you shall 'fall to the ground' or soar above +dangers, therefore fear none but Him. + + + + +LIKE TEACHER, LIKE SCHOLAR + + + 'The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant + above his lord. 26. It is enough for the disciple that + he be as his master, and the servant as his lord.' + --MATT. x. 24, 25. + +These words were often on Christ's lips. Like other teachers, He too +had His favourite sayings, the light of which He was wont to flash +into many dark places. Such a saying, for instance, was, 'To him +that hath shall be given.' Such a saying is this of my text; and +probably several other of our Lord's utterances, which are repeated +more than once in different Gospels, and have too hastily been +sometimes assumed to have been introduced erroneously by the +evangelists, in varying connections. + +This half-proverb occurs four times in the Gospels, and in three +very different connections, pointing to three different subjects. +Here, and once in John's Gospel, in the fifteenth chapter, it is +employed to enforce the lesson of the oneness of Christ and His +disciples in their relation to the world; and that His servants +cannot expect to be better off than the Master was. 'If they have +called Me Beelzebub they will not call you anything else.' + +Then in Luke's Gospel (vi. 40) it is employed to illustrate the +principle that the scholar cannot expect to be wiser than his +master; that a blind teacher will have blind pupils, and that they +will both fall into the ditch. Of course, the scholar may get beyond +his master, but then he will get up and go away from the school, and +will not be his scholar any longer. As long as he is a scholar, the +best that can happen to him, and that will not often happen, is to +be on the level of his teacher. + +Then in another place in John's Gospel (xiii. 16) the saying is +employed in reference to a different subject, viz. to teach the +meaning of the pathetic, symbolical foot-washing, and to enforce the +exhortation to imitate Jesus Christ, as generally in conduct, so +specially in His wondrous humility. 'The servant is not greater than +his lord.' 'I have left you an example that ye should do as I have +done to you.' + +So if we put these three instances together we get a threefold +illustration of the relation between the disciple and the teacher, +in respect to wisdom, conduct, and reception by the world. And these +three, with their bearing on the relation between Christians and +Jesus Christ, open out large fields of duty and of privilege. The +very centre of Christianity is discipleship, and the very highest +hope, as well as the most imperative command which the Gospel brings +to men is, 'Be like Him whom you profess to have taken as your +Master. Be like Him here, and you shall be like Him hereafter.' + +I. Likeness to the teacher in wisdom is the disciple's perfection. + +'If the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch.' 'The +disciple is not greater than his master.' 'It is enough for the +disciple that he be as his master.' If that be a true principle, +that the best that can happen to the scholar is to tread in his +teacher's footsteps, to see with his eyes, to absorb his wisdom, to +learn his truth, we may apply it in two opposite directions. First, +it teaches us the limitations, and the misery, and the folly of +taking men for our masters; and then, on the other hand, it teaches +us the large hope, the blessing, freedom, and joy of having Christ +for our Master. + +Now, first, look at the principle as bearing upon the relation of +disciple and human teacher. All such teachers have their +limitations. Each man has his little circle of favourite ideas that +he is perpetually reiterating. In fact, it seems as if one truth was +about as much as one teacher could manage, and as if, whensoever God +had any great truth to give to the world, He had to take one man and +make him its sole apostle. So that teachers become mere fragments, +and to listen to them is to dwarf and narrow oneself. + +The chances are that no scholar shall be on his master's level. The +eyes that see truth directly and for themselves in this world are +very few. Most men have to take truth at second-hand, and few indeed +are they who, like a perfect medium, receive even the fragmentary +truth that human lips can impart to them, and transmit it as pure as +they receive it. Disciples present exaggerations, caricatures, +misconceptions, the limitations of the master becoming even more +rigid in the pupil. Schools spring up which push the founder's +teaching to extremes, and draw conclusions from it which he never +dreamed of. Instead of a fresh voice, we have echoes, which, like +all echoes, give only a syllable or two out of a sentence. Teachers +can tell what they see, but they cannot give their followers eyes, +and so the followers can do little more than repeat what their +leader said he saw. They are like the little suckers that spring up +from the 'stool' of a cut-down tree, or like the kinglets among +whose feebler hands the great empire of an Alexander was divided at +his death. + +It is a dwarfing thing to call any man master upon earth. And yet +men will give to a man the credence which they refuse to Christ. The +followers of some of the fashionable teachers of to-day--Comte, +Spencer, or others--protest, in the name of mental independence, +against accepting Christ as the absolute teacher of morals and +religion, and then go away and put a man in the very place which +they have denied to Him, and swallow down his _dicta_ whole. + +Such facts show how heart and mind crave a teacher; how discipleship +is ingrained in our nature; how we all long for some one who shall +come to us authoritatively and say, 'Here is truth--believe it and +live on it.' And yet it is fatal to pin one's faith on any, and it +is miserable to have to change guides perpetually and to feel that +we have outgrown those whom we reverence, and that we can look down +on the height which once seemed to touch the stars--and, if we cut +ourselves loose from all men's teaching, the isolation is dreary, +and few of us are strong enough of arm, or clear enough of eye, to +force or find the path through the tangled jungles of error. + +So take this thought, that the highest hope of a disciple is to be +like the master in wisdom, in its bearing on the relation between us +and Christ, and look how it then flashes up into blessedness and +beauty. + +Such a teacher as we have in Him has no limitations, and it is safe +to follow Him absolutely and Him alone. All others have plainly +borne the impress of their age, or their nation, or their +idiosyncrasy, in some way or another; Christ Jesus is the only +teacher that the world has ever heard of, in whose teaching there is +no mark of the age or generation or set of circumstances in which it +originated. This water does not taste of any soil through which it +has passed, it has come straight down from Heaven, and is pure and +uncontaminated as the Heaven from which it has come. This teacher is +safe to listen to absolutely: there are no limitations there; you +never hear Him arguing; there is no sign about His words as if He +had ever dug out for Himself the wisdom that He is proclaiming, or +had ever seen it less distinctly than He sees it at the moment. The +great peculiarity of His teaching is that He does not reason, but +declares that His 'Verily! Verily!' is the confirmation of all His +message. His teaching is Himself; other men bring lessons about truth; +He says, 'I am the Truth.' Other teachers keep their personality in +the background; He clashes His down in the foreground. Other men say, +'Listen to what I tell you, never mind about me.' He says, 'This is +life eternal, that ye should believe on Me.' This Teacher has His +message level to all minds, high and low, wise and foolish, cultivated +and rude. This Teacher does not only impart wisdom by words as from +without, though He does that too, but He comes into men's spirits, and +communicates Himself, and so makes them wise. Other teachers fumble at +the outside, but 'in the hidden parts He makes me to know wisdom.' So +it is safe to take this Teacher absolutely, and to say, 'Thou art my +Master, Thy word is truth, and the opening of Thy lips to me is wisdom.' + +In following Christ as our absolute Teacher, there is no sacrifice +of independence or freedom of mind, but listening to Him is the way +to secure these in their highest degree. We are set free from men, +we are growingly delivered from errors and misconceptions, in the +measure in which we keep close to Christ as our Master. The Lord is +that Teacher, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there, and there +only, is liberty; freedom from self, from the dominion of popular +opinion, from the coterie-speech of schools, from the imposing +authority of individuals, and from all that makes cowardly men say +as other people say, and fall in with the majority; and freedom from +our own prejudices and our own errors, which are cleared away when +we take Christ for our Master and cleave to Him. + +His teaching can never cease until it has accomplished its purpose, +and not until we have gathered into our consciousness all the truth +that He has to give, and have received all the wisdom that He can +impart unto us as to God and Himself, does His teaching cease. Here +we may grow indefinitely in the knowledge of Christ, and in the +future we shall know even as we are known. His merciful teaching +will not come to a close till we have drunk in all His wisdom, and +till He has declared to us all which He has heard of the Father. He +will pass us from one form to another of His school, but in Heaven +we shall still be His scholars; 'Every one shall sit at Thy feet, +every one shall receive of Thy words.' + +So, then, let us turn away from men, from rabbis and Sanhedrins, +from authorities and schools, from doctors and churches. Why resort +to cisterns when we may draw from the spring? Why listen to men when +we may hear Christ? He is, as Dante called the great Greek thinker, +'the Master of those who know.' Why should we look to the planets +when we can see the sun? 'Call no man master upon earth, for One is +your Master, and all ye are brethren.' And His merciful teaching +will never cease until 'everyone that is perfected shall be as his +Master.' + +II. Now, turn to the second application of this principle. Likeness +to the Master in life is the law of a disciple's conduct. + +That pathetic and wonderful story about the foot-washing in John's +Gospel is meant for a symbol. It is the presenting, in a picturesque +form, of the very heart and essence of Christ's Incarnation in its +motive and purpose. The solemn prelude with which the evangelist +introduces it lays bare our Lord's heart and His reason for His +action. 'Having loved His own, which were in the world, He loved +them to the end.' His motive, then, was love. Again, the exalted +consciousness which accompanied His self-abasement is made prominent +in the words, 'Knowing that the Father had given all things into His +hand, and that He was come from God and went to God.' And the +majestic deliberation and patient continuance in resolved humility +with which He goes down the successive steps of the descent, are +wonderfully given in the evangelist's record of how He 'riseth from +supper, and laid aside His garments and girded Himself, and poured +water into the basin.' It is a parable. Thus, in the consciousness +of His divine authority and dignity, and moved by His love to the +whole world, He laid aside the garments of His glory, and vested +Himself with the towel of His humanity, the servant's garb, and took +the water of His cleansing power, and came to wash the feet of all +who will let Him cleanse them from their soil. And then, having +reassumed His garments, He speaks from His throne to those who have +been cleansed by His humiliation and His sacrifice, 'Know ye what I +have done to you? The servant is not greater than his lord.' + +That is to say, dear brethren, in this one incident, which is the +condensation, so to speak, of the whole spirit of His life, is the +law for our lives as well. We, too, are bound to that same love as +the main motive of all our actions; we, too, are bound to that same +stripping off of dignity and lowly equalising of ourselves with +those below us whom we would help, and we, too, are bound to make it +our main object, in our intercourse with men, not merely that we +should please nor enlighten them, nor succour their lower temporal +needs, but that we should cleanse them and make them pure with the +purity that Christ gives. + +A Christian life all moved and animated by self-denuding love, and +which came amongst men to make them better and purer, and all the +influence of which tended in the direction of helping poor foul +hearts to get rid of their filth, how different it would be from our +lives! What a grim contrast much of our lives is to the Master's +example and command! Did you ever strip yourself of anything, my +brother, in order to make some poor, wretched creature a little +purer and liker the Saviour? Did you ever drop your dignity and go +down to the low levels in order to lift up the people that were +there? Do men see anything of that example, as reproduced in your +lives, of the Master that lays aside the garments of Heaven for the +vesture of earth, and dies upon the Cross in order that He might +make our poor hearts purer and liker His own? + +But, hard as such imitation is, it is only one case of a general +principle. Discipleship is likeness to Jesus Christ in conduct. +There is no discipleship worth naming which does not, at least, +attempt that likeness. What is the use of a man saying that he is +the disciple of Incarnate Love if his whole life is incarnate +selfishness? What is the use of your calling yourselves Christians, +and saying that you are followers of Jesus Christ, when He came to +do God's will and delighted in it, and you come to do your own, and +never do God's will at all, or scarcely at all, and then reluctantly +and with many a murmur? What kind of a disciple is he, the habitual +tenor of whose life contradicts the life of his Master and disobeys +His commandments? And I am bound to say that that is the life of an +enormously large proportion of the professing disciples in this age +of conventional Christianity. + +'The disciple shall be as his master.' Do you make it your effort to +be like Him? If so, then the saying is not only a law, but a +promise, for it assures us that our effort shall not fail but +progressively succeed, and lead on at last to our becoming what we +behold, and being conformed to Him whom we love, and like the Master +to whose wisdom we profess to listen. They whose earthly life is a +following of Christ, with faltering steps and afar off, shall have +for their heavenly blessedness, that they shall 'follow the Lamb +whithersoever He goeth.' + +III. And now, lastly, likeness to the Master in relation to the +world is the fate that the disciple must put up with. + +'If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much +more shall they call them of his household?' 'The disciple is not +above his master, nor the servant above his lord.' Our Lord +reiterated the statement in another place in John's Gospel, +reminding them that He had said it before. + +If we are like Jesus Christ in conduct, and if we have received His +Word as the truth upon which we repose, depend upon it, in our +measure and in varying fashions, we shall have to bear the same kind +of treatment that He received from the world. The days of so-called +persecution are over in so-called Christian countries, but if you +are a disciple in the sense of believing all that Jesus Christ says, +and taking Him for your Teacher, the public opinion of this day will +have a great many things to say about you that will not be very +pleasant. You will be considered to be 'old-fashioned,' 'narrow,' +'behind the times,' etc. etc. etc. Look at the bitter spirit of +antagonism to an earnest and simple Christianity and adoption of +Christ as our authoritative Teacher which goes through much of our +high-class literature to-day. It is a very small matter as measured +with what Christian men used to have to bear; but it indicates the +set of things. We may make up our minds that if we are not contented +with the pared-down Christianity which the world allows to pass at +present, but insist upon coming to the New Testament for our beliefs +and practices, and avow--'I believe all that Jesus Christ says, and +I believe it because He says it, and I take Him as my model'; we +shall find out that the disciple has to be 'as his Master,' and that +the Pharisees and the Scribes of to-day stand in the same relation +to the followers as their predecessors did to the Leader. If you are +like your Master in conduct, you will be no more popular with the +world than He was. As long as Christianity will be quiet, and let +the world go its own gait, the world is very well contented to let +it alone, or even to say polite things to it. Why should the world +take the trouble of persecuting the kind of Christianity that so +many of us display? What is the difference between our Christianity +and their worldliness? The world is quite willing to come to church +on Sundays, and to call itself a Christian world, if only it may +live as it likes. And many professing Christians have precisely the +same idea. They attend to the externals of Christianity, and call +themselves Christians, but they bargain for its having very little +power over their lives. Why, then, should two sets of people who +have the same ideas and practices dislike each other? No reason at +all! But let Christian men live up to their profession, and above +all let them become aggressive, and try to attack the world's evil, +as they are bound to do; let them fight drunkenness, let them go +against the lust of great cities, let them preach peace in the face +of a nation howling for war, let them apply the golden rules of +Christianity to commerce and social relationships and the like, and +you will very soon hear a pretty shout that will tell you that the +disciple who is a disciple has to share the fate of the Master, +notwithstanding nineteen centuries of Christian teaching. + +If you do not know what it is to find yourselves out of harmony with +the world, I am afraid it is because you have less of the Master's +spirit than you have of the world's. The world loves its own. If you +are not 'of the world, the world will hate you.' If it does not, it +must be because, in spite of your name, you belong to it. + +But if we are like Him in our relation to the world, because we are +like Him in character, our very share in 'His reproach,' and our +sense of being 'aliens' here, bear the promise that we shall be like +Him in all worlds. His fortune is ours. 'The disciple shall be as +his master.' If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him. No +cross, no crown;--if cross, then crown! The end of discipleship is +not reached until the Master's image and the Master's lot are +repeated in the scholar. + +Take Christ for your sacrifice, trust to His blood, listen to His +teaching, walk in His footsteps, and you shall share His sovereignty +and sit on His throne. 'It is enough,'--ay! more than enough, and +nothing less than that is enough,--'for the disciple that he be +_as_'--and _with_--'his master.' 'I shall be satisfied when I awake in +Thy likeness.' + + + + + +THE KING'S CHARGE TO HIS AMBASSADORS + + + 'Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him + will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. + 33. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I + also deny before My Father which is in heaven. 34. Think + not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to + send peace, but a sword. 35. For I am come to set a man + at variance against his father, and the daughter against + her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother + in law. 36. And man's foes shall be they of his own + household. 37. He that loveth father or mother more than + Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or + daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38. And he + that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is + not worthy of Me. 39. He that findeth his life shall + lose it: and he that loseth his life for My sake shall + find it 40. He that receiveth you receiveth Me, and he + that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me. 41. He + that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall + receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a + righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall + receive a righteous man's reward. 42. And whosoever + shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup + of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I + say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.' + --MATT. x. 32-42. + +The first mission of the apostles, important as it was, was but a +short flight to try the young birds' wings. The larger portion of +this charge to them passes far beyond the immediate occasion, and +deals with the permanent relations of Christ's servants to the world +in which they live, for the purpose of bringing it into subjection +to its true King. These solemn closing words, which make our present +subject, contain the duty and blessedness of confessing Him, the vision +of the antagonisms which He excites, His demand for all-surrendering +following, and the rewards of those who receive Christ's messengers, +and therein receive Himself and His Father. + +I. The duty and blessedness of confessing Him (vs. 32, 33). The +'therefore' is significant. It attaches the promise which follows to +the immediately preceding thoughts of a watchful, fatherly care, +extending like a great invisible hand over the true disciple. +Because each is thus guarded, each shall be preserved to receive the +honour of being confessed by Christ. No matter what may befall His +witnesses, the extremest disaster shall not rob them of their reward. +They may be flung down from the house-tops where they lift up their +bold voices, but He who does not let a sparrow fall to the ground +uncared for, will give His angels charge concerning them who are so +much more precious, and they shall be borne up on outstretched wings, +lest they be dashed on the pavement below. Thus preserved, they shall +all attain at last to their guerdon. Nothing can come between Christ's +servant and his crown. The tender providence of the Father, whose +mercy is over all His works, makes sure of that. The river of the +confessor's life may plunge underground, and be lost amid persecutions, +but it will emerge again into the brighter sunshine on the other side +of the mountains. + +The confession which is to be thus rewarded, like the denial opposed +to it, is, of course, not merely a single utterance of the lip. So +far Judas Iscariot confessed Christ, and Peter denied Him. But it is +the habitual acknowledgment by lip and life, unwithdrawn to the end. +The context implies that the confession is maintained in the face of +opposition, and that the denial is a cowardly attempt to save one's +skin at the cost of treason to Jesus. The temptation does not come +in that sharpest form to us. Perhaps some cowards would be made +brave if it did. It is perhaps easier to face the gibbet and the +fire, and screw oneself up for once to a brief endurance, than to +resist the more specious blandishments of the world, especially when +it has been christened, and calls itself religious. The light laugh +of scorn, the silent pressure of the low average of Christian +character, the close associations in trade, literature, public and +domestic life which Christians have with non-Christians, make many a +man's tongue lie silent, to the sore detriment of his own religious +life. 'Ye have not yet resisted unto blood,' and find it hard to +fulfil the easier conflict to which you are called. The sun has more +power than the tempest to make the pilgrim drop his garment. But the +duty remains the same for all ages. Every man is bound to make the +deepest springs of his life visible, and to stand to his +convictions, whatever they be. If he do not, his convictions will +disappear like a piece of ice hid in a hot hand, which will melt and +trickle away. This obligation lies with infinitely increased weight +on Christ's servants; and the consequences of failing to discharge +it are more tragic in their cases, in the exact proportion of the +greater preciousness of their faith. Corn hoarded is sure to be +spoiled by weevils and rust. The bread of life hidden in our sacks +will certainly go mouldy. + +The reward and punishment of confession and denial come to them not +as separate acts, but as each being the revelation of the spiritual +condition of the doers. Christ implies that a true disciple cannot +but be a confessor, and that therefore the denier must certainly be +one whom He has never known. Because, therefore, each act is +symptomatic of the doer, each receives the congruous and +correspondent reward. The confessor is confessed; the denier is +denied. What calm and assured consciousness of His place as Judge +underlies these words! His recognition is God's acceptance; His +denial is darkness and misery. The correspondence between the work +and the reward is beautifully brought out by the use of the same +word to express each. And yet what a difference between our +confession of Him and His of us! And what a hope is here for all who +have tremblingly, and in the consciousness of much unworthiness, +ventured to say that they were Christ's subjects, and He their King, +brother, and all! Their poor, feeble confession will be endorsed by +His. He will say, 'Yes, this man is mine, and I am his.' That will +be glory, honour, blessedness, life, heaven. + +II. The vision of the discord which follows the coming of the King +of peace. It is not enough to interpret these words as meaning that +our Lord's purpose indeed was to bring peace, but that the result of +His coming was strife. The ultimate purpose is peace; but an +immediate purpose is conflict, as the only road to the peace. He is +first King of righteousness, and after that also King of peace. But, +if His kingdom be righteousness, purity, love, then unrighteousness, +filthiness, and selfishness will fight against it for their lives. +The ultimate purpose of Christ's coming is to transform the world +into the likeness of heaven; and all in the world which hates such +likeness is embattled against Him. He saw realities, and knew men's +hearts, and was under no illusion, such as many an ardent reformer +has cherished, that the fair form of truth need only be shown to +men, and they will take her to their hearts. Incessant struggle is +the law for the individual and for society till Christ's purpose for +both is realised. + +That conflict ranges the dearest in opposite ranks. The gospel is +the great solvent. As when a substance is brought into contact with +some chemical compound, which has greater affinity for one of its +elements than the other element has, the old combination is +dissolved, and a new and more stable one is formed, so Christianity +analyses and destroys in order to synthesis and construction. In +verse 21 our Lord had foretold that brother should deliver up +brother to death. Here the severance is considered from the opposite +side. The persons who are 'set at variance' with their kindred are +here Christians. Perhaps it is fanciful to observe that they are all +junior members of families, as if the young would be more likely to +flock to the new light. But however that may be, the separation is +mutual, but the hate is all on one side. The 'man's foes' are of his +own household; but he is not their foe, though he be parted from +them. + +III. Earthly love may be a worse foe to a true Christian than even +the enmity of the dearest; and that enmity may often be excited by +the Christian subordination of earthly to heavenly love. So our Lord +passes from the warnings of discord and hate to the danger of the +opposite--undue love. + +He claims absolute supremacy in our hearts. He goes still farther, +and claims the surrender, not only of affections, but of self and +life to Him. What a strange claim this is! A Jewish peasant, dead +nineteen hundred years since, fronts the whole race of man, and +asserts His right to their love, which is strange, and to their +supreme love, which is stranger still. Why should we love Him at +all, if He were only a man, however pure and benevolent? We may +admire, as we do many another fair nature in the past; but is there +any possibility of evoking anything as warm as love to an unseen +person, who can have had no knowledge of or love to us? And why +should we love Him more than our dearest, from whom we have drawn, +or to whom we have given, life? What explanation or justification +does He give of this unexampled demand? Absolutely none. He seems to +think that its reasonableness needs no elucidation. Surely never did +teacher professing wisdom, modesty, and, still more, religion, put +forward such a claim of right; and surely never besides did any +succeed in persuading generations unborn to yield His demand, when +they heard it. The strangest thing in the world's history is that +to-day there are millions who do love Jesus Christ more than all +besides, and whose chief self-accusation is that they do not love +Him more. The strange, audacious claim is most reasonable, if we +believe that Jesus is the Son of God, who died for each of us, and +that each man and woman to the last of the generations had a +separate place in His divine human love when He died. It is meet to +love Him, if that be true; it is not, unless it be. The requirement +is as stringent as strange. If the two ever seem to conflict, the +earthly must give way. If the earthly be withdrawn, there must be +found sufficiency for comfort and peace in the heavenly. The lower +must not be permitted to hinder the flight of the heavenly to its +home. 'More than Me' is a rebuke to most of us. What a contrast +between the warmth of our earthly and the tepidity or coldness of +our heavenly love! How spontaneously our thoughts, when left free, +turn to the one; how hard we find it to keep them fixed on the +other! How sweet service is to the dear ones here; how reluctantly +it is given to Christ! How we long, when parted, to rejoin them; how +little we are drawn to the place where He is! We have all to confess +that we are 'not worthy of' Him; that we requite His love with +inadequate returns, and live lives which tax His love for its +highest exercise, the free forgiveness of sins against itself. +Compliance with that stringent law, and subordinating all earthly +love to His, is the true elevating and ennobling of the earthly. It +is promoted, not degraded, when it is made second, and is infinitely +sweeter and deeper then than when it was set in the place of +supremacy, where it had no right to be. + +But Christ's demand is not only for the surrender of the heart, but +for the giving up of self, and, in a very profound sense, for the +surrender of life. How enigmatical that saying about taking up the +cross must have sounded to the disciples! They knew little about the +cross, as a punishment; they had not yet associated it in any way +with their Lord. This seems to have been the first occasion of His +mentioning it, and the allusion is so veiled as to be but partially +intelligible. But what was intelligible was bewildering. A strange +royal procession that, of the King with a cross on His shoulder, and +all His subjects behind Him with similar burdens! Through the ages +that procession has marched, and it marches still. Self-denial for +Christ's sake is 'the badge of all our tribe.' Observe that word +'take.' The cross must be willingly and by ourselves assumed. No +other can lay it on our shoulders. Observe that other word 'his.' +Each man has his own special form in which self-denial is needful +for him. We require pure eyes, and hearts kept in very close +communion with Jesus, to ascertain what our particular cross is. He +has them of many patterns, shapes, sizes, and materials. We can +always make sure of strength to carry the one which He means us to +carry, but not of strength to bear what is not ours. + +IV. We have the rewards of those who receive Christ's messengers, +and therein receive Him and His Father. Our Lord first identifies +these twelve with Himself in a manner which must have sounded +strange to them then, but have heartened them for their work by the +consciousness of His mysterious oneness with them. The whole +doctrine of Christ's unity with His people lay in germ in these +words, though much more was needed, both of teaching and of +experience, before their depth of blessing and strengthening could +be apprehended. _We_ know that He dwells in His true subjects +by His Spirit, and that a most real union subsists between the head +and the members, of which the closest unions of earth are but faint +shadows, so as that not only those who receive His followers receive +Him, but, more wonderful still, His followers are received at the +last by God Himself as joined to Him, and portions of His very self, +and therefore 'accepted in the Beloved.' Our Lord adds to these +words the thought that, in like manner, to receive Him is to receive +the Father, and so implies that our relation to Him is in certain +real respects parallel with His relation to the Father. We too are +sent. He who sends abides with us, as the Son ever abode in God, and +God in Him. We are sent to be the brightness of Christ's glory, and +to manifest Him to men, as He was sent to reveal the Father. + + + + +A LIFE LOST AND FOUND +[Footnote: Preached after the funeral of Mr. F. W. Crossley.] + + + 'He that loseth his life for My sake shall find it.' + --MATT. x. 39. + +My heart impels me to break this morning my usual rule of avoiding +personal references in the pulpit. Death has been busy in our own +congregation this last week, and yesterday we laid in the grave all +that was mortal of a man to whom Manchester owes more than it knows. +Mr. Crossley has been for thirty years my close and dear friend. He +was long a member of this church and congregation. I need not speak +of his utter unselfishness, of his lifelong consecration, of his +lavish generosity, of his unstinted work for God and man; but +thinking of him and of it, I have felt as if the words of my text +were the secret of his life, and as if he now understood the fulness +of the promise they contain: 'He that loseth his life for My sake +shall find it.' Now, looking at these words in the light of the +example so tenderly beloved by some of us, so sharply criticised by +many, but now so fully recognised as saintly by all, I ask you to +consider-- + +I. The stringent requirement for the Christian life that is here +made. + +Now we shall very much impoverish the meaning and narrow the sweep +of these great and penetrating words, if we understand by 'losing +one's life' only the actual surrender of physical existence. It is +not only the martyr on whose bleeding brows the crown of life is +gently placed; it is not only the temples that have been torn by the +crown of thorns, that are soothed by that unfading wreath; but there +is a daily dying, which is continually required from all Christian +people, and is, perhaps, as hard as, or harder than, the brief and +bloody passage of martyrdom by which some enter into rest. For the +true losing of life is the slaying of self, and that has to be done +day by day, and not once for all, in some supreme act of surrender +at the end, or in some initial act of submission and yielding at the +beginning, of the Christian life. We ourselves have to take the +knife into our own hands and strike, and that not once, but ever, +right on through our whole career. For, by natural disposition, we +are all inclined to make our own selves to be our own centres, our +own aims, the objects of our trust, our own law; and if we do so, we +are dead whilst we live, and the death that brings life is when, day +by day, we 'crucify the old man with his affections and lusts.' +Crucifixion was no sudden death; it was an exquisitely painful one, +which made every nerve quiver and the whole frame thrill with +anguish; and that slow agony, in all its terribleness and +protractedness, is the image that is set before us as the true ideal +of every life that would not be a living death. The world is to be +crucified to me, and I to the world. + +We have our centre in ourselves, and we need the centre to be +shifted, or we live in sin. If I might venture upon so violent an +image, the comets that career about the heavens need to be caught +and tamed, and bound to peaceful revolution round some central sun, +or else they are 'wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness +of darkness for ever.' So, brethren, the slaying of self by a +painful, protracted process, is the requirement of Christ. + +But do not let us confine ourselves to generalities. What is meant? +This is meant--the absolute submission of the will to commandments +and providences, the making of that obstinate part of our nature +meek and obedient and plastic as the clay in the potter's hands. The +tanner takes a stiff hide, and soaks it in bitter waters, and +dresses it with sharp tools, and lubricates it with unguents, and +his work is not done till all the stiffness is out of it and it is +flexible. And we do not lose our lives in the lofty, noble sense, +until we can say--and verify the speech by our actions--'Not my will +but Thine be done.' They who thus submit, they who thus welcome into +their hearts, and enthrone upon the sovereign seat in their wills, +Christ and His will--these are they who have lost their lives. When +we can say, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' then, and +only then, have we in the deepest sense of the words 'lost our +lives.' + +The phrase means the suppression, and sometimes the excision, of +appetites, passions, desires, inclinations. It means the hallowing +of all aims; it means the devotion and the consecration of all +activities. It means the surrender and the stewardship of all +possessions. And only then, when we have done these things, shall we +have come to practical obedience to the initial requirement that +Christ makes from us all--to lose our lives for His sake. + +I need not diverge here to point to that life from which my thoughts +have taken their start in this sermon. Surely if there was any one +characteristic in it more distinct and lovely than another, it was +that self was dead and that Christ lived. There may be sometimes a +call for the actual--which is the lesser--surrender of the bodily +life, in obedience to the call of duty. There have been Christian +men who have wrought themselves to death in the Master's service. +Perhaps he of whom I have been speaking was one of these. It may be +that, if he had done like so many of our wealthy men--had flung +himself into business and then collapsed into repose--he would have +been here to-day. Perhaps it would have been better if there had +been a less entire throwing of himself into arduous and clamant +duties. I am not going to enter on the ethics of that question. I do +not think there are many of this generation of Christians who are +likely to work themselves to death in Christ's cause; and perhaps, +after all, the old saying is a true one, 'Better to wear out than to +rust out.' But only this I will say: we honour the martyrs of +Science, of Commerce, of Empire, why should not we honour the +martyrs of Faith? And why should they be branded as imprudent +enthusiasts, if they make the same sacrifice which, when an explorer +or a soldier makes, his memory is honoured as heroic, and his cold +brows are crowned with laurels? Surely it is as wise to die for +Christ as for England. But be that as it may; the requirement, the +stringent requirement, of my text is not addressed to any spiritual +aristocracy, but is laid upon the consciences of all professing +Christians. + +II. Observe the grounds of this requirement. + +Did you ever think--or has the fact become so familiar to you that +it ceases to attract notice?--did you ever think what an +extraordinary position it is for the son of a carpenter in Nazareth +to plant Himself before the human race and say, 'You will be wise if +you die for My sake, and you will be doing nothing more than your +plain duty'? What business has He to assume such a position as that? +What warrants that autocratic and all-demanding tone from His lips? +'Who art Thou'--we may fancy people saying--'that Thou shouldst put +out a masterful hand and claim to take as Thine the life of my +heart?' Ah! brethren, there is but one answer: 'Who loved me, and +gave Himself for me.' The foolish, loving, impulsive apostle that +blurted out, before his time had come, 'I will lay down my life for +Thy sake,' was only premature; he was not mistaken. There needed +that His Lord should lay down His life for Peter's sake; and then He +had a right to turn to the apostle and say, 'Thou shalt follow Me +afterwards,' and 'lay down thy life for My sake.' The ground of +Christ's unique claim is Christ's solitary sacrifice. He who has +died for men, and He only, has the right to require the unconditional, +the absolute surrender of themselves, not only in the sacrifice of a +life that is submitted, but, if circumstances demand, in the sacrifice +of a death. The ground of the requirement is laid, first in the fact +of our Lord's divine nature, and second, in the fact that He who asks +my life has first of all given His. + +But that same phrase, 'for My sake,' suggests-- + +III. The all-sufficient motive which makes such a loss of life +possible. + +I suppose that there is nothing else that will wholly dethrone self +but the enthroning of Jesus Christ. That dominion is too deeply +rooted to be abolished by any enthusiasms, however noble they may +be, except the one that kindles its undying torch at the flame of +Christ's own love. God forbid that I should deny that wonderful and +lovely instances of self-oblivion may be found in hearts untouched +by the supreme love of Christ! But whilst I recognise all the beauty +of such, I, for my part, humbly venture to believe and assert that, +for the entire deliverance of a man from self-regard, the one +sufficient motive power is the reception into his opening heart of +the love of Jesus Christ. + +Ah! brethren, you and I know how hard it is to escape from the +tyrannous dominion of self, and how the evil spirits that have taken +possession of us mock at all lesser charms than the name which +'devils fear and fly'; 'the Name that is above every name.' We have +tried other motives. We have sought to reprove our selfishness by +other considerations. Human love--which itself is sometimes only +the love of self, seeking satisfaction from another--human love does +conquer it, but yet conquers it partially. The demons turn round +upon all other would-be exorcists, and say, 'Jesus we know ... but +who are ye?' It is only when the Ark is carried into the Temple that +Dagon falls prone before it. If you would drive self out of your +hearts--and if you do not it will slay you--if you would drive self +out, let Christ's love and sacrifice come in. And then, what no +brooms and brushes, no spades nor wheelbarrows, will ever do--namely, +cleanse out the filth that lodges there--the turning of the river in +will do, and float it all away. The one possibility for complete, +conclusive deliverance from the dominion and tyranny of Self is to +be found in the words 'For My sake.' Ah! brethren, I suppose there +are none of us so poor in earthly love, possessed or remembered, but +that we know the omnipotence of these words when whispered by beloved +lips, 'For My sake'; and Jesus Christ is saying them to us all. + +IV. Lastly, notice the recompense of the stringent requirement. + +'Shall find it,' and that finding, like the losing, has a twofold +reference and accomplishment: here and now, yonder and then. + +Here and now, no man possesses himself till he has given himself to +Jesus Christ. Only then, when we put the reins into His hands, can we +coerce and guide the fiery steeds of passion and of impulse, And so +Scripture, in more than one place, uses a remarkable expression, when +it speaks of those that believe to the 'acquiring of their souls.' +You are not your own masters until you are Christ's servants; and +when you fancy yourselves to be most entirely your own masters, you +have promised yourselves liberty and have become the slave of +corruption. So if you would own yourselves, give yourselves away. And +such an one 'shall find' his life, here and now, in that all earthly +things will be sweeter and better. The altar sanctifies the gift. +When some pebble is plunged into a sunlit stream, the water brings +out the veined colourings of the stone that looked all dull and dim +when it was lying upon the bank. Fling your whole being, your wealth, +your activities, and everything, into that stream, and they will +flash in splendour else unknown. Did not my friend, of whom I have +been speaking, enjoy his wealth far more, when he poured it out like +water upon good causes, than if he had spent it in luxury and +self-indulgence? And shall we not find that everything is sweeter, +nobler, better, fuller of capacity to delight, if we give it all to +our Master? The stringent requirement of Christ is the perfection of +prudence. 'Who pleasure follows pleasure slays,' and who slays +pleasure finds a deeper and a holier delight. The keenest +epicureanism could devise no better means for sucking the last drop +of sweetness out of the clustering grapes of the gladnesses of +earth than to obey this stringent requirement, and so realise the +blessed promise, 'Whoso loseth his life for My sake shall find it.' +The selfish man is a roundabout fool. The self-devoted man, the +Christ-enthroning man, is the wise man. + +And there will be the further finding hereafter, about which we +cannot speak. Only remember, how in a passage parallel with this of +my text, spoken when almost within sight of Calvary, our Lord laid +down not only the principle of His own life but the principle for +all His servants, when He said, 'Except a corn of wheat fall into +the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth +forth much fruit.' The solitary grain dropped into the furrow brings +forth a waving harvest. We may not, we need not, particularise, but +the life that is found at last is as the fruit an hundredfold of the +life that men called 'lost' and God called 'sown.' + +'Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; they rest from their +labours, and their works do follow them.' + + + + +THE GREATEST IN THE KINGDOM, AND THEIR REWARD + + + 'He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet + shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth + a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall + receive a righteous man's reward. 42. And whosoever + shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup + of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I + say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.' + --MATT. x. 41, 42. + + There is nothing in these words to show whether they refer to the +present or to the future. We shall probably not go wrong if we +regard them as having reference to both. For all godliness has +'promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to +come,' and '_in_ keeping God's commandments,' as well as _for_ +keeping them, 'there is great reward,' a reward realised in the +present, even although Death holds the keys of the treasure-house +in which the richest rewards are stored. No act of holy obedience +is here left without foretastes of joy, which, though they be but +'brooks by the way,' contain the same water of life which hereafter +swells to an ocean. + +Some people tell us that it is defective morality in Christianity to +bribe men to be good by promising them Heaven, and that he who is +actuated by such a motive is selfish. Now that fantastic and +overstrained objection may be very simply answered by two +considerations: self-regard is not selfishness, and Christianity +does not propose the future reward as the motive for goodness. The +motive for goodness is love to Jesus Christ; and if ever there was a +man who did acts of Christian goodness only for the sake of what he +would get by them, the acts were not Christian goodness, because the +motive was wrong. But it is a piece of fastidiousness to forbid us +to reinforce the great Christian motive, which is love to Jesus +Christ, by the thought of the recompense of reward. It is a stimulus +and an encouragement of, not the motive for, goodness. This text +shows us that it is a subordinate motive, for it says that the +reception of a prophet, or of a righteous man, or of 'one of these +little ones,' which is rewardable, is the reception 'in the name of' +a prophet, a disciple, and so on, or, in other words, is the +recognising of the prophet, or the righteous man, or the disciple +for what he is, and because he is that, and not because of the +reward, receiving him with sympathy and solace and help. + +So, with that explanation, let us look at these very remarkable +words of our text. + +I. The first thing which I wish to observe in them is the three +classes of character which are dealt with--'prophet,' 'righteous +man,' 'these little ones.' + +Now the question that I would suggest is this: Is there any meaning +in the order in which these are arranged? If so, what is it? Do we +begin at the bottom, or at the top? Have we to do with an ascending +or with a descending scale? Is the prophet thought to be greater +than the righteous man, or less? Is the righteous man thought to be +higher than the little one, or to be lower? The question is an +important one, and worth considering. + +Now, at first sight, it certainly does look as if we had here to do +with a descending scale, as if we began at the top and went +downwards. A prophet, a man honoured with a distinct commission from +God to declare His will, is, in certain very obvious respects, +loftier than a man who is not so honoured, however pure and +righteous he may be. The dim and venerable figures, for instance, of +Isaiah and Jeremiah, tower high above all their contemporaries; and +godly men who hung upon their lips, like Baruch on Jeremiah's, felt +themselves to be, and were, inferior to them. And, in like manner, +the little child who believes in Christ may seem to be insignificant +in comparison with the prophet with his God-touched lips, or the +righteous man of the old dispensation with his austere purity; as a +humble violet may seem by the side of a rose with its heart of fire, +or a white lily regal and tall. But one remembers that Jesus Christ +Himself declared that 'the least of the little ones' was greater +than the greatest who had gone before; and it is not at all likely +that He who has just been saying that whosoever received His +followers received Himself, should classify these followers beneath +the righteous men of old. The Christian type of character is +distinctly higher than the Old Testament type; and the humblest +believer is blessed above prophets and righteous men because his +eyes behold and his heart welcomes the Christ. + +Therefore I am inclined to believe that we have here an ascending +series--that we begin at the bottom and not at the top; that the +prophet is less than the righteous man, and the righteous man less +than the little one who believes in Christ. For, suppose there were +a prophet who was not righteous, and a righteous man who was not a +prophet. Suppose the separation between the two characters were +complete, which of them would be the greater? Balaam was a prophet; +Balaam was not a righteous man; Balaam was immeasurably inferior to +the righteous whose lives he did not emulate, though he could not +but envy their deaths. In like manner the humblest believer in Jesus +Christ has something that a prophet, if he is not a disciple, does +not possess; and that which he has, and the prophet has not, is +higher than the endowment that is peculiar to the prophet alone. + +May we say the same thing about the difference between the righteous +man and the disciple? Can there be a righteous man that is not a +disciple? Can there be a disciple that is not a righteous man? Can +the separation between these two classes be perfect and complete? +No! in the profoundest sense, certainly not. But then at the time +when Christ spoke there were some men standing round Him, who, 'as +touching the righteousness which is of the law,' were 'blameless.' +And there are many men to-day, with much that is noble and admirable +in their characters, who stand apart from the faith that is in Jesus +Christ; and if the separation be so complete as that, then it is to +be emphatically and decisively pronounced that, if we have regard to +all that a man ought to be, and if we estimate men in the measure in +which they approximate to that ideal in their lives and conduct, +'the Christian is the highest style of man.' The disciple is above +the righteous men adorned with many graces of character, who, if +they are not Christians, have a worm at the root of all their +goodness, because it lacks the supreme refinement and consecration +of faith; and above the fiery-tongued prophet, if he is not a +disciple. + +Now, brethren, this thought is full of very important practical +inferences. Faith is better than genius. Faith is better than +brilliant gifts. Faith is better than large acquirements. The poet's +imagination, the philosopher's calm reasoning, the orator's tongue +of fire, even the inspiration of men that may have their lips +touched to proclaim God to their brethren, are all less than the +bond of living trust that knits a soul to Jesus Christ, and makes it +thereby partaker of that indwelling Saviour. And, in like manner, if +there be men, as there are, and no doubt some of them among my +hearers, adorned with virtues and graces of character, but who have +not rested their souls on Jesus Christ, then high above these, too, +stands the lowliest person who has set his faith and love on that +Saviour. Neither intellectual endowments nor moral character are the +highest, but faith in Jesus Christ. A man may be endowed with all +brilliancy of intellect and fair with many beauties of character, +and he may be lost; and on the other hand simple faith, rudimentary +and germlike as it often is, carries in itself the prophecy of all +goodness, and knits a man to the source of all blessedness. 'Whether +there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it +shall vanish away. Now abideth these three, faith, hope, charity.' +'Rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather +rejoice because your names are written in Heaven.' + +Ah! brethren, if we believed in Christ's classification of men, and +in the order of importance and dignity in which He arranges them, it +would make a wonderful practical difference to the lives, to the +desires, and to the efforts of a great many of us. Some of you +students, young men and women that are working at college or your +classes, if you believed that it was better to trust in Jesus Christ +than to be wise, and gave one-tenth, ay! one-hundredth part of the +attention and the effort to secure the one which you do to secure +the other, would be different people. 'Not many wise men after the +flesh,' but humble trusters in Jesus Christ, are the victors in the +world. Believe you that, and order your lives accordingly. + +Oh! what a reversal of this world's estimates is coming one day, +when the names that stand high in the roll of fame shall pale, like +photographs that have been shut up in a portfolio, and when you take +them out have faded off the paper. 'The world knows nothing of its +greatest men,' but there is a time coming when the spurious mushroom +aristocracy that the world has worshipped will be forgotten, like +the nobility of some conquered land, who are brushed aside and +relegated to private life by the new nobility of the conquerors, and +when the true nobles, God's aristocrats, the righteous, who are +righteous because they have trusted in Christ, shall shine forth +like the sun 'in the Kingdom of My Father.' + +Here is the climax: gifts and endowments at the bottom, character +and morality in the middle, and at the top faith in Jesus Christ. + +II. Now notice briefly in the second place the variety of the reward +according to the character. + +The prophet has his, the righteous man has his, the little one has +his. That is to say, each level of spiritual or moral stature +receives its own prize. There is no difficulty in seeing that this +is so in regard to the rewards of this life. Every faithful message +delivered by a prophet increases that prophet's own blessedness, and +has joys in the receiving of it from God, in the speaking of it to +men, in the marking of its effects as it spreads through the world, +which belong to him alone. In all these, and in many other ways, the +'prophet' has rewards that no stranger can intermeddle with. All +courses of obedient conduct have their own appropriate consequences +and satisfaction. Every character is adapted to receive, and does +receive, in the measure of its goodness, certain blessings and joys, +here and now. 'Surely the righteous shall be recompensed in the +earth.' + +And the same principle, of course, applies if we think of the reward +as altogether future. It must be remembered, however, that +Christianity does not teach, as I believe, that if there be a +prophet or a righteous man who is not a disciple, that prophet or +righteous man will get rewards in the future life. It must be +remembered, too, that every disciple is righteous in the measure of +his faith. Discipleship being presupposed, then the disciple who is +a prophet will have one reward, and the disciple who is a righteous +man shall have another; and where all three characteristics +coincide, there shall be a triple crown of glory upon his head. + +That is all plain and obvious enough, if only we get rid of the +prejudice that the rewards of a future life are merely bestowed upon +men by God's arbitrary good pleasure. What is the reward of Heaven? +'Eternal life,' people say. Yes! 'Blessedness.' Yes! But where does +the life come from, and where does the blessedness come from? They +are both derived, they come from God in Christ; and in the deepest +sense, and in the only true sense, God is Heaven, and God is the +reward of Heaven. 'I am thy shield,' so long as dangers need to be +guarded against, and then, thereafter, 'I am thine exceeding great +Reward.' It is the possession of God that makes all the Heaven of +Heaven, the immortal life which His children receive, and the +blessedness with which they are enraptured. We are heirs of +immortality, we are heirs of life, we are heirs of blessedness, +because, and in the measure in which, we become heirs of God. + +And if that be so, then there is no difficulty in seeing that in +Heaven, as on earth, men will get just as much of God as they can +hold; and that in Heaven, as on earth, capacity for receiving God is +determined by character. The gift is one, the reward is one, and yet +the reward is infinitely various. It is the same light which glows +in all the stars, but 'star differeth from star in glory.' It is the +same wine, the new wine of the Kingdom, that is poured into all the +vessels, but the vessels are of divers magnitudes, though each be +full to the brim. + +And so in those two sister parables of our Master's, which are so +remarkably discriminated and so remarkably alike, we have both these +aspects of the Heavenly reward set forth--both that which declares +its identity in all cases, and the other which declares its variety +according to the recipient's character. All the servants receive the +same welcome, the same prize, the same entrance into the same joy; +although one of them had ten talents, and another five, and another +two. But the servants who were each sent out to trade with one poor +pound in their hands, and by their varying diligence reaped varying +profits, were rewarded according to the returns that they had +brought; and one received ten, and the other five, and the other +two, cities over which to have authority and rule. So the reward is +one, and yet infinitely diverse. It is not the same thing whether a +man or a woman, being a Christian, is an earnest, and devoted, and +growing Christian here on earth, or a selfish, and an idle, and a +stagnant one. It is not the same thing whether you content +yourselves with simply laying hold on Christ, and keeping a +tremulous and feeble hold of Him for the rest of your lives, or +whether you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour. +There is such a fate as being saved, yet so as by fire, and going +into the brightness with the smell of the fire on your garments. +There is such a fate as having just, as it were, squeezed into +Heaven, and got there by the skin of your teeth. And there is such a +thing as having an abundant entrance ministered, when its portals +are thrown wide open. Some imperfect Christians die with but little +capacity for possessing God, and therefore their heaven will not be +as bright, nor studded with as majestic constellations, as that of +others. The starry vault that bends above us so far away, is the +same in the number of its stars when gazed on by the savage with his +unaided eye, and by the astronomer with the strongest telescope; and +the Infinite God, who arches above us, but comes near to us, +discloses galaxies of beauty and oceans of abysmal light in Himself, +according to the strength and clearness of the eye that looks upon +Him. So, brethren, remember that the one glory has infinite degrees; +and faith, and conduct, and character here determine the capacity +for God which we shall have when we go to receive our reward. + +III. The last point that is here is the substantial identity of the +reward to all that stand on the same level, however different may be +the form of their lives. + +'He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive +a prophet's reward.' And so in the case of the others. The active +prophet, righteous man, or disciple, and the passive recogniser of +each in that character, who receives each as a prophet, or righteous +man, or disciple, stand practically and substantially on the same +level, though the one of them may have his lips glowing with the +divine inspiration and the other may never have opened his mouth for +God. + +That is beautiful and deep. The power of sympathising with any +character is the partial possession of that character for ourselves. +A man who is capable of having his soul bowed by the stormy thunder +of Beethoven, or lifted to Heaven by the ethereal melody of +Mendelssohn, is a musician, though he never composed a bar. The man +who recognises and feels the grandeur of the organ music of +'Paradise Lost' has some fibre of a poet in him, though he be but 'a +mute, inglorious Milton.' + +All sympathy and recognition of character involve some likeness to +that character. The poor woman who brought the sticks and prepared +food for the prophet entered into the prophet's mission and shared +in the prophet's work and reward, though his task was to beard Ahab, +and hers was only to bake Elijah's bread. The old knight that +clapped Luther on the back when he went into the Diet of Worms, and +said to him, 'Well done, little monk!' shared in Luther's victory +and in Luther's crown. He that helps a prophet because he is a +prophet, has the making of a prophet in himself. + +As all work done from the same motive is the same in God's eyes, +whatever be the outward shape of it, so the work that involves the +same type of spiritual character will involve the same reward. You +find the Egyptian medal on the breasts of the soldiers that kept the +base of communication as well as on the breasts of the men that +stormed the works at Tel-el-Kebir. It was a law in Israel, and it is +a law in Heaven: 'As his part is that goeth down into the battle, so +shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff, they shall part +alike.' 'I am going down into the pit, you hold the ropes,' said +Carey, the pioneer missionary. They that hold the ropes, and the +daring miner that swings away down in the blackness, are one in the +work, may be one in the motive, and, if they are, shall be one in +the reward. So, brethren, though no coal of fire may be laid upon +your lips, if you sympathise with the workers that are trying to +serve God, and do what you can to help them, and identify yourself +with them, and so hold the ropes, my text will be true about you. +'He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive +a prophet's reward.' They who by reason of circumstances, by +deficiency of power, or by the weight of other tasks and duties, can +only give silent sympathy, and prayer, and help, are one with the +men whom they help. + +Dear brethren! remember that this awful, mystical life of ours is +full everywhere of consequences that cannot be escaped. What we sow +we reap, and we grind it, and we bake it, and we live upon it. We +have to drink as we have brewed; we have to lie on the beds that we +have made. 'Be not deceived: God is not mocked.' The doctrine of +reward has two sides to it. 'Nothing human ever dies.' All our deeds +drag after them inevitable consequences; but if you will put your +trust in Jesus Christ, He will not deal with you according to your +sins, nor reward you according to your iniquities; and the darkest +features of the recompense of your evil will all be taken away by +the forgiveness which we have in His blood. If you will trust +yourselves to Him you will have that eternal life, which is not +wages, but a gift; which is not reward, but a free bestowment of +God's love. And then, if we build upon that Foundation on which +alone men can build their hopes, their thoughts, their characters, +their lives, however feeble may be our efforts, however narrow may +be our sphere,--though we be neither prophets nor sons of prophets, +and though our righteousness may be all stained and imperfect, yet, +to our own amazement and to God's glory, we shall find, when the +fire is kindled which reveals and tests our works, that, by the +might of humble faith in Christ, we have built upon that Foundation, +gold and silver and precious stones; and shall receive the reward +given to every man whose work abides that trial by fire. + + + + +JOHN'S DOUBTS OF JESUS, AND JESUS' PRAISE OF JOHN + + + 'Now when John had heard in the prison the works of + Christ, he sent two of his disciples, 3. And said unto + Him, Art Thou He that should come, or do we look for + another? 4. Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and + shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: + 5. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, + the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead + are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached + to them. 6. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be + offended in Me. 7. And as they departed, Jesus began + to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went + ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with + the wind? 8. But what went ye out for to see? A man + clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft + clothing are in kings' houses. 9. But what went ye out + for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more + than a prophet. 10. For this is he, of whom it is + written. Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face, + which shall prepare Thy way before Thee. 11. Verily I + say unto you, Among them that are born of women there + hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: + notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of + heaven is greater than he. 12. And from the days of + John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven + suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. + 13. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until + John--And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which + was for to come. 16. He that hath ears to hear, let + him hear.'--MATT. xi. 2-15. + +This text falls into two parts: the first, from verses 2-6 +inclusive, giving us the faltering faith of the great witness, and +Christ's gentle treatment of the waverer; the second, from verse 7 +to the end, giving the witness of Christ to John, exuberant in +recognition, notwithstanding his momentary hesitation. + +I. We do not believe that this message of John's was sent for the sake +of strengthening his disciples' faith in Jesus as Messiah, nor that it +was merely meant as a hint to Jesus to declare Himself. The question +is John's. The answer is sent to him: it is he who is to ponder the +things which the messengers saw, and to answer his own question +thereby. The note which the evangelist prefixes to his account +gives the key to the incident. John was 'in prison,' in that gloomy +fortress of Machaerus which Herod had rebuilt at once for 'a sinful +pleasure-house' and for an impregnable refuge, among the savage cliffs +of Moab. The halls of luxurious vice and the walls of defence are gone; +but the dungeons are there still, with the holes in the masonry into +which the bars were fixed to which the prisoners--John, perhaps, one of +them--were chained. No wonder that in the foul atmosphere of a dark +dungeon the spirit which had been so undaunted in the free air of the +desert began to flag; nor that even he who had seen the fluttering dove +descend on Christ's head, and had pointed to Him as the Lamb of God, +felt that 'all his mind was clouded with a doubt.' It would have been +wiser if commentators, instead of trying to save John's credit at the +cost of straining the narrative, had recognised the psychological truth +of the plain story of his wavering conviction and had learned its +lessons of self-distrust. There is only one Man with whom it was always +high-water; all others have ebbs and flows in their religious life, and +variations in their grasp of truth. + +The narrative further gives the motive for John's embassy, in the +report which had reached him of 'the works of Christ.' We need only +recall John's earlier testimony to understand how these works would +not seem to him to fill up the role which he had anticipated for +Messiah. Where is the axe that was to be laid at the root of the +trees, or the fan that was to winnow out the chaff? Where is the +fiery spirit which he had foretold? This gentle Healer is not the +theocratic judge of his warning prophecies. He is tending and +nurturing, rather than felling, the barren trees. A nimbus of +merciful deeds, not of flashing 'wrath to come,' surrounds His head. +So John began to wonder if, after all, he had been premature in his +recognition. Perhaps this Jesus was but a precursor, as he himself +was, of the Messiah. Evidently he continues firm in the conviction +of Christ's being sent from God, and is ready to accept His answer +as conclusive; but, as evidently, he is puzzled by the contrariety +between Jesus' deeds and his own expectations. He asks, 'Art Thou +_He that cometh_'--a well-known name for Messiah--'or are we to +expect another?' where it should be noted that the word for +'another' means not merely a second, but a different kind of, +person, who should present the aspects of the Messiah as revealed in +prophecy, and as embodied in John's own preaching, which Jesus had +left unfulfilled. + +We may well take to heart the lesson of the fluctuations possible to +the firmest faith, and pray to be enabled to hold fast that we have. +We may learn, too, the danger to right conceptions of Christ, of +separating the two elements of mercy and judgment in His character +and work. John was right in believing that the Christ must come to +judge. A Christ without the fan in His hand is a maimed Christ. John +was wrong in stumbling at the gentleness, just as many to-day, who +go to the opposite extreme, are wrong in stumbling at the judicial +side of His work. Both halves are needed to make the full-orbed +character. We have not to 'look for a different' Christ, but we have +to look for Him, coming the second time, the same Jesus, but now +with His axe in His pierced hands, to hew down trees which He has +patiently tended. Let John's profound sense of the need for a +judicial aspect in the Christ who is to meet the prophecies written +in men's hearts, as well as in Scripture, teach us how one-sided and +superficial are representations of His work which suppress or slur +over His future coming to judgment. + +Our Lord does not answer 'Yes' or 'No.' To do so might have stilled, +but would not have removed, John's misconception. A more thorough +cure is needed. So Christ attacks it in its roots by referring him +back for answer to the very deeds which had excited his doubt. In +doing so, He points to, or indeed, we may say, quotes, two prophetic +passages (Isa. xxxv. 5, 6; lxi. 1) which give the prophetic 'notes' of +Messiah. It is as if He had said, 'Have you forgotten that the very +prophets whose words have fed your hopes, and now seem to minister to +your doubts, have said this and this about the Messiah?' Further, +there is deep wisdom in sending John back again to think over the very +deeds at which he was stumbling. It is not Christ's work which is +wanting in conformity to the divine idea; it is John's conceptions of +that idea that need enlarging. What he wants is not so much to be told +that Jesus is the Christ, as to grow up to a truer, because more +comprehensive, notion of what the Christ is to be. A wide principle is +taught us here. The very points in Christ's work which may occasion +difficulty, will, when we stand at the right point of view, become +evidences of His claims. What were stumbling-blocks become +stepping-stones. Arguments against become proofs of, the truth when we +look at them with clearer eyes, and from the proper angle. Further, we +are taught here, that what Christ does is the best answer to the +question as to who He is. Still He is doing these works among us. +Darkened eyes are flooded with light by His touch, and see a new +world, because they gaze with faith on Him. Lame limbs are endowed +with strength, and can run in the way of His commandments, and walk +with unfainting perseverance the thorniest paths of duty and +self-sacrifice. Lepers are cleansed from the rotting leprosy of sin, +and their flesh comes again, 'as the flesh of a little child.' Deaf +ears hear the voice of the Son of God, and the dead who hear live. +Good news is preached to all the poor in spirit, and whosoever knows +himself to be in need of all things may claim all things as his own in +Christ. He who through the ages has been working such works, and works +them still, 'needs not to speak anything' to confirm His claims, +'neither is there salvation in any other.' We look for no second +Christ; but we look for that same Jesus to come the second time to be +the Judge of the world of which He is the Saviour. + +The benediction on him who finds none occasion of stumbling in +Christ, is at once a beatitude and a warning. It rebukes in the +gentlest fashion John's temper, which found difficulty in even the +perfect personality of Jesus, and made that which should have been +the 'sure foundation' of his spirit a stone of stumbling. Our Lord's +consciousness of absolute perfection of moral character, and of +absolute perfectness in His office and work, is distinct in the +words. He knows that 'there is none occasion of stumbling in Him,' +and that whoever finds any, brings it or makes it. He knows and +warns us that all blessedness lies for us in recognising Him for +what He is--God's sure foundation of our hopes, our peace, our +thoughts, our lives. He knows that all woe and loss are involved in +stumbling on this stone, against which whosoever falls is broken, +and by which, when it begins to move, and falls on a man, he is +ground to powder, like the dust of the threshing-floor. What +tremendous arrogance of assertion! Who is he who can venture on such +words without blasphemy against God, and universal ridicule from +men? + +II. The witness of Christ to John. Praise from Jesus is praise +indeed; and it is poured out here with no stinted hand on the +languishing prisoner whose doubts had just been brought to Him. Such +an eulogium at such a time is a wonderful instance of loving +forbearance with a true-hearted follower's weakness, and of a desire +which, in a man, we should call magnanimous, to shield John's +character from depreciation on account of his message. The world +praises a man to his face, and speaks of his faults behind his back. +Christ does the opposite. Not till the messengers were departing +does He begin to speak 'concerning John.' He lays bare the secret of +the Baptist's power, and allocates his place as greatest in one +epoch and as less than the least in another, with an authority more +than human, and on principles which set Himself high above all +comparison with men, whether the greatest or the least. The King +places His subjects, and Himself sits enthroned above them all. + +First, Christ praises John's great personal character in the +dramatic and vivid questions which begin this section. He recalls +the scenes of popular enthusiasm when all Israel streamed out to the +desert preacher. A small man could not have made such an upheaval. +What drew the crowds? Just what will draw them; the qualities +without which, either possessed in reality or in popular estimation, +no man can be a power religiously. The first essential is heroic +firmness. It was not reeds swaying in the wind by Jordan's banks, +nor a poor feeble man like these, that the people flocked to listen +to. His emblem was not the reed, but 'an iron pillar.' His whole +career had been marked by decisiveness, constancy, courage. Nothing +can be done worth doing in the world without a wholesome obstinacy +and imperturbability, which keep a man true to his convictions and +his task, whatever winds blow in his teeth. The multitudes will not +flock to listen to a teacher who does not speak with the accent of +conviction, nor will truths feebly grasped touch the lips with fire. +The first requisite for a religious teacher is that he shall be sure +of his message and of himself. Athanasius has to 'stand against the +world' before the world accepts his teaching. 'Though there were as +many devils in Worms as there are tiles on the house-tops, go I +will,' said Luther. That is the temper for God's instruments. + +The next requisite, which John also had, is manifest indifference to +material ease. Silken courtiers do not haunt the desert. Kings' +houses, and not either the wilderness or kings' dungeons, are the +sunny spots where they spread their plumage. If the gaunt ascetic, +with his girdle of camel's hair and his coarse fare, had been a +self-indulgent sybarite, his voice would never have shaken a nation. +The least breath of suspicion that a preacher is such a man ends his +power, and ought to end it; for self-indulgence and the love of +fleshly comforts eat the heart out of goodness, and make the eyes +too heavy to see visions. John was the same man then as they had +known him to be; therefore it was no impatience of the hardships of +his prison that had inspired his doubts. + +Our Lord next speaks of John's great office. He was a prophet. The +dim recognition that God spoke in His fiery words had drawn the +crowds, weary of teachers in whose endless jangle and jargon of +casuistry was no inspiration. The voice of a man who gets his +message at first-hand from God has a ring in it which even dull ears +detect as something genuine. Alas for the bewildering babble of +echoes and the paucity of voices to-day! + +So far Jesus had been appealing to His hearers' knowledge; He now +goes on to add higher truth concerning John. He declares that he is +more than a prophet, because he is His messenger before His face; +that is, immediately preceding Himself. We cannot stay to comment on +the remarkable variation between the original form of the quotation +from Malachi and Christ's version of it, which, in its substitution +of 'thee' for 'me,' bears so forcibly on the divinity of Christ; but +we may mark the principle on which John's superiority to the whole +prophetic order is based. It is that nearness to Jesus makes +greatness. The closer the relation to Him, the higher the honour. In +that long procession the King comes last; and of 'them that go +before, crying, Hosanna to Him that cometh,' the order of precedence +is that the first are last, and that the highest is he who walks in +front of the Sovereign. + +Next, we have the limitations of the forerunner and his relative +inferiority to the least in the kingdom of heaven. Another standard +of greatness is here from that of the world, which smiles at the +contrast between the uncultured preacher of repentance and the +mighty thinkers, poets, legislators, kingdom-makers, whom it enrols +among the great. In Christ's eyes greatness is nearness to Him, and +understanding of Him and His work. Neither natural faculty nor worth +is in question, but simply relation to the Kingdom and the King. He +who had only to preach of Him who should come after him, and had but +a partial apprehension of Christ and His work, stood on a lower +level than the least who has to look to a Christ who has come, and +has opened the gates of the kingdom to the humblest believer. The +truths which were hid from ages, and were but visible as in morning +twilight to John, are sunlit to us. The scholars in our Sunday-schools +know familiarly more than prophets and kings ever knew. We 'hold the +grey barbarian lower than the Christian child'; and not merely he, but +the wisest of the prophets, and the forerunner himself. The history of +the world is parted into two by the coming of Jesus Christ, as every +dictionary of dates tells, and the least of the greater is greater than +the greatest of the less. What a place, then, does Christ claim! Our +relation to Him determines greatness. To recognise Him is to be in the +Kingdom of Heaven. Union to Him brings us to fulfil the ideal of human +nature; and this is life, to know and trust Him, the King. + +Our Lord adds a brief characterisation of the effect of John's +ministry. It was of mingled good and evil, and there is a tone of +sadness perceptible in the ambiguous words. John had aroused great +popular excitement, and had stirred multitudes to seek to enter the +Kingdom. So far was good. But had all the crowds understood what sort +of kingdom it was? Had they not too often dragged down the lofty +conception to their own vulgar level, and, with their dream of an +outward sovereignty, thought to gain it for their own by violence +instead of meekness, by arms and worldly force rather than by +submission? The earnestness was good, but Christ's sad insight saw +how much strange fire had mingled in the blaze, as if some earth-born +smoky flame should seek to blend with the pure sunlight. Such seems +the most natural interpretation of the words, but they are ambiguous, +and may possibly mean by 'the violent' those who had been roused to +genuine earnestness by the clarion voice which rang in the ears of +that slumbering generation. + +Then follows the explanation of this new interest in the kingdom. +'All the prophets and the law prophesied until John.' The whole +period till his coming was one of preparation, and it all converged +on the epoch of the forerunner. The eagerness to flock into the +Kingdom which characterised his time would have been impossible in +the earlier days. He closes that order of things, standing, as it +were, on the isthmus between prophecy and fulfilment, belonging +properly to neither, but having affinities with both, and being the +transition from the one to the other. Then our Lord closes His words +concerning John with the distinct statement, which He expects His +hearers to have difficulty in receiving, probably from the +contradiction to it which John's present condition seemed to give, +that in him was fulfilled Malachi's prophecy of the sending of +'Elijah the prophet before ... day of the Lord.' The fiery Tishbite, +gaunt and grim, ascetic and solitary, who bearded Ahab, and flamed +across a corrupt age with a stern message of repentance or +destruction, was repeated in the lonely ascetic who had his Ahab in +Herod, and his Jezebel in Herodias, and like his prototype, knew no +fear, but flashed out the lightnings of his words on every sin. The +two men were brothers, and their voices answer each other across the +centuries. Christ crowns His witness to John while thus quoting the +last swansong of ancient prophecy, and thereby at once sets John on +a pinnacle of greatness, and advances a claim concerning Himself all +the more weighty, because He leaves it to be inferred. 'He that hath +ears to hear, let him hear'--this eulogium on the forerunner needs +to be reflected on ere all its bearings are seen. If John was Elias, +the day of the Lord was at hand, and 'the Sun of Righteousness' was +already above the horizon. Jesus' witness concerning John ends in +witness concerning Himself. + + + + +THE FRIEND OF PUBLICANS AND SINNERS + + + 'The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, + Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of + publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her + children,'--MATT. xi. 19. + +Jesus very seldom took notice of His enemies' slanders. 'When He was +reviled He reviled not again.' If ever He did, it was for the sake +of those whom it harmed to distort His beauty. Thus, here He speaks, +without the slightest trace of irritation, of the capricious +inconsistency of condemning Himself and John on precisely opposite +grounds. John will not suit them because he neither eats nor drinks. +Well, one would think that Jesus would be hailed since He does both. +But He pleases them just as little. What was at the root of this +contrary working dislike? It was the dislike for the truths they +both preached, the rejection of the wisdom of which they were the +messengers. When men do not like the message, nothing that the +messengers do, or are, is right. Never mind consistency, but object +to this form of Christian teaching that it is too harsh, and to +that, that it is too soft; to this man that he is always thundering +condemnation, to that, that he is always preaching mercy; to one, +that he has too much to say about duty, to another, that he dwells +too much on grace; to this presentation of the gospel, that it is +too learned and doctrinal, to that, that it is too sentimental and +emotional, and so on, and so on. The generation of children who +neither like piping nor lamenting, lives still. + +But my purpose now is not to dwell on the conduct with which our +Lord is dealing, but on this caricature of Him which His own lips +repeat without a sign of anger. It is the only calumny of +antagonists reported by Himself. We owe our knowledge of its +currency to this saying. Like other words of His enemies, this +saying is a distorted refraction of His glory. The facts it embodies +are facts; the conclusions it draws are false. If Jesus had not come +eating and drinking, He could not have been called gluttonous and a +wine-bibber. If He had not drawn publicans and sinners to Him in a +conspicuous manner and degree, He could not have been called their +friend. The charge, like all others, is a tribute. Let us try to see +what was the blessed truth that it caricatured. We may take the two +points separately, for though closely connected they are distinct, +and cover different ground. + +I. His enemies' witness to Christ's participation in common life. + +(_a_) That participation witnesses to His true manhood. + +Significant use of 'Son of Man' in context. + +Because He is so, He must pass into all human circumstances. + +Looked at in the light of incarnation, the simple fact that He +shared our common lot in all things assumes proportions of majestic +condescension. + +Extend to all physical necessities, and to simple material +pleasures. + +What a witness this hostile criticism is to Christ's genial +identification of Himself with homely feasters! + +(_b_) It sets forth the highest type of manhood. + +John could be ascetic, but the Pattern Man could not. + +The true perfecting of humanity is not the extirpation, but the +control, of the flesh by the spirit. And in accordance with this +thought, we may see in the eating and drinking Christ, the pattern +for the religious life. Asceticism is not the noblest form of +sanctity. There is nothing more striking in Old Testament than the +way in which its heroes and saints mingle in all ordinary duties. +They are warriors, statesmen, shepherds, they buy, they sell. +Asceticism came later, along with formalisms of other sorts. When +devotion cools, it is crusted with superstition and external marks +of godliness. Propriety in posturing in worship, casuistry in the +interpretation of law, and abstinence from common enjoyments, came +in Pharisaic times. And into such a world Jesus came, eating and +drinking. + +But His bearing in these matters is example for us. They were +rigidly kept in subordination. They were all done in communion with +God. + +So He has hallowed all by taking part in them. + +Christ should be present in all our material enjoyments. If you +cannot think that He is with you, if you cannot conceive of His +being there, that is no place for you. If you cannot feel that He +approves, that is no fit enjoyment for you. + +The tendency of this day is to take a wider view of the liberty +allowed to Christians in regard to partaking in material enjoyment, +and I dare say that many of you who have thought that I spoke well +in insisting on all things belonging to the Christian, will think +that I am dropping back into the old narrow groove in my next +remark, that all such thoughts need guarding. + +One has heard the example of Christ invoked to justify unchristian +laxity and excess. Therefore I wish to say that the liberty +permitted to Christians in these matters is to be limited within the +limits within which Christ's was confined. + +The excessive use of innocent things is not justified by His +example, nor is the use of things innocent in themselves, which are +mixed up with harmful things. + +Christ's example does not warrant the importance attached to luxury, +the waste on mere eating and drinking. It is sometimes quoted as +against total abstinence. It has no bearing on the question. But if +He gave up heaven for His brethren, I think that they who give up an +indulgence for the sake of theirs are in the line of His action. I +venture to think that if Jesus Christ lived in England to-day, He +would be a total abstinence fanatic. + +'If thy hand offend thee, cut it off.' Asceticism is not the +highest, but it is sometimes necessary. If my indulgence in innocent +things hurts me, or if my abstinence from them would help others, or +increase my power for good, or if innocent things are intertwisted +with things not innocent, then it is vain to try to shelter under +Christ's example, and the only right course for His disciple is to +abridge his liberty. He came eating and drinking, therefore His +followers may use all innocent earthly blessings and bodily +pleasures, subject to this one law: 'Whether ye eat or drink, or +whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God,' and to this solemn +warning: 'He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap +corruption.' + +II. His enemies' witness to Jesus as the friend of the outcasts. + +The fact was that He drew them to Himself and evidently was glad to +have them round Him. The inference natural to low natures was +_noscitur a sociis_ and that the bond between Him and them was +common evil tendencies and ways. His censors could not conceive of +any one's seeking the outcasts from pity and for their good. + +(_a_) Christ's consorting with these was the revelation of His +love to them. + +It meant no complicity with, nor minimising of, sinfulness. + +His sternness is as conspicuous as His love. + +He warned, rebuked, tried to win back. + +The highest purity is not repellent to sinners. + +So in Jesus is the combination of tenderest love and intense moral +earnestness. + +How difficult for anything but actual sight of such a life to have +painted it! Where did the evangelists get such an embodiment of two +attitudes so unlike each other, and which we so seldom see united in +fact? I venture to think that the combination in perfect harmony and +proportion of these, is a strong presumption in favour of the +historical truth of the Christ of the gospels. + +But remember that if we take His own statement ('He that hath seen +Me hath seen the Father'), we are to see in this kindly consorting +with sinners not only the love of a perfectly pure manhood, but a +revelation of the heart of God. And that adds wonderfulness and awe +to the fact. This man to whom sinners were drawn by strange +attraction, in whom they found the highest purity and yet softest +tenderness, therein revealed God. + +(_b_) It witnesses to His boundless hope. + +No outcasts were hopeless in His view. To man's eyes there are +hopeless classes, but He sees deeper. 'Perhaps a spark lies hid.' +There are dormant possibilities in all souls. + +None are so hard as that they cannot be melted by the high +temperature of love, just as there are no metals that cannot be +volatilised if exposed to intense heat. + +Carry the most thick-ribbed ice into the sun and it will thaw. + +So the Christian view of mankind is much more hopeful than that of +mere educationists or moralists. + +None of them paint human nature so black as it does, but none of +them have such boundless confidence in the possibility of making it +lustrously white. + +Urge, then, that none are beyond the power of Christ's gospel. His +divine Spirit can change any man. There are no incurables in the +judgment of the great Physician. + +(_c_) It witnesses to the truth that gross sin does not shut +out from Him so much as does self-complacent ignorance of our own +need. + +'They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.' +Where should the physician be but at the sick man's bedside? + +The one impassable barrier between us and Christ is fancying that we +are not sinners and do not need Him. + +This boundless hopefulness and seeking after the outcasts is the +unique glory of Christianity. What has been the mainspring of all +movements for their elevation? What broke the chains of slavery? +What has sent men to the ends of the earth for the elevation of +savage races? What is the motive power in the benevolent works of +this day? Is it philosophical altruism or is it Christian faith? No +doubt, there are some sporadic movements among people who do not +accept the gospel. At present, I do not ask how far these are due to +the underground influence of Christianity filtering to men who stand +apart from it. But I gravely doubt whether you will ever get any +large, continuous, self-sacrificing efforts for the outcasts, unless +they are the direct result of the spirit of Christ moving on men who +owe their own deliverance to Him. We have not yet seen agnostic +missionary societies or the like. + +This spirit must mark all living Christianity. If ever churches +forget their obligations to the publicans and sinners, they will +cease to grow. It will be a sign that they have lost their hold of +Christ. They will soon die, and no mourners will attend their +funerals. It is a good sign to-day that all Christian churches are +waking up to feel more their obligations to the outcasts. Only, we +must take heed that we go to them as Christ did, making no +compromise with sin, speaking no false flatteries, and bent on one +thing, their emancipation from the evil which is slaying them. + +Let us all take the blessed thought for ourselves, that Jesus Christ +is our friend because He is the friend of sinners, and we are +sinners. Degrees of sinfulness vary, but the fact is invariable. The +universality of sinfulness makes the universality of Christ's love +the more wonderful and blessed. If He did not love sinners, there +would be none for Him to love. We may be His enemies, or may neglect +all His beseechings; but He is still our friend, wishing us well, +and desiring to bless us. But He cannot give us His deepest +friendship unless we are willing to recognise our sin. We must come +to Him on the footing of transgressors if we are to come to Him at +all. + +He will deliver us from our sins. + +Appeal to give hearts to Him. + +How has He shown His friendship? 'Greater love hath no man than +this,' that 'while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' + +To be friends of Christ is the highest honour and blessing. + +'Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.' + +'He was called the friend of God.' Abraham's name in Mohammedan +lands is still El Khalil, the companion or friend. That is our +highest title. Christ's friends will not continue sinners. + + + + +SODOM, CAPERNAUM, MANCHESTER + + + 'Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein most of + His mighty works were done, because they repented not.' + --MATT. xi. 20. + +These words, and the woes which they introduce, are found in another +connection in Luke's Gospel. He attaches them to his report of the +mission of the seventy disciples. Matthew here introduces them in an +order which seems not to depend upon time, but upon identity of +subject. It is his method in his Gospel to group together similar +events, as we have it exemplified, for instance, in the Sermon on +the Mount, and in the long procession of miracles which immediately +follows it, as well as in other parts of the Gospel. In this chapter +it is not difficult to discover the common idea which binds its +parts into a whole. We have a number of instances strung together, +illustrating the different effects of Christ's appearance and work +on different classes of persons. There pass before us, John the +Baptist with his doubts, the excitable multitude ready to take the +Kingdom of Heaven by storm, the critics who cavilled with impartial +inconsistency alike at John's asceticism and at Christ's freedom. +Then follow the woes pronounced by Him upon the indifference of +those who knew Him best, and these are succeeded by His rejoicing in +spirit over the babes who accepted Him; and the whole is crowned by +great words of invitation which extend equally over those and over +all other varieties of disposition, and, since all 'labour and are +heavy laden,' summon all, be they what they may, to come and find +rest in Him. Obviously, then, the order in this chapter is not that +of time, but that of subject. + +Notice that of all these different classes and types of character +that pass in review before us, the one that is singled out for the +solemn denunciation of heavy judgment is that of the people who +stood in a blaze of light, and simply paid no attention to it. These +are the worst sort. I wonder how many of them are in my audience +now? + +Let me try, then, to bring before you the thoughts naturally +suggested by these introductory words, and the solemn, sorrowful +forebodings of retribution which follow them. I ask you to look at +three things,--the blaze of light; the neglect of the light; the +rebuke for the neglected light. 'Jesus began to upbraid the cities +wherein most of His mighty works were done.' + +I. First, then, consider the blaze of light. + +According to the words of my text, the larger number of the miracles +of our Lord were wrought in these three places. 'Cities,' our Bible +calls them; two of them were little fishing villages, the third a +somewhat considerable town. Where are these miracles recorded? Not +in our gospels. As for Chorazin, we never hear its name except in +this verse, and in the parallel in Luke's Gospel; and all that He +did there is swallowed up in oblivion. As for Bethsaida, there are a +couple of miracles, probably, recorded as having been wrought there, +though there is some obscurity in reference to the locality of at +least one of them. As for Capernaum, there are several miracles +recorded as having been performed in that place, and several others +referred to as having been done there. But there is nothing in the +four gospels that would suggest the statement of the text. + +Now the inference (which has nothing to do with my present subject, +but which I just note in passing) is,--how extremely fragmentary and +incomplete these four gospels avowedly are! They harvest for us a +few ears plucked in the great waving cornfield,--and all the others +withered and died where they grew. The light falls upon one or two +groups in the crowd of miserables whom He helped, the rest lie in +dim shadow. You have to think of dozens, I suppose I should not be +exaggerating if I were to say hundreds, of miracles unrecorded but +known, lying behind the specimens that we have in the gospels. 'Many +other things truly did Jesus, which are not written in this book.' + +Our Lord takes these two little fishing villages, and He parallels +and contrasts them with the two great maritime cities of Tyre and +Sidon, and says that these insignificant places have far more light +than those had. Then He isolates Capernaum, a place of more +importance, and His own usual settled residence; and, in like +manner, He contrasts it with the long-buried Sodom, and proclaims +the superiority of the illumination which fell on the more modern +three. Why were they so superior? Because they had Moses? because +they had the prophets, the law, the temple, the priesthood? By no +means. Because they had _Him_. So He sets Himself forth as +being the highest and clearest of all the revelations that God has +made to the world, and asserts that in Him, in His character, in His +deeds, men ought to find motives that should bow them in penitence +before God; motives sweeter, tenderer, stronger than any that the +world knows besides. There is no such light of the knowledge of the +glory of God anywhere else as there is in the face of Jesus Christ. +And oh! brother; no thoughts of the nobleness of rectitude, and the +imperfection of one's own life, no thoughts of a divine justice and +a divine punishment, will bow a man in penitence like having once +caught a glimpse of the perfect sweetness and perfect beauty of the +perfect Humanity that is revealed to us in Jesus Christ. + +But now, mark;--as Capernaum is to Sodom, so is Manchester to +Capernaum! I wonder if Jesus Christ were to come amongst us now, +whether He would not repeat in spirit the same lesson that is in my +text, and bid us contrast our greater illumination with the morning +twilight that dawned upon these men, and yet was light enough to +bring condemnation? Think,--these people of whom our Lord is +speaking here, and setting them high above Tyre and Sidon and Sodom, +knew nothing about His cross, death, resurrection, ascension. They +knew Him only as 'a dubious Name,' as a possible Divine Messenger +and a Miracle-worker; but all the sweetest and the deepest thoughts +about Him lay unrevealed. Whilst they stood but in the morning +twilight, you and I stand in the noonday blaze. _They_ might be +pardoned for doubting whether the light that shone from Him was +sunshine or candle, but men of this twentieth century, who have the +whole story of Christ, which is the gospel for the world, wrought +out through all the tragedy and pathos of His death, and triumph and +power of His resurrection, and who have, besides, the history of the +world and of the Church for nineteen centuries, are more +unpardonable unless they listen to Him with penitence and faith, +than were any of His contemporaries. + +My brother, we stand in the very focus and fountain, as it were, of +the heavenly radiance. A whole Christ, a crucified Christ, a risen +Christ, an ascended Christ, a Christ who is the Lord of the Spirit, +a Christ who through the centuries is saving and blessing men, a +Christ who can point to nineteen hundred years and say, 'That is My +work, in so far as it is good and noble,'--this Christ shines with a +clearer evidence than the Miracle-worker of Capernaum and Bethsaida. +And to you the word comes, 'If the mighty works which have been done +in _thee_, had been done in Bethsaida and Chorazin, they would +have remained until this day.' + +There are many of you here saturated with the knowledge of the +gospel, who from childhood have heard it and heard it and heard it. +You have lived in the light all your days. Alas! 'If the light that +is' round 'thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!' + +II. That brings me in the next place to notice the negligent +indifference to the Light in all its blaze. + +The men of these three little fishing towns were not sinners above +all the Galileans of their day. Their crime was that they did +nothing. No persecution is recorded as having been raised against +Him by them; there were no angry antagonisms, no scornful words, no +violent opposition. They simply stolidly stood like some black rock +in the sunshine, and let the sunshine pour down upon them, and +remained grim and black as ever. That was all. + +That is to say, the thing that brings down the severest rebuke is not +the angry antagonism of the men who are contending in half-darkness, +with a misunderstood and therefore disliked Christ, but the sleek, +passive apathy that is never touched deeper than its ears by the +message of God's word. It is not a difficult thing to incur this +condemnation. You have simply to do what some of you are doing, and +have been doing all your lives, as to Christianity, and that is--nothing! +You have simply to acquiesce politely and respectfully, as many of you +do, and say you are Christians; and there an end. You have simply to +take my words (as I fear so many of those that listen to them do) as +matters of course, the proper things to be said on a Sunday, and for me +to say, which may be very true in some vague, general way, but which +have no felt application to _you_. That is all you have to do. +It is quite enough. Negative vices will ruin a man, in mind, body, and +estate; and the negative sin of simple indifference avails to put a +barrier between you and Jesus Christ, through which none of His blessing +can filter. If a sailor does _not_ lash himself to something fixed, +the next sea that comes across the deck will do the rest. If a sick man +does _not_ take the medicine, by doing nothing he has committed +suicide. And simple passivity, that is to say (to translate it out +of Latin into good, honest English), doing nothing, is all that is +needed in order to part you from Christ and Christ from you. He +'upbraided the cities because they repented _not_.' + +One can fancy some well-to-do and thoroughly respectable and +clean-living native of Capernaum saying, 'What! those foul beasts in +Sodom better off than I? Impossible!' Well, Jesus Christ says so +upon very intelligible grounds. The measure of light is the measure +of responsibility. That is one ground. And the not preferring Him is +the preferring of self and the world, and that is the sin of sins. +He will 'convince the world of sin because they believe not on Me.' + +Now, one more point, viz. this gelatinous kind of indifference, as +of a disposition not stiff enough to take any impression, is found +most deeply seated, and hopeless, amongst--shall I venture?--amongst +people like _you_, who have been listening, listening, listening, until +your systems have become so habituated to this Christian preaching +that it does not produce the least effect. It all runs off you like +rain off waterproof. You have waterproofed your consciences and your +spiritual susceptibilities by long habit of listening and doing nothing. + +And some of you have come to this point, that you positively rather +like the titillation and excitement, slight though it may be, which +is produced by coming in contact now and then with a good, wholesome, +rousing Christian appeal. Not that you ever intend to do anything, +but it is pleasant to see a man in earnest, and preaching as if he +believed what he was saying. And so perhaps some of you are feeling +here to-night. + +Ah! my dear friends, it is possible for a man to live by the side of +Niagara until he cannot hear the cataract; and it is an awful thing +for men and women to live under the sound of Christian teaching +until it produces no more effect upon their wills and natures than +the ringing of the church bells, to which they pay no attention. + +You do not know the despair that comes over us preachers time after +time, as we look down upon the faces of our congregations, and feel, +'What _shall_ I do to put a sharp enough point upon this truth +to get it into the heart of some man that has been sitting there as +long as I have been standing here, and is never a bit the better for +it?' Our most earnest preaching is like putting a red-hot iron into +a pond: the cold water puts it out and closes above it, and there is +no more heard nor seen of it. Our old Puritan forefathers used to +talk about 'gospel-hardened hearers.' I believe that there are +people listening to me now who have become so inured to Christian +preaching that, like artillery horses, they will not move a muscle +or quiver if a whole battery of cannon is fired off under their +noses. God knows I despair sometimes, many a time, when I think of +the hundreds of people to whom I speak, year after year, and how +there seems next to nothing in the world to come of it all. + +III. Now lastly, notice here the rebuke of this negligence of the +light. + +'He began to upbraid the cities.' But oh! we shall misunderstand Him +and His purpose if we think that that upbraiding was anything but +the sorrowful expression of His own loving heart, which warned of +what was coming in order that He might never need to send it. +'_Woe_ unto you; _woe_ unto you,' and His own lips quivered and His own +heart felt the woe, as He laid bare the sin and foreannounced the +retribution. + +I do not feel that I dare dwell upon, or that it beseems me to say +much about, this solemn thought. Only, dear friends, I do desire, if +I could, to wake some of you to look realities for once in the face, +and to be sure of this, that retribution is proportioned to light, +and that the sin of sins is the rejection of Jesus Christ. Beneath +the broad folds of that 'more tolerable' there lie infinite degrees +of retribution. The same deed done by a group of men may be +indefinitely varied in its culpability, according to the motives and +the clearness of knowledge which accompany or prompt the doing of +it. And so, just because the life beyond is the accurate outcome and +issue of the whole character and conduct, estimated according to +motive and knowledge, therefore there must be differences infinitely +wide between the fate of the servant that knew his Lord's will, and +the servant that knew not. + +Where do you think we gospel-drenched English men and women will +stand in that allocation of culpability? I do not presume to say +more, but I beseech you,--let no present controversies about the +duration and the possible termination of retribution in another +state, or the possible prolongation of a probation into another +state, blind you to the fact that however these questions be +settled, this is a truth, independent of them, but being forgotten +amidst the dust of controversy, that the next life is a life of +retribution, and that there you and I will give account of our +deeds, and chiefly of our attitude to Jesus. + +And now let me say, in one word,--hoisting the danger-signal is the +work of kindness, and Jesus Christ was never more loving than when +from His lips there came these words, heavy with His own sorrow, and +stern with the prophecy of retribution. I know that Christian +teachers have often spoken of the solemn things beyond, in tones +much to be deplored, and which weaken the force of their message. +But surely, surely, if we believe in a judgment to come, and if we +believe that some of those that listen to us are in peril of it, +surely, surely, the plainest duty is that with tears in our voice +and pleading tenderness in our tone, seeing the sword coming, we +should give warning, and beseech men to flee for refuge to the hope +of the Gospel. The solemn words that we have been looking at now, +lead up to, and are intended to make more impressive and gracious, +the invitation with which this chapter ends: 'Come unto Me, all ye +that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' + +Dear friends, we stand in the blaze of the light. Our familiarity +with Jesus Christ may be our ruin. We are tempted to pay no heed to +His words because we know them so well. Neglect of Christ on your +part will bring deeper woes on your head than the people of +Capernaum pulled down upon theirs. The brighter the sunshine, the +louder the thunder and the fiercer the lightning; the longer the +summer day, the longer the winter night; the closer the comet comes +to the sun, the further away it plunges, at the other extremity of +its orbit, into space and darkness. So I beseech you, listen as if +you had never heard it before, and listen as if your lives depended +upon it (as indeed they do) to that merciful invitation, 'Come unto +Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,' and then you will get +rest for your souls here, and at that day when Sodom and Capernaum +and Manchester--they and we--shall stand before His throne, you may +lift up your eyes, and be glad to see who it is that sits on the +tribunal, and that you learned to know and love the face of your +Saviour, before you saw Him enthroned as your Judge. + + + + +CHRIST'S STRANGE THANKSGIVING + + + 'I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, + because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and + prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.' + --MATT. xi. 25. + +When Jesus was about to cure one dumb man, He lifted up His eyes to +heaven and sighed. Sorrow filled His soul in the act of working +deliverance. The thought of the depth of the miseries He had come to +heal, and of the ocean of them which He was then diminishing but by +one poor drop, saddened Him. When Jesus thought of the woes that had +fallen on the impenitent Sodom, and of the worse that still remained +to be revealed at the day of judgment, He rejoiced in spirit. +Strange! and yet all in harmony with His depth of love. This once, +and this once only, do we read that His heart filled with joy. Did +He lift up His solemn thanksgiving to God, for the woes that had +fallen on Chorazin? Oh no! For the blinding of the wise and prudent? +Oh no! For the revelation to babes? Yes, and not only for that, but +for that full and universal offer and possibility of salvation, +which forms the reason for both the revelation to babes and the +hiding from the wise. If we attend to the connection of this passage +we get light on its force. It begins with a clear prophecy of +endless woe and sorrow upon the rejecters. Then comes my text, +alleviating the terror of that thought of destruction by showing the +principles on which the reception and rejection are especially +based, the sort of people who receive and who reject. Then follows +the reason why the wise are shut out and the babes let in. That +reason is not only God's inscrutable decree, but something in the +very nature of the Gospel. God is hidden from all human sight. There +is one divine Revealer apart from whom all is darkness. 'Neither +doth any man know the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the +Son willeth to reveal Him.' That is the characteristic which shuts +out the wise and lets in the simple. + +Then follows the great call to all to come to Him. The practical +issue of all these solemn thoughts is that the Gospel is a Gospel +for all the world, and that the one qualification for coming within +the terms of its offer is to be 'weary and heavy laden.' Thus all +ends in the broad universality of the message, in its adaptation to +all, in its offer to all; and thus it is shown that every apparent +exclusion of any is but the result of its free offer to all, and +that to say 'Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent' +is but to say, 'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the +waters.' Well then might joy fill the heart of the Man of Sorrows. +Well might He lift up His solemn thanksgiving to God and say, 'I +thank Thee, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth.' + +Consider-- + +I. The Great Characteristics of the Gospel. + +We shall only understand the ground of the revealing and of the +hiding if we understand what it is which is offered. It is of such a +nature as necessarily to involve a twofold effect, caused by a +twofold attitude towards it. + +1. The Gospel addresses itself to all men--man as man--not to what +is sectional or accidental, not to classes, not to schools, not to +the _elite_. It is broad and universal. It speaks no dialect of +a province, but the universal language. It is addressed to Man as +Man. 'We have all of us one human heart.' It appeals to the noble +and the peasant, to the beggar on the dunghill and to the prince on +his throne, in precisely the same fashion. It is equal as the +providence of God, impartial as the light, universal as the air +which reddens equally the blood that flows in long-descended veins +and that of the foundling on the streets. In its sublime +universality there are no distinctions. Death and the Gospel know no +ranks. In both, 'the rich and the poor meet together, the Lord is +the Maker of them all.' 'In Christ Jesus there is neither +circumcision nor uncircumcision.' The blue sky which bends above all +alike is like that great word. + +2. It treats all as utterly helpless. + +3. It offers to all Redemption as their most pressing want. +Consequently, in substance it is the gift not of culture, but +deliverance, and in form it is not a theory but a fact, not a system +of _credenda_ but an action, not an _-ology_ but a power. + +4. It demands from all submission and trust. + +These being the characteristics, consider-- + +II. The qualifications for reception as necessarily resulting from +the characteristics. + +The persons who receive must be those who consent to take the +station which the Gospel assigns. They must be babes, by which is +meant not such as are innocent, but such as are reliant on a higher +Power, self-distrustful, willing to obey. + +These qualifications are all moral. The organ for reception of the +Gospel is the heart, not the head. To receive it by faith is a +spiritual, not an intellectual process. Ignorance is no +qualification nor no disqualification. Ignorance or knowledge is +immaterial. The one condition is to be willing to accept. + +III. The disqualification of the wise as necessarily resulting from +the qualification. + +The organ for the reception is not the head but the heart. +Therefore, wisdom is a barrier only in this way, that it has nothing +to do in the matter. Its presence or its absence is quite +indifferent here as in many other spheres of experience. The joys of +the affections, the joys of common emotions, the joys of bodily +life--all these are utterly independent of the culture of the +understanding. + +Hence 'wisdom' becomes a barrier, because its possessors are +accustomed to think it the master key. Not intellect, but the pride +of intellect, trusting in it, glorying in wisdom is the +disqualification. + +It is not true that there is any discord between religion and +cultivated thought. The loftier the soul, the loftier all its +attributes, the nobler should be, may be, its religion. It is not +true that there is any natural affinity between ignorance and +religion, between narrow understandings and deep faith. That is not +the Bible truth. The religion of Christ is not like owls that love +the twilight, but like eagles that 'purge their sight at the very +fountain itself of heavenly radiance.' + +Take history: the great names--an Augustine and a Luther, a Dante +and a Milton, a Bacon and a Pascal--are enough to show that there is +no antagonism. On the other hand, names enough rise to show that +there is no alliance. The inference is that the intellect has little +to do with a man's attitude towards the Revelation of God in Christ, +but that the moral is all. + +Let me close with the repetition of the thought that the apparent +exclusion is the result of the universality, and that 'Come unto Me' +is Christ's commentary on my text. Well then may we rejoice when we +think of a gospel for the world. Whatever you are, it is for you if +you are a man. However foolish, though you cannot read a letter and +know nothing, it is for you. If you be enriched with all knowledge, +you must come on the same terms as that beggar at your side. That is +a healthy discipline. You are more than a student, than a scholar, +than a thinker; you are a man, you are a sinful man. There is a +deeper chamber in your heart than any into which knowledge can +penetrate. Christ brings a gospel for all. When we think of it, with +its sublime disregard of all peculiarities, we may well rejoice with +him who said, 'Ye see your calling, brethren,' and with Him, the +loftiest, the incarnate, Wisdom who said, 'I thank Thee, Father.' +For if you rightly grasp the bearing of this text, and mark what +follows it in our Lord's heart and thoughts, you will see these deep +eyes of solemn joy turned from the heaven to you, filmy with +compassion, and those hands, then lifted in rapt devotion, stretched +out to beckon you and all the world to His breast, and hear the +voice that rose in that burst of thanksgiving melting into +tenderness as it woos you, be you wise or ignorant, to come to Him +and rest. + + + + +THE REST GIVER + + + 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, + and I will give you rest. 29. Take My yoke upon you, + and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and + ye shall find rest unto your souls.'--MATT. xi. 28, 29. + +One does not know whether tenderness or majesty is predominant in +these wonderful words. A divine penetration into man's true +condition, and a divine pity, are expressed in them. Jesus looks +with clearsighted compassion into the inmost history of all hearts, +and sees the toil and the sorrow which weigh on every soul. And no +less remarkable is the divine consciousness of power, to succour and +to help, which speaks in them. Think of a Jewish peasant of thirty +years old, opening his arms to embrace the world, and saying to all +men, 'Come and rest on My breast.' Think of a man supposing himself +to be possessed of a charm which could soothe all sorrow and lift +the weight from every heart. + +A great sculptor has composed a group where there diverge from the +central figure on either side, in two long lines, types of all the +cruel varieties of human pains and pangs; and in the midst stands, +calm, pure, with the consciousness of power and love in His looks, +and with outstretched hands, as if beckoning invitation and dropping +benediction, Christ the Consoler. The artist has but embodied the +claim which the Master makes for Himself here. No less remarkable is +His own picture of Himself, as 'meek and lowly in heart.' Did ever +anybody before say, 'I am humble,' without provoking the comment, +'He that says he is humble proves that he is not'? But Jesus Christ +said it, and the world has allowed the claim; and has answered, +'Though Thou bearest record of Thyself, Thy record is true.' + +But my object now is not so much to deal with the revelation of our +Lord contained in these marvellous words, as to try, as well as I +can, to re-echo, however faintly, the invitation that sounds in +them. There is a very striking reduplication running through them +which is often passed unnoticed. I shall shape my remarks so as to +bring out that feature of the text, asking you to look first with me +at the twofold designation of the persons addressed; next at the +twofold invitation; and last at the twofold promise of rest. + +I. Consider then the twofold designation here of the persons +addressed, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden.' + +The one word expresses effort and toil, the other a burden and +endurance. The one speaks of the active, the other of the passive, +side of human misery and evil. Toil is work which is distasteful in +itself, or which is beyond our faculties. Such toil, sometime or +other, more or less, sooner or later, is the lot of every man. All +work becomes labour, and all labour, sometime or other, becomes +toil. The text is, first of all, and in its most simple and surface +meaning, an invitation to all the men who know how ceaseless, how +wearying, how empty the effort and energy of life is, to come to +this Master and rest. + +You remember those bitter words of the Book of Ecclesiastes, where +the preacher sets forth a circle of labour that only comes back to +the point where it began, as being the law for nature and the law +for man. And truly much of our work seems to be no better than that. +We are like squirrels in a cage, putting forth immense muscular +effort, and nothing to show for it after all. 'All is vanity, and +striving after wind.' + +Toil is a curse; work is a blessing. But all our work darkens into +toil; and the invitation, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour,' +reaches to the very utmost verge of the world and includes every +soul. + +And then, in like manner, the other side of human experience is set +forth in that other word. For most men have not only to work, but to +bear; not only to toil, but to sorrow. There are efforts that need +to be put forth, which task all our energy, and leave the muscles +flaccid and feeble. And many of us have, at one and the same moment, +to work and to weep, to toil whilst our hearts are beating like a +forge-hammer; to labour whilst memories and thoughts that might +enfeeble any worker, are busy with us. A burden of sorrow, as well +as effort and toil, is, sooner or later, the lot of all men. + +But that is only surface. The twofold designation here before us +goes a great deal deeper than that. It points to two relationships +to God and to God's law of righteousness. Men labour with vague and +yet with noble effort, sometimes, to do the thing that is right, and +after all efforts there is left a burden of conscious defect. In the +purest and the highest lives there come both of these things. And +Jesus Christ, in this merciful invitation of His, speaks to all the +men that have tried, and tried in vain, to satisfy their consciences +and to obey the law of God, and says to them, 'Cease your efforts, +and no longer carry that burden of failure and of sin upon your +shoulders. Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.' + +I should be sorry to think that I was speaking to any man or woman +who had not, more or less, tried to do what is right. You have +laboured at that effort with more or less of consistency, with more +or less of earnestness. Have you not found that you could not +achieve it? + +I am sure that I am speaking to no man or woman who has not upon his +or her conscience a great weight of neglected duties, of actual +transgressions, of mean thoughts, of foul words and passions, of +deeds that they would be ashamed that any should see; ashamed that +their dearest should catch a glimpse of. My friend, universal +sinfulness is no mere black dogma of a narrow Calvinism; it is no +uncharitable indictment against the race; it is simply putting into +definite words the consciousness that is in every one of your +hearts. You know that, whether you like to think about it or not, +you have broken God's law, and are a sinful man. You carry a burden +on your back whether you realise the fact or no, a burden that clogs +all your efforts, and that will sink you deeper into the darkness +and the mire. 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour,' and with noble, +but, at bottom, vain, efforts have striven after right and truth. +'Come unto Me all ye that are burdened,' and bear, sometimes +forgetting it, but often reminded of its pressure by galled +shoulders and wearied limbs, the burden of sin on your bent backs. + +This invitation includes the whole race. In it, as in a blank form, +you may each insert your name. Jesus Christ speaks to thee, John, +Thomas, Mary, Peter, whatever thy name may be, as distinctly as if +you saw your name written on the pages of your New Testament, when +He says to you, 'Come unto Me, _all_ ye that labour and are +heavy laden.' For the 'all' is but the sum of the units; and I, and +thou, and thou, have our place within the word. + +II. Now, secondly, look at the twofold invitation that is here. + +'Come unto Me ... Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.' These two +things are not the same. 'Coming unto Me,' as is quite plain to the +most superficial observation, is the first step in the approach to a +companionship, which companionship is afterwards perfected and kept +up by obedience and imitation. The 'coming' is an initial act which +makes a man Christ's companion. And the 'Take My yoke upon you, and +learn of Me,' is the continuous act by which that companionship is +manifested and preserved. So that in these words, which come so +familiarly to most of our memories that they have almost ceased to +present a sharp meaning, there is not only a merciful summons to the +initial act, but a description of the continual life of which that +act is the introduction. + +And now, to put that into simpler words, when Jesus Christ says +'Come unto Me,' He Himself has taught us what is His inmost meaning +in that invitation, by another word of His: 'He that cometh unto Me +shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst'; +where the parallelism of the clauses teaches us that to come to +Christ is simply to put our trust in Him. There is in faith a true +movement of the whole soul towards the Master. I think that this +metaphor teaches us a great deal more about that faith that we are +always talking about in the pulpit, and which, I am afraid, many of +our congregations do not very distinctly understand, than many a +book of theology does. To 'come to Him' implies, distinctly, that +He, and no mere theological dogma, however precious and clear, is +the Object on which faith rests. + +And, therefore, if Christ, and not merely a doctrinal truth about +Christ, be the Object of our faith, then it is very clear that +faith, which grasps a Person, must be something more than the mere +act of the understanding which assents to a truth. And what more is +it? How is it possible for one person to lay hold of and to come to +another? By trust and love, and by these alone. These be the bonds +that bind men together. Mere intellectual consent may be sufficient +to fasten a man to a dogma, but there must be will and heart at work +to bind a man to a person; and if it be Christ and not a theology, +to which we come by our faith, then it must be with something more +than our brains that we grasp Him and draw near to Him. That is to +say, your will is engaged in your confidence. Trust Him as you trust +one another, only with the difference befitting a trust directed to +an absolute and perfect object of trust, and not to a poor, variable +human heart. Trust Him as you trust one another. Then, just as +husband and wife, parent and child, friend and friend, pass through +all intervening hindrances and come together when they trust and +love, so you come closer to Christ as the very soul of your soul by +an inward real union, than you do even to your dear ones, if you +grapple Him to your heart with the hoops of steel, which, by simple +trust in Him, the Divine Redeemer forges for us. 'Come unto Me,' +being translated out of metaphor into fact, is simply 'Believe on +the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.' + +And still further, we have here, not only the initial act by which +companionship and union with Jesus Christ is brought about, but the +continual course by which it is kept up, and by which it is +manifested. The faith which saves a man's soul is not all which is +required for a Christian life. 'Take My yoke upon you, and _learn +of Me_.' The yoke is that which, laid on the broad forehead or +the thick neck of the ox, has attached to it the cords which are +bound to the burden that the animal draws. The burden, then, which +Christ gives to His servants to pull, is a metaphor for the specific +duties which He enjoins upon them to perform; and the yoke by which +they are fastened to their burdens, 'obliged' to their duties, is +His authority, So to 'take His yoke' upon us is to submit our wills +to His authority. Therefore this further call is addressed to all +those who have come to Him, feeling their weakness and their need +and their sinfulness, and have found in Him a Saviour who has made +them restful and glad; and it bids them live in the deepest +submission of will to Him, in joyful obedience, in constant service; +and, above all, in the daily imitation of the Master. + +You must put both these commandments together before you get +Christ's will for His children completely expressed. There are some +of you who think that Christianity is only a means by which you may +escape the penalty of your sins; and you are ready enough, or fancy +yourselves so, to listen when He says, 'Come to Me that you may be +pardoned,' but you are not so ready to listen to what He says +afterwards, when He calls upon you to take His yoke upon you, to +obey Him, to serve Him, and above all to copy Him. And I beseech you +to remember that if you go and part these two halves from one +another, as many people do, some of them bearing away the one half +and some the other, you have got a maimed Gospel; in the one case a +foundation without a building, and in the other case a building +without a foundation. The people who say that Christ's call to the +world is 'Come unto Me,' and whose Christianity and whose Gospel is +only a proclamation of indulgence and pardon for past sin, have laid +hold of half of the truth. The people who say that Christ's call is +'Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me,' and that Christianity is a +proclamation of the duty of pure living after the pattern of Jesus +Christ our great Example, have laid hold of the other half of the +truth. And both halves bleed themselves away and die, being torn +asunder; put them together, and each has power. + +That separation is one reason why so many Christian men and women +are such poor Christians as they are--having so little real +religion, and consequently so little real joy. I could lay my +fingers upon many men, professing Christians--I do not say whether +in this church or in other churches--whose whole life shows that +they do not understand that Jesus Christ has a twofold summons to +His servants; and that it is of no avail once, long ago, to have +come, or to think that you have come, to Him to get pardon, unless +day by day you are keeping beside Him, doing His commandments, and +copying His sweet and blessed example. + +III. And now, lastly, look at the twofold promise which is here. + +I do not know if there is any importance to be attached to the +slight diversity of language in the two verses, so as that in the +one case the promise runs, 'I will _give_ you rest,' and in the +other, 'Ye shall _find_ rest.' That sounds as if the rest that +was contingent upon the first of the invitations was in a certain +and more direct and exclusive fashion Christ's gift than the rest +which was contingent upon the second. It may be so, but I attach no +importance to that criticism; only I would have you observe that our +Lord distinctly separates here between the rest of 'coming,' and the +rest of wearing His 'yoke.' These two, howsoever they may be like +each other, are still not the same. The one is the perfecting and +the prolongation, no doubt, of the other, but has likewise in it +some other, I say not more blessed, elements. Dear brethren, here +are two precious things held out and offered to us all. There is +rest in coming to Christ; the rest of a quiet conscience which gnaws +no more; the rest of a conscious friendship and union with God, in +whom alone are our soul's home, harbour, and repose; the rest of +fears dispelled; the rest of forgiveness received into the heart. Do +you want that? Go to Christ, and as soon as you go to Him you will +get that rest. + +There is rest in faith. The very act of confidence is repose. Look +how that little child goes to sleep in its mother's lap, secure from +harm because it trusts. And, oh! if there steal over our hearts such +a sweet relaxation of the tension of anxiety when there is some dear +one on whom we can cast all responsibility, how much more may we be +delivered from all disquieting fears by the exercise of quiet +confidence in the infinite love and power of our Brother Redeemer, +Christ! He will be 'a covert from the storm, and a refuge from the +tempest'; as 'rivers of water in a dry place, and the shadow of a +great rock in a weary land.' If we come to Him, the very act of +coming brings repose. + +But, brethren, that is not enough, and, blessed be God! that is not +all. There is a further, deeper rest in obedience, and emphatically +and most blessedly there is a rest in Christ-likeness. 'Take My yoke +upon you.' There is repose in saying 'Thou art my Master, and to +Thee I bow.' You are delivered from the unrest of self-will, from +the unrest of contending desires, you get rid of the weight of too +much liberty. There is peace in submission; peace in abdicating the +control of my own being; peace in saying, 'Take Thou the reins, and +do Thou rule and guide me.' There is peace in surrender and in +taking His yoke upon us. + +And most especially the path of rest for men is in treading in +Christ's footsteps. 'Learn of Me,' it is the secret of tranquillity. +We have done with passionate hot desires,--and it is these that +breed all the disquiet in our lives--when we take the meekness and +the lowliness of the Master for our pattern. The river will no +longer roll, broken by many a boulder, and chafed into foam over +many a fall, but will flow with even foot, and broad, smooth bosom, +to the parent sea. + +There is quietness in self-sacrifice, there is tranquillity in +ceasing from mine own works and growing like the Master. + + 'The Cross is strength; the solemn Cross is gain. + The Cross is Jesus' breast, + Here giveth He the rest, + That to His best beloved doth still remain.' + +'Take up thy cross daily,' and thou enterest into His rest. + +My brother, 'the wicked is like the troubled sea that cannot rest, +whose waters cast up mire and dirt.' But you, if you come to Christ, +and if you cleave to Christ, may be like that 'sea of glass, mingled +with fire,' that lies pure, transparent, waveless before the Throne +of God, over which no tempests rave, and which, in its deepest +depths, mirrors the majesty of 'Him that sitteth upon the Throne, +and of the Lamb.' + + + + +THE PHARISEES' SABBATH AND CHRIST'S + + + 'At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the + corn; and His disciples were an hungred, and began to + pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. 2. But when the + Pharisees saw it they said unto Him, Behold, Thy + disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the + Sabbath day. 3. But he said unto them, Have ye not read + what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that + were with him; 4. How he entered into the house of God, + and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him + to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only + for the priests! 5. Or have ye not read in the law, how + that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple + profane the Sabbath, and are blameless! 6. But I say + unto you, That in this place is one greater than the + temple. 7. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I + will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have + condemned the guiltless. 8. For the Son of Man is Lord + even of the Sabbath day 9. And when he was departed + thence, He went into their synagogue: 10. And, behold, + there was a man which had his hand withered. And they + asked Him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath + days? that they might accuse Him. 11. And He said unto + them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have + one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, + will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? 12. How + much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is + lawful to do well on the Sabbath days. 13. Then saith + He to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he + stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as + the other. 14. Then the Pharisees went out, and held a + counsel against Him, how they might destroy Him.' + --MATT. xii. 1-14. + +We have had frequent occasion to point out that this Gospel is +constructed, not on chronological, but on logical lines. It groups +together incidents related in subject, though separated in time. +Thus we have the collection of Christ's sayings in the Sermon on the +Mount, followed by the collection of doings in chapters viii. and +ix., the collected charge to His ambassadors in chapter x., the +collection of instances illustrative of the relations of different +classes to the message of the Kingdom and its King in chapter xi., +and now in this chapter a series of incidents setting forth the +growing bitterness of antagonism on the part of the guardians of +traditional and ceremonial religion. This is followed, in the next +chapter, with a series of parables. + +The present lesson includes two Sabbath incidents, in the first of +which the disciples are the transgressors of the sabbatic tradition; +in the second, Christ's own action is brought into question. The +scene of the first is in the fields, that of the second is in the +synagogue. In the one, Sabbath observance is set aside at the call +of personal needs; in the other, at the call of another's calamity. +So the two correspond to the old Puritan principle that the Sabbath +law allowed of 'works of necessity and of mercy.' + +I. The Sabbath and personal needs. This is a strange sort of King +who cannot even feed His servants. What a glimpse into the penury of +their usual condition the quiet statement that the disciples were +hungry gives us, especially if we remember that it is not likely +that the Master had fared better than they! Indeed, His reference to +David and his band of hungry heroes suggests that 'He was an +hungred' as well as 'they that were with Him.' As they traversed +some field path through the tall yellowing corn, they gathered a few +ears, as the merciful provision of the law allowed, and hastily +began to eat the rubbed-out grains. As soon as they 'began,' the +eager Pharisees, who seem to have been at their heels, call Him to +'behold' this dreadful crime, which, they think, requires His +immediate remonstrance. If they had had as sharp eyes for men's +necessities as for their faults, they might have given them food +which it was 'lawful' to eat, and so obviated this frightful +iniquity. But that is not the way of Pharisees. Moses had not +forbidden such gleaning, but the casuistry which had spun its +multitudinous webs over the law, hiding the gold beneath their dirty +films, had decided that plucking the ears was of the nature of +reaping, and reaping was work, and work was forbidden, which being +settled, of course the inferential prohibition became more important +than the law from which it was deduced. That is always the case with +human conclusions from revelation; and the more questionable these +are, the more they are loved by their authors, as the sickly child +of a family is the dearest. + +Our Lord does not question the authority of the tradition, nor ask +where Moses had forbidden what His disciples were doing. Still less +does He touch the sanctity of the Jewish Sabbath. He accepts His +questioners' position, for the time, and gives them a perfect answer +on their own ground. Perhaps there may be just a hint in the double +'Have ye not read?' that they could not produce Scripture for their +prohibition, as He would do for the liberty which He allowed. He +quotes two instances in which ceremonial obligations gave way before +higher law. The first, that of David and his followers eating the +shew-bread, which was tabooed to all but priests, is perhaps chosen +with some reference to the parallel between Himself, the true King, +now unrecognised and hunted with His humble followers, and the +fugitive outlaw with his band. It is but a veiled allusion at most; +but, if it fell on good soil, it might have led some one to ask, 'If +this is David, where is Saul, and where is Doeg, watching him to +accuse him?' This example serves our Lord's purpose of showing that +even a divine prohibition, if it relates to mere ceremonial matter, +melts, like wax, before even bodily necessities. What a thrill of +holy horror would meet the enunciation of the doctrine that such a +carnal thing as hunger rightfully abrogated a sacred ritual +proscription! The law of right is rigid; that of external ceremonies +is flexible. Better that a man should die than that the one should +be broken; better that the other should be flung to the winds than +that a hungry man should go unfed. It may reasonably be doubted +whether all Christian communities have learned the sweep of that +principle yet, or so judge of the relative importance of keeping up +their appointed forms of worship, and of feeding their hungry +brother. The brave Ahimelech, 'the son of Ahitub,' was ahead of a +good many people of to-day. + +The second example comes still closer to the question in hand, and +supplies the reference to the Sabbath law, which the former had not. +There was much hard work done in the temple on the Sabbath--sacrifices +to be slain, fires and lamps to be kindled, and so on. That was not +Sabbath desecration. Why? Because it was done in the temple, and as a +part of divine service. The sanctity of the place, and the consequent +sanctity of the service, exempted it from the operation of the law. +The question, no doubt, was springing to the lips of some scowling +Pharisee, 'And what has that to do with our charge against your +disciples?' when it was answered by the wonderful next words, 'In +this place'--here among the growing corn, beneath the free heaven, far +away from Jerusalem--'is one greater than the temple.' Profound words, +which could only sound as blasphemy or nonsense to the hearers, but +which touch the deepest truths concerning His person and His relations +to men, and which involve the destruction of all temples and rituals. +He is all that the temple symbolised. In Him the Godhead really dwells; +He is the meeting-place of God and man, the place of the oracle, the +place of sacrifice. Then, where He stands is holy ground, and all work +done with reference to Him is worship. These poor followers of His are +priests; and if, for His sake, they had broken a hundred Sabbath +regulations, they were guiltless. + +So far our Lord has been answering His opponents; now He attacks. +The quotation from Hosea is often on His lips. Here He uses it to +unmask the real motives of His assailants. Their murmuring came not +from more religion, but from less love. If they had had a little +more milk of human kindness in them, it would have died on their +lips; if they had grasped the real meaning of the religion they +professed, they would have learned that its soul was 'mercy'--that +is, of course, man's gentleness to man--and that sacrifice and +ceremony were but the body, the help, and sometimes the hindrance, +of that soul. They would have understood the relative importance of +disposition and of external worship, as end and means, and not have +visited a mere breach of external order with a heat of disapprobation +only warranted by a sin against the former. Their judgment would have +been liker God's if they had looked at those poor hungry men with +merciful eyes and with merciful hearts, rather than with eager scrutiny +that delighted to find them tripping in a triviality of outward +observance. What mountains of harsh judgment by Christ's own followers +on each other would have been removed into the sea if the spirit of +these great words had played upon them! + +The 'for' at the beginning of verse 8 seems to connect with the last +words of the preceding verse, 'I call them guiltless, for,' etc. It +states more plainly still the claim already put forward in verse 6. +'The Son of Man,' no doubt, is equivalent to 'Messiah'; but it is +more, as revealing at once Christ's true manhood and His unique and +complete manhood, in which the very ideal of man is personally +realised. It can never be detached from His other name, the 'Son of +God.' They are the obverse and reverse of the same golden coin. He +asserts His power over the Sabbath, as enjoined upon Israel. His is +the authority which imposed it. It is plastic in His hands. The +whole order of which it is part has its highest purpose in +witnessing of Him. He brings the true 'rest.' + +II. The Sabbath, and works of beneficence. Matthew appears to have +brought together here two incidents which, according to Luke, were +separated in time. The scene changes to a synagogue, perhaps that of +Capernaum. Among the worshippers is a man with 'a withered hand,' +who seems to have been brought there by the Pharisees as a bait to +try to draw out Christ's compassion. What a curious state of mind +that was,--to believe that Christ could work miracles, and to want +Him to do one, not for pity's sake, nor for confirmation of faith, +but to have material for accusing Him! And how heartlessly careless +of the poor sufferer they are, when they use him thus! He for his +part stands silent. Desire and faith have no part in evoking this +miracle. Deadly hatred and calculating malignity ask for it, and for +once they get their wish. Having baited their hook, and set the man +with his shrunken hand full in view, they get into their corners and +wait the event. Matthew tells us that they ask our Lord the question +which Luke represents Him as asking them. Perhaps we may say that He +gave voice to the question which they were asking in their hearts. +Their motive is distinctly given here. They wanted material for a +legal process before a local tribunal. The whole thing was an +attempt to get Jesus within the meshes of the law. Again, as in the +former case, it is the traditional, not the written, law, which +healing would have broken. The question evidently implies that, in +the judgment of the askers, healing was unlawful. Talmudical +scholars tell us that in later days the rabbis differed on the +point, but that the prevalent opinion was, that only sicknesses +threatening immediate danger to life could lawfully be treated on +the Sabbath. The more rigid doctrine was obviously held by Christ's +questioners. It is a significant instance of the absurdity and +cruelty which are possible when once religion has been made a matter +of outward observance. Nothing more surely and completely ossifies +the heart and blinds common sense. + +In His former answer Jesus had appealed to Scripture to bear out His +teaching that Sabbath observance must bend to personal necessities. +Here He appeals to the natural sense of compassion to confirm the +principle that it must give way to the duty of relieving others. His +question is as confident of an answer as the Pharisees' had been. +But though He takes it for granted that His hearers could only +answer it in one way, the microscopic and cold-blooded ingenuity of +the rabbis, since His day, answers it in another. They say, 'Don't +lift the poor brute out, but throw in a handful of fodder, and +something for him to lie upon, and let him be till next day.' A +remarkable way of making 'thine ox and thine ass' keep the Sabbath! +There is a delicacy of expression in the question; the owner of 'one +sheep' would be more solicitous about it than if he had a hundred; +and our Shepherd looks on all the millions of His flock with a heart +as much touched by their sorrow and needs as if each were His only +possession. The question waits for no answer; but Christ goes on (as +if there could be but one reply) to His conclusion, which He binds +to His first question by another, equally easy to answer. Man's +superiority to animals makes his claim for help more imperative. +'You would not do less for one another than for a sheep in a hole, +surely.' But the form in which our Lord put His conclusive answer to +the Pharisees gives an unexpected turn to the reply. He does not +say, 'It is lawful to heal,' but, 'It is lawful to do well,' thus at +once showing the true justification of healing, namely, that it was +a beneficent act, and widening the scope of His answer to cover a +whole class of cases. 'To do well' here means, not to do right, but +to do good, to benefit men. The principle is a wide one: the +charitable succour of men's needs, of whatever kind, is congruous +with the true design of that day of rest. Have the churches laid +that lesson to heart? On the whole, it is to be observed that our +Lord here distinctly recognises the obligation of the Sabbath, that +He claims power over it, that He permits the pressure of one's own +necessities and of others' need of help, to modify the manner of its +observance, and that He leaves the application of these principles +to the spiritual insight of His followers. + +The cure which follows is done in a singular fashion. Without a +whisper of request from the sufferer or any one else, He heals him +by a word. His command has a promise in it, and He gives the power +to do what He bids the man do. 'Give what Thou commandest,' says St. +Augustine, 'and command what Thou wilt.' We get strength to obey in +the act of obedience. But beyond the possible symbolical +significance of the mode of cure, and beyond the revelation of +Christ's power to heal by a word, the manner of healing had a +special reason in the very cavils of the Pharisees. Not even they +could accuse Him of breaking any Sabbath law by such a cure. What +had He done? Told the man to put out his hand. Surely that was not +unlawful. What had the man done? Stretched it forth. Surely that +broke no subtle rabbinical precept. So they were foiled at every +turn, driven off the field of argument, and baffled in their attempt +to find ground for laying an information against Him. But neither +His gentle wisdom nor His healing power could reach these hearts, +made stony by conceit and pedantic formalism; and all that their +contact with Jesus did was to drive them to intenser hostility, and +to send them away to plot His death. That is what comes of making +religion a round of outward observances. The Pharisee is always +blind as an owl to the light of God and true goodness; keen-sighted +as a hawk for trivial breaches of his cobweb regulations, and cruel +as a vulture to tear with beak and claw. The race is not extinct. We +all carry one inside us, and need God's help to cast him out. + + + + +AN ATTEMPT TO ACCOUNT FOR JESUS + + + 'But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This man + doth not cast out demons, but by Beelzebub, the prince + of the demons.'--MATT. xii. 24. + +Mark's Gospel tells us that this astonishing explanation of Christ +and His work was due to the ingenious malice of an ecclesiastical +deputation, sent down from Jerusalem to prevent the simple folk in +Galilee from being led away by this new Teacher. They must have been +very hard put to it to explain undeniable but unwelcome facts, when +they hazarded such a preposterous theory. + +Formal religionists never know what to make of a man who is in +manifest touch with the unseen. These scribes, like Christ's other +critics, judged themselves in judging Him, and bore witness to the +very truths that they were eager to deny. For this ridiculous +explanation admits the miraculous, recognises the impossibility of +accounting for Christ on any naturalistic hypothesis, and by its +very outrageous absurdity indicates that the only reasonable +explanation of the facts is the admission of His divine message and +authority. So we may learn, even from such words as these, how the +glory of Jesus Christ shines, though distorted and blurred, through +the fogs of prejudice and malice. + +I. Note, then, first, the unwelcome and undeniable facts that insist +upon explanation. + +I have said that these hostile critics attest the reality of the +miracles. I know that it is not fashionable at present to attach +much weight to the fact that none of all the enemies that saw them +ever had a doubt about the reality of Christ's miracles. I know +quite well that in an age that believed in the possibility of the +supernatural, as this age does not, credence would be more easy, and +that such testimony is less valuable than if it had come from a jury +of scientific twentieth century sceptics. But I know, on the other +hand, that for long generations the expectation of the miraculous +had died out before Christ came; that His predecessor, John the +Baptist, made no such claims; and that, at first, at all events, +there was no expectation of Jesus working miracles, to lead to any +initial ease of acceptance of His claims. And I know that there were +never sharper and more hostile eyes brought to bear upon any man and +his work than the eyes of these ecclesiastical 'triers.' It would +have been so easy and so triumphant a way of ending the whole +business if they could have shown, what they were anxious to be able +to show, that the miracle was a trick. And so I venture to think +that not without some weight is the attestation from the camp of the +enemy, 'This man casteth out demons.' + +But you have to remember that amongst the facts to be explained is +not only this one of Christ's works having passed muster with His +enemies, but the other of His own reiterated and solemn claim to +have the power of working what we call miracles. Now, I wish to +dwell on that for one moment, because it is fashionable to put one's +thumb upon it nowadays. It is not unusual to eliminate from the +Gospel narrative all that side of it, and then to run over in +eulogiums about the rest. But what we have to deal with is this +fact, that the Man whom the world admits to be the consummate flower +of humanity, meek, sane, humble, who has given all generations +lessons in self-abnegation and devotion, claimed to be able to raise +the dead, to cast out demons, and to do many wonderful works. And +though we should be misrepresenting the facts if we said that He did +what His followers have too often been inclined to do, _i.e._ +rested the stress of evidence upon that side of His work, yet it is +an equal exaggeration in the other direction to do, as so many are +inclined to do to-day, _i.e._ disparage the miraculous evidence +as no evidence at all. 'Go and tell John the things that ye see and +hear,'--that is His own answer to the question, 'Art Thou He that +should come?' And though I rejoice to believe that there are far +loftier and more blessed answers to it than these outward signs and +tokens, they _are_ signs and tokens; and they are part of the +whole facts that have to be accounted for. + +I would venture to widen the reference of my text for a moment, and +include not only the actual miracles of our Lord's earthly life, but +all the beneficent, hallowing, elevating, ennobling, refining +results which have followed upon the proclamation of His truth in +the world ever since. I believe, as I think Scripture teaches me to +believe, that in the world today Christ is working; and that it is a +mistake to talk about the results of 'Christianity,' meaning thereby +some abstract system divorced from Him. It is the working of Jesus +Christ in the world that has brought 'nobler manners, purer laws'; +that has given a new impulse and elevation to art and literature; +that has lifted the whole tone of society; that has suppressed +ancient evils; that has barred the doors of old temples of devildom, +of lust, and cruelty, and vice; and that is still working in the +world for the elevation and the deifying of humanity. And I claim +the whole difference between 'B.C. and A.D.'--the whole difference +between Christendom and Heathendom--as being the measure of the +continuous power with which Jesus Christ has grappled with and +throttled the snakes that have fastened on men. That continuous +operation of His in delivering from the powers of evil has, indeed, +not yielded such results as might have been expected. But just as on +earth He was hindered in the exercise of His supernatural power by +men's unbelief, so that 'He could do no mighty works, save that He +laid His hands on a few sick folk' here and there, 'and healed +them,' so He has been thwarted by His Church, and hindered in the +world, from manifesting the fulness of His power. But yet, +sorrowfully admitting that, and taking as deserved the scoffs of the +men that say, 'Your Christianity does not seem to do so very much +after all,' I still venture to allege that its record is unique; and +that these are facts which wise men ought to take into account, and +have some fairly plausible way of explaining. + +II. Secondly, note the preposterous explanation. 'This man doth not +cast out demons, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons.' That +is the last resort of prejudice so deep that it will father an +absurdity rather than yield to evidence. And Christ has no +difficulty in putting it aside, as you may remember, by a piece of +common sense: 'If Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against +himself, and his kingdom cannot stand.' There is an old play which +has for its title, _The Devil as an Ass._ He is not such an ass +as that, to build up with one hand and cast down with the other. As +the proverb has it, 'Hawks do not pick out hawks' eyes.' But this +plainly hopeless attempt to account for Christ and His work may be +turned into a witness for both, and yield not unimportant lessons. + +This explanation witnesses to the insufficiency of all explanations +which omit the supernatural. These men felt that they had to do with +a Man who was in touch with a whole world of unseen powers; and that +they had here to deal with something to which ordinary measuring +lines were palpably inapplicable. And so they fell back upon 'by +Beelzebub'; and they thereby admitted that humanity without +something more at the back of it never made such a man as that. And +I beg you to lay that to heart. It is very easy to solve an +insoluble problem if you begin by taking all the insoluble elements +out of it. And that is how a great deal of modern thinking does with +Christianity. Knock out all the miracles; pooh-pooh all Christ's +claims; say nothing about Incarnation; declare Resurrection to be +entirely unhistorical, and you will not have much difficulty in +accounting for the rest; and it will not be worth the accounting +for. But here is the thing to be dealt with, that _whole_ life, +the Christ of the Gospels. And I venture to say that any explanation +professing to account for Him which leaves out His coming from an +unseen world, and His possession of powers above this world of sense +and nature, is ludicrously inadequate. Suppose you had a chain which +for thousands of years had been winding on to a drum, and link after +link had been rough iron, and all at once there comes one of pure +gold, would it be reasonable to say that it had been dug from the +same mine, and forged in the same fires, as its black and ponderous +companions? Generation after generation has passed across the earth, +each begetting sons after its own likeness; and lo! in the midst of +them starts up one sinless Man. Is it reasonable to say that He is +the product of the same causes which have produced all the millions, +and never another like Him? Surely to account for Jesus without the +supernatural is hopeless. + +Further, this explanation may be taken as an instance showing the +inadequacy of all theories and explanations of Christ and +Christianity from an unbelieving point of view. It was the first +attempt of unbelievers to explain where Christ's power came from. +Like all first attempts, it was crude, and it has been amended and +refined since. Earlier generations did not hesitate to call the +Apostles liars, and Christ's contemporaries did not hesitate to call +Him 'this deceiver.' We have got beyond that; but we still are met +by explanations of the power of the Gospel and of Christ, its +subject and Author, which trace these to ignoble elements, and do +not shrink from asserting that a blunder or a hallucination lies at +the foundation. + +Now, I am not going to enter upon these matters at any length, but I +would just recall to you our Lord's broad, simple principle: 'A +corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, neither doth a good tree +bring forth evil fruit.' And I would apply that all round. Christian +teachers have often made great mistakes, as it seems to me, by +tracing the prevalence of the power of some heathen religions to +their vices and lies. No system has ever had great moral power in +this world but by reason of its excellences and truths. Mohammedanism, +for instance, swept away, and rightly, a mere formal superstition which +called itself Christianity, because it grasped the one truth: 'There is +no God but God'; and it had faith of a sort. Monasticism held the +field in Europe, with all its faults, for centuries, because it enshrined +the great Christian truth of self-sacrifice and absolute obedience. +And you may take it as a fixed rule, that howsoever some 'mixture of +falsehood doth ever please,' as Bacon says, in his cynical way, the +reason for the power of any great movement has been the truth that was +in it and not the lie; and the reason why great men have exercised +influence has been their greatness and their goodness, and not their +smallnesses and their vices. + +I apply that all round, and I ask you to apply it to Christianity; +and in the light of such plain principles to answer the question: +'Where did this Man, so fair, so radiant, so human and yet so +superhuman, so universal and yet so individual--where did He come +from? and where did the Gospel, which flows from Him, and which has +done such things in the world as it has done--where did it come +from? 'Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?' If it +is true that Jesus Christ is either mistakenly represented in the +Gospels, or that He made enthusiastic claims which cannot be +verified; and if it is true that the faith in a Resurrection on +which Christianity is suspended, and which has produced such fruits +as we know have been produced, is a delusion; then all I can say is +that the noblest lives that ever were lived in the world have found +their impulse in a falsehood or a dream; and that the richest +clusters that ever have yielded wine for the cup have grown upon a +thorn. If like produces like, you cannot account for Christ and +Christianity by anything short of the belief in His Divine mission. +Serpents' eggs do not hatch out into doves. This Man, when He +claimed to be God's Son and the world's Saviour, was no brain-sick +enthusiast; and the results show that the Gospel which His followers +proclaim rests upon no lie. + +Again, this explanation is an instance of the credulity of unbelief. +Think of the mental condition which could swallow such an +explanation of such a Worker and such work. It is more difficult to +believe the explanation than the alternative which it is framed to +escape. So it is always. The difficulties of faith are small by +comparison with those of unbelief, gnats beside camels, and that +that is so is plain from the short duration of each unbelieving +explanation of Jesus. One can remember in the compass of one's own +life more than one assailant taking the field with much trumpeting +and flag-waving, whose attack failed and is forgotten. The child's +story tells of a giant who determined to slay his enemy, and +belaboured an empty bed with his club all night, and found his foe +untouched and fresh in the morning. The Gospel is here; what has +become of its assailants? They are gone, and the limbo into which +the scribes' theory has passed will receive all the others. So we +may be quite patient, and sure that the sieve of time, which is +slowly and constantly working, will riddle out all the rubbish, and +cast it on the dunghill where so many exploded theories rot +forgotten. + +III. And now, one word about the last point; and that is--the true +explanation. + +Now, at this stage of my sermon, I must not be tempted to say a word +about the light which our Lord throws, in these declarations in the +context, into that dim unseen world. His words seem to me to be too +solemn and didactic to be taken as accommodations to popular +prejudice, and a great deal too grave to be taken as mere metaphor. +And I, for my part, am not so sure that, apart from Him, I know all +things in heaven and earth, as to venture to put aside these solemn +words of His--which lift a corner of the veil which hides the +unseen--and to dismiss them as unworthy of notice. Is it not a +strange thing that a world which is so ready to believe in spiritual +communications when they are vouched for by a newspaper editor, is +so unwilling to believe them when they are in the Bible? And is it +not a strange thing that scientists, who are always taunting +Christians with the importance they attach to man in the plan of the +universe, and ask if all these starry orbs were built for him, +should be so incredulous of teachings which fill the waste places +with loftier beings? But that is by the way. + +What does Christ say in the context? He tells the secret of His power. +'I, by the Spirit of God, cast out demons.' And then He goes on to +speak about a conflict that He wages with a strong man; and about His +binding the strong man, and spoiling his house. All which, being +turned into modern language, is just this, that the Lord, by His +incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and government at +the right hand of God, has broken the powers of evil in their central +hold. He has crushed the serpent's head; and though He may still, as +Milton puts it, 'swinge the scaly horror of his folded tail,' it is +but the flurries of the dying brute. The conquering heel is firm on +his head. So, brethren, evil is conquered, and Christ is the Conqueror; +and by His work in life and death He has delivered them that were held +captive of the devil. And you and I may, if we will, pass into 'the +liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.' + +That is the only explanation of Him--in His person, in His character, +in His work, and in the effects of that work in the world--that +covers all the facts, and will hold water. All others fail, and they +mostly fail by boldly eliminating the very facts that need to be +accounted for. Let us rather look to Him, thankful that our Brother +has conquered; and let us put our trust in that Saviour. For, if His +explanation is true, then a very solemn personal consideration arises +for each of us, 'If I, by the Spirit of God, cast out demons, then +the Kingdom of God is come unto you,' it stands beside us; it calls +for our obedience. Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ alone, can cast the +evils out of our natures. It is the Incarnate Christ, the Divine +Christ, the crucified Christ, the ascended Christ, the indwelling +Christ, who will so fill our hearts that there shall be no aching +voids there to invite the return of the expelled tyrants. If any +other reformation pass upon us than the thorough one of receiving Him +by faith into our hearts, then, though they may be swept and garnished, +they will be empty; and the demons will come back. With Jesus +inside--they will be outside. + + + + +'MAKE THE TREE GOOD' + + + '... Make the tree good, and his fruit good....' + --MATT. xii. 33. + +In this Gospel we find that our Lord twice uses this image of a tree +and its fruit. In the Sermon on the Mount He applies it as a test to +false teachers, who hide, beneath the wool of the sheep's clothing, +the fangs and paws of ravening wolves. He says, 'By their deeds ye +shall know them; for as is the tree so is its fruit.' That is a +rough and ready test, which applies rather to the teacher than to +his doctrine, but it applies, to some extent, to the doctrine too, +on the hypothesis that the teacher's life fairly represents it. Of +course, it is not the only thing that we have to take into account; +but it may prick many a bladder, and unmask many an error, and it is +the way by which the masses generally judge of systems and of their +apostles. A saintly life has more power than dusty volumes of +controversy. + +But in our text Christ applies the same thoughts in rather a deeper +fashion. Here the lesson that He would have us draw is of the +connection between character and conduct; how what we do is +determined by what we are, and how, not of course with the same +absolute regularity and constancy, but still somewhat in the same +fashion as the fruit is true to the tree, so, after all allowance +made for ups and downs, for the irregular play of will and +conscience, for the strife that is waged within a man, for the +temptations of external circumstances, and the like--still, in +general, as is the inner man, so is the outward manifestation. The +facts of a life are important mainly as registering and making +visible the inner condition of the doer. Now, that seems very +elementary. Everybody believes that 'out of the heart are the issues +of life,' as a wise man said long ago, but it is one of the truths +that, if grasped and worked into our consciousness, and out in our +lives, would do much to revolutionise them. And so, though it is a +very old story, and though we all admit it, I wish now to come face +to face with the consequences of this thought, that behind action +lies character, and that Doing is the second step, and Being is the +first. + +I. I would ask you to notice how here we are confronted with the +great problem for every man. + +'Make the tree good.' It takes a good man to do good things. So how +shallow is all that talk, 'do, do, do,' this, that, and the other +thing. All right, but _be_; that is the first thing; or, as +Christ said, 'Make the tree good, and the fruit' will take care of +itself. So do you not see how, if that is true about us, we are each +brought full front up to this, 'Am I trying to make my tree good? +And what kind of success am I having in the attempt?' The water that +rises from some spring will bring up with it, in solution, a trace +of a bed of salt through which it has come, and of all the minerals +in the soil through which it has passed. And as its sparkling waters +come out into the light, if one could analyse them completely, one +might register a geological section of the strata through which it +has risen. So, our acts bear in them a revelation of all the hidden +beds through which they have risen; and sometimes they are bitter +and salt, but they are always true to the self whose apocalypse they +are to the world, or at all events to God. + +Therefore, brethren, I have to urge this, that we shall not be doing +our true work as men and women, if we are simply trying to better our +actions, important as these are. By this saying the centre of gravity +is shifted, and in one aspect, the deeds are made less important. The +condition of the hidden man of the heart is the all-important thing. +Christ's word comes to each of us as the briefest statement of all +that it is our highest duty and truest wisdom to aim at in life--'Make +the tree good.' + +If you have ever tried it honestly, and have not been contented with +the superficial cleaning up of outsides, which consists in shifting +the dirt into another place only, not in getting rid of it, I know +what met you almost as soon as you began, like some great black rock +that rises in a mountain-pass, and forbids all farther advance--the +consciousness that you were _not_ good met you. I am not going +to talk theological technicalities. Never mind about phrases--they +have been the ruin of a great deal of earnest preaching--call it what +you like, here is a fact, that whenever a man sets himself, with +anything like resolute determination and rigid self-examination, to +the task of getting himself right, he finds that he is wrong. That +being the case, each of us has to deal with a tremendous problem; and +the more earnestly and honestly we try to deal with it, the more we +shall feel how grave it is. You can cure a great deal, I know. God +forbid that I should say one word that seems to deny a man's power to +do much in the direction of self-improvement, but after all that is +done, again you are brought short up on this fact, the testimony of +conscience. And so I see men labouring at a task as vain as that of +those who would twist the sands into ropes, according to the old +fable. I see men seeking after higher perfection of purity than they +will ever attain. That is the condition of us all, of course, for our +ideal must always outrun our realisation, else we may as well lie down +and die. But there is a difference between the imperfect approximation, +which we feel to be imperfect, and yet feel to be approximation, and +the despairing consciousness, that I am sure a great many of my +audience have had, more or less, that I have a task set for me that is +far beyond my strength. 'Talk about making the tree good! I cannot do +it.' So men fold their hands, and the foiled endeavour begets despair. +Or, as is the case with some of you, it begets indifference, and you +do not care to try any more, because you have tried so often, and have +made nothing of it. + +There is the problem, how 'make the tree good,' the tree being bad, +or, at all events, if you do not like that broad statement, the tree +having an element of badness, if I may so say, in and amongst any +goodness that it has. I do not care which of the two forms of +statement you take, the fact remains the same. + +II. Note the universal failure to solve the problem. + +'Make the tree good.' + +Yes. And there are a whole set of would-be arboriculturists who tell +you they will do it if you will trust to them. Let us look at them. +First comes one venerable personage. He says, 'I am Law, and I +prescribe this, and I forbid that, and I show reward and punishment, +and I tell you--be a good man.' Well! what then? It is not for want of +telling that men are bad. The worst man in the world knows his duty a +great deal more than the best man in the world does it. And whether it +is the law of the land, or whether it is the law of society, or the +law written in Scripture, or the law written in a man's own heart, +they all come under the same fatal disability. They tell us what to +do, and they do not put out a finger to help us to do it. A lame man +does not get to the city because he sees a guide-post at the turning +which tells him which road to take. The people who do not believe in +certain modern agitations about the restrictions of the liquor traffic +say, 'You cannot make people sober by Act of Parliament,' which is +absolutely true, although it does not bear, I think, the inference that +they would draw from it, and it just puts into a rough form the fatal +weakness of this would-be gardener and improver of the nature of the +trees. He tells us our duty, and there an end. + +Do you remember how the Apostle put the weakness of law in words, +the antique theological terminology of which should not prevent us +from seeing the large truth in them? 'If there had been a law given +which could have given life, then righteousness should have been by +the law,' which being translated into modern English is just this, +If Law could impart a power to obey its behests, then it is all that +we want to make us right. But until it can do that it fails in two +points. It deals with conduct, and we need to have character dealt +with; and it does not lift the burden that it lays on me with one of +its fingers. So we may rule Law out of court. + +And then comes another, and he says, 'I am Culture, and intellectual +acquirement; or my name is Education, and I am going to make the +tree good in the most scientific fashion, because what makes men bad +is that they do not know, and if they only knew they would do the +right.' Now, I thoroughly believe that education diminishes crime. I +believe it weans from certain forms of evil. I believe that, other +things being equal, an educated man, with his larger interests and +his cultivated tastes, has a certain fastidiousness developed which +keeps him from being so much tempted by the grosser forms of +transgression. I believe that very largely you will empty your gaols +in proportion as you fill your schools. And let no man say that I am +an obscurantist, or that I am indifferent to the value of education +and the benefits of intellectual culture, when I declare that all +these may be attained, and the nature of the tree remain exactly +what it was. You may prune, you may train along the wall, you may +get bigger fruit, you will not get better fruit. Did you ever hear +the exaggerated line that describes one of the pundits of science as +'the greatest, wisest, meanest of mankind'? The plain fact is that +the cultivation of the understanding has little to do with the +purifying of the depths of the heart. + +And then comes another, and says, 'I am the genius of Beauty and Art. +And my recipe is pictures and statues, and all that will refine the +mind, and lift the taste.' That is the popular gospel of this day, in +a great many quarters. Yes, and have we never heard of a period in +European history which was, as they call it, 'the Renaissance' of art +and the death of morality? Do we not know that side by side there have +been cultivated in all ages, and are being cultivated to-day, the most +exclusive devotion to the beauty that can be expressed by art, and the +most intense indifference to the beauty of holiness? Ah! brethren, it +wants something far deeper-going than pictures to purge the souls of +men. And whilst, as before, I thankfully acknowledge the refining +influence of this new cult, I would protest against the absurdity of +putting it upon a pedestal as the guide and elevator of corrupted +humanity. + +And then come others, and they say, 'Environment is the thing that +is to blame for it all. How can you get decent lives in the slums?' +No, I know you cannot; and God bless every effort made to get the +people out of the slums, I say. Only do not let us exaggerate. You +cannot change a man, as deeply as we need to be changed, by any +change of his circumstances. 'Take the bitter tree,' as I remember +an old Jewish saying has it, 'take the bitter tree and plant it in +Eden, and water it with the rivers there; and let the angel Gabriel +be the gardener, and the tree will still bear bitter fruit.' Are all +the people who live in good houses good? Will a 'living wage'--eight +shillings a day and eight hours' play--will these change a man's +character? Will these go deep enough down to touch the springs of +evil? You cannot alter the nature of a set of objects by arranging +them in different shapes, parallelograms, or squares, or circles, or +any others. As long as you have the elements that are in human +nature to deal with, you may do as you like about the distribution +of wealth, and the relation of Capital to Labour, and the various +cognate questions which are all included in the vague word Socialism; +and human nature will be too strong for you, and you will have the +old mischiefs cropping out again. Brethren, you cannot put out +Vesuvius by bringing to bear on it the squirts of all the fire +engines in creation. The water will go up in steam, and do little or +nothing to extinguish the fire. And whilst I would thankfully help +in all these other movements, and look for certain limited results +of good from them, I, for my part, believe, and therefore I am bound +to declare, that neither singly, nor all of them in combination, +will they ever effect the change on human nature which Jesus Christ +regarded as the only possible means for securing that human nature +should bear good fruit. + +For, if there were no other reason, there are two plain ones which I +only touch. God is the source of all good, of all creatural purity +as well as all creatural blessedness. And if a life has a blank wall +turned to Him, and has cut itself off from Him, I do not care how +you educate it, fill it full of science, plunge it into an +atmosphere of art, make the most perfect arrangements for social and +economical and political circumstances, that soul is cut off from +the possibility of good, because it is cut off from the fontal +source of all good. And there is another reason which is closely +connected with this, and that is that the true bitter tang in us all +is self-centring regard. That is the mother-tincture that, variously +coloured and compounded, makes in all the poisonous element that we +call sin, and until you get something that will cast that evil out +of a man's heart, you may teach and refine and raise him and arrange +things for him as you like, and you will not master the source of +all wrong and corrupt fruit. + +III. Lastly, let me say a word about the triumphant solution. + +Law says, 'Make the tree good,' and does not try to do it. Christ +said, 'Make the tree good,' and proceeds to do it. And how does He +do it? + +He does it by coming to us; to every soul of man on the earth, and +offering, first, forgiveness for all the past. I do not know that +amongst all the bonds by which evil holds a poor soul that struggles +to get away from it, there is one more adamantine and unyielding +than the consciousness that the past is irrevocable, and that 'what +I have written I have written,' and never can blot out. But Jesus +Christ deals with that consciousness. It is true that 'whatsoever a +man soweth that shall he also reap,' and the Christian doctrine of +forgiveness does not contradict that solemn truth, but it assures us +that God's heart is not turned away from us, notwithstanding the +past, and that we can write the future better, and break altogether +the fatal bond that decrees, apart from Him, that 'to-morrow shall +be as this day, and much more abundant,' and that past sin shall +beget a progeny of future sins. That fruitfulness of sin is at an +end, if we take Christ for our Saviour. + +He makes the tree good in another fashion still; for the very +centre, as it seems to me, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that +into our spirits He will breathe a new life kindred with His own, a +new nature which is free from the law and bonds of past sin, and of +present and future death. The tree is made good because He makes +those who believe in Him 'new creatures in Christ Jesus.' Now, do +not turn away and say that that is mysticism. Be it mysticism or +not, it is God's truth. It is the truth of the Christian Revelation, +that faith in Jesus Christ puts a new nature into any man, however +sinful he may have been, and however deep the marks of the fetters +may have been upon his limbs. + +Christ makes the tree good in yet another fashion, because He brings to +the reinforcement of the new life which He imparts the mightiest +motives, and sways by love, which leads to the imitation of the Beloved, +which leads to obedience to the Beloved, which leads to shunning as the +worst of evils anything that would break the communion with the Beloved, +and which is in itself the decentralising of the sinful soul from its +old centre, and the making of Christ the Beloved the centre round which +it moves, and from which it draws radiance and light and motion. By all +these methods, and many more that I cannot dwell upon now, the problem +is triumphantly solved by Christianity. The tree is made good, and +'instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree.' + +You may say, 'That is all very well in theory. What about the +practice? I do not see such a mighty difference between you +Christians and us.' Well, for myself and my brethren, I accept the +rebuke. There is not such a difference as there ought to be. But do +you know why? Not because our great Gardener cannot change the +nature of the plant, but because we do not submit ourselves to His +power as we ought to do. Debit us with as many imperfections and +inconsistencies as you like, do not lay them to the charge of +Christ. + +And yet we are willing to accept the test of Christianity which lies +in its power to change men. I point to the persecutor on the road to +Damascus. I point to the Bedfordshire tinker, to him that wrote +_Pilgrim's Progress_. I point to the history of the Christian +Church all down through the ages. I point to our mission fields to-day. +I point to every mission hall, where earnest, honest men are working, +and where, if you go and ask them, they will let you see people +lifted from the very depths of degradation and sin, and made honest, +sober, respectable, hard-working, though not very intelligent or +refined, Christian people. I suppose that there is no man in an +official position like mine who cannot look back over his ministry +and remember, some of them dozens, some of them scores, some of them +hundreds, of cases in which the change was made on the most hopeless +people, by the simple acceptance of the simple gospel, 'Christ died +for me, and Christ lives in me.' I know that I can recall such, and +I am sure that my brethren can. + +People who are not Christians talk glibly about the failure of +Christianity to transform men. They have never seen the +transformations because they have never put themselves in the way of +seeing them. They are being worked to-day; they might be worked here +and now. + +Try the power of the Gospel for yourselves. You cannot make the tree +good, but you can let Jesus Christ do it. The Ethiopian cannot +change his skin, nor the leopard his spots, but Jesus can do both. +'The lion shall eat straw like the ox.' It is weary work to be +tinkering at your acts. Take the comprehensive way, and let Him +change your character. I believe that in some processes of dyeing, a +piece of cloth, prepared with a certain liquid, is plunged into a +vat full of dye-stuffs of one colour, and is taken out tinged of +another. The soul, wet with the waters of repentance, and plunged +into the 'Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness,' the crimson +fountain of the blood of Christ, emerges 'whiter than snow.' Let Him +'make the tree good and fruit will be good,' for if not we shall be +'hewn down and cast into the fire,' because we cannot bear any fruit +unto holiness, nor can the end be everlasting life. + + + + +'A GREATER THAN JONAS' + + + 'A greater than Jonas is here.'--MATT. xii. 41. + +There never was any man in his right mind, still more of influence +on his fellows, who made such claims as to himself in such +unmistakable language as Jesus Christ does. To say such things of +oneself as come from His lips is a sign of a weak, foolish nature. +It is fatal to all influence, to all beauty of character. It is not +only that He claims official attributes as a fanatical or dishonest +pretender to inspiration may do. He does that, but He does more--He +declares Himself possessed of virtues which, if a man said he had +them, it would be the best proof that he did not possess them and +did not know himself. 'I am the way and the truth and the life.' 'I +am the light of the world'--a 'greater than the temple,' a greater +than Jonah, a 'greater than Solomon,' and then withal 'I am meek and +lowly of heart.' And the world believes Him, and says, Yes! it is +true. + +These three comparisons of Jesus with Temple, Jonas, and Solomon, +carry great claims and great lessons. By the first Jesus asserts +that He is in reality all that the Temple was in shadowy symbol, and +sets Himself above ritual, sacrifices, and priests. By the second he +asserts His superiority not only to one prophet but to them all. By +the third He asserts His superiority to Solomon, whom the Jews +reverenced as the bright, consummate flower of kinghood. + +Now we may take this comparison as giving us positive thoughts about +our Lord. The points of comparison may be taken to be three, with +Jonah as one of an order, with Jonah in his personal character as a +servant of God, with Jonah as a prophet charged with a special work. + +I. The prophets and the Son. + +The whole prophetic order may fairly be taken as included here. And +over against all these august and venerable names, the teachers of +wisdom, the speakers of the oracles of God, this Nazarene peasant +stands there before Pharisees and Scribes, and asserts His superiority. +It is either the most insane arrogance of self-assertion, or it is a +sober truth. If it be true that self-consciousness is ever the disease +of the soul, and that the religious teacher who begins to think of +himself is lost, how marvellous is this assertion! + +Compare it with Paul's, 'Unto me who am less than the least of all +saints'--'I am not a whit behind the chief of the Apostles'--'though +I be nothing'--'Not I, but Christ in me.' And yet this is meekness, +for it is infinite condescension in Him to compare Himself with any +son of man. + +(_a_) The contrast is suggested between the prophets and the +theme of the prophets. + +'The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.' Though undoubtedly +the prophet order had other work than prediction to do, yet the soul +of their whole work was the announcement of the Messiah. + +In testimony whereof, Elijah, who was traditionally the chief of the +prophets, stood beside Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, and +passed away as lost in His light. + +(_b_) The contrast is suggested between the recipients of the +word of God and the Word of God. + +The relation of the prophets to their message is contrasted with His +who was the Truth, who not merely received, but was, the Word of +God. + +There is nothing in Christ's teaching to show that He was conscious +of standing in a human relation to the truths which He spoke. His +own personality is ever present in His teaching instead of being +suppressed--as in all the prophets. His own personality is His +teaching, for His revelation is by being as much as by saying. +Similarly, His miracles are done by His own power. + +(_c_) The contrast is suggested between the partial teacher of +God's Name and the complete revealer of it. + +The foundation was laid by the prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being +the chief corner stone (Hebrews i. 1). + +II. The disobedient prophet and the perfect Son. + +Jonah stands as the great example of human weakness in the chosen +instruments of God's hand. + +Take the story--his shrinking from the message given him. We know +not why; but perhaps from faint-hearted fear, or from a sense of his +unworthiness and unfitness for the task. His own words about God as +long-suffering seem to suggest another reason, that he feared to go +with a message of judgment which seemed to him so unlikely to be +executed by the long-suffering God. If so, then what made him +recreant was not so much fear from personal motives as intellectual +perplexity and imperfect comprehension of the ways of God. Then we +hear of his pitiable flight with its absurdity and its wickedness. +Then comes the prayer which shows him to have been right and true at +bottom, and teaches us that what makes a good man is not the absence +of faults, but the presence of love and longing after God. Then we +see the boldness of his mission. Then follows the reaction from that +lofty height, the petulance or whatever else it was with which he +sees the city spared. Even the mildest interpretation cannot acquit +him of much disregard for the poor souls whom he had brought to +repentance, and of dreadful carelessness for the life and happiness +of his fellows. + +Now Jonah's behaviour is but a specimen of the vacillations, the +alternations of feeling which beset every man; the loftiest, the +truest, the best. Moses, David, Solomon, Elijah, John the Baptist, +Peter, Luther, Cranmer. And it is full of instruction for us. + +Then we turn to the contrast in Christ's perfect obedience and +faithfulness in His prophetic office. In Him is no trace of +shrinking even when the grimness of the Cross weighed most on His +heart. No confusion of mind as to the Father's will, or as to the +union in Him of perfect righteousness and infinite mercy, ever +darkened His clear utterances or cast a shadow over his own soul. He +was never weakened by the collapse that follows on great effort or +strong emotion. He never failed in his mission through lack of pity. + +But there is no need to draw out the comparison. We look on all +God's instruments, and see them all full of faults and flaws. Here +is one stainless name, one life in which is no blot, one heart in +which are no envy, no failings--one obedience which never varied. He +says of Himself, 'I do always those things which please Him,' and +we, thinking of all the noblest examples of virtue that the world +has ever seen, and seeing in them all some speck, turn to this whole +and perfect chrysolite and say, Yes! 'a greater than they!' + +III. The bearer of a transitory message of repentance to one Gentile +people, and the bearer of an eternal message of grace and love to +the whole earth. + +Jonah is remarkable as having had the sphere of his activity wholly +outside Israel. + +The nature of his message; a preaching of punishment; a call to +repentance. + +The sphere of it--one Gentile city. The effect of it--transitory. We +know what Nineveh became. + +Jesus is greater than Jonah or any prophet in this respect, that His +message is to the world, and in this, that what He preaches and +brings far transcends even the loftiest and most spiritual words of +any of them. + +His voice is sweetest, tenderest, clearest and fullest of all that +have ever sounded in men's ears. And just because it is so, the +hearing of it brings the most solemn responsibility that was ever +laid on men, and to us still more gravely and truly may it be said +than to those who heard Jesus speak on earth, 'The men of Nineveh +shall rise in judgment with this generation and condemn it.' + + + + +'A GREATER THAN SOLOMON' + + + 'A greater than Solomon is here.'--MATT. xii. 42. + +It is condescension in Him to compare Himself with any; yet if any +might have been selected, it is that great name. To the Jews Solomon +is an ideal figure, who appealed so strongly to popular imagination +as to become the centre of endless legends; whose dominion was the +very apex of national glory, in recounting whose splendours the +historical books seem to be scarce able to restrain their triumph +and pride. + +I. The Man. The story gives us a richly endowed and many-sided +character. It begins with lovely, youthful enthusiasm, with a +profound sense of his own weakness, with earnest longings after +wisdom and guidance. He lived a pure and beautiful youth, and all +his earlier and middle life was adorned with various graces. There +is a certain splendid largeness about the character. He had a rich +variety of gifts: he was statesman, merchant, sage, physicist, +builder, one of the many-sided men whom the old world produced. And +on this we may build a comparison and contrast. + +The completeness of Christ's Humanity transcends all other men, even +the most various, and transcends all gathered together. Every type +of excellence is in Him. We cannot say that His character is any one +thing in special, it falls under no classification. It is a pure +white light in which all rays are blended. This all-comprehensiveness +and symmetry of character are remarkably shown in four brief records. + +But we have to take into account the dark shadows that fell on +Solomon's later years. He clearly fell away from his early +consecration and noble ideals, and let his sensuous appetites gain +power. He countenanced, if he did not himself practise, idolatry. As +a king he became an arbitrary tyrant, and his love of building led +him to oppress his subjects, and so laid the foundation for the +revolt under Jeroboam which rent the kingdom. So his history is +another illustration of the possible shipwreck of a great character. +It is one more instance of the fall of a 'son of the morning.' We +need not elaborate the contrast with Christ's character. In Him is +no falling from a high ideal, no fading of morning glory into a +cloudy noon or a lurid evening. There is no black streak in that +flawless white marble. Jesus draws the perfect circle, like Giotto's +O, while all other lives show some faltering of hand, and consequent +irregularity of outline. Greater than Solomon, with his over-clouded +glories and his character worsened by self-indulgence, is Jesus, +'the Sun of righteousness,' the perfect round of whose lustrous +light is broken by no spots on the surface, no indentations in the +circumference, nor obscured by any clouds over its face. + +II. The Teacher. + +Solomon was traditionally regarded as the author of much of the Book +of Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes was written as by him. Possibly the +attribution to him of some share in the former book may be correct, +but at any rate, his wisdom was said to have drawn the Queen of +Sheba to hear him, and that is the point of the comparison of our +text. + +If we take these two books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes into +account, as popularly attributed to him, they suggest points of +comparison and contrast with Jesus as a teacher, which we may +briefly point out. Now, Proverbs falls into two very distinct +portions, the former part being a connected fatherly admonition to +the pursuit of wisdom, and the latter a collection of prudential +maxims, in which it is rare for any two contiguous verses to have +anything to do with each other. In the former part Wisdom is set +forth as man's chief good, and the Wisdom which is so set forth is +mainly moral wisdom, the right disposition of will and heart, and +almost identical with what the Old Testament elsewhere calls +righteousness. But it is invested, as the writer proceeds, with more +and more august and queenly attributes, and at last stands forth as +being, if not a divine person, at least a personification of a +divine attribute. + +Bring that ancient teaching and set it side by side with Jesus, and +what can we say but that He is what the old writer, be he Solomon or +another, dimly saw? He is the 'wisdom' which was traditionally +called the 'wisdom of Solomon,' and which the Queen came from far to +hear. Jesus is greater, as the light is more than the eye, or as the +theme is more than the speaker. 'The power of God and the wisdom of +God' is greater than the sage or seer who celebrates it. What is +true of Solomon or whoever wrote that praise of Wisdom, is true of +all teachers and wise men, they are 'not that light,' they are 'sent +to bear witness of that light.' Jesus is Wisdom, other men are wise. +Jesus is the greatest teacher, for He teaches us Himself. He is +lesson as well as teacher. Unless He was a great deal more than +Teacher, He could not be the perfect Teacher for whom the world +groans. + +The second half of Proverbs is, as I have said, mostly a collection +of prudential and moral maxims, with very little reference to God or +high ideals of duty in them. They may represent to us the impotence +of wise saws to get themselves practised. A guide-post is not a +guide. It stretches out its gaunt wooden arms towards the city, but +it cannot bend them to help a lame man lying at its foot. Men do not +go wrong for lack of knowing the road, nearly so often as for lack +of inclination to walk in it. We have abundant voices to tell us +what we ought to do. But what we want is the swaying of inclination +to do it, and the gift of power to do it. And it is precisely +because Jesus gives us both these that He is what no collection of +the wisest sayings can ever be, the efficient teacher of all +righteousness, and of the true wisdom which is 'the principal +thing.' + +As for Ecclesiastes, though not his, it represents not untruly the +tone which we may suppose to have characterised his later days in +its dwelling on the vanity of life. The sadness of it may be +contrasted with the light thrown by the Gospel on the darkest +problems. Solomon cries, 'All is vanity'--Jesus teaches His scholars +to sing, 'All things work together for good.' + +III. The Temple builder. + +In this respect 'a greater than Solomon is here,' inasmuch as Jesus +is Himself the true Temple, being for all men, which Solomon's +structure only shadowed, the meeting-place of God and man, in whom +God dwells and through whom we can draw near to Him, the place where +the true Sacrifice is once for all offered, by which Sacrifice sin +is truly put away. And, further, Jesus is greater than Solomon in +that He is, through the ages, building up the great Temple of His +Church of redeemed men, the eternal temple of which not one stone +shall ever be taken down. + +IV. The peaceful King. + +There were no wars in Solomon's reign. But a dark shadow brooded +over it in its later years, which were darkened by oppression, +luxury, and incipient revolt. + +Contrast with that merely external and sadly imperfect peacefulness, +the deep, inward peace of spirit which Jesus breathes into every man +who trusts and obeys Him, and with the peace among men which the +acceptance of His rule brings, and will one day bring perfectly, to +a regenerated humanity dwelling on a renewed earth. He is King of +righteousness, and after that also King of peace. + +Surely from all these contrasts it is plain that 'a greater than +Solomon is here.' + + + + +FOUR SOWINGS AND ONE RIPENING + + + 'The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by + the sea side. 2. And great multitudes were gathered + together unto Him, so that He went into a ship, and + sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. 8. And + He spake many things unto them in parables, saying, + Behold, a sower went forth to sow; 4. And when he + sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls + came and devoured them up: 6. Some fell upon stony + places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith + they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: + 6. And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and + because they had no root, they withered away. 7. And + some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and + choked them: 8. But other fell into good ground, and + brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some + sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. 9. Who hath ears to hear, + let him hear.'--MATT. xiii. 1-9. + +The seven parables of the kingdom, in this chapter, are not to be +regarded as grouped together by Matthew. They were spoken +consecutively, as is obvious from the notes of time in verses 36 and +53. They are a great whole, setting forth the 'mystery of the +kingdom' in its method of establishment, its corruption, its outward +and inward growth, the conditions of entrance into it, and its final +purification. The sacred number seven, impressed upon them, is the +token of completeness. They fall into two parts: four of them being +spoken to the multitudes from the boat, and presenting the more +obvious aspects of the development of the kingdom; three being +addressed to the disciples in the house, and setting forth truths +about it more fitted for them. + +The first parable, which concerns us now, has been generally called +the Parable of the Sower, but he is not the prominent figure. The +subject is much rather the soils; and the intention is, not so much +to declare anything about him, as to explain to the people, who +were looking for the kingdom to be set up by outward means, +irrespective of men's dispositions, that the way of establishing it +was by teaching which needed receptive spirits. The parable is both +history and prophecy. It tells Christ's own experience, and it +foretells His servants'. He is the great Sower, who has 'come forth' +from the Father. His present errand is not to burn up thorns or to +punish the husbandmen, but to scatter on all hearts the living seed, +which is here interpreted, in accordance with the dominant idea of +this Gospel, as being 'the word of the kingdom' (ver. 19). All who +follow Him, and make His truth known, are sowers in their turn, and +have to look for the same issue of their work. The figure is common +to all languages. Truth, whether intellectual, moral, or spiritual, +is seminal, and, deposited in the heart, understanding, or +conscience, grows. It has a mysterious vitality, and its issue is +not a manufacture, but a fruit. If all teachers, especially +religious teachers, would remember that, perhaps there would be +fewer failures, and a good deal of their work would be modified. We +have here four sowings and one ripening--a sad proportion! We are +not told that the quantity of seed was in each case the same. Rather +we may suppose that much less fell on the wayside, and on the rocky +soil, and among the thorns, than on the good ground. So we cannot +say that seventy-five per cent, of it was wasted; but, in any case, +the proportion of failure is tragically large. This Sower was under +no illusion as to the result of His work. + +It is folly to sow on the hard footpath, or the rocky ground, or +among thorns; but Christ and His servants have to do that, in +endless hope that these unreceptive hearts may become good soil. One +lesson of the parable is, Scatter the seed everywhere, on the most +unlikely places. + +I. Our Lord begins with the case in which the seed remains quite +outside the soil, or, without metaphor, in which the word finds +absolutely no entrance into the heart or mind. A beaten path runs by +the end, or perhaps through the middle, of the cornfield. It is of +exactly the same soil as the rest, but many passengers have trodden +it hard, and the very foot of the sower, as he comes and goes in his +work, has helped. Some of the seed, sown broadcast, of course falls +there, and lies where it falls, having no power to penetrate the +hard surface. As in our own English cornfields, a flock of bold, +hungry birds watch the sower; and, as soon as his back is turned, +they are down with a swift-winged swoop, and away goes the exposed +grain. So there is an end of it; and the path is as bare as ever, +five minutes after it has been strewed with seeds. + +The explanation is too plain to be mistaken, but we may briefly +touch its main features. Notice, then, that our Lord begins with the +case in which there is least contact between His word and the soul, +and that, as the contact is least in degree, so it is shortest in +duration. A minute or two finishes it. Notice especially that the +path has been made hard by external pressure. It is not rock, but +soil like the other parts of the field. It represents the case of +men whose insensibility to the word is caused by outward things +having made a thoroughfare of their natures, and trodden them into +incapacity to receive the message of Christ's love. The heavy +baggage-wagons of commerce, the light cars of pleasure, merry +dancers, and sad funeral processions, have all used that way, and +each footfall has beaten the once loose soil a little firmer. We are +made insensitive to the gospel by the effect of innocent and +necessary things, unless we take care to plough up the path along +which they travel, and to keep our spirits susceptible by a distinct +effort. How many hearers of every teacher are there, who never take +in his words at all, simply because they are so completely +preoccupied! + +Notice what becomes of the seed that lies thus bare. 'Immediately,' +says Mark, 'Satan cometh.' His agents are these light-winged +thoughts that flutter round the hearer as soon as the sermon or the +lesson is over. Talk of the weather, criticism of the congregation, +or of the sower's attitude as he flung the seed, or politics, or +business, drive away the remembrance of even the text, before many +of our hearers are out of sight of the church. Then the whirl of +traffic begins again, and the path is soon beaten a little harder. +If the seed had got ever so little way into the ground, the sharp +beaks of the thieves would not have carried it off so easily. +Impressions so slight as Christ's word makes on busy men are quickly +rubbed out. But if the seed sown vanishes thus swiftly, the fault is +not in it, but in ourselves. Satan may seek to snatch it away, but +we can hinder him. + +Our Lord uses a singular expression, 'This is he that was sown by +the way side,' which appears to identify the man with the seed +rather than with the soil. It has been suggested by some +commentators that this expression is to be regarded as conveying the +truth that the seed sown in the heart and growing up there becomes +the life-spring of the individual, and that therefore we may speak +of him or of it as bearing the fruit. But this explanation will not +avail for the case where there is no entrance of the word into the +heart, and so no new birth by the word. More probably we are to +regard the expression simply as a conversational shorthand form of +speech, not strictly accurate, but quite intelligible. + +II. The next variety of soil differs from the preceding in having its +hindrance deep seated. Many a hillside in Galilee--as in Scotland or +New England--would show a thin surface of soil over rock, like skin +stretched tightly on a bone. No roots could get through the rock nor +find nourishment in it; while the very shallowness of earth and the +heat of the underlying stone would accelerate growth. Such premature +and feeble shoots perish as quickly as they spring up; the fierce +Eastern sun makes a speedy end of them, and a few days sees their +springing and withering. It is a case of 'lightly come, lightly go.' +Quick-sprouting herbs are soon-dying herbs. A shallow pond is up in +waves under a breeze which raises no sea on the Atlantic, and it is +calm again in a few minutes. Readily stirred emotion is transient. +Brushwood catches fire easily, and burns itself out quickly. Coal +takes longer to kindle, and is harder to put out. + +The persons meant are those of excitable temperament, whose feelings lie +on the surface, and can be got at without first passing through the +understanding or the conscience. Such people are easily played on by +the epidemic influence of any prevalent enthusiasm or emotion, as every +revival of religion shows. Their very 'joy' in hearing the word is +suspicious; for a true reception of it seldom begins with joy, but +rather with 'the sorrow which worketh repentance not to be repented of.' +Their immediate reception of it is suspicious, for it suggests that +there has been no time to consult the understanding or to form a +deliberate purpose; stable resolutions are slowly formed. It is the +sunny side of religion which, has attracted them. They know nothing of +its difficulties and depths. Hence, as soon as they find out the +realities of the course which they have embraced so lightly, they +desert, like John Mark running away as soon as home comforts at Cyprus +were left behind. The Christian life means self-denial, toil, hard +resistance to many fascinations. It means sweat and blood, or it means +nothing. Whether there be 'persecution' or no, there will be affliction, +'because of the word,' and all the joyful emotion will ooze out at the +man's finger-ends. The same superficial excitability which determined +his swift reception of the word will determine his hasty casting of it +aside, and immediately he stumbles. All his acts will be done in a +hurry, and none of his moods will last. Feeling is in its place down +in the engine-room, but it makes a poor pilot. Very significant is +that phrase, 'No root in himself.' His roots are in the accidents of +the moment. His religion has never really struck root in him, but only +in the superficial layer of him. His conscience, will, understanding, +are unpenetrated by its fibres. So it is easily pulled up, as well as +soon withered. + +There is another profound truth in this picture. The hard, +impenetrable rock lies right under the thin skin of soil. The nature +which is over-emotional on its surface is utterly hard at its core. +The most heartless people are those whose feelings are always ready +to gush; the most unimpressible are those who are most easily +brought to a certain degree of emotion by the sound of the word. +This class is an advance on the former, in that there has been a +real contact with the word, which has lain longer in their hearts, +and has had some growth. We may regard it as either better or worse +than the former, according as we consider that it is better to +accept and feel than not to accept at all, or that it is worse to +have in some measure possessed and felt than not to have received +the word of the kingdom. + +III. In one part of the field was a patch where the soil was neither +rammed solid, as on the footpath, nor thin, as where the rock +cropped out, but where there had been a tangle of thorns, which grow +luxuriantly in Palestine. These had been cut down, but not stubbed +up, as is plain from the very fact that the seed reached the ground, +as also from the description of them as 'springing up.' The two +growths advance together. In this case, the seed has a longer life +than in the former. It roots and grows, and even, according to the +other evangelist's version, fruits, though it does not mature its +fruit. There is no question of 'falling away' here. Only the +hardier growth, which had the advantage of previous possession, and +which pushes up its shoots above ground all round the more tender +plant, gets the start of it, and smothers its green blades, +overtopping it, and keeping it from sun and air, as well as drawing +to itself the nourishment from the soil. The main point here is +simultaneousness of the two growths. This man is, as James calls +him, a 'double-minded man.' He is trying to grow both corn and thorn +on the same soil. He has some religion, but not enough to make +thorough work of it. He is endeavouring to ride on two horses at +once. Religion says 'either--or'; he is trying 'both--and.' The +human heart has only a limited amount of love and trust to give, and +Christ must have it all. It has enough for one--that is, for Him; +but not enough for two,--that is, for Him and the world. This man's +religion has not been powerful enough to grub up the roots of the +thorns. They were cut down when the seed was sown, for a little +while, at the beginning of his course; the new life in him seemed to +conquer, but the roots of the old lay hid, and, in due time, showed +again above ground. 'Ill weeds grow apace'; and these, as is their +nature, grow faster than the good seed. So the only thing to do is +to get them out of the ground to the last fibre. + +Christ specifies what He deems thorns. We can all understand care +being so called; but riches? Yes, they too have sharp prickles, as +anybody will find who stuffs a pillow with them. But our Lord +chooses His words to point the lesson that not outward things, but +our attitude to them, make the barrenness of this soil. It is not +'this world,' but 'the care of this world,' not 'riches,' but 'the +deceitfulness of riches,' that choke the word. These two seem +opposites, but they are really the same thing on two opposite sides. +The man who is burdened with the cares of poverty, and the man who +is deceived by the false promises of wealth, are really the same +man. The one is the other turned inside out. We make the world our +god, whether we worship it by saying, 'I am desolate without thee,' +or by fancying that we are secure with it. Note that the issue in +this case is--unfruitfulness. The man may, and I suppose usually +does, keep up a profession of Christianity all his life. He very +likely does not know that the seed is choked, and that he has become +unfruitful. But he is a stunted, useless Christian, with all the sap +and nourishment of his soul given to his worldly position, and his +religion is a poor pining growth, with blanched leaves and abortive +fruit. How much of Christ's field is filled with plants of that +sort! + +IV. The parable tells us nothing about the comparative acreage of +the path and the rocky and thorny soils on the one hand, and of the +fertile soil on the other. It is not meant to teach the proportion +of success to failure, but to exhibit the fact that the reception of +the word depends on men's dispositions. The good soil has none of +the faults of the rest of the field. It is loose, and thus unlike +the path; deep, and thus unlike the rocky bit; clean, and thus +unlike the thorn brake. The interpretation given of it by our Lord +seems at first sight incomplete. It is all summed up in one word, +'understandeth.' Then, did not the second and third classes, at all +events, understand? They received the word, and it had some growth +in them. The distinction between them and the good-soil hearer is +surely of a moral nature, rather than of so purely intellectual a +kind as 'understanding' suggests. Hence, Luke's keep fast 'in an +honest and good heart' may seem a more adequate statement. But +Biblical usage does not regard 'understanding' as a purely +intellectual process, but rather as the action of the whole moral +and spiritual nature. It knows nothing of dividing a man up into +water-tight compartments, one of which may be full of evil, and the +other clean and receptive of good. According to it, we 'understand' +religious truth by our hearts and moral nature in conjunction with +the dry light of intellect. So the word here is used in a pregnant +sense, and includes the grasp of the truth with the whole being, the +complete reception of the word of the kingdom not merely into the +intellect, but into the central self which is the undivided fountain +from which flow the issues of life, whether these be called +intellect, or affection, or conscience, or will. Only he who has +thus become one with the word, and housed it deep in his inmost +soul, 'understands' it, in the sense in which our Lord here uses +that expression. 'Thy word have I hid in mine heart' exactly +corresponds to the 'understanding' which is here given as the +distinctive mark of the good soil. + +The result of that reception into the depths of the spirit is that +he 'verily beareth fruit.' The man who receives the word is +identified with the plant that springs from the seed which he +receives. The life of a Christian is the result of the growth in him +of a supernatural seed. He bears fruit, yet the fruit comes not from +him, but from the seed sown. 'I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth +in me.' Fruitfulness is the aim of the sower, and the test of the +reception of the seed. If there is not fruit, manifestly there has +been no real understanding of the word. A touchstone, that, which +will produce surprising results in detecting spurious Christianity, +if it be honestly applied! + +There is variety in the degree of fruitfulness, according to the +goodness of the soil; that is to say, according to the thoroughness +and depth of the reception of the word. The great Husbandman does +not demand uniform fertility. He is glad when He gets an +hundredfold, but He accepts sixty, and does not refuse thirty, only +He arranges them in descending order, as if He would fain have the +highest rate from all the plants, and, not without disappointment, +gradually stretches His merciful allowance to take in even the +lowest. He will accept the scantiest fruitage, and will lovingly +'purge' the branch 'that it may bring forth more fruit.' + +No parable teaches everything. Paths, rocks, and thorns cannot +change. But men can plough up the trodden ways, and blast away the +rock, and root out the thorns, and, with God's help, can open the +door of their hearts, that the Sower and His seed may enter in. We +are responsible for the nature of the soil, else His warning were +vain, 'Take heed, therefore, how ye hear.' + + + + +EARS AND NO EARS + + + 'Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.--MATT. xiii. 8. + +This saying was frequently on our Lord's lips, and that in very +various connections. He sometimes, as in the instance before us, +appended it to teaching which, from its parabolic form, required +attention to disentangle the spiritual truth implied. He sometimes +used it to commend some strange, new revolutionary teaching to men's +investigation--as, for instance, after that great declaration of the +nullity of ceremonial worship, how that nothing could defile a man +except what came from his heart. In other connections, which I need +not now enumerate, we find it. Like printing a sentence in italics, +or underscoring it, this saying calls special attention to the thing +uttered. It is interesting to notice that our Lord, like the rest of +us, had to use such means of riveting and sharpening the attention +of His hearers. There is also a striking reappearance of the +expression in the last book of Scripture. The Christ who speaks to +the seven churches, from the heavens, repeats His old word spoken on +earth, and at the end of each of the letters says once more, as if +even the Voice that spoke from heaven might be listened to +listlessly, 'He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith +to the churches.' + +I. We all have ears. + +Now, it is a very singular instance of the superficial, indolent way +in which people are led away by sound rather than by sense, that +this saying of my text has often been taken to mean that there is a +certain class that can listen, and that it is their business to +listen, and there is another class that cannot, and so they are +absorbed from all responsibility. The opposite conclusion is the +correct one. Everybody has ears, therefore everybody is bound to +hear. Which being translated, is that there is not a man or woman +among us that has not the capacity of hearing in the sense of +understanding, and of hearing in the sense of obeying the word that +Jesus Christ speaks to us all. Every one of us, whatever may be our +diversities of education, temperament, natural capacity in regard to +other subjects of study and apprehension, has the ears that are +capable of receiving the message that comes to us all in Jesus +Christ. + +For what is it that He addresses? Universal human nature, the +universal human wants, and mainly and primarily, as I believe, the +sense of sin which lies dormant indeed, but capable of being +awakened, in all men, because the fact of sin attaches to all men. +There is no man but has the needs to which Christ addresses Himself, +and no man but has the power of apprehending, of accepting, and of +living by, the great Incarnate Word and His message to the world. So +that instead of there being a restriction implied in the words +before us, there is the broadest implication of the universality of +Christ's message. And just as every man comes into the world with a +pair of ears on his head, so every man comes into the world with the +capacity of listening to, and accepting, that gracious Lord. That is +the first thing that our Master distinctly declares here, that we +all have ears. + +II. If we have ears we are bound to use them. + +'Let him hear.' In all regions, as I need not remind you, capacity +and responsibility go together; and the power that we possess is the +measure of the obligation under which we come. All our natural +faculties, for instance, are given to us with the implied command, +'See that you make the best use of them.' So that even these bodily +organs of ours, much more the higher faculties and capacities of the +spirit of which the body is partly the symbol and partly the +instrument, are intrusted to us on terms of stewardship. And just as +it is criminal for a man to go through life with a pair of ears on +his head, and a pair of eyes in his forehead, neither of which he +educates and cultivates, so is it criminal for a man having the +capacity of grasping the great Revelation of God, who 'at sundry +times and in divers manners hath spoken unto the Fathers by the +prophets, but in these last days hath spoken unto us by the Son,' to +turn away from that Voice, and pay no heed to it. + +It is universally true that obligation goes with capacity. It is +especially true with regard to our relation to Jesus Christ. We are +all bound to 'hear Him,' as the great Voice said on the Mount of +Transfiguration. The upshot of all that manifestation of the divine +glory welling up from the depths of Christ's nature, and +transfiguring His countenance, the upshot of all that solemn and +mysterious communion with the mighty dead, Moses and Elias, the end +of all that encompassing glory that wrapped Him, was the Voice from +Heaven which proclaimed, 'This is My beloved Son; hear ye Him.' +Moses with his Law, Elijah with his Prophecy, faded away and were +lost. But there stood forth singly the one Figure, relieved against +the background of the glory-cloud, the Christ to whom we are all +bound to turn with the vision of longing eyes, with the listening of +docile ears, with the aspiration of yearning affection, with the +submission of absolute obedience. + +'Hear ye Him.' For just as truly as light is meant for the eye, so +truly are the words of the Incarnate Word, and the life which is +speech and revelation, meant to be the supreme objects of our +attention, of our contemplative regard, and of our practical +submission. We are bound to hear because we have ears; and of all +the voices that are candidates for our attention, and of all the +music that sounds through the universe, no voice is so sweet and +weighty, no words so fundamental and all-powerful, no music so +melodious, so deep and thunderous, so thrilling and gracious, as are +the words of that Word who was made flesh and dwelt among us. We are +bound to hear, and we hear to most profit when it is Him that we +hear. + +III. We shall not hear without an effort. + +Christ says in my text, 'Let him hear,' as if the possession of the +ear did not necessarily involve that there should be hearing. And so +it is; 'Having ears, they hear not,' is a description verified in a +great many other walks of life than in regard to religious matters. +But it is verified there in the most conspicuous and in the most +tragic fashion. I wonder how many of us there are who, though we +have heard with the hearing of the outward ear, have not heard in +the sense of attending, have scarcely heard in the sense of +apprehending, and have not heard at all in the sense of obeying? +Friend, what is it that keeps you from hearing, if you do not hear? +Let me run over two or three of the things that thus are like wax in +a man's ears, making him deaf to the message of life in Jesus +Christ, in order to bring out how needful it is that these should be +counteracted by an effort of will, and the vigorous concentration of +thought and heart upon that message. + +What is it that keeps men from hearing? Being busy with other things +is one hindrance. There is an old story of St. Bernard riding along +by a lake on his way to a Council, and being so occupied with +thoughts and discussions, that after the day's travel he lifted up +his eyes and said, 'Where is the lake?' And so we, many of us, go +along all our days on the banks of the great sea of divine love, and +we are so busy thinking about other things, or doing other things, +that at the end of the journey we do not know that we have been +travelling by the side of the flashing waters all the day long. +Everybody knows how possible it is to be so engrossed with one's +occupations or thoughts as that when the clock strikes in the next +steeple, we hear it and do not hear it. We have read of soldiers +being so completely absorbed in the fury of the fight that a +thunderstorm has rattled over their heads, and no man heard the +roll, and no man saw the flash. Many of us are so swallowed up in +our trade, in our profession, in our special branch of study, in our +occupations and desires, that all the trumpets of Sinai might be +blown into our ears, and we should hear them as though we heard them +not; and what is worse, that the pleading voice of that great Lord +who is ever saying to each of us, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour, +and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,' passes us by, and +produces no effect, any more than does the idle wind whistling +through an archway. Brethren, you have the need, the sin, the +weakness, the transiency, to which the Gospel appeals. You have the +faculties to which it addresses itself. Jesus Christ is speaking to +every one of us. I beseech you to ask yourselves, 'Do I hear Him?' +If not, is it not because the clatter of the world's business, or +the more refined sounds of some profession or study, have so taken +up your attention that you have none to spare for that which +requires and repays it most? + +Then there is another thing that makes attention, and concentration, +and a dead lift of resolution necessary, if you are rightly to hear, +and that is the very fact that, superficially, you have heard all +your days. You do not know the despair that sometimes comes over men in +my position when we face our congregations of people that are familiar +to weariness with everything that we have to say, and because they are +superficially so familiar with it, fancy that there is no need for +them to give heed any more. What can a poor man like me do to get +through that crust of familiarity with the mere surface of Christian +truth and teaching which is round many of you? You come and listen to +me, and say, 'Oh! he has nothing original to say. We have heard it all +before.' Yes, your ears have heard it. Have _you_ heard? 'Jesus Christ +died for me,' you have been told that ever since you were a little +child; and so the thousand-and-first, the million-and-first, repetition +of it has little power over you. If once, just once, that truth could +get through the crust of familiarity, and touch your heart, your bare +heart, with its quick naked point of fire-shod love, I think there +might be a wound made that would mean healing. But some of you will +go away presently, just as you have gone away a thousand times before, +and my words will rebound from you like an india-rubber ball from a +wall, or run off you like water from the sea-bird's plumes, just +because you think you have heard it all before--and you have never +heard it all your days. 'He that hath ears to hear, let him _hear_.' + +Then there is another hindrance. A man may put his fingers in his +ears. And some of you, I am afraid, are not ignorant of what it is +to have made distinct and conscious efforts to get rid of the +impressions of religion, and of Christ's voice to us. + +And then there are some of us who, out of sheer listlessness, do not +hear. It is not because we are too busy. It is not because we have +any intellectual objection to the message. It is not because we have +made any definite effort to get away from it. It is not even because +we have been so accustomed to hear it, that it is impossible to make +an impression on our listless indifference. Go down into Morecambe +Bay when the tide is making; and, as the water is beginning to +percolate through the sand, try to make an impression with a stick +upon the tremulous jelly. As soon as you take out the point the +impression is lost. And there are many of us like that, who, out of +sheer stolid listlessness, retain no fragment of the truth that is +sounding in our ears. Dear friends, 'If the word spoken by angels +was steadfast, how shall we escape if we'--what? Reject? Deny? Fight +against? Angrily repel? No;--'if we _neglect_ so great salvation?' That +is the question for you negligent people, for you people who think you +know all about it and there an end, for you people who are so busy +with your daily lives that, amidst the hubbub of earth, heaven's silent +voice is inaudible to your ears. Neglect stops the ears and ruins the +man. But you will not hear, though you have ears, unless you make an +effort of will and concentration of attention. + +IV. And now the last thing that I have to say is:--If we do not +hear, we shall become deaf. + +That is what Christ said in the context. The sentence which I have +taken as my text was spoken at the close of the Parable of the +Sower; and when His disciples came and asked Him why He spake in +parables, His answer was in effect that the people to whom He spoke +had not profited by what they had heard, 'hearing, they heard not,' +and therefore He spoke in parables which veiled as well as revealed +the truth. It was not given to them to know the mysteries of the +Kingdom, because they had not given heed to what had been made known +to them. The great law was taking effect which gives to him that has +and takes from him that has not; and that law applied not only to +the form of Christ's teaching, but also to the faculty of receiving +it. That diminished capacity is sometimes represented as men's own +act, and sometimes as the divinely inflicted penalty of not hearing, +but in either case the same fact is in view--namely, the loss of +susceptibility by neglect, the dying out of faculties by disuse. + +Just as in the bodily life capacities untrained and unexercised +become faint and disappear; just as the Indian _fakir_, who +holds his arm up above his head for years, never using the muscles, +has the muscles atrophied, and at last cannot bring his arm down to +his side;--so the people who neglect to use the ears that God has +given them by degrees will lose the capacity of hearing at all. +Which, being put into plain English, just comes to this: that if we +do not listen to Jesus Christ when He calls to us in His love, we +shall gradually have the capacity of hearing diminished until--I do +not know if it ever reaches that point here--until its ultimate +extinction. + +Dear friends, this word of the love and pity and pardon and +purifying power of God manifest in Jesus Christ for us all, which I +am trying to preach to you now, is not without an effect even on the +men by whom it is most superficially and perfunctorily heard. It +either softens or hardens. As the old mystics used to say, the same +heat that melts wax hardens clay into brick. The same light that +brings blessing to one eye brings pain to another. You have heard, +and hearing you have not heard; and you will cease to be able to +hear at all; and then the thunders may rattle over your heads, and +be inaudible to you; and that Voice which is as loud as the sound of +many waters, and sweet as harpers harping on their harps, and which +says to each of us, 'Come to Me, and I will be thy peace and thy +rest and thy strength,' will no more be audible in your atrophied +ears. Dear friends! I do not know, as I have said, whether that +ultimate tragic result is ever wholly reached in this world. I am +sure that it is not reached with some of you as yet. And I beseech +you to obey that voice which says, 'This is My beloved Son; hear +Him,' and to let there not be only outward hearing, but to let there +be inward acceptance, attention, apprehension, and obedience. And +then we shall be able to say, 'Blessed are our ears, for they hear; +blessed are our eyes, for they see.' 'Many prophets and righteous +men desired to hear the things that ye hear, and heard them not, +take care that, since you are thus advanced in the outward +possession of the perfect word of God, there be also the yielding +to, and reception of it. + + + + +'TO HIM THAT HATH SHALL BE GIVEN' + + + 'Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall + have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him + shall be taken away even that he hath.'-- MATT. xiii. 12. + +There are several instances in the Gospels of our Lord's repetition +of sayings which seem to have been, if we may use the expression, +favourites with Him; as, for instance, 'There are first which shall +be last, and there are last which shall be first'; or, again, 'The +servant is not greater than his master, nor the disciple than his +lord.' My text is one of these. It is here said as part of the +explanation why He chose to speak in parables, in order that the +truth, revealed to the diligent and attentive, might be hidden from +the careless. Again, we find it in two other Gospels, in a somewhat +similar connection, though with a different application, where Jesus +enunciates it as the basis of His warning, 'Take heed how'--or, in +another version, 'what'--'ye hear.' Again He employs it in this +Gospel in the parable of the talents, as explaining the principle on +which the retribution to the slothful servant was meted out. And we +find it yet once more in the parable of the pounds in Luke's Gospel, +which, though entirely different in conception and purpose from that +of the talents, is identical in the portion connected with the +slothful servant. + +So there are two very distinct directions in which this saying +looks, as it was used by our Lord--one in reference to the attitude +of men towards the Revelation of God, and one in reference to the +solemn subject of future retribution. I wish, now, mainly to try and +illustrate the great law which is set forth here, and to follow out +the various spheres of its operation, and estimate the force of its +influence. For I think that large and very needful lessons for us +all may be drawn therefrom. The principle of my text shapes all +life. It is a paradox, but it is a deep truth. It sounds harsh and +unjust, but it contains the very essence of righteous retribution. +The paradox is meant to spur attention, curiosity, and inquiry. The +key to it lies here--to use is to have. There is a possession which +is no possession. That I have rights of property in a thing, as +contradistinguished to your rights, does not make it in any deep and +real sense mine. What I use I have; and all else is, as one of the +other evangelists has it, but 'seeming' to have. + +So much, then, by way of explanation of our text. Now, let me ask +you to look with me into two or three of the regions where we shall +find illustrations of its working. + +I. Take the application of this principle to common life. + +The lowest instance is in regard to material possessions. It is a +complaint that is made against the present social arrangements and +distribution of wealth, that money makes money; that wealth has a +tendency to clot; the rich man to get richer, and the poor man to +get poorer. Just as in a basin of water when the plug is out, and +circular motion is set up, the little bits of foreign matter that +may be there all tend to get together, so it is in regard to these +external possessions. 'To him that hath shall be given'; and people +grumble about that and say, 'It never rains but it pours, and the +man that needs more money least gets it most easily.' Of course. +Treasure used grows; treasure hoarded rusts and dwindles. The +millionaire will double his fortune by a successful speculation. The +man with half a dozen large shops drives the poor little tradesman +out of the field. So it is all round: 'To him that hath shall be +given; but from him that hath not shall be taken even that he hath.' + +Next, go a step higher. Look at how this law works in regard to +powers of body. That is a threadbare old illustration. The +blacksmith's arm we have all heard about; the sailor's eye, the +pianist's wrist, the juggler's fingers, the surgeon's deft hand--all +these come by use. 'To him that hath shall be given.' And the same +man who has cultivated one set of organs to an almost miraculous +fineness or delicacy or strength will, by the operation of the other +half of the same principle, have all but atrophied another set. So +with the blacksmith's arm, which has grown muscular at the expense +of his legs. Part of the physical frame has monopolised what might +have been distributed throughout the whole. Use is strength; use +makes growth. We have what we employ. And even in regard to our +bodily frame the organs that we do not use we carry about with us +rather as a weight attached to us than as a possession. + +Again, come a little higher. This great principle largely goes to +determine our position in the world and our work. The man that can do +a thing gets it to do. In the long run the tools come to the hand that +can use them. So here is one medical man's consulting-room crammed +full of patients, and his neighbour next door has scarcely one. The +whole world runs to read A's, B's, or C's books. The briefless +barrister complains that there is no middle course between having +nothing to do and being overwhelmed with briefs. 'To him that hath +shall be given'--the man can do a thing, and he gets it to do--'and +from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath,' +That law largely settles every man's place in the world. + +Let us come still higher. The same law has much--not all, but much--to +do in making men's characters. For it operates in its most intense +fashion, and with results most blessed or most disastrous, in the +inner life. The great example that I would adduce is conscience. Use +it, obey it, listen for its voice, never thwart it, and it grows and +grows and grows, and becomes more and more sensitive, more and more +educated, more and more sovereign in its decisions. Neglect it, still +more, go in its teeth, and it dwindles and dwindles and dwindles; and +I suppose it is possible--though one would fain hope that it is a very +exceptional case--for a man, by long-continued indifference to the +voice within that says 'Thou shalt' or 'Thou shalt not,' to come at +last to never hearing it at all, or to its never speaking at all. It +is 'seared as with a hot iron,' says one of the Apostles; and in +seared flesh there is no feeling any more. Are any of you, dear +friends, bringing about such a state? Are you doing what you know you +ought not to do? Then you will be less and less troubled as the days +go on; and, by neglecting the voice, you will come at last to be like +the profligate woman in the book of Proverbs, who, after her sin, +'wipes her mouth and says, I have done no harm.' Do you think _that_ +is a desirable state--to put out the eyes of your soul, to stifle +what is the truest echo of God's voice that you will ever hear? Do +you not think that it would be wiser to get the blessed half of this +law on your side, instead of the dreadful one? Listen to that voice. +Never, as you value yourselves, neglect it. Cultivate the habit of +waiting for its monitions, its counsels prohibitory or commendatory, +and then you will have done much to secure that your spirit shall be +enriched by the operations of this wide-spread law. + +Take another illustration. People who, by circumstances, are placed +in some position of dependence and subordination, where they have +seldom to exercise the initiative of choice, but just to do what +they are bid, by degrees all but lose the power of making up their +minds about anything. And so a slave set free is proverbially a +helpless creature, like a bit of driftwood; and children who have +been too long kept in a position of pupilage and subordination, when +they are sent into the world are apt to turn out very feeble men, +for want of a good, strong backbone of will in them. So, many a +woman that has been accustomed to leave everything in her husband's +hands, when the clods fall on his coffin finds herself utterly +helpless and bewildered, just because in the long, happy years she +never found it necessary to exercise her own judgment or her own +will about practical matters. + +So do not get into the habit of letting circumstances settle what +you are to do, or you will lose the power of dominating them, before +very long. And if a man for years leaves himself, as it were, to be +guided by the stream of circumstances, like long green weeds in a +river, he will lose the power of determining his own fate, and the +Will will die clean out of him. Cultivate it, and it will grow. + +Again, this same principle largely settles our knowledge, our +convictions, the operations and the furniture of our understandings. +If a man holds any truth slackly, or in the case of truths that are +meant to influence life and conduct, does not let it influence these, +then that is a kind of having truth that is sure to end in losing it. +If you want to lose your convictions grasp them loosely--do not act +upon them, do not take them for guides of your life--and they will +soon relieve you of their unwelcome presence. If you wish mind and +knowledge to grow, grip with a grip of iron what you do know, and +let it dominate you, as it ought. He that truly _has_ his +learning will learn more and pile by slow degrees stone upon stone, +until the building is complete. + +So, dear friends, here, in these illustrations, which might have +been indefinitely enlarged, we see the working of a principle which +has much to do in making men what they are. What you use you +increase, what you leave unused you lose. There are grey heads in my +present audience who, when they were young men, had dreams and +aspirations that they bitterly smile at now. There are men here who +began life with possibilities that have never blossomed or fruited, +but have died on the stem. Why? Because they were so much occupied +with the vulpine craft of making their position and their 'pile' +that generous emotions and noble sympathies and lofty aspirations, +intellectual or otherwise, were all neglected, and so they are dead; +and the men are the poorer incalculably, because of what has thus +been shed away from them. You make your characters by the parts of +yourselves that you choose to cultivate and employ. Do you think +that God gave us whatever of an intellectual and emotional and moral +kind is in us, in order that it might be all used up in our daily +business? A very much scantier outfit would have done for all that +is wanted for that. But there are abortive and dormant organs in +your spiritual nature, as there are in the corporeal, which tell you +what you were meant for, and which it is your sin to leave +undeveloped. Brethren, the law of my text shapes us in the two ways, +that whatever we cultivate, be it noble or be it bestial, will grow, +and whatever we repress or neglect will die. Choose which of the two +halves of yourselves you will foster, and on which you will frown. + +So much, then, for the first general application of these words. Now +let me turn for a moment to another. + +II. I would note, secondly, the application of this two-fold law in +regard to God's revelation of Himself. + +That is the bearing of it in the immediate context from which our +text is taken. Our Lord explains that teaching by parable--a +transparent veil over a truth--was adopted in order that the veiled +truth might be a test as well as a revelation. And although I do not +believe that the Christian revelation has been made in any degree +less plain and obvious than it could have been made, I cannot but +recognise the fact that the necessities of the case demand that, +when God speaks to us, He should speak in such a fashion as that it +is possible to say, 'Tush! It is not God that is speaking; it is +only Eli!' and so to turn about the young Samuel's mistake the other +way. I do not believe that God has diminished the evidence of His +Revelation in order to try us; but I do maintain that the Revelation +which He has made does come to us, and must come to us, in such a +form as that, not by mathematical demonstration but by moral +affinity, we shall be led to recognise and to bow to it. He that +will be ignorant, let him be ignorant, and he that will come asking +for truth, it will flood his eyeballs with a blessed illumination. +The veil will but make more attractive to some eyes the outlines of +the fair form beneath it, whilst others are offended at it and say, +'Unless we see the truth undraped, we will not believe that it is +truth at all.' + +So, brethren, let me remind you--what is really but a repetition in +reference to another subject of what I have already said,--that in +regard to God's speech to men, and especially in regard to what I, +for my part, believe to be the complete and ultimate and perfect +speech of God to men, in Jesus Christ our Saviour, the principle of +my text holds good. + +'To him that hath shall be given.' If you will make that truth your +own by loyal faith and honest obedience, if you will grapple it to +your heart, then you will learn more and more. Whatever tiny corner +of the great whole you have grasped, hold on by that and draw it +into yourselves, and you will by degrees get the entire, glorious, +golden web to wrap round you. 'If any man wills to do His will he +shall know.' That is Christ's promise; and it will be fulfilled to +us all. 'To him that hath shall be given.' + +If, on the other hand, you 'have' Christian truth and Christ, who is +the Truth, in the fashion in which so many of us have it and Him, as +a form, as a mere intellectual possession, so that we can, when we +go to church, repeat the creed without feeling that we are telling a +lie, but that when we go to market we do not carry the Commandments +with us--if that is our Christianity, then it will dribble away into +nothing. We shall not be much the poorer for the loss of such a sham +possession, but it will go. It drops out of the hands that are not +clasped to hold it. It is just that a thing so neglected shall some +day be a thing withdrawn. So in regard to Revelation and a man's +perception and reception of it, my text holds good in both its +halves. + +III. Lastly, look at the application of these words in the future. + +That is our Lord's own application of them, twice out of the five +times in which the saying appears in the three Gospels: in the +parable of the talents and in the parallel portion of the parable of +the pounds. I do not venture into the regions of speculation about +that future, but from the words before us there come clearly enough +two aspects of it. The man with the ten talents received more; the +man that had hid the talent or the pound in the ground was deprived +of that which he had not used. + +Now, with regard to the former there is no difficulty in translating +the representations of the parables, sustained as they are by +distinct statements of other portions of Scripture. They come to +this, that, for the life beyond, indefinite progress in all that is +noble and blessed and Godlike in heart and character, in intellect +and power, are certain; that faith, hope, love, here cultivated but +putting forth few blossoms and small fruitage, there, in that higher +house where these be planted, will flourish in the courts of the +Lord, and will bear fruit abundantly; that here the few things +faithfully administered will be succeeded yonder by the many things +royally ruled over; that here one small coin, as it were, is put +into our palm--namely the present blessedness and peace and strength +and purity of a Christian life; and that yonder we possess the +inheritance of which what we have here is but the earnest. It used +to be the custom when a servant was hired for the next term-day to +give him one of the smallest coins of the realm as what was called +'arles'--wages in advance, to seal the bargain. Similarly, in buying +an estate a bit of turf was passed over to the purchaser. We get the +earnest here of the broad acres of the inheritance above. 'To him +that hath shall be given.' + +And the other side of the same principle works in some terrible ways +that we cannot speak about. 'From him that hath not shall be taken +away even that which he hath.' I have spoken of the terrible analogy +to this solemn prospect which is presented us by the imperfect +experiences of earth. And when we see in others, or discover in +ourselves, how it is possible for unused faculties to die entirely +out, I think we shall feel that there is a solemn background of very +awful truth, in the representation of what befell the unfaithful +servant. Hopes unnourished are gone; opportunities unimproved are +gone, capacities undeveloped are gone; fold after fold, as it were, +is peeled off the soul, until there is nothing left but the naked +self, pauperised and empty-handed for evermore. 'Take it from him'; +he never was the better for it; he never used it; he shall have it +no longer. + +Brethren, cultivate the highest part of yourselves, and see to it that, +by faith and obedience, you truly have the Saviour, whom you have by +the hearing of the ear and by outward profession. And then death will +come to you, as a nurse might to a child that came in from the fields +with its hands full of worthless weeds and grasses, to empty them in +order to fill them with the flowers that never fade. You can choose +whether Death--and Life too, for that matter--shall be the porter +that will open to you the door of the treasure-house of God, or the +robber that will strip you of misused opportunities and unused talents. + + + + +SEEING AND BLIND + + + 'They seeing, see not.'--MATT. xiii, 13. + +This is true about all the senses of the word 'seeing'; there is +not one man in ten thousand who sees the things before his eyes. Is +not this the distinction, for instance, of the poet or painter, and +man of science--just that they do see? How true is this about the +eye of the mind, what a small number really understand what they +know! But these illustrations are of less moment than the saddest +example--religious indifference. I wish to speak about this now, +and to ask you to consider-- + + I. The extent to which it prevails. + II. The causes from which it springs. + III. The fearful contrasts it suggests. + IV. The end to which it conducts. + +I. The extent to which it prevails. + +I have no hesitation in saying that it is the condition of by far +the largest proportion of our nation. It is the true enemy of souls. +I do not believe that any large proportion of Englishmen are actual +disbelievers, who reject Christianity as unworthy of credence, or +attach themselves to any of the innumerable varieties of deistical +and pantheistical schools. I am not saying at present whether it +would be a more or less hopeful state if it were so, but only that +it is not so, and that a complacent taking for granted of religious +truth, a torpor of soul, an entire carelessness about God and +Christ, and the whole mighty scheme of the Gospel, is the +characteristic of many in all classes of English society. We have it +here in our churches and chapels as the first foe we have to fight +with. Disbelief slays its thousands, and dissipation its tens of +thousands, but this sleek, well-to-do carelessness, its millions. As +some one says, it is as if an opium sky had rained down soporifics. + +II. The causes from which it springs. + +Of course, the great cause of this condition is man's evil heart of +alienation, the spirit of slumber--but we may find proximate and +special causes. + +There is the indifference springing from the absorbing interests of +the present. A man has only a certain quantity of interest to put +forth. If he expends it all on small things, he has none for great. +This overmastering, overshadowing present draws us all to itself, +and we have no power of attention or interest to spare for anything +else, or for reflection upon Christian truth in connection with our +own conduct. + +Then there is the indifference caused by fear of what the results of +attention might be. It is sometimes broken in upon, and men are in +danger of having their eyes opened, then with an effort they fling +themselves into some distraction, and sleep again. As the text says, +'Their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes.' + +Then there is the indifference fed by an indolent acquiescence in +the truth. That is a favourite way of breaking the force of all +unwelcome moral truth, and especially of the Gospel. A man says, 'Oh +yes, it is true,' and because it is, therefore he thinks he has done +enough when he has acknowledged it. Many do not seem to dream that +the Word has any personal application to them at all. + +Then there is the indifference which comes from long familiarity +with the truth. It is this which haunts our congregations and makes +it so impossible to get at many who know all our message already. +You can tell them nothing they do not know. As with men who live by +a forge, the sound of the blow of the hammer only lulls them to +sleep. The Gospel is so familiar to them that there is no longer any +power about it. The vulgar emotion of wonder is not excited, and the +other of love and admiration has not taken its place. + +Men who live in mountain scenery do not know its beauties, and as +with all other operations of the listless eye so with this, the old +is deemed to be uninteresting, and the common is the commonplace. As +even in the piece of earth that you have trodden on longest, you +would find marvels that you do not dream of if you would look, so +here. You have heard too much and reflected too little. Oh, +brethren, it oppresses a man who has to speak to you when he +reflects how often you have heard it all, how the flow of the river +only seems to have worn your souls smooth enough to let it glide +past without one stoppage. + +III. The contrasts it suggests. + +Contrast the indolence here with the earnestness in life. The same +men who sit with faces stolid and expressionless over a sermon--meet +them on Monday morning! They go to sleep at prayer or over a Bible, +but see them in a bargain or over a ledger. Think of what powers of +intense love, yea, of almost fearful devotion and energy, lie in us, +ay and come out of us, and then think how poor, how cold we are +here, and we may well be ashamed. It is as if a burning mountain +with its cataract of fire were suddenly quenched and locked in +everlasting frost, and all the flaming glory running down its +heaving sides turned into a slow glacier. There comes ice instead of +fire, frost instead of flame, snow instead of sparks. It is as if +some magician waved a wand and stiffened men into a paralysis. +Religion seems to numb men instead of inspiring them. It is an awful +thought of how they serve themselves and the world, how they can +love one another, how they can be stirred to noble enthusiasm, and +how little of all this ever comes to God. + +Contrast the indifference of the men and the awfulness of the things +they are indifferent about. God--Christ--their souls--heaven--hell. +The grandest things men can think about, the mightiest realities in +the universe, the eternal, the most powerful, these it is which some +of you, seeing, see not. + +Contrast men's indifference and the earnestness of the rest of the +creation. God rose early and sent His prophets. He so loved the +world that He gave His Son. Christ died, lives, works, rules, +expects, beseeches. Angels desire to look into the wonders that you +'seeing, see not'. What makes heaven fill with rapture, and flash +through all her golden glories with light, what makes hell look on +with the lurid scowl of baffled malignity, that is what _you_ +are careless about. My friend, you and other men like you are the +only beings in the universe careless about the salvation of your +souls. + +IV. The end to which it conducts. + +That end is certain ruin. Ah, dear friends, you do not need to do +much to ruin your own souls. You have only to continue indifferent +and you will do it effectually. Negligence is quite enough. Ruin is +what it will certainly end in. + +And remember that when the possibility of salvation ends, your +indifference will end too. The poor toad that is fascinated by the +serpent, and drops powerless into the cruel jaws, wakes from the +stupor when it feels the pang. And the lifelong torpor will be +dissolved for you when you pass into another world. What an awful +awaking that will be when men look back and see by the light of +eternity what they were doing here! Oh! friends, would to God that +any poor word of mine could rouse you from this drugged and opiate +sleep! Believe me, it is merciful violence which would rouse you. +Anything rather than that the poison should work on till the heavy +slumber darkens into death. Let me implore you, as you value your +own souls, as you would not fling away your most precious jewel to +'awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ +shall give thee light.' Beware of the treacherous indifference which +creeps on, till, like men in the Arctic regions, the sleepers die. + + + + +MINGLED IN GROWTH, SEPARATED IN MATURITY + + + 'Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The + kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed + good seed in his field: 25. But while men slept, his + enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went + his way. 26. But when the blade was sprung up, and + brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. + 27. So the servants of the householder came and said + unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy + field? from whence then hath it tares? 28. He said + unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said + unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? + 29. But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the + tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 80. Let + both grow together until the harvest: and in the time + of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye + together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to + burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.' + --MATT. xiii. 24-30. + +The first four parables contained in this chapter were spoken to a +miscellaneous crowd on the beach, the last three to the disciples in +the house. The difference of audience is accompanied with a diversity +of subject. The former group deals with the growth of the kingdom, as +it might be observed by outsiders, and especially with aspects of the +growth on which the multitude needed instruction; the latter, with +topics more suited to the inner circle of followers. Of these four, +the first three are parables of vegetation; the last, of assimilation. +The first two are still more closely connected, inasmuch as the person +of the sower is prominent in both, while he is not seen in the others. +The general scenery is the same in both, but with a difference. The +identification of the seed sown with the persons receiving it, which +was hinted at in the first, is predominant in the second. But while +the former described the various results of the seed, the latter +drops out of sight the three failures, and follows its fortunes in +honest and good hearts, showing the growth of the kingdom in the +midst of antagonistic surroundings. It may conveniently be considered +in three sections: the first teaching how the work of the sower is +counter-worked by his enemy; the second, the patience of the sower +with the thick-springing tares; and the third, the separation at the +harvest. + +I. The work of the sower counter-worked by his enemy, and the +mingled crops. + +The peculiar turn of the first sentence, 'The kingdom of heaven is +likened unto a man that sowed,' etc., suggests that the main purpose +of the parable is to teach the conduct of the king in view of the +growth of the tares. The kingdom is concentrated in Him, and the +'likening' is not effected by the parable, but, as the tenses of +both verbs show, by the already accomplished fact of His sowing. Our +Lord veils His claims by speaking of the sower in the third person; +but the hearing ear cannot fail to catch the implication throughout +that He Himself is the sower and the Lord of the harvest. The field +is 'his field,' and His own interpretation tells us that it means +'the world.' Whatever view we take of the bearing of this parable on +purity of communion in the visible Church, we should not slur over +Christ's own explanation of 'the field,' lest we miss the lesson +that He claims the whole world as His, and contemplates the sowing +of the seed broadcast over it all. The Kingdom of Heaven is to be +developed on, and to spread through, the whole earth. The world +belongs to Christ not only when it is filled with the kingdom, but +before the sowing. The explanation of the good seed takes the same +point of view as in the former parable. What is sown is 'the word'; +what springs from the seed is the new life of the receiver. Men +become children of the kingdom by taking the Gospel into their +hearts, and thereby receive a new principle of growth, which in +truth becomes themselves. + +Side by side with the sower's beneficent work the counter-working of +'his enemy' goes on. As the one, by depositing holy truth in the +heart, makes men 'children of the kingdom,' the other, by putting +evil principles therein, makes men 'children of evil.' Honest +exposition cannot eliminate the teaching of a personal antagonist of +Christ, nor of his continuous agency in the corruption of mankind. +It is a glimpse into a mysterious region, none the less reliable +because so momentary. The sulphurous clouds that hide the fire in +the crater are blown aside for an instant, and we see. Who would +doubt the truth and worth of the unveiling because it was short and +partial? 'The devil is God's ape.' His work is a parody of Christ's. +Where the good seed is sown, there the evil is scattered thickest. +False Christs and false apostles dog the true like their shadows. +Every truth has its counterfeit. Neither institutions, nor +principles, nor movements, nor individuals, bear unmingled crops of +good. Not merely creatural imperfection, but hostile adulteration, +marks them all. The purest metal oxidises, scum gathers on the most +limpid water, every ship's bottom gets foul with weeds. The history +of every reformation is the same: radiant hopes darkened, progress +retarded, a second generation of dwarfs who are careless or +unfaithful guardians of their heritage. + +There are, then, two classes of men represented in the parable, and +these two are distinguishable without doubt by their conduct. Tares +are said to be quite like wheat until the heads show, and then there +is a plain difference. So our Lord here teaches that the children of +the kingdom and those of evil are to be discriminated by their +actions. We need not do more than point in a sentence to His +distinct separation of men (where the seed of the kingdom has been +sown) into two sets. Jesus Christ holds the unfashionable, 'narrow' +opinion that, at bottom, a man must either be His friend or His +enemy. We are too much inclined to weaken the strong line of +demarcation, and to think that most men are neither black nor white, +but grey. + +The question has been eagerly debated whether the tares are bad men +in the Church, and whether, consequently, the mingled crop is a +description of the Church only. The following considerations may +help to an answer. The parable was spoken, not to the disciples, but +to the crowd. An instruction to them as to Church discipline would +have been signally out of place; but they needed to be taught that +the kingdom was to be 'a rose amidst thorns,' and to grow up among +antagonisms which it would slowly conquer, by the methods which the +next two parables set forth. This general conception, and not +directions about ecclesiastical order, was suited to them. Again, +the designation of the tares as 'the children of evil' seems much +too wide, if only a particular class of evil men--namely, those who +are within the Church--are meant by it. Surely the expression +includes all, both in and outside the Church, who 'do iniquity.' +Further, the representation of the children of the kingdom, as +growing among tares in the field of the world, does not seem to +contemplate them as constituting a distinct society, whether pure or +impure; but rather as an indefinite number of individuals, +intermingled in a common soil with the other class. 'The kingdom of +heaven' is not a synonym for the Church. Is it not an anachronism to +find the Church in the parable at all? No doubt, tares are in the +Church, and the parable has a bearing on it; but its primary lesson +seems to me to be much wider, and to reveal rather the conditions of +the growth of the kingdom in human society. + +II. We have the patience of the husbandman with the quick-springing +tares. + +The servants of the householder receive no interpretation from our +Lord. Their question is silently passed by in His explanation. +Clearly then, for some reason, He did not think it necessary to say +any more about them; and the most probable reason is, that they and +their words have no corresponding facts, and are only introduced to +lead up to the Master's explanation of the mystery of the growth of +the tares, and to His patience with it. The servants cannot be +supposed to represent officials in the Church, without hopelessly +destroying the consistency of the parable; for surely all the +children of the kingdom, whatever their office, are represented in +the crop. Many guesses have been made,--apostles, angels, and so on. +It is better to say 'The Lord hath not showed it me.' + +The servant's first question expresses, in vivid form, the sad, strange +fact that, where good was sown, evil springs. The deepest of all +mysteries is the origin of evil. Explain sin, and you explain everything. +The question of the servants is the despair of thinkers in all ages. +Heaven sows only good; where do the misery and the wickedness +come from? That is a wider and sadder question than, How are churches +not free from bad members? Perhaps Christ's answer may go as far +towards the bottom of the bottomless as those of non-Christian thinkers, +and, if it do not solve the metaphysical puzzles, at any rate gives +the historical fact, which is all the explanation of which the question +is susceptible. + +The second question reminds us of 'Wilt Thou that we command fire... +from heaven, and consume them?' It is cast in such a form as to put +emphasis on the householder's will. His answer forbidding the +gathering up of the tares is based, not upon any chance of mistaking +wheat for them, nor upon any hope that, by forbearance, tares may +change into wheat, but simply on what is best for the good crop. +There was a danger of destroying some of it, not because of its +likeness to the other, but because the roots of both were so +interlaced that one could not be pulled up without dragging the +other after it. + +Is this prohibition, then, meant to forbid the attempt to keep the +Church pure from un-Christian members? The considerations already +adduced are valid in answering this question, and others may be +added. The crowd of listeners had, no doubt, many of them, been +influenced by John the Baptist's fiery prophecies of the King who +should come, fan in hand, to 'purge His floor,' and were looking for +a kingdom which was to be inaugurated by sharp separation and swift +destruction. Was not the teaching needed then, as it is now, that +that is not the way in which the kingdom of heaven is to be founded +and grow? Is not the parable best understood when set in connection +with the expectations of its first hearers, which are ever floating +anew before the eyes of each generation of Christians? Is it not +Christ's _apologia_ for His delay in filling the _role_ which John had +drawn out for him? And does that conception of its meaning make it +meaningless for us? Observe, too, that the rooting up which is forbidden +is, by the proprieties of the emblem, and by the parallel which it +must necessarily afford to the final burning, something very solemn +and destructive. We may well ask whether excommunication is a +sufficiently weighty idea to be taken as its equivalent. Again, how +does the interpretation which sees ecclesiastical discipline here +comport with the reason given for letting the tares grow on? By the +hypothesis in the parable, there is no danger of mistake; but is there +any danger of casting out good men from the Church along with the +bad, except through mistake? Further, if this parable forbids casting +manifestly evil men out of the Church, it contradicts the divinely +appointed law of the Church as administered by the apostles. If it +is to be applied to Church action at all, it absolutely forbids the +separation from the Church of any man, however notoriously un-Christian, +and that, as even the strongest advocates of comprehension admit, +would destroy the very idea of the Church. Surely an interpretation +which lands us in such a conclusion cannot be right. We conclude, +then, that the intermingling which the parable means is that of good +men and bad in human society, where all are so interwoven that +separation is impossible without destroying its whole texture; that +the rooting up, which is declared to be inconsistent with the growth +of the crop, means removal from the field, namely, the world; that +the main point of the second part of the parable is to set forth the +patience of the Lord of the harvest, and to emphasise this as the +law of the growth of His kingdom, that it advances amidst antagonism; +and that its members are interlaced by a thousand rootlets with those +who are not subjects of their King. What the interlacing is for, and +whether tares may become wheat, are no parts of its teaching. But +the lesson of the householder's forbearance is meant to be learned +by us. While we believe that the scope of the parable is wider than +instruction in Church discipline, we do not forget that a fair inference +from it is that, in actual churches, there will ever be a mingling of +good and evil; and, though that fact is no reason for giving up the +attempt to make a church a congregation of faithful men, and of such +only, it is a reason for copying the divine patience of the sower in +ecclesiastical dealings with errors of opinion and faults of +conduct. + +III. The final separation at the harvest. + +The period of development is necessarily a time of intermingling, in +which, side by side, the antagonistic principles embodied in their +representatives work themselves out, and beneficially affect each +other. But each grows towards an end, and, when it has been reached, +the blending gives place to separation. John's prophecy is plainly +quoted in the parable, which verbally repeats his 'gather the wheat +into his barn,' and alludes to his words in the other clause about +burning the tares. He was right in his anticipations; his error was +in expecting the King to wield His fan at the beginning, instead of +at the end of the earthly form of His kingdom. At the consummation +of the allotted era, the bands of human society are to be dissolved, +and a new principle of association is to determine men's place. +Their moral and religious affinities will bind them together or +separate them, and all other ties will snap. This marshalling +according to religious character is the main thought of the solemn +closing words of the parable and of its interpretation, in which our +Lord presents Himself as directing the whole process of judgment by +means of the 'angels' who execute His commands. They are 'His +angels,' and whatever may be the unknown activity put forth by them +in the parting of men, it is all done in obedience to Him. What +stupendous claims Jesus makes here! What becomes of the tares is +told first in words awful in their plainness, and still more awful +in their obscurity. They speak unmistakably of the absolute +separation of evil men from all society but that of evil men; of a +close association, compelled, and perhaps unwelcome. The tares are +gathered out of 'His kingdom,'--for the field of the world has then +all become the kingdom of Christ. There are two classes among the +tares: men whose evil has been a snare to others (for the 'things +that offend' must, in accordance with the context, be taken to be +persons), and the less guilty, who are simply called 'them that do +iniquity.' + +Perhaps the 'bundles' may imply assortment according to sin, as in +Dante's circles. What a bond of fellowship that would be! +'_The_ furnace,' as it is emphatically called by eminence, +burns up the bundles. We may freely admit that the fire is part of +the parable, but yet let us not forget that it occurs not only in +the parable, but in the interpretation; and let us learn that the +prose reality of 'everlasting destruction,' which Christ here +solemnly announces, is awful and complete. For a moment He passes +beyond the limits of that parable, to add that terrible clause about +'weeping and gnashing of teeth,' the tokens of despair and rage. So +spoke the most loving and truthful lips. Do we believe His warnings +as well as His promises? + +The same law of association according to character operates in the +other region. The children of the kingdom are gathered together in +what is now 'the kingdom of My Father,' the perfect form of the +kingdom of Christ, which is still His kingdom, for 'the throne of +God and of the Lamb,' the one throne on which both sit to reign, is +'in it.' Freed from association with evil, they are touched with a +new splendour, caught from Him, and blaze out like the sun; for so +close is their association, that their myriad glories melt as into a +single great light. Now, amid gloom and cloud, they gleam like tiny +tapers far apart; then, gathered into one, they flame in the +forehead of the morning sky, 'a glorious church, not having spot, +nor wrinkle, nor any such thing.' + + + + +LEAVEN + + + 'The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a + woman took, and bid to three measures of meal, till + the whole was leavened.'--MATT. xiii. 33. + +How lovingly and meditatively Jesus looked upon homely life, knowing +nothing of the differences, the vulgar differences, between the +small and great! A poor woman, with her morsel of barm, kneading it +up among three measures of meal, in some coarse earthenware pan, +stands to Him as representing the whole process of His work in the +world. Matthew brings together in this chapter a series of seven +parables of the kingdom, possibly spoken at different times, and +gathered here into a sequence and series, just as he has done with +the great procession of miracles that follows the Sermon on the +Mount, and just as, perhaps, he has done with that sermon itself. +The two first of the seven deal with the progress of the Gospel in +individual minds and the hindrances thereto. Then there follows a +pair, of which my text is the second, which deal with the +geographical expansion of the kingdom throughout the world, in the +parable of the grain of mustard-seed growing into the great herb, +and with the inward, penetrating, diffusive influence of the +kingdom, working as an assimilating and transforming force in the +midst of society. + +I do not purpose to enter now upon the wide and difficult question +of the relation of the kingdom to the Church. Suffice it to say that +the two terms are by no means synonymous, but that, at the same +time, inasmuch as a kingdom implies a community of subjects, the +churches, in the proportion in which they have assimilated the +leaven, and are holding fast by the powers which Christ has lodged +within them, are approximate embodiments of the kingdom. The +parable, then, suggests to us, in a very striking and impressive +form, the function and the obligations of Christian people in the +world. + +Let me deal, in a purely expository fashion, with the emblem before +us. + +'The kingdom of heaven is like leaven.' Now of course, leaven is +generally in Scripture taken as a symbol of evil or corruption. For +example, the preliminary to the Passover Feast was the purging of +the houses of the Israelites of every scrap of evil ferment, and the +bread which was eaten on that Feast was prescribed to be unleavened. +But fermentation works ennobling as well as corruption, and our Lord +lays hold upon the other possible use of the metaphor. The parable +teaches that the effect of the Gospel, as ministered by, and +residing in, the society of men, in whom the will of God is supreme, +is to change the heavy lump of dough into light, nutritious bread. +There are three or four points suggested by the parable which I +could touch upon; and the first of them is that significant +disproportion between the apparent magnitude of the dead mass that +is to be leavened, and the tiny piece of active energy which is to +diffuse itself throughout it. + +We get there a glimpse into our Lord's attitude, measuring Himself +against the world and the forces that were in it. He knows that in +Him, the sole Representative, at the moment, of the kingdom of +heaven upon earth--because in Him, and in Him alone, the divine will +was, absolutely and always, supreme--there lie, for the time +confined to Him, but never dormant, powers which are adequate to the +transformation of humanity from a dead, lumpish mass into an +aggregate all-penetrated by a quickening influence, and, if I might +so say, fermented with a new life that He will bring. A tremendous +conception, and the strange thing about it is that it looks as if +the Nazarene peasant's dream was going to come true! But He was +speaking to the men whom He was charging with a delegated task, and +to them He says, 'There are but twelve of you, and you are poor, +ignorant men, and you have no resources at your back, but you have +Me, and that is enough, and you may be sure that the tiny morsel of +yeast will penetrate the whole mass.' Small beginnings characterise +the causes which are destined to great endings; the things that are +ushered into the world large, generally grow very little further, +and speedily collapse. 'An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the +beginning, but the end shall not be blessed.' The force which is +destined to be worldwide, began with the one Man in Nazareth, and +although the measures of meal are three, and the ferment is a scrap, +it is sure to permeate and transform the mass. + +Therefore, brethren, let us take the encouragement that our Lord +here offers. If we are adherents of unpopular causes, if we have to +'stand alone with two or three,' do not let us count heads, but +measure forces. 'What everybody says must be true,' is a cowardly +proverb. It may be a correct statement that an absolutely universal +opinion is a true opinion, but what most people say is usually +false, and what the few say is most generally true. So if we have to +front--and if we are true men we shall sometimes have to front--an +embattled mass of antagonism, and we be in a miserable minority, +never mind! We can say, 'They that be with us are more than they +that be with them.' If we have anything of the leaven in us, we are +mightier than the lump of dough. + +But there is another point here, and that is the contact that is +necessary between the leaven and the dough. We have passed from the +old monastic idea of Religion being seclusion from life. But that +mistake dies hard, and there are many very Evangelical and very +Protestant--and in their own notions superlatively good--people, who +hold a modern analogue of the old monastic idea; and who think that +Christian men and women should be very tepidly interested in +anything except what they call the preaching of the Gospel, and the +saving of men's souls. Now nobody that knows me, and the trend of my +preaching, will charge me with undervaluing either of these things, +but these do not exhaust the function of the Church in the world, +nor the duty of the Church to society. We have to learn from the +metaphor in the parable. The dough is not kept on one shelf and the +leaven on another; the bit of leaven is plunged into the heart of +the mass, and then the woman kneads the whole up in her pan, and so +the influence is spread. We Christians are not doing our duty, nor +are we using our capacities, unless we fling ourselves frankly and +energetically into all the currents of the national life, +commercial, political, municipal, intellectual, and make our +influence felt in them all. The 'salt of the earth' is to be rubbed +into the meat in order to keep it from putrefaction; the leaven is +to be kneaded up into the dough in order to raise it. Christian +people are to remember that they are here, not for the purpose of +isolating themselves, but in order that they may touch life at all +points, and at all points bring into contact with earthly life the +better life and the principles of Christian morality. + +But in this contact with all phases of life and forms of activity, +Christian men are to be sure that they take the leaven with them. +There are professing Christians that say: 'Oh! I am not strait-laced +and pharisaical. I do not keep myself apart from any movements of +humanity. I count nothing that belongs to men alien to a Christian.' +All right! but when you go into these movements, when you go into +Parliament, when you become a city Councillor, when you mingle with +other men in commerce, when you meet other students in the walks of +intellect, do you take your Christianity there, or do you leave it +behind? The two things are equally necessary, that Christians should +be in all these various spheres of activity, and that they should be +there, distinctly, manifestly, and, when need be, avowedly, as +Christian men. + +Further, there is another thought here, on which I just say one +word, and that is the effect of the leaven on the dough. + +It is to assimilate, to set up a ferment. And that is what +Christianity did when it came into the world, and + + 'Cast the kingdoms old + Into another mould.' + +And that is what it ought to do to-day, and will do, if Christian +men are true to themselves and to their Lord. Do you not think that +there would be a ferment if Christian principles were applied, say, +for instance, to national politics? Do you not think there would be +a ferment if Christian principles were brought to bear upon all the +transactions on the Exchange? Is there any region of life into which +the introduction of the plain precepts of Christianity as the +supreme law would not revolutionise it? We talk about England as a +Christian country. Is it? A Christian country is a country of +Christians, and Christians are not people that only say 'I have +faith in Jesus Christ.' but people that do His will. That is the +leaven that is to change, and yet not to change, the whole mass; to +change it by lightening it, by putting a new spirit into it, leaving +the substance apparently unaffected except in so far as the +substance has been corrupted by the evil spirit that rules. +Brethren, if we as Christians were doing our duty, it would be true +of us as it was of the early preachers of the Cross, that we are men +who turn the world upside down. + +But there is one more point on which I touch. I have already +anticipated some of what I would say upon it, but I must dwell upon +it for a little longer; and that is, the manner in which the leaven +is to work. + +Here is a morsel of barm in the middle of a lump of dough. It works +by contact, touches the particles nearest it, and transforms them +into vehicles for the further transmission of influence. Each +particle touched by the ferment becomes itself a ferment, and so the +process goes on, outwards and ever outwards, till it permeates the +whole mass. That is to say, the individual is to become the +transmitter of the influence to him who is next him. The +individuality of the influence, and the track in which it is to +work, viz. upon those in immediate contiguity to the transformed +particle which is turned from dough into leaven, are taught us here +in this wonderful simile. + +Now that carries a very serious and solemn lesson for us all. If you +have received, you are able, and you are bound, to transmit this +quickening, assimilating, transforming, lightening influence, and +you need never complain of a want of objects upon which to exercise +it, for the man or woman that is next you is the person that you +ought to affect. + +Now I have already said, in an earlier portion of these remarks, +that some good people, taking an erroneous view of the function and +obligations of the Church in the world, would fain keep its work to +purely evangelistic effort upon individual souls in presenting to +them the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Saviour. But whilst I vehemently +protest against the notion that that is the whole function of the +Christian Church, I would as vehemently protest against the notion +that the so-called social work of the Church can ever be efficiently +done except upon the foundation laid of this evangelistic work. +First and foremost amongst the ways in which this great obligation +of leavening humanity is to be discharged, must ever stand, as I +believe, the appeal to the individual conscience and heart, and the +presentation to single souls of the great Name in which are stored +all the regenerative and quickening impulses that can ever alleviate +and bless humanity. So that, first and foremost, I put the preaching +of the Gospel, the Gospel of our salvation, by the death and in the +life of the Incarnate Son of God. + +But then, besides that, let me remind you there are other ways, +subsidiary but indispensable ways, in which the Church has to +discharge its function; and I put foremost amongst these, what I +have already touched upon, and therefore need not dilate on now, the +duty of Christians as Christians to take their full share in all the +various forms of national life. I need not dwell upon the evils +rampant amongst us, which have to be dealt with, and, as I believe, +may best if not only, be dealt with, upon Christian principles. +Think of drink, lust, gambling, to name but three of them, the +hydra-headed serpent that is poisoning the English nation. Now it +seems to me to be a deplorable, but a certainly true thing, that not +only are these evils not attacked by the Churches as they ought to +be, but that to a very large extent the task of attacking them has +fallen into the hands of people who have little sympathy with the +Church and its doctrines. They are fighting the evils on principles +drawn from Jesus Christ, but they are not fighting the evils to the +extent that they ought to do, with the Churches alongside. I beseech +you, in your various spheres, to see to it that, as far as you can +make it so, Christian people take the place that Christ meant them +to take in the conflict with the miseries, the sorrows, the sins +that honeycomb England to-day, and not to let it be said that the +Churches shut themselves up and preach to people, but do not lift a +finger to deal with the social evils of the nation. + + + + +TREASURE AND PEARL + + + The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a + field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and + for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and + buyeth that field. 45. Again, the kingdom of heaven is + like unto a merchantman, seeking goodly pearls: 46. Who, + when he had found one pearl of great price, went and + sold all that he had, and bought it.'--MATT. xiii. 44-46. + +In this couple of parables, which are twins, and must be taken +together, our Lord utilises two very familiar facts of old-world +life, both of them arising from a similar cause. In the days when +there were no banks and no limited liability companies, it was +difficult for a man to know what to do with his little savings. In +old times government meant oppression, and it was dangerous to seem +to have any riches. In old days war stalked over the land, and men's +property must be portable or else concealed. So, on the one hand we +find the practice of hiding away little hoards in some suitable +place, beneath a rock, in the cleft of a tree, or a hole dug in the +ground, and then, perhaps, the man died before he came back for his +wealth. Or, again, another man might prefer to carry his wealth +about with him. So he went and got jewels, easily carried, not +easily noticed, easily convertible into what he might require. + +And, says our Lord, these two practices, with which all the people +to whom He was speaking were very much more familiar than we are, +teach us something about the kingdom of God. Now, I am not going to +be tempted to discuss what our Lord means by that phrase, so +frequent upon His lips, 'the kingdom of God' or 'of heaven.' Suffice +it to say that it means, in the most general terms, a state or order +of things in which God is King, and His will supreme and sovereign. +Christ came, as He tells us, to found and to extend that kingdom +upon earth. A man can go into it, and it can come into a man, and +the conditions on which he enters into it, and it into him, are laid +down in this pair of parables. So I ask you to notice their +similarities and their divergences. They begin alike and they run on +alike for a little way, and then they diverge. There is a fork in +the road, and they reunite at the end again. They agree in their +representation of the treasure; they diverge in their explanation of +the process of discovering it, and they unite at last in the final +issue. So, then, we have to look at these three points. + +I. Let me ask you to think that the true treasure for a man lies in +the kingdom of God. + +It is not exactly said that the treasure is the kingdom, but the +treasure is found in the kingdom, and nowhere else. Let us put away +the metaphor; it means that the only thing that will make us rich is +loving submission to the supreme law of the God whom we love because +we know that He loves us. You may put that thought into half a +dozen different forms. You may say that the treasure is the blessing +that comes from Christianity, or the inward wealth of a submissive +heart, or may use various modes of expression, but below them all +lies this one great thought, that it is laid on my heart, dear +brethren, to try and lay on yours now, that, when all is said and +done, the only possession that makes us rich is--is what? God +Himself. For that is the deepest meaning of the treasure. And +whatever other forms of expression we may use to designate it, they +all come back at last to this, that the wealth of the human soul is +to have God for its very own. + +Let me run over two or three points that show us that. That treasure +is the only one that meets our deepest poverty. We do not all know +what that is, but whether you know it or not, dear friend, the thing +that you want most is to have your sins dealt with, in the double +way of having them forgiven as guilt, and in having them taken away +from you as tyrants and dominators over your wills. And it is only +God who can do that, 'God in Christ reconciling the world unto +Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them,' and giving them, +by a new life which He breathes into dead souls, emancipation from +the tyrants that rule over them, and thus bringing them 'into the +liberty of the glory of the sons of God.' 'Thou sayest that Thou art +rich and increased with goods ... and knowest not that thou art poor +... and naked.' Brother, until you have found out that it is only God +who will save you from being bankrupt, and enable you to pay your +debts, which are your duties, you do not know where your true riches +are. And if you have all that men can acquire of the lower things of +life, whether of what is generally called wealth or of other material +benefits, and have that great indebtedness standing against you, you +are but an insolvent after all. Here is the treasure that will make +you rich, because it will pay your debts, and endow you with capacity +enough to meet all future expenditure--viz. the possession of the +forgiving and cleansing grace of God which is in Jesus Christ. If +you have that, you are rich; if you do not possess it, you are poor. +Now you believe that, as much as I do, most of you. Well, what do you +do in consequence? + +Further, the possession of God, who belongs to all those that are +the subjects of the kingdom of God, is our true treasure, because +that wealth, and that alone, meets at once all the diverse wants of +the human soul. There is nothing else of which that can be said. +There are a great many other precious things in this world--human +loves, earthly ambitions of noble and legitimate kinds. No one but a +fool will deny the convenience and the good of having a competency +of this world's possessions. But all these have this miserable +defect, or rather limitation, that they each satisfy some little +corner of a man's nature, and leave all the rest, if I may so say, +like the beasts in a menagerie whose turn has not yet come to be +fed, yelping and growling while the keeper is at the den of another +one. There is only one thing that, being applied, as it were, at the +very centre, will diffuse itself, like some fragrant perfume, +through the whole sphere, and fill the else scentless air with its +rich and refreshing fragrance. There is but one wealth which meets +the whole of human nature. You, however small you are, however +insignificant people may think you, however humbly you may think of +yourselves, you are so great that the whole created Universe, if it +were yours, would be all too little for you. You cannot fill a +bottomless bog with any number of cartloads of earth. And you know +as well as I can tell you that 'he that loveth silver shall not be +satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase,' +and that none of the good things here below, rich and precious as +many of them are, are large enough to fill, much less to expand, the +limitless desires of one human heart. As the ancient Latin father +said, 'Lord, Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our heart is unquiet +till it attains to Thee.' + +Closely connected with that thought, but capable of being dealt with +for a moment apart, is the other, that this is our true treasure, +because we have it all in one. + +You remember the beautiful emphasis of one of the parables in our +text about the man that dissipated himself in seeking for many +goodly pearls? He had secured a whole casket full of little ones. +They were pearls, they were many; but then he saw one Orient pearl, +and he said, 'The one is more than the many. Let me have unity, for +there is rest; whereas in multiplicity there is restlessness and +change.' The sky to-night may be filled with galaxies of stars. +Better one sun than a million twinkling tininesses that fill the +heavens, and yet do not scatter the darkness. Oh, brethren, to have +one aim, one love, one treasure, one Christ, one God--there is the +secret of blessedness. 'Unite my heart to fear Thy name'; and then +all the miseries of multiplicity, and of drawing our supplies from a +multitude of separate lakes, will be at an end, when our souls are +flooded from the one fountain of life that can never fail or be +turbid. Thus, the unity of the treasure is the supreme excellence of +the treasure. + +Nor need I remind you in more than a word of how this is our true +treasure, because it is our permanent one. Nothing that can be taken +from me is truly mine. Those of you who have lived in a great +commercial community as long as I have done, know that it is not for +nothing that sovereigns are made circular, for they roll very +rapidly, and 'riches take to themselves wings and fly away.' We can +all go back to instances of men who set their hearts upon wealth, +and flaunted their little hour before us as kings of the Exchange, +and were objects of adoration and of envy, and at last were left +stranded in poverty. Nothing that can be stripped from you by the +accidents of life, or by inevitable death, is worth calling your +'good.' You must have something that is intertwined with the very +fibres of your being. And I, unworthy as I am, come to you, dear +friends, now, with this proffer of the great gift of wealth from +which 'neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor +powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor +depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us.' And I +beseech you to ask yourselves, Is there anything worth calling +wealth, except that wealth which meets my deepest need, which +satisfies my whole nature, which I may have all in one, and which, +if I have, I may have for ever? That wealth is the God who may be +'the strength of your hearts and your heritage for ever.' + +II. Now notice, secondly, the concealment of the treasure. + +According to the first of our parables, the treasure was hid in a +field. That is very largely local colouring, which gives veracity +and vraisemblance to the fact of the story. And there has been a +great deal of very unnecessary and misplaced ingenuity spent in +trying to force interpretations upon every feature of the parable, +which I do not intend to imitate, but I just wish to suggest one +thing. Here was this man in the story, who had plodded across that +field a thousand times, and knew every clod of it, and had never +seen the wealth that was lying six inches below the surface. Now, +that is very like some of my present hearers. God's treasure comes +to the world in a form which to a great many people veils, if it +does not altogether hide, its preciousness. You have heard sermons +till you are sick of sermons, and I do not wonder at it, if you have +heard them and never thought of acting on them. You know all that I +can tell you, most of you, about Jesus Christ, and what He has done +for you, and what you should do towards Him, and your familiarity +with the Word has blinded you to its spirit and its power. You have +gone over the field so often that you have made a path across it, +and it seems incredible to you that there should be anything worth +your picking up there. Ah! dear friends, Jesus Christ, when He was +here, 'in whom were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' +had to the men that looked upon Him 'neither form nor comeliness +that they should desire Him,' and He was to them a stumbling-block +and foolishness. And Christ's Gospel comes among busy men, worldly +men, men who are under the dominion of their passions and desires, +men who are pursuing science and knowledge, and it looks to them +very homely, very insignificant; they do not know what treasure is +lying in it. You do not know what treasure is lying--may I venture +to say it?--in these poor words of mine, in so far as they truly +represent the mind and will of God. Dear brethren, the treasure is +hid, but that is not because God did not wish you to see it; it is +because you have made yourselves blind to its flashing brightness. +'If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them ... in whom the god of this +world hath blinded their eyes.' If your whole desires are passionately +set on that which Manchester recognises as the _summum bonum_, or, +if you are living without a thought beyond this present, how can you +expect to see the treasure, though it is lying there before your eyes? +You have buried it, or, rather, you have made that which is its +necessary envelope to be its obscuration. I pray you, look through the +forms, look beneath the words of Scripture, and try and clear your +eyesight from the hallucinations of the dazzling present, and you will +see the treasure that is hid in the field. + +III. Again, let me ask you to notice, further, the two ways of +finding. + +The rustic in the first story, who, as I said, had plodded across +the field a hundred times, was doing it for the hundred and first, +or perhaps was at work there with his mattock or his homely plough. +And, perchance, some stroke of the spade, or push of the coulter, +went a little deeper than usual, and there flashed the gold, or some +shower of rain came on, and washed away a little of the +superincumbent soil, and laid bare the bag. Now, that is what often +happens, for you have to remember that though you are not seeking +God, God is always seeking you, and so the great saying comes to be +true, 'I am found of them that sought Me not.' There have been many +cases like the one of the man who, breathing out threatenings and +slaughter, with no thought in his mind except to bind the disciples +and bring them captive to Jerusalem, saw suddenly a light from +heaven flashing down upon him, and a Voice that pulled him up in the +midst of his career. Ah! it would be an awful thing if no one found +Christ except those who set out to seek for Him. Like the dew on the +grass 'that waiteth not for men, nor tarrieth for the sons of men,' +He often comes to hearts that are thinking about nothing less than +about Him. + +There are men and women listening to me now who did not come here +with any expectation of being confronted with this message to their +souls; they may have been drawn by curiosity or by a hundred other +motives. If there is one such, to whom I am speaking, who has had no +desires after the treasure, who has never thought that God was his +only Good, who has been swallowed up in worldly things and the +common affairs of life, and who now feels as if a sudden flash had +laid bare the hidden wealth in the familiar Gospel, I beseech such a +one not to turn away from the discovered treasure, but to make it +his own. Dear friend, you may not be looking for the wealth, but +Christ is looking for His lost coin. And, though it has rolled away +into some dusty corner, and is lying there all unaware, I venture to +say that He is seeking you by my poor words to-night, and is saying +to you: 'I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire.' + +But then another class is described in the other parable of the +merchantman who was seeking many goodly pearls. I suppose he may +stand as a representative of a class of whom I have no doubt there +are some other representatives hearing me now, namely, persons who, +without yielding themselves to the claims of Christ, have been +searching, honestly and earnestly, for 'whatsoever things are lovely +and of good report.' Dear brethren, if you have been smitten by the +desire to live noble lives, if you have been roused + + 'To follow knowledge, like a sinking star, + Beyond the furthest bounds of human thought,' + +or if in any way you are going through the world with your eyes +looking for something else than the world's gross good, and are +seeking for the many pearls, I beseech you to lay this truth to +heart, that you will never find what you seek, until you understand +that the many have not it to give you, and that the One has. And +when Christ draws near to you and says, 'Whatsoever things are +lovely and of good report, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever +things are venerable, if thou seekest them, take Me, and thou wilt +find them all,' I beseech you, accept Him. There are two ways of +finding the treasure. It is flashed on unexpectant eyes, and it is +disclosed to seeking souls. + +III. And now, lastly, let us look at the point where the parables +converge. + +There are two ways of finding; there is only one way of getting. The +one man went and sold all that he had and bought the field. Never +mind about the morality of the transaction: that has nothing to do +with our Lord's purpose. Perhaps it was not quite honest of this man +to bury the treasure again, and then to go and buy the field for +less than it was worth, but the point is that, however a soul is +brought to see that God in Christ is all that he needs, there is +only one way of getting Him, and that is, 'sell all that thou hast.' + +'Then it is barter, is it? Then it is salvation by works after all?' +No! To 'sell all that thou hast' is first, to abandon all hope of +acquiring the treasure by anything that thou hast. We buy it when we +acknowledge that we have nothing of our own to buy it with. Buy it +'without money and without price'; buy it by yielding your hearts; +buy it by ceasing to cling to earth and creatures, as if they were +your good. That trust in Jesus Christ, which is the condition of +salvation is selling 'all that thou hast.' Self is 'all that thou +hast.' Abandon self and clutch Him, and the treasure is thine. But +the initial act of faith has to be carried on through a life of +self-denial and self-sacrifice, and the subjection of self-will, +which is the hardest of all, and the submission of one's self +altogether to the kingdom of God and to its King. If we do thus we +shall have the treasure, and if we do not thus we shall not. + +Surely it is reasonable to fling away paste pearls for real ones. +Surely it is reasonable to fling away brass counters for gold coins. +Surely, in all regions of life, we willingly sacrifice the second +best in order to get the very best. Surely if the wealth which is in +God is more precious than all besides, you have the best of the +bargain, if you part with the world and yourselves and get Him. And +if, on the other hand, you stick to the second best and cleave to +yourselves and to this poor diurnal sphere and what it contains, +then I will tell you what your epitaph will be. It is written in one +of the Psalms, 'He shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at +his latter end shall be a fool.' + +And there is a more foolish fool still--the man who, when he has +seen the treasure, flings another shovelful of earth upon it, and +goes away and does _not_ buy it, nor think anything more about +it. Dear brother, do not do that, but if, by God's help, any poor +words of mine have stirred anything in your hearts of recognition of +what your true wealth is, do not rest until you have done what is +needful to possess it, given away yourselves, and in exchange +received Christ, and in Him wealth for evermore. + + + + +THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN + + + 'At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of + Jesus, 2. And said unto his servants, This is John the + Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore + mighty works do shew forth themselves in him. 3. For + Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him + in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. + 4. For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to + have her. 5. And when he would have put him to death, + he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a + prophet. 6. But when Herod's birthday was kept, the + daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased + Herod. 7. Whereupon he promised with an oath to give + her whatsoever she would ask. 8. And she, being before + instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John + Baptist's head in a charger. 9. And the king was sorry: + nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat + with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. + 10. And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. + 11. And his head was brought in a charger, and given to + the damsel: and she brought it to her mother. 12. And + his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, + and went and told Jesus.'--MATT. xiv. 1-12. + +The singular indifference of the Bible to the fate of even its +greatest men is exemplified in the fact that the martyrdom of John +is only told incidentally, in explanation of Herod's alarm. But for +that he would apparently have dropped out of the narrative, as a man +sinks in the sea, without a bubble or a ripple. Christ is the sole +theme of the Gospels, and all others are visible only as His light +falls on them. + +It took a long time for news of Christ to reach the ears of Herod. +Peasants hear of Him before princes, whose thick palace walls and +crowds of courtiers shut out truth. The first thing to note is the +alarm of the conscience-stricken king. We learn from the other +evangelists that there was a difference of opinion among the +attendants of Herod--not very good judges of a religious teacher--as +to who this new miracle-working Rabbi might be, but the tetrarch has +no hesitation. There is no proof that Herod was a Sadducee; but he +probably thought as little about a resurrection as if he had been, +and, in any case, did not expect dead men to be starting up again, +one by one, and mingling with the living. His conscience made a +coward of him, and his fear made that terrible which would else have +been thought impossible. In his terror he makes confidants of his +slaves, overleaping the barriers of position, in his need of some +ears to pour his fears into. He was right in believing that he had +not finished with John, and in expecting to meet him again with +mightier power to accuse and condemn. 'If 'twere done when 'tis +done,' says Macbeth; but it is not done. There is a resurrection of +deeds as well as of bodies, and all our buried badnesses will front +us again, shaking their gory locks at us, and saying that we did +them. + +Instead of following closely the narrative, we may best gather up +its lessons by considering the actors in the tragedy. + +I. We see in Herod the depths of evil possible to a weak character. +The singular double which he, Herodias and John present to Ahab, +Jezebel and Elijah, has been often noticed. In both cases a weak +king is drawn in opposite directions by the stronger-willed +temptress at his side, and by the stern ascetic from the desert. How +John had found his way into 'kings' houses' we do not know; but, as +he carried thither his undaunted boldness of plain-spoken preaching +of morality and repentance, it was inevitable that he should soon +find his way from the palace to the dungeon. There must have been +some intercourse between Herod and him before his imprisonment, or +he could not have shaken the king's conscience with his blunt +denunciations. From the account in Mark, it would appear that, after +his imprisonment, he gained great influence over the tetrarch, and +led him some steps on the way of goodness. But Herod was 'infirm of +purpose,' and a beautiful fiend was at his side, and she had an iron +will sharpened to an edge by hatred, and knew her own mind, which +was murder. Between them, the weaker nature was much perplexed, and +like a badly steered boat, yawed in its course, now yielding to the +impulse from John, now to that from Herodias. Matthew attributes his +hesitation as to killing John to his fear of the popular voice, +which, no doubt, also operated. Thus he 'let I dare not wait upon I +would,' and had not strength of mind enough to hold to the one and +despise the other of his discordant counsellors. He was evidently a +sensual, luxurious, feeble-willed, easily frightened, superstitious +and cunning despot; and, as is always the case with such, he was +driven farther in evil than he meant or wished. He was entrapped +into an oath, and then, instead of saying, 'Promises which should +not have been made should not be kept,' he weakly consents, from +fantastic fear of what his guests will say of him, and unwillingly, +out of pure imbecility, stains his soul for ever with blood. In this +wicked world, weak men will always be wicked men; for it is less +trouble to consent than to resist, and there are more sirens to +whisper 'Come' than prophets to thunder, 'It is not lawful.' +Strength of will is needful for all noble life. + +We may learn from Herod, also, how far we may go on the road of +obedience to God's will, and yet leave it at last. What became of +all his eager listening, of his partial obedience, of his care to +keep John safe from Herodias's malice? All vanished like early dew. +What became of his conscience-stricken alarms on hearing of Christ? +Did they lead to any deep convictions? They faded away, and left +him harder than before. Convictions not followed out ossify the +heart. If he had sent for Christ, and told Him his fears, all might +have been well. But he let them pass, and, so far as we know, they +never returned. He did meet Jesus at last, when Pilate sent him the +Prisoner, as a piece of politeness, and in what mood?--childish +pleasure at the chance of seeing a miracle. How did Jesus answer his +torrent of frivolous questions? 'He answered him nothing.' That sad +silence speaks Christ's knowledge that now even His words would be +vain to create one ripple of interest on the Dead Sea of Herod's +soul. By frivolity, lust, and neglect he had killed the germ of a +better life, and silence was the kindest answer which perfect love +could give him. + +He shows us, too, the intimate connection of all sins. The common +root of every sin is selfishness, and the shapes which it takes are +protean and interchangeable. Lust dwells hard by hate. Sensual +crimes and cruelty are closely akin. The one vice which Herod would +not surrender, dragged after it a whole tangle of other sins. No sin +dwells alone. There is 'none barren among them.' They are +gregarious, and a solitary sin is more seldom seen than a single +swallow. Herod is an illustration, too, of a conscience +fantastically sensitive while it is dead to real crimes. He has no +twinges for his sin with Herodias, and no effective ones at killing +John, but he thinks it would be wrong to break his oath. The two +things often go together; and many a brigand in Calabria, who would +cut a throat without hesitation, would not miss mass, or rob without +a little image of the Virgin in his hat. We often make compensation +for easy indulgence in great sins by fussy scrupulosity about little +faults, and, like Herod, had rather commit murder than not be polite +to visitors. + +II. The next actors in the tragedy are Herodias and her daughter. What +a miserable destiny to be gibbeted for ever by half a dozen sentences! +One deed, after which she no doubt 'wiped her mouth, and said, I have +done no harm,' has won for the mother an immortality of ignominy. Her +portrait is drawn in few strokes, but they are enough. In strength of +will and unscrupulous carelessness of human life, she is the sister of +Jezebel, and curiously like Shakespeare's awful creation, Lady Macbeth; +but she adds a stain of sensuous passion to their vices, which +heightens the horror. Her first marriage was with her full uncle; and +her second, if marriage it can be called when her husband and Herod's +wife were both living, was with her step-uncle, and thus triply +unlawful. John's remonstrance awoke no sense of shame in her, but only +malignant and murderous hate. Once resolved, no failures made her +swerve from her purpose. Hers was no passing fury, but cold-blooded, +deliberate determination. Her iron will and unalterable persistence +were accompanied by flexibility of resource. When one weapon failed, +she drew another from a full quiver. And the means which were finally +successful show not only her thorough knowledge of the weak man she +had to deal with, but her readiness to stoop to any degradation for +herself and her child to carry her point. 