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diff --git a/8071.txt b/8071.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d791f86 --- /dev/null +++ b/8071.txt @@ -0,0 +1,19475 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Expositions of Holy Scripture, by Alexander Maclaren + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Expositions of Holy Scripture + St. Mark + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Posting Date: October 19, 2012 [EBook #8071] +Release Date: May, 2005 +First Posted: June 11, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + + + + +Produced by Tiffany Vergon, Dave Maddock and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ST. MARK + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +WHAT 'THE GOSPEL' IS (Mark i. 1) + +THE STRONG FORERUNNER AND THE STRONGER SON (Mark i. 1-11) + +MIGHTY IN WORD AND DEED (Mark i. 21-34) + +HEALING AND SERVICE (Mark i. 30, 31, R.V.) + +A PARABLE IN A MIRACLE (Mark i. 40-42) + +CHRIST'S TOUCH (Mark i. 41) + +CHRIST'S AUTHORITY TO FORGIVE (Mark ii. 1-12) + +THE PUBLICANS' FRIEND (Mark ii. 13-22) + +THE SECRET OF GLADNESS (Mark ii. 19) + +WORKS WHICH HALLOW THE SABBATH (Mark ii. 23-28; iii. 1-5) + +THE ANGER AND GRIEF OF JESUS (Mark iii. 5) + +AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST (Mark iii. 6-19) + +'HE IS BESIDE HIMSELF' (Mark iii. 21) + +THE MISTAKES OF CHRIST'S FOES AND FRIENDS (Mark iii. 22-35) + +CHRIST'S KINDRED (Mark iii. 31-35) + +CHRIST'S RELATIONS (Mark iii. 35) + +FOUR SOILS FOR ONE SEED (Mark iv. 10-20) + +LAMPS AND BUSHELS (Mark iv. 21) + +THE STORM STILLED (Mark iv. 35-41) + +THE TOILING CHRIST (Mark iv. 36, 38) + +THE LORD OF DEMONS (Mark v. 1-20) + +A REFUSED REQUEST (Mark v. 18,19) + +TALITHA CUMI (Mark v. 22-24, 35-43) + +THE POWER OF FEEBLE FAITH (Mark v. 25, 27, 28) + +TOUCH OR FAITH? (Mark v. 28, 34) + +THE LOOKS OF JESUS (Mark v. 32) + +THE MASTER REJECTED: THE SERVANTS SENT FORTH (Mark vi. 1-13) + +CHRIST THWARTED (Mark vi. 5, 6) + +HEROD--A STARTLED CONSCIENCE (Mark vi. 16) + +THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN (Mark vi. 17-28) + +THE WORLD'S BREAD (Mark vi. 30-44) + +CHILDREN AND LITTLE DOGS (Mark vii. 24-30) + +THE PATTERN OF SERVICE (Mark vii. 33, 34) + +THE PATIENT TEACHER AND THE SLOW SCHOLARS (Mark viii. 17, 18) + +THE RELIGIOUS USES OF MEMORY (Mark viii. 18) + +THE GRADUAL HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN (Mark viii. 22-25) + +CHRIST'S CROSS, AND OURS (Mark viii. 27--ix. 1) + +THE TRANSFIGURATION (Mark ix. 2-13) + +'THIS IS MY BELOVED SON: HEAR HIM' (Mark ix. 7) + +JESUS ONLY (Mark ix. 8) + +CHRIST'S LAMENT OVER OUR FAITHLESSNESS (Mark ix. 19) + +THE OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH (Mark ix. 23) + +UNBELIEVING BELIEF (Mark ix. 24) + +RECEIVING AND FORBIDDING (Mark ix. 33-42) + +AN UNANSWERED QUESTION (Mark ix. 33) + +SALTED WITH FIRE (Mark ix. 49) + +'SALT IN YOURSELVES' (Mark ix. 50) + +CHILDREN AND CHILDLIKE MEN (Mark x. 13-15) + +ALMOST A DISCIPLE. (Mark x. 17-27) + +CHRIST ON THE ROAD TO THE CROSS (Mark x.32) + +DIGNITY AND SERVICE (Mark x. 35-45) + +BARTIMAEUS (Mark x. 46) + +AN EAGER COMING (Mark x. 50) + +LOVE'S QUESTION (Mark x. 51; Acts ix. 6) + +A ROYAL PROGRESS (Mark xi. 2) + +CHRIST'S NEED OF US AND OURS (Mark xi. 3) + +NOTHING BUT LEAVES (Mark xi. 13, 14) + +DISHONEST TENANTS (Mark xii. 1-12) + +GOD'S LAST ARROW (Mark xii. 6) + +NOT FAR AND NOT IN (Mark xii. 34) + +THE CREDULITY OF UNBELIEF (Mark xiii. 6; Luke xviii, 8) + +AUTHORITY AND WORK (Mark xiii. 34) + +THE ALABASTER BOX (Mark xiv. 6-9) + +A SECRET RENDEZVOUS (Mark xiv. 12-16) + +THE NEW PASSOVER (Mark xiv. 12-26) + +'Is IT I?' (Mark xiv. 19) + +'STRONG CRYING AND TEARS' (Mark xiv. 32-42) + +THE SLEEPING APOSTLE (Mark xiv. 37) + +THE CAPTIVE CHRIST AND THE CIRCLE ROUND HIM (Mark xiv. 43-54) + +THE CONDEMNATION WHICH CONDEMNS THE JUDGES (Mark xiv. 55-65) + +CHRIST AND PILATE; THE TRUE KING AND HIS COUNTERFEIT (Mark xv. 1-20) + +THE DEATH WHICH GIVES LIFE (Mark xv. 21-39) + +SIMON THE CYRENIAN (Mark xv. 21) + +THE INCREDULOUS DISCIPLES (Mark xvi. 1-13) + +PERPETUAL YOUTH (Mark xvi. 5) + +THE FIRST PREACHING OF THE RESURRECTION (Mark xvi. 5, 6) + +LOVE'S TRIUMPH OVER SIN (Mark xvi. 7) + +'FIRST TO MARY' (Mark xvi. 9) + +THE WORLD-WIDE COMMISSION (Mark xvi. 15) + +THE ENTHRONED CHRIST (Mark xvi. 19) + + + + +WHAT 'THE GOSPEL' IS + + +The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.--Mark i. 1 + +My purpose now is to point out some of the various connections in +which the New Testament uses that familiar phrase, 'the gospel,' and +briefly to gather some of the important thoughts which these suggest. +Possibly the process may help to restore freshness to a word so well +worn that it slips over our tongues almost unnoticed and excites +little thought. + +The history of the word in the New Testament books is worth notice. It +seldom occurs in those lives of our Lord which now are emphatically so +called, and where it does occur, it is 'the gospel of the Kingdom' +quite as frequently as 'the gospel' of the King. The word is never +used in Luke, and only twice in the Acts of the Apostles, both times +in quotations. The Apostle John never employs it, either in his +'gospel' or in his epistles, and in the Apocalypse the word is only +once found, and then it may be a question whether it refers to the +good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. John thought of the word which +he had to proclaim as 'the message,' 'the witness,' 'the truth,' +rather than as 'the gospel.' We search for the expression in vain in +the epistles of James, Jude, and to the Hebrews. Thrice it is used by +Peter. The great bulk of the instances of its occurrence are in the +writings of Paul, who, if not the first to use it, at any rate is the +source from which the familiar meaning of the phrase, as describing +the sum total of the revelation in Jesus Christ, has flowed. + +The various connections in which the word is employed are remarkable +and instructive. We can but touch lightly on the more important +lessons which they are fitted to teach. + +I. The Gospel is the 'Gospel of Christ.' + +On our Lord's own lips and in the records of His life we find, as has +already been noticed, the phrase, 'the gospel of the kingdom'--the +good news of the establishment on earth of the rule of God in the +hearts and lives of men. The person of the King is not yet defined by +it. The diffused dawn floods the sky, and upon them that sit in +darkness the greatness of its light shines, before the sun is above +the horizon. The message of the Forerunner proclaimed, like a herald's +clarion, the coming of the Kingdom, before he could say to a more +receptive few, 'Behold the Lamb of God.' The order is first the +message of the Kingdom, then the discovery of the King. And so that +earlier phrase falls out of use, and when once Christ's life had been +lived, and His death died, the gospel is no longer the message of an +impersonal revolution in the world's attitude to God's will, but the +biography of Him who is at once first subject and monarch of the +Kingdom of Heaven, and by whom alone we are brought into it. The +standing expression comes to be 'the gospel of Christ.' + +It is His, not so much because He is the author, as because He is the +subject of it. It is the good news about Christ. He is its contents +and great theme. And so we are led up at once to the great central +peculiarity of Christianity, namely that it is a record of historical +fact, and that all the world's life and blessedness lie in the story +of a human life and death. Christ is Christianity. His biography is +the good news for every child of man. + +Neither a philosophy nor a morality, but a history, is the true good +news for men. The world is hungry, and when it cries for bread wise +men give it a stone, but God gives it the fare it needs in the bread +that comes down from Heaven. Though it be of small account in many +people's eyes, like the common barley cakes, the poor man's food, it +is what we all need; and humble people, and simple people, and +uneducated people, and barbarous people, and dying people, and the +little children can all eat and live. They would find little to keep +them from starving in anything more ambitious, and would only break +their teeth in mumbling the dry bones of philosophies and moralities. +But the story of their Brother who has lived and died for them feeds +heart and mind and will, fancy and imagination, memory and hope, +nourishes the whole nature into health and beauty, and alone deserves +to be called good news for men. + +All that the world needs lies in that story. Out of it have come peace +and gladness to the soul, light for the understanding, cleansing for +the conscience, renovation for the will, which can be made strong and +free by submission, a resting-place for the heart, and a +starting-point and a goal for the loftiest flights of hope. Out of it +have come the purifying of family and civic life, the culture of all +noble social virtues, the sanctity of the household, and the elevation +of the state. The thinker has found the largest problems raised and +solved therein. The setting forth of a loftier morality, and the +enthusiasm which makes the foulest nature aspire to and reach its +heaven-touching heights, are found together there. To it poet and +painter, architect and musician, owe their noblest themes. The good +news of the world is the story of Christ's life and death. Let us be +thankful for its form; let us be thankful for its substance. + +But we must not forget that, as Paul, who is so fond of the word, has +taught us, the historical fact needs some explanation and commentary +to make the history a gospel. He has declared to us 'the gospel which +he preached,' and to which he ascribes saving power, and he gives +these as its elements, 'How that Christ died for our sins, according +to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the +third day, according to the Scriptures.' There are three facts--death, +burial, resurrection. These are the things that any eye could have +seen. Are these the gospel? Is there any saving power in them? Not +unless you add the commentary 'for our sins,' and 'according to the +Scriptures.' That death was a death for us all, by which we are +delivered from our sins--that is the main thing; and in subordination +to that thought, the other that Christ's death was the accomplishment +of prophecies--these make the history a gospel. The bare facts, +without the exhibition of their purpose and meaning, are no more a +gospel than any other story of a death would be. The facts with any +lower explanation of their meaning are no gospel, any more than the +story of the death of Socrates or any innocent martyr would be. If you +would know the good news that will lift your heavy heart from sorrow +and break your chains of sin, that will put music into your life and +make your days blaze into brightness as when the sunlight strikes some +sullen mountain-side that lay black in shadow, you must take the fact +with its meaning, and find your gospel in the life and death of Him +who is more than example and more than martyr. 'How that Christ died +for our sins, according to the Scriptures,' is 'the gospel of Christ.' + +II. The Gospel of Christ is the 'Gospel of God.' + +This form of the expression, though by no means so frequent as the +other, is found throughout Paul's epistles, thrice in the +earliest--Thessalonians (1 Thess. ii. 8), once in the great Epistle to +the Romans (i. 1), once in Corinthians (2 Cor. xi. 7), and once in a +modified form in the pathetic letter from the dungeon, which the old +man addressed to his 'son Timothy' (1 Tim. i. 11). It is also found in +the writings of Peter (1 Pet. iv. 17). In all these cases the phrase, +'the gospel of God,' may mean the gospel which has God for its author +or origin, but it seems rather to mean 'which has God for its +subject.' + +It was, as we saw, mainly designated as the good news about Jesus +Christ, but it is also the good news about God. So in one and the same +set of facts we have the history of Jesus and the revelation of God. +They are not only the biography of a man, but they are the unveiling +of the heart of God. These Scripture writers take it for granted that +their readers will understand that paradox, and do not stop to explain +how they change the statement of the subject matter of their message, +in this extraordinary fashion, between their Master who had lived and +died on earth, and the Unseen Almightiness throned above all heavens. +How comes that to be? + +It is not that the gospel has two subjects, one of which is the matter +of one portion, and the other of another. It does not sometimes speak +of Christ, and sometimes rise to tell us of God. It is always speaking +of both, and when its subject is most exclusively the man Christ +Jesus, it is then most chiefly the Father God. How comes that to be? + +Surely this unconscious shifting of the statement of their theme, +which these writers practise as a matter of course, shows us how +deeply the conviction had stamped itself on their spirits, 'He that +hath seen Me hath seen the Father,' and how the point of view from +which they had learned to look on all the sweet and wondrous story of +their Master's life and death, was that of a revelation of the deepest +heart of God. + +And so must we look on that whole career, from the cradle to the +cross, from Calvary to Olivet, if we are to know its deepest +tenderness and catch its gladdest notes. That such a man has lived and +died is beautiful, and the portrait will hang for ever as that of the +fairest of the children of men. But that in that life and death we +have our most authentic knowledge of what God is, and that all the +pity and truth, the gentleness and the brotherliness, the tears and +the self-surrender, are a revelation to us of God; and that the cross, +with its awful sorrow and its painful death, tells us not only how a +man gave himself for those whom he loved, but how God loves the world +and how tremendous is His law--this is good news of God indeed. We +have to look for our truest knowledge of Him not in the majesties of +the starry heavens, nor in the depths of our own souls, not in the +scattered tokens of His character given by the perplexed order of the +world, nor in the intuitions of the wise, but in the life and death of +His Son, whose tears are the pity of God as well as the compassion of +a man, and in whose life and death the whole world may behold 'the +brightness of His glory and the express image of His person,' and be +delivered from all their fears of an angry, and all their doubts of an +unknown, God. + +There is a double modification of this phrase. We hear of 'the gospel +of the grace of God' and 'the gospel of the glory of God,' which +latter expression, rendered in the English version misleadingly 'the +glorious gospel,' is given in its true shape in the Revised Version. +The great theme of the message is further defined in these two +noteworthy forms. It is the tender love of God in exercise to lowly +creatures who deserve something else that the gospel is busy in +setting forth, a love which flows forth unbought and unmotived save by +itself, like some stream from a hidden lake high up among the pure +Alpine snows. The story of Christ's work is the story of God's rich, +unmerited love, bending down to creatures far beneath, and making a +radiant pathway from earth to heaven, like the sevenfold rainbow. It +is so, not merely because this mission is the result of God's love, +but also because His grace is God's grace, and therefore every act of +Christ which speaks His own tenderness is therein an apocalypse of +God. + +The second of these two expressions, 'the gospel of the glory of God,' +leads up to that great thought that the true glory of the divine +nature is its tenderness. The lowliness and death of Christ are the +glory of God! Not in the awful attributes which separate that +inconceivable Nature from us, not in the eternity of His existence, +nor in the Infinitude of His Being, not in the Omnipotence of His +unwearied arm, nor in fire-eyed Omniscience, but in the pity and +graciousness which bend lovingly over us, is the true glory of God. +These pompous 'attributes' are but the fringes of the brightness, the +living white heart of which is love. God's glory is God's grace, and +the purest expression of both is found there, where Jesus hangs dying +in the dark, The true throne of God's glory is not builded high in a +remote heaven, flashing intolerable brightness and set about with +bending principalities and powers, but it is the Cross of Calvary. The +story of the 'grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,' with its humiliation +and shame, is the 'gospel of the grace,' and therefore is the 'gospel +of the glory, of God.' + +III. The good news of Christ and of God is the gospel of our salvation +and peace. + +We read of 'the gospel of your salvation' (Eph. i. 13), and in the +same letter (vi. 15) of 'the gospel of peace.' In these expressions we +pass from the consideration of the author or of the subject matter of +the good news to that of its purpose and issue. It is meant to bring +to men, and it does in fact bring to all who accept it, those wide and +complex blessings described by those two great words. + +That good news about Christ and God brings to a man salvation, if he +believes it. To know and feel that I have a loving Father who has so +cared for me and all my brethren that He has sent His Son to live and +die for me, is surely enough to deliver me from all the bonds and +death of sin, and to quicken me into humble consecration to His +service. And such emancipation from the burden and misery of sin, from +the gnawing consciousness of evil and the weakening sense of guilt, +from the dominion of wrong tastes and habits, and from the despair of +ever shaking them off which is only too well grounded in the +experience of the past, is the beginning of salvation for each of us. +That great keyword of the New Testament covers the whole field of +positive and negative good which man can need or God can give. +Negatively it includes the removal of every evil, whether of the +nature of sorrow or of sin, under which men can groan. Positively it +includes the endowment with all good, whether of the nature of joy or +of purity, which men can hope for or receive. It is past, present, and +future, for every heart that accepts 'the word of the truth of the +gospel'--past, inasmuch as the first effect of even the most +incomplete acceptance is to put us in a new position and attitude +towards the law of God, and to plant the germs of all holiness and joy +in our souls; present, inasmuch as salvation is a growing possession +and a continuous process running on all through our lives, if we be +true to ourselves and our calling; future, inasmuch as its completion +waits to be unveiled in another order of things, where perfect purity +and perfect consecration shall issue in perfect joy. And all this +ennobling and enriching of human nature is produced by that good news +about the grace and glory of God and of Christ, if we will only listen +to it, and let it work its work on our souls. + +Substantially the same set of facts is included under that other +expression, 'the gospel of peace.' The Hebrew use of the word 'peace' +as a kind of shorthand for all good is probably to be remembered. But +even in the narrower sense of the word, how great are the blessings +set forth by it! All inward serenity and outward calm, the +tranquillity of a soul free from the agitations of emotion and the +storms of passions and the tumults of desire, as well as the security +of a life guarded from the assaults of foes and girded about with an +impregnable barrier which nothing can destroy and no enemy overleap, +are ours, if we take the good news about God to our heart. They are +ours in the measure in which we take it. Clearly such truths as those +which the gospel brings have a plain tendency to give peace. They give +peace with God, with the world, and with ourselves. They lead to +trust, and trust is peace. They lead to union with God, and that is +peace. They lead to submission, and that is peace. They lead to +consecration, and that is peace. They lead to indifference to fleeting +joys and treasures, and that is peace. They give to heart and mind and +will an all-sufficient and infinite object, and that is peace. They +deliver us from ourselves, and that is peace. They fill the past, the +present, and the future with the loving Father's presence, and +brighten life and death with the Saviour's footsteps--and so to live +is calm, and to die is to lay ourselves down in peace and sleep, quiet +by His side, like a child by its mother. The good news about God and +Christ is the good news of our salvation and of our peace. + +IV. The good news about Christ and God is _the_ gospel. + +By far the most frequent form in which the word gospel occurs is that +of the simple use of the noun with the definite article. This message +is emphatically _the_ good news. It is the tidings which men most of +all want. It stands alone; there is no other like it. If this be not +the glad tidings of great joy for the world, then there are none. + +Let no false liberality lead us to lose sight of the exclusive claims +which are made in this phrase for the set of facts the narrative of +which constitutes 'the gospel.' The life and death of Jesus Christ for +the sins of the world, His resurrection and continuous life for the +saving of the world--these are the truths, without which there can be +no gospel. They may be apprehended in different ways, set forth in +different perspective, proclaimed in different dialects, explained in +different fashion, associated with different accompaniments, drawn out +into different consequences, and yet, through all diversity of tones, +the message may be one. Sounded on a ram's horn or a silver trumpet, +it may be the same saving and joy-bringing proclamation, and it will +be, if Christ and His life and death are plainly set forth as the +beginning and ending of all. But if there be an omission of that +mighty name, or if a Christ be proclaimed without a Cross, a salvation +without a Saviour, or a Saviour without a Sacrifice, all the +adornments of genius and sincerity will not prevent such a half gospel +from falling flat. Its preachers have never been able, and never will +be able, to touch the general heart or to bring good cheer to men. +They have always had to complain, 'We have piped unto you and ye have +not danced.' They cannot get people to be glad over such a message. +Only when you speak of a Christ who has died for our sins, will you +cause the heavy heart of the world to sing for joy. Only that old, old +message is the good news which men want. + +There is no second gospel. Men who preach a message of a different +kind, as Paul tells us, are preaching what is not really another +gospel. There cannot be two messages. There is but one genuine; all +others are counterfeits. For us it is all-important that we should be +no less narrow than the truth, and no more liberal than he was to whom +the message 'how that Jesus died for our sins' was the only thing +worth calling the gospel. Our own salvation depends on our firm grasp +of that one message, and for some of us, the clear decisiveness with +which our lips ring it out determines whether we shall be blessings or +curses to our generation. There is a Babel of voices now preaching +other messages which promise good tidings of good. Let us cleave with +all our hearts to Christ alone, and let our tongues not falter in +proclaiming, 'Neither is there salvation in any other.' The gospel of +the Christ who died for our sins, is _the_ gospel. + +And what we have for ourselves to do with it is told us in that +pregnant phrase of the apostle's, 'my gospel,' and 'our gospel'; +meaning not merely the message which he was charged to proclaim, but +the good news which he and his brethren had made their own. So we have +to make it ours. It is of no use to us, unless we do. It is not enough +that it echoes all around us, like music borne upon the wind. It is +not enough that we hear it, as men do some sweet melody, while their +thoughts are busy on other things. It is not enough that we believe +it, as we do other histories in which we have no concern. What more is +needed? Another expression of the apostle's gives the answer. He +speaks of 'the faith of the gospel,' that is the trust which that glad +message evokes, and by which it is laid hold of. + +Make it yours by trusting your whole self to the Christ of whom it +tells you. The reliance of heart and will on Jesus who has died for +me, makes it 'my gospel.' There is one God, one Christ, one gospel +which tells us of them, and one faith by which we lay hold upon the +gospel, and upon the loving Father and the ever-helpful Saviour of +whom it tells. Let us make that great word our own by simple faith, +and then 'as cold water to our thirsty soul,' so will be that 'good +news from a far country,' the country where the Father's house is, and +to which He has sent the Elder Brother to bring back us prodigal +children. + + + +THE STRONG FORERUNNER AND THE STRONGER SON + + +'The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; 2. As it +is written in the prophets, Behold, I send My messenger before Thy +face, which shall prepare Thy way before Thee. 3. The voice of one +crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His +paths straight. 4. John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the +baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. 5. And there went out +unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all +baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. 6. And +John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about +his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey; 7. And preached, +saying, There cometh One mightier than I after me, the latchet of +whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. 8. I indeed +have baptized you with water: but He shall baptize you with the Holy +Ghost. 9. And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from +Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. And +straightway coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opened, and +the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him: 11. And there came a voice +from heaven, saying, Thou art My beloved Son, in whom I am well +pleased.'--Mark i. 1-11. + +The first words of _In Memoriam_ might be taken to describe the theme +of Mark's Gospel. It is the 'strong Son of God' whom he sets forth in +his rapid, impetuous narrative, which is full of fiery energy, and +delights to paint the unresting continuity of Christ's filial service. +His theme is not the King, as in Matthew; nor the Son of Man, as in +Luke; nor the eternal Word manifested in flesh, as in John. Therefore +he neither begins by tracing His kingly lineage, as does the first +evangelist; nor by dwelling on the humanities of wedded life and the +sacredness of the family since He has been born; nor by soaring to the +abysses of the eternal abiding of the Word with God, as the agent of +creation, the medium of life and light; but plunges at once into his +subject, and begins the Gospel with the mission of the Forerunner, +which melts immediately into the appearance of the Son. + +I. We may note first, in this passage, the prelude, including verses +1, 2, and 3. We need not discuss the grammatical connection of these +verses, nor the relation of verses 2 and 3 to the following section. +However that be settled, the result, for our present purpose, is the +same. Mark considers that John's mission is the beginning of the +gospel. Here are two noteworthy points,--his use of that well-worn +word, 'the gospel,' and his view of John's place in relation to it. +The gospel is the narrative of the facts of Christ's life and death. +Later usage has taken it to be, rather, the statement of the truths +deducible from these facts, and especially the proclamation of +salvation by the power of Christ's atoning death; but the primitive +application of the word is to the history itself. So Paul uses it in +his formal statement of the gospel which he preached, with the +addition, indeed, of the explanation of the meaning of Christ's death +(1 Cor. xv. 1-6). The very name 'good news' necessarily implies that +the gospel is, primarily, history; but we cannot exclude from the +meaning of the word the statement of the significance of the facts, +without which the facts have no message of blessing. Mark adds the +dogmatic element when he defines the subject of the Gospel as being +'Jesus Christ, the Son of God.' In the remainder of the book the +simple name 'Jesus' is used; but here, in starting, the full, solemn +title is given, which unites the contemplation of Him in His manhood, +in His office as fulfiller of prophecy and crown of revelation, and in +His mysterious, divine nature. + +Whether we regard verses 2 and 3 as connected grammatically with the +preceding or the following verses, they equally refer to John, and +define his position in relation to the Gospel. The Revised Version +restores the true reading, 'in Isaiah the prophet,' which some unwise +and timid transcriber has, as he thought, mended into 'the prophets,' +for fear that an error should be found in Scripture. Of course, verse +2 is not Isaiah's, but Malachi's; but verse 3, which is Isaiah's, was +uppermost in Mark's mind, and his quotation of Malachi is, apparently, +an afterthought, and is plainly merely introductory of the other, on +which the stress lies. The remarkable variation in the Malachi +quotation, which occurs in all three Evangelists, shows how completely +they recognised the divinity of our Lord, in their making words which, +in the original, are addressed by Jehovah to Himself, to be addressed +by the Father to the Son. There is a difference in the representation +of the office of the forerunner in the two prophetic passages. In the +former 'he' prepares the way of the coming Lord; in the latter he +calls upon his hearers to prepare it. In fact, John prepared the way, +as we shall see presently, just by calling on men to do so. In Mark's +view, the first stage in the gospel is the mission of John. He might +have gone further back--to the work of prophets of old, or to the +earliest beginnings in time of the self-revelation of God, as the +writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews does; or he might have ascended +even higher up the stream--to the true 'beginning,' from which the +fourth Evangelist starts. But his distinctly practical genius leads +him to fix his gaze on the historical fact of John's mission, and to +claim for it a unique position, which he proceeds to develop. + +II. So we have, next, the strong servant and fore runner (verses 4-8). +The abruptness with which the curtain is drawn, and the gaunt figure +of the desert-loving ascetic shown us, is very striking. It is like +the way in which Elijah, his prototype, leaps, as it were, full-armed, +into the arena. The parallel passage in Matthew links his appearance +with the events which it has been narrating by the phrase 'in these +days,' and calls him 'the Baptist.' Mark has no such words, but lets +him stand forth in his isolation. The two accounts may profitably be +compared. Their likenesses suggest that they rest on a common basis, +probably of oral tradition, while their differences are, for the most +part, significant. Mark differs in his arrangement of the common +matter, in omissions, and in some variations of expression. Each +account gives a general summary of John's teaching at the beginning; +but Matthew puts emphasis on the Baptist's proclamation that the +kingdom of heaven was at hand, to which nothing in Mark corresponds. +His Gospel does not dwell on the royalty of Jesus, but rather +represents Him as the Servant than as the King. Mark begins with +describing John as baptizing, which only appears later in Matthew's +account. Mark omits all reference to the Sadducees and Pharisees, and +to John's sharp words to them. He has nothing about the axe laid to +the trees, nothing about the children of Abraham, nothing about the +fan in the hand of the great Husbandman. All the theocratic aspect of +the Messiah, as proclaimed by John, is absent; and, as there is no +reference to the fire which destroys, so neither is there to the fire +of the Holy Ghost, in which He baptizes. Mark reports only John's +preaching and baptism of repentance, and his testimony to Christ as +stronger than he, and as baptizing with the Holy Ghost. + +So, on the whole, Mark's picture brings out prominently the following +traits in John's personality and mission:--First, his preparation for +Christ by preaching repentance. The truest way to create in men a +longing for Jesus, and to lead to a true apprehension of His unique +gift to mankind, is to evoke the penitent consciousness of sin. The +preacher of guilt and repentance is the herald of the bringer of +pardon and purity. That is true in reference to the relation of +Judaism and Christianity, of John and Jesus, and is as true to-day as +ever it was. The root of maimed conceptions of the work and nature of +Jesus Christ is a defective sense of sin. When men are roused to +believe in judgment, and to realise their own evil, they are ready to +listen to the blessed news of a Saviour from sin and its curse. The +Christ whom John heralds is the Christ that men need; the Christ whom +men receive, without having been out in the wilderness with the stern +preacher of sin and judgment, is but half a Christ--and it is the +vital half that is missing. + +Again, Mark brings out John's personal asceticism. He omits much; but +he could not leave out the picture of the grim, lean solitary, who +stalked among soft-robed men, like Elijah come to life again, and held +the crowds by his self-chosen privations no less than by his fierce, +fiery eloquence. His desert life and contempt for ease and luxury +spoke of a strength of character and purpose which fascinated commoner +men, and make the next point the more striking--namely, the utter +humility with which this strong, self-reliant, fiery rebuker of sin, +and despiser of rank and official dignities, flings himself at the +feet of the coming One. He is strong, as his life and the awestruck +crowds testified; how strong must that Other be! He feared not the +face of man, nor owned inferiority to any; but his whole soul melted +into joyful submission, and confessed unworthiness even to unlace the +sandals of that mightier One. His transitional position is also +plainly marked by our Evangelist. He is the end of prophecy, the +beginning of the Gospel, belonging to neither and to both. He is not +merely a prophet, for he is prophesied of as well; and he stands so +near Him whom he foretells, that his prediction is almost fact. He is +not an Evangelist, nor, in the closest sense, a servant of the coming +Christ; for his lowly confession of unworthiness does not imply merely +his humility, but accurately defines the limits of his function. It +was not for him to bear or to loose that Lord's sandals. There were +those who did minister to Him, and the least of those, whose message +to the world was 'Christ has come,' had the honour of closer service +than that greatest among women-born, whose task was to run before the +chariot of the King and tell that He was at hand. + +III. We have the gentle figure of the stronger Son. The introduction +of Jesus is somewhat less abrupt than that of John; but if we remember +whom Mark believed Him to be, the quiet words which tell of His first +appearance are sufficiently remarkable. There is no mention of His +birth or previous years. His deeds will tell who He is. The years +before His baptism were of no moment for Mark's purpose. Nor has he +any report of the precious conversation of Jesus with John, when the +forerunner testified to Christ's purity, which needed no washing nor +repentance, and acknowledged at once his own sinfulness and the Lord's +cleansing power, and when Christ accepted the homage, and, by +implication, claimed the character, purity, and power which John +attributed to Him. The omission may be accounted for on a principle +which seems to run through all this Gospel--of touching lightly or +omitting indications of our Lord's dignity, and dwelling by preference +on His acts of lowliness and service. The baptism is recorded; but the +conversation, which showed that the King of Israel, in submitting to +it, acknowledged no need of it for Himself, but regarded it as +'fulfilling righteousness' is passed by. The sinlessness of Jesus, and +the special meaning of His baptism, are sufficiently shown by the +descending Spirit and the approving voice. These Mark does record; for +they warrant the great name by which, in his first verse, he has +described Jesus as 'the Son of God.' + +The brief account of these is marked by the Evangelist's vivid +pictorial faculty, which we shall frequently have to notice as we read +his Gospel. Here he puts us, by a word, in the position of +eye-witnesses of the scene as it is passing, when he describes the +heavens as 'being rent asunder'--a much more forcible and pictorial +word than Matthew's 'opened.' He says nothing of John's share in the +vision. All is intended for the Son. It is Jesus who sees the rending +heavens and the descending dove. The voice which Matthew represents as +speaking _of_ Christ, Mark represents as speaking _to_ Him. + +The baptism of Jesus, then, was an epoch in His own consciousness. It +was not merely His designation to John or to others as Messiah, but +for Himself the sense of Sonship and the sunlight of divine +complacency filled His spirit in new measure or manner. Speaking as we +have to do from the outside, and knowing but dimly the mysteries of +His unique personality, we have to speak modestly and little. But we +know that our Lord grew, as to His manhood, in wisdom, and that His +manhood was continually the receiver, from the Father, of the Spirit; +and the reality of His divinity, as dwelling in His manhood from the +beginning of that manhood, is not affected by the belief that when the +dovelike Spirit floated down on His meek head, glistening with the +water of baptism, His manhood then received a new and special +consciousness of His Messianic office and of His Sonship. + +Whilst that voice was for His sake, it was for others too; for John +himself tells us (John i.) that the sign had been told him beforehand, +and that it was his sight of the descending dove which heightened his +thoughts and gave a new turn to his testimony, leading him to know and +to show 'that this is the Son of God.' The rent heavens have long +since closed, and that dread voice is silent; but the fact of that +attestation remains on record, that we, too, may hear through the +centuries God speaking of and to His Son, and may lay to heart the +commandment to us, which naturally follows God's witness to Jesus, +'Hear ye Him.' + +The symbol of the dove may be regarded as a prophecy of the gentleness +of the Son. Thus early in His course the two qualities were harmonised +in Him, which so seldom are united, and each of which dwelt in Him in +divinest perfection, both as to degree and manner. John's +anticipations of the strong coming One looked for the manifestations +of His strength in judgment and destruction. How strangely his images +of the axe, the fan, the fire, are contrasted with the reality, +emblemed by this dove dropping from heaven, with sunshine on its +breast and peace in its still wings! Through the ages, Christ's +strength has been the strength of gentleness, and His coming has been +like that of Noah's dove, with the olive-branch in its beak, and the +tidings of an abated flood and of a safe home in its return. The +ascetic preacher of repentance was strong to shake and purge men's +hearts by terror; but the stronger Son comes to conquer by meekness, +and reign by the omnipotence of love. The beginning of the gospel was +the anticipation and the proclamation of strength like the eagle's, +swift of flight, and powerful to strike and destroy. The gospel, when +it became a fact, and not a hope, was found in the meek Jesus, with +the dove of God, the gentle Spirit, which is mightier than all, +nestling in His heart, and uttering soft notes of invitation through +His lips. + + + +MIGHTY IN WORD AND DEED + + +'And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the Sabbath day He +entered into the synagogue, and taught. 22. And they were astonished +at His doctrine: for He taught them as one that had authority, and not +as the scribes. 23. And there was in their synagogue a man with an +unclean spirit; and he cried out, 24. Saying, Let us alone; what have +we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? art Thou come to destroy +us? I know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God. 25. And Jesus +rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. 26. And when +the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came +out of him. 27. And they were all amazed, insomuch that they +questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new +doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth He even the unclean +spirits, and they do obey Him. 28. And immediately His fame spread +abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee. 29. And +forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into +the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30. But Simon's +wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell Him of her. 31. +And He came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and +immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them. 32. And +at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto Him all that were +diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. 33. And all the +city was gathered together at the door. 34. And He healed many that +were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered +not the devils to speak, because they knew Him.'--Mark i. 21-34. + +None of the incidents in this section are peculiar to Mark, but the +special stamp of his Gospel is on them all; and, both in the narration +of each and in the swift transition from one to another, the +impression of Christ's strength and unpausing diligence in filial +service is made. The short hours of that first Sabbath's ministry are +crowded with work; and Christ's energy bears Him through exhausting +physical labours, and enables Him to turn with unwearied sympathy and +marvellous celerity to each new form of misery, and to throw Himself +with freshness undiminished into the relief of each. The homely virtue +of diligence shines out in this lesson no less clearly than superhuman +strength that tames demons and heals all manner of sickness. There are +four pictures here, compressed and yet vivid. Mark can condense and +keep all the essentials, for his keen eye and sure hand go straight to +the heart of his incidents. + +I. The strong Son of God teaching with authority. 'They enter; we see +the little group, consisting of Jesus and of the two pairs of +brothers, in whose hearts the mighty conviction of His Messiahship had +taken root. Simon and Andrew were at home in Capernaum; but we may, +perhaps, infer from the manner in which the sickness of Peter's wife's +mother is mentioned, that Peter had not been to his house till after +the synagogue service. At all events, these four were already detached +from ordinary life and bound to Him as disciples. We meet here with +our first instance of Mark's favourite 'straightway,' the recurrence +of which, in this chapter, so powerfully helps the impression of eager +and yet careful swiftness with which Christ ran His course, +'unhasting, unresting.' From the beginning Mark stamps his story with +the spirit of our Lord's own words, 'I must work the works of Him that +sent me, while it is day: the night cometh.' And yet there is no +hurry, but the calm, equable rapidity with which planets move. The +unostentatious manner of Christ's beginning is noteworthy. He seeks to +set Himself in the line of the ordinary teaching of the day. He knew +all the faults of the synagogue and the rabbis, and He had come to +revolutionise the very conception of religious teaching and worship; +but He prefers to intertwine the new with the old, and to make as +little disturbance as possible. It is easy to get the cheap praise of +'originality' by brushing aside existing methods. It is harder and +nobler to use whatever methods may be going, and to breathe new value +and life into them. Drowsy, hair-splitting disputations about nothings +and endless casuistry were the staple of the synagogue talk; but when +He opened His mouth there, the weary formalism went out of the +service, and men's hearts glowed again when they once more heard a +Voice that lived, speaking from a Soul that saw the invisible. Mark +has no mission to record many of our Lord's sayings. His Gospel deals +more with deeds. The sermon he does not give, but the hearer's comment +he does. Matthew has the same words at the close of the Sermon on the +Mount, from which it would seem that they were part of the oral +tradition which underlies the written Gospels; but Mark probably has +them in their right place. Very naturally, the first synagogue +discourse in Capernaum would surprise. Deeper impressions might be +made by its successors, but the first hearing of that voice would be +an experience that could never be repeated. + +The feature of His teaching which astonished the villagers most was +its 'authority.' That fits in with the impression of strength which +Mark wishes to make. Another thing that struck them was its unlikeness +to the type of synagogue teaching to which they had been accustomed +all their lives. They had got so accustomed to the droning dreariness +and trivial subtleties of the rabbis, that it had never entered their +heads that there could be any other way of teaching religion than +boring men with interminable pedantries about trifles of ritual or +outward obedience. This new Teacher would startle all, as an eagle +suddenly appearing in a sanhedrim of owls. He would shock many; He +would fascinate a few. Nor was it only the dissimilarity of His +teaching, but also its authority, that was strange. The scribes spoke +with authority enough of a sort, lording it over the despised common +people--'men of the earth,' as they called them--and exacting +punctilious obedience and much obsequiousness; but authority over the +spirit they had none. They pretended to no power but as expositors of +a law; and they fortified themselves by citations of what this, that, +and the other rabbi had said, which was all their learning. Christ +quoted no one. He did not even say, 'Moses has said.' He did not even +preface His commands with a 'Thus saith the Lord.' He spoke of His own +authority: 'Verily, _I say_ unto you.' Other teachers explained the +law; He is a lawgiver. Others drew more or less pure waters from +cisterns; He is in Himself a well of water, from which all may draw. +To us, as to these rude villagers in the synagogue of the little +fishing-town, Christ's teaching is unique in this respect. He does not +argue; He affirms. He seeks no support from others' teachings; He +alone is sufficient for us. He not only speaks the truth, which needs +no other confirmation than His own lips, but He is the truth. We may +canvass other men's teachings, and distinguish their insight from +their errors; we have but to accept His. The world outgrows all +others; it can only grow up towards the fulness of His. Us and all the +ages He teaches with authority, and the guarantee for the truth of His +teaching is Himself. 'Verily, verily, I say unto you.' No other man +has a right to say that to me. But Christ dominates the race, and the +strong Son of God is the world's Teacher. + +II. The strong conqueror of demons. Again we have 'straightway.' The +language seems to imply that this wretched sufferer burst hurriedly +into the synagogue and interrupted the utterance of astonishment by +giving it new food. Perhaps the double consciousness of the demoniac +may be recognised, the humanity being drawn to Jesus by some disturbed +longings, the demoniac consciousness, on the other hand, being +repelled. It is no part of my purpose to discuss demoniacal +possession. I content myself with remarking that I, for one, do not +see how Christ's credit as a divine Teacher is to be saved without +admitting its reality, nor how such phenomena as the demoniac's +knowledge of His nature are to be accounted for on the hypothesis of +disease or insanity. It is assuming rather too encyclopaediacal a +knowledge to allege the impossibility of such possession. There are +facts enough around us still, which would be at least as +satisfactorily accounted for by it as by natural causes; but as to the +incident before us, Mark puts it all into three sentences, each of +which is pregnant with suggestions. There is, first, the demoniac's +shriek of hatred and despair. Christ had said nothing. If, as we +suppose, the man had broken in on the worship, drawn to Jesus, he is +no sooner in His presence than the other power that darkly lodged in +him overpowers him, and pours out fierce passions from his reluctant +lips. There is dreadful meaning in the preposition here used, 'a man +_in_ an unclean spirit,' as if his human self was immersed in that +filthy flood. The words embody three thoughts--the fierce hatred, +which disowns all connection with Jesus; the wild terror, which asks +or affirms Christ's destructive might over all foul spirits (for the +'us' means not the man and the demon, but the demon and his fellows); +and the recognition of Christ's holiness, which lashes unholiness into +a paroxysm of mingled despair and hate. Does this sound like a madman, +or an epileptic, or like a spirit which knew more than men knew, and +trembled and hated more than they could do? There is nothing more +terrible than the picture, self-drawn in these spasmodic words, of a +spirit which, by its very foulness, is made shudderingly sensitive to +the disturbing presence of purity, and would fain have nothing to do +with Him whom it recognises for the Holy One of God, and therefore its +destroyer. Foul things that lurk under stones hurry out of the light +when you lift the covering. Spirits that love the darkness are hurt by +the light. It is possible to recognise Jesus for what He is, and to +hate Him all the more. What a miserable state that is, to hope that we +shall have nothing to do with Him! These wild utterances, seething +with evil passions and fierce detestation, do point to the possible +terminus for men. A black gulf opens in them, from which we are meant +to start back with the prayer, 'Preserve me from going down into that +pit!' + +What a contrast to the tempest of the demoniac's wild and whirling +words is the calm speech of Christ! He knows His authority, and His +word is imperative, curt, and assured: 'Hold thy peace!' literally, +'Be muzzled,' as if the creature were a dangerous beast, whose raving +and snapping must be stopped. Jesus wishes no acknowledgments from +such lips. They who bear the vessels of the Lord must be clean. He had +taught with authority, and now He in like manner commands. His +teaching rested on His own assurance. His miracle is done by His own +power. That power is put forth by His simple word; that is to say, the +bare exercise or expression of His will is potent. + +The third step in the narrative is the immediate obedience of the +demon. Reluctant but compelled, malicious to the last, doing the house +which he has to leave all the harm he can, and though no longer +venturing to speak, yet venting his rage and mortification, and +acknowledging his defeat by one parting howl, he comes out. + +Again, we are bid to note the impression produced. The interrupted +buzz of talk begins once more, and is vividly reported by the +fragmentary sentences of verse 27, and by the remark that it was +'among themselves' that they compared notes. Two things startled the +people:--first, the 'new teaching'; and second, the authority over +demons, into which they naturally generalise the one instance. The +busy tongues were not silenced when they left the synagogue. Verse 28 +shows what happened, in one direction, when the meeting broke up. With +another 'straightway,' Mark paints the swift flight of the rumour over +all the district, and somewhat overleaps the strict line of +chronology, to let us hear how far the echo of such a blow sounded. +This first miracle recorded by him is as a duel between Christ and the +'strong man armed,' who 'keeps his house.' The shield of the great +oppressor is first struck in challenge by the champion, and His first +essay at arms proves Him mightiest. Such a victory well heads the +chronicle. + +III. The tenderness of the strong Son. We come back to the strict +order of succession with another 'straightway,' which opens a very +different scene. The Authorised Version gives three 'straightways' in +the three verses as to the cure of Peter's mother-in-law. +'Immediately' they go to the house; 'immediately' they tell Jesus of +her; 'immediately' the fever leaves her; and even if we omit the third +of these, as the Revised Version does, we cannot miss the rapid haste +of the narrative, which reflects the unwearied energy of the Master. +Peter and Andrew had apparently been ignorant of the sickness till +they reached the house, from which the inference is not that it was a +slight attack which had come on after they went to the synagogue, but +that the two disciples had so really left house and kindred, that +though in Capernaum, they had not gone home till they took Jesus there +for rest and quiet and food after the toil of the morning. The owners +would naturally first know of the sickness, which would interfere with +their hospitable purpose; and so Mark's account seems more near the +details than Matthew's, inasmuch as the former says that Jesus was +'told' of the sick woman, while Matthew's version is that He 'saw' +her. Luke says that they 'besought Him for her.' No doubt that was the +meaning of 'telling' Him; but Mark's representation brings out very +beautifully the confidence already beginning to spring in their hearts +that He needed but to know in order to heal, and the reverence which +hindered them from direct asking. The instinct of the devout heart is +to tell Christ all its troubles, great or small; and He does not need +beseeching before He answers. He did not need to be told either, but +He would not rob them or us of the solace of confiding all griefs to +Him. + +Their confidence was not misplaced. No moment intervened unused +between the tidings and the cure. 'He came,' as if He had been in some +outer room, or not yet in the house, and now passed into the sick +chamber. Then comes one of Mark's minute and graphic details, in which +we may see the keen eye and faithful memory of Peter. He 'took her by +the hand, and lifted her up.' Mark is fond of telling of Christ's +taking by the hand; as, for instance, the little child whom He set in +the midst, the blind man whom He healed, the child with the dumb +spirit. His touch has power. His grasp means sympathy, tenderness, +identification of Himself with us, the communication of upholding, +restoring strength. It is a picture, in a small matter, of the very +heart of the gospel. 'He layeth not hold of angels, but He layeth hold +of the seed of Abraham.' It is a lesson for all who would help their +fellows, that they must not be too dainty to lay hold of the dirtiest +hand, both metaphorically and literally, if they want their sympathy +to be believed. His hand banishes not only the disease, but its +consequences. Immediate convalescence and restoration to strength +follow; and the strength is used, as it should be, in ministering to +the Healer who, notwithstanding His power, needed the humble +ministration and the poor fare of the fisherman's hut. What a lesson +for all Christian homes is here! Let Jesus know all that troubles +them, welcome Him as a guest, tell Him everything, and He will cure +all diseases and sorrows, or give the light of His presence to make +them endurable. Consecrate to Him the strength which He gives, and let +deliverances teach trust, and inflame grateful love, which delights in +serving Him who needs no service, but delights in all. + +IV. The strong Son, unwearied by toil and sufficient for all the +needy. Each incident in this lesson has a note appended of the +impression it made. Verses 32-34 give the united result of all, on the +people of Capernaum. They wait till the Sabbath is past, and then, +without thought of His long day of work, crowd round the house with +their sick. The sinking sun brought no rest for Him, but the new calls +found Him neither exhausted nor unwilling. Capernaum was but a little +place, and the whole city might well be 'gathered together at the +door,' some sick, some bearing the sick, all curious and eager. There +was no depth in the excitement. There was earnestness enough, no +doubt, in the wish for healing, but there was no insight into His +message. Any travelling European with a medicine chest can get the +same kind of cortege round his tent. These people, who hung upon Him +thus, were those of whom He had afterwards to say that it would be +'more tolerable for Sodom, in the day of judgment, than for them.' But +though He knew the shallowness of the impression, He was not deaf to +the misery; and, with power which knew no weariness, and sympathy +which had no limit, and a reservoir of healing virtue which the day's +draughts had not emptied by a hairs-breadth, He healed them all. +Remarkable is the prohibition of the demons' speech, They knew Him, +while men were ignorant; for they had met Him before to-day. He would +have no witness from them; not merely, as has been said, because their +attestation would hinder, rather than further, His acceptance by the +people, nor because they may be supposed to have spoken in malice, but +because a divine decorum forbade that He should accept acknowledgments +from such tainted sources. + +So ended this first of 'the days of the Son of Man,' which our +Evangelist records. It was a day of hard toil, of merciful and +manifold self-revelation. As teacher and doer, in the synagogue, and +in the home, and in the city; as Lord of the dark realms of evil and +of disease; as ready to hear hinted and dumb prayers, and able to +answer them all; as careless of His own ease, and ready to spend +Himself for others' help,--Jesus showed Himself, on that Sabbath day, +strong and tender, the Son of God and the servant of men. + + + +HEALING AND SERVICE + + +'Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever; and straightway they tell +Him of her: 31. And He came and took her by the hand, and raised her +up; and the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.'--Mark i. +30, 31, R. V. + +This miracle is told us by three of the four Evangelists, and the +comparison of their brief narratives is very interesting and +instructive. We all know, I suppose, that the common tradition is that +Mark was, in some sense, Peter's mouthpiece in this Gospel. The +truthfulness of that ancient statement is borne out by little morsels +of evidence that crop up here and there throughout the Gospel. There +is one of them in this context. The other two Evangelists tell us that +our Lord, with His four attendant disciples, 'entered into the house +of Simon'; Mark knows that Simon's brother Andrew shared the house +with him. Who was likely to have told him such an insignificant thing +as that? We seem to hear the Apostle himself recounting the whole +story to his amanuensis. + +Then, further, Mark's narrative is distinguished from that of the +other two Evangelists in very minute and yet interesting points, which +will come out as we go along. So I think we may fairly say that we +have here Peter himself telling us the story of his mother-in-law's +cure. Now, one thing that strikes one is that this is a very small +miracle. It is by no means--if we can apply the words 'great' and +'small' to these miraculous events--one of the more striking and +significant. Another point to note is that it was done evidently +without the slightest intention of vindicating Christ's mission, or of +preaching any truth whatever, and so it starts up into a new beauty as +being simply and solely a manifestation of His love. I think, when +some people are so busy in denying, and others in proving, the +miraculous element in Scripture, and others in drawing doctrinal or +symbolical lessons out of it, that there is great need to emphasise +this, that the first thing about all Christ's miracles, and most +conspicuously about this one, is that they were the welling out of His +loving heart which responded to the sight of human sorrow--I was going +to say instinctively; but I will find a better word, and say divinely. +The deed that had no purpose whatsoever except to lighten the burden +upon a disciple's heart, and to heal the passing physical trouble of +one poor old woman, is great, just because it is small; and full of +teaching because, to the superficial eye, it teaches nothing. + +The first thing in the story is, as it seems to me-- + +I. The disciple's intercession. + +I wonder if Peter knew that his wife's mother was ill, when he said to +Jesus Christ, after that exciting morning in the synagogue, 'Come +home, and rest in our house'? Probably not. One can scarcely imagine +hospitality proffered under such circumstances, or with a knowledge of +them. And if we look a little more closely into the preceding +narrative we shall see that it is at least possible that Peter and his +brother had been away from home for some time; so that the old woman +might easily have fallen ill during their temporary absence. But be +that as it may, they expect to find rest and food, and they find a +sick woman. + +There must have been at least two rooms in the humble house, because +they 'come to Jesus Christ and tell Him of her.' Now if we turn to the +other Evangelists, we shall find that Matthew says nothing about any +message being communicated to Jesus, but brings Him at once, as It +were, to the side of the sick-bed. That is evidently an incomplete +account. And then we find in Luke's Gospel that, instead of the simple +'tell Him of her' of Mark, he intensifies the telling into 'they +besought Him for her.' Now, I think that Mark's is plainly the more +precise story, because he lets us see that Jesus Christ did not commit +such a breach of courtesy, due to the humblest home, as to go to the +woman's bedside without being summoned, and he also lets us see that +the 'beseeching' was a simple intimation to Him. They did not ask; +they tell Him; being, perhaps, restrained from definite petitioning +partly by reverence, and partly, no doubt, by hesitation in these +early days of their discipleship--for this incident occurred at the +very beginning, when all the subsequent manifestations of His +character were yet waiting to be flashed upon them--as to whether it +might be in accordance with their new Teacher's very little known +disposition and mind to help. They knew that He could, because He had +just healed a demoniac in the synagogue, but one can understand how, +at the beginning of their discipleship, there was a little faltering +of confidence as to whether they should go so far as to ask Him to do +such a thing. So they 'tell Him of her,' and do you not think that the +tone of petition vibrated in the intimation, and that there looked out +of the eyes of the impulsive, warm-hearted Peter, an unspoken prayer? +So Luke was perfectly right in his interpretation of the incident, +though not precise in his statement of the external fact, when, +instead of saying 'they tell Him of her,' he translated that telling +into what it meant, and put it, 'they besought Him for her.' + +Ah! dear brethren, there are a great many things in our lives which, +though we ought to know Jesus Christ better than the first disciples +at first did, scarcely seem to us fit to be turned into subjects of +petition, partly because we have wrong notions as to the sphere and +limits of prayer, and partly because they seem to be such transitory +things that it is a shame to trouble Him about such insignificant +matters. Well, go and tell Him, at any rate. I do not think that +Christians ought to have anything in their heads or hearts that they +do not take to Jesus Christ, and it is an uncommonly good test--and +one very easily applied--of our hopes, fears, purposes, thoughts, +deeds, and desires--'Should I like to go and make a clean breast of it +to the Master?' + +'They tell Him of her,' and that meant petition, and Jesus Christ can +interpret an unspoken petition, and an unexpressed desire appeals to +His sympathetic heart. Although the words be but 'O Lord! I am +troubled, perplexed; and I do not know what to do,' He translates them +into 'Calm Thou me; enlighten Thou me; guide Thou me'; and be sure of +this, that as in the story before us, so in our lives, He will answer +the unspoken petition in so far as may be best for us. + +The next thing to note in this incident is-- + +II. The Healers method. + +There, again, the three stories diverge, and yet are all one. Matthew +says, 'He touched her'; Luke says, 'He _stood_'-or rather, as the +Greek means, 'He _bent over her_--and rebuked the fever.' Perhaps +Peter was close to the pallet, and saw and remembered that there were +not a standing over and rebuking the fever only, but that there was +the going out of His tender sympathy to the sufferer, and that if +there were stern words as of indignation and authority addressed to +the disease as if to an unlawful intruder, there were also compassion +and tenderness for the victim. For Mark tells that it was not a touch +only, but that 'He took her by the hand and lifted her up,' and the +grasp banished sickness and brought strength. + +Now the most precious of the lessons that we can gather from the +variety of Christ's methods of healing is this: that all methods which +He used were in themselves equally powerless, and that the curative +virtue was in neither the word nor the touch, nor the spittle, nor the +clay, nor the bathing in the pool of Siloam, but was purely and simply +in the outgoing of His will. The reasons for the wonderful variety of +ways in which He communicated His healing power are to be sought +partly in the respective moral, and spiritual, and intellectual +condition of the people to be healed, and partly in wider reasons and +considerations. Why did He stoop and touch the woman, and take her by +the hand and gently lift her up? Because His heart went out to her, +because He felt the emotion and sympathy which makes the whole world +kin, and because His heart was a heart of love, and bade Him come into +close contact with the poor fever-ridden woman. Unless we regard that +hand-clasp as being such an instinctive attitude and action of +Christ's sympathetic love, we lose the deepest significance of it. And +then, when we have given full weight to that, the simplest and yet the +most blessed of all the thoughts that cluster round the deed, we can +venture further to say that in that small matter we see mirrored, as a +wide sweep of country in a tiny mirror, or the sun in a bowl of water, +the great truth: 'He took not hold of angels, but He took hold of the +seed of Abraham, wherefore it behoved Him to be made in all things +like unto His brethren.' The touch upon the fevered hand of that old +woman in Capernaum was as a condensation into one act of the very +principle of the Incarnation and of the whole power which Christ +exercises upon a fevered and sick world. For it is by His touch, by +His lifting hand, by His sympathetic grasp, and by our real contact +with Him, that all our sicknesses are banished, and health and +strength come to our souls. + +So let us learn a lesson for our own guidance. We can do no man any +real good unless we make ourselves one with him, and benefits that we +bestow will hurt rather than help, if they are flung down upon men as +from a height, or as people cast a bone to a dog. The heart must go +with them; and identification with the sufferer is a condition of +succour. If we would take lepers and blind beggars and poor old women +by the hand--I mean, of course, by giving them our sympathy along with +our help--we should see larger results from, and be more Christ-like +in, our deeds of beneficence. + +The last point is-- + +III. The healed sufferer's service. + +'She arose'--yes, of course she did, when Christ grasped her. How +could she help it? 'And she ministered to them,'--how could she help +that either, if she had any thankfulness in her heart? What a lovely, +glad, awe-stricken meal that would be, to which they all sat down in +Simon's house, on that Sabbath night, as the sun was setting! It was a +humble household. There were no servants in it. The convalescent old +woman had to do all the ministering herself, and that she was able to +do it was, of course, as everybody remarks on reading the narrative, +the sign of the completeness of the cure. But it was a great deal more +than that. How could she sit still and not minister to Him who had +done so much for her? And if you and I, dear friends, have any living +apprehension of Christ's healing power, and understand and respond at +all to 'that for which we have been laid hold of' by Him, our +thankfulness will take the same shape, and we, too, shall become His +servants. Up yonder, amidst the blaze of the glory, He is still +capable of being ministered to by us. The woman who did so on earth +had no monopoly of this sacred office, but it continues still. And +every housewife, as she goes about her duties, and every domestic +servant, as she moves round her mistress's dinner-table, and all of +us, in our secular avocations, as people call them, may indeed serve +Christ, if only we have regard to Him in the doing of them. There is +also a yet higher sense in which that ministration, incumbent upon all +the healed, and spontaneous on their part if they have truly been +recipients of the healing grace, is still possible for us. 'When saw +we Thee... in need... and served Thee?' 'Inasmuch as ye did it unto +one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it unto Me.' + + + +A PARABLE IN A MIRACLE + + +'And there came a leper to Him, beseeching Him, and kneeling down to +Him, and saying unto Him, If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. 41. +And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth His hand, and touched him, +and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. 42. And as soon as He had +spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was +cleansed.'--Mark i. 40-42. + +Christ's miracles are called wonders--that is, deeds which, by their +exceptional character, arrest attention and excite surprise. Further, +they are called 'mighty works'--that is, exhibitions of superhuman +power. They are still further called 'signs'--that is, tokens of His +divine mission. But they are signs in another sense, being, as it +were, parables as well as miracles, and representing on the lower +plane of material things the effects of His working on men's spirits. +Thus, His feeding of the hungry speaks of His higher operation as the +Bread of Life. His giving sight to the blind foreshadows His +illumination of darkened minds. His healing of the diseased speaks of +His restoration of sick souls. His stilling of the tempest tells of +Him as the Peace-bringer for troubled hearts; and His raising of the +dead proclaims Him as the Life-giver, who quickens with the true life +all who believe on Him. This parabolic aspect of the miracles is +obvious in the case before us. Leprosy received exceptional treatment +under the Mosaic law, and the peculiar restrictions to which the +sufferer was subjected, as well as the ritual of his cleansing, in the +rare cases where the disease wore itself out, are best explained by +being considered as symbolical rather than as sanitary. It was taken +as an emblem of sin. Its hideous symptoms, its rotting sores, its +slow, stealthy, steady progress, its defiance of all known means of +cure, made its victim only too faithful a walking image of that worse +disease. Remembering this deeper aspect of leprosy, let us study this +miracle before us, and try to gather its lessons. + +I. First, then, notice the leper's cry. + +Mark connects the story with our Lord's first journey through Galilee, +which was signalised by many miracles, and had excited much stir and +talk. The news of the Healer had reached the isolated huts where the +lepers herded, and had kindled a spark of hope in one poor wretch, +which emboldened him to break through all regulations, and thrust his +tainted and unwelcome presence into the shrinking crowd. He seems to +have appeared there suddenly, having forced or stolen his way somehow +into Christ's presence. And there he was, with his horrible white +face, with his tightened, glistening skin, with some frowsy rag over +his mouth, and a hunted look as of a wild beast in his eyes. The crowd +shrank back from him; he had no difficulty in making his way to where +Christ is sitting, calmly teaching. And Mark's vivid narrative shows +him to us, flinging himself down before the Lord, and, without waiting +for question or pause, interrupting whatever was going on, with his +piteous cry. Misery and wretchedness make short work of conventional +politeness. + +Note the keen sense of misery that impels to the passionate desire for +relief. A leper with the flesh dropping off his bones could not +suppose that there was nothing the matter with him. His disease was +too gross and palpable not to be felt; and the depth of misery +measured the earnestness of desire. The parallel fails us there. The +emblem is all insufficient, for here is the very misery of our deepest +misery, that we are unconscious of it, and sometimes even come to love +it. There are forms of sickness in which the man goes about, and to +each inquiry says, 'I am perfectly well,' though everybody else can +see death written on his face. And so it is with this terrible malady +that has laid its corrupting and putrefying finger upon us all. The +worse we are, the less we know that there is anything the matter with +us; and the deeper the leprosy has struck its filthy fangs into us, +the more ready we are to say that we are sound. We preachers have it +for one of our first duties to try to rouse men to the recognition of +the facts of their spiritual condition, and all our efforts are too +often--as I, for my part, sometimes half despairingly feel when I +stand in the pulpit--like a firebrand dropped into a pond, which +hisses for a moment and then is extinguished. Men and women sit in +pews listening contentedly and quietly, who, if they saw themselves, I +do not say even as God sees them, but as others see them, would know +that the leprosy is deep in them, and the taint patent to every eye. I +do not charge you, my brother, with gross transgressions of plain +moralities; I know nothing about that. I know this: 'As face answereth +to face in a glass,' so doth the heart of man to man, and I bring this +message, verified to me by my own consciousness, that we have all gone +astray, and 'wounds and bruises and putrefying sores' mark us all. If +the best of us could see himself for once, in the light of God, as the +worst of us will see himself one day, the cry would come from the +purest lips, 'Oh! wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from +the body of this death?'--this life in death that I carry, rotting and +smelling foul to Heaven, about with me, wheresoever I go. + +Note, further, this man's confidence in Christ's power: 'Thou canst +make me clean.' He had heard all about the miracles that were being +wrought up and down over the country, and he came to the Worker, with +nothing of the nature of religious faith in Him, but with entire +confidence, based upon the report of previous miracles, in Christ's +ability to heal. I do not suppose that in its nature it was very +different from the trust with which savages will crowd round a +traveller who has a medicine-chest with him, and expect to be cured of +their diseases. But still it was real confidence in our Lord's power +to heal. As a rule, though not without exceptions, He required (we may +perhaps say He needed) such confidence as a condition of His +miracle-working power. + +If we turn from the emblem to the thing signified, from the leprosy of +the body to that of the spirit, we may be sure of Christ's omnipotent +ability to cleanse from the extremest severity of the disease, however +inveterate and chronic it may have become. Sin dominates men by two +opposite lies. I have said how hard it is to get people's consciences +awakened to see the facts of their moral and religious condition; but +then, when they are waked up, it is almost as hard to keep them from +the other extreme. The devil, first of all, says to a man, 'It is only +a little sin. Do it; you will be none the worse. You can give it up +when you like, you know. That is the language before the act. +Afterwards, his language is, first, 'You have done no harm, never mind +what people say about sin. Make yourself comfortable,' and then, when +that lie wears itself out, the mask is dropped, and this is what is +said: 'I have got you now, and you cannot get away. Done is done! What +thou hast written thou hast written; and neither thou nor anybody else +can blot it out.' Hence the despair into which awakened consciences +are apt to drop, and the feeling, which dogs the sense of evil like a +spectre, of the hopelessness of all attempts to make oneself better. +Brethren, they are both lies; the lie that we are pure is the first; +the lie that we are too black to be purified is the second. 'If we say +that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and make God a liar,' but if +we say, as some of us, when once our consciences are stirred, are but +too apt to say, 'We have sinned, and it cleaves to us for ever,' we +deceive ourselves still worse, and still more darkly and doggedly +contradict the sure word of God. Christ's blood atones for all past +sin, and has power to bring forgiveness to every one. Christ's vital +Spirit will enter into any heart, and, abiding there, has power to +make the foulest clean. + +Note, again, the leper's hesitation. 'If Thou wilt'--he had no right +to presume on Christ's good will. He knew nothing about the principles +upon which His miracles were wrought and His mercy extended. He +supposed, no doubt, as he was bound to suppose, in the absence of any +plain knowledge, that it was a mere matter of accident, of caprice, of +momentary inclination and good nature, to whom the gift of healing +should come. And so he draws near with the modest 'If Thou wilt'; not +pretending to know more than he knew, or to have a claim which he had +not. But his hesitation is quite as much entreaty as hesitation. What +do we mean when we say about a man, 'He can do it, if he likes,' but +to imply that it is so easy to do it, that it would be cruel not to do +it? And so, when the leper said, 'If Thou wilt, Thou canst,' he meant, +'There is no obstacle standing between me and health but Thy will, and +surely it cannot be Thy will to leave me in this life in death.' He, +as it were, throws the responsibility for his health or disease upon +Christ's shoulders, and thereby makes the strongest appeal to that +loving heart. + +We stand on another level. The leper's hesitation is our certainty. We +know the principle upon which His mercy is dispensed; we know that it +is a universal, all-embracing love; we know that no caprice nor +passing spasm of good nature lies at the bottom of it. We know that if +any men are not healed, it is not because Christ will not, but because +they will not. If ever there springs in our hearts the dark doubt 'If +Thou wilt,' which was innocent in this man in the twilight of his +knowledge, but is wrong in us in the full noontide of ours, we ought +to be able to banish it at once, and to lay none of the responsibility +of our continuing unhealed on Christ, but all on ourselves. He has +laid it there, when He lamented, 'How often would I--and ye would +not!' Nothing can be more in accordance with the will of God, of which +Jesus Christ is the embodiment, than to deliver men from sin, which is +the opposite of His will. + +II. Notice, secondly, the Lord's answer. + +Mark's record of this incident puts the miracle in very small compass, +and dilates rather upon the attitude and mind of Jesus Christ +preparatory to it. As if, apart altogether from the supernatural +element and the lessons that are to be drawn from it, it was worth our +while to ponder, for the gladdening of our hearts and the +strengthening of our hopes, that lovely picture of sheer simple +compassion and tender-heartedness. 'Jesus, _moved with compassion_'--a +clause which occurs only in Mark's account--'put forth His hand and +touched him, and said, I will; be thou clean.' Note, then, three +things--the compassion, the touch, the word. + +As to the first, is it not a precious boon for us, in the midst of our +many wearinesses and sorrows and sicknesses, to have that picture of +Jesus Christ bending over the leper, and sending, as it were, a gush +of pitying love from His heart to flood away all his miseries? It is a +true revelation of the heart of Jesus Christ. Simple pity is its very +core. That pity is eternal, and subsists as He sits in the calm of the +heavens, even as it was manifest whilst He sat teaching in the humble +house in Galilee. For 'we have not a High Priest which cannot be +touched with a feeling of our infirmities.' The pitying Christ is near +us all. Nor let us forget that it is this swift shoot of pity which +underlies all that follows--the touch, the word, and the cure. Christ +does not wait to be moved by the prayers that come from these leprous +lips, but He is moved by the leprous lips themselves. The sight of the +man affects His pitying heart, which sets in motion all the wheels of +His healing powers. So we may learn that the impulse to which His +redeeming activity owes its origin wells up from His own heart. Show +Him sorrow, and He answers it by a pity of such a sort that it is +restless till it helps and assuages. We may rise higher. The pity of +Jesus Christ is the summit of His revelation of the Father, and, +looking upon that gentle heart, into whose depths we can see as +through a little window by these words of my text, we must stand with +hushed reverence as beholding not only the compassion of the Man, but +therein manifested the pity of the God who, 'Like as a father pitieth +his children, pitieth them that fear Him,' and pities yet more the +more miserable men who fear and love Him not. The Christian's God is +no impassive Being, indifferent to mankind, but 'One who in all our +afflictions is afflicted, and, in His love and in His pity,' redeems +and bears and carries. + +Note, still further, the Lord's touch. With swift obedience to the +impulse of His pity, Christ thrusts forth His hand and touches the +leper. There was much in that touch, but whatever more we may see in +it, we should not be blind to the loving humanity of the act. Remember +that the man kneeling there had felt no touch of a hand for years; +that the very kisses of his own children and his wife's embrace of +love were denied him. And now Jesus puts out His hand, and, without +thinking of Mosaic restrictions and ceremonial prohibitions, yields to +the impulse of His pity, and gives assurance of His sympathy and His +brotherhood, as He lays His pure fingers upon the rotting ulcers. All +men that help their fellows must be contented thus to identify +themselves with them and to take them by the hand, if they would seek +to deliver them from their evils. + +Remember, too, that according to the Mosaic law it was forbidden to +any but the priest to touch a leper. Therefore, in this act, beautiful +as it is in its uncalculated humanity, there may have been something +intended of a deeper kind. Our Lord thereby does one of two +things--either He asserts His authority as overriding that of Moses +and all his regulations, or He asserts His sacerdotal character. +Either way there is a great claim in the act. + +Further, we may take that touch of Christ's as being a parable of His +whole work. It was a piece of wonderful sympathy and condescension +that He should put out His hand to touch the leper; but it was the +result of a far greater and more wonderful piece of sympathy and +condescension that He had a hand to touch him with. For the 'sweet +human hands and lips and eyes' which He wore in this world were +assumed by Him in order that He might make Himself one with all +sufferers and bear the burden of all their sins. So His touch of the +leper symbolises His identifying of Himself with mankind, the foulest +and the most degraded; and in this connection there is a profound +meaning in one of the ordinarily trivial legends of the Rabbis, who, +founding upon a word of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, tell us +that when Messias comes He will be found sitting amongst the lepers at +the gate of the city. So He was numbered amongst the transgressors in +His life, and 'with the wicked in His death.' He touches, and, +touching, contracts no impurity, cleansing as the sunlight and the +fire do, by burning up the impurity, and not by receiving it into +Himself. + +Note the Lord's word, 'I will; be thou clean.' It is shaped, +convolution for convolution, so to speak, to match the man's prayer. +He ever moulds His response according to the feebleness and +imperfection of the petitioner's faith. But, at the same time, what a +ring of autocratic authority and conscious sovereignty there is in the +brief, calm, imperative word, 'I will; be thou clean!' He accepts the +leper's ascription of power; He claims to work the miracle by His own +will, and therein He is either guilty of what comes very near arrogant +blasphemy, or He is rightly claiming for Himself a divine prerogative. +If His word can tell as a force on material things, what is the +conclusion? He who 'spake and it was done' is Almighty and Divine. + +III. Lastly, note the immediate cure. + +Mark tells, with his favourite word 'straightway,' how as soon as +Christ had spoken, the leprosy departed from the leper. And to turn +from the symbol to the fact, the same sudden and complete cleansing is +possible for us. Our cleansing from sin must depend upon the present +love and present power of Jesus Christ. On account of Christ's +sacrifice, whose efficacy is eternal and lies at the foundation of all +our blessedness and our purity until the heavens shall be no more, we +are forgiven our sins and our guilt is taken away. By the present +indwelling of that cleansing Spirit of the ever-living Christ, which +will be given to us each if we seek it, we are cleansed day by day +from our evil. 'The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin,' not +only when shed as propitiatory, but when applied as sanctifying. We +must come to Christ, and there must be a real living contact between +us and Him through our faith, if we are to possess either the +forgiveness or the cleansing which are wrapped up inseparable in His +gift. + +Further, the suddenness of this cure and its completeness may be +reproduced in us. People tell us that to believe in sudden conversion +is fanatical. This is not the place to argue that question. It seems +to me that such suddenness is in accordance with analogy. And I, for +my part, preach with full belief and in the hope that the words may +not be spoken altogether in vain to every man, woman, and child +listening to me, irrespective of their condition, character, and past, +that there is no reason why they should not go to Him straightway; no +reason why He should not put out His hand straightway and touch them; +no reason why their leprosy should not pass from them straightway, and +they lie down to sleep to-night 'accepted in the Beloved' and cleansed +in Him. Trust Him and He will do it. + +Only remember, it was of no use to the leper that crowds had been +healed, that floods of blessing had been poured over the land. What he +wanted was that a rill should come and refresh his own lips. If you +wish to have Christ's cleansing you must make personal work of it, and +come with this prayer, 'On _me_ be all that cleansing shown!' You do +not need to go to Him with an 'If' nor a prayer, for His gift has not +waited for our asking, and He has anticipated us by coming with +healing in His wings. The parts are reversed, and He prays you to +receive the gift, and stands before each of us with the gentle +remonstrance upon His lips, 'Why will ye die when I am here ready to +cure you?' Take Him at His word, for He offers to us all, whether we +desire it or no, the cleansing which we need. Take Him at His word, +trust Him wholly, trust to His death for forgiveness, to His +sanctifying Spirit for cleansing, and 'straightway' your 'leprosy will +depart from you,' and your flesh shall become like the flesh of a +little child, and you shall be clean. + + + +CHRIST'S TOUCH + + +'Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him.'--Mark i. 41. + +Behold the servant of the Lord' might be the motto of this Gospel, and +'He went about doing good and healing' the summing up of its facts. We +have in it comparatively few of our Lord's discourses, none of His +longer, and not very many of His briefer ones. It contains but four +parables. This Evangelist gives no miraculous birth as in Matthew, no +angels adoring there as in Luke, no gazing into the secrets of +Eternity, where the Word who afterwards became flesh dwelt in the +bosom of the Father, as in John. He begins with a brief reference to +the Forerunner, and then plunges into the story of Christ's life of +service to man and service for God. + +In carrying out his conception the Evangelist omits many things found +in the other Gospels, which involve the idea of dignity and dominion, +while he adds to the incidents which he has in common with them not a +few fine and subtle touches to heighten the impression of our Lord's +toil and eagerness in His patient, loving service. Perhaps it may be +an instance of this that we find more prominence given to our Lord's +touch as connected with His miracles than in the other Gospels, or +perhaps it may merely be an instance of the vivid portraiture, the +result of a keen eye for externals, which is so marked a +characteristic of this gospel. Whatever the reason, the fact is plain, +that Mark delights to dwell on Christ's touch. The instances are +these--first, He puts out His hand, and 'lifts up' Peter's wife's +mother, and immediately the fever leaves her (i. 31); then, unrepelled +by the foul disease, He lays His pure hand upon the leper, and the +living mass of corruption is healed (i. 41); again, He lays His hand +on the clammy marble of the dead child's forehead, and she lives (v. +41). Further, we have the incidental statement that He was so hindered +in His mighty works by unbelief that He could only lay His hands on a +few sick folk and heal them (vi. 5). We find next two remarkable +incidents, peculiar to Mark, both like each other and unlike our +Lord's other miracles. One is the gradual healing of that deaf and +dumb man whom Christ took apart from the crowd, laid His hands on him, +thrust His fingers into his ears as if He would clear some impediment, +touched his tongue with saliva, said to him, 'Be opened'; and the man +could hear (vii. 34). The other is, the gradual healing of a blind man +whom our Lord again leads apart from the crowd, takes by the hand, +lays His own kind hands upon the poor, sightless eyeballs, and with +singular slowness of progress effects a cure, not by a leap and a +bound as He generally does, but by steps and stages; tries it once and +finds partial success, has to apply the curative process again, and +then the man can see (viii. 23). In addition to these instances there +are two other incidents which may also be adduced. It is Mark alone +who records for us the fact that He took little children in His arms, +and blessed them. And it is Mark alone who records for us the fact +that when He came down from the Mount of Transfiguration He laid His +hand upon the demoniac boy, writhing in the grip of his tormentor, and +lifted him up. + +There is much taught us, if we will patiently consider it, by that +touch of Christ's, and I wish to try to bring out its meaning and +power. + +I. Whatever diviner and sacreder aspect there may be in these +incidents, the first thing, and in some senses the most precious +thing, in them is that they are the natural expression of a truly +human tenderness and compassion. + +Now we are so accustomed, and as I believe quite rightly, to look at +all Christ's life down to its minutest events as intended to be a +revelation of God, that we are sometimes apt to think about it as if +His motive and purpose in everything was didactic. So an unreality +creeps over our conceptions of Christ's life, and we need to be +reminded that He was not always acting and speaking in order to convey +instruction, but that words and deeds were drawn from Him by the play +of simple human feelings. He pitied not only in order to teach us the +heart of God, but because His own man's heart was touched with a +feeling of men's infirmities. We are too apt to think of Him as posing +before men with the intent of giving the great revelation of the Love +of God. It is the love of Christ Himself, spontaneous, instinctive, +without the thought of anything but the suffering that it sees, which +gushes out and leads Him to put forth His hand to the outcast beggars, +the blind, the deaf, the lepers. That is the first great lesson we +have to learn from this and other stories--the swift human sympathy +and heart of grace and tenderness which Jesus Christ had for all human +suffering, and has to-day as truly as ever. + +There is more than this instinctive sympathy taught by Christ's touch, +but it is distinctly taught. How beautifully that comes out in the +story of the leper! That wretched man had long dwelt in his isolation. +The touch of a friend's hand or the kiss of loving lips had been long +denied him. Christ looks on him, and before He reflects, the +spontaneous impulse of pity breaks through the barriers of legal +prohibitions and of natural repugnance, and leads Him to lay His holy +and healing hand on his foulness. + +True pity always instinctively leads us to seek to come near those who +are its objects. A man tells his friend some sad story of his +sufferings, and while he speaks, unconsciously his listener lays his +hand on his arm, and, by a silent pressure, speaks his sympathy. So +Christ did with these men--not only in order that He might reveal God +to us, but because He was a man, and therefore felt ere He thought. +Out flashed from His heart the swift sympathy, followed by the tender +pressure of the loving hand--a hand that tried through flesh to reach +spirit, and come near the sufferer that it might succour and remove +the sorrow. + +Christ's pity is shown by His touch to have this true characteristic +of true pity, that it overcomes disgust. All real sympathy does that. +Christ is not turned away by the shining whiteness of the leprosy, nor +by the eating pestilence beneath it; He is not turned away by the +clammy marble hand of the poor dead maiden, nor by the fevered skin of +the old woman gasping on her pallet. He lays hold on each, the flushed +patient, the loathsome leper, the sacred dead, with the all-equalising +touch of a universal love and pity, which disregards all that is +repellent, and overflows every barrier and pours itself over every +sufferer. We have the same pity of the same Christ to trust to and to +lay hold of to-day. He is high above us and yet bending over us; +stretching His hand from the throne as truly as He put it out when +here on earth; and ready to take us all to His heart in spite of our +weakness and wickedness, our failings and our shortcomings, the fever +of our flesh and hearts' desires, the leprosy of our many corruptions, +and the death of our sins,--and to hold us ever in the strong, gentle +clasp of His divine, omnipotent, and tender hand. This Christ lays +hold on us because He loves us, and will not be turned from His +compassion by the most loathsome foulness of ours. + +II. And now take another point of view from which we may regard this +touch of Christ: namely, as the medium of His miraculous power. + +There is nothing to me more remarkable about the miracles of our Lord +than the royal variety of His methods of healing. Sometimes He works +at a distance, sometimes He requires, as it would appear for good +reasons, the proximity of the person to be blessed. Sometimes He works +by a simple word: 'Lazarus, come forth!' 'Peace be still!' 'Come out +of him!' sometimes by a word and a touch, as in the instances before +us; sometimes by a touch without a word; sometimes by a word and a +touch and a vehicle, as in the saliva that was put on the tongue and +in the ears of the deaf, and on the eyes of the blind; sometimes by a +vehicle without a word, without a touch, without His presence, as when +He said, 'Go wash in the pool of Siloam, and he washed and was clean.' +So the divine worker varies infinitely and at pleasure, yet not +arbitrarily but for profound, even if not always discoverable, +reasons, the methods of His miracle-working power, in order that we +may learn by these varieties of ways that He is tied to no way; and +that His hand, strong and almighty, uses methods and tosses aside +methods according to His pleasure, the methods being vitalised when +they are used by His will, and being nothing at all in themselves. + +The very variety of His methods, then, teaches us that the true cause +in every case is His own bare will. A simple word is the highest and +most adequate expression of that will. His word is all-powerful: and +that is the very signature of divinity. Of whom has it been true from +of old that 'He spake and it was done, He commanded and it stood +fast'? Do you believe in a Christ whose bare will, thrown among +material things, makes them all plastic, as clay in the potter's +hands, whose mouth rebukes the demons and they flee, rebukes death and +it looses its grasp, rebukes the tempest and there is a calm, rebukes +disease and there comes health? + +But this use of Christ's touch as apparent means for conveying His +miraculous power also serves as an illustration of a principle which +is exemplified in all His revelation, namely, the employment in +condescension to men's weakness, of outward means as the apparent +vehicles of His spiritual power. Just as by the material vehicle +sometimes employed for cure, He gave these poor sense-bound natures a +ladder by which their faith in His healing power might climb, so in +the manner of His revelation and communication of His spiritual gifts, +there is provision for the wants of us men, who ever need some body +for spirit to make itself manifest by, some form for the ethereal +reality, some 'tabernacle' for the 'sun.' 'Sacraments,' outward +ceremonies, forms of worship, are vehicles which the Divine Spirit +uses in order to bring His gifts to the hearts and the minds of men. +They are like the touch of the Christ which heals, not by any virtue +in itself, apart from His will which chooses to make it the apparent +medium of healing. All these externals are nothing, as the pipes of an +organ are nothing, until His breath is breathed through them, and then +the flood of sweet sound pours out. + +Do not despise the material vehicles and the outward helps which +Christ uses for the communication of His healing and His life, but +remember that the help that is done upon earth, He does it all +Himself. Even Christ's touch is nothing, if it were not for His own +will which flows through it. + +III. Consider Christ's touch as a shadow and symbol of the very heart +of His work. + +Go back to the past history of this man. Ever since his disease +declared itself no human being had touched him. If he had a wife he +had been separated from her; if he had children their lips had never +kissed his, nor their little hands found their way into his hard palm. +Alone he had been walking with the plague-cloth over his face, and the +cry 'Unclean!' on his lips, lest any man should come near him. +Skulking in his isolation, how he must have hungered for the touch of +a hand! Every Jew was forbidden to approach him but the priest, who, +if he were cured, might pass his hand over the place and pronounce him +clean. And here comes a Man who breaks down all the restrictions, +stretches a frank hand out across the walls of separation, and touches +him. What a reviving assurance of love not yet dead must have come to +the man as Christ grasped his hand, even if he saw in Him only a +stranger who was not afraid of him and did not turn from him! + +But beside this thrill of human sympathy, which came hope--bringing to +the leper, Christ's touch had much significance, if we remember that, +according to the Mosaic legislation, the priest and the priest alone +was to lay his hands on the tainted skin and pronounce the leper +whole. So Christ's touch was a priest's touch. He lays His hand on +corruption and is not tainted. The corruption with which He comes in +contact becomes purity. Are not these really the profoundest truths as +to His whole work in the world? What is it all but laying hold of the +leper and the outcast and the dead--His sympathy leading to His +identification of Himself with us in our weakness and misery? + +That sympathetic life-bringing touch is put forth once for all in His +Incarnation and Death. 'He taketh hold of the seed of Abraham,' says +the Epistle to the Hebrews, looking at our Lord's work under this same +metaphor, and explaining that His laying hold of men was His being +'made in all points like unto His brethren.' Just as he took hold of +the fevered woman and lifted her from her bed; or, as He thrust His +fingers into the deaf ears of that poor man stopped by some +impediment, so, in analogous fashion, He becomes one of those whom He +would save and help. In His assumption of humanity and in His bowing +of His head to death, we behold Him laying hold of our weakness and +entering into the fellowship of our pains and of the fruit of sin. + +Just as He touches the leper and in unpolluted, or the fever patient +and receives no contagion, or the dead and draws no chill of mortality +into His warm hand, so He becomes like His brethren in all things, yet +without sin. Being found in 'the likeness of sinful flesh,' He knows +no sin, but wears His manhood unpolluted and dwells among men +'blameless and harmless, the Son of God, without rebuke.' Like a +sunbeam passing through foul water untarnished and unstained; or like +some sweet spring rising in the midst of the salt sea, which yet +retains its freshness and pours it over the surrounding bitterness, so +Christ takes upon Himself our nature and lays hold of our stained +hands with the hand that continues pure while it grasps us, and will +make us purer if we grasp it. + +Brethren, let your touch answer to His; and as He lays hold of us, in +His incarnation and His death, let the hand of our faith clasp His +outstretched hand, and though our hold be as faltering and feeble as +that of the trembling, wasted fingers which one timid woman once laid +on His garment's hem, the blessing which we need will flow into our +veins from the contact. There will be cleansing for our leprosy, sight +for our blindness, life driving out death from its throne in our +hearts, and we shall be able to recount our joyful experience in the +old Psalmist's triumphant strains--'He sent me from above, He laid +hold upon me, He drew me out of many waters.' + +IV. Finally, we may look upon these incidents as being in a very +important sense a pattern for us. + +No good is to be done by any man to his fellows except at the cost of +true sympathy which leads to identification and contact. The literal +touch of your hand would do more good to some poor outcasts than much +solemn advice, or even much material help flung to them as from a +height above them. A shake of the hand might be more of a means of +grace than a sermon, and more comforting than ever so many free +breakfasts and blankets given superciliously. + +And, symbolically, we may say that we must be willing to take those by +the hand whom we wish to help; that is to say, we must come down to +their level, try to see with their eyes, and to think their thoughts, +and let them feel that we do not think our purity too fine to come +beside their filth, nor shrink from them With repugnance, however we +may show disapproval and pity for their sin. Much work done by +Christian people has no effect, nor ever will have, because it has +peeping through it a poorly concealed 'I am holier than thou.' An +instinctive movement of repugnance has ruined many a well-meant +effort. + +Christ has come down to us, and has taken all our nature upon Himself. +If there is an outcast and abandoned soul on earth which may not feel +that Jesus has laid a loving and healing touch on him, Jesus is not +the Saviour for the world. He shrinks from none, He unites Himself +with all, therefore 'He is able to save to the uttermost all who come +unto God by Him.' His conduct is the pattern and the law for us. A +Church is a poor affair if it is not a body of people whose experience +of Christ's pity and gratitude for the life which has become theirs +through His wondrous making Himself one with them, compels them to do +the like in their degree for the sinful and the outcast. Thank God, +there are many in every communion who know that constraint of the love +of Christ. But the world will not be healed of its sickness till the +great body of Christian people awakes to feel that the task and honour +of each of them is to go forth bearing Christ's pity certified by +their own. + +The sins of professing Christian countries are largely to be laid at +the door of the Church. We are idle when we ought to be at work. We +'pass by on the other side' when bleeding brethren lie with wounds +gaping to be bound up by us. And even when we are moved to service by +Christ's love, and try to do something for our fellows, our work is +often tainted by a sense of our own superiority, and we patronise when +we should sympathise, and lecture when we should beseech. + +We must be content to take lepers by the hand, if we would help them +to purity, and to let every outcast feel the warmth of our pitying, +loving grasp, if we would draw them into the forsaken Father's House. +Lay your hands on the sinful as Christ did, and they will recover. All +your holiness and hope come from Christ's laying hold of you. Keep +hold of Him, and make His great pity and loving identification of +Himself with the world of sinners and sufferers, your pattern as well +as your hope, and your touch, too, will have virtue. Keeping hold of +Him who has taken hold of us, you too may be able to say, 'Ephphatha, +be opened,' or to lay your hand on the leper, and he will be cleansed. + + + +CHRIST'S AUTHORITY TO FORGIVE + + +'And again He entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was +noised that He was in the house. 2. And straightway many were gathered +together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so +much as about the door; and He preached the word unto them. 3. And +they come unto Him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of +four. 4. And when they could not come nigh unto Him for the press, +they uncovered the roof where He was: and when they had broken it up, +they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. 6. When Jesus +saw their faith, He said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be +forgiven thee. 6. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, +and reasoning in their hearts, 7. Why doth this man thus speak +blasphemies! who can forgive sins but God only! 8. And immediately +when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they so reasoned within +themselves, He said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your +hearts? 9. Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy +sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and +walk! 10. But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth +to forgive sins, (He saith to the sick of the palsy,) 11. I say unto +thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. 12. +And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them +all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, laying, We +never saw it on this fashion.'--Mark ii. 1-12. + + +Mark alone gives Capernaum as the scene of this miracle. The +excitement which had induced our Lord to leave that place had been +allowed 'some days' to quiet down, 'after' which He ventures to +return, but does not seem to have sought publicity, but to have +remained in 'the house'--probably Peter's. There would be at least one +woman's heart there, which would love to lavish grateful service on +Him. But 'He could not be hid,' and, however little genuine or deep +the eagerness might be, He will not refuse to meet it. Mark paints +vividly the crowd flocking to the humble home, overflowing its modest +capacity, blocking the doorway, and clustering round it outside as far +as they could hear Christ's voice. 'He was speaking the word to them,' +proclaiming His mission, as He had done in their synagogue, when He +was interrupted by the events which follow, no doubt to the +gratification of some of His hearers, who wanted something more +exciting than 'teaching.' + +I. We note the eager group of interrupters. Mark gives one of the +minute touches which betray an eye-witness and a close observer when +he tells us that the palsied man was carried by four friends--no doubt +one at each corner of the bed, which would be some light framework, or +even a mere quilt or mattress. The incident is told from the point of +view of one sitting beside Jesus; they 'come to Him,' but 'cannot come +near.' The accurate specification of the process of removing the roof, +which Matthew omits altogether, and Luke tells much more vaguely, +seems also to point to an eye-witness as the source of the narrative, +who would, of course, be Peter, who well remembered all the steps of +the unceremonious treatment of his property. His house was, probably, +one of no great pretensions or size, but like hundreds of poor men's +houses in Palestine still--a one-storied building with a low, flat +roof, mostly earthen, and easily reached from the ground by an outside +stair. It would be somewhat difficult to get a sick man and his bed up +there, however low, and somewhat free-and-easy dealing with another +man's house to burrow through the roof a hole wide enough for the +purpose; but there is no impossibility, and the difficulty is part of +the lesson of the incident, and is recognised expressly in the +narrative by Christ's notice of their 'faith.' We can fancy the blank +looks of the four bearers, and the disappointment on the sick man's +thin face and weary eyes, as they got to the edge of the crowd, and +saw that there was no hope of forcing a passage. Had they been less +certain of a cure, and less eager, they would have shouldered their +burden and carried him home again. They could well have pleaded +sufficient reason for giving up the attempt. But 'we cannot' is the +coward's word. 'We must' is the earnest man's. If we have any real +consciousness of our need to get to Christ, and any real wish to do +so, it is not a crowd round the door that will keep us back. +Difficulties test, and therefore increase, faith. They develop a +sanctified ingenuity in getting over them, and bring a rich harvest of +satisfaction when at last conquered. These four eager faces looked +down through the broken roof, when they had succeeded in dropping the +bed right at Christ's feet, with a far keener pleasure than if they +had just carried him in by the door. No doubt their act was +inconvenient; for, however light the roofing, some rubbish must have +come down on the heads of some of the notabilities below. And, no +doubt, it was interfering with property as well as with propriety. But +here was a sick man, and there was his Healer; and it was their +business to get the two together somehow. It was worth risking a good +deal to accomplish. The rabbis sitting there might frown at rude +intrusiveness; Peter might object to the damage to his roof; some of +the listeners might dislike the interruption to His teaching; but +Jesus read the action of the bearers and the consent of the motionless +figure on the couch as the indication of 'their faith,' and His love +and power responded to its call. + +II. Note the unexpected gift with which Christ answers this faith. +Neither the bearers nor the paralytic speak a word throughout the +whole incident. Their act and his condition spoke loudly enough. +Obviously, all five must have had, at all events, so much 'faith' as +went to the conviction that He could and would heal; and this faith is +the occasion of Christ's gift. The bearers had it, as is shown by +their work. It was a visible faith, manifest by conduct. He can see +the hidden heart; but here He looks upon conduct, and thence infers +disposition. Faith, if worth anything, comes to the surface in act. +Was it the faith of the bearers, or of the sick man, which Christ +rewarded? Both. As Abraham's intercession delivered Lot, as Paul in +the shipwreck was the occasion of safety to all the crew, so one man's +faith may bring blessings on another. But if the sick man too had not +had faith, he would not have let himself be brought at all, and would +certainly not have consented to reach Christ's presence by so strange +and, to him, dangerous a way--being painfully hoisted up some narrow +stair, and then perilously let down, at the risk of cords snapping, or +hands letting go, or bed giving way. His faith, apparently, was deeper +than theirs; for Christ's answer, though it went far beyond his or +their expectations, must have been moulded to meet his deepest sense +of need. His heart speaks in the tender greeting 'son,' or, as the +margin has it, 'child'--possibly pointing to the man's youth, but more +probably an appellation revealing the mingled love and dignity of +Jesus, and taking this man into the arms of His sympathy. The palsy +may have been the consequence of 'fast' living; but, whether it were +so or no, Christ saw that, in the dreary hours of solitary inaction to +which it had condemned the sufferer, remorse had been busy gnawing at +his heart, and that pain had done its best work by leading to +penitence. Therefore He spoke to the conscience before He touched the +bodily ailment, and met the sufferer's deepest and most deeply felt +disease first. He goes to the bottom of the malady with His cure. +These great words are not only closely adapted to the one case before +Him, but contain a general truth, worthy to be pondered by all +philanthropists. It is of little use to cure symptoms unless you cure +diseases. The tap-root of all misery is sin; and, until it is grubbed +up, hacking at the branches is sad waste of time. Cure sin, and you +make the heart a temple and the world a paradise. We Christians should +hail all efforts of every sort for making men nobler, happier, better +physically, morally, intellectually; but let us not forget that there +is but one effectual cure for the world's misery, and that it is +wrought by Him who has borne the world's sins. + +III. Note the snarl of the scribes. 'Certain of the scribes,' says +Mark--not being much impressed by their dignity, which, as Luke tells +us, was considerable. He says that they were 'Pharisees and doctors of +the law ... out of every village of Galilee and Judaea and Jerusalem +itself, who had come on a formal errand of investigation. Their +tempers would not be improved by the tearing up of the roof, nor +sweetened by seeing the 'popularity' of this doubtful young Teacher, +who showed that He had the secret, which they had not, of winning +men's hearts. Nobody came crowding to them, nor hung on their lips. +Professional jealousy has often a great deal to do in helping zeal for +truth to sniff out heresy. The whispered cavillings are graphically +represented. The scribes would not speak out, like men, and call on +Jesus to defend His words. If they had been sure of their ground, they +should have boldly charged Him with blasphemy; but perhaps they were +half suspicious that He could show good cause for His speech. Perhaps +they were afraid to oppose the tide of enthusiasm for Him. So they +content themselves with comparing notes among themselves, and wait for +Him to entangle Himself a little more in their nets. They affect to +despise Him, 'This man' is spoken in contempt. If He were so poor a +creature, why were they there, all the way from Jerusalem, some of +them? They overdo their part. The short, snarling sentences of their +muttered objections, as given in the Revised Version, may be taken as +shared among three speakers, each bringing his quota of bitterness. +One says, 'Why doth He thus speak?' Another curtly answers, 'He +blasphemeth'; while a third formally states the great truth on which +they rest their indictment. Their principle is impregnable. +Forgiveness is a divine prerogative, to be shared by none, to be +grasped by none, without, in the act, diminishing God's glory. But it +is not enough to have one premise of your syllogism right. Only God +forgives sins; and if this man says that He does, He, no doubt, claims +to be, in some sense, God. But whether He 'blasphemeth' or no depends +on what the scribes do not stay to ask; namely, whether He has the +right so to claim: and, if He has, it is they, not He, who are the +blasphemers. We need not wonder that they recoiled from the right +conclusion, which is--the divinity of Jesus. Their fault was not their +jealousy for the divine honour, but their inattention to Christ's +evidence in support of His claims, which inattention had its roots in +their moral condition, their self-sufficiency and absorption in +trivialities of externalism. But we have to thank them for clearly +discerning and bluntly stating what was involved in our Lord's claims, +and for thus bringing up the sharp issue--blasphemer, or 'God manifest +in the flesh.' + +IV. Note our Lord's answer to the cavils. Mark would have us see +something supernatural in the swiftness of Christ's knowledge of the +muttered criticisms. He perceived it 'straightway' and 'in His +spirit,' which is tantamount to saying by divine discernment, and not +by the medium of sense, as we do. His spirit was a mirror, in which +looking He saw externals. In the most literal and deepest sense, He +does 'not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the +hearing of His ears.' + +The absence from our Lord's answer of any explanation that He was only +declaring the divine forgiveness and not Himself exercising a divine +prerogative, shuts us up to the conclusion that He desired to be +understood as exercising it. Unless His pardon is something quite +different from the ministerial announcement of forgiveness, which His +servants are empowered to make to penitents, He wilfully led the +cavillers into error. His answer starts with a counter-question--another +'why?' to meet their' why?' It then puts into words what they +were thinking; namely, that it was easy to assume a power the reality +of which could not be tested. To say, 'Thy sins be forgiven,' and to +say, 'Take up thy bed,' are equally easy. To effect either is equally +beyond man's power; but the one can be verified and the other cannot, +and, no doubt, some of the scribes were maliciously saying: 'It is all +very well to pretend to do what cannot be tested. Let Him come out +into daylight, and do a miracle which we can see.' He is quite willing +to accept the challenge to test His power in the invisible realm of +conscience by His power in the visible region. The remarkable +construction of the long sentence in verses 10 and 11, which is almost +verbally identical in the three Gospels, parenthesis and all, sets +before us the suddenness of the turn from the scribes to the patient +with dramatic force. Mark that our Lord claims 'authority' to forgive, +the same word which had been twice in the people's mouths in reference +to His teaching and to His sway over demons. It implies not only +power, but rightful power, and that authority which He wields as 'Son +of Man' and 'on earth.' This is the first use of that title in Mark. +It is Christ's own designation of Himself, never found on other lips +except the dying Stephen's. It implies His Messianic office, and +points back to Daniel's great prophecy; but it also asserts His true +manhood and His unique relation to humanity, as being Himself its sum +and perfection--not _a_, but _the_ Son of Man. Now the wonder which He +would confirm by His miracle is that such a manhood, walking on earth, +has lodged in it the divine prerogative. He who is the Son of Man must +be something more than man, even the Son of God. His power to forgive +is both derived and inherent, but, in either aspect, is entirely +different from the human office of announcing God's forgiveness. + +For once, Christ seems to work a miracle in response to unbelief, +rather than to faith. But the real occasion of it was not the cavils +of the scribes, but the faith and need of the man and His friends; +while the silencing of unbelief, and the enlightenment of honest +doubt, were but collateral benefits. + +V. Note the cure and its effect. This is another of the miracles in +which no vehicle of the healing power is employed. The word is enough; +but here the word is spoken, not as if to the disease, but to the +sufferer; and in His obedience he receives strength to obey. Tell a +palsied man to rise and walk when his disease is that he cannot! But +if he believes that Christ has power to heal, he will try to do as he +is bid; and, as he tries, the paralysis steals out of the long-unused +limbs. Jesus makes us able to do what He bids us do. The condition of +healing is faith, and the test of faith is obedience. We do not get +strength till we put ourselves into the attitude of obedience. The +cure was immediate; and the cured man, who was 'borne of four' into +the healing presence, walked away, with his bed under his arm, 'before +them all.' They were ready enough to make way for him then. And what +said the wise doctors to it all? We do not hear that any of them were +convinced. And what said the people? They were 'amazed,' and they +'glorified God,' and recognised that they had seen something quite +new. That was all. Their glorifying God cannot have been very +deep-seated, or they would have better learned the lesson of the +miracle. Amazement was but a poor result. No emotion is more transient +or less fruitful than gaping astonishment; and that, with a little +varnish of acknowledgment of God's power, which led to nothing, was +all the fruit of Christ's mighty work. Let us hope that the healed man +carried his unseen blessing in a faithful and grateful heart, and +consecrated his restored strength to the Lord who healed him! + + + +THE PUBLICANS' FRIEND + + +'And He went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude +resorted unto Him, and He taught them. 14. And as He passed by, he saw +Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said +unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed Him. 15. And it came to +pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and +sinners sat also together with Jesus and His disciples: for there were +many, and they followed Him. 16. And when the scribes and Pharisees +saw Him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto His disciples, +How is it that He eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners! 17. +When Jesus heard it, He saith unto them, They that are whole have no +need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the +righteous, but sinners to repentance. 18. And the disciples of John +and of the Pharisees used to fast: and they come and say unto Him, Why +do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Thy disciples +fast not! 19. And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the +bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them! as long as they +have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20. But the days will +come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then +shall they fast in those days. 21. No man also seweth a piece of new +cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh +away from the old, and the rent is made worse. 22. And no man putteth +new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, +and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine +must be put into new bottles.'--Mark ii. 13-22. + +By calling a publican, Jesus shocked 'public opinion and outraged +propriety, as the Pharisees and scribes understood it. But He touched +the hearts of the outcasts. A gush of sympathy melts souls frozen hard +by icy winds of scorn. Levi (otherwise Matthew) had probably had +wistful longings after Jesus which he had not dared to show, and +therefore he eagerly and instantly responded to Christ's call, leaving +everything in his custom-house to look after itself. Mark emphasises +the effect of this advance towards the disreputable classes by Jesus, +in his repeated mention of the numbers of them who followed Him. The +meal in Matthew's house was probably not immediately after his call. +The large gathering attracted the notice of Christ's watchful +opponents, who pounced upon His sitting at meat with such 'shady' +people as betraying His low tastes and disregard of seemly conduct, +and, with characteristic Eastern freedom, pushed in as uninvited +spectators. They did not carry their objection to Himself, but +covertly insinuated it into the disciples' minds, perhaps in hope of +sowing suspicions there. Their sarcasm evoked Christ's own 'programme' +of His mission, for which we have to thank them. + +I. We have, first, Christ's vindication of His consorting with the +lowest. He thinks of Himself as 'a physician,' just as He did in +another connection in the synagogue of Nazareth. He is conscious of +power to heal all soul-sickness, and therefore He goes where He is +most needed. Where should a doctor be but where disease is rife? Is +not his place in the hospital? Association with degraded and vicious +characters is sin or duty, according to the purpose of it. To go down +in the filth in order to wallow there is vile; to go down in order to +lift others up is Christ's mission and Christ-like. + +But what does He mean by the distinction between sick and sound, +righteous and sinners? Surely all need His healing, and there are not +two classes of men. Have not all sinned? Yes, but Jesus speaks to the +cavillers, for the moment, in their own dialect, saying, in effect, 'I +take you at your own valuation, and therein find My defence. You do +not think that you need a physician, and you call yourselves +'righteous and these outcasts 'sinners.' So you should not be +surprised if I, being the healer, turn away to them, and prefer their +company to yours.' But there is more than taking them at their own +estimate in the great words, for to conceit ourselves 'whole' bars us +off from getting any good from Jesus. He cannot come to the +self-righteous heart. We must feel our sickness before we can see Him +in His true character, or be blessed by His presence with us. And the +apparent distinction, which seems to limit His work, really vanishes +in the fact that we all are sick and sinners, whatever we may think of +ourselves, and that, therefore, the errand of the great Physician is +to us all. The Pharisee who knows himself a sinner is as welcome as +the outcast. The most outwardly respectable, clean-living, orthodoxly +religious formalist needs Him as much, and may have Him as healingly, +as the grossest criminal, foul with the stench of loathsome disease. +That great saying has changed the attitude towards the degraded and +unclean, and many a stream of pity and practical work for such has +been drawn off from that Nile of yearning love, though all unconscious +of its source. + +II. We have Christ's vindication of the disciples from ascetic +critics. The assailants in the second charge were reinforced by +singular allies. Pharisees had nothing in common with John's +disciples, except some outward observances, but they could join forces +against Jesus. Common hatred is a wonderful unifier. This time Jesus +Himself is addressed, and it is the disciples with whom fault is +found. To speak of His supposed faults to them, and of theirs to Him, +was cunning and cowardly. His answer opens up many great truths, which +we can barely mention. + +First, note that He calls Himself the 'bridegroom'--a designation +which would surely touch some chords in John's disciples, remembering +how their Master had spoken of the 'bridegroom' and his 'friend.' The +name tells us that Jesus claimed the psalms of the 'bride-groom' as +prophecies of Himself, and claimed the Church that was to be as His +bride. It speaks tenderly of His love and of our possible blessedness. +Next, we note the sweet suggestion of the joyful life of the disciples +in intercourse with Him. We perhaps do not sufficiently regard their +experience in that light, but surely they were happy, being ever with +Him, though they knew not yet all the wonder and blessedness which His +presence involved and brought. They were a glad company, and +Christians ought now to be joyous, because the bridegroom is still +with them, and the more really so by reason of His ascending up where +He was before. We have seen Him again, as He promised, and our hearts +should rejoice with a joy which no man can take from us. + +Next, we note Christ's clear prevision of His death, the violence of +which is hinted at in the words, 'Shall be taken away from them.' +Further, we note the great principle that outward forms must follow +inward realities, and are genuine only when they are the expression of +states of mind and feeling. That is a far-reaching truth, ever being +forgotten in the tyranny which the externals of religion exercise. Let +the free spirit have its own way, and cut its own channels. Laughter +may be as devout as fasting. Joy is to be expressed in religion as +well as grief. No outward form is worth anything unless the inner man +vitalises it, and such a mere form is not simply valueless, but may +quickly become hypocrisy and conscious make-believe. + +III. Jesus adds two similes, which are condensed parables, to deal +with a wider question rising out of the preceding principles. The +difference between His disciples' religious demeanour and that of +their critics is not merely that the former are not now in a mood for +fasting, but that a new spirit is beginning to work in them, and +therefore it will go hard with a good many old forms besides fasting. + +The essential point in both the similes of the raw cloth stitched on +to the old, and of the new wine poured into stiff old skins, is the +necessary incongruity between old forms and new tendencies. Undressed +cloth is sure to shrink when wetted, and, being stronger than the old, +to draw its frayed edges away. So, if new truth, or new conceptions of +old truth, or new enthusiasms, are patched on to old modes, they will +look out of place, and will sooner or later rend the old cloth. But +the second simile advances on the first, in that it points not only to +harm done to the old by the unnatural marriage, but also to mischief +to the new. Put fermenting wine into a hard, unyielding, old +wine-skin, and there can be but one result,--the strong effervescence +will burst the skin, which may not matter much, and the precious wine +will run out and be lost, sucked up by the thirsty soil, which matters +more. The attempt to confine the new within the limits of the old, or +to express it by the old forms, destroys them and wastes it. The +attempt was made to keep Christianity within the limits of Judaism; it +failed, but not before much harm had been done to Christianity. Over +and over again the effort has been made in the Church, and it has +always ended disastrously,--and it always will. It will be a happy day +for both the old and the new when we all learn to put new wine into +new skins, and remember that 'God giveth it a body as it hath pleased +Him, and to every seed his _own_ body.' + + + +THE SECRET OF GLADNESS + + +'And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber fast, +while the bridegroom is with them?'