'A thousand claims to' +abhorrence 'meet in her, as mother, wife, and queen.' Many a shameless +woman would have shrunk from sullying a daughter's childhood, by +sending her to play the part of a shameless dancing-girl before a +crew of half-tipsy revellers, and from teaching her young lips to +ask for murder. But Herodias sticks at nothing, and is as insensible +to the duty of a mother as to that of a wife. If we put together these +features in her character, her hot animal passions, her cool inflexible +revenge, her cynical disregard of all decency, her deadness to natural +affection for her child, her ferocity and her cunning, we have a +hideous picture of corrupted womanhood. We cannot but wonder +whether, in after days, remorse ever did its merciful work upon +Herodias. She urged Herod to his ruin at last by her ambition, which +sought for him the title of king, and, with one redeeming touch of +faithfulness, went with him into dreary exile in Gaul. Perhaps +there, among strangers, and surrounded by the wreck of her projects, +and when the hot fire of passion had died down, she may have +remembered and repented her crime. + +The criminality of the daughter largely depends upon her age, of +which we have no knowledge. Perhaps she was too mere a child to +understand the degradation of the dance, or the infamy of the +request which her, we hope, innocent and panting lips were tutored +to prefer. But, more probably, she was old enough to be her mother's +fellow-conspirator, rather than her tool, and had learned only too +well her lessons of impurity and cruelty. What chance had a young +life in such a sty of filth? When the mother becomes the devil's +deputy, what can the daughter grow up to be, but a worse edition of +her? This poor girl, so sinning, and so sinned against, followed in +Herodias's footsteps, and afterwards married, according to the +custom of the Herods, her uncle, Philip the tetrarch. She inherited +and was taught evil; that was her misfortune. She made it her own; +that was her crime. As she stands there, shameless and flushed, in +that hideous banqueting-hall, with her grim gift dripping red blood +on the golden platter, and wicked triumph gleaming in her dark eyes, +she suggests grave questions as to parents' responsibility for +children's sins, and is a living symbol of the degradation of art to +the service of vice, and of the power of an evil soul to make +hideous all the grace of budding womanhood. + +III. There is something dramatically appropriate in the silent death +in the dungeon of the lonely forerunner. The faint noise of revelry +may have reached his ears, as he brooded there, and wondered if the +coming King would never come for his enlargement. Suddenly a gleam +of light from the opened door enters his cell, and falls on the +blade of the headsman's sword. Little time can be wasted, for +Herodias waits. With short preface the blow falls. The King has +come, and set His forerunner free, sending him to prepare His way +before Him in the dim regions beyond. A world where Herod sits in +the festal chamber, and John lies headless in the dungeon, needs +some one to set it right. When the need is sorest, the help is +nearest. Truth succeeds by the apparent failure of its apostle. +Herodias may stab the dead tongue, as the legend tells that she did, +but it speaks louder after death than ever. Herod kept his birthday +with drunken and bloody mirth; but it was a better birthday for his +victim. + +IV. It needed some courage for John's disciples to come to that +gloomy, blood-stained fortress, and bear away the headless trunk +which scornful cruelty had flung out to rot unburied. When reverent +love and sorrow had finished their task, what was the little flock +without a shepherd to do? The possibility of their continued +existence as a company of disciples was at an end. They show by +their action that their master had profited from his last message to +Jesus. At once they turn to Him, and, no doubt, the bulk of them +were absorbed in the body of His followers. Sorrowful and bereaved +souls betake themselves naturally to His sweet sympathy for +soothing, and to His gentle wisdom for direction. The wisest thing +that any of us can do is to 'go and tell Jesus' our loneliness, and +let it bind us more closely to Him. + + + + +THE GRAVE OF THE DEAD JOHN AND THE GRAVE OF THE LIVING JESUS + + + 'And John's disciples came, and took up the body, and + buried it, and went and told Jesus.'--MATT. xiv. 12. + + 'And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear + and great joy.'--MATT. xxviii. 8. + +There is a remarkable parallel and still more remarkable contrast +between these two groups of disciples at the graves of their +respective masters. John the Baptist's followers venture into the +very jaws of the lion to rescue the headless corpse of their +martyred teacher from a prison grave. They bear it away and lay it +reverently in its unknown sepulchre, and when they have done these +last offices of love they feel that all is over. They have no longer +a centre, and they disintegrate. There was nothing to hold them +together any more. The shepherd had been smitten, and the flock were +scattered. As a 'school' or a distinct community they cease to be, +and are mostly absorbed into the ranks of Christ's followers. That +sorrowful little company that turned from John's grave, perhaps +amidst the grim rocks of Moab, perhaps in his native city amongst +the hills of Judah, parted then, to meet no more, and to bear away +only a common sorrow that time would comfort, and a common memory +that time would dim. + +The other group laid their martyred Master in His grave with as +tender hands and as little hope as did John's disciples. The bond +that held them together was gone too, and the disintegrating process +began at once. We see them breaking up into little knots, and soon +they, too, will be scattered. The women come to the grave to perform +the woman's office of anointing, and they are left to go alone. +Other slight hints are given which show how much the ties of +companionship had been relaxed, even in a day, and how certainly and +quickly they would have fallen asunder. But all at once a new +element comes in, all is changed. The earliest visitors to the +sepulchre leave it, not with the lingering sorrow of those who have +no more that they can do, but with the quick, buoyant step of people +charged with great and glad tidings. They come to it wrapped in +grief--they leave it with great joy. They come to it, feeling that +all was over, and that their union with the rest who had loved Him +was little more than a remembrance. They go away, feeling that they +are all bound together more closely than ever. + +The grave of John was the end of a 'school.' The grave of Jesus was +the beginning of a Church. Why? The only answer is the message which +the women brought back from the empty sepulchre on that Easter day: +'The Lord is risen.' The whole history of the Christian Church, and +even its very existence, is unintelligible, except on the +supposition of the resurrection. But for that, the fate of John's +disciples would have been the fate of Christ's--they would have +melted away into the mass of the nation, and at most there would +have been one more petty Galilean sect that would have lived on for +a generation and died out when the last of His companions died. So +from these two contrasted groups we may fairly gather some thoughts +as to the Resurrection of Christ, as attested by the very existence +of a Christian Church, and as to the joy of that resurrection. + +I. Now the first point to be considered is, that the conduct of +Christ's disciples after His death was exactly the opposite of what +might have been expected. + +They held together. The natural thing for them to do would have been +to disband; for their one bond was gone; and if they had acted +according to the ordinary laws of human conduct, they would have +said to themselves, Let us go back to our fishing-boats and our +tax-gathering, and seek safety in separation, and nurse our sorrow +apart. A few lingering days might have been given to weep together +at His grave, and to assuage the first bitterness of grief and +disappointment; but when these were over, nothing could have +prevented Christianity and the Church from being buried in the same +sepulchre as Jesus. As certainly as the stopping up of the fountain +would empty the river's bed, so surely would Christ's death have +scattered His disciples. And that strange fact, that it did not +scatter them, needs to be looked well into and fairly accounted for +in some plausible manner. The end of John's school gives a parallel +which brings the singularity of the fact into stronger relief; and +looking at these two groups as they stand before us in these two +texts, the question is irresistibly suggested, Why did not the one +fall away into its separate elements, as the other did? The keystone +of the arch was in both cases withdrawn--why did the one structure +topple into ruin while the other stood firm? + +Not only did the disciples of Christ keep united, but their +conceptions of Jesus underwent a remarkable change, after His death. +We might have expected, indeed, that, when memory began to work, and +the disturbing influence of daily association was withdrawn, the +same idealising process would have begun on their image of Him, +which reveals and ennobles the characters of our dear ones who have +gone away from us. Most men have to die before their true worth is +discerned. But no process of that sort will suffice to account for +the change and heightening of the disciples' thoughts about their +dead Lord. It was not merely that, when they remembered, they said, +Did not our hearts burn within us by the way while He talked with +us?--but that His death wrought exactly the opposite effect from +what it might have been expected to do. It ought to have ended their +hope that He was the Messiah, and we know that within forty-eight +hours it was beginning to do so, as we learn from the plaintive +words of disappointed and fading hope: 'We _trusted_ that it +had been He which should have redeemed Israel.' If, so early, the +cold conviction was stealing over their hearts that their dearest +expectation was proved by His death to have been a dream, what could +have prevented its entire dominion over them, as the days grew into +months and years? But somehow or other that process was arrested, +and the opposite one set in. The death that should have shattered +Messianic dreams confirmed them. The death that should have cast a +deeper shadow of incomprehensibleness over His strange and lofty +claims poured a new light upon them, which made them all plain and +clear. The very parts of His teaching which His death would have +made those who loved Him wish to forget, became the centre of His +followers' faith. His cross became His throne. Whilst He lived with +them they knew not what He said in His deepest words, but, by a +strange paradox, His death convinced them that He was the Son of +God, and that that which they had seen with their eyes, and their +hands had handled, was the Eternal Life. The cross alone could never +have done that. Something else there must have been, if the men were +sane, to account for this paradox. + +Nor is this all. Another equally unlikely sequel of the death of +Jesus is the unmistakable moral transformation effected on the +disciples. Timorous and tremulous before, something or other touched +them into altogether new boldness and self-possession. Dependent on +His presence before, and helpless when He was away from them for an +hour, they become all at once strong and calm; they stand before the +fury of a Jewish mob and the threatenings of the Sanhedrim, unmoved +and victorious. And these brave confessors and saintly heroes are +the men who, a few weeks before, had been petulant, self-willed, +jealous, cowardly. What had lifted them suddenly so far above +themselves? Their Master's death? That would more naturally have +taken any heart or courage out of them, and left them indeed as +sheep in the midst of wolves. Why, then, do they thus strangely +blaze up into grandeur and heroism? Can any reasonable account be +given of these paradoxes? Surely it is not too much to ask of people +who profess to explain Christianity on naturalistic principles, that +they shall make the process clear to us by which, Christ being dead +and buried, His disciples were kept together, learned to think more +loftily of Him, and sprang at once to a new grandeur of character. +Why did not they do as John's disciples did, and disappear? Why was +not the stream lost in the sand, when the head-waters were cut off? + +II. Notice then, next, that the disciples' immediate belief in the +Resurrection furnishes a reasonable, and the only reasonable, +explanation of the facts. + +There is no better historical evidence of a fact than the existence +of an institution built upon it, and coeval with it. The Christian +Church is such evidence for the fact of the Resurrection; or, to put +the conclusion in the most moderate fashion, for the belief in the +Resurrection. For, as we have shown, the natural effect of our +Lord's death would have been to shatter the whole fabric: and if +that effect were not produced, the only reasonable account of the +force that hindered it is, that His followers believed that He rose +again. Since that was their faith, one can understand how they were +banded more closely together than ever. One can understand how their +eyes were opened to know Him who was 'declared to be the Son of God +with power by the resurrection from the dead.' One can understand +how, in the enthusiasm of these new thoughts of their Lord, and in +the strength of His victory over death, they put aside their old +fears and littlenesses and clothed themselves in armour of light. +'The Lord is risen indeed' was the belief which made the continuous +existence of the Church possible. Any other explanation of that +great outstanding fact is lame and hopelessly insufficient. + +We know that that belief was the belief of the early Church. Even if +one waived all reference to the Gospels, we have the means of +demonstrating that in Paul's undisputed epistles. Nobody has +questioned that he wrote the First Epistle to the Corinthians. The +date most generally assumed to that letter brings it within about +five-and-twenty years of the crucifixion. In that letter, in +addition to a multitude of incidental references to the Lord as +risen, we have the great passage in the fifteenth chapter, where the +apostle not only declares that the Resurrection was one of the two +facts which made his 'gospel,' but solemnly enumerates the witnesses +of the risen Lord, and alleges that this gospel of the Resurrection +was common to him and to all the Church. He tells us of Christ's +appearance to himself at his conversion, which must have taken place +within six or seven years of the crucifixion, and assures us that at +that early period he found the whole Church believing and preaching +Christ's resurrection. Their belief rested on their alleged +intercourse with Him a few days after His death, and it is +inconceivable that within so short a period such a belief should +have sprung up and been universally received, if it had not begun +when and as they said that it did. + +But we are not left even to inferences of this kind to show that, +from the beginning, the Church witnessed to the Resurrection of +Jesus. Its own existence is the great witness to its faith. And it +is important to observe that, even if we had not the documentary +evidence of the Pauline epistles as the earliest records, of the +Gospels, and of the Acts of the Apostles, we should still have +sufficient proof that the belief in the Resurrection is as old as +the Church. For the continuance of the Church cannot be explained +without it. If that faith had not dawned on their slow, sad hearts +on that Easter morning, a few weeks would have seen them scattered; +and if once they had been scattered, as they inevitably would have +been, no power could have reunited them, any more than a diamond +once shattered can be pieced together again. There would have been +no motive and no actors to frame a story of resurrection, when once +the little company had melted away. The existence of the Church +depended on their belief that the Lord was risen. In the nature of +the case that belief must have followed immediately on His death. +It, and it only, reasonably accounts for the facts. And so, over and +above Apostles, and Gospels, and Epistles, the Church is the great +witness, by its very being, to its own immediate and continuous +belief in the Resurrection of our Lord. + +III. Again, we may remark that such a belief could not have +originated or maintained itself unless it had been true. + +Our previous remarks have gone no farther than to establish the +belief in the Resurrection of Christ, as the basis of primitive +Christianity. It is vehemently alleged, and we may freely admit that +the step is a long one from subjective belief to objective reality. +But still it is surely perfectly fair to argue that a given belief +is of such a nature that it cannot be supposed to rest on anything +less solid than a fact; and this is eminently the case in regard to +the belief in Christ's Resurrection. There have been many attempts +on the part of those who reject that belief to account for its +existence, and each of them in succession has 'had its day, and +ceased to be.' Unbelief devours its own children remorselessly, and +the succession to the throne of antichristian scepticism is won, as +in some barbarous tribes, by slaying the reigning sovereign. The +armies of the aliens turn their weapons against one another, and +each new assailant of the historical veracity of the Gospels +commences operations by showing that all previous assailants have +been wrong, and that none of their explanations will hold water. + +For instance, we hear nothing now of the coarse old explanation that +the story of the Resurrection was a lie, and became current through +the conscious imposture of the leaders of the Church. And it was +high time that such a solution should be laid aside. Who, with half +an eye for character, could study the deeds and the writings of the +apostles, and not feel that, whatever else they were, they were +profoundly honest, and as convinced as of their own existence, that +they had seen Christ 'alive after His passion, by many infallible +proofs'? If Paul and Peter and John were conspirators in a trick, +then their lives and their words were the most astounding anomaly. +Who, either, that had the faintest perception of the forces that +sway opinion and frame systems, could believe that the fair fabric +of Christian morality was built on the sand of a lie, and cemented +by the slime of deceit bubbling up from the very pit of hell? Do men +gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? That insolent +hypothesis has had its day. + +Then when it was discredited, we were told that the mythical +tendency would explain everything. It showed us how good men could +tell lies without knowing it, and how the religious value of an +alleged fact in an alleged historical revelation did not in the +least depend on its being a fact. And that great discovery, which +first converted solid historical Christianity into a gaseous +condition, and then caught the fumes in some kind of retort, and +professed to hand us them back again improved by the sublimation, +has pretty well gone the way of all hypotheses. Myths are not made +in three days, or in three years, and no more time can be allowed +for the formation of the myth of the Resurrection. What was the +Church to feed on while the myth was growing? It would have been +starved to death long before. + +Then, the last new explanation which is gravely put forward, and is +the prevailing one now, sustains itself by reference to undeniable +facts in the history of religious movements, and of such abnormal +attitudes of the mind as modern spiritualism. On the strength of +which analogy we are invited to see in the faith of the early +Christians in the Resurrection of the Lord a gigantic instance of +'hallucination.' No doubt there have been, and still are, +extraordinary instances of its power, especially in minds excited by +religious ideas. But we have only to consider the details of the +facts in hand to feel that they cannot be accounted for on such a +ground. Do hallucinations lay hold on five hundred people at once? +Does a hallucination last for a long country walk, and give rise to +protracted conversation? Does hallucination explain the story of +Christ eating and drinking before His disciples? The uncertain +twilight of the garden might have begotten such an airy phantom in +the brain of a single sobbing woman; but the appearances to be +explained are so numerous, so varied in character, embrace so many +details, appeal to so many of the senses--to the ear and hand as +well as to the eye--were spread over so long a period, and were +simultaneously shared by so large a number, that no theory of such a +sort can account for them, unless by impugning the veracity of the +records. And then we are back again on the old abandoned ground of +deceit and imposture. It sounds plausible to say, Hallucination is a +proved cause of many a supposed supernatural event--why not of this? +But the plausibility of the solution ceases as soon as you try it on +the actual facts in their variety and completeness. It has to be +eked out with a length of the fox's skin of deceit before it covers +them; and we may confidently assert that such a belief as the belief +of the early Church in the Resurrection of the Lord was never the +product either of deceit or of illusion, or of any amalgam of the +two. + +What new solutions the fertility of unbelief may yet bring forth, +and the credulity of unbelief may yet accept, we know not; but we +may firmly hold by the faith which breathed new hope and strange joy +into that sad band on the first Easter morning, and rejoice with +them in the glad, wonderful fact that He is risen from the dead. + +IV. For that message is a message to us as truly as to the heavy-hearted +unbelieving men that first received it. We may think for a moment of the +joy with which we ought to return from the empty sepulchre of the risen +Saviour. + +How little these women knew that, as they went back from the grave +in the morning twilight, they were the bearers of 'great joy which +should be to all people'! To them and to the first hearers of their +message there would be little clear in the rush of glad surprise, +beyond the blessed thought, Then He is not gone from us altogether. +Sweet visions of the resumption of happy companionship would fill +their minds, and it would not be until calmer moments that the +stupendous significance of the fact would reveal itself. + +Mary's rapturous gesture to clasp Him by the feet, when the +certainty that it was in very deed He flooded her soul with dazzling +light, reveals her first emotion, which no doubt was also the first +with them all, 'Then we shall have Him with us again, and all the +old joy of companionship will be ours once more.' Nor were they +wrong in thinking so, however little they as yet understood the +future manner of their fellowship, or anticipated His leaving them +again so soon. Nor are we without a share even in that phase of +their joy; for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us a living +Lord for our love, an ever present Companion and Brother for our +hearts to hold, even if our hands cannot clasp Him by the feet. A +dead Christ might have been the object of faint historical +admiration, and the fair statue might have stood amidst others in +the galleries of history; but the risen, living Christ can love and +be loved, and we too may be glad with the joy of those who have +found a heart to rest their hearts upon, and a companionship that +can never fail. + +As the early disciples learned to reflect upon the fact of Christ's +Resurrection, its riches unfolded themselves by degrees, and the +earliest aspect of its 'power' was the light it shed on His person +and work. Taught by it, as we have seen, they recognised Him for the +Messiah whom they had long expected, and for something more--the +Incarnate Son of God. That phase of their joy belongs to us too. If +Christ, who made such avowals of His nature as we know that He did, +and hazarded such assertions of His claims, His personality and His +office, as fill the Gospels, were really laid in the grave and saw +corruption, then the assertions are disproved, the claims +unwarranted, the office a figment of His imagination. He may still +remain a great teacher, with a tremendous deduction to be made from +the worth of His teaching, but all that is deepest in His own words +about Himself and His relation to men must be sorrowfully put on one +side. But if He, after such assertions and claims, rose from the +dead, and rising, dieth no more, then for the last time, and in the +mightiest tones, the voice that rent the heavens at His baptism and +His transfiguration proclaims: 'This is My beloved Son; hear ye +Him.' Our joy in His Resurrection is the joy of those to whom He is +therein declared to be the Son of God, and who see in Christ risen +their accepted Sacrifice, and their ever-living Redeemer. + +Such was the earliest effect of the Resurrection of Jesus, if we +trust the records of apostolic preaching. Then by degrees the joyful +thought took shape in the Church's consciousness that their Shepherd +had gone before them into the dark pen where Death pastured his +flocks, and had taken it for His own, for the quiet resting-place +where He would make them lie down by still waters, and whence He +would lead them out to the lofty mountains where His fold should be. +The power of Christ's Resurrection as the pattern and pledge of ours +is the final source of the joy which may fill our hearts as we turn +away from that empty sepulchre. + +The world has guessed and feared, or guessed and hoped, but always +guessed and doubted the life beyond. Analogies, poetic adumbrations, +probabilities drawn from consciousness and from conscience, from +intuition and from anticipation, are but poor foundations on which +to build a solid faith. But to those to whom the Resurrection of +Christ is a fact their own future life is a fact. Here we have a +solid certainty, and here alone. The heart says as we lay our dear +ones in the grave, 'Surely we part not for ever.' The conscience +says, as it points us to our own evil deeds, 'After death the +judgment.' A deep indestructible instinct prophesies in every breast +of a future. But all is vague and doubtful. The one proof of a life +beyond the grave is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore let +us be glad with the gladness of men plucked from a dark abyss of +doubt and planted on the rock of solid certainty; and let us rejoice +with joy unspeakable, and laden with a prophetic weight of glory, as +we ring out the ancient Easter morning's greeting, 'The Lord is +risen indeed!' + + + + +THE FOOD OF THE WORLD + + + 'He gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples + to the multitude. 20. And they did all eat, and were + filled; and they took up of the fragments that remained + twelve baskets full.'--MATT. xiv. 19, 20. + +The miracles of Scripture are not merely wonders, but signs. It is +one of their most striking characteristics that they are not, like +the pretended portents of false faiths, mere mighty deeds standing +in no sort of intellectual relation to the message of which they +claim to be the attestation, but that they have themselves a +doctrinal significance. Our Lord's miracles have been called 'the +great bell before the sermon,' but they are more than that. They are +themselves no unimportant part of the sermon. In fact, it would not +be difficult to construct from them a revelation of His nature, +person, and work, scarcely less full and explicit than that +contained in His words, or even than that more systematic and +developed one which we receive in the writings of His apostles. + +This miracle, for instance, of the feeding of the five thousand with +five barley loaves and two small fishes, is one of the few which the +Apostle John relates in his Gospel, and his reason for selecting it +seems to be the commentary with which our Lord followed it, and +which John alone has preserved. That commentary is all the wonderful +discourse about Christ as the bread of life, and eating His flesh as +our means of receiving His life into ourselves. We are warranted, +then, in regarding this miracle as a symbolic revelation of Christ +as supplying all the wants of this hungry world. If so, we may +perhaps venture to take one more step, and regard the manner in +which He dispenses His gifts as also significant. His agents are His +disciples, or as would appear probable from the twelve baskets full +of fragments, the twelve apostles, the nucleus and representatives +of His Church. Thus we come to the point from which we wish to +regard this narrative now. There are three stages in the words of +our text--the distribution, the meal, and the gathering up of the +abundance that was left. These three stages may guide us to some +thoughts regarding the work to which Christ calls His Church, the +success which attends it, and the results to the distributors +themselves. + +I. Christ feeds the famishing world by means of His Church. + +'He gave the loaves to the disciples, and the _disciples_ to +the multitude.' One very striking feature in all our Lord's miracles +is economy of power. The miraculous element being admitted for some +good and sufficient reason, it is kept down to the lowest possible +point. Precisely so much of it as is needed is permitted, and not +one hairsbreadth more. It does not begin to make its appearance at +any point in the process where ordinary human agency can be used. It +does not produce a result beyond the actual necessity. It does not +last one instant longer than is required. It inosculates closely +with the natural order of things. + +Take an illustration from the beginning of miracles where Jesus +manifested forth His glory, at the marriage in Cana of Galilee--that +great miracle in which our Lord hallowed the ties of human +affection, and consecrated the joy of united hearts. The necessity +is felt before He supplies it. The servants fill the waterpots. The +water is used as the material on which the miraculous power +operates. Only so much as is drawn for present use becomes wine. The +servants are used as the agents for the distribution, and all is +done so unostentatiously, though it be the manifesting of His glory, +that no man knows but they. + +Take another illustration from the other great contrasted miracle at +the grave of Lazarus, where our Lord hallowed the breaking of +earthly bonds by death, and sanctified the sorrows of parted love. +He does not work His wonder from the other side Jordan, but comes. +He does not avert the death which He will conquer, nor prevent the +grief which He shares. He goes to the side of the grave--true human +tears are wet upon His cheek. They have to roll away the stone. +Then, there is flung into the darkness of the tomb the mighty word, +'Lazarus! come forth.' The inconceivable miraculous act is done, and +life stirs in the sheeted dead. But there the miraculous ceases. The +man with his restored life has himself to come out of the grave, and +human hands have tremblingly to lift the napkin from the veiled face +(how they must have thrilled as they did it, wondering what nameless +horror they might see in the eyes that had looked on the inner +chamber of death), and human help has to unfold the grave-clothes +from the tightly swathed and stumbling limbs, 'Loose him, and let +him go.' + +This marked characteristic of all our Lord's miracles is full of +instruction, which it would lead us too far from our present purpose to +indicate at any length. But we may just observe in passing, that it +brings these into striking parallel with the divine creative act, where +there is ever the same precise adaptation of power employed to result +contemplated, the same background of veiled omnipotence, the same +emergence of proportioned, adequate, but not superfluous force, so +that, in fact, economy of power may be said to be the very signature +and broad arrow of divinity stamped on all His works. Again, it +presents a broad contrast to the wild, reckless miracle-mongering of +false faiths, and is at once a test of the genuineness of all 'lying +signs and wonders,' and an indication of the self-restraint of the +Worker, and of the fine sanity and truthfulness of the narrators, of +these Gospel miracles. And yet, again, it is one phase of the +disciplinary character of the whole revelation of God in Christ--not +obtrusive, though obvious, capable of being overlooked if men will. +There was the hiding of His power. 'If any man wills to be ignorant, +let him be ignorant.' + +But coming more immediately to the narrative before us, we find this +same characteristic in full prominence in it. The people are allowed +to hunger. The disciples are permitted to feel themselves at their +wits' end. They are bid to bring their poor resources to Christ. The +lad who had come with his little store, perhaps a fisherman's boy +from some of the lake villages who hoped to sell his loaves and +fishes in the crowd, supplies the material on which Christ wills to +exercise His miraculous power. The disciples' agency is pressed into +the service. Each man separately receives his portion, and when all +are supplied, the fragments are carefully preserved for the use of +those who had been fed by miracle, and of Him who had fed them! + +Besides the general lessons already referred to, as naturally +arising from this feature of the miracle, there is that one which +belongs to it especially, namely, that Christ feeds the famishing +world by means of His Church. + +Precisely as in the miracles in general, so in the work of Christ as a +whole, the field of supernatural intervention is rigidly confined, and +fits in with the established order of things. The Incarnation and +Sacrifice of our Lord are the purely supernatural work of the divine +Power and Mercy. He comes, enters into our human conditions, assumes +our humanity, dies the death for us all. 'I have trodden the wine-press +alone.' There is no question of any human agency co-operating there, +any more than there is in the word 'Lazarus, come forth,' or in the +multiplication of the loaves. There, by Christ alone, is brought to +us and is finished for us an eternal redemption, with which the whole +race of man have nothing to do but to receive it, to eat and be filled. +But this having been done by the solitary work of Jesus Christ, this +new power having been introduced into the world, human agency is +henceforth called into operation to diffuse it, just as the servants +at Cana had to draw the wine which He had made, just as the disciples +at the Sea of Tiberias have to give to the multitude the bread which +was blessed and broken by His hands. + +The supernaturally given Bread of Life is to be carried over the +world in accordance with the ordinary laws by which all other truth +is diffused and all other gifts that belong to one man are held by +him in stewardship for all his fellows. True, there is ever in and +with that word of life a divine Spirit, which is the real cause of +its progress, which guards it from destruction though all men were +faithless, and keeps it alive though all Israel bowed the knee to +Baal. But, however easy it may be for us to confuse ourselves with +metaphysical puzzles about the relation between the natural and the +supernatural elements--the human agency and the divine energiser--in +the successful discharge of the Church's work, practically the +matter is very plain. + +The truth that it behoves us all to lay to heart is just this--that +Christian people are Christ's instruments for effecting the +realisation of the purposes of His death. Not without them shall He +see of the travail of His soul. Not without them shall the preaching +be fully known. Not without the people willing in the day of His +power, and clothed in priestly beauty, shall the Priest King set His +feet upon His enemies. Not without the armies of heaven following +Him, shall the 'Word of God' ride forth to victory. Neither the +divine decree, nor the expansive power of the Truth, nor the crowned +expectancy of the waiting Lord, nor the mighty working of the +Comforter, are the complete means for the accomplishment of the +divine promise that all nations shall be blessed in Him. Could all +these be conceived of as existing without the service and energies +of God's Church proclaiming the name of Christ, they were not +enough. He has willed that to us, less than the least of all saints, +should this grace be given, that we should make known the +unsearchable riches of Christ. God reveals His truth, that men who +believe it may impart it. God gives the word, that, caught up by +those who receive it into an honest and good heart, it may be poured +forth, in mighty chorus from the lips of the 'great company of them +that publish it.' 'He gave the loaves to the disciples, and the +_disciples_ to the multitude.' + +Christian men! learn your high vocation, and your solemn +responsibilities. 'What! came the word of God out from you, or came +it _unto_ you only?' For what did you receive it? For the same +reason for which you have received everything else which you +possess--that you might share it with your brethren. How did you +receive it? As a gift, unmerited, the result of a miracle of divine +mercy, that you might feel bound to give as ye have received, and +spread the free divine gift by cheerful human work of distribution. +From whom did you receive it? From Christ, who in the very act of +giving binds you to live for Him and not for yourselves, and to +mould your lives after the pattern of His. What a multitude of +motives converge on the solemn duty of work for Christ, if we read +in the light of this deeper meaning the simple words of our text, +'He gave the loaves to the disciples!' What manner of servant is he +who can bear to have no part in the blessed work that follows--'and +the disciples to the multitude'? + +It is further noticeable how these apostles were prepared for the +work which they had to do. The first lesson which they had to learn +was the almost ludicrous disproportion between the resources at +their command and the necessities of the crowd. 'How many loaves +have ye? go and see.' And this is the first lesson that we have to +learn in all our work for Christ and for our brethren, that in +ourselves we have nothing fit for the task before us. Think of what +that task is as measured by the necessities and sorrows of men. +Think of all the sighs that go up at every moment from burdened +hearts, of the tears that run down so many blanched and anxious +cheeks. Think of '_all_ the misery that is done under the sun!' +If it could be made visible, what a dark pall would swathe the +world, an atmosphere of sorrow rolling ever with it through space. +The sight is too sad to be seen by any but by Him who cures it all, +and it wrung from His heart the sigh with which ere He cured one +poor sufferer--a drop in the ocean--He looked up to heaven, as in +mute appeal against all these heaped miseries of suffering man. + +And we, what can we do in ourselves? On what comparison of our +resources do we not feel utterly inadequate to the work? If we think +of the proportion in numbers, we have to say, like the narrator of +the wars in Israel, 'The children of Israel pitched before them like +two little flocks of kids, but the Syrians filled the country.' If +we think of the strength that we ourselves possess and look at our +own tremulous faith, at our own feeble love, at the uncertain hold +which we ourselves have on the Gospel that we profess, at the mists +and darkness which cover so much of God's revelation from our own +understandings, at the sins and faults of our own lives, must we not +cry out, Send whom Thou wilt send, O Lord, but take not me, so +sinful, so little influenced by Thy grace, to be the messenger of +Thy grace? 'Who is sufficient for these things?' + +And such contemplations, when they drive home to our hearts the +wholesome lesson of our own weakness, are the beginning, and the only +possible beginning, of divine strength. The only temper in which we +can serve God and bless man is that of lowliest self-abasement. God +works with bruised reeds, and out of them makes polished shafts, +pillars in His house. Only when we are low on our faces before God, +crying out,' Unclean, unclean,' does the purifying coal touch our +lips and the prophet strength flow into our souls. + +Be humble and self-distrustful, and then learn the further lesson of +this narrative, and carry your poor inadequate resources to Christ. +'Bring them hither to Me.' In His hands they become sufficient. He +multiplies them. He gives wisdom, strength, and all that fits for +the task to which He calls us. Bring your little faith to Him and He +will increase it. Bring your feeble love to Him, and ask Him to +kindle it from the pure flame of His own, and He will make your +heart burn within you. Bring your partial understanding of His will +and way to Him, and He will be to you wisdom. Bring all the poverty +of your natures, all the insufficiency of your religious character, +all the inadequacy of your poor work, to your Lord. Feel it all. Let +the conviction of your nothingness sink into your soul. Then wait +before Him in simple faith, in lowly obedience, and power will come +to you equal to your desire and to your duties, and He will put His +spirit upon you, and will anoint you to proclaim liberty to the +captives and to give bread to all the hungry. 'Who is sufficient for +these things?' must ever precede, and will ever be followed by, 'our +sufficiency is of God.' + +Mark again that the disciples seem themselves to have partaken of +the bread before they parted it among the multitudes. That is our +true preparation for the work of feeding the hungry. The Church +which feeds the world is able to do so, only because, and in +proportion as, it has found in Christ its own sustenance and life. +It is only they who can say 'we have tasted and felt and handled of +the word of life' who can declare it to others. Personal participation +in the bread of life makes any man able to offer it to some fainting +spirit. Nothing else makes him able. Ability involves responsibility. +'Power to its last particle is duty.' You, dear friends, who have +'tasted that the Lord is gracious,' have thereby come under weighty +obligations. Your own personal experience of that precious bread has +fitted you to do something in offering it to others. The manner in +which you do so must be determined by your character and circumstances. +Every one has his proper walk; but something you can do. To some lips +you can commend the food for all the world. Somewhere your word is +a power. See that you do what you can do. Remember that Christ feeds +the world by His Church, and that every man who has himself eaten of +the bread of life is thereby consecrated to carry it to those who yet +are perishing in the far-off hunger-ridden land, and trying to fill +their bellies with the husks that the swine eat. + +II. The Bread is enough for all the world. + +'They did all eat and were filled.' One can fancy how doubtingly and +grudgingly the apostles doled out the supplies at first, and how the +portion of each was increased, as group after group was provided, +and no diminution appeared in Christ's full hands, until, at last, +all the five thousand, of all ages, of both sexes, of every sort, +were fed, and the fragments lying uncared for proved how sufficient +had been the share of each. + +May we not see in that scene a picture of the full supply for all +the wants of the whole world which there is in that Bread of Life +which came down from heaven? The Gospel proclaims a full feast, +which is enough for all mankind, which is intended for all mankind, +which shall one day satisfy all mankind. + +This universal adaptation of the message of the Gospel to the whole +world arises from the obvious fact that it addresses itself to +universal wants, to the great rudimentary, universally diffused +characteristics of human nature, and that it provides for all these, +in the grand simplicity of its good tidings, the one sufficing word. +It entangles itself with no local or historical peculiarities of the +time and place of its earthly origin, which can hinder it in its +universal diffusion. It commits itself to no transient human +opinions. It addresses itself to no sectional characteristics of +classes of men. It brushes aside all the surface distinctions which +separate us from one another, and goes right down to the depths of +the central identities in which we are all alike. However we may +differ from one another, in training, in habits, in cast of thought, +in idiosyncrasies of character, in circumstances, in age--all these +are but the upper strata which vary locally. Beneath all these there +lie everywhere the solid foundations of the primeval rocks, and +beneath these, again, the glowing central mass, the flaming heart of +the world. Christianity sends its shaft right down through all these +upper and local beds, till it reaches the deepest depths which are +the same in every man--the obstinate wilfulness of a nature averse +from God, and the yet deeper-lying longings of a soul that flames +with the consciousness of God, and yearns for rest and peace. To the +sense of sin, to the sense of sorrow, to the conscience never wholly +stifled, to the desires after good never utterly eradicated and +never slaked by aught besides itself, does this mighty word come. +Not to this or that sort of man, not to men in this or that phase of +progress, age of the world, or stage of civilisation, does it +address itself, but to the common humanity which belongs to all, to +the wants and sorrows and inward consciousness which belong to man +as man, be he philosopher or fool, king or slave, Eastern or +Western, 'pagan suckled in a creed outworn,' or Englishman with the +new lights and material science of this twentieth century. + +Hence its universal adaptation to mankind. It alone of all so-called +faiths overleaps all geographical limits and lives in all centuries. +It alone wins its trophies and bestows its gifts on all sorts and +conditions of men. Other plants which the 'Heavenly Father hath not +planted' have their zones of vegetation and die outside certain +degrees of latitude, but the seed of the kingdom is like corn, an +exotic nowhere, for wherever man lives it will grow, and yet an +exotic everywhere, for it came down from heaven. Other food requires +an educated palate for its appreciation, but any hungry man in any +land will relish bread. For every soul on earth this living dying +love of the Lord Jesus Christ addresses itself to, and satisfies, +his deepest wants. It is the bread which gives life to the world. + +And one of the constituents of that company by the Galilean lake was +children. It is one great glory of Christianity that its merciful +mysteries can find their way to the hearts of the little children. +Its mysteries, we say--for the Gospel has its mysteries no less than +these old systems of heathenism which fenced round their deepest +truths with solemn barriers, only to be passed by the initiated. But +the difference lies here--that its mysteries are taught at first to +the neophytes, and that the sum of them lies in the words which we +learned at our mother's knees so long ago that we have forgotten +that they were ever new to us: 'God so loved the world that He gave +His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not +perish, but should have eternal life.' The little child who has +learned his earliest lessons of what father and son, loving and +giving, trust and life mean, by the sweet experiences of his own +father's home and his own mother's love, can grasp these blessed +words. They carry the deepest mysteries which will still gleam +before us unfathomed in all their profundity, unappropriated in all +their blessedness, when millenniums have passed since we stood in +the inner shrine of heaven. Wonderful is the word which blesses the +child, which transcends the angel before the throne! + +This is the bread for the world--meant for it, and one day to be +partaken of by it. For these ordered fifties at their Christ-provided +meal are for us a prophecy of the day that shall surely dawn, when +all the hunger of wandering prodigals is over, and the deceived +heart of the idol-worshipper no longer drawing him aside to feed on +ashes, they shall come from the East and from the West, and from +the North and from the South, and sit at the feast which the Lord +hath prepared for all nations, and when all the earth shall be satisfied +with the goodness of His house, even of His holy temple. + +III. The Bread which is given to the famishing is multiplied for the +future of the Distributors. + +'They took of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.' More +was gathered than they had possessed at first. They preserved over, +for their own sustenance and refreshment in days to come, a far +larger store than the five loaves and two small fishes with which +they had begun. The fact contains a principle which is true about +almost all except material possessions, which is often in God's +providence made true about them, and which is emphatically true +about spiritual blessings, about our religious emotions, our +Christian beliefs, the joys and powers which Christ comes to give. + +For all these, the condition of increase is diffusion. To impart to +others is to gain for oneself. Every honest effort to bring some +other human heart into conscious possession of Christ's love deepens +one's own sense of its preciousness. Every attempt to lead some +other understanding to the perception of the truth, as it is in +Jesus, helps me to understand it better myself. If you would learn, +teach. That will clear your mind, will open hidden harmonies, will +reveal unsuspected deficiencies and contradictions in your own +conceptions, will help you to feel more the truths that come from +your lips. It will perhaps shame your cold appreciation of them, +when you see how others grasp at them from your teaching, or give +you more confidence in the Gospel as the power of God unto +salvation, when you behold it, even as ministered through you, +mighty to pull down strongholds. At the lowest, it will keep your +own mind in healthy contact with what you art but too apt to forget. +If you would learn to love Christ more, try to lead some one else to +love Him, You will catch new gleams from His gracious heart in the +very act of commending Him to others. If you would have your own +spiritual life strengthened and deepened, remember that not by +solitary meditation or raptures of silent communion alone can that +be accomplished, but by these and by honest manful work for God in +the world. The Mount of Transfiguration must be left, although there +were there Moses and Elias, and the cloud of the divine glory and +the words of approval from heaven, because there were a demoniac boy +and his weeping, despairing father needing Christ down below. Work +for God if you would live with God. Give the bread to the hungry, if +you would have it for the food of your own souls. + +The refusal to engage in such service is one fruitful cause of the +low state of spiritual health in which so many Christians pass their +days. They seem to think that they receive the bread from heaven +only for their own use, and that they have done all that they have +to do with it, when they eat it themselves. And so come all manner +of spiritual diseases. A selfish, that is an inactive, religion is +always more or less a morbid religion. For health you need exercise. +'In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread'; that law expresses +not only the fact that work is needed to get it, but that toil must +give the appetite and fit the frame to digest it. There is such a +thing as a morbid Christianity brought on by want of healthy +exercise. + +'There is that scattereth and yet increaseth, and there is that +withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty.' Good +husbandry does not grind up all the year's wheat for loaves for +one's own eating, but keeps some of it for seed to be scattered in +the furrows. And if Christian men will deal with the great love of +God, the great work of Christ, the great message of the Gospel, as +if it were bestowed on them for their own sakes only, they will have +only themselves to blame if holy desires die out in their hearts, +and the consciousness of Christ's love becomes faint, and all the +blessed words of truth come to sound far off and mythical in their +ears. The standing water gets green scum on it. The close-shut barn +breeds weevils and smut. Let the water run. Fling the seed +broadcast. 'Thou shalt find it after many days,' bread for thy own +soul--even as these ministering apostles were enriched whilst they +gave, and the full-handed liberality 'with which they carried +Christ's gifts among the crowd' had something to do in providing the +large residue which filled their stores for days to come. + +Thus, then, this scene on the sweet springing grass down by the side +of blue Gennesaret is an emblem of the whole work of the Church in +this starving world. The multitudes famish. Tell Christ of their +wants. Count your own small resources till you have completely +learned your poverty, then take them to Jesus. He will accept them, +and in His hands they will become mighty, being transfigured from +human thoughts and forces into divine words, into spiritual powers. +On that bread which He gives, do you yourselves live. Then carry it +boldly to all the hungry. Rank after rank will eat. All races, all +ages, from grey hairs to babbling childhood, will find there the +food of their souls. As you part the blessing, it will grow beneath +His eye; and the longer you give, the fuller-handed you will become. +Nor shall the bread fail, nor the word become weak, till all the +world has tasted of its sweetness and been refreshed by its potent +life. + +This miracle is the lesson for the workers. There is another +wondrous meal recorded in Scripture, which is the prophecy for the +workers when they rest. The little ship has been tossing all the +night on the waters of that Galilean lake. Fruitless has been the +fishing. The morning breaks cold and grey, and lo! there stands on +the shore One who first blesses the toilers' work, and then bids +them to His table. There, mysteriously kindled, burns the fire with +the welcome meal already laid upon it. They add to it the +contribution of their night of toil, and then, hushed and blessed in +His still company, they sup with Him and He with them. So when the +weary work is over for the Church on earth, we shall be aware of His +merciful presence on the shore, and, coming at the last safe to +land, we shall 'rest from our labours,' in that we see the 'fire of +coals, and fish laid thereon and bread'; and our 'works shall follow +us,' in that we are 'bidden to bring of the fish that we have +caught.' Then, putting off the wet fisher's coat, and leaving behind +the tossing of the unquiet sea and the toil of the weary fishing, we +shall sit down with Him at that meal spread by His hands, who +blesseth the works of His servants here below, and giveth to them a +full fruition of immortal food at His table at the last. + + + + +THE KING'S HIGHWAY + + + 'And straightway Jesus constrained His disciples to get + into a ship, and to go before Him unto the other side, + while He sent the multitudes away. 23. And when He had + sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain + apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was + there alone. 24. But the ship was now in the midst of + the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. + 25. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went + unto them, walking on the sea. 26. And when the + disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were + troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out + for fear. 27. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, + saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. + 28. And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it be + Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water. 29. And He + said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the + ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. 30. But + when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and + beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. + 31. And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and + caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, + wherefore didst thou doubt. 32. And when they were come + into the ship, the wind ceased. 33. Then they that were + in the ship came and worshipped Him, saying, Of a truth + Thou art the Son of God. 34. And when they were gone + over, they came into the land of Gennesaret. 35. And + when the men of that place had knowledge of Him, they + sent out into all that country round about, and brought + unto Him all that were diseased; 36. And besought Him + that they might only touch the hem of His garment: and + as many as touched were made perfectly whole.' + --MATT. xiv. 22-36. + +The haste and urgency with which the disciples were sent away, +against their will, after the miracle of feeding the five thousand, +is explained in John's account. The crowd had been excited to a +dangerous enthusiasm by a miracle so level to their tastes. A +prophet who could feed them was something like a prophet. So they +determine to make him a king. Our Lord, fearing the outburst, +resolves to withdraw into the lonely hills, that the fickle blaze +may die down. If the disciples had remained with Him, He could not +have so easily stolen away, and they might have caught the popular +fervour. To divide would distract the crowd, and make it easier for +Him to disperse them, while many of them, as really happened, would +be likely to set off by land for Capernaum, when they saw the boat +had gone. The main teaching of this miracle, over and above its +demonstration of the Messianic power of our Lord, is symbolical. All +the miracles are parables, and this eminently so. Thus regarding it, +we have-- + +I. The struggling toilers and the absent Christ. + +They had a short row of some five or six miles in prospect, when +they started in the early evening. An hour or so might have done it, +but, for some unknown reason, they lingered. Perhaps instead of +pulling across, they may have kept inshore, by the head of the lake, +expecting Jesus to join them at some point. Thus, night finds them +but a short way on their voyage. The paschal moon would be shining +down on them, and perhaps in their eager talk about the miracle they +had just seen, they did not make much speed. A sudden breeze sprang +up, as is common at nightfall on mountain lakes; and soon a gale, +against which they could make no headway, was blowing in their +teeth. This lasted for eight or nine hours. Wet and weary, they +tugged at the oars through the livelong night, the seas breaking +over them, and the wind howling down the glens. + +They had been caught in a similar storm once before, but then He had +been on board, and it was daylight. Now it was dark, 'and Jesus had +not yet come to them,' How they would look back at the dim outline +of the hills, where they knew He was, and wonder why He had sent them +out into the tempest alone! Mark tells us that He saw them distressed, +hours before He came to them, and that makes His desertion the stranger. +It is but His method of lovingly training them to do without His +personal presence, and a symbol of what is to be the life of His people +till the end. He is on the mountain in prayer, and He sees the labouring +boat and the distressed rowers. The contrast is the same as is given in +the last verses of Mark's Gospel, where the serene composure of the +Lord, sitting at the right hand of God, is sharply set over against +the wandering, toiling lives of His servants, in their evangelistic +mission. The commander-in-chief sits apart on the hill, directing the +fight, and sending regiment after regiment to their deaths. Does that +mean indifference? So it might seem but for the words which follow, +'the Lord working with them.' He shares in all the toil; and the lifting +up of His holy hands sways the current of the fight, and inclines the +balance. His love appoints effort and persistent struggle as the law +of our lives. Nor are we to mourn or wonder; for the purpose of the +appointment, so far as we are concerned, is to make character, and to +give us 'the wrestling thews that throw the world.' Difficulties make +men of us. Summer sailors, yachting in smooth water, have neither the +joy of conflict nor the vigour which it gives. Better the darkness, +when we cannot see our way, and the wind in our faces, if the good of +things is to be estimated by their power to 'strengthen us with +strength in our soul!' + +II. We have the approaching Christ. + +Not till the last watch of the night does He come, when they have +long struggled, and the boat is out in the very middle of the lake, +and the storm is fiercest. We may learn from this the delays of His +love. Because He loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus, He stayed still, +in strange inaction, for two days, after their message. Because He +loved Peter and the praying band, He let him lie in prison till the +last hour of the last watch of the last night before his intended +execution, and then delivered him with a leisureliness (making him +put on article after article of dress) which tells of conscious +omnipotence. Heaven's clock goes at a different rate from our little +timepieces. God's day is a thousand years, and the longest tarrying +is but 'a little while.' When He has come, we find that it is 'right +early,' though before He came He seemed to us to delay. He comes +across the waves. Their restless and yielding crests are smoothed +and made solid by the touch of His foot. 'He walketh on the sea as +on a pavement' (Septuagint version of Job ix. 8). It is a revelation +of divine power. It is one of the very few miracles affecting +Christ's own person, and may perhaps be regarded as being, like the +Transfiguration, a casual gleam of latent glory breaking through the +body of His humiliation, and so, in some sense, prophetic. But it is +also symbolic. He ever uses tumults and unrest as a means of +advancing His purposes. The stormy sea is the recognised Old +Testament emblem of antagonism to the divine rule; and just as He +walked on the billows, so does He reach His end by the very +opposition to it, 'girding Himself' with the wrath of men, and +making it to praise Him. In this sense, too, His 'paths are in the +great waters.' In another aspect, we have here the symbol of +Christ's using our difficulties and trials as the means of His +loving approach to us. He comes, giving a deeper and more blessed +sense of His presence by means of our sorrows, than in calm sunny +weather. It is generally over a stormy sea that He comes to us, and +golden treasures are thrown on our shores after a tempest. + +III. We have the terror and the recognition. + +The disciples were as yet little lifted above their fellows; they +had no expectation of His coming, and thought just what any rude +minds would have thought, that this mysterious Thing stalking +towards them across the waters came from the unseen world, and +probably that it was the herald of their drowning. Terror froze +their blood, and brought out a shriek (as the word might be +rendered) which was heard above the dash of waves and the raving +wind. They had gallantly fought the tempest, but this unmanned them. +We too often mistake Christ, when He comes to us. We do not +recognise His working in the storm, nor His presence giving power to +battle with it. We are so absorbed in the circumstances that we fail +to see Him through them. Our tears weave a veil which hides Him, or +the darkness obscures His face, and we see nothing but the +threatening crests of the waves, curling high above our little boat. +We mistake our best friend, and we are afraid of Him as we dimly see +Him; and sometimes we think that the tokens of His presence are only +phantasms of our own imagination. + +They who were deceived by His appearance knew Him by His voice, as +Mary did at the sepulchre. How blessed must have been the moment +when that astounding certitude thrilled through their souls! That +low voice is audible through all the tumult. He speaks to us by His +word, and by the silent speech in our spirits, which makes us +conscious that He is there. He does speak to us in the deepest of +our sorrows, in the darkest of our nights; and when we hear of His +voice, and with wonder and joy cry out, 'It is the Lord,' our sorrow +is soothed, and the darkness is light about us. + +The consciousness of His presence banishes all fear. 'Be not afraid,' +follows 'It is I.' It is of no use to preach courage unless we preach +Christ first. If we have not Him with us, we do well to fear: His +presence is the only rational foundation for calm fearlessness. Only +when the Lord of Hosts is with us, ought we not to fear, 'though the +waters roar ... and be troubled.' 'Through the dear might of Him that +walked the waves' can we feeble creatures face all terrors, and feel +no terror. + + +IV. We have the end of the storm and of the voyage. + +The storm ceases as soon as Jesus is on board. John does not mention +the cessation of the tempest, but tells us that they were +immediately at the shore. It does not seem necessary to suppose +another miracle, but only that the voyage ended very speedily. It is +not always true that His presence is the end of dangers and +difficulties, but the consciousness of His presence does hush the +storm. The worst of trouble is gone when we know that He shares it; +and though the long swell after the gale may last, it no longer +threatens. Nor is it always true that His coming, and our +consciousness that He has come, bring a speedy close to toils. We +have to labour on, but in how different a mood these men would bend +to their oars after they had Him on board! With Him beside us toil +is sweet, burdens are lighter, and the road is shortened. Even with +Him on board, life is a stormy voyage; but without Him, it ends in +shipwreck. With Him, it may be long, but it will look all the +shorter while it lasts, and when we land the rough weather will be +remembered but as a transient squall. These wearied rowers, who had +toiled all night, stepped on shore as the morning broke on the +eastern bank. So we, if we have had Him for our shipmate, shall land +on the eternal shore, and dry our wet garments in the sunshine, and +all the stormy years that seemed so long shall be remembered but as +a watch in the night. + + + + +PETER ON THE WAVES + + + 'And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it be Thou, + bid me come unto Thee on the water.'--MATT. xiv. 28. + +We owe this account of an episode in the miracle of Christ's walking +on the waters to Matthew alone. Singularly enough there is no +reference to Peter's venturesomeness and failure in the Gospel which +is generally believed to have been written under his special +inspection and suggestion. Mark passes by that part of the narrative +without a word. That may be because Peter was somewhat ashamed of +it, or it may be from a natural disinclination to make himself +prominent in the story at all. But, whatever the reason, we may be +thankful that in this first Gospel we have the story, for it is not +only interesting as illustrating the characteristics of the apostle +in a very picturesque fashion, but also as carrying in it very +plainly large lessons that are of use for us all. + +I. Note, first, Peter's venturesomeness, half faith, and half +presumption. + +There is a singular mixture of good and bad in it. Looked at one +way, it seems all right; like a bit of shot silk, in one light it is +bright, and in another it is black enough. What was good in it? +Well, there was the man's out-and-out confidence in his Master; and +there was, further, the unconsidered, instinctive shoot of love in +his heart to the mysterious figure standing there upon the water, so +that his desire was to be beside Him. It was far more 'Bid me come +_to Thee_!' than 'Bid me come to Thee _on the water_.' The +incident was a kind of rehearsal, with a noticeable difference, and +yet with nearly parallel circumstances, of the other incident when, +after the Resurrection, he discovered the Lord standing on the +shore, and floundered through the water anyhow; whether on it or in +it did not matter to him, so long as he could get near his Master. +But though the apostle's action was blended with a great deal that +was childish and sensuous, and was perhaps quite as much the result +of mere temperament as of conscious affection, still there was good +in that eager longing to be beside his Lord, which it would be well +for us if we in some measure shared, and in that indifference to the +perils of the strange path so long as it led to Christ's side, +which, if it were ours, would ennoble our lives, and in that perfect +confidence that Christ could enable him to tread the unquiet sea, +which would make us lords of all storms, if it wrought in us. + +What was bad in it? First, the characteristic pushing of himself to +the front, and wish to be singled out from his brethren by some +special token. 'Bid _me_ come.' Why should he be bidden any more +than John, who sits quietly and gazes, or the others, who are tugging +at the oars? Then the impetuous rashness and signal over-estimate of +his own capacity and courage were bad. Perhaps, too, there was a +little dash of a boyish kind of wish to do a strange thing, and now +that he sees his Master there, walking on the waters, he thinks he +would like to try it too. So the request is a rash, self-confident +pushing of himself before his brethren into circumstances of wholly +unnecessary peril and trial, of which he had not estimated the +severity till he felt the water beginning to yield under his feet +and the wind smiting him on the face. So that the incident is a +rehearsal and anticipation of the precisely similar thing that he did +when, on the morning of Christ's trial, he shouldered himself +unnecessarily into the high priest's palace, and got himself close +up against the fire there, without a moment's reflection on the +possible danger he was running of having his loyalty melted by a +fiercer flame, and little dreaming that he was going to fall, and all +his courage to ooze out at his finger-ends, before the sharp tongue +of a maid-servant. In like manner as he says here, 'Bid me come to +Thee,' without the smallest doubt that when he was bade to come he +would be able to do it, so he said that night: 'Though all should +forsake Thee, yet will not I,'--and yet he denied Him. + +Let us take the warning from this venturesomeness of a generous, +impulsive, enthusiastic religious nature, and remember that the most +genuine faith and religious emotion need to be sobered and steadied +by reflection, and by searching into our own motives, before we +venture upon the water, howsoever much we may wish to go there. Make +very sure that your zeal for the Lord has an element of sober +permanence in it, and that it is the result, not of a mere +transitory feeling, but of a steady, settled purpose. And do not +push yourself voluntarily into places of peril or of difficulty, +where the fighting is hard and the fire heavy, unless you have +reasonable grounds for believing that you can stand the strain. +Bring quiet, sober reason into the loftiest and loveliest enthusiasm +of your faith, and then there will be something in it that will live +through storm, and walk the water with unwetted and unsinking foot. +An impure alloy of selfish itching for pre-eminence and distinction +does not seldom mingle with the fine gold of religious enthusiasm +and desire to serve and be near our Lord. Therefore we have to test +our motives and seek to refine our purest emotions, and the more +scrupulously the purer they seem, lest we be yielding to the +impulses of self while we fancy that we are being drawn by the +magnetism of Christ. + +II. We have here the momentary triumph and swift collapse of an +impure faith. + +One can fancy with what hushed expectation the other apostles looked at +Peter as he let himself down over the side of the ship, and his feet +touched the surges and did not sink. Christ's grave, single-worded +answer 'Come' barely sanctions the apostle's request. It is at most a +permission, but scarcely a command, and it is permission to try, in +order that Peter may learn his own weakness. He did walk on the water +to go to Jesus. What kept him up? Not Christ's hand, nor any power +bestowed on the apostle, but simply the exercise of Christ's will. But +if he was held up by the operation of that will, why did he begin to +sink? The vivid narrative tells us: 'When he saw the wind boisterous, +he was afraid.' That was why. It had been blowing every bit as hard +before he stepped out of the ship. The waves were not running any +higher after than when he said, 'Bid me come to Thee.' But he was +down amongst them, and that makes a wonderful difference. For a +moment he stood, and then the peril into which he had so heedlessly +thrust himself began to tell on him. Presumption subsided swiftly +into fright, as it usually does, and fear began to fulfil itself, +as it usually does. 'He became afraid,' and that made him heavy and +he began to sink. Not because the gale was any more violent, not +because the uneven pavement was any more yielding, but because he was +frightened, and his faith began to falter at the close sight of the +danger. + +And why did the ebbing away of faith mean the withdrawal of Christ's +will to keep him up? Why? Because it could not but be so. There is +only one door through which Christ's upholding power gets into a +man, and that is the door of the man's trust in the power; and if he +shuts the door, the power stops outside. So Peter went down. The +text does not tell us how far down he went. Depend upon it, it was +further than over the shoes! But he went down because he began to +lose his trust that Christ could hold him up; and when he lost his +trust, Christ lost His power over him. + +All this is a parable, carrying very plain and important lessons. We +are upborne by Christ's power, and that power, working on and in our +weakness, invests us with prerogatives in some measure like His own. +If He can stand quiet on the heaving wave, so can His servant. 'The +works that I do shall ye do also'--and 'the depths of the sea +"become" a way for the ransomed to pass over.' That power is +exercised on condition of our faith. As soon as faith ceases the +influx of His grace is stayed. Peter, though probably he was not +thinking of this incident, has put the whole philosophy of it into +plain words in his own letter, when he says, 'You who are kept +_by_ the power of God _through_ faith unto salvation.' He was held up +as long as he believed. His belief was a hand, and that which it +grasped was what held him up, and that was Christ's will and power. +So we shall be held up everywhere, and in any storm, as long as, and +no longer than, we set our confidence upon Him. + +Our faith is sure to fail when we turn away our eyes from Christ to +look at the tempest and the dangers. If we keep our gaze fixed upon +Him, the consciousness and the confidence of His all-sustaining +power will hold us up. If once we turn aside to look at the waves as +they heave, and prick our ears to listen to the wind as it whistles, +then we shall begin to doubt whether He is able to keep us up. +'Looking off' from all these dangers 'unto Jesus' is needful if we +are to run the race set before us. + +A man walking along a narrow ledge of some Alpine height has only +one chance of safety, and that is, not to look at his feet or at the +icy rocks beside him, or at the gulf beneath, into which he will be +dashed if he gazes down. He must look up and onwards, and then he +will walk along a knife-edge, and he shall not fall. So, Peter, +never mind the water, never mind the wind; look at Jesus and you +will get to Him dry shod. If you turn away your eyes from Him, and +take counsel of the difficulties and trials and antagonisms, down +you will be sure to go. 'They sank to the bottom like a stone, the +depths covered them.' Christ holds us up. He cannot hold us up +unless we trust Him. Faith and fear contend for supremacy in our +hearts. If we rightly trust, we shall not be afraid. If we are +afraid, terror will slay trust. To look away from Christ, and occupy +our thoughts with dangers and obstacles, is sure to lead to the +collapse of faith and the strengthening of terror. To look past and +above the billows to Him that stands on them is sure to cast out +fear and to hearten faith. Peter ignored the danger at the wrong +time, before he dropped over the side of the boat, and he was aware +of it at the wrong time, while he was actually being held up and +delivered from it. Rashness ignores peril in the wrong way, and +thereby ensures its falling on the presumptuous head. Faith ignores +it in the right way, by letting the eye travel past it, to Christ +who shields from it, and thereby faith brings about the security it +expects, and annihilates the peril from which it looks away to +Jesus. + +III. We have here the cry of desperate faith and its immediate +answer. + +The very thing which had broken Peter's faith mended it again. Fear +sunk him by making him falter in his confidence; and, as he was +sinking, the very desperation of his terror drove him back to his +faith, and he 'cried' with a shrill, loud voice, heard above the +roar of the boisterous wind, 'Lord, save me.' So difficulties and +dangers, when they begin to tell upon us, often send us back to the +trust which the anticipation of them had broken; and out of the very +extremity of fear we sometimes can draw its own antidote. Just as +with flint and steel you may strike a spark, so danger, striking +against our heart, brings out the flash that kindles the tinder. + +This brief cry for help singularly blends faith and fear. There is +faith in it, else Peter would not have appealed to Christ to save +him. There is mortal terror in it, else he would not have felt that +he needed to cry. But faith is uppermost now, and the very terror +feeds it. So, by swift transition, our fears may pass into their own +opposite and become courageous trust. Just as in a coal fire the +thick black smoke sometimes gets alight and passes into ruddy flame, +so our fears may catch fire and flash up as confidence and prayer. + +Note the merciful swiftness of Christ's answer. 'Immediately He +caught him,' because another moment would have been too late. There +will be time to teach him the lessons of his presumption, but when +the water is all but up to the lips that shrieked for help, there is +but one thing to do. He must be saved first and talked to afterwards. +Our cries for deliverance in temporal matters are not always answered +so quickly, for it is often better for us to be left to struggle with +the waves and winds. But our appeals for Christ's helping hand in +soul-peril are always answered without delay. No appreciable time is +consumed in the passage of the telegram or in flashing back the +answer. The apostle was not caught by Christ's hand before he knew +his danger, for it was good for him that he should go down some way, +but he was caught as soon as he called on the Master, and before he +had come to any harm. The trial lasted long enough to wash the +stiffening of self-confidence out of him, and then it had done its +work--and Christ's strong hand held him up. + +The manner of the answer is noteworthy. It is determined by, and +adapted to, his weak faith. He could not be upheld now as he had +been a moment ago, before his fear had weighted him, by the exercise +of Christ's will only. Then Christ could hold him up without +touching him, but now the palpable grasp of the hand was needed to +assure the tremulous, doubting heart. So we, too, sometimes need and +get material and outward signs which make it easier to feel the +reality of sustaining grace. But whether we do or no, Christ's swift +help always takes the form best suited to our faith, and He has +regard to the capacity of our clasping hands in the measure and +manner of His gifts. + +The time and tone of Christ's gentle remonstrance are remarkable. +Deliverance comes first, and rebuke afterwards. Having first shown +him, by the fact of safety, that his doubts were irrational, Christ +then, and not till then, puts His gentle question. Perhaps there was +a smile on His face, as surely there was love in His voice, that +softened the rebuke and went to Peter's heart. + +What does Christ rebuke him for? Getting out of the boat? No. He +does not blame him for venturing too much, but for trusting too +little. He does not blame him for attempting something beyond his +strength, but for not holding fast the beginning of his confidence +firm unto the end. And so the lesson for us is, that we cannot +expect too much if we expect it perseveringly. We cannot set our +conceptions of Christ's possible help to us too high if only we keep +at the height to which we once have set them, and are assured that +He will hold us up when we are down amongst the weltering waves, as +we fancied ourselves to be when we were sitting in the boat wishing +to be with Him. That is the question that He will meet us with when +we get up on the shore yonder; and we shall not have any more to say +for ourselves, in vindication of our tremulous trust, than Peter, +silenced for once, had to say on this occasion. + +It will be good for us all if, like this apostle, our trials +consolidate our characters, and out of the shifting, fluctuating, +impetuous nature that was blown about like sand by every gust of +emotion there be made, by the pressure of responsibility and trial, +and experience of our own unreliableness, the 'Rock' of a stable +character, steadfast and unmovable, with calm resolution and fixed +faith, on which the Great Architect can build some portion of His +great temple. + + + + +CRUMBS AND THE BREAD + + + 'Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts + of Tyre and Sidon. 22. And, behold, a woman of Canaan + came out of the same coasts, and cried unto Him, + saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my + daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. 23. But He + answered her not a word. And His disciples came and + besought Him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth + after us. 24. But He answered and said, I am not sent + but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. + 25. Then came she and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, + help me. 26. But He answered and said, It is not meet + to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. + 27. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the + crumbs which fall from their masters' table. 28. Then + Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy + faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her + daughter was made whole from that very hour. 29. And + Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea + of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down + there. 30. And great multitudes came unto Him, having + with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, + and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; + and He healed them: 31. Insomuch that the multitude + wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed + to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: + and they glorified the God of Israel.'--MATT. xv. 21-31. + +The King of Israel has passed beyond the bounds of Israel, driven by +the hostility of those who should have been His subjects. The +delegates of the priestly party from Jerusalem, who had come down to +see into this dangerous enthusiasm which was beginning in Galilee, +have made Christ's withdrawal expedient, and He goes northward, if +not actually into the territory of Tyre and Sidon, at any rate to +the border land. The incident of the Syro-Phoenician woman becomes +more striking if we suppose that it took place on Gentile ground. At +all events, after it, we learn from Mark that He made a considerable +circuit, first north and then east, and so came round to the eastern +side of the sea of Galilee, where the last paragraph of this section +finds Him. The key to its meaning lies in the contrast between the +single cure of the woman's demoniac daughter, obtained after so long +imploring, and the spontaneous abundance of the cures wrought when +Jesus again had Jewish sufferers to do with, even though it were on +the half-Gentilised eastern shore of the lake. The contrast is an +illustration of His parable of the crumbs that fell from the table +and the plentiful feast that was spread upon it for the children. + +The story of the Syro-Phoenician woman naturally falls into four +parts, each marked by the recurrence of 'He answered.' + +I. There is the piteous cry, and the answer of silence. Mark tells +us that Jesus sought concealment in this journey; but distress has +quick eyes, and this poor woman found Him. Canaanite as she is, and +thus a descendant of the ancient race of Israel's enemies, she has +learned to call Him the Son of David, owning His kingship, which His +born subjects disowned. She beseeches for that which He delights to +give, identifying herself with her poor child's suffering, and +asking as for herself His mercy. As Chrysostom says: 'It was a sight +to stir pity to behold a woman calling aloud in such distress, and +that woman a mother, and pleading for a daughter, and that daughter +in such evil plight.' In her humility she does not bring her child, +nor ask Him to go to her. In her agony, she has nothing to say but +to spread her grief before Him, as thinking that He, of whose pity +she has heard, needs but to know in order to alleviate, and requires +no motives urged to induce Him to help. In her faith, she thinks +that His power can heal from afar. What more could He have desired? +All the more startling, then, is His demeanour. All the conditions +which He usually required, were present in her; but He, who was wont +to meet these with swift and joyful over-answers, has no word to say +to this poor, needy, persevering, humble, and faithful suppliant. +The fountain seems frozen, from which such streams of blessing were +wont to flow. His mercy seems clean gone, and His compassion to have +failed. A Christ silent to a sufferer's cry is a paradox which +contradicts the whole gospel story, and which, we may be very sure, +no evangelist would have painted, if he had not been painting from +the life. + +II. There is the disciples' intercession answered by Christ's +statement of the limitations of His mission. Their petition +evidently meant, 'Dismiss her by granting her request'; they knew in +what fashion He was wont to 'send away' such suppliants. They seem, +then, more pitiful than He is. But their thoughts are more for +themselves than for her. That 'us' shows the cloven foot. They did +not like the noise, and they feared it might defeat His purpose of +secrecy; and so, by their phrase, 'Send her away,' they +unconsciously betray that what they wanted was not granting the +prayer, but getting rid of the petitioner. Perhaps, too, they mean, +'Say something to her; either tell her that Thou wilt or that Thou +wilt not; break Thy silence somehow.' No doubt, it was intensely +disagreeable to have a shrieking woman coming after them; and they +were only doing as most of us would have done, and as so many of us +do, when we give help without one touch of compassion, in order to +stop some imploring mouth. + +Their apparently compassionate but really selfish intercession was +put aside by the answer, which explains the paradox of His silence. +It puts emphasis on two things: His subordination to the divine will +of the Father, and the restrictions imposed thereby on the scope of +His beneficent working. He was obeying the divine will in confining +His ministry to the Jewish people, as we know that He did. Clearly, +that restriction was necessary. It was a case of concentration in +order to diffusion. The fire must be gathered on the hearth, if it +is afterward to warm the chamber. There must be geographical and +national limits to His life; and the Messiah, who comes last in the +long series of the kings and prophets, can only be authenticated as +the world's Messiah, by being first the fulfiller to the children of +the promises made to the fathers. The same necessity, which required +that revelation should be made through that nation, required that +the climax and fulfiller of all revelation should limit His earthly +ministry to it. This limitation must be regarded as applying only to +His own personal ministry. It did not limit His sympathies, nor +interfere with His consciousness of being the Saviour and King of +the whole world. He had already spoken the parables which claimed it +all for the area of the development of His kingdom, and in many +other ways had given utterance to His consciousness of universal +dominion, and His purpose of universal mercy. But He knew that there +was an order of development in the kingdom, and that at its then +stage the surest way to attain the ultimate universality was rigid +limitation of it to the chosen people. This conviction locked His +gracious lips against even this poor woman's piteous cry. We may +well believe that His sympathy outran His commission, and that it +would have been hard for so much love to be silent in the presence +of so much sorrow, if He had not felt the solemn pressure of that +divine necessity which ruled all His life. He was bound by His +instructions, and therefore He answered her not a word. Individual +suffering is no reason for transcending the limits of God-appointed +functions; and he is absolved from the charge of indifference who +refrains from giving help, which he can only give by overleaping the +bounds of his activity, which have been set by the Father. + +III. We have, next, the persistent suppliant answered by a refusal +which sounds harsh and hopeless. Christ's former words were probably +not heard by the woman, who seems to have been behind the group. She +saw that something was being said to Him, and may have gathered, +from gestures or looks, that His reply was unfavourable. Perhaps +there was a short pause in their walk, while they spoke, during +which she came nearer. Now she falls at His feet, and with +'beautiful shamelessness,' as Chrysostom calls it, repeats her +prayer, but this time with pathetic brevity, uttering but the one +cry, 'Lord, help me!' The intenser the feeling, the fewer the words. +Heart-prayers are short prayers. She does not now invoke Him as the +Son of David, nor tell her sorrow over again, but flings herself in +desperation on His pity, with the artless and unsupported cry, wrung +from her agony, as she sees the hope of help fading away. Like +Jacob, in his mysterious struggle, 'she wept, and made supplication +unto Him.' + +As it would seem, her distress touched no chord of sympathy; and +from the lips accustomed to drop oil and wine into every wound, came +words like swords, cold, unfeeling, keen-edged, fitted and meant to +lacerate. We shall not understand them, or Him, if we content +ourselves with the explanation which jealousy for His honour as +compassionate and tender has led many to adopt, that He meant all +the long delay in granting her request, and the words which He +spoke, only as tests of her faith. His refusal was a real refusal, +founded on the divine decree, which He was bound to obey. His words +to her, harsh as they unquestionably sound, are but another way of +putting the limitation on which He had just insisted in His answer +to the disciples. The 'bread' is the blessing which He, as the sent +of God, brings; the 'children' are the 'lost sheep of the house of +Israel'; the 'dogs' are the Gentile world. The meaning of the whole +is simply the necessary restriction of His personal activity to the +chosen nation. It is not meant to wound nor to insult, though, no +doubt, it is cast in a form which might have been offensive, and +would have repelled a less determined or less sorrowful heart. The +form may be partly explained by the intention of trying her +earnestness, which, though it is not the sole, or even the +principal, is a subordinate, reason of our Lord's action. But it is +also to be considered in the light of the woman's quick-witted +retort, which drew out of it an inference which we cannot suppose +that Christ did not intend. He uses a diminutive for 'dogs,' which +shows that He is not thinking of the fierce, unclean animals, +masterless and starving, that still haunt Eastern cities, and +deserve their bad character, but of domestic pets, who live with the +household, and are near the table. In fact, the woman seized His +intention much better than later critics who find 'national scorn' +in the words; and the fair inference from them is just that which +she drew, and which constituted the law of the preaching of the +Gospel,--'To the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.' + +IV. We have the woman's retort, which wrings hope out of apparent +discouragement, answered by Christ's joyful granting of her request. +Out of His very words she weaves a plea. 'Yes, Lord; I am one of the +dogs; then I am not an alien, but belong to the household.' The +Revised Version does justice to her words by reading 'for even' +instead of 'yet,' She does not enter a caveat against the analogy, +but accepts it wholly, and only asks Him to carry out His own +metaphor. She takes the sword from His hand, or, as Luther says, +'she catches Him in His own words.' She does not ask a place at the +table, nor anything taken from those who have a prior claim to a +more abundant share in His mercies. A crumb is enough for her, which +they will never miss. In other and colder words, she acquiesces in +the divine appointment which limits His mission to Israel; but she +recognises that all nations belong to God's household, and that she +and her countrymen have a real, though for the time inferior, +position in it. She pleads that her gain will not be the children's +loss, nor the answer to her prayers an infraction of the spirit of +His mission. Perhaps, too, there may be a reference to the fact of +His being there on Gentile soil, in her words, 'Which fall from the +children's table.' She does not want the bread to be thrown from the +table to her. She is not asking Him to transfer His ministry to +Gentiles; but here He is. A crumb has fallen, in His brief visit. +May she not eat of that? In this answer faith, humility, +perseverance, swift perception of His meaning, and hallowed +ingenuity and boldness, are equally admirable. By admitting that she +was 'a dog,' and pleading her claim on that footing, she shows that +she was 'a child.' And therefore, because she has shown herself one +of the true household, in the fixedness of her faith, in the +meekness of her humility, in the persistence of her prayers, Christ +joyfully recognises that here is a case in which He may pass the +line of ordinary limitation, and that, in doing so, He does not +exceed His commission. Such faith is entitled to the fullest share +of His gift. She takes her place beside the Gentile centurion as the +two recipients of commendation from Him for the greatness of their +faith. It had seemed as if He would give nothing; but He ends with +giving all, putting the key of the storehouse into her hand, and +bidding her take, not a crumb, but 'as thou wilt.' Her daughter is +healed, by His power working at a distance; but that was not, we may +be very sure, the last nor the best of the blessings which she took +from that great treasure of which He made her mistress. Nor can we +doubt that He rejoiced at the removal of the barrier which dammed +back His help, as much as she did at the abundance of the stream +which reached her at last. + +V. The final verses of our lesson give us a striking contrast to +this story. Jesus is again on the shores of the lake, after a tour +through the Tyrian and Sidonian territory, and then eastwards and +southwards, to its eastern bank. There He, as on several former +occasions, seeks seclusion and repose in the hills, which is broken +in upon by the crowds. The old excitement and rush of people begin +again. And large numbers of sick, 'lame, blind, dumb, maimed and +many others,' are brought. They are cast 'down at His feet' in hot +haste, with small ceremony, and, as would appear, with little +petitioning for His healing power. But the same grace, for which the +Canaanitish woman had needed to plead so hard, now seems to flow +almost unasked. She had, as it were, wrung a drop out; now it gushes +abundantly. She had not got her 'crumb' without much pleading; these +get the bread almost without asking. It is this contrast of scant +and full supplies which the evangelist would have us observe. And he +points his meaning plainly enough by that expression, 'they +glorified the God of Israel,' which seems to be Matthew's own, and +not his quotation of what the crowd said. This abundance of miracle +witnesses to the pre-eminence of Israel over the Gentile nations, +and to the special revelation of Himself which God made to them in +His Son. The crowd may have found in it only fuel for narrow +national pride and contempt; but it was the divine method for the +founding of the kingdom none the less; and these two scenes, set +thus side by side, teach the same truth, that the King of men is +first the King of Israel. + + + + +THE DIVINE CHRIST CONFESSED, THE SUFFERING CHRIST DENIED + + + 'When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Phllippi, + He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I + the Son of Man am? 14. And they said, Some say that + thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; and others, + Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 15. He saith unto + them, But whom say ye that I am? 16. And Simon Peter + answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the + living God. 17. And Jesus answered and said unto him, + Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood + hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is + in heaven. 18. And I say also unto thee, That thou art + Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and + the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19. And + I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of + heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall + be hound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on + earth shall be loosed in heaven. 20. Then charged He + His disciples that they should tell no man that He was + Jesus the Christ. 21. From that time forth began Jesus + to shew unto His disciples, how that He must go unto + Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and + chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised + again the third day. 22. Then Peter took Him, and began + to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far from Thee, Lord: this + shall not be unto Thee. 23. But He turned, and said + unto Peter, Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art an + offence unto Me: for thou savourest not the things that + be of God, but those that be of men. 24. Then said + Jesus unto His disciples, If any man will come after + Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and + follow Me. 25. For whosoever will save his life shall + lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake + shall find it. 26. For what is a man profited, if he + shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or + what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 27. For + the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father + with His angels; and then He shall reward every man + according to his works. 28. Verily I say unto you, + There be some standing here, which shall not taste of + death, till they see the Son of Man coming in His + kingdom.'--MATT. xvi. 13-28. + +This section is embarrassing from its fulness of material. We can +but lightly touch points on which volumes might be, and indeed have +been, written. + +I. The first section (vs. 13-20) gives us Peter's great confession +in the name of the disciples, and Christ's answer to it. The centre +of this section is the eager avowal of the impetuous apostle, always +foremost for good or evil. We note the preparation for it, its +contents, and its results. As to the preparation,--our Lord is +entering on a new era in His work, and desires to bring clearly into +His followers' consciousness the sum of His past self-revelation. +The excitement, which He had checked after the first miraculous +feeding, had died down. The fickle crowd had gone away from Him, and +the shadows of the cross were darkening. Amid the seclusion of the +woods, fountains, and rocks of Caesarea, far away from distracting +influences, He puts these two momentous questions. Following the +Revised Version reading, we have a double contrast between the first +and second. 'Men' answers to 'ye,' and 'the Son of Man' to 'I.' The +first question is as to the partial and conflicting opinions among +the multitudes who had heard His name for Himself from His own lips; +the second, in its use of the 'I,' hints at the fuller unveiling of +the depths of His gracious personality, which the disciples had +experienced, and implies, 'Surely you, who have been beside Me, and +known Me so closely, have reached a deeper understanding.' It has a +tone of the same wistfulness and wonder as that other question of +His, 'Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known +Me?' For their sakes, He seeks to draw out their partly unconscious +faith, that had been smouldering, fed by their daily experience of +His beauty and tenderness. Half-recognised convictions float in many +a heart, which need but a pointed question to crystallise into +master-truths, to which, henceforward, the whole being is subject. +Great are the dangers of articulate creeds; but great is the power +of putting our shadowy beliefs into plain words. 'With the mouth +confession is made unto salvation.' + +Why should this great question have been preceded by the other? +Probably to make the disciples feel more distinctly the chaotic +contradictions of the popular judgment, and their own isolation by +their possession of the clearer light. He wishes them to see the +gulf opening between them and their fellows, and so to bind them +more closely to Himself. This is the question the answer to which +settles everything for a man. It has an intensely sharp point. We +cannot take refuge from it in the general opinion. Nor does any +other man's judgment about Him matter one whit to us. This Christ +has a strange power, after nineteen hundred years, of coming to each +of us, with the same persistent interrogation on His lips. And to-day, +as then, all depends on the answer which we give. Many answer by +exalted estimates of Him, like these varying replies which ascribed +to Him prophetic authority, but they have not understood His own name +for Himself, nor drunk in the meaning of His self-revelation, unless +they can reply with the full-toned confession of the apostle, which +sets Him far above and apart from the highest and holiest. + +As to the contents of the confession, it includes both the human and +the divine sides of Christ's nature. He is the Messiah, but He is +more than what a Jew meant by that name; He is 'the Son of the +living God,' by which we cannot indeed suppose that Peter meant all +that he afterwards learned it contained, or all that the Church has +now been taught of its meaning, but which, nevertheless, is not to +be watered down as if it did not declare His unique filial relation +to the Father, and so His divine nature. Nathanael had burst into +rapturous adoration of Jesus as 'the Son of God' at the very +beginning; and the disciples' glad confidence, which cast out the +fear of the dim form striding across the sea, had echoed the +confession; all had heard His words, 'No man knoweth the Father but +the Son.' So we need not hesitate to interpret this confession as in +essence and germ containing the whole future doctrine of our Lord's +divinity. True, the speaker did not know all which lay in His words. +Do we? Do we not see here an illustration of the method of Christian +progress in doctrine, which consists not in the winning of new +truths, but in the penetrating further into the meaning of old and +initial truths? The conviction which made and makes a Christian, is +this of Peter's; and Christian growth is into, not away from, it. + +As to the results, they are set forth in our Lord's answer, which +breathes of delight, and we may almost say gratitude. His manhood +knew the thrill of satisfaction at having some hearts which +understood though partially, and loved even better than they knew. +The solemn address to the apostle by his ancestral name, gives +emphasis to the contrast between his natural weakness and his divine +illumination and consequent privilege. The name of Peter is not here +bestowed, but interpreted. Christ does not say 'Thou shalt be,' but +'Thou art,' and so presupposes the former conferring of the name. +Unquestionably, the apostle is the rock on which the Church is +built. The efforts to avoid that conclusion would never have been +heard of, but for the Roman Catholic controversy; but they are as +unnecessary as unsuccessful. Is it credible that in the course of an +address which is wholly occupied with conferring prerogatives on the +apostle, a clause should come in, which is concerned about an +altogether different subject from the 'thou' of the preceding and +the 'thee' of the following clauses, and which yet should take the +very name of the apostle, slightly modified, for that other subject? +We do not interpret other books in that fashion. But it was not the +'flesh and blood' Peter, but Peter as the recipient and faithful +utterer of the divine inspiration in his confession, who received +these privileges. Therefore they are not his exclusive property, but +belong to his faith, which grasped and confessed the divine-human +Lord; and wherever that faith is, there are these gifts, which are +its results. They are the 'natural' consequences of the true faith +in Christ, in that higher region where the supernatural is the +natural. Peter's grasp of Christ's nature wrought upon his +character, as pressure does upon sand, and solidified his shifting +impetuosity into rock-like firmness. So the same faith will tend to +do in any man. It made him the chief instrument in the establishment +of the early Church. On souls steadied and made solid by like faith, +and only on such, can Christ build His Church. Of course, the +metaphor here regards Jesus, not as the foundation, as the Scripture +generally does, but as the founder. The names of the twelve apostles +of the Lamb are on the foundations of the heavenly city; and, in +historical fact, the name of this apostle is graven on the deepest +and first laid. In like subordinate sense, all who share that heroic +faith and proclaim it are used by the Master-builder in the +foundations of His Church; and Peter himself is eager to share his +name among his brethren, when he says 'Ye also, as living stones.' + +Built on men who hold by that confession, the Church is immortal; +and the armies who pour out of the gates of the pale kingdoms of the +unseen world shall not be able to destroy it. Peter, as confessor of +his Lord's human-divine nature, wields the keys of the kingdom of +heaven, like a steward of a great house; and that too was fulfilled +in his apostolic activity in his admitting Jews at Pentecost, and +Gentiles in the house of Cornelius. But the same power attends all +who share his faith and avowal, for the preaching of that faith is +the opening of heaven's door to men. He receives the power of +binding and loosing, by which is not meant that of forgiving or +retaining sins, but that of prohibiting or allowing actions, or, in +other words, of laying down the law of Christian conduct. This +meaning of the metaphors is made certain by the common Jewish use of +them. Despotic legislative power is not here committed to the +apostle, but the great principle is taught that the morality of +Christianity flows directly from its theology, and that whosoever, +like Peter, grasps firmly the cardinal truth of Christ's nature, and +all which flows therefrom, will have his insight so cleared that his +judgments on what is permitted or forbidden to a Christian man will +correspond with the decisions of heaven, in the measure of his hold +upon the truth which underlies all religion and all morality, +namely, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' These are +gifts to Peter indeed, but only as possessor of that faith, and are +much more truly understood as belonging to all who 'possess like +precious faith' (as Peter says), than as the prerogative of any +individual or class. + +II. The second section (vs. 21-23) contains the startling new +revelation of the suffering Messiah, and the disciples' repugnance +to it. The Gospel has two parts: Jesus is the Christ, and the Christ +must suffer and enter into His glory. Our Lord has made sure that +the disciples have learned the first before He leads to the second. +The very conviction of His dignity and divine nature made that +second truth the more bewildering, but still the only road to it was +through the first. Verse 21 covers an indefinite time, during which +Jesus gradually taught His sufferings. Ordinarily we exaggerate the +suddenness, and therefore the depth, of Peter's fall, by supposing +that it took place immediately after his confession; but the +narrative discountenances the idea, and merely says that Jesus then +'began' His new teaching. There had been veiled hints of it (such as +John ii. 19, and Matt. ix. 15, xii. 40), but henceforward it assumed +prominence, and was taught without veil. It was no new thought to +Himself, forced on Him by the growing enmity of the nation. The +cross always cast its shadow on His path. He was no enthusiast, +beginning with the dream of winning a world to His side, and slowly +and heroically making up His mind to die a martyr, but His purpose +in being born was to minister and to die, a ransom for the many. We +have not here to do with a growing consciousness, but simply with an +increasing clearness of utterance. Note the detailed accuracy of His +prevision, which points to Jerusalem as the scene, and to the rulers +of the nation as the instruments, and to death as the climax, and to +resurrection as the issue, of His sufferings; the clear setting +forth of the divine necessity which, as it ruled all His life, ruled +here also, and is expressed in that solemn 'must'; and the perfectly +willing acceptance by Him of that necessity, implied in that 'go,' +and certified by many another word of His. The necessity was no +external compulsion, driving Him to an unwelcome sacrifice, but one +imposed alike by filial obedience and by brotherly love. He +_must_ die because He _would_ save. + +How vividly the scene of Peter's rash rejection of the teaching is +described! The apostle, full of eager love, still, as of old, swift +to speak, and driven by unexamined impulse, lays his hand on Christ, +and draws Him a little apart, while he 'begins' to pour out words +which show that he has forgotten his confession. 'Rebuke' must not +be softened down into anything less vehement or more respectful. He +knows better than Jesus what will happen. Perhaps his assurance +'that this shall never be' means 'We will fight first.' But he is +not allowed to finish what he began; for the Master, whom he loved +unwisely but well, turns His back on him, as in horror, and shows by +the terrible severity of His rebuke how deeply moved He is. He +repels the hint in almost the same words as He had used to the +tempter in the wilderness, of whom that Peter, who had so lately +been the recipient and proclaimer of a divine illumination, has +become the mouthpiece. So possible is it to fall from sunny heights +to doleful depths! So little can any divine inspiration be +permanent, if the man turn away from it to think man's thoughts, and +set his affections on the things which men desire! So certainly does +minding these degrade to becoming an organ of Satan! The words are +full of restrained emotion, which reveal how real a temptation Peter +had flung in Christ's path. The rock has become a stone of +stumbling; the man Jesus shrank from the cross with a natural and +innocent shrinking, which never made His will tremulous, but was +none the less real; and such words from loving lips did affect him. +Let us note, on the whole, that the complete truth about Jesus +Christ must include these two parts,--His divine nature and +Messiahship, and His death on the cross; and that neither alone is +the gospel, nor is he a disciple, such as Christ desires, who does +not cleave to both with mind and heart. + +III. In verses 24-28, the law, which ruled the Master's life, is +extended to the servants. They recoiled from the thought of His +having to suffer. They had to learn that they must suffer too if +they would be His. First, the condition of discipleship is set +before them as being the fellowship of His suffering. 'If any man +will' gives them the option of withdrawal. A new epoch is beginning, +and they will have to enlist again, and to do so with open eyes. He +will have no unwilling soldiers, nor any who have been beguiled into +the ranks. No doubt, some went away, and walked no more with Him. +The terms of service are clear. Discipleship means imitation, and +imitation means self-crucifixion. At that time they would only +partially understand what taking up their cross was, but they would +apprehend that a martyred master must needs have for followers men +ready to be martyrs too. But the requirement goes much deeper than +this. There is no discipleship without self-denial, both in the +easier form of starving passions and desires, and in the harder of +yielding up the will, and letting His will supplant ours. Only so +can we ever come after Him, and of such sacrifice of self the cross +is the eminent example. We cannot think too much of it as the +instrument of our reconciliation and forgiveness, but we may, and +too often do, think too little of it as the pattern of our lives. +When Jesus began to teach His death, He immediately presented it as +His servants' example. Let us not forget that fact. + +The ground of the law is next stated in verse 25. The desire to save +life is the loss of life in the highest sense. If that desire guide +us, then farewell to enthusiasm, courage, the martyr spirit, and all +which makes man's life nobler than a beast's. He who is ruled mainly +by the wish to keep a whole skin, loses the best part of what he is +so anxious to keep. In a wider application, regard for self as a +ruling motive is destruction, and selfishness is suicide. On the +other hand, lives hazarded for Christ are therein truly saved, and +if they be not only hazarded, but actually lost, such loss is gain; +and the same law, by which the Master 'must' die and rise again, +will work in the servant. Verse 26 urges the wisdom of such apparent +folly, and enforces the requirement by the plain consideration that +'life' is worth more than anything beside, and that on the two +grounds, that the world itself would be of no use to a dead man, and +that, once lost, 'life' cannot be bought back. Therefore the dictate +of the wisest prudence is that seemingly prodigal flinging away of +the lower 'life' which puts us in possession of the higher. Note +that the appeal is here made to a reasonable regard to personal +advantage, and _that_ in the very act of urging to crucify +self. So little did Christ think, as some people do, that the desire +to save one's soul is selfishness. + +Verse 27 confirms all the preceding by the solemn announcement of +the coming of the Son of Man as Judge. Mark the dignity of the +words. He is to come 'in the glory of the Father.' That ineffable +and inaccessible light which rays forth from the Father enwraps the +Son. Their glory is one. The waiting angels are 'His.' He renders to +every man according to his doing (his actions considered as one +whole). Thus He claims for Himself universal sway, and the power of +accurately determining the whole moral character of every life, as +well as that of awarding precisely graduated retribution. They +surely shall then find their lives who have followed Him here. + +Verse 28 adds, with His solemn 'verily,' a confirmation of this +announcement of His coming to judge. The question of what event is +referred to may best be answered by noting that it must be one +sufficiently far off from the moment of speaking to allow of the +death of the greater number of His hearers, and sufficiently near to +allow of the survival of some; that it must also be an event, after +which these survivors would go the common road into the grave; that +it is apparently distinguished from His coming 'in the glory of the +Father,' and yet is of such a nature as to afford convincing proof +of the establishment of His kingdom on earth, and to be, in some +sort, a sign of that final act of judgment. All these requirements +(and they are all the fair inferences from the words) meet only in +the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the national life of the chosen +people. That was a crash of which we faintly realise the tremendous +significance. It swept away the last remnant of the hope that Israel +was to be the kingdom of the Messiah; and from out of the dust and +chaos of that fall the Christian Church emerged, manifestly destined +for world-wide extension. It was a 'great and terrible day of the +Lord,' and, as such, was a precursor and a prophecy of the day of +the Lord, when He 'shall come in the glory of the Father,' and +'render unto every man according to his deeds.' + + + + +CHRIST FORESEEING THE CROSS + + + 'From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto His + disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and + suffer many things of the elders and chief priests + and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the + third day.'--MATT. xvi. 21. + +The 'time' referred to in the text was probably a little more than +six months before the Crucifixion, when Jesus was just on the point +of finally leaving Galilee, and travelling towards Jerusalem. It was +an epoch in His ministry. The hostility of the priestly party in the +capital had become more pronounced, and simultaneously the fickle +enthusiasm of the Galilean crowds, which had been cooled by His +discouragement, had died down into apathy. He and His followers are +about to leave familiar scenes and faces, and to plunge into +perilous and intrude paths. He is resolved that, if they will +'come after Him,' as He bids them in a subsequent verse, it shall be +with their eyes open, and as knowing that to come after Him now +means to cut themselves loose from old moorings, and to put out into +the storm. They shall be abundantly certified that their journeying +to Jerusalem is not a triumphal procession to a crown, but a march +to a cross. + +So, this new epoch in His life is attended with a new development of +His teaching. My text sums up the result of many interviews in +which, by slow degrees, He sought to put the disciples in possession +of this unwelcome truth. It was prepared for, by the previous +conversation in which His question elicited from Peter, as the +mouthpiece of the apostles, the great confession of His Messiahship +and Divinity. Settled in their belief of these truths, however +imperfect their intellectual grasp of them, they might perhaps be +able to receive the mournful mystery of His passion. + +I. We have here set forth in the first place our Lord's anticipation +of the Cross. + +Mark the tone of the language, the minuteness of the detail, the +absolute certainty of the prevision. That is not the language of a +man who simply is calculating that the course which he is pursuing +is likely to end in his martyrdom; but the thing lies there before +Him, a definite, fixed certainty; every detail known, the scene, the +instruments, the non-participation of these in the final act of His +death, His resurrection, and its date,--all manifested and mapped +out in His sight, and all absolutely certain. + +Now this was by no means the first time that the certainty of the +Cross was plain to Christ. It was not even the first time that it +had been announced in His teaching. Veiled hints; allusions, brief +but pregnant, had been scattered through His earlier ministry--such, +for instance, as the enigmatical word at its very beginning, +'Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up'; or as +the profound word to the rabbi that sought Him by night, 'As Moses +lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be +lifted up'; or as the passing hint, dropped to the people, in +symbolical language, about the 'sign of the prophet Jonas'; or as +the grief foreshadowed dimly to the apostles, of the withdrawal of +the Bridegroom, and their 'fasting in those days.' These hints, and +no doubt others unrecorded, had cropped to the surface before; and +what we have to do with here, is neither the dawning of an +expectation in Christ, nor the first utterance of the certainty of +the Cross, but simply the beginning of a continuous and +unenigmatical teaching of it, as an element in His instructions to +His disciples. + +So then, we have to recognise the fact that our Lord's prevision of +the end--shone, I was going to say, perhaps it might be truer to +say, darkened,--all the path along which He had to travel. + +I think that people dogmatise a great deal too glibly as to what +they know very little about, the interaction of the divine and the +human elements in Christ, and on the one side are far too certain in +their affirmation that His humanity possessed in some reflected +fashion the divine gift of omniscience; and on the other hand, that +His manhood, passing through the process of human development, and +increasing in wisdom, was necessarily in its earlier stages void of +the consciousness of His Messianic mission. I dare not affirm either +'yes' or 'no' about that matter; but this I am sure of, that if ever +there was a time in the development of the Manhood of Jesus Christ +when He began to know Himself as the Messias, at that same time He +began to be certain of the Cross. For His Messianic work required +the Cross, and the divine thing that was in Him was born into the +world for a double purpose, to minister and to die. + +So, dear friends, putting aside mere metaphysics, which are +superficial after all, we have to recognise this as the fact, that +all through His career there arose before our Lord the certainty of +that death, and that it did not assume to Him the aspect which such +a prospect might have assumed to others as a possible result of a +mission that failed, but it assumed to Him the aspect of the certain +result of a work that was accomplished. He began His career with no +illusions, such as other teachers, reformers, philanthropists, men +that have moved society, have always begun with. Moses might +'suppose his brethren would have understood how that God by His hand +would deliver them,' but Christ had no such illusion. He knew from +the beginning that He came to be rejected and to die. And so He +'trod life's common way,' with that grim certainty rising ever +before Him. I suppose that He did not, as you and I do, forget the +death that awaits us, and find the non-remembrance of it the +condition of much of our energy, but that it was perpetually in His +sight. + +Now I do not think that we sufficiently dwell upon that fact as an +element in the human experience of our Lord. What beauty it gives to +His gentleness, to the leisureliness of heart with which He was ready +to make everybody's sorrow His own, and to lay a healing and a loving +finger upon every wound! With this certainty before Him, there was +yet no strain manifest upon His spirit, no self-absorption, no +shutting Himself out from other people's burdens because He had so +heavy ones of His own to carry; but He was ready for every joy, ready +for all sympathy, ready for every help; and if we cannot say that, +'in cheerful godliness,' as I think we may, at least we can say that +with solemn joy and untroubled readiness, He journeyed towards that +Cross. This Isaac was under no illusions as to who the Lamb for the +offering was, but knowing it, He patiently carried the wood and +climbed the hill, ready for the Father's will. + +II. That brings me to notice the second point here, our Lord's +recognition of the necessity of His suffering. + +Mark that He does not say that He _shall_ suffer. Certainty is +not all that He proclaims here, however absolute that certainty +might be, but it is '_He must_.' He is speaking not only of the +historical fact, but of the need, deep in the nature of things, for +His sufferings that were to follow. + +And though these were wrought out by His own willing submission on +the one hand, and by the unfettered play of the evil passions of the +worst of men on the other, yet over all that apparent chaos of +unbridled devildom there ruled the unalterable purpose of God; and +the 'must' was wrought out through the passions of evil-doers and +the voluntary submission of the innocent sufferer; thus setting +before us, in the central fact of the history of humanity, viz. the +Cross and passion of Jesus Christ, the eminent example of that great +mystery how the absolute freedom of the human will, and the +responsibility of the guilt of human wrong-doers, are congruous with +the fixed purpose of an all-determining and all-ruling Providence. + +But that is apart from my purpose. Mark then, that our Lord's +recognition of this necessity for His suffering is, on the first and +plainest aspect of it, His recognition that His suffering was +necessary on the ground of filial obedience. All through His life we +hear that 'must' echoing, and His whole spirit bowed to it. As He +says Himself, 'The Son can do nothing of Himself.' As was said for +Him of old: 'Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it is written of +Me, I delight to do Thy will, and Thy law is within My heart.' So +the Father's will is the Son's law; and the Father's 'Thou shalt' is +answered by the Son's 'I must.' + +But yet that necessity grounded on filial obedience was no mere +external necessity determined solely by the divine will. God so +willed it, because it must be so; that it must be so was not because +God so willed it. That is to say, the work to which Christ had set +His hand was a work that demanded the Cross, nor could it be +accomplished without it. For it was the work of redeeming the world, +and required more than a beautiful life, more than a divine +gentleness of heart, more than the homely and yet deep wisdom of His +teachings, it required the sacrifice that He offered on the Cross. + +So, dear friends, Christ's 'must' is but this: 'My work is not +accomplished except I die.' And remember that the connection between +our Lord's work and our Lord's death is not that which subsists +between the works and the deaths of great teachers, or heroic +martyrs, or philanthropists and benefactors, who will gladly pay the +price of life in order to carry out their loving or their wise +designs. It is no mere appendage to His work, nor the price that He +paid for having done it, but it is His very work in its vital +centre. + +I pray you to consider if there is any theory of the meaning and power +of the death of Jesus Christ which adequately explains this 'must,' +except the one that He died a sacrifice for the sins of the world. On +any other hypothesis, as it seems to me, of what His death meant, it +is surplusage, over and above His work: not adding much, either to His +teaching or to the beauty of His example, and having no absolute +stringent necessity impressed upon it. There is one doctrine--that +when He died He bare the sins of the whole world--which makes His +death a necessity; and I ask you, Is there any other doctrine which +does? Take care of a Christianity which would not be much impoverished +if the Cross were struck out of it altogether. + +There is a deeper question, on which, as I believe, it does not +become us to enter, and that is, What is the necessity for the +necessity? Why must it be that He, who is the Redeemer of the world, +must needs be the Sacrifice for the world? We do not know enough +about the depths of the divine nature and the divine government to +speak very wisely or reverently upon that subject, and I, for one, +abjure the attempt, which seems to me to be presumptuous--the +attempt to explain why there was needed a sacrifice for sin in order +to the forgiveness of sin. If I knew all about God, I could tell +you; and nobody, that does not, can. But we can see, as far as +concerns us, that, as the history of all religions tells us, for the +forgiveness and acceptance of sinful men a pure sacrifice is needed; +and that for teaching us the love of God, the hideousness and wages +of sin, for our emancipation from evil, for the quieting of our +consciences, for a foothold for faith, for an adequate motive of +self-surrender and obedience, his sacrificial death is needful. The +life and death of Jesus Christ, regarded as God's sacrifice for the +world's sin, _does_ all this. The life and death of Jesus +Christ, regarded in any other aspect, does not do this. Historically +speaking, mutilated forms of Christianity, which have not known what +to do with the Cross of Christ, have lost their constraining, +purifying, and aggressive power. For us sinful men, if we are to be +delivered from evil and become sons of God, He _must_ suffer +many things, and be killed, and rise again the third day. + +III. Now note further, how we have here also our Lord's willing +acceptance of the necessity. + +It is one thing to recognise, and another thing to accept, a needs-be. +This 'must' was no unwelcome obligation laid upon Him against His will, +but one to which His whole nature responded and which He accepted. No +doubt there was in Him the innocent instinctive physical shrinking +from death. No doubt the Cross, in so far, was pain and suffering. No +doubt we are to trace the reality of a temptation in Peter's rash words +which follow, as indicated to us by the severity and almost vehemence +of the action with which Christ puts it away. No doubt there is a +profound meaning in that answer of His, 'Thou art a _stumbling-block_ +to Me.' The 'Rock' is turned into a stone of stumbling, and Peter's +suggestion appeals to something in Him which responded to it. + +That shrinking might be a shrinking of nature, but it was not a +recoil of will. The ship may toss in dreadful billows, but the +needle points to the pole. The train may rock upon the line, but it +never leaves the rails. Christ felt that the Cross was an evil, but +that feeling never made Him falter in His determination to bear it. +His willing acceptance of the necessity was owing to His full +resolve to save the world. He must die because He would redeem, and +He would redeem because He could not but love. 'He saved others,' +and therefore 'Himself He cannot save.' So the 'must' was not an +iron chain that fastened Him to His Cross. Like some of the heroic +martyrs of old, who refused to be bound to the funeral pile, He +stood there chained to it by nothing but His own will and loving +purpose to save the world. + +And, brethren, in that loving purpose, each of us may be sure that +we had an individual and a personal share. Whatever the interaction +between the divinity and the humanity, this at all events is +certain, that every soul of man has his distinct and definite place +in Christ's knowledge and in Christ's love. Each of us all may be +sure that one strand of the cords of love which fastened Him to the +Cross was His love for me; and each of us may say--He must die, +because 'He loved me, and gave Himself for me.' + +IV. Lastly, notice here our Lord's teaching the necessity of His +death. + +This announcement was preceded, as I remarked, by that conversation +which led to the crystallising of the half-formed convictions of the +apostles in a definite creed, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the +living God.' But that was not all that they needed to know and +believe and trust to. That was the first volume of their lesson-book. +The second volume was this, that 'Christ must suffer.' And so let us +learn the central place which the Cross holds in Christ's teaching. +They tell us that the doctrine of Christ as the Sacrifice for the +world is not in the Gospels. Where are the eyes that read the Gospels +and do not see it? The theory of it is not there; the announcements +of it are. And in this latest section of our Lord's ministry, they +are fuller and more frequent than in the earlier, for the plain +reason which is implied by the preparation through which He passed +these disciples, ere He ventured to communicate the mournful and the +bewildering fact. There must be, first, the grasp of His Messiahship, +and some recognition that He is the Son of God, ere it is possible +to go on to speak of the Cross, the full message concerning which +could not be spoken until after the Resurrection and the Ascension. + +But note, you do not understand Christ's Cross unless you bring to +it the faith in Christ's Messiahship and the belief in some measure +that He is the Son of God. Neither the pathos nor the power of His +death is intelligible if it be simply like other deaths--the dying +of a man who is born subject to the law of mortality, and who yields +to it by natural process. Unless you and I take upon our lips, +though with far deeper meaning, the words with which the heathen +centurion gazed upon the dying Christ, and say, 'Truly this was the +Son of God!' His Cross is common and trivial and insignificant; but +if we can thus speak, then it stands before us as the crown of all +God's manifestations in the world,' the wisdom of God and the power +of God.' + +And then note, still further, how, without the Cross, these other +truths are not the whole gospel. There were disciples then, as there +have been disciples since, and as there are to-day, who were willing +to accept, 'Thou art the Christ'; and willing in some sense to say +'Thou art the Son of God,' but stumbled when He said, 'The Son of +Man must suffer.' Brethren, I venture to urge that the gospel of the +Incarnation, precious as it is, is not the whole gospel, and that +the full-orbed truth about Jesus Christ is that He is the Christ, +and that He died for our sins, and rose again to live for ever, our +Priest and King. + +We need a whole Christ. For our soul's salvation, for the quieting +of our consciences, the forgiveness of our sins, for new life, for +peace, purity, obedience, love, joy, hope, our faith must grasp +'Christ, and Him crucified.' A half Christ is no Christ, and unless +we have as sinful men laid hold of the one Sacrifice for sins for +ever, which He offered, we do not understand even the preciousness +of the half Christ whom we perceive, nor know the full beauty of His +example, the depth of His teaching, nor the tenderness of His heart. + +I beseech you, ask yourselves, _What_ Christ can do for me the +things which I need to have done, except 'the Christ that died, yea, +rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, +who also maketh intercession for us'? + + + + +THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY + + + 'And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John + his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain + apart, 2. And was transfigured before them: and His + face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as + the light. 3. And, behold, there appeared unto them + Moses and Elias talking with Him. 4. Then answered + Peter, and said unto Jesus. Lord, it is good for us + to be here: if Thou wilt, let us make here three + tabernacles; one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one + for Elias. 5. While he yet spake, behold, a bright + cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the + cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am + well pleased; hear ye Him. 6. And when the disciples + heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. + 7. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, + and be not afraid. 8. And when they had lifted up their + eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only. 9. And as they + came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, + Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man be risen + again from the dead. 10. And His disciples asked Him, + saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first + come? 11. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias + truly shall first come, and restore all things. 12. But + I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they + knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they + listed. Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of + them. 13. Then the disciples understood that He spake + unto them of John the Baptist.'--MATT. xvii. 1-13. + +The early guess at Tabor as the scene of the Transfiguration must be +given up as untenable. Some one of the many peaks of Hermon rising +right over Caesarea is a far more likely place. But the silence of +all the accounts as to the locality surely teaches us the +unimportance of knowledge on the point. The dangers of knowing would +more than outweigh the advantages. A similar indefiniteness attaches +to the _when_. Are we to think of it as occurring by night, or +by day? Perhaps the former is slightly the more probable, from the +fact of the descent being made 'the next day' (Luke). Our conception +of the scene will be very different, as we think of that lustre from +His face, and that bright cloud, as outshining the blaze of a Syrian +sun, or as filling the night with glory. But we cannot settle which +view is correct. + +There are three distinct parts in the whole incident: the +Transfiguration proper; the appearance of Moses and Elijah; and the +cloud with the voice from it. + +I. The Transfiguration proper. + +The general statement that Jesus 'was transfigured before them' is +immediately followed out into explanatory details. These are +twofold--the radiance of His face, and the gleaming whiteness of His +raiment, which shone like the snow on Hermon when it is smitten by +the sunshine. Probably we are to think of the whole body as giving +forth the same mysterious light, which made itself visible even +through the white robe He wore. This would give beautiful accuracy and +appropriateness to the distinction drawn in the two metaphors,--that +His face was 'as the sun,' in which the undiluted glory was seen; and +His garments 'as the light,' which is sunshine diffused and weakened. +There is no hint of any external source of the brightness. It does not +seem to have been a reflection from the visible symbol of the divine +presence, as was the fading radiance on the face of Moses. That symbol +does not come into view till the last stage of the incident. We are +then to think of the brightness as rising from within, not cast from +without. We cannot tell whether it was voluntary or involuntary. Luke +gives a pregnant hint, in connecting it with Christ's praying, as if +the calm ecstasy of communion with the Father brought to the surface +the hidden glory of the Son. Can it be that such glory always +accompanied His prayers, and that its presence may have been one +reason for the sedulous privacy of these, except on this one occasion, +when He desired that His faithful three should be 'eye-witnesses of +His majesty'? However that may be, we have probably to regard the +Transfiguration as the transient making visible, in the natural, +symbolic form of light, of the indwelling divine glory, which dwelt +in Him as in a shrine, and then shone through the veil of His flesh. +John explains the event, though His words go far beyond it, when he +says, 'We beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the +Father.' + +What was the purpose of the Transfiguration? Matthew seems to tell +us in that 'before them.' It was for their sakes, not for His, as +indeed follows from the belief that it was the irradiation from +within of the indwelling light. The new epoch of His life, in which +they were to have a share of trial and cross-bearing, needed some +great encouragement poured into their tremulous hearts; and so, for +once, He deigned to let them look on His face shining as the sun, +for a remembrance when they saw it covered with 'shame and spitting' +and His brow bleeding from the thorns. But perhaps we may venture a +step farther, and see here some prophecy of that body of His glory +in which He now reigns. Speculations as to the difference between +the earthly body of our Lord and ours are fascinating but +unsubstantial. It was a true human body, susceptible of hunger, +pain, weariness; but we are not taught that it carried in it the +necessity of death. It may have been more pliable to the spirit's +behests, and more transparent to its light, than ours. There may +have been in that hour of radiance some approximation to the perfect +harmony between the perfect spirit and the body, which is its fit +organ, which we know is His now, and to which we also know that He +will conform the body of our humiliation. Then His face 'shone as +the sun'; when one of these three saw Him in His glory, 'His +countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength'; and His own +promise to us is that we too 'shall shine forth as the sun.' Then +His garments were white as the light; His promise is that they who +are worthy shall 'walk with Him in white.' The Transfiguration was a +revelation and a prophecy. + +II. The appearance of Moses and Elijah. + +While the three are gazing with dazzled eyes, suddenly, as if shaped +out of air, there stand by Jesus two mighty forms, evidently men, +and yet, according to Luke, encompassed in the white radiance, +walking with the Son of Man in a better furnace. What a stound of +awe and wonder must have touched the gazers as the conviction who +these were filled their minds, and they recognised, we know not how, +the mighty lineaments of the lawgiver and the prophet! Did the three +mortals understand the meaning of the words of the heavenly three? +We cannot tell. Nor does Matthew tell us what was the theme of that +wondrous colloquy. These two might have asked, 'Why hast Thou +disquieted us to bring us up?' What is the answer? Wherefore were +they there? To tell Jesus that He was to die? No, for that lay plain +before Him. To learn from Him the mystery of His passion, that they +might be His heralds, the one in Paradise, the other in the pale +kingdoms of Hades? Perhaps, but, more probably, they came to +minister to Him strength for His conflict, even as women did of +their substance, and an angel did in Gethsemane. Perhaps the +strength came to Jesus from seeing how they yearned for the +fulfilment of the typified redemption; perhaps it came from His +being able to speak to them as He could not to any on earth. At all +events, surely Moses and Elijah were not brought there for their own +sakes alone, nor for the sake of the witnesses, but also for His +sake who was prepared by that converse for His cross. + +Further, their appearance set forth Christ's death, which was their +theme, as the climax of revelation. The Law with its requirement and +its sacrifices, and Prophecy with its forward-looking gaze, stand +there, in their representatives, and bear witness that their +converging lines meet in Jesus. The finger that wrote the law, and +the finger that smote and parted Jordan, are each lifted to point to +Him. The stern voices that spoke the commandments and that hurled +threatenings at the unworthy occupants of David's throne, both +proclaim, 'Behold the Lamb of God, the perfect Fulfiller of law, the +true King of Israel.' Their presence and their speech were the +acknowledgment that this was He whom they had seen from afar; their +disappearance proclaims that their work is done when they have +pointed to Him. + +Their presence also teaches us that Jesus is the life of all the +living dead. Of course, care must be exercised in drawing dogmatic +conclusions from a manifestly abnormal incident, but some plain +truths do result from it. Of these two, one had died, though mystery +hung round his death and burial; the other had passed into the +heavens by another gate than that of death; and here they both stand +with lives undiminished by their mysterious changes, in fulness of +power and of consciousness, bathed in glory, which was as their +native air now. They are witnesses of an immortal life, and proofs +that His yet unpierced hands held the keys of life and death. He +opened the gate which moves backwards to no hand but His, and +summoned them; and they come, with no napkins about their heads, and +no trailing grave-clothes entangling their feet, and own Him as the +King of life. + +They speak too of the eager onward gaze which the Old Testament +believers turned to the coming Deliverer. In silent anticipation, +through all these centuries, good men had lain down to die, saying, +'I wait for Thy salvation,' and after death their spirits had lived +expectant and crying, like the souls under the altar, 'How long, O +Lord, how long?' Now these two are brought from their hopeful +repose, perchance to learn how near their deliverance was; and +behind them we seem to discern a dim crowd of holy men and women, +who had died in faith, not having received the promises, and who +throng the portals of the unseen world, waiting for the near advent +of the better Samson to bear away the gates to the city on the hill, +and lead thither their ransomed train. + +Peter's bewildered words need not long detain us. He is half dazed, +but, true to his rash nature, thinks that he must say something, and +that to do something will relieve the tension of his spirit. His +proposal, so ridiculous as it is, shows that he had not really +understood what he saw. It also expresses his feeling that it is +much better to be there than to be travelling to a cross--and so may +stand as an instance of a very real temptation for us all, that of +avoiding unwelcome duties and shrinking from rough work, on the plea +of holding sweet communion with Jesus on the mountain. It was +_not_ 'good' to stay there, and leave demoniacs uncured in the +plain. + +III. The cloud and the witnessing voice. + +Peter's words receive no answer, for, while he is speaking, another +solemn and silencing wonder has place. Suddenly a strange cloud +forms in the cloudless sky. It is 'bright' with no reflection caught +from the sun; it is borne along by no wind; slowly it settles down +upon them, like a roof, and, bright though it is, casts a strange +shadow. According to one reading of Luke's account, Christ and the +two heavenly witnesses pass within its folds, leaving the disciples +without, and that separation seems confirmed by Matthew's saying +that the voice 'came out of the cloud.' Our evangelist points to its +brightness as singular. It was not merely bright, as if smitten by +the sunlight, but its whole substance was luminous. It is almost a +contradiction to speak of a cloud of light, and the anomalous +expression points to something beyond nature. We cannot but remember +the pillar which had a heart of fire, and glowed in the darkness +over the sleeping camp, and the cloud which filled the house, and +drove the priests from the sanctuary by its brightness. Nor should +we forget that at His Ascension Jesus was not lost to sight in the +blue; but while He was yet visible in the act of blessing, 'a cloud +received Him out of their sight.' It is, in fact, the familiar +symbol of the divine presence, which had long been absent from the +temple, and now reappears. We may note the beauty and felicity of +the emblem. It blends light and darkness, so suggesting how the very +same 'attributes' of God are both; and how His revelation of Himself +reveals Him as unrevealable. The manifestation of His power is also +the 'hiding of His power.' The inaccessible light is also thick +darkness. The same characteristics of His nature are light and joy +to some, and blackness and woe to others. + +We may note, too, Christ's passage into the cloud. Moses and Elijah, +being purged from mortal weakness, could pass thither. But Jesus, +alone of men, could pass in the flesh into that brightness, and be +hid in its fiery heart, unshrinking and unconsumed. 'Who among us +shall dwell with everlasting burnings? His entrance into it is but +the witness to the purity of His nature, and the absence in Him of +all fuel for fire. That bright cloud was 'His own calm home, His +habitation from eternity,' and where no man, compassed with flesh +and sin, could live, He enters as the Son into the bosom of the +Father. + +Then comes the articulate witness to the Son. The solemnity and +force of the attestation are increased, if we conceive of the +disciples as outside the cloud, and parted from Jesus. This word is +meant for them only, and so is distinguished from the similar voice +at the baptism, and has added the imperative 'Hear him.' The voice +bears witness to the mystery of our Lord's person. It points to the +contrast between His two attendants and Him. They are servants, +'this is the Son.' It sets forth His supernaturally born humanity, +and, deeper still, His true and proper divinity, which John unfolds, +in his Gospel, as the deepest meaning of the name. It testifies to +the unbroken union of love between the Father and Him, and therein +to the absolute perfection of our Lord's character. He is the +adequate object of the eternal, divine love. As He has been from the +timeless depths of old, He is, in His human life, the object of the +ever-unruffled divine complacency, in whom the Father can glass +Himself as in a pure mirror. It enjoins obedient listening. God's +voice bids us hear Christ's voice. If He is the beloved Son, +listening to Him is listening to God. This is the purpose of the +whole, so far as we are concerned. We are to hear Him, when He +declares God; when He witnesses of Himself, of His love, His work, +His death, His judgeship; when He invites us to come to Him, and +find rest; when He commands and when He promises. Amid the Babel of +this day, let us listen to that voice, low and gentle, pleading and +soft, authoritative, majestic, and sovereign. It will one day shake +'not the earth only, but also the heaven.' But, as yet, it calls us +with strange sweetness, and the music of love in every tone. Well +for us if our hearts answer, 'Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth.' + +Matthew tells us that this voice from the cloud completely unmanned +the disciples, who fell on their faces, and lay there, we know not +how long, till Jesus came and laid a loving hand on them, bidding +them arise, and not fear. So when they staggered to their feet, and +looked around, they saw nothing but the grey stones of the hillside +and the blue sky. 'That dread voice was past,' and the silence was +broken only by the hum of insects or the twitter of a far-off bird. +The strange guests have gone; the radiance has faded from the +Master's face, and all is as it used to be. 'They saw no one, save +Jesus only.' It is the summing up of revelation; all others vanish, +He abides. It is the summing up of the world's history. Thickening +folds of oblivion wrap the past, and all its mighty names become +forgotten; but His figure stands out, solitary against the +background of the past, as some great mountain, which travellers see +long after the lower summits are sunk beneath the horizon. Let us +make this the summing up of our lives. We can venture to take Him +for our sole helper, pattern, love, and aim, because He, in His +singleness, is enough for our hearts. There are many fragmentary +precious things, but there is only one pearl of great price. And +then this will be a prophecy of our deaths--a brief darkness, a +passing dread, and then His touch and His voice saying, 'Arise, be +not afraid.' So we shall lift up our eyes, and find earth faded, and +its voices fallen dim, and see 'no one any more, save Jesus only.' + + + + +THE SECRET OF POWER + + + 'Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why + could not we cast him out? 20. And Jesus said unto them, + Because of your unbelief.'--MATT. xvii. 19, 20. + +'And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them +power against unclean spirits to cast them out.' That same power was +bestowed, too, on the wider circle of the seventy who returned again +with joy, saying, 'Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through +Thy name.' The ground of it was laid in the solemn words with which +Christ met their wonder at their own strength, and told how He +'beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.' Therefore had they +triumphed, showing the fruits of their Master's victory; and +therefore had He a right to renew the gift, in the still more +comprehensive promise, 'I give unto you power--over all the power of +the enemy.' + +What a commentary on such words this story affords! What has become +of the disciples' supernatural might? Has it ebbed away as suddenly +as it flowed? Is their Lord's endowment a shadow or His assurances +delusion? Has He taken back what He gave? Not so. And yet His +servants are ignominiously beaten. One poor devil-ridden boy brings +all their resources to nothing. He stands before them writhing in +the gripe of his tormentor, but they cannot set him free. The +importunity of the father's prayers is vain, and the tension of +expectancy in his eager face relaxes into the old hopeless languor +as he slowly droops to the conviction that 'they could not cast him +out.' The malicious scorn in the eyes of the Scribes, those hostile +critics who 'knew that it would be so,' helps to produce the failure +which they anticipated. The curious crowd buzz about them, and in +the midst of it all stand the little knot of baffled disciples, +possessors of power which seems to leave them when they need it +most, with the unavailing spells dying half spoken on their lips, +and their faint hearts longing that their Master would come down +from the mount, and cover their weakness with His own great +strength. + +No wonder that, as soon as Christ and they are alone, they wish to +know how their mortifying defeat has come about. And they get an +answer which they little expected, for the last place where men look +for the explanation of their failures is within; but they will +ascend into the heavens, and descend into the deeps for remote and +recondite reasons, before they listen to the voice which says, 'The +fault is nigh thee, in thy heart.' Christ's reply distinctly implies +that the cause of their impotence lay wholly in themselves, not in +any defect or withdrawal of power, but solely in that in them which +grasped the power. They little expected, too, to be told that they +had failed because they had not been sure they would succeed. They +had thought that they believed in their ability to cast out the +demon. They had tried to do so, with some kind of anticipation that +they could. They had been surprised when they found that they could +not. They had wonderingly asked why. And now Christ tells them that +all along they had had no real faith in Him and in the reality of +His gift. So subtly may unbelief steal into the heart, even while we +fancy that we are working in faith. And a further portion of our +Lord's reply points them to the great means by which this conquering +faith can be maintained--namely, prayer and fasting. If, then, we +put all these things together, we get a series of considerations, +very simple and commonplace indeed, but all the better and truer +therefor, which I venture to submit to you, as having a very +important bearing on all our Christian work, and especially on the +missionary work of the Church. The principles which the text +suggests touch the perpetual possession of the power which conquers; +the condition of its victorious exercise by us, as being our faith; +the subtle danger of unsuspected unbelief to which we are exposed; +and the great means of preserving our faith pure and strong. I ask +your attention to a few considerations on these points in their +order. + +But first, let me say very briefly, that I would not be understood +as, by the selection of such a text, desiring to suggest that we +have failed in our work. Thank God! we can point to results far, far +greater than we have deserved, far greater than we have expected, +however they may be beneath our desires, and still further below +what the gospel was meant to accomplish. It may suit observers who +have never done anything themselves, and have not particularly clear +eyes for appreciating spiritual work, to talk of Christian missions +as failures; but it would ill become us to assent to the lie. +Failures indeed! with half a million of converts, with new forms of +Christian life budding in all the wilderness of the peoples, with +the consciousness of coming doom creeping about the heart of every +system of idolatry! Is the green life in the hedges and in the sweet +pastures starred with rathe primroses, and in the hidden copses blue +with hyacinths, a failure, because the east wind bites shrewdly, and +'the tender ash delays to clothe herself with green'? No! no, we +have not failed. Enough has been done to vindicate the enterprise, +more than enough to fill our lips with thanksgiving, enough to +entitle us to say to all would-be critics--Do you the same with your +enchantments. But, on the other hand, we have to confess that the +success has been slow and small, chequered and interrupted, that +often we have been foiled, that we have confronted many a demon whom +we could not cast out, and that at home and abroad the masses of +evil seem to close in around us, and we make but little impression +on their serried ranks. We have had success enough to assure us that +we possess the treasure, and failures enough to make us feel how +weak are the earthen vessels which hold it. + +And now let us turn to the principles which flow from this text. + +I. We have an unvarying power. + +No doubt the explanation of their defeat which most naturally suggested +itself to these disciples would be that somehow or other--perhaps +because of Christ's absence--they had lost the gift which they knew +that they once had. And the same way of accounting for later want of +success lingers among Christian people still. You will sometimes hear +it said: 'God sends forth His Spirit in special fulness at special +times, according to His own sovereign will; and till then we can only +wait and pray.' Or, 'The miraculous powers which dwelt in the early +Church have been withdrawn, and therefore the progress is slow.' The +strong imaginative tendency to make an ideal perfect in the past +leads us to think of the primitive age of the Church as golden, in +opposition to the plain facts of the case. We fancy that because +apostles were its teachers, and the Cross within its memory, the +infant society was stronger, wiser, better than any age since, and had +gifts which we have lost. What had it which we do not possess? The +power of working miracles. What have we which it did not possess? A +completed Bible, and the experience of nineteen centuries to teach us +to understand it, and to confirm by facts our confidence that Christ's +gospel is for all time and every land. What have we in common with it? +The same mission to fulfil, the same wants in our brethren to meet, the +same gospel, the same spirit, the same immortal Lord. All that any age +has possessed to fit it for the task of witnessing for Christ we too +possess. The Church has in it a power which is ever adequate to the +conquest of the world; and that power is constant through all time, +whether we consider it as recorded in an unvarying gospel, or as +energised by an abiding spirit, or as flowing from and centred in an +unchangeable Lord. + +We have a gospel which never can grow old. Its adaptation to the +deepest needs of men's souls remains constant with these needs. +These vary not from age to age. No matter what may be the superficial +differences of dress, the same human heart beats beneath every robe. +The great primal wants of men's spirits abide, as the great primal +wants of their bodily life abide. Food and shelter for the one,--a +loving, pardoning God, to know and love, for the other--else they +perish. Wherever men go they carry with them a conscience which needs +cleansing, a sense of separation from God joined with a dim knowledge +that union with Him is life, a will which is burdened with its own +selfhood, an imagination which paints the misty walls of this earthly +prison with awful shapes that terrify and faint hopes that mock, a +heart that hungers for love, and a reason which pines in atrophy +without light. And all these the gospel which is lodged in our hands +meets. It addresses itself to nothing in men that is not in man. +Surface differences of position, culture, clime, age, and the like, +it brushes aside as unimportant, and it goes straight to the universal +wants. People tell us it has done its work, and much confident dogmatism +proclaims that the world has outgrown it. We have a right to be +confident also, with a confidence born of our knowledge, that it has +met and satisfied for us the wants which are ours and every man's, and +to believe that as long as men live by bread, so long will this word +which proceedeth out of the mouth of God be the food of their souls. +Areopagus and Piccadilly, Benares and Oxford, need the same message +and will find the same response to all their wants in the same word. + +Many of the institutions in which Christendom has embodied its +conceptions of God's truth will crumble away. Many of the +conceptions will have to be modified, neglected truths will grow, to +the dislocation of much systematic theology, and the Word better +understood will clear away many a portentous error with which the +Church has darkened the Word. Be it so. Let us be glad when 'the +things which can be shaken are removed,' like mean huts built +against the wall of some cathedral, masking and marring the +completeness of its beauty; 'that the things which cannot be shaken +may remain,' and all the clustered shafts, and deep-arched recesses, +and sweet tracery may stand forth freed from the excrescences which +hid them. + +'The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. But the +word of the Lord endureth for ever.' + +We have an abiding Spirit, the Giver to us of a power without +variableness or the shadow of turning, 'I will pray the Father, and +He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for +ever.' The manner of His operations may vary, but the reality of His +energy abides. The 'works' of wonder which Jesus did on earth may no +more be done, but the greater works than these are still the sign of +_His_ presence, without whom no spiritual life is possible. +Prophecies may fail, tongues may cease, but the more excellent gifts +are poured out now as richly as ever. We are apt to look back to +Pentecost and think that that marked a height to which the tide has +never reached since, and therefore we are stranded amidst the ooze +and mud. But the river which proceeds from the throne of God and of +the Lamb is not like one of our streams on earth, that leaps to the +light and dashes rejoicingly down the hillside, but creeps along +sluggish in its level course, and dies away at last in the sands. It +pours along the ages the same full volume with which it gushed forth +at first. Rather, the source goes with the Church in all ages, and +we drink not of water that came forth long ago in the history of the +world, and has reached us through the centuries, but of that which +wells out fresh every moment from the Rock that follows us. The +Giver of all power is with us. + +We have a Lord, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. 'Lo, I +am with you alway, even to the end of the world.' We have not merely +to look back to the life and death of Christ in history, and +recognise there the work, the efficacy of which shall endure for +ever. But whilst we do this, we have also to think of the Christ +'that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also +maketh intercession for us.' And the one thought, as the other, +should strengthen our confidence in our possession of all the might +that we need for bringing the world back to our Lord. + +A work in the past which can never be exhausted or lose its power is +the theme of our message. The mists of gathering ages wrap in slowly +thickening folds of forgetfulness all other men and events in +history, and make them ghostlike and shadowy; but no distance has +yet dimmed or will ever dim that human form divine. Other names are +like those stars that blaze out for a while, and then smoulder down +into almost complete invisibility; but He is the very Light itself, +that burns and is not consumed. Other landmarks sink below the +horizon as the tribes of men pursue their solemn march through the +centuries, but the Cross on Calvary 'shall stand for an ensign of +the people, and to it shall the Gentiles seek.' To proclaim that +accomplished salvation, once for all lodged in the heart of the +world's history, and henceforth for ever valid, is our unalterable +duty. The message carries in itself its own immortal strength. + +A living Saviour in the present, who works with us, confirming the +word with signs following, is the source of our power. Not till He is +impotent shall we be weak. The unmeasurable measure of the gift of +Christ defines the degree, and the unending duration of His life who +continueth for ever sets the period, of our possession of the grace +which is given to every one of us. He is ever bestowing. He never +withdraws what He once gives. The fountain sinks not a hairs-breadth, +though nineteen centuries have drawn from it. Modern astronomy begins +to believe that the sun itself by long expense of light will be shorn +of its beams and wander darkling in space, circled no more by its +daughter planets. But this Sun of our souls rays out for ever the +energies of life and light and love, and after all communication +possesses the infinite fulness of them all. 'His name shall be +continued as long as the sun; all nations shall call Him blessed.' + +Here then, brethren, are the perpetual elements of our constant +power, an eternal Word, an abiding Spirit, an unchanging Lord. + +II. The condition of exercising this power is Faith. + +With such a force at our command--a force that could shake the +mountains and break the rocks--how come we ever to fail? So the +disciples asked, and Christ's answer cuts to the very heart of the +matter. Why could you not cast him out? For one reason only, because +you had lost your hold of My strength, and therefore had lost your +confidence in your own derived power, or had forgotten that it was +derived, and essayed to wield it as if it were your own. You did not +trust Me, so you did not believe that you could cast him out; or you +believed that you could by your own might, therefore you failed. He +throws them back decisively on themselves as solely responsible. +Nowhere else, in heaven or in earth or hell, but only in us, does +the reason lie for our breakdown, if we have broken down. Not in +God, who is ever with us, ready to make all grace abound in us, +whose will is that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge +of the truth; not in the gospel which we preach, for 'it is the +power of God unto salvation'; not in the demon might which has +overcome us, for 'greater is He that is in us than he that is in the +world.' We are driven from all other explanations to the bitterest +and yet the most hopeful of all, that we only are to blame. + +And what in us is to blame? Some of us will answer--Our modes of +working; they have not been free enough, or not orderly enough, or +in some way or other not wisely adapted to our ends. Some will +answer--Our forms of presenting the truth; they have not been +flexible enough, or not fixed enough; they have been too much a +reproduction of the old; they have been too licentious a departure +from the old. Some will answer--Our ecclesiastical arrangements; +they have been too democratic; they have been too priestly. Some +will answer--Our intellectual culture; it has been too great, +obscuring the simplicity that is in Christ; it has been too small, +sending poorly furnished men into the field to fight with ordered +systems of idolatry which rest upon a philosophical basis, and can +only be overturned by undermining that. It is no part of my present +duty to discuss these varying answers. No doubt there is room for +improvement in all the fields which they indicate. But does not the +spirit of our Lord's words here beckon us away from these purely +secondary subjects to fix our self-examination on the depth and +strength of our faith, as incomparably the most important element in +the conditions which determine our success or our failure? I do not +undervalue the worth of wise methods of action, but the history of +the Church tells us that pretty nearly any methods of action are +fruitful in the right hands, and that without living faith the best +of them become like the heavy armour which half-smothered a feeble +man. I do not pretend to that sublime indifference to dogma which is +the modern form of supreme devotion to truth, but experience has +taught us that wherever the name of Christ, as the Saviour of the +world, has been lovingly proclaimed, there devils have been cast +out, whatever private and sectional doctrines the exerciser has +added to it. I do not disparage organisation, but courage is more +than drill; and there is such a thing as the very perfection of +arrangement without life, like cabinets in a museum, where all the +specimens are duly classified, and dead. I believe, with the old +preacher, that if God does not need our learning, He needs our +ignorance still less, but it is of comparatively little importance +whether the draught of living water be brought to thirsty lips in an +earthen cup or a golden vase. + + 'The main thing is, does it hold good measure? + Heaven soon sets right all other matters.' + +And therefore, while leaving full scope for all improvements in +these subordinate conditions, let me urge upon you that the main +thing which makes us strong for our Christian work is the grasp of +living faith, which holds fast the strength of God. There is no need +to plunge into the jungle of metaphysical theology here. Is it not a +fact that the might with which the power of God has wrought for +men's salvation has corresponded with the strength of the Church's +desire and the purity of its trust in His power? Is it not a truth +plainly spoken in Scripture and confirmed by experience, that we +have the awful prerogative of limiting the Holy One of Israel, and +quenching the Spirit? Was there not a time in Christ's life on earth +when He could do no mighty works because of their unbelief? We +receive all spiritual gifts in proportion to our capacity, and the +chief factor in settling the measure of our capacity is our faith. +Here on the one hand is the boundless ocean of the divine strength, +unfathomable in its depth, full after all draughts, tideless and +calm, in all its movement never troubled, in all its repose never +stagnating; and on the other side is the empty aridity of our poor +weak natures. Faith opens these to the influx of that great sea, and +'according to our faith,' in the exact measure of our receptivity, +does it enter our hearts. In itself the gift is boundless. It has no +limit except the infinite fulness of the power which worketh in us. +But in reference to our possession it is bounded by our capacity, +and though that capacity enlarges by the very fact of being filled, +and so every moment becomes greater through fruition, yet at each +moment it is the measure of our possession, and our faith is the +measure of our capacity. Our power is God's power in us, and our +faith is the power with which we grasp God's power and make it ours. +So then, in regard to God, our faith is the condition of our being +strengthened with might by His Spirit. + +Consider, too, how the same faith has a natural operation on ourselves +which tends to fit us for casting out the evil spirits. Given a man +full of faith, you will have a man tenacious in purpose, absorbed in +one grand object, simple in his motives, in whom selfishness has been +driven out by the power of a mightier love, and indolence stirred into +unwearied energy. Such a man will be made wise to devise, gentle to +attract, bold to rebuke, fertile in expedients, and ready to be +anything that may help the aim of his life. Fear will be dead in him, +for faith is the true anaesthesia of the soul; and the knife may cut +into the quivering flesh, and the spirit be scarce conscious of a pang. +Love, ambition, and all the swarm of distracting desires will be +driven from the soul in which the lamp of faith burns bright. Ordinary +human motives will appeal in vain to the ears which have heard the +tones of the heavenly music, and all the pomps of life will show poor +and tawdry to the sight that has gazed on the vision of the great +white throne and the crystal sea. The most ignorant and erroneous +'religious sentiment'--to use a modern phrase--is mightier than all +other forces in the world's history. It is like some of those terrible +compounds of modern chemistry, an inert, innocuous-looking drop of +liquid. Shake it, and it flames heaven high, shattering the rocks and +ploughing up the soil. Put even an adulterated and carnalised faith +into the hearts of a mob of wild Arabs, and in a century they will +stream from their deserts, and blaze from the mountains of Spain to +the plains of Bengal. Put a living faith in Christ and a heroic +confidence in the power of His Gospel to reclaim the worst sinners +into a man's heart, and he will out of weakness be made strong, and +plough his way through obstacles with the compact force and crashing +directness of lightning. There have been men of all sorts who have +been honoured to do much in this world for Christ. Wise and foolish, +learned and ignorant, differing in tone, temper, creed, forms of +thought, and manner of working, in every conceivable degree; but one +thing, and perhaps one thing only, they have all had--a passion of +enthusiastic personal devotion to their Lord, a profound and living +faith in Him and in His salvation. All in which they differed is but +the gay gilding on the soldier's coat. That in which they were alike +is as the strong arm which grasps the sword, and has its muscles +braced by the very clutch. Faith is itself a source of strength, as +well as the condition of drawing might from heaven. + +Consider, too, how faith has power over men who see it. The +exhibition of our own personal convictions has more to do in +spreading them than all the arguments which we use. There is a +magnetism and a contagious energy in the sight of a brother's faith +which few men can wholly resist. If you wish me to weep, your own +tears must flow; and if you would have me believe, let me see your +soul heaving under the emotion which you desire me to feel. The +arrow may be keen and true, the shaft rounded and straight, the bow +strong, and the arm sinewy; but unless the steel be winged it will +fall to the ground long before it strikes the butt. Your arrows must +be winged with faith, else orthodoxy, and wise arrangements, and +force and zeal, will avail nothing. No man will believe in, and no +demon will obey, spells which the would-be exorcist only half +believes himself. Even if he speak the name of Christ, unless he +speak it with unfaltering confidence, all the answer he will get +will only be the fierce and taunting question, 'Jesus I know, and +Paul I know, but who are ye?' Brethren, let us give heed to the +solemn rebuke which our Master lovingly reads to us in these words, +and while we aim at the utmost possible perfection in all +subordinate matters, let us remember that they all without faith are +weak, as an empty suit of armour with no life beneath the corselet; +and that faith without them all is strong, like the knight of old, +who rode into the bloody field in simple silken vest, and conquered. +That which determines our success or failure in the work of our Lord +is our faith. + +III. Our faith is ever threatened by subtle unbelief. + +It would appear that the disciples were ignorant of the unbelief +that had made them weak. They fancied that they had confidence in +their Christ-given power, and they certainly had in some dull kind +of fashion expected to succeed in their attempt. But He who sees the +heart knew that there was no real living confidence in their souls; +and His words are a solemn warning to us all, of how possible it is +for us to have our faith all honeycombed by gnawing doubt while we +suspect it not, like some piece of wood apparently sound, the whole +substance of which has been eaten away by hidden worms. We may be +going on with Christian work, and may even be looking for spiritual +results. We may fancy ourselves faithful stewards of the gospel, and +all the while there may be an utter absence of the one thing which +makes our words more than so much wind whistling through an archway. +The shorn Samson went out 'to shake himself as at other times,' and +knew not that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. Who +among us is not exposed to the assaults of that pestilence that +walketh in darkness? and, alas! who among us can say that he has +repelled the contagion? Subtly it creeps over us all, the stealthy +intangible vapour, unfelt till it has quenched the lamp which alone +lights the darkness of the mine, and clogged to suffocation the +labouring lungs. + +I will not now speak of the general sources of danger to our faith, +which are always in operation with a retarding force as constant as +friction, as certain as the gravitation which pulls the pendulum to +rest at its lowest point. But I may very briefly particularise two +of the enemies of that faith, which have a special bearing on our +missionary work, and may be illustrated from the narrative before +us. + +First, all our activity in spreading the Gospel, whether by personal +effort or by our gifts, like every form of outward action, tends to +become mechanical, and to lose its connection with the motive which +originated it. Of course it is also true, on the other side, that +all outward action also tends to strengthen the motive from which it +flows. But our Christian work will not do so, unless it be carefully +watched, and pains be taken to keep it from slipping off its +original foundation, and so altering its whole character. We may +very easily become so occupied with the mere external occupation as +to be quite unconscious that it has ceased to be faithful work, and +has become routine, dull mechanism, or the result of confidence, not +in Christ, whose power once flowed through us, but in ourselves the +doers. So these disciples may have thought, 'We can cast out this +devil, for we have done the like already,' and have forgotten that +it was not they, but Christ in them, who had done it. + +How widely this foe to our faith operates amid the multiplied +activities of this busy age, one trembles to think. We see all +around us a Church toiling with unexampled expenditure of wealth, +and effort, and time. It is difficult to repress the suspicion that +the work is out of proportion to the life. Ah, brethren, how much of +all this energy of effort, so admirable in many respects, will He +whose fan is in His hand accept as true service--how much of it will +be wheat for the garner, how much chaff for the fire? It is not for +us to divide between the two, but it is for us to remember that it +is not impossible to make of our labours the most dangerous enemy to +the depth of our still life hidden with Christ in God, and that +every deed of apparent service which is not the real issue of living +faith is powerless for good to others, and heavy with hurt to +ourselves. Brethren and fathers in the ministry! how many of us know +what it is to talk and toil away our early devotion; and all at once +to discover that for years perhaps we have been preaching and +labouring from mere habit and routine, like corpses galvanised into +some ghastly and transient caricature of life. Christian men and +women, beware lest this great enterprise of missions, which our +fathers began from the holiest motives and in the simplest faith, +should in our hand be wrenched away from its only true basis, and be +done with languid expectation and more languid desires of success, +from no higher motive than that we found it in existence, and have +become accustomed to carry it on. If that be our reason, then we +harm ourselves, and mask from our own sight our own unbelief. If +that be the case the work may go on for a while, like a clock +ticking with fainter and fainter beats for a minute after it has run +down; but it will soon cease, and neither heaven nor earth will be +much the poorer for its ending. + +Again, the atmosphere of scornful disbelief which surrounded the +disciples made their faith falter. It was too weak to sustain itself +in the face of the consciousness that not a man in all that crowd +believed in their power; and it melted away before the contempt of +the scribes and the incredulous curiosity of the bystanders, without +any reason except the subtle influence which the opinions and +characters of those around us have on us all. + +And, brethren, are not we in danger to-day of losing the firmness of +our grasp on Christ, as our Saviour and the world's, from a +precisely similar cause? We live in an atmosphere of hesitancy and +doubt, of scornful rejection of His claims, of contemptuous +disbelief in anything which a scalpel cannot cut. We cannot but be +conscious that to hold by Jesus Christ as the Incarnate God, the +supernatural Beginning of a new life, the sole Hope of the world, is +to expose ourselves to the contempt of so-called advanced and +liberal thinkers, and to be out of harmony with the prevailing set +of opinions. The current of educated thought runs strongly against +such beliefs, and I suppose that every thoughtful man among us feels +that a great danger to our faith to-day comes from the force with +which that current swings us round, and threatens to make some of us +drag our anchors, and drift, and strike and go to pieces on the +sands. For one man who is led by the sheer force of reason to yield +to the intellectual grounds on which modern unbelief reposes, there +are twenty who simply catch the infection in the atmosphere. They +find that their early convictions have evaporated, they know not +how; only that once the fleece was wet with dew and now it is dry. +For unbelief has a contagious energy wholly independent of reason, +no less than has faith, and affects multitudes who know nothing of +its grounds, as the iceberg chills the summer air for leagues, and +makes the sailors shiver long before they see its barren peaks. + +Therefore, brethren, let us all take heed to ourselves, lest we +suffer our grasp of our dear Lord's hand to relax for no better +reason than because so many have left His side. To us all His +pleading love, which knows how much we are moulded by the example of +others, is saying, in view of the fashion of unbelief, 'Will ye also +go away?' Let us answer, with a clasp that clings the tighter for +our danger of being sucked in by the strong current, 'Lord, to whom +shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.' We cannot help +seeing that the creeping paralysis of hesitancy and doubt about even +the power of Christ's name is stealing over portions of the Church, +and stiffening the arm of its activity. Lips that once spoke with +full confidence the words that cast out devils, mutter them now +languidly with half-belief. Hearts that were once full of sympathy +with the great purpose for which Christ died are growing cold to the +work of preaching the Gospel to the heathen, because they are +growing to doubt whether, after all, there is any Gospel at all. +This icy breath, dear brethren, is blowing over our Churches and +over our hearts. And wherever it reaches, there labour for Jesus and +for men languishes, and we recoil baffled with unavailing exorcisms +dying in our throats, and the rod of our power broken in our hands. +'Why could not we cast him out? Because of your unbelief.' + +IV. Our faith can only be maintained by constant devotion and rigid +self-denial. + +I can touch but very lightly on that solemn thought in which our Lord +sets forth the condition of our faith, and therefore of our power. +This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. The discipline +then which nurtures faith is mainly moral and spiritual--not as a +substitute for, or to the exclusion of, the intellectual discipline, +which is presupposed, not neglected, in these words. + +The first condition of the freshness and energy of faith is constant +devotion. The attrition of the world wears it thin, the distractions +of life draw it from its clinging hold on Christ, the very toil for +Him is apt to entice our thoughts from out of the secret place of +the most High into the busy arena of our strife. Therefore we have +ever need to refresh the drooping flowers of the chaplet by bathing +them in the Fountain of Life, to rise above all the fevered toil of +earth to the calm heights where God dwells, and in still communion +with Him to replenish our emptied vessels and fill our dimly burning +lamps with His golden oil. The sister of the cumbered Martha is the +contemplative Mary, who sits in silence at the Master's feet and +lets His words sink into her soul; the closest friend of Peter the +apostle of action is John the apostle of love. If our work is to be +worthy, it must ever be freshened anew by our gaze into His face; if +our communion with Him is to be deep, it must never be parted from +outward service. Our Master has left us the example, in that, when +the night fell and every man went to his own home, Jesus went to the +Mount of Olives; and thence, after His night of prayer, came very +early in the morning to the temple, and taught. The stream that is +to flow broad and life-giving through many lands must have its +hidden source high among the pure snows that cap the mount of God. +The man that would work for God must live with God. It was from the +height of transfiguration that _He_ came, before whom the demon +that baffled the disciples quailed and slunk away like a whipped +hound. This kind goeth not out but by prayer. + +The second condition is rigid self-denial. Fasting is the expression +of the purpose to control the lower life, and to abstain from its +delights in order that the life of the spirit may be strengthened. +As to the outward fact, it is nothing--it may be practised or not. +If it be, it will be valuable only in so far as it flows from and +strengthens that purpose. And such vigorous subordination of all +the lower powers, and abstinence from many an inferior good, both +material and immaterial, is absolutely necessary if we are to have +any wholesome strength of faith in our souls. In the recoil from +the false asceticism of Roman Catholicism and Puritanism, has not +this generation of the Church gone too far in the opposite +direction? and in the true belief that Christianity can sanctify +all joys, and ensure the harmonious development of all our powers, +have we not been forgetting that hand and foot may cause us to +stumble, and that we had better live maimed than die with all our +limbs? There is a true asceticism, a discipline--a 'gymnastic unto +godliness,' as Paul calls it. And if our faith is to grow high and +bear rich clusters on the topmost boughs that look up to the sky, +we must keep the wild lower shoots close nipped. Without rigid +self-control and self-limitation, no vigorous faith. + +And without them no effectual work! It is no holiday task to cast +out devils. Self-indulgent men will never do it. Loose-braced, easy +souls, that lie open to all the pleasurable influences of ordinary +life, are no more fit for God's weapons than a reed for a lance, or +a bit of flexible lead for a spear-point. The wood must be tough and +compact, the metal hard and close-grained, out of which God makes +His shafts. The brand that is to guide men through the darkness to +their Father's home must glow with a pallor of consuming flame that +purges its whole substance into light. This kind goeth not out but +by prayer and fasting. + +Dear brethren, what solemn rebuke these words have for us all! How +they winnow our works of Christian activity! How they show us the +hollowness of our services, the self-indulgence of our lives, the +coldness of our devotion, the cowardice of our faith! How marvellous +they make the fruits which God's great goodness has permitted us to +see even from our doubting service! Let us turn to Him with fresh +thankfulness that unto us, who are 'less than the least of all +saints, is this grace given, that we should preach among the nations +the unsearchable riches of Christ.' Let us not be driven from our +confidence that we have a gospel to preach for all the world; but +strong in the faith which rests on impregnable historical grounds, +on our own experience of what Christ has done for us, and on +nineteen centuries of growing power and unfolding wisdom, let us +thankfully welcome all that modern thought may supply for the +correction of errors in belief, in organisation, and in life, that +may have gathered round His perfect and eternal gospel--being +assured, as we have a right to be, that all will but lift higher the +Name which is above every name, and set forth more plainly that +Cross which is the true tree of life to all the families of men. Let +us cast ourselves before Him with penitent confession, and say,--O +Lord, our strength! we have not wrought any deliverance on earth; we +have been weak when all Thy power was at our command; we have spoken +Thy word as if it were an experiment and a peradventure whether it +had might; we have let go Thy hand and lost Thy garment's hem from +our slack grasp; we have been prayerless and self-indulgent. +Therefore Thou hast put us to shame before our foes, and 'our +enemies laugh among themselves. Thou that dwellest between the +cherubim, shine forth; stir up Thy strength and come and save us!' +Then will the last words that He spoke on earth ring out again from +the throne: 'All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go +ye therefore and teach all nations; and lo, I am with you alway, +even unto the end of the world.' + + + + +THE COIN IN THE FISH'S MOUTH + + + 'And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented + him, saying, What thinkest them, Simon? of whom do the + kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own + children, or of strangers? 26. Peter saith unto Him, Of + strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children + free.'--MATT. xvii. 25, 26. + +All our Lord's miracles are 'signs' as well as 'wonders.' They have +a meaning. They not only authenticate His teaching, but they are +themselves no inconsiderable portion of the teaching. They are not +only 'the great bell before His sermon,' but they are also a portion +of the sermon. + +That doctrinal or dogmatic purpose characterises all the miracles in +varying degrees. It is the only purpose of the one before us. This +singular miracle of finding the coin in the fish's mouth and giving +it for the tribute-money is unlike our Lord's other works in several +particulars. It is the only miracle--with the exception of the +cursing of the barren fig-tree, and the episode of the unclean +spirits entering into the swine--in which there is no message of +love or blessing for man's sorrow and pain. It is the only miracle +in which our Lord uses His power for His own service or help, and it +is like the whole brood of legendary miracles, and unlike all the +rest of Christ's in that, at first sight, it seems done for a very +trivial end--the providing of some three shillings of our money. + +Now, if we put all these things together, the absence of any +alleviation of man's sorrow, the presence of a personal end, and the +apparent triviality of the result secured, I think we shall see that +the only explanation of the miracle is given by regarding it as +being what I may call a teaching one, full of instruction with +regard to our Lord's character, person, and work. It is a parable as +well as a miracle, and it is in that aspect that I wish to look at +it now, and try to bring out its lessons. + +I. We have here, first, the freedom of the Son. + +The whole point of the story depends upon the fact that this +tribute-money was not a civil, but an ecclesiastical impost. It had +originally been levied in the Wilderness, at the time of the +numbering of the people, and was enjoined to be repeated at each +census, when every male Israelite was to pay half a shekel for 'a +ransom for his soul,' an acknowledgment that his life was forfeited +by sin. In later years it came to be levied as an annual payment for +the support of the temple and its ceremonial. It was never +compulsory, there was no power to exact it. The question of the +collectors, 'Doth not your Master pay tribute?' does not sound like +the imperative demand which a 'publican' would have made for payment +of an impost due to the Roman Government. It was an 'optional +church-rate,' and the very fact that it was so, would make Jews who +were, or wished to be considered, patriotic or religious, the more +punctilious in paying it. + +The question put to Peter possibly implies a doubt whether this +Rabbi, who held lax views on so many points of Pharisaical +righteousness, would be likely to recognise the obligation of the +tax. Peter's quick answer seems to be prompted by zeal for his +Master's honour, on which the question appears to him to cast a +slur. It was perhaps too quick, but the apostle has been too much +blamed for his answer, which was in fact correct, and for which our +Lord does not blame him. When he comes to Christ to tell what has +happened, before he can speak, Christ puts to him this little +parable which I have taken as part of my text: 'How thinkest thou? +Do kings of this world take custom?'--meaning thereby not imports or +exports, but taxes of all kinds of things,--'or tribute,'--meaning +thereby taxes on persons--'from their own children, or from subjects +who are not their children?' The answer, of course, is, 'From the +latter.' So the answer comes, 'Then are the children free.' + +Christ then here claims in some sense, Sonship to Him to whom the +tribute is paid, that is, to God, and therefore freedom from the +obligation to pay the tribute. But notice, for this is an important +point in the explanation of the words, that the plural in our Lord's +words, 'Then are the children free,' is not intended to include +Peter and the others in the same category as Himself. The only +question in hand is as to His obligation to pay a certain tax; and +to include any one else would have been irrelevant, as well as +erroneous. The plural belongs to the illustration, not to its +application, and corresponds with the plural in the question, 'Of +whom do the _kings_ of the earth take custom?' The kings of the +earth are contrasted with the one King of the heavens, the supreme +and sole Sovereign; and the children of the kings of the earth are +contrasted with the only begotten Son of the only King of kings and +Lord of lords. + +So that here there is no mixing up of Himself with others, or of +others with Himself, but the claiming of an unique position, +singular and sole, belonging to Him only, in which He stands as the +Son of the mighty Monarch to whom the tribute is paid. He claims to +have the divine nature, the divine prerogatives, to bear a specific +relationship to God Himself, and to be, as other words in Scripture +put it, 'the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image +of His person.' + +If there is anything certain about Jesus Christ's teaching, this is +certain about it, that He proclaimed Himself to be the Son of God, +in such a sense as no man shared with Him, and in such a sense as +vindicated the attitude which He took up, the demands which He made, +and the gifts which He offered to men. + +What a deduction must be made from the wisdom of His teaching, and +from the meekness of His Spirit, if that claim was an illusion! What +shall we say of the sanity of a man who poses himself before the +whole race, claiming to be the Son of God, and whose continual +teaching to them therefore is, _not_, 'Believe in goodness'; +'Believe in virtue'; 'Believe in truth'; 'Believe in My word'; but +'Believe in Me'? Was there ever anywhere else a religious teacher, +all of whose words were gracious and wise and sweet, but who-- + + 'Make the important stumble, + Of saying that he, the sage and humble, + Was likewise--one with the Creator'? + +But now what is the freedom based on sonship which our Lord here +claims? + +I have said that this tax was levied with a double meaning; first, +it was an atonement or ransom for the soul; second, it was devoted +to the temple and its worship. And now, mark, that in both these +aspects our Lord alleges His true sonship as the reason why He is +exempt from it. + +That is to say, first, Jesus Christ claims to have no need of a +ransom for His soul. Never one word dropped from His lips which +indicated the smallest consciousness of flaw or failure, of defect +or imperfection, still less of actual transgression. He takes His +position outside the circle of sinful men which includes all others. +It is a strange characteristic in a religious teacher, very unlike +the usual tone of devout men. And stranger still is the fact that +the absence of this consciousness of evil has never been felt to be +itself evil and a blot. Think of a David's agony of penitence. Think +of a Paul's, 'Of whom I am chief!' Think of the long wail of an +Augustine's confessions. Think of the stormy self-accusations of a +Luther; and then think that He who inspired them all, never, by word +or deed, betrayed the slightest consciousness that in Himself there +was the smallest deflection from the perfect line of right, the +least speck or stain on the perfect gold of His purity. And +remember, too, that when He challenges the world with, 'Which of you +convinceth Me of sin?' with the exception of half a dozen men, of +whom we can scarcely say whether their want of spiritual insight or +their arrogance of self-importance is the most flagrant, who, in the +course of nineteen centuries, have ventured to fling their little +handfuls of mud at Him, the whole world has answered, 'Thou art +fairer than the children of men; grace is poured into Thy lips.' + +The Son needs no 'ransom for His soul,' which, being translated, is +but this: the purity and the innocence of Jesus Christ, which is a +manifest fact in His biography, is only explicable when we believe +that we have before us the Incarnate God, and therefore the Perfect +Man. And the Son needs no temple for His worship. His whole life, as +human, was a life of communion and prayer with His Father in heaven. +And just because He 'dwelt in' God's 'bosom all the year,' for Him +ritual and temple were nought. Sense-bound men needed them; He +needed them not. 'In this place,' said He, 'is one greater than the +temple.' He was all which the temple symbolised. Was it the +dwelling-place of God, the place of sacrifice, the meeting-place of +man with God, the place of divine manifestation? 'The temple of His +body' was in deepest reality all these. In it dwelt the whole +fulness of the Godhead. It was at once sacrifice and place of +sacrifice, even as He is the true everlasting Priest. In Him men see +God, and meet with God. He is greater than the temple because He is +the true temple, and He is the true temple because He is the Son. +And because He is the Son, therefore He is free from all dependence +upon, and connection with, the outward worship of ceremony and +sacrifice and priest and ritual. + +Now, dear brethren, let me pause for one moment to press upon you +and upon myself this question: Do I welcome that Christ with the +full conviction that He is the Son of God? It seems to me that, in +this generation, the question of questions, as far as religion is +concerned, is the old one which Christ asked of His disciples by the +fountains and woods of Caesarea Philippi: 'Whom say ye that I, the +Son of Man, am?' Can you lift up your face to meet His clear and +all-searching eye, and say: 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the +living God'? If you can, you are on the way to understanding Him and +His work; if you cannot, His life and work are all wrapped in +darkness for you, His death robbed of its truest power, and your +life deprived of its surest anchor. + +II. Now, there is a second lesson that I would gather from this +miracle--the voluntary submission of the Son to the bonds from which +He is free. + +He bids His disciple pay the tribute for Him, for a specific reason: +'Lest we should offend them.' That, of course, is simply a piece of +practical wisdom, to prevent any narrow or purblind souls from +stumbling at His teaching, by reason of His neglect of this trivial +matter. The question of how far religious teachers or any others are +at liberty, when they are not actuated by personal motives, to +render compliance with ceremonies which are of no value to them, is +a wide one, which I have no need to dwell upon here. But, turning +from that specific aspect of the incident, I think we may look upon +it as being an illustration, in regard to a very small matter, of +what is really the essence of our Lord's relation to the whole world +and ourselves--His voluntary taking upon Himself of bonds from which +He is free. + +Is it not a symbol of the very heart of the meaning of His +Incarnation? 'For as much as the children are partakers of flesh and +blood He also Himself likewise takes part of the same.' 'He is found +in fashion as a man.' He chooses to enter within the limits and the +obligations of humanity. Round the radiant glories of the divinity, +He gathers the folds of the veil of human flesh. He immerses the +pillar of fire in a cloud of smoke. He comes amongst us, taking on +His own wrists the fetters that bind us, suffering Himself to be +'cribbed, cabined, and confined' within the narrow limits of our +manhood, in order that by His voluntary acceptance of it we may be +redeemed from our corruption. + +Is it not a parable of His life and lowly obedience? He proclaimed +the same principle as the guide for all His conduct, when, sinless, +He presented Himself to John for the 'baptism of repentance,' and +overcame the baptiser's scruples with the words, 'Thus it becometh +us to fulfil all righteousness.' He comes under the law. Bound to no +such service, He binds Himself to all human duties that He may +hallow the bonds which He has worn, may set us the pattern of +perfect obedience, and may know a servant's heart. + +The Prince is free, but King's Son though He be, He goes among His +Father's poor subjects, lives their squalid lives, makes experience +of their poverty, and hardens His hands by labouring like them. +Sympathy He 'learned in huts where poor men lie.' + +Is it not the rehearsal in parable of His death? He was free from +the bonds of mortality, and He took upon Him our human flesh. He was +free from the necessity of death, even after He had taken our flesh +upon Him. But, being free from the necessity, He submitted to the +actuality, and laid down His life of Himself, because of His loving +will, to save and help each of us. Oh, dear friends! we never can +understand the meaning and the beauty, either of the life or of the +death of our Master, unless we look at each from this point of view, +that it is His willing acceptance of the bonds that bind us. His own +loving will brought Him here; His own loving will kept Him here; His +own loving will impelled Him along the path of life, though at every +step of it He trod as with naked feet upon burning iron; His own +loving Will brought Him to the Cross; His own loving will, and not +the Roman soldiers' nails, fastened Him to it. Let us look, then, to +Him with thankfulness, and recognise in that death His thorough +identification with all the bonds and miseries of our condition. He +'took part of the same that through death He might deliver them that +by fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.' + +III. Then there is another lesson which I think we may fairly gather +from this miracle, viz. that we have here the supernatural glory +which ever accompanies the humiliation of the Son. + +The miracle, at first sight, appears to be for a very trivial end. +Men have made merry with it by reason of that very triviality. But +the miracle is vindicated, peculiar as it is, by a deep divine +congruity and decorum. He will submit, Son though He be, to this +complete identification of Himself with us. But He will so submit +as, even in submitting, to assert His divine dignity. As has been +well said, 'In the midst of the act of submission majesty flashes +forth.' A multiform miracle--containing many miracles in one--a +miracle of omniscience, and a miracle of influence over the lower +creatures is wrought. The first fish that rises carries in its mouth +the exact sum needed. + +Here, therefore, we have another illustration of that remarkable +blending of humiliation and glory, which is a characteristic of our +Lord's life. These two strands are always twined together, like a +twisted line of gold and black. At each moment of special abasement +there is some special coruscation of the brightness of His glory. +Whensoever He stoops there is something accompanying the stooping, +to tell how great and how merciful He is who bows. Out of the +deepest darkness there flashes some light. So at His cradle, which +seems to be the identifying of Him with humanity in its most +helpless and lowest condition, there shall be angels, and the stars +in their courses shall bow and move to guide wise men from afar with +offerings to His feet. And at His Cross, where He sounds the very +bass string and touches the lowest point of humiliation and defeat, +a clearer vision sees in that humiliation the highest glory. + +And thus, here, He will not only identify Himself with sinful men +who need a ransom, and with sense-bound men who need a sacrifice and +a temple, but He will so identify Himself with them as that He shall +send His power into the recesses of the lake, where His knowledge +sees, as clearly as our eyes see the men that stand beside us, and +obedient to an unconscious impulse from Him, the dumb creature that +had swallowed, as it sunk, the shining _stater_ that had +dropped out of the girdle of some fisherman, shall rise first to the +hook; in token that not only in His Father's house does He rule as a +Son over His own house, but that He 'doeth as He hath pleased, in +all deep places,' and that in Him the ancient hope is fulfilled of a +Son of Man who 'hath dominion over the fish of the sea, and +whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea.' The miracle was +for a trivial end in appearance, but it was a demonstration, though +to one man only at first, yet through him to all the world, that +this Christ, in His lowliness, is the Everlasting Son of the Father. + +IV. And so, lastly, we have here also the lesson of the sufficiency +for us all of what He provides. + +'That take, and give unto them for Me and for thee. He does not say +'_For us._' He and Peter do not stand on the game level. He has +chosen to submit Himself to the obligations, Peter was necessarily +under them. That which is found by miracle in the fish's mouth is +precisely the amount required for both the one and the other. It is +rendered, as the original has it, _'Instead of_ thee and Me,' +putting emphasis upon the characteristic of the tribute as being +ransom, or payment, for a man's soul. + +And so, although this thought is not part of the original purpose of +the miracle, and, therefore, is different from those which I have +already been dwelling on, which are part of that purpose, I think we +may fairly see here this great truth,--that that which Christ brings +to us by supernatural act, far greater than the miracle here, is +enough for all the claims and obligations that God, or man, or law, +or conscience have upon any of us. His perfect obedience and +stainless life discharged for Himself all the obligations to law and +righteousness under which He came as a Man; His perfect life and His +mighty death are for us the full discharge of all that can be +brought against us. + +There are many and solemn claims and claimants upon each of us. Law +and duty, that awful 'ought' which should rule our lives and which +we have broken thousands of times, come to each of us in many an +hour of clear vision, and take us by the throat, and say, 'Pay us +what thou owest!' And there is a Judgment Day before all of us; +which is no mere bugbear to frighten children, but will be a fact of +experience in our case. Friend! how are you going to meet your +obligations? You owe God all your love, all your heart, will, +strength, service. What an awful score of unpaid debts, with +accumulated interest, there stands against each of our names! Think +of some bankrupt sitting in his counting-house with a balance-sheet +before him that shows his hopeless insolvency. He sits and broods, +and broods, and does not know what in the world he is going to do. +The door opens--a messenger enters and gives him an envelope. He +tears it open, and there flutters out a cheque that more than pays +it all. The illustration is a very low one; it does not cover the +whole ground of Christ's work for you. It puts a possibly commercial +aspect into it, which we have to take care of lest it become the +exclusive one; but it is true for all that. You are the bankrupt. +What have you to pay? Oh, behold that precious treasure of gold +tried in the fire, which is Christ's righteousness and Christ's +death; and by faith in Him, '_that_ take and give' and all the +debt will be discharged, and you will be set free and made a son by +that Son who has taken upon Himself all our bonds, and so has broken +them; who has taken upon Himself all our debts, and so has cancelled +them every one. + + + + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + + +ST. MATTHEW + +_Chaps. XVIII to XXVIII_ + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE LAW OF PRECEDENCE IN THE KINGDOM (Matt. xviii. 1-14) + +SELF-MUTILATION FOR SELF-PRESERVATION (Matt. xviii. 8, R.V.) + +THE LOST SHEEP AND THE SEEKING SHEPHERD (Matt. xviii. 12) + +THE PERSISTENCE OF THWARTED LOVE (Matt. xviii. 13; Luke xv. 4) + +FORGIVEN AND UNFORGIVING (Matt. xviii. 22) + +THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE KING (Matt. xix. 16-26) + +NEAREST TO CHRIST (Matt. xx. 23) + +THE SERVANT-LORD AND HIS SERVANTS (Matt. xx. 28) + +WHAT THE HISTORIC CHRIST TAUGHT ABOUT HIS DEATH (Matt. xx. 28) + +THE COMING OF THE KING TO HIS PALACE (Matt. xxi. 1-16) + +A NEW KIND OF KING (Matt. xxi. 4, 5) + +THE VINEYARD AND ITS KEEPERS (Matt. xxi. 33-46) + +THE STONE OF STUMBLING (Matt. xxi. 44) + +TWO WAYS OF DESPISING GOD'S FEAST (Matt. xxii. 1-14) + +THE TABLES TURNED: THE QUESTIONERS QUESTIONED (Matt. xxii. 34-46) + +THE KING'S FAREWELL (Matt. xxiii. 27-39) + +TWO FORMS OF ONE SAYING (Matt. xxiv. 13, R.V.; Luke xxi. 19) + +THE CARRION AND THE VULTURES (Matt. xxiv. 28) + +WATCHING FOR THE KING (Matt. xxiv. 42-51) + +THE WAITING MAIDENS (Matt. xxv. 1-13) + +DYING LAMPS (Matt. xxv. 8) + +'THEY THAT WERE READY' (Matt. xxv. 10) + +TRADERS FOR THE MASTER (Matt. xxv. 14-30) + +WHY THE TALENT WAS BURIED (Matt. xxv. 24, 25) + +THE KING ON HIS JUDGMENT THRONE (Matt. xxv. 31-46) + +THB DEFENCE OF UNCALCULATING LOVE (Matt. xxvi. 6-16) + +THE NEW PASSOVER (Matt. xxvi. 17-30) + +'IS IT I?' (Matt. xxvi. 22, 25; John xiii. 25) + +'THIS CUP' (Matt. xxvi. 27, 28) + +'UNTIL THAT DAY' (Matt. xxvi. 29) + +GETHSEMANE, THE OIL-PRESS (Matt. xxvi. 36-46) + +THE LAST PLEADING OF LOVE (Matt. xxvi. 50) + +THE REAL HIGH PRIEST AND HIS COUNTERFEIT (Matt. xxvi. 57-68) + +JESUS CHARGED WITH BLASPHEMY (Matt. xxvi. 35) + +'SEE THOU TO THAT!' (Matt. xxvii. 4, 24) + +THE SENTENCE WHICH CONDEMNED THE JUDGES (Matt. xxvii. 11-26) + +THE CRUCIFIXION (Matt. xxvii. 33-50) + +THE BLIND WATCHERS AT THE CROSS (MATT. xxvii. 36) + +TAUNTS TURNING TO TESTIMONIES (Matt. xxvii. 41-43) + +THE VEIL RENT (Matt. xxvii. 51) + +THE PRINCE OF LIFE (Matt. xxviii. 1-15) + +THE RISEN LORD'S GREETINGS AND GIFTS (Matt. xxviii. 9; John xx. 19) + +ON THE MOUNTAIN (Matt. xxviii, 16, 17; 1 Cor. xv. 6) + + + + +THE LAW OF PRECEDENCE IN THE KINGDOM + + + 'At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, + saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? + 2. And Jesus called a little child unto Him, and set + him in the midst of them, 3. And said, Verily I say + unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little + children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. + 4. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this + little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of + heaven. 5. And whoso shall receive one such little + child in My name receiveth Me. 6. But whoso shall + offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, + it were better for him that a millstone were hanged + about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth + of the sea. 7. Woe unto the world because of offences! + for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to + that man by whom the offence cometh! 8. Wherefore if + thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and + cast them from thee; it is better for thee to enter + into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands + or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. 9. And + if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it + from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life + with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast + into hell fire. 10. Take heed that ye despise not one + of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in + heaven their angels do always behold the face of My + Father which is in heaven. 11. For the Son of Man is + come to save that which was lost. 12. How think ye? if + a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone + astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and + goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is + gone astray? 13. And if so be that he find it, verily + I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than + of the ninety and nine which went not astray. 14. Even + so it is not the will of your Father which is in + heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.' + --MATT. xviii. 1-14. + +Mark tells us that the disciples, as they journeyed, had been +squabbling about pre-eminence in the kingdom, and that this +conversation was brought on by our Lord's question as to the subject +of their dispute. It seems at first sight to argue singular +insensibility that the first effect of His reiterated announcement +of His sufferings should have been their quarrelling for the lead; +but their behaviour is intelligible if we suppose that they regarded +the half-understood prophecies of His passion as indicating the +commencement of the short conflict which was to end in His Messianic +reign. So it was time for them to be getting ready and settling +precedence. The form of their question, in Matthew, connects it with +the miracle of the coin in the fish's mouth, in which there was a +very plain assertion of Christ's royal dignity, and a distinguishing +honour given to Peter. Probably the 'then' of the question means, +Since Peter is thus selected, are we to look to him as foremost? +Their conception of the kingdom and of rank in it is frankly and +entirely earthly. There are to be graded dignities, and these are to +depend on His mere will. Our Lord not only answers the letter of +their question, but cuts at the root of the temper which inspired +it. + +I. He shows the conditions of entrance into and eminence in His +kingdom by a living example. There were always children at hand +round Him, when He wanted them. Their quick instinct for pure and +loving souls drew them to Him; and this little one was not afraid to +be taken by the hand, and to be afterwards caught up in His arms, +and pressed to His heart. One does not wonder that the legend that +he was Ignatius the martyr should have been current; for surely the +remembrance of that tender clasping arm and gentle breast would not +fade nor be fruitless. The disciples had made very sure that they +were to be in the kingdom, and that the only question concerning +them was how high up in it they were each to be. Christ's answer is +like a dash of cold water to that confidence. It is, in effect, +'Greatest in the kingdom! Make sure that you go in at all, first; +which you will never do, so long as you keep your present ambitious +minds.' + +Verse 3 lays down the condition of entrance into the kingdom, from +which necessarily follows the condition of supremacy in it. What a +child is naturally, and without effort or merit, by reason of age +and position, we must become, if we are to pass the narrow portal +which admits into the large room. That 'becoming' is impossible +without a revolution in us. 'Be converted' is corrected, in the +Revised Version, into 'turn,' and rightly; for there is in the word +a distinct reference to the temper of the disciples as displayed by +their question. As long as they cherished it they could not even get +inside, to say nothing of winning promotion to dignities in the +kingdom. Their very question condemned them as incapable of +entrance. So there must be a radical change, not unaccompanied, of +course, with repentance, but mainly consisting in the substitution +of the child's temper for theirs. What is the temper thus enjoined? +We are to see here neither the entirely modern and shallow +sentimental way of looking at childhood, in which popular writers +indulge, nor the doctrine of its innocence. It is not Christ's +teaching, either that children are innocent, or that men enter the +kingdom by making themselves so. But the child is, by its very +position, lowly and modest, and makes no claims, and lives by +instinctive confidence, and does not care about honours, and has +these qualities which in us are virtues, and is not puffed up by +possessing them. That is the ideal which is realised more generally +in the child than analogous ideals are in mature manhood. Such +simplicity, modesty, humility, must be ours. We must be made small +ere we can enter that door. And as is the requirement for entrance, +so is it for eminence. The child does not humble himself, but is +humble by nature; but we must humble ourselves if we would be great. + +Christ implies that there are degrees in the kingdom. It has a +nobility, but of such a kind that there may be many greatest; for +the principle of rank there is lowliness. We rise by sinking. The +deeper our consciousness of our own unworthiness and weakness, the +more capable are we of receiving the divine gifts, and therefore the +more fully shall we receive them. Rivers run in the hollows; the +mountain-tops are dry. God works with broken reeds, and the princes +in His realm are beggars taken from the dunghill. A lowliness which +made itself lowly for the sake of eminence would miss its aim, for +it would not be lowliness. The desire to be foremost must be cast +out, in order that it may be fulfilled. + +II. The question has been answered, and our Lord passes to other +thoughts rising out of His answer. Verses 5 and 6 set forth +antithetically our duties to His little ones. He is not now speaking +of the child who served as a living parable to answer the question, +but of men who have made themselves like the child, as is plain from +the emphatic 'one _such_ child,' and from verse 6 ('which +_believe_ on Me'). + +The subject, then, of these verses is the blessedness of recognising +and welcoming Christlike lowly believers, and the fatal effect of +the opposite conduct. To 'receive one such little child in My name' +is just to have a sympathetic appreciation of, and to be ready to +welcome to heart and home, those who are lowly in their own and in +the world's estimate, but princes of Christ's court and kingdom. +Such welcome and furtherance will only be given by one who himself +has the same type of character in some degree. He who honours and +admires a certain kind of excellence has the roots of it in himself. +A possible artist lies in him who thrills at the sight or hearing of +fair things painted or sung. Our admiration is an index of our +aspiration, and our aspiration is a prophecy of our attainment. So +it will be a little one's heart which will welcome the little ones, +and a lover of Christ who receives them in His name. The reception +includes all forms of sympathy and aid. 'In My name' is equivalent +to 'for the sake of My revealed character,' and refers both to the +receiver and to the received. The blessedness of such reception, so +far as the receiver is concerned, is not merely that he thereby +comes into happy relations with Christ's foremost servants, but that +he gets Christ Himself into his heart. If with true appreciation of +the beauty of such a childlike disposition, I open my heart or my +hand to its possessor, I do thereby enlarge my capacity for my own +possession of Christ, who dwells in His child, and who comes with +him where He is welcomed. There is no surer way of securing Him for +our own than the loving reception of His children. Whoso lodges the +King's favourites will not be left unvisited by the King. To +recognise and reverence the greatest in the kingdom is to be oneself +a member of their company, and a sharer in their prerogatives. + +On the other hand, the antithesis of 'receiving' is 'causing to +stumble,' by which is meant giving occasion for moral fall. That +would be done by contests about pre-eminence, by arrogance, by +non-recognition. The atmosphere of carnality and selfishness in +which the disciples were moving, as their question showed, would +stifle the tender life of any lowly believer who found himself in +it; and they were not only injuring themselves, but becoming +stumbling-blocks to others, by their ambition. How much of the +present life of average Christians is condemned on the same +ground! It is a good test of our Christian character to ask--would +it help or hinder a lowly believer to live beside us? How many +professing Christians are really, though unconsciously, doing +their utmost to pull down their more Christlike brethren to their +own low level! The worldliness and selfish ambitions of the Church +are responsible for the stumbling of many who would else have been +of Christ's 'little ones.' But perhaps we are rather to think of +deliberate and consciously laid stumbling-blocks. Knowingly to try +to make a good man fall, or to stain a more than usually pure +Christian character, is surely the very height of malice, and +presupposes such a deadly hatred of goodness and of Christ that no +fate can be worse than the possession of such a temper. To be +flung into the sea, like a dog, with a stone round his neck, would +be better for a man than to live to do such a thing. The deed +itself, apart from any other future retribution, is its own +punishment; yet our Lord's solemn words not only point to such a +future retribution, which is infinitely more terrible than the +miserable fate described would be for the body, but to the +consequences of the act, as so bad in its blind hatred of the +highest type of character, and in its conscious preference of evil, +as well as so fatal in its consequences, that it were better to die +drowned than to live so. + +III. Verses 10-14 set forth the honour and dignity of Christ's +'little ones.' Clearly the application of the designation in these +closing verses is exclusively to His lowly followers. The warning +not to despise them is needed at all times, and, perhaps, seldom +more, even by Christians, than now, when so many causes induce a far +too high estimate of the world's great ones, and modest, humble +godliness looks as dull and sober as some russet-coated little bird +among gorgeous cockatoos and birds of paradise. The world's standard +is only too current in the Church; and it needs a spirit kept in +harmony with Christ's spirit, and some degree of the child-nature in +ourselves, to preserve us from overlooking the delicate hidden +beauties and unworldly greatness of His truest disciples. + +The exhortation is enforced by two considerations,--a glimpse into +heaven, and a parable. Fair interpretation can scarcely deny that +Christ here teaches that His children are under angel-guardianship. +We should neither busy ourselves in curious inferences from His +reticent words, nor try to blink their plain meaning, but rather +mark their connection and purpose here. He has been teaching that +pre-eminence belongs to the childlike spirit. He here opens a door +into the court of the heavenly King, and shows us that, as the +little ones are foremost in the kingdom of heaven, so the angels who +watch over them are nearest the throne in heaven itself. The +representation is moulded on the usages of Eastern courts, and +similar language in the Old Testament describes the principal +courtiers as 'the men who see the King's face continually.' So high +is the honour in which the little ones are held, that the highest +angels are set to guard them, and whatever may be thought of them on +earth, the loftiest of creatures are glad to serve and keep them. + +Following the Revised Version we omit verse 11. If it were genuine, +the connection would be that such despising contradicted the purpose +of Christ's mission; and the 'for' would refer back to the +injunction, not to the glimpse into heaven which enforced it. + +The exhortation is further confirmed by the parable of the ninety +and nine, which is found, slightly modified in form and in another +connection, in Luke xv. Its point here is to show the importance of +the little ones as the objects of the seeking love of God, and as so +precious to Him that their recovery rejoices His heart. Of course, +if verse 11 be genuine, the Shepherd is Christ; but, if we omit it, +the application of the parable in verse 14 as illustrating the +loving will of God becomes more direct. In that case God is the +owner of the sheep. Christ does not emphasise His own love or share +in the work, reference to which was not relevant to His purpose, +but, leaving that in shadow, casts all the light on the loving +divine will, which counts the little ones as so precious that, if +even one of them wanders, all heaven's powers are sent forth to find +and recover it. The reference does not seem to be so much to the one +great act by which, in Christ's incarnation and sacrifice, a sinful +world has been sought and redeemed, as to the numberless acts by +which God, in His providence and grace, restores the souls of those +humble ones if ever they go astray. For the connection requires that +the wandering sheep here should, when it wanders, be 'one of these +little ones'; and the parable is introduced to illustrate the truth +that, because they belong to that number, the least of them is too +precious to God to be allowed to wander away and be lost. They have +for their keepers the angels of the presence; they have God Himself, +in His yearning love and manifold methods of restoration, to look +for them, if ever they are lost, and to bring them back to the fold. +Therefore, 'see that ye despise not one of these little ones,' each +of whom is held by the divine will in the grasp of an individualising +love which nothing can loosen. + + + + +SELF-MUTILATION FOR SELF-PRESERVATION + + + 'If thy hand or thy foot causeth thee to stumble, cut + it off, and cast it from thee.'-MATT. xviii. 8, R.V. + +No person or thing can do our characters as much harm as we +ourselves can do. Indeed, none can do them any harm but ourselves. +For men may put stumbling-blocks in our way, but it is we who make +them stumbling-blocks. The obstacle in the path would do us no hurt +if it were not for the erring foot, nor the attractive prize if it +were not for the hand that itched to lay hold of it, nor the +glittering bauble if it were not for the eye that kindled at the +sight of it. So our Lord here, having been speaking of the men that +put stumbling-blocks in the way of His little ones, draws the net +closer and bids us look at home. A solemn woe of divine judgment is +denounced on those who cause His followers to stumble; let us leave +God to execute that, and be sure that we have no share in their +guilt, but let us ourselves be the executioners of the judgment upon +the things in ourselves which alone give the stumbling-blocks, which +others put before us, their fatal power. + +There is extraordinary energy in these words. Solemnly they are +repeated twice here, verbatim; solemnly they are repeated verbatim +three times in Mark's edition. The urgent stringency of the command, +the terrible plainness of the alternative put forth by the lips that +could say nothing harsh, and the fact that the very same injunction +appears in a wholly different connection in the Sermon on the Mount, +show us how profoundly important our Lord felt the principle to be +which He was here laying down. + +We mark these three points. First, the case supposed, 'If thy hand +or thy foot cause thee to stumble.' Then the sharp, prompt remedy +enjoined, 'Cut them off and cast them from thee.' Then the solemn +motive by which it is enforced, 'It is better for thee to enter into +life maimed than, being a whole man, to be cast into hell-fire.' + +I. First, then, as to the case supposed. + +Hand and foot and eye are, of course, regarded as organs of the +inward self, and symbols of its tastes and capacities. We may +perhaps see in them the familiar distinction between the practical +and the theoretical:--hand and foot being instruments of action, and +the eye the organ of perception. Our Lord takes an extreme case. If +members of the body are to be amputated and plucked out should they +cause us to stumble, much more are associations to be abandoned and +occupations to be relinquished and pleasures to be forsaken, if +these draw us away. But it is to be noticed that the whole stringency +of the commandment rests upon that _if_. '_If_ they cause thee +to stumble,' then, and not else, amputate. The powers are natural, +the operation of them is perfectly innocent, but a man may be ruined +by innocent things. And, says Christ, if that process is begun, then, +and only then, does My exhortation come into force. + +Now, all that solemn thought of a possible injurious issue of +innocent occupations, rests upon the principles that our nature has +an ideal order, so as that some parts of it are to be suppressed and +some are to rule, and that there are degrees of importance in men's +pursuits, and that where the lower interfere and clog the operations +of the higher, there they are harmful. And so the only wisdom is to +excise and cut them off. + +We see illustrations in abundance every day. There are many people +who are being ruined in regard to the highest purposes of their +lives, simply by an over-indulgence in lower occupations which in +themselves may be perfectly right. Here is a young woman that spends +so much of her day in reading novels that she has no time to look +after the house and help her mother. Here is a young man so given to +athletics that his studies are neglected--and so you may go all +round the circle, and find instances of the way in which innocent +things, and the excessive or unwise exercise of natural faculties, +are destroying men. And much more is that the case in regard to +religion, which is the highest object of pursuit, and in regard to +those capacities and powers by which we lay hold of God. These are +to be ministered to by the rest, and if there be in my nature or in +the order of my life something which is drawing away to itself the +energy that ought to go in that other direction, then, howsoever +innocent it may be, _per se_, it is harming me. It is a wen +that is sucking all the vital force into itself, and turning it into +poison. And there is only one cure for it, and that is the knife. + +Then there is another point to be observed in this case supposed, +and that is that the whole matter is left to the determination of +personal experience. No one else has the right to decide for you +what it is safe and wise for you to do in regard to things which are +not in themselves wrong. If they are wrong in themselves, of course +the consideration of consequences is out of place altogether; but if +they be not wrong in themselves, then it is you that must settle +whether they are legitimate for you or not. Do not let your +Christian liberty be interfered with by other people's dictation in +regard to this matter. How often you hear people say, _'I_ +could not do it'; meaning thereby, 'therefore _he_ ought not to +do it!' But that inference is altogether illegitimate. True, there +are limitations of our Christian liberty in regard to things +indifferent and innocent. Paul lays down the most important of these +in three sentences. 'All things are lawful for me, but all things +are not expedient.' 'All things are lawful for me, but all things +edify not';--you must think of your brethren as well as of yourself. +'All things are lawful for me, yet will I not be brought under the +power of any'; keep master of them, and rather abstain altogether +than become their slave. But these three limitations being observed, +then, in regard to all such matters, nobody else can prescribe for +you or me. 'To his own Master he standeth or falleth.' + +But, on the other hand, do not you be led away into things that +damage you, because some other man does them, as he supposes, +without injury. 'Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that +thing which he alloweth.' There are some Christian people who are +simply very unscrupulous and think themselves very strong; and whose +consciences are not more enlightened, but less sensitive, than those +of the 'narrow-minded brethren' upon whom they look askance. + +And so, dear friend, you ought to take the world--to inhale it, if I +may so say, as patients do chloroform; only you must be your own +doctor and keep your own fingers on your pulse, and watch the first +sign of failure there, and take no more. When the safety lamps begin +to burn blue you may be quite sure there is choke-damp about; and +when Christian men and women begin to find prayer wearisome, and +religious thoughts dull, and the remembrance of God an effort or a +pain, then, whatever anybody else may do, it is time for them to +pull up. 'If thy hand offend thee,' never mind though your brother's +hand is not offending him, do the necessary thing for your health, +'cut it off and cast it from you.' + +But of course there must be caution and common-sense in the +application of such a principle. It does not mean that we are to +abandon all things that are susceptible of abuse, for everything is +so; and if we are to regulate our conduct by such a rule, it is not +the amputation of a hand that will be sufficient. We may as well cut +off our heads at once, and go out of the world altogether; for +everything is capable of being thus abused. + +Nor does the injunction mean that unconditionally we are to abandon +all occupations in which there is danger. It can never be a duty to +shirk a duty because it is dangerous. And sometimes it is as much a +Christian man's duty to go into, and to stand in, positions that are +full of temptation and danger, as it is a fireman's business to go +into a burning house at the risk of suffocation. There were saints +in Caesar's household, flowers that grew on a dunghill, and they +were not bidden to abandon their place because it was full of +possible danger to their souls. Sometimes Christ sets His sentinels +in places where the bullets fly very thick; and if we are posted in +such a place--and we all are so some time or other in our lives--the +only course for us is to stand our ground until the relieving guard +comes, and to trust that He said a truth that was always to be true, +when He sent out His servants to their dangerous work, with the +assurance that if they drank any deadly thing it should not hurt +them. + +II. So much, then, for the first of the points here. Now a word, in +the second place, as to the sharp remedy enjoined. + +'Cut it off and cast it from thee.' Entire excision is the only +safety. I myself am to be the operator in that surgery. I am to lay +my hand upon the block, and with the other hand to grasp the axe and +strike. That is to say, we are to suppress capacities, to abandon +pursuits, to break with associates, when we find that they are +damaging our spiritual life and hindering our likeness to Jesus +Christ. + +That is plain common-sense. In regard to physical intoxication, it +is a great deal easier to abstain altogether than to take a very +little and then stop. The very fumes of alcohol will sometimes drive +a reclaimed drunkard into a bout of dissipation that will last for +weeks; therefore, the only safety is in entire abstinence. The rule +holds in regard to everyday life. Every man has to give up a great +many things if he means to succeed in one, and has to be a man of +one pursuit if anything worth doing is to be done. Christian men +especially have to adopt that principle, and shear off a great deal +that is perfectly legitimate, in order that they may keep a reserve +of strength for the highest things. + +True, all forms of life are capable of being made Christian service +and Christian discipline, but in practice we shall find that if we +are earnestly seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness, not +only shall we lose our taste for a great deal that is innocent, but +we shall have, whether we lose our taste for them or not--and more +imperatively if we have not lost our taste for them than if we have--to +give up allowable things in order that with all our heart, and soul, +and strength, and mind, we may love and serve our Master. There are no +half-measures to be kept; the only thing to do with the viper is to +shake it off into the fire and let it burn there. We have to empty our +hands of earth's trivialities if we would grasp Christ with them. We +have to turn away our eyes from earth if we would behold the Master, +and rigidly to apply this principle of excision in order that we may +advance in the divine life. It is the only way to ensure progress. +There is no such certain method of securing an adequate flow of sap +up the trunk as to cut off all the suckers. If you wish to have a +current going down the main bed of the stream, sufficient to keep it +clear, you must dam up all the side channels. + +But it is not to be forgotten that this commandment, stringent and +necessary as it is, is second best. The man is maimed, although it +was for Christ's sake that he cut off his hand, or put out his eye. +His hand was given him that with it he might serve God, and the +highest thing would have been that in hand and foot and eye he +should have been anointed, like the priests of old, for the service +of his Master. But until he is strong enough to use the faculty for +God, the wisest thing is not to use it at all. Abandon the outworks +to keep the citadel. And just as men pull down the pretty houses on +the outskirts of a fortified city when a siege is impending, in order +that they may afford no cover to the enemy, so we have to sweep away +a great deal in our lives that is innocent and fair, in order that +the foes of our spirit may find no lodgment there. It is second best, +but for all that it is absolutely needful. We must lay 'aside every +_weight_,' as well as 'the _sin_ which so easily besets us.' We +must run lightly if we would run well. We must cast aside all burdens, +even though they be burdens of treasure and delights, if we would 'run +with patience the race that is set before us.' 'If thy foot offend +thee,' do not hesitate, do not adopt half-measures, do not try +moderation, do not seek to sanctify the use of the peccant member; +all these may be possible and right in time, but for the present there +is only one thing to do--down with it on the block, and off with it! +'Cut it off and cast it from thee.' + +III. And now, lastly, a word as to the solemn exhortation by which +this injunction is enforced. + +Christ rests His command of self-denial and self-mutilation upon the +highest ground of self-interest. 'It is better for thee.' We are +told nowadays that this is a very low motive to appeal to, that +Christianity is a religion of selfishness, because it says to men, +'Your life or your death depends upon your faith and your conduct.' +Well, I think it will be time for us to listen to fantastic +objections of this sort when the men that urge them refuse to turn +down another street, if they are warned that in the road on which +they are going they will meet their death. As long as they admit +that it is a wise and a kind thing to say to a man, 'Do not go that +way or your life will be endangered,' I think we may listen to our +Master saying to us, 'Do not do that lest thou perish; do this, that +thou may'st enter into life.' + +And then, notice that a maimed man may enter into life, and a +complete man may perish. The first may be a very poor creature, very +ignorant, with a limited nature, undeveloped capacities, intellect +and the like all but dormant in him, artistic sensibilities quite +atrophied, and yet he may have got hold of Jesus Christ and His +love, and be trying to love Him back again and serve Him, and so be +entering into life even here, and be sure of a life more perfect +yonder. And the complete man, cultured all round, with all his +faculties polished and exercised to the full, may have one side of +his nature undeveloped--that which connects him with God in Christ. +And so he may be like some fair tree that stands out there in the +open, on all sides extending its equal beauty, with its stem +symmetrical, cylindrical, perfect in its green cloud of foliage, yet +there may be a worm at the root of it, and it may be given up to +rottenness and destruction. Cultivated men may perish, and +uncultured men may have the life. The maimed man may touch Christ +with his stump, and so receive life, and the complete man may lay +hold of the world and the flesh and the devil with his hands, and so +share in their destruction. + +Ay! and in that case the maimed man has the best of it. It is a very +plain axiom of the rudest common-sense, this of my text: 'It is +better for thee to enter into life maimed, than to go into hell-fire +with both thy hands.' That is to say, it is better to live maimed +than to die whole. A man comes into a hospital with gangrene in his +leg; the doctor says it must come off; the man says, 'It shall not,' +and he is dead to-morrow. Who is the fool--the man that says, 'Here, +then, cut away; better life than limb,' or the man that says, 'I +will keep it and I will die'? + +'Better to enter into life maimed,' because you will not always be +maimed. The life will overcome the maiming. There is a wonderful +restoration of capacities and powers that have been sacrificed for +Christ's sake, a restoration even here. As crustaceans will develop +a new claw in place of one that they have thrown off in their peril +to save their lives, so we, if we have for Christ's sake maimed +ourselves, will find that in a large measure the suppression will be +recompensed even here on earth. + +And hereafter, as the Rabbis used to say, 'No man will rise from the +grave a cripple.' All the limitations which we have imposed upon +ourselves, for Christ's sake, will be removed then. 'Then shall the +eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf be unstopped; +then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb +shall sing.' 'Verily I say unto thee, there is no man that hath left +any' of his possessions, affections, tastes, capacities, 'for My +sake but he shall receive a hundredfold more in this life, and in +the world to come, life everlasting.' No man is a loser by giving up +anything for Jesus Christ. + +And, on the other hand, the complete man, complete in everything +except his spiritual nature, is a fragment in all his completeness; +and yonder, there will for him be a solemn process of stripping. +'Take it from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents.' Ah! +how much of that for which some of you are flinging away Jesus +Christ will fade from you when you go yonder. 'His glory shall not +descend after him'; 'as he came, so shall he go.' 'Tongues, they +shall cease; knowledge, it shall vanish away'; gifts will fail, +capacities will disappear when the opportunities for the exercise of +them in a material world are at an end, and there will be little +left to the man who _would_ carry hands and feet and eyes all +into the fire and forgot the 'one thing needful,' but a thin thread, +if I may so say, of personality quivering with the sense of +responsibility, and preyed upon by the gnawing worm of a too-late +remorse. + +My brother, the lips of Incarnate Love spoke those solemn words of +my text, which it becomes not me to repeat to you as if they were +mine; but I ask you to weigh this, His urgent commandment, and to +listen to His solemn assurance, by which He enforces the wisdom of +the self-suppression: 'It is better for thee to enter into life +maimed, than having two hands, to be cast into hell-fire.' + +Give your hearts to Jesus Christ, and set the following in His +footsteps and the keeping of His commandments high above all other +aims. You will have to suppress much and give up much, but such +suppression is the shortest road to becoming perfect men, complete +in Him, and such surrender is the surest way to possess all things. +'He that loseth his life'--which is more than hand or eye--for +Christ's sake,' the same shall find it.' + + + + +THE LOST SHEEP AND THE SEEKING SHEPHERD + + + If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone + astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and + goeth Into the mountains, and seeketh that which is + gone astray!--MATT. xviii. 12. + +We find this simple parable, or germ of a parable, in a somewhat more +expanded form, as the first of the incomparable three in the fifteenth +chapter of Luke's Gospel. Perhaps our Lord repeated the parable more +than once. It is an unveiling of His inmost heart, and therein a +revelation of the very heart of God. It touches the deepest things in +His relation to men, and sets forth thoughts of Him, such as man never +dared to dream. It does all this by the homeliest image and by an +appeal to the simplest instincts. The most prosaic shepherd looks for +lost sheep, and everybody has peculiar joy over lost things found. +They may not be nearly so valuable as things that were not lost. The +unstrayed may he many, and the strayed be but one. Still there is a +keener joy in the recovery of the one than in the unbroken possession +of the ninety-and-nine. That feeling in a man may be only selfishness, +but homely as it is--when the loser is God, and the lost are men, it +becomes the means of uttering and illustrating that truth concerning +God which no religion but that of the Cross has ever been bold enough +to proclaim, that He cares most for the wanderers, and rejoices over the +return of the one that went astray more than over the ninety-and-nine +who never wandered. + +There are some significant differences between this edition of the +parable and the form which it assumes in the Gospel according to +Luke. There it is spoken in vindication of Christ's consorting with +publicans and sinners; here it is spoken in order to point the +lesson of not despising the least and most insignificant of the sons +of men. There the seeking Shepherd is obviously Christ; here the +seeking Shepherd is rather the Divine Father; as appears by the +words of the next verse: 'For it is not the will of your Father +which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.' +There the sheep is lost; here the sheep goes astray. There the +Shepherd seeks till He find, here the Shepherd, perhaps, fails to +find; for our Lord says, '_If so be_ that he find it.' + +But I am not about to venture on all the thoughts which this parable +suggests, nor even to deal with the main lesson which it teaches. I +wish merely to look at the two figures--the wanderer and the seeker. + +I. First, then, let us look at that figure of the one wanderer. + +Of course I need scarcely remind you that in the immediate +application of the parable in Luke's Gospel, the ninety-and-nine +were the respectable people who thought the publicans and harlots +altogether too dirty to touch, and regarded it as very doubtful +conduct on the part of this young Rabbi from Nazareth to be mixed up +with persons whom no one with a proper regard for whited sepulchres +would have anything to do with. To them He answers, in effect--I am +a shepherd; that is my vindication. Of course a shepherd goes after +and cares for the lost sheep. He does not ask about its worth, or +anything else. He simply follows the lost because it is lost. It may +be a poor little creature after all, but it is lost, and that is +enough. And so He vindicates Himself to the ninety-and-nine: 'You do +not need Me, you are found. I take you on your own estimation of +yourselves, and tell you that My mission is to the wanderers.' + +I do not suppose, however, that any of us have need to be reminded +that upon a closer and deeper examination of the facts of the case, +every hoof of the ninety-and-nine belonged to a stray sheep too; and +that in the wider application of the parable _all_ men are +wanderers. Remembering, then, this universal application, I would +point out two or three things about the condition of these strayed +sheep, which include the whole race. The ninety-and-nine may shadow +for us a number of beings, in unfallen worlds, immensely greater +than even the multitudes of wandering souls that have lived here +through weary ages of sin and tears, but that does not concern us +now. + +The first thought I gather from the parable is that all men are +Christ's sheep. That sounds a strange thing to say. What? all these +men and women who, having run away from Him, are plunged in sin, +like sheep mired in a black bog, the scoundrels and the profligates, +the scum and the outcasts of great cities; people with narrow +foreheads, and blighted, blasted lives, the despair of our modern +civilisation--are they all His? And in those great wide-lying +heathen lands where men know nothing of His name and of His love, +are they all His too? Let Him answer, 'Other sheep I have'--though +they look like goats to-day--'which are not of this fold, them also +must I bring, and they shall hear My voice.' All men are Christ's, +because He has been the Agent of divine creation, and the grand +words of the hundredth Psalm are true about Him. 'It is He that hath +made us, and we are His. We are His people and the sheep of His +pasture.' They are His, because His sacrifice has bought them for +His. Erring, straying, lost, they still belong to the Shepherd. + +Notice next, the picture of the sheep as wandering. The word is, +literally, 'which _goeth_ astray,' not 'which is gone astray.' +It pictures the process of wandering, not the result as accomplished. +We see the sheep, poor, silly creature, not going anywhere in +particular, only there is a sweet tuft of grass here, and it crops +that; and here is a bit of ground where there is soft walking, and it +goes there; and so, step by step, not meaning anything, not knowing +where it is going, or that it _is_ going anywhere; it goes, and +goes, and goes, and at last it finds out that it is away from its +beat on the hillside--for sheep keep to one bit of hillside generally, +as any shepherd will tell you--and then it begins to bleat, and most +helpless of creatures, fluttering and excited, rushes about amongst +the thorns and brambles, or gets mired in some quag or other, and it +will never find its way back of itself until some one comes for it. + +'So,' says Christ to us, 'there are a great many of you who do not +mean to go wrong; you are not going anywhere in particular, you do +not start on your course with any intentions either way, of doing +right or wrong, of keeping near God, or going away from Him, but you +simply go where the grass is sweetest, or the walking easiest. But +look at the end of it; where you have got to. You have got away from +Him.' + +Now, if you take that series of parables in Luke xv., and note the +metaphors there, you will see three different sides given of the +process by which men's hearts stray away from God. There is the +sheep that wanders. That is partly conscious, and voluntary, but in +a large measure simply yielding to inclination and temptation. Then +there is the coin that trundles away under some piece of furniture, +and is lost--that is a picture of the manner in which a man, without +volition, almost mechanically sometimes, slides into sins and +disappears as it were, and gets covered over with the dust of evil. +And then there is the worst of all, the lad that had full knowledge +of what he was doing. 'I am going into a far-off country; I cannot +stand this any longer--all restraint and no liberty, and no power of +doing what I like with my own; and always obliged to obey and be +dependent on my father for my pocket-money! Give me what belongs to +me, for good and all, and let me go!' That is the picture of the +worst kind of wandering, when a man knows what he is about, and +looks at the merciful restraint of the law of God, and says: 'No! I +had rather be far away; and my own master, and not always be +"cribbed, cabined, and confined" with these limitations.' + +The straying of the half-conscious sheep may seem more innocent, but +it carries the poor creature away from the shepherd as completely as +if it had been wholly intelligent and voluntary. Let us learn the +lesson. In a world like this, if a man does not know very clearly +where he is going, he is sure to go wrong. If you do not exercise a +distinct determination to do God's will, and to follow in His +footsteps who has set us an example; and if your main purpose is to +get succulent grass to eat and soft places to walk in, you are +certain before long to wander tragically from all that is right and +noble and pure. It is no excuse for you to say: 'I never meant it'; +'I did not intend any harm, I only followed my own inclinations.' +'More mischief is wrought'--to the man himself, as well as to other +people--'from want of thought than is wrought by' an evil will. And +the sheep has strayed as effectually, though, when it set out on its +journey, it never thought of straying. Young men and women beginning +life, remember! and take this lesson. + +But then there is another point that I must touch for a moment. In +the Revised Version you will find a very tiny alteration in the +words of my text, which, yet, makes a large difference in the sense. +The last clause of my text, as it stands in our Bible, is, 'And +seeketh that which is _gone_ astray'; the Revised Version more +correctly reads, 'And seeketh that which _is going_ astray.' +Now, look at the difference in these two renderings. In the former +the process is represented as finished, in the correct rendering it +is represented as going on. And that is what I would press on you, +the awful, solemn, necessarily progressive character of our +wanderings from God. A man never gets to the end of the distance +that separates between him and the Father, if his face is turned +away from God. Every moment the separation is increasing. Two lines +start from each other at the acutest angle and diverge more the +further they are produced, until at last the one may be away up by +the side of God's throne, and the other away down in the deepest +depths of hell. So accordingly my text carries with solemn pathos, +in a syllable, the tremendous lesson: 'The sheep is not gone, but +_going_ astray.' Ah! there are some of my hearers who are daily +and hourly increasing the distance between themselves and their +merciful Father. + +Now the last thing here in this picture is the contrast between the +description given of the wandering sheep in our text, and that in +St. Luke. Here it is represented as wandering, there it is +represented as lost. That is very beautiful and has a meaning often +not noticed by hasty readers. Who is it that has lost it? We talk +about the lost soul and the lost man, as if it were the man that had +lost _himself_, and that is true, and a dreadful truth it is. +But that is not the truth that is taught in this parable, and meant +by us to be gathered from it. Who is it that has lost it? He to whom +it belonged. + +That is to say, wherever a heart gets ensnared and entangled with +the love of the treasures and pleasures of this life, and so departs +in allegiance and confidence and friendship from the living God, +there God the Father regards Himself as the poorer by the loss of +one of His children, by the loss of one of His sheep. He does not +care to possess you by the hold of mere creation and supremacy and +rule. He desires you to love Him, and then He deems that He has you. +And if you do not love Him, He deems that He has lost you. There is +something in the divine heart that goes out after His lost property. +We touch here upon deep things that we cannot speak of intelligently; +only remember this, that what looks like self-regard in man is the +purest love in God, and that there is nothing in the whole revelation +which Christianity makes of the character of God more wonderful than +this, that He judges that He has lost His child when His child has +forgotten to love Him. + +II. So much, then, for one of the great pictures in this text. I can +spare but a sentence or two for the other--the picture of the +Seeker. + +I said that in the one form of the parable it was more distinctly +the Father, and in the other more distinctly the Son, who is +represented as seeking the sheep. But these two do still coincide in +substance, inasmuch as God's chief way of seeking us poor wandering +sheep is through the work of His dear Son Jesus, and the coming of +Christ is the Father's searching for His sheep in the 'cloudy and +dark day.' + +According to my text God leaves the ninety-and-nine and goes into +the mountains where the wanderer is, and seeks him. And this, +couched in veiled form, is the great mystery of the divine love, the +incarnation and sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord. Here is the +answer by anticipation to the sarcasm that is often levelled at +evangelical Christianity: 'You must think a good deal of human +nature, and must have a very arrogant notion of the inhabitant of +this little speck that floats in the great sea of the heavens, if +you suppose that with all these millions of orbs he is so important +that the divine Nature came down upon this little tiny molehill, and +took his nature and died.' + +'Yes!' says Christ, 'not because man was so great, not because man +was so valuable in comparison with the rest of creation--he was but +one amongst ninety-nine unfallen and unsinful--but because he was so +wretched, because he was so small, because he had gone so far away +from God; _therefore_, the seeking love came after him, and +would draw him to itself.' That, I think, is answer enough to the +cavil. + +And then, there is a difference between these two versions of the +Parable in respect to their representation of the end of the seeking. +The one says 'seeks until He finds.' Oh! the patient, incredible +inexhaustibleness of the divine love. God's long-suffering, if I may +take such a metaphor, like a sleuth-hound, will follow the object +of its search through all its windings and doublings, until it comes +up to it. So that great seeking Shepherd follows us through all the +devious courses of our wayward, wandering footsteps doubling back +upon themselves, until He finds us. Though the sheep may increase its +distance, the Shepherd follows. The further away we get the more +tender His appeal; the more we stop our ears the louder the voice +with which He calls. You cannot wear out Jesus Christ, you cannot +exhaust the resources of His bounteousness, of His tenderness. +However we may have been going wrong, however far we may have +been wandering, however vehemently we may be increasing, at every +moment, our distance from Him, He is coming after us, serene, loving, +long-suffering, and will not be put away. + +Dear friend! would you only believe that a loving, living Person is +really seeking you, seeking you by my poor words now, seeking you by +many a providence, seeking you by His Gospel, by His Spirit; and +will never be satisfied till He has found you in your finding Him +and turning your soul to Him! + +But, I beseech you, do not forget the solemn lesson drawn from the +other form of the parable which is given in my text: _If so be +that He find it_. There is a possibility of failure. What an +awful power you have of burying yourself in the sepulchre, as it +were, of your own self-will, and hiding yourself in the darkness of +your own unbelief! You can frustrate the seeking love of God. Some +of you have done so--some of you have done so all your lives. Some +of you, perhaps at this moment, are trying to do so, and consciously +endeavouring to steel your hearts against some softening that may +have been creeping over them whilst I have been speaking. Are you +yielding to His seeking love, or wandering further and further from +Him? He has come to find you. Let Him not seek in vain, but let the +Good Shepherd draw you to Himself, where, lifted on the Cross, He +'giveth His life for the sheep.' He will restore your soul and carry +you back on His strong shoulder, or in His bosom near His loving +heart, to the green pastures and the safe fold. There will be joy in +His heart, more than over those who have never wandered; and there +will be joy in the heart of the returning wanderer, such as they who +had not strayed and learned the misery could never know, for, as the +profound Jewish saying has it, 'In the place where the penitents +stand, the perfectly righteous cannot stand.' + + + + +PERSISTENCE OF THWARTED LOVE + + + 'If so be that he find it.'--MATT. xviii. 13. + + 'Until he find it.'--LUKE xv. 4. + +Like other teachers, Jesus seems to have had favourite points of +view and utterances which came naturally to His lips. There are +several instances in the gospels of His repeating the same sayings +in entirely different connections and with different applications. +One of these habitual points of view seems to have been the thought +of men as wandering sheep, and of Himself as the Shepherd. The +metaphor has become so familiar that we need a moment's reflection +to grasp the mingled tenderness, sadness, and majesty of it. He +thought habitually of all humanity as a flock of lost sheep, and of +Himself as high above them, unparticipant of their evil, and having +one errand--to bring them back. + +And not only does He frequently refer to this symbol, but we have +the two editions, from which my texts are respectively taken, of the +Parable of the Lost Sheep. I say two editions, because it seems to +me a great deal more probable that Jesus should have repeated +Himself than that either of the Evangelists should have ventured to +take this gem and set it in an alien setting. The two versions +differ slightly in some unimportant expressions, and Matthew's is +the more condensed of the two. But the most important variation is +the one which is brought to light by the two fragments which I have +ventured to isolate as texts. '_If_ He find' implies the +possible failure of the Shepherd's search; '_till_ He find' +implies His unwearied persistence in the teeth of all failure. And, +taken in conjunction, they suggest some very blessed and solemn +considerations, which I pray for strength to lay upon your minds and +hearts now. + +I. But first let me say a word or two upon the more general thought +brought out in both these clauses--of the Shepherd's search. + +Now, beautiful and heart-touching as that picture is, of the +Shepherd away amongst the barren mountains searching minutely in +every ravine and thicket, it wants a little explanation in order to +be brought into correspondence with the fact which it expresses. For +His search for His lost property is not in ignorance of where it is, +and His finding of it is not His discovery of His sheep, but its +discovery of its Shepherd. We have to remember wherein consists the +loss before we can understand wherein consists the search. + +Now, if we ask ourselves that question first, we get a flood of +light on the whole matter. The great hundredth Psalm, according to +its true rendering, says, 'It is He that hath made us, _and we are +His_; ... we are ... the sheep of His pasture.' But God's true +possession of man is not simply the possession inherent in the act +of creation. For there is only one way in which spirit can own +spirit, or heart can possess heart, and that is through the +voluntary yielding and love of the one to the other. So Jesus +Christ, who, in all His seeking after us men, is the voice and hand +of Almighty Love, does not count that He has found a man until the +man has learned to love Him. For He loses us when we are alienated +from Him, when we cease to trust Him, when we refuse to obey Him, +when we will not yield to Him, but put Him far away from us. +Therefore the search which, as being Christ's is God's in Christ, is +for our love, our trust, our obedience; and in reality it consists +of all the energies by which Jesus Christ, as God's embodiment and +representative, seeks to woo and win you and me back to Himself, +that He may truly possess us. + +If the Shepherd's seeking is but a tender metaphor for the whole +aggregate of the ways by which the love that is divine and human in +Jesus Christ moves round about our closed hearts, as water may feel +round some hermetically sealed vessel, seeking for an entrance, then +surely the first and chiefest of them, which makes its appeal to each +of us as directly as to any man that ever lived, is that great mystery +that Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God, left the ninety-and-nine +that were safe on the high pastures of the mountains of God, and came +down among us, out into the wilderness, 'to seek and to save that +which was lost.' + +And, brother, that method of winning--I was going to say, of +_earning_--our love comes straight in its appeal to every +single soul on the face of the earth. Do not say that thou wert not +in Christ's heart and mind when He willed to be born and willed to +die. Thou, and thou, and thou, and every single unit of humanity +were there clear before Him in their individuality; and He died for +thee, and for me, and for _every_ man. And, in one aspect, that +is more than to say that He died for _all_ men. There was a +specific intention in regard to each of us in the mission of Jesus +Christ; and when He went to the Cross the Shepherd was not giving +His life for a confused flock of which He knew not the units, but +for sheep the face of each of whom He knows, and each of whom He +loves. There was His first seeking; there is His chief seeking. +There is the seeking which ought to appeal to every soul of man, and +which, ever since you were children, has been making its appeal to +you. Has it done so in vain? Dear friend, let not your heart still +be hard. + +He seeks us by every record of that mighty love that died for us, +even when it is being spoken as poorly, and with as many limitations +and imperfections, as I am speaking it now. 'As though God did +beseech you by us, pray you in Christ's stead.' It is not arrogance, +God forbid! it is simple truth when I say, Never mind about me; but +my word, in so far as it is true and tender, is Christ's word to +you. And here, in our midst, that unseen Form is passing along these +pews and speaking to these hearts, and the Shepherd is seeking His +sheep. + +He seeks each of us by the inner voices and emotions in our hearts +and minds, by those strange whisperings which sometimes we hear, by +the suddenly upstarting convictions of duty and truth which sometimes, +without manifest occasion, flash across our hearts. These voices are +Christ's voice, for, in a far deeper sense than most men superficially +believe, 'He is the true Light that lighteth every man coming into +the world.' + +He is seeking us by our unrest, by our yearnings after we know not +what, by our dim dissatisfaction which insists upon making itself +felt in the midst of joys and delights, and which the world fails to +satisfy as much as it fails to interpret. There is a cry in every +heart, little as the bearer of the heart translates it into its true +meaning--a cry after God, even the living God. And by all your +unrests, your disappointments, your hopes unfulfilled, your hopes +fulfilled and blasted in the fulfilment, your desires that perish +unfruited; by all the mystic movements of the spirit that yearns for +something beyond the material and the visible, Jesus Christ is +seeking His sheep. + +He seeks us by the discipline of life, for I believe that Christ is +the active Providence of God, and that the hands that were pierced +on the Cross do move the wheels of the history of the world, and +mould the destinies of individual spirits. + +The deepest meaning of all life is that we should be won to seek Him +who in it all is seeking us, and led to venture our hopes, and fling +the anchor of our faith beyond the bounds of the visible, that it +may fasten in the Eternal, even in Christ Himself, 'the same +yesterday and to-day and for ever' when earth and its training are +done with. Brethren, it is a blessed thing to live, when we +interpret life's smallnesses aright as the voice of the Master, who, +by them all--our sadness and our gladness, the unrest of our hearts +and the yearnings and longings of our spirits, by the ministry of +His word, by the record of His sufferings--is echoing the invitation +of the Cross itself, 'Come unto Me, all ye ... and I will give you +rest!' So much for the Shepherd's search. + +II. And now, in the second place, a word as to the possible +thwarting of the search. + +'If so be that He find.' That is an awful _if_, when we think +of what lies below it. The thing seems an absurdity when it is +spoken, and yet it is a grim fact in many a life--viz. that Christ's +effort can fail and be thwarted. Not that His search is perfunctory +or careless, but that we shroud ourselves in darkness through which +that love can find no way. It is we, not He, that are at fault when +He fails to find that which He seeks. There is nothing more certain +than that God, and Christ the image of God, desire the rescue of +every man, woman, and child of the human race. Let no teaching blur +that sunlight fact. There is nothing more certain than that Jesus +Christ has done, and is doing, all that He can do to secure that +purpose. If He could make every man love Him, and so find every man, +be sure that He would do it. But He cannot. For here is the central +mystery of creation, which if we could solve there would be few +knots that would resist our fingers, that a finite will like yours +or mine can lift itself up against God, and that, having the +capacity, it has the desire. He says, 'Come!' We say, 'I will not.' +That door of the heart opens from within, and He never breaks it +open. He stands at the door and knocks. And then the same solemn +_if_ comes--'If any man opens, I will come in'; if any man +keeps it shut, and holds on to prevent its being opened, I will stop +out. + +Brethren, I seek to press upon you now the one plain truth, that if +you are not saved men and women, there is no person in heaven or +earth or hell that has any blame in the matter but yourself alone. +God appeals to us, and says, 'What more _could_ have been done +to My vineyard that I have not done unto it?' His hands are clean, +and the infinite love of Christ is free from all blame, and all the +blame lies at our own doors. + +I must not dwell upon the various reasons which lead so many men +among us--as, alas! the utmost charity cannot but see that there +are--to turn away from Christ's appeals, and to be unwilling to +'have this Man' either 'to reign over' them or to save them. There +are many such, I am sure, in my audience now; and I would fain, if I +could, draw them to that Lord in whom alone they have life, and +rest, and holiness, and heaven. + +One great reason is because you do not believe that you need Him. +There is an awful inadequacy in most men's conceptions--and still +more in their feelings--as to their sin. Oh dear friends, if you +would only submit your consciences for one meditative half-hour to +the light of God's highest law, I think you would find out something +more than many of you know, as to what you are and what your sin is. +Many of us do not much believe that we are in any danger. I have +seen a sheep comfortably cropping the short grass on a down over the +sea, with one foot out in the air, and a precipice of five hundred +feet below it, and at the bottom the crawling water. It did not know +that there was any danger of going over. That is like some of us. If +you believed what is true--that 'sin when it is finished, bringeth +forth death,' and understood what 'death' meant, you would feel the +mercy of the Shepherd seeking you. Some of us think we are in the +flock when we are not. Some of us do not like submission. Some of us +have no inclination for the sweet pastures that He provides, and +would rather stay where we are, and have the fare that is going +there. + +We do not need to _do_ anything to put Him away. I have no +doubt that some of us, as soon as my voice ceases, will plunge again +into worldly talk and thoughts before they are down the chapel +steps, and so blot out, as well as they can, any vagrant and +superficial impression that may have been made. Dear brethren, it is +a very easy matter to turn away from the Shepherd's voice. 'I +called, and ye refused. I stretched out My hands, and _no man +regarded_.' That is all! That is what you do, and that is enough. + +III. So, lastly, the thwarted search prolonged. + +'Till He find'--that is a wonderful and a merciful word. It +indicates the infinitude of Christ's patient forgiveness and +perseverance. _We_ tire of searching. 'Can a mother forget' or +abandon her seeking after a lost child? Yes! if it has gone on for +so long as to show that further search is hopeless, she will go home +and nurse her sorrow in her heart. Or, perhaps, like some poor +mothers and wives, it will turn her brain, and one sign of her +madness will be that, long years after grief should have been calm +because hope was dead, she will still be looking for the little one +so long lost. But Jesus Christ stands at the closed door, as a great +modern picture shows, though it has been so long undisturbedly +closed that the hinges are brown with rust, and weeds grow high +against it. He stands there in the night, with the dew on His hair, +unheeded or repelled, like some stranger in a hostile village +seeking for a night's shelter. He will not be put away; but, after +all refusals, still with gracious finger, knocks upon the door, and +speaks into the heart. Some of you have refused Him all your lives, +and perhaps you have grey hairs upon you now. And He is speaking to +you still. He 'suffereth long, is not easily provoked, is not soon +angry; hopeth all things,' even of the obstinate rejecters. + +For that is another truth that this word 'till' preaches to us--viz. +the possibility of bringing back those that have gone furthest away +and have been longest away. The world has a great deal to say about +incurable cases of moral obliquity and deformity. Christ knows +nothing about 'incurable cases.' If there is a worst man in the +world--and perhaps there is--there is nothing but his own +disinclination to prevent his being brought back, and made as pure +as an angel. + +But do not let us deal with generalities; let us bring the truths to +ourselves. Dear brethren, I know nothing about the most of you. I +should not know you again if I met you five minutes after we part +now. I have never spoken to many of you, and probably never shall, +except in this public way; but I know that _you_ need Christ, +and that Christ wants _you_. And I know that, however far you +have gone, you have not gone so far but that His love feels out +through the remoteness to grasp you, and would fain draw you to +itself. + +I dare say you have seen upon some dreary moor, or at the foot of +some 'scaur' on the hillside, the bleached bones of a sheep, lying +white and grim among the purple heather. It strayed, unthinking of +danger, tempted by the sweet herbage; it fell; it vainly bleated; it +died. But what if it had heard the shepherd's call, and had +preferred to lie where it fell, and to die where it lay? We talk +about 'silly sheep.' Are there any of them so foolish as men and +women listening to me now, who will not answer the Shepherd's voice +when they hear it, with, 'Lord, here am I, come and help me out of +this miry clay, and bring me back.' He is saying to each of you, +'Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?' May He not have to say at last +of any of us, 'Ye would not come to Me, that ye might have life!' + + + + +FORGIVEN AND UNFORGIVING + + + 'Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until + seven times; but, Until seventy times seven.' + --MATT. xviii. 22. + +The disciples had been squabbling about pre-eminence in the kingdom +which they thought was presently to appear. They had ventured to +refer their selfish and ambitious dispute to Christ's arbitrament. +He answered by telling them the qualifications of 'the greatest in +the kingdom'--that they are to be humble like little children; that +they are to be placable; that they are to use all means to reclaim +offenders; and that, even if the offence is against themselves, they +are to ignore the personal element, and to regard the offender, not +so much as having done them harm, as having harmed himself by his +evil-doing. + +Peter evidently feels that that is a very hard commandment for a man +of his temperament, and so he goes to Jesus Christ for a little +further direction, and proposes a question as to the limits of this +disposition: 'How often shall my brother sin?' The very question +betrays that he does not understand what forgiveness means; for it +is not real, if the 'forgiven' sin is stowed away safely in the +memory. 'I can forgive, but I cannot forget,' generally means, 'I do +not _quite_ forgive.' We are not to take the pardoned offence, +and carry it to a kind of 'suspense account,' to be revived if +another is committed, but we are to blot it out altogether. Peter +thought that he had given a very wide allowance when he said 'seven +times.' Christ's answer lifts the whole subject out of the realm of +hard and fast lines and limits, for He takes the two perfect numbers +'ten' and 'seven,' and multiplies them together, and then He +multiplies that by 'seven' once more; and the product is _not_ +four hundred and ninety, but is innumerableness. He does not mean +that the four hundred and ninety-first offence is outside the pale, +but He suggests indefiniteness, endlessness. So, as I say, He lifts +the question out of the region in which Peter was keeping it, +thereby betraying that he did not understand what he was talking +about, and tells us that there are no limits to the obligation. + +The parable which follows, and follows with a 'therefore,' does not +deal so much with Peter's question as to the limits of the +disposition, but sets forth its grounds and the nature of its +manifestations. If we understand why we ought to forgive, and what +forgiveness is, we shall not say, 'How often?' The question will +have answered itself. + +I turn to the parable rather than the words which I have read as our +starting-point, to seek to bring out the lessons which it contains +in regard to our relations to God, and to one another. There are +three sections in it: the king and his debtor; the forgiven debtor +and _his_ debtor; and the forgiven debtor unforgiven because +unforgiving. And if we look at these three points I think we shall +get the lessons intended. + +I. The king and his debtor. + +A certain king has servants, whom he gathers together to give in +their reckoning. And one of them is brought that owes him ten +thousand talents. Now, it is to be noticed at the very outset that +the analogy between debt and sin, though real, is extremely +imperfect. No metaphor of that sort goes on all fours, and there has +been a great deal of harm done to theology and to evangelical +religion by carrying out too completely the analogy between money +debts and our sins against God. But although the analogy is +imperfect, it is very real. The first point that is to be brought +out in this first part of the parable is the immense magnitude of +every man's transgressions against God. Numismatists and +arithmeticians may jangle about the precise amount represented by +the thousand talents. It differs according to the talent which is +taken as the basis of the calculation. There were several talents in +use in the currency of ancient days. But the very point of the +expression is not the specification of an exact amount, but the use +of a round number which is to suggest an undefined magnitude. 'Ten +thousand talents,' according to one estimate, is some two millions +and a quarter of pounds sterling. + +But I would point out that the amount is stated in terms of talents, +and _any_ talent is a large sum; and there are ten thousand of +these; and the reason why the account is made out in terms of +talents, the largest denomination in the currency of the period, is +because every sin against God is a great sin. He being what He is, +and we being what we are, and sin being what it is, every sin is +large, although the deed which embodies it may be, when measured by +the world's foot-rule, very small. For the essence of sin is +rebellion against God and the enthroning of self as His victorious +rival; and all rebellion is rebellion, whether it is found in arms +in the field, or whether it is simply sulkily refusing obedience and +cherishing thoughts of treason. We are always apt to go wrong in our +estimate of the great and small in human actions, and, although the +terms of magnitude do not apply properly to moral questions at all, +there is no more conspicuous misuse of language than when we speak +of anything which has in it the virus of rebellion against God, and +the breach of His law, as being a small sin. It may be a small act; +it is a great sin. Little rattlesnakes are snakes; they have rattles +and poison fangs as really as the most monstrous of the brood that +coils and hisses in some cave. So the account is made out in terms +of talents, because every sin is a great one. I need not dwell upon +the numerousness that is suggested. 'Ten thousand' is the natural +current expression for a number that is not innumerable, but is only +known to be very great. The psalmist says: 'They are more than the +hairs of my head.' How many hairs had you in your head, David? Do +you know? 'No!' And how many sins have you committed? Do you know? +'No!' The number is beyond count by us, though it may be counted by +Him against whom they are done. Do you believe that about yourself, +my friend, that the debit side of your account has filled all the +page and has to be carried forward on to another? Do we any of us +realise, as we all of us ought to do, the infinite number, and the +transcendent greatness, of our transgressions against the Father? + +But the next point to be noticed is the stern legal right of the +creditor. It sounds harsh, cruel, almost brutal, that the man and +his wife and his children should be sold into slavery, and all that +he had should be taken from him, in order to go some little way +towards the reduction of the enormous debt that he owed. Christ puts +in that harsh and apparently cruel conduct in the story, not to +suggest that it was harsh and cruel, but because it was according to +the law of the time. A recognised legal right was exercised by the +creditor when he said, 'Take him; sell him for a slave, and bring me +what he fetches in the open markets.' So that we have here suggested +the solemn thought of the right that divine justice, acting +according to strict retributive law, has over each of us. Our own +consciences attest it as perfectly within the scope of the divine +retributive justice that our enormous sin should bring down a +tremendous punishment. + +I said that the analogy between sin and debt was a very imperfect +one. It is imperfect in regard to one point--viz. the implication of +other people in the consequences of the man's evil; for although it +is quite true that 'the evil that men do lives after them, and +spreads far beyond their sight, and involves many people, no other +is amenable to divine justice for the sinner's debt. It is quite +true that, when we do an evil action, we never can tell how far its +wind-borne seeds may be carried, or where they may alight, or what +sort of unwholesome fruit they may bear, or who may be poisoned by +them; but, on the other hand, we, and we only, are responsible for +our individual transgressions against God. 'If thou be wise, thou +shalt be wise for thyself; and if thou scornest, thou alone shalt +bear it.' + +The same imperfection in the analogy applies to the next point in the +parable--viz. the bankrupt debtor's prayer, 'Have patience with me, +and I will pay thee all.' Easy to promise! I wonder how long it would +have taken a penniless bankrupt to scrape together two and a quarter +millions of pounds? He said a great deal more than he could make good. +But the language of his prayer is by no means the language that +becomes a penitent at God's throne. We have not to offer to make +future satisfaction. No! that is impossible. 'What I have written I +have written,' and the page, with all its smudges and blots and +misshapen letters, cannot be made other than it is by any future +pages fairly written. No future righteousness has any power to affect +the guilt of past sin. There is one thing that does _discharge_ the +writing from the page. Do you remember Paul's words, 'blotting out +the handwriting that was against us--nailing it to His Cross'? You +sometimes dip your pens into red ink, and run a couple of lines +across the page of an account that is done with. Jesus Christ does +the same across our account, and the debt is non-existent, because +He has died. + +But the prayer is the expression, if not of penitence yet of +petition, and all the stern rigour of the law's requirement at once +melts away, and the king who, in the former words, seemed so harsh, +now is almost incredibly merciful. For he not only cancels the debt, +but sets the man free. 'Thy ways are not as our ways; ... as the +heavens are higher than the earth, so great is His mercy toward' the +sinful soul. + +II. So much, then, for the first part of this parable. Now a word as +to the second, the forgiven debtor and his debt. + +Our Lord uses in the 27th and 28th verses of our text the same +expression very significantly and emphatically. 'The lord of _that +servant_ was moved with compassion.' And then again, in the 28th +verse, 'But that _servant_ went out and found one of his +fellow-servants.' The repetition of the same phrase hooks the two +halves together, emphasises the identity of the man, and the +difference of his demeanour, on the two occasions. + +The conduct described is almost impossibly disgusting and truculent. +'He found his fellow-servant, who owed him a hundred pence'--some +three pounds, ten shillings--and with the hands that a minute before +had been wrung in agony, and extended in entreaty, he throttled him; +and with the voice that had been plaintively pleading for mercy a +minute before, he gruffly growled, 'Pay me that thou owest.' He had +just come through an agony of experience that might have made him +tender. He had just received a blessing that might have made his +heart glow. But even the repetition of his own petition does not +touch him, and when the poor fellow-servant, with his paltry debt, +says, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all,' it avails +nothing. He durst not sell his fellow-servant. God's rights over a +man are more than any man's over another. But he does what he can. +He will not do much towards recouping himself of his loan by +flinging the poor debtor into prison, but if he cannot get his +ducats he will gloat over his 'pound of flesh.' So he hurries him +off to gaol. + +Could a man have done like that? Ah! brethren, the things that would +be monstrous in our relations to one another are common in our +relations to God. Every day we see, and, alas! do, the very same +thing, in our measure and degree. Do you never treasure up somebody's +slights? Do you never put away in a pigeon-hole for safe-keeping, +endorsed with the doer's name on the back of it, the record of some +trivial offence against you? It is but as a penny against a talent, +for the worst that any of us can do to another is nothing as compared +with what many of us have been doing all our lives toward God. I dare +say that some of us will go out from this place, and the next man that +we meet that 'rubs us the wrong way,' or does us any harm, we shall +score down his act against him with as implacable and unmerciful an +unforgivingness as that of this servant in the parable. Do not believe +that he was a monster of iniquity. He was just like us. We all of us +have one human heart, and this man's crime is but too natural to us +all. The essence of it was that having been forgiven, he did not +forgive. + +So, then, our Lord here implies the principle that God's mercy to us +is to set the example to which our dealings with others is to be +conformed. 'Even as I had mercy on thee' plainly proposes that +miracle of divine forgiveness as our pattern as well as our hope. +The world's morality recognises the duty of forgiveness. Christ +shows us God's forgiveness as at once the model which is the perfect +realisation of the idea in its completeness and inexhaustibleness, +and also the motive which, brought into our experience, inclines and +enables us to forgive. + +III. And now I come to the last point of the text--the debtor who +had been forgiven falling back into the ranks of the unforgiven, +because he does not forgive. + +The fellow-servants were very much disgusted, no doubt. Our +consciences work a great deal more rapidly, and rigidly, about other +people's faults than they do about our own. And nine out of ten of +these fellow-servants that were very sorry, and ran and told the +king, would have done exactly the same thing themselves. The king, +for the first time, is wroth. We do not read that he was so before, +when the debt only was in question; but such unforgiving harshness, +after the experience of such merciful forgiveness, rouses his +righteous indignation. The unmercifulness of Christian people is a +worse sin than many a deed that goes by very ugly names amongst men. +And so the judgment that falls upon this evil-doer, who, by his +truculence to his fellow-servant, had betrayed the baseness of his +nature and the ingratitude of his heart, is, 'Put him back where he +was! Tie the two and a quarter millions round his neck again! Let us +see what he will do by way of discharging it now!' + +Now, do not let any theological systems prevent you from recognising +the solemn truth that underlies that representation, that there may +be things in the hearts and conduct of forgiven Christians which may +cancel the cancelling of their debt, and bring it all back again. No +man can cherish the malicious disposition that treasures up offences +against himself, and at the same moment feel that the divine love is +wrapping him round in its warm folds. If we are to retain our +consciousness of having been forgiven by God, and received into the +amplitude of His heart, we must, in our measure and degree, imitate +that on which we trust, and be mirrors of the divine mercy which we +say has saved us. + +Our parable lays equal stress on two things. First, that the +foundation of all real mercifulness in men is the reception of +forgiving mercy from God. We must have experienced it before we can +exercise it. And, second, we must exercise it, if we desire to +continue to experience it. 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall +obtain mercy.' That applies to Christian people. But behind that +there lies the other truth, that in order to be merciful we must +first of all have received the initial mercy of cancelled +transgression. + +So, dear friends, here are the two lessons for every one of us. +First, to recognise our debt, and go to Him in whom God is well +pleased, for its abolishment and forgiveness; and then to go out +into the world, and live like Him, and show to others love kindled +by and kindred to that to which we trust for our own salvation. 'Be +ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in +love, as God also hath loved us.' + + + + +THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE KING + + + 'And, behold, one came and said unto Him, Good Master, + what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal + life? 17. And He said unto him, Why callest thou Me + good? there is none good but One, that is, God: but + if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. + 18. He saith unto Him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt + do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou + shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, + 19. Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt + love thy neighbour as thyself. 20. The young man saith + unto Him, All these things have I kept from my youth + up: what lack I yet? 21. Jesus said unto him, If thou + wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give + to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: + and come and follow Me. 22. But when the young man + heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had + great possessions. 23. Then said Jesus unto His + disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall + hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 24. And again + I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through + the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into + the kingdom of God. 25. When His disciples heard it, + they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be + saved? 26. But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, + With men this is impossible; but with God all things + are possible.'--MATT. xix. 16-26. + +We have here one of the saddest stories in the gospels. It is a true +soul's tragedy. The young man is in earnest, but his earnestness has +not volume and force enough to float him over the bar. He wishes to +have some great thing bidden him to do, but he recoils from the +sharp test which Christ imposes. He truly wants the prize, but the +cost is too great; and yet he wishes it so much that he goes away +without it in deep sorrow, which perhaps, at another day, ripened +into the resolve which then was too high for him. There is a certain +severity in our Lord's tone, an absence of recognition of the much +good in the young man, and a naked stringency in His demand from +him, which sound almost harsh, but which are set in their true light +by Mark's note, that Jesus 'loved him,' and therefore treated him +thus. The truest way to draw ingenuous souls is not to flatter, nor +to make entrance easy by dropping the standard or hiding the +requirements, but to call out all their energy by setting before +them the lofty ideal. Easy-going disciples are easily made--and +lost. Thorough-going ones are most surely won by calling for entire +surrender. + +I. We may gather together the earlier part of the conversation, as +introductory to the Lord's requirement (vs. 16-20), in which we have +the picture of a real though imperfect moral earnestness, and may +note how Christ deals with it. Matthew tells us that the questioner +was young and rich. Luke adds that he was a 'ruler'--a synagogue +official, that is--which was unusual for a young man, and indicates +that his legal blamelessness was recognised. Mark adds one of his +touches, which are not only picturesque, but character-revealing, by +the information that he came 'running' to Jesus in the way, so eager +was he, and fell at His feet, so reverential was he. His first +question is singularly compacted of good and error. The fact that he +came to Christ for a purely religious purpose, not seeking personal +advantage for himself or for others, like the crowds who followed +for loaves and cures, nor laying traps for Him with puzzles which +might entangle Him with the authorities, nor asking theological +questions for curiosity, but honestly and earnestly desiring to be +helped to lay hold of eternal life, is to be put down to his credit. +He is right in counting it the highest blessing. + +Where had he got hold of the thought of 'eternal life'? It was miles +above the dusty speculations and casuistries of the rabbis. Probably +from Christ Himself. He was right in recognising that the conditions +of possessing it were moral, but his conception of 'good' was +superficial, and he thought more of doing good than of being good, +and of the desired life as payment for meritorious actions. In a +word, he stood at the point of view of the old dispensation. 'This +do, and thou shalt live,' was his belief; and what he wished was +further instruction as to what 'this' was. He was to be praised in +that he docilely brought his question to Jesus, even though, as +Christ's answer shows, there was error mingling in his docility. +Such is the character--a young man, rich, influential, touched with +real longings for the highest life, ready, so far as he knows +himself, to do whatever he is bidden, in order to secure it. + +We might have expected Christ, who opened His arms wide for +publicans and harlots, to have welcomed this fair, ingenuous seeker +with some kindly word. But He has none for him. We adopt the reading +of the Revised Version, in which our Lord's first word is repellent. +It is in effect--'There is no need for your question, which answers +itself. There is one good Being, the source and type of every good +thing, and therefore the good, which you ask about, can only be +conformity to His will. You need not come to Me to know what you are +to do.' He relegates the questioner, not to his own conscience, but +to the authoritative revealed will of God in the law. Modern views +of Christ's work, which put all its stress on the perfection of His +moral character, and His office as a pattern of righteousness, may +well be rebuked by the fact that He expressly disclaimed this +character, and declared that, if He was only to be regarded as +republishing the law of human conduct, His work was needless. Men +have enough knowledge of what they must do to enter into life, +without Jesus Christ. No doubt, Christ's moral teaching transcends +that given of old; but His special work was not to tell men what to +do, but to make it possible for them to do it; to give, not the law, +but the power, both the motive and the impulse, which will fulfil +the law. On another occasion He answered a similar question in a +different manner. When the Jews asked Him, 'What must we do, that we +may work the works of God?' He replied by the plain evangelical +statement: 'This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He +hath sent.' Why did He not answer the young ruler thus? Only because +He knew that he needed to be led to that thought by having his own +self-complacency shattered, and the clinging of his soul to earth +laid bare. The whole treatment of him here is meant to bring him to +the apprehension of faith as preceding all truly good work. + +The young man's second question says a great deal in its one word. +It indicates astonishment at being remanded to these old, well-worn +precepts, and might be rendered, 'What sort of commandments?' as if +taking it for granted that they must be new and peculiar. It is the +same spirit as that which in all ages has led men who with partial +insight longed after eternal life, to seek it by fantastic and +unusual roads of extraordinary sacrifices or services--the spirit +which filled monasteries, and invented hair shirts, and fastings, +and swinging with hooks in your back at Hindoo festivals. The +craving for more than ordinary 'good works' shows a profound mistake +in the estimate of the ordinary, and a fatal blunder as to the +relation between 'goodness' and 'eternal life.' + +So Christ answers the question by quoting the second half of the +Decalogue, which deals with the homeliest duties, and appending to +it the summary of the law, which requires love to our neighbour as +to ourselves. Why does He omit the earlier half? Probably because He +would meet the error of the question, by presenting only the +plainest, most familiar commandments, and because He desired to +excite the consciousness of deficiency, which could be most easily +done in connection with these. + +There is a touch of impatience in the rejoinder, 'All these have I +kept,' and more than a touch of self-satisfaction. The law has +failed to accomplish one of its chief purposes in the young man, in +that it has not taught him his sinfulness. No doubt he had a right +to say that his outward life had been free from breaches of such +very elementary morality which any old woman could have taught him. +He had never gone below the surface of the commandments, nor below +the surface of his acts, or he would not have answered so jauntily. +He had yet to learn that the height of 'goodness' is reached, not by +adding some strange new performances to the threadbare precepts of +everyday duty, but by digging deep into these, and bottoming the +fabric of our lives on their inmost spirit. He had yet to learn that +whoever says, 'All these have I kept,' thereby convicts himself of +understanding neither them nor himself. + +Still he was not at rest, although he had, as he fancied, kept them +all. His last question is a plaintive, honest acknowledgment of the +hungry void within, which no round of outward obediences can ever +fill. He knows that he has not the inner fountain springing up into +eternal life. He is dimly aware of something wanting, whether in his +obedience or no, at all events in his peace; and he is right in +believing that the reason for that conscious void is something +wanting in his conduct. But he will not learn what Christ has been +trying to teach him, that he needs no new commandment, but a deeper +understanding and keeping of the old. Hence his question, half a +wail of a hungry heart, half petulant impatience with Christ's +reiteration of obvious duties. There are multitudes of this kind in +all ages, honestly wishing to lay hold of eternal life, able to +point to virtuous conduct, anxious to know and do anything lacking, +and yet painfully certain that something is wanting somewhere. + +II. Now comes the sharp-pointed test, which pricks the brilliant +bubble. Mark tells us that Jesus accompanied His word with one of +those looks which searched a soul, and bore His love into it. 'If +thou wouldest be perfect,' takes up the confession of something +'lacking,' and shows what that is. It is unnecessary to remark that +this commandment to sell all and give to the poor is intended only +for the individual case. No other would-be disciple was called upon +to do so. It cannot be meant for others; for, if all were sellers, +where would the buyers be? Nor need we do more than point out that +the command of renunciation is only half of Christ's answer, the +other being, 'Come, follow Me.' But we are not to slide easily over +the precept with the comfortable thought that it was special +treatment for a special case. The principle involved in it is +medicine for all, and the only way of healing for any. This man was +tied to earth by the cords of his wealth. They did not hinder him +from keeping the commandments, for he had no temptations to murder, +or adultery, or theft, or neglect of parents. But they did hinder +him from giving his whole self up, and from regarding eternal life +as the most precious of all things. Therefore for him there was no +safety short of entire outward denuding himself of them; and, if he +was in earnest out and out in his questions, here was a new thing +for him to do. Others are hindered by other things, and they are +called to abandon these. The one thing needful for entrance into +life is at bottom self-surrender, and the casting away of all else +for its sovereign sake. 'I do count them but dung' must be the +language of every one who will win Christ. The hands must be emptied +of treasures, and the heart swept clear of lesser loves, if He is to +be grasped by our hands, and to dwell in our hearts. More of us than +we are willing to believe are kept from entire surrender to Jesus +Christ, by money and worldly possessions; and many professing +Christians are kept shrivelled and weak and joyless because they +love their wealth more than their Lord, and would think it madness +to do as this man was bidden to do. When ballast is thrown out, the +balloon shoots up. A general unlading of the 'thick clay' which +weighs down the Christian life of England, would let thousands soar +to heights which they will never reach as long as they love money +and what it buys as much as they do. The letter of this commandment +may be only applicable in a special case (though, perhaps, this one +young man was not the only human being that ever needed this +treatment), but the spirit is of universal application. No man +enters into life who does not count all things but loss, and does +not die to them all, that he may follow Christ. + +III. Then comes the collapse of all the enthusiasm. The questioner's +earnestness chills at the touch of the test. What has become of the +eagerness which brought him running to Jesus, and of the willingness +to do any hard task to which he was set? It was real, but shallow. +It deceived himself. But Christ's words cut down to the inner man, +and laid bare for his own inspection the hard core of selfish +worldliness which lay beneath. How many radiant enthusiasms, which +cheat their subjects quite as much as their beholders, disappear +like tinted mist when the hard facts of self-sacrifice strike +against them! How much sheer worldliness disguises itself from +itself and from others in glistering garments of noble sentiments, +which fall at a touch when real giving up is called for, and show +the ugly thing below! How much 'religion' goes about the world, and +gets made 'a ruler' of the synagogue in recognition of its +excellence, which needs but this Ithuriel's spear to start up in its +own shape! The completeness and immediateness of the collapse are +noticeable. The young man seems to speak no word, and to take no +time for reflection. He stands for a moment as if stunned, and then +silently turns away. What a moment! his fate hung on it. Once more +we see the awful mystery enacted before our eyes, of a soul +gathering up its power to put away life. Who will say that the +decision of a moment, which is the outcome of all the past, may not +fix the whole future? This man had never before been consciously +brought to the fork in the road; but now the two ways are before +him, and, knowingly, he chooses the worse. Christ did not desire him +to do so; but He did desire that he should choose, and should know +that he did. It was the truest kindness to tear away the veil of +surface goodness which hid him from himself, and to force him to a +conscious decision. + +One sign of grace he does give, in that he went away 'sorrowful.' He +is not angry nor careless. He cannot see the fair prospect of the +eternal life, which he had in some real fashion desired, fade away, +without a pang. If he goes back to the world, he goes back feeling +more acutely than ever that it cannot satisfy him. He loves it too +well to give it up, but not enough to feel that it is enough. +Surely, in coming days, that godly sorrow would work a change of the +foolish choice, and we may hope that he found no rest till he cast +away all else to make Christ his own. A soul which has travelled as +far on the road to life eternal as this man had done, can scarcely +thereafter walk the broad road of selfishness and death with entire +satisfaction. + +IV. The section closes with Christ's comment on the sad incident. He +speaks no word of condemnation, but passes at once from the +individual to the general lesson of the difficulty which rich men +(or, as He explains it in Mark, men who 'trust in riches') have in +entering the kingdom. The reflection breathes a tone of pity, and is +not so much blame as a merciful recognition of special temptations +which affect His judgment, and should modify ours. A camel with its +great body, long neck, and hump, struggling to get through a +needle's eye, is their emblem. It is a new thing to pity rich men, +or to think of their wealth as disqualifying them for anything. The +disciples, with childish _naivete_, wonder. We may wonder that +they wondered. They could not understand what sort of a kingdom it +was into which capitalists would find entrance difficult. All doors +fly open for them to-day, as then. They do not find much difficulty +in getting into the church, however hard it may be to get into the +kingdom. But it still remains true that the man who has wealth has a +hindrance to his religious character, which, like all hindrances, +may be made a help by the use he makes of it; and that the man who +trusts in riches, which he who possesses them is wofully likely to +do, has made the hindrance into a barrier which he cannot pass. + +That is a lesson which commercial nations, like England, have need +to lay to heart, not as a worn-out saying of the Bible, which means +very little for us, but as heavy with significance, and pointing to +the special dangers which beset Christian perfection. + +So real is the peril of riches, that Christ would have His disciples +regard the victory over it as beyond our human power, and beckons us +away from the effort to overcome the love of the world in our +strength, pointing us to God, in whose mighty grace, breathed into +our feeble wills and treacherous hearts, is the only force which can +overcome the attraction of perishable riches, and make any of us +willing or able to renounce them all that we may win Christ. The +young ruler had just shown that 'with men this is impossible.' +Perhaps he still lingered near enough to catch the assurance that +the surrender, which had been too much for him to achieve, might yet +be joyfully made, since 'with God all things are possible.' + + + + +NEAREST TO CHRIST + + + 'To sit on My right hand, and on My left, is not Mine + to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is + prepared of My Father.'--MATT. xx. 23. + +You will observe that an unusually long supplement is inserted by +our translators in this verse. That supplement is quite unnecessary, +and, as is sometimes the case, is even worse than unnecessary. It +positively obscures the true meaning of the words before us. + +As they stand in our Bibles, the impression that they leave upon +one's mind is that Christ in them abjures the power of giving to His +disciples their places in the kingdom of heaven, and declares that +it belongs not to His function, but relegates it, to His own +exclusion, to the Father; whereas what He says is the very opposite +of this. He does not put aside the granting of places at His right +hand or His left as not being within His province, but He states the +principles and conditions on which He does make such a grant, and so +is really claiming it as in His province. All that would have been a +great deal clearer if our translators had been contented to render +the words that they found before them in the Book, without addition, +and to read, 'To sit on My right hand, and on My left, is not Mine +to give, but to them for whom it is prepared of My Father.' + +Another introductory remark may be made, to the effect that our Lord +does not put aside this prayer of His apostles as if they were +seeking an impossible thing. It is never safe, I know, to argue from +the silence of Scripture. There may be many reasons for that silence +beyond our ken in any given case; but still it does strike one as +noteworthy that, when this fond mother and her ambitious sons came +with their prayer for pre-eminence in His kingdom, our Lord did not +answer what would have been so obvious to answer if it had been +true, 'You are asking a thing which cannot be granted to anybody, +for they are all upon one level in that kingdom of the heavens.' He +says by implication the very opposite. Not only does His silence +confirm their belief that when He came in His glory, some would be +closer to His side than others; but the plain statement of the text +is that, in the depth of the eternal counsels, and by the +preparation of divine grace, there were thrones nearest to His own +which some men should fill. He does _not_ say, 'You are asking +what cannot be.' He does say, 'There are men for whom it is prepared +of My Father.' + +And then, still further, Jesus does not condemn the prayer as +indicating a wrong state of mind on the part of James and John, +though good and bad were strangely mingled in it. We are told +nowadays that it is a very selfish thing, far below the lofty height +to which our transcendental teachers have attained, to be heartened +and encouraged, strengthened and quickened, by the prospect of the +crown and the rest that remain for the people of God. If so, Christ +ought to have turned round to these men, and have rebuked the +passion for reward, which, according to this new light, is so +unworthy and so low. But, instead of that, He confines Himself to +explaining the conditions on which the fulfilment of the desire is +possible, and by implication permits and approves the desire. 'You +want to sit on My right hand and on My left, do you? Then be it so. +You may do so if you like. Are you ready to accept the conditions? +It is well that you should want it,--not for the sake of being above +your brethren, but for the sake of being nearest to Me. Hearken! Are +ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of?' They say unto +Him (and I do not know that there are anywhere grander words than +the calm, swift, unhesitating, modest, and yet confident answer of +these two men), 'We are able.' 'You shall have your desire if you +fulfil the conditions. It is given to them for whom it is prepared +of My Father.' + +I. So, then, if we rightly understand these words, and take them +without the unfortunate comment which our translators have inserted, +they contain, first, the principle that some will be nearer Christ +than others in that heavenly kingdom. + +As I have said, the words of our Lord do not merely imply, by the +absence of all hint that these disciples' petition was impossible, +the existence of degrees among the subjects of His heavenly kingdom, +but articulately affirm that such variety is provided for by the +preparation of the Father. Probably the two brothers thought that +they were only asking for preeminence in an earthly kingdom, and had +no idea that their prayer pointed beyond the grave; but that +confusion of thought could not be cured in their then stage of +growth, and our Lord therefore leaves it untouched. But the other +error, if it were an error, was of a different kind, and might, for +aught that one sees, have been set right in a moment. Instead of +which the answer adopts it, and seems to set Christ's own +confirmation on it, as being no Jewish dream, but a truth. + +They were asking for earth. He answers--for heaven. He leaves them +to learn in after days--when the one was slain with the sword, first +martyr among the apostles, and the other lived to see them all pass +to their thrones, while he remained the 'companion in tribulation' +of the second generation of the Church--how far off was the +fulfilment which they fancied so near. + +We need not he surprised that so large a truth should be spoken by +Christ so quietly, and as it were incidentally. For that is in +keeping with His whole tone when speaking of the unseen world. One +knows not whether to wonder more at the decisive authority with +which He tells us of that mysterious region, or at the small space +which such revelations occupy in His words. There is an air of +simplicity and unconsciousness, and withal of authority, and withal +of divine reticence about them all, which are in full harmony with +the belief that Christ speaking of heaven speaks of that He knows, +and testifies that He hath seen. + +That truth to which, as we think, our Lord's words here inevitably +lead, is distinctly taught in many other places of Scripture. We +should have had less difficulty about it, and should have felt more +what a solemn and stimulating thought it is, if we had tried a +little more than most of us do to keep clear before us what really +is the essential of that future life, what is the lustre of its +light, the heaven of heaven, the glory of the glory. Men talk about +physical theories of another life. I suppose they are possible. They +seem to me infinitely unimportant. Warm imaginations, working by +sense, write books about a future state which wonderfully succeed in +making it real by making it earthly. Some of them read more like a +book of travels in this world than forecastings of the next. They +may be true or not. It does not matter one whit. I believe that +heaven is a place. I believe that the corporeity of our future life +is essential to the perfection of it. I believe that Christ wears, +and will wear for ever, a glorified human body. I believe that that +involves locality, circumstance, external occupations; and I say, +all that being so, and in its own place very important, yet if we +stop there, we have no vision of the real light that makes the +lustre, no true idea of the glory that makes the blessedness. + +For what is heaven? Likeness to God, love, purity, fellowship with +Him; the condition of the spirit and the relation of the soul to +Him. The noblest truth about the future world flows from the words +of our Master--'This is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true +God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.' Not 'this brings'; not +'this will lead up to'; not 'this will draw after it'; but 'this +is'; and whosoever possesses that eternal life hath already in him +the germ of all the glories that are round the throne, and the +blessedness that fills the hearts of perfected spirits. + +If so, if already eternal life in the bud standeth in the knowledge +of God in Christ, what makes its fruitage and completeness? Surely, +not physical changes or the circumstances of heaven, at least not +these primarily, however much such changes and circumstances may +subserve our blessedness there, and the anticipation of them may +help our sense-bound hopes here. But the completeness of heaven is +the completion of our knowledge of God and Christ, with all the +perfecting of spirit which that implies and produces. The faith, and +love, and happy obedience, and consecration which is calm, that +partially occupied and ruled the soul here, are to be thought of as +enlarged, perfected, delivered from the interruption of opposing +thoughts, of sensuous desires, of selfish purposes, of earthly and +sinful occupations. And that perfect knowledge and perfect union and +perfect likeness are perfect bliss. And that bliss is heaven. And +if, whilst heaven is a place, the heaven of heaven be a state, then +no more words are needed to show that, then, heaven can be no dead +level, nor can all stand at the same stage of attainments, though +all be perfect; but that in that solemn company of the blessed, 'the +spirits of just men made perfect,' there are indefinitely numerous +degrees of approximation to the unattainable Perfection, which +stretches above them all, and draws them all to itself. We have not +to think of that future life as oppressed, if I may so say, with the +unbroken monotony of perfect identity in character and attainments. +All indeed are like one another, because all are like Jesus, but +that basis of similarity does not exclude infinite variety. The same +glory belongs to each, but it is reflected at differing angles and +received in divers measures. Perfect blessedness will belong to +each, but the capacity to receive it will differ. There will be the +same crown on each head, the same song on each lip, the same fulness +of joy filling each heart; but star differeth from star, and the +great condition of happy intercourse on earth will not be wanting in +heaven--a deep-seated similarity and a superficial diversity. + +Does not the very idea of an endless progress in that kingdom involve +such variety? We do not think of men passing into the heavens, and +being perfected by a bound so as that there shall be no growth. We +think of them indeed as being perfected up to the height of their +then capacity, from the beginning of that celestial life, so as that +there shall be no sin, nor any conscious incompleteness, but not so +as that there shall be no progress. And, if they each grow through +all the ages, and are ever coming nearer and nearer to Christ, that +seems necessarily to lead to the thought that this endless progress, +carried on in every spirit, will place them at different points of +approximation to the one centre. As in the heavens there are planets +that roll nearer the central sun, and others that circle farther out +from its rays, yet each keeps its course, and makes music as it moves, +as well as planets whose broader disc can receive and reflect more +of the light than smaller sister spheres, and yet each blazes over +its whole surface and is full to its very rim with white light; so +round that throne the spirits of the just made perfect shall move in +order and peace--every one blessed, every one perfect, every one +like Christ at first, and becoming liker through every moment of +the eternities. Each perfected soul looking on his brother shall +see there another phase of the one perfectness that blesses and +adorns him too, and all taken together shall make up, in so far as +finite creatures can make up, the reflection and manifestation of +the fulness of Christ. 'Having then gifts differing according to +the grace that is given to us' is the law for the incompleteness +of earth. 'Having then gifts differing according to the glory that +is given to us' will be the law for the perfection of the heavens. +There are those for whom it is prepared of His Father, that they +shall sit in special nearness to Him. + +II. Still further, these words rightly understood assert that truth +which, at first sight, our Authorised Version's rendering seems to +make them contradict, viz. that Christ is the giver to each of these +various degrees of glory and blessedness. 'It is not Mine to give, +save to them for whom it is prepared.' Then it is Thine to give it +to them. To deny or to doubt that Christ is the giver of the +blessedness, whatsoever the blessedness may be, that fills the +hearts and souls of the redeemed, is to destroy His whole work, to +destroy all the relations upon which our hopes rest, and to +introduce confusion and contradiction into the whole matter. + +For Scripture teaches us that He is God's unspeakable gift; that in +Him is given to us everything; that He is the bestower of all which +we need; that 'out of His fulness,' as one of those two disciples +long afterwards said, 'all we have received, and grace for grace.' +There is nothing within the compass of God's love to bestow of which +Christ is not the giver. There is nothing divine that is done in the +heavens and the earth, as I believe, of which Christ is not the +doer. The representation of Scripture is uniformly that He is the +medium of the activity of the divine nature; that he is the energy +of the divine will; that He is, to use the metaphor of the Old +Testament, 'the arm of the Lord'--the forthputting of God's power; +that He is, to use the profound expression of the New Testament, the +Word of the Lord, cognate with, and the utterance of, the eternal +nature, the light that streams from the central brightness, the +river that flows from the else sealed fountain. As the arm is to the +body, and as is the word to the soul, so is Christ to God--the +eternal divine utterance and manifestation of the divine nature. +And, therefore, to speak of anything that a man can need and +anything that God can give as not being given by Christ, is to +strike at the very foundation, not only of our hopes, but at the +whole scheme of revealed truth. He is the giver of heaven and +everything else which the soul requires. + +And then, again, let me remind you that on this matter we are not +left to such general considerations as those that I have been +suggesting, but that the plain statements of Scripture do confirm +the assertion that Christ is the determiner and the bestower of all +the differing grades of glory and blessedness yonder. For do we not +read of Him that He is the Judge of the whole earth? Do we not read +of Him that His word is acquittal and His frown condemnation--that +to 'be accepted of Him' is the highest aim and end of the Christian +life? Do we not read that it is He who says, 'Come, ye blessed of My +Father, enter into the kingdom prepared for you'? Do we not read +that the apostle, dying, solaced himself with the thought that +'there was laid up for him a crown of glory, which the Lord, the +righteous Judge, would give him at that day'? And do we not read in +the very last book of Scripture, written by one of those two +brothers, and containing almost verbal reference to the words of my +text, the promise seven times spoken from the immortal lips of the +glorified Son of Man, walking in the midst of the candlesticks, 'To +him that overcometh will I give'? The fruit of the tree of life is +plucked by His hands for the wearied conquerors. The crown of life +is set by Him on the faithful witnesses' brows. The hidden manna and +the new name are bestowed by Him on those who hold fast His name. It +is He who gives the victors kingly power over the nations. He +clothes in white garments those who have not defiled their robes. +His hand writes upon the triumphant foreheads the name of God. And +highest of all, beyond which there is no bliss conceivable, 'To him +that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne.' + +Christ is the bestower of the royalties of the heavens as of the +redemptions of earth, and it is His to give that which we crave at +His hands, when we ask pardon here and glory hereafter. 'To him that +is athirst will He give of the water of life freely,' and to him +that overcometh will He give the crown of glory. + +III. These words lead us, in the third place, to the further +thought, that these glorious places are not given to mere wishing, +nor by mere arbitrary will. + +'You would sit on My right hand and on My left? You think of that +pre-eminence as conferred because you chose to ask it--as given by a +piece of favouritism. Not so. I cannot make a man foremost in my +kingdom in that fashion. There are conditions which must precede +such an elevation.' + +And there are people who think thus still, as if the mere desire, +without anything more, were enough--or as if the felicities of the +heavenly world were dependent solely on Christ's arbitrary will, and +could be bestowed by an exercise of mere power, as an Eastern prince +may make this man his vizier and that other one his water-carrier. +The same principles which we have already applied to the elucidation +of the idea of varieties and stages of nearness to Christ in His +heavenly kingdom have a bearing on this matter. If we rightly +understand that the essential blessedness of heaven is likeness to +Christ, we shall feel that mere wishing carries no man thither, and +that mere sovereign will and power do not avail to set us there. +There are conditions indispensable, from the very nature of the +case, and unless they are realised it is as impossible for us to +receive, as for Him to give, a place at His side. If, indeed, the +future blessedness consisted in mere external circumstances and +happier conditions of life, it might be so bestowed. But if place +and surroundings, and a more exquisite and ethereal frame, are but +subordinate sources of it, and its real fountain is union with Jesus +and assimilation to Him, then something else than idle desires must +wing the soul that soars thither, and His transforming grace, not +His arbitrary will, must set us at His own right hand 'in the +heavenly places.' + +Of all the profitless occupations with which men waste their lives, +none are more utterly useless than wishing without acting. Our +wishes are meant to impel us to the appropriate forms of energy by +which they can be realised. When a pauper becomes a millionaire by +sitting and vehemently wishing that he were rich, when ignorance +becomes learning by standing in a library and wishing that the +contents of all these books were in its head, there will be some +hope that the gates of heaven will fly open to your desire. But till +then, 'many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in and not be +able.' Many shall _seek_; you must _strive_. For wishing is one thing, +and _willing_ is another, and _doing_ is yet another. And in regard +to entrance into Christ's kingdom, our 'doing' is trusting in Him who +has done all for us. 'This is the work of God, that ye should believe +on Him whom He hath sent.' Does our wish lead us to the acceptance +of the condition? Then it will be fulfilled. If not, it will remain +fruitless, will die into apathy, or will live as a pang and a curse. + +You wish, or fancy you wish, to pass into heaven when you die, I +suppose. Some of its characteristics attract you. You believe in +punishment for sin, and you would willingly escape that. You believe +in a place of rest after toil, of happiness after sorrow, where +nipping frosts of disappointment, and wild blasts of calamity, and +slow, gnawing decay no more harm and kill your joys--and you would +like that. But do you wish to be pure and stainless, to have your +hearts fixed on God alone, to have your whole being filled with Him, +and emptied of self and sense and sin? The peace of heaven attracts +you--but its praise repels, does it not? Its happiness draws your +wishes--does its holiness seem inviting? It would be joyful to be +far away from punishment--would it be as joyful to be near Christ? +Ah! no; the wishes lead to no resolve, and therefore to no result, +for this among other reasons, because they are only kindled by a +part of the whole, and are exchanged for positive aversion when the +real heaven of heaven is presented to your thoughts. Many a man who, +by the set of his whole life, is drifting daily nearer and nearer to +that region of outer darkness, is conscious of an idle wish for +peace and joy beyond the grave. In common matters a man may be +devoured by vain desires all his lifetime, because he will not pass +beyond wishing to acting accordingly. 'The desire of the slothful +killeth him; because his hands refused to labour, he coveteth +greedily all the day long.' And with like but infinitely more +tragical issues do these vain wishes for a place in that calm world, +where nothing but holiness enters, gnaw at many a soul. 'Let me die +the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his,' was +the aspiration of that Gentile prophet, whose love of the world +obscured even the prophetic illumination which he possessed--and his +epitaph is a stern comment on the uselessness of such empty wishes, +'Balaam, the son of Beor, they slew with the sword.' It needs more +than a wish to set us at Christ's right hand in His kingdom. + +Nor can such a place be given by mere arbitrary will. Christ could +not, if He would, set a man at His right hand whose heart was not +the home of simple trust and thankful love, whose nature and desires +were unprepared for that blessed world. It would be like taking one +of those creatures--if there be such--that live on the planet whose +orbit is farthest from the sun, accustomed to cold, organised for +darkness, and carrying it to that great central blaze, with all its +fierce flames and tongues of fiery gas that shoot up a thousand +miles in a moment. It would crumble and disappear before its +blackness could be seen against the blaze. + +His loving will embraces us all, and is the foundation of all our +hopes. But it had to reach its purpose by a bitter road which He did +not shrink from travelling. He desires to save us, and to realise +the desire He had to die. 'It became Him for whom are all things, in +bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their +salvation perfect through suffering.' What He had to do, we have to +accept. Unless we accept the mercy of God in Christ, no wish on our +parts, nor any exercise of power on His, will carry us to the heaven +which He has died to open, and of which He is at once the giver and +the gift. + +IV. These glorious places are given as the result of a divine +preparation. + +'To them for whom it is prepared of My Father.' We have seen that +Christ is not to be regarded as abjuring the office, with which His +disciples' confidence led them to invest Him--that of allotting to +His servants their place in His kingdom. He neither refers it to the +Father without Himself, nor claims it for Himself without the +Father. The living unity of will and work which subsists between the +Father and the Son forbids such a separation and distribution of +office. And that unity is set forth on both its sides in His own +deep words, 'The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth +the Father do: for whatsoever things He doeth, these also doeth the +Son likewise.' + +So, then, while the gift of thrones at His side is His act and the +Father's, in like manner the preparation of the royal seats for +their occupants, and of the kings for their thrones, is the Father's +act and His. + +Our text does not tell us directly what that preparation is, any +more than it tells us directly what the principles are on which +entrance into and pre-eminence in the kingdom are granted. But we +know enough in regard to both, for our practical guidance, for the +vigour of our hope, and the grasp of our faith. + +There is a twofold divine preparation of the heavens for men. One is +from of old. The kingdom is 'prepared for you before the foundation +of the world.' That preparation is in the eternal counsel of the +divine love, which calleth the things that are not as though they +were, and before which all that is evolved in the generations of men +and the epochs of time, lies on one plane, equally near to dim from +whose throne diverge far beneath the triple streams of past, +present, and future. + +And beside that preparation, the counsel of pardoning mercy and +redeeming grace, there is the other preparation--the realisation of +that eternal purpose in time through the work of Jesus Christ our +Lord. His consolation to His disciples in the parting hour was, 'I +go to prepare a place for you.' How much was included in these words +we shall never know till we, like Him, see of the travail of His +soul, and like Him are satisfied. But we can dimly see that on the +one hand His death, and on the other hand His entrance into that +holiest of all, make ready for us the many mansions of the Father's +house. He was crucified for our offences, He was raised again for +our justification, He is passed through the heavens to stand our +Forerunner in the presence of God--and by all these mighty acts He +prepares the heavenly places for us. As the sun behind a cloud, +which hides it from us, is still pouring out its rays on far-off +lands, so He, veiled in dark, sunset clouds of Calvary, sent the +energy of His passion and cross into the unseen world and made it +possible that we should enter there. 'When Thou didst overcome the +sharpness of death, Thou didst open the gates of the kingdom of +heaven to all believers.' As one who precedes a mighty host provides +and prepares rest for their weariness, and food for their hunger, in +some city on their line of march, and having made all things ready, +is at the gates to welcome their travel-stained ranks when they +arrive, and guide them to their repose; so He has gone before, our +Forerunner, to order all things for us there. It may be that unless +Christ were in heaven, our brother as well as our Lord, it were no +place for mortals. It may be that we need to have His glorified +bodily presence in order that it should be possible for human +spirits to bear the light, and be at home with God. Be that as it +may, this we know, that the Father prepares a place for us by the +eternal counsel of His love, and by the all-sufficient work of +Christ, by whom we have access to the Father. + +And as His work is the Father's preparation of the place for us by +the Son, the issue of His work is the Father's preparation of us for +the place, through the Son, by the Spirit. 'He that hath wrought us +for the self-same thing is God.' + +If so, then what follows? This, among other things, that wishes are +vain, for heaven is no gift of arbitrary favouritism, but that faith +in Christ, and faith alone, leads us to His right hand--and the +measure of our faith and growing Christlikeness here, will be the +measure of our glory hereafter, and of our nearness to Him. It is +possible to be 'saved, _yet so as by fire_.' It is possible to +have 'an entrance ministered unto us _abundantly_ into the +everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' If we +would be near Him then, we must be near Him now. If we would share +His throne, we must bear His cross. If we would be found in the +likeness of His resurrection, we must be 'conformable unto His +death.' Then such desires as these true-hearted, and yet mistaken, +disciples expressed will not be the voice of selfish ambition, but +of dependent love. They will not be vain wishes, but be fulfilled by +Him, who, stooping from amid the royalties of heaven, with love upon +His face and pity in His heart, will give more than we ask. 'Seekest +thou a place at My right hand? Nay, I give thee a more wondrous +dignity. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My +throne.' + + + + +THE SERVANT-LORD AND HIS SERVANTS + + + 'Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, + but to minister.'--MATT. xx. 28. + +It seems at first sight strangely unsympathetic and irrelevant that +the ambitious request of James and John and their foolish mother, +that they should sit at Christ's right hand and His left in His +kingdom, should have been occasioned by, and have followed +immediately upon, our Lord's solemn and pathetic announcement of His +sufferings. But the connection is not difficult to trace. The +disciples believed that, in some inexplicable way, the sufferings +which our Lord was shadowing forth were to be the immediate +precursors of His assuming His regal dignity. And so they took time +by the forelock, as they thought, and made haste to ensure their +places in the kingdom, which they believed was now ready to burst +upon them. Other occasions in the Gospels in which we find similar +quarrelling among the disciples as to pre-eminence are similarly +associated with references made by our Lord to His approaching +crucifixion. On a former occasion He cured these misplaced ambitions +by setting a child in the midst of them. On this He cures them by a +still more pathetic and wonderful example, His own; and He says, 'I, +in My lowliness and service, am to be your Pattern. In Me see the +basis of all true greatness, and the right use of all influence and +authority. The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to +minister.' + +I. So, then, let us look first at the perfect life of service of the +Servant-Lord. + +Now, in order to appreciate the significance of that life of service, +we must take into account the introductory words, 'The Son of Man +came.' They declare His pre-existence, His voluntary entrance into +the conditions of humanity, and His denuding Himself of 'the glory +which He had with the Father before the world was.' We shall never +understand the Servant-Christ until we understand that He is the +Eternal Son of the Father. His service began long before any of His +acts of sympathetic and self-forgetting lowliness rendered help to +the miserable here upon earth. His service began when He laid aside, +not the garments of earth, but the vesture of the heavens, and +girded Himself, not with the cincture woven in man's looms, but with +the flesh of our humanity, 'and being found in fashion as a man,' +bowed Himself to enter into the conditions of earth. This was the +first, the chiefest of all His acts of service, and the sanctity and +awfulness of it run through the list of all His deeds and make them +unspeakably great. It was much that His hands should heal, that His +lips should comfort, that His heart should bleed with sympathy for +sorrow. But, oh! it was more that He _had_ hands to touch, lips to +speak to human hearts, and the heart of a man and a brother to feel +_with_ as well as _for_ us. 'The Son of Man came'--there is +the transcendent example of the true use of greatness; there is the +conspicuous instance of the true basis of authority and rule. For it +was because He was 'found in fashion as a Man' that He has won a 'name +that is above every name,' and that there have accrued to Him the +'many crowns' which He wears at the Father's side. + +But then, passing beyond this, we may dwell, though all imperfectly, +upon the features, familiar as they are, of that wonderful life of +self-oblivious and self-sacrificing ministration to others. Think of +the purity of the source from all which these wonders and +blessednesses of service for man flowed. The life of Jesus Christ is +self-forgetting love made visible. Scientists tell us that, by the +arrangement of particles of sand upon plates of glass, there can be +made, as it were, perceptible to the eye, the sweetness of musical +sounds; and each note when struck will fling the particles into +varying forms of beauty. The life of Jesus Christ presents in shapes +of loveliness and symmetry the else invisible music of a divine +love. He lets us see the rhythm of the Father's heart. The source +from which His ministrations have flowed is the pure source of a +perfect love. Ancient legends consolidated the sunbeams into the +bright figure of the far-darting god of light. And so the sunbeams +of the divine love have, as it were, drawn themselves together and +shaped themselves into the human form of the Son of Man who 'came +not to be ministered unto, but to minister.' + +No taint of bye-ends was in that service; no sidelong glances at +possible advantages of influence or reputation or the like, which so +often deform men's philanthropies and services to one another. No +more than the sunbeam shines for the sake of collateral issues which +may benefit itself, did Jesus Christ seek His own advantage in +ministering to men. There was no speck of black in that lustrous +white robe, but all was perfectly unselfish love. Like the clear +sea, weedless and stainless, that laves the marble steps of the +palaces of Venice, the deep ocean of Christ's service to man was +pure to the depths throughout. + +That perfect ministry of the Servant-Lord was rendered with strange +spontaneity and cheerfulness. One of the evangelists says, in a very +striking and beautiful phrase, that 'He healed them that had need of +healing,' as if the presence of the necessity evoked the supply, by +the instinctive action of a perfect love. There was never in Him one +trace of reluctance to have leisure broken in upon, repose +disturbed, or even communion with God abbreviated. All men could +come always; they never came inopportunely. We often cheerfully take +up a burden of service, but find it very hard to continue bearing +it. But He was willing to come down from the mountain of +Transfiguration because there was a demoniac boy in the plain; and +therefore He put aside the temptation--'Let us build here three +tabernacles.' He was willing to abandon His desert seclusion because +the multitude sought Him. Interrupted in His communion with the +Father by His disciples, He had no impatient word to say, but 'Let +us go into other cities also, for therefore am I sent.' When He +stepped from the fishing-boat on the other side of the lake to which +He had fled for a moment of repose, He was glad when He saw the +multitude who had pertinaciously outrun Him, and were waiting for +Him on the beach. On His Cross He had leisure to turn from His own +physical sufferings and the weight of a world's sin, which lay upon +Him, to look at that penitent by His side, and He ended His life in +the ministry of mercy to a brigand. And thus cheerfully, and always +without a thought of self, 'He came to minister.' + +Think, too, of the sweep of His ministrations. They took in all men; +they were equally open to enemies and to friends, to mockers and to +sympathisers. Think of the variety of the gifts which He brought in +His ministry--caring for body and for soul; alleviating sorrow, +binding up wounds, purifying hearts; dealing with sin, the fountain, +and with miseries, its waters, with equal helpfulness and equal +love. + +And think of how that ministering was always ministration by 'the +LORD.' For there is nothing to me more remarkable in the Gospel +narrative than the way in which, side by side, there lie in Christ's +life the two elements, so difficult to harmonise in fact, and so +impossible to have been harmonised in a legend, the consciousness of +authority and the humility of a servant. The paradox with which John +introduces his sweet pathetic story of our Lord's washing the +disciples' feet is true of, and is illustrated by, every instance of +more than ordinary lowliness and self-oblivion which the Gospel +contains. 'Jesus, knowing that He had come from God, and went to +God, and that the Father had given all things into His hand'--did +what? 'Laid aside His garments and took a towel and girded Himself.' +The two things ever go together. And thus, in His lowliest +abasement, as in a star entangled in a cloud, there shine out, all +the more broad and conspicuous for the environment which wraps them, +the beams of His uncreated lustre. + +That ministration was a service that never shrank from stern rebuke. +His service was no mere soft and pliant, sympathetic helpfulness, +but it could smite and stab, and be severe, and knit its brow, and +speak stern words, as all true service must. For it is not service +but cruelty to sympathise with the sinner, and say nothing in +condemnation of his sin. And yet no sternness is blessed which is +not plainly prompted by desire to help. + +Now, I know far better than you do how wretchedly inadequate all +these poor words of mine have been to the great theme that I have +been trying to speak of, but they may at least--like a little water +poured into a pump--have set your minds working upon the theme, and, +I hope, to better purpose. 'The Son of Man came ... to minister.' + +II. Now, secondly, note the service that should be modelled on His. + +Oh! brethren, if we, however imperfectly, have taken into mind and +heart that picture of Him who was and is amongst us as 'One that +serveth,' how sharp a test, and how stringent, and, as it seems to +us sometimes, impossible, a commandment are involved in the 'even +as' of my text. When we think of our grudging services; when we +think of how much more apt we are to insist upon what men owe to us +than of what we owe to them; how ready we are to demand, how slow we +are to give; how we flame up in what we think is warranted +indignation if we do not get the observance, or the sympathy, or the +attention that we require, and yet how little we give of these, we +may well say, 'Thou hast set a pattern that can only drive us to +despair.' If we would read our Gospels more than we do with the +feeling, as we trace that Master through each of His phases of +sympathy and self-oblivion and self-sacrifice and service, 'that is +what I should be,' what a different book the New Testament would be +to us, and what different people you and I would be! + +There is no ground on which we can rest greatness or superiority in +Christ's kingdom except this ground of service. And there is no use +that we can make either of money or of talents, of acquirements or +opportunities, except the use of helping our fellows with them, +which will stand the test of this model and example. 'It is more +blessed to give than to receive.' The servant who serves for love is +highest in the hierarchy of Heaven. God, who is supreme, has stooped +lower than any that are beneath Him, and His true rule follows, not +because He is infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, or any +of those other pompous Latin words which describe what men call His +attributes, but because He loves best, and does most for the most. +And that is what you and I ought to be. We may well take the lesson +to ourselves. I have no space, and, I hope, no need to enlarge upon +it; but be sure of this, that if we are ever to be near the right +and the left of the Master in His kingdom, there is one way, and +only one way, to come thither, and that is to make self abdicate its +authority as the centre of our lives, and to enthrone there Christ, +and for His sake all our brethren. Be ambitious to be first, but +remember, _Noblesse oblige_. He that is first must become last. +He that is Servant of all is Master of all. That is the only mastery +that is worth anything, the devotion of hearts that circle round the +source from which they draw light and warmth. What is it that makes +a mother the queen of her children? Simply that all her life she has +been their servant, and never thought about herself, but always +about them. + +Now much might be said as to the application of these threadbare +principles in the Church and in society, but I do not enlarge on +that; only let me say in a word--that here is the one law on which +preeminence in the Church is to be allocated. + +What becomes of sacerdotal hierarchies, what becomes of the 'lords +over God's heritage,' if the one ground of pre-eminence is service? +I know, of course, that there may be different forms embodying one +principle, but it seems to me that that form of Church polity is +nearest the mind of Christ in which the only dignity is dignity of +service, and the only use of place is the privilege of stooping and +helping. + +This fruitful principle will one day shape civil as well as +ecclesiastical societies. For the present, our Lord draws a contrast +between the worldly and the Christian notions of rank and dignity. +'It shall not be so among you,' says He. And the nobler conception +of eminence and service set forth in His disciples, if they are true +to their Lord and their duty, will leaven, and we may hope finally +transform society, sweeping away all vulgar notions of greatness as +depending on birth, or wealth, or ruder forms of powers, and +marshalling men according to Christ's order of precedence, in which +helpfulness is preeminence and service is supremacy, while +conversely pre-eminence is used to help and superiority stoops to +serve. + +One remark will close my sermon. You have to take the last words of +this verse if you are ever going to put in practice its first words. +'Even as the Son of Man came, not to be ministered unto, but to +minister,'--if Jesus Christ had stopped there He would only have +been one more of the long roll of ineffectual preachers and prophets +who show men the better way, and leave them struggling in the mire. +But He did not stop there: 'Even as the Son of Man came ... to give +His life a ransom for many.' + +Ah! the Cross, with its burden of the sacrifice for the world's sin, +is the only power which will supply us with a sufficient motive for +the loftiness of Christlike service. I know that there is plenty of +entirely irreligious and Christless beneficence in the world. And +God forbid that I should say a word to seem to depreciate that. But +sure I am that for the noblest, purest, most widely diffused and +blessedly operative kinds of service of man, there is no motive and +spring anywhere except 'He loved me, and gave Himself for me.' And, +bought by that service and that blood, it will be possible, and it +is obligatory upon all of us, to 'do unto others,' as He Himself +said, 'as I have done to you.' 'The servant is not greater than his +Lord.' + + + + +WHAT THE HISTORIC CHRIST TAUGHT ABOUT HIS DEATH + + + 'The Son of Man came... to give His life a ransom for + many.'--Matt. xx. 28. + +We hear a great deal at present about going back to 'the Christ of +the Gospels.' In so far as that phrase and the movement of thought +which it describes are a protest against the substitution of +doctrines for the Person whom the doctrines represent, I, for one, +rejoice in it. But I believe that the antithesis suggested by the +phrase, and by some of its advocates avowed, between the Christ of +the Gospels and the Christ of the Epistles, is false. The Christ of +the Gospels is the Christ of the Epistles, as I humbly venture to +believe. And I cannot but see that there is a possibility of a +movement which, carried out legitimately, should command the fullest +sympathy of every Christian heart, degenerating into the rejection +of all the supernatural elements in the nature and work of our Lord, +and leaving us with a meagre human Christ, shrunken and impotent. +The Christ of the Gospels, by all means; but let it be the whole +Christ of all the Gospels, the Christ over whose cradle angels sang, +by whose empty grave angels watched, whose ascending form angels +beheld and proclaimed that He should come again to be our Judge. Go +back to that Christ, and all will be well. + +Now it seems to me that one direction in which there is a +possibility of such movement as I have referred to being one-sided +and harmful is in reference to the conception which we form of the +death of Jesus Christ. And therefore I ask you to listen for a few +moments to me at this time whilst I try to bring out what is plain +in the words before us; and is, as I humbly believe, interwoven in +the whole texture of all the Gospels--viz., the conception which +Jesus Christ Himself formed of the meaning of His death. + +I. The first thing that I notice is that the Christ of the Gospels +thought and taught that His death was to be His own act. + +I do not think that it is an undue or pedantic pressing of the +significance of the words before us, if I ask you to notice two of +the significant expressions in this text. 'The Son of Man +_came_,' and came 'to _give_ His life.' The one word refers to the act +of entrance into, the other to the act of departure from, this earthly +life. They correspond in so far as that both bring into prominence +Christ's own consent, volition, and action in the very two things +about which men are least consulted, their being born and their dying. + +'The Son of Man came.' Now if that expression occurred but once it +might be minimised as being only a synonym for birth, having no +special force. But if you will notice that it is our Lord's habitual +word about Himself, only varied occasionally by another one equally +significant when he says that He 'was sent'; and if you will further +notice that all through the Gospels He never but once speaks of +Himself as being 'born,' I think you will admit that I am not making +too much of a word when I say that when Christ, out of the depths of +His consciousness, said 'the Son of Man _came_,' He was teaching +us that He lived before He was born, and that behind the natural fact +of birth there lay the supernatural fact of His choosing to be +incarnated for man's redemption. The one instance in which He does +speak of Himself as 'being born' is most instructive in this +connection. For it was before the Roman governor; and He accompanied +the clause in which He said, 'To this end was I born'--which was +adapted to Pilate's level of intelligence--with another one which +seemed to be inserted to satisfy His own sense of fitness, rather +than for any light that it would give to its first hearer, 'And for +this cause came I into the world.' The two things were not synonymous; +but before the birth there was the coming, and Jesus was born because +the Eternal Word willed to come. So says the Christ of the Gospels; +and the Christ of the Epistles is represented as 'taking upon Him +the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man.' Do you +accept that as true of 'the historic Christ'? + +With precise correspondence, if we turn to the other end of His +life, we find the equally significant expression in my text which +asserts for it, too, that the other necessity to which men +necessarily and without their own volition bow was to Christ a +matter of choice. 'The Son of Man came to _give_.' 'No man +taketh it from Me,' as He said on another occasion. 'I lay it down +of Myself.' 'The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.' 'My +flesh ... I give for the world's life.' Now, brethren, we are not to +regard these words as mere vague expressions for a willing surrender +to the necessity of death, but as expressing what I believe is +taught us all through Scripture, and is fundamental to any real +grasp of the real Christ, that He died because He chose, and chose +because He loved. What meant that 'loud voice' with which He said +'It is finished,' but that there was no physical exhaustion, such as +was usually the immediate occasion of death by crucifixion? What +meant that surprising rapidity with which the last moment came in +His case, to the astonishment of the stolid bystanders? They meant +the same thing as I believe that the Evangelists meant when they, +with one consent, employed expressions to describe Christ's death, +which may indeed be only euphemisms, but are apparently declarations +of its voluntary character. 'He gave up the ghost.' 'He yielded His +Spirit.' He breathed forth His life, and so He died. + +As one of the old fathers said, 'Who is this that thus falls asleep +when He wills? To die is weakness, but thus to die is power.' 'The +weakness of God is stronger than man.' The desperate king of Israel +bade his slave kill him, and when the menial shrunk from such +sacrilege he fell upon his own sword. Christ bade His servant Death, +'Do this,' and he did it; and dying, our Lord and Master declared +Himself the Lord and Master of Death. This is a part of the history +of the historic Christ. Do you believe it? + +II. Then, secondly, the Christ of the Gospels thought and taught +that His death was one chief aim of His coming. + +I have omitted words from my text which intervene between its first +and its last ones; not because I regard them as unimportant, but +because they would lead us into too wide a field to cover in one +sermon. But I would pray you to observe how the re-insertion of them +throws immense light upon the significance of the words which I have +chosen. 'The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to +minister.' That covers the whole ground of His gracious and gentle +dealings here on earth, His tenderness, self-abnegation, sympathy, +healing, and helpfulness. Then, side by side with that, and as the +crowning manifestation of His work of service, without which His +life--gracious, radiant, sweet as it is--would still want something +of its power, He sets His death. + +Surely that is an altogether unexampled phenomenon; altogether a +unique and unparalleled thing, that a _man_ should regard that +which for all workers, thinkers, speakers, poets, philanthropists, +is the sad term of their activity, as being a part of His work; and +not only a part, but so conspicuous a part that it was a purpose +which He had in view from the very beginning, and before the +beginning, of His earthly life. So Calvary was to Jesus Christ no +interruption, tragic and premature, of His life's activities. His +death was no mere alternative set before Him, which He chose rather +than be unfaithful or dumb. He did not die because He was hounded by +hostile priests, but He came on purpose that He might so end His +career. + +I need not remind you of, and space would not permit me to dwell +upon, other instances in the Gospels in which our Lord speaks the +same language. At the very beginning of His public ministry He told +the inquiring rabbi, who came to Him with the notion that He would +be somewhat flattered by His recognition by one of the authoritative +and wise pundits of the nation, that 'the Son of Man must be lifted +up.' The necessity was before Him, but it was no unwelcome +necessity, for it sprung from His own love. It was the very aim of +His coming, to live a Servant and to die a Ransom. + +Dear brethren, let me press upon you this plain truth, that no +conception of Christ's death which looks upon it merely as the +close, by pathetic sufferings, of a life to the activities of which +it adds nothing but pathos, approaches the signification of it which +inheres in the thought that this was the aim and purpose with which +Jesus Christ was incarnate, that He should live indeed the pure and +sweet life which He lived, but equally that He should die the +painful and bitter death which He died. He was not merely a martyr, +though the first of them, but something far more, as we shall see +presently. If to you the death of Jesus Christ is the same in kind, +however superior in degree, as those of patriots and reformers and +witnesses for the truth and martyrs for righteousness, then I humbly +venture to represent that, instead of going back to, you have gone +away from, the Christ of the Gospels, who said, 'The Son of Man came +... to give His life'; and that such a Christ is not a historic but +an imaginary one. + +III. So, thirdly, notice that the Christ of the Gospels thought and +taught that His death was a ransom. + +A ransom is a price paid in exchange for captives that they may be +liberated; or for culprits that they may be set free. And that was +Christ's thought of what He had to die for. There lay the 'must.' + +I do not dwell upon the conception of our condition involved in that +word. We are all bound and held by the chain of our sins. We all +stand guilty before God, and, as I believe, there is a necessity in +that loving divine nature whereby it is impossible that without a +ransom there can be, in the interests of mankind and in the +interests of righteousness, forgiveness of sins. I do not mean that +in the words before us there is a developed theory of atonement, but +I do mean that no man, dealing with them fairly, can strike out of +them the notion of vicarious suffering in exchange for, or instead +of, 'the many.' This is no occasion for theological discussion, nor +am I careful now to set forth a fully developed doctrine; but I am +declaring, as God helps me, what is to me, and I pray may be to you, +the central thought about that Cross of Calvary, that on it there is +made the sacrifice for the world's sins. + +And, dear brethren, I beseech you to consider, how can we save the +character of Jesus Christ, accepting these Gospels, which on the +hypothesis about which I am now speaking are valid sources of +knowledge, without recognising that He deliberately led His +disciples to believe that He died for--that is, instead of--them +that put their trust in Him? For remember that not only such words +as these of my text are to be taken into account. Remember that it +was the Christ of the Gospels who established that last rite of the +Lord's Supper, in which the broken bread, and the separation between +the bread and the wine, both indicated a violent death, and who said +about both the one and the other of the double symbols, 'For you.' I +do not understand how any body of professing believers, rejecting +Christ's death as the sacrifice for sin, can find a place in their +beliefs or in their practice for that institution of the Lord's +Supper, or can rightly interpret the sacred words then spoken. This +is why the Cross was Christ's aim. This is why He said, with His +dying breath, 'It is finished.' This truth is the explanation of His +words, 'The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.' + +And this truth of a ransom-price lies at the basis of all vigorous +Christianity. A Christianity without a dying Christ is a dying +Christianity. And history shows us that the expansiveness and +elevating power of the Gospel depend on the prominence given to the +sacrifice on the Cross. An old fable says that the only thing that +melts adamant is the blood of a lamb. The Gospel reveals the +precious blood of Jesus Christ, His death for us as a ransom, as the +one power which subdues hostility and binds hearts to Him. The +Christ of the Gospels is the Christ who taught that He died for us. + +IV. Lastly, the Christ of the Gospels thought and taught that His +death had world-wide power. + +He says here, 'A ransom for _many_.' Now that word is not used +in this instance in contradistinction to 'all,' nor in +contradistinction to 'few.' It is distinctly employed as emphasising +the contrast between the single death and the wide extent of its +benefits; and in terms which, rigidly taken, simply express +indefiniteness, it expresses universality. That that is so seems to +me to be plain enough, if we notice other places of Scripture to +which, at this stage of my sermon, I can but allude. For instance, +in Romans v. the two expressions, 'the many' and the 'all,' +alternate in reference to the extent of the power of Christ's +sacrifice for men. And the Apostle in another place, where probably +there may be an allusion to the words of the text, so varies them as +that he declares that Jesus Christ in His death was the ransom +'instead of all.' But I do not need to dwell upon these. 'Many' is a +vague word, and in it we see dim crowds stretching away beyond our +vision, for whom that death was to be the means of salvation. I take +it that the words of our text have an allusion to those in the great +prophecy in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, in which we read, 'By +His knowledge shall My righteous Servant' (mark the allusion in our +text, 'Who came to _minister_') 'justify many, for He shall +bear their iniquities.' + +So, brethren, I believe that I am not guilty of unduly widening out our +Lord's thought when I say that the indefinite 'many' is practically +'all.' And, brother, if 'all,' then _you_; if all, then _me_; if +all, then _each_. Think of a man, nineteen centuries ago, away +in a little insignificant corner of the world, standing up and saying, +'My death is the price paid in exchange for the world!' That is +meekness and lowliness of heart, is it? That is humility, so beautiful +in a teacher, is it? How any man can accept the veracity of these +narratives, believe that Jesus Christ said anything the least like +this, not believe that He was the Divine Son of the Father, the +Sacrifice for the world's sin, and yet profess--and honestly profess, +I doubt not, in many cases--to retain reverence and admiration, all +but adoration, for Him, I confess that I, for my poor part, cannot +understand. + +But I ask you, what you are going to do with these thoughts and +teachings of the Christ of the Gospels. Are you going to take them +for true? Are, you going to trust your salvation to Him? Are you +going to accept the ransom and say, 'O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; +Thou hast loosed my bonds'? Brethren, the Christ of the Gospels, by +all means; but the Christ that said, 'The Son of Man came to ... +give His life a ransom for many.' My Christ, and your Christ, and +the world's Christ is 'the Christ that died; yea, rather, that is +risen again; who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh +intercession for us.' + + + + +THE COMING OF THE KING TO HIS PALACE + + + 'And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come + to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus + two disciples, 2. Saying unto them, Go into the village + over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass + tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them + unto Me. 3. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall + say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he + will send them. 4. All this was done, that it might he + fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, + 5. Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King + cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a + colt the foal of an ass. 6. And the disciples went, and + did as Jesus commanded them, 7. And brought the ass, + and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they + set Him thereon. 8. And a very great multitude spread + their garments in the way; others cut down branches + from the trees, and strawed them in the way. 9. And the + multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, + saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is He that + cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. + 10. And when He was come into Jerusalem, all the city + was moved, saying, Who is this? 11. And the multitude + said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. + 12. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out + all them that sold and bought in the temple, and + overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the + seats of them that sold doves, 13. And said unto them, + It is written, My house shall be called the house of + prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. 14. And + the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple; and + He healed them. 15. And when the chief priests and + scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the + children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to + the Son of David, they were sore displeased, 16. And + said unto Him, Hearest Thou what these say? And Jesus + saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the + mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise?' + --MATT. xxi. 1-16. + +Jesus spent His last Sabbath in the quiet home at Bethany with +Lazarus and his sisters. Some sense of His approaching death tinged +the modest festivities of that evening with sadness, and spoke in +Mary's 'anointing of His body for the burying.' The pause was brief, +and, with the dawn of Sunday, He set Himself again to tread the road +to the cross. Who can doubt that He felt the relief of that +momentary relaxation of the strain on His spirit, and the +corresponding pressure of its renewed tightening? This passage shows +Him putting out from the quiet haven and facing the storm again. It +is in two main sections, dealing respectively with the royal +procession, and the acts of the King in the temple. + +I. The procession of the King. The first noteworthy point is that +our Lord initiates the whole incident, and deliberately sets Himself +to evoke the popular enthusiasm, by a distinct voluntary fulfilment +of a Messianic prophecy. The allusion to the prophecy, in His +sending for the colt and mounting it, may have escaped the disciples +and the crowds of pilgrims; but they rightly caught His intention to +make a solemn triumphal entry into the city, and responded with a +burst of enthusiasm, which He expected and wished. The poor garments +flung hastily on the animals, the travel-stained cloaks cast on the +rocky path, the branches of olive and palm waved in the hands, and +the tumult of acclaim, which shrilly echoed the words of the psalm, +and proclaimed Him to be the Son of David, are all tokens that the +crowds hailed Him as their King, and were all permitted and welcomed +by Him. All this is in absolute opposition to His usual action, +which had been one long effort to damp down inflammable and +unspiritual Messianic hopes, and to avoid the very enthusiasm which +now surges round Him unchecked. Certainly that calm figure, sitting +on the slow-pacing ass, with the noisy multitude pressing round Him, +is strangely unlike Him, who hid Himself among the hills when they +sought to make Him a King. His action is the more remarkable, if it +be remembered that the roads were alive with pilgrims, most of whom +passing through Bethany would be Galileans; that they had seen +Lazarus walking about the village, and knew who had raised him; that +the Passover festival was _the_ time in all the year when +popular tumults were to be expected; and that the crowds going to +Jerusalem were met by a crowd coming from it, bent on seeing the +doer and the subject of the great miracle. Into this heap of +combustibles our Lord puts a light. He must have meant that it +should blaze as it did. + +What is the reason for this contrast? The need for the former +reticence no longer existed. There was no fear now of His teaching +and ministry being interrupted by popular outburst. He knew that it +was finished, and that His hour had come. Therefore, the same motive +of filial obedience which had led Him to avoid what would prevent +His discharging His Father's commission, now impelled Him to draw +the attention of the nation and its rulers to the full extent of His +claims, and to put the plain issue of their acceptance or rejection +in the most unmistakable manner. A certain divine decorum, if we may +so call it, required that once He should enter the city as its King. +Some among the shouting crowds might have their enthusiasm purified +and spiritualised, if once it were directed to Him. It was for us, +no less than for them, that this one interruption of His ordinary +method was adopted by Him, that we too might ponder the fact that He +laid His hand on that magnificent prophecy, and said, 'It is mine. I +am the King.' + +The royal procession is also a revelation of the character of the +King and the nature of His kingdom. A strange King this, indeed, who +has not even an ass of His own, and for followers, peasants with +palm branches instead of swords! What would a Roman soldier or one +of Herod's men have thought of that rustic procession of a pauper +prince on an ass, and a hundred or two of weaponless, penniless men? +Christ's one moment of royal pomp is as eloquent of His humiliation +as the long stretch of His lowly life is. And yet, as is always the +case, side by side with the lowliness there gleams the veiled +splendour. He had to borrow the colt, and the message in which He +asks for it is a strange paradox. 'The Lord hath need of him'--so +great was the poverty of so great a King. But it spoke, too, of a +more than human knowledge, and of an authority which had only to +require in order to receive. Some farming villager, no doubt, who +was a disciple but secretly, gladly yielded his beasts. The prophecy +which Matthew quotes, with the omission of some words, from +Zechariah, and the addition of the first clause from Isaiah, is +symbolic, and would have been amply fulfilled in the mission and +character of Christ, though this event had never taken place. But +just as it is symbolic, so this external fulfilment, which is +intended to point to the real fulfilment, is also symbolic. The +chariot and the horse are the emblems of conquerors. It is fitting +that the Prince of Peace should make His state entry on a colt, +unridden before, and saddled only with a garment. Zechariah meant +that Zion's King should not reign by the right of the strongest, and +that all His triumphs should be won by lowly meekness. Christ meant +the same by His remarkable act. And has not the picture of Him, +throned thus, stamped for ever on the imagination of the world a +profounder sense of the inmost nature of His kingdom than many words +would have done? Have we learned the lesson of the gentleness which +belongs to His kingdom, and of the unchristian character of war and +violence? Do we understand what the Psalmist meant when he sang, 'In +thy majesty ride on prosperously, because of ... meekness'? Let us +not forget the other picture, 'Behold, a white horse, and He that +sat thereon, called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He doth +judge and make war.' + +The entry may remind us also of the worthlessness of mere enthusiastic +feeling in reference to Jesus Christ. The day was the Sunday. How many +of that crowd were shouting as loudly, 'Crucify Him!' and 'Not this +man, but Barabbas!' on the Friday? The palm-branches had not faded, +where they had been tossed, before the fickle crowd had swung round +to the opposite mood. Perhaps the very exuberance of feeling at the +beginning, had something to do with the bitterness of the execrations +at the end, of the week. He had not answered their expectations, but, +instead of heading a revolt, had simply taught in the temple, and +meekly let Himself be laid hold of. Nothing succeeds like success, +and no idol is so quickly forsaken as the idol of a popular rising. +All were eager to disclaim connection with Him, and to efface the +remembrance of their Sunday's hosannas by their groans round His +gibbet. But there is a wider lesson here. No enthusiasm can be too +intense which is based upon a true sense of our need of Christ, and +of His work for us; but it is easy to excite apparently religious +emotion by partial presentations of Him, and such excitement foams +itself away by its very violence, like some Eastern river that in +winter time dashes down the wady with irresistible force, and in +summer is bone dry. Unless we know Christ to be the Saviour of our +souls and the Lamb of God, we shall soon tire of singing hosannas in +His train, and want a king with more pretensions; but if we have +learned who and what He is to us, then let us open our mouths wide, +and not be afraid of letting the world hear our shout of praise. + +II. The coming of the King in the temple. The discussion of the +accuracy of Matthew's arrangement of events here is unnecessary. He +has evidently grouped, as usual, incidents which have a common +bearing, and wishes to put these three, of the cleansing, the +healing, and the pleasure in the children's praise, as the +characteristic acts of the King in the temple. We can scarcely avoid +seeing in the first of the three a reference to Malachi's prophecy, +'The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple ... And +He shall purify the sons of Levi.' His first act, when in manhood He +visited the temple, had been to cleanse. His first act when He +enters it as its Lord is the same. The abuse had grown again apace. +Much could be said in its vindication, as convenient and harmless, +and it was too profitable to be lightly abandoned. But the altar of +Mammon so near the altar of God was sacrilege in His eyes, and +though He had passed the traders unmolested many times since that +first driving out, now that He solemnly comes to claim His rights, +He cannot but repeat it. It is perhaps significant that His words +now have both a more sovereign and a more severe tone than before. +Then He had spoken of 'My Father's house,' now it is 'My house,' +which are a part of His quotation indeed, but not therefore +necessarily void of reference to Himself. He is exercising the +authority of a son over His own house, and bears Himself as Lord of +the temple. Before, He charged them with making it a 'house of +merchandise'; now, with turning it into a robber's cave. Evil +rebuked and done again is worse than before. Trafficking in things +pertaining to the altar is even more likely than other trading to +cross the not always very well defined line which separates trade +from trickery and commerce from theft. That lesson needs to be laid +to heart in many quarters now. There is always a fringe of moneyed +interests round Christ's Church, seeking gain out of religious +institutions; and their stands have a wonderful tendency to creep +inwards from the court of the Gentiles to holier places. The +parasite grows very quickly, and Christ had to deal with it more +than once to keep down its growth. The sellers of doves and changers +of money into the sacred shekel were venial offenders compared with +many in the Church, and the race is not extinct. If Christ were to +come to His house to-day, in bodily form, who doubts that He would +begin, as He did before, by driving the traders out of His temple? +How many 'most respectable' usages and people would have to go, if +He did! + +The second characteristic, or we might say symbolical, act is the +healing of the blind and lame. Royal state and cleansing severity +are wonderfully blended with tender pity and the gentle hand of +sovereign virtue to heal. The very manifestation of the former drew +the needy to Him; and the blind, though they could not see, and the +lame, though they could not walk, managed to grope and hobble their +way to Him, not afraid of His severity, nor daunted by His royalty. +No doubt they haunted the temple precincts as beggars, with perhaps +as little sense of its sacredness as the money-changers; but their +misery kindled a flicker of confidence and desire, to which He who +tends the dimmest wick till it breaks into clear flame could not but +respond. Though in His house He casts out the traders, He will heal +the cripples and the blind, who know their need, and faintly trust +His heart and power. Such a trait could not be wanting in this +typical representation of the acts of the King. + +Finally, He encourages and casts the shield of His approval round +the children's praises. How natural it is that the children, pleased +with the stir and not yet drilled into conventionalism, should have +kept up their glad shouts, even inside the temple enclosure! How +their fresh treble voices ring yet through all these centuries! The +priests had, no doubt, been nursing their wrath at all that had been +going on, but they had not dared to interfere with the cleansing, +nor, for very shame, with the healings; but now they see their +opportunity. This is a clear breach of all propriety, and that is +the crime of crimes in the eyes of such people. They had kept quite +cool and serenely contemptuous, amid the stir of the glad +procession, and they did not much care though He healed some +beggars; but to have this unseemly noise, though it was praise, was +more than they could stand. Ecclesiastical martinets, and men whose +religion is mostly ceremony, are, of course, more 'moved with +indignation' at any breach of ceremonial regulations than at holes +made in graver laws. Nothing makes men more insensitive to the ring +of real worship than being accustomed to the dull decorum of formal +worship. Christ answers their 'hearest thou?' with a 'did ye never +read?' and shuts their mouths with words so apposite in their +plainest meaning that even they are silenced. To Him these young +ringing hosannas are 'perfect praise,' and worth any quantity of +rabbis' preachments. In their deeper sense, His words declare that +the ears of God and of His Son, the Lord of the temple, are more +gladly filled with the praises of the 'little ones,' who know their +weakness, and hymn His goodness with simple tongue, than with +heartless eloquence of words or pomp of worship. The psalm from +which the words are taken declares man's superiority over the +highest works of God's hands, and the perfecting of the divine +praise from his lips. We are but as the little children of creation, +but because we know sin and redemption, we lead the chorus of +heaven. As St. Bernard says, 'Something is wanting to the praise of +heaven, if those be wanting who can say, "We went through fire and +through water; and Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place."' In +like manner, those praise Him most acceptably among men who know +their feebleness, and with stammering lips humbly try to breathe +their love, their need, and their trust. + + + + +A NEW KIND OF KING + + + 'All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which + was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter + of Zion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and + sitting upon an ass.'--MATT. xxi. 4, 5. + +Our Lord's entrance into Jerusalem is one of the comparatively few +events which are recorded in all the four Gospels. Its singular +unlikeness to the rest of His life, and its powerful influence in +bringing about the Crucifixion, may account for its prominence in +the narratives. It took place probably on the Sunday of Passion +Week. Before the palm branches were withered the enthusiasm had died +away, and the shouting crowd had found out that this was not the +sort of king that they wanted. They might have found that out, even +by the very circumstances of the entrance, for they were profoundly +significant; though their meaning, like so much of the rest of +Christ's life, was less clear to the partakers and spectators than +it is to us. 'These things understood not the disciples at the +first,' says John in closing his narrative of the entrance, 'but +when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that they had done +these things unto Him.' + +My object in this sermon is not at all to attempt a pictorial +treatment of this narrative, for these Gospels tell it us a great +deal better than any of us can tell it after them; but to seek to +bring out, if it may be, two or three aspects of its significance. + +I. First, then, I ask you to consider its significance as an +altogether exceptional fact in Christ's life. + +Throughout the whole of the preceding period, He had had two aims +distinctly in view. One was to shun publicity; and the other was to +damp down the heated, vulgar anticipations of the multitude, who +expected a temporal king. And now here He deliberately, and of set +purpose, takes a step which is like flinging a spark into a powder +barrel. The nation was assembled in crowds, full of the unwholesome +excitement which attended their meeting for the annual feast. All +were in a quiver of expectation; and knowing that, Jesus Christ +originates this scene by His act of sending the two disciples into +the village over against them, to 'bring the ass, and the colt the +foal of an ass.' The reasons for a course so entirely opposed to all +the preceding must have been strong. Let us try to see what they +were. + +First, He did it in order to precipitate the conflict which was to end +in His death. Now, had He any right to do that? Knowing as He did the +ferment of expectation into which He was thrusting this new element +of disturbance, and foreseeing, as He must have done, that it would +sharpen the hostility of the rulers of the people to a murderous +degree, how can He be acquitted of one of two things--either singular +shortsightedness or rash foolhardiness in taking such a step? Was He +justified, or was He not? + +If we are to look at His conduct from ordinary points of view, the +answer must certainly be that He was not. And we can only understand +this, and all the rest of His actions during the fateful three or +four days that followed it, if we recognise in them the fixed +resolve of One who knew that His mission was not only to live and to +teach by word and life, but to die, and by death to deliver the +world. I take it that it is very hard to save the character of Jesus +Christ for our reverence if we refuse to regard His death as for our +redemption. But if He came, and knew that He came, not only 'to +minister' but 'to give His life a ransom for many,' then we can +understand how He hastened to the Cross, and deliberately set a +light to the train which was to end in that great explosion. On any +other hypothesis it seems to me immensely hard to account for His +act here. + +Then, still further, looking at this distinctly exceptional fact in +our Lord's life, we see in it a very emphatic claim to very singular +prerogative and position. He not only thereby presented Himself +before the nation in their collective capacity as being the King of +Israel, but He also did a very strange thing. He dressed Himself, so +to speak, in order to fulfil a prophecy. He posed before the world +as being the Person who was meant by sacred old words. And His +Entrance upon the slow-pacing colt was His voluntary and solemn +assertion that He was the Person of whom the whole stream and +current of divinely sent premonitions and forecasts had been +witnessing from the beginning. He claimed thereby to be the King of +Israel and the Fulfiller of the divine promises that were of old. + +Now again, I have to ask the question, Was He right, or was He +wrong? If He was right, then He is a great deal more than a wise +Teacher, and a perfect Example of excellence. If He was wrong, He is +a great deal less. There is no escape from that alternative, as it +seems to me, but by the desperate expedient of denying that He ever +did this thing which this narrative tells us that He did. At all +events I beseech you all, dear friends, to take fairly into your +account of the character of Jesus Christ, this fact, that He, the +meek, the gentle, said that He was meek, and everybody has believed +Him; and that once, in the very crisis of His life, and in +circumstances which make the act most conspicuous, He who always +shunned publicity, nor 'caused His voice to be heard in the +streets,' and steadfastly put away from Himself the vulgar homage +that would have degraded Him into a mere temporal monarch, did +assert that He was the King of Israel and the Fulfiller of prophecy. +Ask yourselves, What does that fact mean? + +And then, still further, looking at the act as exceptional in our +Lord's life, note that it was done in order to make one final, +solemn appeal and offer to the men who beheld Him. It was the last +bolt in His quiver. All else had failed, perhaps this might succeed. +We know not the depths of the mysteries of that divine foreknowledge +which, even though it foresees failure, ceases not to plead and to +woo obstinate hearts. But this we may thankfully learn, that, just +as with despairing hope, but with unremitting energy, Jesus Christ, +often rejected, offered Himself once more if perchance He might win +men to repentance, so the loving patience and long-suffering of our +God cease not to plead ever with us. 'Last of all He sent unto them +His Son, saying, They will reverence My Son when they see Him'; and +yet the expectation was disappointed, and the Son was slain. We +touch deep mysteries, but the persistence of the pleading and +rejected love and pity of our God shine through this strange fact. + +II. And now, secondly, let me ask you to note its significance as a +symbol. + +The prophecy which two out of the four evangelists--viz., Matthew and +John--regard as having been, in some sense, fulfilled by the Entrance +into Jerusalem, would have been fulfilled quite as truly if there had +been no Entrance. For the mere detail of the prophecy is but a +picturesque way of setting forth its central and essential point--viz., +the meekness of the King. So our Lord's fulfilment is only an external, +altogether subsidiary, accomplishment of the prophecy; and in fact, +like some other of the external correspondences between His life and +the outward details of Old Testament prophecy, is intended for little +more than a picture or a signpost which may direct our thoughts to the +inward correspondence, which is the true fulfilment. + +So then, the deed, like the prophecy after which it is moulded, is +wholly and entirely of importance in its symbolical aspect. + +The symbolism is clear enough. This is a new kind of King. He comes, +not mounted on a warhorse, or thundering across the battlefield in a +scythe-armed chariot, like the Pharaohs and the Assyrian monarchs, +who have left us their vainglorious monuments, but mounted on the +emblem of meekness, patience, gentleness, and peace. And He is a +pauper King, for He has to borrow the beast on which He rides, and +His throne is draped with the poor, perhaps ragged, robes of a +handful of fishermen. And His attendants are not warriors bearing +spears, but peasants with palm branches. And the salutation of His +royalty is not the blare of trumpets, but the 'Hosanna!' from a +thousand throats. That is not the sort of King that the world calls +a King. The Roman soldiers might well have thought they were +perpetrating an exquisite jest when they thrust the reed into His +unresisting hand, and crushed down the crown of thorns on His +bleeding brows. + +But the symbol discloses the very secret of His Kingdom, the +innermost mysteries of His own character and of the forces to which +He intrusts the further progress of His word. Gentleness is royal +and omnipotent; force and violence are feeble. The Lord is in the +still, small voice, not in the earthquake, nor the fire, nor the +mighty wind. The dove's light pinion will fly further than the wings +of Rome's eagles, with their strong talons and blood-dyed beaks. And +the kingdom that is established in meekness, and rules by gentleness +and for gentleness, and has for its only weapons the power of love +and the omnipotence of patience, that is the kingdom which shall be +eternal and universal. + +Now all that is a great deal more than pretty sentiment; it has the +closest practical bearing upon our lives. How slow God's Church has +been to believe that the strength of Christ's kingdom is meekness! +Professing Christian men have sought to win the world to their side, +and by wealth or force or persecution, or this, that, or the other +of the weapons out of the world's armoury, to promote the kingdom of +Christ. But it has all been in vain. There is only one power that +conquers hate, and that is meek love. There is only one way by which +Christ's kingdom can stand firm, and that is its unworldly contrast +to all the manner of human dominion. Wheresoever God's Church has +allied itself with secular sovereignties, and trusted in the arm of +flesh, there has the fine gold become dimmed. Endurance wears out +persecution, patient submission paralyses hostile violence, for you +cannot keep on striking down unresisting crowds with the sword. The +Church of Christ is an anvil that has been beaten upon by many +hammers, and it has worn them all out. Meekness is victorious, and +the kingdom of Christ can only be advanced by the faithful +proclamation of His gentle love, from lips that are moved by hearts +which themselves are conformed to His patient image. + +Then, still further, let me remind you that this symbol carries in +it, as it seems to me, the lesson of the radical incompatibility of +war with Christ's kingdom and dominion. It has taken the world all +these centuries to begin to learn that lesson. But slowly men are +coming to it, and the day will dawn when all the pomp of warfare, +and the hell of evil passions from which it comes, and which it +stimulates, will be felt to be as utterly incompatible with the +spirit of Christianity as slavery is felt to-day. The prophecy which +underlies our symbol is very significant in this respect. +Immediately upon that vision of the meek King throned on the colt +the foal of an ass, follows this: 'And I will cut off the chariot +from Ephraim, and the horses from Jerusalem; and the battle bow +shall be cut off, and He shall speak peace unto the heathen.' + +Let me beseech you, Christian men and women, to lay to heart the +duty of Christ's followers in reference to the influence and +leavening of public opinion upon this matter, and to see to it that, +in so far as we can help, we set ourselves steadfastly against that +devilish spirit which still oppresses with an incubus almost +intolerable, the nations of so-called Christendom. Lift up your +voices be not afraid, but cry, 'We are the followers of the Prince +of Peace, and we war against the war that is blasphemy against His +dominion.' + +And so, still further, note the practical force of this symbol as +influencing our own conduct. We are the followers of the meek +Christ. It becomes _us_ to walk in all meekness and gentleness. +'Spirited conduct' is the world's euphemism for unchristian conduct, +in ninety-nine cases out of the hundred. The perspective of virtue +has altered since Jesus Christ taught us how to love. The old +heathen virtues of magnanimity, fortitude, and the like have 'with +shame to take a lower room.' There is something better than these. +The saint has all the virtues of the old heathen hero, and some more +besides, which are higher than these, and those which he has in +common, he has in different proportion. The flaunting tulips and +peonies of the garden of the world seem to outshine the white +snowdrops and the glowing, modest little violets below their leaves, +but the former are vulgar, and they drop very soon, and the latter, +if paler and more delicate, are refined in their celestial beauty. +The slow-pacing steed on which Jesus Christ rides will out-travel +the fiery warhorse, and will pursue its patient, steadfast path till +He 'bring forth righteousness unto judgment,' and 'all the upright +in heart shall follow Him.' + +III. Lastly, notice the significance of this fact as a prophecy. It +was, as I have pointed out, the last solemn appeal to the nation, +and in a very real sense it was Christ's coming to judgment. It is +impossible to look at it without seeing, besides all its other +meanings, gleaming dimly through it, the anticipations of that other +coming, when the Lord Himself 'shall descend with a shout, with the +voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God.' + +Let me bring into connection with the scene of my text three others, +gathered from various parts of Scripture. In the forty-fifth Psalm +we find, side by side with the great words, 'Ride on prosperously +because of truth and _meekness_ and righteousness,' the others, +'Thine arrows are sharp in the hearts of the king's enemies; the +people shall fall under Thee.' Now, though it is possible that that +later warlike figure may be merely the carrying out of the thought +which is more gently put before us in the former words, still it +looks as if there were two sides to the conquering manifestation of +the king--one being in 'meekness and truth and righteousness,' and +the other in some sense destructive and punitive. + +But, however that may be, my second scene is drawn from the last +book of Scripture, where we read that, when the first seal was +opened, there rode forth a Figure, crowned, mounted upon a white +steed, bearing bow and arrow, 'conquering and to conquer.' And, +though that again may be but an image of the victorious progress of +the gentle Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the whole earth, still +it comes as one in a series of judgments, and may rather be taken to +express the punitive effects which follow its proclamation even here +and now. + +But there can be no doubt with regard to the third of the scenes +which I connect with the incident of which we are discoursing: 'And +I saw heaven opened, and beheld a white horse; and He that sat upon +Him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness doth He judge +and make war.... And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with +it He should smite the nations; and He shall rule them with a rod of +iron; and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of +Almighty God.' That is the Christ who came into Jerusalem on the colt +the foal of an ass. That is the Christ who is meek and long-suffering. +There is a reserve of punitive and destructive power in the meek King. +And oh I what can be so terrible as the anger of meekness, the wrath +of infinite gentleness? In the triumphal entry, we find that, when +the procession turned the rocky shoulder of Olivet, and the long line +of the white city walls, with the gilding of the Temple glittering in +the sunshine, burst upon their view, the multitude lifted up their +voices in gladness. But Christ sat there, and as He looked across the +valley, and beheld, with His divine prescience, the city, now so +joyous and full of stir, sitting solitary and desolate, He lifted up +His voice in loud wailing. The Christ wept because He must punish, +but He punished though He wept. + +Our Judge is the gentle Jesus, therefore we can hope. The gentle +Jesus is our Judge, therefore let us not presume. I beseech you, +brethren, lay, as these poor people did their garments, your lusts +and proud wills in His way, and join the welcoming shout that hails +the King, 'meek and having salvation.' And then, when He comes forth +to judge and to destroy, you will not be amongst the ranks of the +enemies, whom He will ride down and scatter, but amongst 'the armies +that follow Him, ... clothed in fine linen, clean and pure.' + +'Kiss the Son lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way when His +wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their +trust in Him.' + + + + +THE VINEYARD AND ITS KEEPERS + + + 'Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, + which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, + and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and + let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: + 34. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent + his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive + the fruits of it. 35. And the husbandmen took his + servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned + another. 36. Again, he sent other servants more than + the first: and they did unto them likewise. 37. But + last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They + will reverence my son. 38. But when the husbandmen saw + the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; + come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his + inheritance. 39. And they caught him, and cast him out + of the vineyard, and slew him. 40. When the lord + therefore of the vineyard cometh what will he do unto + those husbandmen? 41. They say unto him, He will + miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out + his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render + him the fruits in their seasons. 42. Jesus saith unto + them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone + which the builders rejected, the same is become the + head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is + marvellous in our eyes? 43. Therefore say I unto you, + The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given + to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 44. And + whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but + on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to + powder. 45. And when the chief priests and Pharisees + had heard His parables, they perceived that He spake of + them. 46. But when they sought to lay hands on Him, + they feared the multitude, because they took Him for a + prophet.'--MATT. xxi. 33-46. + +This parable was apparently spoken on the Tuesday of the Passion +Week. It was a day of hand-to-hand conflict with the Jewish +authorities and of exhausting toil, as the bare enumeration of its +incidents shows. It included all that Matthew records between verse +20 of this chapter and the end of the twenty-fifth chapter--the +answer to the deputation from the Sanhedrin; the three parables +occasioned by it, namely, those of the two sons, this one, and that +of the marriage of the king's son; the three answers to the traps of +the Pharisees and Herodians about the tribute, of the Sadducees +about the resurrection, and of the ruler about the chief +commandment; Christ's question to His questioners about the Son and +Lord of David; the stern woes hurled at the unmasked hypocrites; to +which must be added, from other gospels, the sweet eulogium on the +widow's mite, and the deep saying to the Greeks about the corn of +wheat, with, possibly, the incident of the woman taken in adultery; +and then, following all these, the solemn prophecies of the end +contained in Matthew xxiv. and xxv., spoken on the way to Bethany, +as the evening shadows were falling. What a day! What a fountain of +wisdom and love which poured out such streams! The pungent severity +of this parable, with its transparent veil of narrative, is only +appreciated by keeping clearly in view the circumstances and the +listeners. They had struck at Jesus with their question as to His +authority, and He parries the blow. Now it is His turn, and the +sharp point goes home. + +I. The first stage is the preparation of the vineyard, in which +three steps are marked. It is planted and furnished with all +appliances needful for making wine, which is its great end. The +direct divine origin of the religious ideas and observances of +'Judaism' is thus asserted by Christ. The only explanation of them +is that God enclosed that bit of the wilderness, and with His own +hands set growing there these exotics. Neither the theology nor the +ritual is of man's establishing. We need not seek for special +meanings for wall, wine-press, and tower. They simply express the +completeness of the equipment of the vineyard, as in Isaiah's song, +which lies at the foundation of the parable, and suggest his +question, 'What could have been done more?' + +Thus furnished, the vineyard is next handed over to the husbandmen, +who, in Matthew, are exclusively the rulers, while in Luke they are +the people. No doubt it was 'like people, like priest.' The strange +dominion of the Pharisees rested entirely on popular consent, and +their temper accurately indexed that of the nation. The Sanhedrin +was the chief object at which Christ aimed the parable. But it only +gave form and voice to the national spirit, and 'the people loved to +have it so.' National responsibilities are not to be slipped out of +by being shifted on to the broad shoulders of governments or +influential men. Who lets them be governments and influential? + + 'Guv'ment ain't to answer for it, + God will send the bill to you.' + +Christ here teaches both rulers and ruled the ground and purpose of +their privileges. They prided themselves on these as their own, but +they were only tenants. They made their 'boast of the law'; but they +forgot that fruit was the end of the divine planting and equipment. +Holiness and glad obedience were what God sought, and when He found +them, He was refreshed as with 'grapes in the wilderness.' + +Having installed the husbandmen, the owner goes into another +country. The cluster of miracles which inaugurate an epoch of +revelation are not continued beyond its beginning. Centuries of +comparative divine silence followed the planting of the vineyard. +Having given us our charge, God, as it were, steps aside to leave us +room to work as we will, and so to display what we are made of. He +is absent in so far as conspicuous oversight and retribution are +concerned. He is present to help, love, and bless. The faithful +husbandman has Him always near, a joy and a strength, else no fruit +would grow; but the sin and misery of the unfaithful are that they +think of Him as far off. + +II. Then comes the habitual ill-treatment of the messengers. These +are, of course, the prophets, whose office was not only to foretell, +but to plead for obedience and trust, the fruits sought by God. The +whole history of the nation is summed up in this dark picture. +Generation after generation of princes, priests, and people had done +the same thing. There is no more remarkable historical fact than +that of the uniform hostility of the Jews to the prophets. That a +nation of such a sort as always to hate and generally to murder them +should have had them in long succession, throughout its history, is +surely inexplicable on any naturalistic hypothesis. Such men were +not the natural product of the race, nor of its circumstances, as +their fate shows. How did they spring up? No 'philosophy of Jewish +history' explains the anomaly except the one stated here,--'He sent +His servants.' We are told nowadays that the Jews had a natural +genius for religion, just as the Greeks for art and thought, and the +Romans for law and order, and that that explains the origin of the +prophets. Does it explain their treatment? + +The hostility of the husbandmen grows with indulgence. From beating +they go on to killing, and stoning is a specially savage form of +killing. The opposition which began, as the former parable tells us, +with polite hypocrisy and lip obedience, changed, under the stimulus +of prophetic appeals, to honest refusal, and from that to violence +which did not hesitate to slay. The more God pleads with men, the +more self-conscious and bitter becomes their hatred; and the more +bitter their hatred, the more does He plead, sending other +messengers, more perhaps in number, or possibly of more weight, with +larger commission and clearer light. Thus both the antagonistic +forces grow, and the worse men become, the louder and more +beseeching is the call of God to them. That is always true; and it +is also ever true that he who begins with 'I go, sir, and goes not, +is in a fair way to end with stoning the prophets. + +Christ treats the whole long series of violent rejections as the +acts of the same set of husbandmen. The class or nation was one, as +a stream is one, though all its particles are different; and the +Pharisees and scribes, who stood with frowning hatred before Him as +He spoke, were the living embodiment of the spirit which had +animated all the past. In so far as they inherited their taint, and +repeated their conduct, the guilt of all the former generations was +laid at their door. They declared themselves their predecessors' +heirs; and as they reproduced their actions, they would have to bear +the accumulated weight of the consequences. + +III. Verses 37-39 tell of the mission of the Son and of its fatal +issue. Three points are prominent in them. The first is the unique +position which Christ here claims, with unwonted openness and +decisiveness, as apart from and far above all the prophets. They +constitute one order, but He stands alone, sustaining a closer +relation to God. They were faithful 'as servants,' but He 'as a +Son,' or, as Mark has it, 'the only and beloved Son.' The listeners +understood Him well enough. The assertion, which seemed audacious +blasphemy to them, fitted in with all His acts in that last week, +which was not only the crisis of His life, but of the nation's fate. +Rulers and people must decide whether they will own or reject their +King, and they must do it with their eyes open. Jesus claimed to +fill a unique position. Was He right or wrong in His claim? If He +was wrong, what becomes of His wisdom, His meekness, His religion? +Is a religious teacher, who made the mistake of thinking that He was +the Son of God in a sense in which no other man is so, worthy of +admiration? If He was right, what becomes of a Christianity which +sees in Him only the foremost of the prophets? + +The next point marked is the owner's vain hope, in sending his Son. He +thought that He would be welcomed, and He was disappointed. It was His +last attempt. Christ knew Himself to be God's last appeal, as He is to +all men, as well as to that generation. He is the last arrow in God's +quiver. When it has shot that bolt, the resources even of divine love +are exhausted, and no more can be done for the vineyard than He has +done for it. We need not wonder at unfulfilled hopes being here +ascribed to God. The startling thought only puts into language the +great mystery which besets all His pleadings with men, which are +carried on, though they often fail, and which must, therefore, in view +of His foreknowledge, be regarded as carried on with the knowledge that +they will fail. That is the long-suffering patience of God. The +difficulty is common to the words of the parable and to the facts of +God's unwearied pleading with impenitent men. Its surface is a +difficulty, its heart is an abyss of all-hoping charity. + +The last point is the vain calculation of the husbandmen. Christ +puts hidden motives into plain words, and reveals to these rulers +what they scarcely knew of their own hearts. Did they, in their +secret conclaves, look each other in the face, and confess that He +was the Heir? Did He not Himself ground His prayer for their pardon +on their ignorance? But their ignorance was not entire, else they +had had no sin; neither was their knowledge complete, else they had +had no pardon. Beneath many an obstinate denial of Him lies a secret +confession, or misgiving, which more truly speaks the man than does +the loud negation. And such strange contradictions are men, that the +secret conviction is often the very thing which gives bitterness and +eagerness to the hostility. So it was with some of those whose +hidden suspicions are here set in the light. How was the rulers' or +the people's wish to 'seize on His inheritance' their motive for +killing Jesus? Their great sin was their desire to have their +national prerogatives, and yet to give no true obedience. The ruling +class clung to their privileges and forgot their responsibilities, +while the people were proud of their standing as Jews, and careless +of God's service. Neither wished to be reminded of their debt to the +Lord of the vineyard, and their hostility to Jesus was mainly +because He would call on them for fruits. If they could get this +unwelcome and persistent voice silenced, they could go on in the +comfortable old fashion of lip-service and real selfishness. It is +an account, in vividly parabolic language, not only of _their_ +hostility, but of that of many men who are against Him. They wish to +possess life and its good, without being for ever pestered with +reminders of the terms on which they hold it, and of God's desire +for their love and obedience. They have a secret feeling that Christ +has the right to ask for their hearts, and so they often turn from +Him angrily, and sometimes hate Him. + +With what sad calmness does Jesus tell the fate of the son, so +certain that it is already as good as done! It _was_ done in +their counsels, and yet He does not cease to plead, if perchance +some hearts may be touched and withdraw themselves from the +confederacy of murder. + +IV. We have next the self-condemnation from unwilling lips. Our Lord +turns to the rulers with startling and dramatic suddenness, which +may have thrown them off their guard, so that their answer leaped +out before they had time to think whom it hit. His solemn +earnestness laid a spell on them, which drew their own condemnation +from them, though they had penetrated the thin veil of the parable, +and knew full well who the husbandmen were. Nor could they refuse to +answer a question about legal punishments for dishonesty, which was +put to them, the fountains of law, without incurring a second time +the humiliation just inflicted when He had forced them to +acknowledge that they, the fountains of knowledge, did not know +where John came from. So from all these motives, and perhaps from a +mingling of audacity, which would brazen it out and pretend not to +see the bearing of the question, they answer. Like Caiaphas in his +counsel, and Pilate with his writing on the Cross, and many another, +they spoke deeper things than they knew, and confessed beforehand +how just the judgments were, which followed the very lines marked +out by their own words. + +V. Then come the solemn application and naked truth of the parable. +We have no need to dwell on the cycle of prophecies concerning the +corner-stone, nor on the original application of the psalm. We must +be content with remarking that our Lord, in this last portion of His +address, throws away even the thin veil of parable, and speaks the +sternest truth in the nakedest words. He puts His own claim in the +plainest fashion, as the corner-stone on which the true kingdom of +God was to be built. He brands the men who stood before Him as +incompetent builders, who did not know the stone needed for their +edifice when they saw it. He declares, with triumphant confidence, +the futility of opposition to Himself--even though it kill Him. He +is sure that God will build on Him, and that His place in the +building, which shall rise through the ages, will be, to even +careless eyes, the crown of the manifest wonders of God's hand. +Strange words from a Man who knew that in three days He would be +crucified! Stranger still that they have come true! He is the +foundation of the best part of the best men; the basis of thought, +the motive for action, the pattern of life, the ground of hope, for +countless individuals; and on Him stands firm the society of His +Church, and is hung all the glory of His Father's house. + +Christ confirms the sentence just spoken by the rulers on +themselves, but with the inversion of its clauses. All disguise is +at an end. The fatal 'you' is pronounced. The husbandmen's +calculation had been that killing the heir would make them lords of +the vineyard; the grim fact was that they cast themselves out when +they cast him out. He is the heir. If we desire the inheritance, we +must get it through Him, and not kill or reject, but trust and obey +Him. The sentence declares the two truths, that possession of the +vineyard depends on honouring the Son, and on bringing forth the +fruits. The kingdom has been taken from the churches of Asia Minor, +Africa, and Syria, because they bore no fruit. It is not held by us +on other conditions. Who can venture to speak of the awful doom set +forth in the last words here? It has two stages: one a lesser +misery, which is the lot of him who stumbles against the stone, +while it lies passive to be built on; one more dreadful, when it has +acquired motion and comes down with irresistible impetus. To stumble +at Christ, or to refuse His grace, and not to base our lives and +hopes on Him is maiming and damage, in many ways, here and now. But +suppose the stone endowed with motion, what can stand against it? +And suppose that the Christ, who is now offered for the rock on +which we may pile our hopes and never be confounded, comes to judge, +will He not crush the mightiest opponent as the dust of the summer +threshing-floor? + + + + +THE STONE OF STUMBLING + + + 'Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: + but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to + powder.'--MATT. xxi. 44. + +As Christ's ministry drew to its close, its severity and its +gentleness both increased; its severity to the class to whom it was +always severe, and its gentleness to the class from whom it never +turned away. Side by side, through all His manifestation of Himself, +there were the two aspects: 'He showed Himself _froward_' (if I +may quote the word) to the self-righteous and the Pharisee; and He +bent with more than a woman's tenderness of yearning love over the +darkness and sinfulness, which in its great darkness dimly knew +itself blind, and in its sinfulness stretched out a lame hand of +faith, and groped after a divine deliverer. Here, in my text, there +are only words of severity and awful foreboding. Christ has been +telling those Pharisees and priests that the kingdom is to be taken +from them, and given to a nation that brings forth the fruits +thereof. He interprets for them an Old Testament figure, often +recurring, which we read in the 118th Psalm (and I may just say, in +passing, that we get here His interpretation of that psalm, and the +vindication of our application of it, and other similar ones, to Him +and His office); 'The stone which the builders rejected,' said He, +'is become the head of the corner'; and then, falling back on other +Old Testament uses of the same figure, He weaves into one the whole +of them--that in Isaiah about the 'sure foundation,' and that in +Daniel about 'the stone cut out without hands, which became a great +mountain,' crushing down all opposition,--and centres them all in +Himself; as fulfilled in Himself, in His person and His work. + +The two clauses of my text figuratively point to two different +classes of operation on the rejecters of the Gospel. What are these +two classes? 'Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: +but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.' In +the one case, the stone is represented as passive, lying quiet; in +the other, it has acquired motion. In the one case, the man stumbles +and hurts himself; a remediable injury, a self-inflicted injury, a +natural injury, without the active operation of Christ to produce it +at all; in the other case the injury is worse than remediable, it is +utter, absolute, grinding destruction, and it comes from the active +operation of the 'stone of stumbling.' That is to say, the one class +represents the present hurts and harms which, by the natural +operation of things, without the action of Christ judicially at all, +every man receives in the very act of rejecting the Gospel; and the +other represents the ultimate issue of that rejection, which +rejection is darkened into opposition and fixed hostility, when the +stone that was laid 'for a foundation' has got wings (if I may so +say), and comes down in judgment, crushing and destroying the +antagonist utterly. 'Whosoever falls on this stone is broken,' here +and now; and 'on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to +powder,' hereafter and yonder. + +Taking, then, into account the weaving together in this passage of +the three figures from the Old Testament to which I have already +referred,--the rejected stone, the foundation, and the mountain-stone +of Daniel, and looking in the light of these, at the twofold issues, +one present and one future, which the text distinctly brings before +us,--we have just three points to which I ask your attention now. +First, Every man has some kind of contact with Christ. Secondly, +Rejection of Him, here and now, is harm and maiming. And, lastly, +Rejection of Him, hereafter and yonder, is hopeless, endless, utter +destruction. + +I. In the first place, every man has some kind of connection with +Christ. + +I am not going to enter at all now upon any question about the +condition of the 'dark places of the earth' where the Gospel has not +come as a well-known preached message; we have nothing to do with +that; the principles on which _they_ are judged is not the +question before us now. I am speaking exclusively about persons who +have heard the word of salvation, and are dwelling in the midst of +what we call a Christian land. Christ is offered to each of us, in +good faith on God's part, as a means of salvation, a foundation on +which we may build. A man is free to accept or to reject that offer. +If he reject it, he has not thereby cut himself off from all contact +and connection with that rejected Saviour, but he still sustains a +relation to Him; and the message that he has refused to believe, is +exercising an influence upon his character and his destiny. + +Christ comes, I say, offered to us all in good faith on the part of +God, as a foundation upon which we may build. And then comes in that +strange mystery, that a man, consciously free, turns away from the +offered mercy, and makes Him that was intended to be the basis of +his life, the foundation of his hope, the rock on which, steadfast +and serene, he should build up a temple-home for his soul to dwell +in,--makes Him a stumbling-stone against which, by rejection and +unbelief, he breaks himself! + +My friend, will you let me lay this one thing upon your heart,--you +cannot hinder the Gospel from influencing you somehow. Taking it in +its lowest aspects, it is one of the forces of modern society, an +element in our present civilisation. It is everywhere, it obtrudes +itself on you at every turn, the air is saturated with its +influence. To be unaffected by such an all-pervading phenomenon is +impossible. To no individual member of the great whole of a nation +is it given to isolate himself utterly from the community. Whether +he oppose or whether he acquiesce in current opinions, to denude +himself of the possessions which belong in common to his age and +state of society is in either case impracticable. 'That which cometh +into your mind,' said one of the prophets to the Jews who were +trying to cut themselves loose from their national faith and their +ancestral prerogatives, 'That which cometh into your mind shall not +be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families +of the countries to serve wood and stone.' Vain dream! You can no +more say, I will pass the Gospel by, and it shall be nothing to me, +I will simply let it alone, than you can say, I will shut myself up +from other influences proper to my time and nation. You cannot go +back to the old naked barbarism, and you cannot reduce the influence +of Christianity, even considered merely as one of the characteristics +of the times, to zero. You may fancy you are letting it alone, but +it does not let you alone; it is here, and you cannot shut yourself +off from it. + +But it is not merely as a subtle and diffused influence that the +Gospel exercises a permanent effect upon us. It is presented to each +of us here individually, in the definite form of an actual offer of +salvation for each, and of an actual demand of trust from each. The +words pass into our souls, and thenceforward we can never be the +same as if they had not been there. The smallest ray of light +falling on a sensitive plate produces a chemical change that can +never be undone again, and the light of Christ's love, once brought +to the knowledge and presented for the acceptance of a soul, stamps +on it an ineffaceable sign of its having been there. The Gospel once +heard, is always the Gospel which has been heard. Nothing can alter +that. Once heard, it is henceforward a perpetual element in the +whole condition, character, and destiny of the hearer. + +Christ does something to every one of us. His Gospel will tell upon +you, it _is_ telling upon you. If you disbelieve it, you are +not the same as if you had never heard it. Never is the box of +ointment opened without some savour from it abiding in every nostril +to which its odour is wafted. Only the alternative, the awful +'either, or,' is open for each--the 'savour of life unto life, +_or_ the savour of death unto death.' To come back to the +illustration of the text, Christ is something, and does something to +every one of us. He is either the rock on which I build, poor, weak, +sinful creature as I am, getting security, and sanctity, and +strength from Him, I being a living stone' built upon 'the living +stone,' and partaking of the vitality of the foundation; or else He +is the other thing, 'a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to +them which stumble at the word.' Christ stands for ever in some kind +of relation to, and exercises for ever some kind of influence on, +every man who has heard the Gospel. + +II. The immediate issue of rejection of Him is loss and maiming. + +'Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken.' Just think for +a moment, by way of illustrating this principle, first of all, of +the _positive_ harm which you do to yourself in the act of +turning away from the mercy offered you in Christ; and then think +for a moment of the _negative_ loss which you sustain by the +same act. + +Note the _positive_ harm. Am I uncharitable when I say that no +man ever yet _passively neglected_ the message of love in God's +Son; but that always _this_ is the rude outline of the experience +of people who know what it is to have a Saviour offered to them, and +know what it is to put Him away,--that there is a feeble and transitory +movement of heart and will; that Conscience says, 'Thou oughtest'; that +Will says, 'I would'; that the heart is touched by some sense of that +great and gentle vision of light and love which passes before the eye; +that the man, as it were, like some fever-ridden patient, lifts himself +up for an instant from the bed on which he is lying, and puts out a +hand, and then falls back again, the vacillating, fevered, paralysed +will recoiling from the resolution, and the conscience having power to +say, 'Thou oughtest,' but no power to enforce the execution of its +decrees, and the heart turning away from the salvation that it would +have found in the love of love, to the loss that it finds in the love +of self and earth? Or in other words, is it not true that every man +who rejects Christ does in simple verity _reject_ Him, and not +merely neglect Him; that there is always an effort, that there is a +struggle, feeble, perhaps, but real, which ends in the turning away? It +is not that you stand there, and simply let Him go past. That were bad +enough; but the fact is worse than that. It is that you turn your back +upon Him. It is not that His hand is laid on yours, and yours remains +dead and cold, and does not open to clasp it; but it is that His hand +being laid on yours, you clench yours the tighter, and _will not_ +have it. And so every man (I believe) who rejects Christ does these +things thereby--wounds his own conscience, hardens his own heart, +makes himself a worse man, just because he has had a glimpse, and +has willingly, and almost consciously, 'loved darkness rather than +light.' Oh, brethren, the message of love can never come into a +human soul, and pass away from it unreceived, without leaving that +spirit worse, with all its lowest characteristics strengthened, and +all its best ones depressed, by the fact of rejection. I have nothing +to do now with pursuing that process to its end; but the natural +result--if there were no future Judgment at all, if there were no +movement ever given to the stone that you ought to build on--the +natural result of the simple rejection of the Gospel is that, bit by +bit, all the lingering remains of nobleness that hover about the man, +like scent about a broken vase, pass away; and that, step by step, +through the simple process of saying, 'I will not have Christ to rule +over me,' the whole being degenerates, until manhood becomes +devil-hood, and the soul is lost by its own want of faith. Unbelief +is its own judgment; unbelief is its own condemnation; unbelief, as +sin, is punished, like all other sins, by the perpetuation of deeper +and darker forms of itself. Every time that you stifle a conviction, +fight down a conviction, or drive away a conviction; and every time +that you feebly move towards the decision, 'I _will_ trust Him, and +love Him, and be His,' yet fail to realise it, you have harmed your +soul, you have made yourself a worse man, you have lowered the tone +of your conscience, you have enfeebled your will, you have made your +heart harder against love, you have drawn another horny scale over +the eye, that will prevent you from seeing the light that is yonder; +you have, as much as in you is, withdrawn from God, and approximated +to the other pole of the universe (if I may say that), to the dark +and deadly antagonist of mercy, and goodness, and truth, and grace. +'Whosoever falls on this stone,' by the natural result of his +unbelief, 'shall be broken' and maimed, and shall mar his own nature. + +I need not dwell on the _negative_ evil results of unbelief; +the loss of that which is the only guide for a man, the taking away, +or rather the failing to possess, that great love above us, that +divine Spirit in us, by which only we are ever made what we ought to +be. This only I would leave with you, in this part of my subject, +Whoever is not in Christ is maimed. Only he that is 'a man in Christ' +has come 'to the measure of the stature of a perfect man.' There, +and there alone, do we get the power which will make us full-grown. +There alone is the soul planted in that good soil in which, growing, +it becomes as a rounded, perfect tree, with leaves and fruits in +their season. All other men are half-men, quarter-men, fragments of +men, parts of humanity exaggerated and contorted and distorted from +the reconciling whole which the Christian ought to be, and in +proportion to his Christianity is on the road to be, and one day will +assuredly and actually be, a 'complete and entire man, wanting +nothing'; nothing maimed, nothing broken, the realisation of the +ideal of humanity, the renewed copy 'of the second Adam, the Lord +from heaven.' + +There is another consideration closely connected with this second +part of my subject, that I just mention and pass on. Not only by the +act of rejection of Christ do we harm and maim ourselves, but also +all attempts at opposition--formal opposition--to the Gospel as a +system, stand self-convicted and self-condemned to speedy decay. +What a commentary upon that word, 'Whosoever falls on this stone +shall be broken,' is the whole history of the heresies of the Church +and the assaults of unbelief! Man after man, rich in gifts, endowed +often with far larger and nobler faculties than the people who +oppose him, with indomitable perseverance, a martyr to his error, +sets himself up against the truth that is sphered in Jesus Christ; +and the great divine message simply goes on its way, and all the +babblement and noise are like so many bats flying against a light, +or like the sea-birds that come sweeping up in the tempest and the +night, to the hospitable Pharos that is upon the rock, and smite +themselves dead against it. Sceptics well known in their generation, +who made people's hearts tremble for the ark of God, what has become +of them? Their books lie dusty and undisturbed on the top shelf of +libraries; whilst there the Bible stands, with all the scribblings +wiped off the page, as though they had never been! Opponents fire +their small shot against the great Rock of Ages, and the little +pellets fall flattened, and only scale off a bit of the moss that +has gathered there! My brother, let the history of the past teach +you and me, with other deeper thoughts, a very calm and triumphant +confidence about all that opponents say nowadays; for all the modern +opposition to this Gospel will go as all the past has done, and the +newest systems which cut and carve at Christianity, will go to the +tomb where all the rest have gone; and dead old infidelities will +rise up from their thrones, and say to the bran-new ones of this +generation, when their day is worked out, 'Are ye also become weak +as we? art thou also become like one of us?' 'Whosoever shall fall +on this stone shall be broken': personally, he will be harmed; and +his opinions, and his books, and his talk, and all his +argumentation, will come to nothing, like the waves that break into +impotent foam against the rocky cliffs. + +III. Last of all, the issue, the ultimate issue, of unbelief is +irremediable destruction when Christ begins to move. + +The former clause has spoken about the harm that naturally follows +unbelief whilst the Gospel is being preached; the latter clause speaks +about the active agency of Christ when the end shall have come, and +the preaching of the Gospel shall have merged into the act of judgment. +I do not mean to dwell, brethren, upon that thought; it seems to me +far too awful a one to be handled by my hands, at any rate. Let us +leave it in the vagueness and dreadfulness of the words of Him who +never spoke exaggerated words, and who, when He said, 'It shall grind +him to powder,' meant (as it seems to me) nothing less than a +destruction which, contrasted with the former remediable wounding and +breaking, was a destruction utter, and hopeless, and everlasting, and +without remedy. Ground--ground to powder! Any life left in that? any +gathering up of that, and making a man of it again? All the humanity +battered out of it, and the life clean gone from it! Does not that +sound very much like 'everlasting destruction from the presence of God +and from the glory of His power'? Christ, silent now, will begin to +speak; passive now, will begin to act. The stone comes down, and the +fall of it will be awful. I remember, away up in a lonely Highland +valley, where beneath a tall black cliff, all weather-worn, and cracked, +and seamed, there lies at the foot, resting on the greensward that +creeps round its base, a huge rock, that has fallen from the face of +the precipice. A shepherd was passing beneath it; and suddenly, when +the finger of God's will touched it, and rent it from its ancient bed +in the everlasting rock, it came down, leaping and bounding from pinnacle +to pinnacle--and it fell; and the man that was beneath it is there now! +'Ground to powder.' Ah, my brethren, that is not _my_ illustration--that +is Christ's. Therefore I say to you, since all that stand against Him +shall become 'as the chaff of the summer threshing-floor,' and be swept +utterly away, make Him the foundation on which you build; and when the +storm sweeps away every 'refuge of lies,' you will be safe and serene, +builded upon the Rock of Ages. + + + + +TWO WAYS OF DESPISING GOD'S FEAST + + + 'And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by + parables, and said, 2. The kingdom of heaven is like + unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, + 3. And sent forth his servants to call them that were + bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. + 4. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell + them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my + dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all + things are ready: come unto the marriage. 6. But they + made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, + another to his merchandise; 6. 'And the remnant took + his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew + them. 7. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: + and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those + murderers, and burned up their city. & Then saith he to + his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were + bidden were not worthy. 9. Go ye therefore into the + highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the + marriage. 10. So those servants went out into the + highways, and gathered together all as many as they + found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished + with guests. 11. And when the king came in to see the + guests, he saw there a man which had not on a + wedding-garment: 12. And he saith unto him, Friend, how + earnest thou in hither not having a wedding-garment? + And he was speechless. 13. Then said the king to the + servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, + and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be + weeping and gnashing of teeth. 14. For many are called, + but few are chosen.'--MATT. xxii. 1-14. + +This parable, and the preceding one of the vine-dressers, make a +pair. They are closely connected in time, as well as subject. 'Jesus +answered.' What? Obviously, the unspoken murderous hate, restrained +by fear, which had been raised in the rulers' minds, and flashed in +their eyes, and moved in their gestures. Christ answers it by +repeating His blow; for the present parable is, in outline, +identical with the preceding, though differing in colouring, and +carrying its thoughts farther. That stopped with the transference of +the kingdom to the Gentiles; this passes on to speak also of the +development among the Gentiles, and ends with the law 'many called, +few chosen,' which is exemplified in Jew and Gentile. There are, +then, two parts in it: verses 1-9 covering the same ground as the +former; verses 10-14 adding new matter. + +I. The judgment on those who refuse the offered joys of the kingdom. +In the previous parable, the kingdom was presented on the side of +duty and service. The call was to render obedience. The vineyard was +a sphere for toil. The owner had given it indeed, but, having given, +he required. That is only half the truth, and the least joyful half. +So this parable dismisses all ideas of work, duty, service, +requirement, and instead gives the emblem of a marriage feast as the +picture of the kingdom. It therein unites two familiar prophetic +images for the Messianic times--those of a festival and of a +marriage. As Luther says, 'He calls it a marriage feast, not a time +of toil or a time of sorrow, but a time of holiday and a time of +joy; in which we make ourselves fine, sing, play, dance, eat, drink, +are glad, and have a good time; else it would not be a wedding +feast, if people were to be working, mourning, or crying. Therefore, +Christ calls His Christianity and gospel by the name of the highest +joy on earth; namely, by the name of a marriage feast.' How pathetic +this designation of His kingdom is on Christ's lips, when we +remember how near His bitter agony He stood, and that He tasted its +bitterness already! It is not the whole truth any more than the +vineyard emblem is. Both must be united in our idea of the kingdom, +as both may be in experience. It is possible to be at once toiling +among the vines in the hot sunshine, and feasting at the table. The +Christian life is not all grinding at heavy tasks, nor all enjoyment +of spiritual refreshment; but our work may be so done as to be our +'meat'--as it was His--and our glad repose may be unbroken even in +the midst of toil. We are, at one and the same time, labourers in +the king's vineyard, and guests at the king's table; and the same +duality will, in some unknown fashion, continue in the perfect +kingdom, where there will be both work and feasting, and all the +life shall be both in one. + +The second point to be noticed is the invitations of the king. There +had been an invitation before the point at which the parable begins, +for the servants are sent to summon those who had already been +'called.' That calling, which lies beyond the horizon of our +parable, is the whole series of agencies in Old Testament times. So +this parable begins almost where the former leaves off. They only +slightly overlap. The first servants here are Christ Himself, and +His followers in their ministry during His life; and the second set +are the apostles and preachers of the gospel during the period +between the completion of the preparation of the feast (that is, the +death of Christ) and the destruction of Jerusalem. The characteristic +difference of their message from that of the servants in the former +parable, embodies the whole difference between the preaching of the +prophets, as messengers demanding the fruit of righteousness, and the +glad tidings of a gospel of free grace which does not demand, but +offers, and does not say 'obey' until it has said 'eat, and be glad.' +The reiterated invitations not only correspond to the actual facts, +but, like the facts, set the miracle of God's patience in a still +brighter light than the former story did; for while it is wonderful +that the lord of the vineyard should stoop to ask so often for fruit, +it is far more wonderful that the founder of the feast, who is king +too, should stoop to offer over and over again the refused abundance +of his table. + +Mark, further, the refusal of the invitations: 'They would not (or +"did not wish to") come.' That is Christ's gentle way of describing +the unbelief of His generation. It is the second set of refusers who +are painted in darker colours. We are accustomed to think that the +sin of His contemporaries was great beyond parallel, but he seems +here to hint that the sin of those who reject Him after the Cross +and the Resurrection, is blacker than theirs. At any rate, it +clearly is so. But note that the parable speaks as if the refusers +were the same persons throughout, thus taking the same point of view +as the former one did, and regarding the generations of the Jews as +one whole. There is a real unity, though the individuals be +different, if the spirit actuating successive generations be the +same. + +Note the two classes of rejecters. The first simply pay no +attention, because their heads are full of business. They do not +even speak more or less lame excuses, as the refusers in Luke's +similar parable had the decency to do. The king's messenger +addresses a group, who pause on their road for a moment, to listen +listlessly to what he has to say, and, when he has done, disperse +without a word, each man going on his road, as if nothing had +happened. The ground of their indifference lies in their absorption +with this world's good, and their belief that it is best. 'His own +farm,' as the original puts it emphatically, holds one man by the +solid delight of possessing acres that he can walk over and till; +his merchandise draws another, by the excitement of speculation and +the lust of acquiring. It is not only the hurry and fever of a great +commercial city, but the quiet and leisure of country life, which +shut out taste for God's feast. Strange preference of toil and risk +of loss to abundance, repose, and joy! Savages barter gold for glass +beads. We choose lives of weary work and hunting after uncertain +riches, rather than listen to His call, despising the open-handed +housekeeping of our Father's house, and trying to fill our hunger +with the swine's husks. The suicidal madness of refusing the kingdom +is set in a vivid light in these quiet words. + +But stranger still is the conduct of the rest. Why should they kill +men whose only fault was bringing them a hospitable invitation? The +incongruity of the representation has given offence to some +interpreters, who are not slow to point out how Christ could have +improved His parable. But the reality is more incongruous still, and +the unmotived outburst of wrath against the innocent bearers of a +kindly invitation is only too true to life. Mark the distinction +drawn by our Lord between the bulk of the people who simply +neglected, and the few who violently opposed. He does not charge the +guilt on all. The murderers of Him and of His first followers were +not the mass of the nation, who, left to themselves, would not have +so acted, but the few who stirred up the many. But, though He does +not lay the guilt at the doors of all, yet the punishment falls on +all, and, when the city is burned, the houses of the negligent and +of the slayers are equally consumed; for simple refusal of the +message and slaying the messengers were but the positive and +superlative degrees of the same crime--rebellion against the king, +whose invitation was a command. + +The fatal issue is presented, as in the former parable, in two +parts: the destruction of the rebels, and the passing over of the +kingdom to others. But the differences are noteworthy. Here we read +that 'the king was wroth.' Insult to a king is worse than dishonesty +to a landlord. The refusal of God's proffered grace is even more +certain to awake that awful reality, the wrath of God, than the +failure to render the fruits of the good possessed. Love repelled +and thrown back on itself cannot but become wrath. That refusal, +which is rebellion, is fittingly described as punished by force of +arms and the burning of the city. We can scarcely help seeing that +our Lord here, in a very striking and unusual way, mingles prose +prediction with parabolic imagery. Some commentators object to this, +and take the armies and the burning to be only part of the imagery, +but it is difficult to believe that. Note the forcible pronouns, +'His armies,' and 'their city.' The terrible Roman legions were His +soldiers for the time being, the axe which He laid to the root of +the tree. The city had ceased to be His, just as the temple ceased +to be 'My house,' and became, by their sin, 'your house.' The legend +told that, before their destruction, a mighty voice was heard +saying, 'Let us depart,' and, with the sound of rushing wings, His +presence left sanctuary and city. When He was no longer 'the glory +in the midst,' He was no longer 'a wall of fire round about,' and +the Roman torches worked their will on the city which was no longer +'the city of our God.' + +The command to gather in others to fill the vacant places follows on +the destruction of the city. This may seem to be opposed to the +facts of the transference of the kingdom to the Gentiles, which +certainly was begun long before Jerusalem fell. But its fall was the +final and complete severance of Christianity from Judaism, and not +till then had the messengers to give up the summons to Israel as +hopeless. Perhaps Paul had this parable floating in his memory when +he said to the howling blasphemers at Antioch in Pisidia, 'Seeing ye +... judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the +Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us.' 'They which were +bidden were not worthy,' and their unworthiness consisted not in any +other moral demerit, but solely in this, that they had refused the +proffered blessings. That is the only thing which makes any of us +unworthy. And that will make the best of us unworthy. + +II. Verses 10-14 carry us beyond the preceding parable, and show us +the judgment on the unworthy accepters of the invitation. There are +two ways of sinning against God's merciful gift: the one is refusing +to accept it; the other is taking it in outward seeming, but +continuing in sin. The former was the sin of the Jews; the latter is +the sin of nominal Christians. We may briefly note the points of +this appendix to the parable. The first is the indiscriminate +invitation, which is more emphatically marked as being so, by the +mention of the 'bad' before the good among the guests. God's offer +is for all, and, in a very real sense, is specially sent to the +worst, just as the doctor goes first to the most severely wounded. +So the motley crew, without the least attempt at discrimination, are +seated at the table. If the Church understands its business, it will +have nothing to do in its message with distinctions of character any +more than of class, but, if it makes any difference, will give the +outcast and disreputable the first place in its efforts. Is that +what it does? + +The next point is the king's inspection. The word rendered 'behold' +implies a fixed and minute observation. When does that scrutiny take +place? Obviously, from the sequel, the final judgment is referred +to, and it is remarkable that here there is no mention of the king's +son as the judge. No parable can shadow forth all truth, and though +the Father 'has committed all judgment to the Son,' the Son's +judgment is the Father's, and the exigencies of the parable required +that the son as bridegroom should not be brought into view as judge. +Note that there is only one guest without the dress needed. That may +be an instance of the lenity of Christ's charity, which hopeth all +things; or it may rather be intended to suggest the keenness of the +king's glance, which, in all the crowded tables, picks out the one +ragged losel who had found his way there--so individual is his +knowledge, so impossible for us to hide in the crowd. + +Mark that the feast has not begun, though the guests are seated. The +judgment stands at the threshold of the heavenly kingdom. The king +speaks with a certain coldness, very unlike the welcome fit for a +guest; and his question is one of astonishment at the rude boldness +of the man who came there, knowing that he had not the proper dress. +(That knowledge is implied in the form of the sentence in the +Greek.) What, then, is the wedding garment? It can be nothing else +than righteousness, moral purity, which fits for sitting at His +table in His kingdom. And the man who has it not, is the nominal +Christian, who says that he has accepted God's invitation, and lives +in sin, not putting off 'the old man with his deeds,' nor putting on +'the new man, which is created in righteousness.' How that garment +was to be obtained is no part of this parable. We know that it is +only to be received by faith in Jesus Christ, and that if we are to +pass the scrutiny of the king, it must be as 'not having our own +righteousness,' but His made ours by faith which makes us righteous, +and then by all holy effort, and toil in His strength, we must +clothe our souls in the dress which befits the banqueting hall; for +only they who are washed and clothed in fine linen, clean and white, +shall sit there. But Christ's purpose here was not to explain how +the robe was to be procured, but to insist that it must be worn. + +'He was speechless,'--or, as the word means, 'muzzled.' The man is +self-condemned, and, having nothing to say in extenuation, the +solemn promise is pronounced of ejection from the lighted hall, with +limbs bound so that he cannot struggle, and consignment to the +blackness outside, of which our Lord adds, in words not put into the +king's mouth, but which we have heard from Him before, 'There shall +be the [well-known and terrible] weeping and gnashing of teeth--awful +though figurative expressions for despair and passion. + +Both parts of the parable come under one law, and exemplify one +principle of the kingdom, that its invitations extend more widely +than the real possession of its gifts. The unbelieving Jew, in one +direction, and the unrighteous Christian in another, are instances +of this. + +This is not the place to discuss that wide and well-worn question of +the ground of God's choice. That does not enter into the scope of +the parable. For it, the choice is proved by the actual +participation in the feast. They who do not choose to receive the +invitation, or to put on the wedding garment, do, in different ways, +show that they are not 'chosen' though 'called.' The lesson is, not +of interminable and insoluble questionings about God's secrets, but +of earnest heed to His gracious call, and earnest, believing effort +to make the fair garment our very own, 'if so be that being clothed +we shall not be found naked.' + + + + +THE TABLES TURNED: THE QUESTIONERS QUESTIONED + + + 'But when the Pharisees had heard that He had put the + Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. + 35. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him a + question, tempting Him, and saying, 36. Master, which + is the great commandment in the law? 37. Jesus said + unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy + heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. + 38. This is the first and great commandment. 39. And + the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy + neighbour as thyself. 40. On these two commandments + hang all the law and the prophets. 41. While the + Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, + 42. Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose Son is He? + They say unto Him, The son of David. 43. He saith unto + them, How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, + saying, 44. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My + right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool? + 45. If David then call Him Lord, how is He his son? + 46. And no man was able to answer Him a word; neither + durst any man, from that day forth, ask Him any more + questions.'--MATT.xxii.34-46. + +Herodians, Sadducees, Pharisees, who were at daggers drawn with each +other, patched up an alliance against Jesus, whom they all hated. +Their questions were cunningly contrived to entangle Him in the +cobwebs of casuistry and theological hair-splitting, but He walked +through the fine-spun snares as a lion might stalk away with the +nooses set for him dangling behind him. The last of the three +questions put to Jesus, and the one question with which He turned +the tables and silenced His questioners, are our subject. In the +former, Jesus declares the essence of the law or of religion; in the +latter, He brings to light the essential loftiness of the Messiah. + +I. The two preceding questions are represented to have been asked by +deputations; this is specially noted as emanating from an +individual. The 'lawyer' seems to have anticipated his colleagues, +and possibly his question was not that which they had meant to put. +His motive in asking it was that of 'tempting' Jesus, but we must +not give that word too hostile a sense, for it may mean no more than +'testing' or trying. The legal expert wished to find out the +attainments and standpoint of this would-be teacher, and so he +proposed a question which would bring out the whereabouts of Jesus, +and give opportunity for a theological wrangle. He did not ask the +question for guidance, but as an inquisitor cross-examining a +suspected heretic. Probably the question was a stereotyped one, and +there are traces in the Gospels that the answer recognised as +orthodox was that which Jesus gave (Luke x. 27). The two +commandments are quoted from Deuteronomy vi. 5 and Leviticus xix. 18 +respectively. The lawyer probably only desired to raise a discussion +as to the relative worth of isolated precepts. Jesus goes deep down +below isolated precepts, and unifies, as well as transforms, the +law. Supreme and undivided love to God is not only the great, but +also the first, commandment. In more modern phrase, it is the sum of +man's duty and the germ of all goodness. Note that Jesus shifts the +centre from conduct to character, from deeds to affections. 'As a +man _thinketh_ in his heart, so is he,' said the sage of old; +Christ says, 'As a man loves, so is he.' Two loves we have,--either +the dark love of self and sense, or the white love of God, and all +character and conduct are determined by which of these sways us. +Note, further, that love to God must needs be undivided. God is one +and all; man is one and finite. To love such an object with half a +heart is not to love. True, our weakness leads astray, but the only +real love corresponding to the natures of the lover and the loved is +whole-hearted, whole-souled, whole-minded. It must be 'all in all, +or not at all.' + +'A second is like unto it,'--love to man is the under side, as it +were, of love to God. The two commandments are alike, for both call +for love, and the second is second because it is a consequence of +the first. Each sets up a lofty standard; 'with all thy heart' and +'as thyself' sound equally impossible, but both result necessarily +from the nature of the case. Religion is the parent of all morality, +and especially of benevolent love to men. Innate self-regard will +yield to no force but that of love to God. It is vain to try to +create brotherhood among men unless the sense of God's fatherhood is +its foundation. Love of neighbours is the second commandment, and to +make it the first, as some do now, is to end all hope of fulfilling +it. Still further, Jesus hangs law and prophets on these two +precepts, which, at bottom, are one. Not only will all other duties +be done in doing these, since 'love is the fulfilling of the law,' +but all other precepts, and all the prophets' appeals and +exhortations, are but deductions from, or helps to the attainment +of, these. All our forms of worship, creeds, and the like, are of +worth in so far as they are outcomes of love to God, or aid us in +loving Him and our neighbours. Without love, they are 'as sounding +brass, or a tinkling cymbal.' + +II. The Pharisees remained 'gathered together,' and may have been +preparing another question, but Jesus had been long enough +interrogated. It was not fitting that He should be catechised only. +His questions teach. He does not seek to 'entangle' the Pharisees +'in their speech,' nor to make them contradict themselves, but +brings them full up against a difficulty, that they may open their +eyes to the great truth which is its only solution. His first +question, 'What think ye of the Christ?' is simply preparatory to +the second. The answer which He anticipated was given,--as, of +course, it would be, for the Davidic descent of the Messiah was a +commonplace universally accepted. One can fancy that the Pharisees +smiled complacently at the attempt to puzzle them with such an +elementary question, but the smile vanished when the next one came. +They interpreted Psalm 110 as Messianic, and David in it called +Messiah 'my Lord.' How can He be both? Jesus' question is in two +forms,--'If He is son, how does David call Him Lord?' or, if He is +Lord, 'how then is He his son?' Take either designation, and the +other lands you in inextricable difficulties. + +Now what was our Lord's purpose in thus driving the Pharisees into a +corner? Not merely to 'muzzle' them, as the word in verse 34, +rendered 'put to silence,' literally means, but to bring to light +the inadequate conceptions of the Messiah and of the nature of His +kingdom, to which exclusive recognition of his Davidic descent +necessarily led. David's son would be but a king after the type of +the Herods and Casars, and his kingdom as 'carnal' as the wildest +zealot expected, but David's Lord, sitting at God's right hand, and +having His foes made His footstool by Jehovah Himself,--what sort of +a Messiah King would that be? The majestic image, that shapes itself +dimly here, was a revelation that took the Pharisees' breath away, +and made them dumb. Nor are the words without a half-disclosed claim +on Christ's part to be that which He was so soon to avow Himself +before the high priest as being. The first hearers of them probably +caught that meaning partly, and were horrified; we hear it clearly +in the words, and answer, 'Thou art the King of glory, O Christ! +Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.' + +Jesus here says that Psalm 110 is Messianic, that David was the +author, and that he wrote it by divine inspiration. The present +writer cannot see how our Lord's argument can be saved from collapse +if the psalm is not David's. + + + + +THE KING'S FAREWELL + + + 'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for + ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear + beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's + bones, and of all uncleanness. 28. Even so ye also + outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are + full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 29. Woe unto you, + scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the + tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of + the righteous, 30. And say, If we had been in the days + of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with + them in the blood of the prophets. 31. Wherefore ye be + witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of + them which killed the prophets. 32. Fill ye up then the + measure of your fathers. 33. Ye serpents, ye generation + of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell! + 34. Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and + wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill + and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your + synagogues, and persecute them from city to city; + 35. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed + upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto + the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew + between the temple and the altar. 36. Verily I say unto + you, All these things shall come upon this generation. + 37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the + prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, + how often would I have gathered thy children together, + even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, + and ye would not! 38. Behold, your house is left unto + you desolate. 39. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see + Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that + cometh in the name of the Lord.'--MATT. xxiii. 27-39. + +If, with the majority of authorities, we exclude verse 14 from the +text, there are, in this chapter, seven woes, like seven thunders, +launched against the rulers. They are scathing exposures, but, as +the very word implies, full of sorrow as well as severity. They are +not denunciations, but prophecies warning that the end of such +tempers must be mournful. The wailing of an infinite compassion, +rather than the accents of anger, sounds in them; and it alone is +heard in the outburst of lamenting in which Christ's heart runs +over, as in a passion of tears, at the close. The blending of +sternness and pity, each perfect, is the characteristic of this +wonderful climax of our Lord's appeals to His nation. Could such +tones of love and righteous anger joined have been sent echoing +through the ages in this Gospel, if they had not been heard? + +I. The woe of the 'whited sepulchres.' The first four woes are +directed mainly to the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees; the +last three to their characters. The two first of these fasten on the +same sin, of hypocritical holiness. There is, however, a difference +between the representation of hypocrites under the metaphor of the +clean outside of the cup and platter, and that of the whited +sepulchre. In the former, the hidden sin is 'extortion and excess'; +that is, sensual enjoyment wrongly procured, of which the emblems of +cup and plate suggest that good eating and drinking are a chief +part. In the latter, it is 'iniquity'--a more general and darker +name for sin. In the former, the Pharisee is 'blind,' self-deceived +in part or altogether; in the latter, stress is rather laid on his +'appearance unto men.' The repetition of the same charge in the two +woes teaches us Christ's estimate of the gravity and frequency of +the sin. + +The whitened tombs of Mohammedan saints still gleam in the strong +sunlight on many a knoll in Palestine. If the Talmudical practice is +as old as our Lord's time, the annual whitewashing was lately over. +Its purpose was not to adorn the tombs, but to make them +conspicuous, so that they might be avoided for fear of defilement. +So He would say, with terrible irony, that the apparent holiness of +the rulers was really a sign of corruption, and a warning to keep +away from them. What a blow at their self-complacency! And how +profoundly true it is that the more punctiliously white the +hypocrite's outside, the more foul is he within, and the wider berth +will all discerning people give him! The terrible force of the +figure needs no dwelling on. In Christ's estimate, such a soul was +the very dwelling-place of death; and foul odours and worms and +corruption filled its sickening recesses. Terrible words to come +from His lips into which grace was poured, and bold words to be +flashed at listeners who held the life of the Speaker in their +hands! There are two sorts of hypocrites, the conscious and the +unconscious; and there are ten of the latter for one of the former, +and each ten times more dangerous. Established religion breeds them, +and they are specially likely to be found among those whose business +is to study the documents in which it is embodied. These woes are +not like thunder-peals rolling above our heads, while the lightning +strikes the earth miles away. A religion which is mostly whitewash +is as common among us as ever it was in Jerusalem; and its foul +accompaniments of corruption becoming more rotten every year, as the +whitewash is laid on thicker, may be smelt among us, and its fatal +end is as sure. + +II. The woe of the sepulchre builders (vs. 29-36). In these verses +we have, first, the specification of another form of hypocrisy, +consisting in building the prophets' tombs, and disavowing the +fathers' murder of them. Honouring dead prophets was right; but +honouring dead ones and killing living ones was conscious or +unconscious hypocrisy. The temper of mind which leads to glorifying +the dead witnesses, also leads to supposing that all truth was given +by them; and hence that the living teachers, who carry their message +farther, are false prophets. A generation which was ready to kill +Jesus in honour of Moses, would have killed Moses in honour of +Abraham, and would not have had the faintest apprehension of the +message of either. + +It is a great deal easier to build tombs than to accept teachings, +and a good deal of the posthumous honour paid to God's messengers +means, 'It's a good thing they are dead, and that we have nothing to +do but to put up a monument.' Bi-centenaries and ter-centenaries and +jubilees do not always imply either the understanding or the +acceptance of the principles supposed to be glorified thereby. But +the magnifiers of the past are often quite unconscious of the +hollowness of their admiration, and honest in their horror of their +fathers' acts; and we all need the probe of such words as Christ's +to pierce the skin of our lazy reverence for our fathers' prophets, +and let out the foul matter below--namely, our own blindness to +God's messengers of to-day. + +The statement of the hypocrisy is followed, in verses 31-33, with +its unmasking and condemnation. The words glow with righteous wrath +at white heat, and end in a burst of indignation, most unfamiliar to +His lips. Three sentences, like triple lightning flash from His +pained heart. With almost scornful subtlety He lays hold of the +words which He puts into the Pharisees' mouths, to convict them of +kindred with those whose deeds they would disown. 'Our fathers, say +you? Then you do belong to the same family, after all. You confess +that you have their blood in your veins; and, in the very act of +denying sympathy with their conduct, you own kindred. And, for all +your protestations, spiritual kindred goes with bodily descent.' +Christ here recognises that children probably 'take after their +parents,' or, in modern scientific terms, that 'heredity' is the +law, and that it works more surely in the transmission of evil than +of good. + +Then come the awful words bidding that generation 'fill up the +measure of the fathers.' They are like the other command to Judas to +do his work quickly. They are more than permission, they are +command; but such a command as, by its laying bare of the true +character of the deed in view, is love's last effort at prevention. +Mark the growing emotion of the language. Mark the conception of a +nation's sins as one through successive generations, and the other, +of these as having a definite measure, which being filled, judgment +can no longer tarry. Generation after generation pours its +contributions into the vessel, and when the last black drop which it +can hold has been added, then comes the catastrophe. Mark the fatal +necessity by which inherited sin becomes darker sin. The fathers' +crimes are less than the sons'. This inheritance increases by each +transmission. The cloak strikes one more at each revolution of the +hands. + +It is hard to recognise Christ in the terrible words that follow. We +have heard part of them from John the Baptist; and it sounded +natural for him to call men serpents and the children of serpents, +but it is somewhat of a shock to hear Jesus hurling such names at +even the most sinful. But let us remember that He who sees hearts, +has a right to tell harsh truths, and that it is truest kindness to +strip off masks which hide from men their own real character, and +that the revelation of the divine love in Jesus would be a partial +and impotent revelation if it did not show us the righteous love +which is wrath. There is nothing so terrible as the anger of gentle +compassion, and the fiercest and most destructive wrath is 'the +wrath of the Lamb.' Seldom, indeed, did He show that side of His +character; but it is there, and the other side would not be so +blessed as it is, unless that were there too. + +The woe ends with the double prophecy that that generation would +repeat and surpass the fathers' guilt, and that on it would fall the +accumulated penalties of past bloodshed. Note that solemn +'therefore,' which looks back to the whole preceding context, and +forward to the whole subsequent. Because the rulers professed +abhorrence of their fathers' deeds, and yet inherited their spirit, +they too would have their prophets, and would slay them. God goes on +sending His messengers, because we reject them; and the more deaf +men are, the more does He peal His words into their ears. That is +mercy and compassion, that all men may be saved and come to the +knowledge of the truth; but it is judgment too, and its foreseen +effect must be regarded as part of the divine purpose in it. +Christ's desire is one thing, His purpose another. His desire is +that all should find in His gospel 'the savour of life'; but His +purpose is that, if it be not that to any, it shall be to them the +savour of death. Mark, too, the authority with which He, in the face +of these scowling Pharisees, assumes the distinct divine prerogative +of sending forth inspired men, who, as His messengers, shall stand +on a level with the prophets of old. Mark His silence as to His own +fate, which is only obscurely hinted at in the command to fill up +the measure of the fathers. Observe the detailed enumeration of His +messengers' gifts,--'prophets' under direct inspiration, like those +of old, which may especially refer to the apostles; 'wise men,' like +a Stephen or an Apollos; 'scribes,' such as Mark and Luke and many a +faithful servant since, whose pen has loved to write the name above +every name. Note the detailed prophecy of their treatment, which +begins with _slaying_ and goes down to the less severe _scourging_, +and thence to the milder _persecution_. Do the three punishments +belong to the three classes of messengers, the severest falling to +the lot of the most highly endowed, and even the quiet penman being +hunted from city to city? + +We need not wriggle and twist to try to avoid admitting that the +calling of the martyred Zacharias, 'the son of Barachias,' is an +error of some one who confused the author of the prophetic book with +the person whose murder is narrated in 2 Chronicles xxiv. We do not +know who made the mistake, or how it appears in our text, but it is +not honest to try to slur it over. The punishment of long ages of +sin, carried on from father to son, does in the course of that +history of the world, which is a part of the judgment of the world, +fall upon one generation. It takes long for the mass of heaped-up +sin to become top-heavy; but when it is so, it buries one generation +of those who have worked at piling it up, beneath its down-rushing +avalanche. + + 'The mills of God grind slowly, + But they grind exceeding small.' + +The catastrophes of national histories are prepared for by continuous +centuries. The generation that laid the first powder-hornful of the +train is dead and buried, long before the explosion which sends +constituted order and institutions sky-high. The misery is that often +the generation which has to pay the penalty has begun to awake to the +sin, and would be glad to mend it, if it could. England in the +seventeenth century, France in the eighteenth, America in the +nineteenth, had to reap harvests from sins sown long before. Such is +the law of the judgment wrought out by God's providence in history. +But there is another judgment, begun here and perfected hereafter, in +which fathers and sons shall each bear their own burden, and reap +accurately the fruit of what they have sown. 'The soul that sinneth, +it shall die.' + +III. The parting wail of rejected love. The lightning flashes of the +sevenfold woes end in a rain of pity and tears. His full heart +overflows in that sad cry of lamentation over the long-continued +foiling of the efforts of a love that would fain have fondled and +defended. What intensity of feeling is in the redoubled naming of +the city! How yearningly and wistfully He calls, as if He might still +win the faithless one, and how lingeringly unwilling He is to give up +hope! How mournfully, rather than accusingly, He reiterates the acts +which had run through the whole history, using a form of the verbs +which suggests continuance. Mark, too, the matter-of-course way in +which Christ assumes that He sent all the prophets whom, through +the generations, Jerusalem had stoned. + +So the lament passes into the solemn final leave-taking, with which +our Lord closes His ministry among the Jews, and departs from the +temple. As, in the parable of the marriage-feast, the city was +emphatically called 'their city,' so here the Temple, in whose +courts He was standing, and which in a moment He was to quit for +ever, is called 'your house,' because His departure is the +withdrawing of the true Shechinah. It had been the house of God: now +He casts it off, and leaves it to them to do as they will with it. +The saddest punishment of long-continued rejection of His pleading +love, is that it ceases at last to plead. The bitterest woe for +those who refuse to render to Him the fruits of the vineyard, is to +get the vineyard for their own, undisturbed. Christ's utmost +retribution for obstinate blindness is to withdraw from our sight. +All the woes that were yet to fall, in long, dreary succession on +that nation, so long continued in its sin, so long continued in its +misery, were hidden in that solemn departure of Christ from the +henceforward empty temple. Let us fear lest our unfaithfulness meet +the like penalty! But even the departure does not end His yearnings, +nor close the long story of the conflict between God's beseeching +love and their unbelief. The time shall come when the nation shall +once more lift up, with deeper, truer adoration, the hosannas of the +triumphal entry. And then a believing Israel shall see their King, +and serve Him. Christ never takes final leave of any man in this +world. It is ever possible that dumb lips may be opened to welcome +Him, though long rejected; and His withdrawals are His efforts to +bring about that opening. When it takes place, how gladly does He +return to the heart which is now His temple, and unveil His beauty +to the long-darkened eyes! + + + + +TWO FORMS OF ONE SAYING + + + 'He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.' + --Matt. xxiv. 13, R.V. + + 'In your patience possess ye your souls.'--Luke xxi. 19. + +These two sayings, different as they sound in our Version, are +probably divergent representations of one original. The reasons for +so supposing are manifold and obvious on a little consideration. In +the first place, the two sayings occur in the Evangelists' reports +of the same prophecy and at the same point therein. In the second +place, the verbal resemblance is much greater than appears in our +Authorised Version, because the word rendered 'patience' in Luke is +derived from that translated 'endureth' in Matthew; and the true +connection between the two versions of the saying would have been +more obvious if we had had a similar word in both, reading in the +one 'he that endureth,' and in the other 'in your endurance.' In the +third place, the difference between these two sayings presented in +our Version, in that the one is a promise and the other a command, +is due to an incorrect reading of St. Luke's words. The Revised +Version substitutes for the imperative 'possess' the promise 'ye +shall possess,' and with that variation the two sayings are brought +a good deal nearer each other. In both endurance is laid down as the +condition, which in both is followed by a promise. Then, finally, +there need be no difficulty in seeing that 'possessing,' or, more +literally, 'gaining your souls,' is an exact equivalent of the other +expression, 'ye shall be saved.' One cannot but remember our Lord's +solemn antithetical phrase about a man 'losing his own soul.' To +'win one's soul' is to be saved; to be saved is to win one's soul. + +So I think I have made out my thesis that the two sayings are +substantially one. They carry a great weight of warning, of +exhortation, and of encouragement to us all. Let us try now to reap +some of that harvest. + +I. First, then, notice the view of our condition which underlies +these sayings. + +It is a sad and a somewhat stern one, but it is one to which, I +think, most men's hearts will respond, if they give themselves +leisure to think; and if they 'see life steadily, and see it whole.' +For howsoever many days are bright, and howsoever all days are good, +yet, on the whole, 'man is a soldier, and life is a fight.' For some +of us it is simple endurance; for all of us it has sometimes been +agony; for all of us, always, it presents resistance to every kind of +high and noble career, and especially to the Christian one. Easy-going +optimists try to skim over these facts, but they are not to be so +lightly set aside. You have only to look at the faces that you +meet in the street to be very sure that it is always a grave and +sometimes a bitter thing to live. And so our two texts presuppose +that life on the whole demands endurance, whatever may be included +in that great word. + +Think of the inward resistance and outward hindrances to every lofty +life. The scholar, the man of culture, the philanthropist--all who +would live for anything else than the present, the low, and the +sensual--find that there is a banded conspiracy, as it were, against +them, and that they have to fight their way by continual antagonism, +by continual persistence, as well as by continual endurance. Within, +weakness, torpor, weariness, levity, inconstant wills, bright +purposes clouding over, and all the cowardice and animalism of our +nature war continually against the better, higher self. And without, +there is a down-dragging, as persistent as the force of gravity, +coming from the whole assemblage of external things that solicit, +and would fain seduce us. The old legends used to tell us how, +whensoever a knight set out upon any great and lofty quest, his path +was beset on either side by voices, sometimes whispering seductions, +and sometimes shrieking maledictions, but always seeking to withdraw +him from his resolute march onwards to his goal. And every one of +us, if we have taken on us the orders of any lofty chivalry, and +especially if we have sworn ourselves knights of the Cross, have to +meet the same antagonism. Then, too, there are golden apples rolled +upon our path, seeking to draw us away from our steadfast endurance. + +Besides the hindrances in every noble path, the hindrances within +and the hindrances without, the weight of self and the drawing of +earth, there come to us all--in various degrees no doubt, and in +various shapes--but to all of us there come the burdens of sorrows +and cares, and anxieties and trials. Wherever two or three are +gathered together, even if they gather for a feast, there will be +some of them who carry a sorrow which they know well will never be +lifted off their shoulders and their hearts, until they lay down all +their burdens at the grave's mouth; and it is weary work to plod on +the path of life with a weight that cannot be shifted, with a wound +that can never be stanched. + +Oh, brethren, rosy-coloured optimism is all a dream. The recognition +of the good that is in the evil is the devout man's talisman, but +there is always need for the resistance and endurance which my texts +prescribe. And the youngest of us, the gladdest of us, the least +experienced of us, the most frivolous of us, if we will question our +own hearts, will hear their Amen to the stern, sad view of the facts +of earthly life which underlies this text. + +Though it has many other aspects, the world seems to me sometimes to +be like that pool at Jerusalem in the five porches of which lay, +groaning under various diseases, but none of them without an ache, a +great multitude of impotent folk, halt and blind. Astronomers tell +us that one, at any rate, of the planets rolls on its orbit swathed +in clouds and moisture. The world moves wrapped in a mist of tears. +God only knows them all, but each heart knows its own bitterness and +responds to the words, 'Ye have need of patience.' + +II. Now, secondly, mark the victorious temper. + +That is referred to in the one saying by 'he that endureth,' and in +the other 'in your endurance.' Now, it is very necessary for the +understanding of many places in Scripture to remember that the +notion either of patience or of endurance by no means exhausts the +power of this noble Christian word. For these are passive virtues, +and however excellent and needful they may be, they by no means sum +up our duty in regard to the hindrances and sorrows, the burdens and +weights, of which I have been trying to speak. For you know it is +only 'what cannot be cured' that 'must be endured,' and even +incurable things are not merely to be endured, but they ought to be +utilised. It is not enough that we should build up a dam to keep the +floods of sorrow and trial from overflowing our fields; we must turn +the turbid waters into our sluices, and get them to drive our mills. +It is not enough that we should screw ourselves up to lie +unresistingly under the surgeon's knife; though God knows that it is +as much as we can manage sometimes, and we have to do as convicts +under the lash do, get a bit of lead or a bullet into our mouths, +and bite at it to keep ourselves from crying out. But that is not +all our duty in regard to our trials and difficulties. There is +required something more than passive endurance. + +This noble word of my texts does mean a great deal more than that. It +means active persistence as well as patient submission. It is not +enough that we should stand and bear the pelting of the pitiless storm, +unmurmuring and unbowed by it; but we are bound to go on our course, +bearing up and steering right onwards. Persistent perseverance in the +path that is marked out for us is especially the virtue that our Lord +here enjoins. It is well to sit still unmurmuring; it is better to +march on undiverted and unchecked. And when we are able to keep +straight on in the path which is marked out for us, and especially in +the path that leads us to God, notwithstanding all opposing voices, and +all inward hindrances and reluctances; when we are able to go to our +tasks of whatever sort they are and to do them, though our hearts are +beating like sledge-hammers; when we say to ourselves, 'It does not +matter a bit whether I am sad or glad, fresh or wearied, helped or +hindered by circumstances, this one thing I do,' then we have come to +understand and to practise the grace that our Master here enjoins. The +endurance which wins the soul, and leads to salvation, is no mere +passive submission, excellent and hard to attain as that often is; +but it is brave perseverance in the face of all difficulties, and in +spite of all enemies. + +Mark how emphatically our Lord here makes the space within which +that virtue has to be exercised conterminous with the whole duration +of our lives. I need not discuss what 'the end' was in the original +application of the words; that would take us too far afield. But +this I desire to insist upon, that right on to the very close of +life we are to expect the necessity of putting forth the exercise of +the very same persistence by which the earlier stages of any noble +career must necessarily be marked. In other departments of life +there may be relaxation, as a man goes on through the years; but in +the culture of our characters, and in the deepening of our faith, +and in the drawing near to our God, there must be no cessation or +diminution of earnestness and of effort right up to the close. + +There are plenty of people, and I dare say that I address some of +them now, who began their Christian career full of vigour and with a +heat that was too hot to last. But, alas, in a year or two all the +fervency was past, and they settled down into the average, easygoing, +unprogressive Christian, who is a wet blanket to the devotion and +work of a Christian church. I wonder how many of us would scarcely +know our own former selves if we could see them. Christian people, +to how many of us should the word be rung in our ears: 'Ye did run +well; _what_ did hinder you'? The answer is--Myself. + +But may I say that this emphatic 'to the end' has a special lesson +for us older people, who, as natural strength abates and enthusiasm +cools down, are apt to be but the shadows of our old selves in many +things? But there should be fire within the mountain, though there +may be snow on its crest. Many a ship has been lost on the harbour +bar; and there is no excuse for the captain leaving the bridge, or +the engineer coming up from the engine-room, stormy as the one +position and stifling as the other may be, until the anchor is down, +and the vessel is moored and quiet in the desired haven. The desert, +with its wild beasts and its Bedouin, reaches right up to the city +gates, and until we are within these we need to keep our hands on +our sword-hilts and be ready for conflict. 'He that endureth to the +end, the same shall be saved.' + +III. Lastly, note the crown which endurance wins. + +Now, I need not spend or waste your time in mere verbal criticism, +but I wish to point out that that word 'soul' in one of our two +texts means both the soul and the life of which it is the seat; and +also to remark that the being saved and the winning of the life or +the soul has distinct application, in our Lord's words, primarily to +corporeal safety and preservation in the midst of dangers; and, +still further, to note the emphatic '_in_ your patience,' as +suggesting not only a future but a present acquisition of one's own +soul, or life, as the result of such persevering endurance and +enduring perseverance. All which things being kept in view, I may +expand the great promise that lies in my text, as follows:-- + +First, by such persevering persistence in the Christian path, we gain +ourselves. Self-surrender is self-possession. We never own ourselves +till we have given up owning ourselves, and yielded ourselves to that +Lord who gives us back saints to ourselves. Self-control is +self-possession. We do not own ourselves as long as it is possible +for any weakness in flesh, sense, or spirit to gain dominion over us +and hinder us from doing what we know to be right. We are not our own +masters then. 'Whilst they promise them liberty, they themselves are +the bond-slaves of corruption.' It is only when we have the bit well +into the jaws of the brutes, and the reins tight in our hands, so +that a finger-touch can check or divert the course, that we are truly +lords of the chariot in which we ride and of the animals that impel it. + +And such self-control which is the winning of ourselves is, as I +believe, thoroughly realised only when, by self-surrender of +ourselves to Jesus Christ, we get His help to govern ourselves and +so become lords of ourselves. Some little petty Rajah, up in the +hills, in a quasi-independent State in India, is troubled by +mutineers whom he cannot subdue; what does he do? He sends a message +down to Lahore or Calcutta, and up come English troops that +consolidate his dominion, and he rules securely, when he has +consented to become a feudatory, and recognise his overlord. And so +you and I, by continual repetition, in the face of self and sin, of +our acts of self-surrender, bring Christ into the field; and then, +when we have said, 'Lord, take me; I live, yet not I, but Christ +liveth in me'; and when we daily, in spite of hindrances, stand to +the surrender and repeat the consecration, then 'in our perseverance +we acquire our souls.' + +Again, such persistence wins even the bodily life, whether it +preserves it or loses it. I have said that the words of our texts +have an application to bodily preservation in the midst of the +dreadful dangers of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. But so +regarded they are a paradox. For hear how the Master introduces +them: 'Some of you shall they cause to be put to death, but there +shall not a hair of your heads perish. In your perseverance ye shall +win your lives.' 'Some of you they will put to death,' but ye 'shall +win your lives,'--a paradox which can only be solved by experience. +Whether this bodily life be preserved or lost, it is gained when it +is used as a means of attaining the higher life of union with God. +Many a martyr had the promise, 'Not a hair of your head shall +perish,' fulfilled at the very moment when the falling axe shore his +locks in twain, and severed his head from his body. + +Finally, full salvation, the true possession of himself, and the +acquisition of the life which really is life, comes to a man who +perseveres to the end, and thus passes to the land where he will +receive the recompense of the reward. The one moment the runner, +with flushed cheek and forward swaying body, hot, with panting +breath, and every muscle strained, is straining to the winning-post; +and the next moment, in utter calm, he is wearing the crown. + +'To the end,' and what a contrast the next moment will be! Brethren, +may it be true of you and of me that 'we are not of them that draw +back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the winning of +their souls!' + + + + +THE CARRION AND THE VULTURES + + + 'Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be + gathered together.'--MATT. xxiv. 28. + +This grim parable has, of course, a strong Eastern colouring. It is +best appreciated by dwellers in those lands. They tell us that no +sooner is some sickly animal dead, or some piece of carrion thrown +out by the way, than the vultures--for the eagle does not prey upon +carrion--appear. There may not have been one visible a moment before +in the hot blue sky, but, taught by scent or by sight that their +banquet is prepared, they come flocking from all corners of the +heavens, a hideous crowd round their hideous meal, fighting with +flapping wings and tearing it with their strong talons. And so, says +Christ, wherever there is a rotting, dead society, a carcase +hopelessly corrupt and evil, down upon it, as if drawn by some +unerring attraction, will come the angels, the vultures of the +divine judgment. + +The words of my text were spoken, according to the version of them +in Luke's Gospel, in answer to a question from the disciples. Our +Lord had been discoursing, in very solemn words, which, starting +from the historical event of the impending fall of Jerusalem, had +gradually passed into a description of the greater event of His +second coming. And all these solemn warnings had stirred nothing +deeper in the bosoms of the disciples than a tepid and idle +curiosity which expressed itself in the one almost irrelevant +question, 'Where, Lord?' He answers--Not here, not there, but +everywhere where there is a carcase. The great event which is +referred to in our Lord's solemn words is a future judgment, which +is to be universal. But the words are not exhausted in their +reference to that event. There have been many 'comings of the Lord,' +many 'days of the Lord,' which on a smaller scale have embodied the +same principles as are to be displayed in world-wide splendour and +awfulness at the last. + +I. The first thing, then, in these most true and solemn words is +this, that they are to us a revelation of a law which operates with +unerring certainty through all the course of the world's history. + +We cannot tell, but God can, when evil has become incurable; or +when, in the language of my text, the mass of any community has +become a carcase. There may be flickerings of life, all unseen by +our eyes, or there may be death, all unsuspected by our shallow +vision. So long as there is a possibility of amendment, 'sentence +against an evil work is not executed speedily'; and God dams back, +as it were, the flow of His retributive judgment, 'not willing that +any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the +truth.' But when He sees that all is vain, that no longer is +restoration or recovery possible, then He lets loose the flood; or, +in the language of my text, when the thing has become a carcase, +then the vultures, God's scavengers, come and clear it away from off +the face of the earth. + +Now that is the law that has been working from the beginning, +working as well in regard to the long delays as in regard to the +swift execution. There is another metaphor, in the Old Testament, +that puts the same idea in a very striking form. It speaks about +God's 'awakening,' as if His judgment slumbered. All round that dial +the hand goes creeping, creeping, creeping slowly, but when it comes +to the appointed line, then the bell strikes. And so years and +centuries go by, all chance of recovery departs, and then the crash! +The ice palace, built upon the frozen blocks, stands for a while, +but when the spring thaws come, it breaks up. + +Let me remind you of some instances and illustrations. Take that +story which people stumble over in the early part of the Old +Testament revelation--the sweeping away of those Canaanitish nations +whose hideous immoralities had turned the land into a perfect sty of +abominations. There they had been wallowing, and God's Spirit, which +strives with men ever and always, had been striving with them, we +know not for how long, but when the time came at which, according to +the grim metaphor of the Old Testament, 'the measure of their +iniquity was full,' then He hurled upon them the fierce hosts out of +the desert, and in a whirlwind of fire and sword swept them off the +face of the earth. + +Take another illustration. These very people, who had been the +executioners of divine judgment, settled in the land, fell into the +snare--and you know the story. The captivities of Israel and Judah +were other illustrations of the same thing. The fall of Jerusalem, +to which our Lord pointed in the solemn context of these words, was +another. For millenniums God had been pleading with them, sending +His prophets, rising early and sending, saying, 'Oh, do not do this +abominable thing which I hate!' 'And last of all He sent His Son.' +Christ being rejected, God had shot His last bolt. He had no more +that He could do. Christ being refused, the nation's doom was fixed +and sealed, and down came the eagles of Rome, again God's scavengers, +to sweep away the nation on which had been lavished such wealth of +divine love, but which had now come to be a rotting abomination, +and to this day remains in a living death, a miraculously preserved +monument of God's Judgments. + +Take another illustration how, once more, the executants of the law +fall under its power. That nation which crushed the feeble resources +of Judaea, as a giant might crush a mosquito in his grasp, in its +turn became honeycombed with abominations and immoralities; and then +down from the frozen north came the fierce Gothic tribes over the +Roman territory. One of their captains called himself the 'Scourge +of God,' and he was right. Another swooping down of the vultures +flashed from the blue heavens, and the carrion was torn to fragments +by their strong beaks. + +Take one more illustration--that French Revolution at the end of the +eighteenth century. The fathers sowed the wind, and the children +reaped the whirlwind. Generations of heartless luxury, selfishness, +carelessness of the cry of the poor, immoral separation of class +from class, and all the sins which a ruling caste could commit +against a subject people, had prepared for the convulsion. Then, in +a carnival of blood and deluges of fire and sulphur, the rotten +thing was swept off the face of the earth, and the world breathed +more freely for its destruction. + +Take another illustration, through which many of us have lived. The +bitter legacy of negro slavery that England gave to her giant son +across the Atlantic, which blasted and sucked the strength out of +that great republic, went down amidst universal execration. It took +centuries for the corpse to be ready, but when the vultures came +they made quick work of it. + +And so, as I say, all over the world, and from the beginning of +time, with delays according to the possibilities of restoration and +recovery which the divine eye discerns, this law is working. Verily +there is a God that judgeth in the earth. 'The wheels of God grind +slowly, but they grind exceeding small.' 'Wheresoever the carcase +is, there will the eagles be gathered together.' + +And has the law exhausted its force? Are there going to be no more +applications of it? Are there no European societies at this day that +in their godlessness and social iniquities are hurrying fast to the +condition of carrion? Look around us--drunkenness, sensual +immorality, commercial dishonesty, senseless luxury amongst the +rich, heartless indifference to the wail of the poor, godlessness +over all classes and ranks of the community. Surely, surely, if the +body politic be not dead, it is sick nigh unto death. And I, for my +part, have little hesitation in saying that as far as one can see, +European society is driving as fast as it can, with its godlessness +and immorality, to such another 'day of the Lord' as these words of +my text suggest. Let us see to it that we do our little part to be +the 'salt of the earth' which shall keep it from rotting, and so +drive away the vultures of judgment. + +II. But let me turn to another point. We have here a law which is to +have a far more tremendous accomplishment in the future. + +There have been many comings of the Lord, many days of the Lord, +when, as Isaiah says in his magnificent vision of one such, 'the +loftiness of man has been bowed down, and the haughtiness of man +made low, and the Lord alone exalted in that day when He arises to +shake terribly the earth. And all these 'days of the Lord' are +prophecies, and distinctly point to a future 'day' when the same +principles which have been disclosed as working on a small scale in +them, shall be manifested in full embodiment. These 'days of the +Lord' proclaim '_the_ day of the Lord.' In the prophecies both +of the Old and New Testaments that universal future judgment is seen +glimmering through the descriptions of the nearer partial judgments. +So interpreters are puzzled to say at what point in a prophecy the +transition is made from the smaller to the greater. The prophecies +are like the diagrams in treatises on perspective, in which +diverging lines are drawn from the eye, enclosing a square or other +figure, and which, as they recede further from the point of view, +enclose a figure, the same in shape but of greater dimensions. There +is a historical event foretold, the fall of Jerusalem. It is close +up to the eyes of the disciples, and is comparatively small. Carry +out the lines that touch its corners and define its shape, and upon +the far distant curtain of the dim future there is thrown a like +figure immensely larger, the coming of Jesus Christ to judge the +world. All these little premonitions and foretastes and anticipatory +specimens point onwards to the assured termination of the world's +history in that great and solemn day, when all men shall be gathered +before Christ's throne, and He shall judge all nations--judge you +and me amongst the rest. That future judgment is distinctly a part +of the Christian revelation. Jesus Christ is to come in bodily form +as He went away. All men are to be judged by Him. That judgment is +to be the destruction of opposing forces, the sweeping away of the +carrion of moral evil. + +It is therefore distinctly a part of the message that is to be +preached by us, under penalty of the awful condemnation pronounced +on the watchman who seeth the sword coming and gives no warning. It +is not becoming to make such a solemn message the opportunity for +pictorial rhetoric, which vulgarises its greatness and weakens its +power. But it is worse than an offence against taste; it is +unfaithfulness to the preaching which God bids us, treason to our +King, and cruelty to our hearers, to suppress the warning--'The day +of the Lord cometh.' There are many temptations to put it in the +background. Many of you do not want that kind of preaching. You want +the gentle side of divine revelation. You say to us in fact, though +not in words. 'Prophesy to us smooth things. Tell us about the +infinite love which wraps all mankind in its embrace. Speak to us of +the Father God, who "hateth nothing that He hath made." Magnify the +mercy and gentleness and tenderness of Christ. Do not say anything +about that other side. It is not in accordance with the tendencies +of modern thought.' + +So much the worse, then, for the tendencies of modern thought. I +yield to no man in the ardour of my belief that the centre of all +revelation is the revelation of a God of infinite love, but I cannot +forget that there is such a thing as 'the terror of the Lord,' and I +dare not disguise my conviction that no preaching sounds every +string in the manifold harp of God's truth, which does not strike +that solemn note of warning of judgment to come. + +Such suppression is unfaithfulness. Surely, if we preachers believe +that tremendous truth, we are bound to speak. It is cruel kindness +to be silent. If a traveller is about to plunge into some gloomy +jungle infested by wild beasts, he is a friend who sits by the +wayside to warn him of his danger. Surely you would not call a +signalman unfeeling because he held out a red lamp when he knew that +just round the curve beyond his cabin the rails were up, and that +any train that reached the place would go over in horrid ruin. +Surely that preaching is not justly charged with harshness which +rings out the wholesome proclamation of a day of judgment, when we +shall each give account of ourselves to the divine-human Judge. + +Such suppression weakens the power of the Gospel, which is the +proclamation of deliverance, not only from the power, but also from +the future retribution of sin. In such a maimed gospel there is but +an enfeebled meaning given to that idea of deliverance. And though +the thing that breaks the heart and draws men to God is not terror, +but love, the terror must often be evoked in order to lead to love. +It is only 'judgment to come' which will make Felix tremble, and +though his trembling may pass away, and he be none the nearer the +kingdom, there will never any good be done to him unless he does +tremble. So, for all these reasons, all faithful preaching of +Christ's Gospel must include the proclamation of Christ as Judge. + +But, if I should be unfaithful, if I did not preach this truth, what +shall we call you if you turn away from it? You would not think it a +wise thing of the engine-driver to shut his eyes if the red lamp +were shown, and to go along at full speed and to pay no heed to +that? Do you think it would be right for a Christian minister to +lock his lips and never say, 'There is a judgment to come'? And do +you think it is wise of you not to think of that, and to shape your +conduct accordingly? + +Oh, dear friends! I do not doubt that the centre of all divine +revelation is the love of God, nor do I doubt that incomparably the +highest representation of the power of Christ's Gospel is that it +draws men away from the love and the practice of evil, and makes +them pure and holy. But that is not all. There is not only the +practice and the power of sin to be fought against, but there is the +penalty of sin to be taken into account; and as sure as you are +living, and as sure as there is a God above us, so sure is it that +there is a Day of Judgment, when 'He will judge the world in +righteousness by the Man whom He hath ordained.' The believing of +that is not salvation, but the belief of that seems to me to be +indispensable for any vigorous grasp of the delivering love of God +in Jesus Christ our Lord. + +III. And so the last thing that I have to say is that this is a law +which need never touch you, nor you know anything about but by the +hearing of the ear. + +It is told us that we may escape it. When Paul reasoned of +righteousness, and temperance, and judgment to come, his hearer +trembled as he listened, but there was an end. But the true effect +of this message is the effect that Paul himself attached to it when +he said in the hearing of Athenian wisdom, 'God hath commanded all +men everywhere _to repent_, because He hath appointed a day in +the which He will judge the world in righteousness.' Judgment +faithfully preached is the preparation for preaching that 'there is +no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.' If we trust in +that great Saviour, we shall be quickened from the death of sin, and +so shall not be food for the vultures of judgment. Can these corpses +live? Can this eating putrescence, which burrows its foul way +through our souls, be sweetened? Is there any antiseptic for it? +Yes, blessed be God, and the hand whose touch healed the leper will +heal us, and 'our flesh will come again as the flesh of a little +child.' Christ has bared His breast to the divine judgments against +sin, and if by faith we shelter ourselves in Him, we shall never +know the terrors of that awful day. + +Be sure that judgment to come is no mere figure dressed up to +frighten children, nor the product of blind superstition, but that +it is the inevitable issue of the righteousness of the All-ruling +God. You and I and all the sons of men have to face it. 'Herein is +our love made perfect, that we may have boldness before Him in the +Day of Judgment.' Betake yourselves, as poor sinful creatures who +know something of the corruption of your own hearts, to that dear +Christ who has died on the Cross for you, and all that is obnoxious +to the divine judgments will, by His transforming life breathed into +you, be taken out of your hearts; and when that 'day of the Lord' +shall dawn, you, trusting in the sacrifice of Him who is your Judge, +will 'have a song as when a holy solemnity is kept.' Take Christ for +your Saviour, and then, when the vultures of judgment, with their +mighty black pinions, are wheeling and circling in the sky, ready to +pounce upon their prey, He will gather you 'as a hen gathereth her +chickens under her wings,' and beneath their shadow you will be +safe. + + + + +WATCHING FOR THE KING + + + 'Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord + doth come. 43. But know this, that if the goodman of + the house had known in what watch the thief would come, + he would have watched, and would not have suffered his + house to be broken up. 44. Therefore be ye also ready: + for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man + cometh. 45. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, + whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to + give them meat in due season! 46. Blessed is that + servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so + doing. 47. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make + him ruler over all his goods. 48. But and if that evil + servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his + coming; 49. And shall begin to smite his fellow- + servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; + 50. The lord of that servant shall come in a day when + he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not + aware of, 51. And shall out him asunder, and appoint + him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be + weeping and gnashing of teeth.'--MATT. xxiv. 42-51. + +The long day's work was nearly done. Christ had left the temple, +never to return. He took His way across the Mount of Olives to +Bethany, and was stayed by the disciples' question as to the date of +the destruction of the temple, which He had foretold, and of the +'end of the world,' which they attached to it. They could not fancy +the world lasting without the temple! We often make a like mistake. +So there, on the hillside, looking across to the city lying in the +sad, fading evening light, He spoke the prophecies of this chapter, +which begin with the destruction of Jerusalem, and insensibly merge +into the final coming of the Son of Man, of which that was a prelude +and a type. The difficulty of accurately apportioning the details of +this prophecy to the future events which fulfil them is common to it +with all prophecy, of which it is a characteristic to blend events +which, in the fulfilment, are far apart. From the mountain top, the +eye travels over great stretches of country, but does not see the +gorges, separating points which seem close together, foreshortened +by distance. + +There are many comings of the Son of Man before His final coming for +final judgment, and the nearer and smaller ones are themselves +prophecies. So, we do not need to settle the chronology of +unfulfilled prophecy in order to get the full benefit of Christ's +teachings here. In its moral and spiritual effect on us, the +uncertainty of the time of our going to Christ is nearly identical +with the uncertainty of the time of His coming to us. + +I. The command of watchfulness enforced by our ignorance of the time +of His coming (vs. 42-44). The two commands at the beginning and end +of the paragraph are not quite the same. 'Be ye ready' is the +consequence of watchfulness. Nor are the two appended reasons the +same; for the first command is grounded on His coming at a day when +'ye _know_ not,' and the second on His coming 'in an hour that +ye _think_ not,' that is to say, it not only is uncertain, but +unexpected and surprising. There may also be a difference worth +noting in the different designations of Christ as 'your Lord,' +standing in a special relation to you, and as 'the Son of Man,' of +kindred with all men, and their Judge. What is this 'watchfulness'? +It is literally wakefulness. We are beset by perpetual temptations +to sleep, to spiritual drowsiness and torpor. 'An opium sky rains +down soporifics.' And without continual effort, our perception of +the unseen realities and our alertness for service will be lulled to +sleep. The religion of multitudes is a sleepy religion. Further, it +is a vivid and ever-present conviction of His certain coming, and +consequently a habitual realising of the transience of the existing +order of things, and of the fast-approaching realities of the +future. Further, it is the keeping of our minds in an attitude of +expectation and desire, our eyes ever travelling to the dim distance +to mark the far-off shining of His coming. What a miserable contrast +to this is the temper of professing Christendom as a whole! It is +swallowed up in the present, wide awake to interests and hopes +belonging to this 'bank and shoal of time,' but sunk in slumber as +to that great future, or, if ever the thought of it intrudes, +shrinking, rather than desire, accompanies it, and it is soon +hustled out of mind. + +Christ bases His command on our ignorance of the time of His coming. +It was no part of His purpose in this prophecy to remove that +ignorance, and no calculations of the chronology of unfulfilled +predictions have pierced the darkness. It was His purpose that from +generation to generation His servants should be kept in the attitude +of expectation, as of an event that may come at any time and must +come at some time. The parallel uncertainty of the time of death, +though not what is meant here, serves the same moral end if rightly +used, and the fact of death is exposed to the same danger of being +neglected because of the very uncertainty, which ought to be one +chief reason for keeping it ever in view. Any future event, which +combines these two things, absolute certainty that it will happen, +and utter uncertainty when it will happen, ought to have power to +insist on being remembered, at least, till it was prepared for, and +would have it, if men were not such fools. Christ's coming would be +oftener contemplated if it were more welcome. But what sort of a +servant is he, who has no glow of gladness at the thought of meeting +his lord? True Christians are 'all them that have loved His +appearing.' + +The illustrative example which separates these two commands is +remarkable. The householder's ignorance of the time when the thief +would come is the reason why he does not watch. He cannot keep awake +all night, and every night, to be ready for him; so he has to go to +sleep, and is robbed. But our ignorance is a reason for wakefulness, +because we can keep awake all the night of life. The householder +watches to prevent, but we to share in, that for which the watch is +kept. The figure of the thief is chosen to illustrate the one point +of the unexpected stealthy approach. But is there not deep truth in +it, to the effect that Christ's coming is like that of a robber to +those who are asleep, depriving them of earthly treasures? The word +rendered 'broken up' means literally 'dug through,' and points to a +clay or mud house, common in the East, which is entered, not by +bursting open doors or windows, but by digging through the wall. +Death comes to men sunk in spiritual slumber, to strip them of good +which they would fain keep, and makes his entrance by a breach in +the earthly house of this tabernacle. So St. Paul, in his earliest +Epistle, refers to this saying (a proof of the early diffusion of +the gospel narrative), and says, 'Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, +that that day should overtake you as a thief.' + +II. The picture and reward of watchfulness. The general exhortation +to watch is followed by a pair of contrasted parable portraits, +primarily applicable to the apostles and to those 'set over His +household.' But if we remember what Christ taught as the condition +of pre-eminence in His kingdom, we shall not confine their +application to an order. + + 'The least flower with a brimming cup may stand, + And share its dew-drop with another near,' + +and the most slenderly endowed Christian has some crumb of the bread +of life intrusted to him to dispense. It is to be observed that +watchfulness is not mentioned in this portraiture of the faithful +servant. It is presupposed as the basis and motive of his service. +So we learn the double lesson that the attitude of continual outlook +for the Lord is needed, if we are to discharge the tasks which He +has set us, and that the true effect of watchfulness is to harness +us to the car of duty. Many other motives actuate Christian +faithfulness, but all are reinforced by this, and where it is feeble +they are more or less inoperative. We cannot afford to lose its +influence. A Church or a soul which has ceased to be looking for Him +will have let all its tasks drop from its drowsy hands, and will +feel the power of other constraining motives of Christian service +but faintly, as in a half-dream. + +On the other hand, true waiting for Him is best expressed in the +quiet discharge of accustomed and appointed tasks. The right place +for the servant to be found, when the Lord comes, is 'so doing' as +He commands, however secular the task may be. That was a wise judge +who, when sudden darkness came on, and people thought the end of the +world was at hand, said, 'Bring lights, and let us go on with the +case. We cannot be better employed, if the end has come, than in +doing our duty.' Flighty impatience of common tasks is not watching +for the King, as Paul had to teach the Thessalonians, who were +'shaken' in mind by the thought of the day of the Lord; but the +proper attitude of the watchers is 'that ye study to be quiet, and +to do your own business.' + +Observe, further, the interrogative form of the parable. The +question is the sharp point which gives penetrating power, and +suggests Christ's high estimate of the worth and difficulty of such +conduct, and sets us to ask for ourselves, 'Lord, is it I?' The +servant is 'faithful' inasmuch as he does his Lord's will, and +rightly uses the goods intrusted to him, and 'wise' inasmuch as he +is 'faithful.' For a single-hearted devotion to Christ is the parent +of insight into duty, and the best guide to conduct; and whoever +seeks only to be true to his Lord in the use of his gifts and +possessions, will not lack prudence to guide him in giving to each +his food, and that in due season. The two characteristics are +connected in another way also; for, if the outcome of faithfulness +be taken into account, its wisdom is plain, and he who has been +faithful even unto death will be seen to have been wise though he +gave up all, when the crown of eternal life sparkles on his +forehead. Such faithfulness and wisdom (which are at bottom but two +names for one course of conduct) find their motive in that +watchfulness, which works as ever in the great Taskmaster's eye, and +as ever keeping in view His coming, and the rendering of account to +Him. + +The reward of the faithful servant is stated in language similar to +that of the parable of the talents. Faithfulness in a narrower +sphere leads to a wider. The reward for true work is more work, of +nobler sort and on a grander scale. That is true for earth and for +heaven. If we do His will here, we shall one day exchange the +subordinate place of the steward for the authority of the ruler, and +the toil of the servant for the 'joy of the Lord.' The soul that is +joined to Christ and is one in will with Him has all things for its +servants; and he who uses all things for his own and his brethren's +highest good is lord of them all, while he walks amid the shadows of +time, and will be lifted to loftier dominion over a grander world +when he passes hence. + +III. The picture and doom of the unwatchful servant. This portrait +presupposes that a long period will elapse before Christ comes. The +secret thought of the evil servant is the thought of a time far down +the ages from the moment of our Lord's speaking. It would take +centuries for such a temper to be developed in the Church. What is +the temper? A secret dismissal of the anticipation of the Lord's +return, and that not merely because He has been long in coming, but +as thinking that He has broken His word, and has not come when He +said that He would. This unspoken dimming over of the expectation +and unconfessed doubt of the firmness of the promise, is the natural +product of the long time of apparent delay which the Church has had +to encounter. It will cloud and depress the religion of later ages, +unless there be constant effort to resist the tendency and to keep +awake. The first generations were all aflame with the glad hope +'Maranatha'--'The Lord is at hand.' Their successors gradually lost +that keenness of expectation, and at most cried, 'Will not He come +soon?' Their successors saw the starry hope through thickening mists +of years; and now it scarcely shines for many, or at least is but a +dim point, when it should blaze as a sun. + +He was an 'evil' servant who said so in his heart. He was evil +because he said it, and he said it because he was evil; for the +yielding to sin and the withdrawal of love from Jesus dim the desire +for His coming, and make the whisper that He delays, a hope; while, +on the other hand, the hope that He delays helps to open the +sluices, and let sin flood the life. So an outburst of cruel +masterfulness and of riotous sensuality is the consequence of the +dimmed expectation. There would have been no usurpation of authority +over Christ's heritage by priest or pope, or any other, if that hope +had not become faint. If professing Christians lived with the great +white throne and the heavens and earth fleeing away before Him that +sits on it, ever burning before their inward eye, how could they +wallow amid the mire of animal indulgence? The corruptions of the +Church, especially of its official members, are traced with sad and +prescient hand in these foreboding words, which are none the less a +prophecy because cast by His forbearing gentleness into the milder +form of a supposition. + +The dreadful doom of the unwatchful servant is couched in terms of +awful severity. The cruel punishment of sawing asunder, which, +tradition says, was suffered by Isaiah and was not unfamiliar in old +times, is his. What concealed terror of retribution it signifies we +do not know. Perhaps it points to a fate in which a man shall be, as +it were, parted into two, each at enmity with the other. Perhaps it +implies a retribution in kind for his sin, which consisted, as the +next clause implies, in hypocrisy, which is the sundering in twain +of inward conviction and practice, and is to be avenged by a like +but worse rending apart of conscience and will. At all events, it +shadows a fearful retribution, which is not extinction, inasmuch as, +in the next clause, we read that his portion--his lot, or that +condition which belongs to him by virtue of his character--is with +'the hypocrites.' He was one of them, because, while he said 'my +lord,' he had ceased to love and obey, having ceased to desire and +expect; and therefore whatever is their fate shall be his, even to +the 'dividing asunder of soul and spirit,' and setting eternal +discord among the thoughts and intents of the heart. That is not the +punishment of unwatchfulness, but of what unwatchfulness leads to, +if unawakened. Let these words of the King ring an alarum for us +all, and rouse our sleepy souls to watch, as becomes the children of +the day. + + + + +THE WAITING MAIDENS + + + 'Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten + virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet + the bridegroom. 2. And five of them were wise, and five + were foolish. 3. They that were foolish took their + lamps, and took no oil with them: 4. But the wise took + oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5. While the + bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. 6. And + at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom + cometh; go ye out to meet him. 7. Then all those virgins + arose, and trimmed their lamps. 8. And the foolish said + unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are + gone out. 9. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest + there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to + them that sell, and buy for yourselves. 10. And while + they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that + were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the + door was shut. 11 Afterward came also the other virgins, + saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. 12. But he answered and + said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. 13. Watch + therefore; for ye know neither the day nor the hour + wherein the Son of Man cometh.'--MATT. xxv. 1-13. + +We shall best understand this beautiful but difficult parable if we +look on to its close. Our Lord appends to it the refrain of all this +context, the exhortation to watch, based upon our ignorance of the +time of His coming. But as in the former little parable of the wise +servant it was his faithful, wise dispensing of his lord's goods, +and not his watchfulness, which was the point of the eulogium passed +on him, so here it is the readiness of the wise virgins to take +their places in the wedding march which is commended. That readiness +consists in their having their lamps burning and their oil in store. +This, then, is the main thing in the parable. It is an exhibition, +under another aspect, of what constitutes fitness for entrance into +the festal chamber of the bridegroom, which had just been set forth +as consisting in faithful stewardship. Here it is presented as being +the possession of lamp and oil. + +I. The first consideration, then, must be, What is the meaning of +these emblems? A great deal of fine-spun ingenuity has been expended +on subordinate points in the parable, such as the significance of +the number of maidens, the conclusions from the equal division into +wise and foolish, the place from which they came to meet the +bridegroom, the point in the marriage procession where they are +supposed to join it, whether it was at going to fetch the bride, or +at coming back with her; whether the feast is held in her house, or +in his, and so on. But all these are unimportant questions, and as +Christ has left them in the background, we only destroy the +perspective by dragging them into the front. In no parable is it +more important than in this to restrain the temptation to run out +analogies into their last results. The remembrance that the virgins, +as the emblem of the whole body of the visible Church, are the same +as the bride, who does not appear in the parable, might warn against +such an error. They were ten, as being the usual number for such a +company, or as being the round number naturally employed when +definiteness was not sought. They were divided equally, not because +our Lord desired to tell, but because He wished to leave unnoticed, +the numerical proportion of the two classes. One set are 'wise' and +the other 'foolish,' because He wishes to show not only the sin, but +the absurdity, of unreadiness, and to teach us that true wisdom is +not of the head only, but far more of the heart. The conduct of the +two groups of maidens is looked at from the prudent and common-sense +standpoint, and the provident action of the one sets in relief the +reckless stupidity of the other. + +There have been many opinions as to the meaning of the lamps and the +oil, which it is needless to repeat. Surely the analogy of +scriptural symbolism is our best guide. If we follow it, we get a +meaning which perfectly suits the emblems and the whole parable. In +the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord uses the same figure of the lamp, +and explains it: 'Let your light shine before men, that they may see +your good works.' + +II. Note the sleep of all the virgins. No blame is hinted on account +of it. It is not inconsistent with the wisdom of the wise, nor does +it interfere with their readiness to meet the bridegroom. It is, +then, such a sleep as is compatible with watching. Our Lord's +introduction of this point is an example of His merciful allowance +for our weakness. There must be a certain slackening of the tension +of expectation when the bridegroom tarries. Centuries of delay +cannot but modify the attitude of the waiting Church, and Jesus here +implies that there will be a long stretch of time before His advent, +during which all His people will feel the natural effect of the +deferring of hope. But the sleep which He permits, unblamed, is +light, and such as one takes by snatches when waiting to be called. +He does not ask us always to be on tiptoe of expectation, nor to +refuse the teaching of experience; but counts that we have watched +aright, if we wake from our light slumbers when the cry is heard, +and have our lamps lit, ready for the procession. + +III. Then comes the midnight cry and the waking of the maidens. The +hour, 'of night's black arch the keystone,' suggests the unexpectedness +of His coming; the loudness of the cry, its all-awaking effect; the +broken words of the true reading, 'Behold the bridegroom!' the +closeness on the heels of the heralds with which the procession +flashes through the darkness. The virgins had 'gone forth to meet him' +at the beginning of the parable, but the going forth to which they are +now summoned is not the same. The Christian soul goes forth once when, +at the beginning of its Christian life, it forsakes the world to wait +for and on Christ, and again, when it leaves the world to pass with +Him into the banquet. Life is the slumber from which some are awaked +by the voice of death, and some who 'remain' shall be awaked by the +trumpet of judgment. There is no interval between the cry and the +appearance of the bridegroom; only a moment to rouse themselves, to +look to their lamps, and to speak the hurried words of the foolish +and the answer of the wise, and then the procession is upon them. It +is all done as in a flash, 'in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.' +This impression of swiftness, which leaves no time for delayed +preparation, is the uniform impression conveyed by all the Scripture +references to the coming of the Lord. The swoop of the eagle, the +fierce blaze of lightning from one side of the sky to the other, the +bursting of the flood, that morning's work at Sodom, not begun till +dawn and finished before the 'sun was risen on the earth,' are its +types. Foolish indeed to postpone preparation till that moment when +cry and coming are simultaneous, like lightning and thunder right +overhead! + +The foolish virgins' imploring request and its answer are not to be +pressed, as if they meant more than to set forth the hopelessness of +then attempting to procure the wanting oil, and especially the +hopelessness of attempting to get it from one's fellows. There is a +world of suppressed terror and surprise in that cry, 'Our lamps are +going out.' Note that they burned till the bridegroom came, and +then, like the magic lamps in old legends, at his approach shivered +into darkness. Is not that true of the formal, outward religion, +which survives everything but contact with His all-seeing eye and +perfect judgment? These foolish maidens were as much astonished as +alarmed at seeing their lights flicker down to extinction; and it is +possible for professing Christians to live a lifetime, and never to +be found out either by themselves or by anybody else. But if there +has been no oil in the lamp, it will be quenched when He appears. +The atmosphere that surrounds His throne acts like oxygen on the +oil-fed flame, and like carbonic acid gas on the other. + +The answer of the wise is not selfishness. It is not from our +fellows, however bright their lamps, that we can ever get that +inward grace. None of them has more than suffices for his own needs, +nor can any give it to another. It may be bought, on the same terms +as the pearl of great price was bought, 'without money'; but the +market is closed, as on a holiday, on the day of the king's son's +marriage. That is not touched upon here, except in so far as it is +hinted at in the absence of the foolish when he enters the +banqueting chamber, and in their fruitless prayer. They had no time +to get the oil before he came, and they had not got it when they +returned. The lesson is plain. We can only get the new life of the +Spirit, which will make our lives a light, from God; and we can get +it now, not then. + +IV. We see the wise virgins within and the foolish without. They +are, indeed, no longer designated by these adjectives, but as +'ready' and 'the others'; for preparedness is fitness, and they who +are found of Him in possession of the outward righteousness and of +its inward source, His own divine life in them, are prepared. To +such the gates of the festal chamber fly open. In that day, place is +the outcome of character, and it is equally impossible for the +'ready' to be shut out, and for 'the others' to go in. + +'When the bridegroom with his feastful friends passes to bliss at +the mid hour of night,' they who have 'filled their odorous lamps +with deeds of light' have surely 'gained their entrance.' There is +silence as to the unspeakable joys of the wedding feast. Some faint +sounds of music and dancing, some gleams from the lighted windows, +find their way out; but the closed door keeps its secret, and only +the guests know the gladness. + +That closed door means security, perpetuity, untold blessedness, but +it means exclusion too. The piteous reiterated call of the shut-out +maidens, roused too late, and so suddenly, from songs and laughter +to vain cries, evokes a stern answer, through which shines the awful +reality veiled in the parable. We do not need to regard the prayer +for entrance, and its refusal, as conveying more than the +fruitlessness of wishes for entrance then, when unaccompanied with +fitness to enter. Such desire as is expressed in this passionate +beating at the closed door, with hoarse entreaties, is not fitness. +If it were, the door would open; and the reason why it does not lies +in the bridegroom's awful answer, 'I know you not.' The absence of +the qualification prevents his recognising them as his. Surely the +unalleviated darkness of a hopeless exclusion settles down on these +sad five, standing, huddled together, at the door, with the +extinguished lamps hanging in their despairing hands. 'Too late, too +late, ye cannot enter now.' The wedding bell has become a funeral +knell. They were not the enemies of the bridegroom, they thought +themselves his friends. They let life ebb without securing the one +thing needful, and the neglect was irremediable. There is a tragedy +underlying many a life of outward religiousness and inward +emptiness, and a dreadful discovery will flare in upon such, when +they have to say to themselves, + + 'This might have been once, + And we missed it, lost it for ever.' + + + + +DYING LAMPS + + + 'Our lamps are gone out.'--MATT. xxv. 8. + +This is one of the many cases in which the Revised Version, by +accuracy of rendering the tense of a verb, gives a much more +striking as well as correct reproduction of the original than the +Authorised Version does. The former reads 'going out,' instead of +'gone out,' a rendering which the Old Version has, unfortunately, +relegated to the margin. It is clearly to be preferred, not only +because it more correctly represents the Greek, but because it sets +before us a more solemn and impressive picture of the precise time +at which the terrible discovery was made by the foolish five. They +woke from their sleep, and hastily trimmed their lamps. These burned +brightly for a moment, and then began to flicker and die down. The +extinction of their light was not the act of a moment, but was a +gradual process, which had advanced in some degree before it +attracted the attention of the bearers of the lamps. At last it +roused the half-sleeping five into startled, wide-awake +consciousness. There is a tone of alarm and fear in their sudden +exclamation, 'Our lamps are going out.' They see now the catastrophe +that threatens, and understand that the only means of averting it is +to replenish the empty oil-vessels before the flame has quite +expired. But their knowledge and their dread were alike too late, +and, as they went on their hopeless search for some one to give them +what they once might have had in abundance, the last faint flicker +ceased, and they had to grope their way in the dark, with their +lightless lamps hanging useless in their slack hands, while far off +the torches of the bridal procession, in which they might have had a +part, flashed through the night. We have nothing to do with the +tragical issue of the process of extinction; but solemn lessons of +universal application gather round the picture of that process, as +represented in our text, and to these we turn now. + +I. We must settle the meaning of the oil and the lamps. + +The Old Testament symbolism is our best guide as to the significance +of the oil. Throughout it, oil symbolises the divine influences that +come down on men appointed by God to their several functions, and +which are there traced to the Spirit of the Lord. So the priests +were set apart by unction with the holy oil; so Samuel poured oil on +the black locks of Saul. So, too, the very name Messiah means +'anointed,' and the great prophecy, which Jesus claimed for His own +in His first sermon in the synagogue at Nazareth, put into the +Messiah's lips the declaration, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, +because He hath anointed Me.' But there are Old Testament symbols +which bear still more closely on the emblems of our text. Zechariah +saw in vision a golden lamp-stand with seven lamps, and on either +side of it an olive tree, from which oil flowed through golden pipes +to feed the flame. The interpretation of the vision was given by the +'angel that talked with' the prophet as being, 'not by might nor by +power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.' + +So, then, we follow the plainly marked road and Scripture use of a +symbol when we take the oil in this parable to be that which every +listener to Jesus, who was instructed in the old things which he was +bringing forth with new emphasis from the ancient treasure-house of +the word of God, would take it to be--namely, the sum of the +influences from Heaven which were bestowed through the Spirit of the +Lord. + +Such being the meaning of the oil, what was meant by the lamp? We +have no intention of discussing here the many varying interpretations +which have been given to the symbol. To do so would lead us too far +afield. We can only say that the interpretation of the oil as the +influence of the Holy Spirit necessarily involves the explanation of +the lamp which is fed by it, as being the spiritual life of the +individual, which is nourished and made visible to the world as light, +by the continual communication from God of these hallowing influences. +Turning again to the Old Testament, I need only remind you of the +great seven-branched lamp which stood in the Tabernacle, and afterwards +in the Temple. It was the symbol of the collective Israel, as recipient +of divine influences, and thereby made the light of a dark world. Its +rays streamed out over the desert first, and afterwards shone from +the mountain of the Lord's house, beaming illumination and invitation +to those who sat in darkness to behold the great light, and to walk +in the light of the Lord. Zechariah's emblem was based on the Temple +lamp. In accordance with the greater prominence given by the Old +Testament to national than to individual religion, both of these +represented the people as a whole. In accordance with the more +advanced individualism of the New Testament, our text so far varies +the application of the emblem, that each of the ten virgins who, as +a whole, stand for the collective professing Church, has her own +lamp. But that is the only difference between the Old and the New +Testament uses of the symbol. + +I need not remind you how the same metaphor recurs frequently in the +teachings of our Lord and of the Apostles. Sometimes the Old +Testament collective point of view is maintained, as in our Lord's +saying in the Sermon on the Mount, 'Ye are the light of the world,' +but more frequently, the characteristic individualising of the +figure prevails, and we read of Christians shining 'as lights in the +world,' and each holding forth, as a lamp does its light, 'the word +of life.' Nor must we forget the climax of the uses of this emblem, +in the vision of the Apocalypse, where John once more saw the Lord, +on whose bosom his head had so often peacefully lain, 'walking in +the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.' There, again, the +collective rather than the individual bearing of the figure is +prominent, but with significant differences from the older use of +it. In Judaism there was a formal, outward unity, represented by the +one lamp with its manifold lights, all welded together on the golden +stem; but the churches of Asia Minor were distinct organisations, +and their oneness came, not from outward union of a mechanical kind, +but from the presence in their midst of the Son of God. + +The sum of all this course of thought is that the lamp is the +Christian life of the individual sustained by the communication of +the influences of God's Holy Spirit. + +II. We note next the gradual dying out of the light. 'Our lamps are +going out.' + +All spiritual emotions and vitality, like every other kind of +emotion and vitality, die unless nourished. Let no theological +difficulties about 'the final perseverance of the saints,' or 'the +indefeasibleness of grace,' and the impossibility of slaying the +divine life that has once been given to a man, come in the way of +letting this parable have its full, solemn weight. These foolish +virgins had oil and had light, the oil failed by their fault, and so +the light went out, and they were startled, when they awoke from +their slumber, to see how, instead of brilliant flame, there was +smoking wick. + +Dear brethren, let us take the lesson. There is nothing in our +religious emotions which has any guarantee of perpetuity in it, +except upon certain conditions. We may live, and our life may ebb. We +may trust, and our trust may tremble into unbelief. We may obey, and +our obedience may be broken by the mutinous risings of self-will. We +may walk in the 'paths of righteousness,' and our feet may falter +and turn aside. There is certainty of the dying out of all communicated +life, unless the channel of communication with the life from which it +was first kindled, be kept constantly clear. The lamp may be 'a burning +and a shining light,' or, more accurately translating the phrase of +our Lord, 'a light kindled and' (therefore) 'shining,' but it will be +light 'for a season' only, unless it is fed from that from which it +was first set alight; and that is from God Himself. + +'Our lamps are going out,'--a slow process that! The flame does not +all die into darkness in a minute. There are stages in its death. +The white portion of the flame becomes smaller and the blue part +extends; then the flame flickers, and finally shudders itself, as it +were, off the wick; then nothing remains but a charred red line +along the top; then that line breaks up into little points, and one +after another these twinkle out, and then all is black, and the lamp +is gone out. And so, slowly, like the ebbing away of the tide, like +the reluctant, long-protracted dying of summer days, like the +dropping of the blood from some fatal wound, by degrees the process +of extinction creeps, creeps, creeps on, and the lamp that was going +is finally gone out. + +III. Again, we note that extinction is brought about simply by doing +nothing. + +These five foolish virgins did not stray away into any forbidden +paths. No positive sin is alleged against them. They were simply +asleep. The other five were asleep too. I do not need to enter, here +and now, into the whole interpretation of the parable, or there +might be much to say about the difference between these two kinds of +sleep. But what I wish to notice is that it was nothing except +negligence darkening into drowsiness, which caused the dying out of +the light. + +It was not of set purpose that the foolish five took no oil with +them. They merely neglected to do so, not having the wit to look +ahead and provide against the contingency of a long time of waiting +for the bridegroom. Their negligence was the result, not of +deliberate wish to let their lights go out, but of their +heedlessness; and because of that negligence they earned the name of +'foolish.' If we do not look forward, and prepare for possible +drains on our powers, we shall deserve the same adjective. If we do +not lay in stores for future use, we may be sent to school to the +harvesting ant and the bee. That lesson applies to all departments +of life; but it is eminently applicable to the spiritual life, which +is sustained only by communications from the Spirit of God. For +these communications will be imperceptibly lessened, and may be +altogether intercepted, unless diligent attention is given to keep +open the channels by which they enter the spirit. If the pipes are +not looked to, they will be choked by masses of matted trifles, +through which the 'rivers of living water,' which Christ took as a +symbol of the Spirit's influences, cannot force a way. + +The thing that makes shipwreck of the faith of most professing +Christians that do come to grief is no positive wickedness, no +conduct which would be branded as sin by the Christian conscience or +even by ordinary people, but simply torpor. If the water in a pond +is never stirred, it is sure to stagnate, and green scum to spread +over it, and a foul smell to rise from it. A Christian man has only +to do what I am afraid a good many of us are in great danger of +doing--that is, nothing--in order to ensure that his lamp shall go +out. + +Do you try to keep yours alight? There is only one way to do it--that +is to go to Christ and get Him to pour His sweetness and His power +into our open hearts. When one of the old patriarchs had committed a +great sin, and had unbelievingly twitched his hand out of God's hand, +and gone away down into Egypt to help himself instead of trusting to +God, he was commanded, on his return to Palestine, to go to the place +where he dwelt at the first, and begin again, at the point where he +began when he first entered the land. Which being translated is just +this--the only way to keep our spirits vital and quick is by having +recourse, again and again, to the same power which first imparted +life to them, and this is done by the first means, the means of simple + reliance upon Christ in the consciousness of our own deep need, and +of believingly waiting upon Him for the repeated communication of the +gifts which we, alas! have so often misimproved. Negligence is enough +to slay. Doing nothing is the sure way to quench the Holy Spirit. + +And, on the other hand, keeping close to Him is the sure way to +secure that He will never leave us. You can choke a lamp with oil, +but you cannot have in your hearts too much of that divine grace. +And you receive all that you need if you choose to go and ask it +from Him. Remember the old story about Elisha and the poor woman. +The cruse of oil began to run. She brought all the vessels that she +could rake together, big and little, pots and cups, of all shapes +and sizes, and set them, one after the other, under the jet of oil. +They were all filled; and when she brought no more vessels the oil +stayed. If you do not take your empty hearts to God, and say, 'Here, +Lord, fill this cup too; poor as it is, fill it with Thine own +gracious influences,' be very sure that no such influences will come +to you. But if you do go, be as sure of this, that so long as you +hold out your emptiness to Him, He will flood it with His fulness, +and the light that seemed to be sputtering to its death will flame +up again. He will not quench the smoking wick, if only we carry it +to Him; but as the priests in the Temple walked all through the +night to trim the golden lamps, so He who walks amidst the seven +candlesticks will see to each. + +IV. And now one last word. That process of gradual extinction may be +going on, and may have been going on for a long while, and the +virgin that carries the lamp be quite unaware of it. + +How could a sleeping woman know whether her lamp was burning or not? +How can a drowsy Christian tell whether his spiritual life is bright +or not? To be unconscious of our approximation to this condition is, +I am afraid, one of the surest signs that we are in it. I suppose +that a paralysed limb is quite comfortable. At any rate, paralysis +of the spirit may be going on without our knowing anything about it. +So, dear friends, do not put these poor words of mine away from you +and say, 'Oh! they do not apply to me.' + +I am quite sure that the people to whom they do apply will be the +last people to take them to themselves. And while I quite believe, +thank God! that there are many of us who may feel and know that our +lamps are not going out, sure I am that there are some of us whom +everybody but themselves knows to be carrying a lamp that is so far +gone out that it is smoking and stinking in the eyes and noses of +the people that stand by. Be sure that nobody was more surprised +than were the five foolish women when they opened their witless, +sleepy eyes, and saw the state of things. So, dear friends, 'let +your loins be girt about, and your lamps burning; and ye yourselves +like unto men that wait for their Lord.' + + + + +'THEY THAT WERE READY' + + + 'They that were ready went in with him to the marriage.' + --MATT. xxv. 10. + +It is interesting to notice the variety of aspects in which, in this +long discourse, Jesus sets forth His Second Coming. It is like the +flood that swept away a world. It is like a thief stealing through +the dark, and breaking up a house. It is like a master reckoning +with his servants. These three metaphors suggest solemn, one might +almost say alarming, images. But then this parable comes in and +tells how that coming is like that of a bridegroom to the bride's +house, with joy and music. I am afraid that the average Christian, +when he thinks at all of Christ's coming, takes these three first +aspects rather than the last one, and so loses what is meant to be a +bright hope and a great stimulus. It is not in human nature to think +much about a terrible future. It is not in human nature to avoid +thinking a great deal about a blessed future. And although one does +not wish to preach carelessness, or the ignoring of the solemn side +of that coming, sure I am that our Christian lives would be stronger +and purer, brighter and better able to front the solemn side, if the +blessed side of it were more often the object of our contemplation. + +Turning to the words of my text, which seem to me to be the very +centre and heart of this parable, I ask:-- + +I. What makes readiness? + +There have been many answers given to that question. One has been +that to be ready means to be perpetually having before us the +thought of the coming of the Lord, and that has been taken to be the +meaning of the watchfulness which is enjoined in the context. But +the parable itself points in an altogether different direction. Who, +according to it, were ready? The five who had lamps and oil. To have +these was readiness. + +It is beautiful to notice how these five who _were_ ready when +the Master came had 'slumbered and slept' like the other five. Ah! +that touch in the picture shows that 'He knoweth our frame; He +remembereth that we are dust.' It is not in human nature to keep up +permanently a tension of expectation for a far-off good; and in +profound knowledge of the weakness of humanity, our Lord, in this +parable, says: 'While the Bridegroom tarried they _all_ slumbered'--and +yet the five were ready when the Bridegroom came. In like manner, +Christian men and women who have no expectation at all that the +Second Coming of the Lord will occur during their lifetimes, may +nevertheless be ready, if they have the burning lamps and the store +of oil. The question then comes to be, What is meant by these? + +Perhaps harm has been done by insisting upon too minute and specific +interpretation. But, at the same time, we must not forget that, from +the very beginning of the Jewish Revelation, from the time when the +seven-branched candlestick was appointed for the Tabernacle, right +down to the day when the Apocalyptic Seer saw in Patmos the Son of +Man walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, the +metaphor has had one meaning. The aggregate of God's people are +intended to be, as Jesus told us immediately after He had drawn the +character of a true disciple, in the wonderful outlines of the +Beatitudes, 'the light of the world,' and they will be so in the +measure in which the gentle radiance of that character shines +through their lives, as the light of a lamp through frosted glass. +But the aggregate is made up of units, and individual Christians are +to shine 'as lights in the world,' and their separate brightnesses +are to coalesce in the clustered light of the whole Church. What +makes an individual Christian a light is a Christ-like life, derived +from that Life which was 'the Light of men.' The lamp which the five +wise virgins bear is the same as the light which the consistent +Christian is. The inner self illuminated from Christ, the source of +all our illumination, lights up the outward life, which each of us +may be conceived as carrying in our hands. It is not ourselves, and +yet it is ourselves made visible. It is not ourselves, but Christ in +us; and so we shine as lights in the world, only by 'holding forth +the word of life.' + +That modification of the figure by Paul is profoundly true and +important, for after all we are not so much lights as candelabra, +and only as we bear aloft the flashing light of Christ shall we +shine 'in a naughty world.' Our lamps, then, are Christ-like +characters derived from Christ, and to have and bear these is the +first element in being ready for the Bridegroom. + +Dear friends, remember that this whole parable is spoken to +professing Christians and real members of Christ's Church; and that +there is no meaning in it unless it is possible to quench the light +of the lamp. Remember that our Lord said once, 'Let your loins be +girt,' and put that as the necessary condition of lamps burning. +'Let your loins be girt' with resolved effort of faith and +dependence, and make sure that you have the provision for the +continuance of the light. So, and only so, shall any man be of the +happy company of them that were ready. + +II. Note that this readiness is the condition of entrance. + +'They that were ready went in with Him to the marriage.' Now faith +alone unites a man to Jesus Christ, and makes him an heir of +salvation. But faith alone, if that were possible, would not admit a +man to the marriage-feast. Of course the supposed case is an +impossible case, for as James has taught us in his plain moral way, +faith which is alone dies, or perhaps never lived. But what our Lord +tells us here is that moral character, which is of such a sort as to +shine in the world's darkness, is the condition of entrance. People +say that salvation is by faith. Yes, that is true; but salvation is +by works also, only that the works are made possible through faith. +In the very necessity and nature of things nothing but the readiness +which consists in continued Christ-like character will ever allow a +man to pass the threshold. Now do you believe that? Or are you +saying, 'I trust to Jesus Christ, and so I am sure I shall go to +Heaven.' No, you will not, unless your faith is making you heavenly, +in your temper and conduct. For to talk about the next world as a +place of retribution is but an imperfect statement of the case. It +is not a place of retribution so much as of outcome, and the apostle +gives a completer view when he says, 'Whatsoever a man soweth, that +shall he also reap.' That future life is not the reward of goodness +so much as the necessary consequence of holiness. Holiness and +blessedness are, in some measure, separated here; there they are two +names for the one condition. 'No man shall see the Lord,' without +that holiness. 'They that were ready went in.' Of course they did. +Am I ready? That question means, Am I, by my faith in Jesus Christ, +receiving into my heart the anointing which that great anointed One +gives us? Am I living a life that is a light in the world? If so, +and not else, my entrance is sure. + +We have seen what this readiness consists in, and how it is the +condition of entrance. There is one last thought-- + +III. To delay preparation is madness. + +There is nothing in all Christ's parables more tragical, more +pathetic, than this picture of the hapless five when they woke up +to find their lamps going out. They heard the procession coming, +the sound of feet drawing nearer, and the music borne every moment +more loudly on the midnight air. And there were they, with dying +lamps and empty oil-cans. Their shock, their alarm, their +bewilderment, are all expressed in that preposterous request of +theirs, Give us of your oil.' + +The answer of the wise virgins has been said to be cold and +unfeeling. It is not that; it is simply a plain statement of facts. +The oil that belongs to me cannot be given to you. That is the first +lesson taught us by the request of the foolish and the answer of the +wise. 'If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself; and if thou +scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.' 'Every man shall bear his own +burden.' There is no possible transference of moral character or +spiritual gifts in that fashion. The awful individuality of each +soul, and its unshareable personal responsibility, come solemnly to +view in the words which superficial readers pass by: 'Not so, lest +there be not enough for us and you.' You cannot share your brother's +oil. You may share many of his possessions; not this. + +'Go to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.' The question of +whether there was time to buy was not for the five wise to answer. +There was not much chance that the would-be buyers would find a shop +open and anybody waiting to sell them oil at twelve o'clock at +night. But they risked it; and when they came back they were too +late. + +Now, dear friends, all the lessons of this parable may be taken by +us, though we do not believe, and think we have good reason for not +believing, that the literal return of Jesus Christ is to take place +in our time. It does not matter very much, in so far as the teaching +of this parable is concerned, whether the Bridegroom comes to us, or +whether we go to the Bridegroom. I do not for a moment say that +there is no such thing as coming to Jesus Christ in the last hours +of life, and becoming ready to enter even then, but I do say that it +is a very rare case, and that there is a terrible risk in delaying +till then. But I pray you to remember that our parable is addressed +to, and contemplates the case of, not people who are away from Jesus +Christ, but Christians, and that it is to them that its message is +chiefly brought. It is they whom it warns not to put off making sure +that they have provision for the continuance of the Christ-life. We +have, day by day, to go to Him that sells and 'buy for ourselves.' +And we know, what it did not fall within our Lord's purpose to say +in this parable, that the price of the oil is the surrender of +ourselves, and the opening of our hearts to the entrance of that +divine Spirit. Then there will be no fear but that the lamp will +hold out to burn, and no fear but that 'when the Bridegroom, with +His feastful friends, passes to bliss, at the mid-hour of night,' we +shall gain our entrance. + + + + +TRADERS FOR THE MASTER + + + 'For the kingdom of heaven la as a man travelling into a + far country, who called his own servants, and delivered + unto them his goods. 15. And unto one he gave five + talents, to another two, and to another one; to every + man according to his several ability; and straightway + took his journey. 16. Then he that had received the five + talents went and traded with the same, and made them + other five talents. 17. And likewise he that had received + two, he also gained other two. 18. But he that had + received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his + lord's money. 19. After a long time the lord of those + servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. 20. And so he + that had received five talents came and brought other + five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me + five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five + talents more. 21. His lord said unto him, Well done, + thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful + over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many + things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 22. He also + that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou + deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained + two other talents beside them. 23. His lord said unto + him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast + been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler + over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. + 24. Then to which had received the one talent came and + said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, + reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where + thou hast not strawed: 25. And I was afraid, and went + and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast + that is thine. 26. His lord answered and said unto him, + Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I + reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not + strawed: 27. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my + money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should + have received mine own with usury. 28. Take therefore + the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten + talents. 29. For unto every one that hath shall be given, + and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not + shall be taken away even that which he hath. 30. And + cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: + there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' + --MATT. xxv. 14-30. + +The parable of the Ten Virgins said nothing about their working +whilst they waited. This one sets forth that side of the duties of +the servants in their master's absence, and so completes the former. +It is clearly in its true historical connection here, and is closely +knit to both the preceding and following context. It is a strange +instance of superficial reading that it should ever have been +supposed to be but another version of Luke's parable of the pounds. +The very resemblances of the two are meant to give force to their +differences, which are fundamental. They are the converse of each +other. That of the pounds teaches that men who have the same gifts +intrusted to them may make a widely different use of these, and will +be rewarded differently, in strictly graduated proportion to their +unlike diligence. The lesson of the parable before us, on the other +hand, is that men with dissimilar gifts may employ them with equal +diligence; and that, if they do, their reward shall be the same, +however great the endowments of one, and slender those of another. A +reader who has missed that distinction must be very shortsighted, or +sworn to make out a case against the Gospels. + +I. We may consider the lent capital and the business done with it. + +Masters nowadays do not give servants their money to trade with, +when they leave home; but the incident is true to the old-world +relations of master and slave. Our Lord's consciousness of His near +departure, which throbs in all this context, comes out emphatically +here. He is preparing His disciples for the time when they will have +to work without Him, like the managers of some branch house of +business whose principal has gone abroad. What are the 'talents' +with which He will start them on their own account? We have taken +the word into common language, however little we remember the +teaching of the parable as to the hand that gives 'men of talent' +their endowments. But the natural powers usually called by the name +are not what Christ means here, though the principles of the parable +may be extended to include them. For these powers are the 'ability' +according to which the talents are given. But the talents themselves +are the spiritual knowledge and endowments which are properly the +gifts of the ascended Lord to His Church. Two important lessons as +to these are conveyed. First, that they are distributed in varying +measure, and that not arbitrarily, by the mere will of the giver, +but according to his discernment of what each servant can profitably +administer. The 'ability' which settles their amount is not more +closely defined. It may include natural faculty, for Christ's gifts +usually follow the line of that; and the larger the nature, the more +of Him it can contain. But it also includes spiritual receptiveness +and faithfulness, which increase the absorbing power. The capacity +to receive will also be the capacity to administer, and it will be +fully filled. + +The second lesson taught is that spiritual gifts are given for +trading with. In other words, they are here considered not so much +as blessings to the possessor as his stock-in-trade, which he can +employ for the Master's enrichment. We are all tempted to think of +them mostly as given us for our own blessing and joy; and the +reminder is never unseasonable that a Christian receives nothing for +himself alone. God hath shined into our hearts, that we may give to +others the light of the knowledge which has flashed glad day into +our darkness. The Master intrusts us with a portion of His wealth, +not for expending on ourselves, but for trading with. + +A third principle here is that the right use of His gifts increases +them in our hands. 'Money makes money.' The five talents grow to +ten, the two to four. The surest way to increase our possession of +Christ's grace is to try to impart it. There is no better way of +strengthening our own faith than to seek to make others share in it. +Christian convictions, spoken, are confirmed, but muffled in silence +are weakened. 'There is that scattereth and yet increaseth.' Seed +heaped and locked up in a granary breeds weevils and moths; flung +broadcast over the furrows, it multiplies into seed that can be sown +again, and bread that feeds the sower. So we have in this part of +the parable almost the complete summary of the principles on which, +the purposes for which, and the results to faithful use with which, +Christ gives His gifts. + +The conduct of the slenderly endowed servant who hides his talent +will be considered farther on. + +II. We note the faithful servants' balance-sheet and reward. + +Our Lord again sounds the note of delay--'After a long time'--an +indefinite phrase which we know carries centuries in its folds, how +many more we know not nor are intended to know. The two faithful +servants present their balance-sheet in identical words, and receive +the same commendation and reward. Their speech is in sharp contrast +with the idle one's excuse, inasmuch as it puts a glad acknowledgment +of the lord's giving in the forefront, as if to teach that the +thankful recognition of his liberality underlies all joyful and +successful service, and deepens while it makes glad the sense of +responsibility. The cords of love are silken; and he who begins with +setting before himself the largeness of Christ's gifts to him, will +not fail in using these so as to increase them. In the light of that +day, the servant sees more clearly than when he was at work the +results of his work. We do not know what the year's profits have +been till stock-taking and balancing-time comes. Here we often say, +'I have laboured in vain.' There we shall say, 'I have gained five +talents.' + +The verbatim repetition of the same words to both servants teaches +the great lesson of this parable as contrasted with that of the +pounds, that where there has been the same faithful work, with +different amounts of capital, there will be the same reward. Our +Master does not care about quantity, but about quality and motive. +The slave with a few shillings, enough to stock meagrely a little +stall, may show as much business capacity, diligence, and fidelity, +as if he had millions to work with. Christ rewards not actions, but +the graces which are made visible in actions; and these can be as +well seen in the tiniest as in the largest deeds. The light that +streams through a pin-prick is the same that pours through the +widest window. The crystals of a salt present the same facets, +flashing back the sun at the same angles, whether they be large or +microscopically small. Therefore the judgment of Christ, which is +simply the utterance of fact, takes no heed of the extent but only +of the kind of service, and puts on the same level of recompense all +who, with however widely varying powers, were one in spirit, in +diligence, and devotion. The eulogium on the servants is not +'successful' or 'brilliant,' but 'faithful,' and both alike get it. + +The words of the lord fall into three parts. First comes his +generous and hearty praise,--the brief and emphatic monosyllable +'Well,' and the characterisation of the servants as 'good and +faithful.' Praise from Christ's lips is praise indeed; and here He +pours it out in no grudging or scanty measure, but with warmth and +evident delight. His heart glows with pleasure, and His commendation +is musical with the utterance of His own joy in His servants. He +'rejoices over them with singing'; and more gladly than a fond +mother speaks honeyed words of approval to her darling, of whose +goodness she is proud, does He praise these two. When we are tempted +to disparage our slender powers as compared with those of His more +conspicuous servants, and to suppose that all which we do is nought, +let us think of this merciful and loving estimate of our poor +service. For such words from such lips, life itself were wisely +flung away; but such words from such lips will be spoken in +recognition of many a piece of service less high and heroic than a +martyr's. 'Good and faithful' refers not to the more general notion +of goodness, but to the special excellence of a servant, and the +latter word seems to define the former. Fidelity is the grace which +He praises,--manifested in the recognition that the capital was a +loan, given to be traded with for Him, and to be brought back +increased to Him. He is faithful who ever keeps in view, and acts +on, the conditions on which, and the purposes for which, he has +received his spiritual wealth; and 'he who is faithful in that which +is least, is faithful also in much.' + +The second part of the lord's words is the appointment to higher +office, as the reward of faithfulness. Here on earth, the tools +come, in the long run, to the hands that can use them, and the best +reward of faithfulness in a narrower sphere is to be lifted to a +wider. Promotion means more to do; and if the world were rightly +organised, the road to advancement would be diligence; and the +higher a man climbed, the wider would be the horizon of his labour. +It is so in Christ's kingdom, and should be so in His visible +Church. It will be so in heaven. Clearly this saying implies the +active theory of the future life, and the continuance in some +ministry of love, unknown to us, of the energies which were trained +in the small transactions of earth. 'If five talents are "a few +things," how great the "many things" will be!' In the parable of the +pounds, the servant is made a ruler; here being 'set over' seems +rather still to point to the place of a steward or servant. The +sphere is enlarged, but the office is unaltered. The manager who +conducted a small trade rightly will be advanced to the +superintendence of a larger business. + + 'We doubt not that for one so true + There must be other, nobler work to do,' + +and that in that work the same law will continue to operate, and +faithfulness be crowned with ever-growing capacities and tasks +through a dateless eternity. + +The last words of the lord pass beyond our poor attempts at +commenting. No eye can look undazzled at the sun. When Christ was +near the Cross, He left His disciples a strange bequest at such a +moment,--His joy; and that is their brightest portion here, even +though it be shaded with many sorrows. The enthroned Christ welcomes +all who have known 'the fellowship of His sufferings' into the +fulness of His heavenly joy, unshaded, unbroken, unspeakable; and +they pass into it as into an encompassing atmosphere, or some broad +land of peace and abundance. Sympathy with His purposes leads to +such oneness with Him that His joy is ours, both in its occasions +and in its rapture. 'Thou makest them drink of the river of Thy +pleasures,' and the lord and the servant drink from the same cup. + +III. The excuse and punishment of the indolent servant. + +His excuse is his reason. He did think hardly of his lord, and, even +though he had His gift in his hand to confute him, he slandered Him +in his heart as harsh and exacting. To many men the requirements of +religion are more prominent than its gifts, and God is thought of as +demanding rather than as 'the giving God.' Such thoughts paralyse +action. Fear is barren, love is fruitful. Nothing grows on the +mountain of curses, which frowns black over against the sunny slopes +of the mountain of blessing with its blushing grapes. The indolence +was illogical, for, if the master was such as was thought, the more +reason for diligence; but fear is a bad reasoner, and the absurd gap +between the premises and the conclusion is matched by one of the +very same width in every life that thinks of God as rigidly +requiring obedience, which, therefore, it does _not_ give! +Still another error is in the indolent servant's words. He flings +down the hoarded talent with 'Lo, thou hast thine own.' He was +mistaken. Talents hid are not, when dug up, as heavy as they were +when buried. This gold does rust, and a life not devoted to God is +never carried back to Him unspoiled. + +The lord's answer again falls into three parts, corresponding to +that to the faithful servants. First comes the stern characterisation +of the man. As with the others' goodness, his badness is defined +by the second epithet. It is slothfulness. Is that all? Yes; it does +not need active opposition to pull down destruction on one's head. +Simple indolence is enough, the negative sin of not doing or being +what we ought. Ungirt loins, unlit lamps, unused talents, sink a man +like lead. Doing nothing is enough for ruin. + +The remarkable answer to the servant's charge seems to teach us that +timid souls, conscious of slender endowments, and pressed by the +heavy sense of responsibility, and shrinking from Christian +enterprises, for fear of incurring heavier condemnation, may yet +find means of using their little capital. The bankers, who invest +the collective contributions of small capitalists to advantage, may, +or may not, be intended to be translated into the Church; but, at +any rate, the principle of united service is here recommended to +those who feel too weak for independent action. Slim houses in a row +hold each other up; and, if we cannot strike out a path for +ourselves, let us seek strength and safety in numbers. + +The fate of the indolent servant has a double horror. It is loss and +suffering. The talent is taken from the slack hands and coward heart +that would not use it, and given to the man who had shown he could +and would. Gifts unemployed for Christ are stripped off a soul +yonder. How much will go from many a richly endowed spirit, which +here flashed with unconsecrated genius and force! We do not need to +wait for eternity to see that true possession, which is use, +increases powers, and that disuse, which is equivalent to not +possessing, robs of them. The blacksmith's arm, the scout's eye, the +craftsman's delicate finger, the student's intellect, the +sensualist's passions, all illustrate the law on its one side; and +the dying out of faculties and tastes, and even of intuitions and +conscience, by reason of simple disuse, are melancholy instances of +it on the other. But the solemn words of this condemnation seem to +point to a far more awful energy in its working in the future, when +everything that has not been consecrated by employment for Jesus +shall be taken away, and the soul, stripped of its garb, shall 'be +found naked.' How far that process of divesting may affect +faculties, without touching the life, who can tell? Enough to see +with awe that a spirit may be cut, as it were, to the quick, and +still exist. + +But loss is not all the indolent servant's doom. Once more, like the +slow toll of a funeral bell, we hear the dread sentence of ejection +to the 'mirk midnight' without, where are tears undried and passion +unavailing. There is something very awful in the monotonous +repetition of that sentence so often in these last discourses of +Christ's. The most loving lips that ever spoke, in love, shaped this +form of words, so heart-touching in its wailing, but decisive, +proclamation of blackness, homelessness, and sorrow, and cannot but +toll them over and over again into our ears, in sad knowledge of our +forgetfulness and unbelief,--if perchance we may listen and be +warned, and, having heard the sound thereof, may never know the +reality of that death in life which is the sure end of the indolent +who were blind to His gifts, and therefore would not listen to His +requirements. + + + + +WHY THE TALENT WAS BURIED + + 'Then he which had received the one talent came and + said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, + reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where + thou hast not strawed: 25. And I was afraid, and went + and hid thy talent in the earth.'-MATT. xxv. 24, 25. + +That was a strangely insolent excuse for indolence. To charge an +angry master to his face with grasping greed and injustice was +certainly not the way to conciliate him. Such language is quite +unnatural and incongruous until we remember the reality which the +parable was meant to shadow--viz., the answers for their deeds which +men will give at Christ's judgment bar. Then we can understand how, +by some irresistible necessity, this man was compelled, even at the +risk of increasing the indignation of the master, to turn himself +inside out, and to put into harsh, ugly words the half-conscious +thoughts which had guided his life and caused his unfaithfulness. +'Every one of us shall give account of himself to God.' The +unabashed impudence of such an excuse for idleness as this is but +putting into vivid and impressive form this truth, that then a man's +actions in their true character, and the ugly motives that underlie +them, and which he did not always honestly confess to himself, will +be clear before him. It will be as much of a surprise to the men +themselves, in many cases, as it could be to listeners. Thus it +becomes us to look well to the under side of our lives, the unspoken +convictions and the unformulated motives which work all the more +mightily upon us because, for the most part, they work in the dark. +This is Christ's explanation of one very operative and fruitful +cause of the refusal to serve Him. + +I. I ask you, then, to consider, first, the slander here and the +truth that contradicts it. + +'I knew thee that thou art an hard man,' says he, 'reaping where +them hast not sown' (and he was standing with the unused talent in +his hand all the while), 'and gathering where thou hast not +strawed.' That is to say, deep down in many a heart that has never +said as much to itself, there lies this black drop of gall--a +conception of the divine character rather as demanding than as +giving, a thought of Him as exacting. What He requires is more +considered than what He bestows. So religion is thought to be mainly +a matter of doing certain things and rendering up certain +sacrifices, instead of being regarded, as it really is, as mainly a +matter of receiving from God. Christ's authority makes me bold to +say that this error underlies the lives of an immense number of +nominal Christians, of people who think themselves very good and +religious, as well as the lives of thousands who stand apart from +religion altogether. And I want, not to drag down any curtain by my +own hand, but to ask you to lift away the veil which hides the ugly +thing in your hearts, and to put your own consciousness to the bar +of your own conscience, and say whether it is not true that the +uppermost thought about God, when you think about Him at all, is, +'Thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown.' + +It is not difficult to understand why such a thought of God should +rise in a heart which has no delight in Him nor in His service. +There is a side of the truth as to God's relations to man which +gives a colour of plausibility to the slander. Grave and stringent +requirements are made by the divine law upon each of us; and our +consciences tell us that they have not been kept. Therefore we seek +to persuade ourselves that they are too severe. Then, further, we +are, by reason of our own selfishness, almost incapable of rising to +the conception of God's pure, perfect, disinterested love; and we +are far too blind to the benefits that He pours upon us all every +day of our lives. And so from all these reasons taken together, and +some more besides, it comes about that, for some of us, the blessed +sun in the heavens, the God of all mercy and love, has been darkened +into a lurid orb shorn of all its beneficent beams, and hangs +threatening there in our misty sky. 'I knew Thee that Thou art an +hard man.' Ah! I am sure that if we would go down into the deep +places of our own hearts, and ask ourselves what our real thought of +God is, many of us would acknowledge that it is something like that. + +Now turn to the other side. What is the truth that smites this +slander to death? That God is perfect, pure, unmingled, infinite +love. And what is love? The infinite desire to impart itself. His +'nature and property' is to be merciful, and you can no more stop +God from giving than you can shut up the rays of the sun within +itself. To be and to bestow are for Him one and the same thing. His +love is an infinite longing to give, which passes over into +perpetual acts of beneficence. He never reaps where He has not sown. +Is there any place where He has not sown? Is there any heart on +which there have been no seeds of goodness scattered from His rich +hand? The calumniator in the text was speaking his slanders with +that in his hand which should have stopped his mouth. He who +complained that the hard master was asking for fruit of what He had +not given would have had nothing at all, if he had not obtained the +one talent from His hand. And there is no place in the whole wide +universe of God where His love has not scattered its beneficent +gifts. There are no fallow fields out of cultivation and unsown, in +His great farm. He never asks where He has not given. + +He never asks until after He has given. He begins with bestowing, +and it is only after the vineyard has been planted on the very +fruitful hill, and the hedge built round about it, and the winepress +digged, and the tower erected, and miracles of long-suffering mercy +and skilful patience have been lavished upon it, that then He looks +that it should bring forth grapes. God's gifts precede His +requirements. He ever sows before He reaps. More than that, He gives +_what_ He asks, helping us to render to Him the hearts that He +desires. He, by His own merciful communications, makes it possible +that we should lay at His feet the tribute of loving thanks. Just as +a parent will give a child some money in order that the child may go +and buy the giver a birthday present, so God gives to us hearts, and +enriches them with many bestowments. He scatters round about us good +from His hand, like drops of a fragrant perfume from a blazing +torch, in order that we may catch them up and have some portion of +the joy which is especially His own--the joy of giving. It would be +a poor affair if our sole relation to God were that of receiving. It +would be a tyrannous affair if our sole relation to God were that of +rendering up. But both relations are united, and if it be 'more +blessed to give than to receive,' the Giver of all good does not +leave us without the opportunity of entering in even to that +superlative blessing. We have to come to Him and say, when we lay +the gifts, either of our faculties or of our trust, of our riches or +of our virtues, at His feet, 'All things come of Thee, and of Thine +own have we given Thee.' + +He asks for our sakes, and not for His own. 'If I were hungry I +would not tell thee, for the cattle upon a thousand hills are Mine. +Offer unto God praise, and pay thy vows unto the Most High.' It is +blessed to us to render. He is none the richer for all our giving, +as He is none the poorer for all His. Yet His giving to us is real, +and our giving is real and a joy to Him. That is the truth lifted up +against the slander of the natural heart. God is love, pure giving, +unlimited and perpetual disposition to bestow. He gives all things +before He asks for anything, and when He asks for anything it is +that we may be blessed. + +But you say, 'That is all very well--where do you learn all that about +God?' My answer is a very simple one. I learn it, and I believe there +is no other place to learn it, at the Cross of Jesus Christ. If that +be the very apex of the divine love and self-revelation; if, looking +upon it, we understand God better than by any other means, then there +can be no question but that instead of gathering where He has not +strawed, and reaping where He has not sown, God is only, and always, +and utterly, and to every man, infinite love that bestows itself. My +heart says to me many a time, 'God's laws are hard, God's judgment is +strict. God requires what you cannot give. Crouch before Him, and be +afraid.' And my faith says, 'Get thee behind me, Satan!' 'He that +spared not His own Son, ... how shall He not with Him also freely give +us all things?' The Cross of Christ is the answer to the slander, and +the revelation of the giving God. + +II. Secondly, mark here the fear that dogs such a thought, and the +love that casts out the fear. + +'I was afraid.' Yes, of course. If a man is not a fool, his emotions +follow his thoughts, and his thoughts ought to shape his emotions. +And wherever there is the twilight of uncertainty upon the great +lesson that the Cross of Jesus Christ has taught us, _there_ +there will be, however masked and however modified by other +thoughts, deep in the human heart, a perhaps unspoken, but not +therefore ineffectual, dread of God. Just as the misconception of +the divine character does influence many a life in which it has +never been spoken articulately, and needs some steady observation of +ourselves to be detected, so is it with this dread of Him. Carry the +task of self-examination a little further, and ask yourselves +whether there does not lie coiled in many of your hearts this dread +of God, like a sleeping snake which only needs a little warmth to be +awakened to sting. There are all the signs of it. There are many of +you who have a distinct indisposition to be brought close up to the +thought of Him. There are many of you who have a distinct sense of +discomfort when you are pressed against the realities of the +Christian religion. There are many of you who, though you cover it +over with a shallow confidence, or endeavour to persuade yourselves +into speculative doubts about the divine nature, or hide it from +yourselves by indifference, yet know that all that is very thin ice, +and that there is a great black pool down below---a dread at the +heart, of a righteous Judge somewhere, with whom you have somewhat +to do, that you cannot shake off. I do not want to appeal to fear, +but it goes to one's heart to see the hundreds and thousands of +people round about us who, just because they are afraid of God, will +not think about Him, put away angrily and impatiently solemn words +like these that I am trying to speak, and seek to surround +themselves with some kind of a fool's paradise of indifference, and +to shut their eyes to facts and realities. You do not confess it to +yourselves. What kind of a thought must that be about your relation +to God which you are afraid to speak? Some of you remember the awful +words in one of Shakespeare's plays: 'Now I, to comfort him, bid him +he should not think of God. I hoped there was no need to trouble +himself with any such thoughts yet.' What does that teach us? 'I +knew Thee that Thou art an hard man; and I was afraid.' + +Dear friend, there are two religions in this world: there is the +religion of fear, and there is the religion of love; and if you have +not the one, you must have the other, if you have any at all. The +only way to get perfect love that casts out fear is to be quite sure +of the Father-love in heaven that begets it. And the only way to be +sure of the infinite love in the heavens that kindles some little +spark of love in our hearts here, is to go to Christ and learn the +lesson that He reveals to us at His Cross. Love will annihilate the +fear; or rather, if I may take such a figure, will set a light to +the wreathing smoke that rises, and flash it all up into a ruddy +flame. For the perfect love that casts out fear sublimes it into +reverence and changes it into trust. Have you got that love, and did +you get it at Christ's Cross? + +III. Lastly, mark the torpor of fear and the activity of love. 'I +was afraid, and I went and hid thy talent in the earth.' + +Fear paralyses service, cuts the nerve of activity, makes a man +refuse obedience to God. It was a very illogical thing of that +indolent servant to say, 'I knew that you were so hard in exacting +what was due to you that therefore I determined _not_ to give +it to you.' Is it more illogical and more absurd than what hundreds +of men and women round about us do to-day, when they say, 'God's +requirements are so great that I do _not_ attempt to fulfil +them'? One would have thought that he would have reasoned the other +way, and said, 'Because I knew that Thy requirements were so great +and severe, therefore I put myself with all my powers to my work.' +Not so. Logical or illogical, the result remains, that that thought +of God, that black drop of gall, in many a heart, stops the action +of the hand. Fear is barren, or if it produces anything it is +nothing to the purpose, and it brings gifts that not even God's love +can accept, for there is no love in them. Fear is barren; Love is +fruitful--like the two mountains of Samaria, from one of which the +rolling burden of the curses of the Law was thundered, and from the +other of which the sweet words of promise and of blessing were +chanted in musical response. On the one side are black rocks, +without a blade of grass on them, the Mount of Cursing; on the other +side are blushing grapes and vineyards, the Mount of Blessing. Love +moves to action, fear paralyses into indolence. And the reason why +such hosts of you do nothing for God is because your hearts have +never been touched with the thorough conviction that He has done +everything for you, and asks you but to love Him back again, and +bring Him your hearts. These dark thoughts are like the frost which +binds the ground in iron fetters, making all the little flowers that +were beginning to push their heads into the light shrink back again. +And love, when it comes, will come like the west wind and the +sunshine of the Spring; and before its emancipating fingers the +earth's fetters will be cast aside, and the white snowdrops and the +yellow crocuses will show themselves above the ground. If you want +your hearts to bear any fruit of noble living, and holy +consecration, and pure deeds, then here is the process--Begin with +the knowledge and belief of 'the love which God hath to us'; learn +that at the Cross, and let it silence your doubts, and send them +back to their kennels, silenced. Then take the next step, and love +Him back again. 'We love Him because He first loved us.' That love +will be the productive principle of all glad obedience, and you will +keep His commandments, and here upon earth find, as the faithful +servant found, that talents used increase; and yonder will receive +the eulogium from His lips whom to please is blessedness, by whom to +be praised is heaven's glory, 'Well done! good and faithful +servant.' + + + + +THE KING ON HIS JUDGMENT THRONE + + + 'When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all + the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the + throne of His glory: 32. And before Him shall be + gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one + from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the + goats: 33. And He shall set the sheep on His right + hand, but the goats on the left. 34. Then shall the + King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed + of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from + the foundation of the world: 35. For I was an hungred, + and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me + drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in: 36. Naked, + and ye clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was + in prison, and ye came unto Me. 37. Then shall the + righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an + hungred, and fed Thee? or thirsty, and gave Thee drink? + 38. When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in! or + naked, and clothed Thee! 39. Or when saw we Thee sick, + or in prison, and came unto Thee? 10. And the King + shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, + Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of + these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me. 41. Then + shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart + from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for + the devil and his angels: 42. For I was an hungred, and + ye gave Me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no + drink: 43. I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in: + naked, and ye clothed Me not: sick, and in prison, and + ye visited Me not. 44. Then shall they also answer Him, + saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, or athirst, + or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did + not minister unto Thee? 45. Then shall He answer them, + saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it + not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me. + 46. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: + but the righteous into life eternal.'--MATT. xxv. 31-46. + +The teachings of that wonderful last day of Christ's ministry, which +have occupied so many of our pages, are closed with this tremendous +picture of universal judgment. It is one to be gazed upon with +silent awe, rather than to be commented on. There is fear lest, in +occupying the mind in the study of the details, and trying to pierce +the mystery it partly unfolds, we should forget our own individual +share in it. Better to burn in on our hearts the thought, 'I shall +be there,' than to lose the solemn impression in efforts to unravel +the difficulties of the passage. Difficulties there are, as is to be +expected in even Christ's revelation of so unparalleled a scene. +Many questions are raised by it which will never be solved till we +stand there. Who can tell how much of the parabolic element enters +into the description? We, at all events, do not venture to say of +one part, 'This is merely drapery, the sensuous representation of +spiritual reality,' and of another, 'That is essential truth.' The +curtain is the picture, and before we can separate the elements of +it in that fashion, we must have lived through it. Let us try to +grasp the main lessons, and not lose the spirit in studying the +letter. + +I. The first broad teaching is that Christ is the Judge of all the +earth. Sitting there, a wearied man on the Mount of Olives, with the +valley of Jehoshaphat at His feet, which the Jew regarded as the +scene of the final judgment, Jesus declared Himself to be the Judge +of the world, in language so unlimited in its claims that the +speaker must be either a madman or a god. Calvary was less than +three days off, when He spoke thus. The contrast between the vision +of the future and the reality of the present is overwhelming. The +Son of Man has come in weakness and shame; He will come in His +glory, that flashing light of the self-revealing God, of which the +symbol was the 'glory' which shone between the cherubim, and which +Jesus Christ here asserts to belong to Him as '_His_ glory.' +Then, heaven will be emptied of its angels, who shall gather round +the enthroned Judge as His handful of sorrowing followers were +clustered round Him as He spoke, or as the peasants had surrounded +the meek state of His entry yesterday. Then, He will take the place +of Judge, and 'sit,' in token of repose, supremacy, and judgment, +'on the throne of His glory,' as He now sat on the rocks of Olivet. +Then, mankind shall be massed at His feet, and His glance shall part +the infinite multitudes, and discern the character of each item in +the crowd as easily and swiftly as the shepherd's eye picks out the +black goats from among the white sheep. Observe the difference in +the representation from those in the previous parables. There, the +parting of kinds was either self-acting, as in the case of the +foolish maidens; or men gave account of _themselves_, as in the +case of the servants with the talents. Here, the separation is the +work of the Judge, and is completed before a word is spoken. All +these representations must be included in the complete truth as to +the final judgment. It is the effect of men's actions; it is the +result of their compelled disclosing of the deepest motives of their +lives; it is the act of the perfect discernment of the Judge. Their +deeds will judge them; they will judge themselves; Christ will +judge. + +Singularly enough, every possible interpretation of the extent of +the expression 'all nations' has found advocates. It has been taken +in its widest and plainest meaning, as equivalent to the whole race; +it has been confined to mankind exclusive of Christians, and it has +been confined to Christians exclusive of heathens. There are +difficulties in all these explanations, but probably the least are +found in the first. It is most natural to suppose that 'all nations' +means all nations, unless that meaning be impossible. The absence of +the limitation to the 'kingdom of heaven,' which distinguishes this +section from the preceding ones having reference to judgment, and +the position of the present section as the solemn close of Christ's +teachings, which would naturally widen out into the declaration of +the universal judgment, which forms the only appropriate climax and +end to the foregoing teachings, seem to point to the widest meaning +of the phrase. His office of universal Judge is unmistakably taught +throughout the New Testament, and it seems in the highest degree +unnatural to suppose that He did not speak of it in these final +words of prophetic warning. We may therefore, with some confidence, +see in the magnificent and awful picture here drawn the vision of +universal judgment. Parabolic elements there no doubt are in the +picture; but we have no governing revelation, free from these, by +which we can check them, and be sure of how much is form and how +much substance. This is clear, 'that we must all appear before the +judgment-seat of Christ'; and this is clear, that Jesus Christ put +forth, when at the very lowest point of His earthly humiliation, +these tremendous claims, and asserted His authority as Judge over +every soul of man. We are apt to lose ourselves in the crowd. Let us +pause and think that 'all' includes 'me.' + +II. Note the principles of Christ's universal judgment. It is +important to remember that this section closes a series of +descriptions of the judgment, and must not be taken as if, when +isolated, it set forth all the truth. It is often harped upon by +persons who are unfriendly to evangelical teaching, as if it were +Christ's only word about judgment, and interpreted as if it meant +that, no matter what else a man was, if only he is charitable and +benevolent, he will find mercy. But this is to forget all the rest +of our Lord's teaching in the context, and to fly in the face of the +whole tenor of New Testament doctrine. We have here to do with the +principles of judgment which apply equally to those who have, and to +those who have not, heard the gospel. The subjects of the kingdom +are shown the principles more immediately applicable to them, in the +previous parables, and here they are reminded that there is a +standard of judgment absolutely universal. All men, whether +Christians or not, are judged by 'the things done in the body, +whether they be good or bad.' So Christ teaches in His closing words +of the Sermon on the Mount, and in many another place. 'Every tree +that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the +fire.' The productive source of good works is not in question here; +stress is laid on the fruits, rather than on the root. The gospel is +as imperative in its requirements of righteousness as the law is, +and its conception of the righteousness which it requires is far +deeper and wider. The subjects of the kingdom ever need to be +reminded of the solemn truth that they have not only, like the wise +maidens, to have their lights burning and their oil vessels filled, +nor only, like the wise servants, to be using the gifts of the +kingdom for their lord, but, as members of the great family of man, +have to cultivate the common moralities which all men, heathen and +Christian, recognise as binding on all, without which no man shall +see the Lord. The special form of righteousness which is selected as +the test is charity. Obviously it is chosen as representative of all +the virtues of the second table of the law. Taken in its bare +literality, this would mean that men's relations to God had no +effect in the judgment, mid that no other virtues but this of +charity came into the account. Such a conclusion is so plainly +repugnant to all Christ's teaching, that we must suppose that love +to one's neighbour is here singled out, just as it is in His summary +of 'the law and the prophets,' as the crown and flower of all +relative duties, and as, in a very real sense, being 'the fulfilling +of the law.' The omission of any reference to the love of God +sufficiently shows that the view here is rigidly limited to acts, +and that all the grounds of judgment are not meant to be set forth. + +But the benevolence here spoken of is not the mere natural +sentiment, which often exists in great energy in men whose moral +nature is, in other respects, so utterly un-Christlike that their +entrance into the kingdom prepared for the righteous is +inconceivable. Many a man has a hundred vices and yet a soft heart. +It is very much a matter of temperament. Does Christ so contradict +all the rest of His teaching as to say that such a man is of 'the +sheep,' and 'blessed of the Father'? Surely not. Is every piece of +kindliness to the distressed, from whatever motive, and by +whatsoever kind of person done, regarded by Him as done to Himself? +To say so, would be to confound moral distinctions, and to dissolve +all righteousness into a sentimental syrup. The deeds which He +regards as done to Himself, are done to His 'brethren.' That +expression carries us into the region of motive, and runs parallel +with His other words about 'receiving a prophet,' and 'giving a cup +of cold water to one of these little ones,' because they are His. +Seeing that all nations are at the bar, the expression, 'My +brethren,' cannot be confined to the disciples, for many of those +who are being judged have never come in contact with Christians, nor +can it be reasonably supposed to include all men, for, however true +it is that Christ is every man's brother, the recognition of kindred +here must surely be confined to those at the right hand. Whatever be +included under the 'righteous,' that is included under the +'brethren.' We seem, then, led to recognise in the expression a +reference to the motive of the beneficence, and to be brought to the +conclusion that what the Judge accepts as done to Himself is such +kindly help and sympathy as is extended to these His kindred, with +some recognition of their character, and desire after it. To +'receive a prophet' implies that there is some spiritual affinity +with him in the receiver. To give help to His brethren, because they +are so, implies some affinity with Him or feeling after likeness to +Him and them. Now, if we hold fast by the universality of the +judgment here depicted, we shall see that this recognition must +necessarily have different degrees in those who have heard of Christ +and in those who have not. In the former, it will be equivalent to +that faith which is the root of all goodness, and grasps the Christ +revealed in the gospel. In the latter, it can be no more than a +feeling after Him who is the 'light that lighteneth every man that +cometh into the world.' Surely there are souls amid the darkness of +heathenism yearning toward the light, like plants grown in the dark. +By ways of His own, Christ can reach such hearts, as the river of +the water of life may percolate through underground channels to many +a tree which grows far from its banks. + +III. Note the surprises of the judgment. The astonishment of the +righteous is not modesty disclaiming praise, but real wonder at the +undreamed-of significance of their deeds. In the parable of the +talents, the servants unveiled their inmost hearts, and accurately +described their lives. Here, the other side of the truth is brought +into prominence, that, at that day, we shall be surprised when we +hear from His lips what we have really done. True Christian +beneficence has consciously for its motive the pleasing of Christ; +but still he who most earnestly strove, while here, to do all as +unto Jesus, will be full of thankful wonder at the grace which +accepts his poor service, and will learn, with fresh marvelling, how +closely He associates Himself with His humblest servant. There is an +element of mystery hidden from ourselves in all our deeds. Our love +to Christ's followers never goes out so plainly to Him that, while +here, we can venture to be sure that He takes it as done for Him. We +cannot here follow the flight of the arrow, nor know what meaning He +will attach to, or what large issues He will evolve from, our poor +doings. So heaven will be full of blessed surprises, as we reap the +fruit growing 'in power' of what we sowed 'in weakness,' and as +doleful will be the astonishment which will seize those who see, for +the first time, in the lurid light of that day, the true character +of their lives, as one long neglect of plain duties, which was all a +defrauding the Saviour of His due. Mere doing nothing is enough to +condemn, and its victims will be shudderingly amazed at the fatal +wound it has inflicted on them. + +IV. The irrevocableness of the judgment. That is an awful contrast +between the 'Come! ye blessed,' and 'Depart! ye cursed.' That is a +more awful parallel between 'eternal punishment' and 'eternal life.' +It is futile to attempt to alleviate the awfulness by emptying the +word 'eternal' of reference to duration. It no doubt connotes +quality, but its first meaning is ever-during. There is nothing here +to suggest that the one condition is more terminable than the other. +Rather, the emphatic repetition of the word brings the unending +continuance of each into prominence, as the point in which these two +states, so wofully unlike, are the same. In whatever other passages +the doctrine of universal restoration may seem to find a foothold, +there is not an inch of standing-room for it here. Reverently +accepting Christ's words as those of perfect and infallible love, +the present writer feels so strongly the difficulty of bringing all +the New Testament declarations on this dread question into a +harmonious whole, that he abjures for himself dogmatic certainty, +and dreads lest, in the eagerness of discussing the duration (which +will never be beyond the reach of discussion), the solemn reality of +the fact of future retribution should be dimmed, and men should +argue about 'the terror of the Lord' till they cease to feel it. + + + + +THE DEFENCE OF UNCALCULATING LOVE + + + 'Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon + the leper, 7. There came unto him a woman having an + alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured + it on His head, as He sat at meat. 8. But when His + disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what + purpose is this waste? 9. For this ointment might have + been sold for much, and given to the poor. 10. When + Jesus understood it, He said unto them, Why trouble ye + the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon Me. + 11. For ye have the poor always with you; but Me ye + have not always. 12. For in that she hath poured this + ointment on My body, she did it for My burial. + 13. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel + shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also + this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial + of her. 14. Then one of the twelve, called Judas + Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, 15. And said + unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver Him + unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty + pieces of silver. 16. And from that time he sought + opportunity to betray Him.'--MATT. xxvi. 6-16. + +John tells us that the 'woman' was Mary, and the objector Judas. +Both the deed and the cavil are better understood by knowing whence +they came. Lazarus was a guest, and as his sister saw him sitting +there by Jesus her heart overflowed, and she could not but catch up +her most precious possession, and lavish it on His head and feet. +Love's impulses appear absurd to selfishness. How could Judas +understand Mary? Detracting comments find ready ears. One sneer will +cool down to contempt and blame the feelings of a company. People +are always eager to pick holes in conduct which they uneasily feel +to be above their own reach. Poor Mary! she had but yielded to the +uncalculating impulse of her great love, and she finds herself +charged with imprudence, waste, and unfeeling neglect of the poor. +No wonder that her gentle heart was 'troubled.' But Jesus threw the +shield of His approval over her, and that was enough. Never mind how +Judas and better men than he may find fault, if Jesus smiles +acceptance. + +His great words set forth, first, the vindication of the act, +because of its motive. Anything done with no regard to any end but +Himself is, in His eyes, 'good.' The perfection of conduct is that +it shall all be referred to Jesus. That 'altar' sanctifies gift and +giver. Conversely, whatever has no reference to Him lacks the +highest beauty of goodness. A pebble in the bed of a sunlit stream +has its veins of colour brought out; lift it out, and, as it dries, +it dulls. So our deeds plunged into that great river are heightened +in loveliness. Everything which has 'For Christ's sake' stamped on +it is thereby hallowed. That is the unfailing recipe for making a +life fair. Mary was thinking only of Jesus and of her love to Him, +therefore what she did was sweet to Him. The greater part of a deed +is its motive, and the perfect motive is love to Jesus. + +But, further, Christ defends the side of Mary's deed which the +critics fastened on. They posed as being more practical and +benevolent than she was. They were utilitarians, she was wasteful. +Their objection sounds sensible, but it belongs to the low levels of +life. One flash of lofty love would have killed it. Christ's reply +to it draws a contrast between constant duties and special, +transient moments. It is coloured, too, by His consciousness of His +near end, and has an undertone of sadness in that 'Me ye have not +always.' There are high tides of Christian emotion, when the +question of what good this thing will do is submerged, and the only +question is, 'What best thing shall I render to the Lord?' The +critics were not more beneficent, but less inflamed with love to +Jesus, and the leader of them only wished that the proceeds of the +ointment had come into his hands, where some of it would have stuck. +We hear the same sort of taunt today,--What is the sense of all this +money being spent on missions and religious objects? How much more +useful it would be if expended on better dwellings for the poor or +hospitals or technical schools! But there is a place in Christ's +treasury for useless deeds, if they are the pure expression of love +to Him, and Mary's alabaster box, which did no good at all, lies +beside the cups that held cold water which slaked some thirsty lips. +Uncalculating impulse, which only knows that it would fain give all +to the Lover of souls, is not merely excused, but praised, by Jesus. +Lovers on earth do not concern themselves about the usefulness of +their gifts, and the divine Lover rejoices over what cold-blooded +spectators, who do not in the least understand the ways of loving +hearts, find useless 'waste.' The world would put all the emotions +of Christian hearts, and all the heroisms of Christian martyrs, and +all the sacrifices of Christian workers, into the same class. Jesus +accepts them all. + +Again, He breathes a meaning into the gift beyond what the giver +meant. Mary did not regard her anointing as preparatory to His +burial, but He had His thoughts fixed on it, and He sought to +prepare the disciples for the coming storm. How far away from the +simple festivities in Simon's house were His thoughts! What a gulf +between the other guests and Him! But Jesus always puts significance +into the service which He accepts, and surprises the givers by the +far-reaching issues of their gifts. We know not what He may make our +poor deeds mean. Results are beyond our vision. Therefore let us +make sure of what is within our horizon--namely, motives. If we do +anything for His sake, He will take care of what it comes to. That +is true even on earth, and still more true in heaven. 'Lord, when +saw we Thee an hungred, and fed Thee?' What surprises will wait +Christ's humble servants in heaven, when they see what was the true +nature and the widespread consequences of their humble deeds! 'Thou +sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, ... but God +giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him.' + +Again, Mark gives an additional clause in Christ's words, which +brings out the principle that the measure of acceptable service is +ability. 'She hath done what she could' is an apology, or rather a +vindication, for the shape of the gift. Mary was not practical, and +could not 'serve' like Martha; she probably had no other precious +thing that she could give, but she could love, and she could bestow +her best on Jesus. But the saying implies a stringent demand, as +well as a gracious defence. Nothing less than the full measure of +ability is the measure of Christian obligation. Power to its last +particle is duty. Jesus does not ask how much His servants do or +give, but He does ask that they should do and give all that they +can. He wishes us to be ourselves in serving Him, and to shape our +methods according to character and capabilities, but He also wishes +us to give Him our whole selves. If anything is kept back, all that +is given is marred. + +Jesus' last word gives perpetuity to the service which He accepts. +Mary is promised immortality for her deed, and the promise has been +fulfilled, and here are we, all these centuries after, looking at +her as she breaks the box and pours it on His head. Jesus is not +unrighteous to forget any work of love done for Him. The fragrance +of the ointment soon passed away, and the shreds of the broken cruse +were swept into the dust-bin, with the other relics of the feast; +but all the world knows of that act of all-surrendering love, and it +smells sweet and blossoms for evermore. + + + + +THE NEW PASSOVER + + + 'Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the + disciples came to Jesus, saying unto Him, Where wilt + Thou that we prepare for Thee to eat the passover? + 18. And He said, Go into the city to such a man, and + say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I + will keep the passover at thy house with My disciples. + 19. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; + and they made ready the passover. 20. Now when the even + was come, He sat down with the twelve. 21. And as they + did eat, He said, Verily I say unto you, That one of + you shall betray Me. 22. And they were exceeding + sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto Him, + Lord, is it I? 23. And He answered and said, He that + dippeth his hand with Me in the dish, the same shall + betray Me. 21. The Son of Man goeth as it is written + of Him; but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is + betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not + been born. 25. Then Judas, which betrayed Him, answered + and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast + said 26. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and + blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, + and said, Take, eat; this is My body. 27. And He took + the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, + Drink ye all of it; 28. For this is My blood of the new + testament, which is shed for many for the remission + of sins. 29. But I say unto you, I will not drink + henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day + when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom. + 30. And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into + the Mount of Olives.'--MATT. xxvi. 17-30. + +The Tuesday of Passion Week was occupied by the wonderful discourses +which have furnished so many of our meditations. At its close Jesus +sought retirement in Bethany, not only to soothe and prepare His +spirit but to 'hide Himself' from the Sanhedrin. There He spent the +Wednesday. Who can imagine His thoughts? While He was calmly +reposing in Mary's quiet home, the rulers determined on His arrest, +but were at a loss how to effect it without a riot. Judas comes to +them opportunely, and they leave it to him to give the signal. +Possibly we may account for the peculiar secrecy observed as to the +place for the last supper, by our Lord's knowledge that His steps +were watched, and by His earnest wish to eat the Passover with the +disciples before He suffered. The change between the courting of +publicity and almost inviting of arrest at the beginning of the +week, and the evident desire to postpone the crisis till the fitting +moment which marks the close of it, is remarkable, and most +naturally explained by the supposition that He wished the time of +His death to be that very hour when, according to law, the paschal +lamb was slain. On the Thursday, then, he sent Peter and John into +the city to prepare the Passover; the others being in ignorance of +the place till they were there, and Judas being thus prevented from +carrying out his purpose till after the celebration. + +The precautions taken to ensure this have left their mark on +Matthew's narrative, in the peculiar designation of the host,--'Such +a man!' It is a kind of echo of the mystery which he so well +remembered as round the errand of the two. He does not seem to have +heard of the token by which they knew the house, viz., the man with +the pitcher whom they were to meet. But he does know that Peter and +John got secret instructions, and that he and the others wondered +where they were to go. Had there been a previous arrangement with +this unnamed 'such an one,' or were the token and the message alike +instances of Christ's supernatural knowledge and authority? It is +difficult to say. I incline to the former supposition, which would +be in accordance with the distinct effort after secrecy which marks +these days; but the narratives do not decide the question. At all +events, the host was a disciple, as appears from the authoritative +'the Master saith'; and, whether he had known beforehand that 'this +day' incarnate 'salvation would come to his house' or no, he eagerly +accepts the peril and the honour. His message is royal in its tone. +The Lord does not ask permission, but issues His commands. But He is +a pauper King, not having where to lay His head, and needing another +man's house in which to gather His own household together for the +family feast of the Passover. What profound truths are wrapped up in +that 'My time is come'! It speaks of the voluntariness of His +surrender, the consciousness that His Cross was the centre point of +His work, His superiority to all external influences as determining +the hour of His death, and His submission to the supreme appointment +of the Father. Obedience and freedom, choice and necessity, are +wonderfully blended in it. + +So, late on that Thursday evening, the little band left Bethany for +the last time, in a fashion very unlike the joyous stir of the +triumphal entry. As the evening is falling, they thread their way +through the noisy streets, all astir with the festal crowds, and +reach the upper room, Judas vainly watching for an opportunity to +slip away on his black errand. The chamber, prepared by unknown +hands, has vanished, and the hands are dust; but both are immortal. +How many of the living acts of His servants in like manner seem to +perish, and the doers of them to be forgotten or unknown! But He +knows the name of 'such an one,' and does not forget that he opened +his door for Him to enter in and sup. + +The fact that Jesus put aside the Passover and founded the Lord's +Supper in its place, tells much both about _His_ authority and +_its_ meaning. What must He have conceived of Himself, who bade +Jew and Gentile turn away from that God-appointed festival, and +think not of Moses, but of Him? What did He mean by setting the +Lord's Supper in the place of the Passover, if He did not mean that +He was the true Paschal Lamb, that His death was a true sacrifice, +that in His sprinkled blood was safety, that His death inaugurated +the better deliverance of the true Israel from a darker prison-house +and a sorer bondage, that His followers were a family, and that 'the +children's bread' was the sacrifice which He had made? There are +many reasons for the doubling of the commemorative emblem, but this +is obviously one of the chief--that, by the separation of the two in +the rite, we are carried back to the separation in fact; that is to +say, to the violent death of Christ. Not His flesh alone, in the +sense of Incarnation, but His body broken and His blood shed, are +what He wills should be for ever remembered. His own estimate of the +centre point of His work is unmistakably pronounced in His +institution of this rite. + +But we may consider the force of each emblem separately. In many +important points they mean the same things, but they have each their +own significance as well. Matthew's condensed version of the words +of institution omits all reference to the breaking of the body and +to the memorial character of the observance, but both are implied. +He emphasises the reception, the participation, and the significance +of the bread. As to the latter, 'This is My body' is to be +understood in the same way as 'the field is the world,' and many +other sayings. To speak in the language of grammarians, the copula +is that of symbolic relationship, not that of existence; or, to +speak in the language of the street, 'is' here means, as it often +does, 'represents.' How could it mean anything else, when Christ sat +there in His body, and His blood was in His veins? What, then, is +the teaching of this symbol? It is not merely that He in His +humanity is the bread of life, but that He in His death is the +nourishment of our true life. In that great discourse in John's +Gospel, which embodies in words the lessons which the Lord's Supper +teaches by symbols, He advances from the general statement, 'I am +the Bread of Life,' to the yet more mysterious and profound teaching +that His flesh, which at some then future point He will 'give for +the life of the world,' is the bread; thus distinctly foreshadowing +His death, and asserting that by that death we live, and by +partaking of it are nourished. The participation in the benefits of +Christ's death, which is symbolised by 'Take, eat,' is effected by +living faith. We feed on Christ when our minds are occupied with His +truth, and our hearts nourished by His love, when it is the 'meat' +of our wills to do His will, and when our whole inward man fastens +on Him as its true object, and draws from Him its best being. But +the act of reception teaches the great lesson that Christ must be in +us, if He is to do us any good. He is not 'for us' in any real +sense, unless He be 'in us.' The word rendered in John's Gospel +'eateth' is that used for the ruminating of cattle, and wonderfully +indicates the calm, continual, patient meditation by which alone we +can receive Christ into our hearts, and nourish our lives on Him. +Bread eaten is assimilated to the body, but this bread eaten +assimilates the eater to itself, and he who feeds on Christ becomes +Christ-like, as the silk-worm takes the hue of the leaves on which +it browses. Bread eaten to-day will not nourish us to-morrow, +neither will past experiences of Christ's sweetness sustain the +soul. He must be 'our daily bread' if we are not to pine with +hunger. + +The wine carries its own special teaching, which clearly appears in +Matthew's version of the words of institution. It is 'My blood,' and +by its being presented in a form separate from the bread which is +His body suggests a violent death. It is 'covenant blood,' the seal +of that 'better covenant' than the old, which God makes now with all +mankind, wherein are given renewed hearts which carry the divine law +within themselves; the reciprocal and mutually blessed possession of +God by men and of men by God, the universally diffused knowledge of +God, which is more than head knowledge, being the consciousness of +possessing Him; and, finally, the oblivion of all sins. These +promises are fulfilled, and the covenant made sure, by the shed +blood of Christ. So, finally, it is 'shed for many, for the +remission of sins.' The end of Christ's death is pardon which can +only be extended on the ground of His death. We are told that Christ +did not teach the doctrine of atonement. Did He establish the Lord's +Supper? If He did (and nobody denies that), what did He mean by it, +if He did not mean the setting forth by symbol of the very same +truth which, stated in words, is the doctrine of His atoning death? +This rite does not, indeed, explain the _rationale_ of the +doctrine; but it is a piece of unmeaning mummery, unless it preaches +plainly the fact that Christ's death is the ground of our +forgiveness. + +Bread is the 'staff of life,' but blood is the life. So 'this cup' +teaches that 'the life' of Jesus Christ must pass into His people's +veins, and that the secret of the Christian life is 'I live; yet not +I, but Christ liveth in me.' Wine is joy, and the Christian life is +not only to be a feeding of the soul on Christ as its nourishment, +but a glad partaking, as at a feast, of His life and therein of His +joy. Gladness of heart is a Christian duty, 'the joy of the Lord is +your strength' and should be _our_ joy; and though here we eat +with loins girt, and go out, some of us to deny, some of us to flee, +all of us to toil and suffer, yet we may have His joy fulfilled in +ourselves, even whilst we sorrow. + +The Lord's Supper is predominantly a memorial, but it is also a +prophecy, and is marked as such by the mysterious last words of +Jesus, about drinking the new wine in the Father's kingdom. They +point the thoughts of the saddened eleven, on whom the dark shadow +of parting lay heavily, to an eternal reunion, in a land where 'all +things are become new,' and where the festal cup shall be filled +with a draught that has power to gladden and to inspire beyond any +experience here. The joys of heaven will be so far analogous to the +Christian joys of earth that the same name may be applied to both; +but they will be so unlike that the old name will need a new +meaning, and communion with Christ at His table in His kingdom, and +our exuberance of joy in the full drinking in of His immortal life, +will transcend the selectest hours of communion here. Compared with +that fulness of joy they will be 'as water unto wine,'--the new wine +of the kingdom. + + + + +'IS IT I?' + + + 'And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one + of them to say unto Him, Lord, is it I? 25. Then Judas, + which betrayed Him, answered and said, Master, is it I? + He said unto him, Thou hast said.'-MATT. xxvi. 22, 25. + + 'He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto Him, Lord, + who is it?'--JOHN xiii. 25. + +The genius of many great painters has portrayed the Lord's Supper, +but the reality of it was very different from their imaginings. We +have to picture to ourselves some low table, probably a mere tray +spread upon the ground, round which our Lord and the twelve +reclined, in such a fashion as that the head of each guest came +against the bosom of him that reclined above him; the place of +honour being at the Lord's left hand, or higher up the table than +Himself, and the second place being at His right, or below Himself. + +So there would be no eager gesticulations of disciples starting to +their feet when our Lord uttered the sad announcement, 'One of you +shall betray Me!' but only horror-struck amazement settled down upon +the group. These verses, which we have put together, show us three +stages in the conversation which followed the sad announcement. The +three evangelists give us two of these; John alone omits these two, +and only gives us the third. + +First, we have their question, born of a glimpse into the +possibilities of evil in their hearts, 'Lord, is it I?' + +The form of that question in the original suggests that they +expected a negative answer, and might be reproduced in English: +'Surely it is not I?' None of them could think that he was the +traitor, yet none of them could be sure that he was not. Their +Master knew better than they did; and so, from a humble knowledge of +what lay in them, coiled and slumbering, _but there_, they +would not meet His words with a contradiction, but with a question. +His answer spares the betrayer, and lets the dread work in their +consciences for a little longer, for their good. For many hands +dipped in the dish together, to moisten their morsels; and to say, +'He that dippeth with Me in the dish, the same shall betray Me,' was +to say nothing more than 'One of you at the table.' + +Then comes the second stage. Judas, reassured that he has escaped +detection for the moment, and perhaps doubting whether the Master +had anything more than a vague suspicion of treachery, or knew who +was the traitor, shapes his lying lips with loathsome audacity into +the same question, but yet not quite the same, The others had said, +'Is it I, Lord?' he falters when he comes to that name, and dare not +say 'Lord!' That sticks in his throat. 'Rabbi!' is as far as he can +get. 'Is it I, Rabbi?' Christ's answer to him, 'Thou hast said,' is +another instance of patient longsuffering. It was evidently a +whisper that did not reach the ears of any of the others, for he +leaves the room without suspicion. Our Lord still tries to save him +from himself by showing Judas that his purpose is known, and by +still concealing his name. + +Then comes the third stage, which we owe to John's Gospel. Here +again he is true to his task of supplementing the narrative of the +three synoptic Gospels. Remembering what I have said about the +attitude of the disciples at the table, we can understand that +Peter, if he occupied the principal place at the Lord's left, was +less favourably situated for speaking to Christ than John, who +reclined in the second seat at His right, and so he beckoned over +the Master's head to John. The Revised Version gives the force of +the original more vividly than the Authorised does: 'He, leaning +back, as he was, on Jesus' breast, saith unto Him, Lord! who is it?' +John, with a natural movement, bends back his head on his Master's +breast, so as to ask and be answered, in a whisper. His question is +_not_, 'Is it I?' He that leaned on Christ's bosom, and was +compassed about by Christ's love, did not need to ask that. The +question now is, 'Who is it?' Not a question of presumption, nor of +curiosity, but of affection; and therefore answered: 'He it is to +whom I shall give the sop, when I have dipped it.' + +The morsel dipped in the dish and passed by the host's hand to a +guest, was a token of favour, of unity and confidence. It was one +more attempt to save Judas, one more token of all-forgiving +patience. No wonder that that last sign of friendship embittered his +hatred and sharpened his purpose to an unalterable decision, or, as +John says: 'After the sop, Satan entered into him.' For then, as +ever, the heart which is not melted by Christ's offered love is +hardened by it. + +Now, if we take these three stages of this conversation we may learn +some valuable lessons from them. I take the first form of the +question as an example of that wholesome self-distrust which a +glimpse into the slumbering possibilities of evil in our hearts +ought to give us all. I take the second on the lips of Judas, as an +example of the very opposite of that self-distrust, the fixed +determination to do a wrong thing, however clearly we know it to be +wrong. And I take the last form of the question, as asked by John, +as an illustration of the peaceful confidence which comes from the +consciousness of Christ's love, and of communion with Him. Now a +word or two about each of these. + +I. First, we have an example of that wholesome self-distrust, which +a glimpse into the possibilities of evil that lie slumbering in all +our hearts ought to teach every one of us. + +Every man is a mystery to himself. In every soul there lie, coiled +and dormant, like hibernating snakes, evils that a very slight rise +in the temperature will wake up into poisonous activity. And let no +man say, in foolish self-confidence, that any form of sin which his +brother has ever committed is impossible for him. Temperament +shields us from much, no doubt. There are sins that 'we are inclined +to,' and there are sins that 'we have no mind to.' But the identity +of human nature is deeper than the diversity of temperament, and +there are two or three considerations that should abate a man's +confidence that _anything_ which one man has done it is impossible +that he should do. Let me enumerate them very briefly. Remember, to +begin with, that all sins are at bottom but varying forms of one root. +The essence of every evil is selfishness, and when you have that, it +is exactly as with cooks who have the 'stock' by the fireside. They +can make any kind of soup out of it, with the right flavouring. We +have got the mother tincture of all wickedness in each of our hearts; +and therefore do not let us be so sure that it cannot be manipulated +and flavoured into any form of sin. All sin is one at bottom, and this +is the definition of it--living to myself instead of living to God. +So it may easily pass from one form of evil into another, just as +light and heat, motion and electricity, are all--they tell us--various +forms and phases of one force. Just as doctors will tell you that +there are types of disease which slip from one form of sickness +into another, so if we have got the infection about us it is a matter +very much of accidental circumstances what shape it takes. And no +man with a human heart is safe in pointing to any sin, and saying, +'_That_ form of transgression I reckon alien to myself.' + +And then let me remind you, too, that the same consideration is +reinforced by this other fact, that all sin is, if I may so say, +gregarious; is apt not only to slip from one form into another, but +that any evil is apt to draw another after it. The tangled mass of +sin is like one of those great fields of seaweed that you some times +come across upon the ocean, all hanging together by a thousand slimy +growths; which, if lifted from the wave at any point, drags up yards +of it inextricably grown together. No man commits only one kind of +transgression. All sins hunt in couples. According to the grim +picture of the Old Testament, about another matter, 'None of them +shall want his mate. The wild beasts of the desert shall meet with +the wild beasts of the islands.' One sin opens the door for another, +'and seven other spirits worse than himself' come and make holiday +in the man's heart. + +Again, any evil is possible to us, seeing that all sin is but +yielding to tendencies common to us all. The greatest transgressions +have resulted from yielding to such tendencies. Cain killed his +brother from jealousy; David besmirched his name and his reign by +animal passion; Judas betrayed Christ because he was fond of money. +Many a man has murdered another one simply because he had a hot +temper. And you have got a temper, and you have got the love of +money, and you have got animal passions, and you have got that which +may stir you up into jealousy. Your neighbour's house has caught +fire and been blown up. Your house, too, is built of wood, and +thatched with straw, and you have as much dynamite in your cellars +as he had in his. Do not be too sure that you are safe from the +danger of explosion. + +And, again, remember that this same wholesome self-distrust is +needful for us all, because all transgression is yielding to +temptations that assail all men. Here are one hundred men in a +plague-stricken city; they have all got to draw their water from the +same well. If five or six of them died of cholera it would be very +foolish of the other ninety-five to say, 'There is no chance of our +being touched.' We all live in the same atmosphere; and the +temptations that have overcome the men that have headed the count of +crimes appeal to you. So the lesson is, 'Be not high-minded, but +fear.' + +And remember, still further, that the same solemn consideration is +enforced upon us by the thought that men will gradually drop down to +the level which, before they began the descent, seemed to be +impossible to them. 'Is thy servant a dog that he should do this +thing?' said Hazael when the crime of murdering his master first +floated before him. Yes, but he did it. By degrees he came down to +the level to which he thought that he would never sink. First the +imagination is inflamed, then the wish begins to draw the soul to +the sin, then conscience pulls it back, then the fatal decision is +made, and the deed is done. Sometimes all the stages are hurried +quickly through, and a man spins downhill as cheerily and fast as a +diligence down the Alps. Sometimes, as the coast of a country may +sink an inch in a century until long miles of the flat seabeach are +under water, and towers and cities are buried beneath the barren +waves, so our lives may be gradually lowered, with a motion +imperceptible but most real, bringing us down within high-water +mark, and at last the tide may wash over what was solid land. + +So, dear friends, there is nothing more foolish than for any man to +stand, self-confident that any form of evil that has conquered his +brother has no temptation for him. It may not have for you, under +present circumstances; it may not have for you to-day; but, oh! +we have all of us one human heart, and 'he that trusteth in his own +heart is a fool.' 'Blessed is the man that feareth always.' Humble +self-distrust, consciousness of sleeping sin in my heart that may very +quickly be stirred into stinging and striking; rigid self-control over +all these possibilities of evil, are duties dictated by the plainest +common-sense. + +Do not say, 'I know when to stop.' Do not say, 'I can go so far; it +will not do me any harm.' Many a man has said that, and many a man +has been ruined by it. Do not say, 'It is natural to me to have +these inclinations and tastes, and there can be no harm in yielding +to them.' It is perfectly natural for a man to stoop down over the +edge of a precipice to gather the flowers that are growing in some +cranny in the cliff; and it is as natural for him to topple over, +and be smashed to a mummy at the bottom. God gave you your +dispositions and your whole nature 'under lock and key,'--keep them +so. And when you hear of, or see, great criminals and great crimes, +say to yourself, as the good old Puritan divine said, looking at a +man going to the scaffold, 'But for the grace of God there go I!' +And in the contemplation of sins and apostasies, let us each look +humbly at our own weakness, and pray Him to keep us from our +brother's evils which may easily become ours. + +II. Secondly, we have here an example of precisely the opposite +sort, namely, of that fixed determination to do evil which is +unshaken by the clearest knowledge that it is evil. + +Judas heard his crime described in its own ugly reality. He heard +his fate proclaimed by lips of absolute love and truth; and +notwithstanding both, he comes unmoved and unshaken with his +question. The dogged determination in his heart, that dares to see +his evil stripped naked and is 'not ashamed,' is even more dreadful +than the hypocrisy and sleek simulation of friendship in his face. + +Now most men turn away with horror from even the sins that they are +willing to do, when they are put plainly and bluntly before them. As +an old mediaeval preacher once said, 'There is nothing that is +weaker than the devil stripped naked.' By which he meant exactly +this--that we have to dress wrong in some fantastic costume or +other, so as to hide its native ugliness, in order to tempt men to +do it. So we have two sets of names for wrong things, one of which +we apply to our brethren's sins, and the other to the same sins in +ourselves. What I do is 'prudence,' what you do of the same sort is +'covetousness'; what I do is 'sowing my wild oats,' what you do is +'immorality' and 'dissipation'; what I do is 'generous living,' what +you do is 'drunkenness' and 'gluttony'; what I do is 'righteous +indignation,' what you do is 'passionate anger.' And so you may go +the whole round of evil. Very bad are the men who can look at their +deed, described in Its own inherent deformity, and yet say, 'Yes; +that is it, and I am going to do it.' 'One of you shall betray Me.' +'Yes; I will betray you!' It must have taken something to look into +the Master's face, and keep the fixed purpose steady. + +Now I ask you to think, dear friends, of this, that that obstinate +condition of dogged determination to do a wrong thing, knowing it to +be a wrong thing, is a condition to which all evil steadily tends. +We may not come to it in this world--I do not know that men ever do +so wholly; but we are all getting towards it in regard to the +special wrong deeds and desires which we cherish and commit. And +when a man has once reached the point of saying to evil, 'Be thou my +good,' then he is a 'devil' in the true meaning of the word; and +wherever he is, he is in hell! And the one unpardonable sin is the +sin of clear recognition that a given thing is contrary to God's +will, and unfaltering determination, notwithstanding, to do it. That +is the only sin that cannot be pardoned, 'either in this world or in +the world to come.' + +And so, my brother, seeing that such a condition is possible, and +that all the paths of evil, however tentative and timorous they may +be at first, and however much the sin may be wrapped up with excuses +and forms and masks, tend to that condition, let us take that old +prayer upon our lips, which befits both those who distrust +themselves because of slumbering sins, and those who dread being +conquered by manifest iniquity:--'Who can understand his errors? +Cleanse Thou me from secret faults. Keep back Thy servant also from +presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me.' + +III. Now, lastly, we have in the last question an example of the +peaceful confidence that comes from communion with Jesus Christ. + +John leaned on the Master's bosom. 