--Mark ii. 19. + +This part of our Lord's answer to the question put by John's disciples +as to the reason for the omission of the practice of fasting by His +followers. The answer is very simple. It is--'My disciples do not fast +because they are not sad.' And the principle which underlies the +answer is a very important one. It is this: that all outward forms of +religion, appointed by man, ought only to be observed when they +correspond to the feeling and disposition of the worshipper. That +principle cuts up all religious formalism by the very roots. The +Pharisee said: 'Fasting is a good thing in itself, and meritorious in +the sight of God.' The modern Pharisee says the same about many +externals of ritual and worship; Jesus Christ says, 'No! The thing has +no value except as an expression of the feeling of the doer.' Our Lord +did not object to fasting; He expressly approved of it as a means of +spiritual power. But He did object to the formal use of it or of any +outward form. The formalist's form, whether it be the elaborate ritual +of the Catholic Church, or the barest Nonconformist service, or the +silence of a Friends' meeting-house, is rigid, unbending, and cold, +like an iron rod. The true Christian form is elastic, like the stem of +a palm-tree, which curves and sways and yields to the wind, and has +the sap of life in it. If any man is sad, let him fast; 'if any man is +merry, let him sing psalms.' Let his ritual correspond to his +spiritual emotion and conviction. + +But the point which I wish to consider now is not so much this, as the +representation that is given here of the reason why fasting was +incongruous with the condition and disposition of the disciples. Jesus +says: 'We are more like a wedding-party than anything else. Can the +children of the bridechamber fast as long as the bridegroom is with +them?' + +The 'children of the bridechamber' is but another name for those who +were called the 'friends' or companions 'of the bridegroom.' According +to the Jewish wedding ceremonial it was their business to conduct the +bride to the home of her husband, and there to spend seven days in +festivity and rejoicing, which were to be so entirely devoted to mirth +and feasting that the companions of the bridegroom were by the +Talmudic ritual absolved even from prayer and from worship, and had +for their one duty to rejoice. + +And that is the picture that Christ holds up before the disciples of +the ascetic John as the representation of what He and His friends were +most truly like. Very unlike our ordinary notion of Christ and His +disciples as they walked the earth! The presence of the Bridegroom +made them glad with a strange gladness, which shook off sorrow as the +down on a sea-bird's breast shakes off moisture, and leaves it warm +and dry, though it floats amidst boundless seas. I wish now to +meditate on this secret of imperviousness to sorrow arising from the +felt presence of the Christ. + +There are three subjects for consideration arising from the words of +my text: The Bridegroom; the presence of the Bridegroom; the joy of +the Bride-groom's presence. + +I. Now with regard to the first, a very few words will suffice. The +first thing that strikes me is the singular appropriateness and the +delicate, pathetic beauty in the employment of this name by Christ in +the existing circumstances. Who was it that had first said: 'He that +hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom +that standeth by and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the +bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled'? Why, it was +the master of these very men who were asking the question. John's +disciples came and said, 'Why do not your disciples fast?' and our +Lord reminded them of their own teacher's words, when he said, 'The +friend of the bridegroom can only be glad.' And so He would say to +them, 'In your master's own conception of what I am, and of the joy +that comes from My presence, you have an answer to your question. He +might have taught you who I am, and why it is that the men that stand +around Me are glad.' + +But this is not all. We cannot but connect this name with a whole +circle of ideas found in the Old Testament, especially with that most +familiar and almost stereotyped figure which represents the union +between Israel and Jehovah, under the emblem of the marriage bond. The +Lord is the 'husband'; and the nation whom He has loved and redeemed +and chosen for Himself, is the 'wife'; unfaithful and forgetful, often +requiting love with indifference and protection with unthankfulness, +and needing to be put away, and debarred of the society of the husband +who still yearns for her; but a wife still, and in the new time to be +joined to Him by a bond that shall never be broken and a better +covenant. + +And so Christ lays His hand upon all that old history and says, 'It is +fulfilled here in Me.' A familiar note in Old Testament Messianic +prophecy too is caught and echoed here, especially that grand marriage +ode of the forty-fifth psalm, in which he must be a very prosaic or +very deeply prejudiced reader who hears nothing more than the shrill +wedding greetings at the marriage of some Jewish king with a foreign +princess. Its bounding hopes and its magnificent sweep of vision are a +world too wide for such interpretation. The Bridegroom of that psalm +is the Messiah, and the Bride is the Church. + +I need only refer in a sentence to what this indicates of Christ's +self-consciousness. What must He, who takes this name as His own, have +thought Himself to be to the world, and the world to Him? He steps +into the place of the Jehovah of the Old Testament, and claims as His +own all these great and wonderful prophecies. He promises love, +protection, communion, the deepest, most mystical union of spirit and +heart with Himself; and He claims quiet, restful confidence in His +love, absolute, loving obedience to His authority, reliance upon His +strong hand and loving heart, and faithful cleaving to Him. The +Bridegroom of humanity, the Husband of the world, if it will only turn +to Him, is Christ Himself. + +II. But a word as to the presence of the Bridegroom. It might seem as +if this text condemned us who love an unseen and absent Lord to +exclusion from the joy which is made to depend on His presence. Are we +in the dreary period when 'the Bridegroom is taken away' and fasting +appropriate? + +Surely not. The time of mourning for an absent Christ was only three +days; the law for the years of the Church's history between the moment +when the uplifted eyes of the gazers lost Him in the symbolic cloud +and the moment when He shall come again is, 'Lo, I am with you alway.' +The absent Christ is the present Christ. He is really with us, not as +the memory or the influence of the example of the dead may be said to +remain, not as the spirit of a teacher may be said to abide with his +school of followers. We say that Christ has gone up on high and sits +on 'the right hand of God.' The right hand of God is His active power. +Where is 'the right hand of God'? It is wherever His divine energy +works. He that sits at the right hand of God is thereby declared to be +wherever the divine energy is in operation, and to be Himself the +wielder of that divine Power. I believe in a local abode of the +glorified human body of Jesus Christ now, but I believe likewise that +all through God's universe, and eminently in this world, which He has +redeemed, Christ is present, in His consciousness of its +circumstances, and in the activity of His influence, and in whatsoever +other incomprehensible and unspeakable mode Omnipresence belongs to a +divine Person. So that He is with us most really, though the visible, +bodily Form is no longer by our sides. + +That Presence which survives, which is true for us here to-day, may be +a far better and more blessed and real thing than the presence of the +mere bodily Form in which He once dwelt. We may have lost something by +His going away in visible form; I doubt whether we have. We have lost +the manifestation of Him to the sense, but we have gained the +manifestation of Him to the spirit. And just as the great men, who are +only men, need to die and go away in order to be measured in their +true magnitude and understood in their true glory; just as when a man +is in amongst the mountains, he cannot tell which peak is the dominant +one, but when he gets away a little space across the sea and looks +back, distance helps to measure magnitude and reveal the sovereign +summit which towers above all the rest, so, looking back across the +ages with the foreground between us and Him of the history of the +Christian Church ever since, and noticing how other heights have sunk +beneath the waves and have been wrapped in clouds and have disappeared +behind the great round of the earth, we can tell how high this One is; +and know better than they knew who it is that moves amongst men in +'the form of a servant,' even the Bridegroom of the Church and of the +world. 'It is expedient for you that I go away,' and Christ is, or +ought to be, nearer to us to-day in all that constitutes real +nearness, in our apprehension of His essential character, in our +reception of His holiest influences, than He ever was to them who +walked beside Him on the earth. + +But, brethren, that presence is of no use at all to us unless we daily +try to realise it. He was with these men whether they would or no. +Whether they thought about Him or no, there He was; and just because +His presence did not at all depend upon their spiritual condition, it +was a lower kind of presence than that which you and I have now, and +which depends altogether on our realising it by the turning of our +hearts to Him, and by the daily contemplation of Him amidst all our +bustle and struggle. + +Do you, as you go about your work, feel His nearness and try to keep +the feeling fresh and vivid, by occupying heart and mind with Him, by +referring everything to His supreme control? By trusting yourselves +utterly and absolutely in His hand, and gathering round you, as it +were, the sweetness of His love by meditation and reflection, do you +try to make conscious to yourselves your Lord's presence with you? If +you do, that presence is to you a blessed reality; if you do not, it +is a word that means nothing and is of no help, no stimulus, no +protection, no satisfaction, no sweetness whatever to you. The +children of the Bridegroom are glad only when, and as, they know that +the Bridegroom is with them. + +III. And now a word, last of all, about the joy of the Bridegroom's +presence. What was it that made these humble lives so glad when Christ +was with them, filling them with strange new sweetness and power? The +charm of personal character, the charm of contact with one whose lips +were bringing to them fresh revelations of truth, fresh visions of +God, whose whole life was the exhibition of a nature beautiful, and +noble, and pure, and tender, and sweet, and loving, beyond anything +they had ever seen before. + +Ah! brethren, there is no joy in the world like that of companionship, +in the freedom of perfect love, with one who ever keeps us at our +best, and brings the treasures of ever fresh truth to the mind, as +well as beauty of character to admire and imitate. That is one of the +greatest gifts that God gives, and is a source of the purest joy that +we can have. Now we may have all that and much more in Jesus Christ. +He will be with us if we do not drive Him away from us, as the source +of our purest joy, because He is the all-sufficient Object of our +love. + +Oh! you men and women who have been wearily seeking in the world for +love that cannot change, for love that cannot die and leave you; you +who have been made sad for life by irrevocable losses, or sorrowful in +the midst of your joy by the anticipated certain separation which is +to come, listen to this One who says to you: 'I will never leave thee, +and My love shall be round thee for ever'; and recognise this, that +there is a love which cannot change, which cannot die, which has no +limits, which never can be cold, which never can disappoint, and +therefore, in it, and in His presence, there is unending gladness. + +He is with us as the source of our joy, because He is the Lord of our +lives, and the absolute Commander of our wills. To have One present +with us whose loving word it is delight to obey, and who takes upon +Himself all responsibility for the conduct of our lives, and leaves us +only the task of doing what we are bid--that is peace, that is +gladness, of such a kind as none else in the world gives. + +He is with us as the ground of perfect joy, because He is the adequate +object of all our desires, and the whole of the faculties and powers +of a man will find a field of glad activity in leaning upon Him, and +realising His presence. Like the Apostle whom the old painters loved +to represent lying with his happy head on Christ's heart, and his eyes +closed in a tranquil rapture of restful satisfaction, so if we have +Him with us and feel that He is with us, our spirits may be still, and +in the great stillness of fruition of all our wishes and fulfilment of +all our needs, may know a joy that the world can neither give nor take +away. + +He is with us as the source of endless gladness, in that He is the +defence and protection for our souls. And as men live in a victualled +fortress, and care not though the whole surrounding country may be +swept bare of all provision, so when we have Christ with us we may +feel safe, whatsoever befalls, and 'in the days of famine we shall be +satisfied.' + +He is with us as the source of our perfect joy, because His presence +is the kindling of every hope that fills the future with light and +glory. Dark or dim at the best, trodden by uncertain shapes, casting +many a deep shadow over the present, that future lies, unless we see +it illumined by Christ, and have Him by our sides. But if we possess +His companionship, the present is but the parent of a more blessed +time to come; and we can look forward and feel that nothing can touch +our gladness, because nothing can touch our union with our Lord. + +So, dear brethren, from all these thoughts and a thousand more which I +have no time to dwell upon, comes this one great consideration, that +the joy of the presence of the Bridegroom is the victorious antagonist +of all sorrow and mourning. 'Can the children of the bridechamber +mourn, while the bridegroom is with them?' The answer sometimes seems +to be, 'Yes, they can.' Our own hearts, with their experience of +tears, and losses, and disappointments, seem to say: 'Mourning is +possible, even whilst He is here. We have our own share, and we +sometimes think, more than our share, of the ills that flesh is heir +to.' And we have, over and above them, in the measure in which we are +Christians, certain special sources of sorrow and trial, peculiar to +ourselves alone; and the deeper and truer our Christianity the more of +these shall we have. But notwithstanding all that, what will the felt +presence of the Bridegroom do for these griefs that will come? Well, +it will limit them, for one thing; it will prevent them from absorbing +the whole of our nature. There will always be a Goshen in which there +is 'light in the dwelling,' however murky may be the darkness that +wraps the land. There will always be a little bit of soil above the +surface, however weltering and wide may be the inundation that drowns +our world. There will always be a dry and warm place in the midst of +the winter, a kind of greenhouse into which we may get from out of the +tempest and fog. The joy of the Bridegroom's presence will last +through the sorrow, like a spring of fresh water welling up in the +midst of the sea. We may have the salt and the sweet waters mingling +in our lives, not sent forth by one fountain, but flowing in one +channel. + +Our joy will sometimes be made sweeter and more wonderful by the very +presence of the mourning and the pain. Just as the pillar of cloud, +that glided before the Israelites through the wilderness, glowed into +a pillar of fire as the darkness deepened, so, as the outlook around +becomes less and less cheery and bright, and the night falls thicker +and thicker, what seemed to be but a thin, grey, wavering column in +the blaze of the sunlight will gather warmth and brightness at the +heart of it when the midnight comes. You cannot see the stars at +twelve o'clock in the day; you have to watch for the dark hours ere +heaven is filled with glory. And so sorrow is often the occasion for +the full revelation of the joy of Christ's presence. + +Why have so many Christian men so little joy in their lives? Because +they look for it in all sorts of wrong places, and seek to wring it +out of all sorts of sapless and dry things. 'Do men gather grapes of +thorns?' If you fling the berries of the thorn into the winepress, +will you get sweet sap out of them? That is what you are doing when +you take gratified earthly affections, worldly competence, fulfilled +ambitions, and put them into the press, and think that out of these +you can squeeze the wine of gladness. No! No! brethren, dry and +sapless and juiceless they all are. There is one thing that gives a +man worthy, noble, eternal gladness, and that is the felt presence of +the Bridegroom. + +Why have so many Christians so little joy in their lives? A religion +like that of John's disciples and that of the Pharisees is a poor +affair. A religion of which the main features are law and restriction +and prohibition, cannot be joyful. And there are a great many people +who call themselves Christians, and have just religion enough to take +the edge off worldly pleasures, and yet have not enough to make +fellowship with Christ a gladness for them. + +There is a cry amongst us for a more cheerful type of religion. I +re-echo the cry, but I am afraid that I do not mean by it quite the +same thing that some of my friends do. A more cheerful type of +Christianity means to many of us a type of Christianity that will +interfere less with our amusements; a more indulgent doctor that will +prescribe a less rigid diet than the old Puritan type used to do. +Well, perhaps they went too far; I do not care to deny that. But the +only cheerful Christianity is a Christianity that draws its gladness +from deep personal experience of communion with Jesus Christ. There is +no way of men being religious and happy except being profoundly +religious, and living very near their Master, and always trying to +cultivate that spirit of communion with Him which shall surround them +with the sweetness and the power of His felt presence. We do not want +Pharisaic fasting, but we do want that the reason for not fasting +shall not be that Christians like eating better, but that their +religion must be joyful because they have Christ with them, and +therefore cannot choose but sing, as a lark cannot choose but carol. +'Religion has no power over us, but as it is our happiness,' and we +shall never make it our happiness, and therefore never know its +beneficent control, until we lift it clean out of the low region of +outward forms and joyless service, into the blessed heights of +communion with Jesus Christ, 'Whom having not seen we love.' + +I would that Christian people saw more plainly that joy is a duty, and +that they are bound to make efforts to obey the command, 'Rejoice in +the Lord always,' no less than to keep other precepts. If we abide in +Christ, His joy 'will abide in us, and our joy will be full.' We shall +have in our hearts a fountain of true joy which will never be turbid +with earthly stains, nor dried up by heat, nor frozen by cold. If we +set the Lord always before us our days may be at once like the happy +hours of the 'children of the bridechamber,' bright with gladness and +musical with song; and also saved from the enervation that sometimes +comes from joy, because they are also like the patient vigils of the +servants who 'wait for the Lord, when He shall return from the +wedding.' So strangely blended of fruition and hope, of companionship +and solitude, of feasting and watching, is the Christian life here, +until the time comes when His friends go in with the Bridegroom to the +banquet, and drink for ever of the new joy of the kingdom. + + + +WORKS WHICH HALLOW THE SABBATH + + +'And it came to pass, that He went through the cornfields on the +Sabbath day; and His disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears +of corn. 24. And the Pharisees said unto Him, Behold, why do they on +the Sabbath day that which is not lawful? 25. And He said unto them, +Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an +hungred, he, and they that were with him? 28. How he went into the +house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the +shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave +also to them which were with him? 27. And He said unto them, The +Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: 28. Therefore +the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.'--Mark ii. 23-28. + +'And He entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there +which had a withered hand. 2. And they watched Him, whether He would +heal him on the Sabbath day; that they might accuse Him. 3. And He +saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth. 4. And He +saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do +evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace. 5. And when +He had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the +hardness of their hearts, He saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine +hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the +other.'--Mark iii. 1-5. + +These two Sabbath scenes make a climax to the preceding paragraphs, in +which Jesus has asserted His right to brush aside Rabbinical +ordinances about eating with sinners and about fasting. Here He goes +much further, in claiming power over the divine ordinance of the +Sabbath. Formalists are moved to more holy horror by free handling of +forms than by heterodoxy as to principles. So we can understand how +the Pharisees' suspicions were exacerbated to murderous hate by these +two incidents. It is doubtful whether Mark puts them together because +they occurred together, or because they bear on the same subject. They +deal with the two classes of 'works' which later Christian theology +has recognised as legitimate exceptions to the law of the Sabbath +rest; namely, works of necessity and of mercy. + +I. Whether we adopt the view that the disciples were clearing a path +through standing corn, or the simpler one, that they gathered the ears +of corn on the edge of a made path as they went, the point of the +Pharisees' objection was that they broke the Sabbath by plucking, +which was a kind of reaping. According to Luke, their breach of the +Rabbinical exposition of the law was an event more dreadful in the +eyes of these narrow pedants; for there was not only reaping, but the +analogue of winnowing and grinding, for the grains were rubbed in the +disciples' palms. What daring sin! What impious defiance of law! But +of what law? Not that of the Fourth Commandment, which simply forbade +'labour,' but that of the doctors' expositions of the commandment, +which expended miraculous ingenuity and hair-splitting on deciding +what was labour and what was not. The foundations of that astonishing +structure now found in the Talmud were, no doubt, laid before Christ. +This expansion of the prohibition, so as to take in such trifles as +plucking and rubbing a handful of heads of corn, has many parallels +there. + +But it is noteworthy that our Lord does not avail Himself of the +distinction between God's commandment and men's exposition of it. He +does not embarrass himself with two controversies at once. At fit +times He disputed Rabbinical authority, and branded their casuistry as +binding grievous burdens on men; but here He allows their assumption +of the equal authority of their commentary and of the text to pass +unchallenged, and accepts the statement that His disciples had been +doing what was unlawful on the Sabbath, and vindicates their breach of +law. + +Note that His answer deals first with an example of similar breach of +ceremonial law, and then rises to lay down a broad principle which +governed that precedent, vindicates the act of the disciples, and +draws for all ages a broad line of demarcation between the obligations +of ceremonial and of moral law. Clearly, His adducing David's act in +taking the shewbread implies that the disciples' reason for plucking +the ears of corn was not to clear a path but to satisfy hunger. +Probably, too, it suggests that He also was hungry, and partook of the +simple food. + +Note, too, the tinge of irony in that 'Did ye _never_ read?' In all +your minute study of the letter of the Scripture, did you never take +heed to that page? The principle on which the priest at Nob let the +hungry fugitives devour the sacred bread, was the subordination of +ceremonial law to men's necessities. It was well to lay the loaves on +the table in the Presence, but it was better to take them and feed the +fainting servant of God and his followers with them. Out of the very +heart of the law which the Pharisees appealed to, in order to spin +restricting prohibitions, Jesus drew an example of freedom which ran +on all-fours with His disciples' case. The Pharisees had pored over +the Old Testament all their lives, but it would have been long before +they had found such a doctrine as this in it. + +Jesus goes on to bring out the principle which shaped the instance he +gave. He does not state it in its widest form, but confines it to the +matter in hand--Sabbath obligations. Ceremonial law in all its parts +is established as a means to an end--the highest good of men. +Therefore, the end is more important than the means; and, in any case +of apparent collision, the means must give way that the end may be +secured. External observances are not of permanent, unalterable +obligation. They stand on a different footing from primal moral +duties, which remain equally imperative whether doing them leads to +physical good or evil. David and his men were bound to keep these, +whether they starved or not; but they were not bound to leave the shew +bread lying in the shrine, and starve. + +Man is made for the moral law. It is supreme, and he is under it, +whether obedience leads to death or not. But all ceremonial +regulations are merely established to help men to reach the true end +of their being, and may be suspended or modified by his necessities. +The Sabbath comes under the class of such ceremonial regulations, and +may therefore be elastic when the pressure of necessity is brought to +bear. + +But note that our Lord, even while thus defining the limits of the +obligation, asserts its universality. 'The Sabbath was made for +man'--not for a nation or an age, but for all time and for the whole +race. Those who would sweep away the observance of the weekly day of +rest are fond of quoting this text; but they give little heed to its +first clause, and do not note that their favourite passage upsets +their main contention, and establishes the law of the Sabbath as a +possession for the world for ever. It is not a burden, but a +privilege, made and meant for man's highest good. + +Christ's conclusion that He is 'Lord even of the Sabbath' is based +upon the consideration of the true design of the day. If it is once +understood that it is appointed, not as an inflexible duty, like the +obligation of truth or purity, but as a means to man's good, physical +and spiritual, then He who has in charge all man's higher interests, +and who is the perfect realisation of the ideal of manhood, has full +authority to modify and suspend the ceremonial observance if in His +unerring judgment the suspension is desirable. + +This is not an abrogation of the Sabbath, but, on the contrary, a +confirmation of the universal and merciful appointment. It does not +give permission to keep or neglect it, according to whim or for the +sake of amusement, but it does draw, strong and clear, the distinction +between a positive rite which may be modified, and an unchangeable +precept of the moral law which it is better for a man to die than to +neglect or transgress. + +The second Sabbath scene deals with the same question from another +point of view. Works of necessity warranted the supercession of +Sabbath law; works of beneficence are no breaches of it. There are +circumstances in which it is right to do what is not 'lawful' on the +Sabbath, for such works as healing the man with a withered hand are +always 'lawful.' + +We note the cruel indifference to the sufferer's woe which so +characteristically accompanies a religion which is mainly a matter of +outside observances. What cared the Pharisees whether the poor cripple +was healed or no? They wanted him cured only that they might have a +charge against Jesus. Note, too, the strange condition of mind, which +recognised Christ's miraculous power, and yet considered Him an +impious sinner. + +Observe our Lord's purpose to make the miracle most conspicuous. He +bids the man stand out in the midst, before all the cold eyes of +malicious Pharisees and gaping spectators. A secret espionage was +going on in the synagogue. He sees it all, and drags it into full +light by setting the man forth and by His sudden, sharp thrust of a +question. He takes the first word this time, and puts the stealthy +spies on the defensive. His interrogation may possibly be regarded as +having a bearing on their conduct, for there was murder in their +hearts (verse 6). There they sat with solemn faces, posing as +sticklers for law and religion, and all the while they were seeking +grounds for killing Him. Was that Sabbath work? Whether would He, if +He cured the shrunken arm, or they, if they gathered accusations with +the intention of compassing His death, be the Sabbath-breakers? + +It was a sharp, swift cut through their cloak of sanctity; but it has +a wider scope than that. The question rests on the principle that good +omitted is equivalent to evil committed. If we can save, and do not, +the responsibility of loss lies on us. If we can rescue, and let die, +our brother's blood reddens our hands. Good undone is not merely +negative. It is positive evil done. If from regard to the Sabbath we +refrained from doing some kindly deed alleviating a brother's sorrow, +we should not be inactive, but should have done something by our very +not doing, and what we should do would be evil. It is a pregnant +saying which has many solemn applications. + +No wonder that they 'held their peace.' Unless they had been prepared +to abandon their position, there was nothing to be said. That silence +indicated conviction and obstinate pride and rooted hatred which would +not be convinced, conciliated, or softened. Therefore Jesus looked on +them with that penetrating, yearning gaze, which left ineffaceable +remembrances on the beholders, as the frequent mention of it +indicates. + +The emotions in Christ's heart as He looked on the dogged, lowering +faces are expressed in a remarkable phrase, which is probably best +taken as meaning that grief mingled with His anger. A wondrous glimpse +into that tender heart, which in all its tenderness is capable of +righteous indignation, and in all its indignation does not set aside +its tenderness! + +Mark that not even the most rigid prohibitions were broken by the +process of cure. It was no breach of the fantastic restrictions which +had been engrafted on the commandment, that Jesus should bid the man +put out his hand. Nobody could find fault with a man for doing that. +These two things, a word and a movement of muscles, were all. So He +did 'heal on the Sabbath,' and yet did nothing that could be laid hold +of. + +But let us not miss the parable of the restoration of the maimed and +shrunken powers of the soul, which the manner of the miracle gives. +Whatever we try to do because Jesus bids us, He will give us strength +to do, however impossible to our unaided powers it is. In the act of +stretching out the hand, ability to stretch it forth is bestowed, +power returns to atrophied muscles, stiffened joints are suppled, the +blood runs in full measure through the veins. So it is ever. Power to +obey attends on the desire and effort to obey. + + + +THE ANGER AND GRIEF OF JESUS + + +He looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the +hardness of their hearts.'--Mark iii. 5. + +Our Lord goes into the synagogue at Capernaum, where He had already +wrought more than one miracle, and there He finds an object for His +healing power, in a poor man with a withered hand; and also a little +knot of His enemies. The scribes and Pharisees expect Christ to heal +the man. So much had they learned of His tenderness and of His power. + +But their belief that He could work a miracle did not carry them one +step towards a recognition of Him as sent by God. They have no eye for +the miracle, because they expect that He is going to break the +Sabbath. There is nothing so blind as formal religionism. This poor +man's infirmity did not touch their hearts with one little throb of +compassion. They had rather that he had gone crippled all his days +than that one of their Rabbinical Sabbatarian restrictions should be +violated. There is nothing so cruel as formal religionism. They only +think that there is a trap laid--and perhaps they had laid it--into +which Christ is sure to go. + +So, as our Evangelist tells us, they sat there stealthily watching Him +out of their cold eyes, whether He would heal on the Sabbath day, that +they might accuse Him. Our Lord bids the man stand out into the middle +of the little congregation. He obeys, perhaps, with some feeble +glimmer of hope playing round his heart. There is a quickened +attention in the audience; the enemies are watching Him with +gratification, because they hope He is going to do what they think to +be a sin. + +And then He reduces them all to silence and perplexity by His +question--sharp, penetrating, unexpected: 'Is it lawful to do good on +the Sabbath day, or to do evil? You are ready to blame Me as breaking +your Sabbatarian regulations if I heal this man. What if I do not heal +him? Will that be doing nothing? Will not that be a worse breach of +the Sabbath day than if I heal him?' + +He takes the question altogether out of the region of pedantic +Rabbinism, and bases His vindication upon the two great principles +that mercy and help hallow any day, and that not to do good when we +can is to do harm, and not to save life is to kill. + +They are silenced. His arrow touches them; they do not speak because +they cannot answer; and they will not yield. There is a struggle going +on in them, which Christ sees, and He fixes them with that steadfast +look of His; of which our Evangelist is the only one who tells us what +it expressed, and by what it was occasioned. 'He looked round about on +them _with anger_, being _grieved_.' Mark the combination of emotions, +anger and grief. And mark the reason for both; 'the hardness,' or as +you will see, if you use the Revised Version, 'the _hardening_' of +their hearts--a process which He saw going on before Him as He looked +at them. + +Now I do not need to follow the rest of the story, how He turns away +from them because He will not waste any more words on them, else He +had done more harm than good. He heals the man. They hurry from the +synagogue to prove their zeal for the sanctifying of the Sabbath day +by hatching a plot on it for murdering Him. I leave all that, and turn +to the thoughts suggested by this look of Christ as explained by the +Evangelist. + +I. Consider then, first, the solemn fact of Christ's anger. + +It is the only occasion, so far as I remember, upon which that emotion +is attributed to Him. Once, and once only, the flash came out of the +clear sky of that meek and gentle heart. He was once angry; and we may +learn the lesson of the possibilities that lay slumbering in His love. +He was only once angry, and we may learn the lesson that His perfect +and divine charity 'is not easily provoked.' These very words from +Paul's wonderful picture may teach us that the perfection of divine +charity does not consist in its being incapable of becoming angry at +all, but only in its not being angry except upon grave and good +occasion. + +Christ's anger was part of the perfection of His manhood. The man that +cannot be angry at evil lacks enthusiasm for good. The nature that is +incapable of being touched with generous and righteous indignation is +so, generally, either because it lacks fire and emotion altogether, or +because its vigour has been dissolved into a lazy indifference and +easy good nature which it mistakes for love. Better the heat of the +tropics, though sometimes the thunderstorms may gather, than the white +calmness of the frozen poles. Anger is not weakness, but it is +strength, if there be these three conditions, if it be evoked by a +righteous and unselfish cause, if it be kept under rigid control, and +if there be nothing in it of malice, even when it prompts to +punishment. Anger is just and right when it is not produced by the +mere friction of personal irritation (like electricity by rubbing), +but is excited by the contemplation of evil. It is part of the marks +of a good man that he kindles into wrath when he sees 'the oppressor's +wrong.' If you went out hence to-night, and saw some drunken ruffian +beating his wife or ill-using his child, would you not do well to be +angry? And when nations have risen up, as our own nation did seventy +years ago in a paroxysm of righteous indignation, and vowed that +British soil should no more bear the devilish abomination of slavery, +was there nothing good and great in that wrath? So it is one of the +strengths of man that he shall be able to glow with indignation at +evil. + +Only all such emotion must be kept well in hand must never be suffered +to degenerate into passion. Passion is always weak, emotion is an +element of strength. + + 'The gods approve + The depth and not the tumult of the soul.' + +But where a man does not let his wrath against evil go sputtering off +aimlessly, like a box of fireworks set all alight at once, then it +comes to be a strength and a help to much that is good. + +The other condition that makes wrath righteous and essential to the +perfection of a man, is that there shall be in it no taint of malice. +Anger may impel to punish and not be malicious, if its reason for +punishment is the passionless impulse of justice or the reformation of +the wrong-doer. Then it is pure and true and good. Such wrath is a +part of the perfection of humanity, and such wrath was in Jesus +Christ. + +But, still further, Christ's anger was part of His revelation of God. +What belongs to perfect man belongs to God in whose image man was +made. People are very often afraid of attributing to the divine nature +that emotion of wrath, very unnecessarily, I think, and to the +detriment of all their conceptions of the divine nature. + +There is no reason why we should not ascribe emotion to Him. Passions +God has not; emotions the Bible represents Him as having. The god of +the philosopher has none. He is a cold, impassive Somewhat, more like +a block of ice than a god. But the God of the Bible has a heart that +can be touched, and is capable of something like what we call in +ourselves emotion. And if we rightly think of God as Love, there is no +more reason why we should not think of God as having the other emotion +of wrath; for as I have shown you, there is nothing in wrath itself +which is derogatory to the perfection of the loftiest spiritual +nature. In God's anger there is no self-regarding irritation, no +passion, no malice. It is the necessary displeasure and aversion of +infinite purity at the sight of man's impurity. God's anger is His +love thrown back upon itself from unreceptive and unloving hearts. +Just as a wave that would roll in smooth, unbroken, green beauty into +the open door of some sea-cave is dashed back in spray and foam from +some grim rock, so the love of God, meeting the unloving heart that +rejects it, and the purity of God meeting the impurity of man, +necessarily become that solemn reality, the wrath of the most high +God. 'A God all mercy were a God unjust.' The judge is condemned when +the culprit is acquitted; and he that strikes out of the divine nature +the capacity for anger against sin, little as he thinks it, is +degrading the righteousness and diminishing the love of God. + +Oh, dear brethren, I beseech you do not let any easygoing gospel that +has nothing to say to you about God's necessary aversion from, and +displeasure with, and chastisement of, your sins and mine, draw you +away from the solemn and wholesome belief that there is that in God +which must hate and war against and chastise our evil, and that if +there were not, He would be neither worth loving nor worth trusting. +And His Son, in His tears and in His tenderness, which were habitual, +and also in that lightning flash which once shot across the sky of His +nature, was revealing Him to us. The Gospel is not only the revelation +of God's righteousness for faith, but is also 'the revelation of His +wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.' + +'It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.' The ox, with the +yoke on his neck, lashes out with his obstinate heels against the +driver's goad. He does not break the goad, but only embrues his own +limbs. Do not you do that! + +II. And now, once more, let me ask you to look at the compassion which +goes with our Lord's anger here; 'being grieved at the hardness of +their hearts.' + +The somewhat singular word rendered here 'grieved,' may either simply +imply that this sorrow co-existed with the anger, or it may describe +the sorrow as being sympathy or compassion. I am disposed to take it +in the latter application, and so the lesson we gather from these +words is the blessed thought that Christ's wrath was all blended with +compassion and sympathetic sorrow. + +He looked upon these scribes and Pharisees sitting there with hatred +in their eyes; and two emotions, which many men suppose as discrepant +and incongruous as fire and water, rose together in His heart: wrath, +which fell on the evil; sorrow, which bedewed the doers of it. The +anger was for the hardening, the compassion was for the hardeners. + +If there be this blending of wrath and sorrow, the combination takes +away from the anger all possibility of an admixture of these +questionable ingredients, which mar human wrath, and make men shrink +from attributing so turbid and impure an emotion to God. It is an +anger which lies harmoniously in the heart side by side with the +tenderest pity--the truest, deepest sorrow. + +Again, if Christ's sorrow flowed out thus along with His anger when He +looked upon men's evil, then we understand in how tragic a sense He +was 'a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.' The pain and the +burden and the misery of His earthly life had no selfish basis. They +were not like the pain and the burdens and the misery that so many of +us howl out so loudly about, arising from causes affecting ourselves. +But for Him--with His perfect purity, with His deep compassion, with +His heart that was the most sensitive heart that ever beat in a human +breast, because it was the only perfectly pure one that ever beat +there--for Him to go amongst men was to be wounded and bruised and +hacked by the sharp swords of their sins. + +Everything that He touched burned that pure nature, which was +sensitive to evil, like an infant's hand to hot iron. His sorrow and +His anger were the two sides of the medal. His feelings in looking on +sin were like a piece of woven stuff with a pattern on either side, on +one the fiery threads--the wrath; on the other the silvery tints of +sympathetic pity. A warp of wrath, a woof of sorrow, dew and flame +married and knit together. + +And may we not draw from this same combination of these two apparently +discordant emotions in our Lord, the lesson of what it is in men that +makes them the true subjects of pity? Ay, these scribes and Pharisees +had very little notion that there was anything about them to +compassionate. But the thing which in the sight of God makes the true +evil of men's condition is not their circumstances but their sins. The +one thing to weep for when we look at the world is not its +misfortunes, but its wickedness. Ah! brother, that is the misery of +miseries; that is the one thing worth crying about in our own lives, +or in anybody else's. From this combination of indignation and pity, +we may learn how we should look upon evil. Men are divided into two +classes in their way of looking at wickedness in this world. One set +are rigid and stern, and crackling into wrath; the other set placid +and good-natured, and ready to weep over it as a misfortune and a +calamity, but afraid or unwilling to say: 'These poor creatures are to +be blamed as well as pitied.' It is of prime importance that we all +should try to take both points of view, looking on sin as a thing to +be frowned at, but also looking on it as a thing to be wept over; and +to regard evil-doers as persons that deserve to be blamed and to be +chastised, and made to feel the bitterness of their evil, and not to +interfere too much with the salutary laws that bring down sorrow upon +men's heads if they have been doing wrong, but, on the other hand, to +take care that our sense of justice does not swallow up the compassion +that weeps for the criminal as an object of pity. Public opinion and +legislation swing from the one extreme to the other. We have to make +an effort to keep in the centre, and never to look round in anger, +unsoftened by pity, nor in pity, enfeebled by being separated from +righteous indignation. + +III. Let me now deal briefly with the last point that is here, namely, +the occasion for both the sorrow and the anger, 'Being grieved at the +_hardening_ of the hearts.' + +As I said at the beginning of these remarks, 'hardness,' the rendering +of our Authorised Version, is not quite so near the mark as that of +the Revised Version, which speaks not so much of a condition as of a +process: 'He was grieved at the hardening of their hearts,' which He +saw going on there. + +And what was hardening their hearts? It was He. Why were their hearts +being hardened? Because they were looking at Him, His graciousness, +His goodness, and His power, and were steeling themselves against Him, +opposing to His grace and tenderness their own obstinate +determination. Some little gleams of light were coming in at their +windows, and they clapped the shutters up. Some tones of His voice +were coming into their ears, and they stuffed their fingers into them. +They half felt that if they let themselves be influenced by Him it was +all over, and so they set their teeth and steadied themselves in their +antagonism. + +And that is what some of you are doing now. Jesus Christ is never +preached to you, even although it is as imperfectly as I do it, but +that you either gather yourselves into an attitude of resistance, or, +at least, of mere indifference till the flow of the sermon's words is +done; or else open your hearts to His mercy and His grace. + +Oh, dear brethren, will you take this lesson of the last part of my +text, that nothing so tends to harden a man's heart to the gospel of +Jesus Christ as religious formalism? If Jesus Christ were to come in +here now, and stand where I am standing, and look round about upon +this congregation, I wonder how many a highly respectable and +perfectly proper man and woman, church and chapel-goer, who keeps the +Sabbath day, He would find on whom He had to look with grief not +unmingled with anger, because they were hardening their hearts against +Him now. I am sure there are some of such among my present audience. I +am sure there are some of you about whom it is true that 'the +publicans and the harlots will go into the Kingdom of God before you,' +because in their degradation they may be nearer the lowly penitence +and the consciousness of their own misery and need, which will open +their eyes to see the beauty and the preciousness of Jesus Christ. + +Dear brother, let no reliance upon any external attention to religious +ordinances; no interest, born of long habit of hearing sermons; no +trust in the fact of your being communicants, blind you to this, that +all these things may come between you and your Saviour, and so may +take you away into the outermost darkness. + +Dear brother or sister, you are a sinner. 'The God in whose hand thy +breath is, and whose are all thy ways, thou hast not glorified.' You +have forgotten Him; you have lived to please yourselves. I charge you +with nothing criminal, with nothing gross or sensual; I know nothing +about you in such matters; but I know this--that you have a heart like +mine, that we have all of us the one character, and that we all need +the one gospel of that Saviour 'who bare our sins in His own body on +the tree,' and died that whosoever trusts in Him may live here and +yonder. I beseech you, harden not your hearts, but to-day hear His +voice, and remember the solemn words which not I, but the Apostle of +Love, has spoken: 'He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, +he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God +abideth upon him.' Flee to that sorrowing and dying Saviour, and take +the cleansing which He gives, that you may be safe on the sure +foundation when God shall arise to do His strange work of judgment, +and may never know the awful meaning of that solemn word--'the wrath +of the Lamb.' + + + +AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST + + +'And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the +Herodlans against Him, how they might destroy Him. 7. But Jesus +withdrew Himself with His disciples to the sea: and a great multitude +from Galilee followed Him, and from Judaea 8. And from Jerusalem, and +from Idumaea beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great +multitude, when they had heard what great things He did, came unto +Him. 9. And He spake to His disciples, that a small ship should wait +on Him because of the multitude, lest they should throng Him. 10. For +he had healed many; insomuch that they pressed upon Him for to touch +Him, as many as had plagues. 11. And unclean spirits, when they saw +Him, fell down before Him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God. +12. And He straitly charged them that they should not make Him known. +13. And He goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto Him whom He +would: and they came unto Him. 14. And He ordained twelve, that they +should be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach, 15. +And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils: 16. And +Simon He surnamed Peter; 17. And James the son of Zebedee, and John +the brother of James; and He surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The +sons of thunder: 18. And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and +Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus Thaddaeus Simon the +Canaanite, 19. And Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed Him: and they +went into an house.'--Mark iii. 6-19. + +A common object of hatred cements antagonists into strange alliance. +Hawks and kites join in assailing a dove. Pharisees and Herod's +partisans were antipodes; the latter must have parted with all their +patriotism and much of their religion, but both parties were ready to +sink their differences in order to get rid of Jesus, whom they +instinctively felt to threaten destruction to them both. Such +alliances of mutually repellent partisans against Christ's cause are +not out of date yet. Extremes join forces against what stands in the +middle between them. + +Jesus withdrew from the danger which was preparing, not from selfish +desire to preserve life, but because His 'hour' was not yet come. +Discretion is sometimes the better part of valour. To avoid peril is +right, to fly from duty is not. There are times when Luther's 'Here I +stand; I can do nothing else; God help me! Amen,' must be our motto; +and there are times when the persecuted in one city are bound to flee +to another. We shall best learn to distinguish between these times by +keeping close to Jesus. + +But side by side with official hatred, and in some measure the cause +of it, was a surging rush of popular enthusiasm. Pharisees took +offence at Christ's breaches of law in his Sabbath miracles. The crowd +gaped at the wonders, and grasped at the possibility of cures for +their afflicted. Neither party in the least saw below the surface. +Mark describes two 'multitudes'--one made up of Galileans who, he +accurately says, 'followed Him'; while the other 'came to Him' from +further afield. Note the geographical order in the list: the southern +country of Judea, and the capital; then the trans-Jordanic territories +beginning with Idumea in the south, and coming northward to Perea; and +then the north-west bordering lands of Tyre and Sidon. Thus three +parts of a circle round Galilee as centre are described. Observe, +also, how turbid and impure the full stream of popular enthusiasm was. + +Christ's gracious, searching, illuminating words had no attraction for +the multitude. 'The great things He _did_' drew them with idle +curiosity or desire for bodily healing. Still more impure was the +motive which impelled the 'evil spirits' to approach Him, drawn by a +strange fascination to gaze on Him whom they knew to be their +conqueror, and hated as the Son of God. Terror and malice drove them +to His presence, and wrung from them acknowledgment of His supremacy. +What intenser pain can any hell have than the clear recognition of +Christ's character and power, coupled with fiercely obstinate and +utterly vain rebellion against Him? + +Note, further, our Lord's recoil from the tumult. He had retired +before cunning plotters; He withdrew from gaping admirers, who did not +know what they were crowding to, nor cared for His best gifts. It was +no fastidious shrinking from low natures, nor any selfish wish for +repose, that made Him take refuge in the fisherman's little boat. But +His action teaches us a lesson that the best Christian work is +hindered rather than helped by the 'popularity' which dazzles many, +and is often mistaken for success. Christ's motive for seeking to +check rather than to stimulate such impure admiration, was that it +would certainly increase the rulers' antagonism, and might even excite +the attention of the Roman authorities, who had to keep a very sharp +outlook for agitations among their turbulent subjects. Therefore +Christ first took to the boat, and then withdrew into the hills above +the lake. + +In that seclusion He summoned to Him a small nucleus, as it would +appear, by individual selection. These would be such of the +'multitude' as He had discerned to be humble souls who yearned for +deliverance from worse than outward diseases or bondage, and who +therefore waited for a Messiah who was more than a physician or a +patriot warrior. A personal call and a personal yielding make true +disciples. Happy we if our history can be summed up in 'He called them +unto Him, and they came.' But there was an election within the chosen +circle. + +The choice of the Twelve marks an epoch in the development of Christ's +work, and was occasioned, at this point of time, by both the currents +which we find running so strong at this point in it. Precisely because +Pharisaic hatred was becoming so threatening, and popular enthusiasm +was opening opportunities which He singly could not utilise, He felt +His need both for companions and for messengers. Therefore He +surrounded Himself with that inner circle, and did it then, The +appointment of the Apostles has been treated by some as a masterpiece +of organisation, which largely contributed to the progress of +Christianity, and by others as an endowment of the Twelve with +supernatural powers which are transmitted on certain outward +conditions to their successors, and thereby give effect to sacraments, +and are the legitimate channels for grace. But if we take Mark's +statement of their function, our view will be much simpler. The number +of twelve distinctly alludes to the tribes of Israel, and implies that +the new community is to be the true people of God. + +The Apostles were chosen for two ends, of which the former was +preparatory to the latter. The latter was the more important and +permanent, and hence gave the office its name. They were to be 'with +Christ,' and we may fairly suppose that He wished that companionship +for His own sake as well as for theirs. No doubt, the primary purpose +was their training for their being sent forth to preach. But no doubt, +also, the lonely Christ craved for companions, and was strengthened +and soothed by even the imperfect sympathy and unintelligent love of +these humble adherents. Who can fail to hear tones which reveal how +much He hungered for companions in His grateful acknowledgment, 'Ye +are they which have continued with Me in My temptations'? It still +remains true that we must be 'with Christ' much and long before we can +go forth as His messengers. + +Note, too, that the miracle-working power comes last as least +important. Peter had understood his office better than some of his +alleged successors, when he made its qualification to be having been +with Jesus during His life, and its office to be that of being +witnesses of His resurrection (Acts i.). + +The list of the Apostles presents many interesting points, at which we +can only glance. If compared with the lists in the other Gospels and +in Acts, it brings out clearly the division into three groups of four +persons each. The order in which the four are named varies within the +limits of each group; but none of the first four are ever in the lists +degraded to the second or third group, and none of these are ever +promoted beyond their own class. So there were apparently degrees +among the Twelve, depending, no doubt, on spiritual receptivity, each +man being as close to the Lord, and gifted with as much of the +sunshine of His love, as he was fit for. + +Further, their places in relation to each other vary. The first four +are always first, and Peter is always at their head; but in Matthew +and Luke, the pairs of brothers are kept together, while, in Mark, +Andrew is parted from his brother Simon, and put last of the first +four. That place indicates the closer relation of the other three to +Jesus, of which several instances will occur to every one. But Mark +puts James before John, and his list evidently reflects the memory of +the original superiority of James as probably the elder. There was a +time when John was known as 'James's brother.' But the time came, as +Acts shows, when John took precedence, and was closely linked with +Peter as the two leaders. So the ties of kindred may be loosened, and +new bonds of fellowship created by similarity of relation to Jesus. In +His kingdom, the elder may fall behind the younger. Rank in it depends +on likeness to the king. + +The surname of Boanerges, 'Sons of Thunder,' given to the brothers, +can scarcely be supposed to commemorate a characteristic prior to +discipleship. Christ does not perpetuate old faults in his servants' +new names. It must rather refer to excellences which were heightened +and hallowed in them by following Jesus. Probably, therefore, it +points to a certain majesty of utterance. Do we not hear the boom of +thunder-peals in the prologue to John's Gospel, perhaps the grandest +words ever written? + +In the second quartet, Bartholomew is probably Nathanael; and, if so, +his conjunction with Philip is an interesting coincidence with John i. +45, which tells that Philip brought him to Jesus. All three Gospels +put the two names together, as if the two men had kept up their +association; but, in Acts, Thomas takes precedence of Bartholomew, as +if a closer spiritual relationship had by degrees sprung up between +Philip, the leader of the second group, and Thomas, which slackened +the old bond. Note that these two, who are coupled in Acts, are two of +the interlocutors in the final discourses in the upper room (John +xiv.). Mark, like Luke, puts Matthew before Thomas; but Matthew puts +himself last, and adds his designation of 'publican,'--a beautiful +example of humility. + +The last group contains names which have given commentators trouble. I +am not called on to discuss the question of the identity of the James +who is one of its members. Thaddeus is by Luke called Judas, both in +his Gospel and in the Acts; and by Matthew, according to one reading, +Lebbaeus. Both names are probably surnames, the former being probably +derived from a word meaning _breast_, and the latter from one +signifying _heart_. They seem, therefore, to be nearly equivalent, and +may express large-heartedness. + +Simon 'the Canaanite' (Auth. Ver.) is properly 'the Cananaean' (Rev. +Ver.). There was no alien in blood among the Twelve. The name is a +late Aramaic word meaning _zealot_. Hence Luke translates it for +Gentile readers. He was one of the fanatical sect who would not have +anything to do with Rome, and who played such a terrible part in the +final catastrophe of Israel. The baser elements were purged out of his +fiery enthusiasm when he became Christ's man. The hallowing and +curbing of earthly passion, the ennobling of enthusiasm, are achieved +when the pure flame of love to Christ burns up their dross. + +Judas Iscariot closes the list, cold and venomous as a snake. +Enthusiasm in him there was none. The problem of his character is too +complex to be entered on here. But we may lay to heart the warning +that, if a man is not knit to Christ by heart's love and obedience, +the more he comes into contact with Jesus the more will he recoil from +Him, till at last he is borne away by a passion of detestation. Christ +is either a sure foundation or a stone of stumbling. + + + +'HE IS BESIDE HIMSELF' + + +'And when His friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on Him: +for they said, He is beside Himself'--Mark iii. 21. + +There had been great excitement in the little town of Capernaum in +consequence of Christ's teachings and miracles. It had been +intensified by His infractions of the Rabbinical Sabbath law, and by +His appointment of the twelve Apostles. The sacerdotal party in +Capernaum apparently communicated with Jerusalem, with the result of +bringing a deputation from the Sanhedrim to look into things, and see +what this new rabbi was about. A plot for His assassination was +secretly on foot. And at this juncture the incident of my text, which +we owe to Mark alone of the Evangelists, occurs. Christ's friends, +apparently the members of His own family--sad to say, as would appear +from the context, including His mother--came with a kindly design to +rescue their misguided kinsman from danger, and laying hands upon Him, +to carry Him off to some safe restraint in Nazareth, where He might +indulge His delusions without doing any harm to Himself. They wish to +excuse His eccentricities on the ground that He is not quite +responsible--scarcely Himself; and so to blunt the point of the more +hostile explanation of the Pharisees that He is in league with +Beelzebub. + +Conceive of that! The Incarnate Wisdom shielded by friends from the +accusation that He is a demoniac by the apology that He is a lunatic! +What do you think of popular judgment? + +But this half-pitying, half-contemptuous, and wholly benevolent excuse +for Jesus, though it be the words of friends, is like the words of His +enemies, in that it contains a distorted reflection of His true +character. And if we will think about it, I fancy that we may gather +from it some lessons not altogether unprofitable. + +I. The first point, then, that I make, is just this--there was +something in the character of Jesus Christ which could be plausibly +explained to commonplace people as madness. + +A well-known modern author has talked a great deal about 'the sweet +reasonableness of Jesus Christ.' His contemporaries called it simple +insanity; if they did not say 'He hath a devil,' as well as 'He is +mad.' + +Now, if we try to throw ourselves back to the life of Jesus Christ, as +it was unfolded day by day, and think nothing about either what +preceded in the revelation of the Old Covenant, or what followed in +the history of Christianity, we shall not be so much at a loss to +account for such explanations of it as these of my text. Remember that +charges like these, in all various keys of contempt or of pity, or of +fierce hostility, have been cast against all innovators, against every +man that has broken a new path; against all teachers that have cut +themselves apart from tradition and encrusted formulas; against every +man that has waged war with the conventionalisms of society; against +all idealists who have dreamed dreams and seen visions; against every +man that has been touched with a lofty enthusiasm of any sort; and, +most of all, against all to whom God and their relations to Him, the +spiritual world and their relations to it, the future life and their +relations to that, have become dominant forces and motives in their +lives. + +The short and easy way with which the world excuses itself from the +poignant lessons and rebukes which come from such lives is something +like that of my text, 'He is beside himself.' And the proof that he is +beside himself is that he does not act in the same fashion as these +incomparably wise people that make up the majority in every age. There +is nothing that commonplace men hate like anything fresh and original. +There is nothing that men of low aims are so utterly bewildered to +understand, and which so completely passes all the calculus of which +they are masters, as lofty self-abnegation. And wherever you get men +smitten with such, or with anything like it, you will find all the +low-aimed people gathering round them like bats round a torch in a +cavern, flapping their obscene wings and uttering their harsh croaks, +and only desiring to quench the light. + +One of our cynical authors says that it is the mark of a genius that +all the dullards are against him. It is the mark of the man who dwells +with God that all the people whose portion is in this life with one +consent say, 'He is beside himself.' + +And so the Leader of them all was served in His day; and that purest, +perfectest, noblest, loftiest, most utterly self-oblivious, and +God-and-man-devoted life that ever was lived upon earth, was disposed +of in this extremely simple method, so comforting to the complacency +of the critics--either 'He is beside Himself,' or 'He hath a devil.' + +And yet, is not the saying a witness to the presence in that wondrous +and gentle career of an element entirely unlike what exists in the +most of mankind? Here was a new star in the heavens, and the law of +its orbit was manifestly different from that of all the rest. That is +what 'eccentric' means--that the life to which it applies does not +move round the same centre as do the other satellites, but has a path +of its own. Away out yonder somewhere, in the infinite depths, lay the +hidden point which drew it to itself and determined its magnificent +and overwhelmingly vast orbit. These men witness to Jesus Christ, even +by their half excuse, half reproach, that His was a life unique and +inexplicable by the ordinary motives which shape the little lives of +the masses of mankind. They witness to His entire neglect of ordinary +and low aims; to His complete absorption in lofty purposes, which to +His purblind would-be critics seem to be delusions and fond +imaginations that could never be realised. They witness to what His +disciples remembered had been written of Him, 'The zeal of Thy house +hath eaten Me up'; to His perfect devotion to man and to God. They +witness to His consciousness of a mission; and there is nothing that +men are so ready to resent as that. To tell a world, engrossed in self +and low aims, that one is sent from God to do His will, and to spread +it among men, is the sure way to have all the heavy artillery and the +lighter weapons of the world turned against one. + +These characteristics of Jesus seem then to be plainly implied in that +allegation of insanity--lofty aims, absolute originality, utter +self-abnegation, the continual consciousness of communion with God, +devotion to the service of man, and the sense of being sent by God for +the salvation of the world. It was because of these that His friends +said, 'He is beside Himself.' + +These men judged themselves by judging Jesus Christ. And all men do. +There are as many different estimates of a great man as there are +people to estimate, and hence the diversity of opinion about all the +characters that fill history and the galleries of the past. The eye +sees what it brings and no more. To discern the greatness of a great +man, or the goodness of a good one, is to possess, in lower measure, +some portion of that which we discern. Sympathy is the condition of +insight into character. And so our Lord said once, 'He that receiveth +a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward,' +because he is a dumb prophet himself, and has a lower power of the +same gift in him, which is eloquent on the prophet's lips. + +In like manner, to discern what is in Christ is the test of whether +there is any of it in myself. And thus it is no mere arbitrary +appointment which suspends your salvation and mine on our answer to +this question, 'What think ye of Christ?' The answer will be--I was +going to say--the elixir of our whole moral and spiritual nature. It +will be the outcome of our inmost selves. This ploughshare turns up +the depths of the soil. That is eternally true which the grey-bearded +Simeon, the representative of the Old, said when he took the Infant in +his arms and looked down upon the unconscious, placid, smooth face. +'This Child is set for the rise and fall of many in Israel, that the +thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.' Your answer to that question +discloses your whole spiritual condition and capacities. And so to +judge Christ is to be judged by Him; and what we think Him to be, that +we make Him to ourselves. The question which tests us is not merely, +'Whom do men say that I am?' It is easy to answer that; but this is +the all-important interrogation, 'Whom do _ye_ say that I am?' I pray +that we may each answer as he to whom it was first put answered it, +'Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel!' + +II. Secondly, mark the similarity of the estimate which will be passed +by the world on all Christ's true followers. + +The same elements exist to-day, the same intolerance of anything +higher than the low level, the same incapacity to comprehend simple +devotion and lofty aims, the same dislike of a man who comes and +rebukes by his silent presence the vices in which he takes no part. +And it is a great deal easier to say, 'Poor fool! enthusiastic +fanatic!' than it is to lay to heart the lesson that lies in such a +life. + +The one thing, or at least the principal thing, which the Christianity +of this generation wants is a little more of this madness. It would be +a great deal better for us who call ourselves Christians if we had +earned and deserved the world's sneer, 'He is beside himself.' But our +modern Christianity, like an epicure's rare wines, is preferred iced. +And the last thing that anybody would think of suggesting in +connection with the demeanour--either the conduct or the words--of the +average Christian man of this day is that his religion had touched his +brain a little. + +But, dear friends, go in Christ's footsteps and you will have the same +missiles flung at you. If a church or an individual has earned the +praise of the outside ring of godless people because its or his +religion is 'reasonable and moderate; and kept in its proper place; +and not allowed to interfere with social enjoyments, and political and +municipal corruptions,' and the like, then there is much reason to ask +whether that church or man is Christian after Christ's pattern. Oh, I +pray that there may come down on the professing Church of this +generation a baptism of the Spirit; and I am quite sure that when that +comes, the people that admire moderation and approve of religion, but +like it to be 'kept in its own place,' will be all ready to say, when +they hear the 'sons and the daughters prophesying, and the old men +seeing visions, and the young men dreaming dreams,' and the fiery +tongues uttering their praises of God, 'These men are full of new +wine!' Would we _were_ full of the new wine of the Spirit! Do you +think any one would say of your religion that you were 'beside +yourself,' because you made so much of it? They said it about your +Master, and if you were like Him it would be said, in one tone or +another, about you. We are all desperately afraid of enthusiasm +to-day. It seems to me that it is _the_ want of the Christian Church, +and that we are not enthusiastic because we don't half believe the +truths that we say are our creed. + +One more word. Christian men and women have to make up their minds to +go on in the path of devotion, conformity to Christ's pattern, +self-sacrificing surrender, without minding one bit what is said about +them. Brethren, I do not think Christian people are in half as much +danger of dropping the standard of the Christian life by reason of the +sarcasms of the world, as they are by reason of the low tone of the +Church. Don't you take your ideas of what a reasonable Christian life +is from the men round you, howsoever they may profess to be Christ's +followers. And let us keep so near the Master that we may be able to +say, 'With me it is a very small matter to be judged of you, or of +man's judgment. He that judgeth me is the Lord.' Never mind, though +they say, 'Beside himself!' Never mind, though they say, 'Oh! utterly +extravagant and impracticable.' Better that than to be patted on the +back by a world that likes nothing so well as a Church with its teeth +drawn, and its claws cut; which may be made a plaything and an +ornament by the world. And that is what much of our modern +Christianity has come to be. + +III. Lastly, notice the sanity of the insane. + +I have only space to put before you three little pictures, and ask you +what you think of them. I dare say the originals might be found among +us without much search. + +Here is one. Suppose a man who, like the most of us, believes that +there is a God, believes that he has something to do with Him, +believes that he is going to die, believes that the future state is, +in some way or other, and in some degree, one of retribution; and from +Monday morning to Saturday night he ignores all these facts, and never +allows them to influence one of his actions. May I venture to speak +direct to this hypothetical person, whose originals are dotted about +in my audience? It would be the very same to you if you said 'No' +instead of 'Yes' to all these affirmations. The fact that there is a +God does not make a bit of difference to what you do, or what you +think, or what you feel. The fact that there is a future life makes +just as little difference. You are going on a voyage next week, and +you never dream of getting your outfit. You believe all these things, +you are an intelligent man--you are very likely, in a great many ways, +a very amiable and pleasant one; you do many things very well; you +cultivate congenial virtues, and you abhor uncongenial vices; but you +never think about God; and you have made absolutely no preparation +whatever for stepping into the scene in which you know that you are to +live. + +Well, you may be a very wise man, a student with high aims, cultivated +understanding, and all the rest of it. I want to know whether, taking +into account all that you are, and your inevitable connection with +God, and your certain death and certain life in a state of +retribution--I want to know whether we should call your conduct sanity +or insanity? Which? + +Take another picture. Here is a man that believes--really +believes--the articles of the Christian creed, and in some measure has +received them into his heart and life. He believes that Jesus Christ, +the Son of God, died for him upon the Cross, and yet his heart has but +the feeblest tick of pulsating love in answer. He believes that prayer +will help a man in all circumstances, and yet he hardly ever prays. He +believes that self-denial is the law of the Christian life, and yet he +lives for himself. He believes that he is here as a 'pilgrim' and as a +'sojourner,' and yet his heart clings to the world, and his hand would +fain cling to it, like that of a drowning man swept over Niagara, and +catching at anything on the banks. He believes that he is sent into +the world to be a 'light' of the world, and yet from out of his +self-absorbed life there has hardly ever come one sparkle of light +into any dark heart. And that is a picture, not exaggerated, of the +enormous majority of professing Christians in so-called Christian +lands. And I want to know whether we shall call that sanity or +insanity? + +The last of my little miniatures is that of a man who keeps in close +touch with Jesus Christ, and so, like Him, can say, 'Lo! I come; I +delight to do Thy will, O Lord. Thy law is within my heart.' He yields +to the strong motives and principles that flow from the Cross of Jesus +Christ, and, drawn by the 'mercies of God,' gives himself a 'living +sacrifice' to be used as God will. Aims as lofty as the Throne which +Christ His Brother fills; sacrifice as entire as that on which his +trembling hope relies; realisation of the unseen future as vivid and +clear as His who could say that He was '_in_ Heaven' whilst He walked +the earth; subjugation of self as complete as that of the Lord's, who +pleased not Himself, and came not to do His own will--these are some +of the characteristics which mark the true disciple of Jesus Christ. +And I want to know whether the conduct of the man who believes in the +love that God hath to him, as manifested in the Cross, and surrenders +his whole self thereto, despising the world and living for God, for +Christ, for man, for eternity--whether his conduct is insanity or +sanity? 