'He was the disciple whom Jesus +loved.' And so compassed with that great love, and feeling absolute +security within the enclosure of that strong hand, his question is +not, 'Is it I?' but 'Who is it?' From which I think we may fairly +draw the conclusion that to feel that Christ loves me, and that I am +compassed about by Him, is the true security against my falling into +any sin. + +It was not John's love to Christ, but Christ's to John that made his +safety. He did not say: 'I love Thee so much that I cannot betray +Thee.' For all our feelings and emotions are but variable, and to +build confidence upon them is to build a heavy building upon +quicksand; the very weight of it drives out the foundations. But he +thought to himself--or he felt rather than he thought--that all +about him lay the sweet, warm, rich atmosphere of his Master's love; +and to a man who was encompassed by that, treachery was impossible. + +Sin has no temptation so long as we actually enjoy the greater +sweetness of Christ's felt love. Would thirty pieces of silver have +been a bribe to John? Would anything that could have terrified +others have frightened him from his Master's side whilst he felt His +love? Will a handful of imitation jewellery, made out of coloured +glass and paste, be any temptation to a man who bears a rich diamond +on his finger? And will any of earth's sweetness be a temptation to +a man who lives in the continual consciousness of the great rich +love of Christ wrapping him round about? Brethren, not ourselves, +not our faith, not our emotion, not our religious experience; +nothing that is in us, is any security that we may not be tempted, +and yield to the temptation, and deny or betray our Lord. There is +only one thing that is a security, and that is that we be folded to +the heart, and held by the hand, of that loving Lord. Then--then we +may be confident that we shall not fall; for 'the Lord is able to +make us stand.' + +Such confidence is but the other side of our self-distrust; is the +constant accompaniment of it, must have that self-distrust for its +condition and prerequisite, and leads to a yet deeper and more +blessed form of that self-distrust. Faith in Him and 'no confidence +in the flesh' are but the two sides of the same coin, the obverse +and the reverse. The seed, planted in the ground, sends a little +rootlet down, and a little spikelet up, by the same vital act. And +so in our hearts, as it were, the downward rootlet is self-despair, +and the upward shoot is faith in Christ. The two emotions go +together--the more we distrust ourselves the more we shall rest upon +Him, and the more we rest upon Him, and feel that all our strength +comes, not from our foot, but from the Rock on which it stands, the +more we shall distrust our own ability and our own faithfulness. + +Therefore, dear brethren, looking upon all the evil that is around +us, and conscious in some measure of the weakness of our own hearts, +let us do as a man would do who stands upon the narrow ledge of a +cliff, and look sheer down into the depth below, and feels his head +begin to reel and turn giddy; let us lay hold of the Guide's hand, +and if we cleave by Him, He will hold up our goings that our +footsteps slip not. Nothing else will. No length of obedient service +is any guarantee against treachery and rebellion. As John Bunyan +saw, there was a backdoor to hell from the gate of the Celestial +City. Men have lived for years consistent professing Christians, and +have fallen at last. Many a ship has come across half the world, and +gone to pieces on the harbour bar. Many an army, victorious in a +hundred fights, has been annihilated at last. No depths of religious +experience, no heights of religious blessedness, no attainments of +past virtue and self-sacrifice, are any guarantees for to-morrow. +Trust in nothing and in nobody, least of all in yourselves and your +own past. Trust only in Jesus Christ. + +'Now unto Him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present +us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy; to +the only wise God our Saviour be glory and majesty, dominion and +power, both now and for ever.' Amen. + + + + +'THIS CUP' + + + 'And Jesus took the cup, and grave thanks, and gave it + to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; 28. For this is My + blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for + the remission of sins'--MATT. xxvi. 27, 28. + +The comparative silence of our Lord as to the sacrificial character +of His death has very often been urged as a reason for doubting that +doctrine, and for regarding it as no part of the original Christian +teaching. That silence may be accounted for by sufficient reasons. +It has been very much exaggerated, and those who argue from it +against the doctrine of the Atonement have forgotten that Jesus +Christ founded the Lord's Supper. + +That rite shows us what He thought, and what He would have us think, +of His death; and in the presence of its testimony it seems to me +impossible to deny that His conception of it was distinctly +sacrificial. By it He points out the moment of His whole career +which He desires that men should remember. Not His words of +tenderness and wisdom; not His miracles, amazing and gracious as +these were; not the flawless beauty of His character, though it +touches all hearts and wins the most rugged to love, and the most +degraded to hope; but the moment in which He gave His life is what +He would imprint for ever on the memory of the world. + +And not only so, but in the rite he distinctly tells us in what +aspect He would have that death remembered. Not as the tragic end of +a noble career which might be hallowed by tears such as are shed +over a martyr's ashes; not as the crowning proof of love; not as the +supreme act of patient forgiveness; but as a death for us, in which, +as by the blood of the sacrifice, is secured the remission of sins. + +And not only so, but the double symbol in the Lord's Supper--whilst +in some respects the bread and wine speak the same truths, and +certainly point to the same Cross--has in each of its parts special +lessons intrusted to it, and special truths to proclaim. The bread +and the wine both say:--'Remember Me and My death.' Taken in +conjunction they point to that death as violent; taken separately +they each suggest various aspects of it, and of the blessings that +will flow to us therefrom. And it is my present purpose to bring +out, as briefly and as clearly as I can, the special lessons which +our Lord would have us draw from that cup which is the emblem of His +shed blood. + +I. First, then, observe that it speaks to us of a divine treaty or +covenant. + +Ancient Israel had lived for nearly 2000 years under the charter of +their national existence which, as we read in the Old Testament, was +given on Sinai amidst thunderings and lightnings--'Now, therefore, +if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall +be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people; for all the earth +is Mine, and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and an holy +nation.' + +And that covenant, or agreement, or treaty, on the part of God, was +ratified by a solemn act, in which the blood of the sacrifice, +divided into two portions, was sprinkled, one half upon the altar, +and the other half, after their acceptance of the conditions and +obligations of the covenant, on the people, who had pledged +themselves to obedience. + +And now, here is a Galilean peasant, in a borrowed upper room, +within four-and-twenty hours of His ignominious death which might +seem to blast all His work, who steps forward and says, 'I put away +that ancient covenant which knits this nation to God. It is +antiquated. I am the true offering and sacrifice, by the blood of +which, sprinkled on altar and on people, a new covenant, built upon +better promises, shall henceforth be.' + +What a tremendous piece of audacity, except on the one hypothesis +that He that spake was indeed the Word of God; and that He was +making that which Himself had established of old, to give way to +that which He establishes now! The new covenant which Christ seals +in His blood, is the charter, the better charter, under the +conditions of which, not a nation but the world may find an external +salvation which dwarfs all the deliverances of the past. That idea +of a covenant confirmed by Christ's blood may sound to many hearers +dry and hard. But if you will try to think what great truths are +wrapped up in the theological phraseology, you will find them very +real and very strong. Is it not a grand thought that between us and +the infinite divine Nature there is established a firm and unmovable +agreement? Then He has revealed His purposes; we are not left to +grope in darkness, at the mercy of 'peradventures' and 'probablies'; +nor reduced to consult the ambiguous oracles of nature or of +Providence, or the varying voices of our own hearts, or painfully +and dubiously to construct more or less strong bases for confidence +in a loving God out of such hints and fragments of revelation as +these supply. He has come out of His darkness, and spoken articulate +words, plain words, faithful words, which bind Him to a distinctly +defined course of action. Across the great ocean of possible modes +of action for a divine nature He has, if I may so say, buoyed out +for Himself a channel, so as that we know His path, which is in the +deep waters. He has limited Himself by the utterance of a faithful +word, and we can now come to Him with His own promise, and cast it +down before Him, and say: 'Thou hast spoken, and Thou art bound to +fulfil it.' We have a covenant wherein God has shown us His hand, +has told us what He is going to do and has thereby pledged Himself +to its performance. + +And, still further, in order to get the full sweetness of this +thought, to break the husk and reach to the kernel, you must +remember what, according to the New Testament, are the conditions of +this covenant. The old agreement was, 'If ye will obey My voice and +do My commandments, then,'--so and so will happen. The old condition +was, 'Do and live; be righteous and blessed!' The new condition is: +'Take and have; believe and live!' The one was law, the other is +gift; the one was retribution, the other is forgiveness. One was +outward, hard, rigid law, fitly 'graven with a pen of iron on the +rocks for ever'; the other is impulse, love, a power bestowed that +will make us obedient; and the sole condition that we have to render +is the condition of humble and believing acceptance of the divine +gift. The new covenant, in the exuberant fulness of its mercy, and +in the tenderness of its gracious purposes, is at once the +completion and the antithesis of the ancient covenant with its +precepts and its retribution. + +And, still further, this 'new covenant,' of which the essence is +God's bestowment of Himself on every heart that wills to possess +Him; this new covenant, according to the teaching of these words of +my text and of the symbol to which they refer, is ratified and +sealed by that great sacrifice. The blood was sprinkled on the +altar; the blood was sprinkled on the people, which being translated +into plain, unmetaphorical language is simply this, that Christ's +death remains for ever present to the divine mind as the great +reason and motive which modifies His government, and which ensures +that His love shall ever find its way to every seeking soul. His +death is the token; His death is the reason; His death is the pledge +of the unending and the inexhaustible mercy of God bestowed upon +each of us. 'He that spared not His own Son, shall He not with Him +also freely give us all things?' The outward rite with its symbol is +the exhibition in visible form of that truth, that the blood of +Jesus Christ seals to the world the infinite mercy of God. + +And, on the other hand, that same blood of the covenant, sprinkled +upon the other parties to the treaty, even our poor sinful hearts, +binds them to the fulfilment of the condition which belongs to them. +That is to say, by the power of that sacrifice there are evoked in +our poor souls, faith, love, surrender. It, and it alone, knits us +to God; it, and it alone, binds us to the fulfilment of the +covenant. My brother, have you entered into that sweet, solemn, +sacred alliance and union with God? Have you accepted and fulfilled +the conditions? Is your heart 'sprinkled with the blood so freely +shed for you'; and have you thereby been brought into living +alliance with the God who has pledged His being and His name to be +the all-sufficient God to you? + +II. Still further, this cup speaks to us of the forgiveness of sins. + +One theory, and one theory only, as it seems to me, of the meaning +of Christ's death, is possible if these words of my text ever +dropped from Christ's lips, or if He ever instituted the rite to +which they refer; He must have believed that His death was a +sacrifice, without which the sins of the world were not forgiven; +and by which forgiveness came to us all. + +And I do not think that we rightly conceive the relation between the +sacrifices of barbarous heathen tribes, or the sacrifices appointed +in Israel, and the great sacrifice on the Cross, if we say that our +Lord's death is only figuratively accommodated to these in order to +meet lower or grosser conceptions, but rather, I take it, that the +accommodation is the other way. In all nations beyond the limits of +Israel the sacrifices of living victims spoke not only of surrender +and dependence, but likewise of the consciousness of demerit and +evil on the part of the offerers, and were at once a confession of +sin, a prayer for pardon, and a propitiation of an offended God. And +I believe that the sacrifices in Israel were intended and adapted +not only to meet the deep-felt want of human nature, common to them +as to all other tribes, but also were intended and adapted to point +onwards to Him in whose death a real want of mankind was met, in +whose death a real sacrifice was offered, in whose death an angry +God was not indeed propitiated, but in whose death the loving Father +of our souls Himself provided the Lamb for the offering, without +which, for reasons deeper than we can wholly fathom, it was +impossible that sin should be remitted. + +I insist upon no theory of an Atonement. I believe there is no +Gospel, worth calling so, worth the preaching, worth your believing, +or that will ever move the world or purify society, except the +Gospel which begins with the fact of an Atonement, and points to the +Cross as the altar on which the Sacrifice for the sins of the world, +without whose death pardon is impossible, has died for us all. + +Oh! dear friends, do not let yourselves be confused by the +difficulties that beset all human and incomplete statements of the +philosophy of the death of Christ; but getting away from these, +cleave you to the fact that your sins were laid upon Christ, and +that He has died for us all; that His death is a sacrifice; His body +broken for us; and for the remission of our sins, His blood freely +shed. Thus, and only thus, will you come to the understanding either +of the sweetness of His love or of the power of His example; then, +and only then, shall we know why it was that He elected to be +remembered, out of all the moments of His life, by that one when He +hung in weakness upon the Cross, and out of the darkness came the +cry, 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' + +III. And now, again, let me remind you that this cup speaks likewise +of a life infused. + +'The blood is the life,' says the physiology of the Hebrews. The +blood is the life, and when men drink of that cup they symbolise the +fact that Christ's own life and spirit are imparted to them that +love Him. 'Except ye eat the flesh, and drink the blood of the Son +of Man, ye have no life in you.' The very heart of Christ's gift to +us is the gift of His own very life to be the life of our lives. In +deep, mystical reality He Himself passes into our being, and the +'law of the spirit of life makes us free from the law of sin and +death,' so that we may say: 'He that is joined to the Lord is one +spirit,' and the humble believing soul may rejoice in this: 'I live, +yet not I, but Christ liveth in Me.' This is, in one aspect, the +very deepest meaning of this Communion rite. As physicians sometimes +tried to restore life to an almost dead man by the transfusion into +his shrunken veins of the fresh warm blood from a young and healthy +subject, so into our fevered life, into our corrupted blood, there +is poured the full tide of the pure and perfect life of Jesus Christ +Himself, and we live, not by our own power, nor for our own will, +nor in obedience to our own caprices, but by Him and in Him, and +with Him and for Him. This is the heart of Christianity, the +possession within us of the life, the immortal life of Him that died +for us. + +My brother have you that great gift in your heart? Be sure of this, +that unless the life of Christ is in you by faith, ye are dead, +'dead in trespasses and in sins'; dead, and sure to rot away and +disintegrate into corruption. The cup of blessing which we drink +speaks to us of the transfusion into our spirits of the Spirit of +Jesus Christ. + +IV. And lastly, it speaks of a festal gladness. + +The bread says nothing to us of the remission of sins. The broken +bread proclaims, indeed, our nourishment from Jesus, but falls short +of the deep and solemn truth that it is the very life-blood of +Christ Himself which nourishes us and vitalises us. And the bread, +in like manner, proclaims indeed the fact that we are fed on Him, +but says nothing of the joy of that feeding. The wine is the symbol +of that, and it proclaims to us that the Christian life here on +earth, just because it is the feeding on and the drinking in of +Jesus Christ, ought ever to be a life of blessedness, of abounding +joy, by whatsoever darkness, burdens, cares, toils, sorrows, and +solitude it may be shaded and saddened. They who live on Christ, +they who drink in of His spirit, they should be glad in all +circumstances, they, and they alone. We sit at a table, though it be +in the wilderness, though it be in the presence of our enemies, +where there ought to be joy and the voice of rejoicing. + +But beyond that, as our Master Himself taught these apostles in that +upper room, this cup points onwards to a future feast. At that +solemn hour Jesus stayed His own heart with the vision of the +perfected kingdom and the glad festival then. So this Communion has +a prophetic element in it, and links on with predictions and +parables which speak of the 'marriage supper' of the great King, and +of the time when we shall sit at His table in His kingdom. + +For the past the Lord's Supper speaks of the one sufficient oblation +and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. For the present it +speaks of life produced and sustained by communion with Jesus +Christ. And for the future it speaks of the unending, joyful +satisfaction of all desires in the 'upper room' of the heavens. + +How unlike, and yet how like to that scene in the upper room at +Jerusalem! From it the sad disciples went out, some of them to deny +their Master; all of them to struggle, to sin, to lose Him from +their sight, to toil, to sorrow, and at last to die. From that other +table we shall go no more out, but sit there with Him in full +fruition of unfailing blessedness and participation of His immortal +life for evermore. + +Dear brethren, these are the lessons, these the hopes, which this +'blood of the new covenant' teaches and inspires. Have you entered +into that covenant with God? Have you made sure work of the +forgiveness of your sins through His blood? Have you received into +your spirits His immortal life? Then you may humbly be confident +that, after life's weariness and lonesomeness are past, you will be +welcomed to the banqueting hall by the Lord of the feast, and sit +with Him and His servants who loved Him at that table and be glad. + + + + +'UNTIL THAT DAY' + + + 'I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, + until that day when I drink it new with you in my + Father's kingdom.'--MATT. xxvi. 29. + +This remarkable saying of our Lord's is recorded in all of the +accounts of the institution of the Lord's Supper. The thought +embodied in it ought to be present in the minds of all who partake +of that rite. It converts what is primarily a memorial into a +prophecy. It bids us hope as well as, and because we, remember. The +light behind us is cast forward on to the dimness before. So the +Apostle Paul, in his solitary reference to the Communion--which, +indeed, is an entirely incidental one, and evoked simply by the +corruptions in the Corinthian Church, emphasises this prophetic and +onward-looking aspect of the backward-looking rite when he says, 'Ye +do show the Lord's death _till He come_.' + +Now, it seems to me that those of us who so strongly hold that the +Communion is primarily a simple memorial service, with no mysterious +or magical efficacy of any sort about it, do rather ignore in our +ordinary thoughts the other aspect which is brought out in my text; +and that comparative ignoring seems to me to be but a part of a very +lamentable and general tendency of this day, whereby the prospect of +a future life has become somewhat dimmed and does not fill the place +either in ordinary Christian thinking, or as a motive for Christian +service which the proportion of faith, and the relative importance +of the present and the future suggest that it ought to fill. The +Christianity of this day has so much to do with the present life, +and the thought of the Gospel as a power in the present has been so +emphasised, in legitimate reaction from the opposite exaggeration, +that there is great need, as I believe, to preach to Christian people +the wisdom of making more prominent in their faith their immortal +hope. I wish, then, to turn now to this aspect of the rite which we +regard as a memorial, and try to emphasise its forward-looking +attitude, and the large blessed truths that emerge if we consider that. + +I. First, let me say just a word about the twin aspect of the +Communion as a memorial prophecy, or prophetic remembrance. + +Now, I need not remind you, I suppose, that according to the view +which, as I believe, the New Testament takes, and which certainly we +Nonconformists take, of all the rites of external worship, every one +of them is a prophecy, because every act in which our sense is +brought in to reinforce the spirit--and by outward forms, be they +vocal, or be they manual, or be they of any other sort, we try to +express and to quicken spiritual emotions and intellectual +convictions--declares its own imperfection, digs its own grave, and +prophecies its own resurrection in a nobler and better fashion. Just +because these outward symbols of bread and wine do, through the +senses, quicken the faith and the love of the spirit, they declare +themselves to be transitory, and they point onwards to the time when +that which is perfect shall absorb, and so destroy, that which is in +part, and when sense shall be no longer necessary as the ally and +humble servant of spirit. 'I saw no temple therein.' Temples, and +rites, and services, and holy days, and all the external apparatus +of worship, are but scaffolding, and just as the scaffolding round a +building is a prophecy of its own being pulled down when the +building is reared and completed, so we cannot partake of these +external symbols rightly, unless we recognise their transiency, and +feel that they say to us, 'A mightier than I cometh after me, the +latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose.' The light that +shines in the dark heralds the day and its own extinction. + +So, looking back we must look forward, and partaking of the symbol, +we must reach out to the time when the symbol shall be antiquated, +the reality having come. The Passover of Israel did not more truly +point onwards to the true Lamb of Sacrifice, and to the true +Passover that was slain for us, and to its own elevation into the +Lord's Supper of the Christian Church, than the Lord's Supper of the +Christian Church points onwards to the 'marriage supper of the +Lamb,' and its own cessation. + +But then, again, let me remind you that this prophetic aspect is +inherent in the memorial aspect of the Communion, because what we +remember necessarily demands the coming of what we hope. That is to +say, if Jesus Christ be what the Lord's Supper says that He is, and +if He has done what that broken bread and poured out wine proclaim, +according to His own utterance, that He has done, then clearly that +death which was for the life of the world, that death which was the +seal of a covenant, that body broken for the remission of sins, that +wine partaken of as a reception into ourselves of the very life-blood +of Jesus Christ, do all demand something far nobler and more perfect +than the broken, incomplete obedience and loyalties and communions +which Christian men here exercise and possess. + +If He died, as the rite says that He did, and if dying He left such +a commentary upon His act as that ordinance affords, then He cannot +have done with the world; then the powers that were set in motion by +His death cannot pause nor cease their action until they have +reached their appropriate culmination in effecting all that it was +in them to effect. If, leaving His people, He said to them, 'Never +forget My death for you, My broken body, and My shed blood,' He +therein said that the time will come, must come, when all the powers +of the Cross shall be incorporated in humanity, and when the parted +shall be reunited. The Communion would stand as the expression of +Christ's mistaken estimate of His own importance, if there were not +beyond the grave the perfecting of it, and the full appropriation +and joyful possession of all which the death that it signifies +brought to mankind. + +Therefore, dear brethren, it seems to me that the best way by which +Christians can deepen their confidence and brighten their hope in +the perfect reunion and blessedness of the heavens, is to increase +the firmness of their faith in, and the depth of their apprehension +of, the sacrifice of the Cross. If the Cross demands the Crown, then +our surest way to realise as certain our own possession of that +Crown is to cling very close to that Cross. The more we look +backwards to it the more will it fling its light into all the dark +places that are in front of us, and flush the heavens up to the +seventh and beyond, with the glories that stream from it. Hold fast +by the Cross, and the more fully, believingly, joyously, +unfalteringly, we recognise in it the foundation of our salvation, +the more gladly, clearly, operatively, shall we cherish the hope +that 'the headstone shall be brought forth with shoutings,' and that +the imperfect symbolical communion of earth will grow and greaten +into complete and real union in eternal bliss. + +Let me urge, then, this, that, as a matter of fact, a faith in +eternal glory goes with and fluctuates in the same degree and manner +as does the faith in the past sacrifice that Christ has made. He, +and He alone, as I believe, turns nebulae into solidity, and makes +of the more or less tremulous anticipation of a more or less dim and +distant future, a calm, still certainty. We know that He will come +because, and in proportion as, we believe that He has come. Keep +these two things, then, always together, the memory and the hope. +They stand like two great piers, one on either side of a narrow, +dark glen, and suspended from them is stretched the bridge, along +which the happy pilgrims may travel and enter into rest. + +II. And now, let us turn for a moment to the lovely vision of that +future which is suggested by our text. + +The truest way, I was going to say the only way, by which we can +have any conceptions of a condition of being of which we have no +experience, is to fall back upon the experiences which we have, and +use them as symbols and metaphors. The curtain is the picture. So +our Lord here, in accordance with the necessary limitations of our +human knowledge, contents Himself with using what lay at His hand, +and taking it as giving faint shadows and metaphorical suggestions +as to spiritual blessedness yonder. + +There is one other way, as it seems to me, by which we can in any +measure body forth to ourselves that unknown condition of things, +and that is to fall back upon our present experiences in another +fashion, and negative all of them which involve pain and limitation +and incompleteness. There shall be no night--no sorrow--no tears--no +sighing, and the like. These negatives of the strong and stinging +griefs and limitations of the present are perhaps our second-best +way of coming to some prophetic vision of that great future. + +Remembering, then, that we are dealing with pure metaphor, and that +the exact translation of the metaphor into reality is not yet +possible for us, let us take one or two very plain thoughts out of +this great saying--'Until I drink it new with you in My Father's +kingdom.' + +Then, we have to think of the completion of the Christian life +beyond, which is also the completion of the results of Christ's +death on the Cross, as being, according to the very frequent +metaphor both of the Old and the New Testament, a prolonged +festival. I do not need to speak of the details of the thoughts that +thence emerge. Let me sum them up as briefly as may be. They include +the satisfaction of every desire and the nourishment of all +strength, and food for every faculty. When we think of the hungry +hearts that all men carry, and how true it is that even the wisest +and the holiest of us are 'spending our money for that which is not +bread, and our labour for that which satisfieth not'; when we think +of how the choicest foods that life can provide, even for the +noblest hunger of noble hearts, are too often to us but as a feeding +on ashes that will leave grit between the teeth and a foul taste +upon the palate, surely it is blessed to think that we may, after +all life's disappointments, cherish the hope of a perfect fruition, +and that yonder, if not here, it will be fully true that 'God never +sends mouths but He sends meat to feed them.' That is not so in this +world, for we all carry hungers which impel us forward to nobler +living, and which it would not be good for us to have satisfied +here. But, unless the whole universe is a godless chaos, there must +be somewhere a state in which a man shall have all that he wants, +and shall want only what he ought. + +The emblem of a feast suggests also society. The solitary travellers +who have been toiling and moiling through the desert all the day +long, snatching up a hasty mouthful as they march, and lonely many a +time, come together at last, and sit together there joyous and +united. Deep down in our hearts some of us have gashes that always +bleed. We know losses and loneliness, and we can feel, I hope, how +blessed is the thought that all the wanderers shall sit there +together, and rejoice in each other's communion, 'and so shall +_we_ ever be with the Lord.' + +But besides satisfaction and society the figure suggests repose. +That rest is not indolence, for we have to carry other metaphors +with us in order to come to the full significance of this one, and +the festal imagery is not all that we have to take into account; for +we read, 'I grant unto you a kingdom, and ye shall sit on twelve +thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel,' as well as 'ye shall +eat and drink with Me at My table in My kingdom.' So repose, which +is consistent and coexistent with the intensest activity, is the +great hope that comes out of these metaphors. But for many of us--I +suppose for all of us elderly people--who are about weary of work +and worry, there is no deeper hope than the hope of rest. 'I have +had labour enough for one,' says one of our poets. And I think there +is something in most of our hearts that echoes that and rejoices to +hear that, after the long march, 'ye shall sit with Me at My table.' + +But besides satisfaction, society, and rest, the figure suggests +gladness. Wine is the emblem of the joyous side of a feast, just as +bread is the emblem of the necessary nourishment. And it is +_new_ wine; joy raised to a higher power, transformed and +glorified; and yet the old emotion in a new form. As for that +gladness, 'eye hath not seen, neither hath it entered into the heart +of man to conceive, the things that God hath prepared for them that +love Him.' Only all we weary, heavy-laden, saddened, anxious, +disappointed, tormented people may hope for these festal joys, if we +are Christ's. The feast will last when all the troubles and the +cares which helped us to it are dead and buried and forgotten. + +These four things, brethren--satisfaction, society, rest, new +gladness--are proclaimed and prophesied to each of us, if we will, +by this memorial rite. + +Again, there comes from this aspect of the Communion the thought +that the blessed condition of the Christian soul hereafter is a +feast on a sacrifice. We must distinguish between the sense in which +our Lord drinks with us, and the sense in which we alone partake of +that feast of which He provides the viands. But just as in the +symbolic ordinance of the Communion the very essence of it is that +what was offered as sacrifice is now incorporated into the +participant's spiritual being, and becomes part of himself, and the +life of his life, so, in the future, all the blessedness of the +clustered and constellated joys of that life, which is one eternal +festival, shall arise from the reception into perfected spirits with +ever-growing greatness and blessedness of the Christ that died and +ever lives for them. That heavenly glory, to its highest pinnacle of +aspiration, to its most rapt completeness of gladness, is all the +consequence of Christ's death on the Cross. That death, which we +commemorate, is the procuring cause of man's entrance into bliss, +and that death is the subject of the continual, grateful remembrance +of the saints in the seventh heaven of their glory. Life yonder, as +all true life here, consists in taking into ourselves the life of +Jesus Christ, and the law for heaven is the same as the law for +earth, 'He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.' + +Lastly, the conception of the future for Christian souls arising +from this aspect of the Lord's Supper is that it is not only a +feast, and a feast on a sacrifice, but that it is a feast with the +King. + +'_With you_ I will drink it.' Brethren, we pass beyond metaphor when +we gather up and condense all the vague brightness and glories of that +perfect future into this one rapturous, overwhelming, all-embracing +thought: 'So shall we ever be with the Lord.' I could almost wish +that Christian people had no other thought of that future than this, +for surely in its grand simplicity, in its ineffable depth, there lie +the germs of every blessedness. How poor all the material emblems are +of which sensuous imaginations make so much, when compared with that +hope! As the good old hymn has it, which to me says more, in its bold +simplicity, than all the sentimental enlargements of Scriptural +metaphors which some people admire so much-- + + 'It is enough that Christ knows all, + And I shall be with Him.' + +Strange that He says, 'I will drink it _with you._' Does He +need sustenance? Does He need any external things in order to make +His feast? No! and Yes! 'I will sup with Him' as well as 'He with +me.' And, surely, His meat and drink are the love, the loyalty, the +obedience, the receptiveness, the society of His redeemed children. +'The joy of the Lord' comes from 'seeing of the travail of His +soul,' and His servants do enter into that joy in deep and wondrous +fashion. We not only shall live on Christ, but He Himself puts to +His own lips the chalice that He commends to ours, and in marvellous +condescension to, and identity with, our glorified humanity drinks +with us the 'new wine' in the Father's kingdom. + + + + +GETHSEMANE, THE OIL-PRESS + + + 'Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called + Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, + while I go and pray yonder. 37. And He took with Him + Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be + sorrowful and very heavy. 38. Then saith He unto them, + My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry + ye here, and watch with Me. 39. And He went a little + farther, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O My + Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: + nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt. 40. And + He cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, + and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with Me + one hour! 41. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into + temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh + is weak. 42. He went away again the second time, and + prayed, saying, O My Father, if this cup may not pass + away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done. + 43. And He came and found them asleep again: for their + eyes were heavy. 44. And He left them, and went away + again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. + 45. Then cometh He to His disciples, and saith unto + them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the + hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into + the hands of sinners. 46. Rise, let us be going: behold, + he is at hand that doth betray Me.'--MATT. xxvi. 36-46. + +One shrinks from touching this incomparable picture of unexampled +sorrow, for fear lest one's finger-marks should stain it. There is +no place here for picturesque description, which tries to mend the +gospel stories by dressing them in to-day's fashions, nor for +theological systematisers and analysers of the sort that would +'botanise upon their mother's grave.' We must put off our shoes, and +feel that we stand on holy ground. Though loving eyes saw something +of Christ's agony, He did not let them come beside Him, but withdrew +into the shadow of the gnarled olives, as if even the moonbeams must +not look too closely on the mystery of such grief. We may go as near +as love was allowed to go, but stop where it was stayed, while we +reverently and adoringly listen to what the Evangelist tells us of +that unspeakable hour. + +I. Mark the 'exceeding sorrow' of the Man of Sorrows. Somewhere on +the western foot of Olivet lay the garden, named from an oil-press +formerly or then in it, which was to be the scene of the holiest and +sorest sorrow on which the moon, that has seen so much misery, has +ever looked. Truly it was 'an oil-press,' in which 'the good olive' +was crushed by the grip of unparalleled agony, and yielded precious +oil, which has been poured into many a wound since then. Eight of +the eleven are left at or near the entrance, while He passes deeper +into the shadows with the three. They had been witnesses of His +prayers once before, on the slopes of Hermon, when He was +transfigured before them. They are now to see a no less wonderful +revelation of His glory in His filial submission. There is something +remarkable in Matthew's expression, 'He began to be sorrowful,'--as +if a sudden wave of emotion, breaking over His soul, had swept His +human sensibilities before it. The strange word translated by the +Revisers 'sore troubled' is of uncertain derivation, and may +possibly be simply intended to intensify the idea of sorrow; but +more probably it adds another element, which Bishop Lightfoot +describes as 'the confused, restless, half-distracted state which is +produced by physical derangement or mental distress.' A storm of +agitation and bewilderment broke His calm, and forced from His +patient lips, little wont to speak of His own emotions, or to seek +for sympathy, the unutterably pathetic cry, 'My soul is exceeding +sorrowful'--compassed about with sorrow, as the word means--'even +unto death.' No feeble explanation of these words does justice to +the abyss of woe into which they let us dimly look. They tell the +fact, that, a little more and the body would have sunk under the +burden. He knew the limits of human endurance, for 'all things were +made by Him,' and, knowing it, He saw that He had grazed the very +edge. Out of the darkness He reaches a hand to feel for the grasp of +a friend, and piteously asks these humble lovers to stay beside Him, +not that they could help Him to bear the weight, but that their +presence had some solace in it. His agony must be endured alone, +therefore He bade them tarry there; but He desired to have them at +hand, therefore He went but 'a little forward.' They could not bear +it with Him, but they could 'watch with' Him, and that poor comfort +is all He asks. No word came from them. They were, no doubt, awed +into silence, as the truest sympathy is used to be, in the presence +of a great grief. Is it permitted us to ask what were the fountains +of these bitter floods that swept over Christ's sinless soul? Was +the mere physical shrinking from death all? If so, we may reverently +say that many a maiden and old man, who drew all their fortitude +from Jesus, have gone to stake or gibbet for His sake, with a calm +which contrasts strangely with His agitation. Gethsemane is robbed +of its pathos and nobleness if that be all. But it was not all. +Rather it was the least bitter of the components of the cup. What +lay before Him was not merely death, but the death which was to +atone for a world's sin, and in which, therefore, the whole weight +of sin's consequences was concentrated. 'The Lord hath made to meet +on Him the iniquities of us all'; that is the one sufficient +explanation of this infinitely solemn and tender scene. Unless we +believe that, we shall find it hard to reconcile His agitation in +Gethsemane with the perfection of His character as the captain of +'the noble army of martyrs.' + +II. Note the prayer of filial submission. Matthew does not tell us +of the sweat falling audibly and heavily, and sounding to the three +like slow blood-drops from a wound, nor of the strengthening angel, +but he gives us the prostrate form, and the threefold prayer, +renewed as each moment of calm, won by it, was again broken in upon +by a fresh wave of emotion. Thrice He had to leave the disciples, +and came back, a calm conqueror; and twice the enemy rallied and +returned to the assault, and was at last driven finally from the +field by the power of prayer and submission. The three Synoptics +differ in their report of our Lord's words, but all mean the same +thing in substance; and it is obvious that much more must have been +spoken than they report. Possibly what we have is only the fragments +that reached the three before they fell asleep. In any case, Jesus +was absent from them on each occasion long enough to allow of their +doing so. + +Three elements are distinguishable in our Lord's prayer. There is, +first, the sense of Sonship, which underlies all, and was never more +clear than at that awful moment. Then there is the recoil from 'the +cup,' which natural instinct could not but feel, though sinlessly. +The flesh shrank from the Cross, which else had been no suffering; +and if no suffering, then had been no atonement. His manhood would +not have been like ours, nor His sorrows our pattern, if He had not +thus drawn back, in His sensitive humanity, from the awful prospect +now so near. But natural instinct is one thing, and the controlling +will another. However currents may have tossed the vessel, the firm +hand at the helm never suffered them to change her course. The will, +which in this prayer He seems so strangely to separate from the +Father's, even in the act of submission, was the will which wishes, +not that which resolves. His fixed purpose to die for the world's +sin never wavered. The shrinking does not reach the point of +absolutely and unconditionally asking that the cup might pass. Even +in the act of uttering the wish, it is limited by that 'if it be +possible,' which can only mean--possible, in view of the great +purpose for which He came. That is to be accomplished, at any cost; +and unless it can be accomplished though the cup be withdrawn, He +does not even wish, much less will, that it should be withdrawn. So, +the third element in the prayer is the utter resignation to the +Father's will, in which submission He found peace, as we do. + +He prayed His way to perfect calm, which is ever the companion of +perfect self-surrender to God. They who cease from their own works +do 'enter into rest.' All the agitations which had come storming in +massed battalions against Him are defeated by it. They have failed +to shake His purpose, they now fail even to disturb His peace. So, +victorious from the dreadful conflict, and at leisure of heart to +care for others, He can go back to the disciples. But even whilst +seeking to help them, a fresh wave of suffering breaks in on His +calm, and once again He leaves them to renew the struggle. The +instinctive shrinking reasserts itself, and, though overcome, is not +eradicated. But the second prayer is yet more rooted in acquiescence +than the first. It shows that He had not lost what He had won by the +former; for it, as it were, builds on that first supplication, and +accepts as answer to its contingent petition the consciousness, +accompanying the calm, that it was not possible for the cup to pass +from Him. The sense of Sonship underlies the complete resignation of +the second prayer as of the first. It has no wish but God's will, +and is the voluntary offering of Himself. Here He is both Priest and +Sacrifice, and offers the victim with this prayer of consecration. +So once more He triumphs, because once more, and yet more +completely, He submits, and accepts the Cross. For Him, as for us, +the Cross accepted ceases to be a pain, and the cup is no more +bitter when we are content to drink it. Once more in fainter fashion +the enemy came on, casting again his spent arrows, and beaten back +by the same weapon. The words were the same, because no others could +have expressed more perfectly the submission which was the heart of +His prayers and the condition of His victory. + +Christ's prayer, then, was not for the passing of the cup, but that +the will of God might be done in and by Him, and 'He was heard in +that He feared,' not by being exempted from the Cross, but by being +strengthened through submission for submission. So His agony is the +pattern of all true prayer, which must ever deal with our wishes, as +He did with His instinctive shrinking,--present them wrapped in an +'if it be possible,' and followed by a 'nevertheless.' The meaning +of prayer is not to force our wills on God's, but to bend our wills +to His; and that prayer is really answered of which the issue is our +calm readiness for all that He lays upon us. + +III. Note the sad and gentle remonstrance with the drowsy three. +'The sleep of the disciples, and of these disciples, and of all +three, and such an overpowering sleep, remains even after Luke's +explanation, "for sorrow," a psychological riddle' (_Meyer_). +It is singularly parallel with the sleep of the same three at the +Transfiguration--an event which presents the opposite pole of our +Lord's experiences, and yields so many antithetical parallels to +Gethsemane. No doubt the tension of emotion, which had lasted for +many hours, had worn them out; but, if weariness had weighed down +their eyelids, love should have kept them open. Such sleep of such +disciples may have been a riddle, but it was also a crime, and +augured imperfect sympathy. Gentle surprise and the pain of +disappointed love are audible in the question, addressed to Peter +especially, as he had promised so much, but meant for all. This was +all that Jesus got in answer to His yearning for sympathy. 'I looked +for some to take pity, but there was none.' Those who loved Him most +lay curled in dead slumber within earshot of His prayers. If ever a +soul tasted the desolation of utter loneliness, that suppliant +beneath the olives tasted it. But how little of the pain escapes His +lips! The words but hint at the slightness of their task compared +with His, at the brevity of the strain on their love, and at the +companionship which ought to have made sleep impossible. May we not +see in Christ's remonstrance a word for all? For us, too, the task +of keeping awake in the enchanted ground is light, measured against +His, and the time is short, and we have Him to keep us company in +the watch, and every motive of grateful love should make it easy; +but, alas, how many of us sleep a drugged and heavy slumber! + +The gentle remonstrance soon passes over into counsel as gentle. +Watchfulness and prayer are inseparable. The one discerns dangers, +the other arms against them. Watchfulness keeps us prayerful, and +prayerfulness keeps us watchful. To watch without praying is +presumption, to pray without watching is hypocrisy. The eye that +sees clearly the facts of life will turn upwards from its scanning +of the snares and traps, and will not look in vain. These two are +the indispensable conditions of victorious encountering of +temptation. Fortified by them, we shall not 'enter into' it, though +we encounter it. The outward trial will remain, but its power to +lead us astray will vanish. It will still be danger or sorrow, but +it will not be temptation; and we shall pass through it, as a +sunbeam through foul air, untainted, and keeping heaven's radiance. +That is a lesson for a wider circle than the sleepy three. + +It is followed by words which would need a volume to expound in all +their depth and width of application, but which are primarily a +reason for the preceding counsel, as well as a loving apology for +the disciples' sleep. Christ is always glad to give us credit for +even imperfect good; His eye, which sees deeper than ours, sees more +lovingly, and is not hindered from marking the willing spirit by +recognising weak flesh. But these words are not to be made a pillow +for indolent acquiescence in the limitations which the flesh imposes +on the spirit. He may take merciful count of these, and so may we, +in judging others, but it is fatal to plead them at the bar of our +own consciences. Rather they should be a spur to our watchfulness +and to our prayer. We need these because the flesh is weak, still +more because, in its weakness toward good, it is strong to evil. +Such exercise will give governing power to the spirit, and enable it +to impose its will on the reluctant flesh. If we watch and pray, the +conflict between these two elements in the renewed nature will tend +to unity and peace by the supremacy of the spirit; if we do not, it +will tend to cease by the unquestioned tyranny of the flesh. In one +or other direction our lives are tending. + +Strange that such words had no effect. But so it was, and so deep +was the apostles' sleep that Christ left them undisturbed the second +time. The relapse is worse than the original disease. Sleep broken +and resumed is more torpid and fatal than if it had not been +interrupted. We do not know how long it lasted, though the whole +period in the garden must have been measured by hours; but at last +it was broken by the enigmatical last words of our Lord. The +explanation of the direct opposition between the consecutive +sentences, by taking the 'Sleep on now' as ironical, jars on one's +reverence. Surely irony is out of keeping with the spirit of Christ +then. Rather He bids them sleep on, since the hour is come, in sad +recognition that the need for their watchful sympathy is past, and +with it the opportunity for their proved affection. It is said with +a tone of contemplative melancholy, and is almost equivalent to 'too +late, too late.' The memorable sermon of F. W. Robertson, on this +text, rightly grasps the spirit of the first clause, when it dwells +with such power on the thought of 'the irrevocable past' of wasted +opportunities and neglected duty. But the sudden transition to the +sharp, short command and broken sentences of the last verse is to be +accounted for by the sudden appearance of the flashing lights of the +band led by Judas, somewhere near at hand, in the valley. The mood +of pensive reflection gives place to rapid decision. He summons them +to arise, not for flight, but that He may go out to meet the +traitor. Escape would have been easy. There was time to reach some +sheltering fold of the hill in the darkness; but the prayer beneath +the silver-grey olives had not been in vain, and these last words in +Gethsemane throb with the Son's willingness to yield Himself up, and +to empty to its dregs the cup which the Father had given Him. + + + + +THE LAST PLEADING OF LOVE + + + 'And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou + come?'--MATT. xxvi. 50. + +We are accustomed to think of the betrayer of our Lord as a kind of +monster, whose crime is so mysterious in its atrocity as to put him +beyond the pale of human sympathy. The awful picture which the great +Italian poet draws of him as alone in hell, shunned even there, as +guilty beyond all others, expresses the general feeling about him. +And even the attempts which have been made to diminish the greatness +of his guilt, by supposing that his motive was only to precipitate +Christ's assumption of His conquering Messianic power, are prompted +by the same thought that such treason as his is all but +inconceivable. I cannot but think that these attempts fail, and that +the narratives of the Gospels oblige us to think of his crime as +deliberate treachery. But even when so regarded, other emotions than +wondering loathing should be excited by the awful story. + +There had been nothing in his previous history to suggest such sin, +as is proved by the disciples' question, when our Lord announced +that one of them should betray Him. No suspicion lighted on him--no +finger pointed to where he sat. But self-distrust asked, 'Lord, is +it I?' and only love, pillowed on the Master's breast, and strong in +the happy sense of His love, was sufficiently assured of its own +constancy, to change the question into 'Lord! who is it?' The +process of corruption was unseen by all eyes but Christ's. He came +to his terrible pre-eminence in crime by slow degrees, and by paths +which we may all tread. As for his guilt, that is in other hands +than ours. As for his fate, let us copy the solemn and pitying +reticence of Peter, and say, 'that he might go to _his own_ +place'--the place that belongs to him, and that he is fit for, +wherever that may be. As for the growth and development of his sin, +let us remember that 'we have all of us one human heart,' and that +the possibilities of crime as dark are in us all. And instead of +shuddering abhorrence at a sin that can scarcely be understood, and +can never be repeated, let us be sure that whatever man has done, +man may do, and ask with humble consciousness of our own deceitful +hearts, 'Lord, is it I?' + +These remarkable and solemn words of Christ, with which He meets the +treacherous kiss, appear to be a last appeal to Judas. They may +possibly not be a question, as in our version--but an incomplete +sentence, 'What thou hast come to do'--leaving the implied command, +'That do,' unexpressed. They would then be very like other words +which the betrayer had heard but an hour or two before, 'That thou +doest, do quickly.' But such a rendering does not seem so +appropriate to the circumstances as that which makes them a +question, smiting on his heart and conscience, and seeking to tear +away the veil of sophistications with which he had draped from his +own eyes the hideous shape of his crime. And, if so, what a +wonderful instance we have here of that long-suffering love. They +are the last effort of the divine patience to win back even the +traitor. They show us the wrestle between infinite mercy and a +treacherous, sinful heart, and they bring into awful prominence the +power which that heart has of rejecting the counsel of God against +itself. I venture to use them now as suggesting these three things: +the patience of Christ's love; the pleading of Christ's love; and +the refusal of Christ's love. + +I. The patience of Christ's love. + +If we take no higher view of this most pathetic incident than that the +words come from a man's lips, even then all its beauty will not be +lost. There are some sins against friendship in which the manner is +harder to bear than the substance of the evil. It must have been a +strangely mean and dastardly nature, as well as a coarse and cold one, +that could think of fixing on the kiss of affection as the concerted +sign to point out their victim to the legionaries. Many a man who +could have planned and executed the treason would have shrunk from +that. And many a man who could have borne to be betrayed by his own +familiar friend would have found that heartless insult worse to endure +than the treason itself. But what a picture of perfect patience and +unruffled calm we have here, in that the answer to the poisonous, +hypocritical embrace was these moving words! The touch of the traitor's +lips has barely left His cheek, but not one faint passing flush of +anger tinges it. He is perfectly self-oblivious--absorbed in other +thoughts, and among them in pity for the guilty wretch before Him. +His words have no agitation in them, no instinctive recoil from the +pollution of such a salutation. They have grave rebuke, but it is +rebuke which derives its very force from the appeal to former +companionship. Christ still recognises the ancient bond, and is true +to it. He will still plead with this man who has been beside Him long; +and though His heart be wounded yet He is not wroth, and He will not +cast him off. If this were nothing more than a picture of human +friendship it would stand alone, above all other records that the +world cherishes in its inmost heart, of the love that never fails, and +is not soon angry. + +But we, I hope, dear brethren, think more loftily and more truly of +our dear Lord than as simply a perfect manhood, the exemplar of all +goodness. How He comes to be that, if He be not more than that, I do +not understand, and I, for one, feel that my confidence in the +flawless completeness of His human character lives or dies with my +belief that He is the Eternal Word, God manifest in the flesh. +Certainly we shall never truly grasp the blessed meaning of His life +on earth until we look upon it all as the revelation of God. The +tears of Christ are the pity of God. The gentleness of Jesus is the +long-suffering of God. The tenderness of Jesus is the love of God. +'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father'; and all that life so +beautiful but so anomalous as to be all but incredible, when we +think of it as only the life of a man, glows with a yet fairer +beauty, and corresponds with the nature which it expresses, when we +think of it as being the declaration to us by the divine Son of the +divine Father--our loftiest, clearest, and authentic revelation of +God. + +How that thought lifts these words before us into a still higher +region! We are now in the presence of the solemn greatness of a +divine love. If the meaning of this saying is what we have +suggested, it is pathetic even in the lower aspect, but how +infinitely that pathos is deepened when we view it in the higher! + +Surely if ever there was a man who might have been supposed to be +excluded from the love of God, it was Judas. Surely if ever there +was a moment in a human life, when one might have supposed that even +Christ's ever open heart would shut itself together against any one, +it was this moment. But no, the betrayer in the very instant of his +treason has that changeless tenderness lingering around him, and +that merciful hand beckoning to him still. + +And have we not a right to generalise this wonderful fact, and to +declare its teaching to be--that the love of God is extended to us +all, and cannot be made to turn away from us by any sins of ours? +Sin is mighty; it can work endless evils on us; it can disturb and +embitter all our relations with God; it can, as we shall presently +have to point out, make it necessary for the tenderest 'grace of God +to come disciplining'--to 'come with a rod,' just because it comes +in 'the spirit of meekness.' But one thing it cannot do, and that +is--make God cease to love us. I suppose all human affection can be +worn out by constant failure to evoke a response from cold hearts. I +suppose that it can be so nipped by frosts, so constantly checked in +blossoming, that it shrivels and dies. I suppose that constant +ingratitude, constant indifference can turn the warmest springs of +our love to a river of ice. 'Can a mother forget her child?--Yea, +she may forget.' But we have to do with a God, whose love is His +very being; who loves us not for reasons in us but in Himself; whose +love is eternal and boundless as all His nature; whose love, +therefore, cannot be turned away by our sin--but abides with us for +ever, and is granted to every soul of man. Dear brethren, we cannot +believe too firmly, we cannot trust too absolutely, we cannot +proclaim too broadly that blessed thought, without which we have no +hope to feed on for ourselves, or to share with our fellows--the +universal love of God in Christ. + +Is there a _worst_ man on earth at this moment? If there be, +he, too, has a share in that love. Harlots and thieves, publicans +and sinners, leprous outcasts, and souls tormented by unclean +spirits, the wrecks of humanity whom decent society and respectable +Christianity passes by with averted head and uplifted hands, +criminals on the gibbet with the rope round their necks--and those +who are as hopeless as any of these, self-complacent formalists and +'Gospel-hardened professors'--all have a place in that heart. And +that, not as undistinguished members of a class, but as separate +souls, singly the objects of God's knowledge and love. He loves all, +because He loves each. We are not massed together in His view, nor +in His regard. He does not lose the details in the whole; as we, +looking on some great crowd of upturned faces, are conscious of all +but recognise no single one. He does not love a class--a world--but +He loves the single souls that make it up--you and me, and every one +of the millions that we throw together in the vague phrase, 'the +race.' Let us individualise that love in our thoughts as it +individualises us in its outflow--and make our own the 'exceeding +broad' promises, which include us, too. 'God loves _me_; Christ +gave Himself for _me_. _I_ have a place in that royal, tender +heart.' + +Nor should any sin make us doubt this. He loved us with exceeding +love, even when we were 'dead in trespasses.' He did not begin to +love because of anything in us; He will not cease because of +anything in us. We change; 'He abideth faithful, He cannot deny +Himself.' As the sunshine pours down as willingly and abundantly on +filth and dunghills, as on gold that glitters in its beam, and +jewels that flash back its lustre, so the light and warmth of that +unsetting and unexhausted source of life pours down 'on the +unthankful and on the good.' The great ocean clasps some black and +barren crag that frowns against it, as closely as with its waves it +kisses some fair strand enamelled with flowers and fragrant with +perfumes. So that sea of love in which we 'live, and move, and have +our being,' encircles the worst with abundant flow. He Himself sets +us the pattern, which to imitate is to be the children of 'our +Father which is in heaven,' in that He loves His enemies, blessing +them that curse, and doing good to them that hate. He Himself is +what He has enjoined us to be, in that He feeds His enemies when +they hunger, and when they thirst gives them drink, heaping coals of +fire on their heads, and seeking to kindle in them thereby the glow +of answering love, not being overcome of their evil, so that He +repays hate with hate and scorn with scorn, but in patient +continuance of loving kindness seeking to overcome evil with good. +He is Himself that 'charity' which 'is not easily provoked, is not +soon angry, beareth all things, hopeth all things, and never +faileth.' His love is mightier than all our sins, and waits not on +our merits, nor is turned away by our iniquities. 'God so loved the +world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth +in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' + +II. Then, secondly, we have here--the pleading of Christ's patient +love. + +I have been trying to say as broadly and strongly as I can, that our +sins do not turn away the love of God in Christ from us. The more +earnestly we believe and proclaim that, the more needful is it to +set forth distinctly--and that not as limiting, but as explaining +the truth--the other thought, that the sin which does not avert, +does modify the expression of, the love of God. Man's sin compels +Him to do what the prophet calls his 'strange work'--the work which +is not dear to His heart, nor natural, if one may so say, to His +hands--His work of judgment. + +The love of Christ has to come to sinful men with patient pleading +and remonstrance, that it may enter their hearts and give its +blessings. We are familiar with a modern work of art in which that +long-suffering appeal is wonderfully portrayed. He who is the Light +of the world stands, girded with the royal mantle clasped with the +priestly breastplate, bearing in His hand the lamp of truth, and +there, amidst the dew of night and the rank hemlock, He pleads for +entrance at the closed door which has no handle on its outer side, +and is hinged to open only from within. 'I stand at the door and +knock. If any man open the door, I will come in.' + +And in this incident before us, we see represented not only the +endless patience of God's pitying love, but the method which it +needs to take in order to reach the heart. + +There is an appeal to the traitor's heart, and an appeal to his +conscience. Christ would have him think of the relations that have +so long subsisted between them; and He would have him think, too, of +the real nature of the deed he is doing, or, perhaps, of the motives +that impel him. The grave, sad word, by which He addresses him, is +meant to smite upon his heart. The sharp question which He puts to +him is meant to wake up his conscience; and both taken together +represent the two chief classes of remonstrance which He brings to +bear upon us all--the two great batteries from which He assails the +fortress of our sins. + +There is first, then--Christ's appeal to the heart. He tries to make +Judas feel the considerations that should restrain him. The +appellation by which our Lord addresses him does not in the original +convey quite so strongly the idea of amity, as our word 'Friend' +does. It is not the same as that which He had used a few hours +before in the upper chamber, when He said, 'Henceforth I call you +not servants, but I have called you friends.--Ye are My friends if +ye do whatsoever I command you.' It is the same as is put into the +lips of the Lord of the vineyard, remonstrating with his jealous +labourer, 'Friend, I do thee no wrong.' There is a tone, then, of +less intimate association and graver rebuke in it than in that name +with which He honours those who make His will theirs, and His word +the law of their lives. It does not speak of close confidence, but +it does suggest companionship and kindness on the part of the +speaker. There is rebuke in it, but it is rebuke which derives its +whole force from the remembrance of ancient concord and connection. +Our Lord would recall to the memory of the betrayer the days in +which they had taken sweet counsel together. It is as if He had +said--'Hast thou forgotten all our former intercourse? Thou hast +eaten My bread, thou hast been Mine own familiar friend, in whom I +trusted--canst thou lift up thy heel against Me?' What happy hours +of quiet fellowship on many a journey, of rest together after many a +day of toil, what forgotten thoughts of the loving devotion and the +glow of glad consecration that he had once felt, what a long series +of proofs of Christ's gentle goodness and meek wisdom should have +sprung again to remembrance at such an appeal! And how black and +dastardly would his guilt have seemed if once he had ventured to +remember what unexampled friendship he was sinning against! + +Is it not so with us all, dear brethren? All our evils are betrayals +of Christ, and all our betrayals of Christ are sins against a +perfect friendship and an unvaried goodness. We, too, have sat at +His table, heard His wisdom, seen His miracles, listened to His +pleadings, have had a place in His heart; and if we turn away from +Him to do our own pleasure, and sell His love for a handful of +silver, we need not cherish shuddering abhorrence against that poor +wretch who gave Him up to the cross. Oh! if we could see aright, we +should see our Saviour's meek, sad face standing between us and each +of our sins, with warning in the pitying eyes, and His pleading +voice would sound in our ears, appealing to us by loving +remembrances of His ancient friendship, to turn from the evil which +is treason against Him, and wounds His heart as much as it harms +ours. Take heed lest in condemning the traitor we doom ourselves. If +we flush into anger at the meanness of his crime, and declare, 'He +shall surely die,' do we not hear a prophet's voice saying to each, +'Thou art the man'? + +The loving hand laid on the heart-strings is followed by a strong +stroke on conscience. The heart vibrates most readily in answer to +gentle touches: the conscience, in answer to heavier, as the breath +that wakes the chords of an Aeolian harp would pass silent through +the brass of a trumpet. 'Wherefore art thou come?'--if to be taken +as a question at all, which, as I have said, seems most natural, is +either, 'What hast thou come to do?'--or, 'Why hast thou come to do +it?' Perhaps it maybe fairly taken as including both. But, at all +events, it is clearly an appeal to Judas to make him see what his +conduct really is in itself, and possibly in its motive too. And +this is the constant effort of the love of Christ--to get us to say +to ourselves the real name of what we are about. + +We cloak our sins from ourselves with many wrappings, as they swathe +a mummy in voluminous folds. And of these veils, one of the thickest +is woven by our misuse of words to describe the very same thing by +different names, according as we do it, or another man does it. +Almost all moral actions--the thing to which we can apply the words +right or wrong--have two or more names, of which the one suggests +the better and the other the worse side of the action. For instance +what in ourselves we call prudent regard for our own interest, we +call, in our neighbour, narrow selfishness; what in ourselves is +laudable economy, in him is miserable avarice. We are impetuous, he +is passionate; we generous, he lavish; we are clever men of +business, he is a rogue; we sow our wild oats and are gay, he is +dissipated. So we cheat ourselves by more than half-transparent +veils of our own manufacture, which we fling round the ugly features +and misshapen limbs of these sins of ours, and we are made more than +ever their bond-slaves thereby. + +Therefore, it is the office of the truest love to force us to look at +the thing as it is. It would go some way to keep a man from some of +his sins if he would give the thing its real name. A distinct conscious +statement to oneself, 'Now I am going to tell a lie'--'This that I am +doing is fraud'--'This emotion that I feel creeping with devilish +warmth about the roots of my heart is revenge'--and so on, would +surely startle us sometimes, and make us fling the gliding poison +from our breast, as a man would a snake that he found just lifting +its head from the bosom of his robe. Suppose Judas had answered the +question, and, gathering himself up, had looked his Master in the face, +and said--'What have I come for?' 'I have come to betray Thee for +thirty pieces of silver!' Do you not think that putting his guilt into +words might have moved even him to more salutary feelings than the +remorse which afterwards accompanied his tardy discernment of what he +_had_ done? So the patient love of Christ comes rebuking, and +smiting hard on conscience. 'The grace of God that bringeth salvation +to all men hath appeared disciplining'--and His hand is never more +gentle than when it plucks away the films with which we hide our sins +from ourselves, and shows us the 'rottenness and dead men's bones' +beneath the whited walls of the sepulchres and the velvet of the coffins. + +He must begin with rebukes that He may advance to blessing. He must +teach us what is separating us from Him that, learning it, we may +flee to His grace to help us. There is no entrance for the truest +gifts of His patient love into any heart that has not yielded to His +pleading remonstrance, and in lowly penitence has answered His +question as He would have us answer it, 'Friend and Lover of my +soul, I have sinned against Thy tender heart, against the unexampled +patience of Thy love. I have departed from Thee and betrayed Thee. +Blessed be Thy merciful voice which hath taught me what I have done! +Blessed be Thine unwearied goodness which still bends over me! Raise +me fallen! forgive me treacherous! Keep me safe and happy, ever true +and near to Thee!' + +III. Notice the possible rejection of the pleading of Christ's +patient love. + +Even that appeal was vain. Here we are confronted with a plain +instance of man's mysterious and awful power of 'frustrating the +counsel of God'--of which one knows not whether is greater, the +difficulty of understanding how a finite will _can_ rear itself +against the Infinite Will, or the mournful mystery that a creature +should desire to set itself against its loving Maker and Benefactor. +But strange as it is, yet so it is; and we can turn round upon +Sovereign Fatherhood bidding us to its service, and say, '_I will +not_.' He pleads with us, and we can resist His pleadings. He +holds out the mercies of His hands and the gifts of His grace, and +we can reject them. We cannot cease to be the objects of His love, +but we can refuse to be the recipients of its most precious gifts. +We can bar our hearts against it. Then, of what avail is it to us? +To go back to an earlier illustration, the sunshine pours down and +floods a world, what does that matter to us if we have fastened up +shutters on all our windows, and barred every crevice through which +the streaming gladness can find its way? We shall grope at noontide +as in the dark within our gloomy house, while our neighbours have +light in theirs. What matters it though we float in the great ocean +of the divine love, if with pitch and canvas we have carefully +closed every aperture at which the flood can enter? A hermetically +closed jar, plunged in the Atlantic, will be as dry inside as if it +were lying on the sand of the desert. It is possible to perish of +thirst within sight of the fountain. It is possible to separate +ourselves from the love of God, not to separate the love of God from +ourselves. + +The incident before us carries another solemn lesson--how simple and +easy a thing it is to repel that pleading love. What did Judas do? +Nothing; it was enough. He merely held his peace--no more. There was +no need for him to break out with oaths and curses, to reject his +Lord with wild words. Silence was sufficient. And for us--no more is +required. We have but to be passive; we have but to stand still. Not +to accept is to refuse; non-submission is rebellion. We do not need +to emphasise our refusal by any action--no need to lift our clenched +hands in defiance. We have simply to put them behind our backs or to +keep them folded. The closed hand must remain an empty hand. 'He +that believeth not is condemned.' My friend, remember that, when +Christ pleads and draws, to do nothing is to oppose, and to delay is +to refuse. It is a very easy matter to ruin your soul. You have +simply to keep still when He says 'Come unto Me'--to keep your eyes +fixed where they were, when He says, 'Look unto Me, and be ye +saved,' and all the rest will follow of itself. + +Notice, too, how the appeal of Christ's love hardens where it does +not soften. That gentle voice drove the traitor nearer the verge +over which he fell into a gulf of despair. It should have drawn him +closer to the Lord, but he recoiled from it, and was thereby brought +nearer destruction. Every pleading of Christ's grace, whether by +providences, or by books, or by His own word, does something with +us. It is never vain. Either it melts or it hardens. The sun either +scatters the summer morning mists, or it rolls them into heavier +folds, from whose livid depths the lightning will be flashing by +mid-day. You cannot come near the most inadequate exhibition of the +pardoning love of Christ without being either drawn closer to Him or +driven further from Him. Each act of rejection prepares the way for +another, which will be easier, and adds another film to the darkness +which covers your eyes, another layer to the hardness which incrusts +your hearts. + +Again, that silence, so eloquent and potent in its influence, was +probably the silence of a man whose conscience was convicted while +his will was unchanged. Such a condition is possible. It points to +solemn thoughts, and to deep mysteries in man's awful nature. He +knew that he was wrong, he had no excuse, his deed was before him in +some measure in its true character, and yet he would not give it up. +Such a state, if constant and complete, presents the most frightful +picture we can frame of a soul. That a man shall not be able to say, +'I did it ignorantly'; that Christ shall not be able to ground His +intercession on, 'They know not what they do'; that with full +knowledge of the true nature of the deed, there shall be no wavering +of the determination to do it--we may well turn with terror from +such an awful abyss. But let us remember that, whether such a +condition in its completeness is conceivable or not, at all events +we may approach it indefinitely; and we do approach it by every sin, +and by every refusal to yield to the love that would touch our +consciences and fill our hearts. + +Have you ever noticed what a remarkable verbal correspondence there +is between these words of our text, and some other very solemn ones +of Christ's? The question that He puts into the lips of the king who +came in to see his guests is, '_Friend, how camest thou_ in +hither, not having on a wedding garment?' The question asked on +earth shall be repeated again at last. The silence which once +indicated a convinced conscience and an unchanged will may at that +day indicate both of these and hopelessness beside. The clear vision +of the divine love, if it do not flood the heart with joy and evoke +the bliss of answering love, may fill it with bitterness. It is +possible that the same revelation of the same grace may be the +heaven of heaven to those who welcome it, and the pain of hell to +those who turn from it. It is possible that love believed and +received may be life, and love recognised and rejected may be death. +It is possible that the vision of the same face may make some break +forth with the rapturous hymn, 'Lo, this is our God, we have waited +for Him!' and make others call on the hills to fall on them and +cover them from its brightness. + +But let us not end with such words. Rather, dear brethren, let us +yield to His patient beseechings; let Him teach us our evil and our +sin. Listen to His great love who invites us to plead, and promises +to pardon--'Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: +though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; +though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' + + + + +THE REAL HIGH PRIEST AND HIS COUNTERFEIT + + + 'And they that had laid hold on Jesus led Him away to + Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the + elders were assembled. 58. But Peter followed Him afar + off unto the high priest's palace, and went in, and sat + with the servants, to see the end. 59. Now the chief + priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false + witness against Jesus, to put Him to death; 60. But + found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet + found they none. At the last came two false witnesses, + 61. And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy + the temple of God, and to build it in three days. + 62 And the high priest arose, and said unto Him, + Answerest Thou nothing? what is it which these witness + against Thee? 63. But Jesus held His peace. And the + high priest answered and said unto Him, I adjure Thee + by the living God, that Thou tell us whether Thou be + the Christ, the Son of God. 64. Jesus saith unto him, + Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter + shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand + of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. 65. Then + the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken + blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? + behold, now ye have heard His blasphemy. 66. What think + ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death. + 67. Then did they spit in His face, and buffeted Him; + and others smote Him with the palms of their hands, + 68. Saying, Prophesy unto us, Thou Christ, Who is he + that smote Thee?'--MATT. xxvi. 57-68. + +John's Gospel tells us that Jesus was brought before 'Annas first,' +probably in the same official priestly residence as Caiaphas, his +son-in-law, occupied. That preliminary examination brought out +nothing to incriminate the prisoner, and was flagrantly illegal, +being an attempt to entrap Him into self-accusing statements. It was +baffled by Jesus being silent first, and subsequently taking His +stand on the undeniable principle that a charge must be sustained by +evidence, not based on self-accusation. Annas, having made nothing +of this strange criminal, 'sent Him bound unto Caiaphas.' + +A meeting of the Sanhedrin had been hastily summoned in the dead of +night, which was itself an illegality. Now Jesus stands before the +poor shadow of a judicial tribunal, which, though it was all that +Rome had left a conquered people, was still entitled to sit in +judgment on Him. Strange inversion, and awful position for these +formalists! And with sad persistence of bitter prejudice they +proceeded to try the prisoner, all unaware that it was themselves, +not Him, that they were trying. + +They began wrongly, and betrayed their animus at once. They were +sitting there to inquire whether Jesus was guilty or no; they had +made up their minds beforehand that He was, and their effort now was +but to manufacture some thin veil of legality for a judicial murder. +So they 'sought false witness, ... that they might put Him to +death.' Matthew simply says that no evidence sufficient for the +purpose was forthcoming; Mark adds that the weak point, was that the +lies contradicted each other. Christ's presence has a strange, +solemn power of unmasking our falsehoods, both of thought and deed, +and it is hard to speak evil of Him before His face. If His +calumniators were confused when He stood as Prisoner, what will they +be when He sits as a Judge? + +Only Matthew and Mark tell us of the two witnesses whose twisted +version of the word about 'destroying the Temple and rebuilding it +in three days' seemed to Caiaphas serious enough to require an +answer. Their mistake was one which might have been made in good +faith, but none the less was their travesty 'false witness.' Their +version of His great word shows how easily the teaching of a lofty +soul, passed through the popular brain, is degraded, and made to +mean the opposite of what he had meant by it. For the destruction of +the Temple had appeared in the saying as the Jews' work, and Jesus +had presented Himself in it as the Restorer, not the Destroyer, of +the Temple and of all that it symbolised. We destroy, He rebuilds. +The murder of Jesus was the suicide of the nation. Caiaphas and his +council were even now pulling down the Temple. And that murder was +the destruction, so far as men could effect it, of the true 'Temple +of His body,' in which the fulness of the Godhead dwelt, and which +was more gloriously reconstituted in the Resurrection. The risen +Christ rears the true temple on earth, for through Him the Holy +Ghost dwells in His Church, which is collectively 'the Temple,' and +in all believing spirits, which are individually 'the temples' of +God. So the false witnesses distorted into a lie a great truth. + +The Incarnate Word was dumb all the while. He 'was still and +refrained' Himself. It was the silence of the King before a lawless +tribunal of rebels, of patient meekness, 'as a sheep before her +shearers'; of innocence that will not stoop to defend itself from +groundless accusations; of infinite pity and forbearing love, which +sees that it cannot win, but will not smite. Jesus is still silent, +but one day, 'with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked.' +Caiaphas seems to have been annoyed as well as surprised at Jesus' +silence, for there is a trace of irritation, as at 'contempt of +court,' in his words. But our Lord's continued silence appears to +have somewhat awed him, and the dawning consciousness of his dignity +is, perhaps, the reason for the high priest's casting aside all the +foolery of false witnessing, and coming at last to the real point,-- +the Messianic claims of Jesus. + +Caiaphas was doing his duty as high priest in inquiring into such +claims, but he was somewhat late in the day, and he had made up his +mind before he inquired. What he wished to get was a plain assertion +on which the death sentence could be pronounced. Jesus knew this, +and yet He answered. But Luke tells us that He first scathingly +pointed to the unreality and animus of the question by saying, 'If I +tell you, ye will not believe.' But yet it was fitting that He +should solemnly, before the supreme court, representative of the +nation, declare that He was the Messiah, and that, if He was to be +rejected and condemned, it should be on the ground of that +declaration. Before Caiaphas He claimed to be Messiah, before Pilate +He claimed to be King. Each rejected Him in the character that +appealed to them most. The many-sidedness of the perfect Revealer of +God brings Him to each soul in the aspect that most loudly addresses +each. Therefore the love in the appeal and the guilt in its +rejection are the greater. + +But Christ's self-attestation to the council was not limited to the +mere claim to the name of Messiah. It disclosed the implications of +that name in a way altogether unlike the conceptions held by +Caiaphas. When Caiaphas put in apposition 'the Christ' and 'the Son +of God,' he was not speaking from the ordinary Jewish point of view, +but from some knowledge, of Christ's teaching, and there are two +charges combined into one. + +But Jesus' answer, while plainly claiming to be the Messiah, expands +itself in regard to the claim to be 'Son of God,' and shows its +tremendous significance. It involves participation in divine +authority and omnipotence. It involves a future coming to be the +Judge of His judges. It declares that these blind scribes and elders +will see Him thus exalted, and it asserts that all this is to begin +then and there ('henceforth'), as if that hour of humiliation was to +His consciousness the beginning of His manifestation as Lord, or, as +John has it, 'the hour that the Son of Man should be glorified.' Nor +must we leave out of sight the fact that it is 'the Son of Man' of +whom all this is said, for thereby are indicated the raising of His +perfect humanity to participation in Deity, and the possibility that +His brethren, too, may sit where He sits. Much was veiled in the +answer to the council, much is veiled to us. But this remains,--that +Jesus, at that supreme moment, when He was bound to leave no +misunderstandings, made the plainest claim to divinity, and could +have saved His life if He had not done so. Either Caiaphas, in his +ostentatious horror of such impiety, was right in calling Christ's +words blasphemy, and not far wrong in inferring that Jesus was not +fit to live, or He is the everlasting 'Son of the Father,' and will +'come to be our Judge.' + + + + +JESUS CHARGED WITH BLASPHEMY + + + 'Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He + hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of + witnesses?'--MATT. xxvi. 65. + +Jesus was tried and condemned by two tribunals, the Jewish +ecclesiastical and the Roman civil. In each case the charge +corresponded to the Court. The Sanhedrin took no cognisance of, and +had no concern with, rebellion against Caesar; though for the time +they pretended loyalty. Pilate had still less concern about Jewish +superstitions. And so the investigation in each case turned on a +different question. In the one it was, 'Art Thou the Son of God?' in +the other, 'Art Thou the King of Israel?' The answer to both was a +simple 'Yes!' but with very significant differences. Pilate received +an explanation; the Sanhedrin none. The Roman governor was taught +that Christ's title of King belonged to another region altogether +from that of Caesar, and did not in the slightest degree infringe +upon the dominion that he represented. But 'Son of God' was capable +of no explanation that could make it any less offensive; and the +only thing to be done was to accept it or to condemn Him. + +So this saying of the high priest differs from other words of our +Lord's antagonists, which we have been considering in recent pages, +in that it is no distortion of our Lord's characteristics or +meaning. It correctly understands, but it fatally rejects, His +claims; and does not hesitate to take the further step, on the +ground of these, of branding Him as a blasphemer. + +We may turn the high priest's question in another direction: 'What +further need have we of witnesses?' These horror-stricken judges, +rending their garments in simulated grief and zeal, and that silent +Prisoner, knowing that His life was the forfeit of His claims, yet +saying no word of softening or explanation of them, may teach us +much. They are witnesses to some of the central facts of the +revelation of God in Christ. Let us turn to these for a few moments. + +I. First, then, they witness to Christ's claims. + +The question that was proposed to Jesus, 'Art Thou the Christ, the +Son of the living God?' was suggested by the facts of His ministry, +and not by anything that had come out in the course of this +investigation. It was the summing up of the impression made on the +ecclesiastical authorities of Judaism by His whole attitude and +demeanour. And if we look back to His life we shall see that there +were instances, long before this, on which, on the same ground, the +same charge was flung at Him. For example, when He would heal the +paralytic, and, before He dealt with bodily disease, attended to +spiritual weakness, and said, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee,' ere He +said, 'Take up thy bed and walk,' there was a group of keen-eyed +hunters after heresy sitting eagerly on the watch, who snatched at +the words in a moment, and said, 'Who is this that forgiveth sins? +No _man_ forgiveth sins, but God only! This man speaketh +blasphemies!' And they were right. He did claim a divine +prerogative; and either the claim must be admitted or the charge of +blasphemy urged. + +Again, when He infringed Rabbinical Sabbath law by a cure, and they +said, 'This Man has broken the Sabbath day,' His vindication was +worse than His offence, for He answered, 'My Father worketh +hitherto, and I work.' And then they sought the more to kill Him, +because He not only brake the Sabbath, but also called God His own +Father, making Himself equal with God.' And again, when He declared +that the safety of His sheep in His hands was identical with their +safety in His Father's hands, and vindicated the audacious +parallelism by the tremendous assertion, 'I and My Father are One,' +the charge of blasphemy rang out; and was inevitable, unless the +claim was true. + +These outstanding instances are but, as it were, summits that rise +above the general level. But the general level is that of One who +takes an altogether unique position. No one else, professing to lead +men in paths of righteousness, has so constantly put the stress of +His teaching, not upon morality, nor religion, nor obedience to God, +but upon this, 'Believe in Me'; or ever pushed forward His own +personality into the foreground, and made the whole nobleness and +blessedness and security and devoutness of a life to hinge upon that +one thing, its personal relation to Him. + +People talk about the sweet and gentle wisdom that flowed from +Christ's lips, and so on; about the lofty morality, about the beauty +of pity and tenderness, and all the other commonplaces so familiar +to us, and we gladly admit them all. But I venture to go a step +further than all these, and to say that the outstanding +_differentia_, the characteristic which marks off Christ's +teaching as something new, peculiar, and altogether _per se_, +is not its morality, not its philanthropy, not its meek wisdom, not +its sweet reasonableness, but its tremendous assertions of the +importance of Himself. + +And if I am asked to state the ground upon which such an assertion +may be vindicated, I would point you to such facts as these, that +this Man took up a position of equality with, and of superiority to, +the legislation which He and the people to whom He was speaking +regarded as being divinely sent, and said, 'Ye have heard that it +hath been said to them of old time' so and so; 'but I say unto you': +that this Man declared that to build upon His words was to build +upon a rock; that this Man declared that He--He--was the legitimate +object of absolute trust, of utter submission and obedience; that He +claimed from His followers affiance, love, reverence which cannot be +distinguished from worship, and that He did not therein conceive +that He was intercepting anything that belonged to the Father. This +Man professed to be able to satisfy the desires of every human heart +when He said, 'If any man thirst let him come to Me and drink.' This +Man claimed to be able to breathe the sanctity of repose in the +blessedness of obedience over all the weary and the heavy laden; and +assured them that He Himself, through all the ages, and in all +lands, and for all troubles, would give them rest. This Man declared +that He who stood there, in the quiet homes of Galilee, and went +about its acres with those blessed feet for our advantage, was to be +Judge of the whole world. This Man said that His name was 'Son of +God'; and this Man declared, 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the +Father.' + +And then people say to us, 'Oh! your Gospel narratives, even if they +be the work of men in good faith, telling what they suppose He said, +mistook the Teacher; and if we could strip away the accretion of +mistaken reverence, and come to the historical person, we should +find no claims like these.' + +Well, this is not the time to enter into the large questions which +that contention involves, but I point you to the incident which +makes my text, and I say, 'What need we any further witnesses?' +Nobody denies that Jesus Christ was crucified as the result of a +combination of Sanhedrin and Pilate. What set the Jewish rulers +against Him with such virulent and murderous determination? Is there +anything in the life of Jesus Christ, if it is watered down as the +people, who want to knock out all the supernatural, desire to water +it down--is there anything in the life that will account for the +inveterate acrimony and hostility which pursued Him to the death? +The fact remains that, whether or not Evangelists and Apostles +misconceived His teaching when they gave such prominence to His +personality and His lofty claims, His enemies were under the same +delusion, if it were a delusion; and the reason why the whole +orthodox religionism of Judaism rejoiced when He was nailed to the +Cross was summed up in the taunt which they flung at Him as He hung +there, 'If He be the Son of God, let Him come down, and we will +believe Him.' + +So, brethren, I put into the witness-box Annas and Caiaphas and all +their satellites, and I say, 'What need we any further witnesses?' +He died because He declared that He was the Son of God. + +And I beseech you ask yourselves whether we are not being put off +with a maimed version of His teaching, if there is struck out of it +this its central characteristic, that He, 'the sage and humble,' +declared that He was 'likewise One with the Creator.' + +II. Secondly, note how we have here the witness that Jesus Christ +assented always to the loftiest meaning that men attached to His +claims. + +I have already pointed out the remarkable difference between the +explanations which He condescended to give to the Roman governor as +to the perfectly innocent meaning of His claim to be the King of +Israel, and His silence before the Sanhedrin. That silence is only +explicable because they rightly understood the meaning of the claim +which they contemptuously and perversely rejected. Jesus Christ knew +that His death was the forfeit, as I have said, and yet He locked +His lips and said not a word. + +In like manner when, on the other occasion to which I have already +referred, the Pharisees stumbled at His claims to forgive sins, He +said nothing to soften down that claim. If He had meant then only +what some people would desire to make Him mean when He said, 'Thy +sins be forgiven thee'--viz., that He was simply acting as a +minister of the divine forgiveness, and assuring a poor sinner that +God had pardoned him--why in common honesty, in discharge of His +plain obligations of a teacher, did He not say so--not for His own +sake, but for the sake of preventing such a tremendous +misunderstanding of His meaning? But He let them go away with the +conviction that He intended to claim a divine prerogative, and +vindicated the assertion by doing what only a divine power could do: +'That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power enough on earth to +forgive sins, He saith unto the sick of the palsy, Take up thy bed +and walk.' There was no need for Him to have wrought a miracle to +establish His right to tell a poor soul that God forgave sin. And +the fact that the miracle was supposed to be the demonstration and +the vindication of His right to declare forgiveness shows that He +was exercising that prerogative which belongs, as they rightly said, +to God only. + +And in precisely the same manner, the commonest obligations of +honesty, the plain duty of a misunderstood Teacher, to say nothing +of the duty of self-preservation, ought to have opened His lips in +the presence of the Jewish authorities, if they understood wrongly +and set too high their estimate of the meaning of His claims. His +silence establishes the fact that they understood these aright. + +And so, all through His life, we note this peculiarity, that He +never puts aside as too lofty for truth men's highest interpretations +of His claims, nor as too lowly for their mutual relation the lowest +reverence which bowed before Him. Peter, in the house of Cornelius, +said, 'Stand up! for I myself also am a man.' Paul and Barnabas, when +the priests brought out the oxen and garlands to the gates of Lystra, +could say, 'We also are men of like passions with yourselves.' But +this meek Jesus lets men fall at His feet; and women wash them with +their tears and wipe them with the hairs of their head; and souls +stretch out maimed hands of faith, and grasp Him as their only hope. +When His apostle said, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,' +His answer was, 'Blessed art thou, for flesh and blood hath not revealed +it unto thee,' and when another exclaimed, 'My Lord and my God!' this +Pattern of all meekness accepted and endorsed the title, and pronounced +a benediction on all who, not having seen Him, should hereafter attain +a like faith. + +Now I want to know whether that characteristic, which runs through all +His life, and is inseparable from it, can be vindicated on any ground +except the ground that He was 'God manifest in the flesh.' Either +Jesus Christ had a greedy appetite for excessive adoration, was a +victim to diseased vanity and ever-present self-regard--the most +damning charge that you can bring against a religious teacher--or He +accepted love and reverence and trust, because the love and the +reverence and the trust knit souls to the Incarnate God their Saviour. + +III. And so, lastly we have here witness to the only alternative to +the acceptance of His claims. + +He hath spoken 'blasphemy,' not because He had derogated from the +dignity of divinity, but because He had presumed to participate in +it. And it seems to me, with all deference, that this rough +alternative is the only legitimate one. If Jesus Christ did make +such claims, and His relation to the Jewish hierarchy and His death +are, as I have shown you, apart even from the testimony of the +Evangelists, strong confirmation of the fact that He did--if Jesus +Christ did make such claims, and they were not valid, one of two +things follows. Either He believed them, and then, what about His +sanity? or He did not believe them, and then, what about His +honesty? In either case, what about His claims to be a Teacher of +religion? What about His claims to be the Pattern of humanity? That +part of His teaching and character is either the manifestation of +His glory or it is like one of those fatal black seams that run +through and penetrate into the substance of a fair white marble +statue, marring all the rest of its pale and celestial beauty. +Brethren, it seems to me that, when all is said and done, we come to +one of three things about Jesus Christ. Either 'He blasphemeth' if +He said these things, and they were not true, or 'He is beside +Himself' if He said these things and believed them, or + + 'Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ; + Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.' + +Now I know that there are many men who, I venture to say, are far +better than their creed, and who, believing it impossible to accept, +in their plain meaning, the plain claims of Jesus Christ to +divinity, do yet cleave to Him with a love and a reverence and an +obedience which more orthodox men might well copy. And far be it +from me to say one word which might seem even to quench the faintest +beam of light that, shining from His perfect character, draws any +heart, however imperfectly, to Himself. Only, if I speak to any such +at this time, I beseech them to follow the light which draws them, +and to see whether their reverence for that fair character should +not lead them to accept implicitly the claims that came from His own +lips. I humbly venture to say that if we know anything at all about +Jesus Christ, we know that He lived declaring Himself to be the +Everlasting Son of the Father, and that He died because He did so +declare Himself. And I beseech you to ponder the question whether +reverence for Him and admiration of His character can be logically +and reasonably retained, side by side with the repudiation of that +which is the most distinctive part of His message to men. + +Oh, brethren, if it is true that God has come in the flesh, and that +that sweet, gracious, infinitely beautiful life is really the +revelation of the heart of God, then what a beam of sunshine falls +upon all the darkness of this world! Then God is love; then that +love holds us all; did not shrink from dying for us, and lives for +ever to bless us. If these claims are true, what should our attitude +be but that of infinite trust, love, submission, obedience, and the +shaping of our lives after the pattern of His life? + +These rejectors, when they said, 'He speaketh blasphemies,' were +sealing their own doom, and the ruined Temple and nineteen centuries +of wandering misery show what comes to men who hear Christ declaring +that He is the Son of the living God and the Judge of the world, and +who find nothing in the words but blasphemy. On the other hand, if +we will answer His question, 'Whom say ye that I am?' as the apostle +answered it, we shall, like the apostle, receive a benediction from +His lips, and be set on that faith as on a rock against which the +'gates of hell' shall not prevail. + + + + +'SEE THOU TO THAT!' + + + 'I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent + blood. And they said, What is that to us? See thou to + that. 24. I am innocent of the blood of this just + Person: see ye to it.'--MATT. xxvii. 4, 24. + +So, what the priests said to Judas, Pilate said to the priests. They +contemptuously bade their wretched instrument bear the burden of his +own treachery. They had condescended to use his services, but he +presumed too far if he thought that that gave him a claim upon their +sympathies. The tools of more respectable and bolder sinners are +flung aside as soon as they are done with. What were the agonies or +the tears of a hundred such as he to these high-placed and heartless +transgressors? Priests though they were, and therefore bound by +their office to help any poor creature that was struggling with a +wounded conscience, they had nothing better to say to him than this +scornful gibe, 'What is that to us? See thou to that.' + +Pilate, on the other hand, metes to them the measure which they had +meted to Judas. With curious verbal correspondence, he repeats the +very words of Judas and of the priests. 'Innocent blood,' said +Judas. 'I am innocent of the blood of this just Person,' said +Pilate. 'See thou to that,' answered they. 'See ye to it,' says he. +He tries to shove off his responsibility upon them, and they are +quite willing to take it. Their consciences are not easily touched. +Fanatical hatred which thinks itself influenced by religious motives +is the blindest and cruellest of all passions, knowing no +compunction, and utterly unperceptive of the innocence of its +victim. + +And so these three, Judas, the priests, and Pilate, suggest to us, I +think, a threefold way in which conscience is perverted. Judas +represents the agony of conscience, Pilate represents the shuffling +sophistications of a half-awakened conscience, and those priests and +people represent the torpor of an altogether misdirected conscience. + +I. Judas, or the agony of conscience. + +'I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.' We do +not need to enter at any length upon the difficult question as to +what were the motives of Judas in his treachery. For my part I do +not see that there is anything in the Scripture narrative, simply +interpreted, to bear out the hypothesis that his motives were +mistaken zeal and affection for Christ; and a desire to force Him to +the avowal of His Messiahship. One can scarcely suppose zeal so +strangely perverted as to begin by betrayal, and if the object was +to make our Lord speak out His claims, the means adopted were +singularly ill-chosen. The story, as it stands, naturally suggests a +much less far-fetched explanation. + +Judas was simply a man of a low earthly nature, who became a +follower of Christ, thinking that He was to prove a Messiah of the +vulgar type, or another Judas Maccabaus. He was not attracted by +Christ's character and teaching. As the true nature of Christ's work +and kingdom became more obvious, he became more weary of Him and it. +The closest proximity to Jesus Christ made eleven enthusiastic +disciples, but it made one traitor. No man could live near Him for +three years without coming to hate Him if he did not love Him. Then, +as ever, He was set for the fall and for the rise of many. He was +the 'savour of life unto life, or of death unto death.' + +But be this as it may, we have here to do with the sudden revulsion +of feeling which followed upon the accomplished act. This burst of +confession does not sound like the words of a man who had been +actuated by motives of mistaken affection. He knows himself a +traitor, and that fair, perfect character rises before him in its +purity, as he had never seen it before--to rebuke and confound him. + +So this exclamation of his puts into a vivid shape, which may help it to +stick in our memories and hearts, this thought--what an awful difference +there is in the look of a sin before we do it and afterwards! Before we +do it the thing to be gained seems so attractive, and the transgression +that gains it seems so comparatively insignificant. Yes! and when we +have done it the two change places; the thing that we win by it seems +so contemptible--thirty pieces of silver! pitch them over the Temple +enclosure and get rid of them!--and the thing that we did to win them +dilates into such awful magnitude! + +For instance, suppose we do anything that we know to be wrong, being +tempted to it by a momentary indulgence of some mere animal impulse. +By the very nature of the case, that dies in its satisfaction and +the desire dies along with it. We do not wish the prize any more +when once we have got it. It lasts but a moment and is past. Then we +are left alone with the thought of the sin that we have done. When +we get the prize of our wrong-doing, we find out that it is not as +all-satisfying as we expected it would be. Most of our earthly aims +are like that. The chase is a great deal more than the hare. Or, as +George Herbert has it, 'Nothing between two dishes--a splendid +service of silver plate, and when you take the cover off there is no +food to eat--such are the pleasures here.' + +Universally, this is true, that sooner or later, when the delirium +of passion and the rush of temptation are over and we wake to +consciousness, we find that we are none the richer for the thing +gained, and oh! so infinitely the poorer for the means by which we +gained it. It is that old story of the Veiled Prophet that wooed and +won the hearts of foolish maidens, and, when he had them in his +power in the inner chamber, removed the silver veil which they had +thought hid dazzling glory and showed hideous features that struck +despair into their hearts. Every man's sin does that for him. And to +you I come now with this message: every wrong thing that you do, +great or small, will be like some of those hollow images of the gods +that one hears of in barbarian temples--looked at in front, fair, +but when you get behind them you find a hollow, full of dust and +spiders' webs and unclean things. Be sure of this, every sin is a +blunder. + +That is the first lesson that lies in these words of this wretched +traitor; but again, here is an awful picture for us of the hell upon +earth, of a conscience which has no hope of pardon. I do not suppose +that Judas was lost, if he were lost, because he betrayed Jesus +Christ, but because, having betrayed Jesus Christ, he never asked to +be forgiven. And I suppose that the difference between the traitor +who betrayed Him and the other traitor who denied Him, was this, +that the one, when 'he went out and wept bitterly,' had the thought +of a loving Master with him, and the other, when 'he went out and +hanged himself,' had the thought of nothing but that foul deed +glaring before him. I pray you to learn this lesson--you cannot +think too much, too blackly, of your own sins, but you may think too +exclusively of them, and if you do they will drive you to madness of +despair. + +My dear friend, there is no penitence or remorse which is deep +enough for the smallest transgression; but there is no transgression +which is so great but that forgiveness for it may come. And we may +have it for the asking, if we will go to that dear Christ that died +for us. The consciousness of sinfulness is a wholesome consciousness. +I would that every man and woman listening to me now had it deep in +their consciences, and then I would that it might lead us all to that +one Lord in whom there is forgiveness and peace. Be sure of this, +that if Judas Iscariot, when his 'soul flared forth in the dark,' +died without hope and without pardon, it was not because his crime +was too great for forgiveness, but because the forgiveness had never +been asked. There is no unpardonable sin except that of refusing the +pardon that avails for all sin. + +II. So much, then, for this first picture and the lessons that come +out of it. In the next place we take Pilate, as the representative +of what I have ventured to call the shufflings of a half-awakened +conscience. + +'I am innocent of the blood of this just Person,' says he: 'see ye +to it.' He is very willing to shuffle off his responsibility upon +priests and people, and they, for their part, are quite as willing +to accept it; but the responsibility can neither be shuffled off by +him nor accepted by them. His motive in surrendering Jesus to them +was probably nothing more than the low and cowardly wish to humour +his turbulent subjects, and so to secure an easy tenure of office. +For such an end what did one poor man's life matter? He had a great +contempt for the accusers, which he is scarcely at the pains to +conceal. It breaks out in half-veiled sarcasms, by which he +cynically indemnifies himself for his ignoble yielding to the +constraint which they put upon him. He knows perfectly well that the +Roman power has nothing to fear from this King, whose kingdom rested +on His witness to the Truth. He knows perfectly well that unavowed +motives of personal enmity lie at the bottom of the whole business. +In the words of our text he acquits Christ, and thereby condemns +himself. If Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent, he knew that he, as +governor, was guilty of prostituting Roman justice, which was Rome's +best gift to her subject nations, and of giving up an innocent man +to death, in order to save himself trouble and to conciliate a +howling mob. No washing of his hands will cleanse them. 'All the +perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten that hand. But his words let us +see how a man may sophisticate his conscience and quibble about his +guilt. + +Here, then, we get once more a vivid picture that may remind us of +what, alas! we all know in our own experience, how a man's +conscience may be clearsighted enough to discern, and vocal enough +to declare, that a certain thing is wrong, but not strong enough to +restrain from doing it. Conscience has a voice and an eye; alas! it +has no hands. It shares the weakness of all law, it cannot get +itself executed. Men will get over a fence, although the board that +says, 'Trespassers will be prosecuted' is staring them in the face +in capital letters at the very place where they leap it. Your +conscience is a king without an army, a judge without officers. 'If +it had authority, as it has the power, it would govern the world,' +but as things are, it is reduced to issuing vain edicts and to +saying, 'Thou shalt not,' and if you turn round and say, 'I will, +though,' then conscience has no more that it can do. + +And then here, too, is an illustration of one of the commonest of +the ways by which we try to slip our necks out of the collar, and to +get rid of the responsibilities that really belong to us. 'See ye to +it' does not avail to put Pilate's crime on the priests' shoulders. +Men take part in evil, and each thinks himself innocent, because he +has companions. Half-a-dozen men carry a burden together; none of +them fancies that he is carrying it. It is like the case of turning +out a platoon of soldiers to shoot a mutineer--nobody knows whose +bullet killed him, and nobody feels himself guilty; but there the +man lies dead, and it was somebody that did it. So corporations, +churches, societies, and nations do things that individuals would +not do, and each man of them wipes his mouth and says, 'I have done +no harm.' And even when we sin alone we are clever at finding +scapegoats. 'The woman tempted me, and I did eat,' is the formula +universally used yet. The schoolboy's excuse, 'Please, sir, it was +not me, it was the other boy,' is what we are all ready to say. + +Now I pray you, brethren, to remember that, whether our consciences +try to shuffle off responsibility for united action upon the other +members of the firm, or whether we try to excuse our individual +actions by laying blame on our tempers, or whether we adopt the +modern slang, and talk about circumstances and heredity and the +like, as being reasons for the diminution or the extinction of the +notion of guilt, it is sophistical trifling; and down at the bottom +most of us know that we alone are responsible for the volition which +leads to our act. We could have helped it if we had liked. Nobody +compelled us to keep in the partnership of evil, or to yield to the +tempter. Pilate was not forced by his subjects to give the +commandment that 'it should be as they required.' They had their own +burden to carry. Each man has to bear the consequences of his +actions. There are many 'burdens' which we can 'bear for one +another, and so fulfil the law of Christ'; but every man has to bear +as his own the burden of the fruits of his deeds. In that harvest, +he that soweth and he that reapeth are one, and each of us has to +drink as we ourselves have brewed. You have to pay for your share, +however many companions you may have had in the act. + +So do not you sophisticate your consciences with the delusion that +your responsibility may be shifted to any other person or thing. +These may diminish, or may modify your responsibility, and God takes +all these into account. But after all these have been taken into +account there is this left--that you yourselves have done the act, +which you need not have done unless you had so willed, and that +having done it, you have to carry it on your back for evermore. 'See +thou to that,' was a heartless word, but it was a true one. 'Every +one of us shall give an account of himself to God,' and as the old +Book of Proverbs has it, 'If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for +thyself: and if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.' + +III. And so, lastly, we have here another group still--the priests +and people. They represent for us the torpor and misdirection of +conscience. + +'Then answered all the people and said, His blood be on us and on +our children.' They were perfectly ready to take the burden upon +themselves. They thought that they were 'doing God service' when +they slew God's Messenger. They had no perception of the beauty and +gentleness of Christ's character. They believed Him to be a +blasphemer, and they believed it to be a solemn religious duty to +slay Him then and there. Were they to blame because they slew a +blasphemer? According to Jewish law--no. They were to blame because +they had brought themselves into such a moral condition that that +was all which they thought of and saw in Jesus Christ. With their +awful words they stand before us, as perhaps the crowning instances +in Scripture history of the possible torpor which may paralyse +consciences. + +I need not dwell, I suppose, even for a moment, upon the thought of +how the highest and noblest sentiments may be perverted into +becoming the allies of the lowest crime. 'O Liberty! what crimes +have been done in thy name!' you remember one of the victims of the +guillotine said, as her last words. 'O Religion! what crimes have +been done in _thy_ name!' is one of the lessons to be gathered +from Calvary. + +But, passing that, to come to the thing that is of more consequence +to each of us, let us take this thought, dear brethren, as to the +awful possibility of a conscience going fast asleep in the midst of +the wildest storm of passion, like that unfaithful prophet Jonah, +down in the hold of the heathen ship. You can lull your consciences +into dead slumber. You can stifle them so that they shall not speak +a word against the worst of your sins. You can do so by simply +neglecting them, by habitually refusing to listen to them. If you +keep picking all the leaves and buds off the tree before they open, +it will stop flowering. You can do it by gathering round yourself +always, and only, evil associations and evil deeds. The habit of +sinning will lull a conscience faster than almost anything else. We +do not know how hot a room is, or how much the air is exhausted, +when we have been sitting in it for an hour and a half. But if we +came into it from outside we should feel the difference. Styrian +peasants thrive and fatten upon arsenic, and men may flourish upon +all iniquity and evil, and conscience will say never a word. Take +care of that delicate balance within you; and see that you do not +tamper with it nor twist it. + +Conscience may be misguided as well as lulled. It may call evil +good, and good evil; it may take honey for gall, and gall for honey. +And so we need something outside of ourselves to be our guide, our +standard. We are not to be contented that our consciences acquit us. +'I know nothing against myself, yet I am not hereby justified,' says +the apostle; 'he that judgeth me is the Lord.' And it is quite +possible that a man may have no prick of conscience and yet have +done a very wrong thing. So we want, as it seems to me, something +outside of ourselves that shall not be affected by our variations. +Conscience is like the light on the binnacle of a ship. It tosses up +and down along with the vessel. We want a steady light yonder on +that headland, on the fixed solid earth, which shall not heave with +the heaving wave, nor vary at all. Conscience speaks lowest when it +ought to speak loudest. The worst man is least troubled by his +conscience. It is like a lamp that goes out in the thickest +darkness. Therefore we need, as I believe, a revelation of truth and +goodness and beauty outside of ourselves to which we may bring our +consciences that they may be enlightened and set right. We want a +standard like the authorised weights and measures that are kept in +the Tower of London, to which all the people in the little country +villages may send up their yard measures and their pound weights, +and find out if they are just and true. We want a _Bible_, and +we want a _Christ_ to tell us what is duty, as well as to make +it possible for us to do it. + +These groups which we have been looking at now, show us how very +little help and sympathy a wounded conscience can get from its +fellows. The conspirators turn upon each other as soon as the +detectives are amongst them, and there is always one of them ready +to go into the witness-box and swear away the lives of the others to +save his own neck. Wolves tear sick wolves to pieces. + +Round us there stand Society, pitiless and stern, and Nature, rigid +and implacable; not to be besought, not to be turned. And when I, in +the midst of this universe of fixed law and cause and consequence, +wail out, 'I have sinned,' a thousand voices say to me, 'What is +that to us? See thou to that.' And so I am left with my guilt--it +and I together. There comes One with outstretched, wounded hands, +and says, 'Cast all thy burden upon Me, and I will free thee from it +all.' 'Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows!' +Trust in Him, in His great sacrifice, and you will find that His +'innocent blood' has a power that will liberate your conscience from +its torpor, its vain excuses, its agony and despair. + + + + +THE SENTENCE WHICH CONDEMNED THE JUDGES + + + And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor + asked Him, saying, Art Thou the King of the Jews? And + Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. 12. And when He was + accused of the chief priests and elders, He answered + nothing. 13. Then said Pilate unto Him, Hearest Thou + not how many things they witness against Thee? 14. And + He answered him to never a word; insomuch that the + governor marvelled greatly. 15. Now at that feast the + governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, + whom they would. 16. And they had then a notable + prisoner, called Barabbas. 17. Therefore when they were + gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye + that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is + called Christ? 18. For he knew that for envy they had + delivered Him. 19. When he was set down on the judgment + seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing + to do with that just man: for I have suffered many + things this day in a dream because of Him. 20. But the + chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that + they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. 21. The + governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the + twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, + Barabbas. 22. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do + then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say + unto him, Let Him be crucified. 23. And the governor + said, Why, what evil hath He done? But they cried out + the more, saying, Let him be crucified. 24. When Pilate + saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a + tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands + before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the + blood of this just Person: see ye to it. 25. Then + answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, + and on our children. 26. Then released he Barabbas unto + them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him + to be crucified.'--ST. MATT. xxvii. 11-26. + +The principal figures in this passage are Pilate and the Jewish +rulers and people. Jesus is all but passive. They are busy in +condemning Him, and little know that they are condemning themselves. +They are unconsciously exemplifying the tragic truth of Christ's +saying, 'Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken.' They +do not dislodge it, but their attempt to dislodge it wounds them. + +I. Matthew gives a very summary account of our Lord's appearing +before Pilate, but, brief as it is, and much as it omits, it throws +up into strong light the two essential points,--Christ's declaration +that He was the King of the Jews, and His silence while a storm of +accusations raged around Him. As to the former, it was the only +charge with which Pilate was properly concerned. He had a right to +know whether this strange criminal was dangerous to Rome, because He +claimed kingship, and, if he were satisfied that He was not, his +bounden duty was to liberate Him. One can understand the scornful +emphasis which Pilate laid on 'Thou' as he looked on his Prisoner, +who certainly would not seem to his practical eyes a very formidable +leader of revolt. There is a world of contempt, amused rather than +alarmed, in the question, and behind it lies the consciousness of +commanding legions enough to crush any rising headed by such a +person. John's account shows the pains which Jesus took to make sure +of the sense in which the question was asked before He answered it, +and then to make clear that His kingship bore no menace to Rome. +That being made plain, He answered with an affirmative. Just as He +had in unmistakable language claimed before the Sanhedrin to be the +Messiah, the Son of God, so He claimed before Pilate to be the King +of Israel, answering each tribunal as to what each had the right to +inquire into, and thus 'before Pontius Pilate witnessing the good +confession,' and leaving both tribunals without excuse. Jesus died +because He would not bate His claims to Messianic dignity. Did He +fling away His life for a false conception of Himself? He was either +a dreamer intoxicated with an illusion, and His death was suicide, +or He was--what? + +The one avowal was all that Pilate was entitled to. For the rest Jesus +locked His lips, and He whose very name was The Word was silent. What +was the meaning of that silence? It was not disdain, nor unwillingness +to make Himself known; but it was partly merciful--inasmuch as He knew +that all speech would have been futile, and would but have added to +the condemnation of such hearers as Caiaphas, Herod, and Pilate--and +partly judicial. Still more was it the silence of perfect, unresisting +submission,--'as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth +not His mouth.' And it is a pattern for us, as Peter tells us in his +Epistle; for it is with regard to this very matter of taking unjust +suffering patiently and without resistance that the apostle says that +Jesus has 'left us an example.' There are limits to such silent +endurance of wrong, for Paul defended himself tooth and nail before +priests and kings; but Christ's followers are strongest by meek +patience, and descend when they take a leaf out of their enemies' book. + +II. The next point is Pilate's weak attempt to save Jesus. Christ's +silence had impressed Pilate, and, if he had been a true man, he +would not have stopped at 'marvelling greatly.' He was clearly +convinced of Christ's innocence of any crime that threatened Roman +supremacy, and therefore was bound to have given effect to his +convictions, and let Jesus go. He had read the motives of the +priests, which were too plain for a shrewd man of the world to be +blind to them. That Jews should be taken with such a sudden fit of +loyalty as to yell for the death of a fellow-countryman because he +was a rebel against Caesar was too absurd to swallow, and Pilate was +not taken in. He knew that something else was working below ground, +and hit on 'envy' as the solution. He was not far wrong; for the +zeal which to the priests themselves seemed to be excited by devout +regard for God's honour was really kindled by determination to keep +their own prerogatives, and keen insight into the curtailment of +these which would follow if this Jesus were recognised as Messiah. +Pilate's diagnosis coincided with Christ's in the parable: 'This is +the Heir; come, let us kill Him, and the inheritance shall be ours.' + +So, willing to deliver Jesus, and yet afraid to cross the wishes of +his ticklish subjects, Pilate, like other weak men, tries a trick by +which he may get his way and seem to give them theirs. He hoped that +they would choose Jesus rather than Barabbas as the object of the +customary release. It was ingenious of him to narrow the choice to +one or other of the two, ignoring all other prisoners who might have +had the benefit of the custom. But there is also, perhaps, a dash of +sarcasm, and a hint of his having penetrated the priests' motives, +in his confining their choice to Jesus or Barabbas; for Barabbas was +what they had charged Jesus with being,--a rebel; and, if they +preferred him to Jesus, the hypocrisy of their suspicious loyalty +would be patent. The same sub-acid tone is obvious in Pilate's twice +designating our Lord as 'Jesus which is called Christ.' He delights +to mortify them by pushing the title into their faces, as it were. +He dare not be just, and he relieves and revenges himself by being +cynical and mocking. + +III. Having referred the choice to the 'multitude,' Pilate takes his +place on his official seat to wait for, and then to ratify, their +vote. In that pause, he perhaps felt some compunction at paltering +with justice, which it was Rome's one virtue to administer. How his +wife's message would increase his doubt! Was her dream a divine +warning, or a mere reflection in sleep of waking thoughts? It is +noticeable that Matthew records several dreams which conveyed God's +will,--for example, to Joseph and to the Magi, and here may be +another instance; or some tidings as to Jesus may have reached the +lady, though not her husband, and her womanly sense of right may +have shaped the dream, and given her vivid impressions of the danger +of abetting a judicial murder. But Matthew seems to tell of her +intervention mainly in order to preserve her testimony to Jesus' +innocence, and to point out one more of the fences which Pilate +trampled down in his dread of offending the rulers. A wife's +message, conveying what both he and she probably regarded as a +supernatural warning, was powerless to keep him back from his +disgraceful failure of duty. + +IV. While he was fighting against the impression of that message, +the rulers were busy in the crowd, suggesting the choice of +Barabbas. It was perhaps his wife's words that stung him to act at +once, and have done with his inner conflict. So he calls for the +decision of the alternative which he had already submitted. His +dignity would suffer, if he had to wait longer for an answer. He got +it at once, and the unanimous vote was for Barabbas. Probably the +rulers had skilfully manipulated the people. The multitude is easily +led by demagogues, but, left to itself, its instincts are usually +right, though its perception of character is often mistaken. Why was +Barabbas preferred? Probably just because he had been cast into +prison for sedition, and so was thought to be a good patriot. +Popular heroes often win their reputation by very questionable acts, +and Barabbas was forgiven his being a murderer for the sake of his +being a rebel. But it was not so much that Barabbas was loved as +that Jesus was hated, and it was not the multitude so much as the +rulers that hated him. Many of those now shrieking 'Crucify Him!' +had shouted 'Hosanna!' a day or two before till they were hoarse. +The populace was guilty of fickleness, blindness, rashness, too easy +credence of the crafty calumnies of the rulers. But a far deeper +stain rests on these rulers who had resisted the light, and were now +animated by the basest self-interest in the garb of keen regard for +the honour of God. There were very different degrees of guilt in the +many voices that roared 'Barabbas!' + +Pilate made one more feeble attempt to save Jesus by asking what was +to be done with Him. The question was an ignoble abdication of his +judicial office, and perhaps was meant as a salve for his own +conscience, and an excuse to his wife, enabling him to say, 'I did +not crucify Him; they did,'--a miserable pretext, the last resort of +a weak man, who knew that he was doing a wrong and cowardly thing. + +V. The same nervous fear and vain attempt to shuffle responsibility +off himself give tragic interest to his theatrical washing of his +hands. The one thing that he feared was a riot, which would be like +a spark in a barrel of gunpowder, if it broke out at the Passover, +when Jerusalem swarmed with excited crowds. To avoid that, the +sacrifice of one Jew's life was a small matter, even though he was +an interesting and remarkable person, and Pilate knew Him to be +perfectly harmless. + +But no washing of hands could shift the guilt from Pilate. + + 'Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood + Clean from my hand? No.' + +His vain declaration of innocence is an acknowledgment of guilt, for +he is forced by conscience to declare that Jesus is a 'righteous +Man,' and, as such, He should have been under the broad shield of +Roman justice. We too often deceive ourselves by throwing the blame +of our sins on companions or circumstances, and try to cheat our +consciences into silence. But our guilt is ours, however many allies +we have had, and however strong have been our temptations; and +though we may say, 'I am innocent,' God will sooner or later say to +each of us, 'Thou art the man!' + +The wild cry of passion with which the multitude accepted the +responsibility has been only too completely fulfilled in the +millennium-long Iliad of woes which has attended the Jews. Surely, +the existence, in such circumstances, for all these centuries, of +that strange, weird, fated race, is a standing miracle, and the most +conspicuous proof that 'verily, there is a God that judgeth in the +earth.' But it is also a prophecy that Israel shall 'turn to the +Lord,' and that the blood which has so long been on them as a crime, +carrying its own punishment, will at last be sprinkled on their +hearts, and take away their sin. + + + + +THE CRUCIFIXION + + + 'And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, + that is to say, a place of a skull, 34. They gave Him + vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when He had + tasted thereof, He would not drink. 35. And they + crucified Him, and parted His garments, casting lots: + that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the + prophet, They parted My garments among them, and upon + My vesture did they cast lots. 36. And sitting down + they watched Him there; 37. And set up over His head + His accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE + JEWS. 38. Then were there two thieves crucified with + Him, one on the right hand, and another on the left + 39. And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their + heads, 40. And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, + and buildest it in three days, save Thyself. If Thou be + the Son of God, come down from the cross. 41. Likewise + also the chief priests mocking Him, with the scribes + and elders, said, 42. He saved others; Himself He + cannot save. If He be the King of Israel, let Him now + come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. + 43. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He + will have Him: for He said, I am the Son of God. + 44. The thieves also, which were crucified with Him, + cast the same in His teeth. 45. Now from the sixth hour + there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth + hour. 46. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a + loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that + is to say, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? + 47. Some of them that stood there, when they heard + that, said. This Man calleth for Elias. 48. And + straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and + filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave + Him to drink. 49. The rest said, Let be, let us see + whether Elias will come to save Him. 50. Jesus, when He + had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.' + --MATT. xxvii. 33-50. + +The characteristic of Matthew's account of the crucifixion is its +representation of Jesus as perfectly passive and silent. His refusal +of the drugged wine, His cry of desolation, and His other cry at +death, are all His recorded acts. The impression of the whole is 'as +a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.' +We are bid to look on the grim details of the infliction of the +terrible death, and to listen to the mockeries of people and +priests; but reverent awe forbids description of Him who hung there +in His long, silent agony. Would that like reticence had checked the +ill-timed eloquence of preachers and teachers of later days! + +I. We have the ghastly details of the crucifixion.--Conder's +suggestion of the site of Calvary as a little knoll outside the +city, seems possible. It is now a low, bare hillock, with a scanty +skin of vegetation over the rock, and in its rounded shape and bony +rockiness explains why it was called 'skull.' It stands close to the +main Damascus road, so that there would be many 'passers by' on that +feast day. Its top commands a view over the walls into the temple +enclosure, where, at the very hour of the death of Jesus, the +Passover lamb was perhaps being slain. Arrived at the place, the +executioners go about their task with stolid precision. What was the +crucifying of another Jew or two to them? Before they lift the cross +or fasten their prisoner to it, a little touch of pity, or perhaps +only the observance of the usual custom, leads them to offer a +draught of wine, in which some anodyne had been mixed, to deaden +agony. But the cup which He had to drink needed that He should be in +full possession of all His sensibilities to pain, and of all His +unclouded firmness of resolve; and so His patient lips closed +against the offered mercy. He would not drink because He would +suffer, and He would suffer because He would redeem. His last act +before He was nailed to the cross was an act of voluntary refusal of +an opened door of escape from some portion of His pains. + +What a gap there is between verses 34 and 35! The unconcerned +soldiers went on to the next step in their ordinary routine on such +an occasion,--the fixing of the cross and fastening of the victim to +it. To them it was only what they had often done before; to Matthew, +it was too sacred to be narrated, He cannot bring his pen to write +it. As it were, he bids us turn away our eyes for a moment; and when +next we look, the deed is done, and there stands the cross, and the +Lord hanging, dumb and unresisting, on it. We see not Him, but the +soldiers, busy at their next task. So little were they touched by +compassion or awe, that they paid no heed to Him, and suspended +their work to make sure of their perquisites,--the poor robes which +they stripped from His body. Thus gently Matthew hints at the +ignominy of exposure attendant on crucifixion, and gives the measure +of the hard stolidity of the guards. Gain had been their first +thought, comfort was their second. They were a little tired with +their march and their work, and they had to stop there on guard for +an indefinite time, with nothing to do but two more prisoners to +crucify: so they take a rest, and idly keep watch over Him till He +shall die. How possible it is to look at Christ's sufferings and see +nothing! These rude legionaries gazed for hours on what has touched +the world ever since, and what angels desired to look into, and saw +nothing but a dying Jew. They thought about the worth of the +clothes, or about how long they would have to stay there, and in the +presence of the most stupendous fact in the world's history were all +unmoved. We too may gaze on the cross and see nothing. We too may +look at it without emotion, because without faith, or any +consciousness of what it may mean for us. Only they who see there +the sacrifice for their sins and the world's, see what is there. +Others are as blind as, and less excusable than, these soldiers who +watched all day by the Cross, seeing nothing, and tramped back at +night to their barrack utterly ignorant of what they had been doing. +But their work was not quite done. There was still a piece of grim +mockery to be performed, which they would much enjoy. The 'cause,' +as Matthew calls it, had to be nailed to the upper part of the +cross. It was tri-lingual, as John tells us,--in Hebrew, the +language of revelation; in Greek, the tongue of philosophy and art; +in Latin, the speech of law and power. The three chief forces of the +human spirit gave unconscious witness to the King; the three chief +languages of the western world proclaimed His universal monarchy, +even while they seemed to limit it to one nation. It was meant as a +gibe at Him and at the nation, and as Pilate's statement of the +reason for his sentence; but it meant more than Pilate meant by it, +and it was fitting that His royal title should hang above His head; +for the cross is His throne, and He is the King of men because He +has died for them all. One more piece of work the soldiers had still +to do. The crucifixion of the two robbers (perhaps of Barabbas' +gang, though less fortunate than he) by Christ's side was intended +to associate Him in the public mind with them and their crimes, and +was the last stroke of malice, as if saying, 'Here is your King, and +here are two of His subjects and ministers.' Matthew says nothing of +the triumph of Christ's love, which won the poor robber for a +disciple even at that hour of ignominy. His one purpose seems to be +to accumulate the tokens of suffering and shame, and so to emphasise +the silent endurance of the meek Lamb of God. Therefore, without a +word about any of our Lord's acts or utterances, he passes on to the +next group of incidents. + +II. The mockeries of people and priests. There would be many coming +and going on the adjoining road, most of them too busy about their +own affairs to delay long; for crucifixion was a slow process, and, +when once the cross has been lifted, there would be little to see. +But they were not too busy to spit venom at Him as they passed. How +many of these scoffers, to whom death cast no shield round the +object of their poor taunts, had shouted themselves hoarse on the +Monday, and waved palm branches that were not withered yet! What had +made the change? There was no change. They were running with the +stream in both their hosannas and their jeers, and the one were +worth as much as the other. They had been tutored to cry, 'Blessed +is He that cometh!' and now they were tutored to repeat what had +been said at the trial about destroying the temple. The worshippers +of success are true to themselves when they mock at failure. They +who shout round Jesus, when other people are doing it, are only +consistent when they join in the roar of execration. Let us take +care that our worship of Him is rooted in our own personal +experience, and independent of what rulers or influential minds today +say of Him. + +A common passion levels all distinctions of culture and rank. The +reverend dignitaries echoed the ferocious ridicule of the mob, whom +they despised so much. The poorest criminal would have been left to +die in peace; but brutal laughter surged round the silent sufferer, +and showers of barbed sarcasms were flung at Him. The throwers +fancied them exquisite jests, and demonstrations of the absurdity of +Christ's claims; but they were really witnesses to His claims, and +explanations of His sufferings. Look at them in turn, with this +thought in our minds. 'He saved others; Himself He cannot save,' was +launched as a sarcasm which confuted His alleged miracles by His +present helplessness. How much it admits, even while it denies! +Then, He did work miracles; and they were all for others, never for +His own ends; and they were all for saving, never for destroying. +Then, too, by this very taunt His claim to be the 'Saviour' is +presupposed. And so, 'Physician, heal Thyself,' seemed to them an +unanswerable missile to fling. If they had only known what made the +'cannot,' and seen that it was a 'will not,' they would have stood +full in front of the great miracle of love which was before them +unsuspected, and would have learned that the not saving Himself, +which they thought blew to atoms His pretensions to save others, was +really the condition of His saving a world. If He is to save others +He cannot save Himself. That is the law for all mutual help. The +lamp burns out in giving light, but the necessity for the death of +Him who is the life of the world is founded on a deeper 'must.' His +only way of delivering us from the burden of sin is His taking it on +Himself. He has to 'bear our griefs and carry our sorrows,' if He is +to bear away the sin of the world. But the 'cannot' derives all its +power from His own loving will. The rulers' taunt was a venomous +lie, as they meant it. If for 'cannot' we read 'will not,' it is the +central truth of the Gospel. + +Nor did they succeed better with their second gibe, which made mirth +of such a throne, and promised allegiance if He would come down. O +blind leaders of the blind! That death which seemed to them to +shatter His royalty really established it. His Cross is His throne +of saving power, by which He sways hearts and wills, and because of +it He receives from the Father universal dominion, and every knee +shall bow to Him. It is just because He did not come down from it +that we believe on Him. On His head are many crowns; but, however +many they be, they all grow out of the crown of thorns. The true +kingship is absolute command over willingly submitted spirits; and +it is His death which bows us before Him in raptures of glad love +which counts submission, liberty, and sacrifice blessed. He has the +right to command because He has given Himself for us, and His death +wakes all-surrendering and all-expecting faith. + +Nor was the third taunt more fortunate. These very religious men had +read their Bibles so badly that they might never have heard of Job, +nor of the latter half of Isaiah. They had been poring over the +letter all their lives, and had never seen, with their microscopes, +the great figure of the Innocent Sufferer, so plain there. So they +thought that the Cross demonstrated the hollowness of Jesus' trust +in God, and the rejection of Him by God. Surely religious teachers +should have been slow to scoff at religious trust, and surely they +might have known that failure and disaster even to death were no +signs of God's displeasure. But, in one aspect, they were right. It +is a mystery that such a life should end thus; and the mystery is +none the less because many another less holy life has also ended in +suffering. But the mystery is solved when we know that God did not +deliver Him, just because He 'would have Him,' and that the Father's +delight in the Son reached its very highest point when He became +obedient until death, and offered Himself 'a sacrifice acceptable, +well pleasing unto God.' + +III. We pass on to the darkness, desolation, and death. Matthew +represents these three long hours from noon till what answers to our +3 P.M. as passed in utter silence by Christ. What went on beneath +that dread veil, we are not meant to know. Nor do we need to ask its +physical cause or extent. It wrapped the agony from cruel eyes; it +symbolised the blackness of desolation in His spirit, and by it God +draped the heavens in mourning for man's sin. What were the +onlookers doing then? Did they cease their mocking, and feel some +touch of awe creeping over them? + + 'His brow was chill with dying, + And His soul was faint with loss.' + +The cry that broke the awful silence, and came out of the darkness, +was more awful still. The fewer our words the better; only we may +mark how, even in His agony, Jesus has recourse to prophetic words, +and finds in a lesser sufferer's cry voice for His desolation. +Further, we may reverently note the marvellous blending of trust and +sense of desertion. He feels that God has left Him, and yet he holds +on to God. His faith, as a man, reached its climax in that supreme +hour when, loaded with the mysterious burden of God's abandonment, +He yet cried in His agony, 'My God!' and that with reduplicated +appeal. Separation from God is the true death, the 'wages of sin'; +and in that dread hour He bore in His own consciousness the +uttermost of its penalty. The physical fact of Christ's death, if it +could have taken place without this desolation from the +consciousness of separation from God, would not have been the +bearing of all the consequences of man's sins. The two must never be +parted in our grateful contemplations; and, while we reverently +abjure the attempt to pierce into that which God hid from us by the +darkness, we must reverently ponder what Christ revealed to us by +the cry that cleft it, witnessing that He then was indeed bearing +the whole weight of a world's sin. By the side of such thoughts, and +in the presence of such sorrow, the clumsy jest of the bystanders, +which caught at the half-heard words, and pretended to think that +Jesus was a crazy fanatic calling for Elijah with his fiery chariot +to come and rescue Him, may well be passed by. One little touch of +sympathy moistened His dying lips, not without opposition from the +heartless crew who wanted to have their jest out. Then came the end. +The loud cry of the dying Christ is worthy of record; for +crucifixion ordinarily killed by exhaustion, and this cry was +evidence of abundant remaining vitality. In accordance therewith, +the fact of death is expressed by a phrase, which, though used for +ordinary deaths, does yet naturally express the voluntariness of +Christ. 'He sent away His spirit,' as if He had bid it depart, and +it obeyed. Whether the expression may be fairly pressed so far or +no, the fact is the same, that Jesus died, not because He was +crucified, but because He chose. He was the Lord and Master of +Death; and when He bid His armour-bearer strike, the slave struck, +and the King died, not like Saul on the field of his defeat, but a +victor in and by and over death. + + + + +THE BLIND WATCHERS AT THE CROSS + + 'And sitting down they watched Him there.' + --MATT. xxvii. 36. + +Our thoughts are, rightly, so absorbed by the central Figure in this +great chapter that we pass by almost unnoticed the groups round the +cross. And yet there are large lessons to be learned from each of +them. These rude soldiers, four in number, as we infer from John's +Gospel, had no doubt joined with their comrades in the coarse +mockery which preceded the sad procession to Calvary; and then they +had to do the rough work of the executioners, fastening the +sufferers to the rude wooden crosses, lifting these, with their +burden, filing them into the ground, then parting the raiment. And +when all that is done they sit stolidly down to take their ease at +the foot of the cross, and idly to wait, with eyes that look and see +nothing, until the sufferers die. A strange picture; and a strange +thing to think of, how they were so close to the great event in the +world's history, and had to stare at it for three or four hours, and +never saw anything! + +The lessons that the incident teaches us may be very simply gathered +together. + +I. First we infer from this the old truth of how ignorant men are of +the real meaning and outcome of what they do. + +These four Roman soldiers were foreigners; I suppose that they could +not speak a word to a man in that crowd. They had no means of +communication with them. They had had plenty of practice in +crucifying Jews. It was part of their ordinary work in these +troublesome times, and this was just one more. Think of what a +corporal's guard of rough English soldiers, out in Northern India, +would think if they were bidden to hang a native who was charged +with rebellion against the British Government. So much, and not one +whit more, did these men know of what they were doing; and they went +back to their barracks, stolid and unconcerned, and utterly ignorant +of what they had been about. + +But in part it is so with us all, though in less extreme fashion. +None of us know the real meaning, and none of us know the possible +issues and outcome of a great deal of our lives. We are like people +sowing seed in the dark; it is put into our hands and we sow. We do +the deed; this end of it is in our power, but where it runs out to, +and what will come of it, lie far beyond our ken. We are compassed +about, wherever we go, by this atmosphere of mystery, and enclosed +within a great ring of blackness. + +And so the simple lesson to be drawn from that clear fact, about all +our conduct, is this--let results alone. Never mind about what you +cannot get hold of; you cannot see to the other end, and you have +nothing to do with it. You can see this end; make that right. Be +sure that the motive is right, and then into whatever unlooked-for +consequences your act may run out at the further end, you will be +right. Never mind what kind of harvest is coming out of your deeds, +you cannot forecast it. 'Thou soweth not that body that shall be, +but bare grain.... God giveth it a body as it pleaseth Him.' Let +alone that profitless investigation, the attempt to fashion and +understand either the significance or the issues of your conduct, +and stick fast by this--look after your motive for doing it, and +your temper in doing it; and then be quite sure, 'Thou shalt find it +after many days,' and the fruit will be 'unto praise and honour and +glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.' + +II. Take another very simple and equally plain lesson from this +incident, viz., the limitation of responsibility by knowledge. + +These men, as I said, were ignorant of what they were doing, and, +therefore, they were guiltless. Christ Himself said so: 'They know +not what they do.' But it is marvellous to observe that whilst the +people who stood round the cross, and were associated in the act +that led Jesus there, had all degrees of responsibility, the least +guilty of the whole were the men who did the actual work of nailing +Him to the cross, and lifting it with Him upon it. These soldiers +were not half as much to blame as were many of the men that stood +by; and just in the measure in which the knowledge or the +possibility of knowledge increased, just in that measure did the +responsibility increase. The high priest was a great deal more to +blame than the Roman soldiers. The rude tool that nailed Christ to +the cross, the hammer that was held in the hand of the legionary, +was almost as much to blame as the hand that wielded it. For the +hand that wielded it had very little more knowledge than it had. + +In so far as it was possible that these men might have known +something of what they were doing, in so far were they to blame; but +remember what a very, very little light could possibly have shone +upon these souls. If there is no light there cannot be any shadow; +and if these men were, as certainly they were, all but absolutely +ignorant, and never could have been anything else, of what they were +doing, then they were all but absolutely guiltless. And so you come +to this, which is only a paradox to superficial thinkers, that the +men that did the greatest crime in the whole history of the world, +did it with all but clean hands; and the people that were to be +condemned were those who delivered 'the Just One' into the hands of +more lawless, and therefore less responsible, men. + +So here is the general principle, that as knowledge and light rise +and fall, so responsibility rises and falls along with them. And +therefore let us be thankful that we have not to judge one another, +but that we have all to stand before that merciful and loving +tribunal of the God who is a God of knowledge, and by whom actions +are _weighed_, as the Old Book has it--not _counted_, but weighed. And +let us be thankful, too, that we may extend our charity to all round +us, and refrain from thinking of any man or woman that we can pronounce +upon their criminality, because we do not know the light in which they +walk. + +III. And now the last lesson, and the one that I most desire to lay +upon your hearts, is this, how possible it is to look at Christ on +the cross, and see nothing. + +For half a day there they sat, and it was but a dying Jew that they +saw, one of three. A touch of pity came into their hearts once or +twice, alternating to mockery, which was not savage because it was +simply brutal; but when it was all over, and they had pierced His +side, and gone away back to their barracks, they had not the least +notion that they, with their dim, purblind eyes, had been looking at +the most stupendous miracle in the whole world's history, had been +gazing at the thing into which angels desired to look; and had seen +that to which the hearts and the gratitude of unconverted millions +would turn for all eternity. They laid their heads down on their +pillows that night and did not know what had passed before their +eyes, and they shut the eyes that had served them so ill, and went +to sleep, unconscious that they had seen the pivot on which the +whole history of humanity had turned; and been the unmoved witnesses +of 'God manifest in the flesh,' dying on the cross for the whole +world, and for them. What should they have seen if they had seen the +reality? They should have seen not a dying rebel but a dying Christ; +they should have looked with emotion, they should have looked with +faith, they should have looked with thankfulness. + +Any one who looks at that cross, and sees nothing but a pure and +perfect man dying upon it, is very nearly as blind as the Roman +legionaries. Any one to whom it is only an example of perfect +innocence and patient suffering has only seem an inch into the +Infinite; and the depths of it are as much concealed from him as +they were from them. Any one who looks with an unmoved heart, +without one thrill of gratitude, is nearly as blind as the rough +soldiers. He that looks and does not say-- + + 'My faith would lay her hand + On that dear head of Thine; + While like a penitent I stand + And there confess my sin,' + +has not learned more of the meaning of the Cross than they did. And +any one who looks to it, and then turns away and forgets, or who +looks at it and fails to recognise in it the law of his own life and +pattern for his own conduct, has yet to see more deeply into it +before he sees even such portion of its meaning as here we can +apprehend. + +Oh! dear friends, we all of us, as the apostle says in one of his +letters, have had this Christ 'manifestly set forth before us as if +painted upon a placard upon a wall' (for that is the meaning of the +picturesque words that he employs). And if we look with calm, +unmoved hearts; if we look without personal appropriation of that +Cross and dying love to ourselves, and if we look without our hearts +going out in thankfulness and laying themselves at His feet in a +calm rapture of life-long devotion, then we need not wonder that +four ignorant heathen men sat and looked at Him for four long hours +and saw nothing, for we are as blind as ever they were. + +You say, 'We see.' Do you see? Do you look? Does the look touch your +hearts? Have you fathomed the meaning of the fact? Is it to you the +sacrifice of the living Christ for your salvation? Is it to you the +death on which all your hopes rest? You say that you see. Do you see +that in it? Do you see your only ground of confidence and peace? And +do you so see that, like a man who has looked at the sun for a +moment or two, when you turn away your head you carry the image of +what you beheld still stamped on your eyeball, and have it both as a +memory and a present impression? So is the cross photographed on +your heart; and is it true about us that every day, and all days, we +behold our Saviour, and beholding Him are being changed into His +likeness? Is it true about us that we thus bear about with us in the +body 'the dying of the Lord Jesus'? If we look to Him with faith and +love, and make His Cross our own, and keep it ever in our memory, +ever before us as an inspiration and a hope and a joy and a pattern, +then we see. If not, 'for judgment am I come into the world, that +they which see not may see, and that they which see might be made +blind.' For what men are so blind to the infinite pathos and +tenderness, power, mystery, and miracle of the Cross, as the men and +women who all their lives long have heard a Gospel which has been +held up before their lack-lustre eyes, and have looked at it so long +that they cannot see it any more? + +Let us pray that our eyes may be purged, that we may see, and seeing +may copy, that dying love of the ever-loving Lord. + + + + +TAUNTS TURNING TO TESTIMONIES + + + '... The chief priests mocking Him ... said, 42. He + saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He be the + King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, + and we will believe Him. 43. He trusted in God; let + Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him.' + --MATT. xxvii. 41-43. + +It is an old saying that the corruption of the best is the worst. +What is more merciful and pitiful than true religion? What is more +merciless and malicious than hatred which calls itself 'religious'? +These priests, like many a persecutor for religion since, came to +feast their eyes on the long-drawn-out agonies of their Victim, and +their rank tongues blossomed into foul speech. Characteristically +enough, though they shared in the mockeries of the mob, they kept +themselves separate. The crowd pressed near enough to the cross to +speak their gibes _to_ Jesus; the dignified movers of the +ignorant crowd stood superciliously apart, and talked scoffingly +_about_ Him. Whilst the populace yelled, 'Thou that destroyest +the Temple and buildest it in three days, come down,' the chief +priests, with the scribes, looked at each other with a smile, and +said, '_He_ saved others; Himself _He_ cannot save.' Now, +these brutal taunts have lessons for us. They witness to the popular +impression of Christ, and what His claims were. He asserted Himself +to be a worker of miracles, the Messiah-King of Israel, the Son of God, +therefore He died. And they witness to the misconception which ruled +in the minds of these priests as to the relation of His claims to the +Cross. They thought that it had finally burst the bubble, and disposed +once for all of these absurd and blasphemous pretensions. Was it +credible that a man who possessed miraculous power should not, in +this supreme moment, use it to deliver Himself? Did not 'Physician, +heal Thyself,' come in properly there? Would any of the most besotted +followers of this pretender retain a rag of belief in His Messiahship +if He was crucified? Could it be possible that, if there was a God at +all, He should leave a man that really trusted in Him, not to say +who was really His Son, to die thus? A cracked mirror gives a distorted +image. The facts were seen, but their relation was twisted. If we will +take the guidance of these gibes, and see what is the real explanation +to the anomaly that they suggest, then we shall find that the taunts +turn to Him for a testimony, and that 'out of the mouths of mockers +there is 'perfected praise.' The stones flung at the Master turn to +roses strewed in His path. + +I. So, then, first the Cross shows us the Saviour who could not save +Himself. + +The priests did not believe in Christ's miracles, and they thought +that this final token of his impotence, as they took it to be, was +clear proof that the miracles were either tricks or mistakes. They +saw the two things, they fatally misunderstood the relation between +them. Let us put the two things together. + +Here, on the one hand, is a Man who has exercised absolute authority +in all the realms of the universe, who has spoken to dead matter, +and it has obeyed; who by His word has calmed the storm, and hushed +the winds by His word, has multiplied bread, has transmuted pale water +into ruddy wine; who has moved omnipotent amongst the disturbed minds +and diseased bodies of men, who has cast His sovereign word into the +depth and darkness of the grave, and brought out the dead, stumbling +and entangled in the grave-clothes. All these are facts on the one +side. And on the other there is this--that there, passive, and, to +superficial eyes, impotent, He hangs the helpless Victim of Roman +soldiers and of Jewish priests. The short and easy vulgar way to +solve the apparent contradiction was to deny the reality of the one +of its members; to say 'Miracles? Absurd! He never worked one, or He +would have been working one now.' + +But let their error lead us into truth, and let us grasp the +relation of the two apparently contradictory facts. 'He saved +others,' that is certain. He did not 'save Himself,' that is +as certain. Was the explanation 'cannot'? The priests by 'cannot' +meant physical impossibility, defect of power, and they were +wrong. But there is a profound sense in which the word 'cannot' +is absolutely true. For this is in all time, and in all human +relations, the law of service--sacrifice; and no man can truly +help humanity, or an individual, unless he is prepared to +surrender himself in the service. The lamp burns away in giving +light. The fire consumes in warming the hearth, and no brotherly +sympathy or help has ever yet been rendered, or ever will be, +except at the price of self-surrender. Now, some people think +that this is the whole explanation of our Lord's history, both +in His life and in His death. I do not believe that it is the +whole explanation, but I do believe it carries us some way +towards the central sanctuary, where the explanation lies. And +yet it is not complete or adequate, because, to parallel Christ's +work with the work of any of the rest of us to our brethren, +however beautiful, disinterested, self-oblivious, and self-consuming +it may be, seems to me--I say it with deference, though I must here +remember considerations of brevity and be merely assertive--entirely +to ignore the unique special characteristic of the work of Jesus +Christ--viz., that it was the atonement for the sins of the world. +He could not bear away our sins, unless the burden of them was laid +on His own back, and He carried our griefs, our sorrows, our diseases, +and our transgressions. 'He saved others, Himself He cannot save.' But +the impossibility was purely the result of His own willing and obedient +love; or, if I put it in more epigrammatic form, the priests' 'cannot' +was partially true, but if they had said '_would not_' they would +have hit the mark, and come to full truth. The reason for His death +becomes clear, and each of the contrasted facts is enhanced, when we +set side by side the opulence and ease of His manifold miracles and +the apparent impotence and resourcelessness of the passive Victim on +the cross. + +That 'cannot' did not come from defect of power, but from plenitude +of love, and it was a 'will not' in its deepest depths. For you will +find scattered throughout Scripture, especially these Gospels, +indications from our Lord's own lips, and by His own acts, that, in +the truest and fullest sense, His sufferings were voluntary. 'No man +taketh it from me'--He says about His life--'I have power to lay it +down, and I have power to take it again.' And once He did choose to +flash out for a moment the always present power, that we might learn +that when it did not appear, it was not because he could not, but +because he would not. When the soldiers came to lay their hands upon +Him, He presented Himself before them, saving them all the trouble +of search, and when He asked a question, and received the answer +that it was He of whom they were in search, there came one sudden +apocalypse of His majesty, and they fell to the ground, and lay +there prone before Him. They could have had no power at all against +Him, except He had willed to surrender Himself to them. Again, +though it is hypercritical perhaps to attach importance to what may +only be natural idiomatic forms of speech, yet in this connection it +is not to be overlooked that the language of all the Evangelists, in +describing the supreme moment of Christ's death, is congruous with +the idea that He died neither from the exhaustion of crucifixion, +nor from the thrust of the soldier's spear, but because He would. +For they all have expressions equivalent to that of one of them, 'He +gave up His spirit.' Be that as it may, the 'cannot' was a 'will +not'; and it was neither nails that fastened Him to the tree, nor +violence that slew Him, but He was fixed there by His own steadfast +will, and He died because He would. So if we rightly understand the +'cannot' we may take up with thankfulness the taunt which, as I say, +is tuned to a testimony, and reiterate adoringly, 'He saved others, +Himself He cannot save.' + +II. The Cross shows us the King on His throne. + +To the priests it appeared ludicrous to suppose that a King of +Israel should, by Israel, be nailed upon the cross. 'Let Him come +down, and we will believe Him.' They saw the two facts, they +misconceived their relation. There was a relation between them, and +it is not difficult for us to apprehend it. + +The Cross is Christ's throne. There are two ways in which the +tragedy of His crucifixion is looked at in the Gospels, one that +prevails in the three first, another that prevails in the fourth. +These two seem superficially to be opposite; they are complementary. +It depends upon your station whether a point in the sky is your +_zenith_ or your _nadir_. Here it is your zenith; at the antipodes +it is the nadir. In the first three gospels the aspect of humiliation, +degradation, inanition, suffering, is prominent in the references to +the Crucifixion. In the _fourth_ gospel the aspect of glory and +triumph is uppermost. 'Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up'; 'I, +if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me'; 'Now the hour is come +that the Son of Man should be glorified.' And it _is_ His glory, for +on that Cross Jesus Christ manifests, in transcendent and superlative +form, at once power and love that are boundless and divine. The Cross +is the foundation of His kingdom. In his great passage in Philippians +the Apostle brings together, in the closest causal connection, His +obedience unto death, the death of the Cross, and His exaltation and +reception of 'the name that is above every name, that at the name of +Jesus every knee should bow.' The title over the Cross was meant for +a gibe. It was a prophecy. By the Cross He becomes the 'King,' and not +only the 'King of the Jews.' The sceptre that was put in His hand, +though it was meant for a sneer, was a forecast of a truth, for He +rules, not with a rod of iron, but with the reed of gentleness; and +the crown of thorns, that was pressed down on His wounded and +bleeding head, foretold for our faith the great truth that suffering is +the foundation of dominion, and that men will bow as to their King +and Lord before Him who died for them, with a prostration of spirit, a +loyalty of allegiance, and an alertness of service, which none +other, monarch or superior, may even dream of attaining. The Cross +establishes, not destroys, Christ's dominion over men. + +Yes; and that Cross wins their faith as nothing else can. The blind +priests said, 'Let Him come down, and we will believe Him.' +Precisely because He did not come down, do sad and sorrowful and +sinful hearts turn to Him from the ends of the earth, and from the +distances of the ages pour the treasures of their trust and their +love at His feet. Did you ever think how strange it is, except with +one explanation, that the gibes of the priests did not turn out to +be true? Why is it that Christ's shameful death did not burst the +bubble, as they thought it had done? Why is it that in His case--and +I was going to say, and it would have been no exaggeration, in His +case only--the death of the leader did not result in the dispersion +of the led? Why is it that His fate and future were the opposite of +that of multitudes of other pseudo-Messiahs, of whom it is true that +when they were slain their followers came to nought? Why? There is +only one explanation, I think, and that is that the death was not +the end, but that He rose again from the dead. My brother, you will +either have to accept the Resurrection, with all that comes from it, +or else you will have to join the ranks of the priests, and consider +that Christ's death blew to atoms Christ's pretensions. If we know +anything about Him, we know that He asserted miraculous power, +Messiahship, and a filial relation to God. These things are facts. +Did He rise or did He not? If He did not, He was an enthusiast. If +He did, He is the King to whom our hearts can cleave, and to whom +our loyalty is due. + +III. Now, lastly, the Cross shows us the Son, beloved of the Father. + +The priests thought that it was altogether incredible that His +devotion should have been genuine, or His claim to be the Son of God +should have any reality, since the Cross, to their vulgar eyes, +disproved them both. Like all coarse-minded people, they estimated +character by condition, but they who do that make no end of +mistakes. They had forgotten their own Prophecies, which might have +told them that 'the Servant of the Lord in whom' His 'heart +delighted,' was a suffering Servant. But whilst they recognised the +facts, here again, as in the other two cases, they misconceived the +relation. We have the means of rectifying the distorted image. + +We ought to know, and to be sure, that the Cross of Christ was the +very token that this was God's 'beloved Son in whom He was well +pleased.' If we dare venture on the comparison of parts of that +which is all homogeneous and perfect, we might say that in the +moment of His death Jesus Christ was more than ever the object of +the Father's delight. + +Why? It is not my purpose now to enlarge upon all the reasons which +might be suggested. Let me put them together in a sentence or two. +In that Cross Jesus Christ revealed God as God's heart had always +yearned to be revealed, infinite in love, pitifulness, forbearance, +and pardoning mercy. There was the highest manifestation of the +glory of God. 'What?' you say, 'a poor weak Man, hanging on a cross, +and dying in the dark--is _that_ the very shining apex of all +that humanity can know of divinity?' Yes, for it is the pure +manifestation that God is Love. Therefore the whole sunshine of the +Father's presence rested on the dying Saviour. It was the hour when +God most delighted in Him, if I may venture the comparison, for the +other reasons that then He carried filial obedience to its utmost +perfection, that then His trust in God was deepest, even at the hour +when His spirit was darkened by the cloud that the world's sin, +which He was carrying, had spread thunderous between Him and the +sunshine of the Father's face. For in that mysterious voice, which +we can never understand in its depths, there were blended trust and +desolation, each in its highest degree: 'My God! my God! Why hast +Thou forsaken Me?' And the Cross was the complete carrying out of +God's dearest purpose for the world, that He might be 'just, and the +justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.' Therefore, then--I was +going to say as never before--was Christ His Son, in whom He +delighted. + +Brethren, let us, led by the errors of these scoffers, grasp the +truths that they pervert. Let us see that weak Man hanging helpless +on the cross, whose 'cannot' is the impotence of omnipotence, +imposed by His own loving will to save a world by the sacrifice of +Himself. Let us crown Him our King, and let our deepest trust and +our gladdest obedience be rendered to Him because He did not come +down from, but 'endured, the cross.' Let us behold with wonder, awe, +and endless love the Father not withholding His only Son, but +'delivering Him up to the death for us all,' and from the empty +grave and the occupied Throne let us learn how the Father by both +proclaims to all the world concerning Him hanging dying on the +cross: '_This_ is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' + + + + +THE VEIL RENT + + + 'Behold, the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from + the top to the bottom.'--MATT. xxvii. 51. + +As I suppose we are all aware, the Jewish Temple was divided into +three parts: the Outer Court, open to all; the Holy Place, to which +the ministering priests had daily access to burn incense and trim +the lamps; and the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest was +permitted to go, and that but once a year, on the great Day of +Atonement. For the other three hundred and sixty-four days the +shrine lay silent, untrodden, dark. Between it and the less sacred +Holy Place hung the veil, whose heavy folds only one man was +permitted to lift or to pass. To all others it was death to peer +into the mysteries, and even to him, had he gone at another time, +and without the blood of the sacrifice, death would have ensued. + +If we remember all this and try to cast ourselves back in +imagination to the mental attitude of the ordinary Jew, the incident +of my text receives its true interpretation. At the moment when the +loud cry of the dying Christ rung over the heads of the awestruck +multitude, that veil was, as it were, laid hold of by a pair of +giant hands and torn asunder, as the Evangelist says, 'from the top +to the bottom.' The incident was a symbol. In one aspect it +proclaimed the end of the long years of Israel's prerogative. In +another it ushered in an epoch of new relations between man and God. +If Jesus Christ was what He said He was, if His death was what He +declared it to be, it was fitting that it should be attended by a +train of subordinate and interpreting wonders. These were, besides +that of my text, the darkened sun, the trembling earth, the shivered +rocks, the open graves, the rising saints--all of them, in their +several ways, illuminating the significance of that death on +Calvary. + +Not less significant is this symbol of my text, and I desire now to +draw your attention to its meanings. + +I. The rent veil proclaims the desecrated temple. + +There is a striking old legend, preserved by the somewhat mendacious +historian of the Jewish people, that, before Jerusalem fell, the +anxious watchers heard from within the sanctuary a great voice +saying, 'Let us depart hence!' and through the night were conscious +of the winnowing of the mighty wings of the withdrawing cherubim. +And soon a Roman soldier tossed a brand into the most Holy Place, +and the 'beautiful house where their fathers praised was burned with +fire.' The legend is pathetic and significant. But that 'departing' +had taken place forty years before; and at the moment when Jesus +'gave up the ghost,' purged eyes might have seen the long trail of +brightness as the winged servitors of the Most High withdrew from +the desecrated shrine. The veil rent declared that the sacred soil +within it was now common as any foot of earth in Galilee; and its +rending, so to speak, made way for a departing God. + +That conception, that the death of Christ Jesus was the +_de-consecration_--if I may coin a word--of the Temple, and the end +of all its special sanctity, and that thenceforward the Presence had +departed from it, is distinctly enough taught us by Himself in words +which move in the same circle of ideas as that in which the symbol +resides.... You remember, no doubt, that, if we accept the testimony +of John's Gospel, at the very beginning of our Lord's ministry He +vindicated His authority to cleanse the sanctuary against the cavils +of the sticklers for propriety by the enigmatical words, 'Destroy +this Temple, and in three days I will build it up,' to which the +Evangelist appends the comment, 'He spake of the Temple of His +body,' that body in which 'all the fulness of the Godhead' dwelt, +and which was, and is to-day, all that the Temple shadowed and +foretold, the dwelling-place of God in humanity, the place of +sacrifice, the meeting-place between God and man. But just because +our Lord in these dark words predicted His death and His +resurrection, He also hinted the destruction of the literal stone +and lime building, and its rearing again in nobler and more +spiritual form. When He said, 'Destroy this Temple,' He implied, +secondarily, the destruction of the house in which He stood, and +laid that destruction, whensoever it should come to pass, at their +doors. And, inasmuch as the saying in its deepest depth meant His +death by their violence and craft, therefore, in that early saying +of His, was wrapped up the very same truth which was symbolised by +the rent veil, and was bitterly fulfilled at last. When they slew +Christ they killed the system under which they lived, and for which +they would have been glad to die, in a zeal without knowledge; and +destroyed the very Temple on the distorted charge of being the +destroyer of which, they handed Him over to the Roman power. + +The death of Christ is, then, the desecration and the destruction of +that Temple. Of course it is; because when a nation that had had +millenniums of education, of forbearance, of revelation, turned at +last upon the very climax and brightest central light of all the +Revelation, standing there amongst them in a bodily form, there was +nothing more to be done. God had shot His last arrow; His quiver was +empty. 'Last of all He sent unto them His Son, saying,' with a +wistful kind of half-confidence, 'They will reverence My Son,' and +the divine expectation was disappointed, and exhaustless Love was +empty-handed, and all was over. He could turn to themselves and say, +'Judge between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done +that I have not done to it?' Therefore, there was nothing left but +to let the angels of destruction loose, and to call for the Roman +eagles with their broad-spread wings, and their bloody beaks, and +their strong talons, to gather together round the carcase. When He +gave up the Ghost, 'the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from +the top to the bottom.' + +A time of repentance was given. It was possible for the most guilty +participator in that judicial murder to have his gory hands washed +and made white in the very blood that he had shed; but, failing +repentance, that death was the death of Israel, and the destruction +of Israel's Temple. Let us take the lesson, dear brethren. If we +turn away from that Saviour, and refuse the offered gifts of His +love, there is no other appeal left in the power of Heaven; and +there is nothing for it after that except judgment and destruction. +We can 'crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame.' +And the hearts that are insensitive, as are some of our hearts, to +that great love and grace, are capable of nothing except to be +pulverised by means of a judgment. Repentance is possible for us +all, but, failing that, the continuance of rejection of Christ is +the pulling down, on our own heads, of the ruins of the Temple, like +the Israelitish hero in his blindness and despair. + +II. Now, secondly, the rent veil means, in another way of looking at +the incident, light streaming in on the mystery of God. + +Let me recall to your imaginations what lay behind that heavy veil. +In the Temple, in our Lord's time, there was no presence of the +Shekinah, the light that symbolised the divine presence. There was +the mercy-seat, with the outstretched wings of the cherubim; there +were the dimly pictured forms on the tapestry hangings; there was +silence deep as death; there was darkness absolute and utter, whilst +the Syrian sun was blazing down outside. Surely that is the symbol +of the imperfect knowledge or illumination as to the divine nature +which is over all the world. 'The veil is spread over all nations, +and the covering over all people.' And surely that sudden, sharp +tearing asunder of the obscuring medium, and letting the bright +sunlight stream into every corner of the dark chamber, is for us a +symbol of the great fact that in the life, and especially in the +death, of Jesus Christ our Lord, we have light thrown in to the +depths of God. + +What does that Cross tell us about God that the world did not know? +And how does it tell us? and why does it tell us? It tells us of +absolute righteousness, of that in the divine nature which cannot +tolerate sin; of the stern law of retribution which must be wrought +out, and by which the wages of every sin is death. It tells us not +only of a divine righteousness which sees guilt and administers +punishment, but it tells us of a divine love, perfect, infinite, +utter, perennial, which shrinks from no sacrifice, which stoops to +the lowest conditions, which itself takes upon it all the miseries +of humanity, and which dies because it loves and will save men from +death. And as we look upon that dying Man hanging on the cross, the +very embodiment and consummation of weakness and of shame, we have +to say, 'Lo! this is our God! We have waited for Him'--through all +the weary centuries--'and He will save us.' How does it tell us all +this? Not by eloquent and gracious thoughts, not by sweet and +musical words, but by a deed. The only way by which we can know men +is by what they do. The only way by which we know God is by what He +does. And so we point to that Cross and say, 'There! not in words, +not in thoughts, not in speculations, not in hopes and fears and +peradventures and dim intuitions, but in a solid fact; there is the +Revelation which lays bare the heart of God, and shows us its very +throbbing of love to every human soul.' 'The veil was rent in twain +from the top to the bottom.' + +The Cross will reveal God to you only if you believe that Jesus +Christ was the Incarnate Word. Brethren, if that death was but the +death of even the very holiest, noblest, sweetest, perfectest soul +that ever lived on earth and breathed human breath, there is no +revelation of God in it for us. It tells us what Jesus was, and by a +very roundabout inference may suggest something of what the divine +nature is, but unless you can say, as the New Testament says, 'In +the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word +was God.... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we +beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father, +full of grace and truth,' I fail to see how the death of Christ can +be a revelation of the love of God. + +I need not occupy time in dilating upon the contrast between this +solid certitude, and all that the world, apart from Jesus Christ, +has to lay hold of about God. We want something else than mist on +which to build, and on which to lay hold. And there is a +substantial, warm, flesh-and-blood hand, if I may so say, put out to +us through the mist when we believe in Christ the Son of God, who +died on the cross for us all. Then, amidst whirling mists and +tossing seas, there is a fixed point to which we can moor; then our +confidence is built, not on peradventures or speculations or wishes +or dreams or hopes, but on a historical fact, and grasping that firm +we may stand unmoved. + +Dear friends, I may be very old-fashioned and very narrow--I suppose +I am; but I am bound to declare my conviction, which I think every +day's experience of the tendency of thought only makes more certain, +that, practically for this generation, the choice lies between +accepting the life and death of Jesus Christ as the historical +Revelation of God, or having no knowledge of Him--_knowledge_, +I say,--of Him at all; you must choose between the barred sanctuary, +within which lies couched a hidden Something--with a capital S--or +perhaps a hidden Someone whom you never can know and never will; or +the rent veil, rent by Christ's death, through which you can pass, +and behold the mercy-seat and, above the outstretched wings of the +adoring cherubim, the Father whose name is Love. + +III. Lastly, the rent veil permits any and every man to draw near to +God. + +You remember what I have already said as to the jealous guarding of +the privacy of that inner shrine, and how not only the common herd +of the laity, but the whole of the priesthood, with the solitary +exception of its titular head, were shut out from ever entering it. +In the old times of Israel there was only one man alive at once who +had ever been beyond the veil. And now that it is rent, what does +that show but this, that by the death of Jesus Christ any one, every +one, is welcome to pass in to the very innermost sanctuary, and to +dwell, nestling as close as he will, to the very heart of the +throned God? There is a double veil, if I may so say, between man +and God: the side turned outward is woven by our own sins; and the +other turned inwards is made out of the necessary antagonism of the +divine nature to man's sin. There hangs the veil, and when the +Psalmist asked, 'Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord; or who +shall stand in His holy place?' he was putting a question which +echoes despairingly in the very heart of all religions. And he +answered it as conscience ever answers it when it gets fair play: +'He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up +his soul unto vanity.' And where or who is he? Nowhere; nobody. +Access is barred, because it is impossible that a holy and righteous +God should communicate the selectest gifts of His love, even the +sense of His favour, and of harmony and fellowship with Him, to +sinful men, and barred, because it is impossible that men, with the +consciousness of evil and the burden of guilt sometimes chafing +their shoulders, and always bowing down their backs, should desire +to possess, or be capable of possessing, that fellowship and union +with God. A black, frowning wall, if I may change the metaphor of my +text, rises between us and God. But One comes with the sacrificial +vessel in His hand, and pours His blood on the barrier, and that +melts the black blocks that rise between us and God, and the path is +patent and permeable for every foot. 'The veil of the Temple was +rent in twain' when Christ died. That death, because it is a +sacrifice, makes it possible that the whole fulness of the divine +love should be poured upon man. That death moves our hearts, takes +away our sense of guilt, draws us nearer to Him; and so both by its +operation--not on the love of God--but on the government of God, and +by its operation on the consciousness of men, throws open the path +into His very presence. + +If I might use abstract words, I would say that Christ's death +potentially opens the path for every man, which being put into plain +English--which is better--is just that by the death of Christ every +man can, if he will, go to God, and live beside Him. And our faith +is our personal laying hold of that great sacrifice and treading on +that path. It turns the 'potentiality' into an actuality, the +possibility into a fact. If we believe on Him who died on the cross +for us all, then by that way we come to God, than which there is +none other given under heaven among men. + +So all believers are priests, or none of them are. The absolute +right of direct access to God, without the intervention of any man +who has an officially greater nearness to Him than others, and +through whom as through a channel the grace of sacrament comes, is +contained in the great symbol of my text. And it is a truth that +this day needs. On the one hand there is agnostic unbelief, which +needs to see in the rent veil the illumination streaming through it +on to the depths of God; and on the other hand there is the +complementary error--and the two always breed each other--the +superstition which drags back by an anachronism the old Jewish +notions of priesthood into the Christian Church. It needs to see in +the rent veil the charter of universal priesthood for all believers, +and to hearken to the words which declare, 'Ye are a chosen +generation, a spiritual house, a royal priesthood, that ye should +offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ.' +That is the lesson that this day wants. 'Having, therefore, +brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest of all, by the blood of +Jesus, by a new and living way, which He has consecrated for us +through the veil, that is His flesh, let us draw near with true +hearts in full assurance of faith.' + + + + +THE PRINCE OF LIFE + + + 'In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward + the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the + other Mary to see the sepulchre. 2. And, behold, there + was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord + descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the + stone from the door, and sat upon it. 3. His countenance + was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: + 4. And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became + as dead men. 5. And the angel answered and said unto the + women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which + was crucified. 6. He is not here: for He is risen, as He + said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7. And go + quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from + the dead; and, behold, He goeth before you into Galilee; + there shall ye see Him: lo, I have told you. 8. And they + departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great + joy; and did run to bring His disciples word. 9. And as + they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, + saying, All hail. And they came and held Him by the + feet, and worshipped Him. 10. Then said Jesus unto them, + Be not afraid: go tell My brethren that they go into + Galilee, and there shall they see Me. 11. Now, when + they were going, behold, some of the watch came into + the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the + things that were done. 12. And when they were assembled + with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large + money unto the soldiers, 13. Saying, Say ye, His + disciples came by night, and stole Him away while we + slept. 14. And if this come to the governor's ears, we + will persuade him, and secure you. 15. So they took the + money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is + commonly reported among the Jews until this day.' + --MATT. xxviii. 1-15. + +The attempts at harmonising the resurrection narratives are not only +unsatisfactory, but they tend to blur the distinctive characteristics +of each account. We shall therefore confine ourselves entirely to +Matthew's version, and leave the others alone, with the simple +remark that a condensed report of a series of events does not deny +what it omits, nor contradict a fuller one. The peculiarities of +Matthew's last chapter are largely due to the purpose of his gospel. + Throughout, it has been the record of the Galilean ministry, the +picture of the King of Israel, and of His treatment by those who +should have been His subjects. This chapter establishes the fact of +His resurrection; but, passing by the Jerusalem appearances of the +risen Lord, as being granted to individuals and having less bearing +on His royalty, emphasises two points: His rejection by the +representatives of the nation, whose lie is endorsed by popular +acceptance; and the solemn assumption, in Galilee, so familiar to +the reader, of universal dominion, with the world-wide commission, +in which the kingdom bursts the narrow national limits and becomes +co-extensive with humanity. It is better to learn the meaning of +Matthew's selection of his incidents than to wipe out instructive +peculiarities in the vain attempt after harmony. + +First, notice his silence (in which all the four narratives are +alike) as to the time and circumstances of the resurrection itself. +That had taken place before the grey twilight summoned the faithful +women, and before the earthquake and the angel's descent. No eye saw +Him rise. The guards were not asleep, for the statement that they +were is a lie put into their mouths by the rulers; but though they +kept jealous watch, His rising was invisible to them. 'The prison +was shut with all safety,' for the stone was rolled away after He +was risen, 'and the keepers standing before the doors,' but there +was 'no man within.' As in the evening of that day He appeared in +the closed chamber, so He passed from the sealed grave. Divine +decorum required that that transcendent act should be done without +mortal observers of the actual rising of the Sun which scatters for +ever the darkness of death. + +Matthew next notices the angel ministrant and herald. His narrative +leaves the impression that the earthquake and appearance of the +angel immediately preceded the arrival of the women, and the +'Behold!' suggests that they felt and saw both. But that is a piece +of chronology on which there may be difference of opinion. The other +narratives tell of two angels. Matthew's mention of one only may be +due either to the fact that one was speaker, or to the subjective +impressions of his informant, who saw but the one, or to variation +in the number visible at different times. We know too little of the +laws which determine their appearances to be warranted in finding +contradiction or difficulty here. The power of seeing may depend on +the condition of the beholder. It may depend, not as with gross +material bodies, on optics, but on the volition of the radiant +beings seen. They may pass from visibility to its opposite, lightly +and repeatedly, flickering into and out of sight, as the Pleiades +seem to do. Where there is such store of possibilities, he is rash +who talks glibly about contradictions. + +Of far more value is it to note the purpose served by this waiting +angel. We heard much of a herald angel of the Lord in the story of +the Nativity. We hear nothing of him during the life of Christ. Now +again he appears, as the stars, quenched in the noontide, shine +again when the sun is out of the sky. He attends as humble servitor, +in token that the highest beings gazed on that empty grave with +reverent adoration, and were honoured by being allowed to guard the +sacred place. Death was an undreaded thing to them, and no hopes for +themselves blossomed from Christ's grave; but He who had lain in it +was their King as well as ours, and new lessons of divine love were +taught them, as they wondered and watched. They come to minister by +act and word to the weeping women's faith and joy. Their appearance +paralyses the guards, who would have kept the Marys from the grave. +They roll away the great circular stone, which women's hands, +however nerved by love, could not have moved in its grooves. They +speak tender words to them. There by the empty tomb, the strong +heavenly and the weak earthly lovers of the risen King meet +together, and clasp hands of help, the pledge and first-fruits of +the standing order henceforth, and the inauguration of their office +of 'ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for ... heirs of +salvation.' The risen Christ hath made both one. The servants of the +same King must needs be friends of one another. + +The angel's words fall into three parts. First, he calms fears by the +assurance that the seekers for Christ are dear to Him. 'Fear not _ye_' +glances at the prostrate watchers, and almost acknowledges the +reasonableness of their abject terror. To them he could not but be +hostile, but to hearts that longed for their and his Lord, he and all +his mighty fellows were brethren. Let us learn that all God's angels +are our lovers and helpers, if we love and seek for Jesus. Superstition +has peopled the gulf between God and man with crowds of beings; +revelation assures us that it is full of creatures who excel in strength. +Men have cowered before them, but 'whether they be thrones, or +dominions, or principalities, or powers,' our King was their Creator, +and is their Sovereign, and, if we serve Him, all these are on our +side. The true deliverer from superstitious terrors is the risen Christ. +Again, the angel announces in simplest words the glorious fact, 'He +is risen,' and helps them to receive it by a double way. He reminds +them of Christ's own words, which had seemed so mysterious and +had turned out so simple, so incredible, and now had proved so true. +He calls them with a smile of welcome to draw near, and with him to +look into the empty place. The invitation extends to us all, for the +one assurance of immortality; and the only answer to the despairing +question, 'If a man die, shall he live again?' which is solid enough +to resist the corrosion of modern doubt as of ancient ignorance, is +that empty grave, and the filled throne, which was its necessary +consequence. By it we measure the love that stooped so low, we +school our hearts to anticipate without dread or reluctance our own +lying down there, we fasten our faith on the risen Forerunner, and +rejoice in the triumphant assurance of a living Christ. If the +wonder of the women's stunned gaze is no more ours, our calm +acceptance of the familiar fact need be none the less glad, and our +estimate of its far-reaching results more complete than their tumult +of feeling permitted to them. + +No wonder that, swiftly, new duty which was privilege followed on +the new, glad knowledge. It was emphatically 'a day of good +tidings,' and they could not hold their peace. A brief glance, +enough for certitude and joy, was permitted; and then, with urgent +haste, they are sent to be apostles to the Apostles. The possession +of the news of a risen Saviour binds the possessors to be its +preachers. Where it is received in any power, it will impel to +utterance. He who can keep silence has never felt, as he ought, the +worth of the word, nor realised the reason why he has seen the Cross +or the empty grave. 'He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall +ye see.' It was but two complete days and one night since Christ had +said to the disciples that He would rise again, and, as the Shepherd +of the scattered flock, go before them into Galilee. How long ago +since that saying it would seem! The reasons for Matthew's omission +of all the other appearances of our Lord in Jerusalem, with the +exception of the one which immediately follows, and for the stress +he lays on this rendezvous in their native Galilee, have already +been touched on, and need not detain us now. + +The next point in the narrative is the glad interview with the risen +Jesus. The women had been at the grave but for a few moments. But +they lived more in these than in years of quiet. Time is very +elastic, and five minutes or five seconds may change a life. These +few moments changed a world. Haste, winged by fear which had no +torment, and by joy which found relief in swift movement, sent them +running, forgetful of conventional proprieties, towards the +awakening city. Probably Mary Magdalene had left them, as soon as +they saw the open grave, and had hurried back alone to tell the +tidings. And now the crowning joy and wonder comes. How simply it is +told!--the introductory 'Behold!' just hinting at the wonderfulness, +and perhaps at the suddenness, of our Lord's appearance, and the +rest being in the quietest and fewest words possible. Note the deep +significance of the name 'Jesus' here. The angel spoke of 'the +Lord,' but all the rest of the chapter speaks of 'Jesus.' The joy +and hope that flow from the Resurrection depend on the fact of His +humanity. He comes out of the grave, the same brother of our mortal +flesh as before. It was no phantom whose feet they clasped, and He +is not withdrawn from them by His mysterious experience. All through +the Resurrection histories and the narrative of the forty days, the +same emphasis attaches to the name, which culminates in the angel's +assurance at the Ascension, that 'this same Jesus,' in His true +humanity, who has gone up on high our Forerunner, shall come again +our Brother and our Judge. 'It is _Christ_ that died, yea +rather, that is risen again'; but that triumphant assurance loses +all its blessedness, unless we say too, '_Jesus_ died for our +sins according to the Scriptures, and ... rose again the third day.' + +Note, too, the calmness of His greeting. He uses the common form of +salutation, as if He had but been absent on some common occasion, +and met them in ordinary circumstances. He speaks out of His own +deep tranquillity, and desires to impart it to their agitated +spirits. He would calm their joy, that it may be the deeper, like +His own. If we may give any weight to the original meaning of the +formula of greeting which He employs, we may see blessed prophecy in +it. The lips of the risen Christ bid us all 'rejoice.' His +salutation is no empty wish, but a command which makes its own +fulfilment possible. If our hearts welcome Him, and our faith is +firm in His risen power and love, then He gives us a deep and +central gladness, which nothing + + 'That is at enmity with joy + Can utterly abolish or destroy.' + +The rush to His feet, and the silent clasp of adoration, are +eloquent of a tumult of feeling most natural, and yet not without +turbid elements, which He does not wholly approve. We have not here +the prohibition of such a touch which was spoken to Mary, but we +have substantially the same substitution, by His command, of +practical service for mere emotion. That carries a lesson always in +season. We cannot love Christ too much, nor try to get too near Him, +to touch Him with the hand of our faith. But there have been modes +of religious emotion, represented by hymns and popular books, which +have not mingled reverence rightly with love, and have spoken of +Him, and of the emotions binding us to Him, in tones unwholesomely +like those belonging to earthly passion. But, apart from that, Jesus +taught these women, and us through them, that it is better to +proclaim His Resurrection than to lie at His feet; and that, however +sweet the blessedness which we find in Him may be, it is meant to +put a message into our lips, which others need. Our sight of Him +gives us something to say, and binds us to say it. It was a blessing +to the women to have work to do, in doing which their strained +emotions might subside. It was a blessing to the mournful company in +the upper room to have their hearts prepared for His coming by these +heralds. It was a wonderful token of His unchanged love, and an +answer to fears and doubts of how they might find Him, that He sends +the message to them as brethren. + +In the hurry of that Easter morning, they had no time to ponder on +all that it had brought them. The Resurrection as the demonstration +of Christ's divinity and of the acceptance of His perfect sacrifice, +or as the pledge of their resurrection, or as the type of their +Christian life, was for future experience to grasp. For that day, it +was enough to pass from despair to joy, and to let the astounding +fact flood them with sunny hope. + +We know the vast sweep of the consequences and consolations of it +far better than they did. There is no reason, in our distance from +it, for its diminishing either in magnitude, in certitude, or in +blessedness in our eyes. No fact in the history of the world stands +on such firm evidence as the resurrection of Jesus Christ. No age of +the world ever needed to believe it more than this one does. It +becomes us all to grasp it for ourselves with an iron tenacity of +hold, and to echo, in the face of the materialisms and know-nothing +philosophy of this day, the old ringing confession, 'Now is Christ +risen from the dead!' + +We need say little about the last point in this narrative--the +obstinate blindness of the rulers, and their transparent lie to +account for the empty grave. The guard reports to the rulers, not to +the governor, as they had been handed over by Pilate for special +service. But they were Roman soldiers, as appears from the danger +which the rulers provided against, that of their alleged crime +against military discipline, in sleeping at their post, coming to +his ears. The trumped-up story is too puerile to have taken in any +one who did not wish to believe it. How could they tell what +happened when they were asleep? How could such an operation as +forcing back a heavy stone, and exhuming a corpse, have been carried +on without waking them? How could such a timid set of people have +mustered up courage for such a bold act? What did they do it for? +Not to bury their Lord. He had been lovingly laid there by reverent +hands, and costly spices strewn upon the sacred limbs. The only +possible motive would be that the disciples might tell lies about +His resurrection. That hypothesis that the Resurrection was a +deliberately concocted falsehood has proved too strong for the +stomach of modern unbelief, and has been long abandoned, as it had +need to be. When figs grow on thistles, such characters as the early +Christians, martyrs, heroes, saints, will be produced by a system +which has a lie, known to be one, for its foundation. But the lame +story is significant in two ways. It confesses, by its desperate +attempt to turn the corner of the difficulty, that the great rock, +on which all denials of Christ's resurrection split, is the simple +question--If He did not rise again, what became of the body? The +priests' answer is absurd, but it, at all events, acknowledges that +the grave was empty, and that it is incumbent to produce an +explanation which reasonable men can accept without laughter. + +Further, this last appearance of the rulers in the gospel is full of +tragic significance, and is especially important to Matthew, whose +narrative deals especially with Jesus as the King and Messiah of +Israel. This is the end of centuries of prophecy and patience! This +is what all God's culture of His vineyard has come to! The +husbandmen cast the Heir out of the vineyard, and slew him. But +there was a deeper depth than even that. They would not be persuaded +when He rose again from the dead. They entrenched themselves in a +lie, which only showed that they had a glimmering of the truth and +hated it. And the lie was willingly swallowed by the mass of the +nation, who thereby showed that they were of the same stuff as they +who made it. A conspiracy of falsehood, which knew itself to be +such, was the last act of that august council of Israel. It is an +awful lesson of the penalties of unfaithfulness to the light +possessed, an awful instance of 'judicial blindness.' So sets the +sun of Israel. And therefore Matthew's Gospel turns away from the +apostate nation, which has rejected its King, to tell, in its last +words, of His assumption of universal dominion, and of the passage +of the glad news from Israel to the world. + + + + +THE RISEN LORD'S GREETINGS AND GIFTS + + + 'And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus + met them, saying, All hail.'--MATT. xxviii. 9. + + 'Then the same day at evening ... came Jesus and stood + in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.' + --JOHN xx. 19. + +So did our Lord greet His sad followers. The first of these +salutations was addressed to the women as they hurried in the +morning from the empty tomb bewildered; the second to the disciples +assembled in the upper room in the evening of the same day. Both are +ordinary greetings. The first is that usual in Greek, and literally +means 'Rejoice'; the second is that common in Hebrew. The divergence +between the two may be owing to the Evangelist Matthew having +rendered the words which our Lord actually did speak, in the tongue +familiar to His time, into their equivalent Greek. But whatever +account may be given of the divergence does not materially affect +the significance which I find in the salutations. And I desire to +turn to them for a few moments now, because I think that, if we +ponder them, we may gain some precious lessons from these Easter +greetings of the Lord Himself. + +I. First, then, notice their strange and majestic simplicity. + +He meets His followers after Calvary and the Tomb and the +Resurrection, with the same words with which two casual +acquaintances, after some slight absence, might salute one another +by the way. Their very simplicity is their sublimity here. For think +of what tremendous experiences He had passed through since they saw +Him last, and of what a rush of rapture and disturbance of joy shook +the minds of the disciples, and then estimate the calm and calming +power of that matter-of-fact and simple greeting. It bears upon its +very front the mark of truth. Would anybody have imagined the scene +so? There have been one or two great poets who might conceivably +have risen to the height of putting such words under such +circumstances into the mouths of creatures of their own imagination. +Analogous instances of the utmost simplicity of expression in +moments of intense feeling may be quoted from Aschylus or +Shakespeare, and are regarded as the high-water marks of genius. But +does any one suppose that these evangelists were exceptionally +gifted souls of that sort, or that they could have imagined anything +like this--so strange in its calm, so unnatural at first sight, and +yet vindicating itself as so profoundly natural and sublime--unless +for the simple reason that they had heard it themselves, or been +told it by credible witnesses? Neither the delicate pencil of the +great dramatic genius nor the coarser brush of legend can have drawn +such an incident as this, and it seems to me that the only +reasonable explanation of it is that these greetings are what He +really did say. + +For, as I have remarked, unnatural as it seems at first sight, if +we think for a moment, the very simplicity and calm, and, I was +going to say, the _matter-of-factness_, of such a greeting, as +the first that escaped from lips that had passed through death and +yet were red and vocal, is congruous with the deepest truths of +His nature. He has come from that tremendous conflict, and He +reappears, not flushed with triumph, nor bearing any trace of effort, +but surrounded as by a nimbus with that strange tranquillity which +evermore enwrapped Him. So small does the awful scene which He has +passed through seem to this divine-human Man, and so utterly are +the old ties and bonds unaffected by it, that when He meets His +followers, all He has to say to them as His first greeting is, +'Peace be unto you!'--the well-worn salutation that was bandied to +and fro in every market-place and scene where men were wont to meet. +Thus He indicates the divine tranquillity of His nature; thus He +minimises the fact of death; thus He reduces it to its true +insignificance as a parenthesis across which may pass unaffected all +sweet familiarities and loving friendships; thus He reknits the +broken ties, and, though the form of their intercourse is hereafter +to be profoundly modified, the substance of it remains, whereof He +giveth assurance unto them in these His first words from the dead. So, +as to a man standing on some mountain plateau, the deep gorges which +seam it become invisible, and the unbroken level runs right on. So, +there are a marvellous proof of the majesty and tranquillity of the +divine Man, a glorious manifestation of His superiority over death; +a blessed assurance of the reknitting of all ancient ties, after it +as before it, coming to us from pondering on the trivial words--trivial +from other lips, but profoundly significant on His--wherewith He +greeted His servants when He rose again from the dead. + +II. Then note, secondly, the universal destination of the greetings +of the risen Lord. + +I have said that it is possibly a mere accident that we should have +the two forms of salutation preserved for us here; and that it is +quite conceivable that our Lord really spoke but one, which has been +preserved unaltered from its Hebrew or Aramaic original in John, and +rendered by its Greek equivalent by the Evangelist Matthew. + +But be that as it may, I cannot help feeling that in this fact, that +the one salutation is the common greeting among Greek-speaking peoples, +and the other the common greeting amongst Easterns, we may permissibly +find the thought of the universal aspect of the gifts and greetings of +the risen Christ. He comes to all men, and each man hears Him, 'in his +own tongue wherein he was born,' breathing forth to him greetings +which are promises, and promises which are gifts. Just as the mocking +inscription on the Cross proclaimed, in 'Hebrew and Greek and Latin,' +the three tongues known to its readers, the one kingdom of the +crucified King--so in the greetings from the grave, the one declares +that, to all the desires of eager, ardent, sensuous, joy-loving +Westerns, and all the aspirations of repose-loving Easterns, who had +had bitter experience of the pangs and pains of a state of warfare, +Jesus Christ is ready to respond and to bring answering gifts. +Whatsoever any community or individual has conceived as its highest +ideal of blessedness and of good, that the risen Christ hath in His +hands to bestow. He takes men's ideals of blessedness, and deepens +and purifies and refines them. + +The Greek notion of joy as being the good to be most wished for +those dear to us, is but a shallow one. They had to learn, and their +philosophy and their poetry and their art came to corruption because +they would not learn, that the corn of wheat must be cast into the +ground and die before it bring forth fruit. They knew little of the +blessing and meaning of sorrow, and therefore the false glitter +passed away, and the pursuit of the ideal became gross and foul and +sensuous. And, on the other hand, the Jew, with his longing for +peace, had an equally shallow and unworthy conception of what it +meant, and what was needed to produce it. If he had only external +concord with men, and a competency of outward good within his reach +without too much trouble, he thought that because he 'had much goods +laid up for many years' he might 'take his ease; and eat, and drink, +and be merry.' But Jesus Christ comes to satisfy both aspirations by +contradicting both, and to reveal to Greek and Jew how much deeper +and diviner was his desire than he dreamed it to be; and, therefore, +how impossible it was to find the joy that would last, in the +dancing fireflies of external satisfactions or the delights of art +and beauty; and how impossible it was to find the repose that +ennobled and was wedded to action, in anything short of union with +God. + +The Lord Christ comes out of the grave in which He lay for every +man, and brings to each man's door, in a dialect intelligible to the +man himself, the satisfaction of the single soul's aspirations and +ideals, as well as of the national desires. His gifts and greetings +are of universal destination, meant for us all and adapted for us +each. + +III. Then, thirdly, notice the unfailing efficacy of the Lord's +greetings. + +Look at these people to whom He spoke. Remember what they were +between the Friday and the Sunday morning; utterly cowed and beaten, +the women, in accordance with the feminine nature, apparently more +deeply touched by the personal loss of the Friend and Comforter; and +the men apparently, whilst sharing that sorrow, also touched by +despair at the going to water of all the hopes that they had been +building upon His official character and position. 'We trusted that +it had been He which should have redeemed Israel,' they said, 'as +they walked and were sad.' They were on the point of parting. The +Keystone withdrawn, the stones were ready to fall apart. Then came +_something_--let us leave a blank for a moment--then came +_something_; and those who had been cowards, dissolved in +sorrow and relaxed by despair, in eight-and-forty hours became +heroes. From that time, when, by all reasonable logic and common +sense applied to men's motives, the Crucifixion should have crushed +their dreams and dissolved their society, a precisely opposite +effect ensues, and not only did the Church continue, but the men +changed their characters, and became, somehow or other, full of +these very two things which Christ wished for them--namely, joy and +peace. + +Now I want to know--what bridges that gulf? How do you get the Peter +of the Acts of the Apostles out of the Peter of the Gospels? Is +there any way of explaining that revolution of character, whilst yet +its broad outlines remain identical, which befell him and all of +them, except the old-fashioned one that the _something_ which +came in between was the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the +consequent gift of joy and peace in Him, a joy that no troubles or +persecutions could shake, a peace that no conflicts could for a +moment disturb? It seems to me that every theory of Christianity +which boggles at accepting the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as a +plain fact, is shattered to pieces on the sharp-pointed rock of this +one demand--'Very well! If it is not a fact, account for the +existence of the Church, and for the change in the characters of its +members.' You may wriggle as you like, but you will never get a +reasonable theory of these two undeniable facts until you believe +that He rose from the dead. In His right hand He carried peace, and +in His left joy. He gave these to them, and therefore 'out of +weakness they were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to +flight the armies of the aliens,' and when the time came, 'were +tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better +resurrection.' There is omnipotent efficacy in Christ's greetings. + +The one instance opens up the general law, that His wishes are +gifts, that all His words are acts, that He speaks and it is done, +and that when He desires for us joy, it is a deed of conveyance and +gift, and invests us with the joy that He desires if we observe the +conditions. + +Christ's wishes are omnipotent, ours are powerless. We wish for our +friends many good things, and the event turns wishes to mockery, and +the garlands which we prepared for their birthdays have sometimes to +be hung on their tombs. The limitations of human friendship and of +our deepest and sincerest wishes, like a dark background, enhance +the boundless efficacy of the greetings of the Master, which are not +only wishes but bestowments of the thing wished, and therein given, +by Him. + +IV. So, lastly, notice our share in this twofold greeting. + +When it was first heard, I suppose that the disciples and the women +apprehended the salutation only in its most outward form, and that +all other thoughts were lost in the mere rapture of the sudden +change from the desolate sense of loss to the glad consciousness of +renewed possession. When the women clung to His feet on that Easter +morning, they had no thought of anything but--'we clasp Thee again, +O Soul of our souls.' But then, as time went on, the meaning and +blessedness and far-reaching issues of the Resurrection became more +plain to them. And I think we can see traces of the process, in the +development of Christian teaching as presented in the Acts of the +Apostles and in the Epistles. Peter in his early sermons dwells on +the Resurrection all but exclusively from one point of view--viz., +as being the great proof of Christ's Messiahship. Then there came by +degrees, as is represented in the same Peter's letter, and +abundantly in the Apostle Paul's, the recognition of the light which +the Resurrection of Jesus Christ threw upon immortality; as a +prophecy and a pattern thereof. Then, when the historical fact had +become fully accepted and universally diffused, and its bearings +upon men's future had been as fully apprehended as is possible here, +there came, finally, the thought that the Resurrection of Jesus +Christ was the symbol of the new life, which from that risen Lord +passed into all those who loved and trusted Him. + +Now, in all these three aspects--as proof of Messiahship, as the +pattern and prophecy of immortality, and as the symbol of the better +life which is accessible for us, here and now--the Resurrection of +Jesus Christ stands for us even more truly than for the rapturous +women who caught His feet, or for the thankful men who looked upon +Him in the upper chamber, as the source of peace and of joy. + +For, dear brethren, therein is set forth for us the Christ whose +work is thereby declared to be finished and acceptable to God, and +all sorrow of sin, all guilt, all disturbance of heart and mind by +reason of evil passions and burning memories of former iniquity, and +all disturbance of our concord with God, are at once and for ever +swept away. If Jesus Christ was 'declared to be the Son of God with +power by His Resurrection from the dead,' and if in that +Resurrection, as is most surely the case, the broad seal of the +divine acceptance is set to the charter of our forgiveness and +sonship by the blood of the Cross, then joy and peace come to us +from Him and from it. + +Again, the resurrection of Jesus Christ sets Him forth before us as +the pattern and the prophecy of immortal life. This Samson has taken +the gates of the prison-house on His broad shoulders and carried +them away, and now no man is kept imprisoned evermore in that +darkness. The earthquake has opened the doors and loosened every +man's bonds. Jesus Christ hath risen from the dead, and therein not +only demonstrated the certainty that life subsists through death, +and that a bodily life is possible thereafter, but hath set before +all those who give the keeping of their souls into His hands the +glorious belief that 'the body of their humiliation shall be' +'changed into the likeness of the body of His glory, according to +the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto +Himself.' Therefore the sorrows of death, for ourselves and for our +dear ones, the agitation which it causes, and all its darkness into +which we shrink from passing, are swept away when He comes forth +from the grave, serene, radiant, and victorious, to die no more, but +to dispense amongst us His peace and His joy. + +And, again, the risen Christ is the source of a new life drawn from +Him and received into the heart by faith in His sacrifice and +Resurrection and glory. And if I have, deep-seated in my soul, +though it may be in imperfect maturity, that life which is hid with +Christ in God, an inward fountain of gladness, far better than the +effervescent, and therefore soon flat, waters of Greek or earthly +joy, is mine; and in my inmost being dwells a depth of calm peace +which no outward disturbance can touch, any more than the winds that +rave along the surface of the ocean affect its unmoved and unsounded +abysses. Jesus Christ comes to thee, my brother, weary, distracted, +care-laden, sin-laden, sorrowful and fearful. And He says to each of +us from the throne what He said in the upper room before the Cross, +and on leaving the grave after it, 'My joy will remain in you, and +your joy shall be full. My peace I leave to you, My peace I give +unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.' + + + + +ON THE MOUNTAIN + + + 'Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into + a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 17. And when + they saw Him, they worshipped Him: but some doubted.' + --MATT. xxviii. 16, 17. + + 'After that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren + at once.'--1 COR. xv. 4 + +To infer an historian's ignorance from his silence is a short and +easy, but a rash, method. Matthew has nothing to say of our Lord's +appearances in Jerusalem, except in regard to that of the women in +the early morning of Easter Day. But it does not follow that he was +ignorant of these appearances. Imperfect knowledge may be the +explanation; but the scope and design of his Gospel is much more +likely to be so. It is emphatically the Gospel of the King of +Israel, and it moves, with the exception of the story of the +Passion, wholly within the limits of the Galilean ministry. What +more probable than that the same motive which induced Jesus to +select the mountain which He had appointed as the scene of this +meeting should have induced the Evangelist to pass by all the other +manifestations in order to fix upon this one? It was fitting that in +Galilee, where He had walked in lowly gentleness, 'kindly with His +kind,' He should assume His sovereign authority. It was fitting that +in 'Galilee of the Gentiles,' that outlying and despised province, +half heathen in the eyes of the narrow-minded Pharisaic Jerusalem, +He should proclaim the widening of His kingdom from Israel to all +nations. + +If we had Matthew's words only, we should suppose that none but the +eleven were present on this occasion. But it is obviously the same +incident to which Paul refers when he speaks of the appearance to +'five hundred brethren at once.' These were the Galilean disciples +who had been faithful in the days of His lowliness, and were thus +now assembled to hear His proclamation of exaltation. Apparently the +meeting had been arranged beforehand. They came without Him to 'the +mountain where Jesus had appointed.' Probably it was the same spot +on which the so-called Sermon on the Mount, the first proclamation +of the King, had been delivered, and it was naturally chosen to be +the scene of a yet more exalted proclamation. A thousand tender +memories and associations clustered round the spot. So we have to +think of the five hundred gathered in eager expectancy; and we +notice how unlike the manner of His coming is to that of the former +manifestations. _Then_, suddenly, He became visibly present +where a moment before He had been unseen. But _now_ He gradually +approaches, for the doubting and the worshipping took place 'when +they saw Him,' and before 'He came to them.' I suppose we may +conceive of Him as coming down the hill and drawing near to them, +and then, when He stands above them, and yet close to them--else the +five hundred could not have seen Him 'at once'--doubts vanish; and +they listen with silent awe and love. The words are majestic; all is +regal. There is no veiled personality now, as there had been to Mary, +and to the two on the road to Emmaus. There is no greeting now, as +there had been in the upper chamber; no affording of a demonstration +of the reality of His appearance, as there had been to Thomas and to +the others. He stands amongst them as the King, and the music of His +words, deep as the roll of thunder, and sweet as harpers harping with +their harps, makes all comment or paraphrase sound thin and poor. But +yet so many great and precious lessons are hived in the words that we +must reverently ponder them. The material is so abundant that I can +but touch it in the slightest possible fashion. This great utterance +of our Lord's falls into three parts: a great claim, a great commission, +a great promise. + +I. There is a Great Claim. + +'All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.' No words can +more absolutely express unconditional, unlimited authority and +sovereignty. Mark the variety of the gift--'all power'; every kind +of force, every kind of dominion is in His hands. Mark the sphere of +sovereignty--'in heaven and in earth.' Now, brethren, if we know +anything about Jesus Christ, we know that He made this claim. There +is no reason, except the unwillingness of some people to admit that +claim, for casting any sort of doubt upon these words, or making any +distinction in authority between them and the rest of the words of +graciousness which the whole world has taken to its heart. But if He +said this, what becomes of His right to the veneration of mankind, +as the Perfect Example of the self-sacrificing, self-oblivious +religious life? It is a mystery that I cannot solve, how any man can +keep his reverence for Jesus, and refuse to believe that beneath +these tremendous words there lies a solemn and solid reality. + +Notice, too, that there is implied a definite point of time at which +this all-embracing authority was given. You will find in the Revised +Version a small alteration in the reading, which makes a great +difference in the sense. It reads, 'All power _has been_ given'; +and that points, as I say, to a definite period. _When_ was it +given? Let another portion of Scripture answer the question--'Declared +to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead.' +_Then_ to the Man Jesus was given authority over heaven and earth. +All the early Christian documents concur in this view of the connection +between the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and His investiture +with this sovereign power. Hearken to Paul, 'Became obedient unto +death, even the death of the Cross; wherefore God also hath highly +exalted Him, and given Him a name that is above every name.' Hearken +to Peter, 'Who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory.' Hearken +to the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 'We see Jesus crowned +with glory and honour for the suffering of death.' Hearken to John, +'To Him that is the Faithful Witness, and the First-born from the +dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth.' Look with his +eyes to the vision of the 'Lamb as it had been slain,' enthroned +in the midst of the throne, and say whether this unanimous consent +of the earliest Christian teachers is explicable on any reasonable +grounds, unless there had been underlying it just the words of our +text, and the Master Himself had taught them that all power was +given to Him in heaven and in earth. As it seems to me impossible +to account for the existence of the Church if we deny the +Resurrection, so it seems to me impossible to account for the faith +of the earliest stratum of the Christian Church without the +acceptance of some such declaration as this, as having come from the +Lord Himself. And so the hands that were pierced with the nails wield +the sceptre of the Universe, and on the brows that were wounded and +bleeding with the crown of thorns are wreathed the many crowns of +universal Kinghood. + +But we have further to notice that in this investiture, with 'all +power in heaven and on earth,' we have not merely the attestation of +the perfection of His obedience, the completeness of His work, and +the power of His sacrifice, but that we have also the elevation of +Manhood to enthronement with Divinity. For the _new_ thing that +came to Jesus after His resurrection was that His humanity was taken +into, and became participant of, 'the glory which I had with Thee, +before the world was.' Then our nature, when perfect and sinless, is +so cognate and kindred with the Divine that humanity is capable of +being invested with, and bearing, that 'exceeding and eternal weight +of glory.' In that elevation of the Man Christ Jesus, we may read a +prophecy, that shall not be unfulfilled, of the destiny of all those +who conform to Him through faith, love, and obedience, finally to +sit down with Him on His throne, even as He is set down with the +Father on His throne. + +Ah! brethren, Christianity has dark and low views of human nature, +and men say they are too low and too dark. It is 'Nature's sternest +painter,' and, therefore, 'its best.' But if on its palette the +blacks are blacker than anywhere else, its range of colour is +greater, and its white is more lustrous. No system thinks so +condemnatorily of human nature as it is; none thinks so glowingly of +human nature as it may become. There are bass notes far down beyond +the limits of the scale to which ears dulled by the world and sin +and sorrow are sensitive; and there are clear, high tones, thrilling +and shrilling far above the range of perception of such ears. The +man that is in the lowest depths may rise with Jesus to the highest, +but it must be by the same road by which the Master went. 'If we +suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him,' and only 'if.' There +is no other path to the Throne but the Cross. _Via crucis, via +lucis_--the way of the Cross is the way of light. It is to those +who have accepted their Gethsemanes and their Calvarys that He +appoints a kingdom, as His Father has appointed unto Him. + +So much, then, for the first point here in these words; turn now to +the second. + +II. The Great Commission. + +One might have expected that the immediate inference to be drawn from +'All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth' would have been +some word of encouragement and strengthening to those who were so soon +to be left, and who were beginning to be conscious of their feebleness. +But there is nothing more striking in the whole of the incidents of +those forty days than the prominence which is given in them to the +work of the Church when the Master had left it, and to the imperative +obligations devolving upon it. And so here, not encouragement, but +obligation is the inference that is drawn from that tremendous claim. +'Because I have all power, therefore you are charged with the duty +of winning the world for its King.' The all-ruling Christ calls for +the universal proclamation of His sovereignty by His disciples. These +five hundred little understood the sweep of the commandment, and, as +history shows, terribly failed to apprehend the emancipating power +of it. But He says to us, as to them, 'I am not content with the +authority given to Me by God, unless I have the authority that each +man for himself can give Me, by willing surrender of his heart and +will to Me.' Jesus Christ craves no empty rule, no mere elevation +by virtue of Divine supremacy, over men. He regards that elevation +as incomplete without the voluntary surrender of men to become His +subjects and champions. Without its own consent He does not count +that His universal power is established in a human heart. Though +that dominion be all-embracing like the ocean, and stretching into +all corners of the universe, and dominating over all ages, yet in +that ocean there may stand up black and dry rocks, barren as they +are dry, and blasted as they are black, because, with the awful +power of a human will, men have said, 'We will not have this Man +to reign over us.' It is willing subjects whom Christ seeks, in +order to make the Divine grant of authority a reality. + +In that work He needs His servants. The gift of God notwithstanding, +the power of His Cross notwithstanding, the perfection and +completeness of His great reconciling and redeeming work +notwithstanding, all these are vain unless we, His servants, will +take them in our hands as our weapons, and go forth on the warfare +to which He has summoned us. This is the command laid upon us all, +'Make disciples of all nations.' Only so will the reality correspond +to the initial and all-embracing grant. + +It would take us too far to deal at all adequately, or in anything +but the most superficial fashion, with the remaining parts of this +great commission. 'Make disciples of all nations'--that is the first +thing. Then comes the second step: 'Baptizing them into the name of +the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' Who are to be +baptized? Now, notice, if I may venture upon being slightly +technical for a moment, that the word 'nations' in the preceding +clause is a neuter one, and that the word for 'them' in this clause +is a masculine, which seems to me fairly to imply that the command +'baptizing them' does not refer to 'all nations,' but to the +disciples latent among them, and to be drawn from them. Surely, +surely the great claim of absolute and unbounded power has for its +consequence something better than the lame and impotent conclusion +of appointing an indiscriminate rite, as the means of making +disciples! Surely that is not in accordance with the spirituality of +the Christian faith! + +'Baptizing them into the Name'--the name is one, that of the Father, +and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Does that mean the name of God, +and of a man, and of an influence, all jumbled up together in +blasphemous and irrational union? Surely, if Father, Son, and Holy +Spirit have one name, the name of Divinity, then it is but a step to +say that three Persons are one God! But there is a great deal more +here than a baptismal formula, for to be baptized into the Name is +but the symbol of being plunged into communion with this one +threefold God of our salvation. The ideal state of the Christian +disciple is that he shall be as a vase dropped into the Atlantic, +encompassed about with God, and filled with Him. We all 'live, and +move, and have our being' in Him, but some of us have so wrapped +ourselves, if I may venture to use such a figure, in waterproof +covering, that, though we are floating in an ocean of Divinity, not +a drop finds its way in. Cast the covering aside, and you will be +saturated with God, and only in the measure in which you live and +move and have your being in the Name are you disciples. + +There is another step still. Making disciples and bringing into +communion with the Godhead is not all that is to flow from, and +correspond to, and realise in the individual, the absolute authority +of Jesus Christ--'Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I +have commanded you.' We hear a great deal in these days about the +worthlessness of mere dogmatic Christianity. Jesus Christ +anticipated all that talk, and guarded it from exaggeration. For +what He tells us here that we are to train ourselves and others in, +is not creed but conduct; not things to be believed or _credenda_ +but things to be done or _agenda_--'teaching them to observe all +things whatsoever I have commanded you.' A creed that is not wrought +out in actions is empty; conduct that is not informed, penetrated, +regulated by creed, is unworthy of a man, not to say of a Christian. +What we are to know we are to know in order that we may do, and so +inherit the benediction, which is never bestowed upon them that +know, but upon them that, knowing these things, are blessed _in_, +as well as _for_, the doing of them. + +That training is to be continuous, educating to new views of duty; +new applications of old truths, new sensitiveness of conscience, +unveiling to us, ever as we climb, new heights to which we aspire. +The Christian Church has not yet learnt--thank God it is learning, +though by slow degrees--all the moral and practical implications and +applications of 'the truth as it is in Jesus.' And so these are the +three things by which the Church recognises and corresponds to the +universal dominion of Christ, the making disciples universally; the +bringing them into the communion of the Father, the Son, and the +Holy Spirit; and the training of them to conduct ever approximating +more and more to the Divine ideal of humanity in the glorified +Christ. + +And now I must gather just into a sentence or two what is to be said +about the last point. There is-- + +III. The Great Promise. + +'I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,' or, as it +might be read, 'with you all the days, even to the accomplishment of +the age.' Note that emphatic 'I am,' which does not only denote +certainty, but is the speech of Him who is lifted above the lower +regions where Time rolls and the succession of events occurs. That +'I am' covers all the varieties of _was, is, will be_. Notice +the long vista of variously tinted days which opens here. Howsoever +many they be, howsoever different their complexion, days of summer +and days of winter, days of sunshine and days of storm, days of +buoyant youth and days of stagnant, stereotyped old age, days of +apparent failure and days of apparent prosperity, He is with us in +them all. They change, He is 'the same yesterday, and to-day, and +for ever.' Notice the illimitable extent of the promise--'even unto +the end.' We are always tempted to think that long ago the earth was +more full of God than it is to-day, and that away forward in the +future it will again be fuller, but that this moment is comparatively +empty. The heavens touch the earth on the horizon in front and behind, +and they are highest and remotest above us just where we stand. But +no past day had more of Christ in it than to-day has, and that He +has gone away is the condition of His coming. 'He therefore departed +for a season, that we might receive Him for ever.' + +But mark that the promise comes after a command, and is contingent, +for all its blessedness and power, upon our obedience to the +prescribed duty. That duty is primarily to make disciples of all +nations, and the discharge of it is so closely connected with the +realisation of the promise that a non-missionary Church never has +much of Christ's presence. But obedience to all the King's commands +is required if we stand before Him, and are to enjoy His smile. If +you wish to keep Christ very near you, and to feel Him with you, the +way to do so is no mere cultivation of religious emotion, or +saturating your mind with religious books and thoughts, though these +have their place; but on the dusty road of life doing His will and +keeping His commandments. 'If a man love Me he will keep My words, +and My Father will love Him. We will come to Him, and make our abode +with Him.' + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions of Holy Scripture +by Alexander Maclaren + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + +This file should be named 7matt10.txt or 7matt10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7matt11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7matt10a.txt + +Produced by Anne Folland, Charles Franks and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Expositions of Holy Scripture + St. Matthew Chaps. IX to XXVIII + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7351] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 19, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + + + + +Produced by Anne Folland, Charles Franks and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + + +ST. MATTHEW + +_Chaps. IX to XXVIII_ + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + + +ST. MATTHEW + +_Chaps. IX to XVII_ + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHRIST'S ENCOURAGEMENTS (Matt. ix. 2) + +SOUL-HEALING FIRST: BODY-HEALING SECOND (Matt. ix. 6) + +THE CALL OF MATTHEW (Matt. ix. 9-17) + +THE TOUCH OF FAITH AND THE TOUCH OF CHRIST (Matt. ix. 18-31) + +A CHRISTLIKE JUDGMENT OF MEN (MATT. ix. 36) + +THE OBSCURE APOSTLES (Matt. x. 5) + +CHRIST'S CHARGE TO HIS HERALDS (Matt. x. 5-16) + +THE WIDENED MISSION, ITS PERILS AND DEFENCES (Matt. x. 16-31) + +LIKE TEACHER, LIKE SCHOLAR (Matt x. 24, 25) + +THE KING'S CHARGE TO HIS AMBASSADORS (Matt. x. 32-42) + +A LIFE LOST AND FOUND (Matt. x. 39) + +THE GREATEST IN THE KINGDOM, AND THEIR REWARD (Matt. x. 41, 42) + +JOHN'S DOUBTS OF JESUS, AND JESUS' PRAISE OF JOHN (Matt. xi. 2-15) + +THE FRIEND OF PUBLICANS AND SINNERS (Matt. xi. 19) + +SODOM, CAPERNAUM, MANCHESTER (Matt. xi. 20) + +CHRIST'S STRANGE THANKSGIVING (Matt. xi. 25) + +THE REST GIVER (Matt. xi. 28, 29) + +THE PHARISEES' SABBATH AND CHRIST'S (Matt. xii. 1-14) + +AN ATTEMPT TO ACCOUNT FOR JESUS (Matt. xii. 24) + +'MAKE THE TREE GOOD' (Matt. xii. 33) + +'A GREATER THAN JONAS' (Matt. xii. 41) + +'A GREATER THAN SOLOMON' (Matt. xii. 42) + +FOUR SOWINGS AND ONE RIPENING (Matt. xiii. 1-9) + +EARS AND NO EARS (Matt. xiii. 9) + +'TO HIM THAT HATH SHALL BE GIVEN' (Matt. xiii. 12) + +SEEING AND BLIND (Matt. xiii. 13) + +MINGLED IN GROWTH, SEPARATED IN MATURITY (Matt. xiii. 24-30) + +LEAVEN (Matt. xiii. 33) + +TREASURE AND PEARL (Matt. xiii. 44-46) + +THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN (Matt. xiv. 1-12) + +THE GRAVE OF THE DEAD JOHN AND THE GRAVE OF THE LIVING JESUS (Matt. +xiv. 12; xxviii. 8) + +THE FOOD OF THE WORLD (Matt. xiv. 19, 20) + +THE KING'S HIGHWAY (Matt. xiv. 22-36) + +PETER ON THE WAVES (Matt. xiv. 28) + +THB CRUMBS AND THE BREAD (Matt. xv. 21-31) + +THE DIVINE CHRIST CONFESSED, THE SUFFERING CHRIST DENIED (Matt. xvi. +13-28) + +CHRIST FORESEEING THE CROSS (Matt. xvi. 21) + +THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY (Matt. xvii, 1-13) + +THE SECRET OF POWER. (Matt. xvii. 19, 20) + +THE COIN IN THE FISH'S MOUTH (Matt. xvii. 25, 26) + + + + +CHRIST'S ENCOURAGEMENTS + + + 'Son, be of good cheer.'--MATT. ix. 2. + +This word of encouragement, which exhorts to both cheerfulness and +courage, is often upon Christ's lips. It is only once employed in +the Gospels by any other than He. If we throw together the various +instances in which He thus speaks, we may get a somewhat striking +view of the hindrances to such a temper of bold, buoyant cheerfulness +which the world presents, and of the means for securing it which +Christ provides. + +But before I consider these individually, let me point you to this +thought, that such a disposition, facing the inevitable sorrows, +evils, and toilsome tasks of life with glad and courageous buoyancy, +is a Christian duty, and is a temper not merely to be longed for, +but consciously and definitely to be striven after. + +We have a great deal more in our power, in the regulation of moods and +tempers and dispositions, than we often are willing to acknowledge to +ourselves. Our 'low' times--when we fret and are dull, and all things +seem wrapped in gloom, and we are ready to sit down and bewail ourselves, +like Job on his dunghill--are often quite as much the results of our +own imperfect Christianity as the response of our feelings to external +circumstances. It is by no means an unnecessary reminder for us, who +have heavy tasks set us, which often seem too heavy, and are surrounded, +as we all are, with crowding temptations to be bitter and melancholy +and sad, that Christ commands us to be, and therefore we ought to be, +'of good cheer.' + +Another observation may be made as preliminary, and that is that +Jesus Christ never tells people to cheer up without giving them +reason to do so. We shall see presently that in all cases where the +words occur they are immediately followed by words or deeds of His +which hold forth something on which, if the hearer's faith lay hold, +darkness and gloom will fly like morning mists before the rising +sun. The world comes to us and says, in the midst of our sorrows and +our difficulties, 'Be of good cheer,' and says it in vain, and +generally only rubs salt into the sore by saying it. Jesus Christ +never thus vainly preaches the duty of encouraging ourselves without +giving us ample reasons for the cheerfulness which He enjoins. + +With these two remarks to begin with--that we ought to make it a +part of our Christian discipline of ourselves to seek to cultivate a +continuous and equable temperament of calm, courageous good cheer; +and that Jesus Christ never commands such a temper without showing +cause for our obedience--let us turn for a few moments to the +various instances in which this expression falls from His lips. + +I. Now the first of them is this of my text, and from it we learn +this truth, that Christ's first contribution to our temper of +equable, courageous cheerfulness is the assurance that all our sins +are forgiven. + +'Son, be of good cheer,' said He to that poor palsied sufferer lying +there upon the little light bed in front of Him. He had been brought +to Christ to be cured of his palsy. Our Lord seems to offer him a +very irrelevant blessing when, instead of the healing of his limbs, +He offers him the forgiveness of his sins. That was possibly not +what he wanted most, certainly it was not what the friends who had +brought him wanted for him, but Jesus knew better than they what the +man suffered most from and most needed to have cured. They would +have said 'Palsy.' He said, 'Yes! but palsy that comes from sin.' +For, no doubt, the sick man's disease was 'a sin of flesh avenged in +kind,' and so Christ went to the fountain-head when He said, 'Thy +sins be forgiven thee.' He therein implied, not only that the man +was longing for something more than his four kindly but ignorant +bearers there knew, but also that the root of his disease was +extirpated when his sins were forgiven. + +And so, in like manner, 'thus conscience doth make cowards of us +all.' There is nothing that so drapes a soul with darkness as either +the consciousness of unforgiven sin or the want of consciousness of +forgiven sin. There may be plenty of superficial cheerfulness. I +know that; and I know what the bitter wise man called it, 'the +crackling of thorns under the pot,' which, the more they crackle, +the faster they turn into powdery ash and lose all their warmth. For +stable, deep, lifelong, reliable courage and cheerfulness, there +must be thorough work made with the black spot in the heart, and the +black lines in the history. And unless our comforters can come to us +and say, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee,' they are only chattering +nonsense, and singing songs to a heavy heart which will make an +effervescence 'like vinegar on nitre,' when they say to us, 'Be of +good cheer.' How can I be glad if there lie coiled in my heart that +consciousness of alienation and disorder in my relations to God, +which all men carry with them, though they overlay it and try to +forget it? There is no basis for a peaceful gladness worthy of a man +except that which digs deep down into the very secrets of the heart, +and lays the first course of the building in the consciousness of +pardoned sin. 'Son, be of good cheer!' Lift up thy head. Face +smaller evils without discomposure, and with quietly throbbing +pulses, for the fountain of possible terrors and calamities is +stanched and stayed with, 'Thy sins are forgiven thee.' + +Side by side with this first instance, illustrating the same general +thought, though from a somewhat different point of view, I may put +another of the instances in which the same phrase was soothingly on our +Lord's lips. 'Daughter,' said He to the poor woman with the issue of +blood, 'be of good cheer. Thy faith hath saved thee.' The consciousness +of a living union with God through Christ by faith, which results in +the present possession of a real, though it may be a partial, salvation, +is indispensable to the temper of equable cheerfulness of which I have +been speaking. Apart from that consciousness, you may have plenty of +excitement, but no lasting calm. The contrast between the drugged and +effervescent potion which the world gives as a cup of gladness, and the +pure tonic which Jesus Christ administers for the same purpose, is +infinite. He says to us, 'I forgive thy sins; by thy faith I save thee; +go in peace.' Then the burdened heart is freed from its oppression, and +the downcast face is lifted up, and all things around change, as when +the sunshine comes out on the wintry landscape, and the very snow +sparkles into diamonds. So much, then, for the first of the instances +of the use of this phrase. + +II. We now take a second. Jesus Christ ministers to us cheerful +courage because He manifests Himself to us as a Companion in the +storm (Matt. xiv. 27). + +The narrative is very familiar to us, so that I need not enlarge +upon it. You remember the scene--our Lord alone on the mountain in +prayer, the darkness coming down upon the little boat, the storm +rising as the darkness fell, the wind howling down the gorges of the +mountains round the landlocked lake, the crew 'toiling in rowing, +for the wind was contrary.' And then, all at once, out of the +mysterious obscurity beneath the shadow of the hills, Something is +seen moving, and it comes nearer; and the waves become solid beneath +that light and noiseless foot, as steadily nearer He comes. Jesus +Christ uses the billows as the pavement over which He approaches His +servants, and the storms which beat on us are His occasion for +drawing very near. Then they think Him a spirit, and cry out with +voices that were heard amidst the howling of the tempest, and struck +upon the ear of whomsoever told the Evangelist the story. They cry +out with a shriek of terror--because Jesus Christ is coming to them +in so strange a fashion! Have _we_ never shrieked and groaned, +and passionately wept aloud for the same reason; and mistaken the +Lord of love and consolation for some grisly spectre? When He comes +it is with the old word on His lips, 'Be of good cheer.' + +'Tell us not to be frightened when we see something stalking across +the waves in the darkness!' 'It is I'; surely that is enough. The +Companion in the storm is the Calmer of the terror. He who recognises +Jesus Christ as drawing near to his heart over wild billows may well +'be of good cheer,' since the storm but brings his truest treasure +to him. + + 'Well roars the storm to those who hear + A deeper Voice across the storm.' + +And He who, with unwetted foot, can tread on the wave, and with +quiet voice heard above the shriek of the blast can say, 'It is I,' +has the right to say, 'Be of good cheer,' and never says it in vain +to such as take Him into their lives however tempest-tossed, and +into their hearts however tremulous. + +III. A third instance of the occurrence of this word of cheer +presents Jesus as ministering cheerful courage to us by reason of +His being victor in the strife with the world (John xvi. 33). + +'In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I +have overcome the world.' + +Of course 'the world' which He overcame is the whole aggregate of +things and persons considered as separated from God, and as being +the great Antagonist and counter power to a holy life of obedience +and filial devotion. At that last moment when, according to all +outward seeming and the estimate of things which sense would make, +He was utterly and hopelessly and all but ignominiously beaten, He +says, 'I have overcome the world.' What! Thou! within four-and-twenty +hours of Thy Cross? Is that victory? Yes! For he conquers the world +who uses all its opposition as well as its real good to help him, +absolutely and utterly, to do the will of God. And he is conquered +by the world who lets it, by its glozing sweetnesses and flatteries, +or by its knitted brows and frowning eyes and threatening hand, +hinder him from the path of perfect consecration and entire conformity +to the Father's will. + +Christ has conquered. What does that matter to us? Why, it matters +this, that we may have the Spirit of Jesus Christ in our hearts to +make us also victorious in the same fight. And whosoever will lay +his weakness on that strong arm, and open his emptiness to receive +the fulness of that victorious Spirit for the very spirit of his +life, will be 'more than conqueror through Him that loved us,' and +can front all the evils, dangers, threatenings, temptations of the +world, its heaped sweets and its frowning antagonisms, with the calm +confidence that none of them are able to daunt him; and that the +Victor Lord will cover his head in the day of battle and deliver him +from every evil work. 'Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the +world, and play your parts like men in the good fight of faith; for +I am at your back, and will help you with Mine own strength.' + +IV. The last instance that I point to of the use of this phrase is +one in which it was spoken by Christ's voice from heaven (Acts +xxiii. 11). It was the voice which was heard by the Apostle Paul +after he had been almost torn in pieces by the crowd in the Temple, +and had been bestowed for security, by the half-contemptuous +protection of the Roman governor, in the castle, and was looking +onward into a very doubtful future, not knowing how many hours' +purchase his life might be worth. That same night the Lord appeared +to him and said, 'Be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified +of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.' That is +to say, 'No man can touch you until I let him, and nobody shall touch +you until you have done your work and spoken out your testimony. +Jerusalem is a little sphere; Rome is a great one. The tools to the +hand that can use them. The reward for work is more work, and work +in a larger sphere. So cheer up! for I have much for you to do yet.' + +And the spirit of that encouragement may go with us all, breeding in +us the quiet confidence that no matter who may thwart or hinder, no +matter what dangers or evils may seem to ring us round, the Master +who bids us 'Be of good cheer' will give us a charmed life, and +nothing shall by any means hurt us until He says to us, 'Be of good +courage; for you have done your work; and now come and rest.' 'Wait +on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine +heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.' + + + + +SOUL-HEALING FIRST: BODY-HEALING SECOND + + + 'That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on + earth to forgive sins (then saith He to the sick of the + palsy), Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine + house.'--MATT. ix. 6. + +The great example of our Lord's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount is +followed, in this and the preceding chapter, by a similar collection +of His works of healing. These are divided into three groups, each +consisting of three members. This miracle is the last of the second +triad, of which the other two members are the miraculous stilling +of the tempest and the casting out of the demons from the men in the +country of the Gergesenes. + +One may discern a certain analogy in these three members of this +central group. In all of them our Lord appears as the peace-bringer. +But the spheres are different. The calm which was breathed over the +stormy lake is peace of a lower kind than that which filled the soul +of the demoniacs when the power that made discord within had been +cast out. Even that peace was lower in kind than that which brought +sweet repose in the assurance of pardon to this poor paralytic. +Forgiveness speaks of a loftier blessing than even the casting out +of demons. The manifestation of power and love steadily rises to a +climax. + +The most important part of this story, then, is not the mere healing +of the disease, but the forgiveness of sins which accompanies it. +And the large teaching which our Lord gives as to the relation +between His miracles and His standing work, His ordinary work which +He has been doing all through the ages, which He is doing to-day, +which He is ready to do for you and me if we will let Him, towers +high above the mere miracle, which is honoured by being the signal +attestation of that work. + +Therefore I would turn to this story now, not for the sake of +dealing with the mere miraculous event, but in order to draw the +important lessons from it which lie upon its very surface. + +I. The first thought that is suggested here is that our deepest need +is forgiveness. + +How strangely irrelevant and beside the mark, at first sight, seems +the answer which Christ gives to the eager zeal and earnestness of +the man and his bearers. Christ's word is 'Son,' or as the original +might more literally and even more tenderly be rendered, 'Child--be +of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.' That seemed far away from +their want. It _was_ far from their wish, but yet it was the +shortest road to its accomplishment. Christ here goes straight to +the heart of the necessity, when, passing by the disease for the +moment, He speaks the great word of pardon. The palsy was probably +the result of the sufferer's vice, and probably, too, he felt, +whatever may have been his friends' wishes for him, that he needed +forgiveness most. Such a conclusion as to his state of mind seems a +fair inference from our Lord's words to him, for Christ would never +have offered forgiveness to an impenitent or indifferent heart. + +So we may learn that our chief and prime need is forgiveness. Amid +all our clamours and hungry needs, that is our deepest. Is not a +man's chief relation in this world his relation to God? Is not that +the most important thing about all of us? If that be wrong, will not +everything be wrong? If that be right, will not everything come right? +And is it not true that for you and me, and for all our fellows, +whatever be the surface diversities of character, civilisation, +culture, taste and the like, there is one deep experience common to +every human spirit, and that is the fact, and in some sense more or +less acutely the consciousness of the fact, that 'we have sinned, +and come short of the glory of God'? + +There is the fontal source of all sorrow, for even to the most +superficial observation ninety per cent., at any rate, of man's +misery comes either from his own or from others' wrongdoing, and for +the rest, it is regarded in the eye of faith as being sorrow that is +needful because of sin, in order to discipline and to purify. But +here stands the fact, that king and clown, philosopher and fool, men +of culture and men of ignorance, all of us, through all the ages, +manifest the unity of our nature in this--I was going to say most +chiefly--that lapses from the path of rectitude, and indulgence in +habits, thoughts, feelings, and actions, which even our consciences +tell us are wrong, characterise us all. + +Hence the profound wisdom of Christ and of His Gospel in that, when +it begins the task of healing, it does not peddle and potter on the +surface, but goes straight to the heart, with true instinct flies at +the head, like a wise physician pays little heed to secondary and +unimportant symptoms, but grapples with the disease, makes the tree +good, and leaves the good tree to make, as it will, the fruit good. + +The first thing to do to heal men's misery, is to make them pure; and +the first step in the great method by which a man can be made pure, +is to assure him of a divine forgiveness for the past. So the sneers +that we often hear about Christian 'philanthropists taking tracts to +people when they want soup,' and the like, are excessively shallow +sneers, and indicate nothing more than this, that the critic has +superficially diagnosed the disease, and is wofully wrong about the +remedy. God forbid that I should say one word that would seem to +depreciate the value of other forms of beneficence, or to cast doubt +upon the purity of motives, or even to be lacking in admiration for the +enthusiasm that fills and guides many an earnest man and woman, working +amongst the squalid vice of our great cities and of our complex and +barbarous civilisation to-day. I would recognise all their work as +good and blessed; but, oh! dear brethren, it deals with the surface, +and you will have to go a great deal deeper down than æsthetic, or +intellectual, or economical, or political reformation and changes +reach, before you touch the real reason why men and women are +miserable in this world. And you will only effectually cure the +misery, but you certainly then will do it, when you begin where the +misery begins, and deal first with sin. The true 'saviour of society' +is the man that can go to his brother, and as a minister declaratory +of the divine heart can say--'Brother, be of good cheer; thy sins be +forgiven thee.' And then, after that, the palsy will go out of his +limbs, and a new nervous energy will come into them, and he will +rise, take up his bed, and walk. + +II. Now, in the next place, notice, as coming out of this incident +before us, the thought that forgiveness is an exclusively divine +act. + +There was, sitting by, with their jealous and therefore blind eyes, +a whole crowd of wise men and religious formalists of the first +water, collected together as a kind of ecclesiastical inquisition +and board of triers, as one of the other evangelists tells us, out +of every corner of the land. They had no care for the dewy pity that +was in Christ's looks, or for the nascent hope that began to swim up +into the poor, dim eye of the paralytic. But they had keen scent for +heresy, and so they fastened with true feline instinct upon the one +thing, 'This man speaketh blasphemies. Who can forgive sins but God +alone?' + +Ah! if you want to get people blind as bats to the radiant beauty of +some lofty character, and insensible as rocks to the wants of a sad +humanity, commend me to your religious formalists, whose religion is +mainly a bundle of red tape tied round men's limbs to keep them from +getting at things that they would like. These are the people who +will be as hard as the nether millstones, and utterly blind to all +enthusiasm and to all goodness. + +But yet these Pharisees are right; perfectly right. Forgiveness +_is_ an exclusively divine act. Of course. For sin has to do +with God only; vice has to do with the laws of morality; crime has +to do with the laws of the land. The same act may be vice, crime, +and sin. In the one aspect it has to do with myself, in the other +with my fellows, in the last with God. And so evil considered as sin +comes under God's control only, and only He against whom it has been +committed can forgive. + +What is forgiveness? The sweeping aside of penalties? the shutting +up of some more or less material hell? By no means: penalties are +often left; when sins are crimes they are generally left; when sins +are vices they are always left, thank God! But in so far as sin is +sin, considered as being the perversion and setting wrong of my +relation to Him, its consequences, which are its penalties, are +swept away by forgiveness; for forgiveness, in its essence and +deepest meaning, is neither more nor less than that the love of the +person against whom the wrong has been done shall flow out, +notwithstanding the wrong. Pardon is love rising above the ice-dam +which we have piled in its course, and pouring into our hearts. + +When you fathers and mothers forgive your children, what does it +mean? Does it not mean that your love is neither deflected nor +embittered any more, by reason of their wrongdoing, but pours upon +them as of old? So God's forgiveness is at bottom--'Child! there is +nothing in my heart to thee, but pure and perfect love.' We fill the +sky with mists, through which the sun itself has to look like a red +ball of lurid fire. But it shines on the upper side of the mists all +the same, and all the time, and thins them away and scatters them +utterly, and shines forth in its own brightness on the rejoicing +heart. Pardon is God's love, unchecked and unembittered, granted to +the wrongdoer. And that is a divine act, and a divine act alone. +Pharisees and Scribes were perfectly right. No man can forgive sins +but God only. + +And I might add, though it is somewhat aside from my direct purpose, +God _can_ forgive sin; which some people nowadays say is +impossible. The apparent impossibility arises only from shallow and +erroneous notions of what forgiveness is. God does not--it might be +too bold to say God cannot, if we believe in miracles--but as a +matter of fact, God does not, usually interfere to hinder men from +reaping, as regards this life, what they have sown. But as I say, +that is not forgiveness; and is there any reason conceivable why it +should be impossible for the divine love to pour down upon a sinful +man who has forsaken his sin, and is trusting in God's mercy in +Christ, just as if his sin was non-existent, in so far as it could +condition or interfere with the flow of the divine mercy? + +And I may say, further, we need a definite divine assurance of pardon. +Ah! if you have ever been down into the cellars of your own hearts, +and seen the ugly things that coil there, you will know that a vague +trust in a vague God and a vague mercy is not enough to still the +conscience that has once been stung into action. My brothers, you +want neither priests nor ceremonies on the one hand, nor a mere +peradventure of 'Oh! God is merciful!' on the other, in order to deal +with that deepest need of your heart. Nothing but the King's own +sign-manual on the pardon makes it valid; and unless you and I can, +somehow or other, come to close grips with God, and get into actual +contact with Him, and hear, somehow, with infallible certitude, as +from His own lips, the assurance of forgiveness, there is not enough +for our needs. + +III. So I come to say, in the next place, that the incident before +us teaches us that Jesus Christ claims and exercises this divine +prerogative of forgiveness. + +Mark His answer to these cavillers. He admits their promises absolutely. +They said, 'No man can forgive sins but God only.' If Christ was only a +man, like us, standing in the same relation to the divine pardon that +other teachers, saints, and prophets have stood, and had nothing more +to do with it than simply, as I might do, to say to a troubled heart, +'My brother, be quite sure that God has forgiven you'; if Christ's +relation to the divine forgiveness was nothing more than ministerial +and declaratory, why, in the name, not of common sense only, but of +veracity, did He not turn round to these men and say so? He was bound, +by all the obligations of a religious teacher, to disclaim, as you or +I would have done under similar circumstances, the misapprehension of +His words: 'I use blasphemies? No! I am not speaking blasphemies. I +know that God only can forgive sins, and I am doing no more than +telling my poor brother here that his sins are forgiven by God.' But +that is not His answer at all. What He says in effect is--'Yes; you are +quite right. No man can forgive sins, but God only. _I_ forgive sins. +Whom think ye, then, that I, the Son of Man am? It is easy to say "Thy +sins be forgiven thee"--far easier to say that than to say "Take up thy +bed and walk," because one can verify and check the accomplishment of +the saying in the one case, and one cannot in the other. The sentences +are equally easy to pronounce, the things are equally difficult for a +_man_ to do, but the difference is that one of them can be verified +and the other of them cannot. I will do the visible impossibility, and +then I leave you to judge whether I can do the invisible one or not.' + +Now, dear brethren, I have only one word to say about that, and it +is this. We are here brought sharp up to a fork in the road. I know +that it is not always a satisfactory way of arguing to compel a man +to take one horn or other of an alternative, but it is quite fair to +do go in the present case; and I would press it upon some of you +who, I think, urgently need to consider the dilemma. Either the +Pharisees were quite right, and Jesus Christ, the meek, the humble, +the Pattern of all lowly gentleness, the Teacher whom nineteen +centuries confess that they have not exhausted, was an audacious +blasphemer, or He was God manifest in the flesh. The whole context +forbids us to take these words, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee,' as +anything less than the voice of divine love wiping out the man's +transgressions; and if Jesus Christ pretended or presumed to do +that, there is no hypothesis that I know of which can save His +character for the reverence of man, but that which sees in Him God +revealed in manhood; the world's Judge, from whom the world may +receive divine forgiveness. + +IV. Jesus Christ here brings visible facts into the witness-box as +the attesters of His invisible powers. + +Of course the miracle was such a witness in a special way, inasmuch as +it and forgiveness were equally divine prerogatives and acts. I need +not dwell now upon what I have already observed in my introductory +remarks, that our Lord here teaches us the relative importance of the +attesting miracle and the thing attested, and regards the miracle as +subordinate to the higher and spiritual work of bringing pardon. + +But we may widen out this into the thought that the subsidiary +effects of Christian faith in individuals, and of the less complete +Christian faith which is diffused over society, do stand as very +strong evidences of the reality of Christ's professions and claims +to exercise this invisible power of pardon. Or, to put it into a +concrete form, and to take an illustration which may need large +deductions.--Go into a Salvation Army meeting. Admit the extravagance, +the coarseness, and all the rest which we educated and superfine +Christians cannot stand. But when you have blown away the froth, is +there not something left in the cup which looks uncommonly like the +wine of the Kingdom? Are there not visible results of that, as of +every earnest effort to carry the message of forgiveness to men, +which create an immense presumption in favour of its reality and +divine origin? Men reclaimed, passions tamed, homes that were +pandemoniums made Bethels, houses of God. Wherever Christ's +forgiving power really comes into a heart, life is beautified, is +purified, is ennobled; and secondary and material benefits follow in +the train. + +I claim all the difference between Christendom and Heathendom as +attestation of the reality of Christ's divine and atoning work. I +say, and I believe it to be a valid and a good argument as against +much of the doubt of this day, 'If you seek His monument, look +around.' His own answer to the question, 'Art thou He that should +come?' is valid still: 'Go and tell John the things that ye see and +hear'; the dead are raised, the deaf ears are opened; faculties that +lie dormant are quickened, and in a thousand ways the swift spirit +of life flows from Him and vitalises the dead masses of humanity. + +Let any system of belief or of no belief do the like if it can. This +rod has budded at any rate, let the magicians do the same with their +enchantments. + +Now, Christian men and women, 'ye are My witnesses,' saith the Lord. +The world takes its notions of Christianity, and its belief in the +power of Christianity, a great deal more from you than it does from +preachers and apologists. _You_ are the Bibles that most men +read. See to it that your lives represent worthily the redeeming and +the ennobling power of your Master. + +And as for the rest of you, do not waste your time trying to purify +the stream twenty miles down from the fountainhead, but go to the +source. Do not believe, brother, that your palsy, or your fever, +your paralysis of will towards good, or the unwholesome ardour with +which you are impelled to wrong, and the consequent misery and +restlessness, can ever be healed until you go to Christ--the +forgiving Christ--and let Him lay His hand upon you; and from His +own sweet and infallible lips hear the word that shall come as a +charm through all your nature: 'Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.' +'Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened; then shall the lame man +leap as an hart';--then limitations, sorrows, miseries, will pass +away, and forgiveness will bear fruit in joy and power, in holiness, +health and peace. + + + + +THE CALL OF MATTHEW + + + 'And as Jesus passed forth from thence, He saw a man, + named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and + He saith unto him, Follow Me. And he arose, and + followed Him. 10. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at + meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners + came and sat down with Him and His disciples. 11. And + when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto His disciples, + Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? + 12. But when Jesus heard that, He said unto them, They + that be whole need not a physician, but they that are + sick. 13. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will + have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to + call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 14. Then + came to Him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we + and the Pharisees fast oft, but Thy disciples fast not? + 15. And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the + bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with + them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall + be taken from them, and then shall they fast. 16. No + man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, + for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the + garment, and the rent is made worse. 17. Neither do men + put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, + and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but + they put new wine into new bottles, and both are + preserved.'--MATT. ix. 9-17. + +All three evangelists connect the call of Matthew immediately with the +cure of the paralytic, and follow it with an account of Christ's answers +to sundry cavils from Pharisees and John's disciples. No doubt, the +spectacle of this new Teacher taking a publican into His circle of +disciples, and, not content with such an outrage on all proper patriotic +feeling, following it up with scandalous companionship with the sort +of people that a publican could get to accept his hospitality, sharpened +hatred and made suspicion prick its ears. Mark and Luke call the +publican Levi, he calls himself Matthew, the former being probably his +name before his discipleship, the latter, that by which he was known +thereafter. Possibly Jesus gave it him, as in the cases of Simon, and +perhaps Bartholomew. But, however acquired, it superseded the old one, +as the fact that it appears in the lists of the apostles in both the +other evangelists and in Acts, shows. Its use here may be a trace of +a touching desire to make sure that readers, who only knew him as +Matthew, should understand who this publican was. It is like the little +likenesses of themselves, in some corner of a background, that early +painters used to slip into a picture of Madonna and angels. There was +no vanity in the wish, for he says nothing about his sacrifices, +leaving it to Luke to tell that 'he left all,' but he _does_ +crave that his brethren, who read, should know that it was he whom +Jesus honoured by His call. + +The condensed narrative emphasises three things, (1) his occupation +with his ordinary business when that wonderful summons thrilled his +soul; (2) the curt authoritative command, and (3) the swift obedience. +As to the first, Capernaum was on a great trade route, and the +custom-house officers there would have their hands full. This one was +busy at his work, hateful and shameful as it was in Jewish eyes, and +into that sordid atmosphere, like a flash of light into a mephitic +cavern full of unclean creatures, came the transcendent mercy of +Jesus' summons. There is no region of life so foul, so mean, so +despicable in men's eyes, but that the quickening Voice will enter +there. We do not need to be in temples or about sacred tasks in order +to hear it. It summons us in, and sometimes from, our daily work. Well +for those who know whose Voice it is, and do not mistake it for some +Eli's! + +No doubt this was not the first of Matthew's knowledge of Jesus. +Living in Capernaum, he would have had many opportunities of hearing +Him or of Him, and his heart and conscience may have been stirred. +As he sat in his 'tolbooth,' feeling contempt and hatred poured on +him, he, no doubt, had had longings to get nearer to the One whose +voice was gentle, and His looks, love. So the call would come to him +as the fulfilment of a dim hope, and it would be a joyful surprise +to know that Jesus wished to have him for a disciple as much as he +wished to have Jesus for a Teacher. The ring of fire and hate within +which he had been imprisoned was broken, and there was One who cared +to have him, and who would not shrink from his touch. In the light +of that assurance, the call became, not a summons to give anything +up, but an invitation to receive a better possession than all with +which he was called to part. And if we saw things as they are, would +it not always be so to us? 'Follow Me' does mean, Forsake earth and +self, but it means still more: Take what is more than all. It parts +from these because it unites to Jesus. Therefore it means gain, not +deprivation. And it condenses all rules for life into one, for to +follow Him is the sum of all duty, and yields the perfect pattern of +conduct and character, while it is also the secret of all blessedness, +and the talisman that assures a man of continual progress. They who +follow are near, and will reach, Him. Of course, if His servants +follow Him, it stands to reason that one day, 'where I am there shall +also My servants be.' So in that command lie a sufficient guide for +earth, and a sure guarantee for heaven. + +'And he arose and followed Him.' That is the only thing that we are +told of Matthew. We hear no more of him, except that he made a feast +in his house on the occasion. No doubt he did his work as an apostle, +but oblivion has swallowed up all that. A happy fate to be known to all +the world for all time, only by this one thing, that he unconditionally, +immediately and joyfully obeyed Christ's call! He might have said: 'How +can I leave my work? I must make up my accounts, hand over my papers, +do a hundred things in order to wind up matters, and I must postpone +following till then.' But he sprang up at once. He would have abundant +opportunities to settle all details afterwards, but if he let this +opportunity of taking his place as a disciple pass, he might never +have another. There are some things that are best done gradually and +slowly, but obedience to Christ's call is not one of them. Prompt +obedience is the only safety. The psalmist knew the danger of delay +when he said: 'I made haste and delayed not, but made haste to keep Thy +commandments.' + +Matthew does not tell us that _he_ made the feast, but Luke +does. It was the natural expression of his thankfulness and joy for +the new bond. His knowledge was small, but his love was great. How +could he honour Jesus enough? But he was a pariah in Capernaum, and +the only guests he could assemble were, like himself, outcasts from +'respectable society.' In popular estimation all publicans were +regarded without any more ado as 'sinners,' but probably that +designation is here applied to disreputable folks of various kinds +and degrees of shadiness, who gravitated to Matthew and his class, +because, like him, they were repulsed by every one else. Even +outcasts hunger for society, and manage to get a community of their +own, in which they find some glow of comradeship, and some defence +from hatred and contempt. Even lepers herd together and have their +own rules of intercourse. + +But what a scandal in the eyes not only of Pharisees, but of all the +proper people in Capernaum, Jesus' going to such a gathering of +disreputables would be, we may estimate if we remember that they did +not know His reason, but thought that He went because He liked the +atmosphere and the company. 'Like draws to like' was the conclusion +suggested, in the absence of His own explanation. The Pharisee +conceived that his duty in regard to publicans and sinners was to keep +as far from them as he could, and his strait-laced self-righteousness +had never dreamed of going to them with an open heart, and trying to +win them to a better life. Many so-called followers of Jesus still +take that attitude. They gather up their skirts round them daintily, +and never think that it would be liker their Lord to sweep away the +mud than to pick their steps through it, caring mainly to keep their +own shoes clean. + +The feast was probably spread in some courtyard or open space, to +which, as is the Eastern custom, uninvited spectators could have +access. It is quite in accordance with the usage of the times and +land that the Pharisees should have been onlookers, and should have +been able to talk to the disciples. No doubt their colloquy became +animated, and perhaps loud, so that it could easily attract Christ's +attention. He answered for Himself, and the tone of His reply is +friendly and explanatory, as if He recognised that the questioners +genuinely wished to know 'why' He was sitting in such company. + +It discloses His motive, and thereby sweeps away all insinuations +that He consorted with sinners because their company was congenial. +It was precisely for the opposite reason, because He was so unlike +them. He came among these sinners as a physician; and who wonders at +_his_ being beside the sick? He does not spend his days by +their bedsides because he likes the atmosphere, but because it is +his business to make them well. Now, in that comparison, Jesus +pronounces no opinion on the correctness of the Pharisees' estimate +of themselves as 'righteous,' or of publicans as sinners, but simply +takes them on their own ground. But He does make a great claim for +Himself, and speaks out of His consciousness of power to heal men's +worst disease, sin. It is a tremendous assertion to make of oneself, +and its greatness is enhanced by the quiet way in which it is stated +as a thought familiar to Himself. What right had He to pose as the +physician for humanity, and how can such a claim be reconciled with +His being 'meek and lowly in heart'? If He Himself was one of the +sick and needed healing, how can He be the healer of the rest? If +being a sinful man, as we all are, He made such a claim, what becomes +of the reverence which is paid to Him as a great religious Teacher, +and where has His 'sweet reasonableness' vanished? + +Jesus passes from explanation of His personal relation to the +publicans to adduce the broad principle which should shape the +Pharisees' relation to them, as it had shaped His. Hosea had said +long ago that God delighted more in 'mercy' than in 'sacrifice.' +Kindly helpfulness to men is better worship than exact performance +of any ritual. Sacrifice propitiates God, but mercy imitates Him, +and imitation is the perfection of divine service. Jesus here speaks +as all the prophets had spoken, and smites with a deadly stroke the +mechanical formalism which in every age stiffens religion into +ceremonies and neglects love towards God, expressed in mercy to men. +He lays bare the secret of His own life, and He thereby lays on His +followers the obligation of making it the moving impulse of theirs. + +The great general truth is followed, as it has been preceded, by a +plain statement of Jesus' own conception of His mission in the +world. 'I came,' says He, hinting at the fact that He was before He +was born, and that His Incarnation was His voluntary act. True, He +was sent, and we speak of His mission, but also He 'came,' and we +speak of His advent. 'To repentance' is omitted by the best editors +as being brought over from Luke, where it is genuine. But it is a +correct gloss on the simple word 'call,' though 'repentance' is but +a small part of that to which He summons. He calls us to repent; He +calls us to Himself; He calls us to self-surrender; He calls us to +Eternal Life; He calls us to a better feast than Matthew had spread. +But we must recognise that we are sinners, or we shall never realise +that His invitation is for us, nor ever feel that we need a physician, +and have in Him, and in Him alone, the Physician whom we need. + +The Pharisees objected to Jesus' feasting, and could scarcely in the +same breath find fault with Him for not fasting, but they put +forward some of John's disciples to bring that fresh objection. +Common hatred is a strong cement, and often holds opposites together +for a while. It was bad for John's followers that they should be +willing to say, 'We and the Pharisees.' They had travelled far from +the days when their master had called the same class a 'generation +of vipers'! Their keen desire to uphold the honour of their teacher, +whose light they saw paling before the younger Jesus, made them +hostile to Him, and, as is usually the case, the followers were more +partisan than the leader. Religious antagonism sometimes stoops to +very strange alliances. The two questions brought together in this +context are noticeably alike, and noticeably different. Both ask for +the reason of conduct which they do not go the length of impugning. +They seem to be desirous of enlightenment, they are really eager to +condemn. Both avoid seeming to call in question the acts of the +persons addressed, for the Pharisees interrogate the _disciples_ as +to the reason for _Jesus'_ conduct, while John's disciples ask +from _Jesus_ the reason of His disciples' conduct. In both, mock +respectfulness covers lively hatred. + +Our Lord's first answer is as profound as it is beautiful, and +veils, while it reveals, a lofty claim for Himself and a solemn +foresight of His death, and lays down a great and fruitful principle +as to the relations between spiritual moods and outward acts of +religion. His speaking of Himself as 'the Bridegroom' would recall +to some of His questioners, and that with a touch of shame, John's +nobly humble acceptance of the subordinate place of the bridegroom's +friend and elevation of Jesus to that of the bridegroom. But it was +not merely a rebuking quotation from John's witness, but the +expression of His own unclouded and continual consciousness of what +He was to humanity, and of what humanity could find in Him, as well +as a sovereign appropriating to Himself of many prophetic strains. +What depth of love, what mysterious blending of spirit, what adoring, +lowly obedience, what perfection of protecting care, what rapture of +possession, what rest of heart in trust, what dower of riches are +dimly shadowed in that wonderful emblem, will never be known till +the hour of the marriage-supper of the Lamb, when 'His bride hath +made herself ready.' But across the light there flits a shadow. It +is but for a moment, and it meant little to the hearers, but it meant +much to Him. For He could not look forward to winning His bride +without seeing the grim Cross, and even athwart the brightness of +the days of companionship with His humble friends, came the darkness +on His soul, though not on theirs, of the violent end when He 'shall +be taken from them.' The hint fell apparently on deaf ears, but it +witnesses to the continual presence in the mind of Jesus of His +sufferings and death. The certainty that He must die was not forced +on Him by the failure of His efforts as His career unfolded itself. +It was no disappointment of bright earlier hopes, as is the case +with many a disillusionised reformer, who thought at the outset +that he had only to speak and all men would listen. It was the +clearly discerned goal from the first. 'The Son of Man came ... to +give His life a ransom.' + +But our Lord here lays down a broad principle, which, if applied as it +was meant to be, would lift a heavy burden of outward observance off +the Christian consciousness. Fast when you are sad; feast when you are +glad. Let the disposition, the mood, the moment's circumstance, mould +your action. There is no virtue or sanctity in observances which do not +correspond to the inner self. What a charter of liberty is proclaimed +in these quiet words! What mountains of ceremonial unreality, oppressive +to the spirit, are cast into the sea by them! How different Christendom +would have been and would be to-day, if Christians had learned the +lesson of these words! + +The two condensed parables or extended metaphors, which follow the +vindication of the disciples, carry the matter further, and lay down +a principle which is intended to cover not only the question in +hand, their non-observance of Jewish regulations as to fasting, but +the whole subject of the relations of the new word, which Jesus felt +that He brought, to the old system. The same consciousness of His +unique mission which prompted His use of the term 'bridegroom,' +shines through the two metaphors of the new cloth and the new wine. +He knows that He is about to bring a new garb to men, and to give +them new wine to drink, and He knows that what He brings is no mere +patch on a worn-out system, but a new fermenting force, which +demands fresh vehicles and modes of expression. The two metaphors +take up different aspects of one thought. To try to mend an old coat +with a bit of unshrunk cloth would only make a worse dissolution of +continuity, for as soon as a shower fell on it the patch would +shrink, and, in shrinking, pull the thin pieces of the old garment +adjoining it to itself. Judaism was already 'rent' and worn too thin +to be capable of repair. The only thing to be done was 'as a +vesture' to 'fold it up' and shape a new garment out of new cloth. +What was true as to the supremely new thing which He brought into +the world remains true, in less eminent degree, of the less acute +differences between the Old and the New, within Christianity itself. +There do come times when its externals become antiquated, worn thin +and torn, and when patching is useless. Christian men, like others, +constitutionally incline to conservatism or to progress, and the one +temperament needs to be warned against obstinately preserving old +clothes, and the other against eagerly insisting that they are past +mending. + +But a patch and a worn garment do not wholly describe the relations +of the old and the new. Freshly made wine, still fermenting, and +old, stiff wine-skins which have lost their elasticity suggest +further thoughts. Now we have to do with containing vessel _versus_ +contents, with a fermenting force _versus_ stiffened forms. To put +that into these will destroy both. For example, if the struggle of +the Judaisers in the early Church had succeeded, and Christianity +had become a Jewish sect, it would have dwindled to nothing, as the +Jewish-minded Christians did. The wine must have bottles. Every +great spiritual renovating force must embody itself in institutions. +Spiritual emotions must express themselves in acts of worship, +spiritual convictions must speak in a creed. But the containing +vessel must be congruous with, and still more, it must be created by, +the contained force, as there are creatures who frame their shells +to fit the convolutions of their bodies, and build them up from their +own substance. Forms are good, as long as they can stretch if need be; +when they are too stiff to expand, they restrict rather than contain +the wine, and if short-sighted obstinacy insists on keeping _it_ in +_them_, there will be a great spill and loss of much that is +precious. + + + + +THE TOUCH OF FAITH AND THE TOUCH OF CHRIST + + + 'While He spake these things unto them, behold, there + came a certain ruler, and worshipped Him, saying, My + daughter is even now dead: but come and lay Thy hand + upon her, and she shall live. 19. And Jesus arose, + and followed him, and so did His disciples. 20. And, + behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of + blood twelve years, came behind Him, and touched the + hem of His garment: 21. For she said within herself, + If I may but touch His garment, I shall be whole. + 22. But Jesus turned Him about, and when He saw her, + He said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath + made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from + that hour. 23. And when Jesus came into the ruler's + house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a + noise. 24. He said unto them, Give place: for the maid + is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed Him to + scorn. 25. But when the people were put forth, He went + in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. + 26. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land. + 27. And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men + followed Him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, + have mercy on us. 28. And when He was come into the + house, the blind men came to Him: and Jesus saith unto + them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said + unto Him, Yea, Lord. 29. Then touched He their eyes, + saying, According to your faith be it unto you. 30. And + their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, + saying, See that no man know it. 31. But they, when they + were departed, spread abroad His fame in all that + country.'--MATT. ix. 18-31. + +The three miracles included in the present section belong to the +last group of this series. Those of the second group were all +effected by Christ's word. Those now to be considered are all +effected by touch. The first two are intertwined. The narrative of +the healing of the woman is embedded in the account of the raising +of Jairus's daughter. + +Mark the impression of calm consciousness of power and leisurely +dignity produced by Christ's having time to pause, even on such an +errand, in order to heal, by the way, the other sufferer. The father +and the disciples would wonder at Him as He stayed His steps, and be +apt to feel that priceless moments were being lost; but He knows His +own resources, and can afford to let the child die while He heals +the woman. The one shall receive no harm by the delay, and the other +will be blessed. Our Lord is sitting at the feast which Matthew gave +on the occasion of his call, engaged in vindicating His sharing in +innocent festivity against the cavils of the Pharisees, when the +summons to the death-bed comes to Him from the lips of the father, +who breaks in on the banquet with his imploring cry. Matthew gives +the story much more summarily than the other evangelists, and does +not distinguish, as they do, between Jairus's first words, 'at the +point of death, and the message of her actual decease, which met +them on the way. The call of sorrow always reaches Christ's ear, and +the cry for help is never deemed by Him an interruption. So this +'man, gluttonous and a wine-bibber,' as these Pharisees thought Him, +willingly and at once leaves the house of feasting for that of +mourning. How near together, in this awful life of ours, the two +lie, and how thin the partition walls! Well for those whose feasts +do not bar them out from hearing the weeping next door. + +As the crowd accompanies Jesus, His hasting love is, for a moment, +diverted by another sufferer. We never go on an errand of mercy but we +pass a hundred other sorrowing hearts, so close packed lie the griefs +of men. This woman is a poor shrinking creature, broken down by long +illness (which had lasted for the same length of time as the joyous +life of Jairus's child), made more timid by disappointed hopes of +cure, and depressed by poverty to which her many doctors had brought +her. She does not venture to stop this new Rabbi-physician, as He +goes with the church dignitary of the town to heal his daughter, but +lets Him pass before she can make up her mind to go near Him; and +then she comes creeping up behind the crowd, puts out her wasted, +trembling hand to the hem of His garment,--and she is whole. + +The other evangelists give us a more extended account, but Matthew +throws into prominence, in his condensed narrative, the essential +points. + +Notice her real but imperfect faith. There was unquestionable +confidence in Christ's power, and very genuine desire for healing. +But it was a very ignorant faith. She believes that her touch of the +garment will heal without Christ's will or knowledge, much more His +pitying love, having any part in it. She thinks that she may win her +desire furtively, and may carry it away, and He be none the wiser nor +the poorer for the stolen blessing. What utter, blank ignorance of His +character and way of working! What gross superstition! Yes, and withal +what a hunger of desire, what absolute assurance of confidence that +one finger-tip on His robe was enough! Therefore she had her desire, +and her Healer recognised her faith as true, though blended with much +ignorance of Him. Her error was very like that which many Christians +entertain with less excuse. To attach importance to external means of +grace, rites, ordinances, sacraments, outward connection with Christian +organisations, is the very same misconception in a slightly different +form. Such error is always near us; it is especially rife in countries +where there has long been a visible Church. It has received strange +new vigour to-day, partly by reaction from extreme rationalism, partly +by the growing cultivation of the aesthetic faculties. It is threatening +to corrupt the simplicity and spirituality of Christian worship, and +needs to be strenuously resisted. But the more we have to fight +against it, the more do we need to remember that, along with this +clinging to the hem of the garment instead of to the heart of its +Wearer, there may be a very real trust, which might shame some of +those who profess to hold a less sensuous form of faith. Many a poor +soul clasping a crucifix clings to the Cross. Many a devout heart +kneeling at mass sees through the incense-smoke the face of Christ. + +This woman's faith was selfish. She wanted health; she did not care +much about the Healer. She would have been quite contented to have +had no more to do with Him, if she could only have stolen out of the +crowd cured. She would have had little gratitude to the unconscious +Giver of a stolen good. So, many a Christian life in its earlier +stages is more absorbed with its own deep misery and its desire for +deliverance, than with Him. Love comes after, born of the experience +of His love. But faith precedes love, and the predominant motive +impelling to faith at first is distinctly self-regard. That is all as +it should be. The most purely self-absorbed wish to escape from the +most rudely pictured hell is often the beginning of a true trust in +Christ, which, in due time, will be elevated into perfect consecration. +Some of our modern teachers, who are shocked at Christianity because +it lays the foundation of the most self-denying morality in such +'selfishness,' would be none the worse for going to school to this +story, and learning from it how a desire for nothing more than to +get rid of a painful disease, started a process which turned a life +into a peaceful, thankful surrender of the cured self to the love +and service of the mighty Healer. + +Observe, next, how Christ answers the imperfect faith, and, by +answering, corrects and confirms it. Matthew omits Christ's question +as to who touched Him, the disciples' reply, and His renewed +asseveration that He was conscious of power having gone forth from +Him. All these belong to the loving method by which our Lord sought +to draw forth an open acknowledgment. Womanly diffidence, enfeebled +health, her special disease, all made the woman wish to hide herself. +She wanted to steal away unnoticed, as she hoped that she had come. +But Christ forces her to stand out before all the crowd, and there, +with all eyes upon her,--cold, cruel eyes, some of them--to conquer +her shame, and tell all the truth. Strange kindness that; strangely +contrasted with His ordinary desire to avoid notoriety, and with His +ordinary tender consideration for shrinking weakness! He did it for +her sake, not for His own. She is changed from timidity to courage. +At one moment she stretches out her wasted finger, a tremulous +invalid; at the next, she flings herself at His feet, a confessor. +He would have us testify for Him, because faith unavowed, like a +plant in the dark, is apt to become pale and sickly; but ere He bids +us own His name, He pours into our hearts, in answer to our secret +appeal, the health of His own life, and the blissful consciousness +of that great gift which makes the tongue of the dumb sing. + +His words to her are full of tenderness. She receives the name of +'daughter.' Gently He encourages her timidity by that 'Be of good +cheer,' and then He sets right her error: 'Thy faith'--not thy +finger--'hath made thee whole.' There was no real connection between +the touch of the robe and healing; but the woman thought that there +was, and so Christ stooped to her childish thought, and allowed her +to prescribe the road which His mercy should take. But He would not +leave her with her error. The true means of contact between us and +Him is not our outward contact with external means of grace, but the +touch of our spirits by faith. Faith is nothing in itself, and heals +only because it brings us into union with His power, which is the +sole cause of our healing. Faith is the hand which receives the +blessing. It may be a wasted and tremulous hand, like that which +this woman laid lightly on His robe. But He feels its touch, though +a universe presses on Him, and He answers. Not the garment's hem, +but Christ's love, is the cause of our salvation. Not an outward +contact with it or with Him, but faith, is the condition on which +His life, which knows no disease, pours into our souls. The hand of +my faith lifted to Him will receive into its empty palm and clasping +fingers the special blessing for my special wants. + +The other evangelists tell us that, at the moment of His words to +the woman, the messengers came bearing tidings of the child's death. +How Jairus must have grudged the pause! A word from Christ, like the +pressure of His hand, heartened him. Like a river turned from its +course for a space, to fill some empty reservoir, His love comes +back to its original direction. How abundant the power and mercy, to +which such a work as that just done was but a parenthesis! The +doleful music and the shrill shrieks of Eastern mourning, which met +them as they entered Jairus's house, disturbed the sanctity of the +hour, and were in strong contrast with the majestic calmness of +Jesus. Not amid venal lamentations and excited cries will He do His +work. He bids the noisy crowd forth with curt, almost stern, command, +and therein rebukes all such hollow and tumultuous scenes, in the +presence of the stillness of death, still more where faith in Him +has robbed it of its terror, in robbing it of its perpetuity. It is +strange that believing readers should have thought that our Lord meant +to say that the little girl was not really dead, but only in a swoon. +The scornful laughter of the flute-players and hired mourners +understood Him better. They knew that it was real death, as men +count death, and, as has often been the case, the laughter of His +foes has served to establish the truth. That was not worthy to be +called death from which the child was so soon and easily to be +awaked. But, besides this special application to the case in hand, +that great saying of our Lord's carries the blessed truth that, +since He has come, death is softened into sleep for all who love +Him. The euphemism is not peculiar to Christianity, but has a deeper +meaning on Christian lips than when Greeks or Romans spoke of the +eternal sleep. Others speak of death by any name rather than its +own, because they fear it so much. The Christian does so, because he +fears it so little,--and, as a matter of fact, the use of the word +death as meaning merely the separation of soul and body by the +physical act is exceptional in the New Testament. This name of +sleep, sanctioned thus by Christ, is the sweetest of all. It speaks +of the cessation of connection with the world of sense, and 'long +disquiet merged in rest.' It does not imply unconsciousness, for we +are not unconscious when we sleep, but only unaware of externals. It +holds the promise of waking when the sun comes. So it has driven out +the ugly old name. Our tears flow less bitterly when we think of our +dear ones as 'sleeping in Jesus.' Their bodies, like this little +child's, are dead, but _they_ are not. They rest, conscious of +their own blessedness and of Him 'in whom they live, and have their +being,' whether they 'move' or no. + +Then comes the great deed. The crowd is shut out. For such a work +silence is befitting. The father and mother, with His foremost three +disciples, go with Him into the chamber. There is no effort, repeated +and gradually successful, as when Elisha raised the dead boy; no +praying, as when Peter raised Dorcas; only the touch of the hand in +which life throbbed in fulness, and, as the other narratives record, +two words, spoken strangely to, and yet more strangely heard by, the +dull, cold ear of death. Their echo lingered long with Peter, and +Mark gives us them in the original Aramaic. But Matthew passes them +by, as he seems here to have desired to emphasise the power of +Christ's touch. But touch or word, the real cause of the miracle +was simply His will; and whether He used media to help men's faith, +or said only 'I will,' mattered little. He varied His methods as the +circumstances of the recipients required, and in order that they and +we might learn that He was tied to none. These miracles of raising +the dead are three in number. Jairus's daughter is raised from her +bed, just having passed away; the widow's son at Nain from his bier, +having been for a little longer separated from his body; Lazarus +from the grave, having been dead four days. A few minutes, or days, +or four thousand years, are one to His power. These three are in +some sense the first-fruits of the great harvest; the stars that +shone out singly before all the heaven is in a blaze. For, though +they died again, and so left to Him the precedence in resurrection, +as in all besides, they are still prophetic of His power in the hour +when they 'that sleep in the dust' shall awake at His voice. Blessed +they who, like this little maiden, are awakened, not only by His +voice, but by His touch, and to find, as she did, their hand in His! + +The third of these miracles, which Matthew seems to reckon as the +second in the group, because he treats the two former as so closely +connected as to be but one in numeration, need not detain us long. +It is found only in this Gospel. The first point to be observed in it +is the cry of these two blind men. There is something pathetic and +exquisitely natural in the two being together, as is also the case in +the similar miracle, at a later period, on the outskirts of Jericho. +Equal sorrows drive men together for such poor help and solace as +they can give each other. They have common experiences which isolate +them from others, and they creep close for warmth and companionship. +All the blind men in the Gospels have certain resemblances. One is +that they are all sturdily persevering, as perhaps was easier for +them because they could not see the impatience of the listeners, and +possibly because, in most cases, persistent begging was their trade, +and they were used to refusals. But a more important trait is their +recognition of Jesus as 'Son of David.' Blind as they are, they see +more than do the seeing. Thrown in upon themselves, they may have +been led to ponder the old words, and by their affliction been made +more ready to welcome One who, if He were Messiah, was coming with a +special blessing for them--'to open the blind eyes.' Men who deeply +desire a good are quick to listen to the promise of its accomplishment. +So these two followed Him along the road, loudly and perseveringly +calling out their profession of faith, and their entreaty for sight. + +The next point is our Lord's treatment. He let them cry on, apparently + unheeding. Had, then, the two miracles just done exhausted His stock +of power or of pity? Certainly His reason was, as it always was, their +good. We do not know why it was better for them to have to wait, and +continue their entreaty; but we may be quite sure that the reason for +all His delays is the same,--the larger blessing which comes with the +answer when it comes, and the large blessings which may be gathered +while we wait its coming. Christ's question to them, when at last +they have found their way even indoors, holds out more hope than they +had yet received. By it, Christ established a close relation with them, +and implied to them that He was willing to answer their cry. One can +fancy how the poor blind faces would light up with a flush of eager +expectation, and how swift would be the answer. The question is not +cold or inquisitorial. It is more than half a promise, and a powerful +aid to the faith which it requires. + +There is something very beautiful and pathetic in the simple brevity +of the unhesitating answer, 'Yea, Lord.' Sincerity needs few words. +Faith can put an infinite deal of meaning into a monosyllable. Their +eagerness to reach the goal made their answer brief. But it was +enough. Again the hand which had clasped the maiden's palm is put +out and laid gently on the useless eyes, and the great word spoken, +'According to your faith be it unto you.' Their blindness made the +touch peculiarly fitting in their case, as bringing evidence of +sense to those who could not see the gracious pity of His looks. The +word spoken was, like that to the centurion, a declaration of the +power of faith, which determines the measure, and often the manner, +of His gifts to us. The containing vessel not only settles the +quantity of, but the shape assumed by, the water which is taken up +in it from the sea. Faith, which keeps inside of Christ's promises +(and what goes outside of them is not faith), decides how much of +Christ we shall have for our very own. He condescends to run the +molten gold of His mercies into the moulds which our faith prepares. + +These two men, who had used their tongues so well in their persistent +cry for healing, went away to make a worse use of them in telling +everywhere of their cure. Jesus desired silence. Possibly He did +not wish His reputation as a mere worker of miracles to be spread +abroad. In all His earlier ministry He avoided publicity, singularly +contrasting therein with the evident desire to make Himself the +centre of observation which marks its close. He dreaded the smoky +flame of popular excitement. His message was to individuals, not to +crowds. It was a natural impulse to tell the benefits these two had +received; but truer gratitude and deeper faith would have made them +obey His lightest word, and have shut their mouths. We honour Christ +most, not by taking our way of honouring Him, but by absolute obedience. + +The final miracle of the nine (or ten) marshalled in long procession +in chapters viii. and ix. is told with singular brevity. There is +nothing individual in our Lord's treatment of the sufferer, as there +was in the previous healing of the two blind men, and no details are +given of either the appeal to His pity or the method of His cure. +The dumb demoniac could lift no cry, nor exercise any faith, and all +the petitions and hopes of his bearers were expressed in the act of +bringing the sufferer thither, and silently setting him there before +these eyes of universal pity. It was enough. With Jesus, to see was +to compassionate, and to compassionate was to help. In the other +instances of casting out demons, the method is an authoritative +command, addressed not to the possessed, but to the alien personality +that has seized on him, and we conclude that such was the method +here. Jesus undoubtedly believed in demoniacal possession, if we can +at all rely on the Gospel narratives; and it may be humbly suggested +that there are dark depths in humanity, which had need to be fathomed +more completely, before any one is warranted in dogmatically +pronouncing that He was wrong in His diagnosis. There are ugly facts +which should give pause to those who are inclined to say--'There are +no demons, and if there were, they could not dominate a human +consciousness.' + +But the effects of the miracle are emphasised more than itself. They +are two, neither of them what might or should have been. The dumb +man is not said to have used his recovered speech to thank his +deliverer, nor is there any sign that he clung to Him, either for +fear of being captured again or in passionate gratitude. It looks as +if he selfishly bore away his blessing and cared nothing for its +giver. That is very human, and we all are too often guilty of the +same sin. Nor was the effect on the multitudes much better, for they +were only struck with vulgar wonder, which had no moral quality in +it and led to nothing. They saw 'the miracle,' that is, the +wonderfulness of the act made some dint even on their minds, but +these were either too fluid to retain the impression, or too hard to +let it be deep, and so it soon filled up again. We have to think of +Christ's deeds as 'signs,' not only as 'wonders,' or they will do +little to draw us to Him. Wonder is a necessarily evanescent +emotion, which may indeed set something better stirring in us, but +is quite as likely to die barren. + +The Pharisees did not wonder, and did look into the phenomenon with +sharp eyes; and in so far, they were in advance of the gaping +multitudes. They were much too superior persons to be astonished at +anything, and they had already settled on a formula which was +delightfully easy of application, and had the further advantage of +turning the miracles into evidences that the doer of them was a +child of the Devil. It appears to have been a well-worked formula +too, for it is found again in chap. xii. 24, and in Luke xi. 15, in +the account of another cure of a dumb demoniac. It is possible that +the incident now before us may be the same as this, but there is +nothing improbable in the occurrence of such a case twice, nor in +the repetition of what had become the commonplace of the Pharisaic +polemic. But what a piercing example that explanation is of the +blinding power of prejudice, determined to hold on to a foregone +conclusion, and not to see the sun at noon! Jesus in league with +'the prince of the devils'! And that was gravely said by religious +authorities! They saw the loveliness of His perfect life, His gentle +goodness, His self-forgetting love, His swift-springing pity, and +they set it all down to His commerce with the Evil One. He was so +good that He must be more than humanly bad. + + + + +A CHRISTLIKE JUDGMENT OF MEN + + + 'But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with + compassion on them, because they fainted, and were + scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.' + --MATT. ix. 36. + +In the course of our Lord's wandering life of teaching and healing, +there had naturally gathered around Him a large number of persons who +followed Him from place to place, and we have here cast into a symbol +the impression produced upon Him by their outward condition. That is +to say, He sees them lying there weary, and footsore, and travel-stained. +They have flung themselves down by the wayside. There is no leader or +guide, no Joshua or director to order their march; they are a worn-out, +tired, unregulated mob, and the sight smites upon His eye, and it +smites upon His heart. He says to Himself, if I may venture to put +words into His lips, 'There are a worse weariness, and a worse wandering, +and a worse anarchy, and a worse disorder afflicting men than that poor +mob of tired pedestrians shows.' Matthew, who was always fond of showing +the links and connections between the Old Testament and the New, casts +our Lord's impression of what He then saw into language borrowed from +the prophecy of Ezekiel (ch. xxxiv.), which tells of a flock that is +scattered in a dark and cloudy day, that is broken, and torn, and +driven away. I venture to see in the text three points: (1) Christ +teaching us how to look at men; (2) Christ teaching us how to feel at +such a sight; and (3) Christ teaching us what to do with the feeling. +'When He saw the multitude, He was moved with compassion, because they +fainted and were scattered abroad.' 'Then He said unto His disciples, +the harvest is plenteous, the labourers are few, pray ye the Lord of +the harvest to send forth labourers unto the harvest.' And then there +follows, 'And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave +them power against unclean spirits to cast them out.' There are, then, +these three points;--just a word or two about each of them. + +I. Here we have our Lord teaching us how to look at men. + +The picture of my text is, of course, in its broad outlines, very +clear and intelligible, but there may be a little difficulty as to +the precise force of the language. The obscurity of it is in some +degree reflected in the margin of our Bibles; so, perhaps, you will +permit one word of an expository nature. The description of the +flock, 'Because they fainted and were scattered abroad,' is couched +in the original in a couple of words, one of which means properly +'torn' or 'fainting,' according as one or other of two readings of +the text is adopted, and the other means 'lying down.' Now, the +former of these gives a very pathetic picture if we apply it to the +individuals that made up the flock. We have then the image of the +poor sheep that has lost its way, struggling through briars and +thorns, getting out of them with its fleece all torn and hanging in +strips dangling at its heels, or of it as lacerated by the beasts of +the field to whom it is a prey. If we take the metaphor, as seems +more probably to be intended, as applying not so much to the +individuals as to the flock, then it comes to mean 'torn asunder,' +'thrown apart,' and gives us the notion of anarchic confusion into +which the flock comes if there be no shepherd to lead it. Then the +other word, which our Bible translates 'were scattered abroad,' +seems to mean more properly 'lying down,' and it gives the idea of +the poor, wearied creature, after all its struggles and wanderings, +utterly beaten and dejected, having lost its way, at its wits' end +and resourceless, flinging itself down there in despair, and panting +its timid life out anywhere where it finds itself. So it comes to be +a picture of the utter weariness and hopelessness of all men's +efforts apart from that Guide and Shepherd, who alone can lead them +in the way. And then both of these miserable states, the laceration +if you take the one explanation, the disintegration and casting +apart if you take the other, the weariness and exhaustion, are +traced to their source, they are 'as sheep having no shepherd.' He +has gone, and so all this comes. With this explanation we may take +the points of view that are thus suggested simply as they lie before +us. + +First of all, notice how here, as always to Jesus Christ, the +outward was nothing, except as a symbol and manifestation of the +inward; how the thing that He saw in a man was not the external +accidents of circumstance or position, for His true, clear gaze and +His loving, wise heart went straight to the essence of the matter, +and dealt with the man not according to what he might happen to be +in the categories of earth, but to what he was in the categories of +heaven. All the same to Him whether it was some poor harlot, or a +rabbi; all the same to Him whether it was Pilate on the judgment-seat, +or the penitent thief hanging at His side. These gauds and shows were +nothing; sheer away He cut them all, and went down to the hidden heart +of the man, and He allocated and ranged them according to that. +Christian men and women, do you try to do the same thing, and to get +rid of all these superficial veils and curtains with which we drape +ourselves and attitudinise in the world, and to see men as Christ saw +them, both in regard to your judgment of them, and in regard to your +judgment of yourselves? 'I am a scholar and a wise man; a great thinker; +a rich merchant; a man of rising importance and influence.' Very well; +what does that matter? 'I am ignorant or a pauper'; be it so. Let us +get below all that. The one question worth asking and worth answering +is, 'How am I affected towards Him?' There are many temporary and +local principles of arrangement and order among men; but they will +all vanish some day, and there will be one regulating and arranging +principle, and it is this: 'Do I love God in Jesus Christ, or do I +not?' Oh! for myself, for yourself, and for all our outlook towards +others, let us not forget that the inmost, deepest, hidden man of the +heart is the man, and that all else is naught, and that its whole +character is absolutely determined by its relation to Jesus Christ. + +But this is somewhat aside from my main purpose, which is rather +briefly to expand the various phases which, as I have already +suggested, are included in such an emblem. The first of them is +this: Try to think for yourselves of the condition of humanity as +apart from Christ--shepherdless. That old metaphor of a shepherd +which comes out of the Old Testament is there sometimes used to +indicate a prophet, and sometimes to indicate a king. I suppose we +may put both of these uses together, as far as our present purposes +are concerned; and this is what I want to insist upon. I dare say +some people here will think it is very old-fashioned, very narrow in +these broad and liberal days; but what I would say is this, that +unless Jesus Christ is both Guide and Teacher, we have neither guide +nor teacher but are shepherdless without Him. There are plenty of +rulers. There was no lack of other authority in the days of His +flesh. There were crowds of rabbis, guides, and directors. The life +of the nation was throttled by the authorities that had planted +themselves upon its back, and yet Christ saw that there were none of +those who were fit for the work, or afforded the adequate guidance. +And so it is, now and always. There have been hosts of men who have +sought to impose their authority upon an era. Where is there one +that has swayed passion, that has ruled hearts, that has impressed +his own image on the will, that has made obedience an honour, and +absolute, abject devotion to his command a very patent of nobility? +Here, and nowhere beside. Besides that Christ there is no ruler +amongst men who can come to them and say to his servant, 'Go,' and +he goeth, and to this man, 'Do this,' and he doeth it. Obedience to +any besides is treason against the dignity of our own nature; +disobedience to Him is both treason against our nature and blasphemy +against God. 'Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ, Thou art the +everlasting Son of the Father.' _There_ is the deepest reason +for His rule. + +And as for 'teacher,' whom are we to put up beside Him? Is it to be +these dim figures of religious reformers that are gliding, +ghostlike, to their doom, being wrapped round and round about by +ever thicker and thicker folds of the inevitable oblivion that +swallows all that is human? Brethren, by common consent it is Christ +or nobody. Aaron dies upon Hor; Moses dies upon Pisgah; the +teachers, the leaders, the guides, the under-shepherds, pass away +one by one; and if this Christ be but a Man and a Teacher, He too +will pass away. Shall I be thought very blind to the signs of the +times if I say that I see no sign of His dominion being exhausted, +of His influence being diminished, of His guidance being capable of +being dispensed with? You may say, 'Oh, we do not want any teacher +or guide; we do not want a shepherd.' I am not going to enter upon +that question now at all, except just to say this, that the instincts +of humanity rise up in contradiction, as it seems to me, of that cold +and cheerless creed, and that we have this fact staring us in the +face, that men are made capable of a devotion and submission the +most passionate, the most absolute, the most mighty force in their +lives, to human guides and ensamples, and that it is all wasted unless +there be somewhere a Man, our Brother, who shall come to us and say, +'All that ever went before Me are thieves and robbers; I am the Good +Shepherd; follow Me, and ye shall not walk in darkness,' 'He saw the +multitudes as sheep having no shepherd.' + +Still further, take that other phase of the metaphor which, as I +suggested, the text includes, namely, the idea of disintegration, +the rending apart of social ties and union, unless there be the +centre of unity in the shepherd of the flock. 'I will smite the +shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered,' says the old prophecy. +Of course, for what is there to hold them together unless it be +their guide and their director? So we are brought face to face with +this plain prosaic rendering of the metaphor--that but for the centre +of unity provided for mankind in the person and work of Jesus Christ, +there is no satisfaction of the deep hunger for unity and society +with which in that case God would have cursed mankind. For whilst +there are many other bonds most true, most blessed, God-given, and +mighty, such as that of the sacred unity of the family, and that of +the nation and many others of which we need not speak, yet all these +are constantly being disintegrated by the unresting waves of that +gnawing sea of selfishness, if I may so say, which, like the waters +upon our eastern coasts, eats and eats for ever at the base of the +cliffs, so that society in all its forms, whether it be built upon +identity of opinion, which is perhaps the shabbiest bond of all, or +whether it be built upon purposes of mutual action, which is a great +deal better, or whether it be built upon hatred of other people, +which is the modern form of patriotism, or whether it be built upon +the domestic affections, which are the purest and highest of all--all +the other bonds of society, such as creeds, schools, nations, +associations, leagues, families, denominations, all go sooner or +later. The base is eaten out of them, because every man that belongs +to them has in him that tyrannous, dominant self, which is ever +seeking to assert its own supremacy. Here is Babel, with its +half-finished tower, built on slime; and there is Pentecost, with +its great Spirit; here is the confusion, there is the unifying; here +the disintegration, there the power that draws them all together. +'They were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd,' and one +looks out over the world and sees great tracts of country and long +dismal generations of time, in which the very thought of unity and +charity and human bonds knitting men together has faded from the +consciousness of the race, and then one turns to blessed, sweet, +simple words that say, 'there shall be one flock and one shepherd,' +and 'I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.' +Drawing thus, He will draw them into the eternal, mighty bond of +union that shall never be broken, and is all the more precious and +all the more true because it is not a unity like the vulgar unities +that express themselves in external associations. You know, of +course or if you do not know it will be a good thing that you should +know, that that verse in John's Gospel which I have quoted has been +terribly mangled by a little slip of our translators. Christ said, +'Other sheep I must bring which are not of this fold,' the fold +being the external unity of the Jewish church--an enclosure made of +hurdles that you can stick in the ground. 'I shall bring them,' says +He, 'and there shall be one'--(not, as our Bible says, 'fold,'--but +something far better)--'there shall be one flock'; which becomes a +unity not by wattling round about it on the outside, but by a +shepherd standing in the middle. 'There shall be one flock and one +shepherd'--a unity which is neither the destruction of the variety of +the churches, nor the crushing of men, nationalities, and types of +character all down into one dead level beneath the heel of a conqueror, +but the unity which subsists in the many operations of the one Spirit, +and is expressed by all the forms of the one inspired grace. + +Then passing by altogether the other idea which I said was only +doubtfully suggested by the words--namely, that of laceration and +wounding--let me say a word about the last of the aspects of +humanity when Christless, which is set forth in this text, and that +is, the dejected weariness arising from the fruitless wanderings +wherewith men are cursed. As a verse in the Book of Proverbs puts +it, 'The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because +they know not how to go to the city.' Putting aside the metaphor, +the plain truth which it embodies is just this, that there is in all +men's souls a deep longing after peace and rest, after goodness and +beauty and truth, and that all the strenuous efforts to satisfy +these longings, either by social reforms or by individual culture +and discipline, are pathetically vain and profitless, because there +is none to guide them. The sheep go wandering in any direction, and +with no goal; and wherever one has jumped, a dozen others will go +after him, and so they are wearied out long before the day's journey +is ended, and they never reach the goal. Put that into less vivid, +and, therefore, as people generally suppose, more accurate, +language, and it is a statement of the universal law of human +history that, after any epoch of great aspirations and strong +excitement of the noblest parts of human nature, there has always +come a reaction of corruption and a collapse from weariness. What +did 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity' end in? A guillotine. What do +all similar epochs end in, when they do not take the Christ to march +ahead of them? An utter disgust and disillusion, and a despair of +all progress. That is why wild revolutionists in their youth are +always obstinate Conservatives in their old age. The wandering sheep +are footsore, and they fling themselves down by the wayside. That is +why heathenism presents to us the aspect that it does. There is +nothing about it that seems to me more tragical than the weary +languor that besets it. Do you ever think of the depth of pathetic, +tragic meaning that there is in that verse in one of the Psalms, +'Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death'? There they +sit, because there is no hope in rising and moving. They would have +to grope if they arose, and so with folded hands they sit like the +Buddha, which one great section of heathenism has taken as being the +true emblem and ideal of the noblest life. Absolute passivity lays +hold upon them all--torpor, stagnation, no dream of advance or +progress. The sheep are dejected, despairing, anarchic, disintegrated, +lacerated, guideless, and shepherdless--away from Christ. So He +thought them. God give you and me grace, dear brethren, to see, as +Christ saw, the condition of humanity and our own apart from Him. + +II. And now let me say a word in the next place as to the second +movement of His mind and heart here. He teaches us not only how to +think of men, but how that sight should touch us. + +'He was moved with compassion on them when He saw the multitude'--with +the eye of a god, I was going to say, and the heart of a man. Pity +belongs to the idea of divinity; compassion belongs to the idea of +divinity incarnate; and the motion that passed across His heart is the +motion that I would seek may pass, with its sweet and healing breath, +across yours and mine. The right emotion for a Christian looking on +the Christless crowds is pity, not aversion; pity, not anger; pity, not +curiosity; pity, not indifference. How many of us walk the streets of +the towns in which our lot is cast, and never know one touch of that +emotion, when we look at these people here in England torn, and anarchic, +and wearied, and shepherdless, within sound of our psalm-singing in +our chapels? Why, on any Sunday there are thousands of men and women +standing about the streets who, we may be sure, have not seen the +inside of a church or a chapel since they were married, and that not +one in five hundred of all the good people that are going with their +prayer-books and hymn-books to church and chapel ever think anything +about them as they pass them by; and some of them, perhaps, if they +come to any especially disreputable one, will gather up their skirts +and keep on the safe side of the pavement, and there an end of it. But +Jesus Christ had no aversions. His white purity was a great deal nearer +to the blackness of the woman that was a sinner, than was the leprous +whiteness of the whited sepulchre of the self-righteous Pharisee. He +had neither aversion, nor anger, nor indifference. + +And, if I might venture to touch upon another matter, compassion and +not curiosity is an especial lesson for the day to the more thoughtful +and cultivated amongst our congregations. I have just said that the +appropriate Christian feeling in contemplating the state of the sheep +without the Shepherd is compassion, not curiosity. That reminder is +particularly needful in view of the prominence to-day of investigations +into the new science of Comparative Religion. I speak with most +unfeigned respect of it and of its teachers, and gratefully hail the +wonderful light that it is casting upon ideas underlying the strange +and often savage and obscene rites of heathenism; but it has a side of +danger in it against which I would warn you all, especially young, +reading men and women. The time has not yet come when we can afford to +let such investigations be our principal occupation in the face of +heathenism. If idolatry was dead we could afford to do that, but it +is alive--the more's the pity; and it is not only a curious instance +of the workings of man's intelligence, and a great apocalypse of +earlier stages of society, but, besides that, it is a lie that is +deceiving and damning our brethren, and we have got to kill it first +and dissect it afterwards. So I say, do not only think of heathenism +in its various forms as a subject for speculation and analysis; as +much as you like of that, only do not let it drive out the other +thing, and after you have tried to understand it, then come back to +my text, 'He was moved with compassion.' And so pity, and neither +anger, nor aversion, nor curiosity, nor indifference is what I urge +as the Christian emotion. + +III. Let us take this text as teaching us how Christ would have us +act, after such emotion built and based upon such a look. + +It is perfectly legitimate, although it is by no means the highest +motive, to appeal to feeling as a stimulus to action. We have a +right to base our urging of Christian men and women to missionary +work either at home or abroad, upon the ground of the condition of +the men to whom the Gospel has to be carried. I know that if taken +alone it is a very inadequate motive. I believe that any failure +that may be manifest in the interest of Christian people in +missionary work is largely traceable to the blunder we have made in +dwelling on superficial motives more than we ought to have done, in +proportion to the degree in which we have dwelt on the deepest. We +have been gathering the surface-water instead of going right down to +the green sand, to which the artesian well must be sunk if the +stream is to come up without pumping or wasting. So I say that a +deeper reason than the sorrow and darkness of the heathen is--'the +love of Christ constraineth me'; but yet the first is a legitimate +one. Only remember this, that Bishop Butler taught us long ago, that +if you excite emotions which are intended to lead to action, and the +action does not follow, the excitation of the emotion without its +appropriate action makes the heart a great deal harder than it was +before. That is why it is playing with edged tools to speak so much +to our Christian audiences, as we sometimes hear done, about the +condition of the heathen as a stimulus to missionary work. If a man +does not respond and do something, some crust of callousness and +coldness comes over his own heart. You cannot indulge in the luxury +of emotion which you do not use to drive your spindles, without +doing yourselves harm. It is never intended to be blown off as waste +steam and allowed to vanish into the air. It is meant to be conserved +and guided, and to have something done with it. Therefore beware of +sentimental contemplation of the sad condition of the shepherdless +sheep which does not move you to do anything to help them. + +One word more. Take my text as a guide to the form of action into +which we are to cast the emotions that should spring from this gaze +upon the world. I will only name three points. Christ opened His +mouth and spake to them, and taught them many things; Christ said to +His disciples, 'Pray ye the Lord of the harvest'; and Christ sent +out His apostles to preach the Kingdom. These three things in their +bearing upon us are--personal work, prayer, help to send forth +Christ's messengers. There is nothing like personal work for making +a man understand and feel the miseries of his fellows. Christian men +and women, it is your first business everywhere to proclaim the name +of Jesus Christ, and no prayers and no subscriptions absolve you +from that. In this army a man cannot buy himself off and send in a +substitute at the cost of an annual guinea. If Christ sent the +apostles, do you hold up the hands of the apostles' successors, and +so by God's grace you and I may help on the coming of that blessed +day when there shall be one flock and one Shepherd, and when 'the +Lamb that is in the midst of the throne'--for the Shepherd is +Himself a lamb--'shall feed them and lead them, and God shall wipe +away all tears from their eyes.' + + + + +THE OBSCURE APOSTLES + + + 'These twelve Jesus sent forth.'--MATT. x. 5. + +And half of 'these twelve' are never heard of as doing any work for +Christ. Peter and James and John we know; the other James and Judas +have possibly left us short letters; Matthew gives us a Gospel; and +of all the rest no trace is left. Some of them are never so much as +named again, except in the list at the beginning of the Acts of the +Apostles; and none of them except the three who 'seemed to be pillars' +appear to have been of much importance in the early diffusion of the +Gospel. + +There are many instructive and interesting points in reference to +the Apostolate. The number of twelve, in obvious allusion to the +tribes of Israel, proclaims the eternal certainty of the divine +promises to His people, and the dignity of the New Testament Church +as their true heir. The ties of relationship which knit so many of +the apostles together, the order of the names varying, but within +certain limits, in the different catalogues, the uncultivated +provincial rudeness of most of them, would all afford material for +important reflections. But, perhaps, not the least important fact +about the Apostolate is that one to which we have referred, which +like the names of countries on the map, escapes notice because it is +'writ' so 'large'--namely, the small place which the apostles as a +body fill in the subsequent narrative, and the entire oblivion into +which so many of them pass from the moment of their appointment. + +It is to that fact that we wish to turn attention now. It may +suggest some considerations worth pondering, and among other things, +may help to show the exaggeration of the functions of the office by +the opposite extremes of priests and rationalists. The one school +makes it the depository of exclusive supernatural powers; the other +regards it as a master-stroke of organisation, to which the early +rapid growth of Christianity was largely due. The facts seem to show +that it was neither. + +I. The first thought which this peculiar and unexpected silence +suggests is of the True Worker in the Church's progress. + +The way in which the New Testament drops these apostles is of a piece +with the whole tone of the Bible. Throughout, men are introduced into +its narratives and allowed to slip out with well-marked indifference. +Nowhere do we get more vivid, penetrating portraiture, but nowhere do +we see such carelessness about following the fortunes or completing the +biographies even of those who have filled the largest space in its pages. + +Recall, for example, the way in which the New Testament deals with +'the very chiefest' apostles, the illustrious triad of Peter, James, +and John. The first escapes from prison; we see him hammering at +Mary's door in the grey of the morning, and after brief, eager talk +with his friends he vanishes to hide in 'another place,' and is no +more heard of, except for a moment in the great council, held in +Jerusalem, about the admission of Gentiles to the Church. The second +of the three is killed off in a parenthesis. The third is only seen +twice in the Book of the Acts, as a silent companion of Peter at a +miracle and before the Sanhedrim. Remember how Paul is left in his +own hired house, within sight of trial and sentence, and neither the +original writer of the book nor any later hand thought it worth +while to add three lines to tell the world what became of him. A +strange way to write history, and a most imperfect narrative, surely! +Yes, unless there be some peculiarity in the purpose of the book, +which explains this cold-blooded, inartistic, and tantalising habit +of letting men leap upon the stage as if they had dropped from the +clouds, and vanish from it as abruptly as if they had fallen through +a trap-door. + +Such a peculiarity there is. One of the three to whom we have +referred has explained it in the words with which he closes his +gospel, words which might stand for the motto of the whole book, +'These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Son of +God.' The true purpose is not to speak of men except in so far as +they 'bore witness to that light' and were illuminated for a moment +by contact with Him. From the beginning the true 'Hero' of the Bible +is God; its theme is His self-revelation culminating for evermore in +the Man Jesus. All other men interest the writers only as they are +subsidiary or antagonistic to that revelation. As long as that +breath blows through them they are music; else they are but common +reeds. Men are nothing except as instruments and organs of God. He +is all, and His whole fulness is in Jesus Christ. Christ is the sole +worker in the progress of His Church. That is the teaching of all +the New Testament. The thought is expressed in the deepest, simplest +form in His own unapproachable words, unfathomable as they are in +their depth of meaning, and inexhaustible in their power to +strengthen and to cheer: 'I am the vine, ye are the branches, +without Me ye can do nothing.' It shapes the whole treatment of the +history of the so-called 'Acts of the Apostles,' which by its very +first sentence proclaims itself to be the Acts of the ascended +Jesus, 'the former treatise' being declared to have had for its +subject 'all that Jesus _began_ to do and teach while on earth, +and this treatise being manifestly the continuance of the same +theme, and the record of the heavenly activity of the Lord. So the +thought runs through all the book: 'The help that is done on earth, +He does it all Himself.' + +_So_ let us think of Him and of His relation to us as well as +to that early Church. His continuous energy is pouring down on us if +we will accept it. _In_ us, _for_ us, _by_ us He works. 'My Father worketh +hitherto, said He when here, 'and I work'; and now, exalted on high, +He has passed into that divine repose, which is at the same time the +most energetic divine activity. He is all in all to His people. He is +all their strength, wisdom, and righteousness. They are but the clouds +irradiated by the sun and bathed in its brightness; He is the light +which flames in their grey mist and turns it to a glory. They are but +the belts and cranks and wheels; He is the power. They are but the +channel, muddy and dry; He is the flashing life that fills it and makes +it a joy. They are the body; He is the soul dwelling in every part to +save it from corruption and give movement and warmth. + + 'Thou art the organ, whose full breath is thunder; + I am the keys, beneath thy fingers pressed.' + +If this be true, how it should deliver us from all overestimate of +men, to which our human affections and our feeble faith tempt us so +sorely! There _is_ One man, and One man only, whose biography +is a 'Gospel, who owes nothing to circumstances, and who originates +the power which He wields; One who is a new beginning, and has +changed the whole current of human history, One to whom we are right +to bring offerings of the gold, and incense, and myrrh of our +hearts, and wills, and minds, which it is blasphemy and degradation +to lay at the feet of any others. We may utterly love, trust, and +obey Jesus Christ. We dare not do so to any other. The inscription +written over the whole book, that it may be transcribed on our whole +nature, is, 'No man any more save Jesus only.' + +If this thought be true, what confidence it ought to give us as we +think of the tasks and fortunes of the Church! If we think only of the +difficulties and of the enormous work before us, so disproportioned +to our weak powers, we shall be disposed to agree with our enemies, +who talk as if Christianity was on the point of perishing, as they +have been doing ever since it began. But the outlook is wonderfully +different when we take Christ into the account. We are very apt to +leave Him out of the reckoning. But one man with Christ to back him is +always in the majority. He flings his sword clashing into one scale, +and it weighs down all that is in the other. The walls are very lofty +and strong, and the besiegers few and weak, badly armed, and quite +unfit for the assault; but if we lift our eyes high enough, we, too, +shall see a man with a drawn sword over against us, and our hearts +may leap up in assured confidence of victory as we recognise in Him +the Captain of the Lord's Host, who has already overcome, and will +make us valiant in fight and more than conquerors. + +When conscious of our own weakness, and tempted to think of our task +as heavy, or when complacent in our own power, and tempted to regard +our task as easy, let us think of His ever-present work in and for His +people, till it braces us for all duty, and rebukes our easy-going +idleness. Surely from that thought of the active, ascended Christ may +come to many of His slothful followers the pleading question, as from +His own lips, 'Dost thou not care that thou hast left me to serve +alone?' Surely to us all it should bring inspiration and strength, +courage and confidence, deliverance from man, and elevation above the +reverence of blind impersonal forces. Surely we may all lay to heart +the grand lesson that union with Him is our only strength, and oblivion +of ourselves our highest wisdom. Surely he has best learned his true +place and the worth of Jesus Christ, who abides with unmoved humility +at His feet, and, like the lonely, lowly forerunner, puts away all +temptations to self-assertion while joyfully accepting it as the law +of his life to + + 'Fade in the light of the planet he loves, + To fade in his light and to die.' + +Blessed is he who is glad to say,' He must increase, I must +decrease!' + +II. This same silence of Scripture as to so many of the apostles may +be taken as suggesting what the real work of these delegated workers +was. + +It certainly seems very strange that, if they were the possessors of +such extraordinary powers as the theory of Apostolic Succession +implies, we should hear so little of these in the narratives. The +silence of Scripture about them goes a long way to discredit such +ideas, while it is entirely accordant with a more modest view of the +apostolic office. + +What was an apostle's function during the life of Christ? One of the +evangelists divides it into three portions: to be with Jesus; to +preach the kingdom; to cast out devils and to heal. There is nothing +in these offices peculiar to them. The seventy had miraculous powers +too, and some at least were our Lord's companions and preachers of +His kingdom who were simple disciples. What was an apostle's +function after the resurrection? Peter's words, on proposing the +election of a new apostle, lay down the duty as simply 'to bear +witness' of that resurrection. They were not supernatural channels +of mysterious grace, not lords over God's heritage, not even leaders +of the Church, but bearers of a testimony to the great historical +fact, on the acceptance of which all belief in an historical Christ +depended then and depends now. Each of the greater of the apostles +is penetrated with the same thought. Paul disclaims anything beside +in his 'Not I, but the grace of God in me.' Peter thrusts the +question at the staring crowd, 'Why look ye on us as though by +_our_ power or holiness _we_ had made this man to walk?' John, in his +calm way, tells his children at Ephesus, 'Ye need not that any man +teach you.' + +Such an idea of the apostolic office is far more reasonable and +accordant with Scripture than a figment about unexampled powers and +authority in the Church. It accounts for the qualifications as +stated in the same address of Peter's, which merely secure the +validity of their testimony. The one thing that _must_ be found +in an apostle was that he should have been in familiar intercourse +with Christ during his earthly life, both before and after His +resurrection, in order that he might be able to say, 'I knew Him +well; I know that He died; I know that He rose again; I saw Him go +up to heaven.' For such a work there was no need for men of +commanding power. Plain, simple, honest men who had the requisite +eye-witness were sufficient. The guidance and the missionary work of +the Church need not necessarily be in their hands, and, in fact, +does not seem to have been. In harmony with this view of the office +and its requisites, we find that Paul rests the validity of his +apostolate on the fact that 'He was seen of me also,' and regards +that vision as his true appointment which left him not 'one whit +behind the very chiefest apostles.' Miraculous gifts indeed they +had, and miraculous gifts they imparted; but in both instances +others shared these powers with them. It was no apostle who laid his +hands on the blinded Saul in that house in Damascus and said, +'Receive the Holy Ghost.' An apostle stood by passive and wondering +when the Holy Ghost fell on Cornelius and his comrades. In reality +apostolic succession is absurd, because there is nothing to succeed +to, except what cannot be transmitted, personal knowledge of the +reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. To establish that fact +as indubitable history is to lay the foundation of the Christian +Church, and the eleven plain men, who did that, need no +superstitious mist around them to magnify their greatness. + +In so far as any succession to them or any devolution of their office +is possible, all Christian men inherit it, for to bear witness of the +living power of the risen Lord is still the office and honour of +every believing soul. It is still true that the sharpest weapon which +any man can wield for Christ is the simple adducing of his own personal +experience. 'That which we have seen and handled we declare' is still +the best form into which our preaching can be cast. And such a voice +every man and woman who has found the sweetness and the power of Christ +filling their own souls, is bound--rather let us say, is privileged--to +lift up. 'This honour have all the saints.' Christ is the true worker, +and all our work is but to proclaim Him, and what He has done and is +doing for ourselves and for all men. + +III. We may gather, too, the lesson of how often faithful work is +unrecorded and forgotten. + +No doubt those apostles who have no place in the history toiled +honestly and did their Lord's commands, and oblivion has swallowed +it all. Bartholomew and 'Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus,' and +the rest of them, have no place in the record, and their obscure +work is faded, faithful and good as certainly it was. + +So it will be sooner or later with us all. For most of us, our +service has to be unnoticed and unknown, and the memory of our poor +work will live perhaps for a year or two in the hearts of some few +who loved us, but will fade wholly when they follow us into the +silent land. Well, be it so; we shall sleep none the less sweetly, +though none be talking about us over our heads. The world has a +short memory, and, as the years go on, the list that it has to +remember grows so crowded that it is harder and harder to find room +to write a new name on it, or to read the old. The letters on the +tombstones are soon erased by the feet that tramp across the +churchyard. All that matters very little. The notoriety of our work +is of no consequence. The earnestness and accuracy with which we +strike our blow is all-important; but it matters nothing how far it +echoes. It is not the heaven of heavens to be talked about, nor does +a man's life consist in the abundance of newspaper or other +paragraphs about him. 'The love of fame' is, no doubt, sometimes +found in 'minds' otherwise 'noble,' but in itself is very much the +reverse of noble. We shall do our work best, and be saved from much +festering anxiety which corrupts our purest service and fevers our +serenest thoughts, if we once fairly make up our minds to working +unnoticed and unknown, and determine that, whether our post be a +conspicuous or an obscure one, we shall fill it to the utmost of our +power--careless of praise or censure, because our judgment is with +our God; careless whether we are unknown or well known, because we +are known altogether to Him. + +The magnitude of our work in men's eyes is as little important as +the noise of it. Christ gave all the apostles their tasks--to some +of them to found the Gentile churches, to some of them to leave to +all generations precious teaching, to some of them none of these +things. What then? Were the Peters and the Johns more highly +favoured than the others? Was their work greater in His sight? Not +so. To Him all service done from the same motive is the same, and +His measure of excellence is the quantity of love and spiritual +force in our deeds, not the width of the area over which they +spread. An estuary that goes wandering over miles of shallows may +have less water in it, and may creep more languidly, than the +torrent that thunders through some narrow gorge. The deeds that +stand highest on the records in heaven are not those which we +vulgarly call great. Many 'a cup of cold water only' will be found +to have been rated higher there than jewelled golden chalices +brimming with rare wines. God's treasures, where He keeps His +children's gifts, will be like many a mother's secret store of +relics of her children, full of things of no value, what the world +calls 'trash,' but precious in His eyes for the love's sake that was +in them. + +All service which is done from the same motive and with the same +spirit is of the same worth in His eyes. It does not matter whether +you have the gospel in a penny Testament printed on thin paper with +black ink and done up in cloth, or in an illuminated missal glowing +in gold and colour, painted with loving care on fair parchment, and +bound in jewelled ivory. And so it matters little about the material +or the scale on which we express our devotion and our aspirations; +all depends on what we copy, not on the size of the canvas on which, +or on the material in which, we copy it. 'Small service is true +service while it lasts,' and the unnoticed insignificant servants +may do work every whit as good and noble as the most widely known, +to whom have been intrusted by Christ tasks that mould the ages. + +IV. Finally, we may add that forgotten work is remembered, and +unrecorded names are recorded above. + +The names of these almost anonymous apostles have no place in the +records of the advancement of the Church or of the development of +Christian doctrine. They drop out of the narrative after the list in +the first chapter of the Acts. But we do hear of them once more. In +that last vision of the great city which the seer beheld descending +from God, we read that in its 'foundations were the names of the +twelve apostles of the Lamb.' All were graven there--the inconspicuous +names carved on no record of earth, as well as the familiar ones cut +deep in the rock to be seen of all men for ever. At the least that +grand image may tell us that when the perfect state of the Church is +realised, the work which these men did when their testimony laid its +foundation, will be for ever associated with their names. Unrecorded +on earth, they are written in heaven. + +The forgotten work and its workers are remembered by Christ. His +faithful heart and all-seeing eye keep them ever in view. The world, +and the Church whom these humble men helped, may forget, yet He will +not forget. From whatever muster-roll of benefactors and helpers +their names may be absent, they will be in His list. The Apostle +Paul, in his Epistle to the Philippians, has a saying in which his +delicate courtesy is beautifully conspicuous, where he half apologises +for not sending his greetings 'to others my fellow-workers' by name, +and reminds them that, however their names may be unwritten in his +letter, they have been inscribed by a mightier hand on a better page, +and 'are in the Lamb's book of life.' It matters very little from what +record ours may be absent so long as they are found there. Let us +rejoice that, though we may live obscure and die forgotten, we may +have our names written on the breastplate of our High Priest as He +stands in the Holy Place, the breastplate which lies close to His +heart of love, and is girded to His arm of power. + +The forgotten and unrecorded work lives, too, in the great whole. The +fruit of our labour may perhaps not be separable from that of others, +any more than the sowers can go into the reaped harvest-field and +identify the gathered ears which have sprung from the seed that they +sowed, but it is there all the same; and whosoever may be unable to +pick out each man's share in the blessed total outcome, the Lord of +the harvest knows, and His accurate proportionment of individual +reward to individual service will not mar the companionship in the +general gladness, when 'he that soweth and he that reapeth shall +rejoice together.' + +The forgotten work will live, too, in blessed results to the doers. +Whatever of recognition and honour we may miss here, we cannot be +robbed of the blessing to ourselves, in the perpetual influence on +our own character, of every piece of faithful even if imperfect +service. Habits are formed, emotions deepened, principles confirmed, +capacities enlarged by every deed done for Christ, and these make an +over-measure of reward here, and in their perfect form hereafter are +heaven. Nothing done for Him is ever wasted. 'Thou shalt find it +after many days.' We are all writing our lives' histories here, as +if with one of these 'manifold writers'--a black blank page beneath +the flimsy sheet on which we write, but presently the black page +will be taken away, and the writing will stand out plain on the page +behind that we did not see. Life is the filmy, unsubstantial page on +which our pen rests; the black page is death; and the page beneath +is that indelible transcript of our earthly actions, which we shall +find waiting for us to read, with shame and confusion of face, or +with humble joy, in another world. + +Then let us do our work for Christ, not much careful whether it be +greater or smaller, obscure or conspicuous; assured that whoever +forgets us and it, He will remember, and however our names may be +unrecorded on earth, they will be written in heaven, and confessed +by Him before His Father and the holy angels. + + + + +CHRIST'S CHARGE TO HIS HERALDS + + + 'These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, + saying, do not into the way of the Gentiles, and into + any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: 6. But go + rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7. And + as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at + hand. 8. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the + dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely + give. 9. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in + your purses, 10. Nor scrip for your journey, neither + two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the + workman is worthy of his meat. 11. And into whatsoever + city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is + worthy: and there abide till ye go thence. 12. And when + ye come into an house, salute it. 13. And if the house + be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be + not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14. And + whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, + when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the + dust of your feet. 15. Verily I say unto you, It shall + be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in + the day of judgment, than for that city. 16. Behold, I + send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye + therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.' + --Matt. x. 5-16. + +The letter of these instructions to the apostles has been abrogated +by Christ, both in reference to the scope of, and the equipment for, +their mission (Matt. xxviii. 19; Luke xxii. 36). The spirit of them +remains as the perpetual obligation of all Christian workers, and +every Christian should belong to that class. Some direct +evangelistic work ought to be done by every believer, and in doing +it he will find no better directory than this charge to the +apostles. + +I. We have, first, the apostles' mission in its sphere and manner +(vs. 5-8). They are told where to go and what to do there. Mark that +the negative prohibition precedes the positive injunction, as if the +apostles were already so imbued with the spirit of universalism that +they would probably have overpassed the bounds which for the present +were needful. The restriction was transient. It continued in the +line of divine limitation of the sphere of Revelation which confined +itself to the Jew, in order that through him it might reach the +world. That method could not be abandoned till the Jew himself had +destroyed it by rejecting Christ. Jesus still clung to it. Even when +the commission was widened to 'all the world,' Paul went 'to the Jew +first,' till he too was taught by uniform failure that Israel was +fixed in unbelief. + +How tenderly our Lord designates the nation as 'the lost sheep of +the house of Israel'! He is still influenced by that compassion +which the sight of the multitudes had moved in Him (chap. ix. 36). +Lost indeed, wandering with torn fleece, and lying panting, in +ignorance of their pasture and their Shepherd, they are yet 'sheep,' +and they belong to that chosen seed, sprung from so venerable +ancestors, and heirs of so glorious promises. Clear sight of, and +infinite pity for, men's miseries, must underlie all apostolic +effort. + +The work to be done is twofold--a glad truth is to be proclaimed, +gracious deeds of power are to be done. How blessed must be the kingdom, +the forerunners of which are miracles of healing and life-giving! If +the heralds can do these, what will not the King be able to do? If such +hues attend the dawn, how radiant will be the noontide! Note 'as ye +go,' indicating that they were travelling evangelists, and were to +speak as they went, and go when they had spoken. The road was to be +their pulpit, and each man they met their audience. What a different +world it would be if Christians carried their message with them _so_! + +'Freely ye have received'; namely, in the first application of the +words, the message of the coming kingdom and the power to work +miracles. But the force of the injunction, as applied to us, is even +more soul-subduing, as our gift is greater, and the freedom of its +bestowal should evoke deeper gratitude. The deepest springs of the +heart's love are set flowing by the undeserved, unpurchased gift of +God, which contains in itself both the most tender and mighty motive +for self-forgetting labour, and the pattern for Christian service. +How can one who has received that gift keep it to himself? How can +he sell what he got for nothing? 'Freely give'--the precept forbids +the seeking of personal profit or advantage from preaching the +gospel, and so makes a sharp test of our motives; and it also +forbids clogging the gift with non-essential conditions, and so +makes a sharp test of our methods. + +II. The prohibition to make gain out of the message, serves as a +transition to the directions as to equipment. The apostles were to +go as they stood; for the command is, '_Get_ you no gold,' etc. +It has been already noted that these prohibitions were abrogated by +Jesus in view of His departure, and the world-wide mission of the +Church. But the spirit of them is not abrogated. Note that the +descending value of the metals named makes an ascending stringency +in the prohibition. Not even copper money is to be taken. The +'wallet' was a leather satchel or bag, used by shepherds and others +to carry a little food; sustenance, then, was also to be left +uncared for. Dress, too, was to be limited to that in wear; no +change of inner robe nor a spare pair of shoes was to encumber them, +nor even a spare staff. If any of them had one in his hand, he was +to take it (Mark vi. 8). The command was meant to lift the apostles +above suspicion, to make them manifestly disinterested, to free them +from anxiety about earthly things, that their message might absorb +their thoughts and efforts, and to give room for the display of +Christ's power to provide. It had a promise wrapped in it. He who +forbade them to provide for themselves thereby pledged Himself to +take care of them. 'The labourer is worthy of his food.' They may be +sure of subsistence, and are not to wish for more. + +All this has a distinct bearing on modern church arrangements. On +the one hand, it vindicates the right of those who preach the gospel +to live of the gospel, and sets any payments to them on the right +footing, as not being charity or generosity, but the discharge of a +debt. On the other hand, it enjoins on preachers and others who are +paid for service not to serve for pay, not to be covetous of large +remuneration, and to take care that no taint of greed for money +shall mar their work, but that their conduct may confirm their words +when they say with Paul, 'We seek not yours, but you.' + +III. The conduct required from, and the reception met with by, the +messengers come next. Christ first enjoins discretion and +discrimination of character, so far as possible. The messenger of +the kingdom is not to be mixed up with disreputable people, lest the +message should suffer. The principle of his choice of a home is to +be, not position, comfort, or the like, but 'worthiness'; that is, +predisposition to receive the message. However poor the chamber in +the house of such, there is the apostle to settle himself. 'If ye +have judged me to be faithful, come into my house,' said Lydia. The +less Christ's messengers are at home with Christ's neglecters, the +calmer their own hearts, and the more potent their message. They +give the lie to it, if they voluntarily choose as their associates +those to whom their dearest convictions are idle. Christian charity +does not blind to distinctions of character. A little common sense +in reading these will save many a scandal, and much weakening of +influence. + +Christian earnestness does not abolish courtesy. The message is not +to be blurted out in defiance of even conventional forms. Zeal for +the Lord is no excuse for rude abruptness. But the salutation of the +true apostle will deepen the meaning of such forms, and make the +conventional the real expression of real goodwill. No man should say +'Peace be unto you' so heartily as Christ's servant. The servant's +benediction will bring the Master's ratification; for Jesus says, +'_Let_ your peace come upon it,' as if commanding the good +which we can only wish. That will be so, if the requisite condition +is fulfilled. There must be soil for the seed to root in. + +But no true wish for others' good--still more, no effort for it--is +ever void of blessed issue. If the peace does not rest on a house +into which jarring and sin forbid its entrance, it will not be +homeless, but come back, like the dove to the ark, and fold its +wings in the heart of the sender. The reflex influence of Christian +effort is precious, whatever its direct results are. How the Church +has been benefited by its missionary enterprises! + +Jesus encouraged no illusions in His servants as to their success. +From the beginning they were led to expect that some would receive +and some would reject their words. In this rapid preparatory +mission, there was no time for long delay anywhere; but for us, it +is not wise to conclude that patient effort will fail because first +appeals have not succeeded. Much close communion with Jesus, not a +little self-suppression, and abundant practical wisdom, are needed +to determine the point at which further efforts are vain. No doubt, +there is often great waste of strength in trying to impress +unimpressible people, or to revive some moribund enterprise; but it +is a pardonable weakness to be reluctant to abandon a field. Still +it _is_ a weakness, and there come times when the only right +thing to do is to 'shake off the dust' of the messenger's feet in +token that all connection is ended, and that he is clear from the +blood of the rejecters. The awful doom of such is solemnly +introduced by 'Verily, I say unto you.' It rests on the plain +principle that the measure of light is the measure of criminality, +and hence the measure of punishment. The rejecters of Christ among +us are as much more guilty than 'that city' as its inhabitants were +than the men of Sodom. + +The first section of this charge properly ends with verse 15, the +following verse being a transition to the second part. The Greek +puts strong emphasis on 'I.' It is He who sends among wolves, +therefore He will protect. A strange thing for a shepherd to do! A +strange encouragement for the apostles on the threshold of their +work! But the words would often come back to them when beset by the +pack with their white teeth gleaming, and their howls filling the +night. They are not promised that they will not be torn, but they +are assured that, even if they are, the Shepherd wills it, and will +not lose one of His flock. + +What is the Christian defence? Prudence like the serpent's, but not +the serpent's craft or malice; harmlessness like the dove's, but not +without the other safeguard of 'wisdom.' The combination is a rare +one, and the surest way to possess it is to live so close to Jesus +that we shall be progressively changed into His likeness. Then our +prudence will never degenerate into cunning, nor our simplicity +become blindness to dangers. The Christian armour and arms are meek, +unconquerable patience, and Christ-likeness, To resist is to be +beaten; to endure unretaliating is to be victorious. 'Be not +overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.' + + + + +THE WIDENED MISSION, ITS PERILS AND DEFENCES + + + 'Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of + wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless + as doves. 17. But beware of men: for they will deliver + you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in + their synagogues; 18. And ye shall be brought before + governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony + against them and the Gentiles. 19. But when they + deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall + speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what + ye shall speak. 20. For it is not ye that speak, but + the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. + 21. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to + death, and the father the child: and the children shall + rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put + to death. 22. And ye shall be hated of all men for My + name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be + saved. 23. But when they persecute you in this city, + flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye + shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the + Son of Man be come. 24. The disciple is not above his + master, nor the servant above his lord. 25. It is + enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and + the servant as his lord. If they have called the master + of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call + them of his household? 26. Fear them not therefore: for + there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; + and hid, that shall not be known. 27. What I tell you + in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear + in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. 28. And + fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to + kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to + destroy both soul and body in hell. 29. Are not two + sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not + fall on the ground without your Father. 30. But the + very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31. Fear ye + not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.' + --MATT. x. 16-31. + +We have already had two instances of Matthew's way of bringing +together sayings and incidents of a like kind without regard to +their original connection. The Sermon on the Mount and the series of +miracles in chapters viii. and ix. are groups, the elements of which +are for the most part found disconnected in Mark and Luke. This +charge to the twelve in chapter x. seems to present a third +instance, and to pass over in verse 16 to a wider mission than that +of the twelve during our Lord's lifetime, for it forebodes +persecution, whereas the preceding verses opened no darker prospect +than that of indifference or non-reception. The 'city' which, in +that stage of the gospel message, simply would 'not receive you nor +hear your words,' in this stage has worsened into one where 'they +persecute you,' and the persecutors are now 'kings' and 'Gentiles,' +as well as Jewish councils and synagogue-frequenters. The period +covered in these verses, too, reaches to the 'end,' the final +revelation of all hidden things. + +Obviously, then, our Lord is looking down a far future, and giving a +charge to the dim crowd of His later disciples, whom His prescient +eye saw pressing behind the twelve in days to come. He had no dreams +of swift success, but realised the long, hard fight to which He was +summoning His disciples. And His frankness in telling them the worst +that they had to expect was as suggestive as was His freedom from +the rosy, groundless visions of at once capturing a world which +enthusiasts are apt to cherish, till hard experience shatters the +illusions. He knew the future in store for Himself, for His Gospel, +for His disciples. And He knew that dangers and death itself will +not appal a soul that is touched into heroic self-forgetfulness by +His love. 'Set down my name,' says the man in _Pilgrim's Progress_, +though he knew--may we not say, because he knew?--that the enemies +were outside waiting to fall on him. + +A further difference between this and the preceding section is, that +there the stress was laid on the contents of the disciples' message, +but that here it is laid on their sufferings. Not so much by what +they say, as by how they endure, are they to testify. 'The noble +army of martyrs praise Thee,' and the primitive Church preached +Jesus most effectually by dying for Him. + +The keynote is struck in verse 16, in which are to be noted the +'Behold,' which introduces something important and strange, and +calls for close attention; the majestic '_I_ send you,' which +moves to obedience whatever the issues, and pledges Him to defend +the poor men who are going on His errands and the pathetic picture +of the little flock huddled together, while the gleaming teeth of +the wolves gnash all round them. A strange theme to drape in a +metaphor! but does not the very metaphor help to lighten the +darkness of the picture, as well as speak of His calmness, while He +contemplates it? If the Shepherd sends His sheep into the midst of +wolves, surely He will come to their help, and surely any peril is +more courageously faced when they can say to themselves, 'He put us +here.' The sheep has no claws to wound with nor teeth to tear with, +but the defenceless Christian has a defence, and in his very +weaponlessness wields the sharpest two-edged sword. 'Force from +force must ever flow.' Resistance is a mistake. The victorious +antagonist of savage enmity is patient meekness. 'Sufferance is the +badge of all' true servants of Jesus. Wherever they have been +misguided enough to depart from Christ's law of endurance and to +give blow for blow, they have lost their cause in the long run, and +have hurt their own Christian life more than their enemies' bodies. +Guilelessness and harmlessness are their weapons. But 'be ye wise as +serpents' is equally imperative with 'guileless as doves.' Mark the +fine sanity of that injunction, which not only permits but enjoins +prudent self-preservation, so long as it does not stoop to crooked +policy, and is saved from that by dove-like guilelessness. A +difficult combination, but a possible one, and when realised, a +beautiful one! + +The following verses (17-22) expand the preceding, and mingle in a +very remarkable way plain predictions of persecution to the death +and encouragements to front the worst. Jewish councils and +synagogues, Gentile governors and kings, will unite for once in +common hatred, than which there is no stronger bond. That is a grim +prospect to set before a handful of Galilean peasants, but two +little words turn its terror into joy; it is 'for My sake,' and that +is enough. Jesus trusted His humble friends, as He trusts all such +always, and believed that 'for My sake' was a talisman which would +sweeten the bitterest cup and would make cowards into heroes, and +send men and women to their deaths triumphant. And history has +proved that He did not trust them too much. 'For His sake'--is that +a charm for _us_, which makes the crooked straight and the +rough places plain, which nerves for suffering and impels to noble +acts, which moulds life and takes the sting and the terror out of +death? Nor is that the only encouragement given to the twelve, who +might well be appalled at the prospect of standing before Gentile +kings. Jesus seems to discern how they shrank as they listened, at +the thought of having to bear 'testimony' before exalted personages, +and, with beautiful adaptation to their weakness, He interjects a +great promise, which, for the first time, presents the divine Spirit +as dwelling in the disciples' spirits. The occasion of the dawning +of that great Christian thought is very noteworthy, and not less so +is the designation of the Spirit as 'of your Father,' with all the +implications of paternal care and love which that name carries. +Special crises bring special helps, and the martyrologies of all +ages and lands, from Stephen outside the city wall to the last +Chinese woman, have attested the faithfulness of the Promiser. How +often have some calm, simple words from some slave girl in Roman +cities, or some ignorant confessor before Inquisitors, been +manifestly touched with heavenly light and power, and silenced +sophistries and threats! + +The solemn foretelling of persecution, broken for a moment, goes on +and becomes even more foreboding, for it speaks of dearest ones +turned to foes, and the sweet sanctities of family ties dissolved by +the solvent of the new Faith. There is no enemy like a brother +estranged, and it is tragically significant that it is in connection +with the rupture of family bonds that death is first mentioned as +the price that Christ's messengers would have to pay for +faithfulness to their message. But the prediction springs at a +bound, as it were, from the narrow circle of home to the widest +range, and does not fear to spread before the eyes of the twelve +that they will become the objects of hatred to the whole human race +if they are true to Christ's charge. The picture is dark enough, and +it has turned out to be a true forecast of facts. It suggests two +questions. What right had Jesus to send men out on such an errand, +and to bid them gladly die for Him? And what made these men gladly +take up the burden which He laid on them? He has the right to +dispose of us, because He is the Son of God who has died for us. +Otherwise He is not entitled to say to us, Do my bidding, even if it +leads you to death. His servants find their inspiration to absolute, +unconditional self-surrender in the Love that has died for them. +That which gives Him His right to dispose of us in life and death +gives us the disposition to yield ourselves wholly to Him, to be His +apostles according to our opportunities, and to say, 'Whether I live +or die, I am the Lord's.' + +That thought of world-wide hatred is soothed by the recurrence of +the talisman, 'For My name's sake,' and by a moment's showing of a +fair prospect behind the gloom streaked with lightning in the +foreground. 'He that endureth to the end shall be saved.' The same +saying occurs in chapter xxiv. 13, in connection with the prediction +of the fall of Jerusalem, and in the same connection in Mark xiii. +13, in both of which places several other sayings which appear in +this charge to the apostles are found. It is impossible to settle +which is the original place for these, or whether they were twice +spoken. The latter supposition is very unfashionable at present, but +has perhaps more to say for itself than modern critics are willing +to allow. But Luke (xxi. 19) has a remarkable variation of the +saying, for his version of it is, 'In your patience, ye shall win +your souls.' His word 'patience' is a noun cognate with the verb +rendered in Matthew and Mark 'endureth,' and to 'win one's soul' is +obviously synonymous with being 'saved.' The saying cannot be +limited, in any of its forms, to a mere securing of earthly life, +for in this context it plainly includes those who have been +delivered to death by parents and brethren, but who by death have +won their lives, and have been, as Paul expected to be, thereby +'saved into His heavenly kingdom.' To the Christian, death is the +usher who introduces him into the presence-chamber of the King, and +he that loseth his life 'for My name's sake,' finds it glorified in, +and into, life eternal. + +But willingness to endure the utmost is to be accompanied with +willingness to take all worthy means to escape it. There has been a +certain unwholesome craving for martyrdom generated in times of +persecution, which may appear noble but is very wasteful. The worst +use that you can put a man to is to burn him, and a living witness +may do more for Christ than a dead martyr. Christian heroism may be +shown in not being afraid to flee quite as much as in courting, or +passively awaiting, danger. And Christ's Name will be spread when +His lovers are hounded from one city to another, just as it was when +'they that were scattered abroad, went everywhere, preaching the +word.' When the brands are kicked apart by the heel of violence, +they kindle flames where they fall. + +But the reason for this command to flee is perplexing. 'Ye shall not +have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come.' Is +Jesus here reverting to the narrower immediate mission of the +apostles? What 'coming' is referred to? We have seen that the first +mission of the twelve was the theme of verses 5-15, and was there +pursued to its ultimate consequences of final judgment on rejecters, +whilst the wider horizon of a future mission opens out from verse 16 +onwards. A renewed contraction of the horizon is extremely unlikely. +It would be as if 'a flower should shut and be a bud again.' The +recurrence in verse 23 of 'Verily I say unto you,' which has already +occurred in verse 15, closing the first section of the charge, makes +it probable that here too a section is completed, and that +probability is strengthened if it is observed that the same phrase +occurs, for a third time, in the last verse of the chapter, where +again the discourse soars to the height of contemplating the final +reward. The fact that the apostles met with no persecution on their +first mission, puts out of court the explanation of the words that +refers them to that mission, and takes the 'coming' to be Jesus' own +appearances in the places they had preceded Him as His heralds. The +difficult question as to what is the _terminus ad quem_ pointed +to here seems best solved by taking the 'coming of the Son of Man' +to be His judicial manifestation in the destruction of Jerusalem and +the consequent desolation of many of 'the cities of Israel,' whilst +at the same time, the nearer and smaller catastrophe is a prophecy +and symbol of the remoter and greater 'day of the Son of Man' at the +end of the days. The recognition of that aspect of the fall of +Jerusalem is forced on us by the eschatological parts of the +Gospels, which are a bewildering whirl without it. Here, however, it +is the crash of the fall itself which is in view, and the thought +conveyed is that there would be cities enough to serve for refuges, +and scope enough for evangelistic work, till the end of the Jewish +possession of the land. + +In verses 26-31, 'fear not' is thrice spoken, and at each occurrence +is enforced by a reason. The first of these encouragements is the +assurance of the certain ultimate world-wide manifestation of hidden +things. That same dictum occurs in other connections, and with other +applications, but in the present context can only be taken as an +assurance that the Gospel message, little known as it thus far was, +was destined to fill all ears. Therefore the disciples were to be +fearless in doing their part in making it known, and so working in +alliance with the divine purpose. It is the same thing that is meant +by the 'covered' that 'shall be revealed,' the 'hidden' that 'shall +be known,' 'that which is spoken in darkness,' and 'that which is +whispered in the ear'; and all four designations refer to the word +which every Christian has it in charge to sound out. We note that +Jesus foresees a far wider range of publicity for His servants' +ministry than for His own, just as He afterwards declared that they +would do 'greater works' than His. He spoke to a handful of men in +an obscure corner of the world. His teaching was necessarily largely +confidential communication to the fit few. But the spark is going to +be a blaze, and the whisper to become a shout that fills the world. +Surely, then, we who are working in the line of direction of God's +working should let no fear make us dumb, but should ever hear and +obey the command: 'Lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be +not afraid.' + +A second reason for fearlessness is the limitation of the enemy's +power to hurt, reinforced by the thought that, while the penalties +that man can inflict for faithfulness are only corporeal, +transitory, and incapable of harming the true self, the consequences +of unfaithfulness fling the whole man, body and soul, down to utter +ruin. There is a fear that makes cowards and apostates; there is a +fear which makes heroes and apostles. He who fears God, with the awe +that has no torment and is own sister to love, is afraid of nothing +and of no man. That holy and blessed fear drives out all other, as +fire draws the heat out of a burn. He that serves Christ is lord of +the world; he that fears God fronts the world, and is not afraid. + +The last reason for fearlessness touches a tender chord, and +discloses a gracious thought of God as Father, which softens the +tremendous preceding word: 'Who is able to destroy both soul and +body in hell.' Take both designations together, and let them work +together in producing the awe which makes us brave, and the filial +trust which makes us braver. A bird does not 'fall to the ground' +unless wounded, and if it falls it dies. Jesus had looked pityingly +on the great mystery, the woes of the creatures, and had stayed +Himself on the thought of the all-embracing working of God. The very +dying sparrow, with broken wing, had its place in that universal +care. God is 'immanent' in nature. The antithesis often drawn +between His universal care and His 'special providence' is +misleading. Providence is special because it is universal. That +which embraces everything must embrace each thing. But the immanent +God is 'your Father,' and because of that sonship, 'ye are of more +value than many sparrows.' There is an ascending order, and an +increasing closeness and tenderness of relation. 'A man is better +than a sheep,' and Christians, being God's children, may count on +getting closer into the Father's heart than the poor crippled bird +can, or than the godless man can. 'Your Father,' on the one hand, +can destroy soul and body, therefore fear Him; but, on the other, He +determines whether you shall 'fall to the ground' or soar above +dangers, therefore fear none but Him. + + + + +LIKE TEACHER, LIKE SCHOLAR + + + 'The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant + above his lord. 26. It is enough for the disciple that + he be as his master, and the servant as his lord.' + --MATT. x. 24, 25. + +These words were often on Christ's lips. Like other teachers, He too +had His favourite sayings, the light of which He was wont to flash +into many dark places. Such a saying, for instance, was, 'To him +that hath shall be given.' Such a saying is this of my text; and +probably several other of our Lord's utterances, which are repeated +more than once in different Gospels, and have too hastily been +sometimes assumed to have been introduced erroneously by the +evangelists, in varying connections. + +This half-proverb occurs four times in the Gospels, and in three +very different connections, pointing to three different subjects. +Here, and once in John's Gospel, in the fifteenth chapter, it is +employed to enforce the lesson of the oneness of Christ and His +disciples in their relation to the world; and that His servants +cannot expect to be better off than the Master was. 'If they have +called Me Beelzebub they will not call you anything else.' + +Then in Luke's Gospel (vi. 40) it is employed to illustrate the +principle that the scholar cannot expect to be wiser than his +master; that a blind teacher will have blind pupils, and that they +will both fall into the ditch. Of course, the scholar may get beyond +his master, but then he will get up and go away from the school, and +will not be his scholar any longer. As long as he is a scholar, the +best that can happen to him, and that will not often happen, is to +be on the level of his teacher. + +Then in another place in John's Gospel (xiii. 16) the saying is +employed in reference to a different subject, viz. to teach the +meaning of the pathetic, symbolical foot-washing, and to enforce the +exhortation to imitate Jesus Christ, as generally in conduct, so +specially in His wondrous humility. 'The servant is not greater than +his lord.' 'I have left you an example that ye should do as I have +done to you.' + +So if we put these three instances together we get a threefold +illustration of the relation between the disciple and the teacher, +in respect to wisdom, conduct, and reception by the world. And these +three, with their bearing on the relation between Christians and +Jesus Christ, open out large fields of duty and of privilege. The +very centre of Christianity is discipleship, and the very highest +hope, as well as the most imperative command which the Gospel brings +to men is, 'Be like Him whom you profess to have taken as your +Master. Be like Him here, and you shall be like Him hereafter.' + +I. Likeness to the teacher in wisdom is the disciple's perfection. + +'If the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch.' 'The +disciple is not greater than his master.' 'It is enough for the +disciple that he be as his master.' If that be a true principle, +that the best that can happen to the scholar is to tread in his +teacher's footsteps, to see with his eyes, to absorb his wisdom, to +learn his truth, we may apply it in two opposite directions. First, +it teaches us the limitations, and the misery, and the folly of +taking men for our masters; and then, on the other hand, it teaches +us the large hope, the blessing, freedom, and joy of having Christ +for our Master. + +Now, first, look at the principle as bearing upon the relation of +disciple and human teacher. All such teachers have their +limitations. Each man has his little circle of favourite ideas that +he is perpetually reiterating. In fact, it seems as if one truth was +about as much as one teacher could manage, and as if, whensoever God +had any great truth to give to the world, He had to take one man and +make him its sole apostle. So that teachers become mere fragments, +and to listen to them is to dwarf and narrow oneself. + +The chances are that no scholar shall be on his master's level. The +eyes that see truth directly and for themselves in this world are +very few. Most men have to take truth at second-hand, and few indeed +are they who, like a perfect medium, receive even the fragmentary +truth that human lips can impart to them, and transmit it as pure as +they receive it. Disciples present exaggerations, caricatures, +misconceptions, the limitations of the master becoming even more +rigid in the pupil. Schools spring up which push the founder's +teaching to extremes, and draw conclusions from it which he never +dreamed of. Instead of a fresh voice, we have echoes, which, like +all echoes, give only a syllable or two out of a sentence. Teachers +can tell what they see, but they cannot give their followers eyes, +and so the followers can do little more than repeat what their +leader said he saw. They are like the little suckers that spring up +from the 'stool' of a cut-down tree, or like the kinglets among +whose feebler hands the great empire of an Alexander was divided at +his death. + +It is a dwarfing thing to call any man master upon earth. And yet +men will give to a man the credence which they refuse to Christ. The +followers of some of the fashionable teachers of to-day--Comte, +Spencer, or others--protest, in the name of mental independence, +against accepting Christ as the absolute teacher of morals and +religion, and then go away and put a man in the very place which +they have denied to Him, and swallow down his _dicta_ whole. + +Such facts show how heart and mind crave a teacher; how discipleship +is ingrained in our nature; how we all long for some one who shall +come to us authoritatively and say, 'Here is truth--believe it and +live on it.' And yet it is fatal to pin one's faith on any, and it +is miserable to have to change guides perpetually and to feel that +we have outgrown those whom we reverence, and that we can look down +on the height which once seemed to touch the stars--and, if we cut +ourselves loose from all men's teaching, the isolation is dreary, +and few of us are strong enough of arm, or clear enough of eye, to +force or find the path through the tangled jungles of error. + +So take this thought, that the highest hope of a disciple is to be +like the master in wisdom, in its bearing on the relation between us +and Christ, and look how it then flashes up into blessedness and +beauty. + +Such a teacher as we have in Him has no limitations, and it is safe +to follow Him absolutely and Him alone. All others have plainly +borne the impress of their age, or their nation, or their +idiosyncrasy, in some way or another; Christ Jesus is the only +teacher that the world has ever heard of, in whose teaching there is +no mark of the age or generation or set of circumstances in which it +originated. This water does not taste of any soil through which it +has passed, it has come straight down from Heaven, and is pure and +uncontaminated as the Heaven from which it has come. This teacher is +safe to listen to absolutely: there are no limitations there; you +never hear Him arguing; there is no sign about His words as if He +had ever dug out for Himself the wisdom that He is proclaiming, or +had ever seen it less distinctly than He sees it at the moment. The +great peculiarity of His teaching is that He does not reason, but +declares that His 'Verily! Verily!' is the confirmation of all His +message. His teaching is Himself; other men bring lessons about truth; +He says, 'I am the Truth.' Other teachers keep their personality in +the background; He clashes His down in the foreground. Other men say, +'Listen to what I tell you, never mind about me.' He says, 'This is +life eternal, that ye should believe on Me.' This Teacher has His +message level to all minds, high and low, wise and foolish, cultivated +and rude. This Teacher does not only impart wisdom by words as from +without, though He does that too, but He comes into men's spirits, and +communicates Himself, and so makes them wise. Other teachers fumble at +the outside, but 'in the hidden parts He makes me to know wisdom.' So +it is safe to take this Teacher absolutely, and to say, 'Thou art my +Master, Thy word is truth, and the opening of Thy lips to me is wisdom.' + +In following Christ as our absolute Teacher, there is no sacrifice +of independence or freedom of mind, but listening to Him is the way +to secure these in their highest degree. We are set free from men, +we are growingly delivered from errors and misconceptions, in the +measure in which we keep close to Christ as our Master. The Lord is +that Teacher, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there, and there +only, is liberty; freedom from self, from the dominion of popular +opinion, from the coterie-speech of schools, from the imposing +authority of individuals, and from all that makes cowardly men say +as other people say, and fall in with the majority; and freedom from +our own prejudices and our own errors, which are cleared away when +we take Christ for our Master and cleave to Him. + +His teaching can never cease until it has accomplished its purpose, +and not until we have gathered into our consciousness all the truth +that He has to give, and have received all the wisdom that He can +impart unto us as to God and Himself, does His teaching cease. Here +we may grow indefinitely in the knowledge of Christ, and in the +future we shall know even as we are known. His merciful teaching +will not come to a close till we have drunk in all His wisdom, and +till He has declared to us all which He has heard of the Father. He +will pass us from one form to another of His school, but in Heaven +we shall still be His scholars; 'Every one shall sit at Thy feet, +every one shall receive of Thy words.' + +So, then, let us turn away from men, from rabbis and Sanhedrins, +from authorities and schools, from doctors and churches. Why resort +to cisterns when we may draw from the spring? Why listen to men when +we may hear Christ? He is, as Dante called the great Greek thinker, +'the Master of those who know.' Why should we look to the planets +when we can see the sun? 'Call no man master upon earth, for One is +your Master, and all ye are brethren.' And His merciful teaching +will never cease until 'everyone that is perfected shall be as his +Master.' + +II. Now, turn to the second application of this principle. Likeness +to the Master in life is the law of a disciple's conduct. + +That pathetic and wonderful story about the foot-washing in John's +Gospel is meant for a symbol. It is the presenting, in a picturesque +form, of the very heart and essence of Christ's Incarnation in its +motive and purpose. The solemn prelude with which the evangelist +introduces it lays bare our Lord's heart and His reason for His +action. 'Having loved His own, which were in the world, He loved +them to the end.' His motive, then, was love. Again, the exalted +consciousness which accompanied His self-abasement is made prominent +in the words, 'Knowing that the Father had given all things into His +hand, and that He was come from God and went to God.' And the +majestic deliberation and patient continuance in resolved humility +with which He goes down the successive steps of the descent, are +wonderfully given in the evangelist's record of how He 'riseth from +supper, and laid aside His garments and girded Himself, and poured +water into the basin.' It is a parable. Thus, in the consciousness +of His divine authority and dignity, and moved by His love to the +whole world, He laid aside the garments of His glory, and vested +Himself with the towel of His humanity, the servant's garb, and took +the water of His cleansing power, and came to wash the feet of all +who will let Him cleanse them from their soil. And then, having +reassumed His garments, He speaks from His throne to those who have +been cleansed by His humiliation and His sacrifice, 'Know ye what I +have done to you? The servant is not greater than his lord.' + +That is to say, dear brethren, in this one incident, which is the +condensation, so to speak, of the whole spirit of His life, is the +law for our lives as well. We, too, are bound to that same love as +the main motive of all our actions; we, too, are bound to that same +stripping off of dignity and lowly equalising of ourselves with +those below us whom we would help, and we, too, are bound to make it +our main object, in our intercourse with men, not merely that we +should please nor enlighten them, nor succour their lower temporal +needs, but that we should cleanse them and make them pure with the +purity that Christ gives. + +A Christian life all moved and animated by self-denuding love, and +which came amongst men to make them better and purer, and all the +influence of which tended in the direction of helping poor foul +hearts to get rid of their filth, how different it would be from our +lives! What a grim contrast much of our lives is to the Master's +example and command! Did you ever strip yourself of anything, my +brother, in order to make some poor, wretched creature a little +purer and liker the Saviour? Did you ever drop your dignity and go +down to the low levels in order to lift up the people that were +there? Do men see anything of that example, as reproduced in your +lives, of the Master that lays aside the garments of Heaven for the +vesture of earth, and dies upon the Cross in order that He might +make our poor hearts purer and liker His own? + +But, hard as such imitation is, it is only one case of a general +principle. Discipleship is likeness to Jesus Christ in conduct. +There is no discipleship worth naming which does not, at least, +attempt that likeness. What is the use of a man saying that he is +the disciple of Incarnate Love if his whole life is incarnate +selfishness? What is the use of your calling yourselves Christians, +and saying that you are followers of Jesus Christ, when He came to +do God's will and delighted in it, and you come to do your own, and +never do God's will at all, or scarcely at all, and then reluctantly +and with many a murmur? What kind of a disciple is he, the habitual +tenor of whose life contradicts the life of his Master and disobeys +His commandments? And I am bound to say that that is the life of an +enormously large proportion of the professing disciples in this age +of conventional Christianity. + +'The disciple shall be as his master.' Do you make it your effort to +be like Him? If so, then the saying is not only a law, but a +promise, for it assures us that our effort shall not fail but +progressively succeed, and lead on at last to our becoming what we +behold, and being conformed to Him whom we love, and like the Master +to whose wisdom we profess to listen. They whose earthly life is a +following of Christ, with faltering steps and afar off, shall have +for their heavenly blessedness, that they shall 'follow the Lamb +whithersoever He goeth.' + +III. And now, lastly, likeness to the Master in relation to the +world is the fate that the disciple must put up with. + +'If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much +more shall they call them of his household?' 'The disciple is not +above his master, nor the servant above his lord.' Our Lord +reiterated the statement in another place in John's Gospel, +reminding them that He had said it before. + +If we are like Jesus Christ in conduct, and if we have received His +Word as the truth upon which we repose, depend upon it, in our +measure and in varying fashions, we shall have to bear the same kind +of treatment that He received from the world. The days of so-called +persecution are over in so-called Christian countries, but if you +are a disciple in the sense of believing all that Jesus Christ says, +and taking Him for your Teacher, the public opinion of this day will +have a great many things to say about you that will not be very +pleasant. You will be considered to be 'old-fashioned,' 'narrow,' +'behind the times,' etc. etc. etc. Look at the bitter spirit of +antagonism to an earnest and simple Christianity and adoption of +Christ as our authoritative Teacher which goes through much of our +high-class literature to-day. It is a very small matter as measured +with what Christian men used to have to bear; but it indicates the +set of things. We may make up our minds that if we are not contented +with the pared-down Christianity which the world allows to pass at +present, but insist upon coming to the New Testament for our beliefs +and practices, and avow--'I believe all that Jesus Christ says, and +I believe it because He says it, and I take Him as my model'; we +shall find out that the disciple has to be 'as his Master,' and that +the Pharisees and the Scribes of to-day stand in the same relation +to the followers as their predecessors did to the Leader. If you are +like your Master in conduct, you will be no more popular with the +world than He was. As long as Christianity will be quiet, and let +the world go its own gait, the world is very well contented to let +it alone, or even to say polite things to it. Why should the world +take the trouble of persecuting the kind of Christianity that so +many of us display? What is the difference between our Christianity +and their worldliness? The world is quite willing to come to church +on Sundays, and to call itself a Christian world, if only it may +live as it likes. And many professing Christians have precisely the +same idea. They attend to the externals of Christianity, and call +themselves Christians, but they bargain for its having very little +power over their lives. Why, then, should two sets of people who +have the same ideas and practices dislike each other? No reason at +all! But let Christian men live up to their profession, and above +all let them become aggressive, and try to attack the world's evil, +as they are bound to do; let them fight drunkenness, let them go +against the lust of great cities, let them preach peace in the face +of a nation howling for war, let them apply the golden rules of +Christianity to commerce and social relationships and the like, and +you will very soon hear a pretty shout that will tell you that the +disciple who is a disciple has to share the fate of the Master, +notwithstanding nineteen centuries of Christian teaching. + +If you do not know what it is to find yourselves out of harmony with +the world, I am afraid it is because you have less of the Master's +spirit than you have of the world's. The world loves its own. If you +are not 'of the world, the world will hate you.' If it does not, it +must be because, in spite of your name, you belong to it. + +But if we are like Him in our relation to the world, because we are +like Him in character, our very share in 'His reproach,' and our +sense of being 'aliens' here, bear the promise that we shall be like +Him in all worlds. His fortune is ours. 'The disciple shall be as +his master.' If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him. No +cross, no crown;--if cross, then crown! The end of discipleship is +not reached until the Master's image and the Master's lot are +repeated in the scholar. + +Take Christ for your sacrifice, trust to His blood, listen to His +teaching, walk in His footsteps, and you shall share His sovereignty +and sit on His throne. 'It is enough,'--ay! more than enough, and +nothing less than that is enough,--'for the disciple that he be +_as_'--and _with_--'his master.' 'I shall be satisfied when I awake in +Thy likeness.' + + + + + +THE KING'S CHARGE TO HIS AMBASSADORS + + + 'Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him + will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. + 33. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I + also deny before My Father which is in heaven. 34. Think + not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to + send peace, but a sword. 35. For I am come to set a man + at variance against his father, and the daughter against + her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother + in law. 36. And man's foes shall be they of his own + household. 37. He that loveth father or mother more than + Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or + daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38. And he + that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is + not worthy of Me. 39. He that findeth his life shall + lose it: and he that loseth his life for My sake shall + find it 40. He that receiveth you receiveth Me, and he + that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me. 41. He + that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall + receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a + righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall + receive a righteous man's reward. 42. And whosoever + shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup + of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I + say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.' + --MATT. x. 32-42. + +The first mission of the apostles, important as it was, was but a +short flight to try the young birds' wings. The larger portion of +this charge to them passes far beyond the immediate occasion, and +deals with the permanent relations of Christ's servants to the world +in which they live, for the purpose of bringing it into subjection +to its true King. These solemn closing words, which make our present +subject, contain the duty and blessedness of confessing Him, the vision +of the antagonisms which He excites, His demand for all-surrendering +following, and the rewards of those who receive Christ's messengers, +and therein receive Himself and His Father. + +I. The duty and blessedness of confessing Him (vs. 32, 33). The +'therefore' is significant. It attaches the promise which follows to +the immediately preceding thoughts of a watchful, fatherly care, +extending like a great invisible hand over the true disciple. +Because each is thus guarded, each shall be preserved to receive the +honour of being confessed by Christ. No matter what may befall His +witnesses, the extremest disaster shall not rob them of their reward. +They may be flung down from the house-tops where they lift up their +bold voices, but He who does not let a sparrow fall to the ground +uncared for, will give His angels charge concerning them who are so +much more precious, and they shall be borne up on outstretched wings, +lest they be dashed on the pavement below. Thus preserved, they shall +all attain at last to their guerdon. Nothing can come between Christ's +servant and his crown. The tender providence of the Father, whose +mercy is over all His works, makes sure of that. The river of the +confessor's life may plunge underground, and be lost amid persecutions, +but it will emerge again into the brighter sunshine on the other side +of the mountains. + +The confession which is to be thus rewarded, like the denial opposed +to it, is, of course, not merely a single utterance of the lip. So +far Judas Iscariot confessed Christ, and Peter denied Him. But it is +the habitual acknowledgment by lip and life, unwithdrawn to the end. +The context implies that the confession is maintained in the face of +opposition, and that the denial is a cowardly attempt to save one's +skin at the cost of treason to Jesus. The temptation does not come +in that sharpest form to us. Perhaps some cowards would be made +brave if it did. It is perhaps easier to face the gibbet and the +fire, and screw oneself up for once to a brief endurance, than to +resist the more specious blandishments of the world, especially when +it has been christened, and calls itself religious. The light laugh +of scorn, the silent pressure of the low average of Christian +character, the close associations in trade, literature, public and +domestic life which Christians have with non-Christians, make many a +man's tongue lie silent, to the sore detriment of his own religious +life. 'Ye have not yet resisted unto blood,' and find it hard to +fulfil the easier conflict to which you are called. The sun has more +power than the tempest to make the pilgrim drop his garment. But the +duty remains the same for all ages. Every man is bound to make the +deepest springs of his life visible, and to stand to his +convictions, whatever they be. If he do not, his convictions will +disappear like a piece of ice hid in a hot hand, which will melt and +trickle away. This obligation lies with infinitely increased weight +on Christ's servants; and the consequences of failing to discharge +it are more tragic in their cases, in the exact proportion of the +greater preciousness of their faith. Corn hoarded is sure to be +spoiled by weevils and rust. The bread of life hidden in our sacks +will certainly go mouldy. + +The reward and punishment of confession and denial come to them not +as separate acts, but as each being the revelation of the spiritual +condition of the doers. Christ implies that a true disciple cannot +but be a confessor, and that therefore the denier must certainly be +one whom He has never known. Because, therefore, each act is +symptomatic of the doer, each receives the congruous and +correspondent reward. The confessor is confessed; the denier is +denied. What calm and assured consciousness of His place as Judge +underlies these words! His recognition is God's acceptance; His +denial is darkness and misery. The correspondence between the work +and the reward is beautifully brought out by the use of the same +word to express each. And yet what a difference between our +confession of Him and His of us! And what a hope is here for all who +have tremblingly, and in the consciousness of much unworthiness, +ventured to say that they were Christ's subjects, and He their King, +brother, and all! Their poor, feeble confession will be endorsed by +His. He will say, 'Yes, this man is mine, and I am his.' That will +be glory, honour, blessedness, life, heaven. + +II. The vision of the discord which follows the coming of the King +of peace. It is not enough to interpret these words as meaning that +our Lord's purpose indeed was to bring peace, but that the result of +His coming was strife. The ultimate purpose is peace; but an +immediate purpose is conflict, as the only road to the peace. He is +first King of righteousness, and after that also King of peace. But, +if His kingdom be righteousness, purity, love, then unrighteousness, +filthiness, and selfishness will fight against it for their lives. +The ultimate purpose of Christ's coming is to transform the world +into the likeness of heaven; and all in the world which hates such +likeness is embattled against Him. He saw realities, and knew men's +hearts, and was under no illusion, such as many an ardent reformer +has cherished, that the fair form of truth need only be shown to +men, and they will take her to their hearts. Incessant struggle is +the law for the individual and for society till Christ's purpose for +both is realised. + +That conflict ranges the dearest in opposite ranks. The gospel is +the great solvent. As when a substance is brought into contact with +some chemical compound, which has greater affinity for one of its +elements than the other element has, the old combination is +dissolved, and a new and more stable one is formed, so Christianity +analyses and destroys in order to synthesis and construction. In +verse 21 our Lord had foretold that brother should deliver up +brother to death. Here the severance is considered from the opposite +side. The persons who are 'set at variance' with their kindred are +here Christians. Perhaps it is fanciful to observe that they are all +junior members of families, as if the young would be more likely to +flock to the new light. But however that may be, the separation is +mutual, but the hate is all on one side. The 'man's foes' are of his +own household; but he is not their foe, though he be parted from +them. + +III. Earthly love may be a worse foe to a true Christian than even +the enmity of the dearest; and that enmity may often be excited by +the Christian subordination of earthly to heavenly love. So our Lord +passes from the warnings of discord and hate to the danger of the +opposite--undue love. + +He claims absolute supremacy in our hearts. He goes still farther, +and claims the surrender, not only of affections, but of self and +life to Him. What a strange claim this is! A Jewish peasant, dead +nineteen hundred years since, fronts the whole race of man, and +asserts His right to their love, which is strange, and to their +supreme love, which is stranger still. Why should we love Him at +all, if He were only a man, however pure and benevolent? We may +admire, as we do many another fair nature in the past; but is there +any possibility of evoking anything as warm as love to an unseen +person, who can have had no knowledge of or love to us? And why +should we love Him more than our dearest, from whom we have drawn, +or to whom we have given, life? What explanation or justification +does He give of this unexampled demand? Absolutely none. He seems to +think that its reasonableness needs no elucidation. Surely never did +teacher professing wisdom, modesty, and, still more, religion, put +forward such a claim of right; and surely never besides did any +succeed in persuading generations unborn to yield His demand, when +they heard it. The strangest thing in the world's history is that +to-day there are millions who do love Jesus Christ more than all +besides, and whose chief self-accusation is that they do not love +Him more. The strange, audacious claim is most reasonable, if we +believe that Jesus is the Son of God, who died for each of us, and +that each man and woman to the last of the generations had a +separate place in His divine human love when He died. It is meet to +love Him, if that be true; it is not, unless it be. The requirement +is as stringent as strange. If the two ever seem to conflict, the +earthly must give way. If the earthly be withdrawn, there must be +found sufficiency for comfort and peace in the heavenly. The lower +must not be permitted to hinder the flight of the heavenly to its +home. 'More than Me' is a rebuke to most of us. What a contrast +between the warmth of our earthly and the tepidity or coldness of +our heavenly love! How spontaneously our thoughts, when left free, +turn to the one; how hard we find it to keep them fixed on the +other! How sweet service is to the dear ones here; how reluctantly +it is given to Christ! How we long, when parted, to rejoin them; how +little we are drawn to the place where He is! We have all to confess +that we are 'not worthy of' Him; that we requite His love with +inadequate returns, and live lives which tax His love for its +highest exercise, the free forgiveness of sins against itself. +Compliance with that stringent law, and subordinating all earthly +love to His, is the true elevating and ennobling of the earthly. It +is promoted, not degraded, when it is made second, and is infinitely +sweeter and deeper then than when it was set in the place of +supremacy, where it had no right to be. + +But Christ's demand is not only for the surrender of the heart, but +for the giving up of self, and, in a very profound sense, for the +surrender of life. How enigmatical that saying about taking up the +cross must have sounded to the disciples! They knew little about the +cross, as a punishment; they had not yet associated it in any way +with their Lord. This seems to have been the first occasion of His +mentioning it, and the allusion is so veiled as to be but partially +intelligible. But what was intelligible was bewildering. A strange +royal procession that, of the King with a cross on His shoulder, and +all His subjects behind Him with similar burdens! Through the ages +that procession has marched, and it marches still. Self-denial for +Christ's sake is 'the badge of all our tribe.' Observe that word +'take.' The cross must be willingly and by ourselves assumed. No +other can lay it on our shoulders. Observe that other word 'his.' +Each man has his own special form in which self-denial is needful +for him. We require pure eyes, and hearts kept in very close +communion with Jesus, to ascertain what our particular cross is. He +has them of many patterns, shapes, sizes, and materials. We can +always make sure of strength to carry the one which He means us to +carry, but not of strength to bear what is not ours. + +IV. We have the rewards of those who receive Christ's messengers, +and therein receive Him and His Father. Our Lord first identifies +these twelve with Himself in a manner which must have sounded +strange to them then, but have heartened them for their work by the +consciousness of His mysterious oneness with them. The whole +doctrine of Christ's unity with His people lay in germ in these +words, though much more was needed, both of teaching and of +experience, before their depth of blessing and strengthening could +be apprehended. _We_ know that He dwells in His true subjects +by His Spirit, and that a most real union subsists between the head +and the members, of which the closest unions of earth are but faint +shadows, so as that not only those who receive His followers receive +Him, but, more wonderful still, His followers are received at the +last by God Himself as joined to Him, and portions of His very self, +and therefore 'accepted in the Beloved.' Our Lord adds to these +words the thought that, in like manner, to receive Him is to receive +the Father, and so implies that our relation to Him is in certain +real respects parallel with His relation to the Father. We too are +sent. He who sends abides with us, as the Son ever abode in God, and +God in Him. We are sent to be the brightness of Christ's glory, and +to manifest Him to men, as He was sent to reveal the Father. + + + + +A LIFE LOST AND FOUND +[Footnote: Preached after the funeral of Mr. F. W. Crossley.] + + + 'He that loseth his life for My sake shall find it.' + --MATT. x. 39. + +My heart impels me to break this morning my usual rule of avoiding +personal references in the pulpit. Death has been busy in our own +congregation this last week, and yesterday we laid in the grave all +that was mortal of a man to whom Manchester owes more than it knows. +Mr. Crossley has been for thirty years my close and dear friend. He +was long a member of this church and congregation. I need not speak +of his utter unselfishness, of his lifelong consecration, of his +lavish generosity, of his unstinted work for God and man; but +thinking of him and of it, I have felt as if the words of my text +were the secret of his life, and as if he now understood the fulness +of the promise they contain: 'He that loseth his life for My sake +shall find it.' Now, looking at these words in the light of the +example so tenderly beloved by some of us, so sharply criticised by +many, but now so fully recognised as saintly by all, I ask you to +consider-- + +I. The stringent requirement for the Christian life that is here +made. + +Now we shall very much impoverish the meaning and narrow the sweep +of these great and penetrating words, if we understand by 'losing +one's life' only the actual surrender of physical existence. It is +not only the martyr on whose bleeding brows the crown of life is +gently placed; it is not only the temples that have been torn by the +crown of thorns, that are soothed by that unfading wreath; but there +is a daily dying, which is continually required from all Christian +people, and is, perhaps, as hard as, or harder than, the brief and +bloody passage of martyrdom by which some enter into rest. For the +true losing of life is the slaying of self, and that has to be done +day by day, and not once for all, in some supreme act of surrender +at the end, or in some initial act of submission and yielding at the +beginning, of the Christian life. We ourselves have to take the +knife into our own hands and strike, and that not once, but ever, +right on through our whole career. For, by natural disposition, we +are all inclined to make our own selves to be our own centres, our +own aims, the objects of our trust, our own law; and if we do so, we +are dead whilst we live, and the death that brings life is when, day +by day, we 'crucify the old man with his affections and lusts.' +Crucifixion was no sudden death; it was an exquisitely painful one, +which made every nerve quiver and the whole frame thrill with +anguish; and that slow agony, in all its terribleness and +protractedness, is the image that is set before us as the true ideal +of every life that would not be a living death. The world is to be +crucified to me, and I to the world. + +We have our centre in ourselves, and we need the centre to be +shifted, or we live in sin. If I might venture upon so violent an +image, the comets that career about the heavens need to be caught +and tamed, and bound to peaceful revolution round some central sun, +or else they are 'wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness +of darkness for ever.' So, brethren, the slaying of self by a +painful, protracted process, is the requirement of Christ. + +But do not let us confine ourselves to generalities. What is meant? +This is meant--the absolute submission of the will to commandments +and providences, the making of that obstinate part of our nature +meek and obedient and plastic as the clay in the potter's hands. The +tanner takes a stiff hide, and soaks it in bitter waters, and +dresses it with sharp tools, and lubricates it with unguents, and +his work is not done till all the stiffness is out of it and it is +flexible. And we do not lose our lives in the lofty, noble sense, +until we can say--and verify the speech by our actions--'Not my will +but Thine be done.' They who thus submit, they who thus welcome into +their hearts, and enthrone upon the sovereign seat in their wills, +Christ and His will--these are they who have lost their lives. When +we can say, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' then, and +only then, have we in the deepest sense of the words 'lost our +lives.' + +The phrase means the suppression, and sometimes the excision, of +appetites, passions, desires, inclinations. It means the hallowing +of all aims; it means the devotion and the consecration of all +activities. It means the surrender and the stewardship of all +possessions. And only then, when we have done these things, shall we +have come to practical obedience to the initial requirement that +Christ makes from us all--to lose our lives for His sake. + +I need not diverge here to point to that life from which my thoughts +have taken their start in this sermon. Surely if there was any one +characteristic in it more distinct and lovely than another, it was +that self was dead and that Christ lived. There may be sometimes a +call for the actual--which is the lesser--surrender of the bodily +life, in obedience to the call of duty. There have been Christian +men who have wrought themselves to death in the Master's service. +Perhaps he of whom I have been speaking was one of these. It may be +that, if he had done like so many of our wealthy men--had flung +himself into business and then collapsed into repose--he would have +been here to-day. Perhaps it would have been better if there had +been a less entire throwing of himself into arduous and clamant +duties. I am not going to enter on the ethics of that question. I do +not think there are many of this generation of Christians who are +likely to work themselves to death in Christ's cause; and perhaps, +after all, the old saying is a true one, 'Better to wear out than to +rust out.' But only this I will say: we honour the martyrs of +Science, of Commerce, of Empire, why should not we honour the +martyrs of Faith? And why should they be branded as imprudent +enthusiasts, if they make the same sacrifice which, when an explorer +or a soldier makes, his memory is honoured as heroic, and his cold +brows are crowned with laurels? Surely it is as wise to die for +Christ as for England. But be that as it may; the requirement, the +stringent requirement, of my text is not addressed to any spiritual +aristocracy, but is laid upon the consciences of all professing +Christians. + +II. Observe the grounds of this requirement. + +Did you ever think--or has the fact become so familiar to you that +it ceases to attract notice?--did you ever think what an +extraordinary position it is for the son of a carpenter in Nazareth +to plant Himself before the human race and say, 'You will be wise if +you die for My sake, and you will be doing nothing more than your +plain duty'? What business has He to assume such a position as that? +What warrants that autocratic and all-demanding tone from His lips? +'Who art Thou'--we may fancy people saying--'that Thou shouldst put +out a masterful hand and claim to take as Thine the life of my +heart?' Ah! brethren, there is but one answer: 'Who loved me, and +gave Himself for me.' The foolish, loving, impulsive apostle that +blurted out, before his time had come, 'I will lay down my life for +Thy sake,' was only premature; he was not mistaken. There needed +that His Lord should lay down His life for Peter's sake; and then He +had a right to turn to the apostle and say, 'Thou shalt follow Me +afterwards,' and 'lay down thy life for My sake.' The ground of +Christ's unique claim is Christ's solitary sacrifice. He who has +died for men, and He only, has the right to require the unconditional, +the absolute surrender of themselves, not only in the sacrifice of a +life that is submitted, but, if circumstances demand, in the sacrifice +of a death. The ground of the requirement is laid, first in the fact +of our Lord's divine nature, and second, in the fact that He who asks +my life has first of all given His. + +But that same phrase, 'for My sake,' suggests-- + +III. The all-sufficient motive which makes such a loss of life +possible. + +I suppose that there is nothing else that will wholly dethrone self +but the enthroning of Jesus Christ. That dominion is too deeply +rooted to be abolished by any enthusiasms, however noble they may +be, except the one that kindles its undying torch at the flame of +Christ's own love. God forbid that I should deny that wonderful and +lovely instances of self-oblivion may be found in hearts untouched +by the supreme love of Christ! But whilst I recognise all the beauty +of such, I, for my part, humbly venture to believe and assert that, +for the entire deliverance of a man from self-regard, the one +sufficient motive power is the reception into his opening heart of +the love of Jesus Christ. + +Ah! brethren, you and I know how hard it is to escape from the +tyrannous dominion of self, and how the evil spirits that have taken +possession of us mock at all lesser charms than the name which +'devils fear and fly'; 'the Name that is above every name.' We have +tried other motives. We have sought to reprove our selfishness by +other considerations. Human love--which itself is sometimes only +the love of self, seeking satisfaction from another--human love does +conquer it, but yet conquers it partially. The demons turn round +upon all other would-be exorcists, and say, 'Jesus we know ... but +who are ye?' It is only when the Ark is carried into the Temple that +Dagon falls prone before it. If you would drive self out of your +hearts--and if you do not it will slay you--if you would drive self +out, let Christ's love and sacrifice come in. And then, what no +brooms and brushes, no spades nor wheelbarrows, will ever do--namely, +cleanse out the filth that lodges there--the turning of the river in +will do, and float it all away. The one possibility for complete, +conclusive deliverance from the dominion and tyranny of Self is to +be found in the words 'For My sake.' Ah! brethren, I suppose there +are none of us so poor in earthly love, possessed or remembered, but +that we know the omnipotence of these words when whispered by beloved +lips, 'For My sake'; and Jesus Christ is saying them to us all. + +IV. Lastly, notice the recompense of the stringent requirement. + +'Shall find it,' and that finding, like the losing, has a twofold +reference and accomplishment: here and now, yonder and then. + +Here and now, no man possesses himself till he has given himself to +Jesus Christ. Only then, when we put the reins into His hands, can we +coerce and guide the fiery steeds of passion and of impulse, And so +Scripture, in more than one place, uses a remarkable expression, when +it speaks of those that believe to the 'acquiring of their souls.' +You are not your own masters until you are Christ's servants; and +when you fancy yourselves to be most entirely your own masters, you +have promised yourselves liberty and have become the slave of +corruption. So if you would own yourselves, give yourselves away. And +such an one 'shall find' his life, here and now, in that all earthly +things will be sweeter and better. The altar sanctifies the gift. +When some pebble is plunged into a sunlit stream, the water brings +out the veined colourings of the stone that looked all dull and dim +when it was lying upon the bank. Fling your whole being, your wealth, +your activities, and everything, into that stream, and they will +flash in splendour else unknown. Did not my friend, of whom I have +been speaking, enjoy his wealth far more, when he poured it out like +water upon good causes, than if he had spent it in luxury and +self-indulgence? And shall we not find that everything is sweeter, +nobler, better, fuller of capacity to delight, if we give it all to +our Master? The stringent requirement of Christ is the perfection of +prudence. 'Who pleasure follows pleasure slays,' and who slays +pleasure finds a deeper and a holier delight. The keenest +epicureanism could devise no better means for sucking the last drop +of sweetness out of the clustering grapes of the gladnesses of +earth than to obey this stringent requirement, and so realise the +blessed promise, 'Whoso loseth his life for My sake shall find it.' +The selfish man is a roundabout fool. The self-devoted man, the +Christ-enthroning man, is the wise man. + +And there will be the further finding hereafter, about which we +cannot speak. Only remember, how in a passage parallel with this of +my text, spoken when almost within sight of Calvary, our Lord laid +down not only the principle of His own life but the principle for +all His servants, when He said, 'Except a corn of wheat fall into +the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth +forth much fruit.' The solitary grain dropped into the furrow brings +forth a waving harvest. We may not, we need not, particularise, but +the life that is found at last is as the fruit an hundredfold of the +life that men called 'lost' and God called 'sown.' + +'Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; they rest from their +labours, and their works do follow them.' + + + + +THE GREATEST IN THE KINGDOM, AND THEIR REWARD + + + 'He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet + shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth + a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall + receive a righteous man's reward. 42. And whosoever + shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup + of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I + say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.' + --MATT. x. 41, 42. + + There is nothing in these words to show whether they refer to the +present or to the future. We shall probably not go wrong if we +regard them as having reference to both. For all godliness has +'promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to +come,' and '_in_ keeping God's commandments,' as well as _for_ +keeping them, 'there is great reward,' a reward realised in the +present, even although Death holds the keys of the treasure-house +in which the richest rewards are stored. No act of holy obedience +is here left without foretastes of joy, which, though they be but +'brooks by the way,' contain the same water of life which hereafter +swells to an ocean. + +Some people tell us that it is defective morality in Christianity to +bribe men to be good by promising them Heaven, and that he who is +actuated by such a motive is selfish. Now that fantastic and +overstrained objection may be very simply answered by two +considerations: self-regard is not selfishness, and Christianity +does not propose the future reward as the motive for goodness. The +motive for goodness is love to Jesus Christ; and if ever there was a +man who did acts of Christian goodness only for the sake of what he +would get by them, the acts were not Christian goodness, because the +motive was wrong. But it is a piece of fastidiousness to forbid us +to reinforce the great Christian motive, which is love to Jesus +Christ, by the thought of the recompense of reward. It is a stimulus +and an encouragement of, not the motive for, goodness. This text +shows us that it is a subordinate motive, for it says that the +reception of a prophet, or of a righteous man, or of 'one of these +little ones,' which is rewardable, is the reception 'in the name of' +a prophet, a disciple, and so on, or, in other words, is the +recognising of the prophet, or the righteous man, or the disciple +for what he is, and because he is that, and not because of the +reward, receiving him with sympathy and solace and help. + +So, with that explanation, let us look at these very remarkable +words of our text. + +I. The first thing which I wish to observe in them is the three +classes of character which are dealt with--'prophet,' 'righteous +man,' 'these little ones.' + +Now the question that I would suggest is this: Is there any meaning +in the order in which these are arranged? If so, what is it? Do we +begin at the bottom, or at the top? Have we to do with an ascending +or with a descending scale? Is the prophet thought to be greater +than the righteous man, or less? Is the righteous man thought to be +higher than the little one, or to be lower? The question is an +important one, and worth considering. + +Now, at first sight, it certainly does look as if we had here to do +with a descending scale, as if we began at the top and went +downwards. A prophet, a man honoured with a distinct commission from +God to declare His will, is, in certain very obvious respects, +loftier than a man who is not so honoured, however pure and +righteous he may be. The dim and venerable figures, for instance, of +Isaiah and Jeremiah, tower high above all their contemporaries; and +godly men who hung upon their lips, like Baruch on Jeremiah's, felt +themselves to be, and were, inferior to them. And, in like manner, +the little child who believes in Christ may seem to be insignificant +in comparison with the prophet with his God-touched lips, or the +righteous man of the old dispensation with his austere purity; as a +humble violet may seem by the side of a rose with its heart of fire, +or a white lily regal and tall. But one remembers that Jesus Christ +Himself declared that 'the least of the little ones' was greater +than the greatest who had gone before; and it is not at all likely +that He who has just been saying that whosoever received His +followers received Himself, should classify these followers beneath +the righteous men of old. The Christian type of character is +distinctly higher than the Old Testament type; and the humblest +believer is blessed above prophets and righteous men because his +eyes behold and his heart welcomes the Christ. + +Therefore I am inclined to believe that we have here an ascending +series--that we begin at the bottom and not at the top; that the +prophet is less than the righteous man, and the righteous man less +than the little one who believes in Christ. For, suppose there were +a prophet who was not righteous, and a righteous man who was not a +prophet. Suppose the separation between the two characters were +complete, which of them would be the greater? Balaam was a prophet; +Balaam was not a righteous man; Balaam was immeasurably inferior to +the righteous whose lives he did not emulate, though he could not +but envy their deaths. In like manner the humblest believer in Jesus +Christ has something that a prophet, if he is not a disciple, does +not possess; and that which he has, and the prophet has not, is +higher than the endowment that is peculiar to the prophet alone. + +May we say the same thing about the difference between the righteous +man and the disciple? Can there be a righteous man that is not a +disciple? Can there be a disciple that is not a righteous man? Can +the separation between these two classes be perfect and complete? +No! in the profoundest sense, certainly not. But then at the time +when Christ spoke there were some men standing round Him, who, 'as +touching the righteousness which is of the law,' were 'blameless.' +And there are many men to-day, with much that is noble and admirable +in their characters, who stand apart from the faith that is in Jesus +Christ; and if the separation be so complete as that, then it is to +be emphatically and decisively pronounced that, if we have regard to +all that a man ought to be, and if we estimate men in the measure in +which they approximate to that ideal in their lives and conduct, +'the Christian is the highest style of man.' The disciple is above +the righteous men adorned with many graces of character, who, if +they are not Christians, have a worm at the root of all their +goodness, because it lacks the supreme refinement and consecration +of faith; and above the fiery-tongued prophet, if he is not a +disciple. + +Now, brethren, this thought is full of very important practical +inferences. Faith is better than genius. Faith is better than +brilliant gifts. Faith is better than large acquirements. The poet's +imagination, the philosopher's calm reasoning, the orator's tongue +of fire, even the inspiration of men that may have their lips +touched to proclaim God to their brethren, are all less than the +bond of living trust that knits a soul to Jesus Christ, and makes it +thereby partaker of that indwelling Saviour. And, in like manner, if +there be men, as there are, and no doubt some of them among my +hearers, adorned with virtues and graces of character, but who have +not rested their souls on Jesus Christ, then high above these, too, +stands the lowliest person who has set his faith and love on that +Saviour. Neither intellectual endowments nor moral character are the +highest, but faith in Jesus Christ. A man may be endowed with all +brilliancy of intellect and fair with many beauties of character, +and he may be lost; and on the other hand simple faith, rudimentary +and germlike as it often is, carries in itself the prophecy of all +goodness, and knits a man to the source of all blessedness. 'Whether +there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it +shall vanish away. Now abideth these three, faith, hope, charity.' +'Rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather +rejoice because your names are written in Heaven.' + +Ah! brethren, if we believed in Christ's classification of men, and +in the order of importance and dignity in which He arranges them, it +would make a wonderful practical difference to the lives, to the +desires, and to the efforts of a great many of us. Some of you +students, young men and women that are working at college or your +classes, if you believed that it was better to trust in Jesus Christ +than to be wise, and gave one-tenth, ay! one-hundredth part of the +attention and the effort to secure the one which you do to secure +the other, would be different people. 'Not many wise men after the +flesh,' but humble trusters in Jesus Christ, are the victors in the +world. Believe you that, and order your lives accordingly. + +Oh! what a reversal of this world's estimates is coming one day, +when the names that stand high in the roll of fame shall pale, like +photographs that have been shut up in a portfolio, and when you take +them out have faded off the paper. 'The world knows nothing of its +greatest men,' but there is a time coming when the spurious mushroom +aristocracy that the world has worshipped will be forgotten, like +the nobility of some conquered land, who are brushed aside and +relegated to private life by the new nobility of the conquerors, and +when the true nobles, God's aristocrats, the righteous, who are +righteous because they have trusted in Christ, shall shine forth +like the sun 'in the Kingdom of My Father.' + +Here is the climax: gifts and endowments at the bottom, character +and morality in the middle, and at the top faith in Jesus Christ. + +II. Now notice briefly in the second place the variety of the reward +according to the character. + +The prophet has his, the righteous man has his, the little one has +his. That is to say, each level of spiritual or moral stature +receives its own prize. There is no difficulty in seeing that this +is so in regard to the rewards of this life. Every faithful message +delivered by a prophet increases that prophet's own blessedness, and +has joys in the receiving of it from God, in the speaking of it to +men, in the marking of its effects as it spreads through the world, +which belong to him alone. In all these, and in many other ways, the +'prophet' has rewards that no stranger can intermeddle with. All +courses of obedient conduct have their own appropriate consequences +and satisfaction. Every character is adapted to receive, and does +receive, in the measure of its goodness, certain blessings and joys, +here and now. 'Surely the righteous shall be recompensed in the +earth.' + +And the same principle, of course, applies if we think of the reward +as altogether future. It must be remembered, however, that +Christianity does not teach, as I believe, that if there be a +prophet or a righteous man who is not a disciple, that prophet or +righteous man will get rewards in the future life. It must be +remembered, too, that every disciple is righteous in the measure of +his faith. Discipleship being presupposed, then the disciple who is +a prophet will have one reward, and the disciple who is a righteous +man shall have another; and where all three characteristics +coincide, there shall be a triple crown of glory upon his head. + +That is all plain and obvious enough, if only we get rid of the +prejudice that the rewards of a future life are merely bestowed upon +men by God's arbitrary good pleasure. What is the reward of Heaven? +'Eternal life,' people say. Yes! 'Blessedness.' Yes! But where does +the life come from, and where does the blessedness come from? They +are both derived, they come from God in Christ; and in the deepest +sense, and in the only true sense, God is Heaven, and God is the +reward of Heaven. 'I am thy shield,' so long as dangers need to be +guarded against, and then, thereafter, 'I am thine exceeding great +Reward.' It is the possession of God that makes all the Heaven of +Heaven, the immortal life which His children receive, and the +blessedness with which they are enraptured. We are heirs of +immortality, we are heirs of life, we are heirs of blessedness, +because, and in the measure in which, we become heirs of God. + +And if that be so, then there is no difficulty in seeing that in +Heaven, as on earth, men will get just as much of God as they can +hold; and that in Heaven, as on earth, capacity for receiving God is +determined by character. The gift is one, the reward is one, and yet +the reward is infinitely various. It is the same light which glows +in all the stars, but 'star differeth from star in glory.' It is the +same wine, the new wine of the Kingdom, that is poured into all the +vessels, but the vessels are of divers magnitudes, though each be +full to the brim. + +And so in those two sister parables of our Master's, which are so +remarkably discriminated and so remarkably alike, we have both these +aspects of the Heavenly reward set forth--both that which declares +its identity in all cases, and the other which declares its variety +according to the recipient's character. All the servants receive the +same welcome, the same prize, the same entrance into the same joy; +although one of them had ten talents, and another five, and another +two. But the servants who were each sent out to trade with one poor +pound in their hands, and by their varying diligence reaped varying +profits, were rewarded according to the returns that they had +brought; and one received ten, and the other five, and the other +two, cities over which to have authority and rule. So the reward is +one, and yet infinitely diverse. It is not the same thing whether a +man or a woman, being a Christian, is an earnest, and devoted, and +growing Christian here on earth, or a selfish, and an idle, and a +stagnant one. It is not the same thing whether you content +yourselves with simply laying hold on Christ, and keeping a +tremulous and feeble hold of Him for the rest of your lives, or +whether you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour. +There is such a fate as being saved, yet so as by fire, and going +into the brightness with the smell of the fire on your garments. +There is such a fate as having just, as it were, squeezed into +Heaven, and got there by the skin of your teeth. And there is such a +thing as having an abundant entrance ministered, when its portals +are thrown wide open. Some imperfect Christians die with but little +capacity for possessing God, and therefore their heaven will not be +as bright, nor studded with as majestic constellations, as that of +others. The starry vault that bends above us so far away, is the +same in the number of its stars when gazed on by the savage with his +unaided eye, and by the astronomer with the strongest telescope; and +the Infinite God, who arches above us, but comes near to us, +discloses galaxies of beauty and oceans of abysmal light in Himself, +according to the strength and clearness of the eye that looks upon +Him. So, brethren, remember that the one glory has infinite degrees; +and faith, and conduct, and character here determine the capacity +for God which we shall have when we go to receive our reward. + +III. The last point that is here is the substantial identity of the +reward to all that stand on the same level, however different may be +the form of their lives. + +'He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive +a prophet's reward.' And so in the case of the others. The active +prophet, righteous man, or disciple, and the passive recogniser of +each in that character, who receives each as a prophet, or righteous +man, or disciple, stand practically and substantially on the same +level, though the one of them may have his lips glowing with the +divine inspiration and the other may never have opened his mouth for +God. + +That is beautiful and deep. The power of sympathising with any +character is the partial possession of that character for ourselves. +A man who is capable of having his soul bowed by the stormy thunder +of Beethoven, or lifted to Heaven by the ethereal melody of +Mendelssohn, is a musician, though he never composed a bar. The man +who recognises and feels the grandeur of the organ music of +'Paradise Lost' has some fibre of a poet in him, though he be but 'a +mute, inglorious Milton.' + +All sympathy and recognition of character involve some likeness to +that character. The poor woman who brought the sticks and prepared +food for the prophet entered into the prophet's mission and shared +in the prophet's work and reward, though his task was to beard Ahab, +and hers was only to bake Elijah's bread. The old knight that +clapped Luther on the back when he went into the Diet of Worms, and +said to him, 'Well done, little monk!' shared in Luther's victory +and in Luther's crown. He that helps a prophet because he is a +prophet, has the making of a prophet in himself. + +As all work done from the same motive is the same in God's eyes, +whatever be the outward shape of it, so the work that involves the +same type of spiritual character will involve the same reward. You +find the Egyptian medal on the breasts of the soldiers that kept the +base of communication as well as on the breasts of the men that +stormed the works at Tel-el-Kebir. It was a law in Israel, and it is +a law in Heaven: 'As his part is that goeth down into the battle, so +shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff, they shall part +alike.' 'I am going down into the pit, you hold the ropes,' said +Carey, the pioneer missionary. They that hold the ropes, and the +daring miner that swings away down in the blackness, are one in the +work, may be one in the motive, and, if they are, shall be one in +the reward. So, brethren, though no coal of fire may be laid upon +your lips, if you sympathise with the workers that are trying to +serve God, and do what you can to help them, and identify yourself +with them, and so hold the ropes, my text will be true about you. +'He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive +a prophet's reward.' They who by reason of circumstances, by +deficiency of power, or by the weight of other tasks and duties, can +only give silent sympathy, and prayer, and help, are one with the +men whom they help. + +Dear brethren! remember that this awful, mystical life of ours is +full everywhere of consequences that cannot be escaped. What we sow +we reap, and we grind it, and we bake it, and we live upon it. We +have to drink as we have brewed; we have to lie on the beds that we +have made. 'Be not deceived: God is not mocked.' The doctrine of +reward has two sides to it. 'Nothing human ever dies.' All our deeds +drag after them inevitable consequences; but if you will put your +trust in Jesus Christ, He will not deal with you according to your +sins, nor reward you according to your iniquities; and the darkest +features of the recompense of your evil will all be taken away by +the forgiveness which we have in His blood. If you will trust +yourselves to Him you will have that eternal life, which is not +wages, but a gift; which is not reward, but a free bestowment of +God's love. And then, if we build upon that Foundation on which +alone men can build their hopes, their thoughts, their characters, +their lives, however feeble may be our efforts, however narrow may +be our sphere,--though we be neither prophets nor sons of prophets, +and though our righteousness may be all stained and imperfect, yet, +to our own amazement and to God's glory, we shall find, when the +fire is kindled which reveals and tests our works, that, by the +might of humble faith in Christ, we have built upon that Foundation, +gold and silver and precious stones; and shall receive the reward +given to every man whose work abides that trial by fire. + + + + +JOHN'S DOUBTS OF JESUS, AND JESUS' PRAISE OF JOHN + + + 'Now when John had heard in the prison the works of + Christ, he sent two of his disciples, 3. And said unto + Him, Art Thou He that should come, or do we look for + another? 4. Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and + shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: + 5. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, + the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead + are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached + to them. 6. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be + offended in Me. 7. And as they departed, Jesus began + to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went + ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with + the wind? 8. But what went ye out for to see? A man + clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft + clothing are in kings' houses. 9. But what went ye out + for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more + than a prophet. 10. For this is he, of whom it is + written. Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face, + which shall prepare Thy way before Thee. 11. Verily I + say unto you, Among them that are born of women there + hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: + notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of + heaven is greater than he. 12. And from the days of + John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven + suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. + 13. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until + John--And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which + was for to come. 16. He that hath ears to hear, let + him hear.'--MATT. xi. 2-15. + +This text falls into two parts: the first, from verses 2-6 +inclusive, giving us the faltering faith of the great witness, and +Christ's gentle treatment of the waverer; the second, from verse 7 +to the end, giving the witness of Christ to John, exuberant in +recognition, notwithstanding his momentary hesitation. + +I. We do not believe that this message of John's was sent for the sake +of strengthening his disciples' faith in Jesus as Messiah, nor that it +was merely meant as a hint to Jesus to declare Himself. The question +is John's. The answer is sent to him: it is he who is to ponder the +things which the messengers saw, and to answer his own question +thereby. The note which the evangelist prefixes to his account +gives the key to the incident. John was 'in prison,' in that gloomy +fortress of Machaerus which Herod had rebuilt at once for 'a sinful +pleasure-house' and for an impregnable refuge, among the savage cliffs +of Moab. The halls of luxurious vice and the walls of defence are gone; +but the dungeons are there still, with the holes in the masonry into +which the bars were fixed to which the prisoners--John, perhaps, one of +them--were chained. No wonder that in the foul atmosphere of a dark +dungeon the spirit which had been so undaunted in the free air of the +desert began to flag; nor that even he who had seen the fluttering dove +descend on Christ's head, and had pointed to Him as the Lamb of God, +felt that 'all his mind was clouded with a doubt.' It would have been +wiser if commentators, instead of trying to save John's credit at the +cost of straining the narrative, had recognised the psychological truth +of the plain story of his wavering conviction and had learned its +lessons of self-distrust. There is only one Man with whom it was always +high-water; all others have ebbs and flows in their religious life, and +variations in their grasp of truth. + +The narrative further gives the motive for John's embassy, in the +report which had reached him of 'the works of Christ.' We need only +recall John's earlier testimony to understand how these works would +not seem to him to fill up the role which he had anticipated for +Messiah. Where is the axe that was to be laid at the root of the +trees, or the fan that was to winnow out the chaff? Where is the +fiery spirit which he had foretold? This gentle Healer is not the +theocratic judge of his warning prophecies. He is tending and +nurturing, rather than felling, the barren trees. A nimbus of +merciful deeds, not of flashing 'wrath to come,' surrounds His head. +So John began to wonder if, after all, he had been premature in his +recognition. Perhaps this Jesus was but a precursor, as he himself +was, of the Messiah. Evidently he continues firm in the conviction +of Christ's being sent from God, and is ready to accept His answer +as conclusive; but, as evidently, he is puzzled by the contrariety +between Jesus' deeds and his own expectations. He asks, 'Art Thou +_He that cometh_'--a well-known name for Messiah--'or are we to +expect another?' where it should be noted that the word for +'another' means not merely a second, but a different kind of, +person, who should present the aspects of the Messiah as revealed in +prophecy, and as embodied in John's own preaching, which Jesus had +left unfulfilled. + +We may well take to heart the lesson of the fluctuations possible to +the firmest faith, and pray to be enabled to hold fast that we have. +We may learn, too, the danger to right conceptions of Christ, of +separating the two elements of mercy and judgment in His character +and work. John was right in believing that the Christ must come to +judge. A Christ without the fan in His hand is a maimed Christ. John +was wrong in stumbling at the gentleness, just as many to-day, who +go to the opposite extreme, are wrong in stumbling at the judicial +side of His work. Both halves are needed to make the full-orbed +character. We have not to 'look for a different' Christ, but we have +to look for Him, coming the second time, the same Jesus, but now +with His axe in His pierced hands, to hew down trees which He has +patiently tended. Let John's profound sense of the need for a +judicial aspect in the Christ who is to meet the prophecies written +in men's hearts, as well as in Scripture, teach us how one-sided and +superficial are representations of His work which suppress or slur +over His future coming to judgment. + +Our Lord does not answer 'Yes' or 'No.' To do so might have stilled, +but would not have removed, John's misconception. A more thorough +cure is needed. So Christ attacks it in its roots by referring him +back for answer to the very deeds which had excited his doubt. In +doing so, He points to, or indeed, we may say, quotes, two prophetic +passages (Isa. xxxv. 5, 6; lxi. 1) which give the prophetic 'notes' of +Messiah. It is as if He had said, 'Have you forgotten that the very +prophets whose words have fed your hopes, and now seem to minister to +your doubts, have said this and this about the Messiah?' Further, +there is deep wisdom in sending John back again to think over the very +deeds at which he was stumbling. It is not Christ's work which is +wanting in conformity to the divine idea; it is John's conceptions of +that idea that need enlarging. What he wants is not so much to be told +that Jesus is the Christ, as to grow up to a truer, because more +comprehensive, notion of what the Christ is to be. A wide principle is +taught us here. The very points in Christ's work which may occasion +difficulty, will, when we stand at the right point of view, become +evidences of His claims. What were stumbling-blocks become +stepping-stones. Arguments against become proofs of, the truth when we +look at them with clearer eyes, and from the proper angle. Further, we +are taught here, that what Christ does is the best answer to the +question as to who He is. Still He is doing these works among us. +Darkened eyes are flooded with light by His touch, and see a new +world, because they gaze with faith on Him. Lame limbs are endowed +with strength, and can run in the way of His commandments, and walk +with unfainting perseverance the thorniest paths of duty and +self-sacrifice. Lepers are cleansed from the rotting leprosy of sin, +and their flesh comes again, 'as the flesh of a little child.' Deaf +ears hear the voice of the Son of God, and the dead who hear live. +Good news is preached to all the poor in spirit, and whosoever knows +himself to be in need of all things may claim all things as his own in +Christ. He who through the ages has been working such works, and works +them still, 'needs not to speak anything' to confirm His claims, +'neither is there salvation in any other.' We look for no second +Christ; but we look for that same Jesus to come the second time to be +the Judge of the world of which He is the Saviour. + +The benediction on him who finds none occasion of stumbling in +Christ, is at once a beatitude and a warning. It rebukes in the +gentlest fashion John's temper, which found difficulty in even the +perfect personality of Jesus, and made that which should have been +the 'sure foundation' of his spirit a stone of stumbling. Our Lord's +consciousness of absolute perfection of moral character, and of +absolute perfectness in His office and work, is distinct in the +words. He knows that 'there is none occasion of stumbling in Him,' +and that whoever finds any, brings it or makes it. He knows and +warns us that all blessedness lies for us in recognising Him for +what He is--God's sure foundation of our hopes, our peace, our +thoughts, our lives. He knows that all woe and loss are involved in +stumbling on this stone, against which whosoever falls is broken, +and by which, when it begins to move, and falls on a man, he is +ground to powder, like the dust of the threshing-floor. What +tremendous arrogance of assertion! Who is he who can venture on such +words without blasphemy against God, and universal ridicule from +men? + +II. The witness of Christ to John. Praise from Jesus is praise +indeed; and it is poured out here with no stinted hand on the +languishing prisoner whose doubts had just been brought to Him. Such +an eulogium at such a time is a wonderful instance of loving +forbearance with a true-hearted follower's weakness, and of a desire +which, in a man, we should call magnanimous, to shield John's +character from depreciation on account of his message. The world +praises a man to his face, and speaks of his faults behind his back. +Christ does the opposite. Not till the messengers were departing +does He begin to speak 'concerning John.' He lays bare the secret of +the Baptist's power, and allocates his place as greatest in one +epoch and as less than the least in another, with an authority more +than human, and on principles which set Himself high above all +comparison with men, whether the greatest or the least. The King +places His subjects, and Himself sits enthroned above them all. + +First, Christ praises John's great personal character in the +dramatic and vivid questions which begin this section. He recalls +the scenes of popular enthusiasm when all Israel streamed out to the +desert preacher. A small man could not have made such an upheaval. +What drew the crowds? Just what will draw them; the qualities +without which, either possessed in reality or in popular estimation, +no man can be a power religiously. The first essential is heroic +firmness. It was not reeds swaying in the wind by Jordan's banks, +nor a poor feeble man like these, that the people flocked to listen +to. His emblem was not the reed, but 'an iron pillar.' His whole +career had been marked by decisiveness, constancy, courage. Nothing +can be done worth doing in the world without a wholesome obstinacy +and imperturbability, which keep a man true to his convictions and +his task, whatever winds blow in his teeth. The multitudes will not +flock to listen to a teacher who does not speak with the accent of +conviction, nor will truths feebly grasped touch the lips with fire. +The first requisite for a religious teacher is that he shall be sure +of his message and of himself. Athanasius has to 'stand against the +world' before the world accepts his teaching. 'Though there were as +many devils in Worms as there are tiles on the house-tops, go I +will,' said Luther. That is the temper for God's instruments. + +The next requisite, which John also had, is manifest indifference to +material ease. Silken courtiers do not haunt the desert. Kings' +houses, and not either the wilderness or kings' dungeons, are the +sunny spots where they spread their plumage. If the gaunt ascetic, +with his girdle of camel's hair and his coarse fare, had been a +self-indulgent sybarite, his voice would never have shaken a nation. +The least breath of suspicion that a preacher is such a man ends his +power, and ought to end it; for self-indulgence and the love of +fleshly comforts eat the heart out of goodness, and make the eyes +too heavy to see visions. John was the same man then as they had +known him to be; therefore it was no impatience of the hardships of +his prison that had inspired his doubts. + +Our Lord next speaks of John's great office. He was a prophet. The +dim recognition that God spoke in His fiery words had drawn the +crowds, weary of teachers in whose endless jangle and jargon of +casuistry was no inspiration. The voice of a man who gets his +message at first-hand from God has a ring in it which even dull ears +detect as something genuine. Alas for the bewildering babble of +echoes and the paucity of voices to-day! + +So far Jesus had been appealing to His hearers' knowledge; He now +goes on to add higher truth concerning John. He declares that he is +more than a prophet, because he is His messenger before His face; +that is, immediately preceding Himself. We cannot stay to comment on +the remarkable variation between the original form of the quotation +from Malachi and Christ's version of it, which, in its substitution +of 'thee' for 'me,' bears so forcibly on the divinity of Christ; but +we may mark the principle on which John's superiority to the whole +prophetic order is based. It is that nearness to Jesus makes +greatness. The closer the relation to Him, the higher the honour. In +that long procession the King comes last; and of 'them that go +before, crying, Hosanna to Him that cometh,' the order of precedence +is that the first are last, and that the highest is he who walks in +front of the Sovereign. + +Next, we have the limitations of the forerunner and his relative +inferiority to the least in the kingdom of heaven. Another standard +of greatness is here from that of the world, which smiles at the +contrast between the uncultured preacher of repentance and the +mighty thinkers, poets, legislators, kingdom-makers, whom it enrols +among the great. In Christ's eyes greatness is nearness to Him, and +understanding of Him and His work. Neither natural faculty nor worth +is in question, but simply relation to the Kingdom and the King. He +who had only to preach of Him who should come after him, and had but +a partial apprehension of Christ and His work, stood on a lower +level than the least who has to look to a Christ who has come, and +has opened the gates of the kingdom to the humblest believer. The +truths which were hid from ages, and were but visible as in morning +twilight to John, are sunlit to us. The scholars in our Sunday-schools +know familiarly more than prophets and kings ever knew. We 'hold the +grey barbarian lower than the Christian child'; and not merely he, but +the wisest of the prophets, and the forerunner himself. The history of +the world is parted into two by the coming of Jesus Christ, as every +dictionary of dates tells, and the least of the greater is greater than +the greatest of the less. What a place, then, does Christ claim! Our +relation to Him determines greatness. To recognise Him is to be in the +Kingdom of Heaven. Union to Him brings us to fulfil the ideal of human +nature; and this is life, to know and trust Him, the King. + +Our Lord adds a brief characterisation of the effect of John's +ministry. It was of mingled good and evil, and there is a tone of +sadness perceptible in the ambiguous words. John had aroused great +popular excitement, and had stirred multitudes to seek to enter the +Kingdom. So far was good. But had all the crowds understood what sort +of kingdom it was? Had they not too often dragged down the lofty +conception to their own vulgar level, and, with their dream of an +outward sovereignty, thought to gain it for their own by violence +instead of meekness, by arms and worldly force rather than by +submission? The earnestness was good, but Christ's sad insight saw +how much strange fire had mingled in the blaze, as if some earth-born +smoky flame should seek to blend with the pure sunlight. Such seems +the most natural interpretation of the words, but they are ambiguous, +and may possibly mean by 'the violent' those who had been roused to +genuine earnestness by the clarion voice which rang in the ears of +that slumbering generation. + +Then follows the explanation of this new interest in the kingdom. +'All the prophets and the law prophesied until John.' The whole +period till his coming was one of preparation, and it all converged +on the epoch of the forerunner. The eagerness to flock into the +Kingdom which characterised his time would have been impossible in +the earlier days. He closes that order of things, standing, as it +were, on the isthmus between prophecy and fulfilment, belonging +properly to neither, but having affinities with both, and being the +transition from the one to the other. Then our Lord closes His words +concerning John with the distinct statement, which He expects His +hearers to have difficulty in receiving, probably from the +contradiction to it which John's present condition seemed to give, +that in him was fulfilled Malachi's prophecy of the sending of +'Elijah the prophet before ... day of the Lord.' The fiery Tishbite, +gaunt and grim, ascetic and solitary, who bearded Ahab, and flamed +across a corrupt age with a stern message of repentance or +destruction, was repeated in the lonely ascetic who had his Ahab in +Herod, and his Jezebel in Herodias, and like his prototype, knew no +fear, but flashed out the lightnings of his words on every sin. The +two men were brothers, and their voices answer each other across the +centuries. Christ crowns His witness to John while thus quoting the +last swansong of ancient prophecy, and thereby at once sets John on +a pinnacle of greatness, and advances a claim concerning Himself all +the more weighty, because He leaves it to be inferred. 'He that hath +ears to hear, let him hear'--this eulogium on the forerunner needs +to be reflected on ere all its bearings are seen. If John was Elias, +the day of the Lord was at hand, and 'the Sun of Righteousness' was +already above the horizon. Jesus' witness concerning John ends in +witness concerning Himself. + + + + +THE FRIEND OF PUBLICANS AND SINNERS + + + 'The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, + Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of + publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her + children,'--MATT. xi. 19. + +Jesus very seldom took notice of His enemies' slanders. 'When He was +reviled He reviled not again.' If ever He did, it was for the sake +of those whom it harmed to distort His beauty. Thus, here He speaks, +without the slightest trace of irritation, of the capricious +inconsistency of condemning Himself and John on precisely opposite +grounds. John will not suit them because he neither eats nor drinks. +Well, one would think that Jesus would be hailed since He does both. +But He pleases them just as little. What was at the root of this +contrary working dislike? It was the dislike for the truths they +both preached, the rejection of the wisdom of which they were the +messengers. When men do not like the message, nothing that the +messengers do, or are, is right. Never mind consistency, but object +to this form of Christian teaching that it is too harsh, and to +that, that it is too soft; to this man that he is always thundering +condemnation, to that, that he is always preaching mercy; to one, +that he has too much to say about duty, to another, that he dwells +too much on grace; to this presentation of the gospel, that it is +too learned and doctrinal, to that, that it is too sentimental and +emotional, and so on, and so on. The generation of children who +neither like piping nor lamenting, lives still. + +But my purpose now is not to dwell on the conduct with which our +Lord is dealing, but on this caricature of Him which His own lips +repeat without a sign of anger. It is the only calumny of +antagonists reported by Himself. We owe our knowledge of its +currency to this saying. Like other words of His enemies, this +saying is a distorted refraction of His glory. The facts it embodies +are facts; the conclusions it draws are false. If Jesus had not come +eating and drinking, He could not have been called gluttonous and a +wine-bibber. If He had not drawn publicans and sinners to Him in a +conspicuous manner and degree, He could not have been called their +friend. The charge, like all others, is a tribute. Let us try to see +what was the blessed truth that it caricatured. We may take the two +points separately, for though closely connected they are distinct, +and cover different ground. + +I. His enemies' witness to Christ's participation in common life. + +(_a_) That participation witnesses to His true manhood. + +Significant use of 'Son of Man' in context. + +Because He is so, He must pass into all human circumstances. + +Looked at in the light of incarnation, the simple fact that He +shared our common lot in all things assumes proportions of majestic +condescension. + +Extend to all physical necessities, and to simple material +pleasures. + +What a witness this hostile criticism is to Christ's genial +identification of Himself with homely feasters! + +(_b_) It sets forth the highest type of manhood. + +John could be ascetic, but the Pattern Man could not. + +The true perfecting of humanity is not the extirpation, but the +control, of the flesh by the spirit. And in accordance with this +thought, we may see in the eating and drinking Christ, the pattern +for the religious life. Asceticism is not the noblest form of +sanctity. There is nothing more striking in Old Testament than the +way in which its heroes and saints mingle in all ordinary duties. +They are warriors, statesmen, shepherds, they buy, they sell. +Asceticism came later, along with formalisms of other sorts. When +devotion cools, it is crusted with superstition and external marks +of godliness. Propriety in posturing in worship, casuistry in the +interpretation of law, and abstinence from common enjoyments, came +in Pharisaic times. And into such a world Jesus came, eating and +drinking. + +But His bearing in these matters is example for us. They were +rigidly kept in subordination. They were all done in communion with +God. + +So He has hallowed all by taking part in them. + +Christ should be present in all our material enjoyments. If you +cannot think that He is with you, if you cannot conceive of His +being there, that is no place for you. If you cannot feel that He +approves, that is no fit enjoyment for you. + +The tendency of this day is to take a wider view of the liberty +allowed to Christians in regard to partaking in material enjoyment, +and I dare say that many of you who have thought that I spoke well +in insisting on all things belonging to the Christian, will think +that I am dropping back into the old narrow groove in my next +remark, that all such thoughts need guarding. + +One has heard the example of Christ invoked to justify unchristian +laxity and excess. Therefore I wish to say that the liberty +permitted to Christians in these matters is to be limited within the +limits within which Christ's was confined. + +The excessive use of innocent things is not justified by His +example, nor is the use of things innocent in themselves, which are +mixed up with harmful things. + +Christ's example does not warrant the importance attached to luxury, +the waste on mere eating and drinking. It is sometimes quoted as +against total abstinence. It has no bearing on the question. But if +He gave up heaven for His brethren, I think that they who give up an +indulgence for the sake of theirs are in the line of His action. I +venture to think that if Jesus Christ lived in England to-day, He +would be a total abstinence fanatic. + +'If thy hand offend thee, cut it off.' Asceticism is not the +highest, but it is sometimes necessary. If my indulgence in innocent +things hurts me, or if my abstinence from them would help others, or +increase my power for good, or if innocent things are intertwisted +with things not innocent, then it is vain to try to shelter under +Christ's example, and the only right course for His disciple is to +abridge his liberty. He came eating and drinking, therefore His +followers may use all innocent earthly blessings and bodily +pleasures, subject to this one law: 'Whether ye eat or drink, or +whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God,' and to this solemn +warning: 'He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap +corruption.' + +II. His enemies' witness to Jesus as the friend of the outcasts. + +The fact was that He drew them to Himself and evidently was glad to +have them round Him. The inference natural to low natures was +_noscitur a sociis_ and that the bond between Him and them was +common evil tendencies and ways. His censors could not conceive of +any one's seeking the outcasts from pity and for their good. + +(_a_) Christ's consorting with these was the revelation of His +love to them. + +It meant no complicity with, nor minimising of, sinfulness. + +His sternness is as conspicuous as His love. + +He warned, rebuked, tried to win back. + +The highest purity is not repellent to sinners. + +So in Jesus is the combination of tenderest love and intense moral +earnestness. + +How difficult for anything but actual sight of such a life to have +painted it! Where did the evangelists get such an embodiment of two +attitudes so unlike each other, and which we so seldom see united in +fact? I venture to think that the combination in perfect harmony and +proportion of these, is a strong presumption in favour of the +historical truth of the Christ of the gospels. + +But remember that if we take His own statement ('He that hath seen +Me hath seen the Father'), we are to see in this kindly consorting +with sinners not only the love of a perfectly pure manhood, but a +revelation of the heart of God. And that adds wonderfulness and awe +to the fact. This man to whom sinners were drawn by strange +attraction, in whom they found the highest purity and yet softest +tenderness, therein revealed God. + +(_b_) It witnesses to His boundless hope. + +No outcasts were hopeless in His view. To man's eyes there are +hopeless classes, but He sees deeper. 'Perhaps a spark lies hid.' +There are dormant possibilities in all souls. + +None are so hard as that they cannot be melted by the high +temperature of love, just as there are no metals that cannot be +volatilised if exposed to intense heat. + +Carry the most thick-ribbed ice into the sun and it will thaw. + +So the Christian view of mankind is much more hopeful than that of +mere educationists or moralists. + +None of them paint human nature so black as it does, but none of +them have such boundless confidence in the possibility of making it +lustrously white. + +Urge, then, that none are beyond the power of Christ's gospel. His +divine Spirit can change any man. There are no incurables in the +judgment of the great Physician. + +(_c_) It witnesses to the truth that gross sin does not shut +out from Him so much as does self-complacent ignorance of our own +need. + +'They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.' +Where should the physician be but at the sick man's bedside? + +The one impassable barrier between us and Christ is fancying that we +are not sinners and do not need Him. + +This boundless hopefulness and seeking after the outcasts is the +unique glory of Christianity. What has been the mainspring of all +movements for their elevation? What broke the chains of slavery? +What has sent men to the ends of the earth for the elevation of +savage races? What is the motive power in the benevolent works of +this day? Is it philosophical altruism or is it Christian faith? No +doubt, there are some sporadic movements among people who do not +accept the gospel. At present, I do not ask how far these are due to +the underground influence of Christianity filtering to men who stand +apart from it. But I gravely doubt whether you will ever get any +large, continuous, self-sacrificing efforts for the outcasts, unless +they are the direct result of the spirit of Christ moving on men who +owe their own deliverance to Him. We have not yet seen agnostic +missionary societies or the like. + +This spirit must mark all living Christianity. If ever churches +forget their obligations to the publicans and sinners, they will +cease to grow. It will be a sign that they have lost their hold of +Christ. They will soon die, and no mourners will attend their +funerals. It is a good sign to-day that all Christian churches are +waking up to feel more their obligations to the outcasts. Only, we +must take heed that we go to them as Christ did, making no +compromise with sin, speaking no false flatteries, and bent on one +thing, their emancipation from the evil which is slaying them. + +Let us all take the blessed thought for ourselves, that Jesus Christ +is our friend because He is the friend of sinners, and we are +sinners. Degrees of sinfulness vary, but the fact is invariable. The +universality of sinfulness makes the universality of Christ's love +the more wonderful and blessed. If He did not love sinners, there +would be none for Him to love. We may be His enemies, or may neglect +all His beseechings; but He is still our friend, wishing us well, +and desiring to bless us. But He cannot give us His deepest +friendship unless we are willing to recognise our sin. We must come +to Him on the footing of transgressors if we are to come to Him at +all. + +He will deliver us from our sins. + +Appeal to give hearts to Him. + +How has He shown His friendship? 'Greater love hath no man than +this,' that 'while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' + +To be friends of Christ is the highest honour and blessing. + +'Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.' + +'He was called the friend of God.' Abraham's name in Mohammedan +lands is still El Khalil, the companion or friend. That is our +highest title. Christ's friends will not continue sinners. + + + + +SODOM, CAPERNAUM, MANCHESTER + + + 'Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein most of + His mighty works were done, because they repented not.' + --MATT. xi. 20. + +These words, and the woes which they introduce, are found in another +connection in Luke's Gospel. He attaches them to his report of the +mission of the seventy disciples. Matthew here introduces them in an +order which seems not to depend upon time, but upon identity of +subject. It is his method in his Gospel to group together similar +events, as we have it exemplified, for instance, in the Sermon on +the Mount, and in the long procession of miracles which immediately +follows it, as well as in other parts of the Gospel. In this chapter +it is not difficult to discover the common idea which binds its +parts into a whole. We have a number of instances strung together, +illustrating the different effects of Christ's appearance and work +on different classes of persons. There pass before us, John the +Baptist with his doubts, the excitable multitude ready to take the +Kingdom of Heaven by storm, the critics who cavilled with impartial +inconsistency alike at John's asceticism and at Christ's freedom. +Then follow the woes pronounced by Him upon the indifference of +those who knew Him best, and these are succeeded by His rejoicing in +spirit over the babes who accepted Him; and the whole is crowned by +great words of invitation which extend equally over those and over +all other varieties of disposition, and, since all 'labour and are +heavy laden,' summon all, be they what they may, to come and find +rest in Him. Obviously, then, the order in this chapter is not that +of time, but that of subject. + +Notice that of all these different classes and types of character +that pass in review before us, the one that is singled out for the +solemn denunciation of heavy judgment is that of the people who +stood in a blaze of light, and simply paid no attention to it. These +are the worst sort. I wonder how many of them are in my audience +now? + +Let me try, then, to bring before you the thoughts naturally +suggested by these introductory words, and the solemn, sorrowful +forebodings of retribution which follow them. I ask you to look at +three things,--the blaze of light; the neglect of the light; the +rebuke for the neglected light. 'Jesus began to upbraid the cities +wherein most of His mighty works were done.' + +I. First, then, consider the blaze of light. + +According to the words of my text, the larger number of the miracles +of our Lord were wrought in these three places. 'Cities,' our Bible +calls them; two of them were little fishing villages, the third a +somewhat considerable town. Where are these miracles recorded? Not +in our gospels. As for Chorazin, we never hear its name except in +this verse, and in the parallel in Luke's Gospel; and all that He +did there is swallowed up in oblivion. As for Bethsaida, there are a +couple of miracles, probably, recorded as having been wrought there, +though there is some obscurity in reference to the locality of at +least one of them. As for Capernaum, there are several miracles +recorded as having been performed in that place, and several others +referred to as having been done there. But there is nothing in the +four gospels that would suggest the statement of the text. + +Now the inference (which has nothing to do with my present subject, +but which I just note in passing) is,--how extremely fragmentary and +incomplete these four gospels avowedly are! They harvest for us a +few ears plucked in the great waving cornfield,--and all the others +withered and died where they grew. The light falls upon one or two +groups in the crowd of miserables whom He helped, the rest lie in +dim shadow. You have to think of dozens, I suppose I should not be +exaggerating if I were to say hundreds, of miracles unrecorded but +known, lying behind the specimens that we have in the gospels. 'Many +other things truly did Jesus, which are not written in this book.' + +Our Lord takes these two little fishing villages, and He parallels +and contrasts them with the two great maritime cities of Tyre and +Sidon, and says that these insignificant places have far more light +than those had. Then He isolates Capernaum, a place of more +importance, and His own usual settled residence; and, in like +manner, He contrasts it with the long-buried Sodom, and proclaims +the superiority of the illumination which fell on the more modern +three. Why were they so superior? Because they had Moses? because +they had the prophets, the law, the temple, the priesthood? By no +means. Because they had _Him_. So He sets Himself forth as +being the highest and clearest of all the revelations that God has +made to the world, and asserts that in Him, in His character, in His +deeds, men ought to find motives that should bow them in penitence +before God; motives sweeter, tenderer, stronger than any that the +world knows besides. There is no such light of the knowledge of the +glory of God anywhere else as there is in the face of Jesus Christ. +And oh! brother; no thoughts of the nobleness of rectitude, and the +imperfection of one's own life, no thoughts of a divine justice and +a divine punishment, will bow a man in penitence like having once +caught a glimpse of the perfect sweetness and perfect beauty of the +perfect Humanity that is revealed to us in Jesus Christ. + +But now, mark;--as Capernaum is to Sodom, so is Manchester to +Capernaum! I wonder if Jesus Christ were to come amongst us now, +whether He would not repeat in spirit the same lesson that is in my +text, and bid us contrast our greater illumination with the morning +twilight that dawned upon these men, and yet was light enough to +bring condemnation? Think,--these people of whom our Lord is +speaking here, and setting them high above Tyre and Sidon and Sodom, +knew nothing about His cross, death, resurrection, ascension. They +knew Him only as 'a dubious Name,' as a possible Divine Messenger +and a Miracle-worker; but all the sweetest and the deepest thoughts +about Him lay unrevealed. Whilst they stood but in the morning +twilight, you and I stand in the noonday blaze. _They_ might be +pardoned for doubting whether the light that shone from Him was +sunshine or candle, but men of this twentieth century, who have the +whole story of Christ, which is the gospel for the world, wrought +out through all the tragedy and pathos of His death, and triumph and +power of His resurrection, and who have, besides, the history of the +world and of the Church for nineteen centuries, are more +unpardonable unless they listen to Him with penitence and faith, +than were any of His contemporaries. + +My brother, we stand in the very focus and fountain, as it were, of +the heavenly radiance. A whole Christ, a crucified Christ, a risen +Christ, an ascended Christ, a Christ who is the Lord of the Spirit, +a Christ who through the centuries is saving and blessing men, a +Christ who can point to nineteen hundred years and say, 'That is My +work, in so far as it is good and noble,'--this Christ shines with a +clearer evidence than the Miracle-worker of Capernaum and Bethsaida. +And to you the word comes, 'If the mighty works which have been done +in _thee_, had been done in Bethsaida and Chorazin, they would +have remained until this day.' + +There are many of you here saturated with the knowledge of the +gospel, who from childhood have heard it and heard it and heard it. +You have lived in the light all your days. Alas! 'If the light that +is' round 'thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!' + +II. That brings me in the next place to notice the negligent +indifference to the Light in all its blaze. + +The men of these three little fishing towns were not sinners above +all the Galileans of their day. Their crime was that they did +nothing. No persecution is recorded as having been raised against +Him by them; there were no angry antagonisms, no scornful words, no +violent opposition. They simply stolidly stood like some black rock +in the sunshine, and let the sunshine pour down upon them, and +remained grim and black as ever. That was all. + +That is to say, the thing that brings down the severest rebuke is not +the angry antagonism of the men who are contending in half-darkness, +with a misunderstood and therefore disliked Christ, but the sleek, +passive apathy that is never touched deeper than its ears by the +message of God's word. It is not a difficult thing to incur this +condemnation. You have simply to do what some of you are doing, and +have been doing all your lives, as to Christianity, and that is--nothing! +You have simply to acquiesce politely and respectfully, as many of you +do, and say you are Christians; and there an end. You have simply to +take my words (as I fear so many of those that listen to them do) as +matters of course, the proper things to be said on a Sunday, and for me +to say, which may be very true in some vague, general way, but which +have no felt application to _you_. That is all you have to do. +It is quite enough. Negative vices will ruin a man, in mind, body, and +estate; and the negative sin of simple indifference avails to put a +barrier between you and Jesus Christ, through which none of His blessing +can filter. If a sailor does _not_ lash himself to something fixed, +the next sea that comes across the deck will do the rest. If a sick man +does _not_ take the medicine, by doing nothing he has committed +suicide. And simple passivity, that is to say (to translate it out +of Latin into good, honest English), doing nothing, is all that is +needed in order to part you from Christ and Christ from you. He +'upbraided the cities because they repented _not_.' + +One can fancy some well-to-do and thoroughly respectable and +clean-living native of Capernaum saying, 'What! those foul beasts in +Sodom better off than I? Impossible!' Well, Jesus Christ says so +upon very intelligible grounds. The measure of light is the measure +of responsibility. That is one ground. And the not preferring Him is +the preferring of self and the world, and that is the sin of sins. +He will 'convince the world of sin because they believe not on Me.' + +Now, one more point, viz. this gelatinous kind of indifference, as +of a disposition not stiff enough to take any impression, is found +most deeply seated, and hopeless, amongst--shall I venture?--amongst +people like _you_, who have been listening, listening, listening, until +your systems have become so habituated to this Christian preaching +that it does not produce the least effect. It all runs off you like +rain off waterproof. You have waterproofed your consciences and your +spiritual susceptibilities by long habit of listening and doing nothing. + +And some of you have come to this point, that you positively rather +like the titillation and excitement, slight though it may be, which +is produced by coming in contact now and then with a good, wholesome, +rousing Christian appeal. Not that you ever intend to do anything, +but it is pleasant to see a man in earnest, and preaching as if he +believed what he was saying. And so perhaps some of you are feeling +here to-night. + +Ah! my dear friends, it is possible for a man to live by the side of +Niagara until he cannot hear the cataract; and it is an awful thing +for men and women to live under the sound of Christian teaching +until it produces no more effect upon their wills and natures than +the ringing of the church bells, to which they pay no attention. + +You do not know the despair that comes over us preachers time after +time, as we look down upon the faces of our congregations, and feel, +'What _shall_ I do to put a sharp enough point upon this truth +to get it into the heart of some man that has been sitting there as +long as I have been standing here, and is never a bit the better for +it?' Our most earnest preaching is like putting a red-hot iron into +a pond: the cold water puts it out and closes above it, and there is +no more heard nor seen of it. Our old Puritan forefathers used to +talk about 'gospel-hardened hearers.' I believe that there are +people listening to me now who have become so inured to Christian +preaching that, like artillery horses, they will not move a muscle +or quiver if a whole battery of cannon is fired off under their +noses. God knows I despair sometimes, many a time, when I think of +the hundreds of people to whom I speak, year after year, and how +there seems next to nothing in the world to come of it all. + +III. Now lastly, notice here the rebuke of this negligence of the +light. + +'He began to upbraid the cities.' But oh! we shall misunderstand Him +and His purpose if we think that that upbraiding was anything but +the sorrowful expression of His own loving heart, which warned of +what was coming in order that He might never need to send it. +'_Woe_ unto you; _woe_ unto you,' and His own lips quivered and His own +heart felt the woe, as He laid bare the sin and foreannounced the +retribution. + +I do not feel that I dare dwell upon, or that it beseems me to say +much about, this solemn thought. Only, dear friends, I do desire, if +I could, to wake some of you to look realities for once in the face, +and to be sure of this, that retribution is proportioned to light, +and that the sin of sins is the rejection of Jesus Christ. Beneath +the broad folds of that 'more tolerable' there lie infinite degrees +of retribution. The same deed done by a group of men may be +indefinitely varied in its culpability, according to the motives and +the clearness of knowledge which accompany or prompt the doing of +it. And so, just because the life beyond is the accurate outcome and +issue of the whole character and conduct, estimated according to +motive and knowledge, therefore there must be differences infinitely +wide between the fate of the servant that knew his Lord's will, and +the servant that knew not. + +Where do you think we gospel-drenched English men and women will +stand in that allocation of culpability? I do not presume to say +more, but I beseech you,--let no present controversies about the +duration and the possible termination of retribution in another +state, or the possible prolongation of a probation into another +state, blind you to the fact that however these questions be +settled, this is a truth, independent of them, but being forgotten +amidst the dust of controversy, that the next life is a life of +retribution, and that there you and I will give account of our +deeds, and chiefly of our attitude to Jesus. + +And now let me say, in one word,--hoisting the danger-signal is the +work of kindness, and Jesus Christ was never more loving than when +from His lips there came these words, heavy with His own sorrow, and +stern with the prophecy of retribution. I know that Christian +teachers have often spoken of the solemn things beyond, in tones +much to be deplored, and which weaken the force of their message. +But surely, surely, if we believe in a judgment to come, and if we +believe that some of those that listen to us are in peril of it, +surely, surely, the plainest duty is that with tears in our voice +and pleading tenderness in our tone, seeing the sword coming, we +should give warning, and beseech men to flee for refuge to the hope +of the Gospel. The solemn words that we have been looking at now, +lead up to, and are intended to make more impressive and gracious, +the invitation with which this chapter ends: 'Come unto Me, all ye +that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' + +Dear friends, we stand in the blaze of the light. Our familiarity +with Jesus Christ may be our ruin. We are tempted to pay no heed to +His words because we know them so well. Neglect of Christ on your +part will bring deeper woes on your head than the people of +Capernaum pulled down upon theirs. The brighter the sunshine, the +louder the thunder and the fiercer the lightning; the longer the +summer day, the longer the winter night; the closer the comet comes +to the sun, the further away it plunges, at the other extremity of +its orbit, into space and darkness. So I beseech you, listen as if +you had never heard it before, and listen as if your lives depended +upon it (as indeed they do) to that merciful invitation, 'Come unto +Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,' and then you will get +rest for your souls here, and at that day when Sodom and Capernaum +and Manchester--they and we--shall stand before His throne, you may +lift up your eyes, and be glad to see who it is that sits on the +tribunal, and that you learned to know and love the face of your +Saviour, before you saw Him enthroned as your Judge. + + + + +CHRIST'S STRANGE THANKSGIVING + + + 'I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, + because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and + prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.' + --MATT. xi. 25. + +When Jesus was about to cure one dumb man, He lifted up His eyes to +heaven and sighed. Sorrow filled His soul in the act of working +deliverance. The thought of the depth of the miseries He had come to +heal, and of the ocean of them which He was then diminishing but by +one poor drop, saddened Him. When Jesus thought of the woes that had +fallen on the impenitent Sodom, and of the worse that still remained +to be revealed at the day of judgment, He rejoiced in spirit. +Strange! and yet all in harmony with His depth of love. This once, +and this once only, do we read that His heart filled with joy. Did +He lift up His solemn thanksgiving to God, for the woes that had +fallen on Chorazin? Oh no! For the blinding of the wise and prudent? +Oh no! For the revelation to babes? Yes, and not only for that, but +for that full and universal offer and possibility of salvation, +which forms the reason for both the revelation to babes and the +hiding from the wise. If we attend to the connection of this passage +we get light on its force. It begins with a clear prophecy of +endless woe and sorrow upon the rejecters. Then comes my text, +alleviating the terror of that thought of destruction by showing the +principles on which the reception and rejection are especially +based, the sort of people who receive and who reject. Then follows +the reason why the wise are shut out and the babes let in. That +reason is not only God's inscrutable decree, but something in the +very nature of the Gospel. God is hidden from all human sight. There +is one divine Revealer apart from whom all is darkness. 'Neither +doth any man know the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the +Son willeth to reveal Him.' That is the characteristic which shuts +out the wise and lets in the simple. + +Then follows the great call to all to come to Him. The practical +issue of all these solemn thoughts is that the Gospel is a Gospel +for all the world, and that the one qualification for coming within +the terms of its offer is to be 'weary and heavy laden.' Thus all +ends in the broad universality of the message, in its adaptation to +all, in its offer to all; and thus it is shown that every apparent +exclusion of any is but the result of its free offer to all, and +that to say 'Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent' +is but to say, 'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the +waters.' Well then might joy fill the heart of the Man of Sorrows. +Well might He lift up His solemn thanksgiving to God and say, 'I +thank Thee, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth.' + +Consider-- + +I. The Great Characteristics of the Gospel. + +We shall only understand the ground of the revealing and of the +hiding if we understand what it is which is offered. It is of such a +nature as necessarily to involve a twofold effect, caused by a +twofold attitude towards it. + +1. The Gospel addresses itself to all men--man as man--not to what +is sectional or accidental, not to classes, not to schools, not to +the _élite_. It is broad and universal. It speaks no dialect of +a province, but the universal language. It is addressed to Man as +Man. 'We have all of us one human heart.' It appeals to the noble +and the peasant, to the beggar on the dunghill and to the prince on +his throne, in precisely the same fashion. It is equal as the +providence of God, impartial as the light, universal as the air +which reddens equally the blood that flows in long-descended veins +and that of the foundling on the streets. In its sublime +universality there are no distinctions. Death and the Gospel know no +ranks. In both, 'the rich and the poor meet together, the Lord is +the Maker of them all.' 'In Christ Jesus there is neither +circumcision nor uncircumcision.' The blue sky which bends above all +alike is like that great word. + +2. It treats all as utterly helpless. + +3. It offers to all Redemption as their most pressing want. +Consequently, in substance it is the gift not of culture, but +deliverance, and in form it is not a theory but a fact, not a system +of _credenda_ but an action, not an _-ology_ but a power. + +4. It demands from all submission and trust. + +These being the characteristics, consider-- + +II. The qualifications for reception as necessarily resulting from +the characteristics. + +The persons who receive must be those who consent to take the +station which the Gospel assigns. They must be babes, by which is +meant not such as are innocent, but such as are reliant on a higher +Power, self-distrustful, willing to obey. + +These qualifications are all moral. The organ for reception of the +Gospel is the heart, not the head. To receive it by faith is a +spiritual, not an intellectual process. Ignorance is no +qualification nor no disqualification. Ignorance or knowledge is +immaterial. The one condition is to be willing to accept. + +III. The disqualification of the wise as necessarily resulting from +the qualification. + +The organ for the reception is not the head but the heart. +Therefore, wisdom is a barrier only in this way, that it has nothing +to do in the matter. Its presence or its absence is quite +indifferent here as in many other spheres of experience. The joys of +the affections, the joys of common emotions, the joys of bodily +life--all these are utterly independent of the culture of the +understanding. + +Hence 'wisdom' becomes a barrier, because its possessors are +accustomed to think it the master key. Not intellect, but the pride +of intellect, trusting in it, glorying in wisdom is the +disqualification. + +It is not true that there is any discord between religion and +cultivated thought. The loftier the soul, the loftier all its +attributes, the nobler should be, may be, its religion. It is not +true that there is any natural affinity between ignorance and +religion, between narrow understandings and deep faith. That is not +the Bible truth. The religion of Christ is not like owls that love +the twilight, but like eagles that 'purge their sight at the very +fountain itself of heavenly radiance.' + +Take history: the great names--an Augustine and a Luther, a Dante +and a Milton, a Bacon and a Pascal--are enough to show that there is +no antagonism. On the other hand, names enough rise to show that +there is no alliance. The inference is that the intellect has little +to do with a man's attitude towards the Revelation of God in Christ, +but that the moral is all. + +Let me close with the repetition of the thought that the apparent +exclusion is the result of the universality, and that 'Come unto Me' +is Christ's commentary on my text. Well then may we rejoice when we +think of a gospel for the world. Whatever you are, it is for you if +you are a man. However foolish, though you cannot read a letter and +know nothing, it is for you. If you be enriched with all knowledge, +you must come on the same terms as that beggar at your side. That is +a healthy discipline. You are more than a student, than a scholar, +than a thinker; you are a man, you are a sinful man. There is a +deeper chamber in your heart than any into which knowledge can +penetrate. Christ brings a gospel for all. When we think of it, with +its sublime disregard of all peculiarities, we may well rejoice with +him who said, 'Ye see your calling, brethren,' and with Him, the +loftiest, the incarnate, Wisdom who said, 'I thank Thee, Father.' +For if you rightly grasp the bearing of this text, and mark what +follows it in our Lord's heart and thoughts, you will see these deep +eyes of solemn joy turned from the heaven to you, filmy with +compassion, and those hands, then lifted in rapt devotion, stretched +out to beckon you and all the world to His breast, and hear the +voice that rose in that burst of thanksgiving melting into +tenderness as it woos you, be you wise or ignorant, to come to Him +and rest. + + + + +THE REST GIVER + + + 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, + and I will give you rest. 29. Take My yoke upon you, + and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and + ye shall find rest unto your souls.'--MATT. xi. 28, 29. + +One does not know whether tenderness or majesty is predominant in +these wonderful words. A divine penetration into man's true +condition, and a divine pity, are expressed in them. Jesus looks +with clearsighted compassion into the inmost history of all hearts, +and sees the toil and the sorrow which weigh on every soul. And no +less remarkable is the divine consciousness of power, to succour and +to help, which speaks in them. Think of a Jewish peasant of thirty +years old, opening his arms to embrace the world, and saying to all +men, 'Come and rest on My breast.' Think of a man supposing himself +to be possessed of a charm which could soothe all sorrow and lift +the weight from every heart. + +A great sculptor has composed a group where there diverge from the +central figure on either side, in two long lines, types of all the +cruel varieties of human pains and pangs; and in the midst stands, +calm, pure, with the consciousness of power and love in His looks, +and with outstretched hands, as if beckoning invitation and dropping +benediction, Christ the Consoler. The artist has but embodied the +claim which the Master makes for Himself here. No less remarkable is +His own picture of Himself, as 'meek and lowly in heart.' Did ever +anybody before say, 'I am humble,' without provoking the comment, +'He that says he is humble proves that he is not'? But Jesus Christ +said it, and the world has allowed the claim; and has answered, +'Though Thou bearest record of Thyself, Thy record is true.' + +But my object now is not so much to deal with the revelation of our +Lord contained in these marvellous words, as to try, as well as I +can, to re-echo, however faintly, the invitation that sounds in +them. There is a very striking reduplication running through them +which is often passed unnoticed. I shall shape my remarks so as to +bring out that feature of the text, asking you to look first with me +at the twofold designation of the persons addressed; next at the +twofold invitation; and last at the twofold promise of rest. + +I. Consider then the twofold designation here of the persons +addressed, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden.' + +The one word expresses effort and toil, the other a burden and +endurance. The one speaks of the active, the other of the passive, +side of human misery and evil. Toil is work which is distasteful in +itself, or which is beyond our faculties. Such toil, sometime or +other, more or less, sooner or later, is the lot of every man. All +work becomes labour, and all labour, sometime or other, becomes +toil. The text is, first of all, and in its most simple and surface +meaning, an invitation to all the men who know how ceaseless, how +wearying, how empty the effort and energy of life is, to come to +this Master and rest. + +You remember those bitter words of the Book of Ecclesiastes, where +the preacher sets forth a circle of labour that only comes back to +the point where it began, as being the law for nature and the law +for man. And truly much of our work seems to be no better than that. +We are like squirrels in a cage, putting forth immense muscular +effort, and nothing to show for it after all. 'All is vanity, and +striving after wind.' + +Toil is a curse; work is a blessing. But all our work darkens into +toil; and the invitation, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour,' +reaches to the very utmost verge of the world and includes every +soul. + +And then, in like manner, the other side of human experience is set +forth in that other word. For most men have not only to work, but to +bear; not only to toil, but to sorrow. There are efforts that need +to be put forth, which task all our energy, and leave the muscles +flaccid and feeble. And many of us have, at one and the same moment, +to work and to weep, to toil whilst our hearts are beating like a +forge-hammer; to labour whilst memories and thoughts that might +enfeeble any worker, are busy with us. A burden of sorrow, as well +as effort and toil, is, sooner or later, the lot of all men. + +But that is only surface. The twofold designation here before us +goes a great deal deeper than that. It points to two relationships +to God and to God's law of righteousness. Men labour with vague and +yet with noble effort, sometimes, to do the thing that is right, and +after all efforts there is left a burden of conscious defect. In the +purest and the highest lives there come both of these things. And +Jesus Christ, in this merciful invitation of His, speaks to all the +men that have tried, and tried in vain, to satisfy their consciences +and to obey the law of God, and says to them, 'Cease your efforts, +and no longer carry that burden of failure and of sin upon your +shoulders. Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.' + +I should be sorry to think that I was speaking to any man or woman +who had not, more or less, tried to do what is right. You have +laboured at that effort with more or less of consistency, with more +or less of earnestness. Have you not found that you could not +achieve it? + +I am sure that I am speaking to no man or woman who has not upon his +or her conscience a great weight of neglected duties, of actual +transgressions, of mean thoughts, of foul words and passions, of +deeds that they would be ashamed that any should see; ashamed that +their dearest should catch a glimpse of. My friend, universal +sinfulness is no mere black dogma of a narrow Calvinism; it is no +uncharitable indictment against the race; it is simply putting into +definite words the consciousness that is in every one of your +hearts. You know that, whether you like to think about it or not, +you have broken God's law, and are a sinful man. You carry a burden +on your back whether you realise the fact or no, a burden that clogs +all your efforts, and that will sink you deeper into the darkness +and the mire. 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour,' and with noble, +but, at bottom, vain, efforts have striven after right and truth. +'Come unto Me all ye that are burdened,' and bear, sometimes +forgetting it, but often reminded of its pressure by galled +shoulders and wearied limbs, the burden of sin on your bent backs. + +This invitation includes the whole race. In it, as in a blank form, +you may each insert your name. Jesus Christ speaks to thee, John, +Thomas, Mary, Peter, whatever thy name may be, as distinctly as if +you saw your name written on the pages of your New Testament, when +He says to you, 'Come unto Me, _all_ ye that labour and are +heavy laden.' For the 'all' is but the sum of the units; and I, and +thou, and thou, have our place within the word. + +II. Now, secondly, look at the twofold invitation that is here. + +'Come unto Me ... Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.' These two +things are not the same. 'Coming unto Me,' as is quite plain to the +most superficial observation, is the first step in the approach to a +companionship, which companionship is afterwards perfected and kept +up by obedience and imitation. The 'coming' is an initial act which +makes a man Christ's companion. And the 'Take My yoke upon you, and +learn of Me,' is the continuous act by which that companionship is +manifested and preserved. So that in these words, which come so +familiarly to most of our memories that they have almost ceased to +present a sharp meaning, there is not only a merciful summons to the +initial act, but a description of the continual life of which that +act is the introduction. + +And now, to put that into simpler words, when Jesus Christ says +'Come unto Me,' He Himself has taught us what is His inmost meaning +in that invitation, by another word of His: 'He that cometh unto Me +shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst'; +where the parallelism of the clauses teaches us that to come to +Christ is simply to put our trust in Him. There is in faith a true +movement of the whole soul towards the Master. I think that this +metaphor teaches us a great deal more about that faith that we are +always talking about in the pulpit, and which, I am afraid, many of +our congregations do not very distinctly understand, than many a +book of theology does. To 'come to Him' implies, distinctly, that +He, and no mere theological dogma, however precious and clear, is +the Object on which faith rests. + +And, therefore, if Christ, and not merely a doctrinal truth about +Christ, be the Object of our faith, then it is very clear that +faith, which grasps a Person, must be something more than the mere +act of the understanding which assents to a truth. And what more is +it? How is it possible for one person to lay hold of and to come to +another? By trust and love, and by these alone. These be the bonds +that bind men together. Mere intellectual consent may be sufficient +to fasten a man to a dogma, but there must be will and heart at work +to bind a man to a person; and if it be Christ and not a theology, +to which we come by our faith, then it must be with something more +than our brains that we grasp Him and draw near to Him. That is to +say, your will is engaged in your confidence. Trust Him as you trust +one another, only with the difference befitting a trust directed to +an absolute and perfect object of trust, and not to a poor, variable +human heart. Trust Him as you trust one another. Then, just as +husband and wife, parent and child, friend and friend, pass through +all intervening hindrances and come together when they trust and +love, so you come closer to Christ as the very soul of your soul by +an inward real union, than you do even to your dear ones, if you +grapple Him to your heart with the hoops of steel, which, by simple +trust in Him, the Divine Redeemer forges for us. 'Come unto Me,' +being translated out of metaphor into fact, is simply 'Believe on +the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.' + +And still further, we have here, not only the initial act by which +companionship and union with Jesus Christ is brought about, but the +continual course by which it is kept up, and by which it is +manifested. The faith which saves a man's soul is not all which is +required for a Christian life. 'Take My yoke upon you, and _learn +of Me_.' The yoke is that which, laid on the broad forehead or +the thick neck of the ox, has attached to it the cords which are +bound to the burden that the animal draws. The burden, then, which +Christ gives to His servants to pull, is a metaphor for the specific +duties which He enjoins upon them to perform; and the yoke by which +they are fastened to their burdens, 'obliged' to their duties, is +His authority, So to 'take His yoke' upon us is to submit our wills +to His authority. Therefore this further call is addressed to all +those who have come to Him, feeling their weakness and their need +and their sinfulness, and have found in Him a Saviour who has made +them restful and glad; and it bids them live in the deepest +submission of will to Him, in joyful obedience, in constant service; +and, above all, in the daily imitation of the Master. + +You must put both these commandments together before you get +Christ's will for His children completely expressed. There are some +of you who think that Christianity is only a means by which you may +escape the penalty of your sins; and you are ready enough, or fancy +yourselves so, to listen when He says, 'Come to Me that you may be +pardoned,' but you are not so ready to listen to what He says +afterwards, when He calls upon you to take His yoke upon you, to +obey Him, to serve Him, and above all to copy Him. And I beseech you +to remember that if you go and part these two halves from one +another, as many people do, some of them bearing away the one half +and some the other, you have got a maimed Gospel; in the one case a +foundation without a building, and in the other case a building +without a foundation. The people who say that Christ's call to the +world is 'Come unto Me,' and whose Christianity and whose Gospel is +only a proclamation of indulgence and pardon for past sin, have laid +hold of half of the truth. The people who say that Christ's call is +'Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me,' and that Christianity is a +proclamation of the duty of pure living after the pattern of Jesus +Christ our great Example, have laid hold of the other half of the +truth. And both halves bleed themselves away and die, being torn +asunder; put them together, and each has power. + +That separation is one reason why so many Christian men and women +are such poor Christians as they are--having so little real +religion, and consequently so little real joy. I could lay my +fingers upon many men, professing Christians--I do not say whether +in this church or in other churches--whose whole life shows that +they do not understand that Jesus Christ has a twofold summons to +His servants; and that it is of no avail once, long ago, to have +come, or to think that you have come, to Him to get pardon, unless +day by day you are keeping beside Him, doing His commandments, and +copying His sweet and blessed example. + +III. And now, lastly, look at the twofold promise which is here. + +I do not know if there is any importance to be attached to the +slight diversity of language in the two verses, so as that in the +one case the promise runs, 'I will _give_ you rest,' and in the +other, 'Ye shall _find_ rest.' That sounds as if the rest that +was contingent upon the first of the invitations was in a certain +and more direct and exclusive fashion Christ's gift than the rest +which was contingent upon the second. It may be so, but I attach no +importance to that criticism; only I would have you observe that our +Lord distinctly separates here between the rest of 'coming,' and the +rest of wearing His 'yoke.' These two, howsoever they may be like +each other, are still not the same. The one is the perfecting and +the prolongation, no doubt, of the other, but has likewise in it +some other, I say not more blessed, elements. Dear brethren, here +are two precious things held out and offered to us all. There is +rest in coming to Christ; the rest of a quiet conscience which gnaws +no more; the rest of a conscious friendship and union with God, in +whom alone are our soul's home, harbour, and repose; the rest of +fears dispelled; the rest of forgiveness received into the heart. Do +you want that? Go to Christ, and as soon as you go to Him you will +get that rest. + +There is rest in faith. The very act of confidence is repose. Look +how that little child goes to sleep in its mother's lap, secure from +harm because it trusts. And, oh! if there steal over our hearts such +a sweet relaxation of the tension of anxiety when there is some dear +one on whom we can cast all responsibility, how much more may we be +delivered from all disquieting fears by the exercise of quiet +confidence in the infinite love and power of our Brother Redeemer, +Christ! He will be 'a covert from the storm, and a refuge from the +tempest'; as 'rivers of water in a dry place, and the shadow of a +great rock in a weary land.' If we come to Him, the very act of +coming brings repose. + +But, brethren, that is not enough, and, blessed be God! that is not +all. There is a further, deeper rest in obedience, and emphatically +and most blessedly there is a rest in Christ-likeness. 'Take My yoke +upon you.' There is repose in saying 'Thou art my Master, and to +Thee I bow.' You are delivered from the unrest of self-will, from +the unrest of contending desires, you get rid of the weight of too +much liberty. There is peace in submission; peace in abdicating the +control of my own being; peace in saying, 'Take Thou the reins, and +do Thou rule and guide me.' There is peace in surrender and in +taking His yoke upon us. + +And most especially the path of rest for men is in treading in +Christ's footsteps. 'Learn of Me,' it is the secret of tranquillity. +We have done with passionate hot desires,--and it is these that +breed all the disquiet in our lives--when we take the meekness and +the lowliness of the Master for our pattern. The river will no +longer roll, broken by many a boulder, and chafed into foam over +many a fall, but will flow with even foot, and broad, smooth bosom, +to the parent sea. + +There is quietness in self-sacrifice, there is tranquillity in +ceasing from mine own works and growing like the Master. + + 'The Cross is strength; the solemn Cross is gain. + The Cross is Jesus' breast, + Here giveth He the rest, + That to His best beloved doth still remain.' + +'Take up thy cross daily,' and thou enterest into His rest. + +My brother, 'the wicked is like the troubled sea that cannot rest, +whose waters cast up mire and dirt.' But you, if you come to Christ, +and if you cleave to Christ, may be like that 'sea of glass, mingled +with fire,' that lies pure, transparent, waveless before the Throne +of God, over which no tempests rave, and which, in its deepest +depths, mirrors the majesty of 'Him that sitteth upon the Throne, +and of the Lamb.' + + + + +THE PHARISEES' SABBATH AND CHRIST'S + + + 'At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the + corn; and His disciples were an hungred, and began to + pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. 2. But when the + Pharisees saw it they said unto Him, Behold, Thy + disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the + Sabbath day. 3. But he said unto them, Have ye not read + what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that + were with him; 4. How he entered into the house of God, + and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him + to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only + for the priests! 5. Or have ye not read in the law, how + that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple + profane the Sabbath, and are blameless! 6. But I say + unto you, That in this place is one greater than the + temple. 7. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I + will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have + condemned the guiltless. 8. For the Son of Man is Lord + even of the Sabbath day 9. And when he was departed + thence, He went into their synagogue: 10. And, behold, + there was a man which had his hand withered. And they + asked Him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath + days? that they might accuse Him. 11. And He said unto + them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have + one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, + will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? 12. How + much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is + lawful to do well on the Sabbath days. 13. Then saith + He to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he + stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as + the other. 14. Then the Pharisees went out, and held a + counsel against Him, how they might destroy Him.' + --MATT. xii. 1-14. + +We have had frequent occasion to point out that this Gospel is +constructed, not on chronological, but on logical lines. It groups +together incidents related in subject, though separated in time. +Thus we have the collection of Christ's sayings in the Sermon on the +Mount, followed by the collection of doings in chapters viii. and +ix., the collected charge to His ambassadors in chapter x., the +collection of instances illustrative of the relations of different +classes to the message of the Kingdom and its King in chapter xi., +and now in this chapter a series of incidents setting forth the +growing bitterness of antagonism on the part of the guardians of +traditional and ceremonial religion. This is followed, in the next +chapter, with a series of parables. + +The present lesson includes two Sabbath incidents, in the first of +which the disciples are the transgressors of the sabbatic tradition; +in the second, Christ's own action is brought into question. The +scene of the first is in the fields, that of the second is in the +synagogue. In the one, Sabbath observance is set aside at the call +of personal needs; in the other, at the call of another's calamity. +So the two correspond to the old Puritan principle that the Sabbath +law allowed of 'works of necessity and of mercy.' + +I. The Sabbath and personal needs. This is a strange sort of King +who cannot even feed His servants. What a glimpse into the penury of +their usual condition the quiet statement that the disciples were +hungry gives us, especially if we remember that it is not likely +that the Master had fared better than they! Indeed, His reference to +David and his band of hungry heroes suggests that 'He was an +hungred' as well as 'they that were with Him.' As they traversed +some field path through the tall yellowing corn, they gathered a few +ears, as the merciful provision of the law allowed, and hastily +began to eat the rubbed-out grains. As soon as they 'began,' the +eager Pharisees, who seem to have been at their heels, call Him to +'behold' this dreadful crime, which, they think, requires His +immediate remonstrance. If they had had as sharp eyes for men's +necessities as for their faults, they might have given them food +which it was 'lawful' to eat, and so obviated this frightful +iniquity. But that is not the way of Pharisees. Moses had not +forbidden such gleaning, but the casuistry which had spun its +multitudinous webs over the law, hiding the gold beneath their dirty +films, had decided that plucking the ears was of the nature of +reaping, and reaping was work, and work was forbidden, which being +settled, of course the inferential prohibition became more important +than the law from which it was deduced. That is always the case with +human conclusions from revelation; and the more questionable these +are, the more they are loved by their authors, as the sickly child +of a family is the dearest. + +Our Lord does not question the authority of the tradition, nor ask +where Moses had forbidden what His disciples were doing. Still less +does He touch the sanctity of the Jewish Sabbath. He accepts His +questioners' position, for the time, and gives them a perfect answer +on their own ground. Perhaps there may be just a hint in the double +'Have ye not read?' that they could not produce Scripture for their +prohibition, as He would do for the liberty which He allowed. He +quotes two instances in which ceremonial obligations gave way before +higher law. The first, that of David and his followers eating the +shew-bread, which was tabooed to all but priests, is perhaps chosen +with some reference to the parallel between Himself, the true King, +now unrecognised and hunted with His humble followers, and the +fugitive outlaw with his band. It is but a veiled allusion at most; +but, if it fell on good soil, it might have led some one to ask, 'If +this is David, where is Saul, and where is Doeg, watching him to +accuse him?' This example serves our Lord's purpose of showing that +even a divine prohibition, if it relates to mere ceremonial matter, +melts, like wax, before even bodily necessities. What a thrill of +holy horror would meet the enunciation of the doctrine that such a +carnal thing as hunger rightfully abrogated a sacred ritual +proscription! The law of right is rigid; that of external ceremonies +is flexible. Better that a man should die than that the one should +be broken; better that the other should be flung to the winds than +that a hungry man should go unfed. It may reasonably be doubted +whether all Christian communities have learned the sweep of that +principle yet, or so judge of the relative importance of keeping up +their appointed forms of worship, and of feeding their hungry +brother. The brave Ahimelech, 'the son of Ahitub,' was ahead of a +good many people of to-day. + +The second example comes still closer to the question in hand, and +supplies the reference to the Sabbath law, which the former had not. +There was much hard work done in the temple on the Sabbath--sacrifices +to be slain, fires and lamps to be kindled, and so on. That was not +Sabbath desecration. Why? Because it was done in the temple, and as a +part of divine service. The sanctity of the place, and the consequent +sanctity of the service, exempted it from the operation of the law. +The question, no doubt, was springing to the lips of some scowling +Pharisee, 'And what has that to do with our charge against your +disciples?' when it was answered by the wonderful next words, 'In +this place'--here among the growing corn, beneath the free heaven, far +away from Jerusalem--'is one greater than the temple.' Profound words, +which could only sound as blasphemy or nonsense to the hearers, but +which touch the deepest truths concerning His person and His relations +to men, and which involve the destruction of all temples and rituals. +He is all that the temple symbolised. In Him the Godhead really dwells; +He is the meeting-place of God and man, the place of the oracle, the +place of sacrifice. Then, where He stands is holy ground, and all work +done with reference to Him is worship. These poor followers of His are +priests; and if, for His sake, they had broken a hundred Sabbath +regulations, they were guiltless. + +So far our Lord has been answering His opponents; now He attacks. +The quotation from Hosea is often on His lips. Here He uses it to +unmask the real motives of His assailants. Their murmuring came not +from more religion, but from less love. If they had had a little +more milk of human kindness in them, it would have died on their +lips; if they had grasped the real meaning of the religion they +professed, they would have learned that its soul was 'mercy'--that +is, of course, man's gentleness to man--and that sacrifice and +ceremony were but the body, the help, and sometimes the hindrance, +of that soul. They would have understood the relative importance of +disposition and of external worship, as end and means, and not have +visited a mere breach of external order with a heat of disapprobation +only warranted by a sin against the former. Their judgment would have +been liker God's if they had looked at those poor hungry men with +merciful eyes and with merciful hearts, rather than with eager scrutiny +that delighted to find them tripping in a triviality of outward +observance. What mountains of harsh judgment by Christ's own followers +on each other would have been removed into the sea if the spirit of +these great words had played upon them! + +The 'for' at the beginning of verse 8 seems to connect with the last +words of the preceding verse, 'I call them guiltless, for,' etc. It +states more plainly still the claim already put forward in verse 6. +'The Son of Man,' no doubt, is equivalent to 'Messiah'; but it is +more, as revealing at once Christ's true manhood and His unique and +complete manhood, in which the very ideal of man is personally +realised. It can never be detached from His other name, the 'Son of +God.' They are the obverse and reverse of the same golden coin. He +asserts His power over the Sabbath, as enjoined upon Israel. His is +the authority which imposed it. It is plastic in His hands. The +whole order of which it is part has its highest purpose in +witnessing of Him. He brings the true 'rest.' + +II. The Sabbath, and works of beneficence. Matthew appears to have +brought together here two incidents which, according to Luke, were +separated in time. The scene changes to a synagogue, perhaps that of +Capernaum. Among the worshippers is a man with 'a withered hand,' +who seems to have been brought there by the Pharisees as a bait to +try to draw out Christ's compassion. What a curious state of mind +that was,--to believe that Christ could work miracles, and to want +Him to do one, not for pity's sake, nor for confirmation of faith, +but to have material for accusing Him! And how heartlessly careless +of the poor sufferer they are, when they use him thus! He for his +part stands silent. Desire and faith have no part in evoking this +miracle. Deadly hatred and calculating malignity ask for it, and for +once they get their wish. Having baited their hook, and set the man +with his shrunken hand full in view, they get into their corners and +wait the event. Matthew tells us that they ask our Lord the question +which Luke represents Him as asking them. Perhaps we may say that He +gave voice to the question which they were asking in their hearts. +Their motive is distinctly given here. They wanted material for a +legal process before a local tribunal. The whole thing was an +attempt to get Jesus within the meshes of the law. Again, as in the +former case, it is the traditional, not the written, law, which +healing would have broken. The question evidently implies that, in +the judgment of the askers, healing was unlawful. Talmudical +scholars tell us that in later days the rabbis differed on the +point, but that the prevalent opinion was, that only sicknesses +threatening immediate danger to life could lawfully be treated on +the Sabbath. The more rigid doctrine was obviously held by Christ's +questioners. It is a significant instance of the absurdity and +cruelty which are possible when once religion has been made a matter +of outward observance. Nothing more surely and completely ossifies +the heart and blinds common sense. + +In His former answer Jesus had appealed to Scripture to bear out His +teaching that Sabbath observance must bend to personal necessities. +Here He appeals to the natural sense of compassion to confirm the +principle that it must give way to the duty of relieving others. His +question is as confident of an answer as the Pharisees' had been. +But though He takes it for granted that His hearers could only +answer it in one way, the microscopic and cold-blooded ingenuity of +the rabbis, since His day, answers it in another. They say, 'Don't +lift the poor brute out, but throw in a handful of fodder, and +something for him to lie upon, and let him be till next day.' A +remarkable way of making 'thine ox and thine ass' keep the Sabbath! +There is a delicacy of expression in the question; the owner of 'one +sheep' would be more solicitous about it than if he had a hundred; +and our Shepherd looks on all the millions of His flock with a heart +as much touched by their sorrow and needs as if each were His only +possession. The question waits for no answer; but Christ goes on (as +if there could be but one reply) to His conclusion, which He binds +to His first question by another, equally easy to answer. Man's +superiority to animals makes his claim for help more imperative. +'You would not do less for one another than for a sheep in a hole, +surely.' But the form in which our Lord put His conclusive answer to +the Pharisees gives an unexpected turn to the reply. He does not +say, 'It is lawful to heal,' but, 'It is lawful to do well,' thus at +once showing the true justification of healing, namely, that it was +a beneficent act, and widening the scope of His answer to cover a +whole class of cases. 'To do well' here means, not to do right, but +to do good, to benefit men. The principle is a wide one: the +charitable succour of men's needs, of whatever kind, is congruous +with the true design of that day of rest. Have the churches laid +that lesson to heart? On the whole, it is to be observed that our +Lord here distinctly recognises the obligation of the Sabbath, that +He claims power over it, that He permits the pressure of one's own +necessities and of others' need of help, to modify the manner of its +observance, and that He leaves the application of these principles +to the spiritual insight of His followers. + +The cure which follows is done in a singular fashion. Without a +whisper of request from the sufferer or any one else, He heals him +by a word. His command has a promise in it, and He gives the power +to do what He bids the man do. 'Give what Thou commandest,' says St. +Augustine, 'and command what Thou wilt.' We get strength to obey in +the act of obedience. But beyond the possible symbolical +significance of the mode of cure, and beyond the revelation of +Christ's power to heal by a word, the manner of healing had a +special reason in the very cavils of the Pharisees. Not even they +could accuse Him of breaking any Sabbath law by such a cure. What +had He done? Told the man to put out his hand. Surely that was not +unlawful. What had the man done? Stretched it forth. Surely that +broke no subtle rabbinical precept. So they were foiled at every +turn, driven off the field of argument, and baffled in their attempt +to find ground for laying an information against Him. But neither +His gentle wisdom nor His healing power could reach these hearts, +made stony by conceit and pedantic formalism; and all that their +contact with Jesus did was to drive them to intenser hostility, and +to send them away to plot His death. That is what comes of making +religion a round of outward observances. The Pharisee is always +blind as an owl to the light of God and true goodness; keen-sighted +as a hawk for trivial breaches of his cobweb regulations, and cruel +as a vulture to tear with beak and claw. The race is not extinct. We +all carry one inside us, and need God's help to cast him out. + + + + +AN ATTEMPT TO ACCOUNT FOR JESUS + + + 'But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This man + doth not cast out demons, but by Beelzebub, the prince + of the demons.'--MATT. xii. 24. + +Mark's Gospel tells us that this astonishing explanation of Christ +and His work was due to the ingenious malice of an ecclesiastical +deputation, sent down from Jerusalem to prevent the simple folk in +Galilee from being led away by this new Teacher. They must have been +very hard put to it to explain undeniable but unwelcome facts, when +they hazarded such a preposterous theory. + +Formal religionists never know what to make of a man who is in +manifest touch with the unseen. These scribes, like Christ's other +critics, judged themselves in judging Him, and bore witness to the +very truths that they were eager to deny. For this ridiculous +explanation admits the miraculous, recognises the impossibility of +accounting for Christ on any naturalistic hypothesis, and by its +very outrageous absurdity indicates that the only reasonable +explanation of the facts is the admission of His divine message and +authority. So we may learn, even from such words as these, how the +glory of Jesus Christ shines, though distorted and blurred, through +the fogs of prejudice and malice. + +I. Note, then, first, the unwelcome and undeniable facts that insist +upon explanation. + +I have said that these hostile critics attest the reality of the +miracles. I know that it is not fashionable at present to attach +much weight to the fact that none of all the enemies that saw them +ever had a doubt about the reality of Christ's miracles. I know +quite well that in an age that believed in the possibility of the +supernatural, as this age does not, credence would be more easy, and +that such testimony is less valuable than if it had come from a jury +of scientific twentieth century sceptics. But I know, on the other +hand, that for long generations the expectation of the miraculous +had died out before Christ came; that His predecessor, John the +Baptist, made no such claims; and that, at first, at all events, +there was no expectation of Jesus working miracles, to lead to any +initial ease of acceptance of His claims. And I know that there were +never sharper and more hostile eyes brought to bear upon any man and +his work than the eyes of these ecclesiastical 'triers.' It would +have been so easy and so triumphant a way of ending the whole +business if they could have shown, what they were anxious to be able +to show, that the miracle was a trick. And so I venture to think +that not without some weight is the attestation from the camp of the +enemy, 'This man casteth out demons.' + +But you have to remember that amongst the facts to be explained is +not only this one of Christ's works having passed muster with His +enemies, but the other of His own reiterated and solemn claim to +have the power of working what we call miracles. Now, I wish to +dwell on that for one moment, because it is fashionable to put one's +thumb upon it nowadays. It is not unusual to eliminate from the +Gospel narrative all that side of it, and then to run over in +eulogiums about the rest. But what we have to deal with is this +fact, that the Man whom the world admits to be the consummate flower +of humanity, meek, sane, humble, who has given all generations +lessons in self-abnegation and devotion, claimed to be able to raise +the dead, to cast out demons, and to do many wonderful works. And +though we should be misrepresenting the facts if we said that He did +what His followers have too often been inclined to do, _i.e._ +rested the stress of evidence upon that side of His work, yet it is +an equal exaggeration in the other direction to do, as so many are +inclined to do to-day, _i.e._ disparage the miraculous evidence +as no evidence at all. 'Go and tell John the things that ye see and +hear,'--that is His own answer to the question, 'Art Thou He that +should come?' And though I rejoice to believe that there are far +loftier and more blessed answers to it than these outward signs and +tokens, they _are_ signs and tokens; and they are part of the +whole facts that have to be accounted for. + +I would venture to widen the reference of my text for a moment, and +include not only the actual miracles of our Lord's earthly life, but +all the beneficent, hallowing, elevating, ennobling, refining +results which have followed upon the proclamation of His truth in +the world ever since. I believe, as I think Scripture teaches me to +believe, that in the world today Christ is working; and that it is a +mistake to talk about the results of 'Christianity,' meaning thereby +some abstract system divorced from Him. It is the working of Jesus +Christ in the world that has brought 'nobler manners, purer laws'; +that has given a new impulse and elevation to art and literature; +that has lifted the whole tone of society; that has suppressed +ancient evils; that has barred the doors of old temples of devildom, +of lust, and cruelty, and vice; and that is still working in the +world for the elevation and the deifying of humanity. And I claim +the whole difference between 'B.C. and A.D.'--the whole difference +between Christendom and Heathendom--as being the measure of the +continuous power with which Jesus Christ has grappled with and +throttled the snakes that have fastened on men. That continuous +operation of His in delivering from the powers of evil has, indeed, +not yielded such results as might have been expected. But just as on +earth He was hindered in the exercise of His supernatural power by +men's unbelief, so that 'He could do no mighty works, save that He +laid His hands on a few sick folk' here and there, 'and healed +them,' so He has been thwarted by His Church, and hindered in the +world, from manifesting the fulness of His power. But yet, +sorrowfully admitting that, and taking as deserved the scoffs of the +men that say, 'Your Christianity does not seem to do so very much +after all,' I still venture to allege that its record is unique; and +that these are facts which wise men ought to take into account, and +have some fairly plausible way of explaining. + +II. Secondly, note the preposterous explanation. 'This man doth not +cast out demons, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons.' That +is the last resort of prejudice so deep that it will father an +absurdity rather than yield to evidence. And Christ has no +difficulty in putting it aside, as you may remember, by a piece of +common sense: 'If Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against +himself, and his kingdom cannot stand.' There is an old play which +has for its title, _The Devil as an Ass._ He is not such an ass +as that, to build up with one hand and cast down with the other. As +the proverb has it, 'Hawks do not pick out hawks' eyes.' But this +plainly hopeless attempt to account for Christ and His work may be +turned into a witness for both, and yield not unimportant lessons. + +This explanation witnesses to the insufficiency of all explanations +which omit the supernatural. These men felt that they had to do with +a Man who was in touch with a whole world of unseen powers; and that +they had here to deal with something to which ordinary measuring +lines were palpably inapplicable. And so they fell back upon 'by +Beelzebub'; and they thereby admitted that humanity without +something more at the back of it never made such a man as that. And +I beg you to lay that to heart. It is very easy to solve an +insoluble problem if you begin by taking all the insoluble elements +out of it. And that is how a great deal of modern thinking does with +Christianity. Knock out all the miracles; pooh-pooh all Christ's +claims; say nothing about Incarnation; declare Resurrection to be +entirely unhistorical, and you will not have much difficulty in +accounting for the rest; and it will not be worth the accounting +for. But here is the thing to be dealt with, that _whole_ life, +the Christ of the Gospels. And I venture to say that any explanation +professing to account for Him which leaves out His coming from an +unseen world, and His possession of powers above this world of sense +and nature, is ludicrously inadequate. Suppose you had a chain which +for thousands of years had been winding on to a drum, and link after +link had been rough iron, and all at once there comes one of pure +gold, would it be reasonable to say that it had been dug from the +same mine, and forged in the same fires, as its black and ponderous +companions? Generation after generation has passed across the earth, +each begetting sons after its own likeness; and lo! in the midst of +them starts up one sinless Man. Is it reasonable to say that He is +the product of the same causes which have produced all the millions, +and never another like Him? Surely to account for Jesus without the +supernatural is hopeless. + +Further, this explanation may be taken as an instance showing the +inadequacy of all theories and explanations of Christ and +Christianity from an unbelieving point of view. It was the first +attempt of unbelievers to explain where Christ's power came from. +Like all first attempts, it was crude, and it has been amended and +refined since. Earlier generations did not hesitate to call the +Apostles liars, and Christ's contemporaries did not hesitate to call +Him 'this deceiver.' We have got beyond that; but we still are met +by explanations of the power of the Gospel and of Christ, its +subject and Author, which trace these to ignoble elements, and do +not shrink from asserting that a blunder or a hallucination lies at +the foundation. + +Now, I am not going to enter upon these matters at any length, but I +would just recall to you our Lord's broad, simple principle: 'A +corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, neither doth a good tree +bring forth evil fruit.' And I would apply that all round. Christian +teachers have often made great mistakes, as it seems to me, by +tracing the prevalence of the power of some heathen religions to +their vices and lies. No system has ever had great moral power in +this world but by reason of its excellences and truths. Mohammedanism, +for instance, swept away, and rightly, a mere formal superstition which +called itself Christianity, because it grasped the one truth: 'There is +no God but God'; and it had faith of a sort. Monasticism held the +field in Europe, with all its faults, for centuries, because it enshrined +the great Christian truth of self-sacrifice and absolute obedience. +And you may take it as a fixed rule, that howsoever some 'mixture of +falsehood doth ever please,' as Bacon says, in his cynical way, the +reason for the power of any great movement has been the truth that was +in it and not the lie; and the reason why great men have exercised +influence has been their greatness and their goodness, and not their +smallnesses and their vices. + +I apply that all round, and I ask you to apply it to Christianity; +and in the light of such plain principles to answer the question: +'Where did this Man, so fair, so radiant, so human and yet so +superhuman, so universal and yet so individual--where did He come +from? and where did the Gospel, which flows from Him, and which has +done such things in the world as it has done--where did it come +from? 'Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?' If it +is true that Jesus Christ is either mistakenly represented in the +Gospels, or that He made enthusiastic claims which cannot be +verified; and if it is true that the faith in a Resurrection on +which Christianity is suspended, and which has produced such fruits +as we know have been produced, is a delusion; then all I can say is +that the noblest lives that ever were lived in the world have found +their impulse in a falsehood or a dream; and that the richest +clusters that ever have yielded wine for the cup have grown upon a +thorn. If like produces like, you cannot account for Christ and +Christianity by anything short of the belief in His Divine mission. +Serpents' eggs do not hatch out into doves. This Man, when He +claimed to be God's Son and the world's Saviour, was no brain-sick +enthusiast; and the results show that the Gospel which His followers +proclaim rests upon no lie. + +Again, this explanation is an instance of the credulity of unbelief. +Think of the mental condition which could swallow such an +explanation of such a Worker and such work. It is more difficult to +believe the explanation than the alternative which it is framed to +escape. So it is always. The difficulties of faith are small by +comparison with those of unbelief, gnats beside camels, and that +that is so is plain from the short duration of each unbelieving +explanation of Jesus. One can remember in the compass of one's own +life more than one assailant taking the field with much trumpeting +and flag-waving, whose attack failed and is forgotten. The child's +story tells of a giant who determined to slay his enemy, and +belaboured an empty bed with his club all night, and found his foe +untouched and fresh in the morning. The Gospel is here; what has +become of its assailants? They are gone, and the limbo into which +the scribes' theory has passed will receive all the others. So we +may be quite patient, and sure that the sieve of time, which is +slowly and constantly working, will riddle out all the rubbish, and +cast it on the dunghill where so many exploded theories rot +forgotten. + +III. And now, one word about the last point; and that is--the true +explanation. + +Now, at this stage of my sermon, I must not be tempted to say a word +about the light which our Lord throws, in these declarations in the +context, into that dim unseen world. His words seem to me to be too +solemn and didactic to be taken as accommodations to popular +prejudice, and a great deal too grave to be taken as mere metaphor. +And I, for my part, am not so sure that, apart from Him, I know all +things in heaven and earth, as to venture to put aside these solemn +words of His--which lift a corner of the veil which hides the +unseen--and to dismiss them as unworthy of notice. Is it not a +strange thing that a world which is so ready to believe in spiritual +communications when they are vouched for by a newspaper editor, is +so unwilling to believe them when they are in the Bible? And is it +not a strange thing that scientists, who are always taunting +Christians with the importance they attach to man in the plan of the +universe, and ask if all these starry orbs were built for him, +should be so incredulous of teachings which fill the waste places +with loftier beings? But that is by the way. + +What does Christ say in the context? He tells the secret of His power. +'I, by the Spirit of God, cast out demons.' And then He goes on to +speak about a conflict that He wages with a strong man; and about His +binding the strong man, and spoiling his house. All which, being +turned into modern language, is just this, that the Lord, by His +incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and government at +the right hand of God, has broken the powers of evil in their central +hold. He has crushed the serpent's head; and though He may still, as +Milton puts it, 'swinge the scaly horror of his folded tail,' it is +but the flurries of the dying brute. The conquering heel is firm on +his head. So, brethren, evil is conquered, and Christ is the Conqueror; +and by His work in life and death He has delivered them that were held +captive of the devil. And you and I may, if we will, pass into 'the +liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.' + +That is the only explanation of Him--in His person, in His character, +in His work, and in the effects of that work in the world--that +covers all the facts, and will hold water. All others fail, and they +mostly fail by boldly eliminating the very facts that need to be +accounted for. Let us rather look to Him, thankful that our Brother +has conquered; and let us put our trust in that Saviour. For, if His +explanation is true, then a very solemn personal consideration arises +for each of us, 'If I, by the Spirit of God, cast out demons, then +the Kingdom of God is come unto you,' it stands beside us; it calls +for our obedience. Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ alone, can cast the +evils out of our natures. It is the Incarnate Christ, the Divine +Christ, the crucified Christ, the ascended Christ, the indwelling +Christ, who will so fill our hearts that there shall be no aching +voids there to invite the return of the expelled tyrants. If any +other reformation pass upon us than the thorough one of receiving Him +by faith into our hearts, then, though they may be swept and garnished, +they will be empty; and the demons will come back. With Jesus +inside--they will be outside. + + + + +'MAKE THE TREE GOOD' + + + '... Make the tree good, and his fruit good....' + --MATT. xii. 33. + +In this Gospel we find that our Lord twice uses this image of a tree +and its fruit. In the Sermon on the Mount He applies it as a test to +false teachers, who hide, beneath the wool of the sheep's clothing, +the fangs and paws of ravening wolves. He says, 'By their deeds ye +shall know them; for as is the tree so is its fruit.' That is a +rough and ready test, which applies rather to the teacher than to +his doctrine, but it applies, to some extent, to the doctrine too, +on the hypothesis that the teacher's life fairly represents it. Of +course, it is not the only thing that we have to take into account; +but it may prick many a bladder, and unmask many an error, and it is +the way by which the masses generally judge of systems and of their +apostles. A saintly life has more power than dusty volumes of +controversy. + +But in our text Christ applies the same thoughts in rather a deeper +fashion. Here the lesson that He would have us draw is of the +connection between character and conduct; how what we do is +determined by what we are, and how, not of course with the same +absolute regularity and constancy, but still somewhat in the same +fashion as the fruit is true to the tree, so, after all allowance +made for ups and downs, for the irregular play of will and +conscience, for the strife that is waged within a man, for the +temptations of external circumstances, and the like--still, in +general, as is the inner man, so is the outward manifestation. The +facts of a life are important mainly as registering and making +visible the inner condition of the doer. Now, that seems very +elementary. Everybody believes that 'out of the heart are the issues +of life,' as a wise man said long ago, but it is one of the truths +that, if grasped and worked into our consciousness, and out in our +lives, would do much to revolutionise them. And so, though it is a +very old story, and though we all admit it, I wish now to come face +to face with the consequences of this thought, that behind action +lies character, and that Doing is the second step, and Being is the +first. + +I. I would ask you to notice how here we are confronted with the +great problem for every man. + +'Make the tree good.' It takes a good man to do good things. So how +shallow is all that talk, 'do, do, do,' this, that, and the other +thing. All right, but _be_; that is the first thing; or, as +Christ said, 'Make the tree good, and the fruit' will take care of +itself. So do you not see how, if that is true about us, we are each +brought full front up to this, 'Am I trying to make my tree good? +And what kind of success am I having in the attempt?' The water that +rises from some spring will bring up with it, in solution, a trace +of a bed of salt through which it has come, and of all the minerals +in the soil through which it has passed. And as its sparkling waters +come out into the light, if one could analyse them completely, one +might register a geological section of the strata through which it +has risen. So, our acts bear in them a revelation of all the hidden +beds through which they have risen; and sometimes they are bitter +and salt, but they are always true to the self whose apocalypse they +are to the world, or at all events to God. + +Therefore, brethren, I have to urge this, that we shall not be doing +our true work as men and women, if we are simply trying to better our +actions, important as these are. By this saying the centre of gravity +is shifted, and in one aspect, the deeds are made less important. The +condition of the hidden man of the heart is the all-important thing. +Christ's word comes to each of us as the briefest statement of all +that it is our highest duty and truest wisdom to aim at in life--'Make +the tree good.' + +If you have ever tried it honestly, and have not been contented with +the superficial cleaning up of outsides, which consists in shifting +the dirt into another place only, not in getting rid of it, I know +what met you almost as soon as you began, like some great black rock +that rises in a mountain-pass, and forbids all farther advance--the +consciousness that you were _not_ good met you. I am not going +to talk theological technicalities. Never mind about phrases--they +have been the ruin of a great deal of earnest preaching--call it what +you like, here is a fact, that whenever a man sets himself, with +anything like resolute determination and rigid self-examination, to +the task of getting himself right, he finds that he is wrong. That +being the case, each of us has to deal with a tremendous problem; and +the more earnestly and honestly we try to deal with it, the more we +shall feel how grave it is. You can cure a great deal, I know. God +forbid that I should say one word that seems to deny a man's power to +do much in the direction of self-improvement, but after all that is +done, again you are brought short up on this fact, the testimony of +conscience. And so I see men labouring at a task as vain as that of +those who would twist the sands into ropes, according to the old +fable. I see men seeking after higher perfection of purity than they +will ever attain. That is the condition of us all, of course, for our +ideal must always outrun our realisation, else we may as well lie down +and die. But there is a difference between the imperfect approximation, +which we feel to be imperfect, and yet feel to be approximation, and +the despairing consciousness, that I am sure a great many of my +audience have had, more or less, that I have a task set for me that is +far beyond my strength. 'Talk about making the tree good! I cannot do +it.' So men fold their hands, and the foiled endeavour begets despair. +Or, as is the case with some of you, it begets indifference, and you +do not care to try any more, because you have tried so often, and have +made nothing of it. + +There is the problem, how 'make the tree good,' the tree being bad, +or, at all events, if you do not like that broad statement, the tree +having an element of badness, if I may so say, in and amongst any +goodness that it has. I do not care which of the two forms of +statement you take, the fact remains the same. + +II. Note the universal failure to solve the problem. + +'Make the tree good.' + +Yes. And there are a whole set of would-be arboriculturists who tell +you they will do it if you will trust to them. Let us look at them. +First comes one venerable personage. He says, 'I am Law, and I +prescribe this, and I forbid that, and I show reward and punishment, +and I tell you--be a good man.' Well! what then? It is not for want of +telling that men are bad. The worst man in the world knows his duty a +great deal more than the best man in the world does it. And whether it +is the law of the land, or whether it is the law of society, or the +law written in Scripture, or the law written in a man's own heart, +they all come under the same fatal disability. They tell us what to +do, and they do not put out a finger to help us to do it. A lame man +does not get to the city because he sees a guide-post at the turning +which tells him which road to take. The people who do not believe in +certain modern agitations about the restrictions of the liquor traffic +say, 'You cannot make people sober by Act of Parliament,' which is +absolutely true, although it does not bear, I think, the inference that +they would draw from it, and it just puts into a rough form the fatal +weakness of this would-be gardener and improver of the nature of the +trees. He tells us our duty, and there an end. + +Do you remember how the Apostle put the weakness of law in words, +the antique theological terminology of which should not prevent us +from seeing the large truth in them? 'If there had been a law given +which could have given life, then righteousness should have been by +the law,' which being translated into modern English is just this, +If Law could impart a power to obey its behests, then it is all that +we want to make us right. But until it can do that it fails in two +points. It deals with conduct, and we need to have character dealt +with; and it does not lift the burden that it lays on me with one of +its fingers. So we may rule Law out of court. + +And then comes another, and he says, 'I am Culture, and intellectual +acquirement; or my name is Education, and I am going to make the +tree good in the most scientific fashion, because what makes men bad +is that they do not know, and if they only knew they would do the +right.' Now, I thoroughly believe that education diminishes crime. I +believe it weans from certain forms of evil. I believe that, other +things being equal, an educated man, with his larger interests and +his cultivated tastes, has a certain fastidiousness developed which +keeps him from being so much tempted by the grosser forms of +transgression. I believe that very largely you will empty your gaols +in proportion as you fill your schools. And let no man say that I am +an obscurantist, or that I am indifferent to the value of education +and the benefits of intellectual culture, when I declare that all +these may be attained, and the nature of the tree remain exactly +what it was. You may prune, you may train along the wall, you may +get bigger fruit, you will not get better fruit. Did you ever hear +the exaggerated line that describes one of the pundits of science as +'the greatest, wisest, meanest of mankind'? The plain fact is that +the cultivation of the understanding has little to do with the +purifying of the depths of the heart. + +And then comes another, and says, 'I am the genius of Beauty and Art. +And my recipe is pictures and statues, and all that will refine the +mind, and lift the taste.' That is the popular gospel of this day, in +a great many quarters. Yes, and have we never heard of a period in +European history which was, as they call it, 'the Renaissance' of art +and the death of morality? Do we not know that side by side there have +been cultivated in all ages, and are being cultivated to-day, the most +exclusive devotion to the beauty that can be expressed by art, and the +most intense indifference to the beauty of holiness? Ah! brethren, it +wants something far deeper-going than pictures to purge the souls of +men. And whilst, as before, I thankfully acknowledge the refining +influence of this new cult, I would protest against the absurdity of +putting it upon a pedestal as the guide and elevator of corrupted +humanity. + +And then come others, and they say, 'Environment is the thing that +is to blame for it all. How can you get decent lives in the slums?' +No, I know you cannot; and God bless every effort made to get the +people out of the slums, I say. Only do not let us exaggerate. You +cannot change a man, as deeply as we need to be changed, by any +change of his circumstances. 'Take the bitter tree,' as I remember +an old Jewish saying has it, 'take the bitter tree and plant it in +Eden, and water it with the rivers there; and let the angel Gabriel +be the gardener, and the tree will still bear bitter fruit.' Are all +the people who live in good houses good? Will a 'living wage'--eight +shillings a day and eight hours' play--will these change a man's +character? Will these go deep enough down to touch the springs of +evil? You cannot alter the nature of a set of objects by arranging +them in different shapes, parallelograms, or squares, or circles, or +any others. As long as you have the elements that are in human +nature to deal with, you may do as you like about the distribution +of wealth, and the relation of Capital to Labour, and the various +cognate questions which are all included in the vague word Socialism; +and human nature will be too strong for you, and you will have the +old mischiefs cropping out again. Brethren, you cannot put out +Vesuvius by bringing to bear on it the squirts of all the fire +engines in creation. The water will go up in steam, and do little or +nothing to extinguish the fire. And whilst I would thankfully help +in all these other movements, and look for certain limited results +of good from them, I, for my part, believe, and therefore I am bound +to declare, that neither singly, nor all of them in combination, +will they ever effect the change on human nature which Jesus Christ +regarded as the only possible means for securing that human nature +should bear good fruit. + +For, if there were no other reason, there are two plain ones which I +only touch. God is the source of all good, of all creatural purity +as well as all creatural blessedness. And if a life has a blank wall +turned to Him, and has cut itself off from Him, I do not care how +you educate it, fill it full of science, plunge it into an +atmosphere of art, make the most perfect arrangements for social and +economical and political circumstances, that soul is cut off from +the possibility of good, because it is cut off from the fontal +source of all good. And there is another reason which is closely +connected with this, and that is that the true bitter tang in us all +is self-centring regard. That is the mother-tincture that, variously +coloured and compounded, makes in all the poisonous element that we +call sin, and until you get something that will cast that evil out +of a man's heart, you may teach and refine and raise him and arrange +things for him as you like, and you will not master the source of +all wrong and corrupt fruit. + +III. Lastly, let me say a word about the triumphant solution. + +Law says, 'Make the tree good,' and does not try to do it. Christ +said, 'Make the tree good,' and proceeds to do it. And how does He +do it? + +He does it by coming to us; to every soul of man on the earth, and +offering, first, forgiveness for all the past. I do not know that +amongst all the bonds by which evil holds a poor soul that struggles +to get away from it, there is one more adamantine and unyielding +than the consciousness that the past is irrevocable, and that 'what +I have written I have written,' and never can blot out. But Jesus +Christ deals with that consciousness. It is true that 'whatsoever a +man soweth that shall he also reap,' and the Christian doctrine of +forgiveness does not contradict that solemn truth, but it assures us +that God's heart is not turned away from us, notwithstanding the +past, and that we can write the future better, and break altogether +the fatal bond that decrees, apart from Him, that 'to-morrow shall +be as this day, and much more abundant,' and that past sin shall +beget a progeny of future sins. That fruitfulness of sin is at an +end, if we take Christ for our Saviour. + +He makes the tree good in another fashion still; for the very +centre, as it seems to me, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that +into our spirits He will breathe a new life kindred with His own, a +new nature which is free from the law and bonds of past sin, and of +present and future death. The tree is made good because He makes +those who believe in Him 'new creatures in Christ Jesus.' Now, do +not turn away and say that that is mysticism. Be it mysticism or +not, it is God's truth. It is the truth of the Christian Revelation, +that faith in Jesus Christ puts a new nature into any man, however +sinful he may have been, and however deep the marks of the fetters +may have been upon his limbs. + +Christ makes the tree good in yet another fashion, because He brings to +the reinforcement of the new life which He imparts the mightiest +motives, and sways by love, which leads to the imitation of the Beloved, +which leads to obedience to the Beloved, which leads to shunning as the +worst of evils anything that would break the communion with the Beloved, +and which is in itself the decentralising of the sinful soul from its +old centre, and the making of Christ the Beloved the centre round which +it moves, and from which it draws radiance and light and motion. By all +these methods, and many more that I cannot dwell upon now, the problem +is triumphantly solved by Christianity. The tree is made good, and +'instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree.' + +You may say, 'That is all very well in theory. What about the +practice? I do not see such a mighty difference between you +Christians and us.' Well, for myself and my brethren, I accept the +rebuke. There is not such a difference as there ought to be. But do +you know why? Not because our great Gardener cannot change the +nature of the plant, but because we do not submit ourselves to His +power as we ought to do. Debit us with as many imperfections and +inconsistencies as you like, do not lay them to the charge of +Christ. + +And yet we are willing to accept the test of Christianity which lies +in its power to change men. I point to the persecutor on the road to +Damascus. I point to the Bedfordshire tinker, to him that wrote +_Pilgrim's Progress_. I point to the history of the Christian +Church all down through the ages. I point to our mission fields to-day. +I point to every mission hall, where earnest, honest men are working, +and where, if you go and ask them, they will let you see people +lifted from the very depths of degradation and sin, and made honest, +sober, respectable, hard-working, though not very intelligent or +refined, Christian people. I suppose that there is no man in an +official position like mine who cannot look back over his ministry +and remember, some of them dozens, some of them scores, some of them +hundreds, of cases in which the change was made on the most hopeless +people, by the simple acceptance of the simple gospel, 'Christ died +for me, and Christ lives in me.' I know that I can recall such, and +I am sure that my brethren can. + +People who are not Christians talk glibly about the failure of +Christianity to transform men. They have never seen the +transformations because they have never put themselves in the way of +seeing them. They are being worked to-day; they might be worked here +and now. + +Try the power of the Gospel for yourselves. You cannot make the tree +good, but you can let Jesus Christ do it. The Ethiopian cannot +change his skin, nor the leopard his spots, but Jesus can do both. +'The lion shall eat straw like the ox.' It is weary work to be +tinkering at your acts. Take the comprehensive way, and let Him +change your character. I believe that in some processes of dyeing, a +piece of cloth, prepared with a certain liquid, is plunged into a +vat full of dye-stuffs of one colour, and is taken out tinged of +another. The soul, wet with the waters of repentance, and plunged +into the 'Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness,' the crimson +fountain of the blood of Christ, emerges 'whiter than snow.' Let Him +'make the tree good and fruit will be good,' for if not we shall be +'hewn down and cast into the fire,' because we cannot bear any fruit +unto holiness, nor can the end be everlasting life. + + + + +'A GREATER THAN JONAS' + + + 'A greater than Jonas is here.'--MATT. xii. 41. + +There never was any man in his right mind, still more of influence +on his fellows, who made such claims as to himself in such +unmistakable language as Jesus Christ does. To say such things of +oneself as come from His lips is a sign of a weak, foolish nature. +It is fatal to all influence, to all beauty of character. It is not +only that He claims official attributes as a fanatical or dishonest +pretender to inspiration may do. He does that, but He does more--He +declares Himself possessed of virtues which, if a man said he had +them, it would be the best proof that he did not possess them and +did not know himself. 'I am the way and the truth and the life.' 'I +am the light of the world'--a 'greater than the temple,' a greater +than Jonah, a 'greater than Solomon,' and then withal 'I am meek and +lowly of heart.' And the world believes Him, and says, Yes! it is +true. + +These three comparisons of Jesus with Temple, Jonas, and Solomon, +carry great claims and great lessons. By the first Jesus asserts +that He is in reality all that the Temple was in shadowy symbol, and +sets Himself above ritual, sacrifices, and priests. By the second he +asserts His superiority not only to one prophet but to them all. By +the third He asserts His superiority to Solomon, whom the Jews +reverenced as the bright, consummate flower of kinghood. + +Now we may take this comparison as giving us positive thoughts about +our Lord. The points of comparison may be taken to be three, with +Jonah as one of an order, with Jonah in his personal character as a +servant of God, with Jonah as a prophet charged with a special work. + +I. The prophets and the Son. + +The whole prophetic order may fairly be taken as included here. And +over against all these august and venerable names, the teachers of +wisdom, the speakers of the oracles of God, this Nazarene peasant +stands there before Pharisees and Scribes, and asserts His superiority. +It is either the most insane arrogance of self-assertion, or it is a +sober truth. If it be true that self-consciousness is ever the disease +of the soul, and that the religious teacher who begins to think of +himself is lost, how marvellous is this assertion! + +Compare it with Paul's, 'Unto me who am less than the least of all +saints'--'I am not a whit behind the chief of the Apostles'--'though +I be nothing'--'Not I, but Christ in me.' And yet this is meekness, +for it is infinite condescension in Him to compare Himself with any +son of man. + +(_a_) The contrast is suggested between the prophets and the +theme of the prophets. + +'The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.' Though undoubtedly +the prophet order had other work than prediction to do, yet the soul +of their whole work was the announcement of the Messiah. + +In testimony whereof, Elijah, who was traditionally the chief of the +prophets, stood beside Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, and +passed away as lost in His light. + +(_b_) The contrast is suggested between the recipients of the +word of God and the Word of God. + +The relation of the prophets to their message is contrasted with His +who was the Truth, who not merely received, but was, the Word of +God. + +There is nothing in Christ's teaching to show that He was conscious +of standing in a human relation to the truths which He spoke. His +own personality is ever present in His teaching instead of being +suppressed--as in all the prophets. His own personality is His +teaching, for His revelation is by being as much as by saying. +Similarly, His miracles are done by His own power. + +(_c_) The contrast is suggested between the partial teacher of +God's Name and the complete revealer of it. + +The foundation was laid by the prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being +the chief corner stone (Hebrews i. 1). + +II. The disobedient prophet and the perfect Son. + +Jonah stands as the great example of human weakness in the chosen +instruments of God's hand. + +Take the story--his shrinking from the message given him. We know +not why; but perhaps from faint-hearted fear, or from a sense of his +unworthiness and unfitness for the task. His own words about God as +long-suffering seem to suggest another reason, that he feared to go +with a message of judgment which seemed to him so unlikely to be +executed by the long-suffering God. If so, then what made him +recreant was not so much fear from personal motives as intellectual +perplexity and imperfect comprehension of the ways of God. Then we +hear of his pitiable flight with its absurdity and its wickedness. +Then comes the prayer which shows him to have been right and true at +bottom, and teaches us that what makes a good man is not the absence +of faults, but the presence of love and longing after God. Then we +see the boldness of his mission. Then follows the reaction from that +lofty height, the petulance or whatever else it was with which he +sees the city spared. Even the mildest interpretation cannot acquit +him of much disregard for the poor souls whom he had brought to +repentance, and of dreadful carelessness for the life and happiness +of his fellows. + +Now Jonah's behaviour is but a specimen of the vacillations, the +alternations of feeling which beset every man; the loftiest, the +truest, the best. Moses, David, Solomon, Elijah, John the Baptist, +Peter, Luther, Cranmer. And it is full of instruction for us. + +Then we turn to the contrast in Christ's perfect obedience and +faithfulness in His prophetic office. In Him is no trace of +shrinking even when the grimness of the Cross weighed most on His +heart. No confusion of mind as to the Father's will, or as to the +union in Him of perfect righteousness and infinite mercy, ever +darkened His clear utterances or cast a shadow over his own soul. He +was never weakened by the collapse that follows on great effort or +strong emotion. He never failed in his mission through lack of pity. + +But there is no need to draw out the comparison. We look on all +God's instruments, and see them all full of faults and flaws. Here +is one stainless name, one life in which is no blot, one heart in +which are no envy, no failings--one obedience which never varied. He +says of Himself, 'I do always those things which please Him,' and +we, thinking of all the noblest examples of virtue that the world +has ever seen, and seeing in them all some speck, turn to this whole +and perfect chrysolite and say, Yes! 'a greater than they!' + +III. The bearer of a transitory message of repentance to one Gentile +people, and the bearer of an eternal message of grace and love to +the whole earth. + +Jonah is remarkable as having had the sphere of his activity wholly +outside Israel. + +The nature of his message; a preaching of punishment; a call to +repentance. + +The sphere of it--one Gentile city. The effect of it--transitory. We +know what Nineveh became. + +Jesus is greater than Jonah or any prophet in this respect, that His +message is to the world, and in this, that what He preaches and +brings far transcends even the loftiest and most spiritual words of +any of them. + +His voice is sweetest, tenderest, clearest and fullest of all that +have ever sounded in men's ears. And just because it is so, the +hearing of it brings the most solemn responsibility that was ever +laid on men, and to us still more gravely and truly may it be said +than to those who heard Jesus speak on earth, 'The men of Nineveh +shall rise in judgment with this generation and condemn it.' + + + + +'A GREATER THAN SOLOMON' + + + 'A greater than Solomon is here.'--MATT. xii. 42. + +It is condescension in Him to compare Himself with any; yet if any +might have been selected, it is that great name. To the Jews Solomon +is an ideal figure, who appealed so strongly to popular imagination +as to become the centre of endless legends; whose dominion was the +very apex of national glory, in recounting whose splendours the +historical books seem to be scarce able to restrain their triumph +and pride. + +I. The Man. The story gives us a richly endowed and many-sided +character. It begins with lovely, youthful enthusiasm, with a +profound sense of his own weakness, with earnest longings after +wisdom and guidance. He lived a pure and beautiful youth, and all +his earlier and middle life was adorned with various graces. There +is a certain splendid largeness about the character. He had a rich +variety of gifts: he was statesman, merchant, sage, physicist, +builder, one of the many-sided men whom the old world produced. And +on this we may build a comparison and contrast. + +The completeness of Christ's Humanity transcends all other men, even +the most various, and transcends all gathered together. Every type +of excellence is in Him. We cannot say that His character is any one +thing in special, it falls under no classification. It is a pure +white light in which all rays are blended. This all-comprehensiveness +and symmetry of character are remarkably shown in four brief records. + +But we have to take into account the dark shadows that fell on +Solomon's later years. He clearly fell away from his early +consecration and noble ideals, and let his sensuous appetites gain +power. He countenanced, if he did not himself practise, idolatry. As +a king he became an arbitrary tyrant, and his love of building led +him to oppress his subjects, and so laid the foundation for the +revolt under Jeroboam which rent the kingdom. So his history is +another illustration of the possible shipwreck of a great character. +It is one more instance of the fall of a 'son of the morning.' We +need not elaborate the contrast with Christ's character. In Him is +no falling from a high ideal, no fading of morning glory into a +cloudy noon or a lurid evening. There is no black streak in that +flawless white marble. Jesus draws the perfect circle, like Giotto's +O, while all other lives show some faltering of hand, and consequent +irregularity of outline. Greater than Solomon, with his over-clouded +glories and his character worsened by self-indulgence, is Jesus, +'the Sun of righteousness,' the perfect round of whose lustrous +light is broken by no spots on the surface, no indentations in the +circumference, nor obscured by any clouds over its face. + +II. The Teacher. + +Solomon was traditionally regarded as the author of much of the Book +of Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes was written as by him. Possibly the +attribution to him of some share in the former book may be correct, +but at any rate, his wisdom was said to have drawn the Queen of +Sheba to hear him, and that is the point of the comparison of our +text. + +If we take these two books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes into +account, as popularly attributed to him, they suggest points of +comparison and contrast with Jesus as a teacher, which we may +briefly point out. Now, Proverbs falls into two very distinct +portions, the former part being a connected fatherly admonition to +the pursuit of wisdom, and the latter a collection of prudential +maxims, in which it is rare for any two contiguous verses to have +anything to do with each other. In the former part Wisdom is set +forth as man's chief good, and the Wisdom which is so set forth is +mainly moral wisdom, the right disposition of will and heart, and +almost identical with what the Old Testament elsewhere calls +righteousness. But it is invested, as the writer proceeds, with more +and more august and queenly attributes, and at last stands forth as +being, if not a divine person, at least a personification of a +divine attribute. + +Bring that ancient teaching and set it side by side with Jesus, and +what can we say but that He is what the old writer, be he Solomon or +another, dimly saw? He is the 'wisdom' which was traditionally +called the 'wisdom of Solomon,' and which the Queen came from far to +hear. Jesus is greater, as the light is more than the eye, or as the +theme is more than the speaker. 'The power of God and the wisdom of +God' is greater than the sage or seer who celebrates it. What is +true of Solomon or whoever wrote that praise of Wisdom, is true of +all teachers and wise men, they are 'not that light,' they are 'sent +to bear witness of that light.' Jesus is Wisdom, other men are wise. +Jesus is the greatest teacher, for He teaches us Himself. He is +lesson as well as teacher. Unless He was a great deal more than +Teacher, He could not be the perfect Teacher for whom the world +groans. + +The second half of Proverbs is, as I have said, mostly a collection +of prudential and moral maxims, with very little reference to God or +high ideals of duty in them. They may represent to us the impotence +of wise saws to get themselves practised. A guide-post is not a +guide. It stretches out its gaunt wooden arms towards the city, but +it cannot bend them to help a lame man lying at its foot. Men do not +go wrong for lack of knowing the road, nearly so often as for lack +of inclination to walk in it. We have abundant voices to tell us +what we ought to do. But what we want is the swaying of inclination +to do it, and the gift of power to do it. And it is precisely +because Jesus gives us both these that He is what no collection of +the wisest sayings can ever be, the efficient teacher of all +righteousness, and of the true wisdom which is 'the principal +thing.' + +As for Ecclesiastes, though not his, it represents not untruly the +tone which we may suppose to have characterised his later days in +its dwelling on the vanity of life. The sadness of it may be +contrasted with the light thrown by the Gospel on the darkest +problems. Solomon cries, 'All is vanity'--Jesus teaches His scholars +to sing, 'All things work together for good.' + +III. The Temple builder. + +In this respect 'a greater than Solomon is here,' inasmuch as Jesus +is Himself the true Temple, being for all men, which Solomon's +structure only shadowed, the meeting-place of God and man, in whom +God dwells and through whom we can draw near to Him, the place where +the true Sacrifice is once for all offered, by which Sacrifice sin +is truly put away. And, further, Jesus is greater than Solomon in +that He is, through the ages, building up the great Temple of His +Church of redeemed men, the eternal temple of which not one stone +shall ever be taken down. + +IV. The peaceful King. + +There were no wars in Solomon's reign. But a dark shadow brooded +over it in its later years, which were darkened by oppression, +luxury, and incipient revolt. + +Contrast with that merely external and sadly imperfect peacefulness, +the deep, inward peace of spirit which Jesus breathes into every man +who trusts and obeys Him, and with the peace among men which the +acceptance of His rule brings, and will one day bring perfectly, to +a regenerated humanity dwelling on a renewed earth. He is King of +righteousness, and after that also King of peace. + +Surely from all these contrasts it is plain that 'a greater than +Solomon is here.' + + + + +FOUR SOWINGS AND ONE RIPENING + + + 'The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by + the sea side. 2. And great multitudes were gathered + together unto Him, so that He went into a ship, and + sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. 8. And + He spake many things unto them in parables, saying, + Behold, a sower went forth to sow; 4. And when he + sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls + came and devoured them up: 6. Some fell upon stony + places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith + they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: + 6. And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and + because they had no root, they withered away. 7. And + some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and + choked them: 8. But other fell into good ground, and + brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some + sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. 9. Who hath ears to hear, + let him hear.'--MATT. xiii. 1-9. + +The seven parables of the kingdom, in this chapter, are not to be +regarded as grouped together by Matthew. They were spoken +consecutively, as is obvious from the notes of time in verses 36 and +53. They are a great whole, setting forth the 'mystery of the +kingdom' in its method of establishment, its corruption, its outward +and inward growth, the conditions of entrance into it, and its final +purification. The sacred number seven, impressed upon them, is the +token of completeness. They fall into two parts: four of them being +spoken to the multitudes from the boat, and presenting the more +obvious aspects of the development of the kingdom; three being +addressed to the disciples in the house, and setting forth truths +about it more fitted for them. + +The first parable, which concerns us now, has been generally called +the Parable of the Sower, but he is not the prominent figure. The +subject is much rather the soils; and the intention is, not so much +to declare anything about him, as to explain to the people, who +were looking for the kingdom to be set up by outward means, +irrespective of men's dispositions, that the way of establishing it +was by teaching which needed receptive spirits. The parable is both +history and prophecy. It tells Christ's own experience, and it +foretells His servants'. He is the great Sower, who has 'come forth' +from the Father. His present errand is not to burn up thorns or to +punish the husbandmen, but to scatter on all hearts the living seed, +which is here interpreted, in accordance with the dominant idea of +this Gospel, as being 'the word of the kingdom' (ver. 19). All who +follow Him, and make His truth known, are sowers in their turn, and +have to look for the same issue of their work. The figure is common +to all languages. Truth, whether intellectual, moral, or spiritual, +is seminal, and, deposited in the heart, understanding, or +conscience, grows. It has a mysterious vitality, and its issue is +not a manufacture, but a fruit. If all teachers, especially +religious teachers, would remember that, perhaps there would be +fewer failures, and a good deal of their work would be modified. We +have here four sowings and one ripening--a sad proportion! We are +not told that the quantity of seed was in each case the same. Rather +we may suppose that much less fell on the wayside, and on the rocky +soil, and among the thorns, than on the good ground. So we cannot +say that seventy-five per cent, of it was wasted; but, in any case, +the proportion of failure is tragically large. This Sower was under +no illusion as to the result of His work. + +It is folly to sow on the hard footpath, or the rocky ground, or +among thorns; but Christ and His servants have to do that, in +endless hope that these unreceptive hearts may become good soil. One +lesson of the parable is, Scatter the seed everywhere, on the most +unlikely places. + +I. Our Lord begins with the case in which the seed remains quite +outside the soil, or, without metaphor, in which the word finds +absolutely no entrance into the heart or mind. A beaten path runs by +the end, or perhaps through the middle, of the cornfield. It is of +exactly the same soil as the rest, but many passengers have trodden +it hard, and the very foot of the sower, as he comes and goes in his +work, has helped. Some of the seed, sown broadcast, of course falls +there, and lies where it falls, having no power to penetrate the +hard surface. As in our own English cornfields, a flock of bold, +hungry birds watch the sower; and, as soon as his back is turned, +they are down with a swift-winged swoop, and away goes the exposed +grain. So there is an end of it; and the path is as bare as ever, +five minutes after it has been strewed with seeds. + +The explanation is too plain to be mistaken, but we may briefly +touch its main features. Notice, then, that our Lord begins with the +case in which there is least contact between His word and the soul, +and that, as the contact is least in degree, so it is shortest in +duration. A minute or two finishes it. Notice especially that the +path has been made hard by external pressure. It is not rock, but +soil like the other parts of the field. It represents the case of +men whose insensibility to the word is caused by outward things +having made a thoroughfare of their natures, and trodden them into +incapacity to receive the message of Christ's love. The heavy +baggage-wagons of commerce, the light cars of pleasure, merry +dancers, and sad funeral processions, have all used that way, and +each footfall has beaten the once loose soil a little firmer. We are +made insensitive to the gospel by the effect of innocent and +necessary things, unless we take care to plough up the path along +which they travel, and to keep our spirits susceptible by a distinct +effort. How many hearers of every teacher are there, who never take +in his words at all, simply because they are so completely +preoccupied! + +Notice what becomes of the seed that lies thus bare. 'Immediately,' +says Mark, 'Satan cometh.' His agents are these light-winged +thoughts that flutter round the hearer as soon as the sermon or the +lesson is over. Talk of the weather, criticism of the congregation, +or of the sower's attitude as he flung the seed, or politics, or +business, drive away the remembrance of even the text, before many +of our hearers are out of sight of the church. Then the whirl of +traffic begins again, and the path is soon beaten a little harder. +If the seed had got ever so little way into the ground, the sharp +beaks of the thieves would not have carried it off so easily. +Impressions so slight as Christ's word makes on busy men are quickly +rubbed out. But if the seed sown vanishes thus swiftly, the fault is +not in it, but in ourselves. Satan may seek to snatch it away, but +we can hinder him. + +Our Lord uses a singular expression, 'This is he that was sown by +the way side,' which appears to identify the man with the seed +rather than with the soil. It has been suggested by some +commentators that this expression is to be regarded as conveying the +truth that the seed sown in the heart and growing up there becomes +the life-spring of the individual, and that therefore we may speak +of him or of it as bearing the fruit. But this explanation will not +avail for the case where there is no entrance of the word into the +heart, and so no new birth by the word. More probably we are to +regard the expression simply as a conversational shorthand form of +speech, not strictly accurate, but quite intelligible. + +II. The next variety of soil differs from the preceding in having its +hindrance deep seated. Many a hillside in Galilee--as in Scotland or +New England--would show a thin surface of soil over rock, like skin +stretched tightly on a bone. No roots could get through the rock nor +find nourishment in it; while the very shallowness of earth and the +heat of the underlying stone would accelerate growth. Such premature +and feeble shoots perish as quickly as they spring up; the fierce +Eastern sun makes a speedy end of them, and a few days sees their +springing and withering. It is a case of 'lightly come, lightly go.' +Quick-sprouting herbs are soon-dying herbs. A shallow pond is up in +waves under a breeze which raises no sea on the Atlantic, and it is +calm again in a few minutes. Readily stirred emotion is transient. +Brushwood catches fire easily, and burns itself out quickly. Coal +takes longer to kindle, and is harder to put out. + +The persons meant are those of excitable temperament, whose feelings lie +on the surface, and can be got at without first passing through the +understanding or the conscience. Such people are easily played on by +the epidemic influence of any prevalent enthusiasm or emotion, as every +revival of religion shows. Their very 'joy' in hearing the word is +suspicious; for a true reception of it seldom begins with joy, but +rather with 'the sorrow which worketh repentance not to be repented of.' +Their immediate reception of it is suspicious, for it suggests that +there has been no time to consult the understanding or to form a +deliberate purpose; stable resolutions are slowly formed. It is the +sunny side of religion which, has attracted them. They know nothing of +its difficulties and depths. Hence, as soon as they find out the +realities of the course which they have embraced so lightly, they +desert, like John Mark running away as soon as home comforts at Cyprus +were left behind. The Christian life means self-denial, toil, hard +resistance to many fascinations. It means sweat and blood, or it means +nothing. Whether there be 'persecution' or no, there will be affliction, +'because of the word,' and all the joyful emotion will ooze out at the +man's finger-ends. The same superficial excitability which determined +his swift reception of the word will determine his hasty casting of it +aside, and immediately he stumbles. All his acts will be done in a +hurry, and none of his moods will last. Feeling is in its place down +in the engine-room, but it makes a poor pilot. Very significant is +that phrase, 'No root in himself.' His roots are in the accidents of +the moment. His religion has never really struck root in him, but only +in the superficial layer of him. His conscience, will, understanding, +are unpenetrated by its fibres. So it is easily pulled up, as well as +soon withered. + +There is another profound truth in this picture. The hard, +impenetrable rock lies right under the thin skin of soil. The nature +which is over-emotional on its surface is utterly hard at its core. +The most heartless people are those whose feelings are always ready +to gush; the most unimpressible are those who are most easily +brought to a certain degree of emotion by the sound of the word. +This class is an advance on the former, in that there has been a +real contact with the word, which has lain longer in their hearts, +and has had some growth. We may regard it as either better or worse +than the former, according as we consider that it is better to +accept and feel than not to accept at all, or that it is worse to +have in some measure possessed and felt than not to have received +the word of the kingdom. + +III. In one part of the field was a patch where the soil was neither +rammed solid, as on the footpath, nor thin, as where the rock +cropped out, but where there had been a tangle of thorns, which grow +luxuriantly in Palestine. These had been cut down, but not stubbed +up, as is plain from the very fact that the seed reached the ground, +as also from the description of them as 'springing up.' The two +growths advance together. In this case, the seed has a longer life +than in the former. It roots and grows, and even, according to the +other evangelist's version, fruits, though it does not mature its +fruit. There is no question of 'falling away' here. Only the +hardier growth, which had the advantage of previous possession, and +which pushes up its shoots above ground all round the more tender +plant, gets the start of it, and smothers its green blades, +overtopping it, and keeping it from sun and air, as well as drawing +to itself the nourishment from the soil. The main point here is +simultaneousness of the two growths. This man is, as James calls +him, a 'double-minded man.' He is trying to grow both corn and thorn +on the same soil. He has some religion, but not enough to make +thorough work of it. He is endeavouring to ride on two horses at +once. Religion says 'either--or'; he is trying 'both--and.' The +human heart has only a limited amount of love and trust to give, and +Christ must have it all. It has enough for one--that is, for Him; +but not enough for two,--that is, for Him and the world. This man's +religion has not been powerful enough to grub up the roots of the +thorns. They were cut down when the seed was sown, for a little +while, at the beginning of his course; the new life in him seemed to +conquer, but the roots of the old lay hid, and, in due time, showed +again above ground. 'Ill weeds grow apace'; and these, as is their +nature, grow faster than the good seed. So the only thing to do is +to get them out of the ground to the last fibre. + +Christ specifies what He deems thorns. We can all understand care +being so called; but riches? Yes, they too have sharp prickles, as +anybody will find who stuffs a pillow with them. But our Lord +chooses His words to point the lesson that not outward things, but +our attitude to them, make the barrenness of this soil. It is not +'this world,' but 'the care of this world,' not 'riches,' but 'the +deceitfulness of riches,' that choke the word. These two seem +opposites, but they are really the same thing on two opposite sides. +The man who is burdened with the cares of poverty, and the man who +is deceived by the false promises of wealth, are really the same +man. The one is the other turned inside out. We make the world our +god, whether we worship it by saying, 'I am desolate without thee,' +or by fancying that we are secure with it. Note that the issue in +this case is--unfruitfulness. The man may, and I suppose usually +does, keep up a profession of Christianity all his life. He very +likely does not know that the seed is choked, and that he has become +unfruitful. But he is a stunted, useless Christian, with all the sap +and nourishment of his soul given to his worldly position, and his +religion is a poor pining growth, with blanched leaves and abortive +fruit. How much of Christ's field is filled with plants of that +sort! + +IV. The parable tells us nothing about the comparative acreage of +the path and the rocky and thorny soils on the one hand, and of the +fertile soil on the other. It is not meant to teach the proportion +of success to failure, but to exhibit the fact that the reception of +the word depends on men's dispositions. The good soil has none of +the faults of the rest of the field. It is loose, and thus unlike +the path; deep, and thus unlike the rocky bit; clean, and thus +unlike the thorn brake. The interpretation given of it by our Lord +seems at first sight incomplete. It is all summed up in one word, +'understandeth.' Then, did not the second and third classes, at all +events, understand? They received the word, and it had some growth +in them. The distinction between them and the good-soil hearer is +surely of a moral nature, rather than of so purely intellectual a +kind as 'understanding' suggests. Hence, Luke's keep fast 'in an +honest and good heart' may seem a more adequate statement. But +Biblical usage does not regard 'understanding' as a purely +intellectual process, but rather as the action of the whole moral +and spiritual nature. It knows nothing of dividing a man up into +water-tight compartments, one of which may be full of evil, and the +other clean and receptive of good. According to it, we 'understand' +religious truth by our hearts and moral nature in conjunction with +the dry light of intellect. So the word here is used in a pregnant +sense, and includes the grasp of the truth with the whole being, the +complete reception of the word of the kingdom not merely into the +intellect, but into the central self which is the undivided fountain +from which flow the issues of life, whether these be called +intellect, or affection, or conscience, or will. Only he who has +thus become one with the word, and housed it deep in his inmost +soul, 'understands' it, in the sense in which our Lord here uses +that expression. 'Thy word have I hid in mine heart' exactly +corresponds to the 'understanding' which is here given as the +distinctive mark of the good soil. + +The result of that reception into the depths of the spirit is that +he 'verily beareth fruit.' The man who receives the word is +identified with the plant that springs from the seed which he +receives. The life of a Christian is the result of the growth in him +of a supernatural seed. He bears fruit, yet the fruit comes not from +him, but from the seed sown. 'I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth +in me.' Fruitfulness is the aim of the sower, and the test of the +reception of the seed. If there is not fruit, manifestly there has +been no real understanding of the word. A touchstone, that, which +will produce surprising results in detecting spurious Christianity, +if it be honestly applied! + +There is variety in the degree of fruitfulness, according to the +goodness of the soil; that is to say, according to the thoroughness +and depth of the reception of the word. The great Husbandman does +not demand uniform fertility. He is glad when He gets an +hundredfold, but He accepts sixty, and does not refuse thirty, only +He arranges them in descending order, as if He would fain have the +highest rate from all the plants, and, not without disappointment, +gradually stretches His merciful allowance to take in even the +lowest. He will accept the scantiest fruitage, and will lovingly +'purge' the branch 'that it may bring forth more fruit.' + +No parable teaches everything. Paths, rocks, and thorns cannot +change. But men can plough up the trodden ways, and blast away the +rock, and root out the thorns, and, with God's help, can open the +door of their hearts, that the Sower and His seed may enter in. We +are responsible for the nature of the soil, else His warning were +vain, 'Take heed, therefore, how ye hear.' + + + + +EARS AND NO EARS + + + 'Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.--MATT. xiii. 8. + +This saying was frequently on our Lord's lips, and that in very +various connections. He sometimes, as in the instance before us, +appended it to teaching which, from its parabolic form, required +attention to disentangle the spiritual truth implied. He sometimes +used it to commend some strange, new revolutionary teaching to men's +investigation--as, for instance, after that great declaration of the +nullity of ceremonial worship, how that nothing could defile a man +except what came from his heart. In other connections, which I need +not now enumerate, we find it. Like printing a sentence in italics, +or underscoring it, this saying calls special attention to the thing +uttered. It is interesting to notice that our Lord, like the rest of +us, had to use such means of riveting and sharpening the attention +of His hearers. There is also a striking reappearance of the +expression in the last book of Scripture. The Christ who speaks to +the seven churches, from the heavens, repeats His old word spoken on +earth, and at the end of each of the letters says once more, as if +even the Voice that spoke from heaven might be listened to +listlessly, 'He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith +to the churches.' + +I. We all have ears. + +Now, it is a very singular instance of the superficial, indolent way +in which people are led away by sound rather than by sense, that +this saying of my text has often been taken to mean that there is a +certain class that can listen, and that it is their business to +listen, and there is another class that cannot, and so they are +absorbed from all responsibility. The opposite conclusion is the +correct one. Everybody has ears, therefore everybody is bound to +hear. Which being translated, is that there is not a man or woman +among us that has not the capacity of hearing in the sense of +understanding, and of hearing in the sense of obeying the word that +Jesus Christ speaks to us all. Every one of us, whatever may be our +diversities of education, temperament, natural capacity in regard to +other subjects of study and apprehension, has the ears that are +capable of receiving the message that comes to us all in Jesus +Christ. + +For what is it that He addresses? Universal human nature, the +universal human wants, and mainly and primarily, as I believe, the +sense of sin which lies dormant indeed, but capable of being +awakened, in all men, because the fact of sin attaches to all men. +There is no man but has the needs to which Christ addresses Himself, +and no man but has the power of apprehending, of accepting, and of +living by, the great Incarnate Word and His message to the world. So +that instead of there being a restriction implied in the words +before us, there is the broadest implication of the universality of +Christ's message. And just as every man comes into the world with a +pair of ears on his head, so every man comes into the world with the +capacity of listening to, and accepting, that gracious Lord. That is +the first thing that our Master distinctly declares here, that we +all have ears. + +II. If we have ears we are bound to use them. + +'Let him hear.' In all regions, as I need not remind you, capacity +and responsibility go together; and the power that we possess is the +measure of the obligation under which we come. All our natural +faculties, for instance, are given to us with the implied command, +'See that you make the best use of them.' So that even these bodily +organs of ours, much more the higher faculties and capacities of the +spirit of which the body is partly the symbol and partly the +instrument, are intrusted to us on terms of stewardship. And just as +it is criminal for a man to go through life with a pair of ears on +his head, and a pair of eyes in his forehead, neither of which he +educates and cultivates, so is it criminal for a man having the +capacity of grasping the great Revelation of God, who 'at sundry +times and in divers manners hath spoken unto the Fathers by the +prophets, but in these last days hath spoken unto us by the Son,' to +turn away from that Voice, and pay no heed to it. + +It is universally true that obligation goes with capacity. It is +especially true with regard to our relation to Jesus Christ. We are +all bound to 'hear Him,' as the great Voice said on the Mount of +Transfiguration. The upshot of all that manifestation of the divine +glory welling up from the depths of Christ's nature, and +transfiguring His countenance, the upshot of all that solemn and +mysterious communion with the mighty dead, Moses and Elias, the end +of all that encompassing glory that wrapped Him, was the Voice from +Heaven which proclaimed, 'This is My beloved Son; hear ye Him.' +Moses with his Law, Elijah with his Prophecy, faded away and were +lost. But there stood forth singly the one Figure, relieved against +the background of the glory-cloud, the Christ to whom we are all +bound to turn with the vision of longing eyes, with the listening of +docile ears, with the aspiration of yearning affection, with the +submission of absolute obedience. + +'Hear ye Him.' For just as truly as light is meant for the eye, so +truly are the words of the Incarnate Word, and the life which is +speech and revelation, meant to be the supreme objects of our +attention, of our contemplative regard, and of our practical +submission. We are bound to hear because we have ears; and of all +the voices that are candidates for our attention, and of all the +music that sounds through the universe, no voice is so sweet and +weighty, no words so fundamental and all-powerful, no music so +melodious, so deep and thunderous, so thrilling and gracious, as are +the words of that Word who was made flesh and dwelt among us. We are +bound to hear, and we hear to most profit when it is Him that we +hear. + +III. We shall not hear without an effort. + +Christ says in my text, 'Let him hear,' as if the possession of the +ear did not necessarily involve that there should be hearing. And so +it is; 'Having ears, they hear not,' is a description verified in a +great many other walks of life than in regard to religious matters. +But it is verified there in the most conspicuous and in the most +tragic fashion. I wonder how many of us there are who, though we +have heard with the hearing of the outward ear, have not heard in +the sense of attending, have scarcely heard in the sense of +apprehending, and have not heard at all in the sense of obeying? +Friend, what is it that keeps you from hearing, if you do not hear? +Let me run over two or three of the things that thus are like wax in +a man's ears, making him deaf to the message of life in Jesus +Christ, in order to bring out how needful it is that these should be +counteracted by an effort of will, and the vigorous concentration of +thought and heart upon that message. + +What is it that keeps men from hearing? Being busy with other things +is one hindrance. There is an old story of St. Bernard riding along +by a lake on his way to a Council, and being so occupied with +thoughts and discussions, that after the day's travel he lifted up +his eyes and said, 'Where is the lake?' And so we, many of us, go +along all our days on the banks of the great sea of divine love, and +we are so busy thinking about other things, or doing other things, +that at the end of the journey we do not know that we have been +travelling by the side of the flashing waters all the day long. +Everybody knows how possible it is to be so engrossed with one's +occupations or thoughts as that when the clock strikes in the next +steeple, we hear it and do not hear it. We have read of soldiers +being so completely absorbed in the fury of the fight that a +thunderstorm has rattled over their heads, and no man heard the +roll, and no man saw the flash. Many of us are so swallowed up in +our trade, in our profession, in our special branch of study, in our +occupations and desires, that all the trumpets of Sinai might be +blown into our ears, and we should hear them as though we heard them +not; and what is worse, that the pleading voice of that great Lord +who is ever saying to each of us, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour, +and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,' passes us by, and +produces no effect, any more than does the idle wind whistling +through an archway. Brethren, you have the need, the sin, the +weakness, the transiency, to which the Gospel appeals. You have the +faculties to which it addresses itself. Jesus Christ is speaking to +every one of us. I beseech you to ask yourselves, 'Do I hear Him?' +If not, is it not because the clatter of the world's business, or +the more refined sounds of some profession or study, have so taken +up your attention that you have none to spare for that which +requires and repays it most? + +Then there is another thing that makes attention, and concentration, +and a dead lift of resolution necessary, if you are rightly to hear, +and that is the very fact that, superficially, you have heard all +your days. You do not know the despair that sometimes comes over men in +my position when we face our congregations of people that are familiar +to weariness with everything that we have to say, and because they are +superficially so familiar with it, fancy that there is no need for +them to give heed any more. What can a poor man like me do to get +through that crust of familiarity with the mere surface of Christian +truth and teaching which is round many of you? You come and listen to +me, and say, 'Oh! he has nothing original to say. We have heard it all +before.' Yes, your ears have heard it. Have _you_ heard? 'Jesus Christ +died for me,' you have been told that ever since you were a little +child; and so the thousand-and-first, the million-and-first, repetition +of it has little power over you. If once, just once, that truth could +get through the crust of familiarity, and touch your heart, your bare +heart, with its quick naked point of fire-shod love, I think there +might be a wound made that would mean healing. But some of you will +go away presently, just as you have gone away a thousand times before, +and my words will rebound from you like an india-rubber ball from a +wall, or run off you like water from the sea-bird's plumes, just +because you think you have heard it all before--and you have never +heard it all your days. 'He that hath ears to hear, let him _hear_.' + +Then there is another hindrance. A man may put his fingers in his +ears. And some of you, I am afraid, are not ignorant of what it is +to have made distinct and conscious efforts to get rid of the +impressions of religion, and of Christ's voice to us. + +And then there are some of us who, out of sheer listlessness, do not +hear. It is not because we are too busy. It is not because we have +any intellectual objection to the message. It is not because we have +made any definite effort to get away from it. It is not even because +we have been so accustomed to hear it, that it is impossible to make +an impression on our listless indifference. Go down into Morecambe +Bay when the tide is making; and, as the water is beginning to +percolate through the sand, try to make an impression with a stick +upon the tremulous jelly. As soon as you take out the point the +impression is lost. And there are many of us like that, who, out of +sheer stolid listlessness, retain no fragment of the truth that is +sounding in our ears. Dear friends, 'If the word spoken by angels +was steadfast, how shall we escape if we'--what? Reject? Deny? Fight +against? Angrily repel? No;--'if we _neglect_ so great salvation?' That +is the question for you negligent people, for you people who think you +know all about it and there an end, for you people who are so busy +with your daily lives that, amidst the hubbub of earth, heaven's silent +voice is inaudible to your ears. Neglect stops the ears and ruins the +man. But you will not hear, though you have ears, unless you make an +effort of will and concentration of attention. + +IV. And now the last thing that I have to say is:--If we do not +hear, we shall become deaf. + +That is what Christ said in the context. The sentence which I have +taken as my text was spoken at the close of the Parable of the +Sower; and when His disciples came and asked Him why He spake in +parables, His answer was in effect that the people to whom He spoke +had not profited by what they had heard, 'hearing, they heard not,' +and therefore He spoke in parables which veiled as well as revealed +the truth. It was not given to them to know the mysteries of the +Kingdom, because they had not given heed to what had been made known +to them. The great law was taking effect which gives to him that has +and takes from him that has not; and that law applied not only to +the form of Christ's teaching, but also to the faculty of receiving +it. That diminished capacity is sometimes represented as men's own +act, and sometimes as the divinely inflicted penalty of not hearing, +but in either case the same fact is in view--namely, the loss of +susceptibility by neglect, the dying out of faculties by disuse. + +Just as in the bodily life capacities untrained and unexercised +become faint and disappear; just as the Indian _fakir_, who +holds his arm up above his head for years, never using the muscles, +has the muscles atrophied, and at last cannot bring his arm down to +his side;--so the people who neglect to use the ears that God has +given them by degrees will lose the capacity of hearing at all. +Which, being put into plain English, just comes to this: that if we +do not listen to Jesus Christ when He calls to us in His love, we +shall gradually have the capacity of hearing diminished until--I do +not know if it ever reaches that point here--until its ultimate +extinction. + +Dear friends, this word of the love and pity and pardon and +purifying power of God manifest in Jesus Christ for us all, which I +am trying to preach to you now, is not without an effect even on the +men by whom it is most superficially and perfunctorily heard. It +either softens or hardens. As the old mystics used to say, the same +heat that melts wax hardens clay into brick. The same light that +brings blessing to one eye brings pain to another. You have heard, +and hearing you have not heard; and you will cease to be able to +hear at all; and then the thunders may rattle over your heads, and +be inaudible to you; and that Voice which is as loud as the sound of +many waters, and sweet as harpers harping on their harps, and which +says to each of us, 'Come to Me, and I will be thy peace and thy +rest and thy strength,' will no more be audible in your atrophied +ears. Dear friends! I do not know, as I have said, whether that +ultimate tragic result is ever wholly reached in this world. I am +sure that it is not reached with some of you as yet. And I beseech +you to obey that voice which says, 'This is My beloved Son; hear +Him,' and to let there not be only outward hearing, but to let there +be inward acceptance, attention, apprehension, and obedience. And +then we shall be able to say, 'Blessed are our ears, for they hear; +blessed are our eyes, for they see.' 'Many prophets and righteous +men desired to hear the things that ye hear, and heard them not, +take care that, since you are thus advanced in the outward +possession of the perfect word of God, there be also the yielding +to, and reception of it. + + + + +'TO HIM THAT HATH SHALL BE GIVEN' + + + 'Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall + have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him + shall be taken away even that he hath.'-- MATT. xiii. 12. + +There are several instances in the Gospels of our Lord's repetition +of sayings which seem to have been, if we may use the expression, +favourites with Him; as, for instance, 'There are first which shall +be last, and there are last which shall be first'; or, again, 'The +servant is not greater than his master, nor the disciple than his +lord.' My text is one of these. It is here said as part of the +explanation why He chose to speak in parables, in order that the +truth, revealed to the diligent and attentive, might be hidden from +the careless. Again, we find it in two other Gospels, in a somewhat +similar connection, though with a different application, where Jesus +enunciates it as the basis of His warning, 'Take heed how'--or, in +another version, 'what'--'ye hear.' Again He employs it in this +Gospel in the parable of the talents, as explaining the principle on +which the retribution to the slothful servant was meted out. And we +find it yet once more in the parable of the pounds in Luke's Gospel, +which, though entirely different in conception and purpose from that +of the talents, is identical in the portion connected with the +slothful servant. + +So there are two very distinct directions in which this saying +looks, as it was used by our Lord--one in reference to the attitude +of men towards the Revelation of God, and one in reference to the +solemn subject of future retribution. I wish, now, mainly to try and +illustrate the great law which is set forth here, and to follow out +the various spheres of its operation, and estimate the force of its +influence. For I think that large and very needful lessons for us +all may be drawn therefrom. The principle of my text shapes all +life. It is a paradox, but it is a deep truth. It sounds harsh and +unjust, but it contains the very essence of righteous retribution. +The paradox is meant to spur attention, curiosity, and inquiry. The +key to it lies here--to use is to have. There is a possession which +is no possession. That I have rights of property in a thing, as +contradistinguished to your rights, does not make it in any deep and +real sense mine. What I use I have; and all else is, as one of the +other evangelists has it, but 'seeming' to have. + +So much, then, by way of explanation of our text. Now, let me ask +you to look with me into two or three of the regions where we shall +find illustrations of its working. + +I. Take the application of this principle to common life. + +The lowest instance is in regard to material possessions. It is a +complaint that is made against the present social arrangements and +distribution of wealth, that money makes money; that wealth has a +tendency to clot; the rich man to get richer, and the poor man to +get poorer. Just as in a basin of water when the plug is out, and +circular motion is set up, the little bits of foreign matter that +may be there all tend to get together, so it is in regard to these +external possessions. 'To him that hath shall be given'; and people +grumble about that and say, 'It never rains but it pours, and the +man that needs more money least gets it most easily.' Of course. +Treasure used grows; treasure hoarded rusts and dwindles. The +millionaire will double his fortune by a successful speculation. The +man with half a dozen large shops drives the poor little tradesman +out of the field. So it is all round: 'To him that hath shall be +given; but from him that hath not shall be taken even that he hath.' + +Next, go a step higher. Look at how this law works in regard to +powers of body. That is a threadbare old illustration. The +blacksmith's arm we have all heard about; the sailor's eye, the +pianist's wrist, the juggler's fingers, the surgeon's deft hand--all +these come by use. 'To him that hath shall be given.' And the same +man who has cultivated one set of organs to an almost miraculous +fineness or delicacy or strength will, by the operation of the other +half of the same principle, have all but atrophied another set. So +with the blacksmith's arm, which has grown muscular at the expense +of his legs. Part of the physical frame has monopolised what might +have been distributed throughout the whole. Use is strength; use +makes growth. We have what we employ. And even in regard to our +bodily frame the organs that we do not use we carry about with us +rather as a weight attached to us than as a possession. + +Again, come a little higher. This great principle largely goes to +determine our position in the world and our work. The man that can do +a thing gets it to do. In the long run the tools come to the hand that +can use them. So here is one medical man's consulting-room crammed +full of patients, and his neighbour next door has scarcely one. The +whole world runs to read A's, B's, or C's books. The briefless +barrister complains that there is no middle course between having +nothing to do and being overwhelmed with briefs. 