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.' + + + +THE MISTAKES OF CHRIST'S FOES AND FRIENDS + + +'And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath +Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth He out devils. 23. +And He called them unto Him, and said unto them in parables, How can +Satan cast out Satan? 24. And if a kingdom be divided against itself, +that kingdom cannot stand. 25. And if a house be divided against +itself, that house cannot stand. 26. And if Satan rise up against +himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. 27. No man +can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he +will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house. 28. +Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of +men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: 29. But he +that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, +but is in danger of eternal damnation: 30. Because they said, He hath +an unclean spirit. 31. There came then His brethren and His mother, +and, standing without, sent unto Him, calling Him. 32. And the +multitude sat about Him, and they said unto Him, Behold, Thy mother +and Thy brethren without seek for Thee. 33. And He answered them, +saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren? 34. And He looked round +about on them which sat about Him, and said, Behold My mother and My +brethren! 35. For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My +brother, and My sister, and mother.'--Mark iii. 22-35. + +We have in this passage three parts,--the outrageous official +explanation of Christ and His works, the Lord's own solution of His +miracles, and His relatives' well-meant attempt to secure Him, with +His answer to it. + +I. The scribes, like Christ's other critics, judged themselves in +judging Him, and bore witness to the truths which they were eager to +deny. Their explanation would be ludicrous, if it were not dreadful. +Mark that it distinctly admits His miracles. It is not fashionable at +present to attach much weight to the fact that none of Christ's +enemies ever doubted these. Of course, the credence of men, in an age +which believed in the possibility of the supernatural, is more easy, +and their testimony less cogent, than that of a jury of +twentieth-century scientific sceptics. But the expectation of miracle +had been dead for centuries when Christ came; and at first, at all +events, no anticipation that He would work them made it easier to +believe that He did. + +It would have been a sure way of exploding His pretensions, if the +officials could have shown that His miracles were tricks. Not without +weight is the attestation from the foe that 'this man casteth out +demons.' The preposterous explanation that He cast out demons by +Beelzebub, is the very last resort of hatred so deep that it will +father an absurdity rather than accept the truth. It witnesses to the +inefficiency of explanations of Him which omit the supernatural. The +scribes recognised that here was a man who was in touch with the +unseen. They fell back upon 'by Beelzebub,' and thereby admitted that +humanity, without seeing something more at the back of it, never made +such a man as Jesus. + +It is very easy to solve an insoluble problem, if you begin by taking +the insoluble elements out of it. That is how a great many modern +attempts to account for Christianity go to work. Knock out the +miracles, waive Christ's own claims as mistaken reports, declare His +resurrection to be entirely unhistorical, and the remainder will be +easily accounted for, and not worth accounting for. But the whole life +of the Christ of the Gospels is adequately explained by no explanation +which leaves out His coming forth from the Father, and His exercise of +powers above those of humanity and 'nature.' + +This explanation is an instance of the credulity of unbelief. It is +more difficult to believe the explanation than the alternative which +it is framed to escape. If like produces like, Christ cannot be +explained by anything but the admission of His divine nature. +Serpents' eggs do not hatch out into doves. The difficulties of faith +are 'gnats' beside the 'camels' which unbelief has to swallow. + +II. The true explanation of Christ's power over demoniacs. Jesus has +no difficulty in putting aside the absurd theory that, in destroying +the kingdom of evil, He was a servant of evil and its dark ruler. +Common-sense says, If Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against +himself, and his kingdom cannot stand. An old play is entitled, 'The +Devil is an Ass,' but he is not such an ass as to fight against +himself. As the proverb has it, 'Hawks do not pick out hawks' eyes.' + +It would carry us too far to deal at length with the declarations of +our Lord here, which throw a dim light into the dark world of +supernatural evil. His words are far too solemn and didactic to be +taken as accommodations to popular prejudice, or as mere metaphor. Is +it not strange that people will believe in spiritual communications, +when they are vouched for by a newspaper editor, more readily than +when Christ asserts their reality? Is it not strange that scientists, +who find difficulty in the importance which Christianity attaches to +man in the plan of the universe, and will not believe that all its +starry orbs were built for him (which Christianity does not allege), +should be incredulous of teachings which reveal a crowd of higher +intelligences? + +Jesus not only tests the futile explanation by common-sense, but goes +on to suggest the true one. He accepts the belief that there is a +'prince of the demons.' He regards the souls of men who have not +yielded themselves to God as His 'goods.' He declares that the lord of +the house must be bound before his property can be taken from him. We +cannot stay to enlarge on the solemn view of the condition of +unredeemed men thus given. Let us not put it lightly away. But we must +note how deep into the centre of Christ's work this teaching leads us. +Translated into plain language it just means that Christ by +incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and present work +from the throne, has broken the power of evil in its central hold. He +has crushed the serpent's head, his heel is firmly planted on it, and, +though the reptile may still 'swinge the scaly horror of his folded +tail,' it is but the dying flurries of the creature. He was manifested +'that He might destroy the works of the devil.' + +No trace of indignation can be detected in Christ's answer to the +hideous charge. But His patient heart overflows in pity for the +reckless slanderers, and He warns them that they are coming near the +edge of a precipice. Their malicious blindness is hurrying them +towards a sin which hath never forgiveness. Blasphemy is, in form, +injurious speaking, and in essence, it is scorn or malignant +antagonism. The Holy Spirit is the divine agent in revealing God's +heart and will. To blaspheme Him is 'the external symptom of a heart +so radically and finally set against God that no power which God can +consistently use will ever save it.' 'The sin, therefore, can only be +the culmination of a long course of self-hardening and depraving.' It +is unforgivable, because the soul which can recognise God's revelation +of Himself in all His goodness and moral perfection, and be stirred +only to hatred thereby, has reached a dreadful climax of hardness, and +has ceased to be capable of being influenced by His beseeching. It has +passed beyond the possibility of penitence and acceptance of +forgiveness. The sin is unforgiven, because the sinner is fixed in +impenitence, and his stiffened will cannot bow to receive pardon. + +The true reason why that sin has never forgiveness is suggested by the +accurate rendering, 'Is guilty of an eternal sin' (R.V.). Since the +sin is eternal, the forgiveness is impossible. Practically hardened +and permanent unbelief, conjoined with malicious hatred of the only +means of forgiveness, is the unforgivable sin. Much torture of heart +would have been saved if it had been observed that the Scripture +expression is not _sin_, but _blasphemy_. Fear that it has been +committed is proof positive that it has not; for, if it have been, +there will be no relenting in enmity, nor any wish for deliverance. + +But let not the terrible picture of the depths of impenitence to which +a soul may fall, obscure the blessed universality of the declaration +from Christ's lips which preludes it, and declares that all sin but +the sin of not desiring pardon is pardoned. No matter how deep the +stain, no matter how inveterate the habit, whosoever will can come and +be sure of pardon. + +III. The attempt of Christ's relatives to withdraw Him from publicity, +and His reply to it. Verse 21 tells us that His kindred sent out to +lay hold on Him; for they thought Him beside Himself. He was to be +shielded from the crowd of followers, and from the plots of scribes, +by being kept at home and treated as a harmless lunatic. Think of +Jesus defended from the imputation of being in league with Beelzebub +by the excuse that He was mad! This visit of His mother and brethren +must be connected with their plan to lay hold on Him, in order to +apprehend rightly Christ's answer. If they did not mean to use +violence, why should they have tried to get Him away from the crowd of +followers, by a message, when they could have reached Him as easily as +it did? He knew the snare laid for Him, and puts it aside without +shaming its contrivers. With a wonderful blending of dignity and +tenderness, He turns from kinsmen who were not akin, to draw closer to +Himself, and pour His love over, those who do the will of God. + +The test of relationship with Jesus is obedience to His Father. Christ +is not laying down the means of becoming His kinsmen, but the tokens +that we are such. He is sometimes misunderstood as saying, 'Do God's +will without My help, and ye will become My kindred.' What He really +says is, 'If ye are My kindred, you will do God's will; and if you do, +you will show that you are such.' So the statement that we become His +kindred by faith does not conflict with this great saying. The two +take hold of the Christian life at different points: the one deals +with the means of its origination, the other with the tokens of its +reality. Faith is the root of obedience, obedience is the blossom of +faith. Jesus does not stand like a stranger till we have hammered out +obedience to His Father, and then reward us by welcoming us as His +brethren, but He answers our faith by giving us a life kindred with, +because derived from, His own, and then we can obey. + +It is active submission to God's will, not orthodox creed or devout +emotion, which shows that we are His blood relations. By such +obedience, we draw His love more and more to us. Though it is not the +means of attaining to kinship with Him, it _is_ the condition of +receiving love-tokens from Him, and of increasing affinity with Him. + +That relationship includes and surpasses all earthly ones. Each +obedient man is, as it were, all three,--mother, sister, and brother. +Of course the enumeration had reference to the members of the waiting +group, but the remarkable expression has deep truth in it. Christ's +relation to the soul covers all various sweetnesses of earthly bonds, +and is spoken of in terms of many of them. He is the bridegroom, the +brother, the companion, and friend. All the scattered fragrances of +these are united and surpassed in the transcendent and ineffable union +of the soul with Jesus. Every lonely heart may find in Him what it +most needs, and perhaps is bleeding away its life for the loss or want +of. To many a weeping mother He has said, pointing to Himself, 'Woman, +behold thy son'; to many an orphan He has whispered, revealing His own +love, 'Son, behold thy mother.' + +All earthly bonds are honoured most when they are woven into crowns +for His head; all human love is then sweetest when it is as a tiny +mirror in which the great Sun is reflected. Christ is husband, +brother, sister, friend, lover, mother, and more than all which these +sacred names designate,--even Saviour and life. If His blood is in our +veins, and His spirit is the spirit of our lives, we shall do the will +of His and our Father in heaven. + + + +CHRIST'S KINDRED + + +'There came then His brethren and His mother, and, standing without, +sent unto Him, calling Him. 32. And the multitude sat about Him; and +they said unto Him, Behold, Thy mother and Thy brethren without seek +for Thee. 33. And He answered them, saying, Who is My mother, or My +brethren? 34. And He looked round about on them which sat about Him, +and said, Behold My mother and My brethren! 35. For whosoever shall do +the will of God, the same is My brother, and My sister, and +mother.'--Mark iii. 31-35. + +We learn from an earlier part of this chapter, and from it only, the +significance of this visit of Christ's brethren and mother. It was +prompted by the belief that 'He was beside Himself,' and they meant to +lay hands on Him, possibly with a kindly wish to save Him from a worse +fate, but certainly to stop His activity. We do not know whether Mary +consented, in her mistaken maternal affection, to the scheme, or +whether she was brought unwillingly to give a colour to it, and +influence our Lord. The sinister purpose of the visit betrays itself +in the fact that the brethren did not present themselves before +Christ, but sent a messenger; although they could as easily have had +access to His presence as their messenger could. Apparently they +wished to get Him by Himself, so as to avoid the necessity of using +force against the force that His disciples would be likely to put +forth. Jesus knew their purpose, though they thought it was hidden +deep in the recesses of their breasts. And that falls in with a great +many other incidents which indicate His superhuman knowledge of 'the +thoughts and intents of the heart.' + +But, however that may be, our Lord here, with a singular mixture of +dignity, tenderness, and decisiveness, puts aside the insidious snare +without shaming its contrivers, and turns from the kinsmen, with whom +He had no real bond, to draw closer to Himself, and pour out His love +over, those who do the will of His Father in heaven. His words go very +deep; let us try to gather some, at any rate, of the surface lessons +which they suggest. + +I. First, then, the true token of blood relationship to Jesus Christ +is obedience to God. + +'Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother, and My +sister, and mother.' Now I must not be betrayed into a digression from +my main purpose by dwelling upon what yet is worthy of notice--viz., +the consciousness, on the part of Jesus Christ, which here is +evidently implied, that the doing of the will of God was the very +inmost secret of His own being. He was conscious, only and always, of +delighting to do the will of God. When, therefore, He found that +delight in others, there He recognised a bond of union between Him and +them. + +We must carefully observe that these great words of our Lord are not +intended to describe the means by which men become His kinsfolk, but +the tokens that they are such. He is not saying--as superficial +readers sometimes run away with the notion that He is saying--'If a +man will, apart from Me, do the will of God, then he will become My +true kinsman,' but He is saying, 'If you are My kinsman, you will do +the will of God, and if you do it, you will show that you are related +to Myself.' In other words, He is not speaking about the means of +originating this relationship, but about the signs of its reality. +And, therefore, the words of my text need, for their full +understanding, and for placing them in due relation to all the rest of +Christ's teaching, to be laid side by side with other words of His, +such as these:--'Apart from Me ye can do nothing.' For the deepest +truth in regard to relationship to Jesus Christ and obedience is this, +that the way by which men are made able to do the will of God is by +receiving into themselves the very life-blood of Jesus Christ. The +relationship must precede the obedience, and the obedience is the +sign, because it is the sequel, of the relationship. + +But far deeper down than mere affinity lies the true bond between us +and Christ, and the true means of performing the commandments of God. +There must be a passing over into us of His own life-spirit. By His +inhabiting our hearts, and moulding our wills, and being the life of +our lives and the soul of our souls, are we made able to do the +commandments of the Lord. And so, seeing that actual union with Jesus +Christ, and the reception into ourselves of His life, is the precedent +condition of all true obedience, then the more familiar form of +presenting the bond between Him and us, which runs through the New +Testament, falls into its proper place, and the faith, which is the +condition of receiving the life of Christ into our hearts, is at once +the affinity which makes us His kindred, and the means by which we +appropriate to ourselves the power of obedient submission and +conformity to the will of God. 'This is the work of God, that ye +believe on Him whom He hath sent.' + +So, then, my text does not in the slightest degree contradict or +interfere with the great teaching that the one way by which we become +Christ's brethren is by trusting in Him. For the text and the doctrine +that faith unites us to Him take up the process at different stages: +the one pointing to the means of origination, the other to the tokens +of reality. Faith is the root, obedience is the flower and the fruit. +He that doeth the will of God, does it, not in order that he may +become, but because he already is, possessor of a blood-relationship +to Jesus Christ. + +Then, notice, again, with what emphatic decisiveness our Lord here +takes simple, practical obedience in daily life, in little and in +great things, as the manifestation of being akin to Himself. Orthodoxy +is all very well; religious experiences, inward emotions, sweet, +precious, secret feelings and sentiments cannot be over-estimated. +External forms, whether of the more simple or of the more ornate and +sensuous kind, may be helps for the religious life; and are so in view +of the weaknesses that are always associated with it. But all these, a +true creed, a belief in the creed, the joyous and deep and secret +emotions that follow thereupon, and the participation in outward +services which may help to these, all these are but scaffolding: the +building is character and conduct conformed to the will of God. + +Evangelical preachers, and those who in the main hold that faith, are +often charged with putting too little stress on practical homely +righteousness. I would that the charge had less substance in it. But +let me lay it upon your consciences, dear brethren, now, that no +amount of right credence, no amount of trust, nor of love and hope and +joy will avail to witness kindred to Christ. It must be the daily +life, in its efforts after conformity to the known will of God, in +great things and in small things, that attests the family resemblance. +If Christ's blood be in our veins, if 'the law of the spirit of life' +in Him is the law of the spirit of our lives, then these lives will +run parallel with His, in some visible measure, and we, too, shall be +able to say, 'Lo! I come. I delight to do Thy will; and Thy law is +within my heart.' Obedience is the test of relationship to Jesus. + +Then, still further, note how, though we must emphatically dismiss the +mistake that we make our selves Christ's brethren and friends by +independent efforts after keeping the commandments, it is true that, +in the measure in which we do thus bend our wills to God's will, +whether in the way of action or of endurance, we realise more +blessedly and strongly the tie that binds us to the Lord, and as a +matter of fact do receive, in the measure of our obedience, sweet +tokens of union with Him, and of love in His heart to us. No man will +fully feel living contact with Jesus Christ if between Christ and him +there is a film of conscious and voluntary disobedience to the will of +God. The smallest crumb that can come in between two polished plates +will prevent their adherence. A trivial sin will slip your hand out of +Christ's hand; and though His love will still come and linger about +you, until the sin is put out it cannot enter in. + + 'It can but listen at the gate, + And hear the household jar within.' + +'He that doeth the will of God, the same is'--and feels himself to +be--'My brother, and sister, and mother.' + +II. This relationship includes all others. + +That is a very singular form of expression which our Lord employs. +'Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother, and +sister, and mother.' We should have expected, seeing that He was +speaking about three different relationships, that He would have used +the plural verb, and said, 'The same are My brother, and sister, and +mother.' And I do not think that it is pedantic grammatical accuracy +to point out this remarkable form of speech, and even to venture to +draw a conclusion from it--viz., that what our Lord meant was, not +that if there were three people, of different sexes, and of different +ages, all doing the will of God, one of these sweet names of +relationship would apply to A, another to B, and the other to C; but +that to each who does the will of God, all the sweetnesses that are +hived in all the names, and in any other analogous ones that can be +uttered, belong. Of course the selection here of relationships +specified has reference to the composition of that group outside the +circle. But there is a great deal more than that in it. Whether you +accept the grammatical remark that I have made or no, we shall, at +least, I suppose, all agree in this, that, in fact, the bond of +kindred that unites a trusting obedient soul with Jesus Christ does in +itself include whatsoever of sweetness, of power, of protection, of +clinging trust, and of any other blessed emotion that makes a shadow +of Eden still upon earth, has ever been attached to human bonds. + +Remember how many of these, Christ, and His servants for Him, have +laid their hands upon, and claimed to be His. 'Thy Maker is thy +husband'; 'He that hath the Bride is the bridegroom'; 'Go tell My +brethren'; 'I have not called you servants, but friends.' And if there +be any other sweet names, they belong to Him, and in His one pure, +all-sufficient love they are all enclosed. Fragmentary preciousnesses +are strewed about us. There is 'one pearl of great price.' Many +fragrances come from the flowers that grow on the dunghill of the +world, but they are all gathered in Him whose name is 'as ointment +poured forth,' filling the house with its fragrance. + +For Christ is to us all that all separated lovers and friends can be. +And whatsoever our poor hearts may need most, of human affection and +sympathy, and may see least possibility of finding now, among the +incompletenesses and limitations of earth, that Jesus Christ is +waiting to be. All solitary souls and mourning hearts may turn +themselves to, and rest themselves on, these great words. And as they +look at the empty places in their circle, in their homes, and feel the +ache of the empty places in their hearts, they may hear His voice +saying, 'Behold My mother and My brethren.' He comes to us all in the +character that we need most. Just as the great ocean, when it flows in +amongst the land, takes the shape imposed upon it by the containing +banks of the loch, so Christ pours Himself into our hearts, and there +assumes the form that the outline of their emptiness tells we need +most. To many, in all generations, who have been weeping over departed +joys, He says again, though with a different application, turning not +away from but to Himself mourning eyes and hearts, 'Woman, behold thy +Son'--not on the cross nor in the grave, but on the throne--'Son, +behold Thy mother.' + +III. Lastly, this relationship requires always the subordination, and +sometimes the sacrifice, of the lower ones. + +We have to think of Christ here as Himself putting away the lower +claims, in order more fully to yield Himself to the higher. It was +because it would have been impossible for Him to do the will of His +Father if He had yielded to the purposes of His brethren and His +mother, that He steeled His heart and made solemn His tone in refusing +to go with them. + +That group that had come for Him suggests to us the ways in which +earthly ties may limit heavenly obedience. In regard to them the +situation was complicated, because Jesus Christ was their kinsman +according to the flesh, and their Messiah, according to the spirit. +But in them their earthly love, and familiarity with Him, hid from +them His higher glory; and in them He found impediments to His true +consecration, and would-be thwarters of His highest work. And, in like +manner, all our earthly relationships may become means of obscuring to +us the transcendent brightness and greatness of Jesus Christ as our +Saviour And, in like manner as to Him these, His brethren, became +'stumbling blocks' that He had decisively to put behind Him, so in +regard to us 'a man's foes may be those of his own household'; and not +least his foes when they are most his idols, his comforts, and his +sweetnesses. If our earthly loves and relationships obscure to us the +face of Christ; if we find enough in them for our hearts, and go not +beyond them for our true love; if they make us negligent of duty; if +they bind us to the present; if they make us careless of that loftier +affection which alone can satisfy us; if they clog our steps in the +divine life, then they are our foes. They need to be always +subordinated, and, so subordinated, they are more precious than when +they are placed mistakenly foremost. They are better second than +first. They are full of sweetness when our hearts know a sweetness +surpassing theirs; they are robbed of their possible power to harm +when they are rigidly held in inferiority to the one absolute and +supreme love. There need be no collision--there will be no +collision--if the second is second and the first is first. But +sometimes beggars get upon horseback, and the crew mutinies and would +displace the commander, and then there is nothing for it but +sacrifice. 'If thy hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from +thee.' 'I communed not with flesh and blood,' and we must not, if ever +they conflict with our supreme devotion to Jesus Christ. + +These other things and relationships are precious to us, but He is +priceless. They are shadows, but He is the substance. They are brooks +by the way; He is the boundless, bottomless ocean of delights and +loves. Shall we not always subordinate--and sometimes, if needful, +sacrifice--the less to the greater? If we do, we shall get the less +back, greatened by its surrender. 'He that loveth father or mother +more than Me is not worthy of Me' commands the sacrifice. 'There is no +man that hath left brethren or sisters, or father or mother, or wife +or children, for My sake and the Gospel's, but he shall receive a +hundredfold _now_, in this time' promises the reward. + + + +CHRIST'S RELATIONS + + +'Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother, and My +sister, and mother.'--Mark iii. 35. + +There was a conspiracy to seize Jesus because He is 'mad,' and Mary +was in the plot! + +I. The example for us. + +(1) Of how all natural and human ties and affections are to be +subordinated to doing God's will. + +Obedience to Him is the first and main thing to which everything else +bows, and which determines everything. + +If others compete or interfere, reject them. + +Out of that common obedience new ties are formed among men. + +(2) Of how all these ties may be doubled in power and preciousness by +being based on that obedience. + +II. The promise for us. + +Of Christ's loving relationship in which He finds delight; in which He +sustains and transcends all these in His own proper person and to +each. + + + +FOUR SOILS FOR ONE SEED + + +'And when He was alone, they that were about Him with the twelve asked +of Him the parable. 11. And He said unto them, Unto you it is given to +know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are +without, all these things are done in parables: 12. That seeing they +may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not +understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins +should be forgiven them. 13. And He said unto them, Know ye not this +parable? and how then will ye know all parables? 14. The sower soweth +the word. 15. And these are they by the way side, where the word is +sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh +away the word that was sown in their hearts. 16. And these are they +likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the +word, immediately receive it with gladness; 17. And have no root in +themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction +or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are +offended. 18. And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as +hear the word, 19. And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness +of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, +and it becometh unfruitful. 20. And these are they which are sown on +good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth +fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.'--Mark iv. +10-20. + +Dean Stanley and others have pointed out how the natural features of +the land round the lake of Gennesaret are reflected in the parable of +the sower. But we must go deeper than that to find its occasion. It +was not because Jesus may have seen a sower in a field which had these +three varieties of soil that He spoke, but because He saw the +frivolous crowd gathered to hear His words. The sad, grave description +of the threefold kinds of vainly-sown ground is the transcript of His +clear and sorrowful insight into the real worth of the enthusiasm of +the eager listeners on the beach. He was under no illusions about it; +and, in this parable, He seeks to warn His disciples against expecting +much from it, and to bring its subjects to a soberer estimate of what +His word required of them. The full force and pathos of the parable is +felt only when it is regarded as the expression of our Lord's keen +consciousness of His wasted words. This passage falls into two +parts--Christ's explanation of the reasons for His use of parables, +and His interpretation of the parable itself. + +I. Christ was the centre of three circles: the outermost consisting of +the fluctuating masses of merely curious hearers; the second, of true +but somewhat loosely attached disciples, whom Mark here calls 'they +that were about Him'; and the innermost, the twelve. The two latter +appear, in our first verse, as asking further instruction as to 'the +parable,' a phrase which includes both parts of Christ's answer. The +statement of His reason for the use of parables is startling. It +sounds as if those who needed light most were to get least of it, and +as if the parabolic form was deliberately adopted for the express +purpose of hiding the truth. No wonder that men have shrunk from such +a thought, and tried to soften down the terrible words. Inasmuch as a +parable is the presentation of some spiritual truth under the guise of +an incident belonging to the material sphere, it follows, from its +very nature, that it may either reveal or hide the truth, and that it +will do the former to susceptible, and the latter to unsusceptible, +souls. The eye may either dwell upon the coloured glass or on the +light that streams through it; and, as is the case with all +revelations of spiritual realities through sensuous mediums, gross and +earthly hearts will not rise above the medium, which to them, by their +own fault, becomes a medium of obscuration, not of revelation. This +double aspect belongs to all revelation, which is both a 'savour of +life unto life and of death unto death.' It is most conspicuous in the +parable, which careless listeners may take for a mere story, and which +those who feel and see more deeply will apprehend in its depth. These +twofold effects are certain, and must therefore be embraced in +Christ's purpose; for we cannot suppose that issues of His teaching +escaped His foresight; and all must be regarded as part of His design. +But may we not draw a distinction between design and desire? The +primary purpose of all revelation is to reveal. If the only intention +were to hide, silence would secure that, and the parable were +needless. But if the twofold operation is intended, we can understand +how mercy and righteous retribution both preside over the use of +parables; how the thin veil hides that it may reveal, and how the very +obscurity may draw some grosser souls to a longer gaze, and so may +lead to a perception of the truth, which, in its purer form, they are +neither worthy nor capable of receiving. No doubt, our Lord here +announces a very solemn law, which runs through all the divine +dealings, 'To him that hath shall be given; and from him that hath +not, shall be taken away even that which he hath.' + +II. We turn to the exposition of the parable of the sower, or rather +of the fourfold soils in which he sows the seed. A sentence at the +beginning disposes of the personality of the sower, which in Mark's +version does not refer exclusively to Christ, but includes all who +carry the word to men. The likening of 'the word' to seed needs no +explanation. The tiny, living nucleus of force, which is thrown +broadcast, and must sink underground in order to grow, which does +grow, and comes to light again in a form which fills the whole field +where it is sown, and nourishes life as well as supplies material for +another sowing, is the truest symbol of the truth in its working on +the spirit. The threefold causes of failure are arranged in +progressive order. At every stage of growth there are enemies. The +first sowing never gets into the ground at all; the second grows a +little, but its greenness soon withers; the third has a longer life, +and a yet sadder failure, because a nearer approach to fertility. The +types of character represented are unreceptive carelessness, emotional +facility of acceptance, and earthly-mindedness, scotched, but not +killed, by the word. The dangers which assault, but too successfully, +the seed are the personal activity of Satan, opposition from without, +and conflicting desires within. On all the soils the seed has been +sown by hand; for drills are modern inventions; and sowing broadcast +is the only right husbandry in Christ's field with Christ's seed. He +is a poor workman, and an unfaithful one, who wants to pick his +ground. Sow everywhere; 'Thou canst not tell which shall prosper, +whether this or that.' The character of the soil is not irrevocably +fixed; but the trodden path may be broken up to softness, and the +stony heart changed, and the soul filled with cares and lusts be +cleared, and any soil may become good ground. So the seed is to be +flung out broadcast; and prayer for seed and soil will often turn the +weeping sower into the joyous reaper. + +The seed sown on the trodden footpath running across the field never +sinks below the surface. It lies there, and has no real contact, nor +any chance of growth. It must be in, not on, the ground, if its +mysterious power is to be put forth. A pebble is as likely to grow as +a seed, if both lie side by side, on the surface. Is not this the +description of a mournfully large proportion of hearers of God's +truth? It never gets deeper than their ears, or, at the most, effects +a shallow lodgment on the surface of their minds. So many feet pass +along the path, and beat it into hardness, that the truth has no +chance to take root. Habitual indifference to the gospel, masked by an +utterly unmeaning and unreal acceptance of it, and by equally habitual +decorous attendance on its preaching, is the condition of a dreadfully +large proportion of church-goers. Their very familiarity with the +truth robs it of all penetrating power. They know all about it, as +they suppose; and so they listen to it as they would to the clank of a +mill-wheel to which they were accustomed, missing its noise if it +stops, and liking to be sent to sleep by its hum. Familiar truth often +lies 'bedridden in the dormitory of the soul, beside exploded errors.' + +And what comes of this idle hearing, without acceptance or obedience? +Truth which is common, and which a man supposes himself to believe, +without having ever reflected on it, or let it influence conduct, is +sure to die out. If we do not turn our beliefs into practice they will +not long be our beliefs. Neglected impressions fade; the seed is only +safe when it is buried. There are flocks of hungry, sharp-eyed, +quick-flying thieves ready to pounce down on every exposed grain. So +Mark uses here again his favourite 'straightway' to express the swift +disappearance of the seed. As soon as the preacher's voice is silent, +or the book closed, the words are forgotten. The impression of a +gliding keel on a smooth lake is not more evanescent. + +The distinct reference to Satan as the agent in removing the seed is +not to be passed by lightly. Christ's words about demons have been +emptied of meaning by the allegation that He was only accommodating +Himself to the superstition of the times, but no explanation of that +sort will do in this case. He surely commits Himself here to the +assertion of the existence and agency of Satan; and surely those who +profess to receive His words as the truth ought not to make light of +them, in reference to so solemn and awe-inspiring a revelation. + +The seed gets rather farther on the road to fruit in the second case. +A thin surface of mould above a shelf of rock is like a forcing-house +in hot countries. The stone keeps the heat and stimulates growth. The +very thing that prevents deep rooting facilitates rapid shooting. The +green spikelets will be above ground there long before they show in +deeper soil. There would be many such hearers in the 'very great +multitude' on the shore, who were attracted, they scarcely knew why, +and were the more enthusiastic the less they understood the real scope +of Christ's teaching. The disciple who pressed forward with his +excited and unasked 'Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou +goest!' was one of such--well-meaning, perfectly sincere, warmly +affected, and completely unreliable. Lightly come is lightly go. When +such people forsake their fervent purposes, and turn their backs on +what they have been so eagerly pursuing, they are quite consistent; +for they are obeying the uppermost impulse in both cases, and, as they +were easily drawn to follow without consideration, they are easily +driven back with as little. The first taste of supposed good secured +their giddy-pated adhesion; the first taste of trouble ensures their +desertion. They are the same men acting in the same fashion at both +times. Two things are marked by our Lord as suspicious in such easily +won discipleship--its suddenness and its joyfulness. Feelings which +are so easily stirred are superficial. A puff of wind sets a shallow +pond in wavelets. Quick maturity means brief life and swift decay, as +every 'revival' shows. The more earnestly we believe in the +possibility of sudden conversions, the more we should remember this +warning, and make sure that, if they are sudden, they shall be +thorough, which they may be. The swiftness is not so suspicious if it +be not accompanied with the other doubtful characteristic--namely, +immediate joy. Joy is the result of true acceptance of the gospel; but +not the first result. Without consciousness of sin and apprehension of +judgment there is no conversion. We lay down no rules as to depth or +duration of the 'godly sorrow' which precedes all well-grounded 'joy +in the Lord'; but the Christianity which has taken a flying leap over +the valley of humiliation will scarcely reach a firm standing on the +rock. He who 'straightway with joy' receives the word, will +straightway, with equal precipitation, cast it away when the +difficulties and oppositions which meet all true discipleship begin to +develop themselves. Fair-weather crews will desert when storms begin +to blow. + +The third sort of soil brings things still farther on before failure +comes. The seed is not only covered and germinating, but has actually +begun to be fruitful. The thorns are supposed to have been cut down, +but their roots have been left, and they grow faster than the wheat. +They take the 'goodness' out of the ground, and block out sun and air; +and so the stalks, which promised well, begin to get pale and droop, +and the half-formed ear comes to nothing, or, as the other version of +the parable has it, brings 'forth no fruit to perfection.' There are +two crops fighting for the upper hand on the one ground, and the +earlier possessor wins. The 'struggle for existence' ends with the +'survival of the fittest'; that is, of the worst, to which the natural +bent of the desires and inclinations of the unrenewed man is more +congenial. The 'cares of this world' and the 'deceitfulness of riches' +are but two sides of one thing. The poor man has cares; the rich man +has the illusions of his wealth. Both men agree in thinking that this +world's good is most desirable. The one is anxious because he has not +enough of it, or fears to lose what he has; the other man is full of +foolish confidence because he has much. Eager desires after creatural +good are common to both; and, what with the anxiety lest they lose, +and the self-satisfaction because they have, and the mouths watering +for the world's good, there is no force of will, nor warmth of love, +nor clearness of vision, left for better things. That is the history +of the fall of many a professing Christian, who never apostatises, and +keeps up a reputable appearance of godliness to the end; but the old +worldliness, which was cut down for a while, has sprung again in his +heart, and, by slow degrees, the word is 'choked'--a most expressive +picture of the silent, gradual dying-out of its power for want of sun +and air--and 'he' or 'it' 'becometh unfruitful,' relapsing from a +previous condition of fruit-bearing into sterility. No heart can +mature two crops. We must choose between God and Mammon--between the +word and the world. + +There is nothing fixed or necessary in the faults of these three +classes, and they are not so much the characteristics of separate +types of men as evils common to all hearers, against which all have to +guard. They depend upon the will and affections much more than on +anything in temperament fixed and not to be got rid of. So there is no +reason why any one of the three should not become 'good soil': and it +is to be noted that the characteristic of that soil is simply that it +receives and grows the seed. Any heart that will, can do that; and +that is all that is needed. But to do it, there will have to be +diligent care, lest we fall into any of the evils pointed at in the +preceding parts of the parable, which are ever waiting to entrap us. +The true 'accepting' of the word requires that we shall not let it lie +on the surface of our minds, as in the case of the first; nor be +satisfied with its penetrating a little deeper and striking root in +our emotions, like the second, of whom it is said with such profound +truth, that they 'have no root in themselves,' their roots being only +in the superficial part of their being, and never going down to the +true central self; nor let competing desires grow up unchecked, like +the third; but cherish the 'word of the truth of the gospel' in our +deepest hearts, guard it against foes, let it rule there, and mould +all our conduct in conformity with its blessed principles. The true +Christian is he who can truly say, 'Thy word have I hid in mine +heart.' If we do, we shall be fruitful, because _it_ will bear fruit +in us. No man is obliged, by temperament or circumstances, to be +'wayside,' or 'stony,' or 'thorny' ground. Wherever a heart opens to +receive the gospel, and keeps it fast, there the increase will be +realised--not in equal measure in all, but in each according to +faithfulness and diligence. Mark arranges the various yields in +ascending scale, as if to teach our hopes and aims a growing +largeness, while Matthew orders them in the opposite fashion, as if to +teach that, while the hundredfold, which is possible for all, is best, +the smaller yield is accepted by the great Lord of the harvest, who +Himself not only sows the seed, but gives it its vitality, blesses its +springing, and rejoices to gather the wheat into His barn. + + + +LAMPS AND BUSHELS + + +'And Jesus said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a +bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick?'--Mark iv. +21. + +The furniture of a very humble Eastern home is brought before us in +this saying. In the original, each of the nouns has the definite +article attached to it, and so suggests that in the house there was +but one of each article; one lamp, a flat saucer with a wick swimming +in oil; one measure for corn and the like; one bed, raised slightly, +but sufficiently to admit of a flat vessel being put under it without +danger, if for any reason it were desired to shade the light; and one +lampstand. + +The saying appeals to common-sense. A man does not light a lamp and +then smother it. The act of lighting implies the purpose of +illumination, and, with everybody who acts logically, its sequel is to +put the lamp on a stand, where it may be visible. All is part of the +nightly routine of every Jewish household. Jesus had often watched it; +and, commonplace as it is, it had mirrored to Him large truths. If our +eyes were opened to the suggestions of common life, we should find in +them many parables and reminders of high matters. + +Now this saying is a favourite and familiar one of our Lord, occurring +four times in the Gospels. It is interesting to notice that He, too, +like other teachers, had His favourite maxims, which He turned round +in all sorts of ways, and presented as reflecting light at different +angles and suggesting different thoughts. The four occurrences of the +saying are these. In my text, and in the parallel in Luke's Gospel, it +is appended to the Parable of the Sower, and forms the basis of the +exhortation, 'Take heed how ye hear.' In another place in Luke's +Gospel it is appended to our Lord's words about 'the sign of the +prophet Jonah,' which is explained to be the resurrection of Jesus +Christ, and it forms the basis of the exhortation to cultivate the +single eye which is receptive of the light. In the Sermon on the Mount +it is appended to the declaration that the disciples are the lights of +the world, and forms the basis of the exhortation, 'Let your light so +shine before men.' I have thought that it may be interesting and +instructive if in this sermon we throw together these three +applications of this one saying, and try to study the threefold +lessons which it yields, and the weighty duties which it enforces. + +I. So, then, I have to ask you, first, to consider that we have a +lesson as to the apparent obscurities of revelation and of our duty +concerning them. + +That is the connection in which the words occur in our text, and in +the other place in Luke's Gospel, to which I have referred. Our Lord +has just been speaking the Parable of the Sower. The disciples' +curiosity has been excited as to its significance. They ask Him for an +explanation, which He gives minutely point by point. Then he passes to +this general lesson of the purpose of the apparent veil which He had +cast round the truth, by throwing it into a parabolic form. In effect +He says: If I had meant to hide My teaching by the form into which I +cast it, I should have been acting as absurdly and as contradictorily +as a man would do who should light a lamp and immediately obscure it.' +True, there is the veil of parable, but the purpose of that relative +concealment is not hiding, but revelation. 'There is nothing covered +but that it should be made known.' The veil sharpens attention, +stimulates curiosity, quickens effort, and so becomes positively +subsidiary to the great purpose of revelation for which the parable is +spoken. The existence of this veil of sensuous representation carries +with it the obligation, 'Take heed how ye hear.' + +Now all these thoughts have a far wider application than in reference +to our Lord's parables. And I may suggest one or two of the +considerations that flow from the wider reference of the words before +us. + +'Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed and not +upon a candlestick?' There are no gratuitous and dark places in +anything that God says to us. His revelation is absolutely clear. We +may be sure of that if we consider the purpose for which He spoke at +all. True, there are dark places; true, there are great gaps; true, we +sometimes think, 'Oh! it would have been so easy for Him to have said +one word more; and the one word more would have been so infinitely +precious to bleeding hearts or wounded consciences or puzzled +understandings.' But 'is a candle brought to be set under a bushel?' +Do you think that if He took the trouble to light it He would +immediately smother it, or arbitrarily conceal anything that the very +fact of the revelation declares His intention to make known? His own +great word remains true, 'I have never spoken in secret, in a dark +place of the earth.' If there be, as there are, obscurities, there are +none there that would have been better away. + +For the intention of all God's hiding--which hiding is an integral +part of his revealing--is not to conceal, but to reveal. Sometimes the +best way of making a thing known to men is to veil it in a measure, in +order that the very obscurity, like the morning mists which prophesy a +blazing sun in a clear sky by noonday, may demand search and quicken +curiosity and spur to effort. He is not a wise teacher who makes +things too easy. It is good that there should be difficulties; for +difficulties are like the veins of quartz in the soil, which may turn +the edge of the ploughshare or the spade, but prophesy that there is +gold there for the man who comes with fitting tools. Wherever, in the +broad land of God's word to us, there lie dark places, there are +assurances of future illumination. God's hiding is in order to +revelation, even as the prophet of old, when he was describing the +great Theophany which flashed in light from the one side of the heaven +to the other, exclaimed, 'There was the hiding of His power.' + + 'He hides the purpose of His grace + To make it better known.' + +And the end of all the concealments, and apparent and real +obscurities, that hang about His word, is that for many of them +patient and diligent attention and docile obedience should unfold them +here, and for the rest, 'the day shall declare them.' The lamp is the +light for the night-time, and it leaves many a corner in dark shadow; +but, when 'night's candles are burnt out, and day sits jocund on the +misty mountain-tops,' much will be plain that cannot be made plain +now. + +Therefore, for us the lesson from this assurance that God will not +stultify Himself by giving to us a revelation that does not reveal, +is, 'Take heed how ye hear.' The effort will not be in vain. Patient +attention will ever be rewarded. The desire to learn will not be +frustrated. In this school truth lightly won is truth loosely held; +and only the attentive scholar is the receptive and retaining +disciple. A great man once said, and said, too, presumptuously and +proudly, that he had rather have the search after truth than truth. +But yet there is a sense in which the saying may be modifiedly +accepted; for, precious as is all the revelation of God, not the least +precious effect that it is meant to produce upon us is the +consciousness that in it there are unscaled heights above, and +unplumbed depths beneath, and untraversed spaces all around it; and +that for us that Word is like the pillar of cloud and fire that moved +before Israel, blends light and darkness with the single office of +guidance, and gleams ever before us to draw desires and feet after it. +The lamp is set upon a stand. 'Take heed how ye hear.' + +II. Secondly, the saying, in another application on our Lord's lips, +gives us a lesson as to Himself and our attitude to Him. + +I have already pointed out the other instance in Luke's Gospel in +which this saying occurs, in the 11th chapter, where it is brought +into immediate connection with our Lord's declaration that the sign to +be given to His generation was 'the sign of the prophet Jonah,' which +sign He explains as being reproduced in His own case in His +Resurrection. And then he adds the word of our text, and immediately +passes on to speak about the light in us which perceives the lamp, and +the need of cultivating the single eye. + +So, then, we have, in the figure thus applied, the thought that the +earthly life of Jesus Christ necessarily implies a subsequent +elevation from which He shines down upon all the world. God lit that +lamp, and it is not going to be quenched in the darkness of the grave. +He is not going to stultify Himself by sending the Light of the World, +and then letting the endless shades of death muffle and obscure it. +But, just as the conclusion of the process which is begun in the +kindling of the light is setting it on high on the stand, that it may +beam over all the chamber, so the resurrection and ascension of Jesus +Christ, His exaltation to the supremacy from which He shall draw all +men unto Him, are the necessary and, if I may so say, the logical +result of the facts of His incarnation and death. + +Then from this there follows what our Lord dwells upon at greater +length. Having declared that the beginning of His course involved the +completion of it in His exaltation to glory, He then goes on to say to +us, 'You have an organ that corresponds to Me. I am the kindled lamp; +you have the seeing eye.' 'If the eye were not sunlike,' says the +great German thinker, 'how could it see the sun?' If there were not in +me that which corresponds to Jesus Christ, He would be no Light of the +World, and no light to me. My reason, my affection, my conscience, my +will, the whole of my spiritual being, answer to Him, as the eye does +to the light, and for everything that is in Christ there is in +humanity something that is receptive of, and that needs, Him. + +So, then, that being so, He being our light, just because He fits our +needs, answers our desires, satisfies our cravings, fills the clefts +of our hearts, and brings the response to all the questions of our +understandings--that being the case, if the lamp is lit and blazing on +the lampstand, and you and I have eyes to behold it, let us take heed +that we cultivate the single eye which apprehends Christ. +Concentration of purpose, simplicity and sincerity of aim, a heart +centred upon Him, a mind drawn to contemplate unfalteringly and +without distraction of crosslights His beauty, His supremacy, His +completeness, and a soul utterly devoted to Him--these are the +conditions to which that light will ever manifest itself, and illumine +the whole man. But if we come with divided hearts, with distracted +aims, giving Him fragments of ourselves, and seeking Him by spasms and +at intervals, and having a dozen other deities in our Pantheon, beside +the calm form of the Christ of Nazareth, what wonder is there that we +see in Him 'no beauty that we should desire Him'? 'Unite my heart to +fear Thy name.' Oh I if that were our prayer, and if the effort to +secure its answer were honestly the effort of our lives, all His +loveliness, His sweetness, His adaptation to our whole being, would +manifest themselves to us. The eye must be 'single,' directed to Him, +if the heart is to rejoice in His light. + +I need not do more than remind you of the blessed consequence which +our Lord represents as flowing from this union of the seeing heart and +the revealing light--viz., 'Thy whole body shall be full of light.' In +every eye that beholds the flame of the lamp there is a little +lamp-flame mirrored and manifested. And just as what we see makes its +image on the seeing organ of the body, so the Christ beheld is a +Christ embodied in us; and we, gazing upon Him, are 'changed into the +same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit.' Light +that remains without us does not illuminate; light that passes into us +is the light by which we see, and the Christ beheld is the Christ +ensphered in our hearts. + +III. So, lastly, this great saying gives us a lesson as to the duties +of Christian men as lights in the world. + +I pointed out that another instance of the occurrence of the saying is +in the Sermon on the Mount, where it is transferred from the +revelation of God in His written word, and in His Incarnate Word, to +the relation of Christian men to the world in which they dwell. I need +not remind you how frequently that same metaphor occurs in Scripture; +how in the early Jewish ritual the great seven-branched lampstand +which stood at first in the Tabernacle was the emblem of Israel's +office in the whole world, as it rayed out its light through the +curtains of the Tabernacle into the darkness of the desert. Nor need I +remind you how our Lord bare witness to His forerunner by the praise +that 'He was a burning and a shining light,' nor how He commanded His +disciples to have their 'loins girt and their lamps burning,' nor how +He spoke the Parable of the Ten Virgins with their lamps. + +From all these there follows the same general thought that Christian +men, not so much by specific effort, nor by words, nor by definite +proclamation, as by the raying out from them in life and conduct of a +Christlike spirit, are set for the illumination of the world. The +bearing of our text in reference to that subject is just this--our +obligation as Christians to show forth the glories of Him who hath +'called us out of darkness into His marvellous light' is rested upon +His very purpose in drawing us to Himself, and receiving us into the +number of his people. If God in Christ, by communicating to us 'the +light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus +Christ,' has made us lights of the world, it is not done in order that +the light may be smothered incontinently, but His act of lighting +indicates His purpose of illumination. What are you a Christian for? +That you may go to Heaven? Certainly. That your sins may be forgiven? +No doubt. But is that the only end? Are you such a very great being as +that your happiness and well-being can legitimately be the ultimate +purpose of God's dealings with you? Are you so isolated from all +mankind as that any gift which He bestows on you is to be treated by +you as a morsel that you can take into your corner and devour, like a +grudging dog, by yourselves? By no means. 