'To him that hath +shall be given'--the man can do a thing, and he gets it to do--'and +from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath,' +That law largely settles every man's place in the world. + +Let us come still higher. The same law has much--not all, but much--to +do in making men's characters. For it operates in its most intense +fashion, and with results most blessed or most disastrous, in the +inner life. The great example that I would adduce is conscience. Use +it, obey it, listen for its voice, never thwart it, and it grows and +grows and grows, and becomes more and more sensitive, more and more +educated, more and more sovereign in its decisions. Neglect it, still +more, go in its teeth, and it dwindles and dwindles and dwindles; and +I suppose it is possible--though one would fain hope that it is a very +exceptional case--for a man, by long-continued indifference to the +voice within that says 'Thou shalt' or 'Thou shalt not,' to come at +last to never hearing it at all, or to its never speaking at all. It +is 'seared as with a hot iron,' says one of the Apostles; and in +seared flesh there is no feeling any more. Are any of you, dear +friends, bringing about such a state? Are you doing what you know you +ought not to do? Then you will be less and less troubled as the days +go on; and, by neglecting the voice, you will come at last to be like +the profligate woman in the book of Proverbs, who, after her sin, +'wipes her mouth and says, I have done no harm.' Do you think _that_ +is a desirable state--to put out the eyes of your soul, to stifle +what is the truest echo of God's voice that you will ever hear? Do +you not think that it would be wiser to get the blessed half of this +law on your side, instead of the dreadful one? Listen to that voice. +Never, as you value yourselves, neglect it. Cultivate the habit of +waiting for its monitions, its counsels prohibitory or commendatory, +and then you will have done much to secure that your spirit shall be +enriched by the operations of this wide-spread law. + +Take another illustration. People who, by circumstances, are placed +in some position of dependence and subordination, where they have +seldom to exercise the initiative of choice, but just to do what +they are bid, by degrees all but lose the power of making up their +minds about anything. And so a slave set free is proverbially a +helpless creature, like a bit of driftwood; and children who have +been too long kept in a position of pupilage and subordination, when +they are sent into the world are apt to turn out very feeble men, +for want of a good, strong backbone of will in them. So, many a +woman that has been accustomed to leave everything in her husband's +hands, when the clods fall on his coffin finds herself utterly +helpless and bewildered, just because in the long, happy years she +never found it necessary to exercise her own judgment or her own +will about practical matters. + +So do not get into the habit of letting circumstances settle what +you are to do, or you will lose the power of dominating them, before +very long. And if a man for years leaves himself, as it were, to be +guided by the stream of circumstances, like long green weeds in a +river, he will lose the power of determining his own fate, and the +Will will die clean out of him. Cultivate it, and it will grow. + +Again, this same principle largely settles our knowledge, our +convictions, the operations and the furniture of our understandings. +If a man holds any truth slackly, or in the case of truths that are +meant to influence life and conduct, does not let it influence these, +then that is a kind of having truth that is sure to end in losing it. +If you want to lose your convictions grasp them loosely--do not act +upon them, do not take them for guides of your life--and they will +soon relieve you of their unwelcome presence. If you wish mind and +knowledge to grow, grip with a grip of iron what you do know, and +let it dominate you, as it ought. He that truly _has_ his +learning will learn more and pile by slow degrees stone upon stone, +until the building is complete. + +So, dear friends, here, in these illustrations, which might have +been indefinitely enlarged, we see the working of a principle which +has much to do in making men what they are. What you use you +increase, what you leave unused you lose. There are grey heads in my +present audience who, when they were young men, had dreams and +aspirations that they bitterly smile at now. There are men here who +began life with possibilities that have never blossomed or fruited, +but have died on the stem. Why? Because they were so much occupied +with the vulpine craft of making their position and their 'pile' +that generous emotions and noble sympathies and lofty aspirations, +intellectual or otherwise, were all neglected, and so they are dead; +and the men are the poorer incalculably, because of what has thus +been shed away from them. You make your characters by the parts of +yourselves that you choose to cultivate and employ. Do you think +that God gave us whatever of an intellectual and emotional and moral +kind is in us, in order that it might be all used up in our daily +business? A very much scantier outfit would have done for all that +is wanted for that. But there are abortive and dormant organs in +your spiritual nature, as there are in the corporeal, which tell you +what you were meant for, and which it is your sin to leave +undeveloped. Brethren, the law of my text shapes us in the two ways, +that whatever we cultivate, be it noble or be it bestial, will grow, +and whatever we repress or neglect will die. Choose which of the two +halves of yourselves you will foster, and on which you will frown. + +So much, then, for the first general application of these words. Now +let me turn for a moment to another. + +II. I would note, secondly, the application of this two-fold law in +regard to God's revelation of Himself. + +That is the bearing of it in the immediate context from which our +text is taken. Our Lord explains that teaching by parable--a +transparent veil over a truth--was adopted in order that the veiled +truth might be a test as well as a revelation. And although I do not +believe that the Christian revelation has been made in any degree +less plain and obvious than it could have been made, I cannot but +recognise the fact that the necessities of the case demand that, +when God speaks to us, He should speak in such a fashion as that it +is possible to say, 'Tush! It is not God that is speaking; it is +only Eli!' and so to turn about the young Samuel's mistake the other +way. I do not believe that God has diminished the evidence of His +Revelation in order to try us; but I do maintain that the Revelation +which He has made does come to us, and must come to us, in such a +form as that, not by mathematical demonstration but by moral +affinity, we shall be led to recognise and to bow to it. He that +will be ignorant, let him be ignorant, and he that will come asking +for truth, it will flood his eyeballs with a blessed illumination. +The veil will but make more attractive to some eyes the outlines of +the fair form beneath it, whilst others are offended at it and say, +'Unless we see the truth undraped, we will not believe that it is +truth at all.' + +So, brethren, let me remind you--what is really but a repetition in +reference to another subject of what I have already said,--that in +regard to God's speech to men, and especially in regard to what I, +for my part, believe to be the complete and ultimate and perfect +speech of God to men, in Jesus Christ our Saviour, the principle of +my text holds good. + +'To him that hath shall be given.' If you will make that truth your +own by loyal faith and honest obedience, if you will grapple it to +your heart, then you will learn more and more. Whatever tiny corner +of the great whole you have grasped, hold on by that and draw it +into yourselves, and you will by degrees get the entire, glorious, +golden web to wrap round you. 'If any man wills to do His will he +shall know.' That is Christ's promise; and it will be fulfilled to +us all. 'To him that hath shall be given.' + +If, on the other hand, you 'have' Christian truth and Christ, who is +the Truth, in the fashion in which so many of us have it and Him, as +a form, as a mere intellectual possession, so that we can, when we +go to church, repeat the creed without feeling that we are telling a +lie, but that when we go to market we do not carry the Commandments +with us--if that is our Christianity, then it will dribble away into +nothing. We shall not be much the poorer for the loss of such a sham +possession, but it will go. It drops out of the hands that are not +clasped to hold it. It is just that a thing so neglected shall some +day be a thing withdrawn. So in regard to Revelation and a man's +perception and reception of it, my text holds good in both its +halves. + +III. Lastly, look at the application of these words in the future. + +That is our Lord's own application of them, twice out of the five +times in which the saying appears in the three Gospels: in the +parable of the talents and in the parallel portion of the parable of +the pounds. I do not venture into the regions of speculation about +that future, but from the words before us there come clearly enough +two aspects of it. The man with the ten talents received more; the +man that had hid the talent or the pound in the ground was deprived +of that which he had not used. + +Now, with regard to the former there is no difficulty in translating +the representations of the parables, sustained as they are by +distinct statements of other portions of Scripture. They come to +this, that, for the life beyond, indefinite progress in all that is +noble and blessed and Godlike in heart and character, in intellect +and power, are certain; that faith, hope, love, here cultivated but +putting forth few blossoms and small fruitage, there, in that higher +house where these be planted, will flourish in the courts of the +Lord, and will bear fruit abundantly; that here the few things +faithfully administered will be succeeded yonder by the many things +royally ruled over; that here one small coin, as it were, is put +into our palm--namely the present blessedness and peace and strength +and purity of a Christian life; and that yonder we possess the +inheritance of which what we have here is but the earnest. It used +to be the custom when a servant was hired for the next term-day to +give him one of the smallest coins of the realm as what was called +'arles'--wages in advance, to seal the bargain. Similarly, in buying +an estate a bit of turf was passed over to the purchaser. We get the +earnest here of the broad acres of the inheritance above. 'To him +that hath shall be given.' + +And the other side of the same principle works in some terrible ways +that we cannot speak about. 'From him that hath not shall be taken +away even that which he hath.' I have spoken of the terrible analogy +to this solemn prospect which is presented us by the imperfect +experiences of earth. And when we see in others, or discover in +ourselves, how it is possible for unused faculties to die entirely +out, I think we shall feel that there is a solemn background of very +awful truth, in the representation of what befell the unfaithful +servant. Hopes unnourished are gone; opportunities unimproved are +gone, capacities undeveloped are gone; fold after fold, as it were, +is peeled off the soul, until there is nothing left but the naked +self, pauperised and empty-handed for evermore. 'Take it from him'; +he never was the better for it; he never used it; he shall have it +no longer. + +Brethren, cultivate the highest part of yourselves, and see to it that, +by faith and obedience, you truly have the Saviour, whom you have by +the hearing of the ear and by outward profession. And then death will +come to you, as a nurse might to a child that came in from the fields +with its hands full of worthless weeds and grasses, to empty them in +order to fill them with the flowers that never fade. You can choose +whether Death--and Life too, for that matter--shall be the porter +that will open to you the door of the treasure-house of God, or the +robber that will strip you of misused opportunities and unused talents. + + + + +SEEING AND BLIND + + + 'They seeing, see not.'--MATT. xiii, 13. + +This is true about all the senses of the word 'seeing'; there is +not one man in ten thousand who sees the things before his eyes. Is +not this the distinction, for instance, of the poet or painter, and +man of science--just that they do see? How true is this about the +eye of the mind, what a small number really understand what they +know! But these illustrations are of less moment than the saddest +example--religious indifference. I wish to speak about this now, +and to ask you to consider-- + + I. The extent to which it prevails. + II. The causes from which it springs. + III. The fearful contrasts it suggests. + IV. The end to which it conducts. + +I. The extent to which it prevails. + +I have no hesitation in saying that it is the condition of by far +the largest proportion of our nation. It is the true enemy of souls. +I do not believe that any large proportion of Englishmen are actual +disbelievers, who reject Christianity as unworthy of credence, or +attach themselves to any of the innumerable varieties of deistical +and pantheistical schools. I am not saying at present whether it +would be a more or less hopeful state if it were so, but only that +it is not so, and that a complacent taking for granted of religious +truth, a torpor of soul, an entire carelessness about God and +Christ, and the whole mighty scheme of the Gospel, is the +characteristic of many in all classes of English society. We have it +here in our churches and chapels as the first foe we have to fight +with. Disbelief slays its thousands, and dissipation its tens of +thousands, but this sleek, well-to-do carelessness, its millions. As +some one says, it is as if an opium sky had rained down soporifics. + +II. The causes from which it springs. + +Of course, the great cause of this condition is man's evil heart of +alienation, the spirit of slumber--but we may find proximate and +special causes. + +There is the indifference springing from the absorbing interests of +the present. A man has only a certain quantity of interest to put +forth. If he expends it all on small things, he has none for great. +This overmastering, overshadowing present draws us all to itself, +and we have no power of attention or interest to spare for anything +else, or for reflection upon Christian truth in connection with our +own conduct. + +Then there is the indifference caused by fear of what the results of +attention might be. It is sometimes broken in upon, and men are in +danger of having their eyes opened, then with an effort they fling +themselves into some distraction, and sleep again. As the text says, +'Their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes.' + +Then there is the indifference fed by an indolent acquiescence in +the truth. That is a favourite way of breaking the force of all +unwelcome moral truth, and especially of the Gospel. A man says, 'Oh +yes, it is true,' and because it is, therefore he thinks he has done +enough when he has acknowledged it. Many do not seem to dream that +the Word has any personal application to them at all. + +Then there is the indifference which comes from long familiarity +with the truth. It is this which haunts our congregations and makes +it so impossible to get at many who know all our message already. +You can tell them nothing they do not know. As with men who live by +a forge, the sound of the blow of the hammer only lulls them to +sleep. The Gospel is so familiar to them that there is no longer any +power about it. The vulgar emotion of wonder is not excited, and the +other of love and admiration has not taken its place. + +Men who live in mountain scenery do not know its beauties, and as +with all other operations of the listless eye so with this, the old +is deemed to be uninteresting, and the common is the commonplace. As +even in the piece of earth that you have trodden on longest, you +would find marvels that you do not dream of if you would look, so +here. You have heard too much and reflected too little. Oh, +brethren, it oppresses a man who has to speak to you when he +reflects how often you have heard it all, how the flow of the river +only seems to have worn your souls smooth enough to let it glide +past without one stoppage. + +III. The contrasts it suggests. + +Contrast the indolence here with the earnestness in life. The same +men who sit with faces stolid and expressionless over a sermon--meet +them on Monday morning! They go to sleep at prayer or over a Bible, +but see them in a bargain or over a ledger. Think of what powers of +intense love, yea, of almost fearful devotion and energy, lie in us, +ay and come out of us, and then think how poor, how cold we are +here, and we may well be ashamed. It is as if a burning mountain +with its cataract of fire were suddenly quenched and locked in +everlasting frost, and all the flaming glory running down its +heaving sides turned into a slow glacier. There comes ice instead of +fire, frost instead of flame, snow instead of sparks. It is as if +some magician waved a wand and stiffened men into a paralysis. +Religion seems to numb men instead of inspiring them. It is an awful +thought of how they serve themselves and the world, how they can +love one another, how they can be stirred to noble enthusiasm, and +how little of all this ever comes to God. + +Contrast the indifference of the men and the awfulness of the things +they are indifferent about. God--Christ--their souls--heaven--hell. +The grandest things men can think about, the mightiest realities in +the universe, the eternal, the most powerful, these it is which some +of you, seeing, see not. + +Contrast men's indifference and the earnestness of the rest of the +creation. God rose early and sent His prophets. He so loved the +world that He gave His Son. Christ died, lives, works, rules, +expects, beseeches. Angels desire to look into the wonders that you +'seeing, see not'. What makes heaven fill with rapture, and flash +through all her golden glories with light, what makes hell look on +with the lurid scowl of baffled malignity, that is what _you_ +are careless about. My friend, you and other men like you are the +only beings in the universe careless about the salvation of your +souls. + +IV. The end to which it conducts. + +That end is certain ruin. Ah, dear friends, you do not need to do +much to ruin your own souls. You have only to continue indifferent +and you will do it effectually. Negligence is quite enough. Ruin is +what it will certainly end in. + +And remember that when the possibility of salvation ends, your +indifference will end too. The poor toad that is fascinated by the +serpent, and drops powerless into the cruel jaws, wakes from the +stupor when it feels the pang. And the lifelong torpor will be +dissolved for you when you pass into another world. What an awful +awaking that will be when men look back and see by the light of +eternity what they were doing here! Oh! friends, would to God that +any poor word of mine could rouse you from this drugged and opiate +sleep! Believe me, it is merciful violence which would rouse you. +Anything rather than that the poison should work on till the heavy +slumber darkens into death. Let me implore you, as you value your +own souls, as you would not fling away your most precious jewel to +'awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ +shall give thee light.' Beware of the treacherous indifference which +creeps on, till, like men in the Arctic regions, the sleepers die. + + + + +MINGLED IN GROWTH, SEPARATED IN MATURITY + + + 'Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The + kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed + good seed in his field: 25. But while men slept, his + enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went + his way. 26. But when the blade was sprung up, and + brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. + 27. So the servants of the householder came and said + unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy + field? from whence then hath it tares? 28. He said + unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said + unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? + 29. But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the + tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 80. Let + both grow together until the harvest: and in the time + of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye + together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to + burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.' + --MATT. xiii. 24-30. + +The first four parables contained in this chapter were spoken to a +miscellaneous crowd on the beach, the last three to the disciples in +the house. The difference of audience is accompanied with a diversity +of subject. The former group deals with the growth of the kingdom, as +it might be observed by outsiders, and especially with aspects of the +growth on which the multitude needed instruction; the latter, with +topics more suited to the inner circle of followers. Of these four, +the first three are parables of vegetation; the last, of assimilation. +The first two are still more closely connected, inasmuch as the person +of the sower is prominent in both, while he is not seen in the others. +The general scenery is the same in both, but with a difference. The +identification of the seed sown with the persons receiving it, which +was hinted at in the first, is predominant in the second. But while +the former described the various results of the seed, the latter +drops out of sight the three failures, and follows its fortunes in +honest and good hearts, showing the growth of the kingdom in the +midst of antagonistic surroundings. It may conveniently be considered +in three sections: the first teaching how the work of the sower is +counter-worked by his enemy; the second, the patience of the sower +with the thick-springing tares; and the third, the separation at the +harvest. + +I. The work of the sower counter-worked by his enemy, and the +mingled crops. + +The peculiar turn of the first sentence, 'The kingdom of heaven is +likened unto a man that sowed,' etc., suggests that the main purpose +of the parable is to teach the conduct of the king in view of the +growth of the tares. The kingdom is concentrated in Him, and the +'likening' is not effected by the parable, but, as the tenses of +both verbs show, by the already accomplished fact of His sowing. Our +Lord veils His claims by speaking of the sower in the third person; +but the hearing ear cannot fail to catch the implication throughout +that He Himself is the sower and the Lord of the harvest. The field +is 'his field,' and His own interpretation tells us that it means +'the world.' Whatever view we take of the bearing of this parable on +purity of communion in the visible Church, we should not slur over +Christ's own explanation of 'the field,' lest we miss the lesson +that He claims the whole world as His, and contemplates the sowing +of the seed broadcast over it all. The Kingdom of Heaven is to be +developed on, and to spread through, the whole earth. The world +belongs to Christ not only when it is filled with the kingdom, but +before the sowing. The explanation of the good seed takes the same +point of view as in the former parable. What is sown is 'the word'; +what springs from the seed is the new life of the receiver. Men +become children of the kingdom by taking the Gospel into their +hearts, and thereby receive a new principle of growth, which in +truth becomes themselves. + +Side by side with the sower's beneficent work the counter-working of +'his enemy' goes on. As the one, by depositing holy truth in the +heart, makes men 'children of the kingdom,' the other, by putting +evil principles therein, makes men 'children of evil.' Honest +exposition cannot eliminate the teaching of a personal antagonist of +Christ, nor of his continuous agency in the corruption of mankind. +It is a glimpse into a mysterious region, none the less reliable +because so momentary. The sulphurous clouds that hide the fire in +the crater are blown aside for an instant, and we see. Who would +doubt the truth and worth of the unveiling because it was short and +partial? 'The devil is God's ape.' His work is a parody of Christ's. +Where the good seed is sown, there the evil is scattered thickest. +False Christs and false apostles dog the true like their shadows. +Every truth has its counterfeit. Neither institutions, nor +principles, nor movements, nor individuals, bear unmingled crops of +good. Not merely creatural imperfection, but hostile adulteration, +marks them all. The purest metal oxidises, scum gathers on the most +limpid water, every ship's bottom gets foul with weeds. The history +of every reformation is the same: radiant hopes darkened, progress +retarded, a second generation of dwarfs who are careless or +unfaithful guardians of their heritage. + +There are, then, two classes of men represented in the parable, and +these two are distinguishable without doubt by their conduct. Tares +are said to be quite like wheat until the heads show, and then there +is a plain difference. So our Lord here teaches that the children of +the kingdom and those of evil are to be discriminated by their +actions. We need not do more than point in a sentence to His +distinct separation of men (where the seed of the kingdom has been +sown) into two sets. Jesus Christ holds the unfashionable, 'narrow' +opinion that, at bottom, a man must either be His friend or His +enemy. We are too much inclined to weaken the strong line of +demarcation, and to think that most men are neither black nor white, +but grey. + +The question has been eagerly debated whether the tares are bad men +in the Church, and whether, consequently, the mingled crop is a +description of the Church only. The following considerations may +help to an answer. The parable was spoken, not to the disciples, but +to the crowd. An instruction to them as to Church discipline would +have been signally out of place; but they needed to be taught that +the kingdom was to be 'a rose amidst thorns,' and to grow up among +antagonisms which it would slowly conquer, by the methods which the +next two parables set forth. This general conception, and not +directions about ecclesiastical order, was suited to them. Again, +the designation of the tares as 'the children of evil' seems much +too wide, if only a particular class of evil men--namely, those who +are within the Church--are meant by it. Surely the expression +includes all, both in and outside the Church, who 'do iniquity.' +Further, the representation of the children of the kingdom, as +growing among tares in the field of the world, does not seem to +contemplate them as constituting a distinct society, whether pure or +impure; but rather as an indefinite number of individuals, +intermingled in a common soil with the other class. 'The kingdom of +heaven' is not a synonym for the Church. Is it not an anachronism to +find the Church in the parable at all? No doubt, tares are in the +Church, and the parable has a bearing on it; but its primary lesson +seems to me to be much wider, and to reveal rather the conditions of +the growth of the kingdom in human society. + +II. We have the patience of the husbandman with the quick-springing +tares. + +The servants of the householder receive no interpretation from our +Lord. Their question is silently passed by in His explanation. +Clearly then, for some reason, He did not think it necessary to say +any more about them; and the most probable reason is, that they and +their words have no corresponding facts, and are only introduced to +lead up to the Master's explanation of the mystery of the growth of +the tares, and to His patience with it. The servants cannot be +supposed to represent officials in the Church, without hopelessly +destroying the consistency of the parable; for surely all the +children of the kingdom, whatever their office, are represented in +the crop. Many guesses have been made,--apostles, angels, and so on. +It is better to say 'The Lord hath not showed it me.' + +The servant's first question expresses, in vivid form, the sad, strange +fact that, where good was sown, evil springs. The deepest of all +mysteries is the origin of evil. Explain sin, and you explain everything. +The question of the servants is the despair of thinkers in all ages. +Heaven sows only good; where do the misery and the wickedness +come from? That is a wider and sadder question than, How are churches +not free from bad members? Perhaps Christ's answer may go as far +towards the bottom of the bottomless as those of non-Christian thinkers, +and, if it do not solve the metaphysical puzzles, at any rate gives +the historical fact, which is all the explanation of which the question +is susceptible. + +The second question reminds us of 'Wilt Thou that we command fire... +from heaven, and consume them?' It is cast in such a form as to put +emphasis on the householder's will. His answer forbidding the +gathering up of the tares is based, not upon any chance of mistaking +wheat for them, nor upon any hope that, by forbearance, tares may +change into wheat, but simply on what is best for the good crop. +There was a danger of destroying some of it, not because of its +likeness to the other, but because the roots of both were so +interlaced that one could not be pulled up without dragging the +other after it. + +Is this prohibition, then, meant to forbid the attempt to keep the +Church pure from un-Christian members? The considerations already +adduced are valid in answering this question, and others may be +added. The crowd of listeners had, no doubt, many of them, been +influenced by John the Baptist's fiery prophecies of the King who +should come, fan in hand, to 'purge His floor,' and were looking for +a kingdom which was to be inaugurated by sharp separation and swift +destruction. Was not the teaching needed then, as it is now, that +that is not the way in which the kingdom of heaven is to be founded +and grow? Is not the parable best understood when set in connection +with the expectations of its first hearers, which are ever floating +anew before the eyes of each generation of Christians? Is it not +Christ's _apologia_ for His delay in filling the _rôle_ which John had +drawn out for him? And does that conception of its meaning make it +meaningless for us? Observe, too, that the rooting up which is forbidden +is, by the proprieties of the emblem, and by the parallel which it +must necessarily afford to the final burning, something very solemn +and destructive. We may well ask whether excommunication is a +sufficiently weighty idea to be taken as its equivalent. Again, how +does the interpretation which sees ecclesiastical discipline here +comport with the reason given for letting the tares grow on? By the +hypothesis in the parable, there is no danger of mistake; but is there +any danger of casting out good men from the Church along with the +bad, except through mistake? Further, if this parable forbids casting +manifestly evil men out of the Church, it contradicts the divinely +appointed law of the Church as administered by the apostles. If it +is to be applied to Church action at all, it absolutely forbids the +separation from the Church of any man, however notoriously un-Christian, +and that, as even the strongest advocates of comprehension admit, +would destroy the very idea of the Church. Surely an interpretation +which lands us in such a conclusion cannot be right. We conclude, +then, that the intermingling which the parable means is that of good +men and bad in human society, where all are so interwoven that +separation is impossible without destroying its whole texture; that +the rooting up, which is declared to be inconsistent with the growth +of the crop, means removal from the field, namely, the world; that +the main point of the second part of the parable is to set forth the +patience of the Lord of the harvest, and to emphasise this as the +law of the growth of His kingdom, that it advances amidst antagonism; +and that its members are interlaced by a thousand rootlets with those +who are not subjects of their King. What the interlacing is for, and +whether tares may become wheat, are no parts of its teaching. But +the lesson of the householder's forbearance is meant to be learned +by us. While we believe that the scope of the parable is wider than +instruction in Church discipline, we do not forget that a fair inference +from it is that, in actual churches, there will ever be a mingling of +good and evil; and, though that fact is no reason for giving up the +attempt to make a church a congregation of faithful men, and of such +only, it is a reason for copying the divine patience of the sower in +ecclesiastical dealings with errors of opinion and faults of +conduct. + +III. The final separation at the harvest. + +The period of development is necessarily a time of intermingling, in +which, side by side, the antagonistic principles embodied in their +representatives work themselves out, and beneficially affect each +other. But each grows towards an end, and, when it has been reached, +the blending gives place to separation. John's prophecy is plainly +quoted in the parable, which verbally repeats his 'gather the wheat +into his barn,' and alludes to his words in the other clause about +burning the tares. He was right in his anticipations; his error was +in expecting the King to wield His fan at the beginning, instead of +at the end of the earthly form of His kingdom. At the consummation +of the allotted era, the bands of human society are to be dissolved, +and a new principle of association is to determine men's place. +Their moral and religious affinities will bind them together or +separate them, and all other ties will snap. This marshalling +according to religious character is the main thought of the solemn +closing words of the parable and of its interpretation, in which our +Lord presents Himself as directing the whole process of judgment by +means of the 'angels' who execute His commands. They are 'His +angels,' and whatever may be the unknown activity put forth by them +in the parting of men, it is all done in obedience to Him. What +stupendous claims Jesus makes here! What becomes of the tares is +told first in words awful in their plainness, and still more awful +in their obscurity. They speak unmistakably of the absolute +separation of evil men from all society but that of evil men; of a +close association, compelled, and perhaps unwelcome. The tares are +gathered out of 'His kingdom,'--for the field of the world has then +all become the kingdom of Christ. There are two classes among the +tares: men whose evil has been a snare to others (for the 'things +that offend' must, in accordance with the context, be taken to be +persons), and the less guilty, who are simply called 'them that do +iniquity.' + +Perhaps the 'bundles' may imply assortment according to sin, as in +Dante's circles. What a bond of fellowship that would be! +'_The_ furnace,' as it is emphatically called by eminence, +burns up the bundles. We may freely admit that the fire is part of +the parable, but yet let us not forget that it occurs not only in +the parable, but in the interpretation; and let us learn that the +prose reality of 'everlasting destruction,' which Christ here +solemnly announces, is awful and complete. For a moment He passes +beyond the limits of that parable, to add that terrible clause about +'weeping and gnashing of teeth,' the tokens of despair and rage. So +spoke the most loving and truthful lips. Do we believe His warnings +as well as His promises? + +The same law of association according to character operates in the +other region. The children of the kingdom are gathered together in +what is now 'the kingdom of My Father,' the perfect form of the +kingdom of Christ, which is still His kingdom, for 'the throne of +God and of the Lamb,' the one throne on which both sit to reign, is +'in it.' Freed from association with evil, they are touched with a +new splendour, caught from Him, and blaze out like the sun; for so +close is their association, that their myriad glories melt as into a +single great light. Now, amid gloom and cloud, they gleam like tiny +tapers far apart; then, gathered into one, they flame in the +forehead of the morning sky, 'a glorious church, not having spot, +nor wrinkle, nor any such thing.' + + + + +LEAVEN + + + 'The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a + woman took, and bid to three measures of meal, till + the whole was leavened.'--MATT. xiii. 33. + +How lovingly and meditatively Jesus looked upon homely life, knowing +nothing of the differences, the vulgar differences, between the +small and great! A poor woman, with her morsel of barm, kneading it +up among three measures of meal, in some coarse earthenware pan, +stands to Him as representing the whole process of His work in the +world. Matthew brings together in this chapter a series of seven +parables of the kingdom, possibly spoken at different times, and +gathered here into a sequence and series, just as he has done with +the great procession of miracles that follows the Sermon on the +Mount, and just as, perhaps, he has done with that sermon itself. +The two first of the seven deal with the progress of the Gospel in +individual minds and the hindrances thereto. Then there follows a +pair, of which my text is the second, which deal with the +geographical expansion of the kingdom throughout the world, in the +parable of the grain of mustard-seed growing into the great herb, +and with the inward, penetrating, diffusive influence of the +kingdom, working as an assimilating and transforming force in the +midst of society. + +I do not purpose to enter now upon the wide and difficult question +of the relation of the kingdom to the Church. Suffice it to say that +the two terms are by no means synonymous, but that, at the same +time, inasmuch as a kingdom implies a community of subjects, the +churches, in the proportion in which they have assimilated the +leaven, and are holding fast by the powers which Christ has lodged +within them, are approximate embodiments of the kingdom. The +parable, then, suggests to us, in a very striking and impressive +form, the function and the obligations of Christian people in the +world. + +Let me deal, in a purely expository fashion, with the emblem before +us. + +'The kingdom of heaven is like leaven.' Now of course, leaven is +generally in Scripture taken as a symbol of evil or corruption. For +example, the preliminary to the Passover Feast was the purging of +the houses of the Israelites of every scrap of evil ferment, and the +bread which was eaten on that Feast was prescribed to be unleavened. +But fermentation works ennobling as well as corruption, and our Lord +lays hold upon the other possible use of the metaphor. The parable +teaches that the effect of the Gospel, as ministered by, and +residing in, the society of men, in whom the will of God is supreme, +is to change the heavy lump of dough into light, nutritious bread. +There are three or four points suggested by the parable which I +could touch upon; and the first of them is that significant +disproportion between the apparent magnitude of the dead mass that +is to be leavened, and the tiny piece of active energy which is to +diffuse itself throughout it. + +We get there a glimpse into our Lord's attitude, measuring Himself +against the world and the forces that were in it. He knows that in +Him, the sole Representative, at the moment, of the kingdom of +heaven upon earth--because in Him, and in Him alone, the divine will +was, absolutely and always, supreme--there lie, for the time +confined to Him, but never dormant, powers which are adequate to the +transformation of humanity from a dead, lumpish mass into an +aggregate all-penetrated by a quickening influence, and, if I might +so say, fermented with a new life that He will bring. A tremendous +conception, and the strange thing about it is that it looks as if +the Nazarene peasant's dream was going to come true! But He was +speaking to the men whom He was charging with a delegated task, and +to them He says, 'There are but twelve of you, and you are poor, +ignorant men, and you have no resources at your back, but you have +Me, and that is enough, and you may be sure that the tiny morsel of +yeast will penetrate the whole mass.' Small beginnings characterise +the causes which are destined to great endings; the things that are +ushered into the world large, generally grow very little further, +and speedily collapse. 'An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the +beginning, but the end shall not be blessed.' The force which is +destined to be worldwide, began with the one Man in Nazareth, and +although the measures of meal are three, and the ferment is a scrap, +it is sure to permeate and transform the mass. + +Therefore, brethren, let us take the encouragement that our Lord +here offers. If we are adherents of unpopular causes, if we have to +'stand alone with two or three,' do not let us count heads, but +measure forces. 'What everybody says must be true,' is a cowardly +proverb. It may be a correct statement that an absolutely universal +opinion is a true opinion, but what most people say is usually +false, and what the few say is most generally true. So if we have to +front--and if we are true men we shall sometimes have to front--an +embattled mass of antagonism, and we be in a miserable minority, +never mind! We can say, 'They that be with us are more than they +that be with them.' If we have anything of the leaven in us, we are +mightier than the lump of dough. + +But there is another point here, and that is the contact that is +necessary between the leaven and the dough. We have passed from the +old monastic idea of Religion being seclusion from life. But that +mistake dies hard, and there are many very Evangelical and very +Protestant--and in their own notions superlatively good--people, who +hold a modern analogue of the old monastic idea; and who think that +Christian men and women should be very tepidly interested in +anything except what they call the preaching of the Gospel, and the +saving of men's souls. Now nobody that knows me, and the trend of my +preaching, will charge me with undervaluing either of these things, +but these do not exhaust the function of the Church in the world, +nor the duty of the Church to society. We have to learn from the +metaphor in the parable. The dough is not kept on one shelf and the +leaven on another; the bit of leaven is plunged into the heart of +the mass, and then the woman kneads the whole up in her pan, and so +the influence is spread. We Christians are not doing our duty, nor +are we using our capacities, unless we fling ourselves frankly and +energetically into all the currents of the national life, +commercial, political, municipal, intellectual, and make our +influence felt in them all. The 'salt of the earth' is to be rubbed +into the meat in order to keep it from putrefaction; the leaven is +to be kneaded up into the dough in order to raise it. Christian +people are to remember that they are here, not for the purpose of +isolating themselves, but in order that they may touch life at all +points, and at all points bring into contact with earthly life the +better life and the principles of Christian morality. + +But in this contact with all phases of life and forms of activity, +Christian men are to be sure that they take the leaven with them. +There are professing Christians that say: 'Oh! I am not strait-laced +and pharisaical. I do not keep myself apart from any movements of +humanity. I count nothing that belongs to men alien to a Christian.' +All right! but when you go into these movements, when you go into +Parliament, when you become a city Councillor, when you mingle with +other men in commerce, when you meet other students in the walks of +intellect, do you take your Christianity there, or do you leave it +behind? The two things are equally necessary, that Christians should +be in all these various spheres of activity, and that they should be +there, distinctly, manifestly, and, when need be, avowedly, as +Christian men. + +Further, there is another thought here, on which I just say one +word, and that is the effect of the leaven on the dough. + +It is to assimilate, to set up a ferment. And that is what +Christianity did when it came into the world, and + + 'Cast the kingdoms old + Into another mould.' + +And that is what it ought to do to-day, and will do, if Christian +men are true to themselves and to their Lord. Do you not think that +there would be a ferment if Christian principles were applied, say, +for instance, to national politics? Do you not think there would be +a ferment if Christian principles were brought to bear upon all the +transactions on the Exchange? Is there any region of life into which +the introduction of the plain precepts of Christianity as the +supreme law would not revolutionise it? We talk about England as a +Christian country. Is it? A Christian country is a country of +Christians, and Christians are not people that only say 'I have +faith in Jesus Christ.' but people that do His will. That is the +leaven that is to change, and yet not to change, the whole mass; to +change it by lightening it, by putting a new spirit into it, leaving +the substance apparently unaffected except in so far as the +substance has been corrupted by the evil spirit that rules. +Brethren, if we as Christians were doing our duty, it would be true +of us as it was of the early preachers of the Cross, that we are men +who turn the world upside down. + +But there is one more point on which I touch. I have already +anticipated some of what I would say upon it, but I must dwell upon +it for a little longer; and that is, the manner in which the leaven +is to work. + +Here is a morsel of barm in the middle of a lump of dough. It works +by contact, touches the particles nearest it, and transforms them +into vehicles for the further transmission of influence. Each +particle touched by the ferment becomes itself a ferment, and so the +process goes on, outwards and ever outwards, till it permeates the +whole mass. That is to say, the individual is to become the +transmitter of the influence to him who is next him. The +individuality of the influence, and the track in which it is to +work, viz. upon those in immediate contiguity to the transformed +particle which is turned from dough into leaven, are taught us here +in this wonderful simile. + +Now that carries a very serious and solemn lesson for us all. If you +have received, you are able, and you are bound, to transmit this +quickening, assimilating, transforming, lightening influence, and +you need never complain of a want of objects upon which to exercise +it, for the man or woman that is next you is the person that you +ought to affect. + +Now I have already said, in an earlier portion of these remarks, +that some good people, taking an erroneous view of the function and +obligations of the Church in the world, would fain keep its work to +purely evangelistic effort upon individual souls in presenting to +them the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Saviour. But whilst I vehemently +protest against the notion that that is the whole function of the +Christian Church, I would as vehemently protest against the notion +that the so-called social work of the Church can ever be efficiently +done except upon the foundation laid of this evangelistic work. +First and foremost amongst the ways in which this great obligation +of leavening humanity is to be discharged, must ever stand, as I +believe, the appeal to the individual conscience and heart, and the +presentation to single souls of the great Name in which are stored +all the regenerative and quickening impulses that can ever alleviate +and bless humanity. So that, first and foremost, I put the preaching +of the Gospel, the Gospel of our salvation, by the death and in the +life of the Incarnate Son of God. + +But then, besides that, let me remind you there are other ways, +subsidiary but indispensable ways, in which the Church has to +discharge its function; and I put foremost amongst these, what I +have already touched upon, and therefore need not dilate on now, the +duty of Christians as Christians to take their full share in all the +various forms of national life. I need not dwell upon the evils +rampant amongst us, which have to be dealt with, and, as I believe, +may best if not only, be dealt with, upon Christian principles. +Think of drink, lust, gambling, to name but three of them, the +hydra-headed serpent that is poisoning the English nation. Now it +seems to me to be a deplorable, but a certainly true thing, that not +only are these evils not attacked by the Churches as they ought to +be, but that to a very large extent the task of attacking them has +fallen into the hands of people who have little sympathy with the +Church and its doctrines. They are fighting the evils on principles +drawn from Jesus Christ, but they are not fighting the evils to the +extent that they ought to do, with the Churches alongside. I beseech +you, in your various spheres, to see to it that, as far as you can +make it so, Christian people take the place that Christ meant them +to take in the conflict with the miseries, the sorrows, the sins +that honeycomb England to-day, and not to let it be said that the +Churches shut themselves up and preach to people, but do not lift a +finger to deal with the social evils of the nation. + + + + +TREASURE AND PEARL + + + The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a + field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and + for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and + buyeth that field. 45. Again, the kingdom of heaven is + like unto a merchantman, seeking goodly pearls: 46. Who, + when he had found one pearl of great price, went and + sold all that he had, and bought it.'--MATT. xiii. 44-46. + +In this couple of parables, which are twins, and must be taken +together, our Lord utilises two very familiar facts of old-world +life, both of them arising from a similar cause. In the days when +there were no banks and no limited liability companies, it was +difficult for a man to know what to do with his little savings. In +old times government meant oppression, and it was dangerous to seem +to have any riches. In old days war stalked over the land, and men's +property must be portable or else concealed. So, on the one hand we +find the practice of hiding away little hoards in some suitable +place, beneath a rock, in the cleft of a tree, or a hole dug in the +ground, and then, perhaps, the man died before he came back for his +wealth. Or, again, another man might prefer to carry his wealth +about with him. So he went and got jewels, easily carried, not +easily noticed, easily convertible into what he might require. + +And, says our Lord, these two practices, with which all the people +to whom He was speaking were very much more familiar than we are, +teach us something about the kingdom of God. Now, I am not going to +be tempted to discuss what our Lord means by that phrase, so +frequent upon His lips, 'the kingdom of God' or 'of heaven.' Suffice +it to say that it means, in the most general terms, a state or order +of things in which God is King, and His will supreme and sovereign. +Christ came, as He tells us, to found and to extend that kingdom +upon earth. A man can go into it, and it can come into a man, and +the conditions on which he enters into it, and it into him, are laid +down in this pair of parables. So I ask you to notice their +similarities and their divergences. They begin alike and they run on +alike for a little way, and then they diverge. There is a fork in +the road, and they reunite at the end again. They agree in their +representation of the treasure; they diverge in their explanation of +the process of discovering it, and they unite at last in the final +issue. So, then, we have to look at these three points. + +I. Let me ask you to think that the true treasure for a man lies in +the kingdom of God. + +It is not exactly said that the treasure is the kingdom, but the +treasure is found in the kingdom, and nowhere else. Let us put away +the metaphor; it means that the only thing that will make us rich is +loving submission to the supreme law of the God whom we love because +we know that He loves us. You may put that thought into half a +dozen different forms. You may say that the treasure is the blessing +that comes from Christianity, or the inward wealth of a submissive +heart, or may use various modes of expression, but below them all +lies this one great thought, that it is laid on my heart, dear +brethren, to try and lay on yours now, that, when all is said and +done, the only possession that makes us rich is--is what? God +Himself. For that is the deepest meaning of the treasure. And +whatever other forms of expression we may use to designate it, they +all come back at last to this, that the wealth of the human soul is +to have God for its very own. + +Let me run over two or three points that show us that. That treasure +is the only one that meets our deepest poverty. We do not all know +what that is, but whether you know it or not, dear friend, the thing +that you want most is to have your sins dealt with, in the double +way of having them forgiven as guilt, and in having them taken away +from you as tyrants and dominators over your wills. And it is only +God who can do that, 'God in Christ reconciling the world unto +Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them,' and giving them, +by a new life which He breathes into dead souls, emancipation from +the tyrants that rule over them, and thus bringing them 'into the +liberty of the glory of the sons of God.' 'Thou sayest that Thou art +rich and increased with goods ... and knowest not that thou art poor +... and naked.' Brother, until you have found out that it is only God +who will save you from being bankrupt, and enable you to pay your +debts, which are your duties, you do not know where your true riches +are. And if you have all that men can acquire of the lower things of +life, whether of what is generally called wealth or of other material +benefits, and have that great indebtedness standing against you, you +are but an insolvent after all. Here is the treasure that will make +you rich, because it will pay your debts, and endow you with capacity +enough to meet all future expenditure--viz. the possession of the +forgiving and cleansing grace of God which is in Jesus Christ. If +you have that, you are rich; if you do not possess it, you are poor. +Now you believe that, as much as I do, most of you. Well, what do you +do in consequence? + +Further, the possession of God, who belongs to all those that are +the subjects of the kingdom of God, is our true treasure, because +that wealth, and that alone, meets at once all the diverse wants of +the human soul. There is nothing else of which that can be said. +There are a great many other precious things in this world--human +loves, earthly ambitions of noble and legitimate kinds. No one but a +fool will deny the convenience and the good of having a competency +of this world's possessions. But all these have this miserable +defect, or rather limitation, that they each satisfy some little +corner of a man's nature, and leave all the rest, if I may so say, +like the beasts in a menagerie whose turn has not yet come to be +fed, yelping and growling while the keeper is at the den of another +one. There is only one thing that, being applied, as it were, at the +very centre, will diffuse itself, like some fragrant perfume, +through the whole sphere, and fill the else scentless air with its +rich and refreshing fragrance. There is but one wealth which meets +the whole of human nature. You, however small you are, however +insignificant people may think you, however humbly you may think of +yourselves, you are so great that the whole created Universe, if it +were yours, would be all too little for you. You cannot fill a +bottomless bog with any number of cartloads of earth. And you know +as well as I can tell you that 'he that loveth silver shall not be +satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase,' +and that none of the good things here below, rich and precious as +many of them are, are large enough to fill, much less to expand, the +limitless desires of one human heart. As the ancient Latin father +said, 'Lord, Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our heart is unquiet +till it attains to Thee.' + +Closely connected with that thought, but capable of being dealt with +for a moment apart, is the other, that this is our true treasure, +because we have it all in one. + +You remember the beautiful emphasis of one of the parables in our +text about the man that dissipated himself in seeking for many +goodly pearls? He had secured a whole casket full of little ones. +They were pearls, they were many; but then he saw one Orient pearl, +and he said, 'The one is more than the many. Let me have unity, for +there is rest; whereas in multiplicity there is restlessness and +change.' The sky to-night may be filled with galaxies of stars. +Better one sun than a million twinkling tininesses that fill the +heavens, and yet do not scatter the darkness. Oh, brethren, to have +one aim, one love, one treasure, one Christ, one God--there is the +secret of blessedness. 'Unite my heart to fear Thy name'; and then +all the miseries of multiplicity, and of drawing our supplies from a +multitude of separate lakes, will be at an end, when our souls are +flooded from the one fountain of life that can never fail or be +turbid. Thus, the unity of the treasure is the supreme excellence of +the treasure. + +Nor need I remind you in more than a word of how this is our true +treasure, because it is our permanent one. Nothing that can be taken +from me is truly mine. Those of you who have lived in a great +commercial community as long as I have done, know that it is not for +nothing that sovereigns are made circular, for they roll very +rapidly, and 'riches take to themselves wings and fly away.' We can +all go back to instances of men who set their hearts upon wealth, +and flaunted their little hour before us as kings of the Exchange, +and were objects of adoration and of envy, and at last were left +stranded in poverty. Nothing that can be stripped from you by the +accidents of life, or by inevitable death, is worth calling your +'good.' You must have something that is intertwined with the very +fibres of your being. And I, unworthy as I am, come to you, dear +friends, now, with this proffer of the great gift of wealth from +which 'neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor +powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor +depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us.' And I +beseech you to ask yourselves, Is there anything worth calling +wealth, except that wealth which meets my deepest need, which +satisfies my whole nature, which I may have all in one, and which, +if I have, I may have for ever? That wealth is the God who may be +'the strength of your hearts and your heritage for ever.' + +II. Now notice, secondly, the concealment of the treasure. + +According to the first of our parables, the treasure was hid in a +field. That is very largely local colouring, which gives veracity +and vraisemblance to the fact of the story. And there has been a +great deal of very unnecessary and misplaced ingenuity spent in +trying to force interpretations upon every feature of the parable, +which I do not intend to imitate, but I just wish to suggest one +thing. Here was this man in the story, who had plodded across that +field a thousand times, and knew every clod of it, and had never +seen the wealth that was lying six inches below the surface. Now, +that is very like some of my present hearers. God's treasure comes +to the world in a form which to a great many people veils, if it +does not altogether hide, its preciousness. You have heard sermons +till you are sick of sermons, and I do not wonder at it, if you have +heard them and never thought of acting on them. You know all that I +can tell you, most of you, about Jesus Christ, and what He has done +for you, and what you should do towards Him, and your familiarity +with the Word has blinded you to its spirit and its power. You have +gone over the field so often that you have made a path across it, +and it seems incredible to you that there should be anything worth +your picking up there. Ah! dear friends, Jesus Christ, when He was +here, 'in whom were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' +had to the men that looked upon Him 'neither form nor comeliness +that they should desire Him,' and He was to them a stumbling-block +and foolishness. And Christ's Gospel comes among busy men, worldly +men, men who are under the dominion of their passions and desires, +men who are pursuing science and knowledge, and it looks to them +very homely, very insignificant; they do not know what treasure is +lying in it. You do not know what treasure is lying--may I venture +to say it?--in these poor words of mine, in so far as they truly +represent the mind and will of God. Dear brethren, the treasure is +hid, but that is not because God did not wish you to see it; it is +because you have made yourselves blind to its flashing brightness. +'If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them ... in whom the god of this +world hath blinded their eyes.' If your whole desires are passionately +set on that which Manchester recognises as the _summum bonum_, or, +if you are living without a thought beyond this present, how can you +expect to see the treasure, though it is lying there before your eyes? +You have buried it, or, rather, you have made that which is its +necessary envelope to be its obscuration. I pray you, look through the +forms, look beneath the words of Scripture, and try and clear your +eyesight from the hallucinations of the dazzling present, and you will +see the treasure that is hid in the field. + +III. Again, let me ask you to notice, further, the two ways of +finding. + +The rustic in the first story, who, as I said, had plodded across +the field a hundred times, was doing it for the hundred and first, +or perhaps was at work there with his mattock or his homely plough. +And, perchance, some stroke of the spade, or push of the coulter, +went a little deeper than usual, and there flashed the gold, or some +shower of rain came on, and washed away a little of the +superincumbent soil, and laid bare the bag. Now, that is what often +happens, for you have to remember that though you are not seeking +God, God is always seeking you, and so the great saying comes to be +true, 'I am found of them that sought Me not.' There have been many +cases like the one of the man who, breathing out threatenings and +slaughter, with no thought in his mind except to bind the disciples +and bring them captive to Jerusalem, saw suddenly a light from +heaven flashing down upon him, and a Voice that pulled him up in the +midst of his career. Ah! it would be an awful thing if no one found +Christ except those who set out to seek for Him. Like the dew on the +grass 'that waiteth not for men, nor tarrieth for the sons of men,' +He often comes to hearts that are thinking about nothing less than +about Him. + +There are men and women listening to me now who did not come here +with any expectation of being confronted with this message to their +souls; they may have been drawn by curiosity or by a hundred other +motives. If there is one such, to whom I am speaking, who has had no +desires after the treasure, who has never thought that God was his +only Good, who has been swallowed up in worldly things and the +common affairs of life, and who now feels as if a sudden flash had +laid bare the hidden wealth in the familiar Gospel, I beseech such a +one not to turn away from the discovered treasure, but to make it +his own. Dear friend, you may not be looking for the wealth, but +Christ is looking for His lost coin. And, though it has rolled away +into some dusty corner, and is lying there all unaware, I venture to +say that He is seeking you by my poor words to-night, and is saying +to you: 'I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire.' + +But then another class is described in the other parable of the +merchantman who was seeking many goodly pearls. I suppose he may +stand as a representative of a class of whom I have no doubt there +are some other representatives hearing me now, namely, persons who, +without yielding themselves to the claims of Christ, have been +searching, honestly and earnestly, for 'whatsoever things are lovely +and of good report.' Dear brethren, if you have been smitten by the +desire to live noble lives, if you have been roused + + 'To follow knowledge, like a sinking star, + Beyond the furthest bounds of human thought,' + +or if in any way you are going through the world with your eyes +looking for something else than the world's gross good, and are +seeking for the many pearls, I beseech you to lay this truth to +heart, that you will never find what you seek, until you understand +that the many have not it to give you, and that the One has. And +when Christ draws near to you and says, 'Whatsoever things are +lovely and of good report, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever +things are venerable, if thou seekest them, take Me, and thou wilt +find them all,' I beseech you, accept Him. There are two ways of +finding the treasure. It is flashed on unexpectant eyes, and it is +disclosed to seeking souls. + +III. And now, lastly, let us look at the point where the parables +converge. + +There are two ways of finding; there is only one way of getting. The +one man went and sold all that he had and bought the field. Never +mind about the morality of the transaction: that has nothing to do +with our Lord's purpose. Perhaps it was not quite honest of this man +to bury the treasure again, and then to go and buy the field for +less than it was worth, but the point is that, however a soul is +brought to see that God in Christ is all that he needs, there is +only one way of getting Him, and that is, 'sell all that thou hast.' + +'Then it is barter, is it? Then it is salvation by works after all?' +No! To 'sell all that thou hast' is first, to abandon all hope of +acquiring the treasure by anything that thou hast. We buy it when we +acknowledge that we have nothing of our own to buy it with. Buy it +'without money and without price'; buy it by yielding your hearts; +buy it by ceasing to cling to earth and creatures, as if they were +your good. That trust in Jesus Christ, which is the condition of +salvation is selling 'all that thou hast.' Self is 'all that thou +hast.' Abandon self and clutch Him, and the treasure is thine. But +the initial act of faith has to be carried on through a life of +self-denial and self-sacrifice, and the subjection of self-will, +which is the hardest of all, and the submission of one's self +altogether to the kingdom of God and to its King. If we do thus we +shall have the treasure, and if we do not thus we shall not. + +Surely it is reasonable to fling away paste pearls for real ones. +Surely it is reasonable to fling away brass counters for gold coins. +Surely, in all regions of life, we willingly sacrifice the second +best in order to get the very best. Surely if the wealth which is in +God is more precious than all besides, you have the best of the +bargain, if you part with the world and yourselves and get Him. And +if, on the other hand, you stick to the second best and cleave to +yourselves and to this poor diurnal sphere and what it contains, +then I will tell you what your epitaph will be. It is written in one +of the Psalms, 'He shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at +his latter end shall be a fool.' + +And there is a more foolish fool still--the man who, when he has +seen the treasure, flings another shovelful of earth upon it, and +goes away and does _not_ buy it, nor think anything more about +it. Dear brother, do not do that, but if, by God's help, any poor +words of mine have stirred anything in your hearts of recognition of +what your true wealth is, do not rest until you have done what is +needful to possess it, given away yourselves, and in exchange +received Christ, and in Him wealth for evermore. + + + + +THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN + + + 'At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of + Jesus, 2. And said unto his servants, This is John the + Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore + mighty works do shew forth themselves in him. 3. For + Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him + in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. + 4. For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to + have her. 5. And when he would have put him to death, + he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a + prophet. 6. But when Herod's birthday was kept, the + daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased + Herod. 7. Whereupon he promised with an oath to give + her whatsoever she would ask. 8. And she, being before + instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John + Baptist's head in a charger. 9. And the king was sorry: + nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat + with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. + 10. And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. + 11. And his head was brought in a charger, and given to + the damsel: and she brought it to her mother. 12. And + his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, + and went and told Jesus.'--MATT. xiv. 1-12. + +The singular indifference of the Bible to the fate of even its +greatest men is exemplified in the fact that the martyrdom of John +is only told incidentally, in explanation of Herod's alarm. But for +that he would apparently have dropped out of the narrative, as a man +sinks in the sea, without a bubble or a ripple. Christ is the sole +theme of the Gospels, and all others are visible only as His light +falls on them. + +It took a long time for news of Christ to reach the ears of Herod. +Peasants hear of Him before princes, whose thick palace walls and +crowds of courtiers shut out truth. The first thing to note is the +alarm of the conscience-stricken king. We learn from the other +evangelists that there was a difference of opinion among the +attendants of Herod--not very good judges of a religious teacher--as +to who this new miracle-working Rabbi might be, but the tetrarch has +no hesitation. There is no proof that Herod was a Sadducee; but he +probably thought as little about a resurrection as if he had been, +and, in any case, did not expect dead men to be starting up again, +one by one, and mingling with the living. His conscience made a +coward of him, and his fear made that terrible which would else have +been thought impossible. In his terror he makes confidants of his +slaves, overleaping the barriers of position, in his need of some +ears to pour his fears into. He was right in believing that he had +not finished with John, and in expecting to meet him again with +mightier power to accuse and condemn. 'If 'twere done when 'tis +done,' says Macbeth; but it is not done. There is a resurrection of +deeds as well as of bodies, and all our buried badnesses will front +us again, shaking their gory locks at us, and saying that we did +them. + +Instead of following closely the narrative, we may best gather up +its lessons by considering the actors in the tragedy. + +I. We see in Herod the depths of evil possible to a weak character. +The singular double which he, Herodias and John present to Ahab, +Jezebel and Elijah, has been often noticed. In both cases a weak +king is drawn in opposite directions by the stronger-willed +temptress at his side, and by the stern ascetic from the desert. How +John had found his way into 'kings' houses' we do not know; but, as +he carried thither his undaunted boldness of plain-spoken preaching +of morality and repentance, it was inevitable that he should soon +find his way from the palace to the dungeon. There must have been +some intercourse between Herod and him before his imprisonment, or +he could not have shaken the king's conscience with his blunt +denunciations. From the account in Mark, it would appear that, after +his imprisonment, he gained great influence over the tetrarch, and +led him some steps on the way of goodness. But Herod was 'infirm of +purpose,' and a beautiful fiend was at his side, and she had an iron +will sharpened to an edge by hatred, and knew her own mind, which +was murder. Between them, the weaker nature was much perplexed, and +like a badly steered boat, yawed in its course, now yielding to the +impulse from John, now to that from Herodias. Matthew attributes his +hesitation as to killing John to his fear of the popular voice, +which, no doubt, also operated. Thus he 'let I dare not wait upon I +would,' and had not strength of mind enough to hold to the one and +despise the other of his discordant counsellors. He was evidently a +sensual, luxurious, feeble-willed, easily frightened, superstitious +and cunning despot; and, as is always the case with such, he was +driven farther in evil than he meant or wished. He was entrapped +into an oath, and then, instead of saying, 'Promises which should +not have been made should not be kept,' he weakly consents, from +fantastic fear of what his guests will say of him, and unwillingly, +out of pure imbecility, stains his soul for ever with blood. In this +wicked world, weak men will always be wicked men; for it is less +trouble to consent than to resist, and there are more sirens to +whisper 'Come' than prophets to thunder, 'It is not lawful.' +Strength of will is needful for all noble life. + +We may learn from Herod, also, how far we may go on the road of +obedience to God's will, and yet leave it at last. What became of +all his eager listening, of his partial obedience, of his care to +keep John safe from Herodias's malice? All vanished like early dew. +What became of his conscience-stricken alarms on hearing of Christ? +Did they lead to any deep convictions? They faded away, and left +him harder than before. Convictions not followed out ossify the +heart. If he had sent for Christ, and told Him his fears, all might +have been well. But he let them pass, and, so far as we know, they +never returned. He did meet Jesus at last, when Pilate sent him the +Prisoner, as a piece of politeness, and in what mood?--childish +pleasure at the chance of seeing a miracle. How did Jesus answer his +torrent of frivolous questions? 'He answered him nothing.' That sad +silence speaks Christ's knowledge that now even His words would be +vain to create one ripple of interest on the Dead Sea of Herod's +soul. By frivolity, lust, and neglect he had killed the germ of a +better life, and silence was the kindest answer which perfect love +could give him. + +He shows us, too, the intimate connection of all sins. The common +root of every sin is selfishness, and the shapes which it takes are +protean and interchangeable. Lust dwells hard by hate. Sensual +crimes and cruelty are closely akin. The one vice which Herod would +not surrender, dragged after it a whole tangle of other sins. No sin +dwells alone. There is 'none barren among them.' They are +gregarious, and a solitary sin is more seldom seen than a single +swallow. Herod is an illustration, too, of a conscience +fantastically sensitive while it is dead to real crimes. He has no +twinges for his sin with Herodias, and no effective ones at killing +John, but he thinks it would be wrong to break his oath. The two +things often go together; and many a brigand in Calabria, who would +cut a throat without hesitation, would not miss mass, or rob without +a little image of the Virgin in his hat. We often make compensation +for easy indulgence in great sins by fussy scrupulosity about little +faults, and, like Herod, had rather commit murder than not be polite +to visitors. + +II. The next actors in the tragedy are Herodias and her daughter. What +a miserable destiny to be gibbeted for ever by half a dozen sentences! +One deed, after which she no doubt 'wiped her mouth, and said, I have +done no harm,' has won for the mother an immortality of ignominy. Her +portrait is drawn in few strokes, but they are enough. In strength of +will and unscrupulous carelessness of human life, she is the sister of +Jezebel, and curiously like Shakespeare's awful creation, Lady Macbeth; +but she adds a stain of sensuous passion to their vices, which +heightens the horror. Her first marriage was with her full uncle; and +her second, if marriage it can be called when her husband and Herod's +wife were both living, was with her step-uncle, and thus triply +unlawful. John's remonstrance awoke no sense of shame in her, but only +malignant and murderous hate. Once resolved, no failures made her +swerve from her purpose. Hers was no passing fury, but cold-blooded, +deliberate determination. Her iron will and unalterable persistence +were accompanied by flexibility of resource. When one weapon failed, +she drew another from a full quiver. And the means which were finally +successful show not only her thorough knowledge of the weak man she +had to deal with, but her readiness to stoop to any degradation for +herself and her child to carry her point. 'A thousand claims to' +abhorrence 'meet in her, as mother, wife, and queen.' Many a shameless +woman would have shrunk from sullying a daughter's childhood, by +sending her to play the part of a shameless dancing-girl before a +crew of half-tipsy revellers, and from teaching her young lips to +ask for murder. But Herodias sticks at nothing, and is as insensible +to the duty of a mother as to that of a wife. If we put together these +features in her character, her hot animal passions, her cool inflexible +revenge, her cynical disregard of all decency, her deadness to natural +affection for her child, her ferocity and her cunning, we have a +hideous picture of corrupted womanhood. We cannot but wonder +whether, in after days, remorse ever did its merciful work upon +Herodias. She urged Herod to his ruin at last by her ambition, which +sought for him the title of king, and, with one redeeming touch of +faithfulness, went with him into dreary exile in Gaul. Perhaps +there, among strangers, and surrounded by the wreck of her projects, +and when the hot fire of passion had died down, she may have +remembered and repented her crime. + +The criminality of the daughter largely depends upon her age, of +which we have no knowledge. Perhaps she was too mere a child to +understand the degradation of the dance, or the infamy of the +request which her, we hope, innocent and panting lips were tutored +to prefer. But, more probably, she was old enough to be her mother's +fellow-conspirator, rather than her tool, and had learned only too +well her lessons of impurity and cruelty. What chance had a young +life in such a sty of filth? When the mother becomes the devil's +deputy, what can the daughter grow up to be, but a worse edition of +her? This poor girl, so sinning, and so sinned against, followed in +Herodias's footsteps, and afterwards married, according to the +custom of the Herods, her uncle, Philip the tetrarch. She inherited +and was taught evil; that was her misfortune. She made it her own; +that was her crime. As she stands there, shameless and flushed, in +that hideous banqueting-hall, with her grim gift dripping red blood +on the golden platter, and wicked triumph gleaming in her dark eyes, +she suggests grave questions as to parents' responsibility for +children's sins, and is a living symbol of the degradation of art to +the service of vice, and of the power of an evil soul to make +hideous all the grace of budding womanhood. + +III. There is something dramatically appropriate in the silent death +in the dungeon of the lonely forerunner. The faint noise of revelry +may have reached his ears, as he brooded there, and wondered if the +coming King would never come for his enlargement. Suddenly a gleam +of light from the opened door enters his cell, and falls on the +blade of the headsman's sword. Little time can be wasted, for +Herodias waits. With short preface the blow falls. The King has +come, and set His forerunner free, sending him to prepare His way +before Him in the dim regions beyond. A world where Herod sits in +the festal chamber, and John lies headless in the dungeon, needs +some one to set it right. When the need is sorest, the help is +nearest. Truth succeeds by the apparent failure of its apostle. +Herodias may stab the dead tongue, as the legend tells that she did, +but it speaks louder after death than ever. Herod kept his birthday +with drunken and bloody mirth; but it was a better birthday for his +victim. + +IV. It needed some courage for John's disciples to come to that +gloomy, blood-stained fortress, and bear away the headless trunk +which scornful cruelty had flung out to rot unburied. When reverent +love and sorrow had finished their task, what was the little flock +without a shepherd to do? The possibility of their continued +existence as a company of disciples was at an end. They show by +their action that their master had profited from his last message to +Jesus. At once they turn to Him, and, no doubt, the bulk of them +were absorbed in the body of His followers. Sorrowful and bereaved +souls betake themselves naturally to His sweet sympathy for +soothing, and to His gentle wisdom for direction. The wisest thing +that any of us can do is to 'go and tell Jesus' our loneliness, and +let it bind us more closely to Him. + + + + +THE GRAVE OF THE DEAD JOHN AND THE GRAVE OF THE LIVING JESUS + + + 'And John's disciples came, and took up the body, and + buried it, and went and told Jesus.'--MATT. xiv. 12. + + 'And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear + and great joy.'--MATT. xxviii. 8. + +There is a remarkable parallel and still more remarkable contrast +between these two groups of disciples at the graves of their +respective masters. John the Baptist's followers venture into the +very jaws of the lion to rescue the headless corpse of their +martyred teacher from a prison grave. They bear it away and lay it +reverently in its unknown sepulchre, and when they have done these +last offices of love they feel that all is over. They have no longer +a centre, and they disintegrate. There was nothing to hold them +together any more. The shepherd had been smitten, and the flock were +scattered. As a 'school' or a distinct community they cease to be, +and are mostly absorbed into the ranks of Christ's followers. That +sorrowful little company that turned from John's grave, perhaps +amidst the grim rocks of Moab, perhaps in his native city amongst +the hills of Judah, parted then, to meet no more, and to bear away +only a common sorrow that time would comfort, and a common memory +that time would dim. + +The other group laid their martyred Master in His grave with as +tender hands and as little hope as did John's disciples. The bond +that held them together was gone too, and the disintegrating process +began at once. We see them breaking up into little knots, and soon +they, too, will be scattered. The women come to the grave to perform +the woman's office of anointing, and they are left to go alone. +Other slight hints are given which show how much the ties of +companionship had been relaxed, even in a day, and how certainly and +quickly they would have fallen asunder. But all at once a new +element comes in, all is changed. The earliest visitors to the +sepulchre leave it, not with the lingering sorrow of those who have +no more that they can do, but with the quick, buoyant step of people +charged with great and glad tidings. They come to it wrapped in +grief--they leave it with great joy. They come to it, feeling that +all was over, and that their union with the rest who had loved Him +was little more than a remembrance. They go away, feeling that they +are all bound together more closely than ever. + +The grave of John was the end of a 'school.' The grave of Jesus was +the beginning of a Church. Why? The only answer is the message which +the women brought back from the empty sepulchre on that Easter day: +'The Lord is risen.' The whole history of the Christian Church, and +even its very existence, is unintelligible, except on the +supposition of the resurrection. But for that, the fate of John's +disciples would have been the fate of Christ's--they would have +melted away into the mass of the nation, and at most there would +have been one more petty Galilean sect that would have lived on for +a generation and died out when the last of His companions died. So +from these two contrasted groups we may fairly gather some thoughts +as to the Resurrection of Christ, as attested by the very existence +of a Christian Church, and as to the joy of that resurrection. + +I. Now the first point to be considered is, that the conduct of +Christ's disciples after His death was exactly the opposite of what +might have been expected. + +They held together. The natural thing for them to do would have been +to disband; for their one bond was gone; and if they had acted +according to the ordinary laws of human conduct, they would have +said to themselves, Let us go back to our fishing-boats and our +tax-gathering, and seek safety in separation, and nurse our sorrow +apart. A few lingering days might have been given to weep together +at His grave, and to assuage the first bitterness of grief and +disappointment; but when these were over, nothing could have +prevented Christianity and the Church from being buried in the same +sepulchre as Jesus. As certainly as the stopping up of the fountain +would empty the river's bed, so surely would Christ's death have +scattered His disciples. And that strange fact, that it did not +scatter them, needs to be looked well into and fairly accounted for +in some plausible manner. The end of John's school gives a parallel +which brings the singularity of the fact into stronger relief; and +looking at these two groups as they stand before us in these two +texts, the question is irresistibly suggested, Why did not the one +fall away into its separate elements, as the other did? The keystone +of the arch was in both cases withdrawn--why did the one structure +topple into ruin while the other stood firm? + +Not only did the disciples of Christ keep united, but their +conceptions of Jesus underwent a remarkable change, after His death. +We might have expected, indeed, that, when memory began to work, and +the disturbing influence of daily association was withdrawn, the +same idealising process would have begun on their image of Him, +which reveals and ennobles the characters of our dear ones who have +gone away from us. Most men have to die before their true worth is +discerned. But no process of that sort will suffice to account for +the change and heightening of the disciples' thoughts about their +dead Lord. It was not merely that, when they remembered, they said, +Did not our hearts burn within us by the way while He talked with +us?--but that His death wrought exactly the opposite effect from +what it might have been expected to do. It ought to have ended their +hope that He was the Messiah, and we know that within forty-eight +hours it was beginning to do so, as we learn from the plaintive +words of disappointed and fading hope: 'We _trusted_ that it +had been He which should have redeemed Israel.' If, so early, the +cold conviction was stealing over their hearts that their dearest +expectation was proved by His death to have been a dream, what could +have prevented its entire dominion over them, as the days grew into +months and years? But somehow or other that process was arrested, +and the opposite one set in. The death that should have shattered +Messianic dreams confirmed them. The death that should have cast a +deeper shadow of incomprehensibleness over His strange and lofty +claims poured a new light upon them, which made them all plain and +clear. The very parts of His teaching which His death would have +made those who loved Him wish to forget, became the centre of His +followers' faith. His cross became His throne. Whilst He lived with +them they knew not what He said in His deepest words, but, by a +strange paradox, His death convinced them that He was the Son of +God, and that that which they had seen with their eyes, and their +hands had handled, was the Eternal Life. The cross alone could never +have done that. Something else there must have been, if the men were +sane, to account for this paradox. + +Nor is this all. Another equally unlikely sequel of the death of +Jesus is the unmistakable moral transformation effected on the +disciples. Timorous and tremulous before, something or other touched +them into altogether new boldness and self-possession. Dependent on +His presence before, and helpless when He was away from them for an +hour, they become all at once strong and calm; they stand before the +fury of a Jewish mob and the threatenings of the Sanhedrim, unmoved +and victorious. And these brave confessors and saintly heroes are +the men who, a few weeks before, had been petulant, self-willed, +jealous, cowardly. What had lifted them suddenly so far above +themselves? Their Master's death? That would more naturally have +taken any heart or courage out of them, and left them indeed as +sheep in the midst of wolves. Why, then, do they thus strangely +blaze up into grandeur and heroism? Can any reasonable account be +given of these paradoxes? Surely it is not too much to ask of people +who profess to explain Christianity on naturalistic principles, that +they shall make the process clear to us by which, Christ being dead +and buried, His disciples were kept together, learned to think more +loftily of Him, and sprang at once to a new grandeur of character. +Why did not they do as John's disciples did, and disappear? Why was +not the stream lost in the sand, when the head-waters were cut off? + +II. Notice then, next, that the disciples' immediate belief in the +Resurrection furnishes a reasonable, and the only reasonable, +explanation of the facts. + +There is no better historical evidence of a fact than the existence +of an institution built upon it, and coeval with it. The Christian +Church is such evidence for the fact of the Resurrection; or, to put +the conclusion in the most moderate fashion, for the belief in the +Resurrection. For, as we have shown, the natural effect of our +Lord's death would have been to shatter the whole fabric: and if +that effect were not produced, the only reasonable account of the +force that hindered it is, that His followers believed that He rose +again. Since that was their faith, one can understand how they were +banded more closely together than ever. One can understand how their +eyes were opened to know Him who was 'declared to be the Son of God +with power by the resurrection from the dead.' One can understand +how, in the enthusiasm of these new thoughts of their Lord, and in +the strength of His victory over death, they put aside their old +fears and littlenesses and clothed themselves in armour of light. +'The Lord is risen indeed' was the belief which made the continuous +existence of the Church possible. Any other explanation of that +great outstanding fact is lame and hopelessly insufficient. + +We know that that belief was the belief of the early Church. Even if +one waived all reference to the Gospels, we have the means of +demonstrating that in Paul's undisputed epistles. Nobody has +questioned that he wrote the First Epistle to the Corinthians. The +date most generally assumed to that letter brings it within about +five-and-twenty years of the crucifixion. In that letter, in +addition to a multitude of incidental references to the Lord as +risen, we have the great passage in the fifteenth chapter, where the +apostle not only declares that the Resurrection was one of the two +facts which made his 'gospel,' but solemnly enumerates the witnesses +of the risen Lord, and alleges that this gospel of the Resurrection +was common to him and to all the Church. He tells us of Christ's +appearance to himself at his conversion, which must have taken place +within six or seven years of the crucifixion, and assures us that at +that early period he found the whole Church believing and preaching +Christ's resurrection. Their belief rested on their alleged +intercourse with Him a few days after His death, and it is +inconceivable that within so short a period such a belief should +have sprung up and been universally received, if it had not begun +when and as they said that it did. + +But we are not left even to inferences of this kind to show that, +from the beginning, the Church witnessed to the Resurrection of +Jesus. Its own existence is the great witness to its faith. And it +is important to observe that, even if we had not the documentary +evidence of the Pauline epistles as the earliest records, of the +Gospels, and of the Acts of the Apostles, we should still have +sufficient proof that the belief in the Resurrection is as old as +the Church. For the continuance of the Church cannot be explained +without it. If that faith had not dawned on their slow, sad hearts +on that Easter morning, a few weeks would have seen them scattered; +and if once they had been scattered, as they inevitably would have +been, no power could have reunited them, any more than a diamond +once shattered can be pieced together again. There would have been +no motive and no actors to frame a story of resurrection, when once +the little company had melted away. The existence of the Church +depended on their belief that the Lord was risen. In the nature of +the case that belief must have followed immediately on His death. +It, and it only, reasonably accounts for the facts. And so, over and +above Apostles, and Gospels, and Epistles, the Church is the great +witness, by its very being, to its own immediate and continuous +belief in the Resurrection of our Lord. + +III. Again, we may remark that such a belief could not have +originated or maintained itself unless it had been true. + +Our previous remarks have gone no farther than to establish the +belief in the Resurrection of Christ, as the basis of primitive +Christianity. It is vehemently alleged, and we may freely admit that +the step is a long one from subjective belief to objective reality. +But still it is surely perfectly fair to argue that a given belief +is of such a nature that it cannot be supposed to rest on anything +less solid than a fact; and this is eminently the case in regard to +the belief in Christ's Resurrection. There have been many attempts +on the part of those who reject that belief to account for its +existence, and each of them in succession has 'had its day, and +ceased to be.' Unbelief devours its own children remorselessly, and +the succession to the throne of antichristian scepticism is won, as +in some barbarous tribes, by slaying the reigning sovereign. The +armies of the aliens turn their weapons against one another, and +each new assailant of the historical veracity of the Gospels +commences operations by showing that all previous assailants have +been wrong, and that none of their explanations will hold water. + +For instance, we hear nothing now of the coarse old explanation that +the story of the Resurrection was a lie, and became current through +the conscious imposture of the leaders of the Church. And it was +high time that such a solution should be laid aside. Who, with half +an eye for character, could study the deeds and the writings of the +apostles, and not feel that, whatever else they were, they were +profoundly honest, and as convinced as of their own existence, that +they had seen Christ 'alive after His passion, by many infallible +proofs'? If Paul and Peter and John were conspirators in a trick, +then their lives and their words were the most astounding anomaly. +Who, either, that had the faintest perception of the forces that +sway opinion and frame systems, could believe that the fair fabric +of Christian morality was built on the sand of a lie, and cemented +by the slime of deceit bubbling up from the very pit of hell? Do men +gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? That insolent +hypothesis has had its day. + +Then when it was discredited, we were told that the mythical +tendency would explain everything. It showed us how good men could +tell lies without knowing it, and how the religious value of an +alleged fact in an alleged historical revelation did not in the +least depend on its being a fact. And that great discovery, which +first converted solid historical Christianity into a gaseous +condition, and then caught the fumes in some kind of retort, and +professed to hand us them back again improved by the sublimation, +has pretty well gone the way of all hypotheses. Myths are not made +in three days, or in three years, and no more time can be allowed +for the formation of the myth of the Resurrection. What was the +Church to feed on while the myth was growing? It would have been +starved to death long before. + +Then, the last new explanation which is gravely put forward, and is +the prevailing one now, sustains itself by reference to undeniable +facts in the history of religious movements, and of such abnormal +attitudes of the mind as modern spiritualism. On the strength of +which analogy we are invited to see in the faith of the early +Christians in the Resurrection of the Lord a gigantic instance of +'hallucination.' No doubt there have been, and still are, +extraordinary instances of its power, especially in minds excited by +religious ideas. But we have only to consider the details of the +facts in hand to feel that they cannot be accounted for on such a +ground. Do hallucinations lay hold on five hundred people at once? +Does a hallucination last for a long country walk, and give rise to +protracted conversation? Does hallucination explain the story of +Christ eating and drinking before His disciples? The uncertain +twilight of the garden might have begotten such an airy phantom in +the brain of a single sobbing woman; but the appearances to be +explained are so numerous, so varied in character, embrace so many +details, appeal to so many of the senses--to the ear and hand as +well as to the eye--were spread over so long a period, and were +simultaneously shared by so large a number, that no theory of such a +sort can account for them, unless by impugning the veracity of the +records. And then we are back again on the old abandoned ground of +deceit and imposture. It sounds plausible to say, Hallucination is a +proved cause of many a supposed supernatural event--why not of this? +But the plausibility of the solution ceases as soon as you try it on +the actual facts in their variety and completeness. It has to be +eked out with a length of the fox's skin of deceit before it covers +them; and we may confidently assert that such a belief as the belief +of the early Church in the Resurrection of the Lord was never the +product either of deceit or of illusion, or of any amalgam of the +two. + +What new solutions the fertility of unbelief may yet bring forth, +and the credulity of unbelief may yet accept, we know not; but we +may firmly hold by the faith which breathed new hope and strange joy +into that sad band on the first Easter morning, and rejoice with +them in the glad, wonderful fact that He is risen from the dead. + +IV. For that message is a message to us as truly as to the heavy-hearted +unbelieving men that first received it. We may think for a moment of the +joy with which we ought to return from the empty sepulchre of the risen +Saviour. + +How little these women knew that, as they went back from the grave +in the morning twilight, they were the bearers of 'great joy which +should be to all people'! To them and to the first hearers of their +message there would be little clear in the rush of glad surprise, +beyond the blessed thought, Then He is not gone from us altogether. +Sweet visions of the resumption of happy companionship would fill +their minds, and it would not be until calmer moments that the +stupendous significance of the fact would reveal itself. + +Mary's rapturous gesture to clasp Him by the feet, when the +certainty that it was in very deed He flooded her soul with dazzling +light, reveals her first emotion, which no doubt was also the first +with them all, 'Then we shall have Him with us again, and all the +old joy of companionship will be ours once more.' Nor were they +wrong in thinking so, however little they as yet understood the +future manner of their fellowship, or anticipated His leaving them +again so soon. Nor are we without a share even in that phase of +their joy; for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us a living +Lord for our love, an ever present Companion and Brother for our +hearts to hold, even if our hands cannot clasp Him by the feet. A +dead Christ might have been the object of faint historical +admiration, and the fair statue might have stood amidst others in +the galleries of history; but the risen, living Christ can love and +be loved, and we too may be glad with the joy of those who have +found a heart to rest their hearts upon, and a companionship that +can never fail. + +As the early disciples learned to reflect upon the fact of Christ's +Resurrection, its riches unfolded themselves by degrees, and the +earliest aspect of its 'power' was the light it shed on His person +and work. Taught by it, as we have seen, they recognised Him for the +Messiah whom they had long expected, and for something more--the +Incarnate Son of God. That phase of their joy belongs to us too. If +Christ, who made such avowals of His nature as we know that He did, +and hazarded such assertions of His claims, His personality and His +office, as fill the Gospels, were really laid in the grave and saw +corruption, then the assertions are disproved, the claims +unwarranted, the office a figment of His imagination. He may still +remain a great teacher, with a tremendous deduction to be made from +the worth of His teaching, but all that is deepest in His own words +about Himself and His relation to men must be sorrowfully put on one +side. But if He, after such assertions and claims, rose from the +dead, and rising, dieth no more, then for the last time, and in the +mightiest tones, the voice that rent the heavens at His baptism and +His transfiguration proclaims: 'This is My beloved Son; hear ye +Him.' Our joy in His Resurrection is the joy of those to whom He is +therein declared to be the Son of God, and who see in Christ risen +their accepted Sacrifice, and their ever-living Redeemer. + +Such was the earliest effect of the Resurrection of Jesus, if we +trust the records of apostolic preaching. Then by degrees the joyful +thought took shape in the Church's consciousness that their Shepherd +had gone before them into the dark pen where Death pastured his +flocks, and had taken it for His own, for the quiet resting-place +where He would make them lie down by still waters, and whence He +would lead them out to the lofty mountains where His fold should be. +The power of Christ's Resurrection as the pattern and pledge of ours +is the final source of the joy which may fill our hearts as we turn +away from that empty sepulchre. + +The world has guessed and feared, or guessed and hoped, but always +guessed and doubted the life beyond. Analogies, poetic adumbrations, +probabilities drawn from consciousness and from conscience, from +intuition and from anticipation, are but poor foundations on which +to build a solid faith. But to those to whom the Resurrection of +Christ is a fact their own future life is a fact. Here we have a +solid certainty, and here alone. The heart says as we lay our dear +ones in the grave, 'Surely we part not for ever.' The conscience +says, as it points us to our own evil deeds, 'After death the +judgment.' A deep indestructible instinct prophesies in every breast +of a future. But all is vague and doubtful. The one proof of a life +beyond the grave is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore let +us be glad with the gladness of men plucked from a dark abyss of +doubt and planted on the rock of solid certainty; and let us rejoice +with joy unspeakable, and laden with a prophetic weight of glory, as +we ring out the ancient Easter morning's greeting, 'The Lord is +risen indeed!' + + + + +THE FOOD OF THE WORLD + + + 'He gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples + to the multitude. 20. And they did all eat, and were + filled; and they took up of the fragments that remained + twelve baskets full.'--MATT. xiv. 19, 20. + +The miracles of Scripture are not merely wonders, but signs. It is +one of their most striking characteristics that they are not, like +the pretended portents of false faiths, mere mighty deeds standing +in no sort of intellectual relation to the message of which they +claim to be the attestation, but that they have themselves a +doctrinal significance. Our Lord's miracles have been called 'the +great bell before the sermon,' but they are more than that. They are +themselves no unimportant part of the sermon. In fact, it would not +be difficult to construct from them a revelation of His nature, +person, and work, scarcely less full and explicit than that +contained in His words, or even than that more systematic and +developed one which we receive in the writings of His apostles. + +This miracle, for instance, of the feeding of the five thousand with +five barley loaves and two small fishes, is one of the few which the +Apostle John relates in his Gospel, and his reason for selecting it +seems to be the commentary with which our Lord followed it, and +which John alone has preserved. That commentary is all the wonderful +discourse about Christ as the bread of life, and eating His flesh as +our means of receiving His life into ourselves. We are warranted, +then, in regarding this miracle as a symbolic revelation of Christ +as supplying all the wants of this hungry world. If so, we may +perhaps venture to take one more step, and regard the manner in +which He dispenses His gifts as also significant. His agents are His +disciples, or as would appear probable from the twelve baskets full +of fragments, the twelve apostles, the nucleus and representatives +of His Church. Thus we come to the point from which we wish to +regard this narrative now. There are three stages in the words of +our text--the distribution, the meal, and the gathering up of the +abundance that was left. These three stages may guide us to some +thoughts regarding the work to which Christ calls His Church, the +success which attends it, and the results to the distributors +themselves. + +I. Christ feeds the famishing world by means of His Church. + +'He gave the loaves to the disciples, and the _disciples_ to +the multitude.' One very striking feature in all our Lord's miracles +is economy of power. The miraculous element being admitted for some +good and sufficient reason, it is kept down to the lowest possible +point. Precisely so much of it as is needed is permitted, and not +one hairsbreadth more. It does not begin to make its appearance at +any point in the process where ordinary human agency can be used. It +does not produce a result beyond the actual necessity. It does not +last one instant longer than is required. It inosculates closely +with the natural order of things. + +Take an illustration from the beginning of miracles where Jesus +manifested forth His glory, at the marriage in Cana of Galilee--that +great miracle in which our Lord hallowed the ties of human +affection, and consecrated the joy of united hearts. The necessity +is felt before He supplies it. The servants fill the waterpots. The +water is used as the material on which the miraculous power +operates. Only so much as is drawn for present use becomes wine. The +servants are used as the agents for the distribution, and all is +done so unostentatiously, though it be the manifesting of His glory, +that no man knows but they. + +Take another illustration from the other great contrasted miracle at +the grave of Lazarus, where our Lord hallowed the breaking of +earthly bonds by death, and sanctified the sorrows of parted love. +He does not work His wonder from the other side Jordan, but comes. +He does not avert the death which He will conquer, nor prevent the +grief which He shares. He goes to the side of the grave--true human +tears are wet upon His cheek. They have to roll away the stone. +Then, there is flung into the darkness of the tomb the mighty word, +'Lazarus! come forth.' The inconceivable miraculous act is done, and +life stirs in the sheeted dead. But there the miraculous ceases. The +man with his restored life has himself to come out of the grave, and +human hands have tremblingly to lift the napkin from the veiled face +(how they must have thrilled as they did it, wondering what nameless +horror they might see in the eyes that had looked on the inner +chamber of death), and human help has to unfold the grave-clothes +from the tightly swathed and stumbling limbs, 'Loose him, and let +him go.' + +This marked characteristic of all our Lord's miracles is full of +instruction, which it would lead us too far from our present purpose to +indicate at any length. But we may just observe in passing, that it +brings these into striking parallel with the divine creative act, where +there is ever the same precise adaptation of power employed to result +contemplated, the same background of veiled omnipotence, the same +emergence of proportioned, adequate, but not superfluous force, so +that, in fact, economy of power may be said to be the very signature +and broad arrow of divinity stamped on all His works. Again, it +presents a broad contrast to the wild, reckless miracle-mongering of +false faiths, and is at once a test of the genuineness of all 'lying +signs and wonders,' and an indication of the self-restraint of the +Worker, and of the fine sanity and truthfulness of the narrators, of +these Gospel miracles. And yet, again, it is one phase of the +disciplinary character of the whole revelation of God in Christ--not +obtrusive, though obvious, capable of being overlooked if men will. +There was the hiding of His power. 'If any man wills to be ignorant, +let him be ignorant.' + +But coming more immediately to the narrative before us, we find this +same characteristic in full prominence in it. The people are allowed +to hunger. The disciples are permitted to feel themselves at their +wits' end. They are bid to bring their poor resources to Christ. The +lad who had come with his little store, perhaps a fisherman's boy +from some of the lake villages who hoped to sell his loaves and +fishes in the crowd, supplies the material on which Christ wills to +exercise His miraculous power. The disciples' agency is pressed into +the service. Each man separately receives his portion, and when all +are supplied, the fragments are carefully preserved for the use of +those who had been fed by miracle, and of Him who had fed them! + +Besides the general lessons already referred to, as naturally +arising from this feature of the miracle, there is that one which +belongs to it especially, namely, that Christ feeds the famishing +world by means of His Church. + +Precisely as in the miracles in general, so in the work of Christ as a +whole, the field of supernatural intervention is rigidly confined, and +fits in with the established order of things. The Incarnation and +Sacrifice of our Lord are the purely supernatural work of the divine +Power and Mercy. He comes, enters into our human conditions, assumes +our humanity, dies the death for us all. 'I have trodden the wine-press +alone.' There is no question of any human agency co-operating there, +any more than there is in the word 'Lazarus, come forth,' or in the +multiplication of the loaves. There, by Christ alone, is brought to +us and is finished for us an eternal redemption, with which the whole +race of man have nothing to do but to receive it, to eat and be filled. +But this having been done by the solitary work of Jesus Christ, this +new power having been introduced into the world, human agency is +henceforth called into operation to diffuse it, just as the servants +at Cana had to draw the wine which He had made, just as the disciples +at the Sea of Tiberias have to give to the multitude the bread which +was blessed and broken by His hands. + +The supernaturally given Bread of Life is to be carried over the +world in accordance with the ordinary laws by which all other truth +is diffused and all other gifts that belong to one man are held by +him in stewardship for all his fellows. True, there is ever in and +with that word of life a divine Spirit, which is the real cause of +its progress, which guards it from destruction though all men were +faithless, and keeps it alive though all Israel bowed the knee to +Baal. But, however easy it may be for us to confuse ourselves with +metaphysical puzzles about the relation between the natural and the +supernatural elements--the human agency and the divine energiser--in +the successful discharge of the Church's work, practically the +matter is very plain. + +The truth that it behoves us all to lay to heart is just this--that +Christian people are Christ's instruments for effecting the +realisation of the purposes of His death. Not without them shall He +see of the travail of His soul. Not without them shall the preaching +be fully known. Not without the people willing in the day of His +power, and clothed in priestly beauty, shall the Priest King set His +feet upon His enemies. Not without the armies of heaven following +Him, shall the 'Word of God' ride forth to victory. Neither the +divine decree, nor the expansive power of the Truth, nor the crowned +expectancy of the waiting Lord, nor the mighty working of the +Comforter, are the complete means for the accomplishment of the +divine promise that all nations shall be blessed in Him. Could all +these be conceived of as existing without the service and energies +of God's Church proclaiming the name of Christ, they were not +enough. He has willed that to us, less than the least of all saints, +should this grace be given, that we should make known the +unsearchable riches of Christ. God reveals His truth, that men who +believe it may impart it. God gives the word, that, caught up by +those who receive it into an honest and good heart, it may be poured +forth, in mighty chorus from the lips of the 'great company of them +that publish it.' 'He gave the loaves to the disciples, and the +_disciples_ to the multitude.' + +Christian men! learn your high vocation, and your solemn +responsibilities. 'What! came the word of God out from you, or came +it _unto_ you only?' For what did you receive it? For the same +reason for which you have received everything else which you +possess--that you might share it with your brethren. How did you +receive it? As a gift, unmerited, the result of a miracle of divine +mercy, that you might feel bound to give as ye have received, and +spread the free divine gift by cheerful human work of distribution. +From whom did you receive it? From Christ, who in the very act of +giving binds you to live for Him and not for yourselves, and to +mould your lives after the pattern of His. What a multitude of +motives converge on the solemn duty of work for Christ, if we read +in the light of this deeper meaning the simple words of our text, +'He gave the loaves to the disciples!' What manner of servant is he +who can bear to have no part in the blessed work that follows--'and +the disciples to the multitude'? + +It is further noticeable how these apostles were prepared for the +work which they had to do. The first lesson which they had to learn +was the almost ludicrous disproportion between the resources at +their command and the necessities of the crowd. 'How many loaves +have ye? go and see.' And this is the first lesson that we have to +learn in all our work for Christ and for our brethren, that in +ourselves we have nothing fit for the task before us. Think of what +that task is as measured by the necessities and sorrows of men. +Think of all the sighs that go up at every moment from burdened +hearts, of the tears that run down so many blanched and anxious +cheeks. Think of '_all_ the misery that is done under the sun!' +If it could be made visible, what a dark pall would swathe the +world, an atmosphere of sorrow rolling ever with it through space. +The sight is too sad to be seen by any but by Him who cures it all, +and it wrung from His heart the sigh with which ere He cured one +poor sufferer--a drop in the ocean--He looked up to heaven, as in +mute appeal against all these heaped miseries of suffering man. + +And we, what can we do in ourselves? On what comparison of our +resources do we not feel utterly inadequate to the work? If we think +of the proportion in numbers, we have to say, like the narrator of +the wars in Israel, 'The children of Israel pitched before them like +two little flocks of kids, but the Syrians filled the country.' If +we think of the strength that we ourselves possess and look at our +own tremulous faith, at our own feeble love, at the uncertain hold +which we ourselves have on the Gospel that we profess, at the mists +and darkness which cover so much of God's revelation from our own +understandings, at the sins and faults of our own lives, must we not +cry out, Send whom Thou wilt send, O Lord, but take not me, so +sinful, so little influenced by Thy grace, to be the messenger of +Thy grace? 'Who is sufficient for these things?' + +And such contemplations, when they drive home to our hearts the +wholesome lesson of our own weakness, are the beginning, and the only +possible beginning, of divine strength. The only temper in which we +can serve God and bless man is that of lowliest self-abasement. God +works with bruised reeds, and out of them makes polished shafts, +pillars in His house. Only when we are low on our faces before God, +crying out,' Unclean, unclean,' does the purifying coal touch our +lips and the prophet strength flow into our souls. + +Be humble and self-distrustful, and then learn the further lesson of +this narrative, and carry your poor inadequate resources to Christ. +'Bring them hither to Me.' In His hands they become sufficient. He +multiplies them. He gives wisdom, strength, and all that fits for +the task to which He calls us. Bring your little faith to Him and He +will increase it. Bring your feeble love to Him, and ask Him to +kindle it from the pure flame of His own, and He will make your +heart burn within you. Bring your partial understanding of His will +and way to Him, and He will be to you wisdom. Bring all the poverty +of your natures, all the insufficiency of your religious character, +all the inadequacy of your poor work, to your Lord. Feel it all. Let +the conviction of your nothingness sink into your soul. Then wait +before Him in simple faith, in lowly obedience, and power will come +to you equal to your desire and to your duties, and He will put His +spirit upon you, and will anoint you to proclaim liberty to the +captives and to give bread to all the hungry. 'Who is sufficient for +these things?' must ever precede, and will ever be followed by, 'our +sufficiency is of God.' + +Mark again that the disciples seem themselves to have partaken of +the bread before they parted it among the multitudes. That is our +true preparation for the work of feeding the hungry. The Church +which feeds the world is able to do so, only because, and in +proportion as, it has found in Christ its own sustenance and life. +It is only they who can say 'we have tasted and felt and handled of +the word of life' who can declare it to others. Personal participation +in the bread of life makes any man able to offer it to some fainting +spirit. Nothing else makes him able. Ability involves responsibility. +'Power to its last particle is duty.' You, dear friends, who have +'tasted that the Lord is gracious,' have thereby come under weighty +obligations. Your own personal experience of that precious bread has +fitted you to do something in offering it to others. The manner in +which you do so must be determined by your character and circumstances. +Every one has his proper walk; but something you can do. To some lips +you can commend the food for all the world. Somewhere your word is +a power. See that you do what you can do. Remember that Christ feeds +the world by His Church, and that every man who has himself eaten of +the bread of life is thereby consecrated to carry it to those who yet +are perishing in the far-off hunger-ridden land, and trying to fill +their bellies with the husks that the swine eat. + +II. The Bread is enough for all the world. + +'They did all eat and were filled.' One can fancy how doubtingly and +grudgingly the apostles doled out the supplies at first, and how the +portion of each was increased, as group after group was provided, +and no diminution appeared in Christ's full hands, until, at last, +all the five thousand, of all ages, of both sexes, of every sort, +were fed, and the fragments lying uncared for proved how sufficient +had been the share of each. + +May we not see in that scene a picture of the full supply for all +the wants of the whole world which there is in that Bread of Life +which came down from heaven? The Gospel proclaims a full feast, +which is enough for all mankind, which is intended for all mankind, +which shall one day satisfy all mankind. + +This universal adaptation of the message of the Gospel to the whole +world arises from the obvious fact that it addresses itself to +universal wants, to the great rudimentary, universally diffused +characteristics of human nature, and that it provides for all these, +in the grand simplicity of its good tidings, the one sufficing word. +It entangles itself with no local or historical peculiarities of the +time and place of its earthly origin, which can hinder it in its +universal diffusion. It commits itself to no transient human +opinions. It addresses itself to no sectional characteristics of +classes of men. It brushes aside all the surface distinctions which +separate us from one another, and goes right down to the depths of +the central identities in which we are all alike. However we may +differ from one another, in training, in habits, in cast of thought, +in idiosyncrasies of character, in circumstances, in age--all these +are but the upper strata which vary locally. Beneath all these there +lie everywhere the solid foundations of the primeval rocks, and +beneath these, again, the glowing central mass, the flaming heart of +the world. Christianity sends its shaft right down through all these +upper and local beds, till it reaches the deepest depths which are +the same in every man--the obstinate wilfulness of a nature averse +from God, and the yet deeper-lying longings of a soul that flames +with the consciousness of God, and yearns for rest and peace. To the +sense of sin, to the sense of sorrow, to the conscience never wholly +stifled, to the desires after good never utterly eradicated and +never slaked by aught besides itself, does this mighty word come. +Not to this or that sort of man, not to men in this or that phase of +progress, age of the world, or stage of civilisation, does it +address itself, but to the common humanity which belongs to all, to +the wants and sorrows and inward consciousness which belong to man +as man, be he philosopher or fool, king or slave, Eastern or +Western, 'pagan suckled in a creed outworn,' or Englishman with the +new lights and material science of this twentieth century. + +Hence its universal adaptation to mankind. It alone of all so-called +faiths overleaps all geographical limits and lives in all centuries. +It alone wins its trophies and bestows its gifts on all sorts and +conditions of men. Other plants which the 'Heavenly Father hath not +planted' have their zones of vegetation and die outside certain +degrees of latitude, but the seed of the kingdom is like corn, an +exotic nowhere, for wherever man lives it will grow, and yet an +exotic everywhere, for it came down from heaven. Other food requires +an educated palate for its appreciation, but any hungry man in any +land will relish bread. For every soul on earth this living dying +love of the Lord Jesus Christ addresses itself to, and satisfies, +his deepest wants. It is the bread which gives life to the world. + +And one of the constituents of that company by the Galilean lake was +children. It is one great glory of Christianity that its merciful +mysteries can find their way to the hearts of the little children. +Its mysteries, we say--for the Gospel has its mysteries no less than +these old systems of heathenism which fenced round their deepest +truths with solemn barriers, only to be passed by the initiated. But +the difference lies here--that its mysteries are taught at first to +the neophytes, and that the sum of them lies in the words which we +learned at our mother's knees so long ago that we have forgotten +that they were ever new to us: 'God so loved the world that He gave +His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not +perish, but should have eternal life.' The little child who has +learned his earliest lessons of what father and son, loving and +giving, trust and life mean, by the sweet experiences of his own +father's home and his own mother's love, can grasp these blessed +words. They carry the deepest mysteries which will still gleam +before us unfathomed in all their profundity, unappropriated in all +their blessedness, when millenniums have passed since we stood in +the inner shrine of heaven. Wonderful is the word which blesses the +child, which transcends the angel before the throne! + +This is the bread for the world--meant for it, and one day to be +partaken of by it. For these ordered fifties at their Christ-provided +meal are for us a prophecy of the day that shall surely dawn, when +all the hunger of wandering prodigals is over, and the deceived +heart of the idol-worshipper no longer drawing him aside to feed on +ashes, they shall come from the East and from the West, and from +the North and from the South, and sit at the feast which the Lord +hath prepared for all nations, and when all the earth shall be satisfied +with the goodness of His house, even of His holy temple. + +III. The Bread which is given to the famishing is multiplied for the +future of the Distributors. + +'They took of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.' More +was gathered than they had possessed at first. They preserved over, +for their own sustenance and refreshment in days to come, a far +larger store than the five loaves and two small fishes with which +they had begun. The fact contains a principle which is true about +almost all except material possessions, which is often in God's +providence made true about them, and which is emphatically true +about spiritual blessings, about our religious emotions, our +Christian beliefs, the joys and powers which Christ comes to give. + +For all these, the condition of increase is diffusion. To impart to +others is to gain for oneself. Every honest effort to bring some +other human heart into conscious possession of Christ's love deepens +one's own sense of its preciousness. Every attempt to lead some +other understanding to the perception of the truth, as it is in +Jesus, helps me to understand it better myself. If you would learn, +teach. That will clear your mind, will open hidden harmonies, will +reveal unsuspected deficiencies and contradictions in your own +conceptions, will help you to feel more the truths that come from +your lips. It will perhaps shame your cold appreciation of them, +when you see how others grasp at them from your teaching, or give +you more confidence in the Gospel as the power of God unto +salvation, when you behold it, even as ministered through you, +mighty to pull down strongholds. At the lowest, it will keep your +own mind in healthy contact with what you art but too apt to forget. +If you would learn to love Christ more, try to lead some one else to +love Him, You will catch new gleams from His gracious heart in the +very act of commending Him to others. If you would have your own +spiritual life strengthened and deepened, remember that not by +solitary meditation or raptures of silent communion alone can that +be accomplished, but by these and by honest manful work for God in +the world. The Mount of Transfiguration must be left, although there +were there Moses and Elias, and the cloud of the divine glory and +the words of approval from heaven, because there were a demoniac boy +and his weeping, despairing father needing Christ down below. Work +for God if you would live with God. Give the bread to the hungry, if +you would have it for the food of your own souls. + +The refusal to engage in such service is one fruitful cause of the +low state of spiritual health in which so many Christians pass their +days. They seem to think that they receive the bread from heaven +only for their own use, and that they have done all that they have +to do with it, when they eat it themselves. And so come all manner +of spiritual diseases. A selfish, that is an inactive, religion is +always more or less a morbid religion. For health you need exercise. +'In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread'; that law expresses +not only the fact that work is needed to get it, but that toil must +give the appetite and fit the frame to digest it. There is such a +thing as a morbid Christianity brought on by want of healthy +exercise. + +'There is that scattereth and yet increaseth, and there is that +withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty.' Good +husbandry does not grind up all the year's wheat for loaves for +one's own eating, but keeps some of it for seed to be scattered in +the furrows. And if Christian men will deal with the great love of +God, the great work of Christ, the great message of the Gospel, as +if it were bestowed on them for their own sakes only, they will have +only themselves to blame if holy desires die out in their hearts, +and the consciousness of Christ's love becomes faint, and all the +blessed words of truth come to sound far off and mythical in their +ears. The standing water gets green scum on it. The close-shut barn +breeds weevils and smut. Let the water run. Fling the seed +broadcast. 'Thou shalt find it after many days,' bread for thy own +soul--even as these ministering apostles were enriched whilst they +gave, and the full-handed liberality 'with which they carried +Christ's gifts among the crowd' had something to do in providing the +large residue which filled their stores for days to come. + +Thus, then, this scene on the sweet springing grass down by the side +of blue Gennesaret is an emblem of the whole work of the Church in +this starving world. The multitudes famish. Tell Christ of their +wants. Count your own small resources till you have completely +learned your poverty, then take them to Jesus. He will accept them, +and in His hands they will become mighty, being transfigured from +human thoughts and forces into divine words, into spiritual powers. +On that bread which He gives, do you yourselves live. Then carry it +boldly to all the hungry. Rank after rank will eat. All races, all +ages, from grey hairs to babbling childhood, will find there the +food of their souls. As you part the blessing, it will grow beneath +His eye; and the longer you give, the fuller-handed you will become. +Nor shall the bread fail, nor the word become weak, till all the +world has tasted of its sweetness and been refreshed by its potent +life. + +This miracle is the lesson for the workers. There is another +wondrous meal recorded in Scripture, which is the prophecy for the +workers when they rest. The little ship has been tossing all the +night on the waters of that Galilean lake. Fruitless has been the +fishing. The morning breaks cold and grey, and lo! there stands on +the shore One who first blesses the toilers' work, and then bids +them to His table. There, mysteriously kindled, burns the fire with +the welcome meal already laid upon it. They add to it the +contribution of their night of toil, and then, hushed and blessed in +His still company, they sup with Him and He with them. So when the +weary work is over for the Church on earth, we shall be aware of His +merciful presence on the shore, and, coming at the last safe to +land, we shall 'rest from our labours,' in that we see the 'fire of +coals, and fish laid thereon and bread'; and our 'works shall follow +us,' in that we are 'bidden to bring of the fish that we have +caught.' Then, putting off the wet fisher's coat, and leaving behind +the tossing of the unquiet sea and the toil of the weary fishing, we +shall sit down with Him at that meal spread by His hands, who +blesseth the works of His servants here below, and giveth to them a +full fruition of immortal food at His table at the last. + + + + +THE KING'S HIGHWAY + + + 'And straightway Jesus constrained His disciples to get + into a ship, and to go before Him unto the other side, + while He sent the multitudes away. 23. And when He had + sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain + apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was + there alone. 24. But the ship was now in the midst of + the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. + 25. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went + unto them, walking on the sea. 26. And when the + disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were + troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out + for fear. 27. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, + saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. + 28. And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it be + Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water. 29. And He + said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the + ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. 30. But + when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and + beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. + 31. And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and + caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, + wherefore didst thou doubt. 32. And when they were come + into the ship, the wind ceased. 33. Then they that were + in the ship came and worshipped Him, saying, Of a truth + Thou art the Son of God. 34. And when they were gone + over, they came into the land of Gennesaret. 35. And + when the men of that place had knowledge of Him, they + sent out into all that country round about, and brought + unto Him all that were diseased; 36. And besought Him + that they might only touch the hem of His garment: and + as many as touched were made perfectly whole.' + --MATT. xiv. 22-36. + +The haste and urgency with which the disciples were sent away, +against their will, after the miracle of feeding the five thousand, +is explained in John's account. The crowd had been excited to a +dangerous enthusiasm by a miracle so level to their tastes. A +prophet who could feed them was something like a prophet. So they +determine to make him a king. Our Lord, fearing the outburst, +resolves to withdraw into the lonely hills, that the fickle blaze +may die down. If the disciples had remained with Him, He could not +have so easily stolen away, and they might have caught the popular +fervour. To divide would distract the crowd, and make it easier for +Him to disperse them, while many of them, as really happened, would +be likely to set off by land for Capernaum, when they saw the boat +had gone. The main teaching of this miracle, over and above its +demonstration of the Messianic power of our Lord, is symbolical. All +the miracles are parables, and this eminently so. Thus regarding it, +we have-- + +I. The struggling toilers and the absent Christ. + +They had a short row of some five or six miles in prospect, when +they started in the early evening. An hour or so might have done it, +but, for some unknown reason, they lingered. Perhaps instead of +pulling across, they may have kept inshore, by the head of the lake, +expecting Jesus to join them at some point. Thus, night finds them +but a short way on their voyage. The paschal moon would be shining +down on them, and perhaps in their eager talk about the miracle they +had just seen, they did not make much speed. A sudden breeze sprang +up, as is common at nightfall on mountain lakes; and soon a gale, +against which they could make no headway, was blowing in their +teeth. This lasted for eight or nine hours. Wet and weary, they +tugged at the oars through the livelong night, the seas breaking +over them, and the wind howling down the glens. + +They had been caught in a similar storm once before, but then He had +been on board, and it was daylight. Now it was dark, 'and Jesus had +not yet come to them,' How they would look back at the dim outline +of the hills, where they knew He was, and wonder why He had sent them +out into the tempest alone! Mark tells us that He saw them distressed, +hours before He came to them, and that makes His desertion the stranger. +It is but His method of lovingly training them to do without His +personal presence, and a symbol of what is to be the life of His people +till the end. He is on the mountain in prayer, and He sees the labouring +boat and the distressed rowers. The contrast is the same as is given in +the last verses of Mark's Gospel, where the serene composure of the +Lord, sitting at the right hand of God, is sharply set over against +the wandering, toiling lives of His servants, in their evangelistic +mission. The commander-in-chief sits apart on the hill, directing the +fight, and sending regiment after regiment to their deaths. Does that +mean indifference? So it might seem but for the words which follow, +'the Lord working with them.' He shares in all the toil; and the lifting +up of His holy hands sways the current of the fight, and inclines the +balance. His love appoints effort and persistent struggle as the law +of our lives. Nor are we to mourn or wonder; for the purpose of the +appointment, so far as we are concerned, is to make character, and to +give us 'the wrestling thews that throw the world.' Difficulties make +men of us. Summer sailors, yachting in smooth water, have neither the +joy of conflict nor the vigour which it gives. Better the darkness, +when we cannot see our way, and the wind in our faces, if the good of +things is to be estimated by their power to 'strengthen us with +strength in our soul!' + +II. We have the approaching Christ. + +Not till the last watch of the night does He come, when they have +long struggled, and the boat is out in the very middle of the lake, +and the storm is fiercest. We may learn from this the delays of His +love. Because He loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus, He stayed still, +in strange inaction, for two days, after their message. Because He +loved Peter and the praying band, He let him lie in prison till the +last hour of the last watch of the last night before his intended +execution, and then delivered him with a leisureliness (making him +put on article after article of dress) which tells of conscious +omnipotence. Heaven's clock goes at a different rate from our little +timepieces. God's day is a thousand years, and the longest tarrying +is but 'a little while.' When He has come, we find that it is 'right +early,' though before He came He seemed to us to delay. He comes +across the waves. Their restless and yielding crests are smoothed +and made solid by the touch of His foot. 'He walketh on the sea as +on a pavement' (Septuagint version of Job ix. 8). It is a revelation +of divine power. It is one of the very few miracles affecting +Christ's own person, and may perhaps be regarded as being, like the +Transfiguration, a casual gleam of latent glory breaking through the +body of His humiliation, and so, in some sense, prophetic. But it is +also symbolic. He ever uses tumults and unrest as a means of +advancing His purposes. The stormy sea is the recognised Old +Testament emblem of antagonism to the divine rule; and just as He +walked on the billows, so does He reach His end by the very +opposition to it, 'girding Himself' with the wrath of men, and +making it to praise Him. In this sense, too, His 'paths are in the +great waters.' In another aspect, we have here the symbol of +Christ's using our difficulties and trials as the means of His +loving approach to us. He comes, giving a deeper and more blessed +sense of His presence by means of our sorrows, than in calm sunny +weather. It is generally over a stormy sea that He comes to us, and +golden treasures are thrown on our shores after a tempest. + +III. We have the terror and the recognition. + +The disciples were as yet little lifted above their fellows; they +had no expectation of His coming, and thought just what any rude +minds would have thought, that this mysterious Thing stalking +towards them across the waters came from the unseen world, and +probably that it was the herald of their drowning. Terror froze +their blood, and brought out a shriek (as the word might be +rendered) which was heard above the dash of waves and the raving +wind. They had gallantly fought the tempest, but this unmanned them. +We too often mistake Christ, when He comes to us. We do not +recognise His working in the storm, nor His presence giving power to +battle with it. We are so absorbed in the circumstances that we fail +to see Him through them. Our tears weave a veil which hides Him, or +the darkness obscures His face, and we see nothing but the +threatening crests of the waves, curling high above our little boat. +We mistake our best friend, and we are afraid of Him as we dimly see +Him; and sometimes we think that the tokens of His presence are only +phantasms of our own imagination. + +They who were deceived by His appearance knew Him by His voice, as +Mary did at the sepulchre. How blessed must have been the moment +when that astounding certitude thrilled through their souls! That +low voice is audible through all the tumult. He speaks to us by His +word, and by the silent speech in our spirits, which makes us +conscious that He is there. He does speak to us in the deepest of +our sorrows, in the darkest of our nights; and when we hear of His +voice, and with wonder and joy cry out, 'It is the Lord,' our sorrow +is soothed, and the darkness is light about us. + +The consciousness of His presence banishes all fear. 'Be not afraid,' +follows 'It is I.' It is of no use to preach courage unless we preach +Christ first. If we have not Him with us, we do well to fear: His +presence is the only rational foundation for calm fearlessness. Only +when the Lord of Hosts is with us, ought we not to fear, 'though the +waters roar ... and be troubled.' 'Through the dear might of Him that +walked the waves' can we feeble creatures face all terrors, and feel +no terror. + + +IV. We have the end of the storm and of the voyage. + +The storm ceases as soon as Jesus is on board. John does not mention +the cessation of the tempest, but tells us that they were +immediately at the shore. It does not seem necessary to suppose +another miracle, but only that the voyage ended very speedily. It is +not always true that His presence is the end of dangers and +difficulties, but the consciousness of His presence does hush the +storm. The worst of trouble is gone when we know that He shares it; +and though the long swell after the gale may last, it no longer +threatens. Nor is it always true that His coming, and our +consciousness that He has come, bring a speedy close to toils. We +have to labour on, but in how different a mood these men would bend +to their oars after they had Him on board! With Him beside us toil +is sweet, burdens are lighter, and the road is shortened. Even with +Him on board, life is a stormy voyage; but without Him, it ends in +shipwreck. With Him, it may be long, but it will look all the +shorter while it lasts, and when we land the rough weather will be +remembered but as a transient squall. These wearied rowers, who had +toiled all night, stepped on shore as the morning broke on the +eastern bank. So we, if we have had Him for our shipmate, shall land +on the eternal shore, and dry our wet garments in the sunshine, and +all the stormy years that seemed so long shall be remembered but as +a watch in the night. + + + + +PETER ON THE WAVES + + + 'And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it be Thou, + bid me come unto Thee on the water.'--MATT. xiv. 28. + +We owe this account of an episode in the miracle of Christ's walking +on the waters to Matthew alone. Singularly enough there is no +reference to Peter's venturesomeness and failure in the Gospel which +is generally believed to have been written under his special +inspection and suggestion. Mark passes by that part of the narrative +without a word. That may be because Peter was somewhat ashamed of +it, or it may be from a natural disinclination to make himself +prominent in the story at all. But, whatever the reason, we may be +thankful that in this first Gospel we have the story, for it is not +only interesting as illustrating the characteristics of the apostle +in a very picturesque fashion, but also as carrying in it very +plainly large lessons that are of use for us all. + +I. Note, first, Peter's venturesomeness, half faith, and half +presumption. + +There is a singular mixture of good and bad in it. Looked at one +way, it seems all right; like a bit of shot silk, in one light it is +bright, and in another it is black enough. What was good in it? +Well, there was the man's out-and-out confidence in his Master; and +there was, further, the unconsidered, instinctive shoot of love in +his heart to the mysterious figure standing there upon the water, so +that his desire was to be beside Him. It was far more 'Bid me come +_to Thee_!' than 'Bid me come to Thee _on the water_.' The +incident was a kind of rehearsal, with a noticeable difference, and +yet with nearly parallel circumstances, of the other incident when, +after the Resurrection, he discovered the Lord standing on the +shore, and floundered through the water anyhow; whether on it or in +it did not matter to him, so long as he could get near his Master. +But though the apostle's action was blended with a great deal that +was childish and sensuous, and was perhaps quite as much the result +of mere temperament as of conscious affection, still there was good +in that eager longing to be beside his Lord, which it would be well +for us if we in some measure shared, and in that indifference to the +perils of the strange path so long as it led to Christ's side, +which, if it were ours, would ennoble our lives, and in that perfect +confidence that Christ could enable him to tread the unquiet sea, +which would make us lords of all storms, if it wrought in us. + +What was bad in it? First, the characteristic pushing of himself to +the front, and wish to be singled out from his brethren by some +special token. 'Bid _me_ come.' Why should he be bidden any more +than John, who sits quietly and gazes, or the others, who are tugging +at the oars? Then the impetuous rashness and signal over-estimate of +his own capacity and courage were bad. Perhaps, too, there was a +little dash of a boyish kind of wish to do a strange thing, and now +that he sees his Master there, walking on the waters, he thinks he +would like to try it too. So the request is a rash, self-confident +pushing of himself before his brethren into circumstances of wholly +unnecessary peril and trial, of which he had not estimated the +severity till he felt the water beginning to yield under his feet +and the wind smiting him on the face. So that the incident is a +rehearsal and anticipation of the precisely similar thing that he did +when, on the morning of Christ's trial, he shouldered himself +unnecessarily into the high priest's palace, and got himself close +up against the fire there, without a moment's reflection on the +possible danger he was running of having his loyalty melted by a +fiercer flame, and little dreaming that he was going to fall, and all +his courage to ooze out at his finger-ends, before the sharp tongue +of a maid-servant. In like manner as he says here, 'Bid me come to +Thee,' without the smallest doubt that when he was bade to come he +would be able to do it, so he said that night: 'Though all should +forsake Thee, yet will not I,'--and yet he denied Him. + +Let us take the warning from this venturesomeness of a generous, +impulsive, enthusiastic religious nature, and remember that the most +genuine faith and religious emotion need to be sobered and steadied +by reflection, and by searching into our own motives, before we +venture upon the water, howsoever much we may wish to go there. Make +very sure that your zeal for the Lord has an element of sober +permanence in it, and that it is the result, not of a mere +transitory feeling, but of a steady, settled purpose. And do not +push yourself voluntarily into places of peril or of difficulty, +where the fighting is hard and the fire heavy, unless you have +reasonable grounds for believing that you can stand the strain. +Bring quiet, sober reason into the loftiest and loveliest enthusiasm +of your faith, and then there will be something in it that will live +through storm, and walk the water with unwetted and unsinking foot. +An impure alloy of selfish itching for pre-eminence and distinction +does not seldom mingle with the fine gold of religious enthusiasm +and desire to serve and be near our Lord. Therefore we have to test +our motives and seek to refine our purest emotions, and the more +scrupulously the purer they seem, lest we be yielding to the +impulses of self while we fancy that we are being drawn by the +magnetism of Christ. + +II. We have here the momentary triumph and swift collapse of an +impure faith. + +One can fancy with what hushed expectation the other apostles looked at +Peter as he let himself down over the side of the ship, and his feet +touched the surges and did not sink. Christ's grave, single-worded +answer 'Come' barely sanctions the apostle's request. It is at most a +permission, but scarcely a command, and it is permission to try, in +order that Peter may learn his own weakness. He did walk on the water +to go to Jesus. What kept him up? Not Christ's hand, nor any power +bestowed on the apostle, but simply the exercise of Christ's will. But +if he was held up by the operation of that will, why did he begin to +sink? The vivid narrative tells us: 'When he saw the wind boisterous, +he was afraid.' That was why. It had been blowing every bit as hard +before he stepped out of the ship. The waves were not running any +higher after than when he said, 'Bid me come to Thee.' But he was +down amongst them, and that makes a wonderful difference. For a +moment he stood, and then the peril into which he had so heedlessly +thrust himself began to tell on him. Presumption subsided swiftly +into fright, as it usually does, and fear began to fulfil itself, +as it usually does. 'He became afraid,' and that made him heavy and +he began to sink. Not because the gale was any more violent, not +because the uneven pavement was any more yielding, but because he was +frightened, and his faith began to falter at the close sight of the +danger. + +And why did the ebbing away of faith mean the withdrawal of Christ's +will to keep him up? Why? Because it could not but be so. There is +only one door through which Christ's upholding power gets into a +man, and that is the door of the man's trust in the power; and if he +shuts the door, the power stops outside. So Peter went down. The +text does not tell us how far down he went. Depend upon it, it was +further than over the shoes! But he went down because he began to +lose his trust that Christ could hold him up; and when he lost his +trust, Christ lost His power over him. + +All this is a parable, carrying very plain and important lessons. We +are upborne by Christ's power, and that power, working on and in our +weakness, invests us with prerogatives in some measure like His own. +If He can stand quiet on the heaving wave, so can His servant. 'The +works that I do shall ye do also'--and 'the depths of the sea +"become" a way for the ransomed to pass over.' That power is +exercised on condition of our faith. As soon as faith ceases the +influx of His grace is stayed. Peter, though probably he was not +thinking of this incident, has put the whole philosophy of it into +plain words in his own letter, when he says, 'You who are kept +_by_ the power of God _through_ faith unto salvation.' He was held up +as long as he believed. His belief was a hand, and that which it +grasped was what held him up, and that was Christ's will and power. +So we shall be held up everywhere, and in any storm, as long as, and +no longer than, we set our confidence upon Him. + +Our faith is sure to fail when we turn away our eyes from Christ to +look at the tempest and the dangers. If we keep our gaze fixed upon +Him, the consciousness and the confidence of His all-sustaining +power will hold us up. If once we turn aside to look at the waves as +they heave, and prick our ears to listen to the wind as it whistles, +then we shall begin to doubt whether He is able to keep us up. +'Looking off' from all these dangers 'unto Jesus' is needful if we +are to run the race set before us. + +A man walking along a narrow ledge of some Alpine height has only +one chance of safety, and that is, not to look at his feet or at the +icy rocks beside him, or at the gulf beneath, into which he will be +dashed if he gazes down. He must look up and onwards, and then he +will walk along a knife-edge, and he shall not fall. So, Peter, +never mind the water, never mind the wind; look at Jesus and you +will get to Him dry shod. If you turn away your eyes from Him, and +take counsel of the difficulties and trials and antagonisms, down +you will be sure to go. 'They sank to the bottom like a stone, the +depths covered them.' Christ holds us up. He cannot hold us up +unless we trust Him. Faith and fear contend for supremacy in our +hearts. If we rightly trust, we shall not be afraid. If we are +afraid, terror will slay trust. To look away from Christ, and occupy +our thoughts with dangers and obstacles, is sure to lead to the +collapse of faith and the strengthening of terror. To look past and +above the billows to Him that stands on them is sure to cast out +fear and to hearten faith. Peter ignored the danger at the wrong +time, before he dropped over the side of the boat, and he was aware +of it at the wrong time, while he was actually being held up and +delivered from it. Rashness ignores peril in the wrong way, and +thereby ensures its falling on the presumptuous head. Faith ignores +it in the right way, by letting the eye travel past it, to Christ +who shields from it, and thereby faith brings about the security it +expects, and annihilates the peril from which it looks away to +Jesus. + +III. We have here the cry of desperate faith and its immediate +answer. + +The very thing which had broken Peter's faith mended it again. Fear +sunk him by making him falter in his confidence; and, as he was +sinking, the very desperation of his terror drove him back to his +faith, and he 'cried' with a shrill, loud voice, heard above the +roar of the boisterous wind, 'Lord, save me.' So difficulties and +dangers, when they begin to tell upon us, often send us back to the +trust which the anticipation of them had broken; and out of the very +extremity of fear we sometimes can draw its own antidote. Just as +with flint and steel you may strike a spark, so danger, striking +against our heart, brings out the flash that kindles the tinder. + +This brief cry for help singularly blends faith and fear. There is +faith in it, else Peter would not have appealed to Christ to save +him. There is mortal terror in it, else he would not have felt that +he needed to cry. But faith is uppermost now, and the very terror +feeds it. So, by swift transition, our fears may pass into their own +opposite and become courageous trust. Just as in a coal fire the +thick black smoke sometimes gets alight and passes into ruddy flame, +so our fears may catch fire and flash up as confidence and prayer. + +Note the merciful swiftness of Christ's answer. 'Immediately He +caught him,' because another moment would have been too late. There +will be time to teach him the lessons of his presumption, but when +the water is all but up to the lips that shrieked for help, there is +but one thing to do. He must be saved first and talked to afterwards. +Our cries for deliverance in temporal matters are not always answered +so quickly, for it is often better for us to be left to struggle with +the waves and winds. But our appeals for Christ's helping hand in +soul-peril are always answered without delay. No appreciable time is +consumed in the passage of the telegram or in flashing back the +answer. The apostle was not caught by Christ's hand before he knew +his danger, for it was good for him that he should go down some way, +but he was caught as soon as he called on the Master, and before he +had come to any harm. The trial lasted long enough to wash the +stiffening of self-confidence out of him, and then it had done its +work--and Christ's strong hand held him up. + +The manner of the answer is noteworthy. It is determined by, and +adapted to, his weak faith. He could not be upheld now as he had +been a moment ago, before his fear had weighted him, by the exercise +of Christ's will only. Then Christ could hold him up without +touching him, but now the palpable grasp of the hand was needed to +assure the tremulous, doubting heart. So we, too, sometimes need and +get material and outward signs which make it easier to feel the +reality of sustaining grace. But whether we do or no, Christ's swift +help always takes the form best suited to our faith, and He has +regard to the capacity of our clasping hands in the measure and +manner of His gifts. + +The time and tone of Christ's gentle remonstrance are remarkable. +Deliverance comes first, and rebuke afterwards. Having first shown +him, by the fact of safety, that his doubts were irrational, Christ +then, and not till then, puts His gentle question. Perhaps there was +a smile on His face, as surely there was love in His voice, that +softened the rebuke and went to Peter's heart. + +What does Christ rebuke him for? Getting out of the boat? No. He +does not blame him for venturing too much, but for trusting too +little. He does not blame him for attempting something beyond his +strength, but for not holding fast the beginning of his confidence +firm unto the end. And so the lesson for us is, that we cannot +expect too much if we expect it perseveringly. We cannot set our +conceptions of Christ's possible help to us too high if only we keep +at the height to which we once have set them, and are assured that +He will hold us up when we are down amongst the weltering waves, as +we fancied ourselves to be when we were sitting in the boat wishing +to be with Him. That is the question that He will meet us with when +we get up on the shore yonder; and we shall not have any more to say +for ourselves, in vindication of our tremulous trust, than Peter, +silenced for once, had to say on this occasion. + +It will be good for us all if, like this apostle, our trials +consolidate our characters, and out of the shifting, fluctuating, +impetuous nature that was blown about like sand by every gust of +emotion there be made, by the pressure of responsibility and trial, +and experience of our own unreliableness, the 'Rock' of a stable +character, steadfast and unmovable, with calm resolution and fixed +faith, on which the Great Architect can build some portion of His +great temple. + + + + +CRUMBS AND THE BREAD + + + 'Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts + of Tyre and Sidon. 22. And, behold, a woman of Canaan + came out of the same coasts, and cried unto Him, + saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my + daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. 23. But He + answered her not a word. And His disciples came and + besought Him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth + after us. 24. But He answered and said, I am not sent + but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. + 25. Then came she and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, + help me. 26. But He answered and said, It is not meet + to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. + 27. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the + crumbs which fall from their masters' table. 28. Then + Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy + faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her + daughter was made whole from that very hour. 29. And + Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea + of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down + there. 30. And great multitudes came unto Him, having + with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, + and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; + and He healed them: 31. Insomuch that the multitude + wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed + to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: + and they glorified the God of Israel.'--MATT. xv. 21-31. + +The King of Israel has passed beyond the bounds of Israel, driven by +the hostility of those who should have been His subjects. The +delegates of the priestly party from Jerusalem, who had come down to +see into this dangerous enthusiasm which was beginning in Galilee, +have made Christ's withdrawal expedient, and He goes northward, if +not actually into the territory of Tyre and Sidon, at any rate to +the border land. The incident of the Syro-Phoenician woman becomes +more striking if we suppose that it took place on Gentile ground. At +all events, after it, we learn from Mark that He made a considerable +circuit, first north and then east, and so came round to the eastern +side of the sea of Galilee, where the last paragraph of this section +finds Him. The key to its meaning lies in the contrast between the +single cure of the woman's demoniac daughter, obtained after so long +imploring, and the spontaneous abundance of the cures wrought when +Jesus again had Jewish sufferers to do with, even though it were on +the half-Gentilised eastern shore of the lake. The contrast is an +illustration of His parable of the crumbs that fell from the table +and the plentiful feast that was spread upon it for the children. + +The story of the Syro-Phoenician woman naturally falls into four +parts, each marked by the recurrence of 'He answered.' + +I. There is the piteous cry, and the answer of silence. Mark tells +us that Jesus sought concealment in this journey; but distress has +quick eyes, and this poor woman found Him. Canaanite as she is, and +thus a descendant of the ancient race of Israel's enemies, she has +learned to call Him the Son of David, owning His kingship, which His +born subjects disowned. She beseeches for that which He delights to +give, identifying herself with her poor child's suffering, and +asking as for herself His mercy. As Chrysostom says: 'It was a sight +to stir pity to behold a woman calling aloud in such distress, and +that woman a mother, and pleading for a daughter, and that daughter +in such evil plight.' In her humility she does not bring her child, +nor ask Him to go to her. In her agony, she has nothing to say but +to spread her grief before Him, as thinking that He, of whose pity +she has heard, needs but to know in order to alleviate, and requires +no motives urged to induce Him to help. In her faith, she thinks +that His power can heal from afar. What more could He have desired? +All the more startling, then, is His demeanour. All the conditions +which He usually required, were present in her; but He, who was wont +to meet these with swift and joyful over-answers, has no word to say +to this poor, needy, persevering, humble, and faithful suppliant. +The fountain seems frozen, from which such streams of blessing were +wont to flow. His mercy seems clean gone, and His compassion to have +failed. A Christ silent to a sufferer's cry is a paradox which +contradicts the whole gospel story, and which, we may be very sure, +no evangelist would have painted, if he had not been painting from +the life. + +II. There is the disciples' intercession answered by Christ's +statement of the limitations of His mission. Their petition +evidently meant, 'Dismiss her by granting her request'; they knew in +what fashion He was wont to 'send away' such suppliants. They seem, +then, more pitiful than He is. But their thoughts are more for +themselves than for her. That 'us' shows the cloven foot. They did +not like the noise, and they feared it might defeat His purpose of +secrecy; and so, by their phrase, 'Send her away,' they +unconsciously betray that what they wanted was not granting the +prayer, but getting rid of the petitioner. Perhaps, too, they mean, +'Say something to her; either tell her that Thou wilt or that Thou +wilt not; break Thy silence somehow.' No doubt, it was intensely +disagreeable to have a shrieking woman coming after them; and they +were only doing as most of us would have done, and as so many of us +do, when we give help without one touch of compassion, in order to +stop some imploring mouth. + +Their apparently compassionate but really selfish intercession was +put aside by the answer, which explains the paradox of His silence. +It puts emphasis on two things: His subordination to the divine will +of the Father, and the restrictions imposed thereby on the scope of +His beneficent working. He was obeying the divine will in confining +His ministry to the Jewish people, as we know that He did. Clearly, +that restriction was necessary. It was a case of concentration in +order to diffusion. The fire must be gathered on the hearth, if it +is afterward to warm the chamber. There must be geographical and +national limits to His life; and the Messiah, who comes last in the +long series of the kings and prophets, can only be authenticated as +the world's Messiah, by being first the fulfiller to the children of +the promises made to the fathers. The same necessity, which required +that revelation should be made through that nation, required that +the climax and fulfiller of all revelation should limit His earthly +ministry to it. This limitation must be regarded as applying only to +His own personal ministry. It did not limit His sympathies, nor +interfere with His consciousness of being the Saviour and King of +the whole world. He had already spoken the parables which claimed it +all for the area of the development of His kingdom, and in many +other ways had given utterance to His consciousness of universal +dominion, and His purpose of universal mercy. But He knew that there +was an order of development in the kingdom, and that at its then +stage the surest way to attain the ultimate universality was rigid +limitation of it to the chosen people. This conviction locked His +gracious lips against even this poor woman's piteous cry. We may +well believe that His sympathy outran His commission, and that it +would have been hard for so much love to be silent in the presence +of so much sorrow, if He had not felt the solemn pressure of that +divine necessity which ruled all His life. He was bound by His +instructions, and therefore He answered her not a word. Individual +suffering is no reason for transcending the limits of God-appointed +functions; and he is absolved from the charge of indifference who +refrains from giving help, which he can only give by overleaping the +bounds of his activity, which have been set by the Father. + +III. We have, next, the persistent suppliant answered by a refusal +which sounds harsh and hopeless. Christ's former words were probably +not heard by the woman, who seems to have been behind the group. She +saw that something was being said to Him, and may have gathered, +from gestures or looks, that His reply was unfavourable. Perhaps +there was a short pause in their walk, while they spoke, during +which she came nearer. Now she falls at His feet, and with +'beautiful shamelessness,' as Chrysostom calls it, repeats her +prayer, but this time with pathetic brevity, uttering but the one +cry, 'Lord, help me!' The intenser the feeling, the fewer the words. +Heart-prayers are short prayers. She does not now invoke Him as the +Son of David, nor tell her sorrow over again, but flings herself in +desperation on His pity, with the artless and unsupported cry, wrung +from her agony, as she sees the hope of help fading away. Like +Jacob, in his mysterious struggle, 'she wept, and made supplication +unto Him.' + +As it would seem, her distress touched no chord of sympathy; and +from the lips accustomed to drop oil and wine into every wound, came +words like swords, cold, unfeeling, keen-edged, fitted and meant to +lacerate. We shall not understand them, or Him, if we content +ourselves with the explanation which jealousy for His honour as +compassionate and tender has led many to adopt, that He meant all +the long delay in granting her request, and the words which He +spoke, only as tests of her faith. His refusal was a real refusal, +founded on the divine decree, which He was bound to obey. His words +to her, harsh as they unquestionably sound, are but another way of +putting the limitation on which He had just insisted in His answer +to the disciples. The 'bread' is the blessing which He, as the sent +of God, brings; the 'children' are the 'lost sheep of the house of +Israel'; the 'dogs' are the Gentile world. The meaning of the whole +is simply the necessary restriction of His personal activity to the +chosen nation. It is not meant to wound nor to insult, though, no +doubt, it is cast in a form which might have been offensive, and +would have repelled a less determined or less sorrowful heart. The +form may be partly explained by the intention of trying her +earnestness, which, though it is not the sole, or even the +principal, is a subordinate, reason of our Lord's action. But it is +also to be considered in the light of the woman's quick-witted +retort, which drew out of it an inference which we cannot suppose +that Christ did not intend. He uses a diminutive for 'dogs,' which +shows that He is not thinking of the fierce, unclean animals, +masterless and starving, that still haunt Eastern cities, and +deserve their bad character, but of domestic pets, who live with the +household, and are near the table. In fact, the woman seized His +intention much better than later critics who find 'national scorn' +in the words; and the fair inference from them is just that which +she drew, and which constituted the law of the preaching of the +Gospel,--'To the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.' + +IV. We have the woman's retort, which wrings hope out of apparent +discouragement, answered by Christ's joyful granting of her request. +Out of His very words she weaves a plea. 'Yes, Lord; I am one of the +dogs; then I am not an alien, but belong to the household.' The +Revised Version does justice to her words by reading 'for even' +instead of 'yet,' She does not enter a caveat against the analogy, +but accepts it wholly, and only asks Him to carry out His own +metaphor. She takes the sword from His hand, or, as Luther says, +'she catches Him in His own words.' She does not ask a place at the +table, nor anything taken from those who have a prior claim to a +more abundant share in His mercies. A crumb is enough for her, which +they will never miss. In other and colder words, she acquiesces in +the divine appointment which limits His mission to Israel; but she +recognises that all nations belong to God's household, and that she +and her countrymen have a real, though for the time inferior, +position in it. She pleads that her gain will not be the children's +loss, nor the answer to her prayers an infraction of the spirit of +His mission. Perhaps, too, there may be a reference to the fact of +His being there on Gentile soil, in her words, 'Which fall from the +children's table.' She does not want the bread to be thrown from the +table to her. She is not asking Him to transfer His ministry to +Gentiles; but here He is. A crumb has fallen, in His brief visit. +May she not eat of that? In this answer faith, humility, +perseverance, swift perception of His meaning, and hallowed +ingenuity and boldness, are equally admirable. By admitting that she +was 'a dog,' and pleading her claim on that footing, she shows that +she was 'a child.' And therefore, because she has shown herself one +of the true household, in the fixedness of her faith, in the +meekness of her humility, in the persistence of her prayers, Christ +joyfully recognises that here is a case in which He may pass the +line of ordinary limitation, and that, in doing so, He does not +exceed His commission. Such faith is entitled to the fullest share +of His gift. She takes her place beside the Gentile centurion as the +two recipients of commendation from Him for the greatness of their +faith. It had seemed as if He would give nothing; but He ends with +giving all, putting the key of the storehouse into her hand, and +bidding her take, not a crumb, but 'as thou wilt.' Her daughter is +healed, by His power working at a distance; but that was not, we may +be very sure, the last nor the best of the blessings which she took +from that great treasure of which He made her mistress. Nor can we +doubt that He rejoiced at the removal of the barrier which dammed +back His help, as much as she did at the abundance of the stream +which reached her at last. + +V. The final verses of our lesson give us a striking contrast to +this story. Jesus is again on the shores of the lake, after a tour +through the Tyrian and Sidonian territory, and then eastwards and +southwards, to its eastern bank. There He, as on several former +occasions, seeks seclusion and repose in the hills, which is broken +in upon by the crowds. The old excitement and rush of people begin +again. And large numbers of sick, 'lame, blind, dumb, maimed and +many others,' are brought. They are cast 'down at His feet' in hot +haste, with small ceremony, and, as would appear, with little +petitioning for His healing power. But the same grace, for which the +Canaanitish woman had needed to plead so hard, now seems to flow +almost unasked. She had, as it were, wrung a drop out; now it gushes +abundantly. She had not got her 'crumb' without much pleading; these +get the bread almost without asking. It is this contrast of scant +and full supplies which the evangelist would have us observe. And he +points his meaning plainly enough by that expression, 'they +glorified the God of Israel,' which seems to be Matthew's own, and +not his quotation of what the crowd said. This abundance of miracle +witnesses to the pre-eminence of Israel over the Gentile nations, +and to the special revelation of Himself which God made to them in +His Son. The crowd may have found in it only fuel for narrow +national pride and contempt; but it was the divine method for the +founding of the kingdom none the less; and these two scenes, set +thus side by side, teach the same truth, that the King of men is +first the King of Israel. + + + + +THE DIVINE CHRIST CONFESSED, THE SUFFERING CHRIST DENIED + + + 'When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Phllippi, + He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I + the Son of Man am? 14. And they said, Some say that + thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; and others, + Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 15. He saith unto + them, But whom say ye that I am? 16. And Simon Peter + answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the + living God. 17. And Jesus answered and said unto him, + Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood + hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is + in heaven. 18. And I say also unto thee, That thou art + Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and + the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19. And + I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of + heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall + be hound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on + earth shall be loosed in heaven. 20. Then charged He + His disciples that they should tell no man that He was + Jesus the Christ. 21. From that time forth began Jesus + to shew unto His disciples, how that He must go unto + Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and + chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised + again the third day. 22. Then Peter took Him, and began + to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far from Thee, Lord: this + shall not be unto Thee. 23. But He turned, and said + unto Peter, Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art an + offence unto Me: for thou savourest not the things that + be of God, but those that be of men. 24. Then said + Jesus unto His disciples, If any man will come after + Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and + follow Me. 25. For whosoever will save his life shall + lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake + shall find it. 26. For what is a man profited, if he + shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or + what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 27. For + the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father + with His angels; and then He shall reward every man + according to his works. 28. Verily I say unto you, + There be some standing here, which shall not taste of + death, till they see the Son of Man coming in His + kingdom.'--MATT. xvi. 13-28. + +This section is embarrassing from its fulness of material. We can +but lightly touch points on which volumes might be, and indeed have +been, written. + +I. The first section (vs. 13-20) gives us Peter's great confession +in the name of the disciples, and Christ's answer to it. The centre +of this section is the eager avowal of the impetuous apostle, always +foremost for good or evil. We note the preparation for it, its +contents, and its results. As to the preparation,--our Lord is +entering on a new era in His work, and desires to bring clearly into +His followers' consciousness the sum of His past self-revelation. +The excitement, which He had checked after the first miraculous +feeding, had died down. The fickle crowd had gone away from Him, and +the shadows of the cross were darkening. Amid the seclusion of the +woods, fountains, and rocks of Caesarea, far away from distracting +influences, He puts these two momentous questions. Following the +Revised Version reading, we have a double contrast between the first +and second. 'Men' answers to 'ye,' and 'the Son of Man' to 'I.' The +first question is as to the partial and conflicting opinions among +the multitudes who had heard His name for Himself from His own lips; +the second, in its use of the 'I,' hints at the fuller unveiling of +the depths of His gracious personality, which the disciples had +experienced, and implies, 'Surely you, who have been beside Me, and +known Me so closely, have reached a deeper understanding.' It has a +tone of the same wistfulness and wonder as that other question of +His, 'Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known +Me?' For their sakes, He seeks to draw out their partly unconscious +faith, that had been smouldering, fed by their daily experience of +His beauty and tenderness. Half-recognised convictions float in many +a heart, which need but a pointed question to crystallise into +master-truths, to which, henceforward, the whole being is subject. +Great are the dangers of articulate creeds; but great is the power +of putting our shadowy beliefs into plain words. 'With the mouth +confession is made unto salvation.' + +Why should this great question have been preceded by the other? +Probably to make the disciples feel more distinctly the chaotic +contradictions of the popular judgment, and their own isolation by +their possession of the clearer light. He wishes them to see the +gulf opening between them and their fellows, and so to bind them +more closely to Himself. This is the question the answer to which +settles everything for a man. It has an intensely sharp point. We +cannot take refuge from it in the general opinion. Nor does any +other man's judgment about Him matter one whit to us. This Christ +has a strange power, after nineteen hundred years, of coming to each +of us, with the same persistent interrogation on His lips. And to-day, +as then, all depends on the answer which we give. Many answer by +exalted estimates of Him, like these varying replies which ascribed +to Him prophetic authority, but they have not understood His own name +for Himself, nor drunk in the meaning of His self-revelation, unless +they can reply with the full-toned confession of the apostle, which +sets Him far above and apart from the highest and holiest. + +As to the contents of the confession, it includes both the human and +the divine sides of Christ's nature. He is the Messiah, but He is +more than what a Jew meant by that name; He is 'the Son of the +living God,' by which we cannot indeed suppose that Peter meant all +that he afterwards learned it contained, or all that the Church has +now been taught of its meaning, but which, nevertheless, is not to +be watered down as if it did not declare His unique filial relation +to the Father, and so His divine nature. Nathanael had burst into +rapturous adoration of Jesus as 'the Son of God' at the very +beginning; and the disciples' glad confidence, which cast out the +fear of the dim form striding across the sea, had echoed the +confession; all had heard His words, 'No man knoweth the Father but +the Son.' So we need not hesitate to interpret this confession as in +essence and germ containing the whole future doctrine of our Lord's +divinity. True, the speaker did not know all which lay in His words. +Do we? Do we not see here an illustration of the method of Christian +progress in doctrine, which consists not in the winning of new +truths, but in the penetrating further into the meaning of old and +initial truths? The conviction which made and makes a Christian, is +this of Peter's; and Christian growth is into, not away from, it. + +As to the results, they are set forth in our Lord's answer, which +breathes of delight, and we may almost say gratitude. His manhood +knew the thrill of satisfaction at having some hearts which +understood though partially, and loved even better than they knew. +The solemn address to the apostle by his ancestral name, gives +emphasis to the contrast between his natural weakness and his divine +illumination and consequent privilege. The name of Peter is not here +bestowed, but interpreted. Christ does not say 'Thou shalt be,' but +'Thou art,' and so presupposes the former conferring of the name. +Unquestionably, the apostle is the rock on which the Church is +built. The efforts to avoid that conclusion would never have been +heard of, but for the Roman Catholic controversy; but they are as +unnecessary as unsuccessful. Is it credible that in the course of an +address which is wholly occupied with conferring prerogatives on the +apostle, a clause should come in, which is concerned about an +altogether different subject from the 'thou' of the preceding and +the 'thee' of the following clauses, and which yet should take the +very name of the apostle, slightly modified, for that other subject? +We do not interpret other books in that fashion. But it was not the +'flesh and blood' Peter, but Peter as the recipient and faithful +utterer of the divine inspiration in his confession, who received +these privileges. Therefore they are not his exclusive property, but +belong to his faith, which grasped and confessed the divine-human +Lord; and wherever that faith is, there are these gifts, which are +its results. They are the 'natural' consequences of the true faith +in Christ, in that higher region where the supernatural is the +natural. Peter's grasp of Christ's nature wrought upon his +character, as pressure does upon sand, and solidified his shifting +impetuosity into rock-like firmness. So the same faith will tend to +do in any man. It made him the chief instrument in the establishment +of the early Church. On souls steadied and made solid by like faith, +and only on such, can Christ build His Church. Of course, the +metaphor here regards Jesus, not as the foundation, as the Scripture +generally does, but as the founder. The names of the twelve apostles +of the Lamb are on the foundations of the heavenly city; and, in +historical fact, the name of this apostle is graven on the deepest +and first laid. In like subordinate sense, all who share that heroic +faith and proclaim it are used by the Master-builder in the +foundations of His Church; and Peter himself is eager to share his +name among his brethren, when he says 'Ye also, as living stones.' + +Built on men who hold by that confession, the Church is immortal; +and the armies who pour out of the gates of the pale kingdoms of the +unseen world shall not be able to destroy it. Peter, as confessor of +his Lord's human-divine nature, wields the keys of the kingdom of +heaven, like a steward of a great house; and that too was fulfilled +in his apostolic activity in his admitting Jews at Pentecost, and +Gentiles in the house of Cornelius. But the same power attends all +who share his faith and avowal, for the preaching of that faith is +the opening of heaven's door to men. He receives the power of +binding and loosing, by which is not meant that of forgiving or +retaining sins, but that of prohibiting or allowing actions, or, in +other words, of laying down the law of Christian conduct. This +meaning of the metaphors is made certain by the common Jewish use of +them. Despotic legislative power is not here committed to the +apostle, but the great principle is taught that the morality of +Christianity flows directly from its theology, and that whosoever, +like Peter, grasps firmly the cardinal truth of Christ's nature, and +all which flows therefrom, will have his insight so cleared that his +judgments on what is permitted or forbidden to a Christian man will +correspond with the decisions of heaven, in the measure of his hold +upon the truth which underlies all religion and all morality, +namely, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' These are +gifts to Peter indeed, but only as possessor of that faith, and are +much more truly understood as belonging to all who 'possess like +precious faith' (as Peter says), than as the prerogative of any +individual or class. + +II. The second section (vs. 21-23) contains the startling new +revelation of the suffering Messiah, and the disciples' repugnance +to it. The Gospel has two parts: Jesus is the Christ, and the Christ +must suffer and enter into His glory. Our Lord has made sure that +the disciples have learned the first before He leads to the second. +The very conviction of His dignity and divine nature made that +second truth the more bewildering, but still the only road to it was +through the first. Verse 21 covers an indefinite time, during which +Jesus gradually taught His sufferings. Ordinarily we exaggerate the +suddenness, and therefore the depth, of Peter's fall, by supposing +that it took place immediately after his confession; but the +narrative discountenances the idea, and merely says that Jesus then +'began' His new teaching. There had been veiled hints of it (such as +John ii. 19, and Matt. ix. 15, xii. 40), but henceforward it assumed +prominence, and was taught without veil. It was no new thought to +Himself, forced on Him by the growing enmity of the nation. The +cross always cast its shadow on His path. He was no enthusiast, +beginning with the dream of winning a world to His side, and slowly +and heroically making up His mind to die a martyr, but His purpose +in being born was to minister and to die, a ransom for the many. We +have not here to do with a growing consciousness, but simply with an +increasing clearness of utterance. Note the detailed accuracy of His +prevision, which points to Jerusalem as the scene, and to the rulers +of the nation as the instruments, and to death as the climax, and to +resurrection as the issue, of His sufferings; the clear setting +forth of the divine necessity which, as it ruled all His life, ruled +here also, and is expressed in that solemn 'must'; and the perfectly +willing acceptance by Him of that necessity, implied in that 'go,' +and certified by many another word of His. The necessity was no +external compulsion, driving Him to an unwelcome sacrifice, but one +imposed alike by filial obedience and by brotherly love. He +_must_ die because He _would_ save. + +How vividly the scene of Peter's rash rejection of the teaching is +described! The apostle, full of eager love, still, as of old, swift +to speak, and driven by unexamined impulse, lays his hand on Christ, +and draws Him a little apart, while he 'begins' to pour out words +which show that he has forgotten his confession. 'Rebuke' must not +be softened down into anything less vehement or more respectful. He +knows better than Jesus what will happen. Perhaps his assurance +'that this shall never be' means 'We will fight first.' But he is +not allowed to finish what he began; for the Master, whom he loved +unwisely but well, turns His back on him, as in horror, and shows by +the terrible severity of His rebuke how deeply moved He is. He +repels the hint in almost the same words as He had used to the +tempter in the wilderness, of whom that Peter, who had so lately +been the recipient and proclaimer of a divine illumination, has +become the mouthpiece. So possible is it to fall from sunny heights +to doleful depths! So little can any divine inspiration be +permanent, if the man turn away from it to think man's thoughts, and +set his affections on the things which men desire! So certainly does +minding these degrade to becoming an organ of Satan! The words are +full of restrained emotion, which reveal how real a temptation Peter +had flung in Christ's path. The rock has become a stone of +stumbling; the man Jesus shrank from the cross with a natural and +innocent shrinking, which never made His will tremulous, but was +none the less real; and such words from loving lips did affect him. +Let us note, on the whole, that the complete truth about Jesus +Christ must include these two parts,--His divine nature and +Messiahship, and His death on the cross; and that neither alone is +the gospel, nor is he a disciple, such as Christ desires, who does +not cleave to both with mind and heart. + +III. In verses 24-28, the law, which ruled the Master's life, is +extended to the servants. They recoiled from the thought of His +having to suffer. They had to learn that they must suffer too if +they would be His. First, the condition of discipleship is set +before them as being the fellowship of His suffering. 'If any man +will' gives them the option of withdrawal. A new epoch is beginning, +and they will have to enlist again, and to do so with open eyes. He +will have no unwilling soldiers, nor any who have been beguiled into +the ranks. No doubt, some went away, and walked no more with Him. +The terms of service are clear. Discipleship means imitation, and +imitation means self-crucifixion. At that time they would only +partially understand what taking up their cross was, but they would +apprehend that a martyred master must needs have for followers men +ready to be martyrs too. But the requirement goes much deeper than +this. There is no discipleship without self-denial, both in the +easier form of starving passions and desires, and in the harder of +yielding up the will, and letting His will supplant ours. Only so +can we ever come after Him, and of such sacrifice of self the cross +is the eminent example. We cannot think too much of it as the +instrument of our reconciliation and forgiveness, but we may, and +too often do, think too little of it as the pattern of our lives. +When Jesus began to teach His death, He immediately presented it as +His servants' example. Let us not forget that fact. + +The ground of the law is next stated in verse 25. The desire to save +life is the loss of life in the highest sense. If that desire guide +us, then farewell to enthusiasm, courage, the martyr spirit, and all +which makes man's life nobler than a beast's. He who is ruled mainly +by the wish to keep a whole skin, loses the best part of what he is +so anxious to keep. In a wider application, regard for self as a +ruling motive is destruction, and selfishness is suicide. On the +other hand, lives hazarded for Christ are therein truly saved, and +if they be not only hazarded, but actually lost, such loss is gain; +and the same law, by which the Master 'must' die and rise again, +will work in the servant. Verse 26 urges the wisdom of such apparent +folly, and enforces the requirement by the plain consideration that +'life' is worth more than anything beside, and that on the two +grounds, that the world itself would be of no use to a dead man, and +that, once lost, 'life' cannot be bought back. Therefore the dictate +of the wisest prudence is that seemingly prodigal flinging away of +the lower 'life' which puts us in possession of the higher. Note +that the appeal is here made to a reasonable regard to personal +advantage, and _that_ in the very act of urging to crucify +self. So little did Christ think, as some people do, that the desire +to save one's soul is selfishness. + +Verse 27 confirms all the preceding by the solemn announcement of +the coming of the Son of Man as Judge. Mark the dignity of the +words. He is to come 'in the glory of the Father.' That ineffable +and inaccessible light which rays forth from the Father enwraps the +Son. Their glory is one. The waiting angels are 'His.' He renders to +every man according to his doing (his actions considered as one +whole). Thus He claims for Himself universal sway, and the power of +accurately determining the whole moral character of every life, as +well as that of awarding precisely graduated retribution. They +surely shall then find their lives who have followed Him here. + +Verse 28 adds, with His solemn 'verily,' a confirmation of this +announcement of His coming to judge. The question of what event is +referred to may best be answered by noting that it must be one +sufficiently far off from the moment of speaking to allow of the +death of the greater number of His hearers, and sufficiently near to +allow of the survival of some; that it must also be an event, after +which these survivors would go the common road into the grave; that +it is apparently distinguished from His coming 'in the glory of the +Father,' and yet is of such a nature as to afford convincing proof +of the establishment of His kingdom on earth, and to be, in some +sort, a sign of that final act of judgment. All these requirements +(and they are all the fair inferences from the words) meet only in +the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the national life of the chosen +people. That was a crash of which we faintly realise the tremendous +significance. It swept away the last remnant of the hope that Israel +was to be the kingdom of the Messiah; and from out of the dust and +chaos of that fall the Christian Church emerged, manifestly destined +for world-wide extension. It was a 'great and terrible day of the +Lord,' and, as such, was a precursor and a prophecy of the day of +the Lord, when He 'shall come in the glory of the Father,' and +'render unto every man according to his deeds.' + + + + +CHRIST FORESEEING THE CROSS + + + 'From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto His + disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and + suffer many things of the elders and chief priests + and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the + third day.'--MATT. xvi. 21. + +The 'time' referred to in the text was probably a little more than +six months before the Crucifixion, when Jesus was just on the point +of finally leaving Galilee, and travelling towards Jerusalem. It was +an epoch in His ministry. The hostility of the priestly party in the +capital had become more pronounced, and simultaneously the fickle +enthusiasm of the Galilean crowds, which had been cooled by His +discouragement, had died down into apathy. He and His followers are +about to leave familiar scenes and faces, and to plunge into +perilous and intrude paths. He is resolved that, if they will +'come after Him,' as He bids them in a subsequent verse, it shall be +with their eyes open, and as knowing that to come after Him now +means to cut themselves loose from old moorings, and to put out into +the storm. They shall be abundantly certified that their journeying +to Jerusalem is not a triumphal procession to a crown, but a march +to a cross. + +So, this new epoch in His life is attended with a new development of +His teaching. My text sums up the result of many interviews in +which, by slow degrees, He sought to put the disciples in possession +of this unwelcome truth. It was prepared for, by the previous +conversation in which His question elicited from Peter, as the +mouthpiece of the apostles, the great confession of His Messiahship +and Divinity. Settled in their belief of these truths, however +imperfect their intellectual grasp of them, they might perhaps be +able to receive the mournful mystery of His passion. + +I. We have here set forth in the first place our Lord's anticipation +of the Cross. + +Mark the tone of the language, the minuteness of the detail, the +absolute certainty of the prevision. That is not the language of a +man who simply is calculating that the course which he is pursuing +is likely to end in his martyrdom; but the thing lies there before +Him, a definite, fixed certainty; every detail known, the scene, the +instruments, the non-participation of these in the final act of His +death, His resurrection, and its date,--all manifested and mapped +out in His sight, and all absolutely certain. + +Now this was by no means the first time that the certainty of the +Cross was plain to Christ. It was not even the first time that it +had been announced in His teaching. Veiled hints; allusions, brief +but pregnant, had been scattered through His earlier ministry--such, +for instance, as the enigmatical word at its very beginning, +'Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up'; or as +the profound word to the rabbi that sought Him by night, 'As Moses +lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be +lifted up'; or as the passing hint, dropped to the people, in +symbolical language, about the 'sign of the prophet Jonas'; or as +the grief foreshadowed dimly to the apostles, of the withdrawal of +the Bridegroom, and their 'fasting in those days.' These hints, and +no doubt others unrecorded, had cropped to the surface before; and +what we have to do with here, is neither the dawning of an +expectation in Christ, nor the first utterance of the certainty of +the Cross, but simply the beginning of a continuous and +unenigmatical teaching of it, as an element in His instructions to +His disciples. + +So then, we have to recognise the fact that our Lord's prevision of +the end--shone, I was going to say, perhaps it might be truer to +say, darkened,--all the path along which He had to travel. + +I think that people dogmatise a great deal too glibly as to what +they know very little about, the interaction of the divine and the +human elements in Christ, and on the one side are far too certain in +their affirmation that His humanity possessed in some reflected +fashion the divine gift of omniscience; and on the other hand, that +His manhood, passing through the process of human development, and +increasing in wisdom, was necessarily in its earlier stages void of +the consciousness of His Messianic mission. I dare not affirm either +'yes' or 'no' about that matter; but this I am sure of, that if ever +there was a time in the development of the Manhood of Jesus Christ +when He began to know Himself as the Messias, at that same time He +began to be certain of the Cross. For His Messianic work required +the Cross, and the divine thing that was in Him was born into the +world for a double purpose, to minister and to die. + +So, dear friends, putting aside mere metaphysics, which are +superficial after all, we have to recognise this as the fact, that +all through His career there arose before our Lord the certainty of +that death, and that it did not assume to Him the aspect which such +a prospect might have assumed to others as a possible result of a +mission that failed, but it assumed to Him the aspect of the certain +result of a work that was accomplished. He began His career with no +illusions, such as other teachers, reformers, philanthropists, men +that have moved society, have always begun with. Moses might +'suppose his brethren would have understood how that God by His hand +would deliver them,' but Christ had no such illusion. He knew from +the beginning that He came to be rejected and to die. And so He +'trod life's common way,' with that grim certainty rising ever +before Him. I suppose that He did not, as you and I do, forget the +death that awaits us, and find the non-remembrance of it the +condition of much of our energy, but that it was perpetually in His +sight. + +Now I do not think that we sufficiently dwell upon that fact as an +element in the human experience of our Lord. What beauty it gives to +His gentleness, to the leisureliness of heart with which He was ready +to make everybody's sorrow His own, and to lay a healing and a loving +finger upon every wound! With this certainty before Him, there was +yet no strain manifest upon His spirit, no self-absorption, no +shutting Himself out from other people's burdens because He had so +heavy ones of His own to carry; but He was ready for every joy, ready +for all sympathy, ready for every help; and if we cannot say that, +'in cheerful godliness,' as I think we may, at least we can say that +with solemn joy and untroubled readiness, He journeyed towards that +Cross. This Isaac was under no illusions as to who the Lamb for the +offering was, but knowing it, He patiently carried the wood and +climbed the hill, ready for the Father's will. + +II. That brings me to notice the second point here, our Lord's +recognition of the necessity of His suffering. + +Mark that He does not say that He _shall_ suffer. Certainty is +not all that He proclaims here, however absolute that certainty +might be, but it is '_He must_.' He is speaking not only of the +historical fact, but of the need, deep in the nature of things, for +His sufferings that were to follow. + +And though these were wrought out by His own willing submission on +the one hand, and by the unfettered play of the evil passions of the +worst of men on the other, yet over all that apparent chaos of +unbridled devildom there ruled the unalterable purpose of God; and +the 'must' was wrought out through the passions of evil-doers and +the voluntary submission of the innocent sufferer; thus setting +before us, in the central fact of the history of humanity, viz. the +Cross and passion of Jesus Christ, the eminent example of that great +mystery how the absolute freedom of the human will, and the +responsibility of the guilt of human wrong-doers, are congruous with +the fixed purpose of an all-determining and all-ruling Providence. + +But that is apart from my purpose. Mark then, that our Lord's +recognition of this necessity for His suffering is, on the first and +plainest aspect of it, His recognition that His suffering was +necessary on the ground of filial obedience. All through His life we +hear that 'must' echoing, and His whole spirit bowed to it. As He +says Himself, 'The Son can do nothing of Himself.' As was said for +Him of old: 'Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it is written of +Me, I delight to do Thy will, and Thy law is within My heart.' So +the Father's will is the Son's law; and the Father's 'Thou shalt' is +answered by the Son's 'I must.' + +But yet that necessity grounded on filial obedience was no mere +external necessity determined solely by the divine will. God so +willed it, because it must be so; that it must be so was not because +God so willed it. That is to say, the work to which Christ had set +His hand was a work that demanded the Cross, nor could it be +accomplished without it. For it was the work of redeeming the world, +and required more than a beautiful life, more than a divine +gentleness of heart, more than the homely and yet deep wisdom of His +teachings, it required the sacrifice that He offered on the Cross. + +So, dear friends, Christ's 'must' is but this: 'My work is not +accomplished except I die.' And remember that the connection between +our Lord's work and our Lord's death is not that which subsists +between the works and the deaths of great teachers, or heroic +martyrs, or philanthropists and benefactors, who will gladly pay the +price of life in order to carry out their loving or their wise +designs. It is no mere appendage to His work, nor the price that He +paid for having done it, but it is His very work in its vital +centre. + +I pray you to consider if there is any theory of the meaning and power +of the death of Jesus Christ which adequately explains this 'must,' +except the one that He died a sacrifice for the sins of the world. On +any other hypothesis, as it seems to me, of what His death meant, it +is surplusage, over and above His work: not adding much, either to His +teaching or to the beauty of His example, and having no absolute +stringent necessity impressed upon it. There is one doctrine--that +when He died He bare the sins of the whole world--which makes His +death a necessity; and I ask you, Is there any other doctrine which +does? Take care of a Christianity which would not be much impoverished +if the Cross were struck out of it altogether. + +There is a deeper question, on which, as I believe, it does not +become us to enter, and that is, What is the necessity for the +necessity? Why must it be that He, who is the Redeemer of the world, +must needs be the Sacrifice for the world? We do not know enough +about the depths of the divine nature and the divine government to +speak very wisely or reverently upon that subject, and I, for one, +abjure the attempt, which seems to me to be presumptuous--the +attempt to explain why there was needed a sacrifice for sin in order +to the forgiveness of sin. If I knew all about God, I could tell +you; and nobody, that does not, can. But we can see, as far as +concerns us, that, as the history of all religions tells us, for the +forgiveness and acceptance of sinful men a pure sacrifice is needed; +and that for teaching us the love of God, the hideousness and wages +of sin, for our emancipation from evil, for the quieting of our +consciences, for a foothold for faith, for an adequate motive of +self-surrender and obedience, his sacrificial death is needful. The +life and death of Jesus Christ, regarded as God's sacrifice for the +world's sin, _does_ all this. The life and death of Jesus +Christ, regarded in any other aspect, does not do this. Historically +speaking, mutilated forms of Christianity, which have not known what +to do with the Cross of Christ, have lost their constraining, +purifying, and aggressive power. For us sinful men, if we are to be +delivered from evil and become sons of God, He _must_ suffer +many things, and be killed, and rise again the third day. + +III. Now note further, how we have here also our Lord's willing +acceptance of the necessity. + +It is one thing to recognise, and another thing to accept, a needs-be. +This 'must' was no unwelcome obligation laid upon Him against His will, +but one to which His whole nature responded and which He accepted. No +doubt there was in Him the innocent instinctive physical shrinking +from death. No doubt the Cross, in so far, was pain and suffering. No +doubt we are to trace the reality of a temptation in Peter's rash words +which follow, as indicated to us by the severity and almost vehemence +of the action with which Christ puts it away. No doubt there is a +profound meaning in that answer of His, 'Thou art a _stumbling-block_ +to Me.' The 'Rock' is turned into a stone of stumbling, and Peter's +suggestion appeals to something in Him which responded to it. + +That shrinking might be a shrinking of nature, but it was not a +recoil of will. The ship may toss in dreadful billows, but the +needle points to the pole. The train may rock upon the line, but it +never leaves the rails. Christ felt that the Cross was an evil, but +that feeling never made Him falter in His determination to bear it. +His willing acceptance of the necessity was owing to His full +resolve to save the world. He must die because He would redeem, and +He would redeem because He could not but love. 'He saved others,' +and therefore 'Himself He cannot save.' So the 'must' was not an +iron chain that fastened Him to His Cross. Like some of the heroic +martyrs of old, who refused to be bound to the funeral pile, He +stood there chained to it by nothing but His own will and loving +purpose to save the world. + +And, brethren, in that loving purpose, each of us may be sure that +we had an individual and a personal share. Whatever the interaction +between the divinity and the humanity, this at all events is +certain, that every soul of man has his distinct and definite place +in Christ's knowledge and in Christ's love. Each of us all may be +sure that one strand of the cords of love which fastened Him to the +Cross was His love for me; and each of us may say--He must die, +because 'He loved me, and gave Himself for me.' + +IV. Lastly, notice here our Lord's teaching the necessity of His +death. + +This announcement was preceded, as I remarked, by that conversation +which led to the crystallising of the half-formed convictions of the +apostles in a definite creed, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the +living God.' But that was not all that they needed to know and +believe and trust to. That was the first volume of their lesson-book. +The second volume was this, that 'Christ must suffer.' And so let us +learn the central place which the Cross holds in Christ's teaching. +They tell us that the doctrine of Christ as the Sacrifice for the +world is not in the Gospels. Where are the eyes that read the Gospels +and do not see it? The theory of it is not there; the announcements +of it are. And in this latest section of our Lord's ministry, they +are fuller and more frequent than in the earlier, for the plain +reason which is implied by the preparation through which He passed +these disciples, ere He ventured to communicate the mournful and the +bewildering fact. There must be, first, the grasp of His Messiahship, +and some recognition that He is the Son of God, ere it is possible +to go on to speak of the Cross, the full message concerning which +could not be spoken until after the Resurrection and the Ascension. + +But note, you do not understand Christ's Cross unless you bring to +it the faith in Christ's Messiahship and the belief in some measure +that He is the Son of God. Neither the pathos nor the power of His +death is intelligible if it be simply like other deaths--the dying +of a man who is born subject to the law of mortality, and who yields +to it by natural process. Unless you and I take upon our lips, +though with far deeper meaning, the words with which the heathen +centurion gazed upon the dying Christ, and say, 'Truly this was the +Son of God!' His Cross is common and trivial and insignificant; but +if we can thus speak, then it stands before us as the crown of all +God's manifestations in the world,' the wisdom of God and the power +of God.' + +And then note, still further, how, without the Cross, these other +truths are not the whole gospel. There were disciples then, as there +have been disciples since, and as there are to-day, who were willing +to accept, 'Thou art the Christ'; and willing in some sense to say +'Thou art the Son of God,' but stumbled when He said, 'The Son of +Man must suffer.' Brethren, I venture to urge that the gospel of the +Incarnation, precious as it is, is not the whole gospel, and that +the full-orbed truth about Jesus Christ is that He is the Christ, +and that He died for our sins, and rose again to live for ever, our +Priest and King. + +We need a whole Christ. For our soul's salvation, for the quieting +of our consciences, the forgiveness of our sins, for new life, for +peace, purity, obedience, love, joy, hope, our faith must grasp +'Christ, and Him crucified.' A half Christ is no Christ, and unless +we have as sinful men laid hold of the one Sacrifice for sins for +ever, which He offered, we do not understand even the preciousness +of the half Christ whom we perceive, nor know the full beauty of His +example, the depth of His teaching, nor the tenderness of His heart. + +I beseech you, ask yourselves, _What_ Christ can do for me the +things which I need to have done, except 'the Christ that died, yea, +rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, +who also maketh intercession for us'? + + + + +THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY + + + 'And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John + his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain + apart, 2. And was transfigured before them: and His + face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as + the light. 3. And, behold, there appeared unto them + Moses and Elias talking with Him. 4. Then answered + Peter, and said unto Jesus. Lord, it is good for us + to be here: if Thou wilt, let us make here three + tabernacles; one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one + for Elias. 5. While he yet spake, behold, a bright + cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the + cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am + well pleased; hear ye Him. 6. And when the disciples + heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. + 7. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, + and be not afraid. 8. And when they had lifted up their + eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only. 9. And as they + came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, + Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man be risen + again from the dead. 10. And His disciples asked Him, + saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first + come? 11. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias + truly shall first come, and restore all things. 12. But + I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they + knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they + listed. Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of + them. 13. Then the disciples understood that He spake + unto them of John the Baptist.'--MATT. xvii. 1-13. + +The early guess at Tabor as the scene of the Transfiguration must be +given up as untenable. Some one of the many peaks of Hermon rising +right over Caesarea is a far more likely place. But the silence of +all the accounts as to the locality surely teaches us the +unimportance of knowledge on the point. The dangers of knowing would +more than outweigh the advantages. A similar indefiniteness attaches +to the _when_. Are we to think of it as occurring by night, or +by day? Perhaps the former is slightly the more probable, from the +fact of the descent being made 'the next day' (Luke). Our conception +of the scene will be very different, as we think of that lustre from +His face, and that bright cloud, as outshining the blaze of a Syrian +sun, or as filling the night with glory. But we cannot settle which +view is correct. + +There are three distinct parts in the whole incident: the +Transfiguration proper; the appearance of Moses and Elijah; and the +cloud with the voice from it. + +I. The Transfiguration proper. + +The general statement that Jesus 'was transfigured before them' is +immediately followed out into explanatory details. These are +twofold--the radiance of His face, and the gleaming whiteness of His +raiment, which shone like the snow on Hermon when it is smitten by +the sunshine. Probably we are to think of the whole body as giving +forth the same mysterious light, which made itself visible even +through the white robe He wore. This would give beautiful accuracy and +appropriateness to the distinction drawn in the two metaphors,--that +His face was 'as the sun,' in which the undiluted glory was seen; and +His garments 'as the light,' which is sunshine diffused and weakened. +There is no hint of any external source of the brightness. It does not +seem to have been a reflection from the visible symbol of the divine +presence, as was the fading radiance on the face of Moses. That symbol +does not come into view till the last stage of the incident. We are +then to think of the brightness as rising from within, not cast from +without. We cannot tell whether it was voluntary or involuntary. Luke +gives a pregnant hint, in connecting it with Christ's praying, as if +the calm ecstasy of communion with the Father brought to the surface +the hidden glory of the Son. Can it be that such glory always +accompanied His prayers, and that its presence may have been one +reason for the sedulous privacy of these, except on this one occasion, +when He desired that His faithful three should be 'eye-witnesses of +His majesty'? However that may be, we have probably to regard the +Transfiguration as the transient making visible, in the natural, +symbolic form of light, of the indwelling divine glory, which dwelt +in Him as in a shrine, and then shone through the veil of His flesh. +John explains the event, though His words go far beyond it, when he +says, 'We beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the +Father.' + +What was the purpose of the Transfiguration? Matthew seems to tell +us in that 'before them.' It was for their sakes, not for His, as +indeed follows from the belief that it was the irradiation from +within of the indwelling light. The new epoch of His life, in which +they were to have a share of trial and cross-bearing, needed some +great encouragement poured into their tremulous hearts; and so, for +once, He deigned to let them look on His face shining as the sun, +for a remembrance when they saw it covered with 'shame and spitting' +and His brow bleeding from the thorns. But perhaps we may venture a +step farther, and see here some prophecy of that body of His glory +in which He now reigns. Speculations as to the difference between +the earthly body of our Lord and ours are fascinating but +unsubstantial. It was a true human body, susceptible of hunger, +pain, weariness; but we are not taught that it carried in it the +necessity of death. It may have been more pliable to the spirit's +behests, and more transparent to its light, than ours. There may +have been in that hour of radiance some approximation to the perfect +harmony between the perfect spirit and the body, which is its fit +organ, which we know is His now, and to which we also know that He +will conform the body of our humiliation. Then His face 'shone as +the sun'; when one of these three saw Him in His glory, 'His +countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength'; and His own +promise to us is that we too 'shall shine forth as the sun.' Then +His garments were white as the light; His promise is that they who +are worthy shall 'walk with Him in white.' The Transfiguration was a +revelation and a prophecy. + +II. The appearance of Moses and Elijah. + +While the three are gazing with dazzled eyes, suddenly, as if shaped +out of air, there stand by Jesus two mighty forms, evidently men, +and yet, according to Luke, encompassed in the white radiance, +walking with the Son of Man in a better furnace. What a stound of +awe and wonder must have touched the gazers as the conviction who +these were filled their minds, and they recognised, we know not how, +the mighty lineaments of the lawgiver and the prophet! Did the three +mortals understand the meaning of the words of the heavenly three? +We cannot tell. Nor does Matthew tell us what was the theme of that +wondrous colloquy. These two might have asked, 'Why hast Thou +disquieted us to bring us up?' What is the answer? Wherefore were +they there? To tell Jesus that He was to die? No, for that lay plain +before Him. To learn from Him the mystery of His passion, that they +might be His heralds, the one in Paradise, the other in the pale +kingdoms of Hades? Perhaps, but, more probably, they came to +minister to Him strength for His conflict, even as women did of +their substance, and an angel did in Gethsemane. Perhaps the +strength came to Jesus from seeing how they yearned for the +fulfilment of the typified redemption; perhaps it came from His +being able to speak to them as He could not to any on earth. At all +events, surely Moses and Elijah were not brought there for their own +sakes alone, nor for the sake of the witnesses, but also for His +sake who was prepared by that converse for His cross. + +Further, their appearance set forth Christ's death, which was their +theme, as the climax of revelation. The Law with its requirement and +its sacrifices, and Prophecy with its forward-looking gaze, stand +there, in their representatives, and bear witness that their +converging lines meet in Jesus. The finger that wrote the law, and +the finger that smote and parted Jordan, are each lifted to point to +Him. The stern voices that spoke the commandments and that hurled +threatenings at the unworthy occupants of David's throne, both +proclaim, 'Behold the Lamb of God, the perfect Fulfiller of law, the +true King of Israel.' Their presence and their speech were the +acknowledgment that this was He whom they had seen from afar; their +disappearance proclaims that their work is done when they have +pointed to Him. + +Their presence also teaches us that Jesus is the life of all the +living dead. Of course, care must be exercised in drawing dogmatic +conclusions from a manifestly abnormal incident, but some plain +truths do result from it. Of these two, one had died, though mystery +hung round his death and burial; the other had passed into the +heavens by another gate than that of death; and here they both stand +with lives undiminished by their mysterious changes, in fulness of +power and of consciousness, bathed in glory, which was as their +native air now. They are witnesses of an immortal life, and proofs +that His yet unpierced hands held the keys of life and death. He +opened the gate which moves backwards to no hand but His, and +summoned them; and they come, with no napkins about their heads, and +no trailing grave-clothes entangling their feet, and own Him as the +King of life. + +They speak too of the eager onward gaze which the Old Testament +believers turned to the coming Deliverer. In silent anticipation, +through all these centuries, good men had lain down to die, saying, +'I wait for Thy salvation,' and after death their spirits had lived +expectant and crying, like the souls under the altar, 'How long, O +Lord, how long?' Now these two are brought from their hopeful +repose, perchance to learn how near their deliverance was; and +behind them we seem to discern a dim crowd of holy men and women, +who had died in faith, not having received the promises, and who +throng the portals of the unseen world, waiting for the near advent +of the better Samson to bear away the gates to the city on the hill, +and lead thither their ransomed train. + +Peter's bewildered words need not long detain us. He is half dazed, +but, true to his rash nature, thinks that he must say something, and +that to do something will relieve the tension of his spirit. His +proposal, so ridiculous as it is, shows that he had not really +understood what he saw. It also expresses his feeling that it is +much better to be there than to be travelling to a cross--and so may +stand as an instance of a very real temptation for us all, that of +avoiding unwelcome duties and shrinking from rough work, on the plea +of holding sweet communion with Jesus on the mountain. It was +_not_ 'good' to stay there, and leave demoniacs uncured in the +plain. + +III. The cloud and the witnessing voice. + +Peter's words receive no answer, for, while he is speaking, another +solemn and silencing wonder has place. Suddenly a strange cloud +forms in the cloudless sky. It is 'bright' with no reflection caught +from the sun; it is borne along by no wind; slowly it settles down +upon them, like a roof, and, bright though it is, casts a strange +shadow. According to one reading of Luke's account, Christ and the +two heavenly witnesses pass within its folds, leaving the disciples +without, and that separation seems confirmed by Matthew's saying +that the voice 'came out of the cloud.' Our evangelist points to its +brightness as singular. It was not merely bright, as if smitten by +the sunlight, but its whole substance was luminous. It is almost a +contradiction to speak of a cloud of light, and the anomalous +expression points to something beyond nature. We cannot but remember +the pillar which had a heart of fire, and glowed in the darkness +over the sleeping camp, and the cloud which filled the house, and +drove the priests from the sanctuary by its brightness. Nor should +we forget that at His Ascension Jesus was not lost to sight in the +blue; but while He was yet visible in the act of blessing, 'a cloud +received Him out of their sight.' It is, in fact, the familiar +symbol of the divine presence, which had long been absent from the +temple, and now reappears. We may note the beauty and felicity of +the emblem. It blends light and darkness, so suggesting how the very +same 'attributes' of God are both; and how His revelation of Himself +reveals Him as unrevealable. The manifestation of His power is also +the 'hiding of His power.' The inaccessible light is also thick +darkness. The same characteristics of His nature are light and joy +to some, and blackness and woe to others. + +We may note, too, Christ's passage into the cloud. Moses and Elijah, +being purged from mortal weakness, could pass thither. But Jesus, +alone of men, could pass in the flesh into that brightness, and be +hid in its fiery heart, unshrinking and unconsumed. 'Who among us +shall dwell with everlasting burnings? His entrance into it is but +the witness to the purity of His nature, and the absence in Him of +all fuel for fire. That bright cloud was 'His own calm home, His +habitation from eternity,' and where no man, compassed with flesh +and sin, could live, He enters as the Son into the bosom of the +Father. + +Then comes the articulate witness to the Son. The solemnity and +force of the attestation are increased, if we conceive of the +disciples as outside the cloud, and parted from Jesus. This word is +meant for them only, and so is distinguished from the similar voice +at the baptism, and has added the imperative 'Hear him.' The voice +bears witness to the mystery of our Lord's person. It points to the +contrast between His two attendants and Him. They are servants, +'this is the Son.' It sets forth His supernaturally born humanity, +and, deeper still, His true and proper divinity, which John unfolds, +in his Gospel, as the deepest meaning of the name. It testifies to +the unbroken union of love between the Father and Him, and therein +to the absolute perfection of our Lord's character. He is the +adequate object of the eternal, divine love. As He has been from the +timeless depths of old, He is, in His human life, the object of the +ever-unruffled divine complacency, in whom the Father can glass +Himself as in a pure mirror. It enjoins obedient listening. God's +voice bids us hear Christ's voice. If He is the beloved Son, +listening to Him is listening to God. This is the purpose of the +whole, so far as we are concerned. We are to hear Him, when He +declares God; when He witnesses of Himself, of His love, His work, +His death, His judgeship; when He invites us to come to Him, and +find rest; when He commands and when He promises. Amid the Babel of +this day, let us listen to that voice, low and gentle, pleading and +soft, authoritative, majestic, and sovereign. It will one day shake +'not the earth only, but also the heaven.' But, as yet, it calls us +with strange sweetness, and the music of love in every tone. Well +for us if our hearts answer, 'Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth.' + +Matthew tells us that this voice from the cloud completely unmanned +the disciples, who fell on their faces, and lay there, we know not +how long, till Jesus came and laid a loving hand on them, bidding +them arise, and not fear. So when they staggered to their feet, and +looked around, they saw nothing but the grey stones of the hillside +and the blue sky. 'That dread voice was past,' and the silence was +broken only by the hum of insects or the twitter of a far-off bird. +The strange guests have gone; the radiance has faded from the +Master's face, and all is as it used to be. 'They saw no one, save +Jesus only.' It is the summing up of revelation; all others vanish, +He abides. It is the summing up of the world's history. Thickening +folds of oblivion wrap the past, and all its mighty names become +forgotten; but His figure stands out, solitary against the +background of the past, as some great mountain, which travellers see +long after the lower summits are sunk beneath the horizon. Let us +make this the summing up of our lives. We can venture to take Him +for our sole helper, pattern, love, and aim, because He, in His +singleness, is enough for our hearts. There are many fragmentary +precious things, but there is only one pearl of great price. And +then this will be a prophecy of our deaths--a brief darkness, a +passing dread, and then His touch and His voice saying, 'Arise, be +not afraid.' So we shall lift up our eyes, and find earth faded, and +its voices fallen dim, and see 'no one any more, save Jesus only.' + + + + +THE SECRET OF POWER + + + 'Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why + could not we cast him out? 20. And Jesus said unto them, + Because of your unbelief.'--MATT. xvii. 19, 20. + +'And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them +power against unclean spirits to cast them out.' That same power was +bestowed, too, on the wider circle of the seventy who returned again +with joy, saying, 'Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through +Thy name.' The ground of it was laid in the solemn words with which +Christ met their wonder at their own strength, and told how He +'beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.' Therefore had they +triumphed, showing the fruits of their Master's victory; and +therefore had He a right to renew the gift, in the still more +comprehensive promise, 'I give unto you power--over all the power of +the enemy.' + +What a commentary on such words this story affords! What has become +of the disciples' supernatural might? Has it ebbed away as suddenly +as it flowed? Is their Lord's endowment a shadow or His assurances +delusion? Has He taken back what He gave? Not so. And yet His +servants are ignominiously beaten. One poor devil-ridden boy brings +all their resources to nothing. He stands before them writhing in +the gripe of his tormentor, but they cannot set him free. The +importunity of the father's prayers is vain, and the tension of +expectancy in his eager face relaxes into the old hopeless languor +as he slowly droops to the conviction that 'they could not cast him +out.' The malicious scorn in the eyes of the Scribes, those hostile +critics who 'knew that it would be so,' helps to produce the failure +which they anticipated. The curious crowd buzz about them, and in +the midst of it all stand the little knot of baffled disciples, +possessors of power which seems to leave them when they need it +most, with the unavailing spells dying half spoken on their lips, +and their faint hearts longing that their Master would come down +from the mount, and cover their weakness with His own great +strength. + +No wonder that, as soon as Christ and they are alone, they wish to +know how their mortifying defeat has come about. And they get an +answer which they little expected, for the last place where men look +for the explanation of their failures is within; but they will +ascend into the heavens, and descend into the deeps for remote and +recondite reasons, before they listen to the voice which says, 'The +fault is nigh thee, in thy heart.' Christ's reply distinctly implies +that the cause of their impotence lay wholly in themselves, not in +any defect or withdrawal of power, but solely in that in them which +grasped the power. They little expected, too, to be told that they +had failed because they had not been sure they would succeed. They +had thought that they believed in their ability to cast out the +demon. They had tried to do so, with some kind of anticipation that +they could. They had been surprised when they found that they could +not. They had wonderingly asked why. And now Christ tells them that +all along they had had no real faith in Him and in the reality of +His gift. So subtly may unbelief steal into the heart, even while we +fancy that we are working in faith. And a further portion of our +Lord's reply points them to the great means by which this conquering +faith can be maintained--namely, prayer and fasting. If, then, we +put all these things together, we get a series of considerations, +very simple and commonplace indeed, but all the better and truer +therefor, which I venture to submit to you, as having a very +important bearing on all our Christian work, and especially on the +missionary work of the Church. The principles which the text +suggests touch the perpetual possession of the power which conquers; +the condition of its victorious exercise by us, as being our faith; +the subtle danger of unsuspected unbelief to which we are exposed; +and the great means of preserving our faith pure and strong. I ask +your attention to a few considerations on these points in their +order. + +But first, let me say very briefly, that I would not be understood +as, by the selection of such a text, desiring to suggest that we +have failed in our work. Thank God! we can point to results far, far +greater than we have deserved, far greater than we have expected, +however they may be beneath our desires, and still further below +what the gospel was meant to accomplish. It may suit observers who +have never done anything themselves, and have not particularly clear +eyes for appreciating spiritual work, to talk of Christian missions +as failures; but it would ill become us to assent to the lie. +Failures indeed! with half a million of converts, with new forms of +Christian life budding in all the wilderness of the peoples, with +the consciousness of coming doom creeping about the heart of every +system of idolatry! Is the green life in the hedges and in the sweet +pastures starred with rathe primroses, and in the hidden copses blue +with hyacinths, a failure, because the east wind bites shrewdly, and +'the tender ash delays to clothe herself with green'? No! no, we +have not failed. Enough has been done to vindicate the enterprise, +more than enough to fill our lips with thanksgiving, enough to +entitle us to say to all would-be critics--Do you the same with your +enchantments. But, on the other hand, we have to confess that the +success has been slow and small, chequered and interrupted, that +often we have been foiled, that we have confronted many a demon whom +we could not cast out, and that at home and abroad the masses of +evil seem to close in around us, and we make but little impression +on their serried ranks. We have had success enough to assure us that +we possess the treasure, and failures enough to make us feel how +weak are the earthen vessels which hold it. + +And now let us turn to the principles which flow from this text. + +I. We have an unvarying power. + +No doubt the explanation of their defeat which most naturally suggested +itself to these disciples would be that somehow or other--perhaps +because of Christ's absence--they had lost the gift which they knew +that they once had. And the same way of accounting for later want of +success lingers among Christian people still. You will sometimes hear +it said: 'God sends forth His Spirit in special fulness at special +times, according to His own sovereign will; and till then we can only +wait and pray.' Or, 'The miraculous powers which dwelt in the early +Church have been withdrawn, and therefore the progress is slow.' The +strong imaginative tendency to make an ideal perfect in the past +leads us to think of the primitive age of the Church as golden, in +opposition to the plain facts of the case. We fancy that because +apostles were its teachers, and the Cross within its memory, the +infant society was stronger, wiser, better than any age since, and had +gifts which we have lost. What had it which we do not possess? The +power of working miracles. What have we which it did not possess? A +completed Bible, and the experience of nineteen centuries to teach us +to understand it, and to confirm by facts our confidence that Christ's +gospel is for all time and every land. What have we in common with it? +The same mission to fulfil, the same wants in our brethren to meet, the +same gospel, the same spirit, the same immortal Lord. All that any age +has possessed to fit it for the task of witnessing for Christ we too +possess. The Church has in it a power which is ever adequate to the +conquest of the world; and that power is constant through all time, +whether we consider it as recorded in an unvarying gospel, or as +energised by an abiding spirit, or as flowing from and centred in an +unchangeable Lord. + +We have a gospel which never can grow old. Its adaptation to the +deepest needs of men's souls remains constant with these needs. +These vary not from age to age. No matter what may be the superficial +differences of dress, the same human heart beats beneath every robe. +The great primal wants of men's spirits abide, as the great primal +wants of their bodily life abide. Food and shelter for the one,--a +loving, pardoning God, to know and love, for the other--else they +perish. Wherever men go they carry with them a conscience which needs +cleansing, a sense of separation from God joined with a dim knowledge +that union with Him is life, a will which is burdened with its own +selfhood, an imagination which paints the misty walls of this earthly +prison with awful shapes that terrify and faint hopes that mock, a +heart that hungers for love, and a reason which pines in atrophy +without light. And all these the gospel which is lodged in our hands +meets. It addresses itself to nothing in men that is not in man. +Surface differences of position, culture, clime, age, and the like, +it brushes aside as unimportant, and it goes straight to the universal +wants. People tell us it has done its work, and much confident dogmatism +proclaims that the world has outgrown it. We have a right to be +confident also, with a confidence born of our knowledge, that it has +met and satisfied for us the wants which are ours and every man's, and +to believe that as long as men live by bread, so long will this word +which proceedeth out of the mouth of God be the food of their souls. +Areopagus and Piccadilly, Benares and Oxford, need the same message +and will find the same response to all their wants in the same word. + +Many of the institutions in which Christendom has embodied its +conceptions of God's truth will crumble away. Many of the +conceptions will have to be modified, neglected truths will grow, to +the dislocation of much systematic theology, and the Word better +understood will clear away many a portentous error with which the +Church has darkened the Word. Be it so. Let us be glad when 'the +things which can be shaken are removed,' like mean huts built +against the wall of some cathedral, masking and marring the +completeness of its beauty; 'that the things which cannot be shaken +may remain,' and all the clustered shafts, and deep-arched recesses, +and sweet tracery may stand forth freed from the excrescences which +hid them. + +'The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. But the +word of the Lord endureth for ever.' + +We have an abiding Spirit, the Giver to us of a power without +variableness or the shadow of turning, 'I will pray the Father, and +He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for +ever.' The manner of His operations may vary, but the reality of His +energy abides. The 'works' of wonder which Jesus did on earth may no +more be done, but the greater works than these are still the sign of +_His_ presence, without whom no spiritual life is possible. +Prophecies may fail, tongues may cease, but the more excellent gifts +are poured out now as richly as ever. We are apt to look back to +Pentecost and think that that marked a height to which the tide has +never reached since, and therefore we are stranded amidst the ooze +and mud. But the river which proceeds from the throne of God and of +the Lamb is not like one of our streams on earth, that leaps to the +light and dashes rejoicingly down the hillside, but creeps along +sluggish in its level course, and dies away at last in the sands. It +pours along the ages the same full volume with which it gushed forth +at first. Rather, the source goes with the Church in all ages, and +we drink not of water that came forth long ago in the history of the +world, and has reached us through the centuries, but of that which +wells out fresh every moment from the Rock that follows us. The +Giver of all power is with us. + +We have a Lord, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. 'Lo, I +am with you alway, even to the end of the world.' We have not merely +to look back to the life and death of Christ in history, and +recognise there the work, the efficacy of which shall endure for +ever. But whilst we do this, we have also to think of the Christ +'that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also +maketh intercession for us.' And the one thought, as the other, +should strengthen our confidence in our possession of all the might +that we need for bringing the world back to our Lord. + +A work in the past which can never be exhausted or lose its power is +the theme of our message. The mists of gathering ages wrap in slowly +thickening folds of forgetfulness all other men and events in +history, and make them ghostlike and shadowy; but no distance has +yet dimmed or will ever dim that human form divine. Other names are +like those stars that blaze out for a while, and then smoulder down +into almost complete invisibility; but He is the very Light itself, +that burns and is not consumed. Other landmarks sink below the +horizon as the tribes of men pursue their solemn march through the +centuries, but the Cross on Calvary 'shall stand for an ensign of +the people, and to it shall the Gentiles seek.' To proclaim that +accomplished salvation, once for all lodged in the heart of the +world's history, and henceforth for ever valid, is our unalterable +duty. The message carries in itself its own immortal strength. + +A living Saviour in the present, who works with us, confirming the +word with signs following, is the source of our power. Not till He is +impotent shall we be weak. The unmeasurable measure of the gift of +Christ defines the degree, and the unending duration of His life who +continueth for ever sets the period, of our possession of the grace +which is given to every one of us. He is ever bestowing. He never +withdraws what He once gives. The fountain sinks not a hairs-breadth, +though nineteen centuries have drawn from it. Modern astronomy begins +to believe that the sun itself by long expense of light will be shorn +of its beams and wander darkling in space, circled no more by its +daughter planets. But this Sun of our souls rays out for ever the +energies of life and light and love, and after all communication +possesses the infinite fulness of them all. 'His name shall be +continued as long as the sun; all nations shall call Him blessed.' + +Here then, brethren, are the perpetual elements of our constant +power, an eternal Word, an abiding Spirit, an unchanging Lord. + +II. The condition of exercising this power is Faith. + +With such a force at our command--a force that could shake the +mountains and break the rocks--how come we ever to fail? So the +disciples asked, and Christ's answer cuts to the very heart of the +matter. Why could you not cast him out? For one reason only, because +you had lost your hold of My strength, and therefore had lost your +confidence in your own derived power, or had forgotten that it was +derived, and essayed to wield it as if it were your own. You did not +trust Me, so you did not believe that you could cast him out; or you +believed that you could by your own might, therefore you failed. He +throws them back decisively on themselves as solely responsible. +Nowhere else, in heaven or in earth or hell, but only in us, does +the reason lie for our breakdown, if we have broken down. Not in +God, who is ever with us, ready to make all grace abound in us, +whose will is that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge +of the truth; not in the gospel which we preach, for 'it is the +power of God unto salvation'; not in the demon might which has +overcome us, for 'greater is He that is in us than he that is in the +world.' We are driven from all other explanations to the bitterest +and yet the most hopeful of all, that we only are to blame. + +And what in us is to blame? Some of us will answer--Our modes of +working; they have not been free enough, or not orderly enough, or +in some way or other not wisely adapted to our ends. Some will +answer--Our forms of presenting the truth; they have not been +flexible enough, or not fixed enough; they have been too much a +reproduction of the old; they have been too licentious a departure +from the old. Some will answer--Our ecclesiastical arrangements; +they have been too democratic; they have been too priestly. Some +will answer--Our intellectual culture; it has been too great, +obscuring the simplicity that is in Christ; it has been too small, +sending poorly furnished men into the field to fight with ordered +systems of idolatry which rest upon a philosophical basis, and can +only be overturned by undermining that. It is no part of my present +duty to discuss these varying answers. No doubt there is room for +improvement in all the fields which they indicate. But does not the +spirit of our Lord's words here beckon us away from these purely +secondary subjects to fix our self-examination on the depth and +strength of our faith, as incomparably the most important element in +the conditions which determine our success or our failure? I do not +undervalue the worth of wise methods of action, but the history of +the Church tells us that pretty nearly any methods of action are +fruitful in the right hands, and that without living faith the best +of them become like the heavy armour which half-smothered a feeble +man. I do not pretend to that sublime indifference to dogma which is +the modern form of supreme devotion to truth, but experience has +taught us that wherever the name of Christ, as the Saviour of the +world, has been lovingly proclaimed, there devils have been cast +out, whatever private and sectional doctrines the exerciser has +added to it. I do not disparage organisation, but courage is more +than drill; and there is such a thing as the very perfection of +arrangement without life, like cabinets in a museum, where all the +specimens are duly classified, and dead. I believe, with the old +preacher, that if God does not need our learning, He needs our +ignorance still less, but it is of comparatively little importance +whether the draught of living water be brought to thirsty lips in an +earthen cup or a golden vase. + + 'The main thing is, does it hold good measure? + Heaven soon sets right all other matters.' + +And therefore, while leaving full scope for all improvements in +these subordinate conditions, let me urge upon you that the main +thing which makes us strong for our Christian work is the grasp of +living faith, which holds fast the strength of God. There is no need +to plunge into the jungle of metaphysical theology here. Is it not a +fact that the might with which the power of God has wrought for +men's salvation has corresponded with the strength of the Church's +desire and the purity of its trust in His power? Is it not a truth +plainly spoken in Scripture and confirmed by experience, that we +have the awful prerogative of limiting the Holy One of Israel, and +quenching the Spirit? Was there not a time in Christ's life on earth +when He could do no mighty works because of their unbelief? We +receive all spiritual gifts in proportion to our capacity, and the +chief factor in settling the measure of our capacity is our faith. +Here on the one hand is the boundless ocean of the divine strength, +unfathomable in its depth, full after all draughts, tideless and +calm, in all its movement never troubled, in all its repose never +stagnating; and on the other side is the empty aridity of our poor +weak natures. Faith opens these to the influx of that great sea, and +'according to our faith,' in the exact measure of our receptivity, +does it enter our hearts. In itself the gift is boundless. It has no +limit except the infinite fulness of the power which worketh in us. +But in reference to our possession it is bounded by our capacity, +and though that capacity enlarges by the very fact of being filled, +and so every moment becomes greater through fruition, yet at each +moment it is the measure of our possession, and our faith is the +measure of our capacity. Our power is God's power in us, and our +faith is the power with which we grasp God's power and make it ours. +So then, in regard to God, our faith is the condition of our being +strengthened with might by His Spirit. + +Consider, too, how the same faith has a natural operation on ourselves +which tends to fit us for casting out the evil spirits. Given a man +full of faith, you will have a man tenacious in purpose, absorbed in +one grand object, simple in his motives, in whom selfishness has been +driven out by the power of a mightier love, and indolence stirred into +unwearied energy. Such a man will be made wise to devise, gentle to +attract, bold to rebuke, fertile in expedients, and ready to be +anything that may help the aim of his life. Fear will be dead in him, +for faith is the true anaesthesia of the soul; and the knife may cut +into the quivering flesh, and the spirit be scarce conscious of a pang. +Love, ambition, and all the swarm of distracting desires will be +driven from the soul in which the lamp of faith burns bright. Ordinary +human motives will appeal in vain to the ears which have heard the +tones of the heavenly music, and all the pomps of life will show poor +and tawdry to the sight that has gazed on the vision of the great +white throne and the crystal sea. The most ignorant and erroneous +'religious sentiment'--to use a modern phrase--is mightier than all +other forces in the world's history. It is like some of those terrible +compounds of modern chemistry, an inert, innocuous-looking drop of +liquid. Shake it, and it flames heaven high, shattering the rocks and +ploughing up the soil. Put even an adulterated and carnalised faith +into the hearts of a mob of wild Arabs, and in a century they will +stream from their deserts, and blaze from the mountains of Spain to +the plains of Bengal. Put a living faith in Christ and a heroic +confidence in the power of His Gospel to reclaim the worst sinners +into a man's heart, and he will out of weakness be made strong, and +plough his way through obstacles with the compact force and crashing +directness of lightning. There have been men of all sorts who have +been honoured to do much in this world for Christ. Wise and foolish, +learned and ignorant, differing in tone, temper, creed, forms of +thought, and manner of working, in every conceivable degree; but one +thing, and perhaps one thing only, they have all had--a passion of +enthusiastic personal devotion to their Lord, a profound and living +faith in Him and in His salvation. All in which they differed is but +the gay gilding on the soldier's coat. That in which they were alike +is as the strong arm which grasps the sword, and has its muscles +braced by the very clutch. Faith is itself a source of strength, as +well as the condition of drawing might from heaven. + +Consider, too, how faith has power over men who see it. The +exhibition of our own personal convictions has more to do in +spreading them than all the arguments which we use. There is a +magnetism and a contagious energy in the sight of a brother's faith +which few men can wholly resist. If you wish me to weep, your own +tears must flow; and if you would have me believe, let me see your +soul heaving under the emotion which you desire me to feel. The +arrow may be keen and true, the shaft rounded and straight, the bow +strong, and the arm sinewy; but unless the steel be winged it will +fall to the ground long before it strikes the butt. Your arrows must +be winged with faith, else orthodoxy, and wise arrangements, and +force and zeal, will avail nothing. No man will believe in, and no +demon will obey, spells which the would-be exorcist only half +believes himself. Even if he speak the name of Christ, unless he +speak it with unfaltering confidence, all the answer he will get +will only be the fierce and taunting question, 'Jesus I know, and +Paul I know, but who are ye?' Brethren, let us give heed to the +solemn rebuke which our Master lovingly reads to us in these words, +and while we aim at the utmost possible perfection in all +subordinate matters, let us remember that they all without faith are +weak, as an empty suit of armour with no life beneath the corselet; +and that faith without them all is strong, like the knight of old, +who rode into the bloody field in simple silken vest, and conquered. +That which determines our success or failure in the work of our Lord +is our faith. + +III. Our faith is ever threatened by subtle unbelief. + +It would appear that the disciples were ignorant of the unbelief +that had made them weak. They fancied that they had confidence in +their Christ-given power, and they certainly had in some dull kind +of fashion expected to succeed in their attempt. But He who sees the +heart knew that there was no real living confidence in their souls; +and His words are a solemn warning to us all, of how possible it is +for us to have our faith all honeycombed by gnawing doubt while we +suspect it not, like some piece of wood apparently sound, the whole +substance of which has been eaten away by hidden worms. We may be +going on with Christian work, and may even be looking for spiritual +results. We may fancy ourselves faithful stewards of the gospel, and +all the while there may be an utter absence of the one thing which +makes our words more than so much wind whistling through an archway. +The shorn Samson went out 'to shake himself as at other times,' and +knew not that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. Who +among us is not exposed to the assaults of that pestilence that +walketh in darkness? and, alas! who among us can say that he has +repelled the contagion? Subtly it creeps over us all, the stealthy +intangible vapour, unfelt till it has quenched the lamp which alone +lights the darkness of the mine, and clogged to suffocation the +labouring lungs. + +I will not now speak of the general sources of danger to our faith, +which are always in operation with a retarding force as constant as +friction, as certain as the gravitation which pulls the pendulum to +rest at its lowest point. But I may very briefly particularise two +of the enemies of that faith, which have a special bearing on our +missionary work, and may be illustrated from the narrative before +us. + +First, all our activity in spreading the Gospel, whether by personal +effort or by our gifts, like every form of outward action, tends to +become mechanical, and to lose its connection with the motive which +originated it. Of course it is also true, on the other side, that +all outward action also tends to strengthen the motive from which it +flows. But our Christian work will not do so, unless it be carefully +watched, and pains be taken to keep it from slipping off its +original foundation, and so altering its whole character. We may +very easily become so occupied with the mere external occupation as +to be quite unconscious that it has ceased to be faithful work, and +has become routine, dull mechanism, or the result of confidence, not +in Christ, whose power once flowed through us, but in ourselves the +doers. So these disciples may have thought, 'We can cast out this +devil, for we have done the like already,' and have forgotten that +it was not they, but Christ in them, who had done it. + +How widely this foe to our faith operates amid the multiplied +activities of this busy age, one trembles to think. We see all +around us a Church toiling with unexampled expenditure of wealth, +and effort, and time. It is difficult to repress the suspicion that +the work is out of proportion to the life. Ah, brethren, how much of +all this energy of effort, so admirable in many respects, will He +whose fan is in His hand accept as true service--how much of it will +be wheat for the garner, how much chaff for the fire? It is not for +us to divide between the two, but it is for us to remember that it +is not impossible to make of our labours the most dangerous enemy to +the depth of our still life hidden with Christ in God, and that +every deed of apparent service which is not the real issue of living +faith is powerless for good to others, and heavy with hurt to +ourselves. Brethren and fathers in the ministry! how many of us know +what it is to talk and toil away our early devotion; and all at once +to discover that for years perhaps we have been preaching and +labouring from mere habit and routine, like corpses galvanised into +some ghastly and transient caricature of life. Christian men and +women, beware lest this great enterprise of missions, which our +fathers began from the holiest motives and in the simplest faith, +should in our hand be wrenched away from its only true basis, and be +done with languid expectation and more languid desires of success, +from no higher motive than that we found it in existence, and have +become accustomed to carry it on. If that be our reason, then we +harm ourselves, and mask from our own sight our own unbelief. If +that be the case the work may go on for a while, like a clock +ticking with fainter and fainter beats for a minute after it has run +down; but it will soon cease, and neither heaven nor earth will be +much the poorer for its ending. + +Again, the atmosphere of scornful disbelief which surrounded the +disciples made their faith falter. It was too weak to sustain itself +in the face of the consciousness that not a man in all that crowd +believed in their power; and it melted away before the contempt of +the scribes and the incredulous curiosity of the bystanders, without +any reason except the subtle influence which the opinions and +characters of those around us have on us all. + +And, brethren, are not we in danger to-day of losing the firmness of +our grasp on Christ, as our Saviour and the world's, from a +precisely similar cause? We live in an atmosphere of hesitancy and +doubt, of scornful rejection of His claims, of contemptuous +disbelief in anything which a scalpel cannot cut. We cannot but be +conscious that to hold by Jesus Christ as the Incarnate God, the +supernatural Beginning of a new life, the sole Hope of the world, is +to expose ourselves to the contempt of so-called advanced and +liberal thinkers, and to be out of harmony with the prevailing set +of opinions. The current of educated thought runs strongly against +such beliefs, and I suppose that every thoughtful man among us feels +that a great danger to our faith to-day comes from the force with +which that current swings us round, and threatens to make some of us +drag our anchors, and drift, and strike and go to pieces on the +sands. For one man who is led by the sheer force of reason to yield +to the intellectual grounds on which modern unbelief reposes, there +are twenty who simply catch the infection in the atmosphere. They +find that their early convictions have evaporated, they know not +how; only that once the fleece was wet with dew and now it is dry. +For unbelief has a contagious energy wholly independent of reason, +no less than has faith, and affects multitudes who know nothing of +its grounds, as the iceberg chills the summer air for leagues, and +makes the sailors shiver long before they see its barren peaks. + +Therefore, brethren, let us all take heed to ourselves, lest we +suffer our grasp of our dear Lord's hand to relax for no better +reason than because so many have left His side. To us all His +pleading love, which knows how much we are moulded by the example of +others, is saying, in view of the fashion of unbelief, 'Will ye also +go away?' Let us answer, with a clasp that clings the tighter for +our danger of being sucked in by the strong current, 'Lord, to whom +shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.' We cannot help +seeing that the creeping paralysis of hesitancy and doubt about even +the power of Christ's name is stealing over portions of the Church, +and stiffening the arm of its activity. Lips that once spoke with +full confidence the words that cast out devils, mutter them now +languidly with half-belief. Hearts that were once full of sympathy +with the great purpose for which Christ died are growing cold to the +work of preaching the Gospel to the heathen, because they are +growing to doubt whether, after all, there is any Gospel at all. +This icy breath, dear brethren, is blowing over our Churches and +over our hearts. And wherever it reaches, there labour for Jesus and +for men languishes, and we recoil baffled with unavailing exorcisms +dying in our throats, and the rod of our power broken in our hands. +'Why could not we cast him out? Because of your unbelief.' + +IV. Our faith can only be maintained by constant devotion and rigid +self-denial. + +I can touch but very lightly on that solemn thought in which our Lord +sets forth the condition of our faith, and therefore of our power. +This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. The discipline +then which nurtures faith is mainly moral and spiritual--not as a +substitute for, or to the exclusion of, the intellectual discipline, +which is presupposed, not neglected, in these words. + +The first condition of the freshness and energy of faith is constant +devotion. The attrition of the world wears it thin, the distractions +of life draw it from its clinging hold on Christ, the very toil for +Him is apt to entice our thoughts from out of the secret place of +the most High into the busy arena of our strife. Therefore we have +ever need to refresh the drooping flowers of the chaplet by bathing +them in the Fountain of Life, to rise above all the fevered toil of +earth to the calm heights where God dwells, and in still communion +with Him to replenish our emptied vessels and fill our dimly burning +lamps with His golden oil. The sister of the cumbered Martha is the +contemplative Mary, who sits in silence at the Master's feet and +lets His words sink into her soul; the closest friend of Peter the +apostle of action is John the apostle of love. If our work is to be +worthy, it must ever be freshened anew by our gaze into His face; if +our communion with Him is to be deep, it must never be parted from +outward service. Our Master has left us the example, in that, when +the night fell and every man went to his own home, Jesus went to the +Mount of Olives; and thence, after His night of prayer, came very +early in the morning to the temple, and taught. The stream that is +to flow broad and life-giving through many lands must have its +hidden source high among the pure snows that cap the mount of God. +The man that would work for God must live with God. It was from the +height of transfiguration that _He_ came, before whom the demon +that baffled the disciples quailed and slunk away like a whipped +hound. This kind goeth not out but by prayer. + +The second condition is rigid self-denial. Fasting is the expression +of the purpose to control the lower life, and to abstain from its +delights in order that the life of the spirit may be strengthened. +As to the outward fact, it is nothing--it may be practised or not. +If it be, it will be valuable only in so far as it flows from and +strengthens that purpose. And such vigorous subordination of all +the lower powers, and abstinence from many an inferior good, both +material and immaterial, is absolutely necessary if we are to have +any wholesome strength of faith in our souls. In the recoil from +the false asceticism of Roman Catholicism and Puritanism, has not +this generation of the Church gone too far in the opposite +direction? and in the true belief that Christianity can sanctify +all joys, and ensure the harmonious development of all our powers, +have we not been forgetting that hand and foot may cause us to +stumble, and that we had better live maimed than die with all our +limbs? There is a true asceticism, a discipline--a 'gymnastic unto +godliness,' as Paul calls it. And if our faith is to grow high and +bear rich clusters on the topmost boughs that look up to the sky, +we must keep the wild lower shoots close nipped. Without rigid +self-control and self-limitation, no vigorous faith. + +And without them no effectual work! It is no holiday task to cast +out devils. Self-indulgent men will never do it. Loose-braced, easy +souls, that lie open to all the pleasurable influences of ordinary +life, are no more fit for God's weapons than a reed for a lance, or +a bit of flexible lead for a spear-point. The wood must be tough and +compact, the metal hard and close-grained, out of which God makes +His shafts. The brand that is to guide men through the darkness to +their Father's home must glow with a pallor of consuming flame that +purges its whole substance into light. This kind goeth not out but +by prayer and fasting. + +Dear brethren, what solemn rebuke these words have for us all! How +they winnow our works of Christian activity! How they show us the +hollowness of our services, the self-indulgence of our lives, the +coldness of our devotion, the cowardice of our faith! How marvellous +they make the fruits which God's great goodness has permitted us to +see even from our doubting service! Let us turn to Him with fresh +thankfulness that unto us, who are 'less than the least of all +saints, is this grace given, that we should preach among the nations +the unsearchable riches of Christ.' Let us not be driven from our +confidence that we have a gospel to preach for all the world; but +strong in the faith which rests on impregnable historical grounds, +on our own experience of what Christ has done for us, and on +nineteen centuries of growing power and unfolding wisdom, let us +thankfully welcome all that modern thought may supply for the +correction of errors in belief, in organisation, and in life, that +may have gathered round His perfect and eternal gospel--being +assured, as we have a right to be, that all will but lift higher the +Name which is above every name, and set forth more plainly that +Cross which is the true tree of life to all the families of men. Let +us cast ourselves before Him with penitent confession, and say,--O +Lord, our strength! we have not wrought any deliverance on earth; we +have been weak when all Thy power was at our command; we have spoken +Thy word as if it were an experiment and a peradventure whether it +had might; we have let go Thy hand and lost Thy garment's hem from +our slack grasp; we have been prayerless and self-indulgent. +Therefore Thou hast put us to shame before our foes, and 'our +enemies laugh among themselves. Thou that dwellest between the +cherubim, shine forth; stir up Thy strength and come and save us!' +Then will the last words that He spoke on earth ring out again from +the throne: 'All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go +ye therefore and teach all nations; and lo, I am with you alway, +even unto the end of the world.' + + + + +THE COIN IN THE FISH'S MOUTH + + + 'And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented + him, saying, What thinkest them, Simon? of whom do the + kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own + children, or of strangers? 26. Peter saith unto Him, Of + strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children + free.'--MATT. xvii. 25, 26. + +All our Lord's miracles are 'signs' as well as 'wonders.' They have +a meaning. They not only authenticate His teaching, but they are +themselves no inconsiderable portion of the teaching. They are not +only 'the great bell before His sermon,' but they are also a portion +of the sermon. + +That doctrinal or dogmatic purpose characterises all the miracles in +varying degrees. It is the only purpose of the one before us. This +singular miracle of finding the coin in the fish's mouth and giving +it for the tribute-money is unlike our Lord's other works in several +particulars. It is the only miracle--with the exception of the +cursing of the barren fig-tree, and the episode of the unclean +spirits entering into the swine--in which there is no message of +love or blessing for man's sorrow and pain. It is the only miracle +in which our Lord uses His power for His own service or help, and it +is like the whole brood of legendary miracles, and unlike all the +rest of Christ's in that, at first sight, it seems done for a very +trivial end--the providing of some three shillings of our money. + +Now, if we put all these things together, the absence of any +alleviation of man's sorrow, the presence of a personal end, and the +apparent triviality of the result secured, I think we shall see that +the only explanation of the miracle is given by regarding it as +being what I may call a teaching one, full of instruction with +regard to our Lord's character, person, and work. It is a parable as +well as a miracle, and it is in that aspect that I wish to look at +it now, and try to bring out its lessons. + +I. We have here, first, the freedom of the Son. + +The whole point of the story depends upon the fact that this +tribute-money was not a civil, but an ecclesiastical impost. It had +originally been levied in the Wilderness, at the time of the +numbering of the people, and was enjoined to be repeated at each +census, when every male Israelite was to pay half a shekel for 'a +ransom for his soul,' an acknowledgment that his life was forfeited +by sin. In later years it came to be levied as an annual payment for +the support of the temple and its ceremonial. It was never +compulsory, there was no power to exact it. The question of the +collectors, 'Doth not your Master pay tribute?' does not sound like +the imperative demand which a 'publican' would have made for payment +of an impost due to the Roman Government. It was an 'optional +church-rate,' and the very fact that it was so, would make Jews who +were, or wished to be considered, patriotic or religious, the more +punctilious in paying it. + +The question put to Peter possibly implies a doubt whether this +Rabbi, who held lax views on so many points of Pharisaical +righteousness, would be likely to recognise the obligation of the +tax. Peter's quick answer seems to be prompted by zeal for his +Master's honour, on which the question appears to him to cast a +slur. It was perhaps too quick, but the apostle has been too much +blamed for his answer, which was in fact correct, and for which our +Lord does not blame him. When he comes to Christ to tell what has +happened, before he can speak, Christ puts to him this little +parable which I have taken as part of my text: 'How thinkest thou? +Do kings of this world take custom?'--meaning thereby not imports or +exports, but taxes of all kinds of things,--'or tribute,'--meaning +thereby taxes on persons--'from their own children, or from subjects +who are not their children?' The answer, of course, is, 'From the +latter.' So the answer comes, 'Then are the children free.' + +Christ then here claims in some sense, Sonship to Him to whom the +tribute is paid, that is, to God, and therefore freedom from the +obligation to pay the tribute. But notice, for this is an important +point in the explanation of the words, that the plural in our Lord's +words, 'Then are the children free,' is not intended to include +Peter and the others in the same category as Himself. The only +question in hand is as to His obligation to pay a certain tax; and +to include any one else would have been irrelevant, as well as +erroneous. The plural belongs to the illustration, not to its +application, and corresponds with the plural in the question, 'Of +whom do the _kings_ of the earth take custom?' The kings of the +earth are contrasted with the one King of the heavens, the supreme +and sole Sovereign; and the children of the kings of the earth are +contrasted with the only begotten Son of the only King of kings and +Lord of lords. + +So that here there is no mixing up of Himself with others, or of +others with Himself, but the claiming of an unique position, +singular and sole, belonging to Him only, in which He stands as the +Son of the mighty Monarch to whom the tribute is paid. He claims to +have the divine nature, the divine prerogatives, to bear a specific +relationship to God Himself, and to be, as other words in Scripture +put it, 'the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image +of His person.' + +If there is anything certain about Jesus Christ's teaching, this is +certain about it, that He proclaimed Himself to be the Son of God, +in such a sense as no man shared with Him, and in such a sense as +vindicated the attitude which He took up, the demands which He made, +and the gifts which He offered to men. + +What a deduction must be made from the wisdom of His teaching, and +from the meekness of His Spirit, if that claim was an illusion! What +shall we say of the sanity of a man who poses himself before the +whole race, claiming to be the Son of God, and whose continual +teaching to them therefore is, _not_, 'Believe in goodness'; +'Believe in virtue'; 'Believe in truth'; 'Believe in My word'; but +'Believe in Me'? Was there ever anywhere else a religious teacher, +all of whose words were gracious and wise and sweet, but who-- + + 'Make the important stumble, + Of saying that he, the sage and humble, + Was likewise--one with the Creator'? + +But now what is the freedom based on sonship which our Lord here +claims? + +I have said that this tax was levied with a double meaning; first, +it was an atonement or ransom for the soul; second, it was devoted +to the temple and its worship. And now, mark, that in both these +aspects our Lord alleges His true sonship as the reason why He is +exempt from it. + +That is to say, first, Jesus Christ claims to have no need of a +ransom for His soul. Never one word dropped from His lips which +indicated the smallest consciousness of flaw or failure, of defect +or imperfection, still less of actual transgression. He takes His +position outside the circle of sinful men which includes all others. +It is a strange characteristic in a religious teacher, very unlike +the usual tone of devout men. And stranger still is the fact that +the absence of this consciousness of evil has never been felt to be +itself evil and a blot. Think of a David's agony of penitence. Think +of a Paul's, 'Of whom I am chief!' Think of the long wail of an +Augustine's confessions. Think of the stormy self-accusations of a +Luther; and then think that He who inspired them all, never, by word +or deed, betrayed the slightest consciousness that in Himself there +was the smallest deflection from the perfect line of right, the +least speck or stain on the perfect gold of His purity. And +remember, too, that when He challenges the world with, 'Which of you +convinceth Me of sin?' with the exception of half a dozen men, of +whom we can scarcely say whether their want of spiritual insight or +their arrogance of self-importance is the most flagrant, who, in the +course of nineteen centuries, have ventured to fling their little +handfuls of mud at Him, the whole world has answered, 'Thou art +fairer than the children of men; grace is poured into Thy lips.' + +The Son needs no 'ransom for His soul,' which, being translated, is +but this: the purity and the innocence of Jesus Christ, which is a +manifest fact in His biography, is only explicable when we believe +that we have before us the Incarnate God, and therefore the Perfect +Man. And the Son needs no temple for His worship. His whole life, as +human, was a life of communion and prayer with His Father in heaven. +And just because He 'dwelt in' God's 'bosom all the year,' for Him +ritual and temple were nought. Sense-bound men needed them; He +needed them not. 'In this place,' said He, 'is one greater than the +temple.' He was all which the temple symbolised. Was it the +dwelling-place of God, the place of sacrifice, the meeting-place of +man with God, the place of divine manifestation? 'The temple of His +body' was in deepest reality all these. In it dwelt the whole +fulness of the Godhead. It was at once sacrifice and place of +sacrifice, even as He is the true everlasting Priest. In Him men see +God, and meet with God. He is greater than the temple because He is +the true temple, and He is the true temple because He is the Son. +And because He is the Son, therefore He is free from all dependence +upon, and connection with, the outward worship of ceremony and +sacrifice and priest and ritual. + +Now, dear brethren, let me pause for one moment to press upon you +and upon myself this question: Do I welcome that Christ with the +full conviction that He is the Son of God? It seems to me that, in +this generation, the question of questions, as far as religion is +concerned, is the old one which Christ asked of His disciples by the +fountains and woods of Caesarea Philippi: 'Whom say ye that I, the +Son of Man, am?' Can you lift up your face to meet His clear and +all-searching eye, and say: 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the +living God'? If you can, you are on the way to understanding Him and +His work; if you cannot, His life and work are all wrapped in +darkness for you, His death robbed of its truest power, and your +life deprived of its surest anchor. + +II. Now, there is a second lesson that I would gather from this +miracle--the voluntary submission of the Son to the bonds from which +He is free. + +He bids His disciple pay the tribute for Him, for a specific reason: +'Lest we should offend them.' That, of course, is simply a piece of +practical wisdom, to prevent any narrow or purblind souls from +stumbling at His teaching, by reason of His neglect of this trivial +matter. The question of how far religious teachers or any others are +at liberty, when they are not actuated by personal motives, to +render compliance with ceremonies which are of no value to them, is +a wide one, which I have no need to dwell upon here. But, turning +from that specific aspect of the incident, I think we may look upon +it as being an illustration, in regard to a very small matter, of +what is really the essence of our Lord's relation to the whole world +and ourselves--His voluntary taking upon Himself of bonds from which +He is free. + +Is it not a symbol of the very heart of the meaning of His +Incarnation? 'For as much as the children are partakers of flesh and +blood He also Himself likewise takes part of the same.' 'He is found +in fashion as a man.' He chooses to enter within the limits and the +obligations of humanity. Round the radiant glories of the divinity, +He gathers the folds of the veil of human flesh. He immerses the +pillar of fire in a cloud of smoke. He comes amongst us, taking on +His own wrists the fetters that bind us, suffering Himself to be +'cribbed, cabined, and confined' within the narrow limits of our +manhood, in order that by His voluntary acceptance of it we may be +redeemed from our corruption. + +Is it not a parable of His life and lowly obedience? He proclaimed +the same principle as the guide for all His conduct, when, sinless, +He presented Himself to John for the 'baptism of repentance,' and +overcame the baptiser's scruples with the words, 'Thus it becometh +us to fulfil all righteousness.' He comes under the law. Bound to no +such service, He binds Himself to all human duties that He may +hallow the bonds which He has worn, may set us the pattern of +perfect obedience, and may know a servant's heart. + +The Prince is free, but King's Son though He be, He goes among His +Father's poor subjects, lives their squalid lives, makes experience +of their poverty, and hardens His hands by labouring like them. +Sympathy He 'learned in huts where poor men lie.' + +Is it not the rehearsal in parable of His death? He was free from +the bonds of mortality, and He took upon Him our human flesh. He was +free from the necessity of death, even after He had taken our flesh +upon Him. But, being free from the necessity, He submitted to the +actuality, and laid down His life of Himself, because of His loving +will, to save and help each of us. Oh, dear friends! we never can +understand the meaning and the beauty, either of the life or of the +death of our Master, unless we look at each from this point of view, +that it is His willing acceptance of the bonds that bind us. His own +loving will brought Him here; His own loving will kept Him here; His +own loving will impelled Him along the path of life, though at every +step of it He trod as with naked feet upon burning iron; His own +loving Will brought Him to the Cross; His own loving will, and not +the Roman soldiers' nails, fastened Him to it. Let us look, then, to +Him with thankfulness, and recognise in that death His thorough +identification with all the bonds and miseries of our condition. He +'took part of the same that through death He might deliver them that +by fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.' + +III. Then there is another lesson which I think we may fairly gather +from this miracle, viz. that we have here the supernatural glory +which ever accompanies the humiliation of the Son. + +The miracle, at first sight, appears to be for a very trivial end. +Men have made merry with it by reason of that very triviality. But +the miracle is vindicated, peculiar as it is, by a deep divine +congruity and decorum. He will submit, Son though He be, to this +complete identification of Himself with us. But He will so submit +as, even in submitting, to assert His divine dignity. As has been +well said, 'In the midst of the act of submission majesty flashes +forth.' A multiform miracle--containing many miracles in one--a +miracle of omniscience, and a miracle of influence over the lower +creatures is wrought. The first fish that rises carries in its mouth +the exact sum needed. + +Here, therefore, we have another illustration of that remarkable +blending of humiliation and glory, which is a characteristic of our +Lord's life. These two strands are always twined together, like a +twisted line of gold and black. At each moment of special abasement +there is some special coruscation of the brightness of His glory. +Whensoever He stoops there is something accompanying the stooping, +to tell how great and how merciful He is who bows. Out of the +deepest darkness there flashes some light. So at His cradle, which +seems to be the identifying of Him with humanity in its most +helpless and lowest condition, there shall be angels, and the stars +in their courses shall bow and move to guide wise men from afar with +offerings to His feet. And at His Cross, where He sounds the very +bass string and touches the lowest point of humiliation and defeat, +a clearer vision sees in that humiliation the highest glory. + +And thus, here, He will not only identify Himself with sinful men +who need a ransom, and with sense-bound men who need a sacrifice and +a temple, but He will so identify Himself with them as that He shall +send His power into the recesses of the lake, where His knowledge +sees, as clearly as our eyes see the men that stand beside us, and +obedient to an unconscious impulse from Him, the dumb creature that +had swallowed, as it sunk, the shining _stater_ that had +dropped out of the girdle of some fisherman, shall rise first to the +hook; in token that not only in His Father's house does He rule as a +Son over His own house, but that He 'doeth as He hath pleased, in +all deep places,' and that in Him the ancient hope is fulfilled of a +Son of Man who 'hath dominion over the fish of the sea, and +whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea.' The miracle was +for a trivial end in appearance, but it was a demonstration, though +to one man only at first, yet through him to all the world, that +this Christ, in His lowliness, is the Everlasting Son of the Father. + +IV. And so, lastly, we have here also the lesson of the sufficiency +for us all of what He provides. + +'That take, and give unto them for Me and for thee. He does not say +'_For us._' He and Peter do not stand on the game level. He has +chosen to submit Himself to the obligations, Peter was necessarily +under them. That which is found by miracle in the fish's mouth is +precisely the amount required for both the one and the other. It is +rendered, as the original has it, _'Instead of_ thee and Me,' +putting emphasis upon the characteristic of the tribute as being +ransom, or payment, for a man's soul. + +And so, although this thought is not part of the original purpose of +the miracle, and, therefore, is different from those which I have +already been dwelling on, which are part of that purpose, I think we +may fairly see here this great truth,--that that which Christ brings +to us by supernatural act, far greater than the miracle here, is +enough for all the claims and obligations that God, or man, or law, +or conscience have upon any of us. His perfect obedience and +stainless life discharged for Himself all the obligations to law and +righteousness under which He came as a Man; His perfect life and His +mighty death are for us the full discharge of all that can be +brought against us. + +There are many and solemn claims and claimants upon each of us. Law +and duty, that awful 'ought' which should rule our lives and which +we have broken thousands of times, come to each of us in many an +hour of clear vision, and take us by the throat, and say, 'Pay us +what thou owest!' And there is a Judgment Day before all of us; +which is no mere bugbear to frighten children, but will be a fact of +experience in our case. Friend! how are you going to meet your +obligations? You owe God all your love, all your heart, will, +strength, service. What an awful score of unpaid debts, with +accumulated interest, there stands against each of our names! Think +of some bankrupt sitting in his counting-house with a balance-sheet +before him that shows his hopeless insolvency. He sits and broods, +and broods, and does not know what in the world he is going to do. +The door opens--a messenger enters and gives him an envelope. He +tears it open, and there flutters out a cheque that more than pays +it all. The illustration is a very low one; it does not cover the +whole ground of Christ's work for you. It puts a possibly commercial +aspect into it, which we have to take care of lest it become the +exclusive one; but it is true for all that. You are the bankrupt. +What have you to pay? Oh, behold that precious treasure of gold +tried in the fire, which is Christ's righteousness and Christ's +death; and by faith in Him, '_that_ take and give' and all the +debt will be discharged, and you will be set free and made a son by +that Son who has taken upon Himself all our bonds, and so has broken +them; who has taken upon Himself all our debts, and so has cancelled +them every one. + + + + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + + +ST. MATTHEW + +_Chaps. XVIII to XXVIII_ + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE LAW OF PRECEDENCE IN THE KINGDOM (Matt. xviii. 1-14) + +SELF-MUTILATION FOR SELF-PRESERVATION (Matt. xviii. 8, R.V.) + +THE LOST SHEEP AND THE SEEKING SHEPHERD (Matt. xviii. 12) + +THE PERSISTENCE OF THWARTED LOVE (Matt. xviii. 13; Luke xv. 4) + +FORGIVEN AND UNFORGIVING (Matt. xviii. 22) + +THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE KING (Matt. xix. 16-26) + +NEAREST TO CHRIST (Matt. xx. 23) + +THE SERVANT-LORD AND HIS SERVANTS (Matt. xx. 28) + +WHAT THE HISTORIC CHRIST TAUGHT ABOUT HIS DEATH (Matt. xx. 28) + +THE COMING OF THE KING TO HIS PALACE (Matt. xxi. 1-16) + +A NEW KIND OF KING (Matt. xxi. 4, 5) + +THE VINEYARD AND ITS KEEPERS (Matt. xxi. 33-46) + +THE STONE OF STUMBLING (Matt. xxi. 44) + +TWO WAYS OF DESPISING GOD'S FEAST (Matt. xxii. 1-14) + +THE TABLES TURNED: THE QUESTIONERS QUESTIONED (Matt. xxii. 34-46) + +THE KING'S FAREWELL (Matt. xxiii. 27-39) + +TWO FORMS OF ONE SAYING (Matt. xxiv. 13, R.V.; Luke xxi. 19) + +THE CARRION AND THE VULTURES (Matt. xxiv. 28) + +WATCHING FOR THE KING (Matt. xxiv. 42-51) + +THE WAITING MAIDENS (Matt. xxv. 1-13) + +DYING LAMPS (Matt. xxv. 8) + +'THEY THAT WERE READY' (Matt. xxv. 10) + +TRADERS FOR THE MASTER (Matt. xxv. 14-30) + +WHY THE TALENT WAS BURIED (Matt. xxv. 24, 25) + +THE KING ON HIS JUDGMENT THRONE (Matt. xxv. 31-46) + +THB DEFENCE OF UNCALCULATING LOVE (Matt. xxvi. 6-16) + +THE NEW PASSOVER (Matt. xxvi. 17-30) + +'IS IT I?' (Matt. xxvi. 22, 25; John xiii. 25) + +'THIS CUP' (Matt. xxvi. 27, 28) + +'UNTIL THAT DAY' (Matt. xxvi. 29) + +GETHSEMANE, THE OIL-PRESS (Matt. xxvi. 36-46) + +THE LAST PLEADING OF LOVE (Matt. xxvi. 50) + +THE REAL HIGH PRIEST AND HIS COUNTERFEIT (Matt. xxvi. 57-68) + +JESUS CHARGED WITH BLASPHEMY (Matt. xxvi. 35) + +'SEE THOU TO THAT!' (Matt. xxvii. 4, 24) + +THE SENTENCE WHICH CONDEMNED THE JUDGES (Matt. xxvii. 11-26) + +THE CRUCIFIXION (Matt. xxvii. 33-50) + +THE BLIND WATCHERS AT THE CROSS (MATT. xxvii. 36) + +TAUNTS TURNING TO TESTIMONIES (Matt. xxvii. 41-43) + +THE VEIL RENT (Matt. xxvii. 51) + +THE PRINCE OF LIFE (Matt. xxviii. 1-15) + +THE RISEN LORD'S GREETINGS AND GIFTS (Matt. xxviii. 9; John xx. 19) + +ON THE MOUNTAIN (Matt. xxviii, 16, 17; 1 Cor. xv. 6) + + + + +THE LAW OF PRECEDENCE IN THE KINGDOM + + + 'At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, + saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? + 2. And Jesus called a little child unto Him, and set + him in the midst of them, 3. And said, Verily I say + unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little + children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. + 4. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this + little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of + heaven. 5. And whoso shall receive one such little + child in My name receiveth Me. 6. But whoso shall + offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, + it were better for him that a millstone were hanged + about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth + of the sea. 7. Woe unto the world because of offences! + for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to + that man by whom the offence cometh! 8. Wherefore if + thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and + cast them from thee; it is better for thee to enter + into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands + or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. 9. And + if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it + from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life + with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast + into hell fire. 10. Take heed that ye despise not one + of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in + heaven their angels do always behold the face of My + Father which is in heaven. 11. For the Son of Man is + come to save that which was lost. 12. How think ye? if + a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone + astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and + goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is + gone astray? 13. And if so be that he find it, verily + I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than + of the ninety and nine which went not astray. 14. Even + so it is not the will of your Father which is in + heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.' + --MATT. xviii. 1-14. + +Mark tells us that the disciples, as they journeyed, had been +squabbling about pre-eminence in the kingdom, and that this +conversation was brought on by our Lord's question as to the subject +of their dispute. It seems at first sight to argue singular +insensibility that the first effect of His reiterated announcement +of His sufferings should have been their quarrelling for the lead; +but their behaviour is intelligible if we suppose that they regarded +the half-understood prophecies of His passion as indicating the +commencement of the short conflict which was to end in His Messianic +reign. So it was time for them to be getting ready and settling +precedence. The form of their question, in Matthew, connects it with +the miracle of the coin in the fish's mouth, in which there was a +very plain assertion of Christ's royal dignity, and a distinguishing +honour given to Peter. Probably the 'then' of the question means, +Since Peter is thus selected, are we to look to him as foremost? +Their conception of the kingdom and of rank in it is frankly and +entirely earthly. There are to be graded dignities, and these are to +depend on His mere will. Our Lord not only answers the letter of +their question, but cuts at the root of the temper which inspired +it. + +I. He shows the conditions of entrance into and eminence in His +kingdom by a living example. There were always children at hand +round Him, when He wanted them. Their quick instinct for pure and +loving souls drew them to Him; and this little one was not afraid to +be taken by the hand, and to be afterwards caught up in His arms, +and pressed to His heart. One does not wonder that the legend that +he was Ignatius the martyr should have been current; for surely the +remembrance of that tender clasping arm and gentle breast would not +fade nor be fruitless. The disciples had made very sure that they +were to be in the kingdom, and that the only question concerning +them was how high up in it they were each to be. Christ's answer is +like a dash of cold water to that confidence. It is, in effect, +'Greatest in the kingdom! Make sure that you go in at all, first; +which you will never do, so long as you keep your present ambitious +minds.' + +Verse 3 lays down the condition of entrance into the kingdom, from +which necessarily follows the condition of supremacy in it. What a +child is naturally, and without effort or merit, by reason of age +and position, we must become, if we are to pass the narrow portal +which admits into the large room. That 'becoming' is impossible +without a revolution in us. 'Be converted' is corrected, in the +Revised Version, into 'turn,' and rightly; for there is in the word +a distinct reference to the temper of the disciples as displayed by +their question. As long as they cherished it they could not even get +inside, to say nothing of winning promotion to dignities in the +kingdom. Their very question condemned them as incapable of +entrance. So there must be a radical change, not unaccompanied, of +course, with repentance, but mainly consisting in the substitution +of the child's temper for theirs. What is the temper thus enjoined? +We are to see here neither the entirely modern and shallow +sentimental way of looking at childhood, in which popular writers +indulge, nor the doctrine of its innocence. It is not Christ's +teaching, either that children are innocent, or that men enter the +kingdom by making themselves so. But the child is, by its very +position, lowly and modest, and makes no claims, and lives by +instinctive confidence, and does not care about honours, and has +these qualities which in us are virtues, and is not puffed up by +possessing them. That is the ideal which is realised more generally +in the child than analogous ideals are in mature manhood. Such +simplicity, modesty, humility, must be ours. We must be made small +ere we can enter that door. And as is the requirement for entrance, +so is it for eminence. The child does not humble himself, but is +humble by nature; but we must humble ourselves if we would be great. + +Christ implies that there are degrees in the kingdom. It has a +nobility, but of such a kind that there may be many greatest; for +the principle of rank there is lowliness. We rise by sinking. The +deeper our consciousness of our own unworthiness and weakness, the +more capable are we of receiving the divine gifts, and therefore the +more fully shall we receive them. Rivers run in the hollows; the +mountain-tops are dry. God works with broken reeds, and the princes +in His realm are beggars taken from the dunghill. A lowliness which +made itself lowly for the sake of eminence would miss its aim, for +it would not be lowliness. The desire to be foremost must be cast +out, in order that it may be fulfilled. + +II. The question has been answered, and our Lord passes to other +thoughts rising out of His answer. Verses 5 and 6 set forth +antithetically our duties to His little ones. He is not now speaking +of the child who served as a living parable to answer the question, +but of men who have made themselves like the child, as is plain from +the emphatic 'one _such_ child,' and from verse 6 ('which +_believe_ on Me'). + +The subject, then, of these verses is the blessedness of recognising +and welcoming Christlike lowly believers, and the fatal effect of +the opposite conduct. To 'receive one such little child in My name' +is just to have a sympathetic appreciation of, and to be ready to +welcome to heart and home, those who are lowly in their own and in +the world's estimate, but princes of Christ's court and kingdom. +Such welcome and furtherance will only be given by one who himself +has the same type of character in some degree. He who honours and +admires a certain kind of excellence has the roots of it in himself. +A possible artist lies in him who thrills at the sight or hearing of +fair things painted or sung. Our admiration is an index of our +aspiration, and our aspiration is a prophecy of our attainment. So +it will be a little one's heart which will welcome the little ones, +and a lover of Christ who receives them in His name. The reception +includes all forms of sympathy and aid. 'In My name' is equivalent +to 'for the sake of My revealed character,' and refers both to the +receiver and to the received. The blessedness of such reception, so +far as the receiver is concerned, is not merely that he thereby +comes into happy relations with Christ's foremost servants, but that +he gets Christ Himself into his heart. If with true appreciation of +the beauty of such a childlike disposition, I open my heart or my +hand to its possessor, I do thereby enlarge my capacity for my own +possession of Christ, who dwells in His child, and who comes with +him where He is welcomed. There is no surer way of securing Him for +our own than the loving reception of His children. Whoso lodges the +King's favourites will not be left unvisited by the King. To +recognise and reverence the greatest in the kingdom is to be oneself +a member of their company, and a sharer in their prerogatives. + +On the other hand, the antithesis of 'receiving' is 'causing to +stumble,' by which is meant giving occasion for moral fall. That +would be done by contests about pre-eminence, by arrogance, by +non-recognition. The atmosphere of carnality and selfishness in +which the disciples were moving, as their question showed, would +stifle the tender life of any lowly believer who found himself in +it; and they were not only injuring themselves, but becoming +stumbling-blocks to others, by their ambition. How much of the +present life of average Christians is condemned on the same +ground! It is a good test of our Christian character to ask--would +it help or hinder a lowly believer to live beside us? How many +professing Christians are really, though unconsciously, doing +their utmost to pull down their more Christlike brethren to their +own low level! The worldliness and selfish ambitions of the Church +are responsible for the stumbling of many who would else have been +of Christ's 'little ones.' But perhaps we are rather to think of +deliberate and consciously laid stumbling-blocks. Knowingly to try +to make a good man fall, or to stain a more than usually pure +Christian character, is surely the very height of malice, and +presupposes such a deadly hatred of goodness and of Christ that no +fate can be worse than the possession of such a temper. To be +flung into the sea, like a dog, with a stone round his neck, would +be better for a man than to live to do such a thing. The deed +itself, apart from any other future retribution, is its own +punishment; yet our Lord's solemn words not only point to such a +future retribution, which is infinitely more terrible than the +miserable fate described would be for the body, but to the +consequences of the act, as so bad in its blind hatred of the +highest type of character, and in its conscious preference of evil, +as well as so fatal in its consequences, that it were better to die +drowned than to live so. + +III. Verses 10-14 set forth the honour and dignity of Christ's +'little ones.' Clearly the application of the designation in these +closing verses is exclusively to His lowly followers. The warning +not to despise them is needed at all times, and, perhaps, seldom +more, even by Christians, than now, when so many causes induce a far +too high estimate of the world's great ones, and modest, humble +godliness looks as dull and sober as some russet-coated little bird +among gorgeous cockatoos and birds of paradise. The world's standard +is only too current in the Church; and it needs a spirit kept in +harmony with Christ's spirit, and some degree of the child-nature in +ourselves, to preserve us from overlooking the delicate hidden +beauties and unworldly greatness of His truest disciples. + +The exhortation is enforced by two considerations,--a glimpse into +heaven, and a parable. Fair interpretation can scarcely deny that +Christ here teaches that His children are under angel-guardianship. +We should neither busy ourselves in curious inferences from His +reticent words, nor try to blink their plain meaning, but rather +mark their connection and purpose here. He has been teaching that +pre-eminence belongs to the childlike spirit. He here opens a door +into the court of the heavenly King, and shows us that, as the +little ones are foremost in the kingdom of heaven, so the angels who +watch over them are nearest the throne in heaven itself. The +representation is moulded on the usages of Eastern courts, and +similar language in the Old Testament describes the principal +courtiers as 'the men who see the King's face continually.' So high +is the honour in which the little ones are held, that the highest +angels are set to guard them, and whatever may be thought of them on +earth, the loftiest of creatures are glad to serve and keep them. + +Following the Revised Version we omit verse 11. If it were genuine, +the connection would be that such despising contradicted the purpose +of Christ's mission; and the 'for' would refer back to the +injunction, not to the glimpse into heaven which enforced it. + +The exhortation is further confirmed by the parable of the ninety +and nine, which is found, slightly modified in form and in another +connection, in Luke xv. Its point here is to show the importance of +the little ones as the objects of the seeking love of God, and as so +precious to Him that their recovery rejoices His heart. Of course, +if verse 11 be genuine, the Shepherd is Christ; but, if we omit it, +the application of the parable in verse 14 as illustrating the +loving will of God becomes more direct. In that case God is the +owner of the sheep. Christ does not emphasise His own love or share +in the work, reference to which was not relevant to His purpose, +but, leaving that in shadow, casts all the light on the loving +divine will, which counts the little ones as so precious that, if +even one of them wanders, all heaven's powers are sent forth to find +and recover it. The reference does not seem to be so much to the one +great act by which, in Christ's incarnation and sacrifice, a sinful +world has been sought and redeemed, as to the numberless acts by +which God, in His providence and grace, restores the souls of those +humble ones if ever they go astray. For the connection requires that +the wandering sheep here should, when it wanders, be 'one of these +little ones'; and the parable is introduced to illustrate the truth +that, because they belong to that number, the least of them is too +precious to God to be allowed to wander away and be lost. They have +for their keepers the angels of the presence; they have God Himself, +in His yearning love and manifold methods of restoration, to look +for them, if ever they are lost, and to bring them back to the fold. +Therefore, 'see that ye despise not one of these little ones,' each +of whom is held by the divine will in the grasp of an individualising +love which nothing can loosen. + + + + +SELF-MUTILATION FOR SELF-PRESERVATION + + + 'If thy hand or thy foot causeth thee to stumble, cut + it off, and cast it from thee.'-MATT. xviii. 8, R.V. + +No person or thing can do our characters as much harm as we +ourselves can do. Indeed, none can do them any harm but ourselves. +For men may put stumbling-blocks in our way, but it is we who make +them stumbling-blocks. The obstacle in the path would do us no hurt +if it were not for the erring foot, nor the attractive prize if it +were not for the hand that itched to lay hold of it, nor the +glittering bauble if it were not for the eye that kindled at the +sight of it. So our Lord here, having been speaking of the men that +put stumbling-blocks in the way of His little ones, draws the net +closer and bids us look at home. A solemn woe of divine judgment is +denounced on those who cause His followers to stumble; let us leave +God to execute that, and be sure that we have no share in their +guilt, but let us ourselves be the executioners of the judgment upon +the things in ourselves which alone give the stumbling-blocks, which +others put before us, their fatal power. + +There is extraordinary energy in these words. Solemnly they are +repeated twice here, verbatim; solemnly they are repeated verbatim +three times in Mark's edition. The urgent stringency of the command, +the terrible plainness of the alternative put forth by the lips that +could say nothing harsh, and the fact that the very same injunction +appears in a wholly different connection in the Sermon on the Mount, +show us how profoundly important our Lord felt the principle to be +which He was here laying down. + +We mark these three points. First, the case supposed, 'If thy hand +or thy foot cause thee to stumble.' Then the sharp, prompt remedy +enjoined, 'Cut them off and cast them from thee.' Then the solemn +motive by which it is enforced, 'It is better for thee to enter into +life maimed than, being a whole man, to be cast into hell-fire.' + +I. First, then, as to the case supposed. + +Hand and foot and eye are, of course, regarded as organs of the +inward self, and symbols of its tastes and capacities. We may +perhaps see in them the familiar distinction between the practical +and the theoretical:--hand and foot being instruments of action, and +the eye the organ of perception. Our Lord takes an extreme case. If +members of the body are to be amputated and plucked out should they +cause us to stumble, much more are associations to be abandoned and +occupations to be relinquished and pleasures to be forsaken, if +these draw us away. But it is to be noticed that the whole stringency +of the commandment rests upon that _if_. '_If_ they cause thee +to stumble,' then, and not else, amputate. The powers are natural, +the operation of them is perfectly innocent, but a man may be ruined +by innocent things. And, says Christ, if that process is begun, then, +and only then, does My exhortation come into force. + +Now, all that solemn thought of a possible injurious issue of +innocent occupations, rests upon the principles that our nature has +an ideal order, so as that some parts of it are to be suppressed and +some are to rule, and that there are degrees of importance in men's +pursuits, and that where the lower interfere and clog the operations +of the higher, there they are harmful. And so the only wisdom is to +excise and cut them off. + +We see illustrations in abundance every day. There are many people +who are being ruined in regard to the highest purposes of their +lives, simply by an over-indulgence in lower occupations which in +themselves may be perfectly right. Here is a young woman that spends +so much of her day in reading novels that she has no time to look +after the house and help her mother. Here is a young man so given to +athletics that his studies are neglected--and so you may go all +round the circle, and find instances of the way in which innocent +things, and the excessive or unwise exercise of natural faculties, +are destroying men. And much more is that the case in regard to +religion, which is the highest object of pursuit, and in regard to +those capacities and powers by which we lay hold of God. These are +to be ministered to by the rest, and if there be in my nature or in +the order of my life something which is drawing away to itself the +energy that ought to go in that other direction, then, howsoever +innocent it may be, _per se_, it is harming me. It is a wen +that is sucking all the vital force into itself, and turning it into +poison. And there is only one cure for it, and that is the knife. + +Then there is another point to be observed in this case supposed, +and that is that the whole matter is left to the determination of +personal experience. No one else has the right to decide for you +what it is safe and wise for you to do in regard to things which are +not in themselves wrong. If they are wrong in themselves, of course +the consideration of consequences is out of place altogether; but if +they be not wrong in themselves, then it is you that must settle +whether they are legitimate for you or not. Do not let your +Christian liberty be interfered with by other people's dictation in +regard to this matter. How often you hear people say, _'I_ +could not do it'; meaning thereby, 'therefore _he_ ought not to +do it!' But that inference is altogether illegitimate. True, there +are limitations of our Christian liberty in regard to things +indifferent and innocent. Paul lays down the most important of these +in three sentences. 'All things are lawful for me, but all things +are not expedient.' 'All things are lawful for me, but all things +edify not';--you must think of your brethren as well as of yourself. +'All things are lawful for me, yet will I not be brought under the +power of any'; keep master of them, and rather abstain altogether +than become their slave. But these three limitations being observed, +then, in regard to all such matters, nobody else can prescribe for +you or me. 'To his own Master he standeth or falleth.' + +But, on the other hand, do not you be led away into things that +damage you, because some other man does them, as he supposes, +without injury. 'Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that +thing which he alloweth.' There are some Christian people who are +simply very unscrupulous and think themselves very strong; and whose +consciences are not more enlightened, but less sensitive, than those +of the 'narrow-minded brethren' upon whom they look askance. + +And so, dear friend, you ought to take the world--to inhale it, if I +may so say, as patients do chloroform; only you must be your own +doctor and keep your own fingers on your pulse, and watch the first +sign of failure there, and take no more. When the safety lamps begin +to burn blue you may be quite sure there is choke-damp about; and +when Christian men and women begin to find prayer wearisome, and +religious thoughts dull, and the remembrance of God an effort or a +pain, then, whatever anybody else may do, it is time for them to +pull up. 'If thy hand offend thee,' never mind though your brother's +hand is not offending him, do the necessary thing for your health, +'cut it off and cast it from you.' + +But of course there must be caution and common-sense in the +application of such a principle. It does not mean that we are to +abandon all things that are susceptible of abuse, for everything is +so; and if we are to regulate our conduct by such a rule, it is not +the amputation of a hand that will be sufficient. We may as well cut +off our heads at once, and go out of the world altogether; for +everything is capable of being thus abused. + +Nor does the injunction mean that unconditionally we are to abandon +all occupations in which there is danger. It can never be a duty to +shirk a duty because it is dangerous. And sometimes it is as much a +Christian man's duty to go into, and to stand in, positions that are +full of temptation and danger, as it is a fireman's business to go +into a burning house at the risk of suffocation. There were saints +in Caesar's household, flowers that grew on a dunghill, and they +were not bidden to abandon their place because it was full of +possible danger to their souls. Sometimes Christ sets His sentinels +in places where the bullets fly very thick; and if we are posted in +such a place--and we all are so some time or other in our lives--the +only course for us is to stand our ground until the relieving guard +comes, and to trust that He said a truth that was always to be true, +when He sent out His servants to their dangerous work, with the +assurance that if they drank any deadly thing it should not hurt +them. + +II. So much, then, for the first of the points here. Now a word, in +the second place, as to the sharp remedy enjoined. + +'Cut it off and cast it from thee.' Entire excision is the only +safety. I myself am to be the operator in that surgery. I am to lay +my hand upon the block, and with the other hand to grasp the axe and +strike. That is to say, we are to suppress capacities, to abandon +pursuits, to break with associates, when we find that they are +damaging our spiritual life and hindering our likeness to Jesus +Christ. + +That is plain common-sense. In regard to physical intoxication, it +is a great deal easier to abstain altogether than to take a very +little and then stop. The very fumes of alcohol will sometimes drive +a reclaimed drunkard into a bout of dissipation that will last for +weeks; therefore, the only safety is in entire abstinence. The rule +holds in regard to everyday life. Every man has to give up a great +many things if he means to succeed in one, and has to be a man of +one pursuit if anything worth doing is to be done. Christian men +especially have to adopt that principle, and shear off a great deal +that is perfectly legitimate, in order that they may keep a reserve +of strength for the highest things. + +True, all forms of life are capable of being made Christian service +and Christian discipline, but in practice we shall find that if we +are earnestly seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness, not +only shall we lose our taste for a great deal that is innocent, but +we shall have, whether we lose our taste for them or not--and more +imperatively if we have not lost our taste for them than if we have--to +give up allowable things in order that with all our heart, and soul, +and strength, and mind, we may love and serve our Master. There are no +half-measures to be kept; the only thing to do with the viper is to +shake it off into the fire and let it burn there. We have to empty our +hands of earth's trivialities if we would grasp Christ with them. We +have to turn away our eyes from earth if we would behold the Master, +and rigidly to apply this principle of excision in order that we may +advance in the divine life. It is the only way to ensure progress. +There is no such certain method of securing an adequate flow of sap +up the trunk as to cut off all the suckers. If you wish to have a +current going down the main bed of the stream, sufficient to keep it +clear, you must dam up all the side channels. + +But it is not to be forgotten that this commandment, stringent and +necessary as it is, is second best. The man is maimed, although it +was for Christ's sake that he cut off his hand, or put out his eye. +His hand was given him that with it he might serve God, and the +highest thing would have been that in hand and foot and eye he +should have been anointed, like the priests of old, for the service +of his Master. But until he is strong enough to use the faculty for +God, the wisest thing is not to use it at all. Abandon the outworks +to keep the citadel. And just as men pull down the pretty houses on +the outskirts of a fortified city when a siege is impending, in order +that they may afford no cover to the enemy, so we have to sweep away +a great deal in our lives that is innocent and fair, in order that +the foes of our spirit may find no lodgment there. It is second best, +but for all that it is absolutely needful. We must lay 'aside every +_weight_,' as well as 'the _sin_ which so easily besets us.' We +must run lightly if we would run well. We must cast aside all burdens, +even though they be burdens of treasure and delights, if we would 'run +with patience the race that is set before us.' 'If thy foot offend +thee,' do not hesitate, do not adopt half-measures, do not try +moderation, do not seek to sanctify the use of the peccant member; +all these may be possible and right in time, but for the present there +is only one thing to do--down with it on the block, and off with it! +'Cut it off and cast it from thee.' + +III. And now, lastly, a word as to the solemn exhortation by which +this injunction is enforced. + +Christ rests His command of self-denial and self-mutilation upon the +highest ground of self-interest. 'It is better for thee.' We are +told nowadays that this is a very low motive to appeal to, that +Christianity is a religion of selfishness, because it says to men, +'Your life or your death depends upon your faith and your conduct.' +Well, I think it will be time for us to listen to fantastic +objections of this sort when the men that urge them refuse to turn +down another street, if they are warned that in the road on which +they are going they will meet their death. As long as they admit +that it is a wise and a kind thing to say to a man, 'Do not go that +way or your life will be endangered,' I think we may listen to our +Master saying to us, 'Do not do that lest thou perish; do this, that +thou may'st enter into life.' + +And then, notice that a maimed man may enter into life, and a +complete man may perish. The first may be a very poor creature, very +ignorant, with a limited nature, undeveloped capacities, intellect +and the like all but dormant in him, artistic sensibilities quite +atrophied, and yet he may have got hold of Jesus Christ and His +love, and be trying to love Him back again and serve Him, and so be +entering into life even here, and be sure of a life more perfect +yonder. And the complete man, cultured all round, with all his +faculties polished and exercised to the full, may have one side of +his nature undeveloped--that which connects him with God in Christ. +And so he may be like some fair tree that stands out there in the +open, on all sides extending its equal beauty, with its stem +symmetrical, cylindrical, perfect in its green cloud of foliage, yet +there may be a worm at the root of it, and it may be given up to +rottenness and destruction. Cultivated men may perish, and +uncultured men may have the life. The maimed man may touch Christ +with his stump, and so receive life, and the complete man may lay +hold of the world and the flesh and the devil with his hands, and so +share in their destruction. + +Ay! and in that case the maimed man has the best of it. It is a very +plain axiom of the rudest common-sense, this of my text: 'It is +better for thee to enter into life maimed, than to go into hell-fire +with both thy hands.' That is to say, it is better to live maimed +than to die whole. A man comes into a hospital with gangrene in his +leg; the doctor says it must come off; the man says, 'It shall not,' +and he is dead to-morrow. Who is the fool--the man that says, 'Here, +then, cut away; better life than limb,' or the man that says, 'I +will keep it and I will die'? + +'Better to enter into life maimed,' because you will not always be +maimed. The life will overcome the maiming. There is a wonderful +restoration of capacities and powers that have been sacrificed for +Christ's sake, a restoration even here. As crustaceans will develop +a new claw in place of one that they have thrown off in their peril +to save their lives, so we, if we have for Christ's sake maimed +ourselves, will find that in a large measure the suppression will be +recompensed even here on earth. + +And hereafter, as the Rabbis used to say, 'No man will rise from the +grave a cripple.' All the limitations which we have imposed upon +ourselves, for Christ's sake, will be removed then. 'Then shall the +eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf be unstopped; +then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb +shall sing.' 'Verily I say unto thee, there is no man that hath left +any' of his possessions, affections, tastes, capacities, 'for My +sake but he shall receive a hundredfold more in this life, and in +the world to come, life everlasting.' No man is a loser by giving up +anything for Jesus Christ. + +And, on the other hand, the complete man, complete in everything +except his spiritual nature, is a fragment in all his completeness; +and yonder, there will for him be a solemn process of stripping. +'Take it from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents.' Ah! +how much of that for which some of you are flinging away Jesus +Christ will fade from you when you go yonder. 'His glory shall not +descend after him'; 'as he came, so shall he go.' 'Tongues, they +shall cease; knowledge, it shall vanish away'; gifts will fail, +capacities will disappear when the opportunities for the exercise of +them in a material world are at an end, and there will be little +left to the man who _would_ carry hands and feet and eyes all +into the fire and forgot the 'one thing needful,' but a thin thread, +if I may so say, of personality quivering with the sense of +responsibility, and preyed upon by the gnawing worm of a too-late +remorse. + +My brother, the lips of Incarnate Love spoke those solemn words of +my text, which it becomes not me to repeat to you as if they were +mine; but I ask you to weigh this, His urgent commandment, and to +listen to His solemn assurance, by which He enforces the wisdom of +the self-suppression: 'It is better for thee to enter into life +maimed, than having two hands, to be cast into hell-fire.' + +Give your hearts to Jesus Christ, and set the following in His +footsteps and the keeping of His commandments high above all other +aims. You will have to suppress much and give up much, but such +suppression is the shortest road to becoming perfect men, complete +in Him, and such surrender is the surest way to possess all things. +'He that loseth his life'--which is more than hand or eye--for +Christ's sake,' the same shall find it.' + + + + +THE LOST SHEEP AND THE SEEKING SHEPHERD + + + If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone + astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and + goeth Into the mountains, and seeketh that which is + gone astray!--MATT. xviii. 