'God, who commanded the +light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts in order +that' we might impart the light to others. Or, as Shakespeare has it, +in words perhaps suggested by the Scripture metaphor, + + 'Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, + Not light them for themselves.' + +He gave you His Son that you may give the gospel to others, and you +stultify His purpose in your salvation unless you become ministers of +His grace and manifesters of His light. + +Then take from this emblem, too, a homely suggestion as to the +hindrances that stand in the way of our fulfilling the Divine +intention in our salvation. It is, perhaps, a piece of fancy, but +still it may point a lesson. The lamp is not hid 'under a bushel,' +which is the emblem of commerce or business, and is meant for the +measurement of material wealth and sustenance, or 'under a bed'--the +place where people take their ease and repose. These two loves--the +undue love of the bushel and the corn that is in it, and the undue +love of the bed and the leisurely ease that you may enjoy there--are +large factors in preventing Christian men from fulfilling God's +purpose in their salvation. + +Then take a hint as to the means by which such a purpose can be +fulfilled by Christian souls. They are suggested in the two of the +other uses of this emblem by our Lord Himself. The first is when He +said, 'Let your loins be girded'--they are not so, when you are in +bed--'and your lamps burning.' Your light will not shine in a naughty +world without your strenuous effort, and ungirt loins will very +shortly lead to extinguished lamps. The other means to this +manifestation of visible Christlikeness lies in that tragical story of +the foolish virgins who took no oil in their vessels. If light +expresses the outward Christian life, oil, in accordance with the +whole tenor of Scripture symbolism, expresses the inward gift of the +Divine Spirit. And where that gift is neglected, where it is not +earnestly sought and carefully treasured, there may be a kind of smoky +illuminations, which, in the dark, may pass for bright lights, but, +when the Lord comes, shudder into extinction, and, to the astonishment +of the witless five who carried them, are found to be 'going out.' +Brethren, only He who does not quench the smoking flax but tends it to +a flame, will help us to keep our lamps bright. + +First of all, then, let us gaze upon the light in Him, until we become +'light in the Lord.' And then let us see to it that, by girt loins and +continual reception of the illuminating principle of the Divine +Spirit's oil, we fill our lamps with 'deeds of odorous light, and +hopes that breed not shame.' Then, + + 'When the Bridegroom, with his feastful friends, + Passes to bliss on the mid-hour of night,' + +we shall have 'gained our entrance' among the 'virgins wise and pure.' + + + +THE STORM STILLED + + +'And the same day, when the even was come, He saith unto them, Let us +pass over unto the other side. 36. And when they had sent away the +multitude, they took Him even as He was in the ship. And there were +also with Him other little ships. 37. And there arose a great storm of +wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. 38. +And He was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and +they awake Him, and say unto Him, Master, carest Thou not that we +perish? 39. And He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, +Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40. +And He said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have +no faith? 41. And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, +What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey +Him?'--Mark iv. 35-41. + +Mark seldom dates his incidents, but he takes pains to tell us that +this run across the lake closed a day of labour, Jesus was wearied, +and felt the need of rest, He had been pressed on all day by 'a very +great multitude,' and felt the need of solitude. He could not land +from the boat which had been His pulpit, for that would have plunged +Him into the thick of the crowd, and so the only way to get away from +the throng was to cross the lake. But even there He was followed; +'other boats were with Him.' + +I. The first point to note is the wearied sleeper. The disciples 'take +Him, ... even as He was,' without preparation or delay, the object +being simply to get away as quickly as might be, so great was His +fatigue and longing for quiet. We almost see the hurried starting and +the intrusive followers scrambling into the little skiffs on the beach +and making after Him. The 'multitude' delights to push itself into the +private hours of its heroes, and is devoured with rude curiosity. +There was a leather, or perhaps wooden, movable seat in the stern for +the steersman, on which a wearied-out man might lay his head, while +his body was stretched in the bottom of the boat. A hard 'pillow' +indeed, which only exhaustion could make comfortable! But it was soft +enough for the worn-out Christ, who had apparently flung Himself down +in sheer tiredness as soon as they set sail. How real such a small +detail makes the transcendent mystery of the Incarnation! + +Jesus is our pattern in small common things as in great ones, and +among the sublimities of character set forth in Him as our example, +let us not forget that the homely virtue of hard work is also +included. Jonah slept in a storm the sleep of a skulking sluggard, +Jesus slept the sleep of a wearied labourer. + +II. The next point is the terrified disciples. The evening was coming +on, and, as often on a lake set among hills, the wind rose as the sun +sank behind the high land on the western shore astern. The fishermen +disciples were used to such squalls, and, at first, would probably let +their sail down, and pull so as to keep the boat's head to the wind. +But things grew worse, and when the crazy, undecked craft began to +fill and get water-logged, they grew alarmed. The squall was fiercer +than usual, and must have been pretty bad to have frightened such +seasoned hands. They awoke Jesus, and there is a touch of petulant +rebuke in their appeal, and of a sailor's impatience at a landsman +lying sound asleep while the sweat is running down their faces with +their hard pulling. It is to Mark that we owe our knowledge of that +accent of complaint in their words, for he alone gives their 'Carest +Thou not?' + +But it is not for us to fling stones at them, seeing that we also +often may catch ourselves thinking that Jesus has gone to sleep when +storms come on the Church or on ourselves, and that He is ignorant of, +or indifferent to, our plight. But though the disciples were wrong in +their fright, and not altogether right in the tone of their appeal to +Jesus, they were supremely right in that they did appeal to Him. Fear +which drives us to Jesus is not all wrong. The cry to Him, even though +it is the cry of unnecessary terror, brings Him to His feet for our +help. + +III. The next point is the word of power. Again we have to thank Mark +for the very words, so strangely, calmly authoritative. May we take +'Peace!' as spoken to the howling wind, bidding it to silence; and 'Be +still!' as addressed to the tossing waves, smoothing them to a calm +plain? At all events, the two things to lay to heart are that Jesus +here exercises the divine prerogative of controlling matter by the +bare expression of His will, and that this divine attribute was +exercised by the wearied man, who, a moment before, had been sleeping +the sleep of human exhaustion. The marvellous combination of apparent +opposites, weakness, and divine omnipotence, which yet do not clash, +nor produce an incredible monster of a being, but coalesce in perfect +harmony, is a feat beyond the reach of the loftiest creative +imagination. If the Evangelists are not simple biographers, telling +what eyes have seen and hands have handled, they have beaten the +greatest poets and dramatists at their own weapons, and have +accomplished 'things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.' + +A word of loving rebuke and encouragement follows. Matthew puts it +before the stilling of the storm, but Mark's order seems the more +exact. How often we too are taught the folly of our fears by +experiencing some swift, easy deliverance! Blessed be God! He does not +rebuke us first and help us afterwards, but rebukes by helping. What +_could_ the disciples say, as they sat there in the great calm, in +answer to Christ's question, 'Why are ye fearful?' Fear can give no +reasonable account of itself, if Christ is in the boat. If our faith +unites us to Jesus, there is nothing that need shake our courage. If +He is 'our fear and our dread,' we shall not need to 'fear their +fear,' who have not the all-conquering Christ to fight for them. + + 'Well roars the storm to them who hear + A deeper voice across the storm.' + +Jesus wondered at the slowness of the disciples to learn their lesson, +and the wonder was reflected in the sad question, 'Have ye not _yet_ +faith?'--not yet, after so many miracles, and living beside Me for so +long? How much more keen the edge of that question is when addressed +to us, who know Him so much better, and have centuries of His working +for His servants to look back on. When, in the tempests that sweep +over our own lives, we sometimes pass into a great calm as suddenly as +if we had entered the centre of a typhoon, we wonder unbelievingly +instead of saying, out of a faith nourished by experience, 'It is just +like Him.' + + + +THE TOILING CHRIST + + +'They took Him even as He was in the ship.... And He was in the hinder +part of the ship, asleep on a pillow.'--Mark iv. 36, 38. + +Among the many loftier characteristics belonging to Christ's life and +work, there is a very homely one which is often lost sight of; and +that is, the amount of hard physical exertion, prolonged even to +fatigue and exhaustion, which He endured. + +Christ is our pattern in a great many other things more impressive and +more striking; and He is our pattern in this, that 'in the sweat of +His brow' He did His work, and knew not only what it was to suffer, +but what it was to toil for man's salvation. And, perhaps, if we +thought a little more than we do of such a prosaic characteristic of +His life as that, it might invest it with some more reality for us, +besides teaching us other large and important lessons. + +I have thrown together these two clauses for our text now, simply for +the sake of that one feature which they both portray so strikingly. + +'They took Him even as He was in the ship.' Now many expositors +suppose that in the very form of that phrase there is suggested the +extreme of weariness and exhaustion which He suffered, after the hard +day's toil. Whether that be so or no, the swiftness of the move to the +little boat, although there was nothing in the nature of danger or of +imperative duty to hurry Him away, and His going on board without a +moment's preparation, leaving the crowd on the beach, seem most +naturally accounted for by supposing that He had come to the last +point of physical endurance, and that His frame, worn out by the hard +day's work, needed one thing--rest. + +And so, the next that we see of Him is that, as soon as He gets into +the ship He falls fast asleep on the wooden pillow--a hard bed for His +head!--in the stern of the little fishing boat, and there He lies so +tired--let us put it into plain prose and strip away the false veil of +big words with which we invest that nature--so tired that the storm +does not awake Him; and they have to come to Him, and lay their hands +upon Him, and say to Him, 'Master, carest Thou not that we perish?' +before compassion again beat back fatigue, and quickened Him for fresh +exertions. + +This, then, is the one lesson which I wish to consider now, and there +are three points which I deal with in pursuance of my task. I wish to +point out a little more in detail the signs that we have in the +Gospels of this characteristic of Christ's work--the toilsomeness of +His service; then to consider, secondly, the motives which He Himself +tells us impelled to such service; and then, finally, the worth which +that toil bears for us. + +I. First, then, let me point out some of the significant hints which +the gospel records give us of the toilsomeness of Christ's service. + +Now we are principally indebted for these to this Gospel by Mark, +which ancient tradition has set forth as being especially and +eminently the 'Gospel of the Servant of God,' therein showing a very +accurate conception of its distinguishing characteristics. Just as +Matthew's Gospel is the Gospel of the King, regal in tone from +beginning to end; just as Luke's is the Gospel of the Man, human and +universal in its tone; just as John's is the Gospel of the Eternal +Word, so Mark's is the Gospel of the Servant. The inscription written +over it all might be, 'Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God.' 'Behold my +Servant whom I uphold.' + +And if you will take this briefest of all the Gospels, and read it +over from that point of view, you will be surprised to discover what a +multitude of minute traits make up the general impression, and what a +unity is thereby breathed into the narrative. + +For instance, did you ever observe the peculiar beginning of this +Gospel? There are here none of the references to the prophecies of the +King, no tracing of His birth through the royal stock to the great +progenitor of the nation, no adoration by the Eastern sages, which we +find in Matthew, no miraculous birth nor growing childhood as in Luke, +no profound unveiling of the union of the Word with God before the +world was, as in John; but the narrative begins with His baptism, and +passes at once to the story of His work. The same ruling idea accounts +for the uniform omission of the title 'Lord' which in Mark's Gospel is +never applied to Christ until after the resurrection. There is only +one apparent exception, and there good authorities pronounce the word +to be spurious. Even in reports of conversations which are also given +in the other Gospels, and where 'Lord' occurs, Mark, of set purpose, +omits it, as if its presence would disturb the unity of the impression +which he desires to leave. You will find the investigation of the +omissions in this Gospel full of interest, and remarkably tending to +confirm the accuracy of the view which regards it as the Gospel of the +Servant. + +Notice then these traits of His service which it brings out. + +The first of them I would suggest is--how distinctly it gives the +impression of swift, strenuous work. The narrative is brief and +condensed. We feel, all through these earlier chapters, at all events, +the presence of the pressing crowd coming to Him and desiring to be +healed, and but a word can be spared for each incident as the story +hurries on, trying to keep pace with His rapid service of +quick-springing compassion and undelaying help. There is one word +which is reiterated over and over again in these earlier chapters, +remarkably conveying this impression of haste and strenuous work; +Mark's favourite word is 'straightway,' 'immediately,' 'forthwith,' +'anon,' which are all translations of one expression. You will find, +if you glance over the first, second, or third chapters at your +leisure, that it comes in at every turn. Take these instances which +strike one's eye at the moment. _'Straightway_ they forsook their +nets'; _'Straightway_ He entered into the synagogue'; _'Immediately_ +His fame spread abroad throughout all the region'; _'Forthwith_ they +entered into the house of Simon's mother'; '_Anon_, they tell Him of +her'; '_Immediately_ the fever left her.' And so it goes on through +the whole story, a picture of a constant succession of rapid acts of +mercy and love. The story seems, as it were, to pant with haste to +keep up with Him as He moves among men, swift as a sunbeam, and +continuous in the outflow of His love as are these unceasing rays. + +Again, we see in Christ's service, toil prolonged to the point of +actual physical exhaustion. The narrative before us is the most +striking instance of that which we meet with. It had been a long +wearying day of work. According to this chapter, the whole of the +profound parables concerning the kingdom of God had immediately +preceded the embarkation. But even these, with their explanation, had +been but a part of that day's labours. For, in Matthew's account of +them, we are told that they were spoken on the same day as that on +which His mother and brethren came desiring to speak with Him,--or, as +we elsewhere read, with hostile intentions to lay hold on Him as mad +and needing restraint. And that event, which we may well believe +touched deep and painful chords of feeling in His human heart, and +excited emotions more exhausting than much physical effort, occurred +in the midst of an earnest and prolonged debate with emissaries from +Jerusalem, in the course of which He spoke the solemn words concerning +blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and Satan casting out Satan, and +poured forth some of His most terrible warnings, and some of His most +beseeching entreaties. No wonder that, after such a day, the hard +pillow of the boat was a soft resting-place for His wearied head; no +wonder that, as the evening quiet settled down on the mountain-girdled +lake, and the purple shadows of the hills stretched athwart the water, +He slept; no wonder that the storm which followed the sunset did not +wake Him; and beautiful, that wearied as He was, the disciples' cry at +once rouses Him, and the fatigue which shows His manhood gives place +to the divine energy which says unto the sea, 'Peace! be still.' The +lips which, a moment before, had been parted in the soft breathing of +wearied sleep, now open to utter the omnipotent word--so wonderfully +does He blend the human and the divine, 'the form of a servant' and +the nature of God. + +We see, in Christ, toil that puts aside the claims of physical wants. +Twice in this Gospel we read of this 'The multitude cometh together +again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.' 'There were many +coming, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.' + +We see in Christ's service a love which is at every man's beck and +call, a toil cheerfully rendered at the most unreasonable and +unseasonable times. As I said a moment or two ago, this Gospel makes +one feel, as none other of these narratives do, the pressure of that +ever-present multitude, the whirling excitement that eddied round the +calm centre. It tells us, for instance, more than once, how Christ, +wearied with His toil, feeling in body and in spirit the need of rest +and still communion, withdrew Himself from the crowd. He once departed +alone that He might seek God in prayer; once He went with His wearied +disciples apart into a desert place to rest awhile. On both occasions +the retirement is broken in upon before it is well begun. The sigh of +relief in the momentary rest is scarcely drawn, and the burden laid +down for an instant, when it has to be lifted again. His solitary +prayer is interrupted by the disciples, with 'All men seek for Thee,' +and, without a murmur or a pause, He buckles to His work again, and +says, 'Let us go into the next towns that I may preach there also; for +therefore am I sent.' + +When He would carry His wearied disciples with Him for a brief +breathing time to the other side of the sea, and get away from the +thronging crowd, 'the people saw Him departing, and ran afoot out of +all cities,' and, making their way round the head of the lake, were +all there at the landing place before Him. Instead of seclusion and +repose He found the same throng and bustle. Here they were, most of +them from mere curiosity, some of them no doubt with deeper feelings; +here they were, with their diseased and their demoniacs, and as soon +as His foot touches the shore He is in the midst of it all again. And +He meets it, not with impatience at this rude intrusion on His +privacy, not with refusals to help. Only one emotion filled His heart. +He forgot all about weariness, and hunger, and retirement, and 'He was +moved with compassion towards them, because they were as sheep not +having a shepherd, and He began to teach them many things.' Such a +picture may well shame our languid, self-indulgent service, may stir +us to imitation and to grateful praise. + +There is only one other point which I touch upon for a moment, as +showing the toil of Christ, and that is drawn from another Gospel. Did +you ever notice the large space occupied in Matthew's Gospel by the +record of the last day of His public ministry, and how much of all +that we know of His mission and message, and the future of the world +and of all men, we owe to the teaching of these four-and-twenty hours? +Let me put together, in a word, what happened on that day. + +It included the conversation with the chief priests and elders about +the baptism of John, the parable of the householder that planted a +vineyard and digged a winepress, the parables of the kingdom of +heaven, the controversy with the Herodians about the tribute money, +the conversation with the Sadducees about the resurrection, with the +Pharisee about the great commandment in the law, the silencing of the +Pharisees by pointing to the 110th Psalm, the warning to the multitude +against the scribes and Pharisees who were hypocrites, protracted and +prolonged up to that wail of disappointed love, 'Behold! your house is +left unto you desolate.' And, as though that had not been enough for +one day, when He is going home from the Temple to find, for a night, +in that quiet little home of Bethany, the rest that He wants, as He +rests wearily on the slopes of Olivet, the disciples come to Him, +'Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of +Thy coming?' and there follows all that wonderful prophecy of the +destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world, the parable of the +fig tree, the warning not to suffer the thief to come, and the promise +of reward for the faithful and wise servant, the parable of the ten +virgins, and in all probability the parable of the king with the five +talents; and the words, that might be written in letters of fire, that +tell us the final course of all things, and the judgment of life +eternal and death everlasting! All this was the work of 'one of the +days of the Son of Man.' Of Him it was prophesied long ago, 'For +Jerusalem's sake I will not rest'; and His life on earth, as well as +His life in heaven, fulfils the prediction--the one by the +toilsomeness of His service, the other by the unceasing energy of His +exalted power. He toiled unwearied here, He works unresting there. + +II. In the second place, let me ask you to notice how we get from our +Lord's own words a glimpse into the springs of this wonderful +activity. + +There are three points which distinctly come out in various places in +the Gospels as His motives for such unresting sedulousness and +continuance of toil. The first is conveyed by such words as these: 'I +must work the works of Him that sent Me.' 'Let us preach to other +cities, also: for therefore am I sent.' 'Wist ye not that I must be +about My Father's business?' 'My meat is to do the will of Him that +sent Me, and to finish His work.' All these express one thought. +Christ lived and toiled, and bore weariness and exhaustion, and +counted every moment as worthy to be garnered up and precious, as to +be filled with deeds of love and kindness, because wherever He went, +and to whatsoever He set His hand, He had the one consciousness of a +great task laid upon Him by a loving Father whom He loved, and whom, +therefore, it was His joy and His blessedness to serve. + +And, remember that this motive made the life homogeneous--of a piece. +In all the variety of service, one spirit was expressed, and, +therefore, the service was one. No matter whether He were speaking +words of grace or of rebuke, or working works of power and love, or +simply looking a look of kindness on some outcast, or taking a little +child in His arms, or stilling with the same arms outstretched the +wild uproar of the storm--it was all the same. To Him life was all +one. There was nothing great, nothing small; nothing so insignificant +that it could be done negligently; nothing so hard that it surpassed +His power. The one motive made all duties equal; obedience to the +Father called forth His whole energy at every moment. To Him life was +not divided into a set of tasks of varying importance, some of which +could be accomplished with a finger's touch, and some of which +demanded a dead lift and strain of all the muscles. But whatsoever His +hand found to do He did with His might and that because He felt, be it +great or little, that it all came, if I may so say, into the day's +work, and all was equally great because the Father that sent Him had +laid it upon Him. + +There is one thing that makes life mighty in its veriest trifles, +worthy in its smallest deeds, that delivers it from monotony, that +delivers it from insignificance. All will be great, and nothing will +be overpowering, when, living in communion with Jesus Christ, we say +as He says, 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me.' + +And then, still further, another of the secret springs that move His +unwearied activity, His heroism of toil, is the thought expressed in +such words as these:--'While I am in the world I am the light of the +world.' 'I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day; +the night cometh when no man can work.' + +Jesus Christ manifested on earth performs indeed a work--the mightiest +which He came to do--which was done precisely then when the night did +come--namely, the work of His death, which is the atonement and +'propitiation for the sins of the world.' And, further, the 'night, +when no man can work,' was not the end of His activity for us; for He +carries on His work of intercession and rule, His work of bestowing +the gifts purchased by His blood, amidst the glories of heaven; and +that perpetual application and dispensing of the blessed issues of His +death He has Himself represented as greater than the works, to which +His death put a period, in which He healed the bodies and spoke to the +hearts of those who heard, and lived a perfect life here upon this +sinful earth. But yet even He recognised the brief hour of sunny life +as being an hour that must be filled with service, and recognised the +fact that there was a task that He could only do when He lived the +life of a man upon earth. And so, if I might so say, He was a miser of +the moments, and carefully husbanding and garnering up every capacity +and every opportunity. He toiled with the toil of a man who has a task +before him, that must be done before the clock strikes six, and who +sees the hands move over the dial, and by every glance that he casts +at it is stimulated to intenser service and to harder toil. Christ +felt that impulse to service which we all ought to feel--'The night +cometh; let me fill the day with work.' + +And then there is a final motive which I need barely touch. He was +impelled to His sedulous service not only by loving, filial obedience +to the divine law, and by the consciousness of a limited and defined +period into which all the activity of one specific kind must be +condensed, but also by the motive expressed in such words as these, in +which this Gospel is remarkably rich, 'And Jesus, moved with +compassion, put forth His hand and touched him.' Thus, along with that +supreme consecration, along with that swift ardour that will fill the +brief hours ere nightfall with service, there was the constant pity of +that beating heart that moved the diligent hand. Christ, if I may so +say, could not help working as hard as He did, so long as there were +so many men round about Him that needed His sympathy and His aid. + +III. So much then for the motives; and now a word finally as to the +worth of this toil for us. + +I do not stay to elucidate one consideration that might be suggested, +viz., how precious a proof it is of Christ's humanity. We find it +easier to bring home His true manhood to our thoughts, when we +remember that He, like us, knew the pressure of physical fatigue. Not +only was it a human spirit that wept and rejoiced, that was moved with +compassion, and sometimes with indignation, but it was a human body, +bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, that, wearied with walking +in the burning sun, sat on the margin of the well; that was worn out +and needed to sleep; that knew hunger, as is testified by His sending +the disciples to buy meat; that was thirsty, as is testified by His +saying, 'Give Me to drink.' The true corporeal manhood of Jesus +Christ, and the fact that that manhood is the tabernacle of +God--without these two facts the morality and the teaching of +Christianity swing loose _in vacuo_, and have no holdfast in history, +nor any leverage by which they can move men's hearts! But, when we +know that the common necessities of fatigue, and hunger, and thirst +belonged to Him, then we gratefully and reverently say, 'Forasmuch as +the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also Himself took +part of the same.' + +This fact of Christ's toil is of worth to us in other ways. + +Is not that hard work of Jesus Christ a lesson for us, brethren, in +our daily tasks and toils--a lesson which, if it were learnt and +practised, would make a difference not only on the intensity but upon +the spirit with which we labour? A great deal of fine talk is indulged +in about the dignity of labour and the like. Labour is a curse until +communion with God in it, which is possible through Jesus Christ, +makes it a blessing and a joy. Christ, in the sweat of His brow, won +our salvation; and our work only becomes great when it is work done +in, and for, and by Him. + +And what do we learn from His example? We learn these things: the +plain lesson, first,--task all your capacity and use every minute in +doing the duty that is plainly set before you to do. Christian virtues +are sometimes thought to be unreal and unworldly things. I was going +to say the root of them, certainly the indispensable accompaniment for +them all, is the plain, prosaic, most unromantic virtue of hard work. + +And beyond that, what do we learn? The lesson that most toilers in +England want. There is no need to preach to the most of us to work any +harder, in one department of work at any rate; but there is great need +to remind us of what it was that at once stirred Jesus Christ into +energy and kept Him calm in the midst of labour--and that was that +everything was equally and directly referred to His Father's will. +People talk nowadays about 'missions.' The only thing worth giving +that name to is the 'mission' which _He_ gives us, who sends us into +the world not to do our own will, but to do the will of Him that sent +us. There is a fatal monotony in all our lives--a terrible amount of +hard drudgery in them all. We have to set ourselves morning after +morning to tasks that look to be utterly insignificant and +disproportionate to the power that we bring to bear upon them, so that +men are like elephants picking up pins with their trunks; and yet we +may make all our commonplace drudgery great, and wondrous, and fair, +and full of help and profit to our souls, if, over it all--our shops, +our desks, our ledgers, our studies, our kitchens, and our +nurseries--we write, 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me.' +We may bring the greatest principles to bear upon the smallest duties. + +What more do we learn from Christ's toil? The possible harmony of +communion and service. His labour did not break His fellowship with +God. He was ever in the 'secret place of the Most High,' even while He +was in the midst of crowds. He has taught us that it is possible to be +in the 'house of the Lord' all the days of our lives, and by His +ensample, as by His granted Spirit, encourages us to aim at so serving +that we shall never cease to behold, and so beholding that we shall +never cease to serve our Father. The life of contemplation and the +life of practice, so hard to harmonise in our experience, perfectly +meet in Christ. + +What more do we learn from our Lord's toils? The cheerful constant +postponement of our own ease, wishes, or pleasure to the call of the +Father's voice, or to the echo of it in the sighing of such as be +sorrowful. I have already referred to the instances of His putting +aside His need for rest, and His desire for still fellowship with God, +at the call of whoever needed Him. It was the same always. If a +Nicodemus comes by night, if a despairing father forces his way into +the house of feasting, if another suppliant finds Him in a house, +where He would have remained hid, if they come running to Him in the +way, or drop down their sick before Him through the very roof--it is +all the same. He never thinks of Himself, but gladly addresses Himself +to heal and bless. How such an example followed would change our lives +and amaze and shake the world!--'I come, not to do Mine own will.' +'Even Christ pleased not Himself.' + +But that toil is not only a pattern for our lives; it is an appeal to +our grateful hearts. Surely a toiling Christ is as marvellous as a +dying Christ. And the immensity and the purity and the depth of His +love are shown no less by this, that He labours to accomplish it, than +by this, that He dies to complete it. He will not give blessings which +depend upon mere will, and can be bestowed as a king might fling a +largess to a beggar without effort, and with scarce a thought, but +blessings which He Himself has to agonise and to energise, and to lead +a life of obedience, and to die a death of shame, in order to procure. +'I will not offer burnt-offering to God of that which doth cost me +nothing,' says the grateful heart. But in so saying it is but +following in the track of the loving Christ, who will not give unto +man that which cost Him nothing, and who works, as well as dies, in +order that we may be saved. + +And, O brethren! think of the contrast between what Christ has done to +save us, and what we do to secure and appropriate that salvation! He +toiled all His days, buying our peace with His life, going down into +the mine and bringing up the jewels at the cost of His own precious +blood. And you and I stand with folded arms, too apathetic to take the +rich treasures that are freely given to us of God! He has done +everything, that we may have nothing to do, and we will not even put +out our slack hands to clasp the grace purchased by His blood, and +commended by His toil! 'Therefore we ought to give the more earnest +heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let +them slip.' + + + +THE LORD OF DEMONS + + +'And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country +of the Gadarenes. 2. And when He was come out of the ship, immediately +there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3. Who +had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not +with chains: 4. Because that he had been often bound with fetters and +chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the +fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. 5. And +always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, +crying, and cutting himself with stones. 6. But when he saw Jesus afar +off, he ran and worshipped Him, 7. And cried with a loud voice, and +said, What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of the most high +God? I adjure Thee by God, that Thou torment me not. 8. For He said +unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. 9. And He asked +him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for +we are many. 10. And he besought Him much that He would not send them +away out of the country. 11. Now there was there nigh unto the +mountains a great herd of swine feeding. 12. And all the devils +besought Him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into +them. 13. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits +went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down +a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were +choked in the sea. 14. And they that fed the swine fled, and told it +in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was +that was done. 15. And they come to Jesus, and see him that was +possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, +and in his right mind: and they were afraid. 16. And they that saw it +told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and +also concerning the swine. 17. And they began to pray Him to depart +out of their coasts. 18. And when He was come into the ship, he that +had been possessed with the devil prayed Him that he might be with +Him. 19. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home +to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for +thee, and hath had compassion on thee. 20. And he departed, and began +to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and +all men did marvel.'--Mark v. 1-20. + +The awful picture of this demoniac is either painted from life, or it +is one of the most wonderful feats of the poetic imagination. Nothing +more terrible, vivid, penetrating, and real was ever conceived by the +greatest creative genius. If it is not simply a portrait, AEschylus or +Dante might own the artist for a brother. We see the quiet landing on +the eastern shore, and almost hear the yells that broke the silence as +the fierce, demon-ridden man hurried to meet them, perhaps with +hostile purpose. The dreadful characteristics of his state are sharply +and profoundly signalised. He lives up in the rock-hewn tombs which +overhang the beach; for all that belongs to corruption and death is +congenial to the subjects of that dark kingdom of evil. He has +superhuman strength, and has known no gentle efforts to reclaim, but +only savage attempts to 'tame' by force, as if he were a beast. +Fetters and manacles have been snapped like rushes by him. Restless, +sleepless, hating men, he has made the night hideous with his wild +shrieks, and fled, swift as the wind, from place to place among the +lonely hills. Insensible to pain, and deriving some dreadful +satisfaction from his own wounds, he has gashed himself with splinters +of rock, and howled, in a delirium of pain and pleasure, at the sight +of his own blood. His sharpened eyesight sees Jesus from afar, and, +with the disordered haste and preternatural agility which marked all +his movements, he runs towards Him. Such is the introduction to the +narrative of the cure. It paints for us not merely a maniac, but a +demoniac. He is not a man at war with himself, but a man at war with +other beings, who have forced themselves into his house of life. At +least, so says Mark, and so said Jesus; and if the story before us is +true, its subsequent incidents compel the acceptance of that +explanation. What went into the herd of swine? + +The narrative of the restoration of the sufferer has a remarkable +feature, which may help to mark off its stages. The word 'besought' +occurs four times in it, and we may group the details round each +instance. + +I. The demons beseeching Jesus through the man's voice. He was, in the +exact sense of the word, _distracted_--drawn two ways. For it would +seem to have been the self in him that ran to Jesus and fell at His +feet, as if in some dim hope of rescue; but it is the demons in him +that speak, though the voice be his. They force him to utter their +wishes, their terrors, their loathing of Christ, though he says 'I' +and 'me' as if these were his own. That horrible condition of a +double, or, as in this case, a manifold personality, speaking through +human organs, and overwhelming the proper self, mysterious as it is, +is the very essence of the awful misery of the demoniacs. Unless we +are resolved to force meanings of our own on Scripture, I do not see +how we can avoid recognising this. What black thoughts, seething with +all rebellious agitation, the reluctant lips have to utter! The +self-drawn picture of the demoniac nature is as vivid as, and more +repellent than, the Evangelist's terrible portrait of the outward man. +Whatever dumb yearning after Jesus may have been in the oppressed +human consciousness, his words are a shriek of terror and recoil. The +mere presence of Christ lashes the demons into paroxysms: but before +the man spoke, Christ had spoken His stern command to come forth. He +is answered by this howl of fear and hate. Clear recognition of +Christ's person is in it, and not difficult to explain, if we believe +that others than the sufferer looked through his wild eyes, and spoke +in his loud cry. They know Him who had conquered their prince long +ago; if the existence of fallen spirits be admitted, their knowledge +is no difficulty. + +The next element in the words is hatred, as fixed as the knowledge is +clear. God's supremacy and loftiness, and Christ's nature, are +recognised, but only the more abhorred. The name of God can be used as +a spell to sway Jesus, but it has no power to touch this fierce hatred +into submission. 'The devils also believe and tremble.' This, then, is +a dark possibility, which has become actual for real living beings, +that they should know God, and hate as heartily as they know clearly. +That is the terminus towards which human spirits may be travelling. +Christ's power, too, is recognised, and His mere presence makes the +flock of obscene creatures nested in the man uneasy, like bats in a +cave, who flutter against a light. They shrink from Him, and +shudderingly renounce all connection with Him, as if their cries would +alter facts, or make Him relax His grip. The very words of the +question prove its folly. 'What is there to me and thee?' implies that +there were two parties to the answer; and the writhings of one of them +could not break the bond. To all this is to be added that the +'torment' deprecated was the expulsion from the man, as if there were +some grim satisfaction and dreadful alleviation in being there, rather +than 'in the abyss'--as Luke gives it--which appears to be the +alternative. If we put all these things together, we get an awful +glimpse into the secrets of that dark realm, which it is better to +ponder with awe than flippantly to deny or mock. + +How striking is Christ's unmoved calm in the face of all this fury! He +is always laconic in dealing with demoniacs; and, no doubt, His +tranquil presence helped to calm the man, however it excited the +demon. The distinct intention of the question, 'What is thy name?' is +to rouse the man's self-consciousness, and make him feel his separate +existence, apart from the alien tyranny which had just been using his +voice and usurping his personality. He had said 'I' and 'me.' Christ +meets him with, Who is the 'I'? and the very effort to answer would +facilitate the deliverance. But for the moment the foreign influence +is still too strong, and the answer, than which there is nothing more +weird and awful in the whole range of literature, comes: 'My name is +Legion; for we are many.' Note the momentary gleam of the true self in +the first word or two, fading away into the old confusion. He begins +with 'my,' but he drops back to 'we.' Note the pathetic force of the +name. This poor wretch had seen the solid mass of the Roman legion, +the instrument by which foreign tyrants crushed the nations. He felt +himself oppressed and conquered by their multitudinous array. The +voice of the 'legion' has a kind of cruel ring of triumph, as if +spoken as much to terrify the victim as to answer the question. + +Again the man's voice speaks, beseeching the direct opposite of what +he really would have desired. He was not so much in love with his +dreadful tenants as to pray against their expulsion, but their fell +power coerces his lips, and he asks for what would be his ruin. That +prayer, clean contrary to the man's only hope, is surely the climax of +the horror. In a less degree, we also too often deprecate the stroke +which delivers, and would fain keep the legion of evils which riot +within. + +II. The demons beseeching Jesus without disguise. There seems to be +intended a distinction between 'he besought,' in verse 10, and they +'besought,' in verse 12. Whether we are to suppose that, in the latter +case, the man's voice was used or no, the second request was more +plainly not his, but theirs. It looks as if, somehow, the command was +already beginning to take effect, and 'he' and 'they' were less +closely intertwined. It is easy to ridicule this part of the incident, +and as easy to say that it is incredible; but it is wiser to remember +the narrow bounds of our knowledge of the unseen world of being, and +to be cautious in asserting that there is nothing beyond the horizon +but vacuity. If there be unclean spirits, we know too little about +them to say what is possible. Only this is plain--that the difficulty +of supposing them to inhabit swine is less, if there be any +difference, than of supposing them to inhabit men, since the animal +nature, especially of such an animal, would correspond to their +impurity, and be open to their driving. The house and the tenant are +well matched. But why should the expelled demons seek such an abode? +It would appear that anywhere was better than 'the abyss,' and that +unless they could find some creature to enter, thither they must go. +It would seem, too, that there was no other land open to them--for the +prayer on the man's lips had been not to send them 'out of the +country,' as if that was the only country on earth open to them. That +makes for the opinion that demoniacal possession was the dark shadow +which attended, for reasons not discoverable by us, the light of +Christ's coming, and was limited in time and space by His earthly +manifestation. But on such matters there is not ground enough for +certainty. + +Another difficulty has been raised as to Christ's right to destroy +property. It was very questionable property, if the owners were Jews. +Jesus owns all things, and has the right and the power to use them as +He will; and if the purposes served by the destruction of animal life +or property are beneficent and lofty, it leaves no blot on His +goodness. He used His miraculous power twice for destruction--once on +a fig-tree, once on a herd of swine. In both cases, the good sought +was worth the loss. Whether was it better that the herd should live +and fatten, or that a man should be delivered, and that he and they +who saw should be assured of his deliverance and of Christ's power? +'Is not a man much better than a sheep,' and much more than a pig? +They are born to be killed, and nobody cries out cruelty. Why should +not Christ have sanctioned this slaughter, if it helped to steady the +poor man's nerves, or to establish the reality of possession and of +his deliverance? Notice that the drowning of the herd does not appear +to have entered into the calculations of the unclean spirits. They +desired houses to live in after their expulsion, and for them to +plunge the swine into the lake would have defeated their purpose. The +stampede was an unexpected effect of the commingling of the demonic +with the animal nature, and outwitted the demons. 'The devil is an +ass.' There is a lower depth than the animal nature; and even swine +feel uncomfortable when the demon is in them, and in their panic rush +anywhere to get rid of the incubus, and, before they know, find +themselves struggling in the lake. 'Which things are an allegory.' + +III. The terrified Gerasenes beseeching Jesus to leave them. They had +rather have their swine than their Saviour, and so, though they saw +the demoniac sitting, 'clothed, and in his right mind,' at the feet of +Jesus, they in turn beseech that He should take Himself away. Fear and +selfishness prompted the prayer. The communities on the eastern side +of the lake were largely Gentile; and, no doubt, these people knew +that they did many worse things than swine-keeping, and may have been +afraid that some more of their wealth would have to go the same road +as the herd. They did not want instruction, nor feel that they needed +a healer. Were their prayers so very unlike the wishes of many of us? +Is there nobody nowadays unwilling to let the thought of Christ into +his life, because he feels an uneasy suspicion that, if Christ comes, +a good deal will have to go? How many trades and schemes of life +really beseech Jesus to go away and leave them in peace! + +And He goes away. The tragedy of life is that we have the awful power +of severing ourselves from His influence. Christ commands unclean +spirits, but He can only plead with hearts. And if we bid Him depart, +He is fain to leave us for the time to the indulgence of our foolish +and wicked schemes. If any man open, He comes in--oh, how gladly I but +if any man slam the door in His face, He can but tarry without and +knock. Sometimes His withdrawing does more than His loudest knocking; +and sometimes they who repelled Him as He stood on the beach call Him +back, as He moves away to the boat. It is in the hope that they may, +that He goes. + +IV. The restored man's beseeching to abide with Christ. No wonder that +the spirit of this man, all tremulous with the conflict, and scarcely +able yet to realise his deliverance, clung to Christ, and besought Him +to let him continue by His side. Conscious weakness, dread of some +recurrence of the inward hell, and grateful love, prompted the prayer. +The prayer itself was partly right and partly wrong. Right, in +clinging to Jesus as the only refuge from the past misery; wrong, in +clinging to His visible presence as the only way of keeping near Him. +Therefore, He who had permitted the wish of the demons, and complied +with the entreaties of the terrified mob, did _not_ yield to the +prayer, throbbing with love and conscious weakness. Strange that Jesus +should put aside a hand that sought to grasp His in order to be safe; +but His refusal was, as always, the gift of something better, and He +ever disappoints the wish in order more truly to satisfy the need. The +best defence against the return of the evil spirits was in occupation. +It is the 'empty' house which invites them back. Nothing was so likely +to confirm and steady the convalescent mind as to dwell on the fact of +his deliverance. Therefore he is sent to proclaim it to friends who +had known his dreadful state, and amidst old associations which would +help him to knit his new life to his old, and to treat his misery as a +parenthesis. Jesus commanded silence or speech according to the need +of the subjects of His miracles. For some, silence was best, to deepen +the impression of blessing received; for others, speech was best, to +engage and so to fortify the mind against relapse. + + + +A REFUSED BEQUEST + + +'He that had been possessed with the devil prayed Jesus that he might +be with Him. 19. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, +Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath +done for thee.'--Mark v. 18,19. + +There are three requests, singularly contrasted with each other, made +to Christ in the course of this miracle of healing the Gadarene +demoniac. The evil spirits ask to be permitted to go into the swine; +the men of the country, caring more for their swine than their +Saviour, beg Him to take Himself away, and relieve them of His +unwelcome presence; the demoniac beseeches Him to be allowed to stop +beside Him. Two of the requests are granted; one is refused. The one +that was refused is the one that we might have expected to be granted. + +Christ forces Himself upon no man, and so, when they besought Him to +go, He went, and took salvation with Him in the boat. Christ withdraws +Himself from no man who desires Him. 'Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, +and said, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the +Lord hath done for thee.' + +Now, do you not think that if we put these three petitions and their +diverse answers together, and look especially at this last one, where +the natural wish was refused, we ought to be able to learn some +lessons? + +The first thing I would notice is, the clinging of the healed man to +his Healer. + +Think of him half an hour before, a raging maniac; now all at once +conscious of a strange new sanity and calmness; instead of lashing +himself about, and cutting himself with stones, and rending his chains +and fetters, 'sitting clothed, and in his right mind,' at the feet of +Jesus. No wonder that he feared that when the Healer went the demons +would come back--no wonder that he besought Him that he might still +keep within that quiet sacred circle of light which streamed from His +presence, across the border of which no evil thing could pass. Love +bound him to his Benefactor; dread made him shudder at the thought of +losing his sole Protector, and being again left, in that partly +heathen land, solitary, to battle with the strong foes that had so +long rioted in his house of life. And so 'he begged that he might be +with Him.' + +That poor heathen man--for you must remember that this miracle was not +wrought on the sacred soil of Palestine--that poor heathen man, just +having caught a glimpse of how calm and blessed life might be, is the +type of us all. And there is something wrong with us if our love does +not, like his, desire above all things the presence of Jesus Christ; +and if our consciousness of impotence does not, in like manner, drive +us to long that our sole Deliverer shall not be far away from us. +Merchant-ships in time of war, like a flock of timid birds, keep as +near as they can to the armed convoy, for the only safety from the +guns of the enemy's cruisers is in keeping close to their strong +protector. The traveller upon some rough, unknown road, in the dark, +holds on by his guide's skirts or hand, and feels that if he loses +touch he loses the possibility of safety. A child clings to his parent +when dangers are round him. The convalescent patient does not like to +part with his doctor. And if we rightly learned who it is that has +cured us, and what is the condition of our continuing whole and sound, +like this man we shall pray that He may suffer us to be with Him. Fill +the heart with Christ, and there is no room for the many evil spirits +that make up the legion that torments it The empty heart invites the +devils, and they come back, Even if it is 'swept and garnished,' and +brought into respectability, propriety, and morality, they come back, +There is only one way to keep them out; when the ark is in the Temple, +Dagon will be lying, like the brute form that he is, a stump upon the +threshold. The condition of our security is close contact with Jesus +Christ. If we know the facts of life, the temptations that ring us +round, the weakness of these wayward wills of ours, and the strength +of this intrusive and masterful flesh and sense that we have to rule, +we shall know and feel that our only safety is our Master's presence. + +Further, note the strange refusal. + +Jesus Christ went through the world, or at least the little corner of +it which His earthly career occupied, seeking for men that desired to +have Him, and it is impossible that He should have put away any soul +that desired to be present with Him. Yet, though His one aim was to +draw men to Him, and the prospect that He should be able to exercise a +stronger attraction over a wider area reconciled Him to the prospect +of the Cross, so that He said in triumph, 'I, when I am lifted up from +the earth, will draw all men unto Me,' he meets this heathen man, +feeble in his crude and recent sanity, with a flat refusal. 'He +suffered him not.' Most probably the reason for the strange and +apparently anomalous dealing with such a desire was to be found in the +man's temperament. Most likely it was the best thing for _him_ that he +should stop quietly in his own house, and have no continuance of the +excitement and perpetual change which would have necessarily been his +lot if he had been allowed to go with Jesus Christ. We may be quite +sure that when the Lord with one hand seemed to put him away, He was +really, with a stronger attraction, drawing him to Himself; and that +the peculiarity of the method of treatment was determined with +exclusive reference to the real necessities of the person who was +subject to it. + +But yet, underlying the special case, and capable of being stated in +the most general terms, lies this thought, that Jesus Christ's +presence, the substance of the demoniac's desire, may be as +completely, and, in some cases, will be more completely, realised +amongst the secularities of ordinary life than amidst the sanctities +of outward communion and companionship with Him. Jesus was beginning +here to wean the man from his sensuous dependence upon His localised +and material presence. It was good for him, and it is good for us all, +to 'feel our feet,' so to speak. Responsibility laid, and felt to be +laid, upon us is a steadying and ennobling influence. And it was +better that the demoniac should learn to stand calmly, when apparently +alone, than that he should childishly be relying on the mere external +presence of his Deliverer. + +Be sure of this, that when the Lord went away across the lake, He left +His heart and His thoughts, and His care and His power over there, on +the heathen side of the sea; and that when 'the people thronged Him' +on the other side, and the poor woman pressed through the crowd, that +virtue might come to her by her touch, virtue was at the same time +raying out across the water to the solitary newly healed demoniac, to +sustain him too. + +And so we may all learn that we may have, and it depends upon +ourselves whether we do or do not have, all protection all +companionship, and all the sweetness of Christ's companionship and the +security of Christ's protection just as completely when we are at home +amongst our friends--that is to say, when we are about our daily work, +and in the secularities of our calling or profession--as when we are +in the 'secret place of the Most High' and holding fellowship with a +present Christ. Oh, to carry Him with us into every duty, to realise +Him in all circumstances, to see the light of His face shine amidst +the darkness of calamity, and the pointing of His directing finger +showing us our road amidst all perplexities of life! Brethren, that is +possible. When Jesus Christ 'suffered him not to go with Him,' Jesus +Christ stayed behind with the man. + +Lastly, we have here the duty enjoined. + +'Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath +done for thee.' The man went home and translated the injunction into +word and deed. As I said, the reason for the peculiarity of his +treatment, in his request being refused, was probably his peculiar +temperament. So again I would say the reason for the commandment laid +upon him, which is also anomalous, was probably the peculiarity of his +disposition. Usually our Lord was careful to enjoin silence upon those +whom He benefited by His miraculous cures. That injunction of silence +was largely owing to His desire not to create or fan the flame of +popular excitement. But that risk was chiefly to be guarded against in +the land of Israel, and here, where we have a miracle upon Gentile +soil, there was not the same occasion for avoiding talk and notoriety. + +But probably the main reason for the exceptional commandment to go and +publish abroad what the Lord had done was to be found in the simple +fact that this man's malady and his disposition were such that +external work of some sort was the best thing to prevent him from +relapsing into his former condition. His declaration to everybody of +his cure would help to confirm his cure; and whilst he was speaking +about being healed, he would more and more realise to himself that he +was healed. Having work to do would take him out of himself, which no +doubt was a great security against the recurrence of the evil from +which he had been delivered. But however that may be, look at the +plain lesson that lies here. Every healed man should be a witness to +his Healer; and there is no better way of witnessing than by our +lives, by the elevation manifested in our aims, by our aversion from +all low, earthly, gross things, by the conspicuous--not made +conspicuous by us, conspicuous because it cannot be hid--concentration +and devotion, and unselfishness and Christlikeness of our daily lives +to show that we are really healed. If we manifest these things in our +conduct, then, when we say 'it was Jesus Christ that healed me,' +people will be apt to believe us. But if this man had gone away into +the mountains and amongst the tombs as he used to do, and had +continued all the former characteristics of his devil-ridden life, who +would have believed him when he talked about being healed? And who +ought to believe you when you say, 'Christ is my Saviour,' if your +lives are, to all outward seeming, exactly what they were before? + +The sphere in which the healed man's witness was to be borne tested +the reality of his healing. 'Go home to thy friends, and tell _them_.' +I wonder how many Christian professors there are who would be least +easily believed by those who live in the same house with them, if they +said that Jesus had cast their devils out of them. It is a great +mistake to take recent converts, especially if they have been very +profligate beforehand, and to hawk them about the country as trophies +of God's converting power. Let them stop at home, and bethink +themselves, and get sober and confirmed, and let their changed lives +prove the reality of Christ's healing power. They can speak to some +purpose after that. + +Further, remember that there is no better way for keeping out devils +than working for Jesus Christ. Many a man finds that the true +cure--say, for instance, of doubts that buzz about him and disturb +him, is to go away and talk to some one about his Saviour. Work for +Jesus amongst people that do not know Him is a wonderful sieve for +sifting out the fundamental articles of the Christian faith. And when +we go to other people, and tell them of that Lord, and see how the +message is sometimes received, and what it sometimes does, we come +away with confirmed faith. + +But, in any case, it is better to work for Him than to sit alone, +thinking about Him. The two things have to go together; and I know +very well that there is a great danger, in the present day, of +exaggeration, and insisting too exclusively upon the duty of Christian +work whilst neglecting to insist upon the duty of Christian +meditation. But, on the other hand, it blows the cobwebs out of a +man's brain; it puts vigour into him, it releases him from himself, +and gives him something better to think about, when he listens to the +Master's voice, 'Go home to thy friends, and tell them what great +things the Lord hath done for thee.' + +'Master! it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles. +Stay here; let us enjoy ourselves up in the clouds, with Moses and +Elias; and never mind about what goes on below.' But there was a +demoniac boy down there that needed to be healed; and the father was +at his wits' end, and the disciples were at theirs because they could +not heal him. And so Jesus Christ turned His back upon the Mount of +Transfiguration, and the company of the blessed two, and the Voice +that said, 'This is My beloved Son,' and hurried down where human woes +called Him, and found that He was as near God, and so did Peter and +James and John, as when up there amid the glory. + +'Go home to thy friends, and tell them'; and you will find that to do +that is the best way to realise the desire which seemed to be put +aside, the desire for the presence of Christ. For be sure that +wherever He may not be, He always is where a man, in obedience to Him, +is doing His commandments. So when He said, 'Go home to thy friends,' +He was answering the request that He seamed to reject, and when the +Gadarene obeyed, he would find, to his astonishment and his grateful +wonder, that the Lord had _not_ gone away in the boat, but was with +him still. 'Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel. Lo! I am +with you always.' + + + +TALITHA CUMI + + +And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus +by name; and when he saw Him, he fell at His feet, 23. And besought +Him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I +pray Thee, come and lay Thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and +she shall live. 24. And Jesus went with him; and much people followed +Him, and thronged Him.... 35. While He yet spake, there came from the +ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, Thy daughter is +dead: why troublest thou the Master any further? 36. As soon as Jesus +heard the word that was spoken, He saith unto the ruler of the +synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe. 37. And He suffered no man to +follow Him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James. 38. +And He cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth +the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly. 39. And when He was +come in, He saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the +damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. 40. And they laughed Him to scorn. +But when He had put them all out, He taketh the father and the mother +of the damsel, and them that were with Him, and entereth in where the +damsel was lying. 41. And He took the damsel by the hand, and said +unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say +unto thee, arise. 42. And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; +for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with +a great astonishment. 43. And He charged them straitly that no man +should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to +eat.'--Mark v. 22-24, 35-43. + +The scene of this miracle was probably Capernaum; its time, according +to Matthew, was the feast at his house after his call. Mark's date +appears to be later, but he may have anticipated the feast in his +narrative, in order to keep the whole of the incidents relating to +Matthew's apostleship together. Jairus's knowledge of Jesus is implied +in the story, and perhaps Jesus' acquaintance with him. + +I. We note, first, the agonised appeal and the immediate answer. +Desperation makes men bold. Conventionalities are burned up by the +fire of agonised petitioning for help in extremity. Without apology or +preliminary, Jairus bursts in, and his urgent need is sufficient +excuse. Jesus never complains of scant respect when wrung hearts cry +to Him. But this man was not only driven by despair, but drawn by +trust. He was sure that, even though his little darling had been all +but dead when he ran from his house, and was dead by this time, for +all he knew, Jesus could give her life. Perhaps he had not faced the +stern possibility that she might already be gone, nor defined +precisely what he hoped for in that case. But he was sure of Jesus' +power, and he says nothing to show that he doubted His willingness. A +beautiful trust shines through his words, based, no doubt, on what he +had known and seen of Jesus' miracles. _We_ have more pressing and +deeper needs, and we have fuller and deeper knowledge of Jesus, +wherefore our approach to Him should be at least as earnest and +confidential as Jairus's was. If our Lord was at the feast when this +interruption took place, His gracious, immediate answer becomes more +lovely, as a sign of His willingness to bring the swiftest help. +'While they are yet speaking, I will hear.' Jairus had not finished +asking before Jesus was on His feet to go. + +The father's impatience would be satisfied when they were on their +way, but how he would chafe, and think every moment an age, while +Jesus stayed, as if at entire leisure, to deal with another silent +petitioner! But His help to one never interferes with His help to +another, and no case is so pressing as that He cannot spare time to +stay to bless some one else. The poor, sickly, shamefaced woman shall +be healed, and the little girl shall not suffer. + +II. We have next the extinction and rekindling of Jairus's glimmer of +hope. Distances in Capernaum were short, and the messenger would soon +find Jesus. There was little sympathy in the harsh, bald announcement +of the death, or in the appended suggestion that the Rabbi need not be +further troubled. The speaker evidently was thinking more of being +polite to Jesus than of the poor father's stricken heart, Jairus would +feel then what most of us have felt in like circumstances,--that he +had been more hopeful than he knew. Only when the last glimmer is +quenched do we feel, by the blackness, how much light had lingered in +our sky, But Jesus knew Jairus's need before Jairus himself knew it, +and His strong word of cheer relit the torch ere the poor father had +time to speak. That loving eye reads our hearts and anticipates our +dreary hopelessness by His sweet comfortings. Faith is the only +victorious antagonist of fear. Jairus had every reason for abandoning +hope, and his only reason for clinging to it was faith. So it is with +us all. It is vain to bid us not be afraid when real dangers and +miseries stare us in the face; but it is not vain to bid us 'believe,' +and if we do that, faith, cast into the one scale, will outweigh a +hundred good reasons for dread and despair cast into the other. + +III. We have next the tumult of grief and the word that calms. The +hired mourners had lost no time, and in Eastern fashion were +disturbing the solemnity of death with their professional shrieks and +wailings. True grief is silent. Woe that weeps aloud is soon consoled. + +What a contrast between the noise outside and the still death-chamber +and its occupant, and what a contrast between the agitation of the +sham comforters and the calmness of the true Helper! Christ's great +word was spoken for us all when our hearts are sore and our dear ones +go. It dissolves the dim shape into nothing ness, or, rather, it +transfigures it into a gracious, soothing form. Sleep is rest, and +bears in itself the pledge of waking. So Christ has changed the +'shadow feared of man' into beauty, and in the strength of His great +word we can meet the last enemy with 'Welcome! friend.' It is strange +that any one reading this narrative should have been so blind to its +deepest beauty as to suppose that Jesus was here saying that the child +had only swooned, and was really alive. He was not denying that she +was what men call 'dead,' but He was, in the triumphant consciousness +of His own power, and in the clear vision of the realities of +spiritual being, of which bodily states are but shadows, denying that +what men call death deserves the name. 'Death' is the state of the +soul separated from God, whether united to the body or no,--not the +separation of body and soul, which is only a visible symbol of the +more dread reality. + +IV. We have finally the life-giving word and the life-preserving care. +Probably Jesus first freed His progress from the jostling crowd, and +then, when arrived, made the further selection of the three +apostles,--the first three of the mighty ones--and, as was becoming, +of the father and mother. + +With what hushed, tense expectation they would enter the chamber! +Think of the mother's eyes watching Him. The very words that He spoke +were like a caress. There was infinite tenderness in that 'Damsel!' +from His lips, and so deep an impression did it make on Peter that he +repeated the very words to Mark, and used them, with the change of one +letter ('Ta_b_itha' for 'Ta_l_itha'), in raising Dorcas. The same +tenderness is expressed by His taking her by the hand, as, no doubt, +her mother had done, many a morning, on waking her. The father had +asked Him to lay His hand on her, that she might be made whole and +live. He did as He was asked,--He always does--and His doing according +to our desire brings larger blessings than we had thought of. Neither +the touch of His hand nor the words He spoke were the real agents of +the child's returning to life. It was His will which brought her back +from whatever vasty dimness she had entered. The forth-putting of +Christ's will is sovereign, and His word runs with power through all +regions of the universe. 'The dull, cold ear of death' hears, and +'they that hear shall live,' whether they are, as men say, dead, or +whether they are 'dead in trespasses and sins.' The resurrection of a +soul is a mightier act--if we can speak of degrees of might in His +acts--than that of a body. + +It would be calming for the child of such strange experiences to see, +for the first thing that met her eyes opening again on the old +familiar home as on a strange land, the bending face of Jesus, and His +touch would steady her spirit and assure of His love and help. The +quiet command to give her food knits the wonder with common life, and +teaches precious lessons as to His economy of miraculous power, like +His bidding others loosen Lazarus's wrappings, and as to His +devolution on us of duties towards those whom He raises from the death +of sin. But it was given, not didactically, but lovingly. The girl was +exhausted, and sustenance was necessary, and would be sweet. So He +thought upon a small bodily need, and the love that gave life took +care to provide what was required to support it. He gives the +greatest; He will take care that we shall not lack the least. + + + +THE POWER OF FEEBLE FAITH + + +'And a certain woman ... 27. When she had heard of Jesus, came in the +press behind, and touched His garment. 28. For she said, If I may +touch but His clothes, I shall be whole.'--Mark v. 25, 27, 28. + +In all the narratives of this miracle, it is embedded in the story of +Jairus's daughter, which it cuts in twain. I suppose that the +Evangelists felt, and would have us feel, the impression of calm +consciousness of power and of leisurely dignity produced by Christ's +having time to pause even on such an errand, in order to heal by the +way, as if parenthetically, this other poor sufferer. The child's +father with impatient earnestness pleads the urgency of her case--'She +lieth at the point of death'; and to him and to the group of +disciples, it must have seemed that there was no time to be lost. But +He who knows that His resources are infinite can afford to let her +die, while He cures and saves this woman. She shall receive no harm, +and her sister suppliant has as great a claim on Him. 'The eyes of all +wait' on His equal love; He has leisure of heart to feel for each, and +fulness of power for all; and none can rob another of his share in the +Healer's gifts, nor any in all that dependent crowd jostle his +neighbour out of the notice of the Saviour's eye. + +The main point of the story itself seems to be the illustration which +it gives of the genuineness and power of an imperfect faith, and of +Christ's merciful way of responding to and strengthening such a faith. +Looked at from that point of view, the narrative is very striking and +instructive. + +The woman is a poor shrinking creature, broken down by long illness, +made more timid still by many disappointed hopes of core, 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 rich +church dignitary to heal his daughter, but lets Him pass before she +can make up her mind to go near Him at all, and then comes creeping up +in the crowd behind, puts out her wasted, trembling hand to His +garment's hem--and she is whole. She would fain have stolen away with +her new-found blessing, but Christ forces her to stand out before the +throng, and there, with all their eyes upon her--cold, cruel eyes some +of them--to conquer her diffidence and shame, and tell all the truth. +Strange kindness that! strangely contrasted with His ordinary care to +avoid notoriety, and with His ordinary tender regard for shrinking +weakness! What may have been the reason? Certainly it was not for His +own sake at all, nor for others' chiefly, but for hers, that He did +this. The reason lay in the incompleteness of her faith. It was very +incomplete--although it was, Christ answered it. And then He sought to +make the cure, and the discipline that followed it, the means of +clearing and confirming her trust in Himself. + +I. Following the order of the narrative thus understood, we have here +first the great lesson, that very imperfect faith may be genuine +faith. There was unquestionable confidence in Christ's healing power, +and there was earnest desire for healing. Our Lord Himself recognises +her faith as adequate to be the condition of her receiving the cure +which she desired. Of course, it was a very different thing from the +faith which unites us to Christ, and is the condition of our receiving +our soul's cure; and we shall never understand the relation of +multitudes of the people in the Gospels to Jesus, if we insist upon +supposing that the 'faith to be healed,' which many of them had, was a +religious, or, as we call it, 'saving faith.' But still, the trust +which was directed to Him, as the giver of miraculous temporal +blessings, is akin to that higher trust into which it often passed, +and the principles regulating the operation of the loftier are +abundantly illustrated in the workings of the lower. + +The imperfections, then, of this woman's faith were many. It was +intensely _ignorant_ trust. She dimly believes that, somehow or other, +this miracle-working Rabbi will heal her, but the cure is to be a +piece of magic, secured by material contact of her finger with His +robe. She has no idea that Christ's will, or His knowledge, much less +His pitying love, has anything to do with it. She thinks that she may +get her desire furtively, and may carry it away out of the crowd, and +He, the source of it, be none the wiser, and none the poorer, for the +blessing which she has stolen from Him. What utter blank ignorance of +Christ's character and way of working! What complete misconception of +the relation between Himself and His gift! What low, gross, +superstitious ideas! Yes, and with them all what a hunger of intense +desire to be whole; what absolute assurance of confidence that one +finger-tip on His robe was enough! Therefore she had her desire, and +her Lord recognised her faith as true, foolish and unworthy as were +the thoughts which accompanied it! + +Thank God! the same thing is true still, or what would become of any +of us? There may be a real faith in Christ, though there be mixed with +it many and grave errors concerning His work, and the manner of +receiving the blessings which He bestows. A man may have a very hazy +apprehension of the bearing and whole scope of even Scripture +declarations concerning the profounder aspects of Christ's person and +work, and yet be holding fast to Him by living confidence. I do not +wish to underrate for one moment the absolute necessity of clear and +true conceptions of revealed truth, in order to a vigorous and fully +developed faith; but, while there can be no faith worth calling so, +which is not based upon the intellectual reception of truth, there may +be faith based upon the very imperfect intellectual reception of very +partial truth. The power and vitality of faith are not measured by the +comprehensiveness and clearness of belief. The richest soil may bear +shrunken and barren ears; and on the arid sand, with the thinnest +layer of earth, gorgeous cacti may bloom out, and fleshy aloes lift +their sworded arms, with stores of moisture to help them through the +heat. It is not for us to say what amount of ignorance is destructive +of the possibility of real confidence in Jesus Christ. But for +ourselves, feeling how short a distance our eyesight travels, and how +little, after all our systems, the great bulk of men in Christian +lands know lucidly and certainly of theological truth, and how wide +are the differences of opinion amongst us, and how soon we come to +towering barriers, beyond which our poor faculties can neither pass +nor look, it ought to be a joy to us all, that a faith which is +clouded with such ignorance may yet be a faith which Christ accepts. +He that knows and trusts Him as Brother, Friend, Saviour, in whom he +receives the pardon and cleansing which he needs and desires, may have +very much misconception and error cleaving to him, but Christ accepts +him. If at the beginning His disciples know but this much, that they +are sick unto death, and have tried without success all other +remedies, and this more, that Christ will heal them; and if their +faith builds upon that knowledge, then they will receive according to +their faith. By degrees they will be taught more; they will be brought +to the higher benches in His school; but, for a beginning, the most +cloudy apprehension that Christ is the Saviour of the world, and my +Saviour, may become the foundation of a trust which will bind the +heart to Him and knit Him to the heart in eternal union. This poor +woman received her healing, although she said, 'If I may touch but the +hem of His garment, I shall be whole.' + +Her error was akin to one which is starting into new prominence again, +and with which I need not say that I have no sort of sympathy,--that +of people who attach importance to externals as means and channels of +grace, and in whose system the hem of the garment and the touch of the +finger are apt to take the place which the heart of the wearer and the +grasp of faith should hold. The more our circumstances call for +resistance to this error, the more needful is it to remember that, +along with it and uttering itself through it, may be a depth of devout +trust in Christ, which should shame us. Many a poor soul that clasps +the base of the crucifix clings to the cross; many a devout heart, +kneeling before the altar, sees through the incense-smoke the face of +the Christ. The faith that is tied to form, though it be no faith for +a man, though in some respects it darken God's Gospel, and bring it +down to the level of magical superstition, may yet be, and often is, +accepted by Him whose merciful eye recognised, and whose swift power +answered, the mistaken trust of her who believed that healing lay in +the fringes of His robe, rather than in the pity of His heart. + +Again, her trust was very _selfish_. She wanted health; she did not +care about the Healer. She thought much of the blessing in itself, +little or nothing of the blessing as a sign of His love. She would +have been quite contented to have had nothing more to do with Christ +if she could only have gone away cured. She felt but little glow of +gratitude to Him whom she thought of as unconscious of the good which +she had stolen from Him. All this is a parallel to what occurs in the +early stages of many a Christian life. The first inducement to a +serious contemplation of Christ is, ordinarily, the consciousness of +one's own sore need. Most men are driven to Him as a refuge from self, +from their own sin, and from the wages of sin. The soul, absorbed in +its own misery, and groaning in a horror of great darkness, sees from +afar a great light, and stumbles towards it. Its first desire is +deliverance, forgiveness, escape; and the first motions of faith are +impelled by consideration of personal consequences. Love comes after, +born of the recognition of Christ's great love to which we owe our +salvation; but faith precedes love in the natural order of things, +however closely love may follow faith; and the predominant motive in +the earlier stages of many men's faith is distinctly self-regard. Now, +that is all right, and as it was meant to be. It is an overstrained +and caricatured doctrine of self-abnegation, which condemns such a +faith as wrong. The most purely self-absorbed wish to escape from the +most rudely pictured hell may be, and often is, the beginning of a +true trust in Christ. Some of our superfine modern teachers who are +shocked at Christianity, because it lays the foundation of the +loftiest, most self-denying morality in 'selfishness' of that kind, +would be all the wiser for going to school to this story, and laying +to heart the lesson it contains, of how a desire no nobler than to get +rid of a painful disease was the starting-point of a moral +transformation, which turned a life into a peaceful, thankful +surrender of the cured self to the service and love of the mighty +Healer. But while this faith, for the sake of the blessing to be +obtained, is genuine, it is undoubtedly imperfect. Quite legitimate +and natural at first, it must grow into something nobler when it has +once been answered. To think of the disease mainly is inevitable +before the cure, but, after the cure, we should think most of the +Physician. Self-love may impel to His feet; but Christ-love should be +the moving spring of life thereafter. Ere we have received anything +from Him, our whole soul may be a longing to have our gnawing +emptiness filled; but when we have received His own great gift, our +whole soul should be a thank-offering. The great reformation which +Christ produces is, that He shifts the centre for us from ourselves to +Himself; and whilst He uses our sense of need and our fear of personal +evil as the means towards this, He desires that the faith, which has +been answered by deliverance, should thenceforward be a 'faith which +worketh by love.' As long as we live, either here or yonder, we shall +never get beyond the need for the exercise of the primary form of +faith, for we shall ever be compassed by many needs, and dependent for +all help and blessedness on Him; but as we grow in experience of His +tender might, we should learn more and more that His gifts cannot be +separated from Himself. We should prize them most for His sake, and +love Him more than we do them. We should be drawn to Him as well as +driven to Him. Faith may begin with desiring the blessing rather than +the Christ. It must end with desiring Him more than all besides, and +with losing self utterly in His great love. Its starting-point may +rightly be, 'Save, Lord, or I perish.' Its goal must be, 'I live, yet +not I, but Christ liveth in me.' + +Again, here is an instance of real faith weakened and interrupted by +much _distrust_. There was not a full, calm reliance on Christ's power +and love. She dare not appeal to His heart, she shrinks from meeting +His eye. She will let Him pass, and then put forth a tremulous hand. +Cross-currents of emotion agitate her soul. She doubts, yet she +believes; she is afraid, yet emboldened by her very despair; too +diffident to cast herself on His pity, she is too confident not to +resort to His healing virtue. + +And so is it ever with our faith. Its ideal perfection would be that +it should be unbroken, undashed by any speck of doubt. But the reality +is far different. It is no full-orbed completeness, but, at the best, +a growing segment of reflected light, with many a rough place in its +jagged outline, prophetic of increase; with many a deep pit of +blackness on its silver surface; with many a storm-cloud sweeping +across its face; conscious of eclipse and subject to change. And yet +it is the light which He has set to rule the night of life, and we may +rejoice in its crescent beam. We are often tempted to question the +reality of faith in ourselves and others, by reason of the unbelief +and disbelief which co-exist with it. But why should we do so? May +there not be an inner heart and centre of true trust, with a nebulous +environment of doubt, through which the nucleus shall gradually send +its attracting and consolidating power, and turn it, too, into firm +substance? May there not be a germ, infinitesimal, yet with a real +life throbbing in its microscopic minuteness, and destined to be a +great tree, with all the fowls of the air lodging in its branches? May +there not be hid in a heart a principle of action, which is obviously +marked out for supremacy, though it has not yet come to sovereign +power and manifestation in either the inward or the outward being? +Where do we learn that faith must be complete to be genuine? Our own +weak hearts say it to us often enough; and our lingering unbelief is +only too ready to hiss into our ears the serpent's whisper, 'You are +deceiving yourself; look at your doubts, your coldness, your +forgetfulness: _you_ have no faith at all.' To all such morbid +thoughts, which only sap the strength of the spirit, and come from +beneath, not from above, we have a right to oppose the first great +lesson of this story--the reality of an imperfect faith. And, turning +from the profitless contemplation of the feebleness of our grasp of +Christ's robe to look on Him, the fountain of all spiritual energy, +let us cleave the more confidently to Him for every discovery of our +own weakness, and cry to Him for help against ourselves, that He would +not 'quench the smoking flax'; for the old prayer is never offered in +vain, when offered, as at first, with tears, 'Lord, I believe; help +Thou mine unbelief.' + +II. The second stage of this story sets forth a truth involved in what +I have already said, but still needing to be dealt with for a moment +by itself--namely, that Christ answers the imperfect faith. + +There was no real connection between the touch of His robe and the +cure, but the poor ignorant sufferer thought that there was; and, +therefore, Christ stoops to her childish thought, and allows her to +prescribe the path by which His gift shall reach her. That thin wasted +hand stretched itself up beyond the height to which it could +ordinarily reach, and, though that highest point fell far short of +Him, He lets His blessing down to her level. He does not say, +'Understand Me, put away thy false notion of healing power residing in +My garment's hem, or I heal thee not.' But He says, 'Dost thou think +that it is through thy finger on My robe? Then, through thy finger on +My robe it shall be. According to thy faith, be it unto thee.' + +And so it is ever. Christ's mercy, like water in a vase, takes the +shape of the vessel that holds it. On the one hand, His grace is +infinite, and 'is given to every one of us according to the measure of +the gift of Christ'--with no limitation but His own unlimited fulness; +on the other hand, the amount which we practically receive from that +inexhaustible store is, at each successive moment, determined by the +measure and the purity and the intensity of our faith. On His part +there is no limit but infinity, on our sides the limit is our +capacity, and our capacity is settled by our desires. His word to us +ever is, 'Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.' 'Be it unto thee +even as thou wilt.' + +A double lesson, therefore, lies in this thought for us all. First, +let us labour that our faith may be enlightened, importunate, and +firm: for every flaw in it will injuriously affect our possession of +the grace of God. Errors in opinion will hinder the blessings that +flow from the truths which we misconceive or reject. Languor of desire +will diminish the sum and enfeeble the energy of the powers that work +in us. Wavering confidence, crossed and broken, like the solar +spectrum, by many a dark line of doubt, will make our conscious +possession of Christ's gift fitful. We have a deep well to draw from. +Let us take care that the vessel with which we draw is in size +proportionate to _its_ depth and _our_ need, that the chain to which +it hangs is strong, and that no leaks in it let the full supply run +out, nor any stains on its inner surface taint and taste the bright +treasure. + +And the other lesson is this. There can be no faith so feeble that +Christ does not respond to it. The most ignorant, self-regarding, +timid trust may unite the soul to Jesus Christ. To desire is to have; +and 'whosoever will, may take of the water of life freely.' If you +only come to Him, though He have passed, He will stop. If you come +trusting and yet doubting, He will forgive the doubt and answer the +trust. If you come to Him, knowing but that your heart is full of evil +which none save He can cure, and putting out a lame hand--or even a +tremulous finger-tip--to touch His garment, be sure that anything is +possible rather than that He should turn away your prayer, or His +mercy from you. + +III. The last part of this miracle teaches us that Christ corrects and +confirms an imperfect faith by the very act of answering it. + +Observe how the process of cure and the discipline which followed are, +in Christ's loving wisdom, made to fit closely to all the faults and +flaws in the suppliant's faith. + +She had thought of the healing energy as independent of the Healer's +knowledge and will. Therefore His very first word shows her that He is +aware of her mute appeal, and conscious of the going forth from Him of +the power that cures--'Who touched Me?' As was said long ago, 'the +multitudes thronged Him, but the woman touched.' Amidst all the +jostling of the unmannerly crowd that trod with rude feet on His +skirts, and elbowed their way to see this new Rabbi, there was one +touch unlike all the rest; and, though it was only that of the +finger-tip of a poor woman, wasted to skin and bone with twelve years' +weakening disease, He knew it; and His will and love sent forth the +'virtue' which healed. May we not fairly apply this lesson to +ourselves? Christ is, as most of us, I suppose, believe, Lord of all +creatures, administering the affairs of the universe; the steps of His +throne and the precincts of His court are thronged with dependants +whose eyes wait upon Him, and who are fed from His stores; and yet my +poor voice may steal through that chorus-shout of petition and praise, +and His ear will detect its lowest note, and will separate the thin +stream of my prayer from the great sea of supplication which rolls to +His seat, and will answer _me_. My hand uplifted among the millions of +empty and imploring palms that are raised towards the heaven will +receive into its clasping fingers the special blessing for my special +wants. + +Again, she had been selfish in her faith, had not cared for any close +personal relation with Him; and so she was taught that He was in all +His gifts, and that He was more than all His gifts. He compels her to +come to His feet that she may learn His heart, and may carry away a +blessing not stolen, but bestowed + + 'With open love, not secret cure, + The Lord of hearts would bless.' + +And thus is laid the foundation for a personal bond between her and +Christ, which shall be for the joy of her life, and shall make of that +life a thankful sacrifice to Him, the Healer. + +Thus it is with us all. We may go to Him, at first, with no thought +but for ourselves. But we have not to carry away His gift hidden in +our hands. We learn that it is a love-token from Him. And so we find +in His answer to faith the true and only cure for all self-regard; and +moved by the mercies of Christ, are led to do what else were +impossible--to yield ourselves as 'living sacrifices' to Him. + +Again, she had shrunk from publicity. Her womanly diffidence, her +enfeebled health, the shame of her disease, all made her wish to hide +herself and her want from His eye, and to hide herself and her +treasure from men. She would fain steal away unnoticed, as she hoped +she had come. But she is dragged out before all the thronging +multitude, and has to tell the whole. The answer to her faith makes +her bold. In a moment she is changed from timidity to courage; a +tremulous invalid ready to creep into any corner to escape notice, she +stretched out her hand--the instant after, she knelt at His feet in +the spirit of a confessor. This is Christ's most merciful fashion of +curing our cowardice--not by rebukes, but by giving us, faint-hearted +though we be, the gift which out of weakness makes us strong. He would +have us testify to Him before men, and that for our own sakes, since +faith unacknowledged, like a plant in the dark, is apt to become pale +and sickly, and bear no bright blossoms nor sweet fruit. 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. Faith at first may be very timid, but faith will grow bold to +witness of Him and not be ashamed, in the exact proportion in which it +is genuine, and receives from Christ of His fulness. + +And then--with a final word to set forth still more clearly that she +had received the blessing from His love, not from His magical power, +and through her confidence, not through her touch--'Daughter! thy +faith'--not thy finger--'hath made thee whole; go in peace and _be_ +whole'--Jesus confirms by His own authoritative voice the furtive +blessing, and sends her away, perhaps to see Him no more, but to live +in tranquil security, and in her humble home to guard the gift which +He had bestowed on her imperfect faith, and to perfect--we may +hope--the faith which He had enlightened and strengthened by the +over-abundance of His gift. + +Dear friends, this poor woman represents us all. Like her, we are sick +of a sore sickness, we have spent our substance in trying physicians +of no value, and are 'nothing the better, but rather the worse.' Oh! +is it not strange that you should need to be urged to go to the Healer +to whom she went? Do not be afraid, my brother, of telling Him all +your pain and pining--He knows it already. Do not be afraid that your +hand may not reach Him for the crowd, or that your voice may fail to +fall on His ear. Do not be afraid of your ignorance, do not be afraid +of your wavering confidence and many doubts. All these cannot separate +you from Him who 'Himself took our infirmities and bare our +sicknesses.' Fear but one thing--that He pass on to carry life and +health to other souls, ere you resolve to press to His feet. Fear but +one thing--that whilst you delay, the hem of the garment may be swept +beyond the reach of your slow hand. Imperfect faith may bring +salvation to a soul: hesitation may ruin and wreck a life. + + + +TOUCH OR FAITH? + + +'If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole.... Daughter, thy +faith hath made thee whole.'--Mark v. 28,34. + + +I. The erroneous faith.--In general terms there is here an +illustration of how intellectual error may coexist with sincere faith. +The precise form of error is clearly that she looked on the physical +contact with the material garment as the vehicle of healing--the very +same thing which we find ever since running through the whole history +of the Church, _e.g._ the exaltation of externals, rites, ordinances, +sacraments, etc. + +Take two or three phases of it-- + +1. You get it formularised into a system in sacramentarianism. + +(a) Baptismal regeneration, + +(b) Holy Communion. + +Religion becomes largely a thing of rites and ceremonies. + +2. You get it in Protestant form among Dissenters in the importance +attached to Church membership. + +Outward acts of worship. + +There is abroad a vague idea that somehow we get good from external +association with religious acts, and so on. This feeling is deep in +human nature, is not confined to the Roman Catholic Church, and is not +the work of priests. There is a strange revival of it to-day, and so +there is need of protest against it in every form. + +II. The blessing that comes to an erroneous faith.--The woman here was +too 'ritualistic.' How many good people there are in that same school +to-day! Yet how blessed for us all, that, even along with many errors, +if we grasp _Him_ we shall not lose the grace. + +III. Christ's gentle enlightenment on the error.--'Thy faith hath +saved thee.' How wonderfully beautiful! He cures by giving the +blessing and leading on to the full truth. In regard to the woman, it +might have been that her touch _did_ heal; but even there in the +physical realm, since it was He, not His robe, that healed, it was her +faith, not her hand, that procured the blessing. This is universally +true in the spiritual realm. + +(a) Salvation is purely spiritual and inward in its nature--not an +outward work, but a new nature, 'love, joy, peace.' Hence + +(b) Faith is the condition of salvation. Faith saves because _He_ +saves, and faith is contact with Him. It is the only thing which joins +a soul to Christ. Then learn what makes a Christian. + +(c) Hence, the place of externals is purely subsidiary to faith. If +they help a man to believe and feel more strongly, they are good. +Their only office is the same as that of preaching or reading. In +both, truth is the agent. Their power is in enforcing truth. + + + +THE LOOKS OF JESUS + + +'And He looked round about to see her that had done this thing.'--Mark +v. 32. + +This Gospel of Mark is full of little touches that speak an +eye-witness who had the gift of noting and reproducing vividly small +details which make a scene live before us. Sometimes it is a word of +description: 'There was much grass in the place.' Sometimes it is a +note of Christ's demeanour: 'Looking up to heaven, He sighed.' +Sometimes it is the very Aramaic words He spoke: 'Ephphatha.' Very +often the Evangelist tells us of our Lord's looks, the gleams of pity +and melting tenderness, the grave rebukes, the lofty authority that +shone in them. We may well believe that on earth as in heaven, 'His +eyes were as a flame of fire,' burning with clear light of knowledge +and pure flame of love. These looks had pierced the soul, and lived +for ever in the memory, of the eye-witness, whoever he was, who was +the informant of Mark. Probably the old tradition is right, and it is +Peter's loving quickness of observation that we have to thank for +these precious minutiae. But be that as it may, the records in this +Gospel of the _looks_ of Christ are very remarkable. My present +purpose is to gather them together, and by their help to think of Him +whose meek, patient 'eye' is 'still upon them that fear Him,' +beholding our needs and our sins. + +Taking the instances in the order of their occurrence, they are +these--'He looked round on the Pharisees with anger, being grieved for +the hardness of their hearts' (iii. 5). He looked on His disciples and +said, 'Behold My mother and My brethren!' (iii. 32). He looked round +about to see who had touched the hem of His garment (v. 32). He turned +and looked on His disciples before rebuking Peter (viii. 33), He +looked lovingly on the young questioner, asking what he should do to +obtain eternal life (x. 21), and in the same context, He looked round +about to His disciples after the youth had gone away sorrowful, and +enforced the solemn lesson of His lips with the light of His eye (x. +23, 27). Lastly, He looked round about on all things in the temple on +the day of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem (xi. 11). These are the +instances in this Gospel. One look of Christ's is not mentioned in it, +which we might have expected--namely, that which sent Peter out from +the judgment hall to break into a passion of penitent tears. Perhaps +the remembrance was too sacred to be told--at all events, the +Evangelist who gives us so many similar notes is silent about that +look, and we have to learn of it from another. + +We may throw these instances into groups according to their objects, +and so bring out the many-sided impression which they produce. + +I. The welcoming look of love and pity to those who seek Him. + +Two of the recorded instances fall into their place here. The one is +this of our text, of the woman who came behind Christ to touch His +robe, and be healed: the other is that of the young ruler. + +Take that first instance of the woman, wasted with disease, timid with +the timidity of her sex, of her long sickness, of her many +disappointments. She steals through the crowd that rudely presses on +this miracle-working Rabbi, and manages somehow to stretch out a +wasted arm through some gap in the barrier of people about Him, and +with her pallid, trembling finger to touch the edge of His robe. The +cure comes at once. It was all that she wanted, but not all that He +would give her. Therefore He turns and lets His eye fall upon her. +That draws her to Him. It told her that she had not been too bold. It +told her that she had not surreptitiously stolen healing, but that He +had knowingly given it, and that His loving pity went with it. So it +confirmed the gift, and, what was far more, it revealed the Giver. She +had thought to bear away a secret boon unknown to all but herself. She +gets instead an open blessing, with the Giver's heart in it. + +The look that rested on her, like sunshine on some plant that had long +pined and grown blanched in the shade, revealed Christ's knowledge, +sympathy, and loving power. And in all these respects it is a +revelation of the Christ for all time, and for every seeking timid +soul in all the crowd. Can my poor feeble hand find a cranny anywhere +through which it may reach the robe? What am I, in all this great +universe blazing with stars, and crowded with creatures who hang on +Him, that I should be able to secure personal contact with Him? The +multitude--innumerable companies from every corner of space--press +upon Him and throng Him, and I--out here on the verge of the crowd-how +can I get at Him?--how can my little thin cry live and be +distinguishable amid that mighty storm of praise that thunders round +His throne? We may silence all such hesitancies of faith, for He who +knew the difference between the light touch of the hand that sought +healing, and the jostling of the curious crowd, bends on us the same +eye, a God's in its perfect knowledge, a man's in the dewy sympathy +which shines in it. However imperfect may be our thoughts of His +blessing, their incompleteness will not hinder our reception of His +gift in the measure of our faith, and the very bestowment will teach +us worthier conceptions of Him, and hearten us for bolder approaches +to His grace. He still looks on trembling suppliants, though they may +know their own sickness much better than they understand Him, and +still His look draws us to His feet by its omniscience, pity, and +assurance of help. + +The other case is very different. Instead of the invalid woman, we see +a young man in the full flush of his strength, rich, needing no +material blessing. Pure in life, and righteous according to even a +high standard of morality, he yet feels that he needs something. +Having real and strong desires after 'eternal life,' he comes to +Christ to try whether this new Teacher could say anything that would +help him to the assured inward peace and spontaneous goodness for +which he longed, and had not found in all the round of punctilious +obedience to unloved commandments. As he kneels there before Jesus, in +his eager haste, with sincere and high aspirations stamped on his +young ingenuous face, Christ's eyes turn on him, and that wonderful +word stands written, 'Jesus, beholding him, loved him.' + +He reads him through and through, knowing all the imperfection of his +desires after goodness and eternal life, and yet loving him with more +than a brother's love. His sympathy does not blind Jesus to the +limitations and shallowness of the young man's aspirations, but His +clear knowledge of these does not harden the gaze into indifference, +nor check the springing tenderness in the Saviour's heart. And the +Master's words, though they might sound cold, and did embody a hard +requirement, are beautifully represented in the story as the +expression of that love. He cared for the youth too much to deceive +him with smooth things. The truest kindness was to put all his +eagerness to the test at once. If he accepted the conditions, the look +told him what a welcome awaited him. If he started aside from them, it +was best for him to find out that there were things which he loved +more than eternal life. So with a gracious invitation shining in His +look, Christ places the course of self-denial before him; and when he +went away sorrowful, he left behind One more sorrowful than himself. +We can reverently imagine with what a look Christ watched his +retreating figure; and we may hope that, though he went away then, the +memory of that glance of love, and of those kind, faithful words, +sooner or later drew him back to his Saviour. + +Is not all this too an everlasting revelation of our Lord's attitude? +We may be sure that He looks on many a heart--on many a young +heart--glowing with noble wishes and half-understood longings, and +that His love reaches every one who, groping for the light, asks Him +what to do to inherit eternal life. His great charity 'hopeth all +things,' and does not turn away from longings because they are too +weak to lift the soul above all the weights of sense and the world. +Rather He would deepen them and strengthen them, and His eternal +requirements addressed to feeble wills are not meant to 'quench the +smoking flax,' but to kindle it to decisive consecration and +self-surrender. The loving look interprets the severe words. If once +we meet it full, and our hearts yield to the heart that is seen in it, +the cords that bind us snap, and it is no more hard to 'count all +things but loss,' and to give up ourselves, that we may follow Him. +The sad and feeble and weary who may be half despairingly seeking for +alleviation of outward ills, and the young and strong and ardent whose +souls are fed with high desires, have but little comprehension of one +another, but Christ knows them both, and loves them both, and would +draw them both to Himself. + +II. The Lord's looks of love and warning to those who have found Him. + +There are three instances of this class. The first is when He looked +round on His disciples and said, 'Behold My mother and My brethren!' +(iii. 34). Perhaps no moment in all Christ's life had more of +humiliation in it than that. There could be no deeper degradation than +that His own family should believe Him insane. Not His brethren only, +but His mother herself seems to have been shaken from her attitude of +meek obedience so wonderfully expressed in her two recorded sayings, +'Be it unto me according to Thy word,' and 'Whatsoever He saith unto +you, do it.' She too appears to be in the shameful conspiracy, and to +have consented that her name should be used as a lure in the wily +message meant to separate Him from His friends, that He might be +seized and carried off as a madman. What depth of tenderness was in +that slow circuit of His gaze upon the humble loving followers grouped +round Him! It spoke the fullest trustfulness of them, and His rest in +their sympathy, partial though it was. It went before His speech, like +the flash before the report, and looked what in a moment He said, +'Behold My mother and My brethren!' It owned spiritual affinities as +more real than family bonds, and proved that He required no more of us +than He was willing to do Himself when He bid us 'forsake father and +mother, and wife and children' for Him. We follow Him when we tread +that road, hard though it be. In Him every mother may behold her son, +in Him we may find more than the reality of every sweet family +relationship. That same love, which identified Him with those +half-enlightened followers here, still binds Him to us, and He looks +down on us from amid the glory, and owns us for His true kindred. + +That look of unutterable love is strangely contrasted with the next +instance. We read (viii. 32) that Peter 'took Him'--apart a little +way, I suppose--'and began to rebuke Him.' He turns away from the rash +Apostle, will say no word to him alone, but summons the others by a +glance, and then, having made sure that all were within hearing, He +solemnly rebukes Peter with the sharpest words that ever fell from His +lips. That look calls them to listen, not that they may be witnesses +of Peter's chastisement, but because the severe words concern them +all. It bids them search themselves as they hear. They too may be +'Satans.' They too may shrink from the cross, and 'mind the things +that be of men.' + +We may take the remaining instance along with this. It occurs +immediately after the story of the young seeker, to which we have +already referred. Twice within five verses (x. 23-27) we read that He +'looked on His disciples,' before He spoke the grave lessons and +warnings arising from the incident. A sad gaze that would be!--full of +regret and touched with warning. We may well believe that it added +weight to the lesson He would teach, that surrender of all things was +needed for discipleship. We see that it had been burned into the +memory of one of the little group, who told long years after how He +had looked upon them so solemnly, as seeming to read their hearts +while He spoke. Not more searching was the light of the eyes which +John in Patmos saw, 'as a flame of fire.' Still He looks on His +disciples, and sees our inward hankerings after the things of men. All +our shrinkings from the cross and cleaving to the world are known to +Him. He comes to each of us with that sevenfold proclamation, 'I know +thy works,' and from His loving lips falls on our ears the warning, +emphasised by that sad, earnest gaze, 'How hard is it for them that +have riches to enter into the Kingdom of God!' But, blessed be His +name, the stooping love which claims us for His brethren shines in His +regard none the less tenderly, though He reads and warns us with His +eye. So, we can venture to spread all our evil before Him, and ask +that He would look on it, knowing that, as the sun bleaches cloth laid +in its beams, He will purge away the evil which He sees, if only we +let the light of His face shine full upon us. + +III. The Lord's look of anger and pity on His opponents. + +That instance occurs in the account of the healing of a man with a +withered arm, which took place in the synagogue of Capernaum (iii. +1-5). In the vivid narrative, we can see the scribes and Pharisees, +who had already questioned Him with insolent airs of authority about +His breach of the Rabbinical Sabbatic rules, sitting in the synagogue, +with their gleaming eyes 'watching Him' with hostile purpose. They +hope that He will heal on the Sabbath day. Possibly they had even +brought the powerless-handed man there, on the calculation that Christ +could not refrain from helping him when He saw his condition. They are +ready to traffic in human misery if only they can catch Him in a +breach of law. The fact of a miracle if nothing. Pity for the poor man +is not in them. They have neither reverence for the power of the +miracle-worker, nor sympathy with His tenderness of heart. The only +thing for which they have eyes is the breach of the complicated web of +restrictions which they had spun across the Sabbath day. What a +strange, awful power the pedantry of religious forms has of blinding +the vision and hardening the heart as to the substance and spirit of +religion! That Christ should heal neither made them glad nor +believing, but that He should heal on the Sabbath day roused them to a +deadly hatred. So there they sit, on the stretch of expectation, +silently watching. He bids the man stand forth--a movement, and there +the cripple stands alone in the midst of the seated congregation. Then +comes the unanswerable question which cut so deep, and struck their +consciences so hard that they could answer nothing, only sit and scowl +at Him with a murderous light gleaming in their eyes. He fronts them +with a steady gaze that travels over the whole group, and that showed +to at least one who was present an unforgettable mingling of +displeasure and pity. 'He looked round about on them with anger, being +grieved for the hardness of their hearts.' In Christ's perfect nature, +anger and pity could blend in wondrous union, like the crystal and +fire in the abyss before the throne. + +The soul that has not the capacity for anger at evil wants something +of its due perfection, and goes 'halting' like Jacob after Peniel. In +Christ's complete humanity, it could not but be present, but in pure +and righteous form. His anger was no disorder of passion, or 'brief +madness' that discomposed the even motion of His spirit, nor was there +in it any desire for the hurt of its objects, but, on the contrary, it +lay side by side with the sorrow of pity, which was intertwined with +it like a golden thread. Both these two emotions are fitting to a pure +manhood in the presence of evil. They heighten each other. The +perfection of righteous anger is to be tempered by sympathy. The +perfection of righteous pity for the evildoer is to be saved from +immoral condoning of evil as if it were only calamity, by an infusion +of some displeasure. We have to learn the lesson and take this look of +Christ's as our pattern in our dealings with evildoers. Perhaps our +day needs more especially to remember that a righteous severity and +recoil of the whole nature from sin is part of a perfect Christian +character. We are so accustomed to pity transgressors, and to hear +sins spoken of as if they were misfortunes mainly due to environment, +or to inherited tendencies, that we are apt to forget the other truth, +that they are the voluntary acts of a man who could have refrained if +he had wished, and whose not having wished is worthy of blame. But we +need to aim at just such a union of feeling as was revealed in that +gaze of Christ's, and neither to let our wrath dry up our pity nor our +pity put out the pure flame of our indignation at evil. + +That look comes to us too with a message, when we are most conscious +of the evil in our own hearts. Every man who has caught even a glimpse +of Christ's great love, and has learned something of himself in the +light thereof, must feel that wrath at evil sits ill on so sinful a +judge as he feels himself to be. How can I fling stones at any poor +creature when I am so full of sin myself? And how does that Lord look +at me and all my wanderings from Him, my hardness of heart, my +Pharisaism and deadness to His spiritual power and beauty? Can there +be anything but displeasure in Him? The answer is not far to seek, +but, familiar though it be, it often surprises a man anew with its +sweetness, and meets recurring consciousness of unworthiness with a +bright smile that scatters fears. In our deepest abasement we may take +courage anew when we think of that wondrous blending of anger shot +with pity. + +IV. The look of the Lord on the profaned Temple. + +On the day of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, apparently the +Sunday before His crucifixion, we find (xi. 11) that He went direct to +the Temple, and 'looked round about on all things.' The King has come +to His palace, the Lord has 'suddenly come to His Temple.' How solemn +that careful, all-comprehending scrutiny of all that He found +there--the bustle of the crowds come up for the Passover, the +trafficking and the fraud, the heartless worship! He seems to have +gazed upon all, that evening in silence, and, as the shades of night +began to fall, He went back to Bethany with the Twelve. To-morrow will +be time enough for the 'whip of small cords,' for to-day enough to +have come as Lord to the temple, and with intent, all-comprehending +gaze to have traversed its courts. Apparently He passed through the +crowds there unnoticed, and beheld all, while Himself unrecognised. + +Is not that silent, unobserved Presence, with His keen searching eye +that lights on all, a solemn parable of a perpetual truth? He 'walks +amidst the seven golden candlesticks' to-day, as in the temple of +Jerusalem, and in the vision of Patmos. His eyes like a flame of fire +regard and scrutinise us too. 'I know thy works' is still upon His +lips. Silent and by many unseen, that calm, clear-eyed, loving but +judging Christ walks amongst His churches to-day. Alas! what does He +see there? If He came in visible form into any congregation in England +to-day, would He not find merchandise in the sanctuary, formalism and +unreality standing to minister, and pretence and hypocrisy bowing in +worship? How much of all our service could live in the light of His +felt presence? And are we never going to stir ourselves up to a truer +devotion and a purer service by remembering that He is here as really +as He was in the Temple of old? Our drowsy prayers, and all our +conventional repetitions of devout aspirations, not felt at the +moment, but inherited from our fathers, our confessions which have no +penitence, our praises without gratitude, our vows which we never mean +to keep, and our creeds which in no operative fashion we believe--all +the hollowness of profession with no reality below it, like a great +cooled bubble on a lava stream, would crash in and go to powder if +once we really believed what we so glibly say--that Jesus Christ was +looking at us. He keeps silence to-day, but as surely as He knows us +now, so surely will He come to-morrow with a whip of small cords and +purge His Temple from hypocrisy and unreality, from traffic and +thieves. All the churches need the sifting. Christ has done and +suffered too much for the world, to let the power of His gospel be +neutralised by the sins of His professing followers, and Christ loves +the imperfect friends that cleave to Him, though their service be +often stained, and their consecration always incomplete, too well to +suffer sin upon them. Therefore He will come to purify His Temple. +Well for us, if we thankfully yield ourselves to His merciful +chastisements, howsoever they may fall upon us, and believe that in +them all He looks on us with love, and wishes only to separate us from +that which separates us from Him! + +On us all that eye rests with all these emotions fused and blended in +one gaze of love that passeth knowledge--a look of love and welcome +whensoever we seek Him, either to help us in outward or inward +blessings; a look of love and warning to us, owning us also for His +brethren, and cautioning us lest we stray from His side; a look of +love and displeasure at any sin that blinds us to His gracious beauty; +a look of love and observance of our poor worship and spotted +sacrifices. + +Let us lay ourselves full in the sunshine of His gaze, and take for +ours the old prayer, 'Search me, O Christ, and know my heart!' It is +heaven on earth to feel His eye resting upon us, and know that it is +love. It will be the heaven of heaven to see Him 'face to face,' and +'to know even as we are known.' + + + +THE MASTER REJECTED: THE SERVANTS SENT FORTH + + +'And He went out from thence, and came into His own country; and His +disciples follow Him. 2. And when the Sabbath day was come, He began +to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing Him were astonished, +saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is +this which is given unto Him, that even such mighty works are wrought +by His hands? 3. Is not this the carpenter, the Son of Mary, the +Brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon! and are not His +sisters here with us? And they were offended at Him. 4. But Jesus said +unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, +and among his own kin, and in his own house. 6. And He could there do +no mighty work, save that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk, and +healed them. 6. And He marvelled because of their unbelief. And He +went round about the villages, teaching. 7. And He called unto Him the +twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them +power over unclean spirits; 8. And commanded them that they should +take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, +no money in their purse: 9. But be shod with sandals; and not put on +two coats. 10. And He said unto them, In what place soever ye enter +into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place. 11. And +whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, +shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. +Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and +Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. 12. And they went +out, and preached that men should repent. 13. And they cast out many +devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed +them.'--Mark vi. 1-13. + +An easy day's journey would carry Jesus and His followers from +Capernaum, on the lake-side, to Nazareth, among the hills. What took +our Lord back there? When last He taught in the synagogue of Nazareth, +His life had been in danger; and now He thrusts Himself into the +wolf's den. Why? Mark seems to wish us to observe the connection +between this visit and the great group of miracles which he has just +recorded; and possibly the link may be our Lord's hope that the report +of these might have preceded Him and prepared His way. In His patient +long-suffering He will give His fellow-villagers another chance; and +His heart yearns for 'His own country,' and 'His own kin,' and 'His +own house,' of which He speaks so pathetically in the context. + +I. We have here unbelief born of familiarity, and its effects on +Christ (verses 1-6). Observe the characteristic avoidance of display, +and the regard for existing means of worship, shown in His waiting +till the Sabbath, and then resorting to the synagogue. He and His +hearers would both remember His last appearance in it; and He and they +would both remember many a time before that, when, as a youth, He had +sat there. The rage which had exploded on His first sermon has given +place to calmer, but not less bitter, opposition. Mark paints the +scene, and represents the hearers as discussing Jesus while He spoke. +The decorous silence of the synagogue was broken by a hubbub of mutual +questions. 'Many' spoke at once, and all had the same thing to say. +The state of mind revealed is curious. They own Christ's wisdom in His +teaching, and the reality of His miracles, of which they had evidently +heard; but the fact that He was one of themselves made them angry that +He should have such gifts, and suspicious of where He had got them. +They seem to have had the same opinion as Nathanael--that no 'good +thing' could 'come out of Nazareth.' Their old companion could not be +a prophet; that was certain. But He had wisdom and miraculous power; +that was as certain. Where had they come from? There was only one +other source; and so, with many headshakings, they were preparing to +believe that the Jesus whom they had all known, living His quiet life +of labour among them, was in league with the devil, rather than +believe that He was a messenger from God. + +We note in their questions, first, the glimpse of our Lord's early +life. They bring before us the quiet, undistinguished home and the +long years of monotonous labour. We owe to Mark alone the notice that +Jesus actually wrought at Joseph's handicraft. Apparently the latter +was dead, and, if so, Jesus would be the head of the house, and +probably the 'breadwinner.' One of the fathers preserves the tradition +that He 'made plows and yokes, by which He taught the symbols of +righteousness and an active life.' That good father seems to think it +needful to find symbolical meanings, in order to save Christ's +dignity; but the prose fact that He toiled at the carpenter's bench, +and handled hammer and saw, needs nothing to heighten its value as a +sign of His true participation in man's lot, and as the hallowing of +manual toil. How many weary arms have grasped their tools with new +vigour and contentment when they thought of Him as their Pattern in +their narrow toils! + +The Nazarenes' difficulty was but one case of a universal tendency. +Nobody finds it easy to believe that some village child, who has grown +up beside him, and whose undistinguished outside life he knows, has +turned out a genius or a great man. The last people to recognise a +prophet are always his kindred and his countrymen. 'Far-away birds +have fine feathers.' Men resent it as a kind of slight on themselves +that the other, who was one of them but yesterday, should be so far +above them to-day. They are mostly too blind to look below the +surface, and they conclude that, because they saw so much of the +external life, they knew the man that lived it. The elders of Nazareth +had seen Jesus grow up, and to them He would be 'the carpenter's son' +still. The more important people had known the humbleness of His home, +and could not adjust themselves to look up to Him, instead of down. +His equals in age would find their boyish remembrances too strong for +accepting Him as a prophet. All of them did just what the most of us +would have done, when they took it for certain that the Man whom they +had known so well, as they fancied, could not be a prophet, to say +nothing of the Messiah so long looked for. It is easy to blame them; +but it is better to learn the warning in their words, and to take care +that we are not blind to some true messenger of God just because we +have been blessed with close companionship with him. Many a household +has had to wait for death to take away the prophet before they discern +him. Some of us entertain 'angels unawares,' and have bitterly to +feel, when too late, that our eyes were holden that we should not know +them. + +These questions bring out strongly what we too often forget in +estimating Christ's contemporaries--namely, that His presence among +them, in the simplicity of His human life, was a positive hindrance to +their seeing His true character. We sometimes wish that we had seen +Him, and heard His voice. We should have found it more difficult to +believe in Him if we had. 'His flesh' was a 'veil' in other sense than +the Epistle to the Hebrews means; for, by reason of men's difficulty +in piercing beneath it, it hid from many what it was meant and fitted +to reveal. Only eyes purged beheld the glory of 'the Word' become +flesh when it 'dwelt among us'--and even they saw Him more clearly +when they saw Him no more. Let us not be too hard on these simple +Nazarenes, but recognise our kith and kin. + +The facts on which the Nazarenes grounded their unbelief are really +irrefragable proof of Christ's divinity. Whence had this man His +wisdom and mighty works? Born in that humble home, reared in that +secluded village, shut out from the world's culture, buried, as it +were, among an exclusive and abhorred people, how came He to tower +above all teachers, and to sway the world? 'With whom took He counsel? +and who instructed Him, and taught Him?' The character and work of +Christ, compared with the circumstances of His origin and environment, +are an insoluble riddle, except on one supposition--that He was the +word and power of God. + +The effects of this unbelief on our Lord were twofold. It limited His +power. Matthew says that 'He did not many mighty works.' Mark goes +deeper, and boldly days 'He could not.' It is mistaken jealousy for +Christ's honour to seek to pare down the strong words. The atmosphere +of chill unbelief froze the stream. The power was there, but it +required for its exercise some measure of moral susceptibility. His +miraculous energy followed, in general, the same law as His higher +exercise of saving grace does; that is to say, it could not force +itself upon unwilling men. Christ 'cannot' save a man who does not +trust Him. He was hampered in the outflow of His healing power by +unsympathetic disparagement and unbelief. Man can thwart God. Faith +opens the door, and unbelief shuts it in His face. He 'would have +gathered,' but they 'would not,' and therefore He 'could not.' + +The second effect of unbelief on Him was that He 'marvelled.' He is +twice recorded to have wondered--once at a Gentile's faith, once at +His townsmen's unbelief. He wondered at the first because it showed so +unusual a susceptibility; at the second, because it showed so +unreasonable a blindness. All sin is a wonder to eyes that see into +the realities of things and read the end; for it is all utterly +unreasonable (though it is, alas! not unaccountable) and suicidal. 'Be +astonished, O ye heavens, at this.' Unbelief in Christ is, by Himself, +declared to be the very climax of sin, and its most flagrant evidence +(John xvi. 9); and of all the instances of unbelief which saddened His +heart, none struck more chill than that of these Nazarenes. They had +known His pure youth; He might have reckoned on some touch of sympathy +and predisposition to welcome Him. His wonder is the measure of His +pain as well as of their sin. + +Nor need we wonder that He wondered; for He was true man, and all +human emotions were His. To one who lives ever in the Father's bosom, +what can seem so strange as that men should prefer homeless +exposedness and dreary loneliness? To one whose eyes ever behold +unseen realities, what so marvellous as men's blindness? To one who +knew so assuredly His own mission and rich freightage of blessing, how +strange it must have been that He found so few to accept His gifts! +Jesus knew that bitter wonder which all men who have a truth to +proclaim which the world has not learned, have to experience--the +amazement at finding it so hard to get any others to see what they +see. In His manhood, He shared the fate of all teachers, who have, in +their turn, to marvel at men's unbelief. + +II. The new instrument which Christ fashions to cope with unbelief. +What does Jesus do when thus 'wounded in the house of His friends'? +Give way to despondency? No; but meekly betake Himself to yet obscurer +fields of service, and send out the Twelve to prepare His way, as if +He thought that they might have success where He would fail. What a +lesson for people who are always hankering after conspicuous +'spheres,' and lamenting that their gifts are wasted in some obscure +corner, is that picture of Jesus, repulsed from Nazareth, patiently +turning to the villages! The very summary account of the trial mission +of the Twelve here given presents only the salient points of the +charge to them, and in its condensation makes these the more emphatic. +Note the interesting statement that they were sent out two-and-two. +The other Evangelists do not tell us this, but their lists of the +Apostles are arranged in pairs. Mark's list is not so arranged, but he +supplies the reason for the arrangement, which he does not follow; and +the other Gospels, by their arrangement, confirm his statement, which +they do not give. Two-and-two is a wise rule for all Christian +workers. It checks individual peculiarities of self-will, helps to +keep off faults, wholesomely stimulates, strengthens faith by giving +another to hear it and to speak it, brings companionship, and admits +of division of labour. One-and-one are more than twice one. + +The first point is the gift of power. Unclean spirits are specified, +but the subsequent verses show that miracle-working power in its other +forms was included. We may call that Christ's greatest miracle. That +He could, by His mere will, endow a dozen men with such power, is +more, if degree come into view at all, than that He Himself should +exercise it. But there is a lesson in the fact for all ages--even +those in which miracles have ceased. Christ gives before He commands, +and sends no man into the field without filling his basket with +seed-corn. His gifts assimilate the receiver to Himself, and only in +the measure in which His servants possess power which is like His own, +and drawn from Him, can they proclaim His coming, or prepare hearts +for it. The second step is their equipment. The special commands here +given were repealed by Jesus when He gave His last commands. In their +letter they apply only to that one journey, but in their spirit they +are of universal and permanent obligation. The Twelve were to travel +light. They might carry a staff to help them along, and wear sandals +to save their feet on rough roads; but that was to be all. Food, +luggage, and money, the three requisites of a traveller, were to be +'conspicuous by their absence.' That was repealed afterwards, and +instructions given of an opposite character, because, after His +ascension, the Church was to live more and more by ordinary means; but +in this journey they were to learn to trust Him without means, that +afterwards they might trust Him in the means. He showed them the +purpose of these restrictions in the act of abrogating them. 