12. + +We find this simple parable, or germ of a parable, in a somewhat more +expanded form, as the first of the incomparable three in the fifteenth +chapter of Luke's Gospel. Perhaps our Lord repeated the parable more +than once. It is an unveiling of His inmost heart, and therein a +revelation of the very heart of God. It touches the deepest things in +His relation to men, and sets forth thoughts of Him, such as man never +dared to dream. It does all this by the homeliest image and by an +appeal to the simplest instincts. The most prosaic shepherd looks for +lost sheep, and everybody has peculiar joy over lost things found. +They may not be nearly so valuable as things that were not lost. The +unstrayed may he many, and the strayed be but one. Still there is a +keener joy in the recovery of the one than in the unbroken possession +of the ninety-and-nine. That feeling in a man may be only selfishness, +but homely as it is--when the loser is God, and the lost are men, it +becomes the means of uttering and illustrating that truth concerning +God which no religion but that of the Cross has ever been bold enough +to proclaim, that He cares most for the wanderers, and rejoices over the +return of the one that went astray more than over the ninety-and-nine +who never wandered. + +There are some significant differences between this edition of the +parable and the form which it assumes in the Gospel according to +Luke. There it is spoken in vindication of Christ's consorting with +publicans and sinners; here it is spoken in order to point the +lesson of not despising the least and most insignificant of the sons +of men. There the seeking Shepherd is obviously Christ; here the +seeking Shepherd is rather the Divine Father; as appears by the +words of the next verse: 'For it is not the will of your Father +which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.' +There the sheep is lost; here the sheep goes astray. There the +Shepherd seeks till He find, here the Shepherd, perhaps, fails to +find; for our Lord says, '_If so be_ that he find it.' + +But I am not about to venture on all the thoughts which this parable +suggests, nor even to deal with the main lesson which it teaches. I +wish merely to look at the two figures--the wanderer and the seeker. + +I. First, then, let us look at that figure of the one wanderer. + +Of course I need scarcely remind you that in the immediate +application of the parable in Luke's Gospel, the ninety-and-nine +were the respectable people who thought the publicans and harlots +altogether too dirty to touch, and regarded it as very doubtful +conduct on the part of this young Rabbi from Nazareth to be mixed up +with persons whom no one with a proper regard for whited sepulchres +would have anything to do with. To them He answers, in effect--I am +a shepherd; that is my vindication. Of course a shepherd goes after +and cares for the lost sheep. He does not ask about its worth, or +anything else. He simply follows the lost because it is lost. It may +be a poor little creature after all, but it is lost, and that is +enough. And so He vindicates Himself to the ninety-and-nine: 'You do +not need Me, you are found. I take you on your own estimation of +yourselves, and tell you that My mission is to the wanderers.' + +I do not suppose, however, that any of us have need to be reminded +that upon a closer and deeper examination of the facts of the case, +every hoof of the ninety-and-nine belonged to a stray sheep too; and +that in the wider application of the parable _all_ men are +wanderers. Remembering, then, this universal application, I would +point out two or three things about the condition of these strayed +sheep, which include the whole race. The ninety-and-nine may shadow +for us a number of beings, in unfallen worlds, immensely greater +than even the multitudes of wandering souls that have lived here +through weary ages of sin and tears, but that does not concern us +now. + +The first thought I gather from the parable is that all men are +Christ's sheep. That sounds a strange thing to say. What? all these +men and women who, having run away from Him, are plunged in sin, +like sheep mired in a black bog, the scoundrels and the profligates, +the scum and the outcasts of great cities; people with narrow +foreheads, and blighted, blasted lives, the despair of our modern +civilisation--are they all His? And in those great wide-lying +heathen lands where men know nothing of His name and of His love, +are they all His too? Let Him answer, 'Other sheep I have'--though +they look like goats to-day--'which are not of this fold, them also +must I bring, and they shall hear My voice.' All men are Christ's, +because He has been the Agent of divine creation, and the grand +words of the hundredth Psalm are true about Him. 'It is He that hath +made us, and we are His. We are His people and the sheep of His +pasture.' They are His, because His sacrifice has bought them for +His. Erring, straying, lost, they still belong to the Shepherd. + +Notice next, the picture of the sheep as wandering. The word is, +literally, 'which _goeth_ astray,' not 'which is gone astray.' +It pictures the process of wandering, not the result as accomplished. +We see the sheep, poor, silly creature, not going anywhere in +particular, only there is a sweet tuft of grass here, and it crops +that; and here is a bit of ground where there is soft walking, and it +goes there; and so, step by step, not meaning anything, not knowing +where it is going, or that it _is_ going anywhere; it goes, and +goes, and goes, and at last it finds out that it is away from its +beat on the hillside--for sheep keep to one bit of hillside generally, +as any shepherd will tell you--and then it begins to bleat, and most +helpless of creatures, fluttering and excited, rushes about amongst +the thorns and brambles, or gets mired in some quag or other, and it +will never find its way back of itself until some one comes for it. + +'So,' says Christ to us, 'there are a great many of you who do not +mean to go wrong; you are not going anywhere in particular, you do +not start on your course with any intentions either way, of doing +right or wrong, of keeping near God, or going away from Him, but you +simply go where the grass is sweetest, or the walking easiest. But +look at the end of it; where you have got to. You have got away from +Him.' + +Now, if you take that series of parables in Luke xv., and note the +metaphors there, you will see three different sides given of the +process by which men's hearts stray away from God. There is the +sheep that wanders. That is partly conscious, and voluntary, but in +a large measure simply yielding to inclination and temptation. Then +there is the coin that trundles away under some piece of furniture, +and is lost--that is a picture of the manner in which a man, without +volition, almost mechanically sometimes, slides into sins and +disappears as it were, and gets covered over with the dust of evil. +And then there is the worst of all, the lad that had full knowledge +of what he was doing. 'I am going into a far-off country; I cannot +stand this any longer--all restraint and no liberty, and no power of +doing what I like with my own; and always obliged to obey and be +dependent on my father for my pocket-money! Give me what belongs to +me, for good and all, and let me go!' That is the picture of the +worst kind of wandering, when a man knows what he is about, and +looks at the merciful restraint of the law of God, and says: 'No! I +had rather be far away; and my own master, and not always be +"cribbed, cabined, and confined" with these limitations.' + +The straying of the half-conscious sheep may seem more innocent, but +it carries the poor creature away from the shepherd as completely as +if it had been wholly intelligent and voluntary. Let us learn the +lesson. In a world like this, if a man does not know very clearly +where he is going, he is sure to go wrong. If you do not exercise a +distinct determination to do God's will, and to follow in His +footsteps who has set us an example; and if your main purpose is to +get succulent grass to eat and soft places to walk in, you are +certain before long to wander tragically from all that is right and +noble and pure. It is no excuse for you to say: 'I never meant it'; +'I did not intend any harm, I only followed my own inclinations.' +'More mischief is wrought'--to the man himself, as well as to other +people--'from want of thought than is wrought by' an evil will. And +the sheep has strayed as effectually, though, when it set out on its +journey, it never thought of straying. Young men and women beginning +life, remember! and take this lesson. + +But then there is another point that I must touch for a moment. In +the Revised Version you will find a very tiny alteration in the +words of my text, which, yet, makes a large difference in the sense. +The last clause of my text, as it stands in our Bible, is, 'And +seeketh that which is _gone_ astray'; the Revised Version more +correctly reads, 'And seeketh that which _is going_ astray.' +Now, look at the difference in these two renderings. In the former +the process is represented as finished, in the correct rendering it +is represented as going on. And that is what I would press on you, +the awful, solemn, necessarily progressive character of our +wanderings from God. A man never gets to the end of the distance +that separates between him and the Father, if his face is turned +away from God. Every moment the separation is increasing. Two lines +start from each other at the acutest angle and diverge more the +further they are produced, until at last the one may be away up by +the side of God's throne, and the other away down in the deepest +depths of hell. So accordingly my text carries with solemn pathos, +in a syllable, the tremendous lesson: 'The sheep is not gone, but +_going_ astray.' Ah! there are some of my hearers who are daily +and hourly increasing the distance between themselves and their +merciful Father. + +Now the last thing here in this picture is the contrast between the +description given of the wandering sheep in our text, and that in +St. Luke. Here it is represented as wandering, there it is +represented as lost. That is very beautiful and has a meaning often +not noticed by hasty readers. Who is it that has lost it? We talk +about the lost soul and the lost man, as if it were the man that had +lost _himself_, and that is true, and a dreadful truth it is. +But that is not the truth that is taught in this parable, and meant +by us to be gathered from it. Who is it that has lost it? He to whom +it belonged. + +That is to say, wherever a heart gets ensnared and entangled with +the love of the treasures and pleasures of this life, and so departs +in allegiance and confidence and friendship from the living God, +there God the Father regards Himself as the poorer by the loss of +one of His children, by the loss of one of His sheep. He does not +care to possess you by the hold of mere creation and supremacy and +rule. He desires you to love Him, and then He deems that He has you. +And if you do not love Him, He deems that He has lost you. There is +something in the divine heart that goes out after His lost property. +We touch here upon deep things that we cannot speak of intelligently; +only remember this, that what looks like self-regard in man is the +purest love in God, and that there is nothing in the whole revelation +which Christianity makes of the character of God more wonderful than +this, that He judges that He has lost His child when His child has +forgotten to love Him. + +II. So much, then, for one of the great pictures in this text. I can +spare but a sentence or two for the other--the picture of the +Seeker. + +I said that in the one form of the parable it was more distinctly +the Father, and in the other more distinctly the Son, who is +represented as seeking the sheep. But these two do still coincide in +substance, inasmuch as God's chief way of seeking us poor wandering +sheep is through the work of His dear Son Jesus, and the coming of +Christ is the Father's searching for His sheep in the 'cloudy and +dark day.' + +According to my text God leaves the ninety-and-nine and goes into +the mountains where the wanderer is, and seeks him. And this, +couched in veiled form, is the great mystery of the divine love, the +incarnation and sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord. Here is the +answer by anticipation to the sarcasm that is often levelled at +evangelical Christianity: 'You must think a good deal of human +nature, and must have a very arrogant notion of the inhabitant of +this little speck that floats in the great sea of the heavens, if +you suppose that with all these millions of orbs he is so important +that the divine Nature came down upon this little tiny molehill, and +took his nature and died.' + +'Yes!' says Christ, 'not because man was so great, not because man +was so valuable in comparison with the rest of creation--he was but +one amongst ninety-nine unfallen and unsinful--but because he was so +wretched, because he was so small, because he had gone so far away +from God; _therefore_, the seeking love came after him, and +would draw him to itself.' That, I think, is answer enough to the +cavil. + +And then, there is a difference between these two versions of the +Parable in respect to their representation of the end of the seeking. +The one says 'seeks until He finds.' Oh! the patient, incredible +inexhaustibleness of the divine love. God's long-suffering, if I may +take such a metaphor, like a sleuth-hound, will follow the object +of its search through all its windings and doublings, until it comes +up to it. So that great seeking Shepherd follows us through all the +devious courses of our wayward, wandering footsteps doubling back +upon themselves, until He finds us. Though the sheep may increase its +distance, the Shepherd follows. The further away we get the more +tender His appeal; the more we stop our ears the louder the voice +with which He calls. You cannot wear out Jesus Christ, you cannot +exhaust the resources of His bounteousness, of His tenderness. +However we may have been going wrong, however far we may have +been wandering, however vehemently we may be increasing, at every +moment, our distance from Him, He is coming after us, serene, loving, +long-suffering, and will not be put away. + +Dear friend! would you only believe that a loving, living Person is +really seeking you, seeking you by my poor words now, seeking you by +many a providence, seeking you by His Gospel, by His Spirit; and +will never be satisfied till He has found you in your finding Him +and turning your soul to Him! + +But, I beseech you, do not forget the solemn lesson drawn from the +other form of the parable which is given in my text: _If so be +that He find it_. There is a possibility of failure. What an +awful power you have of burying yourself in the sepulchre, as it +were, of your own self-will, and hiding yourself in the darkness of +your own unbelief! You can frustrate the seeking love of God. Some +of you have done so--some of you have done so all your lives. Some +of you, perhaps at this moment, are trying to do so, and consciously +endeavouring to steel your hearts against some softening that may +have been creeping over them whilst I have been speaking. Are you +yielding to His seeking love, or wandering further and further from +Him? He has come to find you. Let Him not seek in vain, but let the +Good Shepherd draw you to Himself, where, lifted on the Cross, He +'giveth His life for the sheep.' He will restore your soul and carry +you back on His strong shoulder, or in His bosom near His loving +heart, to the green pastures and the safe fold. There will be joy in +His heart, more than over those who have never wandered; and there +will be joy in the heart of the returning wanderer, such as they who +had not strayed and learned the misery could never know, for, as the +profound Jewish saying has it, 'In the place where the penitents +stand, the perfectly righteous cannot stand.' + + + + +PERSISTENCE OF THWARTED LOVE + + + 'If so be that he find it.'--MATT. xviii. 13. + + 'Until he find it.'--LUKE xv. 4. + +Like other teachers, Jesus seems to have had favourite points of +view and utterances which came naturally to His lips. There are +several instances in the gospels of His repeating the same sayings +in entirely different connections and with different applications. +One of these habitual points of view seems to have been the thought +of men as wandering sheep, and of Himself as the Shepherd. The +metaphor has become so familiar that we need a moment's reflection +to grasp the mingled tenderness, sadness, and majesty of it. He +thought habitually of all humanity as a flock of lost sheep, and of +Himself as high above them, unparticipant of their evil, and having +one errand--to bring them back. + +And not only does He frequently refer to this symbol, but we have +the two editions, from which my texts are respectively taken, of the +Parable of the Lost Sheep. I say two editions, because it seems to +me a great deal more probable that Jesus should have repeated +Himself than that either of the Evangelists should have ventured to +take this gem and set it in an alien setting. The two versions +differ slightly in some unimportant expressions, and Matthew's is +the more condensed of the two. But the most important variation is +the one which is brought to light by the two fragments which I have +ventured to isolate as texts. '_If_ He find' implies the +possible failure of the Shepherd's search; '_till_ He find' +implies His unwearied persistence in the teeth of all failure. And, +taken in conjunction, they suggest some very blessed and solemn +considerations, which I pray for strength to lay upon your minds and +hearts now. + +I. But first let me say a word or two upon the more general thought +brought out in both these clauses--of the Shepherd's search. + +Now, beautiful and heart-touching as that picture is, of the +Shepherd away amongst the barren mountains searching minutely in +every ravine and thicket, it wants a little explanation in order to +be brought into correspondence with the fact which it expresses. For +His search for His lost property is not in ignorance of where it is, +and His finding of it is not His discovery of His sheep, but its +discovery of its Shepherd. We have to remember wherein consists the +loss before we can understand wherein consists the search. + +Now, if we ask ourselves that question first, we get a flood of +light on the whole matter. The great hundredth Psalm, according to +its true rendering, says, 'It is He that hath made us, _and we are +His_; ... we are ... the sheep of His pasture.' But God's true +possession of man is not simply the possession inherent in the act +of creation. For there is only one way in which spirit can own +spirit, or heart can possess heart, and that is through the +voluntary yielding and love of the one to the other. So Jesus +Christ, who, in all His seeking after us men, is the voice and hand +of Almighty Love, does not count that He has found a man until the +man has learned to love Him. For He loses us when we are alienated +from Him, when we cease to trust Him, when we refuse to obey Him, +when we will not yield to Him, but put Him far away from us. +Therefore the search which, as being Christ's is God's in Christ, is +for our love, our trust, our obedience; and in reality it consists +of all the energies by which Jesus Christ, as God's embodiment and +representative, seeks to woo and win you and me back to Himself, +that He may truly possess us. + +If the Shepherd's seeking is but a tender metaphor for the whole +aggregate of the ways by which the love that is divine and human in +Jesus Christ moves round about our closed hearts, as water may feel +round some hermetically sealed vessel, seeking for an entrance, then +surely the first and chiefest of them, which makes its appeal to each +of us as directly as to any man that ever lived, is that great mystery +that Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God, left the ninety-and-nine +that were safe on the high pastures of the mountains of God, and came +down among us, out into the wilderness, 'to seek and to save that +which was lost.' + +And, brother, that method of winning--I was going to say, of +_earning_--our love comes straight in its appeal to every +single soul on the face of the earth. Do not say that thou wert not +in Christ's heart and mind when He willed to be born and willed to +die. Thou, and thou, and thou, and every single unit of humanity +were there clear before Him in their individuality; and He died for +thee, and for me, and for _every_ man. And, in one aspect, that +is more than to say that He died for _all_ men. There was a +specific intention in regard to each of us in the mission of Jesus +Christ; and when He went to the Cross the Shepherd was not giving +His life for a confused flock of which He knew not the units, but +for sheep the face of each of whom He knows, and each of whom He +loves. There was His first seeking; there is His chief seeking. +There is the seeking which ought to appeal to every soul of man, and +which, ever since you were children, has been making its appeal to +you. Has it done so in vain? Dear friend, let not your heart still +be hard. + +He seeks us by every record of that mighty love that died for us, +even when it is being spoken as poorly, and with as many limitations +and imperfections, as I am speaking it now. 'As though God did +beseech you by us, pray you in Christ's stead.' It is not arrogance, +God forbid! it is simple truth when I say, Never mind about me; but +my word, in so far as it is true and tender, is Christ's word to +you. And here, in our midst, that unseen Form is passing along these +pews and speaking to these hearts, and the Shepherd is seeking His +sheep. + +He seeks each of us by the inner voices and emotions in our hearts +and minds, by those strange whisperings which sometimes we hear, by +the suddenly upstarting convictions of duty and truth which sometimes, +without manifest occasion, flash across our hearts. These voices are +Christ's voice, for, in a far deeper sense than most men superficially +believe, 'He is the true Light that lighteth every man coming into +the world.' + +He is seeking us by our unrest, by our yearnings after we know not +what, by our dim dissatisfaction which insists upon making itself +felt in the midst of joys and delights, and which the world fails to +satisfy as much as it fails to interpret. There is a cry in every +heart, little as the bearer of the heart translates it into its true +meaning--a cry after God, even the living God. And by all your +unrests, your disappointments, your hopes unfulfilled, your hopes +fulfilled and blasted in the fulfilment, your desires that perish +unfruited; by all the mystic movements of the spirit that yearns for +something beyond the material and the visible, Jesus Christ is +seeking His sheep. + +He seeks us by the discipline of life, for I believe that Christ is +the active Providence of God, and that the hands that were pierced +on the Cross do move the wheels of the history of the world, and +mould the destinies of individual spirits. + +The deepest meaning of all life is that we should be won to seek Him +who in it all is seeking us, and led to venture our hopes, and fling +the anchor of our faith beyond the bounds of the visible, that it +may fasten in the Eternal, even in Christ Himself, 'the same +yesterday and to-day and for ever' when earth and its training are +done with. Brethren, it is a blessed thing to live, when we +interpret life's smallnesses aright as the voice of the Master, who, +by them all--our sadness and our gladness, the unrest of our hearts +and the yearnings and longings of our spirits, by the ministry of +His word, by the record of His sufferings--is echoing the invitation +of the Cross itself, 'Come unto Me, all ye ... and I will give you +rest!' So much for the Shepherd's search. + +II. And now, in the second place, a word as to the possible +thwarting of the search. + +'If so be that He find.' That is an awful _if_, when we think +of what lies below it. The thing seems an absurdity when it is +spoken, and yet it is a grim fact in many a life--viz. that Christ's +effort can fail and be thwarted. Not that His search is perfunctory +or careless, but that we shroud ourselves in darkness through which +that love can find no way. It is we, not He, that are at fault when +He fails to find that which He seeks. There is nothing more certain +than that God, and Christ the image of God, desire the rescue of +every man, woman, and child of the human race. Let no teaching blur +that sunlight fact. There is nothing more certain than that Jesus +Christ has done, and is doing, all that He can do to secure that +purpose. If He could make every man love Him, and so find every man, +be sure that He would do it. But He cannot. For here is the central +mystery of creation, which if we could solve there would be few +knots that would resist our fingers, that a finite will like yours +or mine can lift itself up against God, and that, having the +capacity, it has the desire. He says, 'Come!' We say, 'I will not.' +That door of the heart opens from within, and He never breaks it +open. He stands at the door and knocks. And then the same solemn +_if_ comes--'If any man opens, I will come in'; if any man +keeps it shut, and holds on to prevent its being opened, I will stop +out. + +Brethren, I seek to press upon you now the one plain truth, that if +you are not saved men and women, there is no person in heaven or +earth or hell that has any blame in the matter but yourself alone. +God appeals to us, and says, 'What more _could_ have been done +to My vineyard that I have not done unto it?' His hands are clean, +and the infinite love of Christ is free from all blame, and all the +blame lies at our own doors. + +I must not dwell upon the various reasons which lead so many men +among us--as, alas! the utmost charity cannot but see that there +are--to turn away from Christ's appeals, and to be unwilling to +'have this Man' either 'to reign over' them or to save them. There +are many such, I am sure, in my audience now; and I would fain, if I +could, draw them to that Lord in whom alone they have life, and +rest, and holiness, and heaven. + +One great reason is because you do not believe that you need Him. +There is an awful inadequacy in most men's conceptions--and still +more in their feelings--as to their sin. Oh dear friends, if you +would only submit your consciences for one meditative half-hour to +the light of God's highest law, I think you would find out something +more than many of you know, as to what you are and what your sin is. +Many of us do not much believe that we are in any danger. I have +seen a sheep comfortably cropping the short grass on a down over the +sea, with one foot out in the air, and a precipice of five hundred +feet below it, and at the bottom the crawling water. It did not know +that there was any danger of going over. That is like some of us. If +you believed what is true--that 'sin when it is finished, bringeth +forth death,' and understood what 'death' meant, you would feel the +mercy of the Shepherd seeking you. Some of us think we are in the +flock when we are not. Some of us do not like submission. Some of us +have no inclination for the sweet pastures that He provides, and +would rather stay where we are, and have the fare that is going +there. + +We do not need to _do_ anything to put Him away. I have no +doubt that some of us, as soon as my voice ceases, will plunge again +into worldly talk and thoughts before they are down the chapel +steps, and so blot out, as well as they can, any vagrant and +superficial impression that may have been made. Dear brethren, it is +a very easy matter to turn away from the Shepherd's voice. 'I +called, and ye refused. I stretched out My hands, and _no man +regarded_.' That is all! That is what you do, and that is enough. + +III. So, lastly, the thwarted search prolonged. + +'Till He find'--that is a wonderful and a merciful word. It +indicates the infinitude of Christ's patient forgiveness and +perseverance. _We_ tire of searching. 'Can a mother forget' or +abandon her seeking after a lost child? Yes! if it has gone on for +so long as to show that further search is hopeless, she will go home +and nurse her sorrow in her heart. Or, perhaps, like some poor +mothers and wives, it will turn her brain, and one sign of her +madness will be that, long years after grief should have been calm +because hope was dead, she will still be looking for the little one +so long lost. But Jesus Christ stands at the closed door, as a great +modern picture shows, though it has been so long undisturbedly +closed that the hinges are brown with rust, and weeds grow high +against it. He stands there in the night, with the dew on His hair, +unheeded or repelled, like some stranger in a hostile village +seeking for a night's shelter. He will not be put away; but, after +all refusals, still with gracious finger, knocks upon the door, and +speaks into the heart. Some of you have refused Him all your lives, +and perhaps you have grey hairs upon you now. And He is speaking to +you still. He 'suffereth long, is not easily provoked, is not soon +angry; hopeth all things,' even of the obstinate rejecters. + +For that is another truth that this word 'till' preaches to us--viz. +the possibility of bringing back those that have gone furthest away +and have been longest away. The world has a great deal to say about +incurable cases of moral obliquity and deformity. Christ knows +nothing about 'incurable cases.' If there is a worst man in the +world--and perhaps there is--there is nothing but his own +disinclination to prevent his being brought back, and made as pure +as an angel. + +But do not let us deal with generalities; let us bring the truths to +ourselves. Dear brethren, I know nothing about the most of you. I +should not know you again if I met you five minutes after we part +now. I have never spoken to many of you, and probably never shall, +except in this public way; but I know that _you_ need Christ, +and that Christ wants _you_. And I know that, however far you +have gone, you have not gone so far but that His love feels out +through the remoteness to grasp you, and would fain draw you to +itself. + +I dare say you have seen upon some dreary moor, or at the foot of +some 'scaur' on the hillside, the bleached bones of a sheep, lying +white and grim among the purple heather. It strayed, unthinking of +danger, tempted by the sweet herbage; it fell; it vainly bleated; it +died. But what if it had heard the shepherd's call, and had +preferred to lie where it fell, and to die where it lay? We talk +about 'silly sheep.' Are there any of them so foolish as men and +women listening to me now, who will not answer the Shepherd's voice +when they hear it, with, 'Lord, here am I, come and help me out of +this miry clay, and bring me back.' He is saying to each of you, +'Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?' May He not have to say at last +of any of us, 'Ye would not come to Me, that ye might have life!' + + + + +FORGIVEN AND UNFORGIVING + + + 'Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until + seven times; but, Until seventy times seven.' + --MATT. xviii. 22. + +The disciples had been squabbling about pre-eminence in the kingdom +which they thought was presently to appear. They had ventured to +refer their selfish and ambitious dispute to Christ's arbitrament. +He answered by telling them the qualifications of 'the greatest in +the kingdom'--that they are to be humble like little children; that +they are to be placable; that they are to use all means to reclaim +offenders; and that, even if the offence is against themselves, they +are to ignore the personal element, and to regard the offender, not +so much as having done them harm, as having harmed himself by his +evil-doing. + +Peter evidently feels that that is a very hard commandment for a man +of his temperament, and so he goes to Jesus Christ for a little +further direction, and proposes a question as to the limits of this +disposition: 'How often shall my brother sin?' The very question +betrays that he does not understand what forgiveness means; for it +is not real, if the 'forgiven' sin is stowed away safely in the +memory. 'I can forgive, but I cannot forget,' generally means, 'I do +not _quite_ forgive.' We are not to take the pardoned offence, +and carry it to a kind of 'suspense account,' to be revived if +another is committed, but we are to blot it out altogether. Peter +thought that he had given a very wide allowance when he said 'seven +times.' Christ's answer lifts the whole subject out of the realm of +hard and fast lines and limits, for He takes the two perfect numbers +'ten' and 'seven,' and multiplies them together, and then He +multiplies that by 'seven' once more; and the product is _not_ +four hundred and ninety, but is innumerableness. He does not mean +that the four hundred and ninety-first offence is outside the pale, +but He suggests indefiniteness, endlessness. So, as I say, He lifts +the question out of the region in which Peter was keeping it, +thereby betraying that he did not understand what he was talking +about, and tells us that there are no limits to the obligation. + +The parable which follows, and follows with a 'therefore,' does not +deal so much with Peter's question as to the limits of the +disposition, but sets forth its grounds and the nature of its +manifestations. If we understand why we ought to forgive, and what +forgiveness is, we shall not say, 'How often?' The question will +have answered itself. + +I turn to the parable rather than the words which I have read as our +starting-point, to seek to bring out the lessons which it contains +in regard to our relations to God, and to one another. There are +three sections in it: the king and his debtor; the forgiven debtor +and _his_ debtor; and the forgiven debtor unforgiven because +unforgiving. And if we look at these three points I think we shall +get the lessons intended. + +I. The king and his debtor. + +A certain king has servants, whom he gathers together to give in +their reckoning. And one of them is brought that owes him ten +thousand talents. Now, it is to be noticed at the very outset that +the analogy between debt and sin, though real, is extremely +imperfect. No metaphor of that sort goes on all fours, and there has +been a great deal of harm done to theology and to evangelical +religion by carrying out too completely the analogy between money +debts and our sins against God. But although the analogy is +imperfect, it is very real. The first point that is to be brought +out in this first part of the parable is the immense magnitude of +every man's transgressions against God. Numismatists and +arithmeticians may jangle about the precise amount represented by +the thousand talents. It differs according to the talent which is +taken as the basis of the calculation. There were several talents in +use in the currency of ancient days. But the very point of the +expression is not the specification of an exact amount, but the use +of a round number which is to suggest an undefined magnitude. 'Ten +thousand talents,' according to one estimate, is some two millions +and a quarter of pounds sterling. + +But I would point out that the amount is stated in terms of talents, +and _any_ talent is a large sum; and there are ten thousand of +these; and the reason why the account is made out in terms of +talents, the largest denomination in the currency of the period, is +because every sin against God is a great sin. He being what He is, +and we being what we are, and sin being what it is, every sin is +large, although the deed which embodies it may be, when measured by +the world's foot-rule, very small. For the essence of sin is +rebellion against God and the enthroning of self as His victorious +rival; and all rebellion is rebellion, whether it is found in arms +in the field, or whether it is simply sulkily refusing obedience and +cherishing thoughts of treason. We are always apt to go wrong in our +estimate of the great and small in human actions, and, although the +terms of magnitude do not apply properly to moral questions at all, +there is no more conspicuous misuse of language than when we speak +of anything which has in it the virus of rebellion against God, and +the breach of His law, as being a small sin. It may be a small act; +it is a great sin. Little rattlesnakes are snakes; they have rattles +and poison fangs as really as the most monstrous of the brood that +coils and hisses in some cave. So the account is made out in terms +of talents, because every sin is a great one. I need not dwell upon +the numerousness that is suggested. 'Ten thousand' is the natural +current expression for a number that is not innumerable, but is only +known to be very great. The psalmist says: 'They are more than the +hairs of my head.' How many hairs had you in your head, David? Do +you know? 'No!' And how many sins have you committed? Do you know? +'No!' The number is beyond count by us, though it may be counted by +Him against whom they are done. Do you believe that about yourself, +my friend, that the debit side of your account has filled all the +page and has to be carried forward on to another? Do we any of us +realise, as we all of us ought to do, the infinite number, and the +transcendent greatness, of our transgressions against the Father? + +But the next point to be noticed is the stern legal right of the +creditor. It sounds harsh, cruel, almost brutal, that the man and +his wife and his children should be sold into slavery, and all that +he had should be taken from him, in order to go some little way +towards the reduction of the enormous debt that he owed. Christ puts +in that harsh and apparently cruel conduct in the story, not to +suggest that it was harsh and cruel, but because it was according to +the law of the time. A recognised legal right was exercised by the +creditor when he said, 'Take him; sell him for a slave, and bring me +what he fetches in the open markets.' So that we have here suggested +the solemn thought of the right that divine justice, acting +according to strict retributive law, has over each of us. Our own +consciences attest it as perfectly within the scope of the divine +retributive justice that our enormous sin should bring down a +tremendous punishment. + +I said that the analogy between sin and debt was a very imperfect +one. It is imperfect in regard to one point--viz. the implication of +other people in the consequences of the man's evil; for although it +is quite true that 'the evil that men do lives after them, and +spreads far beyond their sight, and involves many people, no other +is amenable to divine justice for the sinner's debt. It is quite +true that, when we do an evil action, we never can tell how far its +wind-borne seeds may be carried, or where they may alight, or what +sort of unwholesome fruit they may bear, or who may be poisoned by +them; but, on the other hand, we, and we only, are responsible for +our individual transgressions against God. 'If thou be wise, thou +shalt be wise for thyself; and if thou scornest, thou alone shalt +bear it.' + +The same imperfection in the analogy applies to the next point in the +parable--viz. the bankrupt debtor's prayer, 'Have patience with me, +and I will pay thee all.' Easy to promise! I wonder how long it would +have taken a penniless bankrupt to scrape together two and a quarter +millions of pounds? He said a great deal more than he could make good. +But the language of his prayer is by no means the language that +becomes a penitent at God's throne. We have not to offer to make +future satisfaction. No! that is impossible. 'What I have written I +have written,' and the page, with all its smudges and blots and +misshapen letters, cannot be made other than it is by any future +pages fairly written. No future righteousness has any power to affect +the guilt of past sin. There is one thing that does _discharge_ the +writing from the page. Do you remember Paul's words, 'blotting out +the handwriting that was against us--nailing it to His Cross'? You +sometimes dip your pens into red ink, and run a couple of lines +across the page of an account that is done with. Jesus Christ does +the same across our account, and the debt is non-existent, because +He has died. + +But the prayer is the expression, if not of penitence yet of +petition, and all the stern rigour of the law's requirement at once +melts away, and the king who, in the former words, seemed so harsh, +now is almost incredibly merciful. For he not only cancels the debt, +but sets the man free. 'Thy ways are not as our ways; ... as the +heavens are higher than the earth, so great is His mercy toward' the +sinful soul. + +II. So much, then, for the first part of this parable. Now a word as +to the second, the forgiven debtor and his debt. + +Our Lord uses in the 27th and 28th verses of our text the same +expression very significantly and emphatically. 'The lord of _that +servant_ was moved with compassion.' And then again, in the 28th +verse, 'But that _servant_ went out and found one of his +fellow-servants.' The repetition of the same phrase hooks the two +halves together, emphasises the identity of the man, and the +difference of his demeanour, on the two occasions. + +The conduct described is almost impossibly disgusting and truculent. +'He found his fellow-servant, who owed him a hundred pence'--some +three pounds, ten shillings--and with the hands that a minute before +had been wrung in agony, and extended in entreaty, he throttled him; +and with the voice that had been plaintively pleading for mercy a +minute before, he gruffly growled, 'Pay me that thou owest.' He had +just come through an agony of experience that might have made him +tender. He had just received a blessing that might have made his +heart glow. But even the repetition of his own petition does not +touch him, and when the poor fellow-servant, with his paltry debt, +says, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all,' it avails +nothing. He durst not sell his fellow-servant. God's rights over a +man are more than any man's over another. But he does what he can. +He will not do much towards recouping himself of his loan by +flinging the poor debtor into prison, but if he cannot get his +ducats he will gloat over his 'pound of flesh.' So he hurries him +off to gaol. + +Could a man have done like that? Ah! brethren, the things that would +be monstrous in our relations to one another are common in our +relations to God. Every day we see, and, alas! do, the very same +thing, in our measure and degree. Do you never treasure up somebody's +slights? Do you never put away in a pigeon-hole for safe-keeping, +endorsed with the doer's name on the back of it, the record of some +trivial offence against you? It is but as a penny against a talent, +for the worst that any of us can do to another is nothing as compared +with what many of us have been doing all our lives toward God. I dare +say that some of us will go out from this place, and the next man that +we meet that 'rubs us the wrong way,' or does us any harm, we shall +score down his act against him with as implacable and unmerciful an +unforgivingness as that of this servant in the parable. Do not believe +that he was a monster of iniquity. He was just like us. We all of us +have one human heart, and this man's crime is but too natural to us +all. The essence of it was that having been forgiven, he did not +forgive. + +So, then, our Lord here implies the principle that God's mercy to us +is to set the example to which our dealings with others is to be +conformed. 'Even as I had mercy on thee' plainly proposes that +miracle of divine forgiveness as our pattern as well as our hope. +The world's morality recognises the duty of forgiveness. Christ +shows us God's forgiveness as at once the model which is the perfect +realisation of the idea in its completeness and inexhaustibleness, +and also the motive which, brought into our experience, inclines and +enables us to forgive. + +III. And now I come to the last point of the text--the debtor who +had been forgiven falling back into the ranks of the unforgiven, +because he does not forgive. + +The fellow-servants were very much disgusted, no doubt. Our +consciences work a great deal more rapidly, and rigidly, about other +people's faults than they do about our own. And nine out of ten of +these fellow-servants that were very sorry, and ran and told the +king, would have done exactly the same thing themselves. The king, +for the first time, is wroth. We do not read that he was so before, +when the debt only was in question; but such unforgiving harshness, +after the experience of such merciful forgiveness, rouses his +righteous indignation. The unmercifulness of Christian people is a +worse sin than many a deed that goes by very ugly names amongst men. +And so the judgment that falls upon this evil-doer, who, by his +truculence to his fellow-servant, had betrayed the baseness of his +nature and the ingratitude of his heart, is, 'Put him back where he +was! Tie the two and a quarter millions round his neck again! Let us +see what he will do by way of discharging it now!' + +Now, do not let any theological systems prevent you from recognising +the solemn truth that underlies that representation, that there may +be things in the hearts and conduct of forgiven Christians which may +cancel the cancelling of their debt, and bring it all back again. No +man can cherish the malicious disposition that treasures up offences +against himself, and at the same moment feel that the divine love is +wrapping him round in its warm folds. If we are to retain our +consciousness of having been forgiven by God, and received into the +amplitude of His heart, we must, in our measure and degree, imitate +that on which we trust, and be mirrors of the divine mercy which we +say has saved us. + +Our parable lays equal stress on two things. First, that the +foundation of all real mercifulness in men is the reception of +forgiving mercy from God. We must have experienced it before we can +exercise it. And, second, we must exercise it, if we desire to +continue to experience it. 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall +obtain mercy.' That applies to Christian people. But behind that +there lies the other truth, that in order to be merciful we must +first of all have received the initial mercy of cancelled +transgression. + +So, dear friends, here are the two lessons for every one of us. +First, to recognise our debt, and go to Him in whom God is well +pleased, for its abolishment and forgiveness; and then to go out +into the world, and live like Him, and show to others love kindled +by and kindred to that to which we trust for our own salvation. 'Be +ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in +love, as God also hath loved us.' + + + + +THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE KING + + + 'And, behold, one came and said unto Him, Good Master, + what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal + life? 17. And He said unto him, Why callest thou Me + good? there is none good but One, that is, God: but + if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. + 18. He saith unto Him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt + do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou + shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, + 19. Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt + love thy neighbour as thyself. 20. The young man saith + unto Him, All these things have I kept from my youth + up: what lack I yet? 21. Jesus said unto him, If thou + wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give + to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: + and come and follow Me. 22. But when the young man + heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had + great possessions. 23. Then said Jesus unto His + disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall + hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 24. And again + I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through + the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into + the kingdom of God. 25. When His disciples heard it, + they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be + saved? 26. But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, + With men this is impossible; but with God all things + are possible.'--MATT. xix. 16-26. + +We have here one of the saddest stories in the gospels. It is a true +soul's tragedy. The young man is in earnest, but his earnestness has +not volume and force enough to float him over the bar. He wishes to +have some great thing bidden him to do, but he recoils from the +sharp test which Christ imposes. He truly wants the prize, but the +cost is too great; and yet he wishes it so much that he goes away +without it in deep sorrow, which perhaps, at another day, ripened +into the resolve which then was too high for him. There is a certain +severity in our Lord's tone, an absence of recognition of the much +good in the young man, and a naked stringency in His demand from +him, which sound almost harsh, but which are set in their true light +by Mark's note, that Jesus 'loved him,' and therefore treated him +thus. The truest way to draw ingenuous souls is not to flatter, nor +to make entrance easy by dropping the standard or hiding the +requirements, but to call out all their energy by setting before +them the lofty ideal. Easy-going disciples are easily made--and +lost. Thorough-going ones are most surely won by calling for entire +surrender. + +I. We may gather together the earlier part of the conversation, as +introductory to the Lord's requirement (vs. 16-20), in which we have +the picture of a real though imperfect moral earnestness, and may +note how Christ deals with it. Matthew tells us that the questioner +was young and rich. Luke adds that he was a 'ruler'--a synagogue +official, that is--which was unusual for a young man, and indicates +that his legal blamelessness was recognised. Mark adds one of his +touches, which are not only picturesque, but character-revealing, by +the information that he came 'running' to Jesus in the way, so eager +was he, and fell at His feet, so reverential was he. His first +question is singularly compacted of good and error. The fact that he +came to Christ for a purely religious purpose, not seeking personal +advantage for himself or for others, like the crowds who followed +for loaves and cures, nor laying traps for Him with puzzles which +might entangle Him with the authorities, nor asking theological +questions for curiosity, but honestly and earnestly desiring to be +helped to lay hold of eternal life, is to be put down to his credit. +He is right in counting it the highest blessing. + +Where had he got hold of the thought of 'eternal life'? It was miles +above the dusty speculations and casuistries of the rabbis. Probably +from Christ Himself. He was right in recognising that the conditions +of possessing it were moral, but his conception of 'good' was +superficial, and he thought more of doing good than of being good, +and of the desired life as payment for meritorious actions. In a +word, he stood at the point of view of the old dispensation. 'This +do, and thou shalt live,' was his belief; and what he wished was +further instruction as to what 'this' was. He was to be praised in +that he docilely brought his question to Jesus, even though, as +Christ's answer shows, there was error mingling in his docility. +Such is the character--a young man, rich, influential, touched with +real longings for the highest life, ready, so far as he knows +himself, to do whatever he is bidden, in order to secure it. + +We might have expected Christ, who opened His arms wide for +publicans and harlots, to have welcomed this fair, ingenuous seeker +with some kindly word. But He has none for him. We adopt the reading +of the Revised Version, in which our Lord's first word is repellent. +It is in effect--'There is no need for your question, which answers +itself. There is one good Being, the source and type of every good +thing, and therefore the good, which you ask about, can only be +conformity to His will. You need not come to Me to know what you are +to do.' He relegates the questioner, not to his own conscience, but +to the authoritative revealed will of God in the law. Modern views +of Christ's work, which put all its stress on the perfection of His +moral character, and His office as a pattern of righteousness, may +well be rebuked by the fact that He expressly disclaimed this +character, and declared that, if He was only to be regarded as +republishing the law of human conduct, His work was needless. Men +have enough knowledge of what they must do to enter into life, +without Jesus Christ. No doubt, Christ's moral teaching transcends +that given of old; but His special work was not to tell men what to +do, but to make it possible for them to do it; to give, not the law, +but the power, both the motive and the impulse, which will fulfil +the law. On another occasion He answered a similar question in a +different manner. When the Jews asked Him, 'What must we do, that we +may work the works of God?' He replied by the plain evangelical +statement: 'This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He +hath sent.' Why did He not answer the young ruler thus? Only because +He knew that he needed to be led to that thought by having his own +self-complacency shattered, and the clinging of his soul to earth +laid bare. The whole treatment of him here is meant to bring him to +the apprehension of faith as preceding all truly good work. + +The young man's second question says a great deal in its one word. +It indicates astonishment at being remanded to these old, well-worn +precepts, and might be rendered, 'What sort of commandments?' as if +taking it for granted that they must be new and peculiar. It is the +same spirit as that which in all ages has led men who with partial +insight longed after eternal life, to seek it by fantastic and +unusual roads of extraordinary sacrifices or services--the spirit +which filled monasteries, and invented hair shirts, and fastings, +and swinging with hooks in your back at Hindoo festivals. The +craving for more than ordinary 'good works' shows a profound mistake +in the estimate of the ordinary, and a fatal blunder as to the +relation between 'goodness' and 'eternal life.' + +So Christ answers the question by quoting the second half of the +Decalogue, which deals with the homeliest duties, and appending to +it the summary of the law, which requires love to our neighbour as +to ourselves. Why does He omit the earlier half? Probably because He +would meet the error of the question, by presenting only the +plainest, most familiar commandments, and because He desired to +excite the consciousness of deficiency, which could be most easily +done in connection with these. + +There is a touch of impatience in the rejoinder, 'All these have I +kept,' and more than a touch of self-satisfaction. The law has +failed to accomplish one of its chief purposes in the young man, in +that it has not taught him his sinfulness. No doubt he had a right +to say that his outward life had been free from breaches of such +very elementary morality which any old woman could have taught him. +He had never gone below the surface of the commandments, nor below +the surface of his acts, or he would not have answered so jauntily. +He had yet to learn that the height of 'goodness' is reached, not by +adding some strange new performances to the threadbare precepts of +everyday duty, but by digging deep into these, and bottoming the +fabric of our lives on their inmost spirit. He had yet to learn that +whoever says, 'All these have I kept,' thereby convicts himself of +understanding neither them nor himself. + +Still he was not at rest, although he had, as he fancied, kept them +all. His last question is a plaintive, honest acknowledgment of the +hungry void within, which no round of outward obediences can ever +fill. He knows that he has not the inner fountain springing up into +eternal life. He is dimly aware of something wanting, whether in his +obedience or no, at all events in his peace; and he is right in +believing that the reason for that conscious void is something +wanting in his conduct. But he will not learn what Christ has been +trying to teach him, that he needs no new commandment, but a deeper +understanding and keeping of the old. Hence his question, half a +wail of a hungry heart, half petulant impatience with Christ's +reiteration of obvious duties. There are multitudes of this kind in +all ages, honestly wishing to lay hold of eternal life, able to +point to virtuous conduct, anxious to know and do anything lacking, +and yet painfully certain that something is wanting somewhere. + +II. Now comes the sharp-pointed test, which pricks the brilliant +bubble. Mark tells us that Jesus accompanied His word with one of +those looks which searched a soul, and bore His love into it. 'If +thou wouldest be perfect,' takes up the confession of something +'lacking,' and shows what that is. It is unnecessary to remark that +this commandment to sell all and give to the poor is intended only +for the individual case. No other would-be disciple was called upon +to do so. It cannot be meant for others; for, if all were sellers, +where would the buyers be? Nor need we do more than point out that +the command of renunciation is only half of Christ's answer, the +other being, 'Come, follow Me.' But we are not to slide easily over +the precept with the comfortable thought that it was special +treatment for a special case. The principle involved in it is +medicine for all, and the only way of healing for any. This man was +tied to earth by the cords of his wealth. They did not hinder him +from keeping the commandments, for he had no temptations to murder, +or adultery, or theft, or neglect of parents. But they did hinder +him from giving his whole self up, and from regarding eternal life +as the most precious of all things. Therefore for him there was no +safety short of entire outward denuding himself of them; and, if he +was in earnest out and out in his questions, here was a new thing +for him to do. Others are hindered by other things, and they are +called to abandon these. The one thing needful for entrance into +life is at bottom self-surrender, and the casting away of all else +for its sovereign sake. 'I do count them but dung' must be the +language of every one who will win Christ. The hands must be emptied +of treasures, and the heart swept clear of lesser loves, if He is to +be grasped by our hands, and to dwell in our hearts. More of us than +we are willing to believe are kept from entire surrender to Jesus +Christ, by money and worldly possessions; and many professing +Christians are kept shrivelled and weak and joyless because they +love their wealth more than their Lord, and would think it madness +to do as this man was bidden to do. When ballast is thrown out, the +balloon shoots up. A general unlading of the 'thick clay' which +weighs down the Christian life of England, would let thousands soar +to heights which they will never reach as long as they love money +and what it buys as much as they do. The letter of this commandment +may be only applicable in a special case (though, perhaps, this one +young man was not the only human being that ever needed this +treatment), but the spirit is of universal application. No man +enters into life who does not count all things but loss, and does +not die to them all, that he may follow Christ. + +III. Then comes the collapse of all the enthusiasm. The questioner's +earnestness chills at the touch of the test. What has become of the +eagerness which brought him running to Jesus, and of the willingness +to do any hard task to which he was set? It was real, but shallow. +It deceived himself. But Christ's words cut down to the inner man, +and laid bare for his own inspection the hard core of selfish +worldliness which lay beneath. How many radiant enthusiasms, which +cheat their subjects quite as much as their beholders, disappear +like tinted mist when the hard facts of self-sacrifice strike +against them! How much sheer worldliness disguises itself from +itself and from others in glistering garments of noble sentiments, +which fall at a touch when real giving up is called for, and show +the ugly thing below! How much 'religion' goes about the world, and +gets made 'a ruler' of the synagogue in recognition of its +excellence, which needs but this Ithuriel's spear to start up in its +own shape! The completeness and immediateness of the collapse are +noticeable. The young man seems to speak no word, and to take no +time for reflection. He stands for a moment as if stunned, and then +silently turns away. What a moment! his fate hung on it. Once more +we see the awful mystery enacted before our eyes, of a soul +gathering up its power to put away life. Who will say that the +decision of a moment, which is the outcome of all the past, may not +fix the whole future? This man had never before been consciously +brought to the fork in the road; but now the two ways are before +him, and, knowingly, he chooses the worse. Christ did not desire him +to do so; but He did desire that he should choose, and should know +that he did. It was the truest kindness to tear away the veil of +surface goodness which hid him from himself, and to force him to a +conscious decision. + +One sign of grace he does give, in that he went away 'sorrowful.' He +is not angry nor careless. He cannot see the fair prospect of the +eternal life, which he had in some real fashion desired, fade away, +without a pang. If he goes back to the world, he goes back feeling +more acutely than ever that it cannot satisfy him. He loves it too +well to give it up, but not enough to feel that it is enough. +Surely, in coming days, that godly sorrow would work a change of the +foolish choice, and we may hope that he found no rest till he cast +away all else to make Christ his own. A soul which has travelled as +far on the road to life eternal as this man had done, can scarcely +thereafter walk the broad road of selfishness and death with entire +satisfaction. + +IV. The section closes with Christ's comment on the sad incident. He +speaks no word of condemnation, but passes at once from the +individual to the general lesson of the difficulty which rich men +(or, as He explains it in Mark, men who 'trust in riches') have in +entering the kingdom. The reflection breathes a tone of pity, and is +not so much blame as a merciful recognition of special temptations +which affect His judgment, and should modify ours. A camel with its +great body, long neck, and hump, struggling to get through a +needle's eye, is their emblem. It is a new thing to pity rich men, +or to think of their wealth as disqualifying them for anything. The +disciples, with childish _naïveté_, wonder. We may wonder that +they wondered. They could not understand what sort of a kingdom it +was into which capitalists would find entrance difficult. All doors +fly open for them to-day, as then. They do not find much difficulty +in getting into the church, however hard it may be to get into the +kingdom. But it still remains true that the man who has wealth has a +hindrance to his religious character, which, like all hindrances, +may be made a help by the use he makes of it; and that the man who +trusts in riches, which he who possesses them is wofully likely to +do, has made the hindrance into a barrier which he cannot pass. + +That is a lesson which commercial nations, like England, have need +to lay to heart, not as a worn-out saying of the Bible, which means +very little for us, but as heavy with significance, and pointing to +the special dangers which beset Christian perfection. + +So real is the peril of riches, that Christ would have His disciples +regard the victory over it as beyond our human power, and beckons us +away from the effort to overcome the love of the world in our +strength, pointing us to God, in whose mighty grace, breathed into +our feeble wills and treacherous hearts, is the only force which can +overcome the attraction of perishable riches, and make any of us +willing or able to renounce them all that we may win Christ. The +young ruler had just shown that 'with men this is impossible.' +Perhaps he still lingered near enough to catch the assurance that +the surrender, which had been too much for him to achieve, might yet +be joyfully made, since 'with God all things are possible.' + + + + +NEAREST TO CHRIST + + + 'To sit on My right hand, and on My left, is not Mine + to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is + prepared of My Father.'--MATT. xx. 23. + +You will observe that an unusually long supplement is inserted by +our translators in this verse. That supplement is quite unnecessary, +and, as is sometimes the case, is even worse than unnecessary. It +positively obscures the true meaning of the words before us. + +As they stand in our Bibles, the impression that they leave upon +one's mind is that Christ in them abjures the power of giving to His +disciples their places in the kingdom of heaven, and declares that +it belongs not to His function, but relegates it, to His own +exclusion, to the Father; whereas what He says is the very opposite +of this. He does not put aside the granting of places at His right +hand or His left as not being within His province, but He states the +principles and conditions on which He does make such a grant, and so +is really claiming it as in His province. All that would have been a +great deal clearer if our translators had been contented to render +the words that they found before them in the Book, without addition, +and to read, 'To sit on My right hand, and on My left, is not Mine +to give, but to them for whom it is prepared of My Father.' + +Another introductory remark may be made, to the effect that our Lord +does not put aside this prayer of His apostles as if they were +seeking an impossible thing. It is never safe, I know, to argue from +the silence of Scripture. There may be many reasons for that silence +beyond our ken in any given case; but still it does strike one as +noteworthy that, when this fond mother and her ambitious sons came +with their prayer for pre-eminence in His kingdom, our Lord did not +answer what would have been so obvious to answer if it had been +true, 'You are asking a thing which cannot be granted to anybody, +for they are all upon one level in that kingdom of the heavens.' He +says by implication the very opposite. Not only does His silence +confirm their belief that when He came in His glory, some would be +closer to His side than others; but the plain statement of the text +is that, in the depth of the eternal counsels, and by the +preparation of divine grace, there were thrones nearest to His own +which some men should fill. He does _not_ say, 'You are asking +what cannot be.' He does say, 'There are men for whom it is prepared +of My Father.' + +And then, still further, Jesus does not condemn the prayer as +indicating a wrong state of mind on the part of James and John, +though good and bad were strangely mingled in it. We are told +nowadays that it is a very selfish thing, far below the lofty height +to which our transcendental teachers have attained, to be heartened +and encouraged, strengthened and quickened, by the prospect of the +crown and the rest that remain for the people of God. If so, Christ +ought to have turned round to these men, and have rebuked the +passion for reward, which, according to this new light, is so +unworthy and so low. But, instead of that, He confines Himself to +explaining the conditions on which the fulfilment of the desire is +possible, and by implication permits and approves the desire. 'You +want to sit on My right hand and on My left, do you? Then be it so. +You may do so if you like. Are you ready to accept the conditions? +It is well that you should want it,--not for the sake of being above +your brethren, but for the sake of being nearest to Me. Hearken! Are +ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of?' They say unto +Him (and I do not know that there are anywhere grander words than +the calm, swift, unhesitating, modest, and yet confident answer of +these two men), 'We are able.' 'You shall have your desire if you +fulfil the conditions. It is given to them for whom it is prepared +of My Father.' + +I. So, then, if we rightly understand these words, and take them +without the unfortunate comment which our translators have inserted, +they contain, first, the principle that some will be nearer Christ +than others in that heavenly kingdom. + +As I have said, the words of our Lord do not merely imply, by the +absence of all hint that these disciples' petition was impossible, +the existence of degrees among the subjects of His heavenly kingdom, +but articulately affirm that such variety is provided for by the +preparation of the Father. Probably the two brothers thought that +they were only asking for preeminence in an earthly kingdom, and had +no idea that their prayer pointed beyond the grave; but that +confusion of thought could not be cured in their then stage of +growth, and our Lord therefore leaves it untouched. But the other +error, if it were an error, was of a different kind, and might, for +aught that one sees, have been set right in a moment. Instead of +which the answer adopts it, and seems to set Christ's own +confirmation on it, as being no Jewish dream, but a truth. + +They were asking for earth. He answers--for heaven. He leaves them +to learn in after days--when the one was slain with the sword, first +martyr among the apostles, and the other lived to see them all pass +to their thrones, while he remained the 'companion in tribulation' +of the second generation of the Church--how far off was the +fulfilment which they fancied so near. + +We need not he surprised that so large a truth should be spoken by +Christ so quietly, and as it were incidentally. For that is in +keeping with His whole tone when speaking of the unseen world. One +knows not whether to wonder more at the decisive authority with +which He tells us of that mysterious region, or at the small space +which such revelations occupy in His words. There is an air of +simplicity and unconsciousness, and withal of authority, and withal +of divine reticence about them all, which are in full harmony with +the belief that Christ speaking of heaven speaks of that He knows, +and testifies that He hath seen. + +That truth to which, as we think, our Lord's words here inevitably +lead, is distinctly taught in many other places of Scripture. We +should have had less difficulty about it, and should have felt more +what a solemn and stimulating thought it is, if we had tried a +little more than most of us do to keep clear before us what really +is the essential of that future life, what is the lustre of its +light, the heaven of heaven, the glory of the glory. Men talk about +physical theories of another life. I suppose they are possible. They +seem to me infinitely unimportant. Warm imaginations, working by +sense, write books about a future state which wonderfully succeed in +making it real by making it earthly. Some of them read more like a +book of travels in this world than forecastings of the next. They +may be true or not. It does not matter one whit. I believe that +heaven is a place. I believe that the corporeity of our future life +is essential to the perfection of it. I believe that Christ wears, +and will wear for ever, a glorified human body. I believe that that +involves locality, circumstance, external occupations; and I say, +all that being so, and in its own place very important, yet if we +stop there, we have no vision of the real light that makes the +lustre, no true idea of the glory that makes the blessedness. + +For what is heaven? Likeness to God, love, purity, fellowship with +Him; the condition of the spirit and the relation of the soul to +Him. The noblest truth about the future world flows from the words +of our Master--'This is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true +God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.' Not 'this brings'; not +'this will lead up to'; not 'this will draw after it'; but 'this +is'; and whosoever possesses that eternal life hath already in him +the germ of all the glories that are round the throne, and the +blessedness that fills the hearts of perfected spirits. + +If so, if already eternal life in the bud standeth in the knowledge +of God in Christ, what makes its fruitage and completeness? Surely, +not physical changes or the circumstances of heaven, at least not +these primarily, however much such changes and circumstances may +subserve our blessedness there, and the anticipation of them may +help our sense-bound hopes here. But the completeness of heaven is +the completion of our knowledge of God and Christ, with all the +perfecting of spirit which that implies and produces. The faith, and +love, and happy obedience, and consecration which is calm, that +partially occupied and ruled the soul here, are to be thought of as +enlarged, perfected, delivered from the interruption of opposing +thoughts, of sensuous desires, of selfish purposes, of earthly and +sinful occupations. And that perfect knowledge and perfect union and +perfect likeness are perfect bliss. And that bliss is heaven. And +if, whilst heaven is a place, the heaven of heaven be a state, then +no more words are needed to show that, then, heaven can be no dead +level, nor can all stand at the same stage of attainments, though +all be perfect; but that in that solemn company of the blessed, 'the +spirits of just men made perfect,' there are indefinitely numerous +degrees of approximation to the unattainable Perfection, which +stretches above them all, and draws them all to itself. We have not +to think of that future life as oppressed, if I may so say, with the +unbroken monotony of perfect identity in character and attainments. +All indeed are like one another, because all are like Jesus, but +that basis of similarity does not exclude infinite variety. The same +glory belongs to each, but it is reflected at differing angles and +received in divers measures. Perfect blessedness will belong to +each, but the capacity to receive it will differ. There will be the +same crown on each head, the same song on each lip, the same fulness +of joy filling each heart; but star differeth from star, and the +great condition of happy intercourse on earth will not be wanting in +heaven--a deep-seated similarity and a superficial diversity. + +Does not the very idea of an endless progress in that kingdom involve +such variety? We do not think of men passing into the heavens, and +being perfected by a bound so as that there shall be no growth. We +think of them indeed as being perfected up to the height of their +then capacity, from the beginning of that celestial life, so as that +there shall be no sin, nor any conscious incompleteness, but not so +as that there shall be no progress. And, if they each grow through +all the ages, and are ever coming nearer and nearer to Christ, that +seems necessarily to lead to the thought that this endless progress, +carried on in every spirit, will place them at different points of +approximation to the one centre. As in the heavens there are planets +that roll nearer the central sun, and others that circle farther out +from its rays, yet each keeps its course, and makes music as it moves, +as well as planets whose broader disc can receive and reflect more +of the light than smaller sister spheres, and yet each blazes over +its whole surface and is full to its very rim with white light; so +round that throne the spirits of the just made perfect shall move in +order and peace--every one blessed, every one perfect, every one +like Christ at first, and becoming liker through every moment of +the eternities. Each perfected soul looking on his brother shall +see there another phase of the one perfectness that blesses and +adorns him too, and all taken together shall make up, in so far as +finite creatures can make up, the reflection and manifestation of +the fulness of Christ. 'Having then gifts differing according to +the grace that is given to us' is the law for the incompleteness +of earth. 'Having then gifts differing according to the glory that +is given to us' will be the law for the perfection of the heavens. +There are those for whom it is prepared of His Father, that they +shall sit in special nearness to Him. + +II. Still further, these words rightly understood assert that truth +which, at first sight, our Authorised Version's rendering seems to +make them contradict, viz. that Christ is the giver to each of these +various degrees of glory and blessedness. 'It is not Mine to give, +save to them for whom it is prepared.' Then it is Thine to give it +to them. To deny or to doubt that Christ is the giver of the +blessedness, whatsoever the blessedness may be, that fills the +hearts and souls of the redeemed, is to destroy His whole work, to +destroy all the relations upon which our hopes rest, and to +introduce confusion and contradiction into the whole matter. + +For Scripture teaches us that He is God's unspeakable gift; that in +Him is given to us everything; that He is the bestower of all which +we need; that 'out of His fulness,' as one of those two disciples +long afterwards said, 'all we have received, and grace for grace.' +There is nothing within the compass of God's love to bestow of which +Christ is not the giver. There is nothing divine that is done in the +heavens and the earth, as I believe, of which Christ is not the +doer. The representation of Scripture is uniformly that He is the +medium of the activity of the divine nature; that he is the energy +of the divine will; that He is, to use the metaphor of the Old +Testament, 'the arm of the Lord'--the forthputting of God's power; +that He is, to use the profound expression of the New Testament, the +Word of the Lord, cognate with, and the utterance of, the eternal +nature, the light that streams from the central brightness, the +river that flows from the else sealed fountain. As the arm is to the +body, and as is the word to the soul, so is Christ to God--the +eternal divine utterance and manifestation of the divine nature. +And, therefore, to speak of anything that a man can need and +anything that God can give as not being given by Christ, is to +strike at the very foundation, not only of our hopes, but at the +whole scheme of revealed truth. He is the giver of heaven and +everything else which the soul requires. + +And then, again, let me remind you that on this matter we are not +left to such general considerations as those that I have been +suggesting, but that the plain statements of Scripture do confirm +the assertion that Christ is the determiner and the bestower of all +the differing grades of glory and blessedness yonder. For do we not +read of Him that He is the Judge of the whole earth? Do we not read +of Him that His word is acquittal and His frown condemnation--that +to 'be accepted of Him' is the highest aim and end of the Christian +life? Do we not read that it is He who says, 'Come, ye blessed of My +Father, enter into the kingdom prepared for you'? Do we not read +that the apostle, dying, solaced himself with the thought that +'there was laid up for him a crown of glory, which the Lord, the +righteous Judge, would give him at that day'? And do we not read in +the very last book of Scripture, written by one of those two +brothers, and containing almost verbal reference to the words of my +text, the promise seven times spoken from the immortal lips of the +glorified Son of Man, walking in the midst of the candlesticks, 'To +him that overcometh will I give'? The fruit of the tree of life is +plucked by His hands for the wearied conquerors. The crown of life +is set by Him on the faithful witnesses' brows. The hidden manna and +the new name are bestowed by Him on those who hold fast His name. It +is He who gives the victors kingly power over the nations. He +clothes in white garments those who have not defiled their robes. +His hand writes upon the triumphant foreheads the name of God. And +highest of all, beyond which there is no bliss conceivable, 'To him +that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne.' + +Christ is the bestower of the royalties of the heavens as of the +redemptions of earth, and it is His to give that which we crave at +His hands, when we ask pardon here and glory hereafter. 'To him that +is athirst will He give of the water of life freely,' and to him +that overcometh will He give the crown of glory. + +III. These words lead us, in the third place, to the further +thought, that these glorious places are not given to mere wishing, +nor by mere arbitrary will. + +'You would sit on My right hand and on My left? You think of that +pre-eminence as conferred because you chose to ask it--as given by a +piece of favouritism. Not so. I cannot make a man foremost in my +kingdom in that fashion. There are conditions which must precede +such an elevation.' + +And there are people who think thus still, as if the mere desire, +without anything more, were enough--or as if the felicities of the +heavenly world were dependent solely on Christ's arbitrary will, and +could be bestowed by an exercise of mere power, as an Eastern prince +may make this man his vizier and that other one his water-carrier. +The same principles which we have already applied to the elucidation +of the idea of varieties and stages of nearness to Christ in His +heavenly kingdom have a bearing on this matter. If we rightly +understand that the essential blessedness of heaven is likeness to +Christ, we shall feel that mere wishing carries no man thither, and +that mere sovereign will and power do not avail to set us there. +There are conditions indispensable, from the very nature of the +case, and unless they are realised it is as impossible for us to +receive, as for Him to give, a place at His side. If, indeed, the +future blessedness consisted in mere external circumstances and +happier conditions of life, it might be so bestowed. But if place +and surroundings, and a more exquisite and ethereal frame, are but +subordinate sources of it, and its real fountain is union with Jesus +and assimilation to Him, then something else than idle desires must +wing the soul that soars thither, and His transforming grace, not +His arbitrary will, must set us at His own right hand 'in the +heavenly places.' + +Of all the profitless occupations with which men waste their lives, +none are more utterly useless than wishing without acting. Our +wishes are meant to impel us to the appropriate forms of energy by +which they can be realised. When a pauper becomes a millionaire by +sitting and vehemently wishing that he were rich, when ignorance +becomes learning by standing in a library and wishing that the +contents of all these books were in its head, there will be some +hope that the gates of heaven will fly open to your desire. But till +then, 'many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in and not be +able.' Many shall _seek_; you must _strive_. For wishing is one thing, +and _willing_ is another, and _doing_ is yet another. And in regard +to entrance into Christ's kingdom, our 'doing' is trusting in Him who +has done all for us. 'This is the work of God, that ye should believe +on Him whom He hath sent.' Does our wish lead us to the acceptance +of the condition? Then it will be fulfilled. If not, it will remain +fruitless, will die into apathy, or will live as a pang and a curse. + +You wish, or fancy you wish, to pass into heaven when you die, I +suppose. Some of its characteristics attract you. You believe in +punishment for sin, and you would willingly escape that. You believe +in a place of rest after toil, of happiness after sorrow, where +nipping frosts of disappointment, and wild blasts of calamity, and +slow, gnawing decay no more harm and kill your joys--and you would +like that. But do you wish to be pure and stainless, to have your +hearts fixed on God alone, to have your whole being filled with Him, +and emptied of self and sense and sin? The peace of heaven attracts +you--but its praise repels, does it not? Its happiness draws your +wishes--does its holiness seem inviting? It would be joyful to be +far away from punishment--would it be as joyful to be near Christ? +Ah! no; the wishes lead to no resolve, and therefore to no result, +for this among other reasons, because they are only kindled by a +part of the whole, and are exchanged for positive aversion when the +real heaven of heaven is presented to your thoughts. Many a man who, +by the set of his whole life, is drifting daily nearer and nearer to +that region of outer darkness, is conscious of an idle wish for +peace and joy beyond the grave. In common matters a man may be +devoured by vain desires all his lifetime, because he will not pass +beyond wishing to acting accordingly. 'The desire of the slothful +killeth him; because his hands refused to labour, he coveteth +greedily all the day long.' And with like but infinitely more +tragical issues do these vain wishes for a place in that calm world, +where nothing but holiness enters, gnaw at many a soul. 'Let me die +the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his,' was +the aspiration of that Gentile prophet, whose love of the world +obscured even the prophetic illumination which he possessed--and his +epitaph is a stern comment on the uselessness of such empty wishes, +'Balaam, the son of Beor, they slew with the sword.' It needs more +than a wish to set us at Christ's right hand in His kingdom. + +Nor can such a place be given by mere arbitrary will. Christ could +not, if He would, set a man at His right hand whose heart was not +the home of simple trust and thankful love, whose nature and desires +were unprepared for that blessed world. It would be like taking one +of those creatures--if there be such--that live on the planet whose +orbit is farthest from the sun, accustomed to cold, organised for +darkness, and carrying it to that great central blaze, with all its +fierce flames and tongues of fiery gas that shoot up a thousand +miles in a moment. It would crumble and disappear before its +blackness could be seen against the blaze. + +His loving will embraces us all, and is the foundation of all our +hopes. But it had to reach its purpose by a bitter road which He did +not shrink from travelling. He desires to save us, and to realise +the desire He had to die. 'It became Him for whom are all things, in +bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their +salvation perfect through suffering.' What He had to do, we have to +accept. Unless we accept the mercy of God in Christ, no wish on our +parts, nor any exercise of power on His, will carry us to the heaven +which He has died to open, and of which He is at once the giver and +the gift. + +IV. These glorious places are given as the result of a divine +preparation. + +'To them for whom it is prepared of My Father.' We have seen that +Christ is not to be regarded as abjuring the office, with which His +disciples' confidence led them to invest Him--that of allotting to +His servants their place in His kingdom. He neither refers it to the +Father without Himself, nor claims it for Himself without the +Father. The living unity of will and work which subsists between the +Father and the Son forbids such a separation and distribution of +office. And that unity is set forth on both its sides in His own +deep words, 'The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth +the Father do: for whatsoever things He doeth, these also doeth the +Son likewise.' + +So, then, while the gift of thrones at His side is His act and the +Father's, in like manner the preparation of the royal seats for +their occupants, and of the kings for their thrones, is the Father's +act and His. + +Our text does not tell us directly what that preparation is, any +more than it tells us directly what the principles are on which +entrance into and pre-eminence in the kingdom are granted. But we +know enough in regard to both, for our practical guidance, for the +vigour of our hope, and the grasp of our faith. + +There is a twofold divine preparation of the heavens for men. One is +from of old. The kingdom is 'prepared for you before the foundation +of the world.' That preparation is in the eternal counsel of the +divine love, which calleth the things that are not as though they +were, and before which all that is evolved in the generations of men +and the epochs of time, lies on one plane, equally near to dim from +whose throne diverge far beneath the triple streams of past, +present, and future. + +And beside that preparation, the counsel of pardoning mercy and +redeeming grace, there is the other preparation--the realisation of +that eternal purpose in time through the work of Jesus Christ our +Lord. His consolation to His disciples in the parting hour was, 'I +go to prepare a place for you.' How much was included in these words +we shall never know till we, like Him, see of the travail of His +soul, and like Him are satisfied. But we can dimly see that on the +one hand His death, and on the other hand His entrance into that +holiest of all, make ready for us the many mansions of the Father's +house. He was crucified for our offences, He was raised again for +our justification, He is passed through the heavens to stand our +Forerunner in the presence of God--and by all these mighty acts He +prepares the heavenly places for us. As the sun behind a cloud, +which hides it from us, is still pouring out its rays on far-off +lands, so He, veiled in dark, sunset clouds of Calvary, sent the +energy of His passion and cross into the unseen world and made it +possible that we should enter there. 'When Thou didst overcome the +sharpness of death, Thou didst open the gates of the kingdom of +heaven to all believers.' As one who precedes a mighty host provides +and prepares rest for their weariness, and food for their hunger, in +some city on their line of march, and having made all things ready, +is at the gates to welcome their travel-stained ranks when they +arrive, and guide them to their repose; so He has gone before, our +Forerunner, to order all things for us there. It may be that unless +Christ were in heaven, our brother as well as our Lord, it were no +place for mortals. It may be that we need to have His glorified +bodily presence in order that it should be possible for human +spirits to bear the light, and be at home with God. Be that as it +may, this we know, that the Father prepares a place for us by the +eternal counsel of His love, and by the all-sufficient work of +Christ, by whom we have access to the Father. + +And as His work is the Father's preparation of the place for us by +the Son, the issue of His work is the Father's preparation of us for +the place, through the Son, by the Spirit. 'He that hath wrought us +for the self-same thing is God.' + +If so, then what follows? This, among other things, that wishes are +vain, for heaven is no gift of arbitrary favouritism, but that faith +in Christ, and faith alone, leads us to His right hand--and the +measure of our faith and growing Christlikeness here, will be the +measure of our glory hereafter, and of our nearness to Him. It is +possible to be 'saved, _yet so as by fire_.' It is possible to +have 'an entrance ministered unto us _abundantly_ into the +everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' If we +would be near Him then, we must be near Him now. If we would share +His throne, we must bear His cross. If we would be found in the +likeness of His resurrection, we must be 'conformable unto His +death.' Then such desires as these true-hearted, and yet mistaken, +disciples expressed will not be the voice of selfish ambition, but +of dependent love. They will not be vain wishes, but be fulfilled by +Him, who, stooping from amid the royalties of heaven, with love upon +His face and pity in His heart, will give more than we ask. 'Seekest +thou a place at My right hand? Nay, I give thee a more wondrous +dignity. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My +throne.' + + + + +THE SERVANT-LORD AND HIS SERVANTS + + + 'Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, + but to minister.'--MATT. xx. 28. + +It seems at first sight strangely unsympathetic and irrelevant that +the ambitious request of James and John and their foolish mother, +that they should sit at Christ's right hand and His left in His +kingdom, should have been occasioned by, and have followed +immediately upon, our Lord's solemn and pathetic announcement of His +sufferings. But the connection is not difficult to trace. The +disciples believed that, in some inexplicable way, the sufferings +which our Lord was shadowing forth were to be the immediate +precursors of His assuming His regal dignity. And so they took time +by the forelock, as they thought, and made haste to ensure their +places in the kingdom, which they believed was now ready to burst +upon them. Other occasions in the Gospels in which we find similar +quarrelling among the disciples as to pre-eminence are similarly +associated with references made by our Lord to His approaching +crucifixion. On a former occasion He cured these misplaced ambitions +by setting a child in the midst of them. On this He cures them by a +still more pathetic and wonderful example, His own; and He says, 'I, +in My lowliness and service, am to be your Pattern. In Me see the +basis of all true greatness, and the right use of all influence and +authority. The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to +minister.' + +I. So, then, let us look first at the perfect life of service of the +Servant-Lord. + +Now, in order to appreciate the significance of that life of service, +we must take into account the introductory words, 'The Son of Man +came.' They declare His pre-existence, His voluntary entrance into +the conditions of humanity, and His denuding Himself of 'the glory +which He had with the Father before the world was.' We shall never +understand the Servant-Christ until we understand that He is the +Eternal Son of the Father. His service began long before any of His +acts of sympathetic and self-forgetting lowliness rendered help to +the miserable here upon earth. His service began when He laid aside, +not the garments of earth, but the vesture of the heavens, and +girded Himself, not with the cincture woven in man's looms, but with +the flesh of our humanity, 'and being found in fashion as a man,' +bowed Himself to enter into the conditions of earth. This was the +first, the chiefest of all His acts of service, and the sanctity and +awfulness of it run through the list of all His deeds and make them +unspeakably great. It was much that His hands should heal, that His +lips should comfort, that His heart should bleed with sympathy for +sorrow. But, oh! it was more that He _had_ hands to touch, lips to +speak to human hearts, and the heart of a man and a brother to feel +_with_ as well as _for_ us. 'The Son of Man came'--there is +the transcendent example of the true use of greatness; there is the +conspicuous instance of the true basis of authority and rule. For it +was because He was 'found in fashion as a Man' that He has won a 'name +that is above every name,' and that there have accrued to Him the +'many crowns' which He wears at the Father's side. + +But then, passing beyond this, we may dwell, though all imperfectly, +upon the features, familiar as they are, of that wonderful life of +self-oblivious and self-sacrificing ministration to others. Think of +the purity of the source from all which these wonders and +blessednesses of service for man flowed. The life of Jesus Christ is +self-forgetting love made visible. Scientists tell us that, by the +arrangement of particles of sand upon plates of glass, there can be +made, as it were, perceptible to the eye, the sweetness of musical +sounds; and each note when struck will fling the particles into +varying forms of beauty. The life of Jesus Christ presents in shapes +of loveliness and symmetry the else invisible music of a divine +love. He lets us see the rhythm of the Father's heart. The source +from which His ministrations have flowed is the pure source of a +perfect love. Ancient legends consolidated the sunbeams into the +bright figure of the far-darting god of light. And so the sunbeams +of the divine love have, as it were, drawn themselves together and +shaped themselves into the human form of the Son of Man who 'came +not to be ministered unto, but to minister.' + +No taint of bye-ends was in that service; no sidelong glances at +possible advantages of influence or reputation or the like, which so +often deform men's philanthropies and services to one another. No +more than the sunbeam shines for the sake of collateral issues which +may benefit itself, did Jesus Christ seek His own advantage in +ministering to men. There was no speck of black in that lustrous +white robe, but all was perfectly unselfish love. Like the clear +sea, weedless and stainless, that laves the marble steps of the +palaces of Venice, the deep ocean of Christ's service to man was +pure to the depths throughout. + +That perfect ministry of the Servant-Lord was rendered with strange +spontaneity and cheerfulness. One of the evangelists says, in a very +striking and beautiful phrase, that 'He healed them that had need of +healing,' as if the presence of the necessity evoked the supply, by +the instinctive action of a perfect love. There was never in Him one +trace of reluctance to have leisure broken in upon, repose +disturbed, or even communion with God abbreviated. All men could +come always; they never came inopportunely. We often cheerfully take +up a burden of service, but find it very hard to continue bearing +it. But He was willing to come down from the mountain of +Transfiguration because there was a demoniac boy in the plain; and +therefore He put aside the temptation--'Let us build here three +tabernacles.' He was willing to abandon His desert seclusion because +the multitude sought Him. Interrupted in His communion with the +Father by His disciples, He had no impatient word to say, but 'Let +us go into other cities also, for therefore am I sent.' When He +stepped from the fishing-boat on the other side of the lake to which +He had fled for a moment of repose, He was glad when He saw the +multitude who had pertinaciously outrun Him, and were waiting for +Him on the beach. On His Cross He had leisure to turn from His own +physical sufferings and the weight of a world's sin, which lay upon +Him, to look at that penitent by His side, and He ended His life in +the ministry of mercy to a brigand. And thus cheerfully, and always +without a thought of self, 'He came to minister.' + +Think, too, of the sweep of His ministrations. They took in all men; +they were equally open to enemies and to friends, to mockers and to +sympathisers. Think of the variety of the gifts which He brought in +His ministry--caring for body and for soul; alleviating sorrow, +binding up wounds, purifying hearts; dealing with sin, the fountain, +and with miseries, its waters, with equal helpfulness and equal +love. + +And think of how that ministering was always ministration by 'the +LORD.' For there is nothing to me more remarkable in the Gospel +narrative than the way in which, side by side, there lie in Christ's +life the two elements, so difficult to harmonise in fact, and so +impossible to have been harmonised in a legend, the consciousness of +authority and the humility of a servant. The paradox with which John +introduces his sweet pathetic story of our Lord's washing the +disciples' feet is true of, and is illustrated by, every instance of +more than ordinary lowliness and self-oblivion which the Gospel +contains. 'Jesus, knowing that He had come from God, and went to +God, and that the Father had given all things into His hand'--did +what? 'Laid aside His garments and took a towel and girded Himself.' +The two things ever go together. And thus, in His lowliest +abasement, as in a star entangled in a cloud, there shine out, all +the more broad and conspicuous for the environment which wraps them, +the beams of His uncreated lustre. + +That ministration was a service that never shrank from stern rebuke. +His service was no mere soft and pliant, sympathetic helpfulness, +but it could smite and stab, and be severe, and knit its brow, and +speak stern words, as all true service must. For it is not service +but cruelty to sympathise with the sinner, and say nothing in +condemnation of his sin. And yet no sternness is blessed which is +not plainly prompted by desire to help. + +Now, I know far better than you do how wretchedly inadequate all +these poor words of mine have been to the great theme that I have +been trying to speak of, but they may at least--like a little water +poured into a pump--have set your minds working upon the theme, and, +I hope, to better purpose. 'The Son of Man came ... to minister.' + +II. Now, secondly, note the service that should be modelled on His. + +Oh! brethren, if we, however imperfectly, have taken into mind and +heart that picture of Him who was and is amongst us as 'One that +serveth,' how sharp a test, and how stringent, and, as it seems to +us sometimes, impossible, a commandment are involved in the 'even +as' of my text. When we think of our grudging services; when we +think of how much more apt we are to insist upon what men owe to us +than of what we owe to them; how ready we are to demand, how slow we +are to give; how we flame up in what we think is warranted +indignation if we do not get the observance, or the sympathy, or the +attention that we require, and yet how little we give of these, we +may well say, 'Thou hast set a pattern that can only drive us to +despair.' If we would read our Gospels more than we do with the +feeling, as we trace that Master through each of His phases of +sympathy and self-oblivion and self-sacrifice and service, 'that is +what I should be,' what a different book the New Testament would be +to us, and what different people you and I would be! + +There is no ground on which we can rest greatness or superiority in +Christ's kingdom except this ground of service. And there is no use +that we can make either of money or of talents, of acquirements or +opportunities, except the use of helping our fellows with them, +which will stand the test of this model and example. 'It is more +blessed to give than to receive.' The servant who serves for love is +highest in the hierarchy of Heaven. God, who is supreme, has stooped +lower than any that are beneath Him, and His true rule follows, not +because He is infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, or any +of those other pompous Latin words which describe what men call His +attributes, but because He loves best, and does most for the most. +And that is what you and I ought to be. We may well take the lesson +to ourselves. I have no space, and, I hope, no need to enlarge upon +it; but be sure of this, that if we are ever to be near the right +and the left of the Master in His kingdom, there is one way, and +only one way, to come thither, and that is to make self abdicate its +authority as the centre of our lives, and to enthrone there Christ, +and for His sake all our brethren. Be ambitious to be first, but +remember, _Noblesse oblige_. He that is first must become last. +He that is Servant of all is Master of all. That is the only mastery +that is worth anything, the devotion of hearts that circle round the +source from which they draw light and warmth. What is it that makes +a mother the queen of her children? Simply that all her life she has +been their servant, and never thought about herself, but always +about them. + +Now much might be said as to the application of these threadbare +principles in the Church and in society, but I do not enlarge on +that; only let me say in a word--that here is the one law on which +preeminence in the Church is to be allocated. + +What becomes of sacerdotal hierarchies, what becomes of the 'lords +over God's heritage,' if the one ground of pre-eminence is service? +I know, of course, that there may be different forms embodying one +principle, but it seems to me that that form of Church polity is +nearest the mind of Christ in which the only dignity is dignity of +service, and the only use of place is the privilege of stooping and +helping. + +This fruitful principle will one day shape civil as well as +ecclesiastical societies. For the present, our Lord draws a contrast +between the worldly and the Christian notions of rank and dignity. +'It shall not be so among you,' says He. And the nobler conception +of eminence and service set forth in His disciples, if they are true +to their Lord and their duty, will leaven, and we may hope finally +transform society, sweeping away all vulgar notions of greatness as +depending on birth, or wealth, or ruder forms of powers, and +marshalling men according to Christ's order of precedence, in which +helpfulness is preeminence and service is supremacy, while +conversely pre-eminence is used to help and superiority stoops to +serve. + +One remark will close my sermon. You have to take the last words of +this verse if you are ever going to put in practice its first words. +'Even as the Son of Man came, not to be ministered unto, but to +minister,'--if Jesus Christ had stopped there He would only have +been one more of the long roll of ineffectual preachers and prophets +who show men the better way, and leave them struggling in the mire. +But He did not stop there: 'Even as the Son of Man came ... to give +His life a ransom for many.' + +Ah! the Cross, with its burden of the sacrifice for the world's sin, +is the only power which will supply us with a sufficient motive for +the loftiness of Christlike service. I know that there is plenty of +entirely irreligious and Christless beneficence in the world. And +God forbid that I should say a word to seem to depreciate that. But +sure I am that for the noblest, purest, most widely diffused and +blessedly operative kinds of service of man, there is no motive and +spring anywhere except 'He loved me, and gave Himself for me.' And, +bought by that service and that blood, it will be possible, and it +is obligatory upon all of us, to 'do unto others,' as He Himself +said, 'as I have done to you.' 'The servant is not greater than his +Lord.' + + + + +WHAT THE HISTORIC CHRIST TAUGHT ABOUT HIS DEATH + + + 'The Son of Man came... to give His life a ransom for + many.'--Matt. xx. 28. + +We hear a great deal at present about going back to 'the Christ of +the Gospels.' In so far as that phrase and the movement of thought +which it describes are a protest against the substitution of +doctrines for the Person whom the doctrines represent, I, for one, +rejoice in it. But I believe that the antithesis suggested by the +phrase, and by some of its advocates avowed, between the Christ of +the Gospels and the Christ of the Epistles, is false. The Christ of +the Gospels is the Christ of the Epistles, as I humbly venture to +believe. And I cannot but see that there is a possibility of a +movement which, carried out legitimately, should command the fullest +sympathy of every Christian heart, degenerating into the rejection +of all the supernatural elements in the nature and work of our Lord, +and leaving us with a meagre human Christ, shrunken and impotent. +The Christ of the Gospels, by all means; but let it be the whole +Christ of all the Gospels, the Christ over whose cradle angels sang, +by whose empty grave angels watched, whose ascending form angels +beheld and proclaimed that He should come again to be our Judge. Go +back to that Christ, and all will be well. + +Now it seems to me that one direction in which there is a +possibility of such movement as I have referred to being one-sided +and harmful is in reference to the conception which we form of the +death of Jesus Christ. And therefore I ask you to listen for a few +moments to me at this time whilst I try to bring out what is plain +in the words before us; and is, as I humbly believe, interwoven in +the whole texture of all the Gospels--viz., the conception which +Jesus Christ Himself formed of the meaning of His death. + +I. The first thing that I notice is that the Christ of the Gospels +thought and taught that His death was to be His own act. + +I do not think that it is an undue or pedantic pressing of the +significance of the words before us, if I ask you to notice two of +the significant expressions in this text. 'The Son of Man +_came_,' and came 'to _give_ His life.' The one word refers to the act +of entrance into, the other to the act of departure from, this earthly +life. They correspond in so far as that both bring into prominence +Christ's own consent, volition, and action in the very two things +about which men are least consulted, their being born and their dying. + +'The Son of Man came.' Now if that expression occurred but once it +might be minimised as being only a synonym for birth, having no +special force. But if you will notice that it is our Lord's habitual +word about Himself, only varied occasionally by another one equally +significant when he says that He 'was sent'; and if you will further +notice that all through the Gospels He never but once speaks of +Himself as being 'born,' I think you will admit that I am not making +too much of a word when I say that when Christ, out of the depths of +His consciousness, said 'the Son of Man _came_,' He was teaching +us that He lived before He was born, and that behind the natural fact +of birth there lay the supernatural fact of His choosing to be +incarnated for man's redemption. The one instance in which He does +speak of Himself as 'being born' is most instructive in this +connection. For it was before the Roman governor; and He accompanied +the clause in which He said, 'To this end was I born'--which was +adapted to Pilate's level of intelligence--with another one which +seemed to be inserted to satisfy His own sense of fitness, rather +than for any light that it would give to its first hearer, 'And for +this cause came I into the world.' The two things were not synonymous; +but before the birth there was the coming, and Jesus was born because +the Eternal Word willed to come. So says the Christ of the Gospels; +and the Christ of the Epistles is represented as 'taking upon Him +the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man.' Do you +accept that as true of 'the historic Christ'? + +With precise correspondence, if we turn to the other end of His +life, we find the equally significant expression in my text which +asserts for it, too, that the other necessity to which men +necessarily and without their own volition bow was to Christ a +matter of choice. 'The Son of Man came to _give_.' 'No man +taketh it from Me,' as He said on another occasion. 'I lay it down +of Myself.' 'The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.' 'My +flesh ... I give for the world's life.' Now, brethren, we are not to +regard these words as mere vague expressions for a willing surrender +to the necessity of death, but as expressing what I believe is +taught us all through Scripture, and is fundamental to any real +grasp of the real Christ, that He died because He chose, and chose +because He loved. What meant that 'loud voice' with which He said +'It is finished,' but that there was no physical exhaustion, such as +was usually the immediate occasion of death by crucifixion? What +meant that surprising rapidity with which the last moment came in +His case, to the astonishment of the stolid bystanders? They meant +the same thing as I believe that the Evangelists meant when they, +with one consent, employed expressions to describe Christ's death, +which may indeed be only euphemisms, but are apparently declarations +of its voluntary character. 'He gave up the ghost.' 'He yielded His +Spirit.' He breathed forth His life, and so He died. + +As one of the old fathers said, 'Who is this that thus falls asleep +when He wills? To die is weakness, but thus to die is power.' 'The +weakness of God is stronger than man.' The desperate king of Israel +bade his slave kill him, and when the menial shrunk from such +sacrilege he fell upon his own sword. Christ bade His servant Death, +'Do this,' and he did it; and dying, our Lord and Master declared +Himself the Lord and Master of Death. This is a part of the history +of the historic Christ. Do you believe it? + +II. Then, secondly, the Christ of the Gospels thought and taught +that His death was one chief aim of His coming. + +I have omitted words from my text which intervene between its first +and its last ones; not because I regard them as unimportant, but +because they would lead us into too wide a field to cover in one +sermon. But I would pray you to observe how the re-insertion of them +throws immense light upon the significance of the words which I have +chosen. 'The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to +minister.' That covers the whole ground of His gracious and gentle +dealings here on earth, His tenderness, self-abnegation, sympathy, +healing, and helpfulness. Then, side by side with that, and as the +crowning manifestation of His work of service, without which His +life--gracious, radiant, sweet as it is--would still want something +of its power, He sets His death. + +Surely that is an altogether unexampled phenomenon; altogether a +unique and unparalleled thing, that a _man_ should regard that +which for all workers, thinkers, speakers, poets, philanthropists, +is the sad term of their activity, as being a part of His work; and +not only a part, but so conspicuous a part that it was a purpose +which He had in view from the very beginning, and before the +beginning, of His earthly life. So Calvary was to Jesus Christ no +interruption, tragic and premature, of His life's activities. His +death was no mere alternative set before Him, which He chose rather +than be unfaithful or dumb. He did not die because He was hounded by +hostile priests, but He came on purpose that He might so end His +career. + +I need not remind you of, and space would not permit me to dwell +upon, other instances in the Gospels in which our Lord speaks the +same language. At the very beginning of His public ministry He told +the inquiring rabbi, who came to Him with the notion that He would +be somewhat flattered by His recognition by one of the authoritative +and wise pundits of the nation, that 'the Son of Man must be lifted +up.' The necessity was before Him, but it was no unwelcome +necessity, for it sprung from His own love. It was the very aim of +His coming, to live a Servant and to die a Ransom. + +Dear brethren, let me press upon you this plain truth, that no +conception of Christ's death which looks upon it merely as the +close, by pathetic sufferings, of a life to the activities of which +it adds nothing but pathos, approaches the signification of it which +inheres in the thought that this was the aim and purpose with which +Jesus Christ was incarnate, that He should live indeed the pure and +sweet life which He lived, but equally that He should die the +painful and bitter death which He died. He was not merely a martyr, +though the first of them, but something far more, as we shall see +presently. If to you the death of Jesus Christ is the same in kind, +however superior in degree, as those of patriots and reformers and +witnesses for the truth and martyrs for righteousness, then I humbly +venture to represent that, instead of going back to, you have gone +away from, the Christ of the Gospels, who said, 'The Son of Man came +... to give His life'; and that such a Christ is not a historic but +an imaginary one. + +III. So, thirdly, notice that the Christ of the Gospels thought and +taught that His death was a ransom. + +A ransom is a price paid in exchange for captives that they may be +liberated; or for culprits that they may be set free. And that was +Christ's thought of what He had to die for. There lay the 'must.' + +I do not dwell upon the conception of our condition involved in that +word. We are all bound and held by the chain of our sins. We all +stand guilty before God, and, as I believe, there is a necessity in +that loving divine nature whereby it is impossible that without a +ransom there can be, in the interests of mankind and in the +interests of righteousness, forgiveness of sins. I do not mean that +in the words before us there is a developed theory of atonement, but +I do mean that no man, dealing with them fairly, can strike out of +them the notion of vicarious suffering in exchange for, or instead +of, 'the many.' This is no occasion for theological discussion, nor +am I careful now to set forth a fully developed doctrine; but I am +declaring, as God helps me, what is to me, and I pray may be to you, +the central thought about that Cross of Calvary, that on it there is +made the sacrifice for the world's sins. + +And, dear brethren, I beseech you to consider, how can we save the +character of Jesus Christ, accepting these Gospels, which on the +hypothesis about which I am now speaking are valid sources of +knowledge, without recognising that He deliberately led His +disciples to believe that He died for--that is, instead of--them +that put their trust in Him? For remember that not only such words +as these of my text are to be taken into account. Remember that it +was the Christ of the Gospels who established that last rite of the +Lord's Supper, in which the broken bread, and the separation between +the bread and the wine, both indicated a violent death, and who said +about both the one and the other of the double symbols, 'For you.' I +do not understand how any body of professing believers, rejecting +Christ's death as the sacrifice for sin, can find a place in their +beliefs or in their practice for that institution of the Lord's +Supper, or can rightly interpret the sacred words then spoken. This +is why the Cross was Christ's aim. This is why He said, with His +dying breath, 'It is finished.' This truth is the explanation of His +words, 'The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.' + +And this truth of a ransom-price lies at the basis of all vigorous +Christianity. A Christianity without a dying Christ is a dying +Christianity. And history shows us that the expansiveness and +elevating power of the Gospel depend on the prominence given to the +sacrifice on the Cross. An old fable says that the only thing that +melts adamant is the blood of a lamb. The Gospel reveals the +precious blood of Jesus Christ, His death for us as a ransom, as the +one power which subdues hostility and binds hearts to Him. The +Christ of the Gospels is the Christ who taught that He died for us. + +IV. Lastly, the Christ of the Gospels thought and taught that His +death had world-wide power. + +He says here, 'A ransom for _many_.' Now that word is not used +in this instance in contradistinction to 'all,' nor in +contradistinction to 'few.' It is distinctly employed as emphasising +the contrast between the single death and the wide extent of its +benefits; and in terms which, rigidly taken, simply express +indefiniteness, it expresses universality. That that is so seems to +me to be plain enough, if we notice other places of Scripture to +which, at this stage of my sermon, I can but allude. For instance, +in Romans v. the two expressions, 'the many' and the 'all,' +alternate in reference to the extent of the power of Christ's +sacrifice for men. And the Apostle in another place, where probably +there may be an allusion to the words of the text, so varies them as +that he declares that Jesus Christ in His death was the ransom +'instead of all.' But I do not need to dwell upon these. 'Many' is a +vague word, and in it we see dim crowds stretching away beyond our +vision, for whom that death was to be the means of salvation. I take +it that the words of our text have an allusion to those in the great +prophecy in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, in which we read, 'By +His knowledge shall My righteous Servant' (mark the allusion in our +text, 'Who came to _minister_') 'justify many, for He shall +bear their iniquities.' + +So, brethren, I believe that I am not guilty of unduly widening out our +Lord's thought when I say that the indefinite 'many' is practically +'all.' And, brother, if 'all,' then _you_; if all, then _me_; if +all, then _each_. Think of a man, nineteen centuries ago, away +in a little insignificant corner of the world, standing up and saying, +'My death is the price paid in exchange for the world!' That is +meekness and lowliness of heart, is it? That is humility, so beautiful +in a teacher, is it? How any man can accept the veracity of these +narratives, believe that Jesus Christ said anything the least like +this, not believe that He was the Divine Son of the Father, the +Sacrifice for the world's sin, and yet profess--and honestly profess, +I doubt not, in many cases--to retain reverence and admiration, all +but adoration, for Him, I confess that I, for my poor part, cannot +understand. + +But I ask you, what you are going to do with these thoughts and +teachings of the Christ of the Gospels. Are you going to take them +for true? Are, you going to trust your salvation to Him? Are you +going to accept the ransom and say, 'O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; +Thou hast loosed my bonds'? Brethren, the Christ of the Gospels, by +all means; but the Christ that said, 'The Son of Man came to ... +give His life a ransom for many.' My Christ, and your Christ, and +the world's Christ is 'the Christ that died; yea, rather, that is +risen again; who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh +intercession for us.' + + + + +THE COMING OF THE KING TO HIS PALACE + + + 'And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come + to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus + two disciples, 2. Saying unto them, Go into the village + over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass + tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them + unto Me. 3. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall + say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he + will send them. 4. All this was done, that it might he + fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, + 5. Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King + cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a + colt the foal of an ass. 6. And the disciples went, and + did as Jesus commanded them, 7. And brought the ass, + and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they + set Him thereon. 8. And a very great multitude spread + their garments in the way; others cut down branches + from the trees, and strawed them in the way. 9. And the + multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, + saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is He that + cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. + 10. And when He was come into Jerusalem, all the city + was moved, saying, Who is this? 11. And the multitude + said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. + 12. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out + all them that sold and bought in the temple, and + overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the + seats of them that sold doves, 13. And said unto them, + It is written, My house shall be called the house of + prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. 14. And + the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple; and + He healed them. 15. And when the chief priests and + scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the + children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to + the Son of David, they were sore displeased, 16. And + said unto Him, Hearest Thou what these say? And Jesus + saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the + mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise?' + --MATT. xxi. 1-16. + +Jesus spent His last Sabbath in the quiet home at Bethany with +Lazarus and his sisters. Some sense of His approaching death tinged +the modest festivities of that evening with sadness, and spoke in +Mary's 'anointing of His body for the burying.' The pause was brief, +and, with the dawn of Sunday, He set Himself again to tread the road +to the cross. Who can doubt that He felt the relief of that +momentary relaxation of the strain on His spirit, and the +corresponding pressure of its renewed tightening? This passage shows +Him putting out from the quiet haven and facing the storm again. It +is in two main sections, dealing respectively with the royal +procession, and the acts of the King in the temple. + +I. The procession of the King. The first noteworthy point is that +our Lord initiates the whole incident, and deliberately sets Himself +to evoke the popular enthusiasm, by a distinct voluntary fulfilment +of a Messianic prophecy. The allusion to the prophecy, in His +sending for the colt and mounting it, may have escaped the disciples +and the crowds of pilgrims; but they rightly caught His intention to +make a solemn triumphal entry into the city, and responded with a +burst of enthusiasm, which He expected and wished. The poor garments +flung hastily on the animals, the travel-stained cloaks cast on the +rocky path, the branches of olive and palm waved in the hands, and +the tumult of acclaim, which shrilly echoed the words of the psalm, +and proclaimed Him to be the Son of David, are all tokens that the +crowds hailed Him as their King, and were all permitted and welcomed +by Him. All this is in absolute opposition to His usual action, +which had been one long effort to damp down inflammable and +unspiritual Messianic hopes, and to avoid the very enthusiasm which +now surges round Him unchecked. Certainly that calm figure, sitting +on the slow-pacing ass, with the noisy multitude pressing round Him, +is strangely unlike Him, who hid Himself among the hills when they +sought to make Him a King. His action is the more remarkable, if it +be remembered that the roads were alive with pilgrims, most of whom +passing through Bethany would be Galileans; that they had seen +Lazarus walking about the village, and knew who had raised him; that +the Passover festival was _the_ time in all the year when +popular tumults were to be expected; and that the crowds going to +Jerusalem were met by a crowd coming from it, bent on seeing the +doer and the subject of the great miracle. Into this heap of +combustibles our Lord puts a light. He must have meant that it +should blaze as it did. + +What is the reason for this contrast? The need for the former +reticence no longer existed. There was no fear now of His teaching +and ministry being interrupted by popular outburst. He knew that it +was finished, and that His hour had come. Therefore, the same motive +of filial obedience which had led Him to avoid what would prevent +His discharging His Father's commission, now impelled Him to draw +the attention of the nation and its rulers to the full extent of His +claims, and to put the plain issue of their acceptance or rejection +in the most unmistakable manner. A certain divine decorum, if we may +so call it, required that once He should enter the city as its King. +Some among the shouting crowds might have their enthusiasm purified +and spiritualised, if once it were directed to Him. It was for us, +no less than for them, that this one interruption of His ordinary +method was adopted by Him, that we too might ponder the fact that He +laid His hand on that magnificent prophecy, and said, 'It is mine. I +am the King.' + +The royal procession is also a revelation of the character of the +King and the nature of His kingdom. A strange King this, indeed, who +has not even an ass of His own, and for followers, peasants with +palm branches instead of swords! What would a Roman soldier or one +of Herod's men have thought of that rustic procession of a pauper +prince on an ass, and a hundred or two of weaponless, penniless men? +Christ's one moment of royal pomp is as eloquent of His humiliation +as the long stretch of His lowly life is. And yet, as is always the +case, side by side with the lowliness there gleams the veiled +splendour. He had to borrow the colt, and the message in which He +asks for it is a strange paradox. 'The Lord hath need of him'--so +great was the poverty of so great a King. But it spoke, too, of a +more than human knowledge, and of an authority which had only to +require in order to receive. Some farming villager, no doubt, who +was a disciple but secretly, gladly yielded his beasts. The prophecy +which Matthew quotes, with the omission of some words, from +Zechariah, and the addition of the first clause from Isaiah, is +symbolic, and would have been amply fulfilled in the mission and +character of Christ, though this event had never taken place. But +just as it is symbolic, so this external fulfilment, which is +intended to point to the real fulfilment, is also symbolic. The +chariot and the horse are the emblems of conquerors. It is fitting +that the Prince of Peace should make His state entry on a colt, +unridden before, and saddled only with a garment. Zechariah meant +that Zion's King should not reign by the right of the strongest, and +that all His triumphs should be won by lowly meekness. Christ meant +the same by His remarkable act. And has not the picture of Him, +throned thus, stamped for ever on the imagination of the world a +profounder sense of the inmost nature of His kingdom than many words +would have done? Have we learned the lesson of the gentleness which +belongs to His kingdom, and of the unchristian character of war and +violence? Do we understand what the Psalmist meant when he sang, 'In +thy majesty ride on prosperously, because of ... meekness'? Let us +not forget the other picture, 'Behold, a white horse, and He that +sat thereon, called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He doth +judge and make war.' + +The entry may remind us also of the worthlessness of mere enthusiastic +feeling in reference to Jesus Christ. The day was the Sunday. How many +of that crowd were shouting as loudly, 'Crucify Him!' and 'Not this +man, but Barabbas!' on the Friday? The palm-branches had not faded, +where they had been tossed, before the fickle crowd had swung round +to the opposite mood. Perhaps the very exuberance of feeling at the +beginning, had something to do with the bitterness of the execrations +at the end, of the week. He had not answered their expectations, but, +instead of heading a revolt, had simply taught in the temple, and +meekly let Himself be laid hold of. Nothing succeeds like success, +and no idol is so quickly forsaken as the idol of a popular rising. +All were eager to disclaim connection with Him, and to efface the +remembrance of their Sunday's hosannas by their groans round His +gibbet. But there is a wider lesson here. No enthusiasm can be too +intense which is based upon a true sense of our need of Christ, and +of His work for us; but it is easy to excite apparently religious +emotion by partial presentations of Him, and such excitement foams +itself away by its very violence, like some Eastern river that in +winter time dashes down the wady with irresistible force, and in +summer is bone dry. Unless we know Christ to be the Saviour of our +souls and the Lamb of God, we shall soon tire of singing hosannas in +His train, and want a king with more pretensions; but if we have +learned who and what He is to us, then let us open our mouths wide, +and not be afraid of letting the world hear our shout of praise. + +II. The coming of the King in the temple. The discussion of the +accuracy of Matthew's arrangement of events here is unnecessary. He +has evidently grouped, as usual, incidents which have a common +bearing, and wishes to put these three, of the cleansing, the +healing, and the pleasure in the children's praise, as the +characteristic acts of the King in the temple. We can scarcely avoid +seeing in the first of the three a reference to Malachi's prophecy, +'The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple ... And +He shall purify the sons of Levi.' His first act, when in manhood He +visited the temple, had been to cleanse. His first act when He +enters it as its Lord is the same. The abuse had grown again apace. +Much could be said in its vindication, as convenient and harmless, +and it was too profitable to be lightly abandoned. But the altar of +Mammon so near the altar of God was sacrilege in His eyes, and +though He had passed the traders unmolested many times since that +first driving out, now that He solemnly comes to claim His rights, +He cannot but repeat it. It is perhaps significant that His words +now have both a more sovereign and a more severe tone than before. +Then He had spoken of 'My Father's house,' now it is 'My house,' +which are a part of His quotation indeed, but not therefore +necessarily void of reference to Himself. He is exercising the +authority of a son over His own house, and bears Himself as Lord of +the temple. Before, He charged them with making it a 'house of +merchandise'; now, with turning it into a robber's cave. Evil +rebuked and done again is worse than before. Trafficking in things +pertaining to the altar is even more likely than other trading to +cross the not always very well defined line which separates trade +from trickery and commerce from theft. That lesson needs to be laid +to heart in many quarters now. There is always a fringe of moneyed +interests round Christ's Church, seeking gain out of religious +institutions; and their stands have a wonderful tendency to creep +inwards from the court of the Gentiles to holier places. The +parasite grows very quickly, and Christ had to deal with it more +than once to keep down its growth. The sellers of doves and changers +of money into the sacred shekel were venial offenders compared with +many in the Church, and the race is not extinct. If Christ were to +come to His house to-day, in bodily form, who doubts that He would +begin, as He did before, by driving the traders out of His temple? +How many 'most respectable' usages and people would have to go, if +He did! + +The second characteristic, or we might say symbolical, act is the +healing of the blind and lame. Royal state and cleansing severity +are wonderfully blended with tender pity and the gentle hand of +sovereign virtue to heal. The very manifestation of the former drew +the needy to Him; and the blind, though they could not see, and the +lame, though they could not walk, managed to grope and hobble their +way to Him, not afraid of His severity, nor daunted by His royalty. +No doubt they haunted the temple precincts as beggars, with perhaps +as little sense of its sacredness as the money-changers; but their +misery kindled a flicker of confidence and desire, to which He who +tends the dimmest wick till it breaks into clear flame could not but +respond. Though in His house He casts out the traders, He will heal +the cripples and the blind, who know their need, and faintly trust +His heart and power. Such a trait could not be wanting in this +typical representation of the acts of the King. + +Finally, He encourages and casts the shield of His approval round +the children's praises. How natural it is that the children, pleased +with the stir and not yet drilled into conventionalism, should have +kept up their glad shouts, even inside the temple enclosure! How +their fresh treble voices ring yet through all these centuries! The +priests had, no doubt, been nursing their wrath at all that had been +going on, but they had not dared to interfere with the cleansing, +nor, for very shame, with the healings; but now they see their +opportunity. This is a clear breach of all propriety, and that is +the crime of crimes in the eyes of such people. They had kept quite +cool and serenely contemptuous, amid the stir of the glad +procession, and they did not much care though He healed some +beggars; but to have this unseemly noise, though it was praise, was +more than they could stand. Ecclesiastical martinets, and men whose +religion is mostly ceremony, are, of course, more 'moved with +indignation' at any breach of ceremonial regulations than at holes +made in graver laws. Nothing makes men more insensitive to the ring +of real worship than being accustomed to the dull decorum of formal +worship. Christ answers their 'hearest thou?' with a 'did ye never +read?' and shuts their mouths with words so apposite in their +plainest meaning that even they are silenced. To Him these young +ringing hosannas are 'perfect praise,' and worth any quantity of +rabbis' preachments. In their deeper sense, His words declare that +the ears of God and of His Son, the Lord of the temple, are more +gladly filled with the praises of the 'little ones,' who know their +weakness, and hymn His goodness with simple tongue, than with +heartless eloquence of words or pomp of worship. The psalm from +which the words are taken declares man's superiority over the +highest works of God's hands, and the perfecting of the divine +praise from his lips. We are but as the little children of creation, +but because we know sin and redemption, we lead the chorus of +heaven. As St. Bernard says, 'Something is wanting to the praise of +heaven, if those be wanting who can say, "We went through fire and +through water; and Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place."' In +like manner, those praise Him most acceptably among men who know +their feebleness, and with stammering lips humbly try to breathe +their love, their need, and their trust. + + + + +A NEW KIND OF KING + + + 'All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which + was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter + of Zion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and + sitting upon an ass.'--MATT. xxi. 4, 5. + +Our Lord's entrance into Jerusalem is one of the comparatively few +events which are recorded in all the four Gospels. Its singular +unlikeness to the rest of His life, and its powerful influence in +bringing about the Crucifixion, may account for its prominence in +the narratives. It took place probably on the Sunday of Passion +Week. Before the palm branches were withered the enthusiasm had died +away, and the shouting crowd had found out that this was not the +sort of king that they wanted. They might have found that out, even +by the very circumstances of the entrance, for they were profoundly +significant; though their meaning, like so much of the rest of +Christ's life, was less clear to the partakers and spectators than +it is to us. 'These things understood not the disciples at the +first,' says John in closing his narrative of the entrance, 'but +when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that they had done +these things unto Him.' + +My object in this sermon is not at all to attempt a pictorial +treatment of this narrative, for these Gospels tell it us a great +deal better than any of us can tell it after them; but to seek to +bring out, if it may be, two or three aspects of its significance. + +I. First, then, I ask you to consider its significance as an +altogether exceptional fact in Christ's life. + +Throughout the whole of the preceding period, He had had two aims +distinctly in view. One was to shun publicity; and the other was to +damp down the heated, vulgar anticipations of the multitude, who +expected a temporal king. And now here He deliberately, and of set +purpose, takes a step which is like flinging a spark into a powder +barrel. The nation was assembled in crowds, full of the unwholesome +excitement which attended their meeting for the annual feast. All +were in a quiver of expectation; and knowing that, Jesus Christ +originates this scene by His act of sending the two disciples into +the village over against them, to 'bring the ass, and the colt the +foal of an ass.' The reasons for a course so entirely opposed to all +the preceding must have been strong. Let us try to see what they +were. + +First, He did it in order to precipitate the conflict which was to end +in His death. Now, had He any right to do that? Knowing as He did the +ferment of expectation into which He was thrusting this new element +of disturbance, and foreseeing, as He must have done, that it would +sharpen the hostility of the rulers of the people to a murderous +degree, how can He be acquitted of one of two things--either singular +shortsightedness or rash foolhardiness in taking such a step? Was He +justified, or was He not? + +If we are to look at His conduct from ordinary points of view, the +answer must certainly be that He was not. And we can only understand +this, and all the rest of His actions during the fateful three or +four days that followed it, if we recognise in them the fixed +resolve of One who knew that His mission was not only to live and to +teach by word and life, but to die, and by death to deliver the +world. I take it that it is very hard to save the character of Jesus +Christ for our reverence if we refuse to regard His death as for our +redemption. But if He came, and knew that He came, not only 'to +minister' but 'to give His life a ransom for many,' then we can +understand how He hastened to the Cross, and deliberately set a +light to the train which was to end in that great explosion. On any +other hypothesis it seems to me immensely hard to account for His +act here. + +Then, still further, looking at this distinctly exceptional fact in +our Lord's life, we see in it a very emphatic claim to very singular +prerogative and position. He not only thereby presented Himself +before the nation in their collective capacity as being the King of +Israel, but He also did a very strange thing. He dressed Himself, so +to speak, in order to fulfil a prophecy. He posed before the world +as being the Person who was meant by sacred old words. And His +Entrance upon the slow-pacing colt was His voluntary and solemn +assertion that He was the Person of whom the whole stream and +current of divinely sent premonitions and forecasts had been +witnessing from the beginning. He claimed thereby to be the King of +Israel and the Fulfiller of the divine promises that were of old. + +Now again, I have to ask the question, Was He right, or was He +wrong? If He was right, then He is a great deal more than a wise +Teacher, and a perfect Example of excellence. If He was wrong, He is +a great deal less. There is no escape from that alternative, as it +seems to me, but by the desperate expedient of denying that He ever +did this thing which this narrative tells us that He did. At all +events I beseech you all, dear friends, to take fairly into your +account of the character of Jesus Christ, this fact, that He, the +meek, the gentle, said that He was meek, and everybody has believed +Him; and that once, in the very crisis of His life, and in +circumstances which make the act most conspicuous, He who always +shunned publicity, nor 'caused His voice to be heard in the +streets,' and steadfastly put away from Himself the vulgar homage +that would have degraded Him into a mere temporal monarch, did +assert that He was the King of Israel and the Fulfiller of prophecy. +Ask yourselves, What does that fact mean? + +And then, still further, looking at the act as exceptional in our +Lord's life, note that it was done in order to make one final, +solemn appeal and offer to the men who beheld Him. It was the last +bolt in His quiver. All else had failed, perhaps this might succeed. +We know not the depths of the mysteries of that divine foreknowledge +which, even though it foresees failure, ceases not to plead and to +woo obstinate hearts. But this we may thankfully learn, that, just +as with despairing hope, but with unremitting energy, Jesus Christ, +often rejected, offered Himself once more if perchance He might win +men to repentance, so the loving patience and long-suffering of our +God cease not to plead ever with us. 'Last of all He sent unto them +His Son, saying, They will reverence My Son when they see Him'; and +yet the expectation was disappointed, and the Son was slain. We +touch deep mysteries, but the persistence of the pleading and +rejected love and pity of our God shine through this strange fact. + +II. And now, secondly, let me ask you to note its significance as a +symbol. + +The prophecy which two out of the four evangelists--viz., Matthew and +John--regard as having been, in some sense, fulfilled by the Entrance +into Jerusalem, would have been fulfilled quite as truly if there had +been no Entrance. For the mere detail of the prophecy is but a +picturesque way of setting forth its central and essential point--viz., +the meekness of the King. So our Lord's fulfilment is only an external, +altogether subsidiary, accomplishment of the prophecy; and in fact, +like some other of the external correspondences between His life and +the outward details of Old Testament prophecy, is intended for little +more than a picture or a signpost which may direct our thoughts to the +inward correspondence, which is the true fulfilment. + +So then, the deed, like the prophecy after which it is moulded, is +wholly and entirely of importance in its symbolical aspect. + +The symbolism is clear enough. This is a new kind of King. He comes, +not mounted on a warhorse, or thundering across the battlefield in a +scythe-armed chariot, like the Pharaohs and the Assyrian monarchs, +who have left us their vainglorious monuments, but mounted on the +emblem of meekness, patience, gentleness, and peace. And He is a +pauper King, for He has to borrow the beast on which He rides, and +His throne is draped with the poor, perhaps ragged, robes of a +handful of fishermen. And His attendants are not warriors bearing +spears, but peasants with palm branches. And the salutation of His +royalty is not the blare of trumpets, but the 'Hosanna!' from a +thousand throats. That is not the sort of King that the world calls +a King. The Roman soldiers might well have thought they were +perpetrating an exquisite jest when they thrust the reed into His +unresisting hand, and crushed down the crown of thorns on His +bleeding brows. + +But the symbol discloses the very secret of His Kingdom, the +innermost mysteries of His own character and of the forces to which +He intrusts the further progress of His word. Gentleness is royal +and omnipotent; force and violence are feeble. The Lord is in the +still, small voice, not in the earthquake, nor the fire, nor the +mighty wind. The dove's light pinion will fly further than the wings +of Rome's eagles, with their strong talons and blood-dyed beaks. And +the kingdom that is established in meekness, and rules by gentleness +and for gentleness, and has for its only weapons the power of love +and the omnipotence of patience, that is the kingdom which shall be +eternal and universal. + +Now all that is a great deal more than pretty sentiment; it has the +closest practical bearing upon our lives. How slow God's Church has +been to believe that the strength of Christ's kingdom is meekness! +Professing Christian men have sought to win the world to their side, +and by wealth or force or persecution, or this, that, or the other +of the weapons out of the world's armoury, to promote the kingdom of +Christ. But it has all been in vain. There is only one power that +conquers hate, and that is meek love. There is only one way by which +Christ's kingdom can stand firm, and that is its unworldly contrast +to all the manner of human dominion. Wheresoever God's Church has +allied itself with secular sovereignties, and trusted in the arm of +flesh, there has the fine gold become dimmed. Endurance wears out +persecution, patient submission paralyses hostile violence, for you +cannot keep on striking down unresisting crowds with the sword. The +Church of Christ is an anvil that has been beaten upon by many +hammers, and it has worn them all out. Meekness is victorious, and +the kingdom of Christ can only be advanced by the faithful +proclamation of His gentle love, from lips that are moved by hearts +which themselves are conformed to His patient image. + +Then, still further, let me remind you that this symbol carries in +it, as it seems to me, the lesson of the radical incompatibility of +war with Christ's kingdom and dominion. It has taken the world all +these centuries to begin to learn that lesson. But slowly men are +coming to it, and the day will dawn when all the pomp of warfare, +and the hell of evil passions from which it comes, and which it +stimulates, will be felt to be as utterly incompatible with the +spirit of Christianity as slavery is felt to-day. The prophecy which +underlies our symbol is very significant in this respect. +Immediately upon that vision of the meek King throned on the colt +the foal of an ass, follows this: 'And I will cut off the chariot +from Ephraim, and the horses from Jerusalem; and the battle bow +shall be cut off, and He shall speak peace unto the heathen.' + +Let me beseech you, Christian men and women, to lay to heart the +duty of Christ's followers in reference to the influence and +leavening of public opinion upon this matter, and to see to it that, +in so far as we can help, we set ourselves steadfastly against that +devilish spirit which still oppresses with an incubus almost +intolerable, the nations of so-called Christendom. Lift up your +voices be not afraid, but cry, 'We are the followers of the Prince +of Peace, and we war against the war that is blasphemy against His +dominion.' + +And so, still further, note the practical force of this symbol as +influencing our own conduct. We are the followers of the meek +Christ. It becomes _us_ to walk in all meekness and gentleness. +'Spirited conduct' is the world's euphemism for unchristian conduct, +in ninety-nine cases out of the hundred. The perspective of virtue +has altered since Jesus Christ taught us how to love. The old +heathen virtues of magnanimity, fortitude, and the like have 'with +shame to take a lower room.' There is something better than these. +The saint has all the virtues of the old heathen hero, and some more +besides, which are higher than these, and those which he has in +common, he has in different proportion. The flaunting tulips and +peonies of the garden of the world seem to outshine the white +snowdrops and the glowing, modest little violets below their leaves, +but the former are vulgar, and they drop very soon, and the latter, +if paler and more delicate, are refined in their celestial beauty. +The slow-pacing steed on which Jesus Christ rides will out-travel +the fiery warhorse, and will pursue its patient, steadfast path till +He 'bring forth righteousness unto judgment,' and 'all the upright +in heart shall follow Him.' + +III. Lastly, notice the significance of this fact as a prophecy. It +was, as I have pointed out, the last solemn appeal to the nation, +and in a very real sense it was Christ's coming to judgment. It is +impossible to look at it without seeing, besides all its other +meanings, gleaming dimly through it, the anticipations of that other +coming, when the Lord Himself 'shall descend with a shout, with the +voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God.' + +Let me bring into connection with the scene of my text three others, +gathered from various parts of Scripture. In the forty-fifth Psalm +we find, side by side with the great words, 'Ride on prosperously +because of truth and _meekness_ and righteousness,' the others, +'Thine arrows are sharp in the hearts of the king's enemies; the +people shall fall under Thee.' Now, though it is possible that that +later warlike figure may be merely the carrying out of the thought +which is more gently put before us in the former words, still it +looks as if there were two sides to the conquering manifestation of +the king--one being in 'meekness and truth and righteousness,' and +the other in some sense destructive and punitive. + +But, however that may be, my second scene is drawn from the last +book of Scripture, where we read that, when the first seal was +opened, there rode forth a Figure, crowned, mounted upon a white +steed, bearing bow and arrow, 'conquering and to conquer.' And, +though that again may be but an image of the victorious progress of +the gentle Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the whole earth, still +it comes as one in a series of judgments, and may rather be taken to +express the punitive effects which follow its proclamation even here +and now. + +But there can be no doubt with regard to the third of the scenes +which I connect with the incident of which we are discoursing: 'And +I saw heaven opened, and beheld a white horse; and He that sat upon +Him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness doth He judge +and make war.... And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with +it He should smite the nations; and He shall rule them with a rod of +iron; and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of +Almighty God.' That is the Christ who came into Jerusalem on the colt +the foal of an ass. That is the Christ who is meek and long-suffering. +There is a reserve of punitive and destructive power in the meek King. +And oh I what can be so terrible as the anger of meekness, the wrath +of infinite gentleness? In the triumphal entry, we find that, when +the procession turned the rocky shoulder of Olivet, and the long line +of the white city walls, with the gilding of the Temple glittering in +the sunshine, burst upon their view, the multitude lifted up their +voices in gladness. But Christ sat there, and as He looked across the +valley, and beheld, with His divine prescience, the city, now so +joyous and full of stir, sitting solitary and desolate, He lifted up +His voice in loud wailing. The Christ wept because He must punish, +but He punished though He wept. + +Our Judge is the gentle Jesus, therefore we can hope. The gentle +Jesus is our Judge, therefore let us not presume. I beseech you, +brethren, lay, as these poor people did their garments, your lusts +and proud wills in His way, and join the welcoming shout that hails +the King, 'meek and having salvation.' And then, when He comes forth +to judge and to destroy, you will not be amongst the ranks of the +enemies, whom He will ride down and scatter, but amongst 'the armies +that follow Him, ... clothed in fine linen, clean and pure.' + +'Kiss the Son lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way when His +wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their +trust in Him.' + + + + +THE VINEYARD AND ITS KEEPERS + + + 'Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, + which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, + and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and + let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: + 34. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent + his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive + the fruits of it. 35. And the husbandmen took his + servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned + another. 36. Again, he sent other servants more than + the first: and they did unto them likewise. 37. But + last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They + will reverence my son. 38. But when the husbandmen saw + the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; + come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his + inheritance. 39. And they caught him, and cast him out + of the vineyard, and slew him. 40. When the lord + therefore of the vineyard cometh what will he do unto + those husbandmen? 41. They say unto him, He will + miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out + his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render + him the fruits in their seasons. 42. Jesus saith unto + them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone + which the builders rejected, the same is become the + head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is + marvellous in our eyes? 43. Therefore say I unto you, + The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given + to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 44. And + whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but + on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to + powder. 45. And when the chief priests and Pharisees + had heard His parables, they perceived that He spake of + them. 46. But when they sought to lay hands on Him, + they feared the multitude, because they took Him for a + prophet.'--MATT. xxi. 33-46. + +This parable was apparently spoken on the Tuesday of the Passion +Week. It was a day of hand-to-hand conflict with the Jewish +authorities and of exhausting toil, as the bare enumeration of its +incidents shows. It included all that Matthew records between verse +20 of this chapter and the end of the twenty-fifth chapter--the +answer to the deputation from the Sanhedrin; the three parables +occasioned by it, namely, those of the two sons, this one, and that +of the marriage of the king's son; the three answers to the traps of +the Pharisees and Herodians about the tribute, of the Sadducees +about the resurrection, and of the ruler about the chief +commandment; Christ's question to His questioners about the Son and +Lord of David; the stern woes hurled at the unmasked hypocrites; to +which must be added, from other gospels, the sweet eulogium on the +widow's mite, and the deep saying to the Greeks about the corn of +wheat, with, possibly, the incident of the woman taken in adultery; +and then, following all these, the solemn prophecies of the end +contained in Matthew xxiv. and xxv., spoken on the way to Bethany, +as the evening shadows were falling. What a day! What a fountain of +wisdom and love which poured out such streams! The pungent severity +of this parable, with its transparent veil of narrative, is only +appreciated by keeping clearly in view the circumstances and the +listeners. They had struck at Jesus with their question as to His +authority, and He parries the blow. Now it is His turn, and the +sharp point goes home. + +I. The first stage is the preparation of the vineyard, in which +three steps are marked. It is planted and furnished with all +appliances needful for making wine, which is its great end. The +direct divine origin of the religious ideas and observances of +'Judaism' is thus asserted by Christ. The only explanation of them +is that God enclosed that bit of the wilderness, and with His own +hands set growing there these exotics. Neither the theology nor the +ritual is of man's establishing. We need not seek for special +meanings for wall, wine-press, and tower. They simply express the +completeness of the equipment of the vineyard, as in Isaiah's song, +which lies at the foundation of the parable, and suggest his +question, 'What could have been done more?' + +Thus furnished, the vineyard is next handed over to the husbandmen, +who, in Matthew, are exclusively the rulers, while in Luke they are +the people. No doubt it was 'like people, like priest.' The strange +dominion of the Pharisees rested entirely on popular consent, and +their temper accurately indexed that of the nation. The Sanhedrin +was the chief object at which Christ aimed the parable. But it only +gave form and voice to the national spirit, and 'the people loved to +have it so.' National responsibilities are not to be slipped out of +by being shifted on to the broad shoulders of governments or +influential men. Who lets them be governments and influential? + + 'Guv'ment ain't to answer for it, + God will send the bill to you.' + +Christ here teaches both rulers and ruled the ground and purpose of +their privileges. They prided themselves on these as their own, but +they were only tenants. They made their 'boast of the law'; but they +forgot that fruit was the end of the divine planting and equipment. +Holiness and glad obedience were what God sought, and when He found +them, He was refreshed as with 'grapes in the wilderness.' + +Having installed the husbandmen, the owner goes into another +country. The cluster of miracles which inaugurate an epoch of +revelation are not continued beyond its beginning. Centuries of +comparative divine silence followed the planting of the vineyard. +Having given us our charge, God, as it were, steps aside to leave us +room to work as we will, and so to display what we are made of. He +is absent in so far as conspicuous oversight and retribution are +concerned. He is present to help, love, and bless. The faithful +husbandman has Him always near, a joy and a strength, else no fruit +would grow; but the sin and misery of the unfaithful are that they +think of Him as far off. + +II. Then comes the habitual ill-treatment of the messengers. These +are, of course, the prophets, whose office was not only to foretell, +but to plead for obedience and trust, the fruits sought by God. The +whole history of the nation is summed up in this dark picture. +Generation after generation of princes, priests, and people had done +the same thing. There is no more remarkable historical fact than +that of the uniform hostility of the Jews to the prophets. That a +nation of such a sort as always to hate and generally to murder them +should have had them in long succession, throughout its history, is +surely inexplicable on any naturalistic hypothesis. Such men were +not the natural product of the race, nor of its circumstances, as +their fate shows. How did they spring up? No 'philosophy of Jewish +history' explains the anomaly except the one stated here,--'He sent +His servants.' We are told nowadays that the Jews had a natural +genius for religion, just as the Greeks for art and thought, and the +Romans for law and order, and that that explains the origin of the +prophets. Does it explain their treatment? + +The hostility of the husbandmen grows with indulgence. From beating +they go on to killing, and stoning is a specially savage form of +killing. The opposition which began, as the former parable tells us, +with polite hypocrisy and lip obedience, changed, under the stimulus +of prophetic appeals, to honest refusal, and from that to violence +which did not hesitate to slay. The more God pleads with men, the +more self-conscious and bitter becomes their hatred; and the more +bitter their hatred, the more does He plead, sending other +messengers, more perhaps in number, or possibly of more weight, with +larger commission and clearer light. Thus both the antagonistic +forces grow, and the worse men become, the louder and more +beseeching is the call of God to them. That is always true; and it +is also ever true that he who begins with 'I go, sir, and goes not, +is in a fair way to end with stoning the prophets. + +Christ treats the whole long series of violent rejections as the +acts of the same set of husbandmen. The class or nation was one, as +a stream is one, though all its particles are different; and the +Pharisees and scribes, who stood with frowning hatred before Him as +He spoke, were the living embodiment of the spirit which had +animated all the past. In so far as they inherited their taint, and +repeated their conduct, the guilt of all the former generations was +laid at their door. They declared themselves their predecessors' +heirs; and as they reproduced their actions, they would have to bear +the accumulated weight of the consequences. + +III. Verses 37-39 tell of the mission of the Son and of its fatal +issue. Three points are prominent in them. The first is the unique +position which Christ here claims, with unwonted openness and +decisiveness, as apart from and far above all the prophets. They +constitute one order, but He stands alone, sustaining a closer +relation to God. They were faithful 'as servants,' but He 'as a +Son,' or, as Mark has it, 'the only and beloved Son.' The listeners +understood Him well enough. The assertion, which seemed audacious +blasphemy to them, fitted in with all His acts in that last week, +which was not only the crisis of His life, but of the nation's fate. +Rulers and people must decide whether they will own or reject their +King, and they must do it with their eyes open. Jesus claimed to +fill a unique position. Was He right or wrong in His claim? If He +was wrong, what becomes of His wisdom, His meekness, His religion? +Is a religious teacher, who made the mistake of thinking that He was +the Son of God in a sense in which no other man is so, worthy of +admiration? If He was right, what becomes of a Christianity which +sees in Him only the foremost of the prophets? + +The next point marked is the owner's vain hope, in sending his Son. He +thought that He would be welcomed, and He was disappointed. It was His +last attempt. Christ knew Himself to be God's last appeal, as He is to +all men, as well as to that generation. He is the last arrow in God's +quiver. When it has shot that bolt, the resources even of divine love +are exhausted, and no more can be done for the vineyard than He has +done for it. We need not wonder at unfulfilled hopes being here +ascribed to God. The startling thought only puts into language the +great mystery which besets all His pleadings with men, which are +carried on, though they often fail, and which must, therefore, in view +of His foreknowledge, be regarded as carried on with the knowledge that +they will fail. That is the long-suffering patience of God. The +difficulty is common to the words of the parable and to the facts of +God's unwearied pleading with impenitent men. Its surface is a +difficulty, its heart is an abyss of all-hoping charity. + +The last point is the vain calculation of the husbandmen. Christ +puts hidden motives into plain words, and reveals to these rulers +what they scarcely knew of their own hearts. Did they, in their +secret conclaves, look each other in the face, and confess that He +was the Heir? Did He not Himself ground His prayer for their pardon +on their ignorance? But their ignorance was not entire, else they +had had no sin; neither was their knowledge complete, else they had +had no pardon. Beneath many an obstinate denial of Him lies a secret +confession, or misgiving, which more truly speaks the man than does +the loud negation. And such strange contradictions are men, that the +secret conviction is often the very thing which gives bitterness and +eagerness to the hostility. So it was with some of those whose +hidden suspicions are here set in the light. How was the rulers' or +the people's wish to 'seize on His inheritance' their motive for +killing Jesus? Their great sin was their desire to have their +national prerogatives, and yet to give no true obedience. The ruling +class clung to their privileges and forgot their responsibilities, +while the people were proud of their standing as Jews, and careless +of God's service. Neither wished to be reminded of their debt to the +Lord of the vineyard, and their hostility to Jesus was mainly +because He would call on them for fruits. If they could get this +unwelcome and persistent voice silenced, they could go on in the +comfortable old fashion of lip-service and real selfishness. It is +an account, in vividly parabolic language, not only of _their_ +hostility, but of that of many men who are against Him. They wish to +possess life and its good, without being for ever pestered with +reminders of the terms on which they hold it, and of God's desire +for their love and obedience. They have a secret feeling that Christ +has the right to ask for their hearts, and so they often turn from +Him angrily, and sometimes hate Him. + +With what sad calmness does Jesus tell the fate of the son, so +certain that it is already as good as done! It _was_ done in +their counsels, and yet He does not cease to plead, if perchance +some hearts may be touched and withdraw themselves from the +confederacy of murder. + +IV. We have next the self-condemnation from unwilling lips. Our Lord +turns to the rulers with startling and dramatic suddenness, which +may have thrown them off their guard, so that their answer leaped +out before they had time to think whom it hit. His solemn +earnestness laid a spell on them, which drew their own condemnation +from them, though they had penetrated the thin veil of the parable, +and knew full well who the husbandmen were. Nor could they refuse to +answer a question about legal punishments for dishonesty, which was +put to them, the fountains of law, without incurring a second time +the humiliation just inflicted when He had forced them to +acknowledge that they, the fountains of knowledge, did not know +where John came from. So from all these motives, and perhaps from a +mingling of audacity, which would brazen it out and pretend not to +see the bearing of the question, they answer. Like Caiaphas in his +counsel, and Pilate with his writing on the Cross, and many another, +they spoke deeper things than they knew, and confessed beforehand +how just the judgments were, which followed the very lines marked +out by their own words. + +V. Then come the solemn application and naked truth of the parable. +We have no need to dwell on the cycle of prophecies concerning the +corner-stone, nor on the original application of the psalm. We must +be content with remarking that our Lord, in this last portion of His +address, throws away even the thin veil of parable, and speaks the +sternest truth in the nakedest words. He puts His own claim in the +plainest fashion, as the corner-stone on which the true kingdom of +God was to be built. He brands the men who stood before Him as +incompetent builders, who did not know the stone needed for their +edifice when they saw it. He declares, with triumphant confidence, +the futility of opposition to Himself--even though it kill Him. He +is sure that God will build on Him, and that His place in the +building, which shall rise through the ages, will be, to even +careless eyes, the crown of the manifest wonders of God's hand. +Strange words from a Man who knew that in three days He would be +crucified! Stranger still that they have come true! He is the +foundation of the best part of the best men; the basis of thought, +the motive for action, the pattern of life, the ground of hope, for +countless individuals; and on Him stands firm the society of His +Church, and is hung all the glory of His Father's house. + +Christ confirms the sentence just spoken by the rulers on +themselves, but with the inversion of its clauses. All disguise is +at an end. The fatal 'you' is pronounced. The husbandmen's +calculation had been that killing the heir would make them lords of +the vineyard; the grim fact was that they cast themselves out when +they cast him out. He is the heir. If we desire the inheritance, we +must get it through Him, and not kill or reject, but trust and obey +Him. The sentence declares the two truths, that possession of the +vineyard depends on honouring the Son, and on bringing forth the +fruits. The kingdom has been taken from the churches of Asia Minor, +Africa, and Syria, because they bore no fruit. It is not held by us +on other conditions. Who can venture to speak of the awful doom set +forth in the last words here? It has two stages: one a lesser +misery, which is the lot of him who stumbles against the stone, +while it lies passive to be built on; one more dreadful, when it has +acquired motion and comes down with irresistible impetus. To stumble +at Christ, or to refuse His grace, and not to base our lives and +hopes on Him is maiming and damage, in many ways, here and now. But +suppose the stone endowed with motion, what can stand against it? +And suppose that the Christ, who is now offered for the rock on +which we may pile our hopes and never be confounded, comes to judge, +will He not crush the mightiest opponent as the dust of the summer +threshing-floor? + + + + +THE STONE OF STUMBLING + + + 'Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: + but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to + powder.'--MATT. xxi. 44. + +As Christ's ministry drew to its close, its severity and its +gentleness both increased; its severity to the class to whom it was +always severe, and its gentleness to the class from whom it never +turned away. Side by side, through all His manifestation of Himself, +there were the two aspects: 'He showed Himself _froward_' (if I +may quote the word) to the self-righteous and the Pharisee; and He +bent with more than a woman's tenderness of yearning love over the +darkness and sinfulness, which in its great darkness dimly knew +itself blind, and in its sinfulness stretched out a lame hand of +faith, and groped after a divine deliverer. Here, in my text, there +are only words of severity and awful foreboding. Christ has been +telling those Pharisees and priests that the kingdom is to be taken +from them, and given to a nation that brings forth the fruits +thereof. He interprets for them an Old Testament figure, often +recurring, which we read in the 118th Psalm (and I may just say, in +passing, that we get here His interpretation of that psalm, and the +vindication of our application of it, and other similar ones, to Him +and His office); 'The stone which the builders rejected,' said He, +'is become the head of the corner'; and then, falling back on other +Old Testament uses of the same figure, He weaves into one the whole +of them--that in Isaiah about the 'sure foundation,' and that in +Daniel about 'the stone cut out without hands, which became a great +mountain,' crushing down all opposition,--and centres them all in +Himself; as fulfilled in Himself, in His person and His work. + +The two clauses of my text figuratively point to two different +classes of operation on the rejecters of the Gospel. What are these +two classes? 'Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: +but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.' In +the one case, the stone is represented as passive, lying quiet; in +the other, it has acquired motion. In the one case, the man stumbles +and hurts himself; a remediable injury, a self-inflicted injury, a +natural injury, without the active operation of Christ to produce it +at all; in the other case the injury is worse than remediable, it is +utter, absolute, grinding destruction, and it comes from the active +operation of the 'stone of stumbling.' That is to say, the one class +represents the present hurts and harms which, by the natural +operation of things, without the action of Christ judicially at all, +every man receives in the very act of rejecting the Gospel; and the +other represents the ultimate issue of that rejection, which +rejection is darkened into opposition and fixed hostility, when the +stone that was laid 'for a foundation' has got wings (if I may so +say), and comes down in judgment, crushing and destroying the +antagonist utterly. 'Whosoever falls on this stone is broken,' here +and now; and 'on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to +powder,' hereafter and yonder. + +Taking, then, into account the weaving together in this passage of +the three figures from the Old Testament to which I have already +referred,--the rejected stone, the foundation, and the mountain-stone +of Daniel, and looking in the light of these, at the twofold issues, +one present and one future, which the text distinctly brings before +us,--we have just three points to which I ask your attention now. +First, Every man has some kind of contact with Christ. Secondly, +Rejection of Him, here and now, is harm and maiming. And, lastly, +Rejection of Him, hereafter and yonder, is hopeless, endless, utter +destruction. + +I. In the first place, every man has some kind of connection with +Christ. + +I am not going to enter at all now upon any question about the +condition of the 'dark places of the earth' where the Gospel has not +come as a well-known preached message; we have nothing to do with +that; the principles on which _they_ are judged is not the +question before us now. I am speaking exclusively about persons who +have heard the word of salvation, and are dwelling in the midst of +what we call a Christian land. Christ is offered to each of us, in +good faith on God's part, as a means of salvation, a foundation on +which we may build. A man is free to accept or to reject that offer. +If he reject it, he has not thereby cut himself off from all contact +and connection with that rejected Saviour, but he still sustains a +relation to Him; and the message that he has refused to believe, is +exercising an influence upon his character and his destiny. + +Christ comes, I say, offered to us all in good faith on the part of +God, as a foundation upon which we may build. And then comes in that +strange mystery, that a man, consciously free, turns away from the +offered mercy, and makes Him that was intended to be the basis of +his life, the foundation of his hope, the rock on which, steadfast +and serene, he should build up a temple-home for his soul to dwell +in,--makes Him a stumbling-stone against which, by rejection and +unbelief, he breaks himself! + +My friend, will you let me lay this one thing upon your heart,--you +cannot hinder the Gospel from influencing you somehow. Taking it in +its lowest aspects, it is one of the forces of modern society, an +element in our present civilisation. It is everywhere, it obtrudes +itself on you at every turn, the air is saturated with its +influence. To be unaffected by such an all-pervading phenomenon is +impossible. To no individual member of the great whole of a nation +is it given to isolate himself utterly from the community. Whether +he oppose or whether he acquiesce in current opinions, to denude +himself of the possessions which belong in common to his age and +state of society is in either case impracticable. 'That which cometh +into your mind,' said one of the prophets to the Jews who were +trying to cut themselves loose from their national faith and their +ancestral prerogatives, 'That which cometh into your mind shall not +be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families +of the countries to serve wood and stone.' Vain dream! You can no +more say, I will pass the Gospel by, and it shall be nothing to me, +I will simply let it alone, than you can say, I will shut myself up +from other influences proper to my time and nation. You cannot go +back to the old naked barbarism, and you cannot reduce the influence +of Christianity, even considered merely as one of the characteristics +of the times, to zero. You may fancy you are letting it alone, but +it does not let you alone; it is here, and you cannot shut yourself +off from it. + +But it is not merely as a subtle and diffused influence that the +Gospel exercises a permanent effect upon us. It is presented to each +of us here individually, in the definite form of an actual offer of +salvation for each, and of an actual demand of trust from each. The +words pass into our souls, and thenceforward we can never be the +same as if they had not been there. The smallest ray of light +falling on a sensitive plate produces a chemical change that can +never be undone again, and the light of Christ's love, once brought +to the knowledge and presented for the acceptance of a soul, stamps +on it an ineffaceable sign of its having been there. The Gospel once +heard, is always the Gospel which has been heard. Nothing can alter +that. Once heard, it is henceforward a perpetual element in the +whole condition, character, and destiny of the hearer. + +Christ does something to every one of us. His Gospel will tell upon +you, it _is_ telling upon you. If you disbelieve it, you are +not the same as if you had never heard it. Never is the box of +ointment opened without some savour from it abiding in every nostril +to which its odour is wafted. Only the alternative, the awful +'either, or,' is open for each--the 'savour of life unto life, +_or_ the savour of death unto death.' To come back to the +illustration of the text, Christ is something, and does something to +every one of us. He is either the rock on which I build, poor, weak, +sinful creature as I am, getting security, and sanctity, and +strength from Him, I being a living stone' built upon 'the living +stone,' and partaking of the vitality of the foundation; or else He +is the other thing, 'a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to +them which stumble at the word.' Christ stands for ever in some kind +of relation to, and exercises for ever some kind of influence on, +every man who has heard the Gospel. + +II. The immediate issue of rejection of Him is loss and maiming. + +'Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken.' Just think for +a moment, by way of illustrating this principle, first of all, of +the _positive_ harm which you do to yourself in the act of +turning away from the mercy offered you in Christ; and then think +for a moment of the _negative_ loss which you sustain by the +same act. + +Note the _positive_ harm. Am I uncharitable when I say that no +man ever yet _passively neglected_ the message of love in God's +Son; but that always _this_ is the rude outline of the experience +of people who know what it is to have a Saviour offered to them, and +know what it is to put Him away,--that there is a feeble and transitory +movement of heart and will; that Conscience says, 'Thou oughtest'; that +Will says, 'I would'; that the heart is touched by some sense of that +great and gentle vision of light and love which passes before the eye; +that the man, as it were, like some fever-ridden patient, lifts himself +up for an instant from the bed on which he is lying, and puts out a +hand, and then falls back again, the vacillating, fevered, paralysed +will recoiling from the resolution, and the conscience having power to +say, 'Thou oughtest,' but no power to enforce the execution of its +decrees, and the heart turning away from the salvation that it would +have found in the love of love, to the loss that it finds in the love +of self and earth? Or in other words, is it not true that every man +who rejects Christ does in simple verity _reject_ Him, and not +merely neglect Him; that there is always an effort, that there is a +struggle, feeble, perhaps, but real, which ends in the turning away? It +is not that you stand there, and simply let Him go past. That were bad +enough; but the fact is worse than that. It is that you turn your back +upon Him. It is not that His hand is laid on yours, and yours remains +dead and cold, and does not open to clasp it; but it is that His hand +being laid on yours, you clench yours the tighter, and _will not_ +have it. And so every man (I believe) who rejects Christ does these +things thereby--wounds his own conscience, hardens his own heart, +makes himself a worse man, just because he has had a glimpse, and +has willingly, and almost consciously, 'loved darkness rather than +light.' Oh, brethren, the message of love can never come into a +human soul, and pass away from it unreceived, without leaving that +spirit worse, with all its lowest characteristics strengthened, and +all its best ones depressed, by the fact of rejection. I have nothing +to do now with pursuing that process to its end; but the natural +result--if there were no future Judgment at all, if there were no +movement ever given to the stone that you ought to build on--the +natural result of the simple rejection of the Gospel is that, bit by +bit, all the lingering remains of nobleness that hover about the man, +like scent about a broken vase, pass away; and that, step by step, +through the simple process of saying, 'I will not have Christ to rule +over me,' the whole being degenerates, until manhood becomes +devil-hood, and the soul is lost by its own want of faith. Unbelief +is its own judgment; unbelief is its own condemnation; unbelief, as +sin, is punished, like all other sins, by the perpetuation of deeper +and darker forms of itself. Every time that you stifle a conviction, +fight down a conviction, or drive away a conviction; and every time +that you feebly move towards the decision, 'I _will_ trust Him, and +love Him, and be His,' yet fail to realise it, you have harmed your +soul, you have made yourself a worse man, you have lowered the tone +of your conscience, you have enfeebled your will, you have made your +heart harder against love, you have drawn another horny scale over +the eye, that will prevent you from seeing the light that is yonder; +you have, as much as in you is, withdrawn from God, and approximated +to the other pole of the universe (if I may say that), to the dark +and deadly antagonist of mercy, and goodness, and truth, and grace. +'Whosoever falls on this stone,' by the natural result of his +unbelief, 'shall be broken' and maimed, and shall mar his own nature. + +I need not dwell on the _negative_ evil results of unbelief; +the loss of that which is the only guide for a man, the taking away, +or rather the failing to possess, that great love above us, that +divine Spirit in us, by which only we are ever made what we ought to +be. This only I would leave with you, in this part of my subject, +Whoever is not in Christ is maimed. Only he that is 'a man in Christ' +has come 'to the measure of the stature of a perfect man.' There, +and there alone, do we get the power which will make us full-grown. +There alone is the soul planted in that good soil in which, growing, +it becomes as a rounded, perfect tree, with leaves and fruits in +their season. All other men are half-men, quarter-men, fragments of +men, parts of humanity exaggerated and contorted and distorted from +the reconciling whole which the Christian ought to be, and in +proportion to his Christianity is on the road to be, and one day will +assuredly and actually be, a 'complete and entire man, wanting +nothing'; nothing maimed, nothing broken, the realisation of the +ideal of humanity, the renewed copy 'of the second Adam, the Lord +from heaven.' + +There is another consideration closely connected with this second +part of my subject, that I just mention and pass on. Not only by the +act of rejection of Christ do we harm and maim ourselves, but also +all attempts at opposition--formal opposition--to the Gospel as a +system, stand self-convicted and self-condemned to speedy decay. +What a commentary upon that word, 'Whosoever falls on this stone +shall be broken,' is the whole history of the heresies of the Church +and the assaults of unbelief! Man after man, rich in gifts, endowed +often with far larger and nobler faculties than the people who +oppose him, with indomitable perseverance, a martyr to his error, +sets himself up against the truth that is sphered in Jesus Christ; +and the great divine message simply goes on its way, and all the +babblement and noise are like so many bats flying against a light, +or like the sea-birds that come sweeping up in the tempest and the +night, to the hospitable Pharos that is upon the rock, and smite +themselves dead against it. Sceptics well known in their generation, +who made people's hearts tremble for the ark of God, what has become +of them? Their books lie dusty and undisturbed on the top shelf of +libraries; whilst there the Bible stands, with all the scribblings +wiped off the page, as though they had never been! Opponents fire +their small shot against the great Rock of Ages, and the little +pellets fall flattened, and only scale off a bit of the moss that +has gathered there! My brother, let the history of the past teach +you and me, with other deeper thoughts, a very calm and triumphant +confidence about all that opponents say nowadays; for all the modern +opposition to this Gospel will go as all the past has done, and the +newest systems which cut and carve at Christianity, will go to the +tomb where all the rest have gone; and dead old infidelities will +rise up from their thrones, and say to the bran-new ones of this +generation, when their day is worked out, 'Are ye also become weak +as we? art thou also become like one of us?' 'Whosoever shall fall +on this stone shall be broken': personally, he will be harmed; and +his opinions, and his books, and his talk, and all his +argumentation, will come to nothing, like the waves that break into +impotent foam against the rocky cliffs. + +III. Last of all, the issue, the ultimate issue, of unbelief is +irremediable destruction when Christ begins to move. + +The former clause has spoken about the harm that naturally follows +unbelief whilst the Gospel is being preached; the latter clause speaks +about the active agency of Christ when the end shall have come, and +the preaching of the Gospel shall have merged into the act of judgment. +I do not mean to dwell, brethren, upon that thought; it seems to me +far too awful a one to be handled by my hands, at any rate. Let us +leave it in the vagueness and dreadfulness of the words of Him who +never spoke exaggerated words, and who, when He said, 'It shall grind +him to powder,' meant (as it seems to me) nothing less than a +destruction which, contrasted with the former remediable wounding and +breaking, was a destruction utter, and hopeless, and everlasting, and +without remedy. Ground--ground to powder! Any life left in that? any +gathering up of that, and making a man of it again? All the humanity +battered out of it, and the life clean gone from it! Does not that +sound very much like 'everlasting destruction from the presence of God +and from the glory of His power'? Christ, silent now, will begin to +speak; passive now, will begin to act. The stone comes down, and the +fall of it will be awful. I remember, away up in a lonely Highland +valley, where beneath a tall black cliff, all weather-worn, and cracked, +and seamed, there lies at the foot, resting on the greensward that +creeps round its base, a huge rock, that has fallen from the face of +the precipice. A shepherd was passing beneath it; and suddenly, when +the finger of God's will touched it, and rent it from its ancient bed +in the everlasting rock, it came down, leaping and bounding from pinnacle +to pinnacle--and it fell; and the man that was beneath it is there now! +'Ground to powder.' Ah, my brethren, that is not _my_ illustration--that +is Christ's. Therefore I say to you, since all that stand against Him +shall become 'as the chaff of the summer threshing-floor,' and be swept +utterly away, make Him the foundation on which you build; and when the +storm sweeps away every 'refuge of lies,' you will be safe and serene, +builded upon the Rock of Ages. + + + + +TWO WAYS OF DESPISING GOD'S FEAST + + + 'And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by + parables, and said, 2. The kingdom of heaven is like + unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, + 3. And sent forth his servants to call them that were + bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. + 4. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell + them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my + dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all + things are ready: come unto the marriage. 6. But they + made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, + another to his merchandise; 6. 'And the remnant took + his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew + them. 7. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: + and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those + murderers, and burned up their city. & Then saith he to + his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were + bidden were not worthy. 9. Go ye therefore into the + highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the + marriage. 10. So those servants went out into the + highways, and gathered together all as many as they + found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished + with guests. 11. And when the king came in to see the + guests, he saw there a man which had not on a + wedding-garment: 12. And he saith unto him, Friend, how + earnest thou in hither not having a wedding-garment? + And he was speechless. 13. Then said the king to the + servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, + and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be + weeping and gnashing of teeth. 14. For many are called, + but few are chosen.'--MATT. xxii. 1-14. + +This parable, and the preceding one of the vine-dressers, make a +pair. They are closely connected in time, as well as subject. 'Jesus +answered.' What? Obviously, the unspoken murderous hate, restrained +by fear, which had been raised in the rulers' minds, and flashed in +their eyes, and moved in their gestures. Christ answers it by +repeating His blow; for the present parable is, in outline, +identical with the preceding, though differing in colouring, and +carrying its thoughts farther. That stopped with the transference of +the kingdom to the Gentiles; this passes on to speak also of the +development among the Gentiles, and ends with the law 'many called, +few chosen,' which is exemplified in Jew and Gentile. There are, +then, two parts in it: verses 1-9 covering the same ground as the +former; verses 10-14 adding new matter. + +I. The judgment on those who refuse the offered joys of the kingdom. +In the previous parable, the kingdom was presented on the side of +duty and service. The call was to render obedience. The vineyard was +a sphere for toil. The owner had given it indeed, but, having given, +he required. That is only half the truth, and the least joyful half. +So this parable dismisses all ideas of work, duty, service, +requirement, and instead gives the emblem of a marriage feast as the +picture of the kingdom. It therein unites two familiar prophetic +images for the Messianic times--those of a festival and of a +marriage. As Luther says, 'He calls it a marriage feast, not a time +of toil or a time of sorrow, but a time of holiday and a time of +joy; in which we make ourselves fine, sing, play, dance, eat, drink, +are glad, and have a good time; else it would not be a wedding +feast, if people were to be working, mourning, or crying. Therefore, +Christ calls His Christianity and gospel by the name of the highest +joy on earth; namely, by the name of a marriage feast.' How pathetic +this designation of His kingdom is on Christ's lips, when we +remember how near His bitter agony He stood, and that He tasted its +bitterness already! It is not the whole truth any more than the +vineyard emblem is. Both must be united in our idea of the kingdom, +as both may be in experience. It is possible to be at once toiling +among the vines in the hot sunshine, and feasting at the table. The +Christian life is not all grinding at heavy tasks, nor all enjoyment +of spiritual refreshment; but our work may be so done as to be our +'meat'--as it was His--and our glad repose may be unbroken even in +the midst of toil. We are, at one and the same time, labourers in +the king's vineyard, and guests at the king's table; and the same +duality will, in some unknown fashion, continue in the perfect +kingdom, where there will be both work and feasting, and all the +life shall be both in one. + +The second point to be noticed is the invitations of the king. There +had been an invitation before the point at which the parable begins, +for the servants are sent to summon those who had already been +'called.' That calling, which lies beyond the horizon of our +parable, is the whole series of agencies in Old Testament times. So +this parable begins almost where the former leaves off. They only +slightly overlap. The first servants here are Christ Himself, and +His followers in their ministry during His life; and the second set +are the apostles and preachers of the gospel during the period +between the completion of the preparation of the feast (that is, the +death of Christ) and the destruction of Jerusalem. The characteristic +difference of their message from that of the servants in the former +parable, embodies the whole difference between the preaching of the +prophets, as messengers demanding the fruit of righteousness, and the +glad tidings of a gospel of free grace which does not demand, but +offers, and does not say 'obey' until it has said 'eat, and be glad.' +The reiterated invitations not only correspond to the actual facts, +but, like the facts, set the miracle of God's patience in a still +brighter light than the former story did; for while it is wonderful +that the lord of the vineyard should stoop to ask so often for fruit, +it is far more wonderful that the founder of the feast, who is king +too, should stoop to offer over and over again the refused abundance +of his table. + +Mark, further, the refusal of the invitations: 'They would not (or +"did not wish to") come.' That is Christ's gentle way of describing +the unbelief of His generation. It is the second set of refusers who +are painted in darker colours. We are accustomed to think that the +sin of His contemporaries was great beyond parallel, but he seems +here to hint that the sin of those who reject Him after the Cross +and the Resurrection, is blacker than theirs. At any rate, it +clearly is so. But note that the parable speaks as if the refusers +were the same persons throughout, thus taking the same point of view +as the former one did, and regarding the generations of the Jews as +one whole. There is a real unity, though the individuals be +different, if the spirit actuating successive generations be the +same. + +Note the two classes of rejecters. The first simply pay no +attention, because their heads are full of business. They do not +even speak more or less lame excuses, as the refusers in Luke's +similar parable had the decency to do. The king's messenger +addresses a group, who pause on their road for a moment, to listen +listlessly to what he has to say, and, when he has done, disperse +without a word, each man going on his road, as if nothing had +happened. The ground of their indifference lies in their absorption +with this world's good, and their belief that it is best. 'His own +farm,' as the original puts it emphatically, holds one man by the +solid delight of possessing acres that he can walk over and till; +his merchandise draws another, by the excitement of speculation and +the lust of acquiring. It is not only the hurry and fever of a great +commercial city, but the quiet and leisure of country life, which +shut out taste for God's feast. Strange preference of toil and risk +of loss to abundance, repose, and joy! Savages barter gold for glass +beads. We choose lives of weary work and hunting after uncertain +riches, rather than listen to His call, despising the open-handed +housekeeping of our Father's house, and trying to fill our hunger +with the swine's husks. The suicidal madness of refusing the kingdom +is set in a vivid light in these quiet words. + +But stranger still is the conduct of the rest. Why should they kill +men whose only fault was bringing them a hospitable invitation? The +incongruity of the representation has given offence to some +interpreters, who are not slow to point out how Christ could have +improved His parable. But the reality is more incongruous still, and +the unmotived outburst of wrath against the innocent bearers of a +kindly invitation is only too true to life. Mark the distinction +drawn by our Lord between the bulk of the people who simply +neglected, and the few who violently opposed. He does not charge the +guilt on all. The murderers of Him and of His first followers were +not the mass of the nation, who, left to themselves, would not have +so acted, but the few who stirred up the many. But, though He does +not lay the guilt at the doors of all, yet the punishment falls on +all, and, when the city is burned, the houses of the negligent and +of the slayers are equally consumed; for simple refusal of the +message and slaying the messengers were but the positive and +superlative degrees of the same crime--rebellion against the king, +whose invitation was a command. + +The fatal issue is presented, as in the former parable, in two +parts: the destruction of the rebels, and the passing over of the +kingdom to others. But the differences are noteworthy. Here we read +that 'the king was wroth.' Insult to a king is worse than dishonesty +to a landlord. The refusal of God's proffered grace is even more +certain to awake that awful reality, the wrath of God, than the +failure to render the fruits of the good possessed. Love repelled +and thrown back on itself cannot but become wrath. That refusal, +which is rebellion, is fittingly described as punished by force of +arms and the burning of the city. We can scarcely help seeing that +our Lord here, in a very striking and unusual way, mingles prose +prediction with parabolic imagery. Some commentators object to this, +and take the armies and the burning to be only part of the imagery, +but it is difficult to believe that. Note the forcible pronouns, +'His armies,' and 'their city.' The terrible Roman legions were His +soldiers for the time being, the axe which He laid to the root of +the tree. The city had ceased to be His, just as the temple ceased +to be 'My house,' and became, by their sin, 'your house.' The legend +told that, before their destruction, a mighty voice was heard +saying, 'Let us depart,' and, with the sound of rushing wings, His +presence left sanctuary and city. When He was no longer 'the glory +in the midst,' He was no longer 'a wall of fire round about,' and +the Roman torches worked their will on the city which was no longer +'the city of our God.' + +The command to gather in others to fill the vacant places follows on +the destruction of the city. This may seem to be opposed to the +facts of the transference of the kingdom to the Gentiles, which +certainly was begun long before Jerusalem fell. But its fall was the +final and complete severance of Christianity from Judaism, and not +till then had the messengers to give up the summons to Israel as +hopeless. Perhaps Paul had this parable floating in his memory when +he said to the howling blasphemers at Antioch in Pisidia, 'Seeing ye +... judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the +Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us.' 'They which were +bidden were not worthy,' and their unworthiness consisted not in any +other moral demerit, but solely in this, that they had refused the +proffered blessings. That is the only thing which makes any of us +unworthy. And that will make the best of us unworthy. + +II. Verses 10-14 carry us beyond the preceding parable, and show us +the judgment on the unworthy accepters of the invitation. There are +two ways of sinning against God's merciful gift: the one is refusing +to accept it; the other is taking it in outward seeming, but +continuing in sin. The former was the sin of the Jews; the latter is +the sin of nominal Christians. We may briefly note the points of +this appendix to the parable. The first is the indiscriminate +invitation, which is more emphatically marked as being so, by the +mention of the 'bad' before the good among the guests. God's offer +is for all, and, in a very real sense, is specially sent to the +worst, just as the doctor goes first to the most severely wounded. +So the motley crew, without the least attempt at discrimination, are +seated at the table. If the Church understands its business, it will +have nothing to do in its message with distinctions of character any +more than of class, but, if it makes any difference, will give the +outcast and disreputable the first place in its efforts. Is that +what it does? + +The next point is the king's inspection. The word rendered 'behold' +implies a fixed and minute observation. When does that scrutiny take +place? Obviously, from the sequel, the final judgment is referred +to, and it is remarkable that here there is no mention of the king's +son as the judge. No parable can shadow forth all truth, and though +the Father 'has committed all judgment to the Son,' the Son's +judgment is the Father's, and the exigencies of the parable required +that the son as bridegroom should not be brought into view as judge. +Note that there is only one guest without the dress needed. That may +be an instance of the lenity of Christ's charity, which hopeth all +things; or it may rather be intended to suggest the keenness of the +king's glance, which, in all the crowded tables, picks out the one +ragged losel who had found his way there--so individual is his +knowledge, so impossible for us to hide in the crowd. + +Mark that the feast has not begun, though the guests are seated. The +judgment stands at the threshold of the heavenly kingdom. The king +speaks with a certain coldness, very unlike the welcome fit for a +guest; and his question is one of astonishment at the rude boldness +of the man who came there, knowing that he had not the proper dress. +(That knowledge is implied in the form of the sentence in the +Greek.) What, then, is the wedding garment? It can be nothing else +than righteousness, moral purity, which fits for sitting at His +table in His kingdom. And the man who has it not, is the nominal +Christian, who says that he has accepted God's invitation, and lives +in sin, not putting off 'the old man with his deeds,' nor putting on +'the new man, which is created in righteousness.' How that garment +was to be obtained is no part of this parable. We know that it is +only to be received by faith in Jesus Christ, and that if we are to +pass the scrutiny of the king, it must be as 'not having our own +righteousness,' but His made ours by faith which makes us righteous, +and then by all holy effort, and toil in His strength, we must +clothe our souls in the dress which befits the banqueting hall; for +only they who are washed and clothed in fine linen, clean and white, +shall sit there. But Christ's purpose here was not to explain how +the robe was to be procured, but to insist that it must be worn. + +'He was speechless,'--or, as the word means, 'muzzled.' The man is +self-condemned, and, having nothing to say in extenuation, the +solemn promise is pronounced of ejection from the lighted hall, with +limbs bound so that he cannot struggle, and consignment to the +blackness outside, of which our Lord adds, in words not put into the +king's mouth, but which we have heard from Him before, 'There shall +be the [well-known and terrible] weeping and gnashing of teeth--awful +though figurative expressions for despair and passion. + +Both parts of the parable come under one law, and exemplify one +principle of the kingdom, that its invitations extend more widely +than the real possession of its gifts. The unbelieving Jew, in one +direction, and the unrighteous Christian in another, are instances +of this. + +This is not the place to discuss that wide and well-worn question of +the ground of God's choice. That does not enter into the scope of +the parable. For it, the choice is proved by the actual +participation in the feast. They who do not choose to receive the +invitation, or to put on the wedding garment, do, in different ways, +show that they are not 'chosen' though 'called.' The lesson is, not +of interminable and insoluble questionings about God's secrets, but +of earnest heed to His gracious call, and earnest, believing effort +to make the fair garment our very own, 'if so be that being clothed +we shall not be found naked.' + + + + +THE TABLES TURNED: THE QUESTIONERS QUESTIONED + + + 'But when the Pharisees had heard that He had put the + Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. + 35. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him a + question, tempting Him, and saying, 36. Master, which + is the great commandment in the law? 37. Jesus said + unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy + heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. + 38. This is the first and great commandment. 39. And + the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy + neighbour as thyself. 40. On these two commandments + hang all the law and the prophets. 41. While the + Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, + 42. Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose Son is He? + They say unto Him, The son of David. 43. He saith unto + them, How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, + saying, 44. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My + right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool? + 45. If David then call Him Lord, how is He his son? + 46. And no man was able to answer Him a word; neither + durst any man, from that day forth, ask Him any more + questions.'--MATT.xxii.34-46. + +Herodians, Sadducees, Pharisees, who were at daggers drawn with each +other, patched up an alliance against Jesus, whom they all hated. +Their questions were cunningly contrived to entangle Him in the +cobwebs of casuistry and theological hair-splitting, but He walked +through the fine-spun snares as a lion might stalk away with the +nooses set for him dangling behind him. The last of the three +questions put to Jesus, and the one question with which He turned +the tables and silenced His questioners, are our subject. In the +former, Jesus declares the essence of the law or of religion; in the +latter, He brings to light the essential loftiness of the Messiah. + +I. The two preceding questions are represented to have been asked by +deputations; this is specially noted as emanating from an +individual. The 'lawyer' seems to have anticipated his colleagues, +and possibly his question was not that which they had meant to put. +His motive in asking it was that of 'tempting' Jesus, but we must +not give that word too hostile a sense, for it may mean no more than +'testing' or trying. The legal expert wished to find out the +attainments and standpoint of this would-be teacher, and so he +proposed a question which would bring out the whereabouts of Jesus, +and give opportunity for a theological wrangle. He did not ask the +question for guidance, but as an inquisitor cross-examining a +suspected heretic. Probably the question was a stereotyped one, and +there are traces in the Gospels that the answer recognised as +orthodox was that which Jesus gave (Luke x. 27). The two +commandments are quoted from Deuteronomy vi. 5 and Leviticus xix. 18 +respectively. The lawyer probably only desired to raise a discussion +as to the relative worth of isolated precepts. Jesus goes deep down +below isolated precepts, and unifies, as well as transforms, the +law. Supreme and undivided love to God is not only the great, but +also the first, commandment. In more modern phrase, it is the sum of +man's duty and the germ of all goodness. Note that Jesus shifts the +centre from conduct to character, from deeds to affections. 'As a +man _thinketh_ in his heart, so is he,' said the sage of old; +Christ says, 'As a man loves, so is he.' Two loves we have,--either +the dark love of self and sense, or the white love of God, and all +character and conduct are determined by which of these sways us. +Note, further, that love to God must needs be undivided. God is one +and all; man is one and finite. To love such an object with half a +heart is not to love. True, our weakness leads astray, but the only +real love corresponding to the natures of the lover and the loved is +whole-hearted, whole-souled, whole-minded. It must be 'all in all, +or not at all.' + +'A second is like unto it,'--love to man is the under side, as it +were, of love to God. The two commandments are alike, for both call +for love, and the second is second because it is a consequence of +the first. Each sets up a lofty standard; 'with all thy heart' and +'as thyself' sound equally impossible, but both result necessarily +from the nature of the case. Religion is the parent of all morality, +and especially of benevolent love to men. Innate self-regard will +yield to no force but that of love to God. It is vain to try to +create brotherhood among men unless the sense of God's fatherhood is +its foundation. Love of neighbours is the second commandment, and to +make it the first, as some do now, is to end all hope of fulfilling +it. Still further, Jesus hangs law and prophets on these two +precepts, which, at bottom, are one. Not only will all other duties +be done in doing these, since 'love is the fulfilling of the law,' +but all other precepts, and all the prophets' appeals and +exhortations, are but deductions from, or helps to the attainment +of, these. All our forms of worship, creeds, and the like, are of +worth in so far as they are outcomes of love to God, or aid us in +loving Him and our neighbours. Without love, they are 'as sounding +brass, or a tinkling cymbal.' + +II. The Pharisees remained 'gathered together,' and may have been +preparing another question, but Jesus had been long enough +interrogated. It was not fitting that He should be catechised only. +His questions teach. He does not seek to 'entangle' the Pharisees +'in their speech,' nor to make them contradict themselves, but +brings them full up against a difficulty, that they may open their +eyes to the great truth which is its only solution. His first +question, 'What think ye of the Christ?' is simply preparatory to +the second. The answer which He anticipated was given,--as, of +course, it would be, for the Davidic descent of the Messiah was a +commonplace universally accepted. One can fancy that the Pharisees +smiled complacently at the attempt to puzzle them with such an +elementary question, but the smile vanished when the next one came. +They interpreted Psalm 110 as Messianic, and David in it called +Messiah 'my Lord.' How can He be both? Jesus' question is in two +forms,--'If He is son, how does David call Him Lord?' or, if He is +Lord, 'how then is He his son?' Take either designation, and the +other lands you in inextricable difficulties. + +Now what was our Lord's purpose in thus driving the Pharisees into a +corner? Not merely to 'muzzle' them, as the word in verse 34, +rendered 'put to silence,' literally means, but to bring to light +the inadequate conceptions of the Messiah and of the nature of His +kingdom, to which exclusive recognition of his Davidic descent +necessarily led. David's son would be but a king after the type of +the Herods and Cæsars, and his kingdom as 'carnal' as the wildest +zealot expected, but David's Lord, sitting at God's right hand, and +having His foes made His footstool by Jehovah Himself,--what sort of +a Messiah King would that be? The majestic image, that shapes itself +dimly here, was a revelation that took the Pharisees' breath away, +and made them dumb. Nor are the words without a half-disclosed claim +on Christ's part to be that which He was so soon to avow Himself +before the high priest as being. The first hearers of them probably +caught that meaning partly, and were horrified; we hear it clearly +in the words, and answer, 'Thou art the King of glory, O Christ! +Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.' + +Jesus here says that Psalm 110 is Messianic, that David was the +author, and that he wrote it by divine inspiration. The present +writer cannot see how our Lord's argument can be saved from collapse +if the psalm is not David's. + + + + +THE KING'S FAREWELL + + + 'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for + ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear + beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's + bones, and of all uncleanness. 28. Even so ye also + outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are + full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 29. Woe unto you, + scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the + tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of + the righteous, 30. And say, If we had been in the days + of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with + them in the blood of the prophets. 31. Wherefore ye be + witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of + them which killed the prophets. 32. Fill ye up then the + measure of your fathers. 33. Ye serpents, ye generation + of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell! + 34. Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and + wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill + and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your + synagogues, and persecute them from city to city; + 35. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed + upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto + the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew + between the temple and the altar. 36. Verily I say unto + you, All these things shall come upon this generation. + 37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the + prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, + how often would I have gathered thy children together, + even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, + and ye would not! 38. Behold, your house is left unto + you desolate. 39. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see + Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that + cometh in the name of the Lord.'--MATT. xxiii. 27-39. + +If, with the majority of authorities, we exclude verse 14 from the +text, there are, in this chapter, seven woes, like seven thunders, +launched against the rulers. They are scathing exposures, but, as +the very word implies, full of sorrow as well as severity. They are +not denunciations, but prophecies warning that the end of such +tempers must be mournful. The wailing of an infinite compassion, +rather than the accents of anger, sounds in them; and it alone is +heard in the outburst of lamenting in which Christ's heart runs +over, as in a passion of tears, at the close. The blending of +sternness and pity, each perfect, is the characteristic of this +wonderful climax of our Lord's appeals to His nation. Could such +tones of love and righteous anger joined have been sent echoing +through the ages in this Gospel, if they had not been heard? + +I. The woe of the 'whited sepulchres.' The first four woes are +directed mainly to the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees; the +last three to their characters. The two first of these fasten on the +same sin, of hypocritical holiness. There is, however, a difference +between the representation of hypocrites under the metaphor of the +clean outside of the cup and platter, and that of the whited +sepulchre. In the former, the hidden sin is 'extortion and excess'; +that is, sensual enjoyment wrongly procured, of which the emblems of +cup and plate suggest that good eating and drinking are a chief +part. In the latter, it is 'iniquity'--a more general and darker +name for sin. In the former, the Pharisee is 'blind,' self-deceived +in part or altogether; in the latter, stress is rather laid on his +'appearance unto men.' The repetition of the same charge in the two +woes teaches us Christ's estimate of the gravity and frequency of +the sin. + +The whitened tombs of Mohammedan saints still gleam in the strong +sunlight on many a knoll in Palestine. If the Talmudical practice is +as old as our Lord's time, the annual whitewashing was lately over. +Its purpose was not to adorn the tombs, but to make them +conspicuous, so that they might be avoided for fear of defilement. +So He would say, with terrible irony, that the apparent holiness of +the rulers was really a sign of corruption, and a warning to keep +away from them. What a blow at their self-complacency! And how +profoundly true it is that the more punctiliously white the +hypocrite's outside, the more foul is he within, and the wider berth +will all discerning people give him! The terrible force of the +figure needs no dwelling on. In Christ's estimate, such a soul was +the very dwelling-place of death; and foul odours and worms and +corruption filled its sickening recesses. Terrible words to come +from His lips into which grace was poured, and bold words to be +flashed at listeners who held the life of the Speaker in their +hands! There are two sorts of hypocrites, the conscious and the +unconscious; and there are ten of the latter for one of the former, +and each ten times more dangerous. Established religion breeds them, +and they are specially likely to be found among those whose business +is to study the documents in which it is embodied. These woes are +not like thunder-peals rolling above our heads, while the lightning +strikes the earth miles away. A religion which is mostly whitewash +is as common among us as ever it was in Jerusalem; and its foul +accompaniments of corruption becoming more rotten every year, as the +whitewash is laid on thicker, may be smelt among us, and its fatal +end is as sure. + +II. The woe of the sepulchre builders (vs. 29-36). In these verses +we have, first, the specification of another form of hypocrisy, +consisting in building the prophets' tombs, and disavowing the +fathers' murder of them. Honouring dead prophets was right; but +honouring dead ones and killing living ones was conscious or +unconscious hypocrisy. The temper of mind which leads to glorifying +the dead witnesses, also leads to supposing that all truth was given +by them; and hence that the living teachers, who carry their message +farther, are false prophets. A generation which was ready to kill +Jesus in honour of Moses, would have killed Moses in honour of +Abraham, and would not have had the faintest apprehension of the +message of either. + +It is a great deal easier to build tombs than to accept teachings, +and a good deal of the posthumous honour paid to God's messengers +means, 'It's a good thing they are dead, and that we have nothing to +do but to put up a monument.' Bi-centenaries and ter-centenaries and +jubilees do not always imply either the understanding or the +acceptance of the principles supposed to be glorified thereby. But +the magnifiers of the past are often quite unconscious of the +hollowness of their admiration, and honest in their horror of their +fathers' acts; and we all need the probe of such words as Christ's +to pierce the skin of our lazy reverence for our fathers' prophets, +and let out the foul matter below--namely, our own blindness to +God's messengers of to-day. + +The statement of the hypocrisy is followed, in verses 31-33, with +its unmasking and condemnation. The words glow with righteous wrath +at white heat, and end in a burst of indignation, most unfamiliar to +His lips. Three sentences, like triple lightning flash from His +pained heart. With almost scornful subtlety He lays hold of the +words which He puts into the Pharisees' mouths, to convict them of +kindred with those whose deeds they would disown. 'Our fathers, say +you? Then you do belong to the same family, after all. You confess +that you have their blood in your veins; and, in the very act of +denying sympathy with their conduct, you own kindred. And, for all +your protestations, spiritual kindred goes with bodily descent.' +Christ here recognises that children probably 'take after their +parents,' or, in modern scientific terms, that 'heredity' is the +law, and that it works more surely in the transmission of evil than +of good. + +Then come the awful words bidding that generation 'fill up the +measure of the fathers.' They are like the other command to Judas to +do his work quickly. They are more than permission, they are +command; but such a command as, by its laying bare of the true +character of the deed in view, is love's last effort at prevention. +Mark the growing emotion of the language. Mark the conception of a +nation's sins as one through successive generations, and the other, +of these as having a definite measure, which being filled, judgment +can no longer tarry. Generation after generation pours its +contributions into the vessel, and when the last black drop which it +can hold has been added, then comes the catastrophe. Mark the fatal +necessity by which inherited sin becomes darker sin. The fathers' +crimes are less than the sons'. This inheritance increases by each +transmission. The cloak strikes one more at each revolution of the +hands. + +It is hard to recognise Christ in the terrible words that follow. We +have heard part of them from John the Baptist; and it sounded +natural for him to call men serpents and the children of serpents, +but it is somewhat of a shock to hear Jesus hurling such names at +even the most sinful. But let us remember that He who sees hearts, +has a right to tell harsh truths, and that it is truest kindness to +strip off masks which hide from men their own real character, and +that the revelation of the divine love in Jesus would be a partial +and impotent revelation if it did not show us the righteous love +which is wrath. There is nothing so terrible as the anger of gentle +compassion, and the fiercest and most destructive wrath is 'the +wrath of the Lamb.' Seldom, indeed, did He show that side of His +character; but it is there, and the other side would not be so +blessed as it is, unless that were there too. + +The woe ends with the double prophecy that that generation would +repeat and surpass the fathers' guilt, and that on it would fall the +accumulated penalties of past bloodshed. Note that solemn +'therefore,' which looks back to the whole preceding context, and +forward to the whole subsequent. Because the rulers professed +abhorrence of their fathers' deeds, and yet inherited their spirit, +they too would have their prophets, and would slay them. God goes on +sending His messengers, because we reject them; and the more deaf +men are, the more does He peal His words into their ears. That is +mercy and compassion, that all men may be saved and come to the +knowledge of the truth; but it is judgment too, and its foreseen +effect must be regarded as part of the divine purpose in it. +Christ's desire is one thing, His purpose another. His desire is +that all should find in His gospel 'the savour of life'; but His +purpose is that, if it be not that to any, it shall be to them the +savour of death. Mark, too, the authority with which He, in the face +of these scowling Pharisees, assumes the distinct divine prerogative +of sending forth inspired men, who, as His messengers, shall stand +on a level with the prophets of old. Mark His silence as to His own +fate, which is only obscurely hinted at in the command to fill up +the measure of the fathers. Observe the detailed enumeration of His +messengers' gifts,--'prophets' under direct inspiration, like those +of old, which may especially refer to the apostles; 'wise men,' like +a Stephen or an Apollos; 'scribes,' such as Mark and Luke and many a +faithful servant since, whose pen has loved to write the name above +every name. Note the detailed prophecy of their treatment, which +begins with _slaying_ and goes down to the less severe _scourging_, +and thence to the milder _persecution_. Do the three punishments +belong to the three classes of messengers, the severest falling to +the lot of the most highly endowed, and even the quiet penman being +hunted from city to city? + +We need not wriggle and twist to try to avoid admitting that the +calling of the martyred Zacharias, 'the son of Barachias,' is an +error of some one who confused the author of the prophetic book with +the person whose murder is narrated in 2 Chronicles xxiv. We do not +know who made the mistake, or how it appears in our text, but it is +not honest to try to slur it over. The punishment of long ages of +sin, carried on from father to son, does in the course of that +history of the world, which is a part of the judgment of the world, +fall upon one generation. It takes long for the mass of heaped-up +sin to become top-heavy; but when it is so, it buries one generation +of those who have worked at piling it up, beneath its down-rushing +avalanche. + + 'The mills of God grind slowly, + But they grind exceeding small.' + +The catastrophes of national histories are prepared for by continuous +centuries. The generation that laid the first powder-hornful of the +train is dead and buried, long before the explosion which sends +constituted order and institutions sky-high. The misery is that often +the generation which has to pay the penalty has begun to awake to the +sin, and would be glad to mend it, if it could. England in the +seventeenth century, France in the eighteenth, America in the +nineteenth, had to reap harvests from sins sown long before. Such is +the law of the judgment wrought out by God's providence in history. +But there is another judgment, begun here and perfected hereafter, in +which fathers and sons shall each bear their own burden, and reap +accurately the fruit of what they have sown. 'The soul that sinneth, +it shall die.' + +III. The parting wail of rejected love. The lightning flashes of the +sevenfold woes end in a rain of pity and tears. His full heart +overflows in that sad cry of lamentation over the long-continued +foiling of the efforts of a love that would fain have fondled and +defended. What intensity of feeling is in the redoubled naming of +the city! How yearningly and wistfully He calls, as if He might still +win the faithless one, and how lingeringly unwilling He is to give up +hope! How mournfully, rather than accusingly, He reiterates the acts +which had run through the whole history, using a form of the verbs +which suggests continuance. Mark, too, the matter-of-course way in +which Christ assumes that He sent all the prophets whom, through +the generations, Jerusalem had stoned. + +So the lament passes into the solemn final leave-taking, with which +our Lord closes His ministry among the Jews, and departs from the +temple. As, in the parable of the marriage-feast, the city was +emphatically called 'their city,' so here the Temple, in whose +courts He was standing, and which in a moment He was to quit for +ever, is called 'your house,' because His departure is the +withdrawing of the true Shechinah. It had been the house of God: now +He casts it off, and leaves it to them to do as they will with it. +The saddest punishment of long-continued rejection of His pleading +love, is that it ceases at last to plead. The bitterest woe for +those who refuse to render to Him the fruits of the vineyard, is to +get the vineyard for their own, undisturbed. Christ's utmost +retribution for obstinate blindness is to withdraw from our sight. +All the woes that were yet to fall, in long, dreary succession on +that nation, so long continued in its sin, so long continued in its +misery, were hidden in that solemn departure of Christ from the +henceforward empty temple. Let us fear lest our unfaithfulness meet +the like penalty! But even the departure does not end His yearnings, +nor close the long story of the conflict between God's beseeching +love and their unbelief. The time shall come when the nation shall +once more lift up, with deeper, truer adoration, the hosannas of the +triumphal entry. And then a believing Israel shall see their King, +and serve Him. Christ never takes final leave of any man in this +world. It is ever possible that dumb lips may be opened to welcome +Him, though long rejected; and His withdrawals are His efforts to +bring about that opening. When it takes place, how gladly does He +return to the heart which is now His temple, and unveil His beauty +to the long-darkened eyes! + + + + +TWO FORMS OF ONE SAYING + + + 'He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.' + --Matt. xxiv. 13, R.V. + + 'In your patience possess ye your souls.'--Luke xxi. 19. + +These two sayings, different as they sound in our Version, are +probably divergent representations of one original. The reasons for +so supposing are manifold and obvious on a little consideration. In +the first place, the two sayings occur in the Evangelists' reports +of the same prophecy and at the same point therein. In the second +place, the verbal resemblance is much greater than appears in our +Authorised Version, because the word rendered 'patience' in Luke is +derived from that translated 'endureth' in Matthew; and the true +connection between the two versions of the saying would have been +more obvious if we had had a similar word in both, reading in the +one 'he that endureth,' and in the other 'in your endurance.' In the +third place, the difference between these two sayings presented in +our Version, in that the one is a promise and the other a command, +is due to an incorrect reading of St. Luke's words. The Revised +Version substitutes for the imperative 'possess' the promise 'ye +shall possess,' and with that variation the two sayings are brought +a good deal nearer each other. In both endurance is laid down as the +condition, which in both is followed by a promise. Then, finally, +there need be no difficulty in seeing that 'possessing,' or, more +literally, 'gaining your souls,' is an exact equivalent of the other +expression, 'ye shall be saved.' One cannot but remember our Lord's +solemn antithetical phrase about a man 'losing his own soul.' To +'win one's soul' is to be saved; to be saved is to win one's soul. + +So I think I have made out my thesis that the two sayings are +substantially one. They carry a great weight of warning, of +exhortation, and of encouragement to us all. Let us try now to reap +some of that harvest. + +I. First, then, notice the view of our condition which underlies +these sayings. + +It is a sad and a somewhat stern one, but it is one to which, I +think, most men's hearts will respond, if they give themselves +leisure to think; and if they 'see life steadily, and see it whole.' +For howsoever many days are bright, and howsoever all days are good, +yet, on the whole, 'man is a soldier, and life is a fight.' For some +of us it is simple endurance; for all of us it has sometimes been +agony; for all of us, always, it presents resistance to every kind of +high and noble career, and especially to the Christian one. Easy-going +optimists try to skim over these facts, but they are not to be so +lightly set aside. You have only to look at the faces that you +meet in the street to be very sure that it is always a grave and +sometimes a bitter thing to live. And so our two texts presuppose +that life on the whole demands endurance, whatever may be included +in that great word. + +Think of the inward resistance and outward hindrances to every lofty +life. The scholar, the man of culture, the philanthropist--all who +would live for anything else than the present, the low, and the +sensual--find that there is a banded conspiracy, as it were, against +them, and that they have to fight their way by continual antagonism, +by continual persistence, as well as by continual endurance. Within, +weakness, torpor, weariness, levity, inconstant wills, bright +purposes clouding over, and all the cowardice and animalism of our +nature war continually against the better, higher self. And without, +there is a down-dragging, as persistent as the force of gravity, +coming from the whole assemblage of external things that solicit, +and would fain seduce us. The old legends used to tell us how, +whensoever a knight set out upon any great and lofty quest, his path +was beset on either side by voices, sometimes whispering seductions, +and sometimes shrieking maledictions, but always seeking to withdraw +him from his resolute march onwards to his goal. And every one of +us, if we have taken on us the orders of any lofty chivalry, and +especially if we have sworn ourselves knights of the Cross, have to +meet the same antagonism. Then, too, there are golden apples rolled +upon our path, seeking to draw us away from our steadfast endurance. + +Besides the hindrances in every noble path, the hindrances within +and the hindrances without, the weight of self and the drawing of +earth, there come to us all--in various degrees no doubt, and in +various shapes--but to all of us there come the burdens of sorrows +and cares, and anxieties and trials. Wherever two or three are +gathered together, even if they gather for a feast, there will be +some of them who carry a sorrow which they know well will never be +lifted off their shoulders and their hearts, until they lay down all +their burdens at the grave's mouth; and it is weary work to plod on +the path of life with a weight that cannot be shifted, with a wound +that can never be stanched. + +Oh, brethren, rosy-coloured optimism is all a dream. The recognition +of the good that is in the evil is the devout man's talisman, but +there is always need for the resistance and endurance which my texts +prescribe. And the youngest of us, the gladdest of us, the least +experienced of us, the most frivolous of us, if we will question our +own hearts, will hear their Amen to the stern, sad view of the facts +of earthly life which underlies this text. + +Though it has many other aspects, the world seems to me sometimes to +be like that pool at Jerusalem in the five porches of which lay, +groaning under various diseases, but none of them without an ache, a +great multitude of impotent folk, halt and blind. Astronomers tell +us that one, at any rate, of the planets rolls on its orbit swathed +in clouds and moisture. The world moves wrapped in a mist of tears. +God only knows them all, but each heart knows its own bitterness and +responds to the words, 'Ye have need of patience.' + +II. Now, secondly, mark the victorious temper. + +That is referred to in the one saying by 'he that endureth,' and in +the other 'in your endurance.' Now, it is very necessary for the +understanding of many places in Scripture to remember that the +notion either of patience or of endurance by no means exhausts the +power of this noble Christian word. For these are passive virtues, +and however excellent and needful they may be, they by no means sum +up our duty in regard to the hindrances and sorrows, the burdens and +weights, of which I have been trying to speak. For you know it is +only 'what cannot be cured' that 'must be endured,' and even +incurable things are not merely to be endured, but they ought to be +utilised. It is not enough that we should build up a dam to keep the +floods of sorrow and trial from overflowing our fields; we must turn +the turbid waters into our sluices, and get them to drive our mills. +It is not enough that we should screw ourselves up to lie +unresistingly under the surgeon's knife; though God knows that it is +as much as we can manage sometimes, and we have to do as convicts +under the lash do, get a bit of lead or a bullet into our mouths, +and bite at it to keep ourselves from crying out. But that is not +all our duty in regard to our trials and difficulties. There is +required something more than passive endurance. + +This noble word of my texts does mean a great deal more than that. It +means active persistence as well as patient submission. It is not +enough that we should stand and bear the pelting of the pitiless storm, +unmurmuring and unbowed by it; but we are bound to go on our course, +bearing up and steering right onwards. Persistent perseverance in the +path that is marked out for us is especially the virtue that our Lord +here enjoins. It is well to sit still unmurmuring; it is better to +march on undiverted and unchecked. And when we are able to keep +straight on in the path which is marked out for us, and especially in +the path that leads us to God, notwithstanding all opposing voices, and +all inward hindrances and reluctances; when we are able to go to our +tasks of whatever sort they are and to do them, though our hearts are +beating like sledge-hammers; when we say to ourselves, 'It does not +matter a bit whether I am sad or glad, fresh or wearied, helped or +hindered by circumstances, this one thing I do,' then we have come to +understand and to practise the grace that our Master here enjoins. The +endurance which wins the soul, and leads to salvation, is no mere +passive submission, excellent and hard to attain as that often is; +but it is brave perseverance in the face of all difficulties, and in +spite of all enemies. + +Mark how emphatically our Lord here makes the space within which +that virtue has to be exercised conterminous with the whole duration +of our lives. I need not discuss what 'the end' was in the original +application of the words; that would take us too far afield. But +this I desire to insist upon, that right on to the very close of +life we are to expect the necessity of putting forth the exercise of +the very same persistence by which the earlier stages of any noble +career must necessarily be marked. In other departments of life +there may be relaxation, as a man goes on through the years; but in +the culture of our characters, and in the deepening of our faith, +and in the drawing near to our God, there must be no cessation or +diminution of earnestness and of effort right up to the close. + +There are plenty of people, and I dare say that I address some of +them now, who began their Christian career full of vigour and with a +heat that was too hot to last. But, alas, in a year or two all the +fervency was past, and they settled down into the average, easygoing, +unprogressive Christian, who is a wet blanket to the devotion and +work of a Christian church. I wonder how many of us would scarcely +know our own former selves if we could see them. Christian people, +to how many of us should the word be rung in our ears: 'Ye did run +well; _what_ did hinder you'? The answer is--Myself. + +But may I say that this emphatic 'to the end' has a special lesson +for us older people, who, as natural strength abates and enthusiasm +cools down, are apt to be but the shadows of our old selves in many +things? But there should be fire within the mountain, though there +may be snow on its crest. Many a ship has been lost on the harbour +bar; and there is no excuse for the captain leaving the bridge, or +the engineer coming up from the engine-room, stormy as the one +position and stifling as the other may be, until the anchor is down, +and the vessel is moored and quiet in the desired haven. The desert, +with its wild beasts and its Bedouin, reaches right up to the city +gates, and until we are within these we need to keep our hands on +our sword-hilts and be ready for conflict. 'He that endureth to the +end, the same shall be saved.' + +III. Lastly, note the crown which endurance wins. + +Now, I need not spend or waste your time in mere verbal criticism, +but I wish to point out that that word 'soul' in one of our two +texts means both the soul and the life of which it is the seat; and +also to remark that the being saved and the winning of the life or +the soul has distinct application, in our Lord's words, primarily to +corporeal safety and preservation in the midst of dangers; and, +still further, to note the emphatic '_in_ your patience,' as +suggesting not only a future but a present acquisition of one's own +soul, or life, as the result of such persevering endurance and +enduring perseverance. All which things being kept in view, I may +expand the great promise that lies in my text, as follows:-- + +First, by such persevering persistence in the Christian path, we gain +ourselves. Self-surrender is self-possession. We never own ourselves +till we have given up owning ourselves, and yielded ourselves to that +Lord who gives us back saints to ourselves. Self-control is +self-possession. We do not own ourselves as long as it is possible +for any weakness in flesh, sense, or spirit to gain dominion over us +and hinder us from doing what we know to be right. We are not our own +masters then. 'Whilst they promise them liberty, they themselves are +the bond-slaves of corruption.' It is only when we have the bit well +into the jaws of the brutes, and the reins tight in our hands, so +that a finger-touch can check or divert the course, that we are truly +lords of the chariot in which we ride and of the animals that impel it. + +And such self-control which is the winning of ourselves is, as I +believe, thoroughly realised only when, by self-surrender of +ourselves to Jesus Christ, we get His help to govern ourselves and +so become lords of ourselves. Some little petty Rajah, up in the +hills, in a quasi-independent State in India, is troubled by +mutineers whom he cannot subdue; what does he do? He sends a message +down to Lahore or Calcutta, and up come English troops that +consolidate his dominion, and he rules securely, when he has +consented to become a feudatory, and recognise his overlord. And so +you and I, by continual repetition, in the face of self and sin, of +our acts of self-surrender, bring Christ into the field; and then, +when we have said, 'Lord, take me; I live, yet not I, but Christ +liveth in me'; and when we daily, in spite of hindrances, stand to +the surrender and repeat the consecration, then 'in our perseverance +we acquire our souls.' + +Again, such persistence wins even the bodily life, whether it +preserves it or loses it. I have said that the words of our texts +have an application to bodily preservation in the midst of the +dreadful dangers of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. But so +regarded they are a paradox. For hear how the Master introduces +them: 'Some of you shall they cause to be put to death, but there +shall not a hair of your heads perish. In your perseverance ye shall +win your lives.' 'Some of you they will put to death,' but ye 'shall +win your lives,'--a paradox which can only be solved by experience. +Whether this bodily life be preserved or lost, it is gained when it +is used as a means of attaining the higher life of union with God. +Many a martyr had the promise, 'Not a hair of your head shall +perish,' fulfilled at the very moment when the falling axe shore his +locks in twain, and severed his head from his body. + +Finally, full salvation, the true possession of himself, and the +acquisition of the life which really is life, comes to a man who +perseveres to the end, and thus passes to the land where he will +receive the recompense of the reward. The one moment the runner, +with flushed cheek and forward swaying body, hot, with panting +breath, and every muscle strained, is straining to the winning-post; +and the next moment, in utter calm, he is wearing the crown. + +'To the end,' and what a contrast the next moment will be! Brethren, +may it be true of you and of me that 'we are not of them that draw +back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the winning of +their souls!' + + + + +THE CARRION AND THE VULTURES + + + 'Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be + gathered together.'--MATT. xxiv. 28. + +This grim parable has, of course, a strong Eastern colouring. It is +best appreciated by dwellers in those lands. They tell us that no +sooner is some sickly animal dead, or some piece of carrion thrown +out by the way, than the vultures--for the eagle does not prey upon +carrion--appear. There may not have been one visible a moment before +in the hot blue sky, but, taught by scent or by sight that their +banquet is prepared, they come flocking from all corners of the +heavens, a hideous crowd round their hideous meal, fighting with +flapping wings and tearing it with their strong talons. And so, says +Christ, wherever there is a rotting, dead society, a carcase +hopelessly corrupt and evil, down upon it, as if drawn by some +unerring attraction, will come the angels, the vultures of the +divine judgment. + +The words of my text were spoken, according to the version of them +in Luke's Gospel, in answer to a question from the disciples. Our +Lord had been discoursing, in very solemn words, which, starting +from the historical event of the impending fall of Jerusalem, had +gradually passed into a description of the greater event of His +second coming. And all these solemn warnings had stirred nothing +deeper in the bosoms of the disciples than a tepid and idle +curiosity which expressed itself in the one almost irrelevant +question, 'Where, Lord?' He answers--Not here, not there, but +everywhere where there is a carcase. The great event which is +referred to in our Lord's solemn words is a future judgment, which +is to be universal. But the words are not exhausted in their +reference to that event. There have been many 'comings of the Lord,' +many 'days of the Lord,' which on a smaller scale have embodied the +same principles as are to be displayed in world-wide splendour and +awfulness at the last. + +I. The first thing, then, in these most true and solemn words is +this, that they are to us a revelation of a law which operates with +unerring certainty through all the course of the world's history. + +We cannot tell, but God can, when evil has become incurable; or +when, in the language of my text, the mass of any community has +become a carcase. There may be flickerings of life, all unseen by +our eyes, or there may be death, all unsuspected by our shallow +vision. So long as there is a possibility of amendment, 'sentence +against an evil work is not executed speedily'; and God dams back, +as it were, the flow of His retributive judgment, 'not willing that +any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the +truth.' But when He sees that all is vain, that no longer is +restoration or recovery possible, then He lets loose the flood; or, +in the language of my text, when the thing has become a carcase, +then the vultures, God's scavengers, come and clear it away from off +the face of the earth. + +Now that is the law that has been working from the beginning, +working as well in regard to the long delays as in regard to the +swift execution. There is another metaphor, in the Old Testament, +that puts the same idea in a very striking form. It speaks about +God's 'awakening,' as if His judgment slumbered. All round that dial +the hand goes creeping, creeping, creeping slowly, but when it comes +to the appointed line, then the bell strikes. And so years and +centuries go by, all chance of recovery departs, and then the crash! +The ice palace, built upon the frozen blocks, stands for a while, +but when the spring thaws come, it breaks up. + +Let me remind you of some instances and illustrations. Take that +story which people stumble over in the early part of the Old +Testament revelation--the sweeping away of those Canaanitish nations +whose hideous immoralities had turned the land into a perfect sty of +abominations. There they had been wallowing, and God's Spirit, which +strives with men ever and always, had been striving with them, we +know not for how long, but when the time came at which, according to +the grim metaphor of the Old Testament, 'the measure of their +iniquity was full,' then He hurled upon them the fierce hosts out of +the desert, and in a whirlwind of fire and sword swept them off the +face of the earth. + +Take another illustration. These very people, who had been the +executioners of divine judgment, settled in the land, fell into the +snare--and you know the story. The captivities of Israel and Judah +were other illustrations of the same thing. The fall of Jerusalem, +to which our Lord pointed in the solemn context of these words, was +another. For millenniums God had been pleading with them, sending +His prophets, rising early and sending, saying, 'Oh, do not do this +abominable thing which I hate!' 'And last of all He sent His Son.' +Christ being rejected, God had shot His last bolt. He had no more +that He could do. Christ being refused, the nation's doom was fixed +and sealed, and down came the eagles of Rome, again God's scavengers, +to sweep away the nation on which had been lavished such wealth of +divine love, but which had now come to be a rotting abomination, +and to this day remains in a living death, a miraculously preserved +monument of God's Judgments. + +Take another illustration how, once more, the executants of the law +fall under its power. That nation which crushed the feeble resources +of Judaea, as a giant might crush a mosquito in his grasp, in its +turn became honeycombed with abominations and immoralities; and then +down from the frozen north came the fierce Gothic tribes over the +Roman territory. One of their captains called himself the 'Scourge +of God,' and he was right. Another swooping down of the vultures +flashed from the blue heavens, and the carrion was torn to fragments +by their strong beaks. + +Take one more illustration--that French Revolution at the end of the +eighteenth century. The fathers sowed the wind, and the children +reaped the whirlwind. Generations of heartless luxury, selfishness, +carelessness of the cry of the poor, immoral separation of class +from class, and all the sins which a ruling caste could commit +against a subject people, had prepared for the convulsion. Then, in +a carnival of blood and deluges of fire and sulphur, the rotten +thing was swept off the face of the earth, and the world breathed +more freely for its destruction. + +Take another illustration, through which many of us have lived. The +bitter legacy of negro slavery that England gave to her giant son +across the Atlantic, which blasted and sucked the strength out of +that great republic, went down amidst universal execration. It took +centuries for the corpse to be ready, but when the vultures came +they made quick work of it. + +And so, as I say, all over the world, and from the beginning of +time, with delays according to the possibilities of restoration and +recovery which the divine eye discerns, this law is working. Verily +there is a God that judgeth in the earth. 'The wheels of God grind +slowly, but they grind exceeding small.' 'Wheresoever the carcase +is, there will the eagles be gathered together.' + +And has the law exhausted its force? Are there going to be no more +applications of it? Are there no European societies at this day that +in their godlessness and social iniquities are hurrying fast to the +condition of carrion? Look around us--drunkenness, sensual +immorality, commercial dishonesty, senseless luxury amongst the +rich, heartless indifference to the wail of the poor, godlessness +over all classes and ranks of the community. Surely, surely, if the +body politic be not dead, it is sick nigh unto death. And I, for my +part, have little hesitation in saying that as far as one can see, +European society is driving as fast as it can, with its godlessness +and immorality, to such another 'day of the Lord' as these words of +my text suggest. Let us see to it that we do our little part to be +the 'salt of the earth' which shall keep it from rotting, and so +drive away the vultures of judgment. + +II. But let me turn to another point. We have here a law which is to +have a far more tremendous accomplishment in the future. + +There have been many comings of the Lord, many days of the Lord, +when, as Isaiah says in his magnificent vision of one such, 'the +loftiness of man has been bowed down, and the haughtiness of man +made low, and the Lord alone exalted in that day when He arises to +shake terribly the earth. And all these 'days of the Lord' are +prophecies, and distinctly point to a future 'day' when the same +principles which have been disclosed as working on a small scale in +them, shall be manifested in full embodiment. These 'days of the +Lord' proclaim '_the_ day of the Lord.' In the prophecies both +of the Old and New Testaments that universal future judgment is seen +glimmering through the descriptions of the nearer partial judgments. +So interpreters are puzzled to say at what point in a prophecy the +transition is made from the smaller to the greater. The prophecies +are like the diagrams in treatises on perspective, in which +diverging lines are drawn from the eye, enclosing a square or other +figure, and which, as they recede further from the point of view, +enclose a figure, the same in shape but of greater dimensions. There +is a historical event foretold, the fall of Jerusalem. It is close +up to the eyes of the disciples, and is comparatively small. Carry +out the lines that touch its corners and define its shape, and upon +the far distant curtain of the dim future there is thrown a like +figure immensely larger, the coming of Jesus Christ to judge the +world. All these little premonitions and foretastes and anticipatory +specimens point onwards to the assured termination of the world's +history in that great and solemn day, when all men shall be gathered +before Christ's throne, and He shall judge all nations--judge you +and me amongst the rest. That future judgment is distinctly a part +of the Christian revelation. Jesus Christ is to come in bodily form +as He went away. All men are to be judged by Him. That judgment is +to be the destruction of opposing forces, the sweeping away of the +carrion of moral evil. + +It is therefore distinctly a part of the message that is to be +preached by us, under penalty of the awful condemnation pronounced +on the watchman who seeth the sword coming and gives no warning. It +is not becoming to make such a solemn message the opportunity for +pictorial rhetoric, which vulgarises its greatness and weakens its +power. But it is worse than an offence against taste; it is +unfaithfulness to the preaching which God bids us, treason to our +King, and cruelty to our hearers, to suppress the warning--'The day +of the Lord cometh.' There are many temptations to put it in the +background. Many of you do not want that kind of preaching. You want +the gentle side of divine revelation. You say to us in fact, though +not in words. 'Prophesy to us smooth things. Tell us about the +infinite love which wraps all mankind in its embrace. Speak to us of +the Father God, who "hateth nothing that He hath made." Magnify the +mercy and gentleness and tenderness of Christ. Do not say anything +about that other side. It is not in accordance with the tendencies +of modern thought.' + +So much the worse, then, for the tendencies of modern thought. I +yield to no man in the ardour of my belief that the centre of all +revelation is the revelation of a God of infinite love, but I cannot +forget that there is such a thing as 'the terror of the Lord,' and I +dare not disguise my conviction that no preaching sounds every +string in the manifold harp of God's truth, which does not strike +that solemn note of warning of judgment to come. + +Such suppression is unfaithfulness. Surely, if we preachers believe +that tremendous truth, we are bound to speak. It is cruel kindness +to be silent. If a traveller is about to plunge into some gloomy +jungle infested by wild beasts, he is a friend who sits by the +wayside to warn him of his danger. Surely you would not call a +signalman unfeeling because he held out a red lamp when he knew that +just round the curve beyond his cabin the rails were up, and that +any train that reached the place would go over in horrid ruin. +Surely that preaching is not justly charged with harshness which +rings out the wholesome proclamation of a day of judgment, when we +shall each give account of ourselves to the divine-human Judge. + +Such suppression weakens the power of the Gospel, which is the +proclamation of deliverance, not only from the power, but also from +the future retribution of sin. In such a maimed gospel there is but +an enfeebled meaning given to that idea of deliverance. And though +the thing that breaks the heart and draws men to God is not terror, +but love, the terror must often be evoked in order to lead to love. +It is only 'judgment to come' which will make Felix tremble, and +though his trembling may pass away, and he be none the nearer the +kingdom, there will never any good be done to him unless he does +tremble. So, for all these reasons, all faithful preaching of +Christ's Gospel must include the proclamation of Christ as Judge. + +But, if I should be unfaithful, if I did not preach this truth, what +shall we call you if you turn away from it? You would not think it a +wise thing of the engine-driver to shut his eyes if the red lamp +were shown, and to go along at full speed and to pay no heed to +that? Do you think it would be right for a Christian minister to +lock his lips and never say, 'There is a judgment to come'? And do +you think it is wise of you not to think of that, and to shape your +conduct accordingly? + +Oh, dear friends! I do not doubt that the centre of all divine +revelation is the love of God, nor do I doubt that incomparably the +highest representation of the power of Christ's Gospel is that it +draws men away from the love and the practice of evil, and makes +them pure and holy. But that is not all. There is not only the +practice and the power of sin to be fought against, but there is the +penalty of sin to be taken into account; and as sure as you are +living, and as sure as there is a God above us, so sure is it that +there is a Day of Judgment, when 'He will judge the world in +righteousness by the Man whom He hath ordained.' The believing of +that is not salvation, but the belief of that seems to me to be +indispensable for any vigorous grasp of the delivering love of God +in Jesus Christ our Lord. + +III. And so the last thing that I have to say is that this is a law +which need never touch you, nor you know anything about but by the +hearing of the ear. + +It is told us that we may escape it. When Paul reasoned of +righteousness, and temperance, and judgment to come, his hearer +trembled as he listened, but there was an end. But the true effect +of this message is the effect that Paul himself attached to it when +he said in the hearing of Athenian wisdom, 'God hath commanded all +men everywhere _to repent_, because He hath appointed a day in +the which He will judge the world in righteousness.' Judgment +faithfully preached is the preparation for preaching that 'there is +no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.' If we trust in +that great Saviour, we shall be quickened from the death of sin, and +so shall not be food for the vultures of judgment. Can these corpses +live? Can this eating putrescence, which burrows its foul way +through our souls, be sweetened? Is there any antiseptic for it? +Yes, blessed be God, and the hand whose touch healed the leper will +heal us, and 'our flesh will come again as the flesh of a little +child.' Christ has bared His breast to the divine judgments against +sin, and if by faith we shelter ourselves in Him, we shall never +know the terrors of that awful day. + +Be sure that judgment to come is no mere figure dressed up to +frighten children, nor the product of blind superstition, but that +it is the inevitable issue of the righteousness of the All-ruling +God. You and I and all the sons of men have to face it. 'Herein is +our love made perfect, that we may have boldness before Him in the +Day of Judgment.' Betake yourselves, as poor sinful creatures who +know something of the corruption of your own hearts, to that dear +Christ who has died on the Cross for you, and all that is obnoxious +to the divine judgments will, by His transforming life breathed into +you, be taken out of your hearts; and when that 'day of the Lord' +shall dawn, you, trusting in the sacrifice of Him who is your Judge, +will 'have a song as when a holy solemnity is kept.' Take Christ for +your Saviour, and then, when the vultures of judgment, with their +mighty black pinions, are wheeling and circling in the sky, ready to +pounce upon their prey, He will gather you 'as a hen gathereth her +chickens under her wings,' and beneath their shadow you will be +safe. + + + + +WATCHING FOR THE KING + + + 'Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord + doth come. 43. But know this, that if the goodman of + the house had known in what watch the thief would come, + he would have watched, and would not have suffered his + house to be broken up. 44. Therefore be ye also ready: + for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man + cometh. 45. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, + whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to + give them meat in due season! 46. Blessed is that + servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so + doing. 47. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make + him ruler over all his goods. 48. But and if that evil + servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his + coming; 49. And shall begin to smite his fellow- + servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; + 50. The lord of that servant shall come in a day when + he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not + aware of, 51. And shall out him asunder, and appoint + him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be + weeping and gnashing of teeth.'--MATT. xxiv. 42-51. + +The long day's work was nearly done. Christ had left the temple, +never to return. He took His way across the Mount of Olives to +Bethany, and was stayed by the disciples' question as to the date of +the destruction of the temple, which He had foretold, and of the +'end of the world,' which they attached to it. They could not fancy +the world lasting without the temple! We often make a like mistake. +So there, on the hillside, looking across to the city lying in the +sad, fading evening light, He spoke the prophecies of this chapter, +which begin with the destruction of Jerusalem, and insensibly merge +into the final coming of the Son of Man, of which that was a prelude +and a type. The difficulty of accurately apportioning the details of +this prophecy to the future events which fulfil them is common to it +with all prophecy, of which it is a characteristic to blend events +which, in the fulfilment, are far apart. From the mountain top, the +eye travels over great stretches of country, but does not see the +gorges, separating points which seem close together, foreshortened +by distance. + +There are many comings of the Son of Man before His final coming for +final judgment, and the nearer and smaller ones are themselves +prophecies. So, we do not need to settle the chronology of +unfulfilled prophecy in order to get the full benefit of Christ's +teachings here. In its moral and spiritual effect on us, the +uncertainty of the time of our going to Christ is nearly identical +with the uncertainty of the time of His coming to us. + +I. The command of watchfulness enforced by our ignorance of the time +of His coming (vs. 42-44). The two commands at the beginning and end +of the paragraph are not quite the same. 'Be ye ready' is the +consequence of watchfulness. Nor are the two appended reasons the +same; for the first command is grounded on His coming at a day when +'ye _know_ not,' and the second on His coming 'in an hour that +ye _think_ not,' that is to say, it not only is uncertain, but +unexpected and surprising. There may also be a difference worth +noting in the different designations of Christ as 'your Lord,' +standing in a special relation to you, and as 'the Son of Man,' of +kindred with all men, and their Judge. What is this 'watchfulness'? +It is literally wakefulness. We are beset by perpetual temptations +to sleep, to spiritual drowsiness and torpor. 'An opium sky rains +down soporifics.' And without continual effort, our perception of +the unseen realities and our alertness for service will be lulled to +sleep. The religion of multitudes is a sleepy religion. Further, it +is a vivid and ever-present conviction of His certain coming, and +consequently a habitual realising of the transience of the existing +order of things, and of the fast-approaching realities of the +future. Further, it is the keeping of our minds in an attitude of +expectation and desire, our eyes ever travelling to the dim distance +to mark the far-off shining of His coming. What a miserable contrast +to this is the temper of professing Christendom as a whole! It is +swallowed up in the present, wide awake to interests and hopes +belonging to this 'bank and shoal of time,' but sunk in slumber as +to that great future, or, if ever the thought of it intrudes, +shrinking, rather than desire, accompanies it, and it is soon +hustled out of mind. + +Christ bases His command on our ignorance of the time of His coming. +It was no part of His purpose in this prophecy to remove that +ignorance, and no calculations of the chronology of unfulfilled +predictions have pierced the darkness. It was His purpose that from +generation to generation His servants should be kept in the attitude +of expectation, as of an event that may come at any time and must +come at some time. The parallel uncertainty of the time of death, +though not what is meant here, serves the same moral end if rightly +used, and the fact of death is exposed to the same danger of being +neglected because of the very uncertainty, which ought to be one +chief reason for keeping it ever in view. Any future event, which +combines these two things, absolute certainty that it will happen, +and utter uncertainty when it will happen, ought to have power to +insist on being remembered, at least, till it was prepared for, and +would have it, if men were not such fools. Christ's coming would be +oftener contemplated if it were more welcome. But what sort of a +servant is he, who has no glow of gladness at the thought of meeting +his lord? True Christians are 'all them that have loved His +appearing.' + +The illustrative example which separates these two commands is +remarkable. The householder's ignorance of the time when the thief +would come is the reason why he does not watch. He cannot keep awake +all night, and every night, to be ready for him; so he has to go to +sleep, and is robbed. But our ignorance is a reason for wakefulness, +because we can keep awake all the night of life. The householder +watches to prevent, but we to share in, that for which the watch is +kept. The figure of the thief is chosen to illustrate the one point +of the unexpected stealthy approach. But is there not deep truth in +it, to the effect that Christ's coming is like that of a robber to +those who are asleep, depriving them of earthly treasures? The word +rendered 'broken up' means literally 'dug through,' and points to a +clay or mud house, common in the East, which is entered, not by +bursting open doors or windows, but by digging through the wall. +Death comes to men sunk in spiritual slumber, to strip them of good +which they would fain keep, and makes his entrance by a breach in +the earthly house of this tabernacle. So St. Paul, in his earliest +Epistle, refers to this saying (a proof of the early diffusion of +the gospel narrative), and says, 'Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, +that that day should overtake you as a thief.' + +II. The picture and reward of watchfulness. The general exhortation +to watch is followed by a pair of contrasted parable portraits, +primarily applicable to the apostles and to those 'set over His +household.' But if we remember what Christ taught as the condition +of pre-eminence in His kingdom, we shall not confine their +application to an order. + + 'The least flower with a brimming cup may stand, + And share its dew-drop with another near,' + +and the most slenderly endowed Christian has some crumb of the bread +of life intrusted to him to dispense. It is to be observed that +watchfulness is not mentioned in this portraiture of the faithful +servant. It is presupposed as the basis and motive of his service. +So we learn the double lesson that the attitude of continual outlook +for the Lord is needed, if we are to discharge the tasks which He +has set us, and that the true effect of watchfulness is to harness +us to the car of duty. Many other motives actuate Christian +faithfulness, but all are reinforced by this, and where it is feeble +they are more or less inoperative. We cannot afford to lose its +influence. A Church or a soul which has ceased to be looking for Him +will have let all its tasks drop from its drowsy hands, and will +feel the power of other constraining motives of Christian service +but faintly, as in a half-dream. + +On the other hand, true waiting for Him is best expressed in the +quiet discharge of accustomed and appointed tasks. The right place +for the servant to be found, when the Lord comes, is 'so doing' as +He commands, however secular the task may be. That was a wise judge +who, when sudden darkness came on, and people thought the end of the +world was at hand, said, 'Bring lights, and let us go on with the +case. We cannot be better employed, if the end has come, than in +doing our duty.' Flighty impatience of common tasks is not watching +for the King, as Paul had to teach the Thessalonians, who were +'shaken' in mind by the thought of the day of the Lord; but the +proper attitude of the watchers is 'that ye study to be quiet, and +to do your own business.' + +Observe, further, the interrogative form of the parable. The +question is the sharp point which gives penetrating power, and +suggests Christ's high estimate of the worth and difficulty of such +conduct, and sets us to ask for ourselves, 'Lord, is it I?' The +servant is 'faithful' inasmuch as he does his Lord's will, and +rightly uses the goods intrusted to him, and 'wise' inasmuch as he +is 'faithful.' For a single-hearted devotion to Christ is the parent +of insight into duty, and the best guide to conduct; and whoever +seeks only to be true to his Lord in the use of his gifts and +possessions, will not lack prudence to guide him in giving to each +his food, and that in due season. The two characteristics are +connected in another way also; for, if the outcome of faithfulness +be taken into account, its wisdom is plain, and he who has been +faithful even unto death will be seen to have been wise though he +gave up all, when the crown of eternal life sparkles on his +forehead. Such faithfulness and wisdom (which are at bottom but two +names for one course of conduct) find their motive in that +watchfulness, which works as ever in the great Taskmaster's eye, and +as ever keeping in view His coming, and the rendering of account to +Him. + +The reward of the faithful servant is stated in language similar to +that of the parable of the talents. Faithfulness in a narrower +sphere leads to a wider. The reward for true work is more work, of +nobler sort and on a grander scale. That is true for earth and for +heaven. If we do His will here, we shall one day exchange the +subordinate place of the steward for the authority of the ruler, and +the toil of the servant for the 'joy of the Lord.' The soul that is +joined to Christ and is one in will with Him has all things for its +servants; and he who uses all things for his own and his brethren's +highest good is lord of them all, while he walks amid the shadows of +time, and will be lifted to loftier dominion over a grander world +when he passes hence. + +III. The picture and doom of the unwatchful servant. This portrait +presupposes that a long period will elapse before Christ comes. The +secret thought of the evil servant is the thought of a time far down +the ages from the moment of our Lord's speaking. It would take +centuries for such a temper to be developed in the Church. What is +the temper? A secret dismissal of the anticipation of the Lord's +return, and that not merely because He has been long in coming, but +as thinking that He has broken His word, and has not come when He +said that He would. This unspoken dimming over of the expectation +and unconfessed doubt of the firmness of the promise, is the natural +product of the long time of apparent delay which the Church has had +to encounter. It will cloud and depress the religion of later ages, +unless there be constant effort to resist the tendency and to keep +awake. The first generations were all aflame with the glad hope +'Maranatha'--'The Lord is at hand.' Their successors gradually lost +that keenness of expectation, and at most cried, 'Will not He come +soon?' Their successors saw the starry hope through thickening mists +of years; and now it scarcely shines for many, or at least is but a +dim point, when it should blaze as a sun. + +He was an 'evil' servant who said so in his heart. He was evil +because he said it, and he said it because he was evil; for the +yielding to sin and the withdrawal of love from Jesus dim the desire +for His coming, and make the whisper that He delays, a hope; while, +on the other hand, the hope that He delays helps to open the +sluices, and let sin flood the life. So an outburst of cruel +masterfulness and of riotous sensuality is the consequence of the +dimmed expectation. There would have been no usurpation of authority +over Christ's heritage by priest or pope, or any other, if that hope +had not become faint. If professing Christians lived with the great +white throne and the heavens and earth fleeing away before Him that +sits on it, ever burning before their inward eye, how could they +wallow amid the mire of animal indulgence? The corruptions of the +Church, especially of its official members, are traced with sad and +prescient hand in these foreboding words, which are none the less a +prophecy because cast by His forbearing gentleness into the milder +form of a supposition. + +The dreadful doom of the unwatchful servant is couched in terms of +awful severity. The cruel punishment of sawing asunder, which, +tradition says, was suffered by Isaiah and was not unfamiliar in old +times, is his. What concealed terror of retribution it signifies we +do not know. Perhaps it points to a fate in which a man shall be, as +it were, parted into two, each at enmity with the other. Perhaps it +implies a retribution in kind for his sin, which consisted, as the +next clause implies, in hypocrisy, which is the sundering in twain +of inward conviction and practice, and is to be avenged by a like +but worse rending apart of conscience and will. At all events, it +shadows a fearful retribution, which is not extinction, inasmuch as, +in the next clause, we read that his portion--his lot, or that +condition which belongs to him by virtue of his character--is with +'the hypocrites.' He was one of them, because, while he said 'my +lord,' he had ceased to love and obey, having ceased to desire and +expect; and therefore whatever is their fate shall be his, even to +the 'dividing asunder of soul and spirit,' and setting eternal +discord among the thoughts and intents of the heart. That is not the +punishment of unwatchfulness, but of what unwatchfulness leads to, +if unawakened. Let these words of the King ring an alarum for us +all, and rouse our sleepy souls to watch, as becomes the children of +the day. + + + + +THE WAITING MAIDENS + + + 'Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten + virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet + the bridegroom. 2. And five of them were wise, and five + were foolish. 3. They that were foolish took their + lamps, and took no oil with them: 4. But the wise took + oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5. While the + bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. 6. And + at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom + cometh; go ye out to meet him. 7. Then all those virgins + arose, and trimmed their lamps. 8. And the foolish said + unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are + gone out. 9. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest + there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to + them that sell, and buy for yourselves. 10. And while + they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that + were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the + door was shut. 11 Afterward came also the other virgins, + saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. 12. But he answered and + said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. 13. Watch + therefore; for ye know neither the day nor the hour + wherein the Son of Man cometh.'--MATT. xxv. 1-13. + +We shall best understand this beautiful but difficult parable if we +look on to its close. Our Lord appends to it the refrain of all this +context, the exhortation to watch, based upon our ignorance of the +time of His coming. But as in the former little parable of the wise +servant it was his faithful, wise dispensing of his lord's goods, +and not his watchfulness, which was the point of the eulogium passed +on him, so here it is the readiness of the wise virgins to take +their places in the wedding march which is commended. That readiness +consists in their having their lamps burning and their oil in store. +This, then, is the main thing in the parable. It is an exhibition, +under another aspect, of what constitutes fitness for entrance into +the festal chamber of the bridegroom, which had just been set forth +as consisting in faithful stewardship. Here it is presented as being +the possession of lamp and oil. + +I. The first consideration, then, must be, What is the meaning of +these emblems? A great deal of fine-spun ingenuity has been expended +on subordinate points in the parable, such as the significance of +the number of maidens, the conclusions from the equal division into +wise and foolish, the place from which they came to meet the +bridegroom, the point in the marriage procession where they are +supposed to join it, whether it was at going to fetch the bride, or +at coming back with her; whether the feast is held in her house, or +in his, and so on. But all these are unimportant questions, and as +Christ has left them in the background, we only destroy the +perspective by dragging them into the front. In no parable is it +more important than in this to restrain the temptation to run out +analogies into their last results. The remembrance that the virgins, +as the emblem of the whole body of the visible Church, are the same +as the bride, who does not appear in the parable, might warn against +such an error. They were ten, as being the usual number for such a +company, or as being the round number naturally employed when +definiteness was not sought. They were divided equally, not because +our Lord desired to tell, but because He wished to leave unnoticed, +the numerical proportion of the two classes. One set are 'wise' and +the other 'foolish,' because He wishes to show not only the sin, but +the absurdity, of unreadiness, and to teach us that true wisdom is +not of the head only, but far more of the heart. The conduct of the +two groups of maidens is looked at from the prudent and common-sense +standpoint, and the provident action of the one sets in relief the +reckless stupidity of the other. + +There have been many opinions as to the meaning of the lamps and the +oil, which it is needless to repeat. Surely the analogy of +scriptural symbolism is our best guide. If we follow it, we get a +meaning which perfectly suits the emblems and the whole parable. In +the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord uses the same figure of the lamp, +and explains it: 'Let your light shine before men, that they may see +your good works.' + +II. Note the sleep of all the virgins. No blame is hinted on account +of it. It is not inconsistent with the wisdom of the wise, nor does +it interfere with their readiness to meet the bridegroom. It is, +then, such a sleep as is compatible with watching. Our Lord's +introduction of this point is an example of His merciful allowance +for our weakness. There must be a certain slackening of the tension +of expectation when the bridegroom tarries. Centuries of delay +cannot but modify the attitude of the waiting Church, and Jesus here +implies that there will be a long stretch of time before His advent, +during which all His people will feel the natural effect of the +deferring of hope. But the sleep which He permits, unblamed, is +light, and such as one takes by snatches when waiting to be called. +He does not ask us always to be on tiptoe of expectation, nor to +refuse the teaching of experience; but counts that we have watched +aright, if we wake from our light slumbers when the cry is heard, +and have our lamps lit, ready for the procession. + +III. Then comes the midnight cry and the waking of the maidens. The +hour, 'of night's black arch the keystone,' suggests the unexpectedness +of His coming; the loudness of the cry, its all-awaking effect; the +broken words of the true reading, 'Behold the bridegroom!' the +closeness on the heels of the heralds with which the procession +flashes through the darkness. The virgins had 'gone forth to meet him' +at the beginning of the parable, but the going forth to which they are +now summoned is not the same. The Christian soul goes forth once when, +at the beginning of its Christian life, it forsakes the world to wait +for and on Christ, and again, when it leaves the world to pass with +Him into the banquet. Life is the slumber from which some are awaked +by the voice of death, and some who 'remain' shall be awaked by the +trumpet of judgment. There is no interval between the cry and the +appearance of the bridegroom; only a moment to rouse themselves, to +look to their lamps, and to speak the hurried words of the foolish +and the answer of the wise, and then the procession is upon them. It +is all done as in a flash, 'in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.' +This impression of swiftness, which leaves no time for delayed +preparation, is the uniform impression conveyed by all the Scripture +references to the coming of the Lord. The swoop of the eagle, the +fierce blaze of lightning from one side of the sky to the other, the +bursting of the flood, that morning's work at Sodom, not begun till +dawn and finished before the 'sun was risen on the earth,' are its +types. Foolish indeed to postpone preparation till that moment when +cry and coming are simultaneous, like lightning and thunder right +overhead! + +The foolish virgins' imploring request and its answer are not to be +pressed, as if they meant more than to set forth the hopelessness of +then attempting to procure the wanting oil, and especially the +hopelessness of attempting to get it from one's fellows. There is a +world of suppressed terror and surprise in that cry, 'Our lamps are +going out.' Note that they burned till the bridegroom came, and +then, like the magic lamps in old legends, at his approach shivered +into darkness. Is not that true of the formal, outward religion, +which survives everything but contact with His all-seeing eye and +perfect judgment? These foolish maidens were as much astonished as +alarmed at seeing their lights flicker down to extinction; and it is +possible for professing Christians to live a lifetime, and never to +be found out either by themselves or by anybody else. But if there +has been no oil in the lamp, it will be quenched when He appears. +The atmosphere that surrounds His throne acts like oxygen on the +oil-fed flame, and like carbonic acid gas on the other. + +The answer of the wise is not selfishness. It is not from our +fellows, however bright their lamps, that we can ever get that +inward grace. None of them has more than suffices for his own needs, +nor can any give it to another. It may be bought, on the same terms +as the pearl of great price was bought, 'without money'; but the +market is closed, as on a holiday, on the day of the king's son's +marriage. That is not touched upon here, except in so far as it is +hinted at in the absence of the foolish when he enters the +banqueting chamber, and in their fruitless prayer. They had no time +to get the oil before he came, and they had not got it when they +returned. The lesson is plain. We can only get the new life of the +Spirit, which will make our lives a light, from God; and we can get +it now, not then. + +IV. We see the wise virgins within and the foolish without. They +are, indeed, no longer designated by these adjectives, but as +'ready' and 'the others'; for preparedness is fitness, and they who +are found of Him in possession of the outward righteousness and of +its inward source, His own divine life in them, are prepared. To +such the gates of the festal chamber fly open. In that day, place is +the outcome of character, and it is equally impossible for the +'ready' to be shut out, and for 'the others' to go in. + +'When the bridegroom with his feastful friends passes to bliss at +the mid hour of night,' they who have 'filled their odorous lamps +with deeds of light' have surely 'gained their entrance.' There is +silence as to the unspeakable joys of the wedding feast. Some faint +sounds of music and dancing, some gleams from the lighted windows, +find their way out; but the closed door keeps its secret, and only +the guests know the gladness. + +That closed door means security, perpetuity, untold blessedness, but +it means exclusion too. The piteous reiterated call of the shut-out +maidens, roused too late, and so suddenly, from songs and laughter +to vain cries, evokes a stern answer, through which shines the awful +reality veiled in the parable. We do not need to regard the prayer +for entrance, and its refusal, as conveying more than the +fruitlessness of wishes for entrance then, when unaccompanied with +fitness to enter. Such desire as is expressed in this passionate +beating at the closed door, with hoarse entreaties, is not fitness. +If it were, the door would open; and the reason why it does not lies +in the bridegroom's awful answer, 'I know you not.' The absence of +the qualification prevents his recognising them as his. Surely the +unalleviated darkness of a hopeless exclusion settles down on these +sad five, standing, huddled together, at the door, with the +extinguished lamps hanging in their despairing hands. 'Too late, too +late, ye cannot enter now.' The wedding bell has become a funeral +knell. They were not the enemies of the bridegroom, they thought +themselves his friends. They let life ebb without securing the one +thing needful, and the neglect was irremediable. There is a tragedy +underlying many a life of outward religiousness and inward +emptiness, and a dreadful discovery will flare in upon such, when +they have to say to themselves, + + 'This might have been once, + And we missed it, lost it for ever.' + + + + +DYING LAMPS + + + 'Our lamps are gone out.'--MATT. xxv. 8. + +This is one of the many cases in which the Revised Version, by +accuracy of rendering the tense of a verb, gives a much more +striking as well as correct reproduction of the original than the +Authorised Version does. The former reads 'going out,' instead of +'gone out,' a rendering which the Old Version has, unfortunately, +relegated to the margin. It is clearly to be preferred, not only +because it more correctly represents the Greek, but because it sets +before us a more solemn and impressive picture of the precise time +at which the terrible discovery was made by the foolish five. They +woke from their sleep, and hastily trimmed their lamps. These burned +brightly for a moment, and then began to flicker and die down. The +extinction of their light was not the act of a moment, but was a +gradual process, which had advanced in some degree before it +attracted the attention of the bearers of the lamps. At last it +roused the half-sleeping five into startled, wide-awake +consciousness. There is a tone of alarm and fear in their sudden +exclamation, 'Our lamps are going out.' They see now the catastrophe +that threatens, and understand that the only means of averting it is +to replenish the empty oil-vessels before the flame has quite +expired. But their knowledge and their dread were alike too late, +and, as they went on their hopeless search for some one to give them +what they once might have had in abundance, the last faint flicker +ceased, and they had to grope their way in the dark, with their +lightless lamps hanging useless in their slack hands, while far off +the torches of the bridal procession, in which they might have had a +part, flashed through the night. We have nothing to do with the +tragical issue of the process of extinction; but solemn lessons of +universal application gather round the picture of that process, as +represented in our text, and to these we turn now. + +I. We must settle the meaning of the oil and the lamps. + +The Old Testament symbolism is our best guide as to the significance +of the oil. Throughout it, oil symbolises the divine influences that +come down on men appointed by God to their several functions, and +which are there traced to the Spirit of the Lord. So the priests +were set apart by unction with the holy oil; so Samuel poured oil on +the black locks of Saul. So, too, the very name Messiah means +'anointed,' and the great prophecy, which Jesus claimed for His own +in His first sermon in the synagogue at Nazareth, put into the +Messiah's lips the declaration, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, +because He hath anointed Me.' But there are Old Testament symbols +which bear still more closely on the emblems of our text. Zechariah +saw in vision a golden lamp-stand with seven lamps, and on either +side of it an olive tree, from which oil flowed through golden pipes +to feed the flame. The interpretation of the vision was given by the +'angel that talked with' the prophet as being, 'not by might nor by +power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.' + +So, then, we follow the plainly marked road and Scripture use of a +symbol when we take the oil in this parable to be that which every +listener to Jesus, who was instructed in the old things which he was +bringing forth with new emphasis from the ancient treasure-house of +the word of God, would take it to be--namely, the sum of the +influences from Heaven which were bestowed through the Spirit of the +Lord. + +Such being the meaning of the oil, what was meant by the lamp? We +have no intention of discussing here the many varying interpretations +which have been given to the symbol. To do so would lead us too far +afield. We can only say that the interpretation of the oil as the +influence of the Holy Spirit necessarily involves the explanation of +the lamp which is fed by it, as being the spiritual life of the +individual, which is nourished and made visible to the world as light, +by the continual communication from God of these hallowing influences. +Turning again to the Old Testament, I need only remind you of the +great seven-branched lamp which stood in the Tabernacle, and afterwards +in the Temple. It was the symbol of the collective Israel, as recipient +of divine influences, and thereby made the light of a dark world. Its +rays streamed out over the desert first, and afterwards shone from +the mountain of the Lord's house, beaming illumination and invitation +to those who sat in darkness to behold the great light, and to walk +in the light of the Lord. Zechariah's emblem was based on the Temple +lamp. In accordance with the greater prominence given by the Old +Testament to national than to individual religion, both of these +represented the people as a whole. In accordance with the more +advanced individualism of the New Testament, our text so far varies +the application of the emblem, that each of the ten virgins who, as +a whole, stand for the collective professing Church, has her own +lamp. But that is the only difference between the Old and the New +Testament uses of the symbol. + +I need not remind you how the same metaphor recurs frequently in the +teachings of our Lord and of the Apostles. Sometimes the Old +Testament collective point of view is maintained, as in our Lord's +saying in the Sermon on the Mount, 'Ye are the light of the world,' +but more frequently, the characteristic individualising of the +figure prevails, and we read of Christians shining 'as lights in the +world,' and each holding forth, as a lamp does its light, 'the word +of life.' Nor must we forget the climax of the uses of this emblem, +in the vision of the Apocalypse, where John once more saw the Lord, +on whose bosom his head had so often peacefully lain, 'walking in +the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.' There, again, the +collective rather than the individual bearing of the figure is +prominent, but with significant differences from the older use of +it. In Judaism there was a formal, outward unity, represented by the +one lamp with its manifold lights, all welded together on the golden +stem; but the churches of Asia Minor were distinct organisations, +and their oneness came, not from outward union of a mechanical kind, +but from the presence in their midst of the Son of God. + +The sum of all this course of thought is that the lamp is the +Christian life of the individual sustained by the communication of +the influences of God's Holy Spirit. + +II. We note next the gradual dying out of the light. 'Our lamps are +going out.' + +All spiritual emotions and vitality, like every other kind of +emotion and vitality, die unless nourished. Let no theological +difficulties about 'the final perseverance of the saints,' or 'the +indefeasibleness of grace,' and the impossibility of slaying the +divine life that has once been given to a man, come in the way of +letting this parable have its full, solemn weight. These foolish +virgins had oil and had light, the oil failed by their fault, and so +the light went out, and they were startled, when they awoke from +their slumber, to see how, instead of brilliant flame, there was +smoking wick. + +Dear brethren, let us take the lesson. There is nothing in our +religious emotions which has any guarantee of perpetuity in it, +except upon certain conditions. We may live, and our life may ebb. We +may trust, and our trust may tremble into unbelief. We may obey, and +our obedience may be broken by the mutinous risings of self-will. We +may walk in the 'paths of righteousness,' and our feet may falter +and turn aside. There is certainty of the dying out of all communicated +life, unless the channel of communication with the life from which it +was first kindled, be kept constantly clear. The lamp may be 'a burning +and a shining light,' or, more accurately translating the phrase of +our Lord, 'a light kindled and' (therefore) 'shining,' but it will be +light 'for a season' only, unless it is fed from that from which it +was first set alight; and that is from God Himself. + +'Our lamps are going out,'--a slow process that! The flame does not +all die into darkness in a minute. There are stages in its death. +The white portion of the flame becomes smaller and the blue part +extends; then the flame flickers, and finally shudders itself, as it +were, off the wick; then nothing remains but a charred red line +along the top; then that line breaks up into little points, and one +after another these twinkle out, and then all is black, and the lamp +is gone out. And so, slowly, like the ebbing away of the tide, like +the reluctant, long-protracted dying of summer days, like the +dropping of the blood from some fatal wound, by degrees the process +of extinction creeps, creeps, creeps on, and the lamp that was going +is finally gone out. + +III. Again, we note that extinction is brought about simply by doing +nothing. + +These five foolish virgins did not stray away into any forbidden +paths. No positive sin is alleged against them. They were simply +asleep. The other five were asleep too. I do not need to enter, here +and now, into the whole interpretation of the parable, or there +might be much to say about the difference between these two kinds of +sleep. But what I wish to notice is that it was nothing except +negligence darkening into drowsiness, which caused the dying out of +the light. + +It was not of set purpose that the foolish five took no oil with +them. They merely neglected to do so, not having the wit to look +ahead and provide against the contingency of a long time of waiting +for the bridegroom. Their negligence was the result, not of +deliberate wish to let their lights go out, but of their +heedlessness; and because of that negligence they earned the name of +'foolish.' If we do not look forward, and prepare for possible +drains on our powers, we shall deserve the same adjective. If we do +not lay in stores for future use, we may be sent to school to the +harvesting ant and the bee. That lesson applies to all departments +of life; but it is eminently applicable to the spiritual life, which +is sustained only by communications from the Spirit of God. For +these communications will be imperceptibly lessened, and may be +altogether intercepted, unless diligent attention is given to keep +open the channels by which they enter the spirit. If the pipes are +not looked to, they will be choked by masses of matted trifles, +through which the 'rivers of living water,' which Christ took as a +symbol of the Spirit's influences, cannot force a way. + +The thing that makes shipwreck of the faith of most professing +Christians that do come to grief is no positive wickedness, no +conduct which would be branded as sin by the Christian conscience or +even by ordinary people, but simply torpor. If the water in a pond +is never stirred, it is sure to stagnate, and green scum to spread +over it, and a foul smell to rise from it. A Christian man has only +to do what I am afraid a good many of us are in great danger of +doing--that is, nothing--in order to ensure that his lamp shall go +out. + +Do you try to keep yours alight? There is only one way to do it--that +is to go to Christ and get Him to pour His sweetness and His power +into our open hearts. When one of the old patriarchs had committed a +great sin, and had unbelievingly twitched his hand out of God's hand, +and gone away down into Egypt to help himself instead of trusting to +God, he was commanded, on his return to Palestine, to go to the place +where he dwelt at the first, and begin again, at the point where he +began when he first entered the land. Which being translated is just +this--the only way to keep our spirits vital and quick is by having +recourse, again and again, to the same power which first imparted +life to them, and this is done by the first means, the means of simple + reliance upon Christ in the consciousness of our own deep need, and +of believingly waiting upon Him for the repeated communication of the +gifts which we, alas! have so often misimproved. Negligence is enough +to slay. Doing nothing is the sure way to quench the Holy Spirit. + +And, on the other hand, keeping close to Him is the sure way to +secure that He will never leave us. You can choke a lamp with oil, +but you cannot have in your hearts too much of that divine grace. +And you receive all that you need if you choose to go and ask it +from Him. Remember the old story about Elisha and the poor woman. +The cruse of oil began to run. She brought all the vessels that she +could rake together, big and little, pots and cups, of all shapes +and sizes, and set them, one after the other, under the jet of oil. +They were all filled; and when she brought no more vessels the oil +stayed. If you do not take your empty hearts to God, and say, 'Here, +Lord, fill this cup too; poor as it is, fill it with Thine own +gracious influences,' be very sure that no such influences will come +to you. But if you do go, be as sure of this, that so long as you +hold out your emptiness to Him, He will flood it with His fulness, +and the light that seemed to be sputtering to its death will flame +up again. He will not quench the smoking wick, if only we carry it +to Him; but as the priests in the Temple walked all through the +night to trim the golden lamps, so He who walks amidst the seven +candlesticks will see to each. + +IV. And now one last word. That process of gradual extinction may be +going on, and may have been going on for a long while, and the +virgin that carries the lamp be quite unaware of it. + +How could a sleeping woman know whether her lamp was burning or not? +How can a drowsy Christian tell whether his spiritual life is bright +or not? To be unconscious of our approximation to this condition is, +I am afraid, one of the surest signs that we are in it. I suppose +that a paralysed limb is quite comfortable. At any rate, paralysis +of the spirit may be going on without our knowing anything about it. +So, dear friends, do not put these poor words of mine away from you +and say, 'Oh! they do not apply to me.' + +I am quite sure that the people to whom they do apply will be the +last people to take them to themselves. And while I quite believe, +thank God! that there are many of us who may feel and know that our +lamps are not going out, sure I am that there are some of us whom +everybody but themselves knows to be carrying a lamp that is so far +gone out that it is smoking and stinking in the eyes and noses of +the people that stand by. Be sure that nobody was more surprised +than were the five foolish women when they opened their witless, +sleepy eyes, and saw the state of things. So, dear friends, 'let +your loins be girt about, and your lamps burning; and ye yourselves +like unto men that wait for their Lord.' + + + + +'THEY THAT WERE READY' + + + 'They that were ready went in with him to the marriage.' + --MATT. xxv. 10. + +It is interesting to notice the variety of aspects in which, in this +long discourse, Jesus sets forth His Second Coming. It is like the +flood that swept away a world. It is like a thief stealing through +the dark, and breaking up a house. It is like a master reckoning +with his servants. These three metaphors suggest solemn, one might +almost say alarming, images. But then this parable comes in and +tells how that coming is like that of a bridegroom to the bride's +house, with joy and music. I am afraid that the average Christian, +when he thinks at all of Christ's coming, takes these three first +aspects rather than the last one, and so loses what is meant to be a +bright hope and a great stimulus. It is not in human nature to think +much about a terrible future. It is not in human nature to avoid +thinking a great deal about a blessed future. And although one does +not wish to preach carelessness, or the ignoring of the solemn side +of that coming, sure I am that our Christian lives would be stronger +and purer, brighter and better able to front the solemn side, if the +blessed side of it were more often the object of our contemplation. + +Turning to the words of my text, which seem to me to be the very +centre and heart of this parable, I ask:-- + +I. What makes readiness? + +There have been many answers given to that question. One has been +that to be ready means to be perpetually having before us the +thought of the coming of the Lord, and that has been taken to be the +meaning of the watchfulness which is enjoined in the context. But +the parable itself points in an altogether different direction. Who, +according to it, were ready? The five who had lamps and oil. To have +these was readiness. + +It is beautiful to notice how these five who _were_ ready when +the Master came had 'slumbered and slept' like the other five. Ah! +that touch in the picture shows that 'He knoweth our frame; He +remembereth that we are dust.' It is not in human nature to keep up +permanently a tension of expectation for a far-off good; and in +profound knowledge of the weakness of humanity, our Lord, in this +parable, says: 'While the Bridegroom tarried they _all_ slumbered'--and +yet the five were ready when the Bridegroom came. In like manner, +Christian men and women who have no expectation at all that the +Second Coming of the Lord will occur during their lifetimes, may +nevertheless be ready, if they have the burning lamps and the store +of oil. The question then comes to be, What is meant by these? + +Perhaps harm has been done by insisting upon too minute and specific +interpretation. But, at the same time, we must not forget that, from +the very beginning of the Jewish Revelation, from the time when the +seven-branched candlestick was appointed for the Tabernacle, right +down to the day when the Apocalyptic Seer saw in Patmos the Son of +Man walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, the +metaphor has had one meaning. The aggregate of God's people are +intended to be, as Jesus told us immediately after He had drawn the +character of a true disciple, in the wonderful outlines of the +Beatitudes, 'the light of the world,' and they will be so in the +measure in which the gentle radiance of that character shines +through their lives, as the light of a lamp through frosted glass. +But the aggregate is made up of units, and individual Christians are +to shine 'as lights in the world,' and their separate brightnesses +are to coalesce in the clustered light of the whole Church. What +makes an individual Christian a light is a Christ-like life, derived +from that Life which was 'the Light of men.' The lamp which the five +wise virgins bear is the same as the light which the consistent +Christian is. The inner self illuminated from Christ, the source of +all our illumination, lights up the outward life, which each of us +may be conceived as carrying in our hands. It is not ourselves, and +yet it is ourselves made visible. It is not ourselves, but Christ in +us; and so we shine as lights in the world, only by 'holding forth +the word of life.' + +That modification of the figure by Paul is profoundly true and +important, for after all we are not so much lights as candelabra, +and only as we bear aloft the flashing light of Christ shall we +shine 'in a naughty world.' Our lamps, then, are Christ-like +characters derived from Christ, and to have and bear these is the +first element in being ready for the Bridegroom. + +Dear friends, remember that this whole parable is spoken to +professing Christians and real members of Christ's Church; and that +there is no meaning in it unless it is possible to quench the light +of the lamp. Remember that our Lord said once, 'Let your loins be +girt,' and put that as the necessary condition of lamps burning. +'Let your loins be girt' with resolved effort of faith and +dependence, and make sure that you have the provision for the +continuance of the light. So, and only so, shall any man be of the +happy company of them that were ready. + +II. Note that this readiness is the condition of entrance. + +'They that were ready went in with Him to the marriage.' Now faith +alone unites a man to Jesus Christ, and makes him an heir of +salvation. But faith alone, if that were possible, would not admit a +man to the marriage-feast. Of course the supposed case is an +impossible case, for as James has taught us in his plain moral way, +faith which is alone dies, or perhaps never lived. But what our Lord +tells us here is that moral character, which is of such a sort as to +shine in the world's darkness, is the condition of entrance. People +say that salvation is by faith. Yes, that is true; but salvation is +by works also, only that the works are made possible through faith. +In the very necessity and nature of things nothing but the readiness +which consists in continued Christ-like character will ever allow a +man to pass the threshold. Now do you believe that? Or are you +saying, 'I trust to Jesus Christ, and so I am sure I shall go to +Heaven.' No, you will not, unless your faith is making you heavenly, +in your temper and conduct. For to talk about the next world as a +place of retribution is but an imperfect statement of the case. It +is not a place of retribution so much as of outcome, and the apostle +gives a completer view when he says, 'Whatsoever a man soweth, that +shall he also reap.' That future life is not the reward of goodness +so much as the necessary consequence of holiness. Holiness and +blessedness are, in some measure, separated here; there they are two +names for the one condition. 'No man shall see the Lord,' without +that holiness. 'They that were ready went in.' Of course they did. +Am I ready? That question means, Am I, by my faith in Jesus Christ, +receiving into my heart the anointing which that great anointed One +gives us? Am I living a life that is a light in the world? If so, +and not else, my entrance is sure. + +We have seen what this readiness consists in, and how it is the +condition of entrance. There is one last thought-- + +III. To delay preparation is madness. + +There is nothing in all Christ's parables more tragical, more +pathetic, than this picture of the hapless five when they woke up +to find their lamps going out. They heard the procession coming, +the sound of feet drawing nearer, and the music borne every moment +more loudly on the midnight air. And there were they, with dying +lamps and empty oil-cans. Their shock, their alarm, their +bewilderment, are all expressed in that preposterous request of +theirs, Give us of your oil.' + +The answer of the wise virgins has been said to be cold and +unfeeling. It is not that; it is simply a plain statement of facts. +The oil that belongs to me cannot be given to you. That is the first +lesson taught us by the request of the foolish and the answer of the +wise. 'If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself; and if thou +scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.' 'Every man shall bear his own +burden.' There is no possible transference of moral character or +spiritual gifts in that fashion. The awful individuality of each +soul, and its unshareable personal responsibility, come solemnly to +view in the words which superficial readers pass by: 'Not so, lest +there be not enough for us and you.' You cannot share your brother's +oil. You may share many of his possessions; not this. + +'Go to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.' The question of +whether there was time to buy was not for the five wise to answer. +There was not much chance that the would-be buyers would find a shop +open and anybody waiting to sell them oil at twelve o'clock at +night. But they risked it; and when they came back they were too +late. + +Now, dear friends, all the lessons of this parable may be taken by +us, though we do not believe, and think we have good reason for not +believing, that the literal return of Jesus Christ is to take place +in our time. It does not matter very much, in so far as the teaching +of this parable is concerned, whether the Bridegroom comes to us, or +whether we go to the Bridegroom. I do not for a moment say that +there is no such thing as coming to Jesus Christ in the last hours +of life, and becoming ready to enter even then, but I do say that it +is a very rare case, and that there is a terrible risk in delaying +till then. But I pray you to remember that our parable is addressed +to, and contemplates the case of, not people who are away from Jesus +Christ, but Christians, and that it is to them that its message is +chiefly brought. It is they whom it warns not to put off making sure +that they have provision for the continuance of the Christ-life. We +have, day by day, to go to Him that sells and 'buy for ourselves.' +And we know, what it did not fall within our Lord's purpose to say +in this parable, that the price of the oil is the surrender of +ourselves, and the opening of our hearts to the entrance of that +divine Spirit. Then there will be no fear but that the lamp will +hold out to burn, and no fear but that 'when the Bridegroom, with +His feastful friends, passes to bliss, at the mid-hour of night,' we +shall gain our entrance. + + + + +TRADERS FOR THE MASTER + + + 'For the kingdom of heaven la as a man travelling into a + far country, who called his own servants, and delivered + unto them his goods. 15. And unto one he gave five + talents, to another two, and to another one; to every + man according to his several ability; and straightway + took his journey. 16. Then he that had received the five + talents went and traded with the same, and made them + other five talents. 17. And likewise he that had received + two, he also gained other two. 18. But he that had + received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his + lord's money. 19. After a long time the lord of those + servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. 20. And so he + that had received five talents came and brought other + five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me + five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five + talents more. 21. His lord said unto him, Well done, + thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful + over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many + things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 22. He also + that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou + deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained + two other talents beside them. 23. His lord said unto + him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast + been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler + over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. + 24. Then to which had received the one talent came and + said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, + reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where + thou hast not strawed: 25. And I was afraid, and went + and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast + that is thine. 26. His lord answered and said unto him, + Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I + reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not + strawed: 27. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my + money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should + have received mine own with usury. 28. Take therefore + the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten + talents. 29. For unto every one that hath shall be given, + and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not + shall be taken away even that which he hath. 30. And + cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: + there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' + --MATT. xxv. 14-30. + +The parable of the Ten Virgins said nothing about their working +whilst they waited. This one sets forth that side of the duties of +the servants in their master's absence, and so completes the former. +It is clearly in its true historical connection here, and is closely +knit to both the preceding and following context. It is a strange +instance of superficial reading that it should ever have been +supposed to be but another version of Luke's parable of the pounds. +The very resemblances of the two are meant to give force to their +differences, which are fundamental. They are the converse of each +other. That of the pounds teaches that men who have the same gifts +intrusted to them may make a widely different use of these, and will +be rewarded differently, in strictly graduated proportion to their +unlike diligence. The lesson of the parable before us, on the other +hand, is that men with dissimilar gifts may employ them with equal +diligence; and that, if they do, their reward shall be the same, +however great the endowments of one, and slender those of another. A +reader who has missed that distinction must be very shortsighted, or +sworn to make out a case against the Gospels. + +I. We may consider the lent capital and the business done with it. + +Masters nowadays do not give servants their money to trade with, +when they leave home; but the incident is true to the old-world +relations of master and slave. Our Lord's consciousness of His near +departure, which throbs in all this context, comes out emphatically +here. He is preparing His disciples for the time when they will have +to work without Him, like the managers of some branch house of +business whose principal has gone abroad. What are the 'talents' +with which He will start them on their own account? We have taken +the word into common language, however little we remember the +teaching of the parable as to the hand that gives 'men of talent' +their endowments. But the natural powers usually called by the name +are not what Christ means here, though the principles of the parable +may be extended to include them. For these powers are the 'ability' +according to which the talents are given. But the talents themselves +are the spiritual knowledge and endowments which are properly the +gifts of the ascended Lord to His Church. Two important lessons as +to these are conveyed. First, that they are distributed in varying +measure, and that not arbitrarily, by the mere will of the giver, +but according to his discernment of what each servant can profitably +administer. The 'ability' which settles their amount is not more +closely defined. It may include natural faculty, for Christ's gifts +usually follow the line of that; and the larger the nature, the more +of Him it can contain. But it also includes spiritual receptiveness +and faithfulness, which increase the absorbing power. The capacity +to receive will also be the capacity to administer, and it will be +fully filled. + +The second lesson taught is that spiritual gifts are given for +trading with. In other words, they are here considered not so much +as blessings to the possessor as his stock-in-trade, which he can +employ for the Master's enrichment. We are all tempted to think of +them mostly as given us for our own blessing and joy; and the +reminder is never unseasonable that a Christian receives nothing for +himself alone. God hath shined into our hearts, that we may give to +others the light of the knowledge which has flashed glad day into +our darkness. The Master intrusts us with a portion of His wealth, +not for expending on ourselves, but for trading with. + +A third principle here is that the right use of His gifts increases +them in our hands. 'Money makes money.' The five talents grow to +ten, the two to four. The surest way to increase our possession of +Christ's grace is to try to impart it. There is no better way of +strengthening our own faith than to seek to make others share in it. +Christian convictions, spoken, are confirmed, but muffled in silence +are weakened. 'There is that scattereth and yet increaseth.' Seed +heaped and locked up in a granary breeds weevils and moths; flung +broadcast over the furrows, it multiplies into seed that can be sown +again, and bread that feeds the sower. So we have in this part of +the parable almost the complete summary of the principles on which, +the purposes for which, and the results to faithful use with which, +Christ gives His gifts. + +The conduct of the slenderly endowed servant who hides his talent +will be considered farther on. + +II. We note the faithful servants' balance-sheet and reward. + +Our Lord again sounds the note of delay--'After a long time'--an +indefinite phrase which we know carries centuries in its folds, how +many more we know not nor are intended to know. The two faithful +servants present their balance-sheet in identical words, and receive +the same commendation and reward. Their speech is in sharp contrast +with the idle one's excuse, inasmuch as it puts a glad acknowledgment +of the lord's giving in the forefront, as if to teach that the +thankful recognition of his liberality underlies all joyful and +successful service, and deepens while it makes glad the sense of +responsibility. The cords of love are silken; and he who begins with +setting before himself the largeness of Christ's gifts to him, will +not fail in using these so as to increase them. In the light of that +day, the servant sees more clearly than when he was at work the +results of his work. We do not know what the year's profits have +been till stock-taking and balancing-time comes. Here we often say, +'I have laboured in vain.' There we shall say, 'I have gained five +talents.' + +The verbatim repetition of the same words to both servants teaches +the great lesson of this parable as contrasted with that of the +pounds, that where there has been the same faithful work, with +different amounts of capital, there will be the same reward. Our +Master does not care about quantity, but about quality and motive. +The slave with a few shillings, enough to stock meagrely a little +stall, may show as much business capacity, diligence, and fidelity, +as if he had millions to work with. Christ rewards not actions, but +the graces which are made visible in actions; and these can be as +well seen in the tiniest as in the largest deeds. The light that +streams through a pin-prick is the same that pours through the +widest window. The crystals of a salt present the same facets, +flashing back the sun at the same angles, whether they be large or +microscopically small. Therefore the judgment of Christ, which is +simply the utterance of fact, takes no heed of the extent but only +of the kind of service, and puts on the same level of recompense all +who, with however widely varying powers, were one in spirit, in +diligence, and devotion. The eulogium on the servants is not +'successful' or 'brilliant,' but 'faithful,' and both alike get it. + +The words of the lord fall into three parts. First comes his +generous and hearty praise,--the brief and emphatic monosyllable +'Well,' and the characterisation of the servants as 'good and +faithful.' Praise from Christ's lips is praise indeed; and here He +pours it out in no grudging or scanty measure, but with warmth and +evident delight. His heart glows with pleasure, and His commendation +is musical with the utterance of His own joy in His servants. He +'rejoices over them with singing'; and more gladly than a fond +mother speaks honeyed words of approval to her darling, of whose +goodness she is proud, does He praise these two. When we are tempted +to disparage our slender powers as compared with those of His more +conspicuous servants, and to suppose that all which we do is nought, +let us think of this merciful and loving estimate of our poor +service. For such words from such lips, life itself were wisely +flung away; but such words from such lips will be spoken in +recognition of many a piece of service less high and heroic than a +martyr's. 