'When I +sent you forth without purse ... lacked ye anything?' But the spirit +remains unabrogated, and the minimum of outward provision is likeliest +to call out the maximum of faith. We are more in danger from having +too much baggage than from having too little. And the one +indispensable requirement is that, whatever the quantity, it should +hinder neither our march nor our trust in Him who alone is wealth and +food. + +Next comes the disposition of the messengers. It is not to be +self-indulgent. They are not to change quarters for the sake of +greater comfort. They have not gone out to make a pleasure tour, but +to preach, and so are to stay where they are welcomed, and to make the +best of it. Delicate regard for kindly hospitality, if offered by ever +so poor a house, and scrupulous abstinence from whatever might suggest +interested motives, must mark the true servant. That rule is not out +of date. If ever a herald of Christ falls under suspicion of caring +more about life's comforts than about his work, good-bye to his +usefulness! If ever he does so care, whether he be suspected of it or +no, spiritual power will ebb from him. + +The next step is the messengers' demeanour to the rejecters of their +message. Shaking the dust off the sandals is an emblem of solemn +renunciation of participation, and perhaps of disclaimer of +responsibility. It meant certainly, 'We have no more to do with you,' +and possibly, 'Your blood be on your own heads.' This journey of the +Twelve was meant to be of short duration, and to cover much ground, +and therefore no time was to be spent unnecessarily. Their message was +brief, and as well told quickly as slowly. The whole conditions of +work now are different. Sometimes, perhaps, a Christian is warranted +in solemnly declaring to those who receive not his message, that he +will have no more to say to them. That may do more than all his other +words. But such cases are rare; and the rule that it is safest to +follow is rather that of love which despairs of none, and, though +often repelled, returns with pleading, and, if it have told often in +vain, now tells with tears, the story of the love that never abandons +the most obstinate. + +Such were the prominent points of this first Christian mission. They +who carry Christ's banner in the world must be possessed of power, His +gift, must be lightly weighted, must care less for comfort than for +service, must solemnly warn of the consequences of rejecting the +message; and so they will not fail to cast out devils, and to heal +many that are sick. + + + +CHRIST THWARTED + + +'And He could there do no mighty work, save that He laid His hands +upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And He marvelled because of +their unbelief.'--Mark vi. 5,6. + +It is possible to live too near a man to see him. Familiarity with the +small details blinds most people to the essential greatness of any +life. So these fellow-villagers of Jesus in Nazareth knew Him too well +to know Him rightly as they talked Him over; they recognised His +wisdom and His mighty works; but all the impression that these would +have made was neutralised by their acquaintance with His former life, +and they said, 'Why, we have known Him ever since He was a boy. We +used to take our ploughs and yokes to Him to mend in the carpenter's +shop. His brothers and sisters are here with us. Where did _He_ get +His wisdom?' So _they_ said; and so it has been ever since. 'A prophet +is not without honour, save in his own country.' + +Surrounded thus by unsympathetic carpers, Jesus Christ did not +exercise His full miraculous power. Other Evangelists tell us of these +limitations, but Mark is alone in the strength of his expression. The +others say '_did_ no mighty works'; Mark says '_could_ do no mighty +works.' Startling as the expression is, it is not to be weakened down +because it is startling, and if it does not fit in with your +conceptions of Christ's nature, so much the worse for the conceptions. +Matthew states the reason for this limitation more directly than Mark +does, for he says, 'He did no mighty works because of their unbelief.' +But Mark suggests the reason clearly enough in his next clause, when +he says: 'He marvelled because of their unbelief.' There is another +limitation of Christ's nature, He wondered as at an astonishing and +unexpected thing, We read that He 'marvelled' twice: once at great +faith, once at great unbelief. The centurion's faith was marvellous; +the Nazarenes' unbelief was as marvellous. The 'wild grapes' bore +clusters more precious than the tended 'vines' in the 'vineyard.' +Faith and unbelief do not depend upon opportunity, but upon the bent +of the will and the sense of need. + +But I have chosen these words now because they put in its strongest +shape a truth of large importance, and of manifold applications--viz., +that man's unbelief hampers and hinders Christ's power. Now let me +apply that principle in two or three directions. + +I. Let us look at this principle in connection with the case before us +in the text. + +You will find that, as a rule and in the general, our Lord's miracles +require faith, either on the part of the persons helped, or on the +part of those who interceded for them. But whilst that is the rule +there are distinct exceptions, as for instance, in the case of the +feeding of the thousands, and in the case of the raising of the +widow's son of Nain, as well as in other examples. And here we find +that, though the prevalent unbelief hindered the flow of our Lord's +miraculous power, it did not so hinder it as to stop some little +trickle of the stream. 'He laid His hands on a few sick folk, and +healed them.' The brook was shrunken as compared with the abundance of +the flood recorded in the previous chapter. + +Now, why was that? There is no such natural connection between faith +and the working of a miracle as that the latter is only possible in +conjunction with the former. And the exceptions show us that Jesus +Christ was not so limited as that men's unbelief could wholly prevent +the flow of His love and His power. But still there was a restriction. +And what sort of a 'could not' was it that thus hampered Him in His +work? We know far too little about the conditions of miracle-working +to entitle us to dogmatise on such a matter, but I suppose that we may +venture to say this, that the working of the miracles was 'impossible' +in the absence of faith and the presence of its opposite, regard being +had to the purposes of the miracle and of Christ's whole work. It was +not congruous, it was not morally possible, that He should force His +benefits upon unwilling recipients. + +Now, I need not do more than just in a sentence call attention to the +bearing of this fact upon the true notion of the purpose of Christ's +miraculous works. A superficial, and, as I think, very vulgar, +estimate, says that Christ's miracles were chiefly designed to produce +faith in Him and in His mission. If that had been their purpose, the +very place for the most abundant exhibition of them would have been +the place where unbelief was most pronounced. The atmosphere of +non-receptiveness and non-sympathy would have been the very one that +ought to have evoked them most. Where the darkness was the deepest, +there should the torch have flared. Where the stupor was most +complete, there should the rousing shock have been administered. But +the very opposite is the case. Where faith is present already, the +miracle comes. Where faith is absent, miracles fail. Therefore, though +a subsidiary purpose of our Lord's miracles was, no doubt, to evoke +faith in His mission, their chief purpose is not to be found in that +direction. It was a condescension to men's weakness and obstinacy when +He said, 'If ye believe not Me, believe the works.' But the works were +signs, symbols, manifestations on the lower material platform of what +lie would be and do for men in the higher, and they were the outcome +of His own loving heart and ever-flowing compassion, and only +secondarily were they taken, and have they ever been taken, when +Christian faith has been robust and intelligent, as being evidences of +His Messiahship and Divinity. + +But there is another consideration that I would like to suggest in +reference to this limitation of our Lord's power, by reason of the +prevalence of an atmosphere of unbelief, and that is that it is a +pathetic proof of His manhood's being influenced by all the emotions +and circumstances that influence us. We all know how hearts expand in +the warm atmosphere of affection and sympathy, and shut themselves up +like tender flowerets when the cold east wind blows. And just as a +great orator subtly feels the sympathy of his audience, and is buoyed +up by it to higher flights, while in the presence of cold and +indifferent and critical hearers his tongue stammers, and he falls +beneath himself, so we may reverently say Jesus Christ _could_ not put +forth His mightiest and most abundant miraculous powers when the cold +wind of unbelieving criticism blew in His face. + +If that is true, what a glimpse it gives us of the conditions of His +earthly life, and how wonderful it makes that love which, though it +was hampered, was never stifled by the presence of scorn and malice +and of hatred. He is our Brother, bone of our bone and flesh of our +flesh; and even when the divinity within was in possession of the +power of working the miracle, the humanity in which it dwelt felt the +presence of the cold frost and closed its petals. 'He could do no +mighty works,' and it was 'because of their unbelief.' + +II. But now, secondly, let us apply this principle in regard to +Christ's working on ourselves. + +I have said that there was no such natural connection between faith +and miracle as that miracle was absolutely impossible in the absence +of faith. But when we lift the thought into the higher region of our +religious and spiritual life, we do come across an absolute +impossibility. There, in regard to all that appertains to the inward +life of a soul, Christ _can_ do no mighty works, in the absence of our +faith. By faith, I mean, of course, not the mere intellectual +reception of the Christian narratives or of the Christian doctrines as +true, but I mean what the Bible means by it always, a process +subsequent to that intellectual reception--viz., the motion of the +will and of the heart towards Christ. Faith is belief, but belief is +not faith. Faith is belief _plus_ trust. And it is that which is the +condition of all Christ's gifts being received by any of us. + +Now, a great many people seem to think that what Jesus Christ brings +to the world, and offers to each of us, is simply the escape from the +penal consequences of our past transgressions. If you conceive +salvation to be nothing else than shutting the doors of an outward +hell, and opening the doors of an outward Heaven, I can quite +understand why you should boggle at the thought that faith is a +condition of these. For if salvation is such a material, external, and +forensic matter as that, then I do not see why God should not have +given it to everybody, without any conditions at all. But if you will +understand rightly what Christ's gifts are, you will see that they +cannot be bestowed upon men irrespective of the condition of their +wills, desires, and hearts. + +For what is salvation? What are the blessings that Jesus Christ +bestows? A new life, a new love, new desires, a new direction of the +whole being, a new spirit within us. These are the gifts; and how can +these be given to a man if he has not trust in the Giver? Salvation is +at bottom that a man's will shall be harmonised with the will of God. +But if a man has not faith, his will is discordant with the will of +God, and how can it be harmonised and discordant at the same time? +What are the powers by which Christ works upon men's hearts? His +truth, His love, His Spirit. How can a truth operate if it is not +believed? How can love bless and cherish if it is not trusted? How can +the Spirit hallow and cleanse if it is not yielded to? The condition +is inherent in the nature of God the Giver, of man the receiver, and +of the gifts bestowed. + +And so we understand the metaphors that put that inevitable connection +in various forms. Faith is 'a door.' How can you enter if the door be +fast closed? He knocks; if any man opens He comes in. If a man does +not open, + + 'He can but listen at the gate, + And hear the household jar within.' + +Faith is the connection between the fountain and the reservoir. If +there be no such connection, how can the reservoir be filled? Faith is +the hand with stretched-out empty palms, and widespread fingers for +the reception of the gifts. How can the gifts be put into it if it +hangs listless by the side, or in obstinately closed and pushed behind +the back? He 'can do no mighty works' on an unbelieving soul. + +Now, brethren, let me insist, in one sentence, on this solemn truth; +God would save every man if He could, faith or no faith. But the +condition which brings faith into connection with salvation as its +necessary prerequisite is no arbitrary condition. The love of God +cannot alter it. In the nature of things it must be so. 'He that +believeth shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be condemned.' +That is no result of an artificial scheme, but of the necessities of +the case. + +Again, let me remind you that the measure of our faith is the measure +of our possession of these gifts. Our Lord more than once put the +whole doctrine of this matter, in regard, however, to the lower plane +of miracle, when He said, 'According to your faith be it unto you,' +'Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.' We have an inheritance like +that of men who get a piece of land in some mining district: so much +as we peg out and claim is ours, and no more. + +Let me narrate a parable of my own making. There was once a king who +told all his people that on a given day the fountain in the +market-place in the centre of the city would flow with wine and other +precious liquors, and that every man was free to bring his vessel and +carry away as much as he would. The man that brought a tiny wineglass +got a glassful; the man that brought a gallon pitcher got that full. +The measure of your desires is the measure of your possessions of +Christ's power. Our faith determines the amount of His cleansing, +healing, vivifying energy which will reside in us. The width of the +bore of the water-pipe that is laid down settles the amount of water +that will come into your cistern. The water may be high outside the +lock. If the lock-gate be kept fast closed, the height of the water +outside produces no raising of the low level of that within, If you +open a chink of the gate a trickle will pass through, and if you fling +the gates wide the levels will be the same on both sides. The only +limit of our possession of God is our faith and desire. The true limit +is His own boundlessness. It is possible that a man may be 'filled +with all the fulness of God; but the real working limit for each of us +is our own faith. So, brethren, endless progress is possible for us, +on condition of continual trust. + +III. Lastly, let us apply this principle in regard to Christ's working +through His people. + +Jesus Christ cannot work mightily through a feebly believing Church. +And here is the reason why Christianity has taken so long to do so +little in this world of ours; and why nineteen centuries after the +Cross and Pentecost there remaineth yet so much land to be possessed. +'Ye are not straitened in Me, ye are straitened in your own selves.' +We hinder Christ from doing His work through us by reason of our own +unbelief. The men that have done most for the Lord Jesus, and for +their fellows in this world, have been of all sorts, of all +conditions, of all grades of intellectual ability and acquirement; +some of them scholars, some of them tinkers, some of them +philosophers, some of them next door to fools. They have belonged to +different communions and have held different ecclesiastical and +theological dogmas, and sometimes, alas! they have not been able to +discern each other's Christlike lineaments. But there is one thing in +which they have all been alike, and that is that they have been men of +faith, intense, operative, perpetual. And that is why they have +succeeded. If we were what we might be, 'full of faith.' we should, as +the Acts of the Apostles teaches us, by its collocation in the +description of one of its characters, be 'full of the Holy Spirit and +of power.' + +Brethren, you hear a great deal to-day about new ways of Christian +working, about the necessity of adapting the forms of setting forth +Christ's truth to the spirit of the age, and new ideas. Adopt new +methods if you like; methods are not sacred. Fashion new forms of +presenting Christian truths if you please; our forms are only forms. +But you may alter your methods and you may modify your dogmas as you +like, and you will do nothing to move the world unless the Church is +again baptized with the Divine Spirit, which will only be the case if +the Church again puts forth a far mightier faith than it exercises +to-day. If only we will trust Jesus Christ absolutely, and live near +Him by our faith, His power will flow into us, and of us, too, it will +be said, 'through faith they wrought righteousness ... subdued +kingdoms ... waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of +the aliens.' But if the low level of average Christian faith in all +the churches is not elevated, then the attempts to conquer the world +by half-believing Christians will meet with the old fate, and the man +in whom the evil spirit was will leap upon them and overcome them, and +say, 'Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?' 'Why could we +not cast him out?' And He answered and said unto them, 'Because of +your unbelief.' + +Brethren, we may starve in the midst of plenty, if we lock our lips. +We can be like some obstinate black rock, washed over for ever by the +Atlantic surges, and yet so close-grained that only the surface is +moistened, and, an inch within, it is dry. '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, is able +to separate you from the love and power of God which are in Christ +Jesus our Lord,' But you can separate yourselves, and you do separate +yourselves, by your unbelief. The all-sufficiency of Christ's +redemption, and the yearning of His love to bless each of us +individually, will be nothing to us if we lift up between Him and us +the black barrier of unbelief, and so dam back the stream that was +meant to give life to all the world and life to us. Christ infinitely +desires to bless us, but He cannot unless we trust Him. I beseech you, +do not let this be the epitaph on your tombstone:--'Christ could there +do no mighty work because of _his_ unbelief.' + + + +HEROD--A STARTLED CONSCIENCE + + +'But when Herod heard thereof, he said, It is John, whom I beheaded: +he is risen from the dead.'--Mark vi. 16. + +The character of this Herod, surnamed Antipas, is a sufficiently +common and a sufficiently despicable one. He was the very type of an +Eastern despot, exactly like some of those half-independent Rajahs, +whose dominions march with ours in India; capricious, crafty, as the +epithet which Christ applied to him, 'That fox!' shows; cruel, as the +story of the murder of John the Baptist proves; sensuous and lustful; +and withal weak of fibre and infirm of purpose. He, Herodias, and John +the Baptist make a triad singularly like the other triad in the Old +Testament, of Ahab, Jezebel, and Elijah. In both cases we have the +weak ruler, the beautiful she-devil at his side, inspiring him for all +evil, and the stern prophet, the rebuker and the incarnate conscience +for them both. + +The words that I have read are the terrified exclamation of this weak +and wicked man when he was brought in contact with the light and +beauty of Jesus Christ. And if we think who it was that frightened +him, and ponder the words in which his fear expressed itself, we get, +as it seems to me, some lessons worth the drawing. + +I. You have here the voice of a startled conscience. + +Herod killed John without much sense of doing wrong. He was sorry, no +doubt, for he had a kind of respect for the man, and he was reluctant +to put him to death. But though there was reluctance, there was no +hesitation. His fantastic sense of honour came in the way. In the one +scale there was the life of a poor enthusiast who had amused him for a +while, but of whom he had got tired. In the other scale there were his +word, the pleasure of Herodias, and the applause of the half-drunken +boon companions that were sitting with them at the table. So, of +course, the prophet was slain, and the pale head brought in to that +wild revel, and, except for the malignant gloating of the woman over +her gratified revenge, the event, no doubt, very quickly passed from +the memories of all concerned. + +But then there came stealing into the silken seclusion of the palace, +where he was wallowing in his sensuality like a hog in the sty, the +tidings of another peasant Teacher that had risen up among the people. +Christ's name had been ringing through the land, and been sounded with +blessings in poor men's huts long before it got within the gates of +Herod's palace. That is the place where religious earnestness makes +its mark last of all. But it finally ran thither also; and light +gossip went round concerning this new sensation. 'Who is He? Who is +He?' Each man had his own theory about Him, but a sudden memory +started up in the frivolous despot's soul, and it was with a trembling +heart that he said to himself, 'I know! I know! It is John, whom I +beheaded! He is risen from the dead!' His conscience and his memory +and his fears all awoke. + +Now, my friends, I pray you to lay that simple lesson to heart. We all +of us do evil things with regard to which it is not hard for us to +bribe or to silence our memories and our consciences. The hurry and +bustle of daily life, the very weakness of our characters, the rush of +sensuous delights, may make us blind and deaf to the voice of +conscience; and we think that all chance of the evil deed rising again +to harm us is past. But some trifle touches the hidden spring by mere +accident; as in the old story of the man groping along a wall till his +finger happens to fall upon one inch of it, and immediately the +concealed door flies open, and there is the skeleton. So with us, some +merely fortuitous association may freshen faded memories and wake a +dormant conscience. An apparently trivial circumstance, like some +hooked pole pushed at random into the sea, may bring up by the locks +some pale and drowned memory long plunged in an ocean of oblivion. +Here, in Herod's case, a report reaches him of a new Rabbi who bears +but a very faint resemblance to John, and that is enough to bring his +crime back in its naked atrocity. + +My friends, we all have these hibernating serpents in our consciences, +and nobody knows when the needful warmth may come that will wake them +and make them lift their forked heads to sting. The whole landscape of +my past life lies there behind the mists of apparent forgetfulness, +and any light air of suggestion may sweep away the clouds and show it +all. What have you laid up in these memories of yours to start into +life some day: 'at the last biting like a serpent and stinging like an +adder'? 'It is John! It is John, whom I beheaded!' + +Take this other thought, how, as the story shows us, when once at the +bidding of memory conscience begins to work, all illusions as to the +nature of my action and as to my share in it are swept away. + +When the evil deed was done, Herod scarcely felt as if he did it. +There was his plighted troth, there was Herodias's pressure, there was +the excitement of the moment. He seemed forced to do it, and scarcely +responsible for doing it. And no doubt, if he ever thought about it +afterwards, he shuffled off a large percentage of the responsibility +of the guilt upon the shoulders of the others. But when, + + 'In the silent sessions of things past,' + +the image and remembrance of the deed come up to him, all the helpers +and tempters have disappeared, and 'It is John, whom _I_ beheaded!' +(There is emphasis in the Greek upon the 'I.') 'Yes, it was _I_. +Herodias tempted me; Herodias' daughter titillated my lust; I fancied +that my oath bound me; I could not help doing what would please those +who sat at the table--I said all that _before_ I did it. But now, when +it is done, they have all disappeared, every one of them to his +quarter; and I and the ugly thing are left together alone. It was I +that did it, and nobody besides.' + +The blackness of the crime, too, presents itself to the startled +conscience as it did not in the doing. There are many euphemisms and +soft words in which, as in cotton-wool, we wrap our evil deeds and so +deceive ourselves as to their hardness and their edge; but when +conscience gets hold of them, and they pass out of the realm of fact +into the mystical region of remembrance, all the wrappings, and all +the apologies, and all the soft phrases drop away; and the ugliest, +briefest, plainest word is the one by which my conscience describes my +own evil. '_I_ beheaded him! _I_, and none else, was the murderer.' +Oh! dear brethren, do you see to it that what you store up in these +caves and treasure-cellars of memory which we all carry with us, are +deeds that will bear being brought out again and looked at in the pure +white light of conscience, and which you will neither be ashamed nor +afraid to lay your hand upon and say: 'It is mine; _I_ planted and +sowed and worked it, and I am ready to reap the fruit.' 'If thou be +wise thou shalt be wise for thyself, if thou scornest thou alone shalt +bear it.' Take care of the storehouses of memory and of conscience, +and mind what kind of things you lay up there. + +II. Now, once more, I take these words as setting before us an example +of a conscience awakened to the unseen world. + +Many commentators tell us that this Herod was a Sadducee; that is to +say that theologically and theoretically he had given up the belief in +a future state and in spiritual existence. I do not know that that can +be sustained, but much more probably he was only a Sadducee in the way +in which a great many of us are Sadducees: he never thought about +these things, he did not think about them enough to know whether he +believed in them or not. He was a practical, if not a theoretical +Sadducee; that is to say, this present was his world, and as for the +future, it did not come much into his mind. But now, notice that when +conscience begins to stir, it at once sends his thoughts into that +unseen world beyond. + +There is a very close connection, as all history proves, between +theoretical disbelief in a future life and in spiritual existence, and +superstition. So strong is the bond which unites men with the unseen +world, that if they do not link themselves with that world in the +legitimate and true fashion, it is almost certain to avenge itself +upon them by leading them to all manner of low and abject +superstitions. Spiritualism is the disease of a generation that +disbelieves in another life. The French Revolution, with its +infidelities, was also the age of quacks and impostors such as +Cagliostro and the like. The time when Christ lived presented +precisely the same phenomena. If Herod was a Sadducee, Herod's +Sadduceeism, like frost upon the window-panes, was such a thin layer +shutting out the invisible world, that the least warmth of conscience +melted it, and the clear daylight glared in upon him. And I am afraid +that there are a great many of us who may be half-inclined to reject +the belief in another life, who would find precisely the same thing +happening to us. + +But be that as it may, it seems to me that whenever a man comes to +think very seriously about his conduct as being wrong in the sight of +God, there at once starts up before him the thought of a future life +and a judgment-bar. And I want to know why and how it is that the +vigorous operation of conscience is always accompanied with a 'fearful +looking for of judgment and fiery indignation.' I think it is worth +your while to reflect upon the fact, and to try and ascertain for +yourselves the reason of it, that whenever a man's conscience begins +to tell him of his wrong, its message is not only of transgressions +but of judgment, and that beyond the grave. + +And, moreover, notice here how the startled conscience, when it +becomes aware of an unseen world beyond the grave, cannot but think +that out of that world there will come evil for it. These words of my +text are obviously the words of a frightened man. It was terror that +made Herod say: 'It is John, whom I beheaded. He is risen from the +dead!' Who was it that frightened Herod? It was He who came from the +bosom of the Father, with His hands full of blessings and His heart +full of love: who came to quiet all fears, and to cleanse all +consciences, and to satisfy all men's souls with His own sweet love +and His perfect righteousness. And it was this genial and gracious and +divine form, with all its actualities of gentleness and its +possibilities of grace, which the evil conscience of the terrified +tetrarch converted into a messenger of judgment come from the tomb to +rebuke and to smite him for his evils. + +That is to say, men may always make that future life and their +relation to it what they will. Either the heavens may pour down their +dewy influences of benediction and fruitfulness upon them, or may pour +down fire and brimstone upon their spirits. Men have the choice which +it shall be. The evil conscience drapes the future in darkness, and is +right in doing it. The evil conscience forebodes chastisement, +judgment, condemnation coming to it from out of the unseen world, and, +with limitations, it is right in doing it. You can make Christ Himself +the Messenger of condemnation and of death to you. My dear friends, do +you choose whether, fronting eternity with an unforgiven burden of sin +upon your shoulders and a conscience unsprinkled by the blood of Jesus +Christ, you make of it one great fear; or whether you make it what it +really is, a lustrous hope, a perfect joy. Is the Messenger that comes +out of the unseen to come to you as a Judge of your buried evils +started into life, or is He to come to you as the Christ that bears in +His hand the price of your redemption, and with His blood 'sprinkles +your conscience from dead works' and from all its terrors? + +III. And now, lastly, I see in this saying an illustration of a +conscience which, partially stirred, soon went finally to sleep again. + +Strangely enough, if we pursue the story, this very terror and +clear-eyed perception of the nature of his action led the frivolous +king to nothing more than a curious wish to see this new Teacher. It +was not gratified; and thus by degrees he came to hate Him and to wish +to kill Him. And then, finally, on the eve of the Crucifixion Jesus +was brought into his presence, and Herod was glad that his curiosity +was satisfied at last. His conscience lay perfectly still. There was +no trace of the old convictions or of the old tremor. He 'questioned +Jesus many things, and Christ answered him nothing,' because He knew +it was of no use to speak to him. So 'Herod and his men of war mocked +Him and set Him at nought'; and sent Him back to Pilate; and he let +his last chance of salvation go, and never knew what he had done. + +Now, _there_ is a lesson for us all. Do not tamper with partially +awakened consciences; do not rest satisfied till they are quieted in +the legitimate way. There was a man who trembled when he heard Paul +remonstrating with him about 'righteousness and temperance'--both of +which the unjust judge had set at naught--'and judgment to come' And +he 'sent for him often and communed with him gladly,' but we never +hear that Felix trembled any more. It is possible for you so to lull +yourselves into indifference, and, as it were, so to waterproof your +consciences that appeals, threatenings, pleadings, mercies, the words +of men, the Gospel of God, and the beseechings of Christ Himself may +all run off them and leave them dry and hard. + +One very potent means of rendering consciences insensible is to +neglect their voice. The convictions which you have not followed out, +like the ruins of a bastion shattered by shell, protect your remaining +fortifications against the impact of God's truth. I believe that there +is no man, woman, or child listening to me at this moment but has had, +some time or other in the course of his or her life, convictions which +only needed to be followed out, gleams of guidance which only required +to be faithfully pursued, to bring him or her into loving fellowship +with, and true faith in, Jesus Christ. But some of you have neglected +them; some of you have choked them with cares and studies and +occupations of different kinds; and you are driving on to this +result,--I do not know that it is ever reached in this life, but a man +may come indefinitely near it,--that you shall stand, like Herod, face +to face with Jesus Christ and feel nothing, and that all His love and +grace shall be offered and not excite the faintest stirring in your +hearts of a desire to accept it. + +Oh! my friend, we have all of us evils enough in these charnel-houses +of our memory to make us dread the awakening of conscience, to make us +look with fear and apprehension beyond the veil to a judgment-seat. +And, blessed be God! we have all of us had, and some of us have now, +drawings to which we need but to yield ourselves in order to find that +He who comes from the heavens is no 'John whom we beheaded,' risen for +judgment, but a mightier than he, that Son of God who came 'not to +condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.' + + + +THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN + + +'For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound +him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife: for he +had married her. 18. For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful +for thee to have thy brother's wife. 19. Therefore Herodias had a +quarrel against him, and would have killed him; but she could not: 20. +For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and +observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him +gladly. 21. And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his +birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates +of Galilee; 22. And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, +and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king +said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give +it thee. 23. And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I +will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom. 24. And she went +forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The +head of John the Baptist. 25. And she came in straightway with haste +unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by +in a charger the head of John the Baptist. 26. And the king was +exceeding sorry; yet for his oath's sake, and for their sakes which +sat with him, he would not reject her. 27. And immediately the king +sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went +and beheaded him in the prison, 28. And brought his head in a charger, +and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her +mother.'--Mark vi. 17-28. + +This Herod was a son of the grim old tiger who slew the infants of +Bethlehem. He was a true cub of a bad litter, with his father's +ferocity, but without his force. He was sensual, cruel, cunning, and +infirm of purpose. Rome allowed him to play at being a king, but kept +him well in hand. No doubt his anomalous position as a subject prince +helped to make him the bad man he was. Herodias, the Jezebel to this +Ahab, was his brother's wife, and niece to both her husband and Herod. +Elijah was not far off; John's daring outspokenness, of course, made +the indignant woman his implacable enemy. + +I. This story gives an example of the waking of conscience. When +Christ's name reached even the court, where such tidings would have no +ready entrance, what was only an occasion of more or less languid +gossip and curiosity to others stirred the sleeping accuser in Herod's +breast. He had no doubt as to who this new Teacher, armed with +mightier powers than John who 'did no miracles' had ever possessed, +was. His conviction that he was John, come back with increased power, +was immediate, and was held fast, in spite of the buzz of other +opinions. + +Note the unusual order of the sentence in verse 16: 'John whom I +beheaded, he is,' etc. The terrified king blurts out the name of his +dread first, then tremblingly takes the guilt of the deed to himself, +and last speaks the terrifying thought that he is risen. A man who has +a sin in his memory can never be sure that its ghost will not suddenly +start up. Trivial incidents will rouse the sleeping conscience. Some +nothing, a chance word, a scent, a sound, the look on a face, the glow +of an evening sky, may bring all the foul past up again. A puff of +wind clears away the mist of oblivion, and the old sin starts into +vividness as if done yesterday. You touch a secret spring, and there +yawns in the floor a gap leading down to a dungeon. + +Conscience thus wakened is free from all illusions as to guilt. '_I_ +beheaded.' There are no excuses now about Herodias' urgency, or +Salome's beauty, or the rash oath, or the need of keeping it, before +his guests. The deed stands clear of all these, as his own act. It is +ever so. When conscience speaks, sophistications about temptations or +companions, or necessity, or the more learned excuses which +philosophers make about environment and heredity as weakening +responsibility and diminishing guilt, shrivel to nothing. The present +operations of conscience distinctly predict future still more complete +remembrance of, and sense of responsibility for, long past sins. There +will be a resurrection of men's evil deeds, as well as of their +bodies, and each of them will shake its gory locks at its author, and +say, 'Thou didst it.' + +There is no proof that Herod was a Sadducee, disbelieving in a +resurrection; but, whether he was or not, the terrors of conscience +made short work of the difficulties in the way of his supposition. He +was right in believing that evil deeds are gifted with an awful +immortality, and will certainly rise again to shake their doer's soul +with terrors. + +II. The narrative harks back to tell the story of John's martyrdom. It +sets vividly forth the inner discord and misery of half-and-half +convictions. Herodias was strong enough to get John put in prison, and +apparently she tried with all the tenacity of a malignant woman to +have him assassinated, by contrived accident or open sentence; but +_that_ she could not manage. + +Mark's analysis of the play of contending feeling in the weak king is +barely intelligible in the Authorised Version, but is clearly shown in +the Revised Version. He 'feared John,'--the jailer afraid of his +prisoner,--'knowing that he was a righteous man and an holy.' Goodness +is awful. The worst men know it when they see it, and pay it the +homage of dread, if not of love. 'And kept him safe' (not _ob_- but +_pre_-served him); that is, from Herodias' revenge. 'And when he heard +him, he was much perplexed.' The reading thus translated differs from +that in the Authorised Version by two letters only, and obviously is +preferable. Herod was a weak-willed man, drawn by two stronger natures +pulling in opposite directions. + +So he alternated between lust and purity, between the foul kisses of +the temptress at his side and the warnings of the prophet in his +dungeon. But in all his vacillation he could not help listening to +John, but 'heard him gladly,' and mind and conscience approved the +nobler voice. Thus he staggered along, with religion enough to spoil +some of his sinful delights, but not enough to make him give them up. + +Such a state of partial conviction is not unusual. Many of us know +quite well that, if we would drop some habit, which may not be very +grave, we should be less encumbered in some effort which it is our +interest or duty to make; but the conviction has not gone deeper than +the understanding. Like a shot which has only got half way through the +armoured skin of a man-of-war, it has done no execution, nor reached +the engine-room where the power that drives the life is. In more +important matters such imperfect convictions are widespread. The +majority of slaves to vice know perfectly well that they should give +it up. And in regard to the salvation which is in Christ, there are +multitudes who know in their inmost consciousness that they ought to +be Christians. + +Such a condition is one liable to unrest and frequent inner conflict. +Truly, he is 'much perplexed' whose conscience pulls him one way, and +his inclinations another. There is no more miserable condition than +that of the man whose will is cleft in twain, and who has a continual +battle raging within. Conscience may be bound and thrust down into a +dungeon, like John, and lust and pride may be carousing overhead, but +their mirth is hollow, and every now and then the stern voice comes up +through the gratings, and the noisy revelry is hushed, while _it_ +speaks doom. + +Such a state of inner strife comes often from unwillingness to give up +one special evil. If Herod could have plucked up resolve to pack +Herodias about her business, other things might have come right. Many +of us are ruined by being unwilling to let some dear delight go. 'If +thine eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out.' + +We do not make up for such cowardly shrinking from doing right by +pleasure in the divine word which we are not obeying. Herod no doubt +thought that his delight in listening to John went some way to atone +for his refusal to get rid of Herodias. Some of us think ourselves +good Christians because we assent to truth, and even like to hear it, +provided the speaker suit our tastes. Glad hearing only aggravates the +guilt of not doing. It is useless to admire John if you keep Herodias. + +III. The end of the story gives an example of the final powerlessness +of such half-convictions. One need not repeat the grim narrative of +the murder. We all know it. One knows not which is the more +repugnant--the degradation of the poor child Salome to the level of a +dancing-girl, the fell malignity of the mother who would shame her +daughter for such an end, the maudlin generosity of Herod, flushed +with wine and excited passion, the hideous request from lips so young, +the ineffectual sorrow of Herod, his fantastic sense of obligation, +which scrupled to break a wicked promise and did not scruple to murder +a prophet, or the ghastly picture of the girl hurrying to her mother +with the freshly severed head, dripping on to the platter and staining +her fair young hands. + +This was what all the convictions of John's righteousness had come to. +So had ended the half yielding to his brave rebukes and the +ineffectual aspirations after cleaner living. That chaos of lust and +blood teaches that partial reformation is apt to end in a deeper +plunge into fouler mire. If a man is false to his feeblest conviction, +he makes himself a worse man all through. A partial thaw is generally +followed by keener frost than before. A soul half melted and cooled +again is harder to melt than before. An abortive slave-rising rivets +the chains. + +The incident teaches that simple weakness may come to be the parent of +great sin. In a world like this, where there are always more voices +soliciting to wrong than to right, to be weak is in the long run to be +wicked. Fatal facility of disposition ruins hundreds of unthinking +men. Nothing is more needful than that young people should learn to +say 'No,' and should cultivate a wholesome obstinacy which is afraid +of nothing but of sinning against God. + +If we look onwards to this Herod's last appearance in Scripture, we +get further lessons. He desired to see Jesus that he might see a +miracle done to amuse him, like a conjuring trick. Convictions and +terrors had faded from his frivolous soul. He has forgotten that he +once thought Jesus to be John come again. He sees Christ, and sees +nothing in Him; and Christ says nothing to Herod, because He knew it +would be useless. + +It is an awful thing to put one's self beyond the hearing of that +voice, which 'all that are in the graves shall hear.' The most +effectual stopping for our ears is neglect of what we know to be His +will. If we will not listen to Him, we shall gradually lose the power +of hearing Him, and then He will lock His lips, and answer nothing. We +dare not say that Jesus is dumb to any man while life lasts, but we +dare not refrain from saying that that condition of utter +insensibility to His voice may be indefinitely approached by us, and +that neglected convictions bring us terribly far on the way towards +it. + + + +THE WORLD'S BREAD + + +'And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told +Him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. 31. +And He said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, +and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had +no leisure so much as to eat. 32. And they departed into a desert +place by ship privately. 33. And the people saw them departing, and +many knew Him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent +them, and came together unto Him. 34. And Jesus, when he came out, saw +much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they +were as sheep not having a shepherd: and He began to teach them many +things. 35. And when the day was now far spent, His disciples came +unto Him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far +passed: 36. Send them away, that they may go into the country round +about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have +nothing to eat. 37. He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to +eat. And they say unto Him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth +of bread, and give them to eat? 38. He saith unto them, How many +loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and +two fishes. 39. And he commanded them to make all sit down by +companies upon the green grass. 40. And they sat down in ranks, by +hundreds, and by fifties. 41. And when He had taken the five loaves +and the two fishes, He looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the +loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two +fishes divided He among them all. 42. And they did all eat, and were +filled. 43. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and +of the fishes. 44. And they that did eat of the loaves were about five +thousand men.'--Mark vi. 30-44. + +This is the only miracle recorded by all four Evangelists. Matthew +brings it into immediate connection with John's martyrdom, while Mark +links it with the Apostles' return from their first mission. His +account is, as usual, full of graphic touches, while John shows more +intimate knowledge of the parts played by the Apostles, and sets the +whole incident in a clearer light. + +I. Mark brings out the preceding events, and especially the seeking +for solitude, which was baulked by popular enthusiasm. The Apostles +came back to Jesus full of wondering joy, and were eager to tell what +they had done and taught. Note that order, which hints that they +thought more of the miracles than of the message. They were flushed +and excited by success, and needed calming down even more than +physical rest. So Jesus, knowing their need, bids them come with Him +into healing solitude, and rest awhile. + +After any great effort, the body cries for repose, but still more does +the soul's health demand quiet after exciting and successful work for +Christ. Without much solitary communion with Jesus, effort for Him +tends to become mechanical, and to lose the elevation of motive and +the suppression of self which give it all its power. It is not wasted +time which the busiest worker, confronted with the most imperative +calls for service, gives to still fellowship in secret with God. There +can never be too much activity in Christian work, but there is often +disproportioned activity, which is too much for the amount of time +given to meditation and communion. That is one reason why there is so +much sowing and so little reaping in Christian work to-day. + +But, on the other hand, we have sometimes to do as Jesus was driven to +do in this incident; namely, to forgo cheerfully, after brief repose, +the blessed and strengthening hour of quiet. The motives of the crowds +that hurried round the head of the lake while the boat was pulled +across, and so got to the other side before it, were not very pure. +Curiosity drove them as much as any nobler impulse. But we must not be +too particular about the reasons that induce men to resort to Jesus, +and if we can give them more than they sought, so much the better. Let +us be thankful if, for any reason, we can get them to listen. + +Jesus 'came forth'; that is, probably from a short withdrawal with the +Twelve. Brief repose snatched, He turned again to the work. The 'great +multitude' did not make Him impatient, though, no doubt, some of the +Apostles were annoyed. But He saw deeply into their condition, and +pity welled in His heart. If we looked on the crowds in our great +cities with Christ's eyes, their spiritual state would be the most +prominent thing in sight. And if we saw that as He saw it, disgust, +condemnation, indifference, would not be uppermost, as they too often +are, but some drop of His great compassion would trickle into our +hearts. The masses are still 'as sheep without a shepherd,' ignorant +of the way, and defenceless against their worst foes. Do we habitually +try to cultivate as ours Christ's way of looking at men, and Christ's +emotions towards men? If we do, we shall imitate Christ's actions for +men, and shall recognise that, to reproduce as well as we can the +'many things' which He taught them, is the best contribution which His +disciples can make to healing the misery of a Christless world. + +II. The difference between John and Mark in regard to the conversation +of Jesus with the disciples about finding food for the crowd, is +easily harmonised. John tells us what Jesus said at the first sight of +the multitude; Mark takes up the narrative at the close of the day. We +owe to John the knowledge that the exigency was not first pointed out +by the disciples, but that His calm, loving prescience saw it, and +determined to meet it, long before they spoke. No needs arise +unforeseen by Christ, and He requires no prompting to help. +Difficulties which seem insoluble to us, when we too late wake to +perceive them, have long ago been taken into account and solved by +Him. + +The Apostles, according to Mark, came with a suggestion of helpless +embarrassment. They could think of nothing but to disperse the crowd, +and so get rid of responsibility. He answers with a paradox of +conscious power, which commands a seeming impossibility, and therein +prophesies endowment that will make it possible. Has not the Church +ever since been but too often faithless enough to let the multitudes +drift away to 'the cities and villages round about,' and there, amid +human remedies for their sore needs, 'buy themselves,' with much +expenditure, a scanty provision? Are we not all tempted to shuffle off +responsibility for the world's hunger? Do we not often think that our +resources are absurdly insufficient, and so, faintheartedly make them +still less? Is not His command still, 'Give ye them to eat'? Let us +rise to the height of our duties and of our power, and be sure that +whoever has Christ has enough for the world's hunger, and is bound to +call men from 'that which is not bread,' and to feed them with Him who +is. + +Philip's morning calculation (curiously in keeping with his character) +seems to have been repeated by the Apostles, as, no doubt, he had been +saying the same thing all day at intervals. They had made a rough +calculation of how much would be wanted. It was a sum far beyond their +means. It was as much as about L7. And where was such wealth as that +in that company? But calculations which leave out Christ's power are +not quite conclusive. The Apostles had reckoned up the requirement, +but they had not taken stock of their resources. So they were sent to +hunt up what they could, and John tells us that it was Andrew who +found the boy with five barley loaves and two fishes. How came a boy +to be so provident? Probably he had come to try a bit of trade on his +own account. At all events, the Twelve seem to have been able to buy +his little stock, which done, they went back to tell Jesus, no doubt +thinking that such a meagre supply would end all talk of their giving +the crowd to eat. Jesus would have us count our own resources, not +that we may fling up His work in despair, but that we may realise our +dependence on Him, and that the consciousness of our own insufficiency +may not diminish one jot our sense of obligation to feed the +multitude. It is good to learn our own weakness if it drives us to +lean on His strength. 'Five loaves and two fishes,' plus Jesus Christ, +come to a good deal more than 'two hundred pennyworth of bread.' + +III. The miracle is told with beautiful vividness and simplicity. +Mark's picturesque words show the groups sitting by companies of +hundreds or of fifties. He uses a word which means 'the square garden +plots in which herbs are grown.' So they sat on the green grass, which +at that Passover season would be fresh and abundant. What half-amused +and more than half-incredulous wonder as to what would come next would +be in the people! Many of them would be saying in their hearts, and +perhaps some in words, 'Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?' +(Ps. lxxviii. 19). In that small matter Jesus shows that He is 'not +the Author of confusion,' but of order. The rush of five thousand +hungry men struggling to get a share of what seemed an insufficient +supply would have been unseemly and dangerous to the women and +children, but the seated groups become as companies of guests, and He +the orderer of the feast. To get at the numbers would be easy, while +the passage of the Apostles through the groups was facilitated, and +none would be likely to remain unsupplied or passed over. + +The point at which the miraculous element entered is not definitely +stated, but if each portion passed through the hands of Christ to the +servers, and from them to the partakers, the multiplication of the +bread must have been effected while it lay in His hand; that is to +say, the loaves were not diminished by His giving. That is true about +all divine gifts. He bestows, and is none the poorer. The streams flow +from the golden vase, and, after all outpouring, it is brimful. + +Many irrelevant difficulties have been raised about the mode of the +miracle, and many lame analogies have been suggested, as if it but +hastened ordinary processes. But these need not detain us. Note rather +the great lesson which John records that our Lord Himself drew from +this miracle. It was a symbol, in the material region, of His work in +the spiritual, as all His miracles were. He is the Bread of the world. +Ho gives Himself still, and in a yet more wonderful sense He gave His +flesh for the life of the world. He gives us Himself for our own +nourishment, and also that we may give Him to others. It was an honour +to the Twelve that they should be chosen to be His almoners. It should +be felt an honour by all Christians that through them Christ wills to +feed a hungry world. + +A somewhat different application of the miracle reminds us that Jesus +uses our resources, scanty and coarse as five barley loaves, for the +basis of His wonders. He did not create the bread, but multiplied it. +Our small abilities, humbly acknowledged to be small, and laid in His +hands, will grow. There is power enough in the Church, if the power +were consecrated, to feed the world. + +All four Gospels tell the command to gather up the 'broken pieces' +(not the fragments left by the eaters, but the unused pieces broken by +Christ). This union of economy with creative power could never have +been invented. Unused resources are retained. The exercise of +Christian powers multiplies them, and after the feeding of thousands +more remains than was possessed before. 'There is that scattereth, and +yet increaseth.' + + + +CHILDREN AND LITTLE DOGS + + +'And from thence He arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and +Sidon, and entered Into an house, and would have no man know it: but +He could not be hid. 25. For a certain woman, whose young daughter had +an unclean spirit, heard of Him, and came and fell at His feet: 26. +The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought Him +that He would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. 87. But Jesus +said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to +take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. 28. And she +answered and said unto Him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table +eat of the children's crumbs. 29. And He said unto her, For this +saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. 30. And when +she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her +daughter laid upon the bed.'--Mark vii. 24-30. + +Our Lord desired to withdraw from the excited crowds who were flocking +after Him as a mere miracle-worker and from the hostile espionage of +emissaries of the Pharisees, 'which had come from Jerusalem.' +Therefore He sought seclusion in heathen territory. He, too, knew the +need of quiet, and felt the longing to plunge into privacy, to escape +for a time from the pressure of admirers and of foes, and to go where +no man knew Him. How near to us that brings Him! And how the +remembrance of it helps to explain His demeanour to the Syrophcenician +woman, so unlike His usual tone! + +Naturally the presence of Jesus leaked out, and perhaps the very +effort to avoid notice attracted it. Rumour would have carried His +name across the border, and the tidings of His being among them would +stir hope in some hearts that felt the need of His help. Of such was +this woman, whom Mark describes first, generally, as a 'Greek' (that +is, a Gentile), and then particularly as 'a Syrophcenician by race'; +that is, one of that branch of the Phoenician race who inhabited +maritime Syria, in contradistinction from the other branch inhabiting +North-eastern Africa, Carthage, and its neighbourhood. Her deep need +made her bold and persistent, as we learn in detail from Matthew, who +is in this narrative more graphic than Mark. He tells us that she +attacked Jesus in the way, and followed Him, pouring out her loud +petitions, to the annoyance of the disciples. They thought that they +were carrying out His wish for privacy in suggesting that it would be +best to 'send her away' with her prayer granted, and so stop her +'crying after us,' which might raise a crowd, and defeat the wish. We +owe to Matthew the further facts of the woman's recognition of Jesus +as 'the Son of David,' and of the strange ignoring of her cries, and +of His answer to the disciples' suggestion, in which He limited His +mission to Israel, and so explained to them His silence to her. Mark +omits all these points, and focuses all the light on the two +things--Christ's strange and apparently harsh refusal, and the woman's +answer, which won her cause. + +Certainly our Lord's words are startlingly unlike Him, and as +startlingly like the Jewish pride of race and contempt for Gentiles. +But that the woman did not take them so is clear; and that was not due +only to her faith, but to something in Him which gave her faith a +foothold. We are surely not to suppose that she drew from His words an +inference which He did not perceive in them, and that He was, as some +commentators put it, 'caught in His own words.' Mark alone gives us +the first clause of Christ's answer to the woman's petition: 'Let the +children first be filled.' And that 'first' distinctly says that their +prerogative is priority, not monopoly. If there is a 'first,' there +will follow a second. The very image of the great house in which the +children sit at the table, and the 'little dogs' are in the room, +implies that children and dogs are part of one household; and Jesus +meant by it just what the woman found in it,--the assurance that the +meal-time for the dogs would come when the children had done. That is +but a picturesque way of stating the method of divine revelation +through the medium of the chosen people, and the objections to +Christ's words come at last to be objections to the 'committing' of +the 'oracles of God' to the Jewish race; that is to say, objections to +the only possible way by which a historical revelation could be given. +It must have personal mediums, a place and a sequence. It must prepare +fit vehicles for itself and gradually grow in clearness and contents. +And all this is just to say that revelation for the world must be +first the possession of a race. The fire must have a hearth on which +it can be kindled and burn, till it is sufficient to bear being +carried thence. + +Universalism was the goal of the necessary restriction. Pharisaism +sought to make the restriction permanent. Jesus really threw open the +gates to all in this very saying, which at first sounds so harsh. +'First' implies second, children and little dogs are all parts of the +one household. Christ's personal ministry was confined to Israel for +obvious and weighty reasons. He felt, as Matthew tells us, that He +said in this incident that He was not sent but to the lost sheep of +that nation. But His world-wide mission was as clear to Him as its +temporary limit, and in His first discourse in the synagogue at +Nazareth He proclaimed it to a scowling crowd. We cannot doubt that +His sympathetic heart yearned over this poor woman, and His seemingly +rough speech was meant partly to honour the law which ruled His +mission even in the act of making an exception to it, and partly to +test, and so to increase, her faith. + +Her swift laying of her finger on the vulnerable point in the apparent +refusal of her prayer may have been due to a woman's quick wit, but it +was much more due to a mother's misery and to a suppliant's faith. +There must have been something in Christ's look, or in the cadence of +His voice, which helped to soften the surface harshness of His words, +and emboldened her to confront Him with the plain implications of His +own words. What a constellation of graces sparkles in her ready reply! +There is humility in accepting the place He gives her; insight in +seeing at once a new plea in what might have sent her away despairing; +persistence in pleading; confidence that He can grant her request and +that He would gladly do so. Our Lord's treatment of her was amply +justified by its effects. His words were like the hard steel that +strikes the flint and brings out a shower of sparks. Faith makes +obstacles into helps, and stones of stumbling into 'stepping-stones to +higher things.' If we will take the place which He gives us, and hold +fast our trust in Him even when He seems silent to us, and will so far +penetrate His designs as to find the hidden purpose of good in +apparent repulses, the honey secreted deep in the flower, we shall +share in this woman's blessing in the measure in which we share in her +faith. + +Jesus obviously delighted in being at liberty to stretch His +commission so as to include her in its scope. Joyful recognition of +the ingenuity of her pleading, and of her faith's bringing her within +the circle of the 'children,' are apparent in His word, 'For this +saying go thy way.' He ever looks for the disposition in us which will +let Him, in accordance with His great purpose, pour on us His +full-flowing tide of blessing, and nothing gladdens Him more than +that, by humble acceptance of our assigned place, and persistent +pleading, and trust that will not be shaken, we should make it +possible for Him to see in us recipients of His mercy and healing +grace. + + + +THE PATTERN OF SERVICE + + +'He touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, He sighed, and saith +Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.'