'Good and faithful' refers not to the more general notion +of goodness, but to the special excellence of a servant, and the +latter word seems to define the former. Fidelity is the grace which +He praises,--manifested in the recognition that the capital was a +loan, given to be traded with for Him, and to be brought back +increased to Him. He is faithful who ever keeps in view, and acts +on, the conditions on which, and the purposes for which, he has +received his spiritual wealth; and 'he who is faithful in that which +is least, is faithful also in much.' + +The second part of the lord's words is the appointment to higher +office, as the reward of faithfulness. Here on earth, the tools +come, in the long run, to the hands that can use them, and the best +reward of faithfulness in a narrower sphere is to be lifted to a +wider. Promotion means more to do; and if the world were rightly +organised, the road to advancement would be diligence; and the +higher a man climbed, the wider would be the horizon of his labour. +It is so in Christ's kingdom, and should be so in His visible +Church. It will be so in heaven. Clearly this saying implies the +active theory of the future life, and the continuance in some +ministry of love, unknown to us, of the energies which were trained +in the small transactions of earth. 'If five talents are "a few +things," how great the "many things" will be!' In the parable of the +pounds, the servant is made a ruler; here being 'set over' seems +rather still to point to the place of a steward or servant. The +sphere is enlarged, but the office is unaltered. The manager who +conducted a small trade rightly will be advanced to the +superintendence of a larger business. + + 'We doubt not that for one so true + There must be other, nobler work to do,' + +and that in that work the same law will continue to operate, and +faithfulness be crowned with ever-growing capacities and tasks +through a dateless eternity. + +The last words of the lord pass beyond our poor attempts at +commenting. No eye can look undazzled at the sun. When Christ was +near the Cross, He left His disciples a strange bequest at such a +moment,--His joy; and that is their brightest portion here, even +though it be shaded with many sorrows. The enthroned Christ welcomes +all who have known 'the fellowship of His sufferings' into the +fulness of His heavenly joy, unshaded, unbroken, unspeakable; and +they pass into it as into an encompassing atmosphere, or some broad +land of peace and abundance. Sympathy with His purposes leads to +such oneness with Him that His joy is ours, both in its occasions +and in its rapture. 'Thou makest them drink of the river of Thy +pleasures,' and the lord and the servant drink from the same cup. + +III. The excuse and punishment of the indolent servant. + +His excuse is his reason. He did think hardly of his lord, and, even +though he had His gift in his hand to confute him, he slandered Him +in his heart as harsh and exacting. To many men the requirements of +religion are more prominent than its gifts, and God is thought of as +demanding rather than as 'the giving God.' Such thoughts paralyse +action. Fear is barren, love is fruitful. Nothing grows on the +mountain of curses, which frowns black over against the sunny slopes +of the mountain of blessing with its blushing grapes. The indolence +was illogical, for, if the master was such as was thought, the more +reason for diligence; but fear is a bad reasoner, and the absurd gap +between the premises and the conclusion is matched by one of the +very same width in every life that thinks of God as rigidly +requiring obedience, which, therefore, it does _not_ give! +Still another error is in the indolent servant's words. He flings +down the hoarded talent with 'Lo, thou hast thine own.' He was +mistaken. Talents hid are not, when dug up, as heavy as they were +when buried. This gold does rust, and a life not devoted to God is +never carried back to Him unspoiled. + +The lord's answer again falls into three parts, corresponding to +that to the faithful servants. First comes the stern characterisation +of the man. As with the others' goodness, his badness is defined +by the second epithet. It is slothfulness. Is that all? Yes; it does +not need active opposition to pull down destruction on one's head. +Simple indolence is enough, the negative sin of not doing or being +what we ought. Ungirt loins, unlit lamps, unused talents, sink a man +like lead. Doing nothing is enough for ruin. + +The remarkable answer to the servant's charge seems to teach us that +timid souls, conscious of slender endowments, and pressed by the +heavy sense of responsibility, and shrinking from Christian +enterprises, for fear of incurring heavier condemnation, may yet +find means of using their little capital. The bankers, who invest +the collective contributions of small capitalists to advantage, may, +or may not, be intended to be translated into the Church; but, at +any rate, the principle of united service is here recommended to +those who feel too weak for independent action. Slim houses in a row +hold each other up; and, if we cannot strike out a path for +ourselves, let us seek strength and safety in numbers. + +The fate of the indolent servant has a double horror. It is loss and +suffering. The talent is taken from the slack hands and coward heart +that would not use it, and given to the man who had shown he could +and would. Gifts unemployed for Christ are stripped off a soul +yonder. How much will go from many a richly endowed spirit, which +here flashed with unconsecrated genius and force! We do not need to +wait for eternity to see that true possession, which is use, +increases powers, and that disuse, which is equivalent to not +possessing, robs of them. The blacksmith's arm, the scout's eye, the +craftsman's delicate finger, the student's intellect, the +sensualist's passions, all illustrate the law on its one side; and +the dying out of faculties and tastes, and even of intuitions and +conscience, by reason of simple disuse, are melancholy instances of +it on the other. But the solemn words of this condemnation seem to +point to a far more awful energy in its working in the future, when +everything that has not been consecrated by employment for Jesus +shall be taken away, and the soul, stripped of its garb, shall 'be +found naked.' How far that process of divesting may affect +faculties, without touching the life, who can tell? Enough to see +with awe that a spirit may be cut, as it were, to the quick, and +still exist. + +But loss is not all the indolent servant's doom. Once more, like the +slow toll of a funeral bell, we hear the dread sentence of ejection +to the 'mirk midnight' without, where are tears undried and passion +unavailing. There is something very awful in the monotonous +repetition of that sentence so often in these last discourses of +Christ's. The most loving lips that ever spoke, in love, shaped this +form of words, so heart-touching in its wailing, but decisive, +proclamation of blackness, homelessness, and sorrow, and cannot but +toll them over and over again into our ears, in sad knowledge of our +forgetfulness and unbelief,--if perchance we may listen and be +warned, and, having heard the sound thereof, may never know the +reality of that death in life which is the sure end of the indolent +who were blind to His gifts, and therefore would not listen to His +requirements. + + + + +WHY THE TALENT WAS BURIED + + 'Then he which had received the one talent came and + said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, + reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where + thou hast not strawed: 25. And I was afraid, and went + and hid thy talent in the earth.'-MATT. xxv. 24, 25. + +That was a strangely insolent excuse for indolence. To charge an +angry master to his face with grasping greed and injustice was +certainly not the way to conciliate him. Such language is quite +unnatural and incongruous until we remember the reality which the +parable was meant to shadow--viz., the answers for their deeds which +men will give at Christ's judgment bar. Then we can understand how, +by some irresistible necessity, this man was compelled, even at the +risk of increasing the indignation of the master, to turn himself +inside out, and to put into harsh, ugly words the half-conscious +thoughts which had guided his life and caused his unfaithfulness. +'Every one of us shall give account of himself to God.' The +unabashed impudence of such an excuse for idleness as this is but +putting into vivid and impressive form this truth, that then a man's +actions in their true character, and the ugly motives that underlie +them, and which he did not always honestly confess to himself, will +be clear before him. It will be as much of a surprise to the men +themselves, in many cases, as it could be to listeners. Thus it +becomes us to look well to the under side of our lives, the unspoken +convictions and the unformulated motives which work all the more +mightily upon us because, for the most part, they work in the dark. +This is Christ's explanation of one very operative and fruitful +cause of the refusal to serve Him. + +I. I ask you, then, to consider, first, the slander here and the +truth that contradicts it. + +'I knew thee that thou art an hard man,' says he, 'reaping where +them hast not sown' (and he was standing with the unused talent in +his hand all the while), 'and gathering where thou hast not +strawed.' That is to say, deep down in many a heart that has never +said as much to itself, there lies this black drop of gall--a +conception of the divine character rather as demanding than as +giving, a thought of Him as exacting. What He requires is more +considered than what He bestows. So religion is thought to be mainly +a matter of doing certain things and rendering up certain +sacrifices, instead of being regarded, as it really is, as mainly a +matter of receiving from God. Christ's authority makes me bold to +say that this error underlies the lives of an immense number of +nominal Christians, of people who think themselves very good and +religious, as well as the lives of thousands who stand apart from +religion altogether. And I want, not to drag down any curtain by my +own hand, but to ask you to lift away the veil which hides the ugly +thing in your hearts, and to put your own consciousness to the bar +of your own conscience, and say whether it is not true that the +uppermost thought about God, when you think about Him at all, is, +'Thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown.' + +It is not difficult to understand why such a thought of God should +rise in a heart which has no delight in Him nor in His service. +There is a side of the truth as to God's relations to man which +gives a colour of plausibility to the slander. Grave and stringent +requirements are made by the divine law upon each of us; and our +consciences tell us that they have not been kept. Therefore we seek +to persuade ourselves that they are too severe. Then, further, we +are, by reason of our own selfishness, almost incapable of rising to +the conception of God's pure, perfect, disinterested love; and we +are far too blind to the benefits that He pours upon us all every +day of our lives. And so from all these reasons taken together, and +some more besides, it comes about that, for some of us, the blessed +sun in the heavens, the God of all mercy and love, has been darkened +into a lurid orb shorn of all its beneficent beams, and hangs +threatening there in our misty sky. 'I knew Thee that Thou art an +hard man.' Ah! I am sure that if we would go down into the deep +places of our own hearts, and ask ourselves what our real thought of +God is, many of us would acknowledge that it is something like that. + +Now turn to the other side. What is the truth that smites this +slander to death? That God is perfect, pure, unmingled, infinite +love. And what is love? The infinite desire to impart itself. His +'nature and property' is to be merciful, and you can no more stop +God from giving than you can shut up the rays of the sun within +itself. To be and to bestow are for Him one and the same thing. His +love is an infinite longing to give, which passes over into +perpetual acts of beneficence. He never reaps where He has not sown. +Is there any place where He has not sown? Is there any heart on +which there have been no seeds of goodness scattered from His rich +hand? The calumniator in the text was speaking his slanders with +that in his hand which should have stopped his mouth. He who +complained that the hard master was asking for fruit of what He had +not given would have had nothing at all, if he had not obtained the +one talent from His hand. And there is no place in the whole wide +universe of God where His love has not scattered its beneficent +gifts. There are no fallow fields out of cultivation and unsown, in +His great farm. He never asks where He has not given. + +He never asks until after He has given. He begins with bestowing, +and it is only after the vineyard has been planted on the very +fruitful hill, and the hedge built round about it, and the winepress +digged, and the tower erected, and miracles of long-suffering mercy +and skilful patience have been lavished upon it, that then He looks +that it should bring forth grapes. God's gifts precede His +requirements. He ever sows before He reaps. More than that, He gives +_what_ He asks, helping us to render to Him the hearts that He +desires. He, by His own merciful communications, makes it possible +that we should lay at His feet the tribute of loving thanks. Just as +a parent will give a child some money in order that the child may go +and buy the giver a birthday present, so God gives to us hearts, and +enriches them with many bestowments. He scatters round about us good +from His hand, like drops of a fragrant perfume from a blazing +torch, in order that we may catch them up and have some portion of +the joy which is especially His own--the joy of giving. It would be +a poor affair if our sole relation to God were that of receiving. It +would be a tyrannous affair if our sole relation to God were that of +rendering up. But both relations are united, and if it be 'more +blessed to give than to receive,' the Giver of all good does not +leave us without the opportunity of entering in even to that +superlative blessing. We have to come to Him and say, when we lay +the gifts, either of our faculties or of our trust, of our riches or +of our virtues, at His feet, 'All things come of Thee, and of Thine +own have we given Thee.' + +He asks for our sakes, and not for His own. 'If I were hungry I +would not tell thee, for the cattle upon a thousand hills are Mine. +Offer unto God praise, and pay thy vows unto the Most High.' It is +blessed to us to render. He is none the richer for all our giving, +as He is none the poorer for all His. Yet His giving to us is real, +and our giving is real and a joy to Him. That is the truth lifted up +against the slander of the natural heart. God is love, pure giving, +unlimited and perpetual disposition to bestow. He gives all things +before He asks for anything, and when He asks for anything it is +that we may be blessed. + +But you say, 'That is all very well--where do you learn all that about +God?' My answer is a very simple one. I learn it, and I believe there +is no other place to learn it, at the Cross of Jesus Christ. If that +be the very apex of the divine love and self-revelation; if, looking +upon it, we understand God better than by any other means, then there +can be no question but that instead of gathering where He has not +strawed, and reaping where He has not sown, God is only, and always, +and utterly, and to every man, infinite love that bestows itself. My +heart says to me many a time, 'God's laws are hard, God's judgment is +strict. God requires what you cannot give. Crouch before Him, and be +afraid.' And my faith says, 'Get thee behind me, Satan!' 'He that +spared not His own Son, ... how shall He not with Him also freely give +us all things?' The Cross of Christ is the answer to the slander, and +the revelation of the giving God. + +II. Secondly, mark here the fear that dogs such a thought, and the +love that casts out the fear. + +'I was afraid.' Yes, of course. If a man is not a fool, his emotions +follow his thoughts, and his thoughts ought to shape his emotions. +And wherever there is the twilight of uncertainty upon the great +lesson that the Cross of Jesus Christ has taught us, _there_ +there will be, however masked and however modified by other +thoughts, deep in the human heart, a perhaps unspoken, but not +therefore ineffectual, dread of God. Just as the misconception of +the divine character does influence many a life in which it has +never been spoken articulately, and needs some steady observation of +ourselves to be detected, so is it with this dread of Him. Carry the +task of self-examination a little further, and ask yourselves +whether there does not lie coiled in many of your hearts this dread +of God, like a sleeping snake which only needs a little warmth to be +awakened to sting. There are all the signs of it. There are many of +you who have a distinct indisposition to be brought close up to the +thought of Him. There are many of you who have a distinct sense of +discomfort when you are pressed against the realities of the +Christian religion. There are many of you who, though you cover it +over with a shallow confidence, or endeavour to persuade yourselves +into speculative doubts about the divine nature, or hide it from +yourselves by indifference, yet know that all that is very thin ice, +and that there is a great black pool down below---a dread at the +heart, of a righteous Judge somewhere, with whom you have somewhat +to do, that you cannot shake off. I do not want to appeal to fear, +but it goes to one's heart to see the hundreds and thousands of +people round about us who, just because they are afraid of God, will +not think about Him, put away angrily and impatiently solemn words +like these that I am trying to speak, and seek to surround +themselves with some kind of a fool's paradise of indifference, and +to shut their eyes to facts and realities. You do not confess it to +yourselves. What kind of a thought must that be about your relation +to God which you are afraid to speak? Some of you remember the awful +words in one of Shakespeare's plays: 'Now I, to comfort him, bid him +he should not think of God. I hoped there was no need to trouble +himself with any such thoughts yet.' What does that teach us? 'I +knew Thee that Thou art an hard man; and I was afraid.' + +Dear friend, there are two religions in this world: there is the +religion of fear, and there is the religion of love; and if you have +not the one, you must have the other, if you have any at all. The +only way to get perfect love that casts out fear is to be quite sure +of the Father-love in heaven that begets it. And the only way to be +sure of the infinite love in the heavens that kindles some little +spark of love in our hearts here, is to go to Christ and learn the +lesson that He reveals to us at His Cross. Love will annihilate the +fear; or rather, if I may take such a figure, will set a light to +the wreathing smoke that rises, and flash it all up into a ruddy +flame. For the perfect love that casts out fear sublimes it into +reverence and changes it into trust. Have you got that love, and did +you get it at Christ's Cross? + +III. Lastly, mark the torpor of fear and the activity of love. 'I +was afraid, and I went and hid thy talent in the earth.' + +Fear paralyses service, cuts the nerve of activity, makes a man +refuse obedience to God. It was a very illogical thing of that +indolent servant to say, 'I knew that you were so hard in exacting +what was due to you that therefore I determined _not_ to give +it to you.' Is it more illogical and more absurd than what hundreds +of men and women round about us do to-day, when they say, 'God's +requirements are so great that I do _not_ attempt to fulfil +them'? One would have thought that he would have reasoned the other +way, and said, 'Because I knew that Thy requirements were so great +and severe, therefore I put myself with all my powers to my work.' +Not so. Logical or illogical, the result remains, that that thought +of God, that black drop of gall, in many a heart, stops the action +of the hand. Fear is barren, or if it produces anything it is +nothing to the purpose, and it brings gifts that not even God's love +can accept, for there is no love in them. Fear is barren; Love is +fruitful--like the two mountains of Samaria, from one of which the +rolling burden of the curses of the Law was thundered, and from the +other of which the sweet words of promise and of blessing were +chanted in musical response. On the one side are black rocks, +without a blade of grass on them, the Mount of Cursing; on the other +side are blushing grapes and vineyards, the Mount of Blessing. Love +moves to action, fear paralyses into indolence. And the reason why +such hosts of you do nothing for God is because your hearts have +never been touched with the thorough conviction that He has done +everything for you, and asks you but to love Him back again, and +bring Him your hearts. These dark thoughts are like the frost which +binds the ground in iron fetters, making all the little flowers that +were beginning to push their heads into the light shrink back again. +And love, when it comes, will come like the west wind and the +sunshine of the Spring; and before its emancipating fingers the +earth's fetters will be cast aside, and the white snowdrops and the +yellow crocuses will show themselves above the ground. If you want +your hearts to bear any fruit of noble living, and holy +consecration, and pure deeds, then here is the process--Begin with +the knowledge and belief of 'the love which God hath to us'; learn +that at the Cross, and let it silence your doubts, and send them +back to their kennels, silenced. Then take the next step, and love +Him back again. 'We love Him because He first loved us.' That love +will be the productive principle of all glad obedience, and you will +keep His commandments, and here upon earth find, as the faithful +servant found, that talents used increase; and yonder will receive +the eulogium from His lips whom to please is blessedness, by whom to +be praised is heaven's glory, 'Well done! good and faithful +servant.' + + + + +THE KING ON HIS JUDGMENT THRONE + + + 'When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all + the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the + throne of His glory: 32. And before Him shall be + gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one + from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the + goats: 33. And He shall set the sheep on His right + hand, but the goats on the left. 34. Then shall the + King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed + of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from + the foundation of the world: 35. For I was an hungred, + and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me + drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in: 36. Naked, + and ye clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was + in prison, and ye came unto Me. 37. Then shall the + righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an + hungred, and fed Thee? or thirsty, and gave Thee drink? + 38. When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in! or + naked, and clothed Thee! 39. Or when saw we Thee sick, + or in prison, and came unto Thee? 10. And the King + shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, + Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of + these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me. 41. Then + shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart + from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for + the devil and his angels: 42. For I was an hungred, and + ye gave Me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no + drink: 43. I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in: + naked, and ye clothed Me not: sick, and in prison, and + ye visited Me not. 44. Then shall they also answer Him, + saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, or athirst, + or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did + not minister unto Thee? 45. Then shall He answer them, + saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it + not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me. + 46. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: + but the righteous into life eternal.'--MATT. xxv. 31-46. + +The teachings of that wonderful last day of Christ's ministry, which +have occupied so many of our pages, are closed with this tremendous +picture of universal judgment. It is one to be gazed upon with +silent awe, rather than to be commented on. There is fear lest, in +occupying the mind in the study of the details, and trying to pierce +the mystery it partly unfolds, we should forget our own individual +share in it. Better to burn in on our hearts the thought, 'I shall +be there,' than to lose the solemn impression in efforts to unravel +the difficulties of the passage. Difficulties there are, as is to be +expected in even Christ's revelation of so unparalleled a scene. +Many questions are raised by it which will never be solved till we +stand there. Who can tell how much of the parabolic element enters +into the description? We, at all events, do not venture to say of +one part, 'This is merely drapery, the sensuous representation of +spiritual reality,' and of another, 'That is essential truth.' The +curtain is the picture, and before we can separate the elements of +it in that fashion, we must have lived through it. Let us try to +grasp the main lessons, and not lose the spirit in studying the +letter. + +I. The first broad teaching is that Christ is the Judge of all the +earth. Sitting there, a wearied man on the Mount of Olives, with the +valley of Jehoshaphat at His feet, which the Jew regarded as the +scene of the final judgment, Jesus declared Himself to be the Judge +of the world, in language so unlimited in its claims that the +speaker must be either a madman or a god. Calvary was less than +three days off, when He spoke thus. The contrast between the vision +of the future and the reality of the present is overwhelming. The +Son of Man has come in weakness and shame; He will come in His +glory, that flashing light of the self-revealing God, of which the +symbol was the 'glory' which shone between the cherubim, and which +Jesus Christ here asserts to belong to Him as '_His_ glory.' +Then, heaven will be emptied of its angels, who shall gather round +the enthroned Judge as His handful of sorrowing followers were +clustered round Him as He spoke, or as the peasants had surrounded +the meek state of His entry yesterday. Then, He will take the place +of Judge, and 'sit,' in token of repose, supremacy, and judgment, +'on the throne of His glory,' as He now sat on the rocks of Olivet. +Then, mankind shall be massed at His feet, and His glance shall part +the infinite multitudes, and discern the character of each item in +the crowd as easily and swiftly as the shepherd's eye picks out the +black goats from among the white sheep. Observe the difference in +the representation from those in the previous parables. There, the +parting of kinds was either self-acting, as in the case of the +foolish maidens; or men gave account of _themselves_, as in the +case of the servants with the talents. Here, the separation is the +work of the Judge, and is completed before a word is spoken. All +these representations must be included in the complete truth as to +the final judgment. It is the effect of men's actions; it is the +result of their compelled disclosing of the deepest motives of their +lives; it is the act of the perfect discernment of the Judge. Their +deeds will judge them; they will judge themselves; Christ will +judge. + +Singularly enough, every possible interpretation of the extent of +the expression 'all nations' has found advocates. It has been taken +in its widest and plainest meaning, as equivalent to the whole race; +it has been confined to mankind exclusive of Christians, and it has +been confined to Christians exclusive of heathens. There are +difficulties in all these explanations, but probably the least are +found in the first. It is most natural to suppose that 'all nations' +means all nations, unless that meaning be impossible. The absence of +the limitation to the 'kingdom of heaven,' which distinguishes this +section from the preceding ones having reference to judgment, and +the position of the present section as the solemn close of Christ's +teachings, which would naturally widen out into the declaration of +the universal judgment, which forms the only appropriate climax and +end to the foregoing teachings, seem to point to the widest meaning +of the phrase. His office of universal Judge is unmistakably taught +throughout the New Testament, and it seems in the highest degree +unnatural to suppose that He did not speak of it in these final +words of prophetic warning. We may therefore, with some confidence, +see in the magnificent and awful picture here drawn the vision of +universal judgment. Parabolic elements there no doubt are in the +picture; but we have no governing revelation, free from these, by +which we can check them, and be sure of how much is form and how +much substance. This is clear, 'that we must all appear before the +judgment-seat of Christ'; and this is clear, that Jesus Christ put +forth, when at the very lowest point of His earthly humiliation, +these tremendous claims, and asserted His authority as Judge over +every soul of man. We are apt to lose ourselves in the crowd. Let us +pause and think that 'all' includes 'me.' + +II. Note the principles of Christ's universal judgment. It is +important to remember that this section closes a series of +descriptions of the judgment, and must not be taken as if, when +isolated, it set forth all the truth. It is often harped upon by +persons who are unfriendly to evangelical teaching, as if it were +Christ's only word about judgment, and interpreted as if it meant +that, no matter what else a man was, if only he is charitable and +benevolent, he will find mercy. But this is to forget all the rest +of our Lord's teaching in the context, and to fly in the face of the +whole tenor of New Testament doctrine. We have here to do with the +principles of judgment which apply equally to those who have, and to +those who have not, heard the gospel. The subjects of the kingdom +are shown the principles more immediately applicable to them, in the +previous parables, and here they are reminded that there is a +standard of judgment absolutely universal. All men, whether +Christians or not, are judged by 'the things done in the body, +whether they be good or bad.' So Christ teaches in His closing words +of the Sermon on the Mount, and in many another place. 'Every tree +that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the +fire.' The productive source of good works is not in question here; +stress is laid on the fruits, rather than on the root. The gospel is +as imperative in its requirements of righteousness as the law is, +and its conception of the righteousness which it requires is far +deeper and wider. The subjects of the kingdom ever need to be +reminded of the solemn truth that they have not only, like the wise +maidens, to have their lights burning and their oil vessels filled, +nor only, like the wise servants, to be using the gifts of the +kingdom for their lord, but, as members of the great family of man, +have to cultivate the common moralities which all men, heathen and +Christian, recognise as binding on all, without which no man shall +see the Lord. The special form of righteousness which is selected as +the test is charity. Obviously it is chosen as representative of all +the virtues of the second table of the law. Taken in its bare +literality, this would mean that men's relations to God had no +effect in the judgment, mid that no other virtues but this of +charity came into the account. Such a conclusion is so plainly +repugnant to all Christ's teaching, that we must suppose that love +to one's neighbour is here singled out, just as it is in His summary +of 'the law and the prophets,' as the crown and flower of all +relative duties, and as, in a very real sense, being 'the fulfilling +of the law.' The omission of any reference to the love of God +sufficiently shows that the view here is rigidly limited to acts, +and that all the grounds of judgment are not meant to be set forth. + +But the benevolence here spoken of is not the mere natural +sentiment, which often exists in great energy in men whose moral +nature is, in other respects, so utterly un-Christlike that their +entrance into the kingdom prepared for the righteous is +inconceivable. Many a man has a hundred vices and yet a soft heart. +It is very much a matter of temperament. Does Christ so contradict +all the rest of His teaching as to say that such a man is of 'the +sheep,' and 'blessed of the Father'? Surely not. Is every piece of +kindliness to the distressed, from whatever motive, and by +whatsoever kind of person done, regarded by Him as done to Himself? +To say so, would be to confound moral distinctions, and to dissolve +all righteousness into a sentimental syrup. The deeds which He +regards as done to Himself, are done to His 'brethren.' That +expression carries us into the region of motive, and runs parallel +with His other words about 'receiving a prophet,' and 'giving a cup +of cold water to one of these little ones,' because they are His. +Seeing that all nations are at the bar, the expression, 'My +brethren,' cannot be confined to the disciples, for many of those +who are being judged have never come in contact with Christians, nor +can it be reasonably supposed to include all men, for, however true +it is that Christ is every man's brother, the recognition of kindred +here must surely be confined to those at the right hand. Whatever be +included under the 'righteous,' that is included under the +'brethren.' We seem, then, led to recognise in the expression a +reference to the motive of the beneficence, and to be brought to the +conclusion that what the Judge accepts as done to Himself is such +kindly help and sympathy as is extended to these His kindred, with +some recognition of their character, and desire after it. To +'receive a prophet' implies that there is some spiritual affinity +with him in the receiver. To give help to His brethren, because they +are so, implies some affinity with Him or feeling after likeness to +Him and them. Now, if we hold fast by the universality of the +judgment here depicted, we shall see that this recognition must +necessarily have different degrees in those who have heard of Christ +and in those who have not. In the former, it will be equivalent to +that faith which is the root of all goodness, and grasps the Christ +revealed in the gospel. In the latter, it can be no more than a +feeling after Him who is the 'light that lighteneth every man that +cometh into the world.' Surely there are souls amid the darkness of +heathenism yearning toward the light, like plants grown in the dark. +By ways of His own, Christ can reach such hearts, as the river of +the water of life may percolate through underground channels to many +a tree which grows far from its banks. + +III. Note the surprises of the judgment. The astonishment of the +righteous is not modesty disclaiming praise, but real wonder at the +undreamed-of significance of their deeds. In the parable of the +talents, the servants unveiled their inmost hearts, and accurately +described their lives. Here, the other side of the truth is brought +into prominence, that, at that day, we shall be surprised when we +hear from His lips what we have really done. True Christian +beneficence has consciously for its motive the pleasing of Christ; +but still he who most earnestly strove, while here, to do all as +unto Jesus, will be full of thankful wonder at the grace which +accepts his poor service, and will learn, with fresh marvelling, how +closely He associates Himself with His humblest servant. There is an +element of mystery hidden from ourselves in all our deeds. Our love +to Christ's followers never goes out so plainly to Him that, while +here, we can venture to be sure that He takes it as done for Him. We +cannot here follow the flight of the arrow, nor know what meaning He +will attach to, or what large issues He will evolve from, our poor +doings. So heaven will be full of blessed surprises, as we reap the +fruit growing 'in power' of what we sowed 'in weakness,' and as +doleful will be the astonishment which will seize those who see, for +the first time, in the lurid light of that day, the true character +of their lives, as one long neglect of plain duties, which was all a +defrauding the Saviour of His due. Mere doing nothing is enough to +condemn, and its victims will be shudderingly amazed at the fatal +wound it has inflicted on them. + +IV. The irrevocableness of the judgment. That is an awful contrast +between the 'Come! ye blessed,' and 'Depart! ye cursed.' That is a +more awful parallel between 'eternal punishment' and 'eternal life.' +It is futile to attempt to alleviate the awfulness by emptying the +word 'eternal' of reference to duration. It no doubt connotes +quality, but its first meaning is ever-during. There is nothing here +to suggest that the one condition is more terminable than the other. +Rather, the emphatic repetition of the word brings the unending +continuance of each into prominence, as the point in which these two +states, so wofully unlike, are the same. In whatever other passages +the doctrine of universal restoration may seem to find a foothold, +there is not an inch of standing-room for it here. Reverently +accepting Christ's words as those of perfect and infallible love, +the present writer feels so strongly the difficulty of bringing all +the New Testament declarations on this dread question into a +harmonious whole, that he abjures for himself dogmatic certainty, +and dreads lest, in the eagerness of discussing the duration (which +will never be beyond the reach of discussion), the solemn reality of +the fact of future retribution should be dimmed, and men should +argue about 'the terror of the Lord' till they cease to feel it. + + + + +THE DEFENCE OF UNCALCULATING LOVE + + + 'Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon + the leper, 7. There came unto him a woman having an + alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured + it on His head, as He sat at meat. 8. But when His + disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what + purpose is this waste? 9. For this ointment might have + been sold for much, and given to the poor. 10. When + Jesus understood it, He said unto them, Why trouble ye + the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon Me. + 11. For ye have the poor always with you; but Me ye + have not always. 12. For in that she hath poured this + ointment on My body, she did it for My burial. + 13. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel + shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also + this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial + of her. 14. Then one of the twelve, called Judas + Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, 15. And said + unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver Him + unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty + pieces of silver. 16. And from that time he sought + opportunity to betray Him.'--MATT. xxvi. 6-16. + +John tells us that the 'woman' was Mary, and the objector Judas. +Both the deed and the cavil are better understood by knowing whence +they came. Lazarus was a guest, and as his sister saw him sitting +there by Jesus her heart overflowed, and she could not but catch up +her most precious possession, and lavish it on His head and feet. +Love's impulses appear absurd to selfishness. How could Judas +understand Mary? Detracting comments find ready ears. One sneer will +cool down to contempt and blame the feelings of a company. People +are always eager to pick holes in conduct which they uneasily feel +to be above their own reach. Poor Mary! she had but yielded to the +uncalculating impulse of her great love, and she finds herself +charged with imprudence, waste, and unfeeling neglect of the poor. +No wonder that her gentle heart was 'troubled.' But Jesus threw the +shield of His approval over her, and that was enough. Never mind how +Judas and better men than he may find fault, if Jesus smiles +acceptance. + +His great words set forth, first, the vindication of the act, +because of its motive. Anything done with no regard to any end but +Himself is, in His eyes, 'good.' The perfection of conduct is that +it shall all be referred to Jesus. That 'altar' sanctifies gift and +giver. Conversely, whatever has no reference to Him lacks the +highest beauty of goodness. A pebble in the bed of a sunlit stream +has its veins of colour brought out; lift it out, and, as it dries, +it dulls. So our deeds plunged into that great river are heightened +in loveliness. Everything which has 'For Christ's sake' stamped on +it is thereby hallowed. That is the unfailing recipe for making a +life fair. Mary was thinking only of Jesus and of her love to Him, +therefore what she did was sweet to Him. The greater part of a deed +is its motive, and the perfect motive is love to Jesus. + +But, further, Christ defends the side of Mary's deed which the +critics fastened on. They posed as being more practical and +benevolent than she was. They were utilitarians, she was wasteful. +Their objection sounds sensible, but it belongs to the low levels of +life. One flash of lofty love would have killed it. Christ's reply +to it draws a contrast between constant duties and special, +transient moments. It is coloured, too, by His consciousness of His +near end, and has an undertone of sadness in that 'Me ye have not +always.' There are high tides of Christian emotion, when the +question of what good this thing will do is submerged, and the only +question is, 'What best thing shall I render to the Lord?' The +critics were not more beneficent, but less inflamed with love to +Jesus, and the leader of them only wished that the proceeds of the +ointment had come into his hands, where some of it would have stuck. +We hear the same sort of taunt today,--What is the sense of all this +money being spent on missions and religious objects? How much more +useful it would be if expended on better dwellings for the poor or +hospitals or technical schools! But there is a place in Christ's +treasury for useless deeds, if they are the pure expression of love +to Him, and Mary's alabaster box, which did no good at all, lies +beside the cups that held cold water which slaked some thirsty lips. +Uncalculating impulse, which only knows that it would fain give all +to the Lover of souls, is not merely excused, but praised, by Jesus. +Lovers on earth do not concern themselves about the usefulness of +their gifts, and the divine Lover rejoices over what cold-blooded +spectators, who do not in the least understand the ways of loving +hearts, find useless 'waste.' The world would put all the emotions +of Christian hearts, and all the heroisms of Christian martyrs, and +all the sacrifices of Christian workers, into the same class. Jesus +accepts them all. + +Again, He breathes a meaning into the gift beyond what the giver +meant. Mary did not regard her anointing as preparatory to His +burial, but He had His thoughts fixed on it, and He sought to +prepare the disciples for the coming storm. How far away from the +simple festivities in Simon's house were His thoughts! What a gulf +between the other guests and Him! But Jesus always puts significance +into the service which He accepts, and surprises the givers by the +far-reaching issues of their gifts. We know not what He may make our +poor deeds mean. Results are beyond our vision. Therefore let us +make sure of what is within our horizon--namely, motives. If we do +anything for His sake, He will take care of what it comes to. That +is true even on earth, and still more true in heaven. 'Lord, when +saw we Thee an hungred, and fed Thee?' What surprises will wait +Christ's humble servants in heaven, when they see what was the true +nature and the widespread consequences of their humble deeds! 'Thou +sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, ... but God +giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him.' + +Again, Mark gives an additional clause in Christ's words, which +brings out the principle that the measure of acceptable service is +ability. 'She hath done what she could' is an apology, or rather a +vindication, for the shape of the gift. Mary was not practical, and +could not 'serve' like Martha; she probably had no other precious +thing that she could give, but she could love, and she could bestow +her best on Jesus. But the saying implies a stringent demand, as +well as a gracious defence. Nothing less than the full measure of +ability is the measure of Christian obligation. Power to its last +particle is duty. Jesus does not ask how much His servants do or +give, but He does ask that they should do and give all that they +can. He wishes us to be ourselves in serving Him, and to shape our +methods according to character and capabilities, but He also wishes +us to give Him our whole selves. If anything is kept back, all that +is given is marred. + +Jesus' last word gives perpetuity to the service which He accepts. +Mary is promised immortality for her deed, and the promise has been +fulfilled, and here are we, all these centuries after, looking at +her as she breaks the box and pours it on His head. Jesus is not +unrighteous to forget any work of love done for Him. The fragrance +of the ointment soon passed away, and the shreds of the broken cruse +were swept into the dust-bin, with the other relics of the feast; +but all the world knows of that act of all-surrendering love, and it +smells sweet and blossoms for evermore. + + + + +THE NEW PASSOVER + + + 'Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the + disciples came to Jesus, saying unto Him, Where wilt + Thou that we prepare for Thee to eat the passover? + 18. And He said, Go into the city to such a man, and + say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I + will keep the passover at thy house with My disciples. + 19. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; + and they made ready the passover. 20. Now when the even + was come, He sat down with the twelve. 21. And as they + did eat, He said, Verily I say unto you, That one of + you shall betray Me. 22. And they were exceeding + sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto Him, + Lord, is it I? 23. And He answered and said, He that + dippeth his hand with Me in the dish, the same shall + betray Me. 21. The Son of Man goeth as it is written + of Him; but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is + betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not + been born. 25. Then Judas, which betrayed Him, answered + and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast + said 26. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and + blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, + and said, Take, eat; this is My body. 27. And He took + the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, + Drink ye all of it; 28. For this is My blood of the new + testament, which is shed for many for the remission + of sins. 29. But I say unto you, I will not drink + henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day + when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom. + 30. And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into + the Mount of Olives.'--MATT. xxvi. 17-30. + +The Tuesday of Passion Week was occupied by the wonderful discourses +which have furnished so many of our meditations. At its close Jesus +sought retirement in Bethany, not only to soothe and prepare His +spirit but to 'hide Himself' from the Sanhedrin. There He spent the +Wednesday. Who can imagine His thoughts? While He was calmly +reposing in Mary's quiet home, the rulers determined on His arrest, +but were at a loss how to effect it without a riot. Judas comes to +them opportunely, and they leave it to him to give the signal. +Possibly we may account for the peculiar secrecy observed as to the +place for the last supper, by our Lord's knowledge that His steps +were watched, and by His earnest wish to eat the Passover with the +disciples before He suffered. The change between the courting of +publicity and almost inviting of arrest at the beginning of the +week, and the evident desire to postpone the crisis till the fitting +moment which marks the close of it, is remarkable, and most +naturally explained by the supposition that He wished the time of +His death to be that very hour when, according to law, the paschal +lamb was slain. On the Thursday, then, he sent Peter and John into +the city to prepare the Passover; the others being in ignorance of +the place till they were there, and Judas being thus prevented from +carrying out his purpose till after the celebration. + +The precautions taken to ensure this have left their mark on +Matthew's narrative, in the peculiar designation of the host,--'Such +a man!' It is a kind of echo of the mystery which he so well +remembered as round the errand of the two. He does not seem to have +heard of the token by which they knew the house, viz., the man with +the pitcher whom they were to meet. But he does know that Peter and +John got secret instructions, and that he and the others wondered +where they were to go. Had there been a previous arrangement with +this unnamed 'such an one,' or were the token and the message alike +instances of Christ's supernatural knowledge and authority? It is +difficult to say. I incline to the former supposition, which would +be in accordance with the distinct effort after secrecy which marks +these days; but the narratives do not decide the question. At all +events, the host was a disciple, as appears from the authoritative +'the Master saith'; and, whether he had known beforehand that 'this +day' incarnate 'salvation would come to his house' or no, he eagerly +accepts the peril and the honour. His message is royal in its tone. +The Lord does not ask permission, but issues His commands. But He is +a pauper King, not having where to lay His head, and needing another +man's house in which to gather His own household together for the +family feast of the Passover. What profound truths are wrapped up in +that 'My time is come'! It speaks of the voluntariness of His +surrender, the consciousness that His Cross was the centre point of +His work, His superiority to all external influences as determining +the hour of His death, and His submission to the supreme appointment +of the Father. Obedience and freedom, choice and necessity, are +wonderfully blended in it. + +So, late on that Thursday evening, the little band left Bethany for +the last time, in a fashion very unlike the joyous stir of the +triumphal entry. As the evening is falling, they thread their way +through the noisy streets, all astir with the festal crowds, and +reach the upper room, Judas vainly watching for an opportunity to +slip away on his black errand. The chamber, prepared by unknown +hands, has vanished, and the hands are dust; but both are immortal. +How many of the living acts of His servants in like manner seem to +perish, and the doers of them to be forgotten or unknown! But He +knows the name of 'such an one,' and does not forget that he opened +his door for Him to enter in and sup. + +The fact that Jesus put aside the Passover and founded the Lord's +Supper in its place, tells much both about _His_ authority and +_its_ meaning. What must He have conceived of Himself, who bade +Jew and Gentile turn away from that God-appointed festival, and +think not of Moses, but of Him? What did He mean by setting the +Lord's Supper in the place of the Passover, if He did not mean that +He was the true Paschal Lamb, that His death was a true sacrifice, +that in His sprinkled blood was safety, that His death inaugurated +the better deliverance of the true Israel from a darker prison-house +and a sorer bondage, that His followers were a family, and that 'the +children's bread' was the sacrifice which He had made? There are +many reasons for the doubling of the commemorative emblem, but this +is obviously one of the chief--that, by the separation of the two in +the rite, we are carried back to the separation in fact; that is to +say, to the violent death of Christ. Not His flesh alone, in the +sense of Incarnation, but His body broken and His blood shed, are +what He wills should be for ever remembered. His own estimate of the +centre point of His work is unmistakably pronounced in His +institution of this rite. + +But we may consider the force of each emblem separately. In many +important points they mean the same things, but they have each their +own significance as well. Matthew's condensed version of the words +of institution omits all reference to the breaking of the body and +to the memorial character of the observance, but both are implied. +He emphasises the reception, the participation, and the significance +of the bread. As to the latter, 'This is My body' is to be +understood in the same way as 'the field is the world,' and many +other sayings. To speak in the language of grammarians, the copula +is that of symbolic relationship, not that of existence; or, to +speak in the language of the street, 'is' here means, as it often +does, 'represents.' How could it mean anything else, when Christ sat +there in His body, and His blood was in His veins? What, then, is +the teaching of this symbol? It is not merely that He in His +humanity is the bread of life, but that He in His death is the +nourishment of our true life. In that great discourse in John's +Gospel, which embodies in words the lessons which the Lord's Supper +teaches by symbols, He advances from the general statement, 'I am +the Bread of Life,' to the yet more mysterious and profound teaching +that His flesh, which at some then future point He will 'give for +the life of the world,' is the bread; thus distinctly foreshadowing +His death, and asserting that by that death we live, and by +partaking of it are nourished. The participation in the benefits of +Christ's death, which is symbolised by 'Take, eat,' is effected by +living faith. We feed on Christ when our minds are occupied with His +truth, and our hearts nourished by His love, when it is the 'meat' +of our wills to do His will, and when our whole inward man fastens +on Him as its true object, and draws from Him its best being. But +the act of reception teaches the great lesson that Christ must be in +us, if He is to do us any good. He is not 'for us' in any real +sense, unless He be 'in us.' The word rendered in John's Gospel +'eateth' is that used for the ruminating of cattle, and wonderfully +indicates the calm, continual, patient meditation by which alone we +can receive Christ into our hearts, and nourish our lives on Him. +Bread eaten is assimilated to the body, but this bread eaten +assimilates the eater to itself, and he who feeds on Christ becomes +Christ-like, as the silk-worm takes the hue of the leaves on which +it browses. Bread eaten to-day will not nourish us to-morrow, +neither will past experiences of Christ's sweetness sustain the +soul. He must be 'our daily bread' if we are not to pine with +hunger. + +The wine carries its own special teaching, which clearly appears in +Matthew's version of the words of institution. It is 'My blood,' and +by its being presented in a form separate from the bread which is +His body suggests a violent death. It is 'covenant blood,' the seal +of that 'better covenant' than the old, which God makes now with all +mankind, wherein are given renewed hearts which carry the divine law +within themselves; the reciprocal and mutually blessed possession of +God by men and of men by God, the universally diffused knowledge of +God, which is more than head knowledge, being the consciousness of +possessing Him; and, finally, the oblivion of all sins. These +promises are fulfilled, and the covenant made sure, by the shed +blood of Christ. So, finally, it is 'shed for many, for the +remission of sins.' The end of Christ's death is pardon which can +only be extended on the ground of His death. We are told that Christ +did not teach the doctrine of atonement. Did He establish the Lord's +Supper? If He did (and nobody denies that), what did He mean by it, +if He did not mean the setting forth by symbol of the very same +truth which, stated in words, is the doctrine of His atoning death? +This rite does not, indeed, explain the _rationale_ of the +doctrine; but it is a piece of unmeaning mummery, unless it preaches +plainly the fact that Christ's death is the ground of our +forgiveness. + +Bread is the 'staff of life,' but blood is the life. So 'this cup' +teaches that 'the life' of Jesus Christ must pass into His people's +veins, and that the secret of the Christian life is 'I live; yet not +I, but Christ liveth in me.' Wine is joy, and the Christian life is +not only to be a feeding of the soul on Christ as its nourishment, +but a glad partaking, as at a feast, of His life and therein of His +joy. Gladness of heart is a Christian duty, 'the joy of the Lord is +your strength' and should be _our_ joy; and though here we eat +with loins girt, and go out, some of us to deny, some of us to flee, +all of us to toil and suffer, yet we may have His joy fulfilled in +ourselves, even whilst we sorrow. + +The Lord's Supper is predominantly a memorial, but it is also a +prophecy, and is marked as such by the mysterious last words of +Jesus, about drinking the new wine in the Father's kingdom. They +point the thoughts of the saddened eleven, on whom the dark shadow +of parting lay heavily, to an eternal reunion, in a land where 'all +things are become new,' and where the festal cup shall be filled +with a draught that has power to gladden and to inspire beyond any +experience here. The joys of heaven will be so far analogous to the +Christian joys of earth that the same name may be applied to both; +but they will be so unlike that the old name will need a new +meaning, and communion with Christ at His table in His kingdom, and +our exuberance of joy in the full drinking in of His immortal life, +will transcend the selectest hours of communion here. Compared with +that fulness of joy they will be 'as water unto wine,'--the new wine +of the kingdom. + + + + +'IS IT I?' + + + 'And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one + of them to say unto Him, Lord, is it I? 25. Then Judas, + which betrayed Him, answered and said, Master, is it I? + He said unto him, Thou hast said.'-MATT. xxvi. 22, 25. + + 'He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto Him, Lord, + who is it?'--JOHN xiii. 25. + +The genius of many great painters has portrayed the Lord's Supper, +but the reality of it was very different from their imaginings. We +have to picture to ourselves some low table, probably a mere tray +spread upon the ground, round which our Lord and the twelve +reclined, in such a fashion as that the head of each guest came +against the bosom of him that reclined above him; the place of +honour being at the Lord's left hand, or higher up the table than +Himself, and the second place being at His right, or below Himself. + +So there would be no eager gesticulations of disciples starting to +their feet when our Lord uttered the sad announcement, 'One of you +shall betray Me!' but only horror-struck amazement settled down upon +the group. These verses, which we have put together, show us three +stages in the conversation which followed the sad announcement. The +three evangelists give us two of these; John alone omits these two, +and only gives us the third. + +First, we have their question, born of a glimpse into the +possibilities of evil in their hearts, 'Lord, is it I?' + +The form of that question in the original suggests that they +expected a negative answer, and might be reproduced in English: +'Surely it is not I?' None of them could think that he was the +traitor, yet none of them could be sure that he was not. Their +Master knew better than they did; and so, from a humble knowledge of +what lay in them, coiled and slumbering, _but there_, they +would not meet His words with a contradiction, but with a question. +His answer spares the betrayer, and lets the dread work in their +consciences for a little longer, for their good. For many hands +dipped in the dish together, to moisten their morsels; and to say, +'He that dippeth with Me in the dish, the same shall betray Me,' was +to say nothing more than 'One of you at the table.' + +Then comes the second stage. Judas, reassured that he has escaped +detection for the moment, and perhaps doubting whether the Master +had anything more than a vague suspicion of treachery, or knew who +was the traitor, shapes his lying lips with loathsome audacity into +the same question, but yet not quite the same, The others had said, +'Is it I, Lord?' he falters when he comes to that name, and dare not +say 'Lord!' That sticks in his throat. 'Rabbi!' is as far as he can +get. 'Is it I, Rabbi?' Christ's answer to him, 'Thou hast said,' is +another instance of patient longsuffering. It was evidently a +whisper that did not reach the ears of any of the others, for he +leaves the room without suspicion. Our Lord still tries to save him +from himself by showing Judas that his purpose is known, and by +still concealing his name. + +Then comes the third stage, which we owe to John's Gospel. Here +again he is true to his task of supplementing the narrative of the +three synoptic Gospels. Remembering what I have said about the +attitude of the disciples at the table, we can understand that +Peter, if he occupied the principal place at the Lord's left, was +less favourably situated for speaking to Christ than John, who +reclined in the second seat at His right, and so he beckoned over +the Master's head to John. The Revised Version gives the force of +the original more vividly than the Authorised does: 'He, leaning +back, as he was, on Jesus' breast, saith unto Him, Lord! who is it?' +John, with a natural movement, bends back his head on his Master's +breast, so as to ask and be answered, in a whisper. His question is +_not_, 'Is it I?' He that leaned on Christ's bosom, and was +compassed about by Christ's love, did not need to ask that. The +question now is, 'Who is it?' Not a question of presumption, nor of +curiosity, but of affection; and therefore answered: 'He it is to +whom I shall give the sop, when I have dipped it.' + +The morsel dipped in the dish and passed by the host's hand to a +guest, was a token of favour, of unity and confidence. It was one +more attempt to save Judas, one more token of all-forgiving +patience. No wonder that that last sign of friendship embittered his +hatred and sharpened his purpose to an unalterable decision, or, as +John says: 'After the sop, Satan entered into him.' For then, as +ever, the heart which is not melted by Christ's offered love is +hardened by it. + +Now, if we take these three stages of this conversation we may learn +some valuable lessons from them. I take the first form of the +question as an example of that wholesome self-distrust which a +glimpse into the slumbering possibilities of evil in our hearts +ought to give us all. I take the second on the lips of Judas, as an +example of the very opposite of that self-distrust, the fixed +determination to do a wrong thing, however clearly we know it to be +wrong. And I take the last form of the question, as asked by John, +as an illustration of the peaceful confidence which comes from the +consciousness of Christ's love, and of communion with Him. Now a +word or two about each of these. + +I. First, we have an example of that wholesome self-distrust, which +a glimpse into the possibilities of evil that lie slumbering in all +our hearts ought to teach every one of us. + +Every man is a mystery to himself. In every soul there lie, coiled +and dormant, like hibernating snakes, evils that a very slight rise +in the temperature will wake up into poisonous activity. And let no +man say, in foolish self-confidence, that any form of sin which his +brother has ever committed is impossible for him. Temperament +shields us from much, no doubt. There are sins that 'we are inclined +to,' and there are sins that 'we have no mind to.' But the identity +of human nature is deeper than the diversity of temperament, and +there are two or three considerations that should abate a man's +confidence that _anything_ which one man has done it is impossible +that he should do. Let me enumerate them very briefly. Remember, to +begin with, that all sins are at bottom but varying forms of one root. +The essence of every evil is selfishness, and when you have that, it +is exactly as with cooks who have the 'stock' by the fireside. They +can make any kind of soup out of it, with the right flavouring. We +have got the mother tincture of all wickedness in each of our hearts; +and therefore do not let us be so sure that it cannot be manipulated +and flavoured into any form of sin. All sin is one at bottom, and this +is the definition of it--living to myself instead of living to God. +So it may easily pass from one form of evil into another, just as +light and heat, motion and electricity, are all--they tell us--various +forms and phases of one force. Just as doctors will tell you that +there are types of disease which slip from one form of sickness +into another, so if we have got the infection about us it is a matter +very much of accidental circumstances what shape it takes. And no +man with a human heart is safe in pointing to any sin, and saying, +'_That_ form of transgression I reckon alien to myself.' + +And then let me remind you, too, that the same consideration is +reinforced by this other fact, that all sin is, if I may so say, +gregarious; is apt not only to slip from one form into another, but +that any evil is apt to draw another after it. The tangled mass of +sin is like one of those great fields of seaweed that you some times +come across upon the ocean, all hanging together by a thousand slimy +growths; which, if lifted from the wave at any point, drags up yards +of it inextricably grown together. No man commits only one kind of +transgression. All sins hunt in couples. According to the grim +picture of the Old Testament, about another matter, 'None of them +shall want his mate. The wild beasts of the desert shall meet with +the wild beasts of the islands.' One sin opens the door for another, +'and seven other spirits worse than himself' come and make holiday +in the man's heart. + +Again, any evil is possible to us, seeing that all sin is but +yielding to tendencies common to us all. The greatest transgressions +have resulted from yielding to such tendencies. Cain killed his +brother from jealousy; David besmirched his name and his reign by +animal passion; Judas betrayed Christ because he was fond of money. +Many a man has murdered another one simply because he had a hot +temper. And you have got a temper, and you have got the love of +money, and you have got animal passions, and you have got that which +may stir you up into jealousy. Your neighbour's house has caught +fire and been blown up. Your house, too, is built of wood, and +thatched with straw, and you have as much dynamite in your cellars +as he had in his. Do not be too sure that you are safe from the +danger of explosion. + +And, again, remember that this same wholesome self-distrust is +needful for us all, because all transgression is yielding to +temptations that assail all men. Here are one hundred men in a +plague-stricken city; they have all got to draw their water from the +same well. If five or six of them died of cholera it would be very +foolish of the other ninety-five to say, 'There is no chance of our +being touched.' We all live in the same atmosphere; and the +temptations that have overcome the men that have headed the count of +crimes appeal to you. So the lesson is, 'Be not high-minded, but +fear.' + +And remember, still further, that the same solemn consideration is +enforced upon us by the thought that men will gradually drop down to +the level which, before they began the descent, seemed to be +impossible to them. 'Is thy servant a dog that he should do this +thing?' said Hazael when the crime of murdering his master first +floated before him. Yes, but he did it. By degrees he came down to +the level to which he thought that he would never sink. First the +imagination is inflamed, then the wish begins to draw the soul to +the sin, then conscience pulls it back, then the fatal decision is +made, and the deed is done. Sometimes all the stages are hurried +quickly through, and a man spins downhill as cheerily and fast as a +diligence down the Alps. Sometimes, as the coast of a country may +sink an inch in a century until long miles of the flat seabeach are +under water, and towers and cities are buried beneath the barren +waves, so our lives may be gradually lowered, with a motion +imperceptible but most real, bringing us down within high-water +mark, and at last the tide may wash over what was solid land. + +So, dear friends, there is nothing more foolish than for any man to +stand, self-confident that any form of evil that has conquered his +brother has no temptation for him. It may not have for you, under +present circumstances; it may not have for you to-day; but, oh! +we have all of us one human heart, and 'he that trusteth in his own +heart is a fool.' 'Blessed is the man that feareth always.' Humble +self-distrust, consciousness of sleeping sin in my heart that may very +quickly be stirred into stinging and striking; rigid self-control over +all these possibilities of evil, are duties dictated by the plainest +common-sense. + +Do not say, 'I know when to stop.' Do not say, 'I can go so far; it +will not do me any harm.' Many a man has said that, and many a man +has been ruined by it. Do not say, 'It is natural to me to have +these inclinations and tastes, and there can be no harm in yielding +to them.' It is perfectly natural for a man to stoop down over the +edge of a precipice to gather the flowers that are growing in some +cranny in the cliff; and it is as natural for him to topple over, +and be smashed to a mummy at the bottom. God gave you your +dispositions and your whole nature 'under lock and key,'--keep them +so. And when you hear of, or see, great criminals and great crimes, +say to yourself, as the good old Puritan divine said, looking at a +man going to the scaffold, 'But for the grace of God there go I!' +And in the contemplation of sins and apostasies, let us each look +humbly at our own weakness, and pray Him to keep us from our +brother's evils which may easily become ours. + +II. Secondly, we have here an example of precisely the opposite +sort, namely, of that fixed determination to do evil which is +unshaken by the clearest knowledge that it is evil. + +Judas heard his crime described in its own ugly reality. He heard +his fate proclaimed by lips of absolute love and truth; and +notwithstanding both, he comes unmoved and unshaken with his +question. The dogged determination in his heart, that dares to see +his evil stripped naked and is 'not ashamed,' is even more dreadful +than the hypocrisy and sleek simulation of friendship in his face. + +Now most men turn away with horror from even the sins that they are +willing to do, when they are put plainly and bluntly before them. As +an old mediaeval preacher once said, 'There is nothing that is +weaker than the devil stripped naked.' By which he meant exactly +this--that we have to dress wrong in some fantastic costume or +other, so as to hide its native ugliness, in order to tempt men to +do it. So we have two sets of names for wrong things, one of which +we apply to our brethren's sins, and the other to the same sins in +ourselves. What I do is 'prudence,' what you do of the same sort is +'covetousness'; what I do is 'sowing my wild oats,' what you do is +'immorality' and 'dissipation'; what I do is 'generous living,' what +you do is 'drunkenness' and 'gluttony'; what I do is 'righteous +indignation,' what you do is 'passionate anger.' And so you may go +the whole round of evil. Very bad are the men who can look at their +deed, described in Its own inherent deformity, and yet say, 'Yes; +that is it, and I am going to do it.' 'One of you shall betray Me.' +'Yes; I will betray you!' It must have taken something to look into +the Master's face, and keep the fixed purpose steady. + +Now I ask you to think, dear friends, of this, that that obstinate +condition of dogged determination to do a wrong thing, knowing it to +be a wrong thing, is a condition to which all evil steadily tends. +We may not come to it in this world--I do not know that men ever do +so wholly; but we are all getting towards it in regard to the +special wrong deeds and desires which we cherish and commit. And +when a man has once reached the point of saying to evil, 'Be thou my +good,' then he is a 'devil' in the true meaning of the word; and +wherever he is, he is in hell! And the one unpardonable sin is the +sin of clear recognition that a given thing is contrary to God's +will, and unfaltering determination, notwithstanding, to do it. That +is the only sin that cannot be pardoned, 'either in this world or in +the world to come.' + +And so, my brother, seeing that such a condition is possible, and +that all the paths of evil, however tentative and timorous they may +be at first, and however much the sin may be wrapped up with excuses +and forms and masks, tend to that condition, let us take that old +prayer upon our lips, which befits both those who distrust +themselves because of slumbering sins, and those who dread being +conquered by manifest iniquity:--'Who can understand his errors? +Cleanse Thou me from secret faults. Keep back Thy servant also from +presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me.' + +III. Now, lastly, we have in the last question an example of the +peaceful confidence that comes from communion with Jesus Christ. + +John leaned on the Master's bosom. 'He was the disciple whom Jesus +loved.' And so compassed with that great love, and feeling absolute +security within the enclosure of that strong hand, his question is +not, 'Is it I?' but 'Who is it?' From which I think we may fairly +draw the conclusion that to feel that Christ loves me, and that I am +compassed about by Him, is the true security against my falling into +any sin. + +It was not John's love to Christ, but Christ's to John that made his +safety. He did not say: 'I love Thee so much that I cannot betray +Thee.' For all our feelings and emotions are but variable, and to +build confidence upon them is to build a heavy building upon +quicksand; the very weight of it drives out the foundations. But he +thought to himself--or he felt rather than he thought--that all +about him lay the sweet, warm, rich atmosphere of his Master's love; +and to a man who was encompassed by that, treachery was impossible. + +Sin has no temptation so long as we actually enjoy the greater +sweetness of Christ's felt love. Would thirty pieces of silver have +been a bribe to John? Would anything that could have terrified +others have frightened him from his Master's side whilst he felt His +love? Will a handful of imitation jewellery, made out of coloured +glass and paste, be any temptation to a man who bears a rich diamond +on his finger? And will any of earth's sweetness be a temptation to +a man who lives in the continual consciousness of the great rich +love of Christ wrapping him round about? Brethren, not ourselves, +not our faith, not our emotion, not our religious experience; +nothing that is in us, is any security that we may not be tempted, +and yield to the temptation, and deny or betray our Lord. There is +only one thing that is a security, and that is that we be folded to +the heart, and held by the hand, of that loving Lord. Then--then we +may be confident that we shall not fall; for 'the Lord is able to +make us stand.' + +Such confidence is but the other side of our self-distrust; is the +constant accompaniment of it, must have that self-distrust for its +condition and prerequisite, and leads to a yet deeper and more +blessed form of that self-distrust. Faith in Him and 'no confidence +in the flesh' are but the two sides of the same coin, the obverse +and the reverse. The seed, planted in the ground, sends a little +rootlet down, and a little spikelet up, by the same vital act. And +so in our hearts, as it were, the downward rootlet is self-despair, +and the upward shoot is faith in Christ. The two emotions go +together--the more we distrust ourselves the more we shall rest upon +Him, and the more we rest upon Him, and feel that all our strength +comes, not from our foot, but from the Rock on which it stands, the +more we shall distrust our own ability and our own faithfulness. + +Therefore, dear brethren, looking upon all the evil that is around +us, and conscious in some measure of the weakness of our own hearts, +let us do as a man would do who stands upon the narrow ledge of a +cliff, and look sheer down into the depth below, and feels his head +begin to reel and turn giddy; let us lay hold of the Guide's hand, +and if we cleave by Him, He will hold up our goings that our +footsteps slip not. Nothing else will. No length of obedient service +is any guarantee against treachery and rebellion. As John Bunyan +saw, there was a backdoor to hell from the gate of the Celestial +City. Men have lived for years consistent professing Christians, and +have fallen at last. Many a ship has come across half the world, and +gone to pieces on the harbour bar. Many an army, victorious in a +hundred fights, has been annihilated at last. No depths of religious +experience, no heights of religious blessedness, no attainments of +past virtue and self-sacrifice, are any guarantees for to-morrow. +Trust in nothing and in nobody, least of all in yourselves and your +own past. Trust only in Jesus Christ. + +'Now unto Him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present +us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy; to +the only wise God our Saviour be glory and majesty, dominion and +power, both now and for ever.' Amen. + + + + +'THIS CUP' + + + 'And Jesus took the cup, and grave thanks, and gave it + to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; 28. For this is My + blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for + the remission of sins'--MATT. xxvi. 27, 28. + +The comparative silence of our Lord as to the sacrificial character +of His death has very often been urged as a reason for doubting that +doctrine, and for regarding it as no part of the original Christian +teaching. That silence may be accounted for by sufficient reasons. +It has been very much exaggerated, and those who argue from it +against the doctrine of the Atonement have forgotten that Jesus +Christ founded the Lord's Supper. + +That rite shows us what He thought, and what He would have us think, +of His death; and in the presence of its testimony it seems to me +impossible to deny that His conception of it was distinctly +sacrificial. By it He points out the moment of His whole career +which He desires that men should remember. Not His words of +tenderness and wisdom; not His miracles, amazing and gracious as +these were; not the flawless beauty of His character, though it +touches all hearts and wins the most rugged to love, and the most +degraded to hope; but the moment in which He gave His life is what +He would imprint for ever on the memory of the world. + +And not only so, but in the rite he distinctly tells us in what +aspect He would have that death remembered. Not as the tragic end of +a noble career which might be hallowed by tears such as are shed +over a martyr's ashes; not as the crowning proof of love; not as the +supreme act of patient forgiveness; but as a death for us, in which, +as by the blood of the sacrifice, is secured the remission of sins. + +And not only so, but the double symbol in the Lord's Supper--whilst +in some respects the bread and wine speak the same truths, and +certainly point to the same Cross--has in each of its parts special +lessons intrusted to it, and special truths to proclaim. The bread +and the wine both say:--'Remember Me and My death.' Taken in +conjunction they point to that death as violent; taken separately +they each suggest various aspects of it, and of the blessings that +will flow to us therefrom. And it is my present purpose to bring +out, as briefly and as clearly as I can, the special lessons which +our Lord would have us draw from that cup which is the emblem of His +shed blood. + +I. First, then, observe that it speaks to us of a divine treaty or +covenant. + +Ancient Israel had lived for nearly 2000 years under the charter of +their national existence which, as we read in the Old Testament, was +given on Sinai amidst thunderings and lightnings--'Now, therefore, +if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall +be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people; for all the earth +is Mine, and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and an holy +nation.' + +And that covenant, or agreement, or treaty, on the part of God, was +ratified by a solemn act, in which the blood of the sacrifice, +divided into two portions, was sprinkled, one half upon the altar, +and the other half, after their acceptance of the conditions and +obligations of the covenant, on the people, who had pledged +themselves to obedience. + +And now, here is a Galilean peasant, in a borrowed upper room, +within four-and-twenty hours of His ignominious death which might +seem to blast all His work, who steps forward and says, 'I put away +that ancient covenant which knits this nation to God. It is +antiquated. I am the true offering and sacrifice, by the blood of +which, sprinkled on altar and on people, a new covenant, built upon +better promises, shall henceforth be.' + +What a tremendous piece of audacity, except on the one hypothesis +that He that spake was indeed the Word of God; and that He was +making that which Himself had established of old, to give way to +that which He establishes now! The new covenant which Christ seals +in His blood, is the charter, the better charter, under the +conditions of which, not a nation but the world may find an external +salvation which dwarfs all the deliverances of the past. That idea +of a covenant confirmed by Christ's blood may sound to many hearers +dry and hard. But if you will try to think what great truths are +wrapped up in the theological phraseology, you will find them very +real and very strong. Is it not a grand thought that between us and +the infinite divine Nature there is established a firm and unmovable +agreement? Then He has revealed His purposes; we are not left to +grope in darkness, at the mercy of 'peradventures' and 'probablies'; +nor reduced to consult the ambiguous oracles of nature or of +Providence, or the varying voices of our own hearts, or painfully +and dubiously to construct more or less strong bases for confidence +in a loving God out of such hints and fragments of revelation as +these supply. He has come out of His darkness, and spoken articulate +words, plain words, faithful words, which bind Him to a distinctly +defined course of action. Across the great ocean of possible modes +of action for a divine nature He has, if I may so say, buoyed out +for Himself a channel, so as that we know His path, which is in the +deep waters. He has limited Himself by the utterance of a faithful +word, and we can now come to Him with His own promise, and cast it +down before Him, and say: 'Thou hast spoken, and Thou art bound to +fulfil it.' We have a covenant wherein God has shown us His hand, +has told us what He is going to do and has thereby pledged Himself +to its performance. + +And, still further, in order to get the full sweetness of this +thought, to break the husk and reach to the kernel, you must +remember what, according to the New Testament, are the conditions of +this covenant. The old agreement was, 'If ye will obey My voice and +do My commandments, then,'--so and so will happen. The old condition +was, 'Do and live; be righteous and blessed!' The new condition is: +'Take and have; believe and live!' The one was law, the other is +gift; the one was retribution, the other is forgiveness. One was +outward, hard, rigid law, fitly 'graven with a pen of iron on the +rocks for ever'; the other is impulse, love, a power bestowed that +will make us obedient; and the sole condition that we have to render +is the condition of humble and believing acceptance of the divine +gift. The new covenant, in the exuberant fulness of its mercy, and +in the tenderness of its gracious purposes, is at once the +completion and the antithesis of the ancient covenant with its +precepts and its retribution. + +And, still further, this 'new covenant,' of which the essence is +God's bestowment of Himself on every heart that wills to possess +Him; this new covenant, according to the teaching of these words of +my text and of the symbol to which they refer, is ratified and +sealed by that great sacrifice. The blood was sprinkled on the +altar; the blood was sprinkled on the people, which being translated +into plain, unmetaphorical language is simply this, that Christ's +death remains for ever present to the divine mind as the great +reason and motive which modifies His government, and which ensures +that His love shall ever find its way to every seeking soul. His +death is the token; His death is the reason; His death is the pledge +of the unending and the inexhaustible mercy of God bestowed upon +each of us. 'He that spared not His own Son, shall He not with Him +also freely give us all things?' The outward rite with its symbol is +the exhibition in visible form of that truth, that the blood of +Jesus Christ seals to the world the infinite mercy of God. + +And, on the other hand, that same blood of the covenant, sprinkled +upon the other parties to the treaty, even our poor sinful hearts, +binds them to the fulfilment of the condition which belongs to them. +That is to say, by the power of that sacrifice there are evoked in +our poor souls, faith, love, surrender. It, and it alone, knits us +to God; it, and it alone, binds us to the fulfilment of the +covenant. My brother, have you entered into that sweet, solemn, +sacred alliance and union with God? Have you accepted and fulfilled +the conditions? Is your heart 'sprinkled with the blood so freely +shed for you'; and have you thereby been brought into living +alliance with the God who has pledged His being and His name to be +the all-sufficient God to you? + +II. Still further, this cup speaks to us of the forgiveness of sins. + +One theory, and one theory only, as it seems to me, of the meaning +of Christ's death, is possible if these words of my text ever +dropped from Christ's lips, or if He ever instituted the rite to +which they refer; He must have believed that His death was a +sacrifice, without which the sins of the world were not forgiven; +and by which forgiveness came to us all. + +And I do not think that we rightly conceive the relation between the +sacrifices of barbarous heathen tribes, or the sacrifices appointed +in Israel, and the great sacrifice on the Cross, if we say that our +Lord's death is only figuratively accommodated to these in order to +meet lower or grosser conceptions, but rather, I take it, that the +accommodation is the other way. In all nations beyond the limits of +Israel the sacrifices of living victims spoke not only of surrender +and dependence, but likewise of the consciousness of demerit and +evil on the part of the offerers, and were at once a confession of +sin, a prayer for pardon, and a propitiation of an offended God. And +I believe that the sacrifices in Israel were intended and adapted +not only to meet the deep-felt want of human nature, common to them +as to all other tribes, but also were intended and adapted to point +onwards to Him in whose death a real want of mankind was met, in +whose death a real sacrifice was offered, in whose death an angry +God was not indeed propitiated, but in whose death the loving Father +of our souls Himself provided the Lamb for the offering, without +which, for reasons deeper than we can wholly fathom, it was +impossible that sin should be remitted. + +I insist upon no theory of an Atonement. I believe there is no +Gospel, worth calling so, worth the preaching, worth your believing, +or that will ever move the world or purify society, except the +Gospel which begins with the fact of an Atonement, and points to the +Cross as the altar on which the Sacrifice for the sins of the world, +without whose death pardon is impossible, has died for us all. + +Oh! dear friends, do not let yourselves be confused by the +difficulties that beset all human and incomplete statements of the +philosophy of the death of Christ; but getting away from these, +cleave you to the fact that your sins were laid upon Christ, and +that He has died for us all; that His death is a sacrifice; His body +broken for us; and for the remission of our sins, His blood freely +shed. Thus, and only thus, will you come to the understanding either +of the sweetness of His love or of the power of His example; then, +and only then, shall we know why it was that He elected to be +remembered, out of all the moments of His life, by that one when He +hung in weakness upon the Cross, and out of the darkness came the +cry, 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' + +III. And now, again, let me remind you that this cup speaks likewise +of a life infused. + +'The blood is the life,' says the physiology of the Hebrews. The +blood is the life, and when men drink of that cup they symbolise the +fact that Christ's own life and spirit are imparted to them that +love Him. 'Except ye eat the flesh, and drink the blood of the Son +of Man, ye have no life in you.' The very heart of Christ's gift to +us is the gift of His own very life to be the life of our lives. In +deep, mystical reality He Himself passes into our being, and the +'law of the spirit of life makes us free from the law of sin and +death,' so that we may say: 'He that is joined to the Lord is one +spirit,' and the humble believing soul may rejoice in this: 'I live, +yet not I, but Christ liveth in Me.' This is, in one aspect, the +very deepest meaning of this Communion rite. As physicians sometimes +tried to restore life to an almost dead man by the transfusion into +his shrunken veins of the fresh warm blood from a young and healthy +subject, so into our fevered life, into our corrupted blood, there +is poured the full tide of the pure and perfect life of Jesus Christ +Himself, and we live, not by our own power, nor for our own will, +nor in obedience to our own caprices, but by Him and in Him, and +with Him and for Him. This is the heart of Christianity, the +possession within us of the life, the immortal life of Him that died +for us. + +My brother have you that great gift in your heart? Be sure of this, +that unless the life of Christ is in you by faith, ye are dead, +'dead in trespasses and in sins'; dead, and sure to rot away and +disintegrate into corruption. The cup of blessing which we drink +speaks to us of the transfusion into our spirits of the Spirit of +Jesus Christ. + +IV. And lastly, it speaks of a festal gladness. + +The bread says nothing to us of the remission of sins. The broken +bread proclaims, indeed, our nourishment from Jesus, but falls short +of the deep and solemn truth that it is the very life-blood of +Christ Himself which nourishes us and vitalises us. And the bread, +in like manner, proclaims indeed the fact that we are fed on Him, +but says nothing of the joy of that feeding. The wine is the symbol +of that, and it proclaims to us that the Christian life here on +earth, just because it is the feeding on and the drinking in of +Jesus Christ, ought ever to be a life of blessedness, of abounding +joy, by whatsoever darkness, burdens, cares, toils, sorrows, and +solitude it may be shaded and saddened. They who live on Christ, +they who drink in of His spirit, they should be glad in all +circumstances, they, and they alone. We sit at a table, though it be +in the wilderness, though it be in the presence of our enemies, +where there ought to be joy and the voice of rejoicing. + +But beyond that, as our Master Himself taught these apostles in that +upper room, this cup points onwards to a future feast. At that +solemn hour Jesus stayed His own heart with the vision of the +perfected kingdom and the glad festival then. So this Communion has +a prophetic element in it, and links on with predictions and +parables which speak of the 'marriage supper' of the great King, and +of the time when we shall sit at His table in His kingdom. + +For the past the Lord's Supper speaks of the one sufficient oblation +and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. For the present it +speaks of life produced and sustained by communion with Jesus +Christ. And for the future it speaks of the unending, joyful +satisfaction of all desires in the 'upper room' of the heavens. + +How unlike, and yet how like to that scene in the upper room at +Jerusalem! From it the sad disciples went out, some of them to deny +their Master; all of them to struggle, to sin, to lose Him from +their sight, to toil, to sorrow, and at last to die. From that other +table we shall go no more out, but sit there with Him in full +fruition of unfailing blessedness and participation of His immortal +life for evermore. + +Dear brethren, these are the lessons, these the hopes, which this +'blood of the new covenant' teaches and inspires. Have you entered +into that covenant with God? Have you made sure work of the +forgiveness of your sins through His blood? Have you received into +your spirits His immortal life? Then you may humbly be confident +that, after life's weariness and lonesomeness are past, you will be +welcomed to the banqueting hall by the Lord of the feast, and sit +with Him and His servants who loved Him at that table and be glad. + + + + +'UNTIL THAT DAY' + + + 'I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, + until that day when I drink it new with you in my + Father's kingdom.'--MATT. xxvi. 29. + +This remarkable saying of our Lord's is recorded in all of the +accounts of the institution of the Lord's Supper. The thought +embodied in it ought to be present in the minds of all who partake +of that rite. It converts what is primarily a memorial into a +prophecy. It bids us hope as well as, and because we, remember. The +light behind us is cast forward on to the dimness before. So the +Apostle Paul, in his solitary reference to the Communion--which, +indeed, is an entirely incidental one, and evoked simply by the +corruptions in the Corinthian Church, emphasises this prophetic and +onward-looking aspect of the backward-looking rite when he says, 'Ye +do show the Lord's death _till He come_.' + +Now, it seems to me that those of us who so strongly hold that the +Communion is primarily a simple memorial service, with no mysterious +or magical efficacy of any sort about it, do rather ignore in our +ordinary thoughts the other aspect which is brought out in my text; +and that comparative ignoring seems to me to be but a part of a very +lamentable and general tendency of this day, whereby the prospect of +a future life has become somewhat dimmed and does not fill the place +either in ordinary Christian thinking, or as a motive for Christian +service which the proportion of faith, and the relative importance +of the present and the future suggest that it ought to fill. The +Christianity of this day has so much to do with the present life, +and the thought of the Gospel as a power in the present has been so +emphasised, in legitimate reaction from the opposite exaggeration, +that there is great need, as I believe, to preach to Christian people +the wisdom of making more prominent in their faith their immortal +hope. I wish, then, to turn now to this aspect of the rite which we +regard as a memorial, and try to emphasise its forward-looking +attitude, and the large blessed truths that emerge if we consider that. + +I. First, let me say just a word about the twin aspect of the +Communion as a memorial prophecy, or prophetic remembrance. + +Now, I need not remind you, I suppose, that according to the view +which, as I believe, the New Testament takes, and which certainly we +Nonconformists take, of all the rites of external worship, every one +of them is a prophecy, because every act in which our sense is +brought in to reinforce the spirit--and by outward forms, be they +vocal, or be they manual, or be they of any other sort, we try to +express and to quicken spiritual emotions and intellectual +convictions--declares its own imperfection, digs its own grave, and +prophecies its own resurrection in a nobler and better fashion. Just +because these outward symbols of bread and wine do, through the +senses, quicken the faith and the love of the spirit, they declare +themselves to be transitory, and they point onwards to the time when +that which is perfect shall absorb, and so destroy, that which is in +part, and when sense shall be no longer necessary as the ally and +humble servant of spirit. 'I saw no temple therein.' Temples, and +rites, and services, and holy days, and all the external apparatus +of worship, are but scaffolding, and just as the scaffolding round a +building is a prophecy of its own being pulled down when the +building is reared and completed, so we cannot partake of these +external symbols rightly, unless we recognise their transiency, and +feel that they say to us, 'A mightier than I cometh after me, the +latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose.' The light that +shines in the dark heralds the day and its own extinction. + +So, looking back we must look forward, and partaking of the symbol, +we must reach out to the time when the symbol shall be antiquated, +the reality having come. The Passover of Israel did not more truly +point onwards to the true Lamb of Sacrifice, and to the true +Passover that was slain for us, and to its own elevation into the +Lord's Supper of the Christian Church, than the Lord's Supper of the +Christian Church points onwards to the 'marriage supper of the +Lamb,' and its own cessation. + +But then, again, let me remind you that this prophetic aspect is +inherent in the memorial aspect of the Communion, because what we +remember necessarily demands the coming of what we hope. That is to +say, if Jesus Christ be what the Lord's Supper says that He is, and +if He has done what that broken bread and poured out wine proclaim, +according to His own utterance, that He has done, then clearly that +death which was for the life of the world, that death which was the +seal of a covenant, that body broken for the remission of sins, that +wine partaken of as a reception into ourselves of the very life-blood +of Jesus Christ, do all demand something far nobler and more perfect +than the broken, incomplete obedience and loyalties and communions +which Christian men here exercise and possess. + +If He died, as the rite says that He did, and if dying He left such +a commentary upon His act as that ordinance affords, then He cannot +have done with the world; then the powers that were set in motion by +His death cannot pause nor cease their action until they have +reached their appropriate culmination in effecting all that it was +in them to effect. If, leaving His people, He said to them, 'Never +forget My death for you, My broken body, and My shed blood,' He +therein said that the time will come, must come, when all the powers +of the Cross shall be incorporated in humanity, and when the parted +shall be reunited. The Communion would stand as the expression of +Christ's mistaken estimate of His own importance, if there were not +beyond the grave the perfecting of it, and the full appropriation +and joyful possession of all which the death that it signifies +brought to mankind. + +Therefore, dear brethren, it seems to me that the best way by which +Christians can deepen their confidence and brighten their hope in +the perfect reunion and blessedness of the heavens, is to increase +the firmness of their faith in, and the depth of their apprehension +of, the sacrifice of the Cross. If the Cross demands the Crown, then +our surest way to realise as certain our own possession of that +Crown is to cling very close to that Cross. The more we look +backwards to it the more will it fling its light into all the dark +places that are in front of us, and flush the heavens up to the +seventh and beyond, with the glories that stream from it. Hold fast +by the Cross, and the more fully, believingly, joyously, +unfalteringly, we recognise in it the foundation of our salvation, +the more gladly, clearly, operatively, shall we cherish the hope +that 'the headstone shall be brought forth with shoutings,' and that +the imperfect symbolical communion of earth will grow and greaten +into complete and real union in eternal bliss. + +Let me urge, then, this, that, as a matter of fact, a faith in +eternal glory goes with and fluctuates in the same degree and manner +as does the faith in the past sacrifice that Christ has made. He, +and He alone, as I believe, turns nebulae into solidity, and makes +of the more or less tremulous anticipation of a more or less dim and +distant future, a calm, still certainty. We know that He will come +because, and in proportion as, we believe that He has come. Keep +these two things, then, always together, the memory and the hope. +They stand like two great piers, one on either side of a narrow, +dark glen, and suspended from them is stretched the bridge, along +which the happy pilgrims may travel and enter into rest. + +II. And now, let us turn for a moment to the lovely vision of that +future which is suggested by our text. + +The truest way, I was going to say the only way, by which we can +have any conceptions of a condition of being of which we have no +experience, is to fall back upon the experiences which we have, and +use them as symbols and metaphors. The curtain is the picture. So +our Lord here, in accordance with the necessary limitations of our +human knowledge, contents Himself with using what lay at His hand, +and taking it as giving faint shadows and metaphorical suggestions +as to spiritual blessedness yonder. + +There is one other way, as it seems to me, by which we can in any +measure body forth to ourselves that unknown condition of things, +and that is to fall back upon our present experiences in another +fashion, and negative all of them which involve pain and limitation +and incompleteness. There shall be no night--no sorrow--no tears--no +sighing, and the like. These negatives of the strong and stinging +griefs and limitations of the present are perhaps our second-best +way of coming to some prophetic vision of that great future. + +Remembering, then, that we are dealing with pure metaphor, and that +the exact translation of the metaphor into reality is not yet +possible for us, let us take one or two very plain thoughts out of +this great saying--'Until I drink it new with you in My Father's +kingdom.' + +Then, we have to think of the completion of the Christian life +beyond, which is also the completion of the results of Christ's +death on the Cross, as being, according to the very frequent +metaphor both of the Old and the New Testament, a prolonged +festival. I do not need to speak of the details of the thoughts that +thence emerge. Let me sum them up as briefly as may be. They include +the satisfaction of every desire and the nourishment of all +strength, and food for every faculty. When we think of the hungry +hearts that all men carry, and how true it is that even the wisest +and the holiest of us are 'spending our money for that which is not +bread, and our labour for that which satisfieth not'; when we think +of how the choicest foods that life can provide, even for the +noblest hunger of noble hearts, are too often to us but as a feeding +on ashes that will leave grit between the teeth and a foul taste +upon the palate, surely it is blessed to think that we may, after +all life's disappointments, cherish the hope of a perfect fruition, +and that yonder, if not here, it will be fully true that 'God never +sends mouths but He sends meat to feed them.' That is not so in this +world, for we all carry hungers which impel us forward to nobler +living, and which it would not be good for us to have satisfied +here. But, unless the whole universe is a godless chaos, there must +be somewhere a state in which a man shall have all that he wants, +and shall want only what he ought. + +The emblem of a feast suggests also society. The solitary travellers +who have been toiling and moiling through the desert all the day +long, snatching up a hasty mouthful as they march, and lonely many a +time, come together at last, and sit together there joyous and +united. Deep down in our hearts some of us have gashes that always +bleed. We know losses and loneliness, and we can feel, I hope, how +blessed is the thought that all the wanderers shall sit there +together, and rejoice in each other's communion, 'and so shall +_we_ ever be with the Lord.' + +But besides satisfaction and society the figure suggests repose. +That rest is not indolence, for we have to carry other metaphors +with us in order to come to the full significance of this one, and +the festal imagery is not all that we have to take into account; for +we read, 'I grant unto you a kingdom, and ye shall sit on twelve +thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel,' as well as 'ye shall +eat and drink with Me at My table in My kingdom.' So repose, which +is consistent and coexistent with the intensest activity, is the +great hope that comes out of these metaphors. But for many of us--I +suppose for all of us elderly people--who are about weary of work +and worry, there is no deeper hope than the hope of rest. 'I have +had labour enough for one,' says one of our poets. And I think there +is something in most of our hearts that echoes that and rejoices to +hear that, after the long march, 'ye shall sit with Me at My table.' + +But besides satisfaction, society, and rest, the figure suggests +gladness. Wine is the emblem of the joyous side of a feast, just as +bread is the emblem of the necessary nourishment. And it is +_new_ wine; joy raised to a higher power, transformed and +glorified; and yet the old emotion in a new form. As for that +gladness, 'eye hath not seen, neither hath it entered into the heart +of man to conceive, the things that God hath prepared for them that +love Him.' Only all we weary, heavy-laden, saddened, anxious, +disappointed, tormented people may hope for these festal joys, if we +are Christ's. The feast will last when all the troubles and the +cares which helped us to it are dead and buried and forgotten. + +These four things, brethren--satisfaction, society, rest, new +gladness--are proclaimed and prophesied to each of us, if we will, +by this memorial rite. + +Again, there comes from this aspect of the Communion the thought +that the blessed condition of the Christian soul hereafter is a +feast on a sacrifice. We must distinguish between the sense in which +our Lord drinks with us, and the sense in which we alone partake of +that feast of which He provides the viands. But just as in the +symbolic ordinance of the Communion the very essence of it is that +what was offered as sacrifice is now incorporated into the +participant's spiritual being, and becomes part of himself, and the +life of his life, so, in the future, all the blessedness of the +clustered and constellated joys of that life, which is one eternal +festival, shall arise from the reception into perfected spirits with +ever-growing greatness and blessedness of the Christ that died and +ever lives for them. That heavenly glory, to its highest pinnacle of +aspiration, to its most rapt completeness of gladness, is all the +consequence of Christ's death on the Cross. That death, which we +commemorate, is the procuring cause of man's entrance into bliss, +and that death is the subject of the continual, grateful remembrance +of the saints in the seventh heaven of their glory. Life yonder, as +all true life here, consists in taking into ourselves the life of +Jesus Christ, and the law for heaven is the same as the law for +earth, 'He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.' + +Lastly, the conception of the future for Christian souls arising +from this aspect of the Lord's Supper is that it is not only a +feast, and a feast on a sacrifice, but that it is a feast with the +King. + +'_With you_ I will drink it.' Brethren, we pass beyond metaphor when +we gather up and condense all the vague brightness and glories of that +perfect future into this one rapturous, overwhelming, all-embracing +thought: 'So shall we ever be with the Lord.' I could almost wish +that Christian people had no other thought of that future than this, +for surely in its grand simplicity, in its ineffable depth, there lie +the germs of every blessedness. How poor all the material emblems are +of which sensuous imaginations make so much, when compared with that +hope! As the good old hymn has it, which to me says more, in its bold +simplicity, than all the sentimental enlargements of Scriptural +metaphors which some people admire so much-- + + 'It is enough that Christ knows all, + And I shall be with Him.' + +Strange that He says, 'I will drink it _with you._' Does He +need sustenance? Does He need any external things in order to make +His feast? No! and Yes! 'I will sup with Him' as well as 'He with +me.' And, surely, His meat and drink are the love, the loyalty, the +obedience, the receptiveness, the society of His redeemed children. +'The joy of the Lord' comes from 'seeing of the travail of His +soul,' and His servants do enter into that joy in deep and wondrous +fashion. We not only shall live on Christ, but He Himself puts to +His own lips the chalice that He commends to ours, and in marvellous +condescension to, and identity with, our glorified humanity drinks +with us the 'new wine' in the Father's kingdom. + + + + +GETHSEMANE, THE OIL-PRESS + + + 'Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called + Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, + while I go and pray yonder. 37. And He took with Him + Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be + sorrowful and very heavy. 38. Then saith He unto them, + My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry + ye here, and watch with Me. 39. And He went a little + farther, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O My + Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: + nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt. 40. And + He cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, + and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with Me + one hour! 41. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into + temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh + is weak. 42. He went away again the second time, and + prayed, saying, O My Father, if this cup may not pass + away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done. + 43. And He came and found them asleep again: for their + eyes were heavy. 44. And He left them, and went away + again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. + 45. Then cometh He to His disciples, and saith unto + them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the + hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into + the hands of sinners. 46. Rise, let us be going: behold, + he is at hand that doth betray Me.'--MATT. xxvi. 36-46. + +One shrinks from touching this incomparable picture of unexampled +sorrow, for fear lest one's finger-marks should stain it. There is +no place here for picturesque description, which tries to mend the +gospel stories by dressing them in to-day's fashions, nor for +theological systematisers and analysers of the sort that would +'botanise upon their mother's grave.' We must put off our shoes, and +feel that we stand on holy ground. Though loving eyes saw something +of Christ's agony, He did not let them come beside Him, but withdrew +into the shadow of the gnarled olives, as if even the moonbeams must +not look too closely on the mystery of such grief. We may go as near +as love was allowed to go, but stop where it was stayed, while we +reverently and adoringly listen to what the Evangelist tells us of +that unspeakable hour. + +I. Mark the 'exceeding sorrow' of the Man of Sorrows. Somewhere on +the western foot of Olivet lay the garden, named from an oil-press +formerly or then in it, which was to be the scene of the holiest and +sorest sorrow on which the moon, that has seen so much misery, has +ever looked. Truly it was 'an oil-press,' in which 'the good olive' +was crushed by the grip of unparalleled agony, and yielded precious +oil, which has been poured into many a wound since then. Eight of +the eleven are left at or near the entrance, while He passes deeper +into the shadows with the three. They had been witnesses of His +prayers once before, on the slopes of Hermon, when He was +transfigured before them. They are now to see a no less wonderful +revelation of His glory in His filial submission. There is something +remarkable in Matthew's expression, 'He began to be sorrowful,'--as +if a sudden wave of emotion, breaking over His soul, had swept His +human sensibilities before it. The strange word translated by the +Revisers 'sore troubled' is of uncertain derivation, and may +possibly be simply intended to intensify the idea of sorrow; but +more probably it adds another element, which Bishop Lightfoot +describes as 'the confused, restless, half-distracted state which is +produced by physical derangement or mental distress.' A storm of +agitation and bewilderment broke His calm, and forced from His +patient lips, little wont to speak of His own emotions, or to seek +for sympathy, the unutterably pathetic cry, 'My soul is exceeding +sorrowful'--compassed about with sorrow, as the word means--'even +unto death.' No feeble explanation of these words does justice to +the abyss of woe into which they let us dimly look. They tell the +fact, that, a little more and the body would have sunk under the +burden. He knew the limits of human endurance, for 'all things were +made by Him,' and, knowing it, He saw that He had grazed the very +edge. Out of the darkness He reaches a hand to feel for the grasp of +a friend, and piteously asks these humble lovers to stay beside Him, +not that they could help Him to bear the weight, but that their +presence had some solace in it. His agony must be endured alone, +therefore He bade them tarry there; but He desired to have them at +hand, therefore He went but 'a little forward.' They could not bear +it with Him, but they could 'watch with' Him, and that poor comfort +is all He asks. No word came from them. They were, no doubt, awed +into silence, as the truest sympathy is used to be, in the presence +of a great grief. Is it permitted us to ask what were the fountains +of these bitter floods that swept over Christ's sinless soul? Was +the mere physical shrinking from death all? If so, we may reverently +say that many a maiden and old man, who drew all their fortitude +from Jesus, have gone to stake or gibbet for His sake, with a calm +which contrasts strangely with His agitation. Gethsemane is robbed +of its pathos and nobleness if that be all. But it was not all. +Rather it was the least bitter of the components of the cup. What +lay before Him was not merely death, but the death which was to +atone for a world's sin, and in which, therefore, the whole weight +of sin's consequences was concentrated. 'The Lord hath made to meet +on Him the iniquities of us all'; that is the one sufficient +explanation of this infinitely solemn and tender scene. Unless we +believe that, we shall find it hard to reconcile His agitation in +Gethsemane with the perfection of His character as the captain of +'the noble army of martyrs.' + +II. Note the prayer of filial submission. Matthew does not tell us +of the sweat falling audibly and heavily, and sounding to the three +like slow blood-drops from a wound, nor of the strengthening angel, +but he gives us the prostrate form, and the threefold prayer, +renewed as each moment of calm, won by it, was again broken in upon +by a fresh wave of emotion. Thrice He had to leave the disciples, +and came back, a calm conqueror; and twice the enemy rallied and +returned to the assault, and was at last driven finally from the +field by the power of prayer and submission. The three Synoptics +differ in their report of our Lord's words, but all mean the same +thing in substance; and it is obvious that much more must have been +spoken than they report. Possibly what we have is only the fragments +that reached the three before they fell asleep. In any case, Jesus +was absent from them on each occasion long enough to allow of their +doing so. + +Three elements are distinguishable in our Lord's prayer. There is, +first, the sense of Sonship, which underlies all, and was never more +clear than at that awful moment. Then there is the recoil from 'the +cup,' which natural instinct could not but feel, though sinlessly. +The flesh shrank from the Cross, which else had been no suffering; +and if no suffering, then had been no atonement. His manhood would +not have been like ours, nor His sorrows our pattern, if He had not +thus drawn back, in His sensitive humanity, from the awful prospect +now so near. But natural instinct is one thing, and the controlling +will another. However currents may have tossed the vessel, the firm +hand at the helm never suffered them to change her course. The will, +which in this prayer He seems so strangely to separate from the +Father's, even in the act of submission, was the will which wishes, +not that which resolves. His fixed purpose to die for the world's +sin never wavered. The shrinking does not reach the point of +absolutely and unconditionally asking that the cup might pass. Even +in the act of uttering the wish, it is limited by that 'if it be +possible,' which can only mean--possible, in view of the great +purpose for which He came. That is to be accomplished, at any cost; +and unless it can be accomplished though the cup be withdrawn, He +does not even wish, much less will, that it should be withdrawn. So, +the third element in the prayer is the utter resignation to the +Father's will, in which submission He found peace, as we do. + +He prayed His way to perfect calm, which is ever the companion of +perfect self-surrender to God. They who cease from their own works +do 'enter into rest.' All the agitations which had come storming in +massed battalions against Him are defeated by it. They have failed +to shake His purpose, they now fail even to disturb His peace. So, +victorious from the dreadful conflict, and at leisure of heart to +care for others, He can go back to the disciples. But even whilst +seeking to help them, a fresh wave of suffering breaks in on His +calm, and once again He leaves them to renew the struggle. The +instinctive shrinking reasserts itself, and, though overcome, is not +eradicated. But the second prayer is yet more rooted in acquiescence +than the first. It shows that He had not lost what He had won by the +former; for it, as it were, builds on that first supplication, and +accepts as answer to its contingent petition the consciousness, +accompanying the calm, that it was not possible for the cup to pass +from Him. The sense of Sonship underlies the complete resignation of +the second prayer as of the first. It has no wish but God's will, +and is the voluntary offering of Himself. Here He is both Priest and +Sacrifice, and offers the victim with this prayer of consecration. +So once more He triumphs, because once more, and yet more +completely, He submits, and accepts the Cross. For Him, as for us, +the Cross accepted ceases to be a pain, and the cup is no more +bitter when we are content to drink it. Once more in fainter fashion +the enemy came on, casting again his spent arrows, and beaten back +by the same weapon. The words were the same, because no others could +have expressed more perfectly the submission which was the heart of +His prayers and the condition of His victory. + +Christ's prayer, then, was not for the passing of the cup, but that +the will of God might be done in and by Him, and 'He was heard in +that He feared,' not by being exempted from the Cross, but by being +strengthened through submission for submission. So His agony is the +pattern of all true prayer, which must ever deal with our wishes, as +He did with His instinctive shrinking,--present them wrapped in an +'if it be possible,' and followed by a 'nevertheless.' The meaning +of prayer is not to force our wills on God's, but to bend our wills +to His; and that prayer is really answered of which the issue is our +calm readiness for all that He lays upon us. + +III. Note the sad and gentle remonstrance with the drowsy three. +'The sleep of the disciples, and of these disciples, and of all +three, and such an overpowering sleep, remains even after Luke's +explanation, "for sorrow," a psychological riddle' (_Meyer_). +It is singularly parallel with the sleep of the same three at the +Transfiguration--an event which presents the opposite pole of our +Lord's experiences, and yields so many antithetical parallels to +Gethsemane. No doubt the tension of emotion, which had lasted for +many hours, had worn them out; but, if weariness had weighed down +their eyelids, love should have kept them open. Such sleep of such +disciples may have been a riddle, but it was also a crime, and +augured imperfect sympathy. Gentle surprise and the pain of +disappointed love are audible in the question, addressed to Peter +especially, as he had promised so much, but meant for all. This was +all that Jesus got in answer to His yearning for sympathy. 'I looked +for some to take pity, but there was none.' Those who loved Him most +lay curled in dead slumber within earshot of His prayers. If ever a +soul tasted the desolation of utter loneliness, that suppliant +beneath the olives tasted it. But how little of the pain escapes His +lips! The words but hint at the slightness of their task compared +with His, at the brevity of the strain on their love, and at the +companionship which ought to have made sleep impossible. May we not +see in Christ's remonstrance a word for all? For us, too, the task +of keeping awake in the enchanted ground is light, measured against +His, and the time is short, and we have Him to keep us company in +the watch, and every motive of grateful love should make it easy; +but, alas, how many of us sleep a drugged and heavy slumber! + +The gentle remonstrance soon passes over into counsel as gentle. +Watchfulness and prayer are inseparable. The one discerns dangers, +the other arms against them. Watchfulness keeps us prayerful, and +prayerfulness keeps us watchful. To watch without praying is +presumption, to pray without watching is hypocrisy. The eye that +sees clearly the facts of life will turn upwards from its scanning +of the snares and traps, and will not look in vain. These two are +the indispensable conditions of victorious encountering of +temptation. Fortified by them, we shall not 'enter into' it, though +we encounter it. The outward trial will remain, but its power to +lead us astray will vanish. It will still be danger or sorrow, but +it will not be temptation; and we shall pass through it, as a +sunbeam through foul air, untainted, and keeping heaven's radiance. +That is a lesson for a wider circle than the sleepy three. + +It is followed by words which would need a volume to expound in all +their depth and width of application, but which are primarily a +reason for the preceding counsel, as well as a loving apology for +the disciples' sleep. Christ is always glad to give us credit for +even imperfect good; His eye, which sees deeper than ours, sees more +lovingly, and is not hindered from marking the willing spirit by +recognising weak flesh. But these words are not to be made a pillow +for indolent acquiescence in the limitations which the flesh imposes +on the spirit. He may take merciful count of these, and so may we, +in judging others, but it is fatal to plead them at the bar of our +own consciences. Rather they should be a spur to our watchfulness +and to our prayer. We need these because the flesh is weak, still +more because, in its weakness toward good, it is strong to evil. +Such exercise will give governing power to the spirit, and enable it +to impose its will on the reluctant flesh. If we watch and pray, the +conflict between these two elements in the renewed nature will tend +to unity and peace by the supremacy of the spirit; if we do not, it +will tend to cease by the unquestioned tyranny of the flesh. In one +or other direction our lives are tending. + +Strange that such words had no effect. But so it was, and so deep +was the apostles' sleep that Christ left them undisturbed the second +time. The relapse is worse than the original disease. Sleep broken +and resumed is more torpid and fatal than if it had not been +interrupted. We do not know how long it lasted, though the whole +period in the garden must have been measured by hours; but at last +it was broken by the enigmatical last words of our Lord. The +explanation of the direct opposition between the consecutive +sentences, by taking the 'Sleep on now' as ironical, jars on one's +reverence. Surely irony is out of keeping with the spirit of Christ +then. Rather He bids them sleep on, since the hour is come, in sad +recognition that the need for their watchful sympathy is past, and +with it the opportunity for their proved affection. It is said with +a tone of contemplative melancholy, and is almost equivalent to 'too +late, too late.' The memorable sermon of F. W. Robertson, on this +text, rightly grasps the spirit of the first clause, when it dwells +with such power on the thought of 'the irrevocable past' of wasted +opportunities and neglected duty. But the sudden transition to the +sharp, short command and broken sentences of the last verse is to be +accounted for by the sudden appearance of the flashing lights of the +band led by Judas, somewhere near at hand, in the valley. The mood +of pensive reflection gives place to rapid decision. He summons them +to arise, not for flight, but that He may go out to meet the +traitor. Escape would have been easy. There was time to reach some +sheltering fold of the hill in the darkness; but the prayer beneath +the silver-grey olives had not been in vain, and these last words in +Gethsemane throb with the Son's willingness to yield Himself up, and +to empty to its dregs the cup which the Father had given Him. + + + + +THE LAST PLEADING OF LOVE + + + 'And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou + come?'--MATT. xxvi. 50. + +We are accustomed to think of the betrayer of our Lord as a kind of +monster, whose crime is so mysterious in its atrocity as to put him +beyond the pale of human sympathy. The awful picture which the great +Italian poet draws of him as alone in hell, shunned even there, as +guilty beyond all others, expresses the general feeling about him. +And even the attempts which have been made to diminish the greatness +of his guilt, by supposing that his motive was only to precipitate +Christ's assumption of His conquering Messianic power, are prompted +by the same thought that such treason as his is all but +inconceivable. I cannot but think that these attempts fail, and that +the narratives of the Gospels oblige us to think of his crime as +deliberate treachery. But even when so regarded, other emotions than +wondering loathing should be excited by the awful story. + +There had been nothing in his previous history to suggest such sin, +as is proved by the disciples' question, when our Lord announced +that one of them should betray Him. No suspicion lighted on him--no +finger pointed to where he sat. But self-distrust asked, 'Lord, is +it I?' and only love, pillowed on the Master's breast, and strong in +the happy sense of His love, was sufficiently assured of its own +constancy, to change the question into 'Lord! who is it?' The +process of corruption was unseen by all eyes but Christ's. He came +to his terrible pre-eminence in crime by slow degrees, and by paths +which we may all tread. As for his guilt, that is in other hands +than ours. As for his fate, let us copy the solemn and pitying +reticence of Peter, and say, 'that he might go to _his own_ +place'--the place that belongs to him, and that he is fit for, +wherever that may be. As for the growth and development of his sin, +let us remember that 'we have all of us one human heart,' and that +the possibilities of crime as dark are in us all. And instead of +shuddering abhorrence at a sin that can scarcely be understood, and +can never be repeated, let us be sure that whatever man has done, +man may do, and ask with humble consciousness of our own deceitful +hearts, 'Lord, is it I?' + +These remarkable and solemn words of Christ, with which He meets the +treacherous kiss, appear to be a last appeal to Judas. They may +possibly not be a question, as in our version--but an incomplete +sentence, 'What thou hast come to do'--leaving the implied command, +'That do,' unexpressed. They would then be very like other words +which the betrayer had heard but an hour or two before, 'That thou +doest, do quickly.' But such a rendering does not seem so +appropriate to the circumstances as that which makes them a +question, smiting on his heart and conscience, and seeking to tear +away the veil of sophistications with which he had draped from his +own eyes the hideous shape of his crime. And, if so, what a +wonderful instance we have here of that long-suffering love. They +are the last effort of the divine patience to win back even the +traitor. They show us the wrestle between infinite mercy and a +treacherous, sinful heart, and they bring into awful prominence the +power which that heart has of rejecting the counsel of God against +itself. I venture to use them now as suggesting these three things: +the patience of Christ's love; the pleading of Christ's love; and +the refusal of Christ's love. + +I. The patience of Christ's love. + +If we take no higher view of this most pathetic incident than that the +words come from a man's lips, even then all its beauty will not be +lost. There are some sins against friendship in which the manner is +harder to bear than the substance of the evil. It must have been a +strangely mean and dastardly nature, as well as a coarse and cold one, +that could think of fixing on the kiss of affection as the concerted +sign to point out their victim to the legionaries. Many a man who +could have planned and executed the treason would have shrunk from +that. And many a man who could have borne to be betrayed by his own +familiar friend would have found that heartless insult worse to endure +than the treason itself. But what a picture of perfect patience and +unruffled calm we have here, in that the answer to the poisonous, +hypocritical embrace was these moving words! The touch of the traitor's +lips has barely left His cheek, but not one faint passing flush of +anger tinges it. He is perfectly self-oblivious--absorbed in other +thoughts, and among them in pity for the guilty wretch before Him. +His words have no agitation in them, no instinctive recoil from the +pollution of such a salutation. They have grave rebuke, but it is +rebuke which derives its very force from the appeal to former +companionship. Christ still recognises the ancient bond, and is true +to it. He will still plead with this man who has been beside Him long; +and though His heart be wounded yet He is not wroth, and He will not +cast him off. If this were nothing more than a picture of human +friendship it would stand alone, above all other records that the +world cherishes in its inmost heart, of the love that never fails, and +is not soon angry. + +But we, I hope, dear brethren, think more loftily and more truly of +our dear Lord than as simply a perfect manhood, the exemplar of all +goodness. How He comes to be that, if He be not more than that, I do +not understand, and I, for one, feel that my confidence in the +flawless completeness of His human character lives or dies with my +belief that He is the Eternal Word, God manifest in the flesh. +Certainly we shall never truly grasp the blessed meaning of His life +on earth until we look upon it all as the revelation of God. The +tears of Christ are the pity of God. The gentleness of Jesus is the +long-suffering of God. The tenderness of Jesus is the love of God. +'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father'; and all that life so +beautiful but so anomalous as to be all but incredible, when we +think of it as only the life of a man, glows with a yet fairer +beauty, and corresponds with the nature which it expresses, when we +think of it as being the declaration to us by the divine Son of the +divine Father--our loftiest, clearest, and authentic revelation of +God. + +How that thought lifts these words before us into a still higher +region! We are now in the presence of the solemn greatness of a +divine love. If the meaning of this saying is what we have +suggested, it is pathetic even in the lower aspect, but how +infinitely that pathos is deepened when we view it in the higher! + +Surely if ever there was a man who might have been supposed to be +excluded from the love of God, it was Judas. Surely if ever there +was a moment in a human life, when one might have supposed that even +Christ's ever open heart would shut itself together against any one, +it was this moment. But no, the betrayer in the very instant of his +treason has that changeless tenderness lingering around him, and +that merciful hand beckoning to him still. + +And have we not a right to generalise this wonderful fact, and to +declare its teaching to be--that the love of God is extended to us +all, and cannot be made to turn away from us by any sins of ours? +Sin is mighty; it can work endless evils on us; it can disturb and +embitter all our relations with God; it can, as we shall presently +have to point out, make it necessary for the tenderest 'grace of God +to come disciplining'--to 'come with a rod,' just because it comes +in 'the spirit of meekness.' But one thing it cannot do, and that +is--make God cease to love us. I suppose all human affection can be +worn out by constant failure to evoke a response from cold hearts. I +suppose that it can be so nipped by frosts, so constantly checked in +blossoming, that it shrivels and dies. I suppose that constant +ingratitude, constant indifference can turn the warmest springs of +our love to a river of ice. 'Can a mother forget her child?--Yea, +she may forget.' But we have to do with a God, whose love is His +very being; who loves us not for reasons in us but in Himself; whose +love is eternal and boundless as all His nature; whose love, +therefore, cannot be turned away by our sin--but abides with us for +ever, and is granted to every soul of man. Dear brethren, we cannot +believe too firmly, we cannot trust too absolutely, we cannot +proclaim too broadly that blessed thought, without which we have no +hope to feed on for ourselves, or to share with our fellows--the +universal love of God in Christ. + +Is there a _worst_ man on earth at this moment? If there be, +he, too, has a share in that love. Harlots and thieves, publicans +and sinners, leprous outcasts, and souls tormented by unclean +spirits, the wrecks of humanity whom decent society and respectable +Christianity passes by with averted head and uplifted hands, +criminals on the gibbet with the rope round their necks--and those +who are as hopeless as any of these, self-complacent formalists and +'Gospel-hardened professors'--all have a place in that heart. And +that, not as undistinguished members of a class, but as separate +souls, singly the objects of God's knowledge and love. He loves all, +because He loves each. We are not massed together in His view, nor +in His regard. He does not lose the details in the whole; as we, +looking on some great crowd of upturned faces, are conscious of all +but recognise no single one. He does not love a class--a world--but +He loves the single souls that make it up--you and me, and every one +of the millions that we throw together in the vague phrase, 'the +race.' Let us individualise that love in our thoughts as it +individualises us in its outflow--and make our own the 'exceeding +broad' promises, which include us, too. 'God loves _me_; Christ +gave Himself for _me_. _I_ have a place in that royal, tender +heart.' + +Nor should any sin make us doubt this. He loved us with exceeding +love, even when we were 'dead in trespasses.' He did not begin to +love because of anything in us; He will not cease because of +anything in us. We change; 'He abideth faithful, He cannot deny +Himself.' As the sunshine pours down as willingly and abundantly on +filth and dunghills, as on gold that glitters in its beam, and +jewels that flash back its lustre, so the light and warmth of that +unsetting and unexhausted source of life pours down 'on the +unthankful and on the good.' The great ocean clasps some black and +barren crag that frowns against it, as closely as with its waves it +kisses some fair strand enamelled with flowers and fragrant with +perfumes. So that sea of love in which we 'live, and move, and have +our being,' encircles the worst with abundant flow. He Himself sets +us the pattern, which to imitate is to be the children of 'our +Father which is in heaven,' in that He loves His enemies, blessing +them that curse, and doing good to them that hate. He Himself is +what He has enjoined us to be, in that He feeds His enemies when +they hunger, and when they thirst gives them drink, heaping coals of +fire on their heads, and seeking to kindle in them thereby the glow +of answering love, not being overcome of their evil, so that He +repays hate with hate and scorn with scorn, but in patient +continuance of loving kindness seeking to overcome evil with good. +He is Himself that 'charity' which 'is not easily provoked, is not +soon angry, beareth all things, hopeth all things, and never +faileth.' His love is mightier than all our sins, and waits not on +our merits, nor is turned away by our iniquities. 'God so loved the +world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth +in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' + +II. Then, secondly, we have here--the pleading of Christ's patient +love. + +I have been trying to say as broadly and strongly as I can, that our +sins do not turn away the love of God in Christ from us. The more +earnestly we believe and proclaim that, the more needful is it to +set forth distinctly--and that not as limiting, but as explaining +the truth--the other thought, that the sin which does not avert, +does modify the expression of, the love of God. Man's sin compels +Him to do what the prophet calls his 'strange work'--the work which +is not dear to His heart, nor natural, if one may so say, to His +hands--His work of judgment. + +The love of Christ has to come to sinful men with patient pleading +and remonstrance, that it may enter their hearts and give its +blessings. We are familiar with a modern work of art in which that +long-suffering appeal is wonderfully portrayed. He who is the Light +of the world stands, girded with the royal mantle clasped with the +priestly breastplate, bearing in His hand the lamp of truth, and +there, amidst the dew of night and the rank hemlock, He pleads for +entrance at the closed door which has no handle on its outer side, +and is hinged to open only from within. 'I stand at the door and +knock. If any man open the door, I will come in.' + +And in this incident before us, we see represented not only the +endless patience of God's pitying love, but the method which it +needs to take in order to reach the heart. + +There is an appeal to the traitor's heart, and an appeal to his +conscience. Christ would have him think of the relations that have +so long subsisted between them; and He would have him think, too, of +the real nature of the deed he is doing, or, perhaps, of the motives +that impel him. The grave, sad word, by which He addresses him, is +meant to smite upon his heart. The sharp question which He puts to +him is meant to wake up his conscience; and both taken together +represent the two chief classes of remonstrance which He brings to +bear upon us all--the two great batteries from which He assails the +fortress of our sins. + +There is first, then--Christ's appeal to the heart. He tries to make +Judas feel the considerations that should restrain him. The +appellation by which our Lord addresses him does not in the original +convey quite so strongly the idea of amity, as our word 'Friend' +does. It is not the same as that which He had used a few hours +before in the upper chamber, when He said, 'Henceforth I call you +not servants, but I have called you friends.--Ye are My friends if +ye do whatsoever I command you.' It is the same as is put into the +lips of the Lord of the vineyard, remonstrating with his jealous +labourer, 'Friend, I do thee no wrong.' There is a tone, then, of +less intimate association and graver rebuke in it than in that name +with which He honours those who make His will theirs, and His word +the law of their lives. It does not speak of close confidence, but +it does suggest companionship and kindness on the part of the +speaker. There is rebuke in it, but it is rebuke which derives its +whole force from the remembrance of ancient concord and connection. +Our Lord would recall to the memory of the betrayer the days in +which they had taken sweet counsel together. It is as if He had +said--'Hast thou forgotten all our former intercourse? Thou hast +eaten My bread, thou hast been Mine own familiar friend, in whom I +trusted--canst thou lift up thy heel against Me?' What happy hours +of quiet fellowship on many a journey, of rest together after many a +day of toil, what forgotten thoughts of the loving devotion and the +glow of glad consecration that he had once felt, what a long series +of proofs of Christ's gentle goodness and meek wisdom should have +sprung again to remembrance at such an appeal! And how black and +dastardly would his guilt have seemed if once he had ventured to +remember what unexampled friendship he was sinning against! + +Is it not so with us all, dear brethren? All our evils are betrayals +of Christ, and all our betrayals of Christ are sins against a +perfect friendship and an unvaried goodness. We, too, have sat at +His table, heard His wisdom, seen His miracles, listened to His +pleadings, have had a place in His heart; and if we turn away from +Him to do our own pleasure, and sell His love for a handful of +silver, we need not cherish shuddering abhorrence against that poor +wretch who gave Him up to the cross. Oh! if we could see aright, we +should see our Saviour's meek, sad face standing between us and each +of our sins, with warning in the pitying eyes, and His pleading +voice would sound in our ears, appealing to us by loving +remembrances of His ancient friendship, to turn from the evil which +is treason against Him, and wounds His heart as much as it harms +ours. Take heed lest in condemning the traitor we doom ourselves. If +we flush into anger at the meanness of his crime, and declare, 'He +shall surely die,' do we not hear a prophet's voice saying to each, +'Thou art the man'? + +The loving hand laid on the heart-strings is followed by a strong +stroke on conscience. The heart vibrates most readily in answer to +gentle touches: the conscience, in answer to heavier, as the breath +that wakes the chords of an Aeolian harp would pass silent through +the brass of a trumpet. 'Wherefore art thou come?'--if to be taken +as a question at all, which, as I have said, seems most natural, is +either, 'What hast thou come to do?'--or, 'Why hast thou come to do +it?' Perhaps it maybe fairly taken as including both. But, at all +events, it is clearly an appeal to Judas to make him see what his +conduct really is in itself, and possibly in its motive too. And +this is the constant effort of the love of Christ--to get us to say +to ourselves the real name of what we are about. + +We cloak our sins from ourselves with many wrappings, as they swathe +a mummy in voluminous folds. And of these veils, one of the thickest +is woven by our misuse of words to describe the very same thing by +different names, according as we do it, or another man does it. +Almost all moral actions--the thing to which we can apply the words +right or wrong--have two or more names, of which the one suggests +the better and the other the worse side of the action. For instance +what in ourselves we call prudent regard for our own interest, we +call, in our neighbour, narrow selfishness; what in ourselves is +laudable economy, in him is miserable avarice. We are impetuous, he +is passionate; we generous, he lavish; we are clever men of +business, he is a rogue; we sow our wild oats and are gay, he is +dissipated. So we cheat ourselves by more than half-transparent +veils of our own manufacture, which we fling round the ugly features +and misshapen limbs of these sins of ours, and we are made more than +ever their bond-slaves thereby. + +Therefore, it is the office of the truest love to force us to look at +the thing as it is. It would go some way to keep a man from some of +his sins if he would give the thing its real name. A distinct conscious +statement to oneself, 'Now I am going to tell a lie'--'This that I am +doing is fraud'--'This emotion that I feel creeping with devilish +warmth about the roots of my heart is revenge'--and so on, would +surely startle us sometimes, and make us fling the gliding poison +from our breast, as a man would a snake that he found just lifting +its head from the bosom of his robe. Suppose Judas had answered the +question, and, gathering himself up, had looked his Master in the face, +and said--'What have I come for?' 'I have come to betray Thee for +thirty pieces of silver!' Do you not think that putting his guilt into +words might have moved even him to more salutary feelings than the +remorse which afterwards accompanied his tardy discernment of what he +_had_ done? So the patient love of Christ comes rebuking, and +smiting hard on conscience. 'The grace of God that bringeth salvation +to all men hath appeared disciplining'--and His hand is never more +gentle than when it plucks away the films with which we hide our sins +from ourselves, and shows us the 'rottenness and dead men's bones' +beneath the whited walls of the sepulchres and the velvet of the coffins. + +He must begin with rebukes that He may advance to blessing. He must +teach us what is separating us from Him that, learning it, we may +flee to His grace to help us. There is no entrance for the truest +gifts of His patient love into any heart that has not yielded to His +pleading remonstrance, and in lowly penitence has answered His +question as He would have us answer it, 'Friend and Lover of my +soul, I have sinned against Thy tender heart, against the unexampled +patience of Thy love. I have departed from Thee and betrayed Thee. +Blessed be Thy merciful voice which hath taught me what I have done! +Blessed be Thine unwearied goodness which still bends over me! Raise +me fallen! forgive me treacherous! Keep me safe and happy, ever true +and near to Thee!' + +III. Notice the possible rejection of the pleading of Christ's +patient love. + +Even that appeal was vain. Here we are confronted with a plain +instance of man's mysterious and awful power of 'frustrating the +counsel of God'--of which one knows not whether is greater, the +difficulty of understanding how a finite will _can_ rear itself +against the Infinite Will, or the mournful mystery that a creature +should desire to set itself against its loving Maker and Benefactor. +But strange as it is, yet so it is; and we can turn round upon +Sovereign Fatherhood bidding us to its service, and say, '_I will +not_.' He pleads with us, and we can resist His pleadings. He +holds out the mercies of His hands and the gifts of His grace, and +we can reject them. We cannot cease to be the objects of His love, +but we can refuse to be the recipients of its most precious gifts. +We can bar our hearts against it. Then, of what avail is it to us? +To go back to an earlier illustration, the sunshine pours down and +floods a world, what does that matter to us if we have fastened up +shutters on all our windows, and barred every crevice through which +the streaming gladness can find its way? We shall grope at noontide +as in the dark within our gloomy house, while our neighbours have +light in theirs. What matters it though we float in the great ocean +of the divine love, if with pitch and canvas we have carefully +closed every aperture at which the flood can enter? A hermetically +closed jar, plunged in the Atlantic, will be as dry inside as if it +were lying on the sand of the desert. It is possible to perish of +thirst within sight of the fountain. It is possible to separate +ourselves from the love of God, not to separate the love of God from +ourselves. + +The incident before us carries another solemn lesson--how simple and +easy a thing it is to repel that pleading love. What did Judas do? +Nothing; it was enough. He merely held his peace--no more. There was +no need for him to break out with oaths and curses, to reject his +Lord with wild words. Silence was sufficient. And for us--no more is +required. We have but to be passive; we have but to stand still. Not +to accept is to refuse; non-submission is rebellion. We do not need +to emphasise our refusal by any action--no need to lift our clenched +hands in defiance. We have simply to put them behind our backs or to +keep them folded. The closed hand must remain an empty hand. 'He +that believeth not is condemned.' My friend, remember that, when +Christ pleads and draws, to do nothing is to oppose, and to delay is +to refuse. It is a very easy matter to ruin your soul. You have +simply to keep still when He says 'Come unto Me'--to keep your eyes +fixed where they were, when He says, 'Look unto Me, and be ye +saved,' and all the rest will follow of itself. + +Notice, too, how the appeal of Christ's love hardens where it does +not soften. That gentle voice drove the traitor nearer the verge +over which he fell into a gulf of despair. It should have drawn him +closer to the Lord, but he recoiled from it, and was thereby brought +nearer destruction. Every pleading of Christ's grace, whether by +providences, or by books, or by His own word, does something with +us. It is never vain. Either it melts or it hardens. The sun either +scatters the summer morning mists, or it rolls them into heavier +folds, from whose livid depths the lightning will be flashing by +mid-day. You cannot come near the most inadequate exhibition of the +pardoning love of Christ without being either drawn closer to Him or +driven further from Him. Each act of rejection prepares the way for +another, which will be easier, and adds another film to the darkness +which covers your eyes, another layer to the hardness which incrusts +your hearts. + +Again, that silence, so eloquent and potent in its influence, was +probably the silence of a man whose conscience was convicted while +his will was unchanged. Such a condition is possible. It points to +solemn thoughts, and to deep mysteries in man's awful nature. He +knew that he was wrong, he had no excuse, his deed was before him in +some measure in its true character, and yet he would not give it up. +Such a state, if constant and complete, presents the most frightful +picture we can frame of a soul. That a man shall not be able to say, +'I did it ignorantly'; that Christ shall not be able to ground His +intercession on, 'They know not what they do'; that with full +knowledge of the true nature of the deed, there shall be no wavering +of the determination to do it--we may well turn with terror from +such an awful abyss. But let us remember that, whether such a +condition in its completeness is conceivable or not, at all events +we may approach it indefinitely; and we do approach it by every sin, +and by every refusal to yield to the love that would touch our +consciences and fill our hearts. + +Have you ever noticed what a remarkable verbal correspondence there +is between these words of our text, and some other very solemn ones +of Christ's? The question that He puts into the lips of the king who +came in to see his guests is, '_Friend, how camest thou_ in +hither, not having on a wedding garment?' The question asked on +earth shall be repeated again at last. The silence which once +indicated a convinced conscience and an unchanged will may at that +day indicate both of these and hopelessness beside. The clear vision +of the divine love, if it do not flood the heart with joy and evoke +the bliss of answering love, may fill it with bitterness. It is +possible that the same revelation of the same grace may be the +heaven of heaven to those who welcome it, and the pain of hell to +those who turn from it. It is possible that love believed and +received may be life, and love recognised and rejected may be death. +It is possible that the vision of the same face may make some break +forth with the rapturous hymn, 'Lo, this is our God, we have waited +for Him!' and make others call on the hills to fall on them and +cover them from its brightness. + +But let us not end with such words. Rather, dear brethren, let us +yield to His patient beseechings; let Him teach us our evil and our +sin. Listen to His great love who invites us to plead, and promises +to pardon--'Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: +though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; +though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' + + + + +THE REAL HIGH PRIEST AND HIS COUNTERFEIT + + + 'And they that had laid hold on Jesus led Him away to + Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the + elders were assembled. 58. But Peter followed Him afar + off unto the high priest's palace, and went in, and sat + with the servants, to see the end. 59. Now the chief + priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false + witness against Jesus, to put Him to death; 60. But + found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet + found they none. At the last came two false witnesses, + 61. And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy + the temple of God, and to build it in three days. + 62 And the high priest arose, and said unto Him, + Answerest Thou nothing? what is it which these witness + against Thee? 63. But Jesus held His peace. And the + high priest answered and said unto Him, I adjure Thee + by the living God, that Thou tell us whether Thou be + the Christ, the Son of God. 64. Jesus saith unto him, + Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter + shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand + of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. 65. Then + the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken + blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? + behold, now ye have heard His blasphemy. 66. What think + ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death. + 67. Then did they spit in His face, and buffeted Him; + and others smote Him with the palms of their hands, + 68. Saying, Prophesy unto us, Thou Christ, Who is he + that smote Thee?'--MATT. xxvi. 57-68. + +John's Gospel tells us that Jesus was brought before 'Annas first,' +probably in the same official priestly residence as Caiaphas, his +son-in-law, occupied. That preliminary examination brought out +nothing to incriminate the prisoner, and was flagrantly illegal, +being an attempt to entrap Him into self-accusing statements. It was +baffled by Jesus being silent first, and subsequently taking His +stand on the undeniable principle that a charge must be sustained by +evidence, not based on self-accusation. Annas, having made nothing +of this strange criminal, 'sent Him bound unto Caiaphas.' + +A meeting of the Sanhedrin had been hastily summoned in the dead of +night, which was itself an illegality. Now Jesus stands before the +poor shadow of a judicial tribunal, which, though it was all that +Rome had left a conquered people, was still entitled to sit in +judgment on Him. Strange inversion, and awful position for these +formalists! And with sad persistence of bitter prejudice they +proceeded to try the prisoner, all unaware that it was themselves, +not Him, that they were trying. + +They began wrongly, and betrayed their animus at once. They were +sitting there to inquire whether Jesus was guilty or no; they had +made up their minds beforehand that He was, and their effort now was +but to manufacture some thin veil of legality for a judicial murder. +So they 'sought false witness, ... that they might put Him to +death.' Matthew simply says that no evidence sufficient for the +purpose was forthcoming; Mark adds that the weak point, was that the +lies contradicted each other. Christ's presence has a strange, +solemn power of unmasking our falsehoods, both of thought and deed, +and it is hard to speak evil of Him before His face. If His +calumniators were confused when He stood as Prisoner, what will they +be when He sits as a Judge? + +Only Matthew and Mark tell us of the two witnesses whose twisted +version of the word about 'destroying the Temple and rebuilding it +in three days' seemed to Caiaphas serious enough to require an +answer. Their mistake was one which might have been made in good +faith, but none the less was their travesty 'false witness.' Their +version of His great word shows how easily the teaching of a lofty +soul, passed through the popular brain, is degraded, and made to +mean the opposite of what he had meant by it. For the destruction of +the Temple had appeared in the saying as the Jews' work, and Jesus +had presented Himself in it as the Restorer, not the Destroyer, of +the Temple and of all that it symbolised. We destroy, He rebuilds. +The murder of Jesus was the suicide of the nation. Caiaphas and his +council were even now pulling down the Temple. And that murder was +the destruction, so far as men could effect it, of the true 'Temple +of His body,' in which the fulness of the Godhead dwelt, and which +was more gloriously reconstituted in the Resurrection. The risen +Christ rears the true temple on earth, for through Him the Holy +Ghost dwells in His Church, which is collectively 'the Temple,' and +in all believing spirits, which are individually 'the temples' of +God. So the false witnesses distorted into a lie a great truth. + +The Incarnate Word was dumb all the while. He 'was still and +refrained' Himself. It was the silence of the King before a lawless +tribunal of rebels, of patient meekness, 'as a sheep before her +shearers'; of innocence that will not stoop to defend itself from +groundless accusations; of infinite pity and forbearing love, which +sees that it cannot win, but will not smite. Jesus is still silent, +but one day, 'with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked.' +Caiaphas seems to have been annoyed as well as surprised at Jesus' +silence, for there is a trace of irritation, as at 'contempt of +court,' in his words. But our Lord's continued silence appears to +have somewhat awed him, and the dawning consciousness of his dignity +is, perhaps, the reason for the high priest's casting aside all the +foolery of false witnessing, and coming at last to the real point,-- +the Messianic claims of Jesus. + +Caiaphas was doing his duty as high priest in inquiring into such +claims, but he was somewhat late in the day, and he had made up his +mind before he inquired. What he wished to get was a plain assertion +on which the death sentence could be pronounced. Jesus knew this, +and yet He answered. But Luke tells us that He first scathingly +pointed to the unreality and animus of the question by saying, 'If I +tell you, ye will not believe.' But yet it was fitting that He +should solemnly, before the supreme court, representative of the +nation, declare that He was the Messiah, and that, if He was to be +rejected and condemned, it should be on the ground of that +declaration. Before Caiaphas He claimed to be Messiah, before Pilate +He claimed to be King. Each rejected Him in the character that +appealed to them most. The many-sidedness of the perfect Revealer of +God brings Him to each soul in the aspect that most loudly addresses +each. Therefore the love in the appeal and the guilt in its +rejection are the greater. + +But Christ's self-attestation to the council was not limited to the +mere claim to the name of Messiah. It disclosed the implications of +that name in a way altogether unlike the conceptions held by +Caiaphas. When Caiaphas put in apposition 'the Christ' and 'the Son +of God,' he was not speaking from the ordinary Jewish point of view, +but from some knowledge, of Christ's teaching, and there are two +charges combined into one. + +But Jesus' answer, while plainly claiming to be the Messiah, expands +itself in regard to the claim to be 'Son of God,' and shows its +tremendous significance. It involves participation in divine +authority and omnipotence. It involves a future coming to be the +Judge of His judges. It declares that these blind scribes and elders +will see Him thus exalted, and it asserts that all this is to begin +then and there ('henceforth'), as if that hour of humiliation was to +His consciousness the beginning of His manifestation as Lord, or, as +John has it, 'the hour that the Son of Man should be glorified.' Nor +must we leave out of sight the fact that it is 'the Son of Man' of +whom all this is said, for thereby are indicated the raising of His +perfect humanity to participation in Deity, and the possibility that +His brethren, too, may sit where He sits. Much was veiled in the +answer to the council, much is veiled to us. But this remains,--that +Jesus, at that supreme moment, when He was bound to leave no +misunderstandings, made the plainest claim to divinity, and could +have saved His life if He had not done so. Either Caiaphas, in his +ostentatious horror of such impiety, was right in calling Christ's +words blasphemy, and not far wrong in inferring that Jesus was not +fit to live, or He is the everlasting 'Son of the Father,' and will +'come to be our Judge.' + + + + +JESUS CHARGED WITH BLASPHEMY + + + 'Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He + hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of + witnesses?'--MATT. xxvi. 65. + +Jesus was tried and condemned by two tribunals, the Jewish +ecclesiastical and the Roman civil. In each case the charge +corresponded to the Court. The Sanhedrin took no cognisance of, and +had no concern with, rebellion against Caesar; though for the time +they pretended loyalty. Pilate had still less concern about Jewish +superstitions. And so the investigation in each case turned on a +different question. In the one it was, 'Art Thou the Son of God?' in +the other, 'Art Thou the King of Israel?' The answer to both was a +simple 'Yes!' but with very significant differences. Pilate received +an explanation; the Sanhedrin none. The Roman governor was taught +that Christ's title of King belonged to another region altogether +from that of Caesar, and did not in the slightest degree infringe +upon the dominion that he represented. But 'Son of God' was capable +of no explanation that could make it any less offensive; and the +only thing to be done was to accept it or to condemn Him. + +So this saying of the high priest differs from other words of our +Lord's antagonists, which we have been considering in recent pages, +in that it is no distortion of our Lord's characteristics or +meaning. It correctly understands, but it fatally rejects, His +claims; and does not hesitate to take the further step, on the +ground of these, of branding Him as a blasphemer. + +We may turn the high priest's question in another direction: 'What +further need have we of witnesses?' These horror-stricken judges, +rending their garments in simulated grief and zeal, and that silent +Prisoner, knowing that His life was the forfeit of His claims, yet +saying no word of softening or explanation of them, may teach us +much. They are witnesses to some of the central facts of the +revelation of God in Christ. Let us turn to these for a few moments. + +I. First, then, they witness to Christ's claims. + +The question that was proposed to Jesus, 'Art Thou the Christ, the +Son of the living God?' was suggested by the facts of His ministry, +and not by anything that had come out in the course of this +investigation. It was the summing up of the impression made on the +ecclesiastical authorities of Judaism by His whole attitude and +demeanour. And if we look back to His life we shall see that there +were instances, long before this, on which, on the same ground, the +same charge was flung at Him. For example, when He would heal the +paralytic, and, before He dealt with bodily disease, attended to +spiritual weakness, and said, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee,' ere He +said, 'Take up thy bed and walk,' there was a group of keen-eyed +hunters after heresy sitting eagerly on the watch, who snatched at +the words in a moment, and said, 'Who is this that forgiveth sins? +No _man_ forgiveth sins, but God only! This man speaketh +blasphemies!' And they were right. He did claim a divine +prerogative; and either the claim must be admitted or the charge of +blasphemy urged. + +Again, when He infringed Rabbinical Sabbath law by a cure, and they +said, 'This Man has broken the Sabbath day,' His vindication was +worse than His offence, for He answered, 'My Father worketh +hitherto, and I work.' And then they sought the more to kill Him, +because He not only brake the Sabbath, but also called God His own +Father, making Himself equal with God.' And again, when He declared +that the safety of His sheep in His hands was identical with their +safety in His Father's hands, and vindicated the audacious +parallelism by the tremendous assertion, 'I and My Father are One,' +the charge of blasphemy rang out; and was inevitable, unless the +claim was true. + +These outstanding instances are but, as it were, summits that rise +above the general level. But the general level is that of One who +takes an altogether unique position. No one else, professing to lead +men in paths of righteousness, has so constantly put the stress of +His teaching, not upon morality, nor religion, nor obedience to God, +but upon this, 'Believe in Me'; or ever pushed forward His own +personality into the foreground, and made the whole nobleness and +blessedness and security and devoutness of a life to hinge upon that +one thing, its personal relation to Him. + +People talk about the sweet and gentle wisdom that flowed from +Christ's lips, and so on; about the lofty morality, about the beauty +of pity and tenderness, and all the other commonplaces so familiar +to us, and we gladly admit them all. But I venture to go a step +further than all these, and to say that the outstanding +_differentia_, the characteristic which marks off Christ's +teaching as something new, peculiar, and altogether _per se_, +is not its morality, not its philanthropy, not its meek wisdom, not +its sweet reasonableness, but its tremendous assertions of the +importance of Himself. + +And if I am asked to state the ground upon which such an assertion +may be vindicated, I would point you to such facts as these, that +this Man took up a position of equality with, and of superiority to, +the legislation which He and the people to whom He was speaking +regarded as being divinely sent, and said, 'Ye have heard that it +hath been said to them of old time' so and so; 'but I say unto you': +that this Man declared that to build upon His words was to build +upon a rock; that this Man declared that He--He--was the legitimate +object of absolute trust, of utter submission and obedience; that He +claimed from His followers affiance, love, reverence which cannot be +distinguished from worship, and that He did not therein conceive +that He was intercepting anything that belonged to the Father. This +Man professed to be able to satisfy the desires of every human heart +when He said, 'If any man thirst let him come to Me and drink.' This +Man claimed to be able to breathe the sanctity of repose in the +blessedness of obedience over all the weary and the heavy laden; and +assured them that He Himself, through all the ages, and in all +lands, and for all troubles, would give them rest. This Man declared +that He who stood there, in the quiet homes of Galilee, and went +about its acres with those blessed feet for our advantage, was to be +Judge of the whole world. This Man said that His name was 'Son of +God'; and this Man declared, 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the +Father.' + +And then people say to us, 'Oh! your Gospel narratives, even if they +be the work of men in good faith, telling what they suppose He said, +mistook the Teacher; and if we could strip away the accretion of +mistaken reverence, and come to the historical person, we should +find no claims like these.' + +Well, this is not the time to enter into the large questions which +that contention involves, but I point you to the incident which +makes my text, and I say, 'What need we any further witnesses?' +Nobody denies that Jesus Christ was crucified as the result of a +combination of Sanhedrin and Pilate. What set the Jewish rulers +against Him with such virulent and murderous determination? Is there +anything in the life of Jesus Christ, if it is watered down as the +people, who want to knock out all the supernatural, desire to water +it down--is there anything in the life that will account for the +inveterate acrimony and hostility which pursued Him to the death? +The fact remains that, whether or not Evangelists and Apostles +misconceived His teaching when they gave such prominence to His +personality and His lofty claims, His enemies were under the same +delusion, if it were a delusion; and the reason why the whole +orthodox religionism of Judaism rejoiced when He was nailed to the +Cross was summed up in the taunt which they flung at Him as He hung +there, 'If He be the Son of God, let Him come down, and we will +believe Him.' + +So, brethren, I put into the witness-box Annas and Caiaphas and all +their satellites, and I say, 'What need we any further witnesses?' +He died because He declared that He was the Son of God. + +And I beseech you ask yourselves whether we are not being put off +with a maimed version of His teaching, if there is struck out of it +this its central characteristic, that He, 'the sage and humble,' +declared that He was 'likewise One with the Creator.' + +II. Secondly, note how we have here the witness that Jesus Christ +assented always to the loftiest meaning that men attached to His +claims. + +I have already pointed out the remarkable difference between the +explanations which He condescended to give to the Roman governor as +to the perfectly innocent meaning of His claim to be the King of +Israel, and His silence before the Sanhedrin. That silence is only +explicable because they rightly understood the meaning of the claim +which they contemptuously and perversely rejected. Jesus Christ knew +that His death was the forfeit, as I have said, and yet He locked +His lips and said not a word. + +In like manner when, on the other occasion to which I have already +referred, the Pharisees stumbled at His claims to forgive sins, He +said nothing to soften down that claim. If He had meant then only +what some people would desire to make Him mean when He said, 'Thy +sins be forgiven thee'--viz., that He was simply acting as a +minister of the divine forgiveness, and assuring a poor sinner that +God had pardoned him--why in common honesty, in discharge of His +plain obligations of a teacher, did He not say so--not for His own +sake, but for the sake of preventing such a tremendous +misunderstanding of His meaning? But He let them go away with the +conviction that He intended to claim a divine prerogative, and +vindicated the assertion by doing what only a divine power could do: +'That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power enough on earth to +forgive sins, He saith unto the sick of the palsy, Take up thy bed +and walk.' There was no need for Him to have wrought a miracle to +establish His right to tell a poor soul that God forgave sin. And +the fact that the miracle was supposed to be the demonstration and +the vindication of His right to declare forgiveness shows that He +was exercising that prerogative which belongs, as they rightly said, +to God only. + +And in precisely the same manner, the commonest obligations of +honesty, the plain duty of a misunderstood Teacher, to say nothing +of the duty of self-preservation, ought to have opened His lips in +the presence of the Jewish authorities, if they understood wrongly +and set too high their estimate of the meaning of His claims. His +silence establishes the fact that they understood these aright. + +And so, all through His life, we note this peculiarity, that He +never puts aside as too lofty for truth men's highest interpretations +of His claims, nor as too lowly for their mutual relation the lowest +reverence which bowed before Him. Peter, in the house of Cornelius, +said, 'Stand up! for I myself also am a man.' Paul and Barnabas, when +the priests brought out the oxen and garlands to the gates of Lystra, +could say, 'We also are men of like passions with yourselves.' But +this meek Jesus lets men fall at His feet; and women wash them with +their tears and wipe them with the hairs of their head; and souls +stretch out maimed hands of faith, and grasp Him as their only hope. +When His apostle said, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,' +His answer was, 'Blessed art thou, for flesh and blood hath not revealed +it unto thee,' and when another exclaimed, 'My Lord and my God!' this +Pattern of all meekness accepted and endorsed the title, and pronounced +a benediction on all who, not having seen Him, should hereafter attain +a like faith. + +Now I want to know whether that characteristic, which runs through all +His life, and is inseparable from it, can be vindicated on any ground +except the ground that He was 'God manifest in the flesh.' Either +Jesus Christ had a greedy appetite for excessive adoration, was a +victim to diseased vanity and ever-present self-regard--the most +damning charge that you can bring against a religious teacher--or He +accepted love and reverence and trust, because the love and the +reverence and the trust knit souls to the Incarnate God their Saviour. + +III. And so, lastly we have here witness to the only alternative to +the acceptance of His claims. + +He hath spoken 'blasphemy,' not because He had derogated from the +dignity of divinity, but because He had presumed to participate in +it. And it seems to me, with all deference, that this rough +alternative is the only legitimate one. If Jesus Christ did make +such claims, and His relation to the Jewish hierarchy and His death +are, as I have shown you, apart even from the testimony of the +Evangelists, strong confirmation of the fact that He did--if Jesus +Christ did make such claims, and they were not valid, one of two +things follows. Either He believed them, and then, what about His +sanity? or He did not believe them, and then, what about His +honesty? In either case, what about His claims to be a Teacher of +religion? What about His claims to be the Pattern of humanity? That +part of His teaching and character is either the manifestation of +His glory or it is like one of those fatal black seams that run +through and penetrate into the substance of a fair white marble +statue, marring all the rest of its pale and celestial beauty. +Brethren, it seems to me that, when all is said and done, we come to +one of three things about Jesus Christ. Either 'He blasphemeth' if +He said these things, and they were not true, or 'He is beside +Himself' if He said these things and believed them, or + + 'Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ; + Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.' + +Now I know that there are many men who, I venture to say, are far +better than their creed, and who, believing it impossible to accept, +in their plain meaning, the plain claims of Jesus Christ to +divinity, do yet cleave to Him with a love and a reverence and an +obedience which more orthodox men might well copy. And far be it +from me to say one word which might seem even to quench the faintest +beam of light that, shining from His perfect character, draws any +heart, however imperfectly, to Himself. Only, if I speak to any such +at this time, I beseech them to follow the light which draws them, +and to see whether their reverence for that fair character should +not lead them to accept implicitly the claims that came from His own +lips. I humbly venture to say that if we know anything at all about +Jesus Christ, we know that He lived declaring Himself to be the +Everlasting Son of the Father, and that He died because He did so +declare Himself. And I beseech you to ponder the question whether +reverence for Him and admiration of His character can be logically +and reasonably retained, side by side with the repudiation of that +which is the most distinctive part of His message to men. + +Oh, brethren, if it is true that God has come in the flesh, and that +that sweet, gracious, infinitely beautiful life is really the +revelation of the heart of God, then what a beam of sunshine falls +upon all the darkness of this world! Then God is love; then that +love holds us all; did not shrink from dying for us, and lives for +ever to bless us. If these claims are true, what should our attitude +be but that of infinite trust, love, submission, obedience, and the +shaping of our lives after the pattern of His life? + +These rejectors, when they said, 'He speaketh blasphemies,' were +sealing their own doom, and the ruined Temple and nineteen centuries +of wandering misery show what comes to men who hear Christ declaring +that He is the Son of the living God and the Judge of the world, and +who find nothing in the words but blasphemy. On the other hand, if +we will answer His question, 'Whom say ye that I am?' as the apostle +answered it, we shall, like the apostle, receive a benediction from +His lips, and be set on that faith as on a rock against which the +'gates of hell' shall not prevail. + + + + +'SEE THOU TO THAT!' + + + 'I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent + blood. And they said, What is that to us? See thou to + that. 24. I am innocent of the blood of this just + Person: see ye to it.'--MATT. xxvii. 4, 24. + +So, what the priests said to Judas, Pilate said to the priests. They +contemptuously bade their wretched instrument bear the burden of his +own treachery. They had condescended to use his services, but he +presumed too far if he thought that that gave him a claim upon their +sympathies. The tools of more respectable and bolder sinners are +flung aside as soon as they are done with. What were the agonies or +the tears of a hundred such as he to these high-placed and heartless +transgressors? Priests though they were, and therefore bound by +their office to help any poor creature that was struggling with a +wounded conscience, they had nothing better to say to him than this +scornful gibe, 'What is that to us? See thou to that.' + +Pilate, on the other hand, metes to them the measure which they had +meted to Judas. With curious verbal correspondence, he repeats the +very words of Judas and of the priests. 'Innocent blood,' said +Judas. 'I am innocent of the blood of this just Person,' said +Pilate. 'See thou to that,' answered they. 'See ye to it,' says he. +He tries to shove off his responsibility upon them, and they are +quite willing to take it. Their consciences are not easily touched. +Fanatical hatred which thinks itself influenced by religious motives +is the blindest and cruellest of all passions, knowing no +compunction, and utterly unperceptive of the innocence of its +victim. + +And so these three, Judas, the priests, and Pilate, suggest to us, I +think, a threefold way in which conscience is perverted. Judas +represents the agony of conscience, Pilate represents the shuffling +sophistications of a half-awakened conscience, and those priests and +people represent the torpor of an altogether misdirected conscience. + +I. Judas, or the agony of conscience. + +'I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.' We do +not need to enter at any length upon the difficult question as to +what were the motives of Judas in his treachery. For my part I do +not see that there is anything in the Scripture narrative, simply +interpreted, to bear out the hypothesis that his motives were +mistaken zeal and affection for Christ; and a desire to force Him to +the avowal of His Messiahship. One can scarcely suppose zeal so +strangely perverted as to begin by betrayal, and if the object was +to make our Lord speak out His claims, the means adopted were +singularly ill-chosen. The story, as it stands, naturally suggests a +much less far-fetched explanation. + +Judas was simply a man of a low earthly nature, who became a +follower of Christ, thinking that He was to prove a Messiah of the +vulgar type, or another Judas Maccabæus. He was not attracted by +Christ's character and teaching. As the true nature of Christ's work +and kingdom became more obvious, he became more weary of Him and it. +The closest proximity to Jesus Christ made eleven enthusiastic +disciples, but it made one traitor. No man could live near Him for +three years without coming to hate Him if he did not love Him. Then, +as ever, He was set for the fall and for the rise of many. He was +the 'savour of life unto life, or of death unto death.' + +But be this as it may, we have here to do with the sudden revulsion +of feeling which followed upon the accomplished act. This burst of +confession does not sound like the words of a man who had been +actuated by motives of mistaken affection. He knows himself a +traitor, and that fair, perfect character rises before him in its +purity, as he had never seen it before--to rebuke and confound him. + +So this exclamation of his puts into a vivid shape, which may help it to +stick in our memories and hearts, this thought--what an awful difference +there is in the look of a sin before we do it and afterwards! Before we +do it the thing to be gained seems so attractive, and the transgression +that gains it seems so comparatively insignificant. Yes! and when we +have done it the two change places; the thing that we win by it seems +so contemptible--thirty pieces of silver! pitch them over the Temple +enclosure and get rid of them!--and the thing that we did to win them +dilates into such awful magnitude! + +For instance, suppose we do anything that we know to be wrong, being +tempted to it by a momentary indulgence of some mere animal impulse. +By the very nature of the case, that dies in its satisfaction and +the desire dies along with it. We do not wish the prize any more +when once we have got it. It lasts but a moment and is past. Then we +are left alone with the thought of the sin that we have done. When +we get the prize of our wrong-doing, we find out that it is not as +all-satisfying as we expected it would be. Most of our earthly aims +are like that. The chase is a great deal more than the hare. Or, as +George Herbert has it, 'Nothing between two dishes--a splendid +service of silver plate, and when you take the cover off there is no +food to eat--such are the pleasures here.' + +Universally, this is true, that sooner or later, when the delirium +of passion and the rush of temptation are over and we wake to +consciousness, we find that we are none the richer for the thing +gained, and oh! so infinitely the poorer for the means by which we +gained it. It is that old story of the Veiled Prophet that wooed and +won the hearts of foolish maidens, and, when he had them in his +power in the inner chamber, removed the silver veil which they had +thought hid dazzling glory and showed hideous features that struck +despair into their hearts. Every man's sin does that for him. And to +you I come now with this message: every wrong thing that you do, +great or small, will be like some of those hollow images of the gods +that one hears of in barbarian temples--looked at in front, fair, +but when you get behind them you find a hollow, full of dust and +spiders' webs and unclean things. Be sure of this, every sin is a +blunder. + +That is the first lesson that lies in these words of this wretched +traitor; but again, here is an awful picture for us of the hell upon +earth, of a conscience which has no hope of pardon. I do not suppose +that Judas was lost, if he were lost, because he betrayed Jesus +Christ, but because, having betrayed Jesus Christ, he never asked to +be forgiven. And I suppose that the difference between the traitor +who betrayed Him and the other traitor who denied Him, was this, +that the one, when 'he went out and wept bitterly,' had the thought +of a loving Master with him, and the other, when 'he went out and +hanged himself,' had the thought of nothing but that foul deed +glaring before him. I pray you to learn this lesson--you cannot +think too much, too blackly, of your own sins, but you may think too +exclusively of them, and if you do they will drive you to madness of +despair. + +My dear friend, there is no penitence or remorse which is deep +enough for the smallest transgression; but there is no transgression +which is so great but that forgiveness for it may come. And we may +have it for the asking, if we will go to that dear Christ that died +for us. The consciousness of sinfulness is a wholesome consciousness. +I would that every man and woman listening to me now had it deep in +their consciences, and then I would that it might lead us all to that +one Lord in whom there is forgiveness and peace. Be sure of this, +that if Judas Iscariot, when his 'soul flared forth in the dark,' +died without hope and without pardon, it was not because his crime +was too great for forgiveness, but because the forgiveness had never +been asked. There is no unpardonable sin except that of refusing the +pardon that avails for all sin. + +II. So much, then, for this first picture and the lessons that come +out of it. In the next place we take Pilate, as the representative +of what I have ventured to call the shufflings of a half-awakened +conscience. + +'I am innocent of the blood of this just Person,' says he: 'see ye +to it.' He is very willing to shuffle off his responsibility upon +priests and people, and they, for their part, are quite as willing +to accept it; but the responsibility can neither be shuffled off by +him nor accepted by them. His motive in surrendering Jesus to them +was probably nothing more than the low and cowardly wish to humour +his turbulent subjects, and so to secure an easy tenure of office. +For such an end what did one poor man's life matter? He had a great +contempt for the accusers, which he is scarcely at the pains to +conceal. It breaks out in half-veiled sarcasms, by which he +cynically indemnifies himself for his ignoble yielding to the +constraint which they put upon him. He knows perfectly well that the +Roman power has nothing to fear from this King, whose kingdom rested +on His witness to the Truth. He knows perfectly well that unavowed +motives of personal enmity lie at the bottom of the whole business. +In the words of our text he acquits Christ, and thereby condemns +himself. If Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent, he knew that he, as +governor, was guilty of prostituting Roman justice, which was Rome's +best gift to her subject nations, and of giving up an innocent man +to death, in order to save himself trouble and to conciliate a +howling mob. No washing of his hands will cleanse them. 'All the +perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten that hand. But his words let us +see how a man may sophisticate his conscience and quibble about his +guilt. + +Here, then, we get once more a vivid picture that may remind us of +what, alas! we all know in our own experience, how a man's +conscience may be clearsighted enough to discern, and vocal enough +to declare, that a certain thing is wrong, but not strong enough to +restrain from doing it. Conscience has a voice and an eye; alas! it +has no hands. It shares the weakness of all law, it cannot get +itself executed. Men will get over a fence, although the board that +says, 'Trespassers will be prosecuted' is staring them in the face +in capital letters at the very place where they leap it. Your +conscience is a king without an army, a judge without officers. 'If +it had authority, as it has the power, it would govern the world,' +but as things are, it is reduced to issuing vain edicts and to +saying, 'Thou shalt not,' and if you turn round and say, 'I will, +though,' then conscience has no more that it can do. + +And then here, too, is an illustration of one of the commonest of +the ways by which we try to slip our necks out of the collar, and to +get rid of the responsibilities that really belong to us. 'See ye to +it' does not avail to put Pilate's crime on the priests' shoulders. +Men take part in evil, and each thinks himself innocent, because he +has companions. Half-a-dozen men carry a burden together; none of +them fancies that he is carrying it. It is like the case of turning +out a platoon of soldiers to shoot a mutineer--nobody knows whose +bullet killed him, and nobody feels himself guilty; but there the +man lies dead, and it was somebody that did it. So corporations, +churches, societies, and nations do things that individuals would +not do, and each man of them wipes his mouth and says, 'I have done +no harm.' And even when we sin alone we are clever at finding +scapegoats. 'The woman tempted me, and I did eat,' is the formula +universally used yet. The schoolboy's excuse, 'Please, sir, it was +not me, it was the other boy,' is what we are all ready to say. + +Now I pray you, brethren, to remember that, whether our consciences +try to shuffle off responsibility for united action upon the other +members of the firm, or whether we try to excuse our individual +actions by laying blame on our tempers, or whether we adopt the +modern slang, and talk about circumstances and heredity and the +like, as being reasons for the diminution or the extinction of the +notion of guilt, it is sophistical trifling; and down at the bottom +most of us know that we alone are responsible for the volition which +leads to our act. We could have helped it if we had liked. Nobody +compelled us to keep in the partnership of evil, or to yield to the +tempter. Pilate was not forced by his subjects to give the +commandment that 'it should be as they required.' They had their own +burden to carry. Each man has to bear the consequences of his +actions. There are many 'burdens' which we can 'bear for one +another, and so fulfil the law of Christ'; but every man has to bear +as his own the burden of the fruits of his deeds. In that harvest, +he that soweth and he that reapeth are one, and each of us has to +drink as we ourselves have brewed. You have to pay for your share, +however many companions you may have had in the act. + +So do not you sophisticate your consciences with the delusion that +your responsibility may be shifted to any other person or thing. +These may diminish, or may modify your responsibility, and God takes +all these into account. But after all these have been taken into +account there is this left--that you yourselves have done the act, +which you need not have done unless you had so willed, and that +having done it, you have to carry it on your back for evermore. 'See +thou to that,' was a heartless word, but it was a true one. 'Every +one of us shall give an account of himself to God,' and as the old +Book of Proverbs has it, 'If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for +thyself: and if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.' + +III. And so, lastly, we have here another group still--the priests +and people. They represent for us the torpor and misdirection of +conscience. + +'Then answered all the people and said, His blood be on us and on +our children.' They were perfectly ready to take the burden upon +themselves. They thought that they were 'doing God service' when +they slew God's Messenger. They had no perception of the beauty and +gentleness of Christ's character. They believed Him to be a +blasphemer, and they believed it to be a solemn religious duty to +slay Him then and there. Were they to blame because they slew a +blasphemer? According to Jewish law--no. They were to blame because +they had brought themselves into such a moral condition that that +was all which they thought of and saw in Jesus Christ. With their +awful words they stand before us, as perhaps the crowning instances +in Scripture history of the possible torpor which may paralyse +consciences. + +I need not dwell, I suppose, even for a moment, upon the thought of +how the highest and noblest sentiments may be perverted into +becoming the allies of the lowest crime. 'O Liberty! what crimes +have been done in thy name!' you remember one of the victims of the +guillotine said, as her last words. 'O Religion! what crimes have +been done in _thy_ name!' is one of the lessons to be gathered +from Calvary. + +But, passing that, to come to the thing that is of more consequence +to each of us, let us take this thought, dear brethren, as to the +awful possibility of a conscience going fast asleep in the midst of +the wildest storm of passion, like that unfaithful prophet Jonah, +down in the hold of the heathen ship. You can lull your consciences +into dead slumber. You can stifle them so that they shall not speak +a word against the worst of your sins. You can do so by simply +neglecting them, by habitually refusing to listen to them. If you +keep picking all the leaves and buds off the tree before they open, +it will stop flowering. You can do it by gathering round yourself +always, and only, evil associations and evil deeds. The habit of +sinning will lull a conscience faster than almost anything else. We +do not know how hot a room is, or how much the air is exhausted, +when we have been sitting in it for an hour and a half. But if we +came into it from outside we should feel the difference. Styrian +peasants thrive and fatten upon arsenic, and men may flourish upon +all iniquity and evil, and conscience will say never a word. Take +care of that delicate balance within you; and see that you do not +tamper with it nor twist it. + +Conscience may be misguided as well as lulled. It may call evil +good, and good evil; it may take honey for gall, and gall for honey. +And so we need something outside of ourselves to be our guide, our +standard. We are not to be contented that our consciences acquit us. +'I know nothing against myself, yet I am not hereby justified,' says +the apostle; 'he that judgeth me is the Lord.' And it is quite +possible that a man may have no prick of conscience and yet have +done a very wrong thing. So we want, as it seems to me, something +outside of ourselves that shall not be affected by our variations. +Conscience is like the light on the binnacle of a ship. It tosses up +and down along with the vessel. We want a steady light yonder on +that headland, on the fixed solid earth, which shall not heave with +the heaving wave, nor vary at all. Conscience speaks lowest when it +ought to speak loudest. The worst man is least troubled by his +conscience. It is like a lamp that goes out in the thickest +darkness. Therefore we need, as I believe, a revelation of truth and +goodness and beauty outside of ourselves to which we may bring our +consciences that they may be enlightened and set right. We want a +standard like the authorised weights and measures that are kept in +the Tower of London, to which all the people in the little country +villages may send up their yard measures and their pound weights, +and find out if they are just and true. We want a _Bible_, and +we want a _Christ_ to tell us what is duty, as well as to make +it possible for us to do it. + +These groups which we have been looking at now, show us how very +little help and sympathy a wounded conscience can get from its +fellows. The conspirators turn upon each other as soon as the +detectives are amongst them, and there is always one of them ready +to go into the witness-box and swear away the lives of the others to +save his own neck. Wolves tear sick wolves to pieces. + +Round us there stand Society, pitiless and stern, and Nature, rigid +and implacable; not to be besought, not to be turned. And when I, in +the midst of this universe of fixed law and cause and consequence, +wail out, 'I have sinned,' a thousand voices say to me, 'What is +that to us? See thou to that.' And so I am left with my guilt--it +and I together. There comes One with outstretched, wounded hands, +and says, 'Cast all thy burden upon Me, and I will free thee from it +all.' 'Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows!' +Trust in Him, in His great sacrifice, and you will find that His +'innocent blood' has a power that will liberate your conscience from +its torpor, its vain excuses, its agony and despair. + + + + +THE SENTENCE WHICH CONDEMNED THE JUDGES + + + And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor + asked Him, saying, Art Thou the King of the Jews? And + Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. 12. And when He was + accused of the chief priests and elders, He answered + nothing. 13. Then said Pilate unto Him, Hearest Thou + not how many things they witness against Thee? 14. And + He answered him to never a word; insomuch that the + governor marvelled greatly. 15. Now at that feast the + governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, + whom they would. 16. And they had then a notable + prisoner, called Barabbas. 17. Therefore when they were + gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye + that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is + called Christ? 18. For he knew that for envy they had + delivered Him. 19. When he was set down on the judgment + seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing + to do with that just man: for I have suffered many + things this day in a dream because of Him. 20. But the + chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that + they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. 21. The + governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the + twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, + Barabbas. 22. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do + then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say + unto him, Let Him be crucified. 23. And the governor + said, Why, what evil hath He done? But they cried out + the more, saying, Let him be crucified. 24. When Pilate + saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a + tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands + before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the + blood of this just Person: see ye to it. 25. Then + answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, + and on our children. 26. Then released he Barabbas unto + them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him + to be crucified.'--ST. MATT. xxvii. 11-26. + +The principal figures in this passage are Pilate and the Jewish +rulers and people. Jesus is all but passive. They are busy in +condemning Him, and little know that they are condemning themselves. +They are unconsciously exemplifying the tragic truth of Christ's +saying, 'Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken.' They +do not dislodge it, but their attempt to dislodge it wounds them. + +I. Matthew gives a very summary account of our Lord's appearing +before Pilate, but, brief as it is, and much as it omits, it throws +up into strong light the two essential points,--Christ's declaration +that He was the King of the Jews, and His silence while a storm of +accusations raged around Him. As to the former, it was the only +charge with which Pilate was properly concerned. He had a right to +know whether this strange criminal was dangerous to Rome, because He +claimed kingship, and, if he were satisfied that He was not, his +bounden duty was to liberate Him. One can understand the scornful +emphasis which Pilate laid on 'Thou' as he looked on his Prisoner, +who certainly would not seem to his practical eyes a very formidable +leader of revolt. There is a world of contempt, amused rather than +alarmed, in the question, and behind it lies the consciousness of +commanding legions enough to crush any rising headed by such a +person. John's account shows the pains which Jesus took to make sure +of the sense in which the question was asked before He answered it, +and then to make clear that His kingship bore no menace to Rome. +That being made plain, He answered with an affirmative. Just as He +had in unmistakable language claimed before the Sanhedrin to be the +Messiah, the Son of God, so He claimed before Pilate to be the King +of Israel, answering each tribunal as to what each had the right to +inquire into, and thus 'before Pontius Pilate witnessing the good +confession,' and leaving both tribunals without excuse. Jesus died +because He would not bate His claims to Messianic dignity. Did He +fling away His life for a false conception of Himself? He was either +a dreamer intoxicated with an illusion, and His death was suicide, +or He was--what? + +The one avowal was all that Pilate was entitled to. For the rest Jesus +locked His lips, and He whose very name was The Word was silent. What +was the meaning of that silence? It was not disdain, nor unwillingness +to make Himself known; but it was partly merciful--inasmuch as He knew +that all speech would have been futile, and would but have added to +the condemnation of such hearers as Caiaphas, Herod, and Pilate--and +partly judicial. Still more was it the silence of perfect, unresisting +submission,--'as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth +not His mouth.' And it is a pattern for us, as Peter tells us in his +Epistle; for it is with regard to this very matter of taking unjust +suffering patiently and without resistance that the apostle says that +Jesus has 'left us an example.' There are limits to such silent +endurance of wrong, for Paul defended himself tooth and nail before +priests and kings; but Christ's followers are strongest by meek +patience, and descend when they take a leaf out of their enemies' book. + +II. The next point is Pilate's weak attempt to save Jesus. Christ's +silence had impressed Pilate, and, if he had been a true man, he +would not have stopped at 'marvelling greatly.' He was clearly +convinced of Christ's innocence of any crime that threatened Roman +supremacy, and therefore was bound to have given effect to his +convictions, and let Jesus go. He had read the motives of the +priests, which were too plain for a shrewd man of the world to be +blind to them. That Jews should be taken with such a sudden fit of +loyalty as to yell for the death of a fellow-countryman because he +was a rebel against Caesar was too absurd to swallow, and Pilate was +not taken in. He knew that something else was working below ground, +and hit on 'envy' as the solution. He was not far wrong; for the +zeal which to the priests themselves seemed to be excited by devout +regard for God's honour was really kindled by determination to keep +their own prerogatives, and keen insight into the curtailment of +these which would follow if this Jesus were recognised as Messiah. +Pilate's diagnosis coincided with Christ's in the parable: 'This is +the Heir; come, let us kill Him, and the inheritance shall be ours.' + +So, willing to deliver Jesus, and yet afraid to cross the wishes of +his ticklish subjects, Pilate, like other weak men, tries a trick by +which he may get his way and seem to give them theirs. He hoped that +they would choose Jesus rather than Barabbas as the object of the +customary release. It was ingenious of him to narrow the choice to +one or other of the two, ignoring all other prisoners who might have +had the benefit of the custom. But there is also, perhaps, a dash of +sarcasm, and a hint of his having penetrated the priests' motives, +in his confining their choice to Jesus or Barabbas; for Barabbas was +what they had charged Jesus with being,--a rebel; and, if they +preferred him to Jesus, the hypocrisy of their suspicious loyalty +would be patent. The same sub-acid tone is obvious in Pilate's twice +designating our Lord as 'Jesus which is called Christ.' He delights +to mortify them by pushing the title into their faces, as it were. +He dare not be just, and he relieves and revenges himself by being +cynical and mocking. + +III. Having referred the choice to the 'multitude,' Pilate takes his +place on his official seat to wait for, and then to ratify, their +vote. In that pause, he perhaps felt some compunction at paltering +with justice, which it was Rome's one virtue to administer. How his +wife's message would increase his doubt! Was her dream a divine +warning, or a mere reflection in sleep of waking thoughts? It is +noticeable that Matthew records several dreams which conveyed God's +will,--for example, to Joseph and to the Magi, and here may be +another instance; or some tidings as to Jesus may have reached the +lady, though not her husband, and her womanly sense of right may +have shaped the dream, and given her vivid impressions of the danger +of abetting a judicial murder. But Matthew seems to tell of her +intervention mainly in order to preserve her testimony to Jesus' +innocence, and to point out one more of the fences which Pilate +trampled down in his dread of offending the rulers. A wife's +message, conveying what both he and she probably regarded as a +supernatural warning, was powerless to keep him back from his +disgraceful failure of duty. + +IV. While he was fighting against the impression of that message, +the rulers were busy in the crowd, suggesting the choice of +Barabbas. It was perhaps his wife's words that stung him to act at +once, and have done with his inner conflict. So he calls for the +decision of the alternative which he had already submitted. His +dignity would suffer, if he had to wait longer for an answer. He got +it at once, and the unanimous vote was for Barabbas. Probably the +rulers had skilfully manipulated the people. The multitude is easily +led by demagogues, but, left to itself, its instincts are usually +right, though its perception of character is often mistaken. Why was +Barabbas preferred? Probably just because he had been cast into +prison for sedition, and so was thought to be a good patriot. +Popular heroes often win their reputation by very questionable acts, +and Barabbas was forgiven his being a murderer for the sake of his +being a rebel. But it was not so much that Barabbas was loved as +that Jesus was hated, and it was not the multitude so much as the +rulers that hated him. Many of those now shrieking 'Crucify Him!' +had shouted 'Hosanna!' a day or two before till they were hoarse. +The populace was guilty of fickleness, blindness, rashness, too easy +credence of the crafty calumnies of the rulers. But a far deeper +stain rests on these rulers who had resisted the light, and were now +animated by the basest self-interest in the garb of keen regard for +the honour of God. There were very different degrees of guilt in the +many voices that roared 'Barabbas!' + +Pilate made one more feeble attempt to save Jesus by asking what was +to be done with Him. The question was an ignoble abdication of his +judicial office, and perhaps was meant as a salve for his own +conscience, and an excuse to his wife, enabling him to say, 'I did +not crucify Him; they did,'--a miserable pretext, the last resort of +a weak man, who knew that he was doing a wrong and cowardly thing. + +V. The same nervous fear and vain attempt to shuffle responsibility +off himself give tragic interest to his theatrical washing of his +hands. The one thing that he feared was a riot, which would be like +a spark in a barrel of gunpowder, if it broke out at the Passover, +when Jerusalem swarmed with excited crowds. To avoid that, the +sacrifice of one Jew's life was a small matter, even though he was +an interesting and remarkable person, and Pilate knew Him to be +perfectly harmless. + +But no washing of hands could shift the guilt from Pilate. + + 'Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood + Clean from my hand? No.' + +His vain declaration of innocence is an acknowledgment of guilt, for +he is forced by conscience to declare that Jesus is a 'righteous +Man,' and, as such, He should have been under the broad shield of +Roman justice. We too often deceive ourselves by throwing the blame +of our sins on companions or circumstances, and try to cheat our +consciences into silence. But our guilt is ours, however many allies +we have had, and however strong have been our temptations; and +though we may say, 'I am innocent,' God will sooner or later say to +each of us, 'Thou art the man!' + +The wild cry of passion with which the multitude accepted the +responsibility has been only too completely fulfilled in the +millennium-long Iliad of woes which has attended the Jews. Surely, +the existence, in such circumstances, for all these centuries, of +that strange, weird, fated race, is a standing miracle, and the most +conspicuous proof that 'verily, there is a God that judgeth in the +earth.' But it is also a prophecy that Israel shall 'turn to the +Lord,' and that the blood which has so long been on them as a crime, +carrying its own punishment, will at last be sprinkled on their +hearts, and take away their sin. + + + + +THE CRUCIFIXION + + + 'And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, + that is to say, a place of a skull, 34. They gave Him + vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when He had + tasted thereof, He would not drink. 35. And they + crucified Him, and parted His garments, casting lots: + that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the + prophet, They parted My garments among them, and upon + My vesture did they cast lots. 36. And sitting down + they watched Him there; 37. And set up over His head + His accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE + JEWS. 38. Then were there two thieves crucified with + Him, one on the right hand, and another on the left + 39. And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their + heads, 40. And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, + and buildest it in three days, save Thyself. If Thou be + the Son of God, come down from the cross. 41. Likewise + also the chief priests mocking Him, with the scribes + and elders, said, 42. He saved others; Himself He + cannot save. If He be the King of Israel, let Him now + come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. + 43. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He + will have Him: for He said, I am the Son of God. + 44. The thieves also, which were crucified with Him, + cast the same in His teeth. 45. Now from the sixth hour + there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth + hour. 46. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a + loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that + is to say, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? + 47. Some of them that stood there, when they heard + that, said. This Man calleth for Elias. 48. And + straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and + filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave + Him to drink. 49. The rest said, Let be, let us see + whether Elias will come to save Him. 50. Jesus, when He + had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.' + --MATT. xxvii. 33-50. + +The characteristic of Matthew's account of the crucifixion is its +representation of Jesus as perfectly passive and silent. His refusal +of the drugged wine, His cry of desolation, and His other cry at +death, are all His recorded acts. The impression of the whole is 'as +a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.' +We are bid to look on the grim details of the infliction of the +terrible death, and to listen to the mockeries of people and +priests; but reverent awe forbids description of Him who hung there +in His long, silent agony. Would that like reticence had checked the +ill-timed eloquence of preachers and teachers of later days! + +I. We have the ghastly details of the crucifixion.--Conder's +suggestion of the site of Calvary as a little knoll outside the +city, seems possible. It is now a low, bare hillock, with a scanty +skin of vegetation over the rock, and in its rounded shape and bony +rockiness explains why it was called 'skull.' It stands close to the +main Damascus road, so that there would be many 'passers by' on that +feast day. Its top commands a view over the walls into the temple +enclosure, where, at the very hour of the death of Jesus, the +Passover lamb was perhaps being slain. Arrived at the place, the +executioners go about their task with stolid precision. What was the +crucifying of another Jew or two to them? Before they lift the cross +or fasten their prisoner to it, a little touch of pity, or perhaps +only the observance of the usual custom, leads them to offer a +draught of wine, in which some anodyne had been mixed, to deaden +agony. But the cup which He had to drink needed that He should be in +full possession of all His sensibilities to pain, and of all His +unclouded firmness of resolve; and so His patient lips closed +against the offered mercy. He would not drink because He would +suffer, and He would suffer because He would redeem. His last act +before He was nailed to the cross was an act of voluntary refusal of +an opened door of escape from some portion of His pains. + +What a gap there is between verses 34 and 35! The unconcerned +soldiers went on to the next step in their ordinary routine on such +an occasion,--the fixing of the cross and fastening of the victim to +it. To them it was only what they had often done before; to Matthew, +it was too sacred to be narrated, He cannot bring his pen to write +it. As it were, he bids us turn away our eyes for a moment; and when +next we look, the deed is done, and there stands the cross, and the +Lord hanging, dumb and unresisting, on it. We see not Him, but the +soldiers, busy at their next task. So little were they touched by +compassion or awe, that they paid no heed to Him, and suspended +their work to make sure of their perquisites,--the poor robes which +they stripped from His body. Thus gently Matthew hints at the +ignominy of exposure attendant on crucifixion, and gives the measure +of the hard stolidity of the guards. Gain had been their first +thought, comfort was their second. They were a little tired with +their march and their work, and they had to stop there on guard for +an indefinite time, with nothing to do but two more prisoners to +crucify: so they take a rest, and idly keep watch over Him till He +shall die. How possible it is to look at Christ's sufferings and see +nothing! These rude legionaries gazed for hours on what has touched +the world ever since, and what angels desired to look into, and saw +nothing but a dying Jew. They thought about the worth of the +clothes, or about how long they would have to stay there, and in the +presence of the most stupendous fact in the world's history were all +unmoved. We too may gaze on the cross and see nothing. We too may +look at it without emotion, because without faith, or any +consciousness of what it may mean for us. Only they who see there +the sacrifice for their sins and the world's, see what is there. +Others are as blind as, and less excusable than, these soldiers who +watched all day by the Cross, seeing nothing, and tramped back at +night to their barrack utterly ignorant of what they had been doing. +But their work was not quite done. There was still a piece of grim +mockery to be performed, which they would much enjoy. The 'cause,' +as Matthew calls it, had to be nailed to the upper part of the +cross. It was tri-lingual, as John tells us,--in Hebrew, the +language of revelation; in Greek, the tongue of philosophy and art; +in Latin, the speech of law and power. The three chief forces of the +human spirit gave unconscious witness to the King; the three chief +languages of the western world proclaimed His universal monarchy, +even while they seemed to limit it to one nation. It was meant as a +gibe at Him and at the nation, and as Pilate's statement of the +reason for his sentence; but it meant more than Pilate meant by it, +and it was fitting that His royal title should hang above His head; +for the cross is His throne, and He is the King of men because He +has died for them all. One more piece of work the soldiers had still +to do. The crucifixion of the two robbers (perhaps of Barabbas' +gang, though less fortunate than he) by Christ's side was intended +to associate Him in the public mind with them and their crimes, and +was the last stroke of malice, as if saying, 'Here is your King, and +here are two of His subjects and ministers.' Matthew says nothing of +the triumph of Christ's love, which won the poor robber for a +disciple even at that hour of ignominy. His one purpose seems to be +to accumulate the tokens of suffering and shame, and so to emphasise +the silent endurance of the meek Lamb of God. Therefore, without a +word about any of our Lord's acts or utterances, he passes on to the +next group of incidents. + +II. The mockeries of people and priests. There would be many coming +and going on the adjoining road, most of them too busy about their +own affairs to delay long; for crucifixion was a slow process, and, +when once the cross has been lifted, there would be little to see. +But they were not too busy to spit venom at Him as they passed. How +many of these scoffers, to whom death cast no shield round the +object of their poor taunts, had shouted themselves hoarse on the +Monday, and waved palm branches that were not withered yet! What had +made the change? There was no change. They were running with the +stream in both their hosannas and their jeers, and the one were +worth as much as the other. They had been tutored to cry, 'Blessed +is He that cometh!' and now they were tutored to repeat what had +been said at the trial about destroying the temple. The worshippers +of success are true to themselves when they mock at failure. They +who shout round Jesus, when other people are doing it, are only +consistent when they join in the roar of execration. Let us take +care that our worship of Him is rooted in our own personal +experience, and independent of what rulers or influential minds today +say of Him. + +A common passion levels all distinctions of culture and rank. The +reverend dignitaries echoed the ferocious ridicule of the mob, whom +they despised so much. The poorest criminal would have been left to +die in peace; but brutal laughter surged round the silent sufferer, +and showers of barbed sarcasms were flung at Him. The throwers +fancied them exquisite jests, and demonstrations of the absurdity of +Christ's claims; but they were really witnesses to His claims, and +explanations of His sufferings. Look at them in turn, with this +thought in our minds. 'He saved others; Himself He cannot save,' was +launched as a sarcasm which confuted His alleged miracles by His +present helplessness. How much it admits, even while it denies! +Then, He did work miracles; and they were all for others, never for +His own ends; and they were all for saving, never for destroying. +Then, too, by this very taunt His claim to be the 'Saviour' is +presupposed. And so, 'Physician, heal Thyself,' seemed to them an +unanswerable missile to fling. If they had only known what made the +'cannot,' and seen that it was a 'will not,' they would have stood +full in front of the great miracle of love which was before them +unsuspected, and would have learned that the not saving Himself, +which they thought blew to atoms His pretensions to save others, was +really the condition of His saving a world. If He is to save others +He cannot save Himself. That is the law for all mutual help. The +lamp burns out in giving light, but the necessity for the death of +Him who is the life of the world is founded on a deeper 'must.' His +only way of delivering us from the burden of sin is His taking it on +Himself. He has to 'bear our griefs and carry our sorrows,' if He is +to bear away the sin of the world. But the 'cannot' derives all its +power from His own loving will. The rulers' taunt was a venomous +lie, as they meant it. If for 'cannot' we read 'will not,' it is the +central truth of the Gospel. + +Nor did they succeed better with their second gibe, which made mirth +of such a throne, and promised allegiance if He would come down. O +blind leaders of the blind! That death which seemed to them to +shatter His royalty really established it. His Cross is His throne +of saving power, by which He sways hearts and wills, and because of +it He receives from the Father universal dominion, and every knee +shall bow to Him. It is just because He did not come down from it +that we believe on Him. On His head are many crowns; but, however +many they be, they all grow out of the crown of thorns. The true +kingship is absolute command over willingly submitted spirits; and +it is His death which bows us before Him in raptures of glad love +which counts submission, liberty, and sacrifice blessed. He has the +right to command because He has given Himself for us, and His death +wakes all-surrendering and all-expecting faith. + +Nor was the third taunt more fortunate. These very religious men had +read their Bibles so badly that they might never have heard of Job, +nor of the latter half of Isaiah. They had been poring over the +letter all their lives, and had never seen, with their microscopes, +the great figure of the Innocent Sufferer, so plain there. So they +thought that the Cross demonstrated the hollowness of Jesus' trust +in God, and the rejection of Him by God. Surely religious teachers +should have been slow to scoff at religious trust, and surely they +might have known that failure and disaster even to death were no +signs of God's displeasure. But, in one aspect, they were right. It +is a mystery that such a life should end thus; and the mystery is +none the less because many another less holy life has also ended in +suffering. But the mystery is solved when we know that God did not +deliver Him, just because He 'would have Him,' and that the Father's +delight in the Son reached its very highest point when He became +obedient until death, and offered Himself 'a sacrifice acceptable, +well pleasing unto God.' + +III. We pass on to the darkness, desolation, and death. Matthew +represents these three long hours from noon till what answers to our +3 P.M. as passed in utter silence by Christ. What went on beneath +that dread veil, we are not meant to know. Nor do we need to ask its +physical cause or extent. It wrapped the agony from cruel eyes; it +symbolised the blackness of desolation in His spirit, and by it God +draped the heavens in mourning for man's sin. What were the +onlookers doing then? Did they cease their mocking, and feel some +touch of awe creeping over them? + + 'His brow was chill with dying, + And His soul was faint with loss.' + +The cry that broke the awful silence, and came out of the darkness, +was more awful still. The fewer our words the better; only we may +mark how, even in His agony, Jesus has recourse to prophetic words, +and finds in a lesser sufferer's cry voice for His desolation. +Further, we may reverently note the marvellous blending of trust and +sense of desertion. He feels that God has left Him, and yet he holds +on to God. His faith, as a man, reached its climax in that supreme +hour when, loaded with the mysterious burden of God's abandonment, +He yet cried in His agony, 'My God!' and that with reduplicated +appeal. Separation from God is the true death, the 'wages of sin'; +and in that dread hour He bore in His own consciousness the +uttermost of its penalty. The physical fact of Christ's death, if it +could have taken place without this desolation from the +consciousness of separation from God, would not have been the +bearing of all the consequences of man's sins. The two must never be +parted in our grateful contemplations; and, while we reverently +abjure the attempt to pierce into that which God hid from us by the +darkness, we must reverently ponder what Christ revealed to us by +the cry that cleft it, witnessing that He then was indeed bearing +the whole weight of a world's sin. By the side of such thoughts, and +in the presence of such sorrow, the clumsy jest of the bystanders, +which caught at the half-heard words, and pretended to think that +Jesus was a crazy fanatic calling for Elijah with his fiery chariot +to come and rescue Him, may well be passed by. One little touch of +sympathy moistened His dying lips, not without opposition from the +heartless crew who wanted to have their jest out. Then came the end. +The loud cry of the dying Christ is worthy of record; for +crucifixion ordinarily killed by exhaustion, and this cry was +evidence of abundant remaining vitality. In accordance therewith, +the fact of death is expressed by a phrase, which, though used for +ordinary deaths, does yet naturally express the voluntariness of +Christ. 'He sent away His spirit,' as if He had bid it depart, and +it obeyed. Whether the expression may be fairly pressed so far or +no, the fact is the same, that Jesus died, not because He was +crucified, but because He chose. He was the Lord and Master of +Death; and when He bid His armour-bearer strike, the slave struck, +and the King died, not like Saul on the field of his defeat, but a +victor in and by and over death. + + + + +THE BLIND WATCHERS AT THE CROSS + + 'And sitting down they watched Him there.' + --MATT. xxvii. 36. + +Our thoughts are, rightly, so absorbed by the central Figure in this +great chapter that we pass by almost unnoticed the groups round the +cross. And yet there are large lessons to be learned from each of +them. These rude soldiers, four in number, as we infer from John's +Gospel, had no doubt joined with their comrades in the coarse +mockery which preceded the sad procession to Calvary; and then they +had to do the rough work of the executioners, fastening the +sufferers to the rude wooden crosses, lifting these, with their +burden, filing them into the ground, then parting the raiment. And +when all that is done they sit stolidly down to take their ease at +the foot of the cross, and idly to wait, with eyes that look and see +nothing, until the sufferers die. A strange picture; and a strange +thing to think of, how they were so close to the great event in the +world's history, and had to stare at it for three or four hours, and +never saw anything! + +The lessons that the incident teaches us may be very simply gathered +together. + +I. First we infer from this the old truth of how ignorant men are of +the real meaning and outcome of what they do. + +These four Roman soldiers were foreigners; I suppose that they could +not speak a word to a man in that crowd. They had no means of +communication with them. They had had plenty of practice in +crucifying Jews. It was part of their ordinary work in these +troublesome times, and this was just one more. Think of what a +corporal's guard of rough English soldiers, out in Northern India, +would think if they were bidden to hang a native who was charged +with rebellion against the British Government. So much, and not one +whit more, did these men know of what they were doing; and they went +back to their barracks, stolid and unconcerned, and utterly ignorant +of what they had been about. + +But in part it is so with us all, though in less extreme fashion. +None of us know the real meaning, and none of us know the possible +issues and outcome of a great deal of our lives. We are like people +sowing seed in the dark; it is put into our hands and we sow. We do +the deed; this end of it is in our power, but where it runs out to, +and what will come of it, lie far beyond our ken. We are compassed +about, wherever we go, by this atmosphere of mystery, and enclosed +within a great ring of blackness. + +And so the simple lesson to be drawn from that clear fact, about all +our conduct, is this--let results alone. Never mind about what you +cannot get hold of; you cannot see to the other end, and you have +nothing to do with it. You can see this end; make that right. Be +sure that the motive is right, and then into whatever unlooked-for +consequences your act may run out at the further end, you will be +right. Never mind what kind of harvest is coming out of your deeds, +you cannot forecast it. 'Thou soweth not that body that shall be, +but bare grain.... God giveth it a body as it pleaseth Him.' Let +alone that profitless investigation, the attempt to fashion and +understand either the significance or the issues of your conduct, +and stick fast by this--look after your motive for doing it, and +your temper in doing it; and then be quite sure, 'Thou shalt find it +after many days,' and the fruit will be 'unto praise and honour and +glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.' + +II. Take another very simple and equally plain lesson from this +incident, viz., the limitation of responsibility by knowledge. + +These men, as I said, were ignorant of what they were doing, and, +therefore, they were guiltless. Christ Himself said so: 'They know +not what they do.' But it is marvellous to observe that whilst the +people who stood round the cross, and were associated in the act +that led Jesus there, had all degrees of responsibility, the least +guilty of the whole were the men who did the actual work of nailing +Him to the cross, and lifting it with Him upon it. These soldiers +were not half as much to blame as were many of the men that stood +by; and just in the measure in which the knowledge or the +possibility of knowledge increased, just in that measure did the +responsibility increase. The high priest was a great deal more to +blame than the Roman soldiers. The rude tool that nailed Christ to +the cross, the hammer that was held in the hand of the legionary, +was almost as much to blame as the hand that wielded it. For the +hand that wielded it had very little more knowledge than it had. + +In so far as it was possible that these men might have known +something of what they were doing, in so far were they to blame; but +remember what a very, very little light could possibly have shone +upon these souls. If there is no light there cannot be any shadow; +and if these men were, as certainly they were, all but absolutely +ignorant, and never could have been anything else, of what they were +doing, then they were all but absolutely guiltless. And so you come +to this, which is only a paradox to superficial thinkers, that the +men that did the greatest crime in the whole history of the world, +did it with all but clean hands; and the people that were to be +condemned were those who delivered 'the Just One' into the hands of +more lawless, and therefore less responsible, men. + +So here is the general principle, that as knowledge and light rise +and fall, so responsibility rises and falls along with them. And +therefore let us be thankful that we have not to judge one another, +but that we have all to stand before that merciful and loving +tribunal of the God who is a God of knowledge, and by whom actions +are _weighed_, as the Old Book has it--not _counted_, but weighed. And +let us be thankful, too, that we may extend our charity to all round +us, and refrain from thinking of any man or woman that we can pronounce +upon their criminality, because we do not know the light in which they +walk. + +III. And now the last lesson, and the one that I most desire to lay +upon your hearts, is this, how possible it is to look at Christ on +the cross, and see nothing. + +For half a day there they sat, and it was but a dying Jew that they +saw, one of three. A touch of pity came into their hearts once or +twice, alternating to mockery, which was not savage because it was +simply brutal; but when it was all over, and they had pierced His +side, and gone away back to their barracks, they had not the least +notion that they, with their dim, purblind eyes, had been looking at +the most stupendous miracle in the whole world's history, had been +gazing at the thing into which angels desired to look; and had seen +that to which the hearts and the gratitude of unconverted millions +would turn for all eternity. They laid their heads down on their +pillows that night and did not know what had passed before their +eyes, and they shut the eyes that had served them so ill, and went +to sleep, unconscious that they had seen the pivot on which the +whole history of humanity had turned; and been the unmoved witnesses +of 'God manifest in the flesh,' dying on the cross for the whole +world, and for them. What should they have seen if they had seen the +reality? They should have seen not a dying rebel but a dying Christ; +they should have looked with emotion, they should have looked with +faith, they should have looked with thankfulness. + +Any one who looks at that cross, and sees nothing but a pure and +perfect man dying upon it, is very nearly as blind as the Roman +legionaries. Any one to whom it is only an example of perfect +innocence and patient suffering has only seem an inch into the +Infinite; and the depths of it are as much concealed from him as +they were from them. Any one who looks with an unmoved heart, +without one thrill of gratitude, is nearly as blind as the rough +soldiers. He that looks and does not say-- + + 'My faith would lay her hand + On that dear head of Thine; + While like a penitent I stand + And there confess my sin,' + +has not learned more of the meaning of the Cross than they did. And +any one who looks to it, and then turns away and forgets, or who +looks at it and fails to recognise in it the law of his own life and +pattern for his own conduct, has yet to see more deeply into it +before he sees even such portion of its meaning as here we can +apprehend. + +Oh! dear friends, we all of us, as the apostle says in one of his +letters, have had this Christ 'manifestly set forth before us as if +painted upon a placard upon a wall' (for that is the meaning of the +picturesque words that he employs). And if we look with calm, +unmoved hearts; if we look without personal appropriation of that +Cross and dying love to ourselves, and if we look without our hearts +going out in thankfulness and laying themselves at His feet in a +calm rapture of life-long devotion, then we need not wonder that +four ignorant heathen men sat and looked at Him for four long hours +and saw nothing, for we are as blind as ever they were. + +You say, 'We see.' Do you see? Do you look? Does the look touch your +hearts? Have you fathomed the meaning of the fact? Is it to you the +sacrifice of the living Christ for your salvation? Is it to you the +death on which all your hopes rest? You say that you see. Do you see +that in it? Do you see your only ground of confidence and peace? And +do you so see that, like a man who has looked at the sun for a +moment or two, when you turn away your head you carry the image of +what you beheld still stamped on your eyeball, and have it both as a +memory and a present impression? So is the cross photographed on +your heart; and is it true about us that every day, and all days, we +behold our Saviour, and beholding Him are being changed into His +likeness? Is it true about us that we thus bear about with us in the +body 'the dying of the Lord Jesus'? If we look to Him with faith and +love, and make His Cross our own, and keep it ever in our memory, +ever before us as an inspiration and a hope and a joy and a pattern, +then we see. If not, 'for judgment am I come into the world, that +they which see not may see, and that they which see might be made +blind.' For what men are so blind to the infinite pathos and +tenderness, power, mystery, and miracle of the Cross, as the men and +women who all their lives long have heard a Gospel which has been +held up before their lack-lustre eyes, and have looked at it so long +that they cannot see it any more? + +Let us pray that our eyes may be purged, that we may see, and seeing +may copy, that dying love of the ever-loving Lord. + + + + +TAUNTS TURNING TO TESTIMONIES + + + '... The chief priests mocking Him ... said, 42. He + saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He be the + King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, + and we will believe Him. 43. He trusted in God; let + Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him.' + --MATT. xxvii. 41-43. + +It is an old saying that the corruption of the best is the worst. +What is more merciful and pitiful than true religion? What is more +merciless and malicious than hatred which calls itself 'religious'? +These priests, like many a persecutor for religion since, came to +feast their eyes on the long-drawn-out agonies of their Victim, and +their rank tongues blossomed into foul speech. Characteristically +enough, though they shared in the mockeries of the mob, they kept +themselves separate. The crowd pressed near enough to the cross to +speak their gibes _to_ Jesus; the dignified movers of the +ignorant crowd stood superciliously apart, and talked scoffingly +_about_ Him. Whilst the populace yelled, 'Thou that destroyest +the Temple and buildest it in three days, come down,' the chief +priests, with the scribes, looked at each other with a smile, and +said, '_He_ saved others; Himself _He_ cannot save.' Now, +these brutal taunts have lessons for us. They witness to the popular +impression of Christ, and what His claims were. He asserted Himself +to be a worker of miracles, the Messiah-King of Israel, the Son of God, +therefore He died. And they witness to the misconception which ruled +in the minds of these priests as to the relation of His claims to the +Cross. They thought that it had finally burst the bubble, and disposed +once for all of these absurd and blasphemous pretensions. Was it +credible that a man who possessed miraculous power should not, in +this supreme moment, use it to deliver Himself? Did not 'Physician, +heal Thyself,' come in properly there? Would any of the most besotted +followers of this pretender retain a rag of belief in His Messiahship +if He was crucified? Could it be possible that, if there was a God at +all, He should leave a man that really trusted in Him, not to say +who was really His Son, to die thus? A cracked mirror gives a distorted +image. The facts were seen, but their relation was twisted. If we will +take the guidance of these gibes, and see what is the real explanation +to the anomaly that they suggest, then we shall find that the taunts +turn to Him for a testimony, and that 'out of the mouths of mockers +there is 'perfected praise.' The stones flung at the Master turn to +roses strewed in His path. + +I. So, then, first the Cross shows us the Saviour who could not save +Himself. + +The priests did not believe in Christ's miracles, and they thought +that this final token of his impotence, as they took it to be, was +clear proof that the miracles were either tricks or mistakes. They +saw the two things, they fatally misunderstood the relation between +them. Let us put the two things together. + +Here, on the one hand, is a Man who has exercised absolute authority +in all the realms of the universe, who has spoken to dead matter, +and it has obeyed; who by His word has calmed the storm, and hushed +the winds by His word, has multiplied bread, has transmuted pale water +into ruddy wine; who has moved omnipotent amongst the disturbed minds +and diseased bodies of men, who has cast His sovereign word into the +depth and darkness of the grave, and brought out the dead, stumbling +and entangled in the grave-clothes. All these are facts on the one +side. And on the other there is this--that there, passive, and, to +superficial eyes, impotent, He hangs the helpless Victim of Roman +soldiers and of Jewish priests. The short and easy vulgar way to +solve the apparent contradiction was to deny the reality of the one +of its members; to say 'Miracles? Absurd! He never worked one, or He +would have been working one now.' + +But let their error lead us into truth, and let us grasp the +relation of the two apparently contradictory facts. 'He saved +others,' that is certain. He did not 'save Himself,' that is +as certain. Was the explanation 'cannot'? The priests by 'cannot' +meant physical impossibility, defect of power, and they were +wrong. But there is a profound sense in which the word 'cannot' +is absolutely true. For this is in all time, and in all human +relations, the law of service--sacrifice; and no man can truly +help humanity, or an individual, unless he is prepared to +surrender himself in the service. The lamp burns away in giving +light. The fire consumes in warming the hearth, and no brotherly +sympathy or help has ever yet been rendered, or ever will be, +except at the price of self-surrender. Now, some people think +that this is the whole explanation of our Lord's history, both +in His life and in His death. I do not believe that it is the +whole explanation, but I do believe it carries us some way +towards the central sanctuary, where the explanation lies. And +yet it is not complete or adequate, because, to parallel Christ's +work with the work of any of the rest of us to our brethren, +however beautiful, disinterested, self-oblivious, and self-consuming +it may be, seems to me--I say it with deference, though I must here +remember considerations of brevity and be merely assertive--entirely +to ignore the unique special characteristic of the work of Jesus +Christ--viz., that it was the atonement for the sins of the world. +He could not bear away our sins, unless the burden of them was laid +on His own back, and He carried our griefs, our sorrows, our diseases, +and our transgressions. 'He saved others, Himself He cannot save.' But +the impossibility was purely the result of His own willing and obedient +love; or, if I put it in more epigrammatic form, the priests' 'cannot' +was partially true, but if they had said '_would not_' they would +have hit the mark, and come to full truth. The reason for His death +becomes clear, and each of the contrasted facts is enhanced, when we +set side by side the opulence and ease of His manifold miracles and +the apparent impotence and resourcelessness of the passive Victim on +the cross. + +That 'cannot' did not come from defect of power, but from plenitude +of love, and it was a 'will not' in its deepest depths. For you will +find scattered throughout Scripture, especially these Gospels, +indications from our Lord's own lips, and by His own acts, that, in +the truest and fullest sense, His sufferings were voluntary. 'No man +taketh it from me'--He says about His life--'I have power to lay it +down, and I have power to take it again.' And once He did choose to +flash out for a moment the always present power, that we might learn +that when it did not appear, it was not because he could not, but +because he would not. When the soldiers came to lay their hands upon +Him, He presented Himself before them, saving them all the trouble +of search, and when He asked a question, and received the answer +that it was He of whom they were in search, there came one sudden +apocalypse of His majesty, and they fell to the ground, and lay +there prone before Him. They could have had no power at all against +Him, except He had willed to surrender Himself to them. Again, +though it is hypercritical perhaps to attach importance to what may +only be natural idiomatic forms of speech, yet in this connection it +is not to be overlooked that the language of all the Evangelists, in +describing the supreme moment of Christ's death, is congruous with +the idea that He died neither from the exhaustion of crucifixion, +nor from the thrust of the soldier's spear, but because He would. +For they all have expressions equivalent to that of one of them, 'He +gave up His spirit.' Be that as it may, the 'cannot' was a 'will +not'; and it was neither nails that fastened Him to the tree, nor +violence that slew Him, but He was fixed there by His own steadfast +will, and He died because He would. So if we rightly understand the +'cannot' we may take up with thankfulness the taunt which, as I say, +is tuned to a testimony, and reiterate adoringly, 'He saved others, +Himself He cannot save.' + +II. The Cross shows us the King on His throne. + +To the priests it appeared ludicrous to suppose that a King of +Israel should, by Israel, be nailed upon the cross. 'Let Him come +down, and we will believe Him.' They saw the two facts, they +misconceived their relation. There was a relation between them, and +it is not difficult for us to apprehend it. + +The Cross is Christ's throne. There are two ways in which the +tragedy of His crucifixion is looked at in the Gospels, one that +prevails in the three first, another that prevails in the fourth. +These two seem superficially to be opposite; they are complementary. +It depends upon your station whether a point in the sky is your +_zenith_ or your _nadir_. Here it is your zenith; at the antipodes +it is the nadir. In the first three gospels the aspect of humiliation, +degradation, inanition, suffering, is prominent in the references to +the Crucifixion. In the _fourth_ gospel the aspect of glory and +triumph is uppermost. 'Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up'; 'I, +if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me'; 'Now the hour is come +that the Son of Man should be glorified.' And it _is_ His glory, for +on that Cross Jesus Christ manifests, in transcendent and superlative +form, at once power and love that are boundless and divine. The Cross +is the foundation of His kingdom. In his great passage in Philippians +the Apostle brings together, in the closest causal connection, His +obedience unto death, the death of the Cross, and His exaltation and +reception of 'the name that is above every name, that at the name of +Jesus every knee should bow.' The title over the Cross was meant for +a gibe. It was a prophecy. By the Cross He becomes the 'King,' and not +only the 'King of the Jews.' The sceptre that was put in His hand, +though it was meant for a sneer, was a forecast of a truth, for He +rules, not with a rod of iron, but with the reed of gentleness; and +the crown of thorns, that was pressed down on His wounded and +bleeding head, foretold for our faith the great truth that suffering is +the foundation of dominion, and that men will bow as to their King +and Lord before Him who died for them, with a prostration of spirit, a +loyalty of allegiance, and an alertness of service, which none +other, monarch or superior, may even dream of attaining. The Cross +establishes, not destroys, Christ's dominion over men. + +Yes; and that Cross wins their faith as nothing else can. The blind +priests said, 'Let Him come down, and we will believe Him.' +Precisely because He did not come down, do sad and sorrowful and +sinful hearts turn to Him from the ends of the earth, and from the +distances of the ages pour the treasures of their trust and their +love at His feet. Did you ever think how strange it is, except with +one explanation, that the gibes of the priests did not turn out to +be true? Why is it that Christ's shameful death did not burst the +bubble, as they thought it had done? Why is it that in His case--and +I was going to say, and it would have been no exaggeration, in His +case only--the death of the leader did not result in the dispersion +of the led? Why is it that His fate and future were the opposite of +that of multitudes of other pseudo-Messiahs, of whom it is true that +when they were slain their followers came to nought? Why? There is +only one explanation, I think, and that is that the death was not +the end, but that He rose again from the dead. My brother, you will +either have to accept the Resurrection, with all that comes from it, +or else you will have to join the ranks of the priests, and consider +that Christ's death blew to atoms Christ's pretensions. If we know +anything about Him, we know that He asserted miraculous power, +Messiahship, and a filial relation to God. These things are facts. +Did He rise or did He not? If He did not, He was an enthusiast. If +He did, He is the King to whom our hearts can cleave, and to whom +our loyalty is due. + +III. Now, lastly, the Cross shows us the Son, beloved of the Father. + +The priests thought that it was altogether incredible that His +devotion should have been genuine, or His claim to be the Son of God +should have any reality, since the Cross, to their vulgar eyes, +disproved them both. Like all coarse-minded people, they estimated +character by condition, but they who do that make no end of +mistakes. They had forgotten their own Prophecies, which might have +told them that 'the Servant of the Lord in whom' His 'heart +delighted,' was a suffering Servant. But whilst they recognised the +facts, here again, as in the other two cases, they misconceived the +relation. We have the means of rectifying the distorted image. + +We ought to know, and to be sure, that the Cross of Christ was the +very token that this was God's 'beloved Son in whom He was well +pleased.' If we dare venture on the comparison of parts of that +which is all homogeneous and perfect, we might say that in the +moment of His death Jesus Christ was more than ever the object of +the Father's delight. + +Why? It is not my purpose now to enlarge upon all the reasons which +might be suggested. Let me put them together in a sentence or two. +In that Cross Jesus Christ revealed God as God's heart had always +yearned to be revealed, infinite in love, pitifulness, forbearance, +and pardoning mercy. There was the highest manifestation of the +glory of God. 'What?' you say, 'a poor weak Man, hanging on a cross, +and dying in the dark--is _that_ the very shining apex of all +that humanity can know of divinity?' Yes, for it is the pure +manifestation that God is Love. Therefore the whole sunshine of the +Father's presence rested on the dying Saviour. It was the hour when +God most delighted in Him, if I may venture the comparison, for the +other reasons that then He carried filial obedience to its utmost +perfection, that then His trust in God was deepest, even at the hour +when His spirit was darkened by the cloud that the world's sin, +which He was carrying, had spread thunderous between Him and the +sunshine of the Father's face. For in that mysterious voice, which +we can never understand in its depths, there were blended trust and +desolation, each in its highest degree: 'My God! my God! Why hast +Thou forsaken Me?' And the Cross was the complete carrying out of +God's dearest purpose for the world, that He might be 'just, and the +justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.' Therefore, then--I was +going to say as never before--was Christ His Son, in whom He +delighted. + +Brethren, let us, led by the errors of these scoffers, grasp the +truths that they pervert. Let us see that weak Man hanging helpless +on the cross, whose 'cannot' is the impotence of omnipotence, +imposed by His own loving will to save a world by the sacrifice of +Himself. Let us crown Him our King, and let our deepest trust and +our gladdest obedience be rendered to Him because He did not come +down from, but 'endured, the cross.' Let us behold with wonder, awe, +and endless love the Father not withholding His only Son, but +'delivering Him up to the death for us all,' and from the empty +grave and the occupied Throne let us learn how the Father by both +proclaims to all the world concerning Him hanging dying on the +cross: '_This_ is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' + + + + +THE VEIL RENT + + + 'Behold, the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from + the top to the bottom.'--MATT. xxvii. 51. + +As I suppose we are all aware, the Jewish Temple was divided into +three parts: the Outer Court, open to all; the Holy Place, to which +the ministering priests had daily access to burn incense and trim +the lamps; and the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest was +permitted to go, and that but once a year, on the great Day of +Atonement. For the other three hundred and sixty-four days the +shrine lay silent, untrodden, dark. Between it and the less sacred +Holy Place hung the veil, whose heavy folds only one man was +permitted to lift or to pass. To all others it was death to peer +into the mysteries, and even to him, had he gone at another time, +and without the blood of the sacrifice, death would have ensued. + +If we remember all this and try to cast ourselves back in +imagination to the mental attitude of the ordinary Jew, the incident +of my text receives its true interpretation. At the moment when the +loud cry of the dying Christ rung over the heads of the awestruck +multitude, that veil was, as it were, laid hold of by a pair of +giant hands and torn asunder, as the Evangelist says, 'from the top +to the bottom.' The incident was a symbol. In one aspect it +proclaimed the end of the long years of Israel's prerogative. In +another it ushered in an epoch of new relations between man and God. +If Jesus Christ was what He said He was, if His death was what He +declared it to be, it was fitting that it should be attended by a +train of subordinate and interpreting wonders. These were, besides +that of my text, the darkened sun, the trembling earth, the shivered +rocks, the open graves, the rising saints--all of them, in their +several ways, illuminating the significance of that death on +Calvary. + +Not less significant is this symbol of my text, and I desire now to +draw your attention to its meanings. + +I. The rent veil proclaims the desecrated temple. + +There is a striking old legend, preserved by the somewhat mendacious +historian of the Jewish people, that, before Jerusalem fell, the +anxious watchers heard from within the sanctuary a great voice +saying, 'Let us depart hence!' and through the night were conscious +of the winnowing of the mighty wings of the withdrawing cherubim. +And soon a Roman soldier tossed a brand into the most Holy Place, +and the 'beautiful house where their fathers praised was burned with +fire.' The legend is pathetic and significant. But that 'departing' +had taken place forty years before; and at the moment when Jesus +'gave up the ghost,' purged eyes might have seen the long trail of +brightness as the winged servitors of the Most High withdrew from +the desecrated shrine. The veil rent declared that the sacred soil +within it was now common as any foot of earth in Galilee; and its +rending, so to speak, made way for a departing God. + +That conception, that the death of Christ Jesus was the +_de-consecration_--if I may coin a word--of the Temple, and the end +of all its special sanctity, and that thenceforward the Presence had +departed from it, is distinctly enough taught us by Himself in words +which move in the same circle of ideas as that in which the symbol +resides.... You remember, no doubt, that, if we accept the testimony +of John's Gospel, at the very beginning of our Lord's ministry He +vindicated His authority to cleanse the sanctuary against the cavils +of the sticklers for propriety by the enigmatical words, 'Destroy +this Temple, and in three days I will build it up,' to which the +Evangelist appends the comment, 'He spake of the Temple of His +body,' that body in which 'all the fulness of the Godhead' dwelt, +and which was, and is to-day, all that the Temple shadowed and +foretold, the dwelling-place of God in humanity, the place of +sacrifice, the meeting-place between God and man. But just because +our Lord in these dark words predicted His death and His +resurrection, He also hinted the destruction of the literal stone +and lime building, and its rearing again in nobler and more +spiritual form. When He said, 'Destroy this Temple,' He implied, +secondarily, the destruction of the house in which He stood, and +laid that destruction, whensoever it should come to pass, at their +doors. And, inasmuch as the saying in its deepest depth meant His +death by their violence and craft, therefore, in that early saying +of His, was wrapped up the very same truth which was symbolised by +the rent veil, and was bitterly fulfilled at last. When they slew +Christ they killed the system under which they lived, and for which +they would have been glad to die, in a zeal without knowledge; and +destroyed the very Temple on the distorted charge of being the +destroyer of which, they handed Him over to the Roman power. + +The death of Christ is, then, the desecration and the destruction of +that Temple. Of course it is; because when a nation that had had +millenniums of education, of forbearance, of revelation, turned at +last upon the very climax and brightest central light of all the +Revelation, standing there amongst them in a bodily form, there was +nothing more to be done. God had shot His last arrow; His quiver was +empty. 'Last of all He sent unto them His Son, saying,' with a +wistful kind of half-confidence, 'They will reverence My Son,' and +the divine expectation was disappointed, and exhaustless Love was +empty-handed, and all was over. He could turn to themselves and say, +'Judge between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done +that I have not done to it?' Therefore, there was nothing left but +to let the angels of destruction loose, and to call for the Roman +eagles with their broad-spread wings, and their bloody beaks, and +their strong talons, to gather together round the carcase. When He +gave up the Ghost, 'the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from +the top to the bottom.' + +A time of repentance was given. It was possible for the most guilty +participator in that judicial murder to have his gory hands washed +and made white in the very blood that he had shed; but, failing +repentance, that death was the death of Israel, and the destruction +of Israel's Temple. Let us take the lesson, dear brethren. If we +turn away from that Saviour, and refuse the offered gifts of His +love, there is no other appeal left in the power of Heaven; and +there is nothing for it after that except judgment and destruction. +We can 'crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame.' +And the hearts that are insensitive, as are some of our hearts, to +that great love and grace, are capable of nothing except to be +pulverised by means of a judgment. Repentance is possible for us +all, but, failing that, the continuance of rejection of Christ is +the pulling down, on our own heads, of the ruins of the Temple, like +the Israelitish hero in his blindness and despair. + +II. Now, secondly, the rent veil means, in another way of looking at +the incident, light streaming in on the mystery of God. + +Let me recall to your imaginations what lay behind that heavy veil. +In the Temple, in our Lord's time, there was no presence of the +Shekinah, the light that symbolised the divine presence. There was +the mercy-seat, with the outstretched wings of the cherubim; there +were the dimly pictured forms on the tapestry hangings; there was +silence deep as death; there was darkness absolute and utter, whilst +the Syrian sun was blazing down outside. Surely that is the symbol +of the imperfect knowledge or illumination as to the divine nature +which is over all the world. 'The veil is spread over all nations, +and the covering over all people.' And surely that sudden, sharp +tearing asunder of the obscuring medium, and letting the bright +sunlight stream into every corner of the dark chamber, is for us a +symbol of the great fact that in the life, and especially in the +death, of Jesus Christ our Lord, we have light thrown in to the +depths of God. + +What does that Cross tell us about God that the world did not know? +And how does it tell us? and why does it tell us? It tells us of +absolute righteousness, of that in the divine nature which cannot +tolerate sin; of the stern law of retribution which must be wrought +out, and by which the wages of every sin is death. It tells us not +only of a divine righteousness which sees guilt and administers +punishment, but it tells us of a divine love, perfect, infinite, +utter, perennial, which shrinks from no sacrifice, which stoops to +the lowest conditions, which itself takes upon it all the miseries +of humanity, and which dies because it loves and will save men from +death. And as we look upon that dying Man hanging on the cross, the +very embodiment and consummation of weakness and of shame, we have +to say, 'Lo! this is our God! We have waited for Him'--through all +the weary centuries--'and He will save us.' How does it tell us all +this? Not by eloquent and gracious thoughts, not by sweet and +musical words, but by a deed. The only way by which we can know men +is by what they do. The only way by which we know God is by what He +does. And so we point to that Cross and say, 'There! not in words, +not in thoughts, not in speculations, not in hopes and fears and +peradventures and dim intuitions, but in a solid fact; there is the +Revelation which lays bare the heart of God, and shows us its very +throbbing of love to every human soul.' 'The veil was rent in twain +from the top to the bottom.' + +The Cross will reveal God to you only if you believe that Jesus +Christ was the Incarnate Word. Brethren, if that death was but the +death of even the very holiest, noblest, sweetest, perfectest soul +that ever lived on earth and breathed human breath, there is no +revelation of God in it for us. It tells us what Jesus was, and by a +very roundabout inference may suggest something of what the divine +nature is, but unless you can say, as the New Testament says, 'In +the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word +was God.... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we +beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father, +full of grace and truth,' I fail to see how the death of Christ can +be a revelation of the love of God. + +I need not occupy time in dilating upon the contrast between this +solid certitude, and all that the world, apart from Jesus Christ, +has to lay hold of about God. We want something else than mist on +which to build, and on which to lay hold. And there is a +substantial, warm, flesh-and-blood hand, if I may so say, put out to +us through the mist when we believe in Christ the Son of God, who +died on the cross for us all. Then, amidst whirling mists and +tossing seas, there is a fixed point to which we can moor; then our +confidence is built, not on peradventures or speculations or wishes +or dreams or hopes, but on a historical fact, and grasping that firm +we may stand unmoved. + +Dear friends, I may be very old-fashioned and very narrow--I suppose +I am; but I am bound to declare my conviction, which I think every +day's experience of the tendency of thought only makes more certain, +that, practically for this generation, the choice lies between +accepting the life and death of Jesus Christ as the historical +Revelation of God, or having no knowledge of Him--_knowledge_, +I say,--of Him at all; you must choose between the barred sanctuary, +within which lies couched a hidden Something--with a capital S--or +perhaps a hidden Someone whom you never can know and never will; or +the rent veil, rent by Christ's death, through which you can pass, +and behold the mercy-seat and, above the outstretched wings of the +adoring cherubim, the Father whose name is Love. + +III. Lastly, the rent veil permits any and every man to draw near to +God. + +You remember what I have already said as to the jealous guarding of +the privacy of that inner shrine, and how not only the common herd +of the laity, but the whole of the priesthood, with the solitary +exception of its titular head, were shut out from ever entering it. +In the old times of Israel there was only one man alive at once who +had ever been beyond the veil. And now that it is rent, what does +that show but this, that by the death of Jesus Christ any one, every +one, is welcome to pass in to the very innermost sanctuary, and to +dwell, nestling as close as he will, to the very heart of the +throned God? There is a double veil, if I may so say, between man +and God: the side turned outward is woven by our own sins; and the +other turned inwards is made out of the necessary antagonism of the +divine nature to man's sin. There hangs the veil, and when the +Psalmist asked, 'Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord; or who +shall stand in His holy place?' he was putting a question which +echoes despairingly in the very heart of all religions. And he +answered it as conscience ever answers it when it gets fair play: +'He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up +his soul unto vanity.' And where or who is he? Nowhere; nobody. +Access is barred, because it is impossible that a holy and righteous +God should communicate the selectest gifts of His love, even the +sense of His favour, and of harmony and fellowship with Him, to +sinful men, and barred, because it is impossible that men, with the +consciousness of evil and the burden of guilt sometimes chafing +their shoulders, and always bowing down their backs, should desire +to possess, or be capable of possessing, that fellowship and union +with God. A black, frowning wall, if I may change the metaphor of my +text, rises between us and God. But One comes with the sacrificial +vessel in His hand, and pours His blood on the barrier, and that +melts the black blocks that rise between us and God, and the path is +patent and permeable for every foot. 'The veil of the Temple was +rent in twain' when Christ died. That death, because it is a +sacrifice, makes it possible that the whole fulness of the divine +love should be poured upon man. That death moves our hearts, takes +away our sense of guilt, draws us nearer to Him; and so both by its +operation--not on the love of God--but on the government of God, and +by its operation on the consciousness of men, throws open the path +into His very presence. + +If I might use abstract words, I would say that Christ's death +potentially opens the path for every man, which being put into plain +English--which is better--is just that by the death of Christ every +man can, if he will, go to God, and live beside Him. And our faith +is our personal laying hold of that great sacrifice and treading on +that path. It turns the 'potentiality' into an actuality, the +possibility into a fact. If we believe on Him who died on the cross +for us all, then by that way we come to God, than which there is +none other given under heaven among men. + +So all believers are priests, or none of them are. The absolute +right of direct access to God, without the intervention of any man +who has an officially greater nearness to Him than others, and +through whom as through a channel the grace of sacrament comes, is +contained in the great symbol of my text. And it is a truth that +this day needs. On the one hand there is agnostic unbelief, which +needs to see in the rent veil the illumination streaming through it +on to the depths of God; and on the other hand there is the +complementary error--and the two always breed each other--the +superstition which drags back by an anachronism the old Jewish +notions of priesthood into the Christian Church. It needs to see in +the rent veil the charter of universal priesthood for all believers, +and to hearken to the words which declare, 'Ye are a chosen +generation, a spiritual house, a royal priesthood, that ye should +offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ.' +That is the lesson that this day wants. 'Having, therefore, +brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest of all, by the blood of +Jesus, by a new and living way, which He has consecrated for us +through the veil, that is His flesh, let us draw near with true +hearts in full assurance of faith.' + + + + +THE PRINCE OF LIFE + + + 'In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward + the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the + other Mary to see the sepulchre. 2. And, behold, there + was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord + descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the + stone from the door, and sat upon it. 3. His countenance + was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: + 4. And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became + as dead men. 5. And the angel answered and said unto the + women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which + was crucified. 6. He is not here: for He is risen, as He + said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7. And go + quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from + the dead; and, behold, He goeth before you into Galilee; + there shall ye see Him: lo, I have told you. 8. And they + departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great + joy; and did run to bring His disciples word. 9. And as + they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, + saying, All hail. And they came and held Him by the + feet, and worshipped Him. 10. Then said Jesus unto them, + Be not afraid: go tell My brethren that they go into + Galilee, and there shall they see Me. 11. Now, when + they were going, behold, some of the watch came into + the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the + things that were done. 12. And when they were assembled + with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large + money unto the soldiers, 13. Saying, Say ye, His + disciples came by night, and stole Him away while we + slept. 14. And if this come to the governor's ears, we + will persuade him, and secure you. 15. So they took the + money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is + commonly reported among the Jews until this day.' + --MATT. xxviii. 1-15. + +The attempts at harmonising the resurrection narratives are not only +unsatisfactory, but they tend to blur the distinctive characteristics +of each account. We shall therefore confine ourselves entirely to +Matthew's version, and leave the others alone, with the simple +remark that a condensed report of a series of events does not deny +what it omits, nor contradict a fuller one. The peculiarities of +Matthew's last chapter are largely due to the purpose of his gospel. + Throughout, it has been the record of the Galilean ministry, the +picture of the King of Israel, and of His treatment by those who +should have been His subjects. This chapter establishes the fact of +His resurrection; but, passing by the Jerusalem appearances of the +risen Lord, as being granted to individuals and having less bearing +on His royalty, emphasises two points: His rejection by the +representatives of the nation, whose lie is endorsed by popular +acceptance; and the solemn assumption, in Galilee, so familiar to +the reader, of universal dominion, with the world-wide commission, +in which the kingdom bursts the narrow national limits and becomes +co-extensive with humanity. It is better to learn the meaning of +Matthew's selection of his incidents than to wipe out instructive +peculiarities in the vain attempt after harmony. + +First, notice his silence (in which all the four narratives are +alike) as to the time and circumstances of the resurrection itself. +That had taken place before the grey twilight summoned the faithful +women, and before the earthquake and the angel's descent. No eye saw +Him rise. The guards were not asleep, for the statement that they +were is a lie put into their mouths by the rulers; but though they +kept jealous watch, His rising was invisible to them. 'The prison +was shut with all safety,' for the stone was rolled away after He +was risen, 'and the keepers standing before the doors,' but there +was 'no man within.' As in the evening of that day He appeared in +the closed chamber, so He passed from the sealed grave. Divine +decorum required that that transcendent act should be done without +mortal observers of the actual rising of the Sun which scatters for +ever the darkness of death. + +Matthew next notices the angel ministrant and herald. His narrative +leaves the impression that the earthquake and appearance of the +angel immediately preceded the arrival of the women, and the +'Behold!' suggests that they felt and saw both. But that is a piece +of chronology on which there may be difference of opinion. The other +narratives tell of two angels. Matthew's mention of one only may be +due either to the fact that one was speaker, or to the subjective +impressions of his informant, who saw but the one, or to variation +in the number visible at different times. We know too little of the +laws which determine their appearances to be warranted in finding +contradiction or difficulty here. The power of seeing may depend on +the condition of the beholder. It may depend, not as with gross +material bodies, on optics, but on the volition of the radiant +beings seen. They may pass from visibility to its opposite, lightly +and repeatedly, flickering into and out of sight, as the Pleiades +seem to do. Where there is such store of possibilities, he is rash +who talks glibly about contradictions. + +Of far more value is it to note the purpose served by this waiting +angel. We heard much of a herald angel of the Lord in the story of +the Nativity. We hear nothing of him during the life of Christ. Now +again he appears, as the stars, quenched in the noontide, shine +again when the sun is out of the sky. He attends as humble servitor, +in token that the highest beings gazed on that empty grave with +reverent adoration, and were honoured by being allowed to guard the +sacred place. Death was an undreaded thing to them, and no hopes for +themselves blossomed from Christ's grave; but He who had lain in it +was their King as well as ours, and new lessons of divine love were +taught them, as they wondered and watched. They come to minister by +act and word to the weeping women's faith and joy. Their appearance +paralyses the guards, who would have kept the Marys from the grave. +They roll away the great circular stone, which women's hands, +however nerved by love, could not have moved in its grooves. They +speak tender words to them. There by the empty tomb, the strong +heavenly and the weak earthly lovers of the risen King meet +together, and clasp hands of help, the pledge and first-fruits of +the standing order henceforth, and the inauguration of their office +of 'ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for ... heirs of +salvation.' The risen Christ hath made both one. The servants of the +same King must needs be friends of one another. + +The angel's words fall into three parts. First, he calms fears by the +assurance that the seekers for Christ are dear to Him. 'Fear not _ye_' +glances at the prostrate watchers, and almost acknowledges the +reasonableness of their abject terror. To them he could not but be +hostile, but to hearts that longed for their and his Lord, he and all +his mighty fellows were brethren. Let us learn that all God's angels +are our lovers and helpers, if we love and seek for Jesus. Superstition +has peopled the gulf between God and man with crowds of beings; +revelation assures us that it is full of creatures who excel in strength. +Men have cowered before them, but 'whether they be thrones, or +dominions, or principalities, or powers,' our King was their Creator, +and is their Sovereign, and, if we serve Him, all these are on our +side. The true deliverer from superstitious terrors is the risen Christ. +Again, the angel announces in simplest words the glorious fact, 'He +is risen,' and helps them to receive it by a double way. He reminds +them of Christ's own words, which had seemed so mysterious and +had turned out so simple, so incredible, and now had proved so true. +He calls them with a smile of welcome to draw near, and with him to +look into the empty place. The invitation extends to us all, for the +one assurance of immortality; and the only answer to the despairing +question, 'If a man die, shall he live again?' which is solid enough +to resist the corrosion of modern doubt as of ancient ignorance, is +that empty grave, and the filled throne, which was its necessary +consequence. By it we measure the love that stooped so low, we +school our hearts to anticipate without dread or reluctance our own +lying down there, we fasten our faith on the risen Forerunner, and +rejoice in the triumphant assurance of a living Christ. If the +wonder of the women's stunned gaze is no more ours, our calm +acceptance of the familiar fact need be none the less glad, and our +estimate of its far-reaching results more complete than their tumult +of feeling permitted to them. + +No wonder that, swiftly, new duty which was privilege followed on +the new, glad knowledge. It was emphatically 'a day of good +tidings,' and they could not hold their peace. A brief glance, +enough for certitude and joy, was permitted; and then, with urgent +haste, they are sent to be apostles to the Apostles. The possession +of the news of a risen Saviour binds the possessors to be its +preachers. Where it is received in any power, it will impel to +utterance. He who can keep silence has never felt, as he ought, the +worth of the word, nor realised the reason why he has seen the Cross +or the empty grave. 'He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall +ye see.' It was but two complete days and one night since Christ had +said to the disciples that He would rise again, and, as the Shepherd +of the scattered flock, go before them into Galilee. How long ago +since that saying it would seem! The reasons for Matthew's omission +of all the other appearances of our Lord in Jerusalem, with the +exception of the one which immediately follows, and for the stress +he lays on this rendezvous in their native Galilee, have already +been touched on, and need not detain us now. + +The next point in the narrative is the glad interview with the risen +Jesus. The women had been at the grave but for a few moments. But +they lived more in these than in years of quiet. Time is very +elastic, and five minutes or five seconds may change a life. These +few moments changed a world. Haste, winged by fear which had no +torment, and by joy which found relief in swift movement, sent them +running, forgetful of conventional proprieties, towards the +awakening city. Probably Mary Magdalene had left them, as soon as +they saw the open grave, and had hurried back alone to tell the +tidings. And now the crowning joy and wonder comes. How simply it is +told!--the introductory 'Behold!' just hinting at the wonderfulness, +and perhaps at the suddenness, of our Lord's appearance, and the +rest being in the quietest and fewest words possible. Note the deep +significance of the name 'Jesus' here. The angel spoke of 'the +Lord,' but all the rest of the chapter speaks of 'Jesus.' The joy +and hope that flow from the Resurrection depend on the fact of His +humanity. He comes out of the grave, the same brother of our mortal +flesh as before. It was no phantom whose feet they clasped, and He +is not withdrawn from them by His mysterious experience. All through +the Resurrection histories and the narrative of the forty days, the +same emphasis attaches to the name, which culminates in the angel's +assurance at the Ascension, that 'this same Jesus,' in His true +humanity, who has gone up on high our Forerunner, shall come again +our Brother and our Judge. 'It is _Christ_ that died, yea +rather, that is risen again'; but that triumphant assurance loses +all its blessedness, unless we say too, '_Jesus_ died for our +sins according to the Scriptures, and ... rose again the third day.' + +Note, too, the calmness of His greeting. He uses the common form of +salutation, as if He had but been absent on some common occasion, +and met them in ordinary circumstances. He speaks out of His own +deep tranquillity, and desires to impart it to their agitated +spirits. He would calm their joy, that it may be the deeper, like +His own. If we may give any weight to the original meaning of the +formula of greeting which He employs, we may see blessed prophecy in +it. The lips of the risen Christ bid us all 'rejoice.' His +salutation is no empty wish, but a command which makes its own +fulfilment possible. If our hearts welcome Him, and our faith is +firm in His risen power and love, then He gives us a deep and +central gladness, which nothing + + 'That is at enmity with joy + Can utterly abolish or destroy.' + +The rush to His feet, and the silent clasp of adoration, are +eloquent of a tumult of feeling most natural, and yet not without +turbid elements, which He does not wholly approve. We have not here +the prohibition of such a touch which was spoken to Mary, but we +have substantially the same substitution, by His command, of +practical service for mere emotion. That carries a lesson always in +season. We cannot love Christ too much, nor try to get too near Him, +to touch Him with the hand of our faith. But there have been modes +of religious emotion, represented by hymns and popular books, which +have not mingled reverence rightly with love, and have spoken of +Him, and of the emotions binding us to Him, in tones unwholesomely +like those belonging to earthly passion. But, apart from that, Jesus +taught these women, and us through them, that it is better to +proclaim His Resurrection than to lie at His feet; and that, however +sweet the blessedness which we find in Him may be, it is meant to +put a message into our lips, which others need. Our sight of Him +gives us something to say, and binds us to say it. It was a blessing +to the women to have work to do, in doing which their strained +emotions might subside. It was a blessing to the mournful company in +the upper room to have their hearts prepared for His coming by these +heralds. It was a wonderful token of His unchanged love, and an +answer to fears and doubts of how they might find Him, that He sends +the message to them as brethren. + +In the hurry of that Easter morning, they had no time to ponder on +all that it had brought them. The Resurrection as the demonstration +of Christ's divinity and of the acceptance of His perfect sacrifice, +or as the pledge of their resurrection, or as the type of their +Christian life, was for future experience to grasp. For that day, it +was enough to pass from despair to joy, and to let the astounding +fact flood them with sunny hope. + +We know the vast sweep of the consequences and consolations of it +far better than they did. There is no reason, in our distance from +it, for its diminishing either in magnitude, in certitude, or in +blessedness in our eyes. No fact in the history of the world stands +on such firm evidence as the resurrection of Jesus Christ. No age of +the world ever needed to believe it more than this one does. It +becomes us all to grasp it for ourselves with an iron tenacity of +hold, and to echo, in the face of the materialisms and know-nothing +philosophy of this day, the old ringing confession, 'Now is Christ +risen from the dead!' + +We need say little about the last point in this narrative--the +obstinate blindness of the rulers, and their transparent lie to +account for the empty grave. The guard reports to the rulers, not to +the governor, as they had been handed over by Pilate for special +service. But they were Roman soldiers, as appears from the danger +which the rulers provided against, that of their alleged crime +against military discipline, in sleeping at their post, coming to +his ears. The trumped-up story is too puerile to have taken in any +one who did not wish to believe it. How could they tell what +happened when they were asleep? How could such an operation as +forcing back a heavy stone, and exhuming a corpse, have been carried +on without waking them? How could such a timid set of people have +mustered up courage for such a bold act? What did they do it for? +Not to bury their Lord. He had been lovingly laid there by reverent +hands, and costly spices strewn upon the sacred limbs. The only +possible motive would be that the disciples might tell lies about +His resurrection. That hypothesis that the Resurrection was a +deliberately concocted falsehood has proved too strong for the +stomach of modern unbelief, and has been long abandoned, as it had +need to be. When figs grow on thistles, such characters as the early +Christians, martyrs, heroes, saints, will be produced by a system +which has a lie, known to be one, for its foundation. But the lame +story is significant in two ways. It confesses, by its desperate +attempt to turn the corner of the difficulty, that the great rock, +on which all denials of Christ's resurrection split, is the simple +question--If He did not rise again, what became of the body? The +priests' answer is absurd, but it, at all events, acknowledges that +the grave was empty, and that it is incumbent to produce an +explanation which reasonable men can accept without laughter. + +Further, this last appearance of the rulers in the gospel is full of +tragic significance, and is especially important to Matthew, whose +narrative deals especially with Jesus as the King and Messiah of +Israel. This is the end of centuries of prophecy and patience! This +is what all God's culture of His vineyard has come to! The +husbandmen cast the Heir out of the vineyard, and slew him. But +there was a deeper depth than even that. They would not be persuaded +when He rose again from the dead. They entrenched themselves in a +lie, which only showed that they had a glimmering of the truth and +hated it. And the lie was willingly swallowed by the mass of the +nation, who thereby showed that they were of the same stuff as they +who made it. A conspiracy of falsehood, which knew itself to be +such, was the last act of that august council of Israel. It is an +awful lesson of the penalties of unfaithfulness to the light +possessed, an awful instance of 'judicial blindness.' So sets the +sun of Israel. And therefore Matthew's Gospel turns away from the +apostate nation, which has rejected its King, to tell, in its last +words, of His assumption of universal dominion, and of the passage +of the glad news from Israel to the world. + + + + +THE RISEN LORD'S GREETINGS AND GIFTS + + + 'And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus + met them, saying, All hail.'--MATT. xxviii. 9. + + 'Then the same day at evening ... came Jesus and stood + in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.' + --JOHN xx. 19. + +So did our Lord greet His sad followers. The first of these +salutations was addressed to the women as they hurried in the +morning from the empty tomb bewildered; the second to the disciples +assembled in the upper room in the evening of the same day. Both are +ordinary greetings. The first is that usual in Greek, and literally +means 'Rejoice'; the second is that common in Hebrew. The divergence +between the two may be owing to the Evangelist Matthew having +rendered the words which our Lord actually did speak, in the tongue +familiar to His time, into their equivalent Greek. But whatever +account may be given of the divergence does not materially affect +the significance which I find in the salutations. And I desire to +turn to them for a few moments now, because I think that, if we +ponder them, we may gain some precious lessons from these Easter +greetings of the Lord Himself. + +I. First, then, notice their strange and majestic simplicity. + +He meets His followers after Calvary and the Tomb and the +Resurrection, with the same words with which two casual +acquaintances, after some slight absence, might salute one another +by the way. Their very simplicity is their sublimity here. For think +of what tremendous experiences He had passed through since they saw +Him last, and of what a rush of rapture and disturbance of joy shook +the minds of the disciples, and then estimate the calm and calming +power of that matter-of-fact and simple greeting. It bears upon its +very front the mark of truth. Would anybody have imagined the scene +so? There have been one or two great poets who might conceivably +have risen to the height of putting such words under such +circumstances into the mouths of creatures of their own imagination. +Analogous instances of the utmost simplicity of expression in +moments of intense feeling may be quoted from Æschylus or +Shakespeare, and are regarded as the high-water marks of genius. But +does any one suppose that these evangelists were exceptionally +gifted souls of that sort, or that they could have imagined anything +like this--so strange in its calm, so unnatural at first sight, and +yet vindicating itself as so profoundly natural and sublime--unless +for the simple reason that they had heard it themselves, or been +told it by credible witnesses? Neither the delicate pencil of the +great dramatic genius nor the coarser brush of legend can have drawn +such an incident as this, and it seems to me that the only +reasonable explanation of it is that these greetings are what He +really did say. + +For, as I have remarked, unnatural as it seems at first sight, if +we think for a moment, the very simplicity and calm, and, I was +going to say, the _matter-of-factness_, of such a greeting, as +the first that escaped from lips that had passed through death and +yet were red and vocal, is congruous with the deepest truths of +His nature. He has come from that tremendous conflict, and He +reappears, not flushed with triumph, nor bearing any trace of effort, +but surrounded as by a nimbus with that strange tranquillity which +evermore enwrapped Him. So small does the awful scene which He has +passed through seem to this divine-human Man, and so utterly are +the old ties and bonds unaffected by it, that when He meets His +followers, all He has to say to them as His first greeting is, +'Peace be unto you!'--the well-worn salutation that was bandied to +and fro in every market-place and scene where men were wont to meet. +Thus He indicates the divine tranquillity of His nature; thus He +minimises the fact of death; thus He reduces it to its true +insignificance as a parenthesis across which may pass unaffected all +sweet familiarities and loving friendships; thus He reknits the +broken ties, and, though the form of their intercourse is hereafter +to be profoundly modified, the substance of it remains, whereof He +giveth assurance unto them in these His first words from the dead. So, +as to a man standing on some mountain plateau, the deep gorges which +seam it become invisible, and the unbroken level runs right on. So, +there are a marvellous proof of the majesty and tranquillity of the +divine Man, a glorious manifestation of His superiority over death; +a blessed assurance of the reknitting of all ancient ties, after it +as before it, coming to us from pondering on the trivial words--trivial +from other lips, but profoundly significant on His--wherewith He +greeted His servants when He rose again from the dead. + +II. Then note, secondly, the universal destination of the greetings +of the risen Lord. + +I have said that it is possibly a mere accident that we should have +the two forms of salutation preserved for us here; and that it is +quite conceivable that our Lord really spoke but one, which has been +preserved unaltered from its Hebrew or Aramaic original in John, and +rendered by its Greek equivalent by the Evangelist Matthew. + +But be that as it may, I cannot help feeling that in this fact, that +the one salutation is the common greeting among Greek-speaking peoples, +and the other the common greeting amongst Easterns, we may permissibly +find the thought of the universal aspect of the gifts and greetings of +the risen Christ. He comes to all men, and each man hears Him, 'in his +own tongue wherein he was born,' breathing forth to him greetings +which are promises, and promises which are gifts. Just as the mocking +inscription on the Cross proclaimed, in 'Hebrew and Greek and Latin,' +the three tongues known to its readers, the one kingdom of the +crucified King--so in the greetings from the grave, the one declares +that, to all the desires of eager, ardent, sensuous, joy-loving +Westerns, and all the aspirations of repose-loving Easterns, who had +had bitter experience of the pangs and pains of a state of warfare, +Jesus Christ is ready to respond and to bring answering gifts. +Whatsoever any community or individual has conceived as its highest +ideal of blessedness and of good, that the risen Christ hath in His +hands to bestow. He takes men's ideals of blessedness, and deepens +and purifies and refines them. + +The Greek notion of joy as being the good to be most wished for +those dear to us, is but a shallow one. They had to learn, and their +philosophy and their poetry and their art came to corruption because +they would not learn, that the corn of wheat must be cast into the +ground and die before it bring forth fruit. They knew little of the +blessing and meaning of sorrow, and therefore the false glitter +passed away, and the pursuit of the ideal became gross and foul and +sensuous. And, on the other hand, the Jew, with his longing for +peace, had an equally shallow and unworthy conception of what it +meant, and what was needed to produce it. If he had only external +concord with men, and a competency of outward good within his reach +without too much trouble, he thought that because he 'had much goods +laid up for many years' he might 'take his ease; and eat, and drink, +and be merry.' But Jesus Christ comes to satisfy both aspirations by +contradicting both, and to reveal to Greek and Jew how much deeper +and diviner was his desire than he dreamed it to be; and, therefore, +how impossible it was to find the joy that would last, in the +dancing fireflies of external satisfactions or the delights of art +and beauty; and how impossible it was to find the repose that +ennobled and was wedded to action, in anything short of union with +God. + +The Lord Christ comes out of the grave in which He lay for every +man, and brings to each man's door, in a dialect intelligible to the +man himself, the satisfaction of the single soul's aspirations and +ideals, as well as of the national desires. His gifts and greetings +are of universal destination, meant for us all and adapted for us +each. + +III. Then, thirdly, notice the unfailing efficacy of the Lord's +greetings. + +Look at these people to whom He spoke. Remember what they were +between the Friday and the Sunday morning; utterly cowed and beaten, +the women, in accordance with the feminine nature, apparently more +deeply touched by the personal loss of the Friend and Comforter; and +the men apparently, whilst sharing that sorrow, also touched by +despair at the going to water of all the hopes that they had been +building upon His official character and position. 'We trusted that +it had been He which should have redeemed Israel,' they said, 'as +they walked and were sad.' They were on the point of parting. The +Keystone withdrawn, the stones were ready to fall apart. Then came +_something_--let us leave a blank for a moment--then came +_something_; and those who had been cowards, dissolved in +sorrow and relaxed by despair, in eight-and-forty hours became +heroes. From that time, when, by all reasonable logic and common +sense applied to men's motives, the Crucifixion should have crushed +their dreams and dissolved their society, a precisely opposite +effect ensues, and not only did the Church continue, but the men +changed their characters, and became, somehow or other, full of +these very two things which Christ wished for them--namely, joy and +peace. + +Now I want to know--what bridges that gulf? How do you get the Peter +of the Acts of the Apostles out of the Peter of the Gospels? Is +there any way of explaining that revolution of character, whilst yet +its broad outlines remain identical, which befell him and all of +them, except the old-fashioned one that the _something_ which +came in between was the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the +consequent gift of joy and peace in Him, a joy that no troubles or +persecutions could shake, a peace that no conflicts could for a +moment disturb? It seems to me that every theory of Christianity +which boggles at accepting the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as a +plain fact, is shattered to pieces on the sharp-pointed rock of this +one demand--'Very well! If it is not a fact, account for the +existence of the Church, and for the change in the characters of its +members.' You may wriggle as you like, but you will never get a +reasonable theory of these two undeniable facts until you believe +that He rose from the dead. In His right hand He carried peace, and +in His left joy. He gave these to them, and therefore 'out of +weakness they were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to +flight the armies of the aliens,' and when the time came, 'were +tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better +resurrection.' There is omnipotent efficacy in Christ's greetings. + +The one instance opens up the general law, that His wishes are +gifts, that all His words are acts, that He speaks and it is done, +and that when He desires for us joy, it is a deed of conveyance and +gift, and invests us with the joy that He desires if we observe the +conditions. + +Christ's wishes are omnipotent, ours are powerless. We wish for our +friends many good things, and the event turns wishes to mockery, and +the garlands which we prepared for their birthdays have sometimes to +be hung on their tombs. The limitations of human friendship and of +our deepest and sincerest wishes, like a dark background, enhance +the boundless efficacy of the greetings of the Master, which are not +only wishes but bestowments of the thing wished, and therein given, +by Him. + +IV. So, lastly, notice our share in this twofold greeting. + +When it was first heard, I suppose that the disciples and the women +apprehended the salutation only in its most outward form, and that +all other thoughts were lost in the mere rapture of the sudden +change from the desolate sense of loss to the glad consciousness of +renewed possession. When the women clung to His feet on that Easter +morning, they had no thought of anything but--'we clasp Thee again, +O Soul of our souls.' But then, as time went on, the meaning and +blessedness and far-reaching issues of the Resurrection became more +plain to them. And I think we can see traces of the process, in the +development of Christian teaching as presented in the Acts of the +Apostles and in the Epistles. Peter in his early sermons dwells on +the Resurrection all but exclusively from one point of view--viz., +as being the great proof of Christ's Messiahship. Then there came by +degrees, as is represented in the same Peter's letter, and +abundantly in the Apostle Paul's, the recognition of the light which +the Resurrection of Jesus Christ threw upon immortality; as a +prophecy and a pattern thereof. Then, when the historical fact had +become fully accepted and universally diffused, and its bearings +upon men's future had been as fully apprehended as is possible here, +there came, finally, the thought that the Resurrection of Jesus +Christ was the symbol of the new life, which from that risen Lord +passed into all those who loved and trusted Him. + +Now, in all these three aspects--as proof of Messiahship, as the +pattern and prophecy of immortality, and as the symbol of the better +life which is accessible for us, here and now--the Resurrection of +Jesus Christ stands for us even more truly than for the rapturous +women who caught His feet, or for the thankful men who looked upon +Him in the upper chamber, as the source of peace and of joy. + +For, dear brethren, therein is set forth for us the Christ whose +work is thereby declared to be finished and acceptable to God, and +all sorrow of sin, all guilt, all disturbance of heart and mind by +reason of evil passions and burning memories of former iniquity, and +all disturbance of our concord with God, are at once and for ever +swept away. If Jesus Christ was 'declared to be the Son of God with +power by His Resurrection from the dead,' and if in that +Resurrection, as is most surely the case, the broad seal of the +divine acceptance is set to the charter of our forgiveness and +sonship by the blood of the Cross, then joy and peace come to us +from Him and from it. + +Again, the resurrection of Jesus Christ sets Him forth before us as +the pattern and the prophecy of immortal life. This Samson has taken +the gates of the prison-house on His broad shoulders and carried +them away, and now no man is kept imprisoned evermore in that +darkness. The earthquake has opened the doors and loosened every +man's bonds. Jesus Christ hath risen from the dead, and therein not +only demonstrated the certainty that life subsists through death, +and that a bodily life is possible thereafter, but hath set before +all those who give the keeping of their souls into His hands the +glorious belief that 'the body of their humiliation shall be' +'changed into the likeness of the body of His glory, according to +the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto +Himself.' Therefore the sorrows of death, for ourselves and for our +dear ones, the agitation which it causes, and all its darkness into +which we shrink from passing, are swept away when He comes forth +from the grave, serene, radiant, and victorious, to die no more, but +to dispense amongst us His peace and His joy. + +And, again, the risen Christ is the source of a new life drawn from +Him and received into the heart by faith in His sacrifice and +Resurrection and glory. And if I have, deep-seated in my soul, +though it may be in imperfect maturity, that life which is hid with +Christ in God, an inward fountain of gladness, far better than the +effervescent, and therefore soon flat, waters of Greek or earthly +joy, is mine; and in my inmost being dwells a depth of calm peace +which no outward disturbance can touch, any more than the winds that +rave along the surface of the ocean affect its unmoved and unsounded +abysses. Jesus Christ comes to thee, my brother, weary, distracted, +care-laden, sin-laden, sorrowful and fearful. And He says to each of +us from the throne what He said in the upper room before the Cross, +and on leaving the grave after it, 'My joy will remain in you, and +your joy shall be full. My peace I leave to you, My peace I give +unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.' + + + + +ON THE MOUNTAIN + + + 'Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into + a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 17. And when + they saw Him, they worshipped Him: but some doubted.' + --MATT. xxviii. 16, 17. + + 'After that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren + at once.'--1 COR. xv. 4 + +To infer an historian's ignorance from his silence is a short and +easy, but a rash, method. Matthew has nothing to say of our Lord's +appearances in Jerusalem, except in regard to that of the women in +the early morning of Easter Day. But it does not follow that he was +ignorant of these appearances. Imperfect knowledge may be the +explanation; but the scope and design of his Gospel is much more +likely to be so. It is emphatically the Gospel of the King of +Israel, and it moves, with the exception of the story of the +Passion, wholly within the limits of the Galilean ministry. What +more probable than that the same motive which induced Jesus to +select the mountain which He had appointed as the scene of this +meeting should have induced the Evangelist to pass by all the other +manifestations in order to fix upon this one? It was fitting that in +Galilee, where He had walked in lowly gentleness, 'kindly with His +kind,' He should assume His sovereign authority. It was fitting that +in 'Galilee of the Gentiles,' that outlying and despised province, +half heathen in the eyes of the narrow-minded Pharisaic Jerusalem, +He should proclaim the widening of His kingdom from Israel to all +nations. + +If we had Matthew's words only, we should suppose that none but the +eleven were present on this occasion. But it is obviously the same +incident to which Paul refers when he speaks of the appearance to +'five hundred brethren at once.' These were the Galilean disciples +who had been faithful in the days of His lowliness, and were thus +now assembled to hear His proclamation of exaltation. Apparently the +meeting had been arranged beforehand. They came without Him to 'the +mountain where Jesus had appointed.' Probably it was the same spot +on which the so-called Sermon on the Mount, the first proclamation +of the King, had been delivered, and it was naturally chosen to be +the scene of a yet more exalted proclamation. A thousand tender +memories and associations clustered round the spot. So we have to +think of the five hundred gathered in eager expectancy; and we +notice how unlike the manner of His coming is to that of the former +manifestations. _Then_, suddenly, He became visibly present +where a moment before He had been unseen. But _now_ He gradually +approaches, for the doubting and the worshipping took place 'when +they saw Him,' and before 'He came to them.' I suppose we may +conceive of Him as coming down the hill and drawing near to them, +and then, when He stands above them, and yet close to them--else the +five hundred could not have seen Him 'at once'--doubts vanish; and +they listen with silent awe and love. The words are majestic; all is +regal. There is no veiled personality now, as there had been to Mary, +and to the two on the road to Emmaus. There is no greeting now, as +there had been in the upper chamber; no affording of a demonstration +of the reality of His appearance, as there had been to Thomas and to +the others. He stands amongst them as the King, and the music of His +words, deep as the roll of thunder, and sweet as harpers harping with +their harps, makes all comment or paraphrase sound thin and poor. But +yet so many great and precious lessons are hived in the words that we +must reverently ponder them. The material is so abundant that I can +but touch it in the slightest possible fashion. This great utterance +of our Lord's falls into three parts: a great claim, a great commission, +a great promise. + +I. There is a Great Claim. + +'All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.' No words can +more absolutely express unconditional, unlimited authority and +sovereignty. Mark the variety of the gift--'all power'; every kind +of force, every kind of dominion is in His hands. Mark the sphere of +sovereignty--'in heaven and in earth.' Now, brethren, if we know +anything about Jesus Christ, we know that He made this claim. There +is no reason, except the unwillingness of some people to admit that +claim, for casting any sort of doubt upon these words, or making any +distinction in authority between them and the rest of the words of +graciousness which the whole world has taken to its heart. But if He +said this, what becomes of His right to the veneration of mankind, +as the Perfect Example of the self-sacrificing, self-oblivious +religious life? It is a mystery that I cannot solve, how any man can +keep his reverence for Jesus, and refuse to believe that beneath +these tremendous words there lies a solemn and solid reality. + +Notice, too, that there is implied a definite point of time at which +this all-embracing authority was given. You will find in the Revised +Version a small alteration in the reading, which makes a great +difference in the sense. It reads, 'All power _has been_ given'; +and that points, as I say, to a definite period. _When_ was it +given? Let another portion of Scripture answer the question--'Declared +to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead.' +_Then_ to the Man Jesus was given authority over heaven and earth. +All the early Christian documents concur in this view of the connection +between the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and His investiture +with this sovereign power. Hearken to Paul, 'Became obedient unto +death, even the death of the Cross; wherefore God also hath highly +exalted Him, and given Him a name that is above every name.' Hearken +to Peter, 'Who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory.' Hearken +to the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 'We see Jesus crowned +with glory and honour for the suffering of death.' Hearken to John, +'To Him that is the Faithful Witness, and the First-born from the +dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth.' Look with his +eyes to the vision of the 'Lamb as it had been slain,' enthroned +in the midst of the throne, and say whether this unanimous consent +of the earliest Christian teachers is explicable on any reasonable +grounds, unless there had been underlying it just the words of our +text, and the Master Himself had taught them that all power was +given to Him in heaven and in earth. As it seems to me impossible +to account for the existence of the Church if we deny the +Resurrection, so it seems to me impossible to account for the faith +of the earliest stratum of the Christian Church without the +acceptance of some such declaration as this, as having come from the +Lord Himself. And so the hands that were pierced with the nails wield +the sceptre of the Universe, and on the brows that were wounded and +bleeding with the crown of thorns are wreathed the many crowns of +universal Kinghood. + +But we have further to notice that in this investiture, with 'all +power in heaven and on earth,' we have not merely the attestation of +the perfection of His obedience, the completeness of His work, and +the power of His sacrifice, but that we have also the elevation of +Manhood to enthronement with Divinity. For the _new_ thing that +came to Jesus after His resurrection was that His humanity was taken +into, and became participant of, 'the glory which I had with Thee, +before the world was.' Then our nature, when perfect and sinless, is +so cognate and kindred with the Divine that humanity is capable of +being invested with, and bearing, that 'exceeding and eternal weight +of glory.' In that elevation of the Man Christ Jesus, we may read a +prophecy, that shall not be unfulfilled, of the destiny of all those +who conform to Him through faith, love, and obedience, finally to +sit down with Him on His throne, even as He is set down with the +Father on His throne. + +Ah! brethren, Christianity has dark and low views of human nature, +and men say they are too low and too dark. It is 'Nature's sternest +painter,' and, therefore, 'its best.' But if on its palette the +blacks are blacker than anywhere else, its range of colour is +greater, and its white is more lustrous. No system thinks so +condemnatorily of human nature as it is; none thinks so glowingly of +human nature as it may become. There are bass notes far down beyond +the limits of the scale to which ears dulled by the world and sin +and sorrow are sensitive; and there are clear, high tones, thrilling +and shrilling far above the range of perception of such ears. The +man that is in the lowest depths may rise with Jesus to the highest, +but it must be by the same road by which the Master went. 'If we +suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him,' and only 'if.' There +is no other path to the Throne but the Cross. _Via crucis, via +lucis_--the way of the Cross is the way of light. It is to those +who have accepted their Gethsemanes and their Calvarys that He +appoints a kingdom, as His Father has appointed unto Him. + +So much, then, for the first point here in these words; turn now to +the second. + +II. The Great Commission. + +One might have expected that the immediate inference to be drawn from +'All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth' would have been +some word of encouragement and strengthening to those who were so soon +to be left, and who were beginning to be conscious of their feebleness. +But there is nothing more striking in the whole of the incidents of +those forty days than the prominence which is given in them to the +work of the Church when the Master had left it, and to the imperative +obligations devolving upon it. And so here, not encouragement, but +obligation is the inference that is drawn from that tremendous claim. +'Because I have all power, therefore you are charged with the duty +of winning the world for its King.' The all-ruling Christ calls for +the universal proclamation of His sovereignty by His disciples. These +five hundred little understood the sweep of the commandment, and, as +history shows, terribly failed to apprehend the emancipating power +of it. But He says to us, as to them, 'I am not content with the +authority given to Me by God, unless I have the authority that each +man for himself can give Me, by willing surrender of his heart and +will to Me.' Jesus Christ craves no empty rule, no mere elevation +by virtue of Divine supremacy, over men. He regards that elevation +as incomplete without the voluntary surrender of men to become His +subjects and champions. Without its own consent He does not count +that His universal power is established in a human heart. Though +that dominion be all-embracing like the ocean, and stretching into +all corners of the universe, and dominating over all ages, yet in +that ocean there may stand up black and dry rocks, barren as they +are dry, and blasted as they are black, because, with the awful +power of a human will, men have said, 'We will not have this Man +to reign over us.' It is willing subjects whom Christ seeks, in +order to make the Divine grant of authority a reality. + +In that work He needs His servants. The gift of God notwithstanding, +the power of His Cross notwithstanding, the perfection and +completeness of His great reconciling and redeeming work +notwithstanding, all these are vain unless we, His servants, will +take them in our hands as our weapons, and go forth on the warfare +to which He has summoned us. This is the command laid upon us all, +'Make disciples of all nations.' Only so will the reality correspond +to the initial and all-embracing grant. + +It would take us too far to deal at all adequately, or in anything +but the most superficial fashion, with the remaining parts of this +great commission. 'Make disciples of all nations'--that is the first +thing. Then comes the second step: 'Baptizing them into the name of +the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' Who are to be +baptized? Now, notice, if I may venture upon being slightly +technical for a moment, that the word 'nations' in the preceding +clause is a neuter one, and that the word for 'them' in this clause +is a masculine, which seems to me fairly to imply that the command +'baptizing them' does not refer to 'all nations,' but to the +disciples latent among them, and to be drawn from them. Surely, +surely the great claim of absolute and unbounded power has for its +consequence something better than the lame and impotent conclusion +of appointing an indiscriminate rite, as the means of making +disciples! Surely that is not in accordance with the spirituality of +the Christian faith! + +'Baptizing them into the Name'--the name is one, that of the Father, +and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Does that mean the name of God, +and of a man, and of an influence, all jumbled up together in +blasphemous and irrational union? Surely, if Father, Son, and Holy +Spirit have one name, the name of Divinity, then it is but a step to +say that three Persons are one God! But there is a great deal more +here than a baptismal formula, for to be baptized into the Name is +but the symbol of being plunged into communion with this one +threefold God of our salvation. The ideal state of the Christian +disciple is that he shall be as a vase dropped into the Atlantic, +encompassed about with God, and filled with Him. We all 'live, and +move, and have our being' in Him, but some of us have so wrapped +ourselves, if I may venture to use such a figure, in waterproof +covering, that, though we are floating in an ocean of Divinity, not +a drop finds its way in. Cast the covering aside, and you will be +saturated with God, and only in the measure in which you live and +move and have your being in the Name are you disciples. + +There is another step still. Making disciples and bringing into +communion with the Godhead is not all that is to flow from, and +correspond to, and realise in the individual, the absolute authority +of Jesus Christ--'Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I +have commanded you.' We hear a great deal in these days about the +worthlessness of mere dogmatic Christianity. Jesus Christ +anticipated all that talk, and guarded it from exaggeration. For +what He tells us here that we are to train ourselves and others in, +is not creed but conduct; not things to be believed or _credenda_ +but things to be done or _agenda_--'teaching them to observe all +things whatsoever I have commanded you.' A creed that is not wrought +out in actions is empty; conduct that is not informed, penetrated, +regulated by creed, is unworthy of a man, not to say of a Christian. +What we are to know we are to know in order that we may do, and so +inherit the benediction, which is never bestowed upon them that +know, but upon them that, knowing these things, are blessed _in_, +as well as _for_, the doing of them. + +That training is to be continuous, educating to new views of duty; +new applications of old truths, new sensitiveness of conscience, +unveiling to us, ever as we climb, new heights to which we aspire. +The Christian Church has not yet learnt--thank God it is learning, +though by slow degrees--all the moral and practical implications and +applications of 'the truth as it is in Jesus.' And so these are the +three things by which the Church recognises and corresponds to the +universal dominion of Christ, the making disciples universally; the +bringing them into the communion of the Father, the Son, and the +Holy Spirit; and the training of them to conduct ever approximating +more and more to the Divine ideal of humanity in the glorified +Christ. + +And now I must gather just into a sentence or two what is to be said +about the last point. There is-- + +III. The Great Promise. + +'I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,' or, as it +might be read, 'with you all the days, even to the accomplishment of +the age.' Note that emphatic 'I am,' which does not only denote +certainty, but is the speech of Him who is lifted above the lower +regions where Time rolls and the succession of events occurs. That +'I am' covers all the varieties of _was, is, will be_. Notice +the long vista of variously tinted days which opens here. Howsoever +many they be, howsoever different their complexion, days of summer +and days of winter, days of sunshine and days of storm, days of +buoyant youth and days of stagnant, stereotyped old age, days of +apparent failure and days of apparent prosperity, He is with us in +them all. They change, He is 'the same yesterday, and to-day, and +for ever.' Notice the illimitable extent of the promise--'even unto +the end.' We are always tempted to think that long ago the earth was +more full of God than it is to-day, and that away forward in the +future it will again be fuller, but that this moment is comparatively +empty. The heavens touch the earth on the horizon in front and behind, +and they are highest and remotest above us just where we stand. But +no past day had more of Christ in it than to-day has, and that He +has gone away is the condition of His coming. 'He therefore departed +for a season, that we might receive Him for ever.' + +But mark that the promise comes after a command, and is contingent, +for all its blessedness and power, upon our obedience to the +prescribed duty. That duty is primarily to make disciples of all +nations, and the discharge of it is so closely connected with the +realisation of the promise that a non-missionary Church never has +much of Christ's presence. But obedience to all the King's commands +is required if we stand before Him, and are to enjoy His smile. If +you wish to keep Christ very near you, and to feel Him with you, the +way to do so is no mere cultivation of religious emotion, or +saturating your mind with religious books and thoughts, though these +have their place; but on the dusty road of life doing His will and +keeping His commandments. 'If a man love Me he will keep My words, +and My Father will love Him. We will come to Him, and make our abode +with Him.' + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions of Holy Scripture +by Alexander Maclaren + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + +This file should be named 8matt10.txt or 8matt10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8matt11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8matt10a.txt + +Produced by Anne Folland, Charles Franks and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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