--Mark vii 33, 34. + +For what reason was there this unwonted slowness in Christ's healing +works? For what reason was there this unusual emotion ere He spoke the +word which cleansed? + +As to the former question, a partial answer may perhaps be that our +Lord is here on half-heathen ground, where aids to faith were much +needed, and His power had to be veiled that it might be beheld. Hence +the miracle is a process rather than an act; and, advancing as it does +by distinct stages, is conformed in appearance to men's works of +mercy, which have to adapt means to ends, and creep to their goal by +persevering toil. As to the latter, we know not why the sight of this +one poor sufferer should have struck so strongly on the ever-tremulous +chords of Christ's pitying heart; but we do know that it was the +vision brought before His spirit by this single instance of the +world's griefs and sicknesses--in which mass, however, the special +case before Him was by no means lost--that raised His eyes to heaven +in mute appeal, and forced the groan from His breast. + +The 'missionary spirit' is but one aspect of the Christian spirit. We +shall only strengthen the former as we invigorate the latter. Harm has +been done, both to ourselves and to that great cause, by seeking to +stimulate compassion and efforts for heathen lands by the use of other +excitements, which have tended to vitiate even the emotions they have +aroused, and are apt to fail as when we need them most. It may +therefore be profitable if we turn to Christ's own manner of working, +and His own emotions in His merciful deeds, set forth in this +remarkable narrative, as containing lessons for us in our missionary +and evangelistic work. I must necessarily omit more than a passing +reference to the slow process of healing which this miracle exhibits. +But that, too, has its teaching for us, who are so often tempted to +think ourselves badly used, unless the fruit of our toil grows up, +like Jonah's gourd, before our eyes. If our Lord was content to reach +His end of blessing step by step, we may well accept 'patient +continuance in well-doing' as the condition indispensable to reaping +in due season. + +But there are other thoughts still more needful which suggest +themselves. Those minute details which this Evangelist ever delights +to give of our Lord's gestures, words, looks, and emotions, not only +add graphic force to the narrative but are precious glimpses into the +very heart of Christ. That fixed gaze into heaven, that groan which +neither the glories seen above nor the conscious power to heal could +stifle, that most gentle touch, as if removing material obstacles from +the deaf ears, and moistening the stiff tongue that it might move more +freely in the parched mouth, that word of authority which could not be +wanting even when His working seemed likest a servant's, do surely +carry large lessons for us. The condition of all service, the cost of +feeling at which our work must be done, the need that the helpers +should identify themselves with the sufferers, and the victorious +power of Christ's word over all deaf ears--these are the thoughts +which I desire to connect with our text and to commend to your +meditation now. + +I. We have here set forth, in the Lord's heavenward look, the +foundation and condition of all true work for God. + +The profound questions which are involved in the fact that, as man, +Christ held communion with God in the exercise of faith and +aspiration, the same in kind as ours, do not concern us here. I speak +to those who believe that Jesus is for us the perfect example of +complete manhood, and who therefore believe that He is 'the leader of +faith,' the head of the long processions of those who in every age +have trusted in God and been 'lightened.' But, perhaps, though that +conviction holds its place in our creeds, it has not been as +completely incorporated with our thoughts as it should have been. +There has, no doubt, been a tendency, operating in much of our +evangelical teaching, and in the common stream of orthodox opinion, to +except, half unconsciously, the exercises of the religious life from +the sphere of Christ's example, and we need to be reminded that +Scripture presents His vow, 'I will put my trust in Him,' as the +crowning proof of His brotherhood, and that the prints of His kneeling +limbs have left their impressions where we kneel before the throne. +True, the relation of the Son to the Father involves more than +communion-namely, unity. But if we follow the teaching of the Bible, +we shall not presume that the latter excludes the former, but +understand that the unity is the foundation of perfect communion, and +the communion the manifestation, so far as it can be manifested, of +the unspeakable unity. The solemn words which shine like +stars--starlike in that their height above us shrinks their magnitude +and dims their brightness, and in that they are points of radiance +partially disclosing, and separated by, abysses of unlighted +infinitude--tell us that in the order of eternity, before creatures +were, there was communion, for 'the Word was with God,' and there was +unity, for 'the Word was God.' And in the records of the life +manifested on earth the consciousness of unity loftily utters itself +in the unfathomable declaration, 'I and my Father are one'; whilst the +consciousness of communion, dependent like ours on harmony of will and +true obedience, breathes peacefully in the witness which He leaves to +Himself: 'The Father has not left Me alone, for I do always the things +that please Him.' + +We are fully warranted, then, in supposing that that wistful gaze to +heaven means, and may be taken to symbolise, our Lord's conscious +direction of thought and spirit to God as He wrought His work of +mercy. There are two distinctions to be noted between His communion +with God and ours before we can apply the lesson to ourselves. His +heavenward look was not the renewal of interrupted fellowship, but +rather, as a man standing firmly on firm rock may yet lift his foot to +plant it again where it was before, and settle himself in his attitude +before he strikes with all his might; so we may say Christ fixes +Himself where He always stood, and grasps anew the hand that He always +held, before He does the deed of power. The communion that had never +been broken was renewed; how much more the need that in _our_ work for +God the renewal of the--alas! too sadly sundered--fellowship should +ever precede and always accompany our efforts! And again, Christ's +fellowship was with the Father, while ours must be with the Father +through the Son. The communion to which we are called is with Jesus +Christ, in whom we find God. + +The manner of that intercourse, and the various discipline of +ourselves with a view to its perfecting which Christian prudence +prescribes, need not concern us here. As for the latter, let us not +forget that a wholesome and wide-reaching self-denial cannot be +dispensed with. Hands that are full of gilded toys and glass beads +cannot grasp durable riches, and eyes that have been accustomed to +glaring lights see only darkness when they look up to the violet +heaven with all its stars. As to the former, every part of our nature +above the simply animal is capable of God, and the communion ought to +include our whole being. Christ is truth for the understanding, +authority for the will, love for the heart, certainty for the hope, +fruition for all the desires, and for the conscience at once cleansing +and law. Fellowship with Him is no indolent passiveness, nor the +luxurious exercise of certain emotions, but the contact of the whole +nature with its sole adequate object and rightful Lord. + +Such intercourse, brethren, lies at the foundation of all work for +God. It is the condition of all our power. It is the measure of all +our success. Without it we may seem to realise the externals of +prosperity, but it will be all illusion. With it we may perchance seem +to 'spend our strength for nought'; but heaven has its surprises; and +those who toiled, nor left their hold of their Lord in all their work, +will have to say at last with wonder, as they see the results of their +poor efforts, 'Who hath begotten me these? behold, I was left alone; +these, where had they been?' + +Consider in few words the manifold ways in which the indispensable +prerequisite of all right effort for Christ may be shown to be +communion with Christ. + +The heavenward look is the renewal of our own vision of the calm +verities in which we trust, the recourse for ourselves to the +realities which we desire that others should see. And what is equal in +persuasive power to the simple utterance of one's own intense +conviction? He only will infuse his own religion into other minds, +whose religion is not a set of hard dogmas, but is fused by the heat +of personal experience into a river of living fire. It will flow then, +not otherwise. The only claim which the hearts of men will listen to, +in those who would win them to spiritual beliefs, is that ancient one: +'That which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, +declare we unto you.' Mightier than all arguments, than all 'proofs of +the truth of the Christian religion,' and penetrating into a sphere +deeper than that of the understanding, is the simple proclamation, 'We +have found the Messias.' If we would give sight to the blind, we must +ourselves be gazing into heaven. Only when we testify of that which we +see, as one might who, standing in a beleaguered city, discerned on +the horizon the filmy dust-cloud through which the spearheads of the +deliverers flashed at intervals, shall we win any to gaze with us till +they too behold and know themselves set free. + +The heavenward look draws new strength from the source of all our +might. In our work, dear brethren, contemplating as it ought to do +exclusively spiritual results, what we do depends largely on what we +are, and what we are depends on what we receive, and what we receive +depends on the depth and constancy of our communion with God. 'The +help which is done upon earth He doeth it all Himself.' We and our +organisations are but the channels through which this might is poured; +and if we choke the bed with turbid masses of drift and heavy rocks of +earthly thoughts, or build from bank to bank thick dams of worldliness +compact with slime of sin, how shall the full tide flow through us for +the healing of the salt and barren places? Will it not leave its +former course silted up with sand, and cut for itself new outlets, +while the useless quays that once rang with busy life stand silent, +and 'the cities are solitary that were full of people'? We are + + 'The trumpet at Thy lips, the clarion + Full of Thy cry, sonorous with Thy breath.' + +Let us see to it that by fellowship with Christ we keep the passage +clear, and become recipients of the inspiration which shall thrill our +else-silent spirits into the blast of loud alarum and the ringing +proclamation of the true King. + +The heavenward look will guard us from the temptations which surround +all our service, and the distractions which lay waste our lives. It is +habitual communion with Christ that alone will give the persistency +that makes systematic, continuous efforts for Him possible, and yet +will keep systematic work from degenerating, as it ever tends to do, +into mechanical work. There is no greater virtue in irregular +desultory service than in systematised labour. The one is not freer +from besetting temptations than the other, only the temptations are of +different sorts. Machinery saves manual toil, and multiplies force. +But we may have too heavy machinery for what engineers call the boiler +power,--too many wheels and shafts for the steam we have to drive them +with. What we want is not less organisation, or other sorts of it, but +more force. Any organisation will do if we have God's Spirit breathing +through it. None will be better than so much old iron if we have not. + +We are ever apt to trust to our work, to do it without a distinct +recurrence at each moment to the principles on which it rests, and the +motives by which it should be actuated,--to become so absorbed in +details that we forget the purpose which alone gives them meaning, to +over-estimate the external aspects of it, to lose sight of the solemn +truths which make it so grand, and to think of it as commonplace +because it is common, as ordinary because it is familiar. And from +these most real dangers, which beset us all, there is no refuge but +the frequent, the habitual, gaze into the open heavens, which will +show us again the realities of things, and bring to our spirits, +dwarfed even by habits of goodness, the renewal of former motives by +the vision of Jesus Christ. + +Such constant communion will further surround us with an atmosphere +through which none of the many influences which threaten our Christian +life and our Christian work can penetrate. As the diver in his bell +sits dry at the bottom of the sea, and draws a pure air from the free +heavens far above him, and is parted from that murderous waste of +green death that clings so closely round the translucent crystal walls +which keep him safe; so we, enclosed in God, shall repel from +ourselves all that would overflow to destroy us and our work, and may +by His grace lay deeper than the waters some courses in the great +building that shall one day rise, stately and many-mansioned, from out +of the conquered waves. For ourselves, and for all that we do for Him, +living communion with God is the means of power and peace, of security +and success. + +It was never more needful than now. Feverish activity rules in all +spheres of life. The iron wheels of the car which bears the modern +idol of material progress whirl fast, and crush remorselessly all who +cannot keep up the pace. Christian effort is multiplied and +systematised beyond all precedent. And all these facts make calm +fellowship with God hard to compass. The measure of the difficulty is +the measure of the need. I, for my part, believe that there are few +Christian duties more neglected than that of meditation, the very name +of which has fallen of late into comparative disuse, that augurs ill +for the frequency of the thing. We are so busy thinking, discussing, +defending, inquiring; or preaching, and teaching, and working, that we +have no time and no leisure of heart for quiet contemplation, without +which the exercise of the intellect upon Christ's truth will not feed, +and busy activity in Christ's cause may starve, the soul. There are +few things which the Church of this day in all its parts needs more +than to obey the invitation, 'Come ye yourselves apart into a lonely +place, and rest a while.' + +Christ has set us the example. Let our prayers ascend as His did, and +in our measure the answers which came to Him will not fail us. For us, +too, 'praying, the heavens' shall be 'opened,' and the peace-bringing +spirit fall dove-like on our meek hearts. For us, too, when the shadow +of our cross lies black and gaunt upon our paths, and our souls are +troubled, communion with heaven will bring the assurance, audible to +our ears at least, that God will glorify Himself even in us. If, after +many a weary day, we seek to hold fellowship with God as He sought it +on the Mount of Olives, or among the solitudes of the midnight hills, +or out in the morning freshness of the silent wilderness, like Him we +shall have men gathering around us to hear us speak when we come forth +from 'the secret place of the Most High.' If our prayer, like His, +goes before our mighty deeds, the voice that first pierced the skies +will penetrate the tomb, and make the dead stir in their +grave-clothes. If our longing, trustful look is turned to the heavens, +we shall not speak in vain on earth when we say, 'Be opened!' + +Brethren, we cannot do without the communion which our Master needed. +Do we delight in what strengthened Him? Does our work rest upon the +basis of inward fellowship with God which underlay His? Alas! that our +Pattern should be our rebuke, and that the readiest way to force home +our faults on our consciences should be the contemplation of the life +which we say that we try to copy! + +II. We have here pity for the evils we would remove, set forth by the +Lord's sigh. + +The frequency with which this Evangelist records our Lord's emotions +on the sight of sin and sorrow has been often noticed. In his pages we +read of Christ's grief at the hardness of men's hearts, of His +marvelling because of their unbelief, of His being moved with +compassion for an outcast leper and a hungry multitude, of His sighing +deeply in His spirit when prejudiced hostility, assuming the +appearance of candid inquiry, asked of Him a sign from heaven. All +these instances of true human feeling, like His tears at the grave of +Lazarus, and His weariness as He sat on the well, and His tired sleep +in the stern of the little fishing-boat, and His hunger and His +thirst, are very precious as aids in realising His perfect manhood; +but they have a worth beyond even that. They show us how the manifold +ills and evils of man's fate and conduct appealed to the only pure +heart that ever beat, and how quickly and warmly it, by reason of its +purity, throbbed in sympathy with all the woe. One might have thought +that in the present case the consciousness that His help was so near +would have been sufficient to repress the sigh. One might have thought +that the heavenward look would have stayed the tears. But neither the +happiness of active benevolence, nor the knowledge of immediate cure, +nor the glories above flooding His vision, could lift the burden from +His labouring breast. And surely in this too, we may discern a law for +all our efforts, that their worth shall be in proportion to the +expense of feeling at which they are done. Men predict the harvests in +Egypt by the height which the river marks on the gauge of the +inundation. So many feet there represent so much fertility. Tell me +the depth of a Christian man's compassion, and I will tell you the +measure of his fruitfulness. + +What was it that drew that sigh from the heart of Jesus? One poor man +stood before him, by no means the most sorely afflicted of the many +wretched ones whom He healed. But He saw in him more than a solitary +instance of physical infirmities. Did there not roll darkly before His +thoughts that whole weltering sea of sorrow that moans round the world +of which here is but one drop that He could dry up? Did there not rise +black and solid, against the clear blue to which He had been looking, +the mass of man's sin, of which these bodily infirmities were but a +poor symbol as well as a consequence? He saw, as none but He could +bear to see, the miserable realities of human life. His knowledge of +all that man might be, of all that the most of men were becoming, His +power of contemplating in one awful aggregate the entire sum of +sorrows and sins, laid upon His heart a burden which none but He has +ever endured. His communion with heaven deepened the dark shadow on +earth, and the eyes that looked up to God and saw Him, could not but +see foulness where others suspected none, and murderous messengers of +hell walking in darkness unpenetrated by mortal sight. And all that +pain of clearer knowledge of the sorrowfulness of sorrow, and the +sinfulness of sin, was laid upon a heart in which was no selfishness +to blunt the sharp edge of the pain nor any sin to stagnate the pity +that flowed from the wound. To Jesus Christ, life was a daily +martyrdom before death had 'made the sacrifice complete,' and He 'bore +our griefs and carried our sorrows' through many a weary hour before +He 'bare them in His own body on the tree.' Therefore, 'Bear ye one +another's burdens, and so fulfil the law' which Christ obeyed, becomes +a command for all who would draw men to Him. And true sorrow, a sharp +and real sense of pain, becomes indispensable as preparation for, and +accompaniment to, our work. + +Mark how in us, as in our Lord, the sigh of compassion is to be +connected with the look to heaven. It follows upon that gaze. The +evils become more real, more terrible, by their startling contrast +with the unshadowed light which lives above cloudracks and mists. It +is a sharp shock to turn from the free sweep of the heavens, starry +and radiant, to the sights that meet us in 'this dim spot which men +call earth.' Thus habitual communion with God is the root of the +truest and purest compassion. It does not withdraw us from our fellow +feeling with our brethren, it cultivates no isolation for undisturbed +beholding of God. It at once supplies a standard by which to measure +the greatness of man's godlessness, and therefore of his gloom, and a +motive for laying the pain of these upon our hearts, as if they were +our own. He has looked into the heavens to little purpose who has not +learned how bad and how sad the world now is, and how God bends over +it in pitying love. + +And that same fellowship which will clear our eyes and soften our +hearts, is also the one consolation which we have when our sense of +'all the ills that flesh is heir to' becomes deep nearly to despair. +When one thinks of the real facts of human life, and tries to conceive +of the frightful meanness and passion and hate and wretchedness that +have been howling and shrieking and gibbering and groaning through +dreary millenniums, one's brain reels, and hope seems to be absurdity, +and joy a sin against our fellows, as a feast would be in a house next +door to where was a funeral. I do not wonder at settled sorrow falling +upon men of vivid imagination, keen moral sense, and ordinary +sensitiveness, when they brood long on the world as it is. But I do +wonder at the superficial optimism which goes on with its little +prophecies about human progress, and its rose-coloured pictures of +human life, and sees nothing to strike it dumb for ever in men's +writhing miseries, blank failures, and hopeless end. Ah! brethren, if +it were not for the heavenward look, how could we bear the sight of +earth? 'We see not yet all things put under Him.' No! God knows, far +enough off from that. Man's folly, man's submission to the creatures +he should rule, man's agonies, and man's transgression, are a grim +contrast to the Psalmist's vision. If we had only earth to look to, +despair of the race, expressed in settled melancholy apathy or in +fierce cynicism, were the wisest attitude. But there is more within +our view than earth; 'we see Jesus'; we look to the heaven, and as we +behold the true Man, we see more than ever, indeed, how far from that +pattern we all are; but we can bear the thought of what men as yet +have been, when we see that perfect Example of what men shall be. The +root and the consolation of our sorrow for men's evils is communion +with God. + +Let me remind you, too, that still more dangerous than the pity which +is not based upon, and corrected by, the look to heaven, is the pity +which does not issue in strenuous work. It is easy to excite people's +emotions; but it is perilous for both the operator and the subject, +unless they be excited through the understanding, and pass on the +impulse to the will and the practical powers. The surest way to +petrify a heart is to stimulate the feelings, and give them nothing to +do. They will never recover their original elasticity if they have +been wantonly drawn forth thus. Coldness, hypocrisy, spurious +sentimentalism, and a whole train of affectations and falsehoods +follow the steps of an emotional religion, which divorces itself from +active work. Pity is meant to impel to help. Let us not be content +with painting sad and true pictures of men's woes,--of the gloomy +hopelessness of idolatry, for instance--but let us remember that every +time our compassion is stirred, and no action ensues, our hearts are +in some measure indurated, and the sincerity of our religion in some +degree impaired. White-robed Pity is meant to guide the strong powers +of practical help to their work. She is to them as eyes to go before +them and point their tasks. They are to her as hands to execute her +gentle will. Let us see to it that we rend them not apart; for idle +pity is unblessed and fruitless as a sigh cast into the fragrant air, +and unpitying work is more unblessed and fruitless still. Let us +remember, too, that Christlike and indispensable as Pity is, she is +second, and not first. Let us take heed that we preserve that order in +our own minds, and in our endeavours to stimulate one another. For if +we reverse it, we shall surely find the fountains of compassion drying +up long before the wide stretches of thirsty land are watered, and the +enterprises which we have sought to carry on by appealing to a +secondary motive, languishing when there is most need for vigour. Here +is the true sequence which must be observed in our missionary and +evangelistic work, 'Looking up to heaven, He sighed.' + +Dear brethren! must we not all acknowledge woful failures in this +regard? How much of our service, our giving, our preaching, our +planning, has been carried on without one thought of the ills and +godlessness we profess to be seeking to cure! If some angel's touch +could annihilate all that portion of our activity, what gaps would be +left in all our subscription lists, our sermons, and our labours both +at home and abroad! Annihilate, do I say? It is done already. Such +work is nothing, and comes to nothing. 'Yea, it shall not be planted; +yea, it shall not be sown; and He shall also blow upon it, and it +shall wither.' + +The hindrances to such abiding consciousness of and pity for the +world's woes run all down to the one tap-root of all sin, selfishness. +The remedies run all up to the common form of all goodness, the +self-absorbing communion with Jesus Christ. And besides that +mother-tincture of everything wrong, subsidiary impediments may be +found in the small amounts of time and effort which any of us give to +bring the facts of the world's condition vividly before our minds. The +destruction of all emotion is the indolent acquiescence in general +statements which we are too lazy or busy to break up into individual +cases. To talk about hundreds of millions of idolaters leaves the +heart untouched. But take one soul out of all that mass, and try to +feel what his life is in its pitchy darkness, broken only by lurid +lights of fear and sickly gleams of hope, in its passions ungoverned +by love, its remorse uncalmed by pardon, its affections feeling like +the tendrils of some climbing plant for the stay they cannot find, and +in the cruel blackness that swallows it up irrevocably at last. Follow +it from the childhood that knows no discipline to the grave that knows +no waking, and will not the solitary instance come nearer our hearts +than the millions? + +But however that may be, the sluggishness of our imaginations, the +very familiarity with the awful facts, our own feeble hold on Christ, +our absorption in personal interests, the incompleteness and +desultoriness of our communion with our Lord, do all concur with our +natural selfishness to make a sadly large proportion of our apparent +labours for God and men utterly cold and unfeeling, and therefore +utterly worthless. Has the benighted world ever caused us as much pain +as some trivial pecuniary loss has done? Have we ever felt the smart +of the gaping wounds through which our brothers' blood is pouring +forth as much as we do the tiniest scratch on our own fingers? Does it +sound to us like exaggerated rhetoric when a prophet breaks out, 'Oh +that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I +might weep night and day!' or when an Apostle in calmer tones +declares, 'I have great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart'? Some +seeds are put to steep and swell in water, that they may be tested +before sowing. The seed which we sow will not germinate unless it be +saturated with our tears. And yet the sorrow must be blended with joy; +for it is glad labour which is ordinarily productive labour--just as +the growing time is the changeful April, and one knows not whether the +promise of harvest is most sure in the clouds that drop fatness, or in +the sunshine that makes their depths throb with whitest light, and +touches the moist-springing blades into emeralds and diamonds. The +gladness comes from the heavenward look, the pain is breathed in the +deep-drawn sigh; both must be united in us if we would 'approve +ourselves as the servants of God--as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.' + +III. We have here loving contact with those whom we would help set +forth in the Lord's touch. + +The reasons for the variety observable in Christ's method of +communicating supernatural blessing were, probably, too closely +connected with unrecorded differences in the spiritual conditions of +the recipients to be distinctly traceable by us. But though we cannot +tell why a particular method was employed in a given case, why now a +word, and now a symbolic action, now the touch of His hand, and now +the hem of His garment, appeared to be the vehicles of His power, we +can discern the significance of these divers ways, and learn great +lessons from them all. + +His touch was sometimes obviously the result of what one may venture +to call instinctive tenderness, as when He lifted the little children +in His arms and laid His hands upon their heads. It was, I suppose, +always the spontaneous expression of love and compassion, even when it +was something more. The touch of His hand on the ghastly glossiness of +the leper's skin was, no doubt, His assertion of priestly functions, +and of elevation above all laws of defilement; but what was it to the +poor outcast, who for years had never felt the warm contact of flesh +and blood? It always indicated that He Himself was the source of +healing and life. It always expressed His identification of Himself +with sorrow and sickness. So that it is in principle analogous to, and +may be taken as illustrative of, that transcendent act whereby He +'became flesh, and dwelt among us.' Indeed, the very word by which our +Lord's taking the blind man by the hand is described in the chapter +following our text, is that employed in the Epistle to the Hebrews +when, dealing with the true brotherhood of Jesus, the writer says, 'He +took not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham He taketh hold.' +Christ's touch is His willing contact with man's infirmities and sins, +that He may strengthen and hallow. + +And the lesson is one of universal application. Wherever men would +help their fellows, this is a prime requisite, that the would-be +helper should come down to the level of those whom he desires to aid. +If we wish to teach, we must stoop to think the scholar's thoughts. +The master who has forgotten his boyhood will have poor success. If we +would lead to purer emotions, we must try to enter into the lower +feelings which we labour to elevate. It is of no use to stand at the +mouth of the alleys we wish to cleanse, with our skirts daintily +gathered about us, and smelling-bottle in hand, to preach homilies on +the virtues of cleanliness. We must go in among the filth, and handle +it, if we want to have it cleared away. The degraded must feel that we +do not shrink from them, or we shall do them no good. The leper, +shunned by all, and ashamed of himself because everybody loathes him, +hungers in his hovel for the grasp of a hand that does not care for +defilement, if it can bring cleansing. Even in regard to common +material helps the principle holds good. We are too apt to cast our +doles to the poor like bones to a dog, and then to wonder at what we +are pleased to think men's ingratitude. A benefit may be so conferred +as to hurt more than a blow; and we cannot be surprised if so-called +charity which is given with contempt and a sense of superiority, +should be received with a scowl, and chafe a man's spirit like a +fetter. Such gifts bless neither him who gives nor him who takes. We +must put our hearts into them, if we would win hearts by them. We must +be ready, like our Master, to take blind beggars by the hand, if we +would bless or help them. The despair and opprobrium of our modern +civilisation; the gulf growing wider and deeper between Dives and +Lazarus, between Belgravia and Whitechapel; the mournful failure of +legalised help, and of delegated efforts to bridge it over, the +darkening ignorance, the animal sensuousness, the utter heathenism +that lives in every town of England, within a stone's-throw of +Christian houses, and near enough to hear the sound of public +worship--will yield to nothing but that sadly forgotten law which +enjoins personal contact with the sinful and the suffering, as one +chief condition of raising them from the black mire in which they +welter. + +But the same law has its special application in regard to the +enterprise of Christian missions. + +It defines the spirit in which Christian men should proclaim the +Gospel. The effect of much well-meant Christian effort is simply to +irritate. People are very quick to catch delicate intonations which +reveal a secret sense, 'how much better, wiser, more devout I am than +these people!' and wherever a trace of that appears in our work, the +good of it is apt to be marred. We all know how hackneyed the charge +of spiritual pride and Pharisaic self-complacency is, and, thank God, +how unjust it often is. But averse as men may be to the truths which +humble, and willing as they may be to assume that the very effort on +our parts to present these to others implies a claim which they +resent, we may at least learn from the threadbare calumny, what +strikes men about our position, and what rouses their antagonism to +us. It is allowable to be taught by our enemies, especially when it is +such a lesson as this, that we must carefully divest our evangelistic +work of apparent pretensions to superiority, and take our stand by the +side of those to whom we speak. We cannot lecture men into the love of +Christ, We can win them to it only by showing Christ's love to them; +and not the least important element in that process is the exhibition +of our own love. We have a Gospel to speak of which the very heart is +that the Son of God stooped to become one with the lowliest and most +sinful; and how can that Gospel be spoken with power unless we too +stoop like Him? We have to echo the invitation, 'Learn of Me, for I am +lowly in heart'; and how can such divine words flow from lips into +which like grace has not been poured? Our theme is a Saviour who +shrank from no sinner, who gladly consorted with publicans and +harlots, who laid His hand on pollution, and His heart, full of God +and of love, on hearts reeking with sin; and how can our message +correspond with our theme if, even in delivering it, we are saying to +ourselves, 'The Temple of the Lord are we: this people which knoweth +not the law is cursed'? Let us beware of the very real danger which +besets us in this matter, and earnestly seek to make ourselves one +with those whom we would gather into Christ, by actual familiarity +with their condition, and by identification of ourselves in feeling +with them, after the example of that greatest of Christian teachers +who became 'all things to all men, that by all means he might gain +some'; after the higher example, which Paul followed, of that dear +Lord who, being Highest, descended to the lowest, and in the days of +His humiliation was not content with speaking words of power from +afar, nor abhorred the contact of mortality and disease and loathsome +corruption; but laid His hands upon death, and it lived; upon +sickness, and it was whole; on rotting leprosy, and it was sweet as +the flesh of a little child. + +The same principle might be further applied to our Christian work, as +affecting the form in which we should present the truth. The +sympathetic identification of ourselves with those to whom we try to +carry the Gospel will certainly make us wise to know how to shape our +message. Seeing with their eyes, we shall be able to graduate the +light. Thinking their thoughts, and having in some measure succeeded, +by force of sheer community of feeling, in having, as it were, got +inside their minds, we shall unconsciously, and without effort, be led +to such aspects of Christ's all-comprehensive truth as they most need. +There will be no shooting over people's heads, if we love them well +enough to understand them. There will be no toothless generalities, +when our interest in men keeps their actual condition and temptations +clear before us. There will be no flinging fossil doctrines at them +from a height, as if Christ's blessed Gospel were, in another than the +literal sense, 'a stone of offence,' if we have taken our place on +their level. And without such sympathy, these and a thousand other +weaknesses and faults will certainly vitiate much of our Christian +effort. + +Let me not be misunderstood when I speak of adapting our presentation +of the Gospel to the wants of those to whom we carry it. That general +statement may express the plainest dictate of Christian prudence or +the most dangerous practical error. The one great truth of the Gospel +wants no adaptation, by our handling, to any soul of man. It is fitted +for all, and demands only plain, loving, earnest statement. There must +be no tampering with central verities, nor any diplomatic reserve on +the plea of consulting the needs of the men whom we address. Every +sinful spirit needs the simple Gospel of salvation by Jesus Christ +more than it needs anything else. Nor does adaptation mean deferential +stretching a point to meet man's wishes in our presentation of the +truth. Their wishes have to be contravened, that their wants may be +met. The truth which a man or a generation requires most is the truth +which he or it likes least; and the true Christian teacher's +adaptation of his message will consist quite as much in opposing the +desires and contradicting the lies, as in seeking to meet the felt +wants, of the world. Nauseous medicines or sharp lancets are adapted +to the sick man, quite as truly as pleasant food and soothing +ointment. + +But remembering all this, we still have a wide field for the operation +of practical wisdom and loving common-sense, in determining the form +of our message and the manner of our action. And not the least +important of qualifications for solving the problems connected +therewith is cheerful identification of ourselves with the thoughts +and feelings of those whom we would fain draw to the love of God. Such +contact with men will win their hearts, as well as soften ours, It +will make them willing to hear, as well as us wise to speak. It will +enrich our own lives with wide experience and multiplied interests. It +will lift us out of the enchanted circle which selfishness draws +around us. It will silently proclaim the Lord from whom we have learnt +it. The clasp of the hand will be precious, even apart from the virtue +that may flow from it, and may be to many a soul burdened with a +consciousness of corruption, the dawning of belief in a love that does +not shrink even from its foulness. Let us preach the Lord's touch as +the source of all cleansing. Let us imitate it in our lives, that 'if +any will not hear the word, they may without the word be won.' + +IV. We have here the true healing power and the consciousness of +wielding it set forth in the Lord's authoritative word. + +All the rest of His action was either the spontaneous expression of +His true participation in human sorrow, or a merciful veiling of His +glory that sense-bound eyes might see it the better. But the word was +the utterance of His will, and that was omnipotent. The hand laid on +the sick, the blind or the deaf was not even the channel of His power. +The bare putting forth of His energy was all-sufficient. In these we +see the loving, pitying man. In this blazes forth, yet more loving, +yet more compassionate, the effulgence of manifest God. Therefore so +often do we read the very syllables with which His 'voice then shook +the earth,' vibrating through all the framework of the material +universe. Therefore do the Gospels bid us listen when He rebukes the +fever, and it departs; when He says to the demons 'Go,' and they go; +when one word louder in its human articulation than the howling wind +hushes the surges; when 'Talitha cumi' brings back the fair young +spirit from dreary wanderings among the shades of death. Therefore was +it a height of faith not found in Israel when the Gentile soldier, +whose training had taught him the power of absolute authority, as +heathenism had driven him to long for a man who should speak with the +imperial sway of a god, recognised in His voice an all-commanding +power. From of old, the very signature of divinity has been declared +to be, 'He spake, and it was done'; and He, the breath of whose lips +could set in motion material changes, is that Eternal Word, by whom +all things were made. + +What unlimited consciousness of sovereign dominion sounds in that +imperative from His autocratic lips! It is spoken in deaf ears, but He +knows that it will be heard. He speaks as the fontal source, not as +the recipient channel, of healing. He anticipates no delay, no +resistance. There is neither effort nor uncertainty in the curt +command. He is sure that He has power, and He is sure that the power +is His own. + +There is no analogy here between us and Him. Alone, fronting the whole +race of man, He stands--utterer of a word which none can say after +Him, possessor of unshared might, 'and of His fulness do all we +receive.' But even from that divine authority and solitary sovereign +consciousness we may gather lessons of infinite value for all +Christian workers. Of His fulness we _have_ received, and the power of +the word on His lips may teach us that of His word even on ours, as +the victorious certainty with which He spake His will of healing may +remind us of the confidence with which it becomes us to proclaim His +name. + +His will was almighty then. Is it less mighty or less loving now? Does +it not gather all the world in the sweep of its mighty purpose of +mercy? His voice pierced then into the dull, cold ear of death, and +has it become weaker since? His word spoken _by_ Him was enough to +banish the foul spirits that run riot, swine-like, in the garden of +God in man's soul, trampling down and eating up its flowers and +fruitage; is the word spoken _of_ Him less potent to cast them out? +Were not all the mighty deeds which He wrought by the breath of His +lips on men's bodies prophecies of the yet mightier ones which His +Will of love, and the utterance of that Will by stammering lips, may +work on men's souls? Let us not in our faintheartedness number up our +failures, the deaf that will not hear, the dumb that will not speak +His praise, nor unbelievingly say, 'Christ's own word was mighty, but +the word concerning Christ is weak on our lips.' Not so; our lips are +unclean, and our words are weak, but His word--the utterance of His +loving Will that men should be saved--is what it always was and always +will be. We have it, brethren, to proclaim. Did our Master countenance +the faithless contrast between the living force of His word when He +dwelt on earth, and the feebleness of it as He speaks through His +servant? If He did, what did He mean when He said, 'He that believeth +on Me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than +these shall he do, because I go unto the Father'? + +And the reflection of Christ's triumphant consciousness of power +should irradiate our spirits as we do His work, like the gleam from +gazing on God's glory which shone on the lawgiver's stern face while +he talked with men. We have everything to assure us that we cannot +fail. The manifest fitness of the Gospel to be the food of all souls; +the victories of nineteen centuries, which at least prove that all +conditions of society, all classes of civilisation, all varieties of +race, all peculiarities of individual temperament, all depths of +degradation and distances of alienation, are capable of receiving the +word, which, like corn, can grow in every latitude, and, though it be +an exotic everywhere, can anywhere be naturalised; the firm promises +of unchanging faithfulness, the universal aspect of Christ's work, the +prevalence of His continual intercession, the indwelling of His +abiding Spirit, and, not least, the unerring voice of our own +experience of the power of the truth to bless and save--all these are +ours. In view of these, what should make us doubt? Unwavering +confidence is the only attitude that corresponds to such certainties. +We have a rock to build on; let us build on it _with_ rock. Putting +fear and hesitancy far from us, let us gird ourselves with the joyful +strength of assured victory, striking as those who know that conquest +is bound to their standard, and who through all the dust of the field +see the fair vision of the final triumph. The work is done before we +begin it. 'It is finished' was a clarion blast proclaiming that all +was won when all seemed lost. Weary ages have indeed to roll away +before the great voice from heaven shall declare, 'It is done'; but +all that lies between the two is but the gradual unfolding and +appropriating of the results which are already secured. The 'strong +man' is bound; what remains is but the 'spoiling of his house.' The +head is bruised; what remains is but the dying lashing of the snaky +horror's powerless coils. 'I send you to reap that whereon ye bestowed +no labour.' The tearful sowing in the stormy winter's day has been +done by the Son of Man. For us there remains the joy of harvest--hot +and hard work, indeed, but gladsome too. + +Then, however languor and despondency may sometimes tempt us, thinking +of slow advancement and of dying men who fade from the place of the +living before the gradual light has reached their eyes, our duty is +plain--to be sure that the word we carry cannot fail. You remember the +old story how, when Jerusalem was in her hour of direst need, and the +army of Babylon lay around her battered walls, the prophet was bid to +buy 'the field that is in Anathoth, in the country of Benjamin,' for a +sign that the transient fury of the invader would be beaten back, that +Israel might again dwell safely in the land. So with us, the host of +our King's enemies comes up like a river strong and mighty; but all +this world, held though it be by the usurper is still 'Thy land, O +Immanuel,' and over it all Thy peaceful rule shall be established! + +Many things in this day tempt the witnesses of God to speak with +doubting voice. Angry opposition, contemptuous denial, complacent +assumption that a belief in old-fashioned evangelical truth is, _ipso +facto_, a proof of mental weakness, abound. Let them not rob us of our +confidence. Shame on us if we let ourselves be frightened from it by a +sarcasm or a laugh! Do you fall back on all these grounds for assured +reliance to which I have referred, and make the good old answer yours, +'Why, herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not whence He is, and +yet--He hath opened mine eyes'! + +Trust the word which you have to speak. Speak it and work for its +diffusion as if you did trust it. Do not preach it as if it were a +notion of your own. In so far as it is, it will share the fate of all +human conceptions of divine realities--'will have its day, and cease +to be.' Do not speak it as if it were some new nostrum for curing the +ills of humanity, which might answer or might not. Speak it as if it +were what it is--'the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever.' +Speak it as if you were what you are, neither its inventors nor its +discoverers, but only its messengers, who have but to 'preach the +preaching which He bids' you. And to all the widespread questionings +of this day, filmy and air-filling as the gossamers of an autumn +evening, to all the theories of speculation, and all the panaceas of +unbelieving philanthropy, present the solid certainties of your inmost +experience, and the yet more solid certainty of that all-loving name +and all-sufficient work on which these repose. '_We know_ that we are +of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that the +Son of God is come.' Then our proclamation, 'This is the true God and +eternal life,' will not be in vain; and our loving entreaty, 'Keep +yourselves from idols,' will be heard and yielded to in many a land. + +The sum of the whole matter is briefly this. The root of all our +efficiency in this great task to which we, unworthy, have been called, +is in fellowship with Jesus Christ. 'The branch cannot bear fruit of +itself; without Me ye can do nothing.' Living near Him, and growing +like Him by gazing upon Him, His beauty will pass into our faces, His +tender pity into our hearts, His loving identification of Himself with +men's pains and sins will fashion our lives; and the word which He +spoke with authority and assured confidence will be strong when we +speak it with like calm certainty of victory. If the Church of Christ +will but draw close to her Lord till the fulness of His life and the +gentleness of His pity flow into her heart and limbs, she will then be +able to breathe the life which she has received into the prostrate +bulk of a dead world. Only she must do as the meekest of the prophets +did in a like miracle. She must not shrink from the touch of the cold +clay nor the odour of incipient corruption, but lip to lip and heart +to heart must lay herself upon the dead and he will live. + +The pattern for our work, dear brethren, is before us in the Lord's +look, His sigh, His touch, His word. If we take Him for the example, +and Him for the motive, Him for the strength, Him for the theme, Him +for the reward, of our service, we may venture to look to Him as the +prophecy of our success, and to be sure that when our own faint hearts +or an unbelieving world question the wisdom of our enterprise or the +worth of our efforts, we may answer as He did, 'Go and show again +those things which ye do hear and see; 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 unto them.' + + + +THE PATIENT TEACHER, AND THE SLOW SCHOLARS + + +'And when Jesus knew It, He saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye +have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your +heart yet hardened? 18. Having eyes, see ye not? having ears, hear ye +not? and do ye not remember?'--Mark viii. 17,18. + +How different were the thoughts of Christ and of His disciples, as +they sat together in the boat, making their way across the lake! He +was pursuing a train of sad reflections which, the moment before their +embarkation, had caused Him to sigh deeply in His spirit and say, 'Why +doth this generation seek after a sign?' Absorbed in thought, He +spoke, 'Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,' who had been asking +that question. + +So meditated and spoke Jesus in the stern, and amidships the +disciples' thoughts were only concerned about the negligent omission, +very excusable in the hurry of embarkation, by which they had +forgotten to lay in a fresh supply of provisions, and had set sail +with but one loaf left in the boat. So taken up were they with this +petty trouble that they twisted the Master's words as they fell from +His lips, and thought that He was rebuking them for what they were +rebuking themselves for. So apt are we to interpret others' sayings by +the thoughts uppermost in our own minds. + +And then our Lord poured out this altogether unusual--perhaps I may +say unique--hail of questions which indicate how deeply moved from His +ordinary calm He was by this strange slowness of apprehension on the +part of His disciples. There is no other instance that I can recall in +the whole Gospels, with the exception of Gethsemane, where our Lord's +words seem to indicate such agitation of the windless sea of His +spirit as this rapid succession of rebuking interrogations. They give +a glimpse into the depths of His mind, showing us what He generally +kept sacredly shut up, and let us see how deeply He was touched and +pained by the slowness of apprehension of His servants. + +Let us look at these questions as suggesting to us two things--the +grieved Teacher and the slow scholars. + +I. The grieved Teacher. + +I have said that the revelation of the depths of our Lord's experience +here is unexampled. We can understand the mood of which it is the +utterance; the feeling of despair that sometimes comes over the most +patient instructor when he finds that all his efforts to hammer some +truth into, or to print some impression on, the brain or heart of man +or boy, have been foiled, and that years, it may be, of patient work +have scarcely left more traces on unretentive minds than remain on the +ocean of the passage through it of a keel. + +Christ felt that; and I do not think we half enough realise how large +an element in the sorrows of the Man of Sorrows, and of the grief with +which He was acquainted, was His necessary association with people +who, He felt, did not in the least degree understand Him, however +truly, blindly, and almost animally, they might love Him. It was His +disciples' misconception that stung him most. If I might so say, He +_calculated_ upon being misunderstood by Pharisees and outsiders, but +that these followers who had been gathered round about Him all these +months, and had been the subjects of His sedulous toil, should blurt +out such words as these which precede the question of my text, cut +deep into that loving heart. It was not only the pain of being +misunderstood, but also the pain of feeling that the people who cared +most for Him did not understand Him, and were so hard to drag up to +the level where they could even catch a glimpse of His meaning, that +struck His heart with almost a kind of despair; and, as I said, made +Him pour out this rain of questions. + +And what do the questions suggest? Not only emotion very unusual in +Him, yet truly human, and showing Him to be our Brother; but they +suggest three distinct types of emotion, all of them dashed with pain. + +'Why reason ye? Having eyes, see ye not? Do ye not remember?' That +speaks of His astonishment. Do not start at the word, or suppose that +it in any degree contradicts the lofty beliefs that I suppose most of +us have with regard to the Deity of our Lord and Saviour. We find in +another place in the Gospels, not by inference as here, but in plain +words, the ascription to Him of wonder; 'He marvelled at their +unbelief.' And we read of a more blessed kind of surprise as having +once been His, when He wondered at the faith of the heathen centurion. +But here His astonishment is that after all these years of toil, and +of sympathy, and of discipleship, and of listening and trying to get +hold of His meaning, His disciples were so far away from any +understanding of what He was driving at. He had to learn by experience +the depths of men's stupidity and ignorance. And although He was the +Word of God made flesh, we recognise here the token of a true brother +in that He was capable not only of the physical feelings of weariness, +and hunger, and thirst, and pain, but that He, too, had that emotion +which only a limited understanding can have--the emotion of wonder. +And it was drawn out by His disciples' denseness and inertness. + +Ah! dear friends, does He not wonder at us? One of the prophets says, +'Be astonished, O heavens!' And be sure of this, that the manhood of +Jesus Christ is not now so lifted up above what it was upon earth as +that that same sensation--twin-sister to yours and mine--of surprise, +does not sometimes visit Him when He looks down upon us; and has to +say to us--as, alas! He has to say--what He once said to one of the +Twelve, 'Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not +known me, Philip?' Is not the same question coming to us? Why is it +that we do not understand? + +Wonder, then, is the first emotion that is expressed in this question. +There is another one: Pain. And there again I fall back not upon +inference, but upon plain words of another part of the Gospels. 'He +looked round upon them with anger, being _grieved_ at the hardness of +their hearts.' It seems daring to venture to say that the exalted and +glorified humanity of Jesus Christ to-day is, in any measure, capable +of feeling analogous to that; but it will not seem so daring if you +remember the solemn charge of one of the Apostles, 'Grieve not the +Holy Spirit of God.' It is Christ's disciples that pain Him most. +'They vexed His Holy Spirit, therefore He fought against them.' +Brethren, let us look into our own hearts and our own lives, and ask +ourselves if there is not something there that gives a pang even to +the heart of the glorified Master, and makes Him sigh deeply within +Himself? + +May I add one more emotion which seems to me to be unmistakably +expressed by this rapid fusilade of questions? That is indignation. +Again I fall back upon plain words: 'He looked round about upon them +with anger, being grieved.' The two things were braided together in +His heart, and did not conflict with each other There were infinite +sorrow, infinite pity, and real displeasure. You must take all notions +of passion and of malignity, and of desire to do harm to the subject, +out of the conception of anger as applied to God or to Christ who is +the revelation of God. But it seems to me that it is a maimed Christ +that we put before the world unless we say that in the Love there lie +the possibilities of Wrath. 'Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, +and I beheld, and lo! a Lamb!' Wrath and gentleness are in Him +inseparably united, neither of them limiting nor making impossible the +other. + +So here we have a self-revelation, as by one glimpse into a great +chamber, of the deep heart of Christ, the great Teacher, moved to +astonishment, grief, and indignation. + +II. Now let me say a word about the slow scholars. + +I have spoken of these questions as being rapid and repeated, and as a +rain of what we may almost call fiery interrogation. But they are by +no means tautology or useless and aimless repetition. If we look at +them closely, I think we shall see that they open out to us several +different sides and phases of the fault in His disciples that moves +these emotions. + +There is, first, His scholars' stolid insensibility, which moves Him +to anger, to astonishment, and to grief. 'Are your hearts yet +hardened?' by which is meant, not hardened in the sense of being +suddenly and stiffly set in antagonism to Him, but simply in the sense +of being--may I use the word?--so pachydermatous, so thick-skinned, +that nothing can go through them. They showed it is a dull, stolid +insensibility, and it marks some of us professing Christians, on whom +promises and invitations and revelations of truth all fall with equal +ineffectiveness, and from whom they glide off with equal rapidity. You +may rain upon a black basalt rock to all eternity, and nothing will +grow upon it. All the drops will run down the polished sides, and a +quarter of an inch below the surface it will be as dry as it was +before the first drop fell. And here are we Christian ministers, +talk--talk--talking, week in and week out; and here is Christ, by His +providences and by His word, speaking far more loudly than any of us; +and it all falls with absolute impotence on hosts of people that call +themselves Christians. Ah! brethren, it is not only unbelievers who +have their hearts hardened. Orthodox professors are often guilty of +the same. If I might alter the metaphor, many of us have waterproofed +our minds, and the ingredients of the mixture by which we have +waterproofed them are our knowledge of 'the plan of salvation,' our +connection with a Christian community, our membership in a church, our +obedience to the formalisms of the devout life. All these have only +made a non-transmitting medium interposed between ourselves and the +concentrated electric energy that ever flashes from Jesus Christ. Our +hardened hearts, with their stolid insensibility, amaze our Master, +and no wonder that they do. + +But that is not all. There is not only what I have ventured to call +stolid insensibility, but, as a result of it, there is the not using +the capacities that we have. 'Having eyes, see ye not? Having ears, +hear ye not?' We are not like children that cannot, but like careless, +untrained schoolboys that will not, learn. We have the capacity, and +it is our own fault that we are dunces in the school, and at the +bottom of the class. Use the power that you have, and 'unto him that +hath shall be given, and he shall have in abundance.' There are fishes +in the caverns of North America that have lived so long in the dark, +underground channels, that the present generation of them has no eyes. +We are doing our best to deprive ourselves of our capacities of +beholding by refusing to use them. 'Having eyes, see ye not?' Our +non-use of the powers we have amazes and grieves our Master. + +Further, the reason why there are this stolid insensibility and this +non-use of capacity lies here: 'Ye reason about the bread.' The +absorption of our minds and efforts and time with material things, +that perish with the using, come in between us and our apprehension of +Christ's teaching. Ah! brethren, it is not only the rich man that is +swallowed up with the present world; the poor man may be so as really. +All of us, by reason of the absolute necessities of our lives, are in +danger of getting our hearts so filled and crowded with the things +that are 'seen and temporal' that we have no time, nor room, for the +things that are 'unseen and eternal.' I do not need to elaborate that +point. We all know that it is there that our danger, in various forms, +lies. If you in the bows of the ship are reasoning about bread, you +will misunderstand Christ in the stern warning against 'the leaven of +the Pharisees.' + +The last suggestion from these questions is that the cure for all that +stolid insensibility, and its resulting misuse of capacity, and the +absorption in daily visible things, is remembrance of His and our +past--'Do ye not remember?' It was only that same morning, or the day +before at the furthest, that one of the miracles of feeding the +thousands had been performed. Christ wonders, as well He might, at the +short memories of the disciples who, with the baskets-full of +fragments scarcely eaten yet, could worry themselves because there was +only one loaf in the locker. 'Do ye not remember, when I broke the +loaves among the thousands, how many baskets took ye up? And they +said, seven. And He said, How is it that ye do not understand?' Yes, +Memory is the one wing and Hope the other, that lift our heaviness +from earth towards heaven. And any man who will bethink himself of +what Jesus Christ has been for him, did for him on earth, and has done +for him during his life, will not be so absorbed in worldly cares as +that he will have no eyes to see the things unseen and eternal; and +the hard, dead insensibility of his heart will melt into thankful +consecration, and so he will rise nearer and nearer to intelligent +apprehension of the lofty and deep things that the Incarnate Word says +to him. We are here in Christ's school, and it depends upon the place +in the class that we take here where we shall be put at what +schoolboys call the 'next remove.' If here we have indeed 'learned of +Him the truth as it is in Jesus,' we shall be put up into the top +classes yonder, and get larger and more blessed lessons in the +Father's house above. + + + +THE RELIGIOUS USES OF MEMORY + + +'Do ye not remember!'--Mark viii. 18. + +The disciples had misunderstood our Lord's warning 'against the leaven +of the Pharisees,' which they supposed to have been occasioned by +their neglect to bring with them bread. Their blunder was like many +others which they committed, but it seems to have singularly moved our +Lord, who was usually so patient with His slow scholars. The swift +rain of questions, like bullets rattling against a cuirass, of which +my text is one, shows how much He was moved, if not to impatience or +anger, at least to wonder. + +But what I wish particularly to notice is that He traces the +disciples' slowness of perception and distrust mainly to +forgetfulness. There was a special reason for that, of course, in that +the two miracles of the feeding the multitude, one of which had just +before occurred, ought to have delivered them from any uneasiness, and +to have led them to apprehend His higher meaning. + +But there is a wider reason for the collocation of questions than +this. There is no better armour against distrust, nor any surer purge +of our spiritual sight, than religious remembrance. So my text falls +in with what I hope are, or at any rate should be, thoughts which are +busy in many of our hearts now. Every Sunday is the last Sunday of a +year. But we are influenced by the calendar, even though there is +nothing in reality to correspond with the apparent break, and though +time runs on in a continuous course. I would fain say a word or two +now which may fit in with thoughts that are wholesome for us always, +but, I suppose, come with most force to most of us at such a date as +this. And, if you will let me, I will put my observations in the form +of exhortations. + +I. First of all, then, remember and be thankful. + +There are few of us who have much time for retrospect, and there is a +very deep sense in which it is wise to 'forget the things that are +behind,' for the remembrance of them may burden us with a miserable +entail of failure; may weaken us by vain regrets, may unfit us for +energetic action in the living and available present. But oblivion is +foolish, if it is continual, and a remembered past has treasures in it +which we can little afford to lose. + +Chiefest of these is the power of memory, when applied to our own past +lives, to bring out, more clearly than was possible while that past +was being lived, the perception of the ever-present care and working +of our Father, God. It is hard to recognise Him in the bustle and +hurry of our daily lives, and the meaning of each event can only be +seen when it is seen in its relation to the rest of a life. Just as a +landscape, which we may look at without the smallest perception of its +beauty, becomes another thing when the genius of a painter puts it on +canvas, and its symmetry and proportion become more manifest, and an +ethereal clearness broods over it, and its colours are seen to be +deeper than our eyes had discerned, so the common events of life, +trivial and insignificant while they are passing, become, when painted +on the canvas of memory, nobler and greater, and we understand them +more completely than we can do whilst we are living in them. + +We need to be at the goal in order to judge of the road. The parts are +only explicable when we see the whole. The full interpretation of +to-day is reserved for eternity. But, by combining and massing and +presenting the consequences of the apparently insignificant and +isolated events of the past, memory helps us to a clearer perception +of God, and a better understanding of our own lives, On the +mountain-summit a man can look down all along the valley by which he +has wearily plodded, and understand the meaning of the divergences in +the road, and the rough places do not look quite so rough when their +proportion to the whole is a little more clearly in his view. + +Only, brethren, if we are wisely to exercise remembrance, and to +discover God in the lives which, whilst they are passing, had little +perception of Him, we must take into account what the meaning of all +life is--that is, to make men of us after the pattern of His will. + + 'Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, + Is our destined end or way.' + +But the growth of Christlike and God-pleasing character is the divine +purpose, and should be the human aim, of all lives. Our tasks, our +joys, our sorrows, our gains, our losses--these are all but the +scaffolding, and the scaffolding is only there in order that, course +upon course, may rise the temple-palace of a spirit, devoted to, +shaped and inhabited by, our Father, God. + +So I venture to say that thankful remembrance should exclude no single +incident, however bitter, however painful, of any life. There is a +remembrance of vanished hands, of voices for ever stilled, which is +altogether wrong and weakening. There is a regret, a vain regret which +comes with memory for some of us, that interferes with thankfulness. + +But it is possible--and, if we understand that the meaning of all is +to make us Godlike, it is not hard--to remember vanished joys, and to +confer upon them by remembrance a kind of gentle immortality. And, +thus remembered, they are ennobled; for all the gross material body of +them, as it were, is got rid of, and only the fine spirit is left. The +roses bloom, and over bloom, and drop, but a poignant perfume is +distilled from the fallen petals. The departed are greatened by +distance; when they are gone we recognise the 'angels' that we +'entertained unawares': and that recognition is no illusion, but it is +the disclosure of their real character, to which they were sometimes +untrue, and we were often blind. Therefore I say, 'Thou shalt remember +all the way by which the Lord thy God hath led thee,' and in the +thankfulness include departed joys, vanished hands, present sorrows, +the rough places as well as the smooth, the crooked things as well as +the straight. + +II. Secondly, let me say, remember and repent. + +Memory is not wise unless it is, so to speak, the sergeant-at-arms of +Conscience, and brings our past before the bar of that judge within, +and puts into the hands of that judge the law of the Lord by which to +estimate our deeds. We all have been making up our accounts to the +31st of December--or are going to do it to-morrow. And what I plead +for is that we should take stock of our own characters and aims, and +sum up our accounts with duty and with God. + +We look back upon a past, of which God gave us the warp and we had to +put in the woof. The warp is all bright and pure. The threads that +have crossed it from our shuttles are many of them very dark, and all +of them stained in some part. So, dear brethren, let us take the year +that has gone, and spread them out by the agency of this servant of +the court, Memory, before the supreme judge, Conscience. + +Let us remember that we may be warned and directed. We shall +understand the true moral character of our actions a great deal better +when we look back upon them calmly, and when all the rush of +temptation and the reducing whispers of our own weak wills are +silenced. There is nothing more terrible, in one aspect, there is +nothing more salutary and blessed in another, than the difference +between the front and the back view of any temptation to which we +yield--all radiant and beautiful on the hither side, and when we get +past it and look back at it, all hideous. Like some of those painted +canvases upon the theatre-stage: seen from this side, with the +delusive brilliancy of the footlights thrown upon them, they look +beautiful works of art; seen at the back, dirty and cobwebbed canvas, +all splashes and spots and uglinesses. Let us be thankful if memory +can show us the reverse side of the temptations that on the near side +were so seductive. + +It is when you see your life in retrospect that you understand the +significance of the single deeds in it. We are so apt to isolate our +actions that we are startled--and it is a wholesome shock--when we see +how, without knowing it, we have dropped into a habit. When each +temptation comes, as the moments are passing, we say, 'Oh, just this +once, just this once.' And the '_onces_' come nearer and nearer +together; and what seem to be distinctly separated points, coalesce +into a line; and the acts that we thought isolated we find out to our +horror--our wholesome horror--have become a chain that binds and holds +us. Look back over the year, and drag its events to the bar of +Conscience, and I shall be surprised if you do not discover that you +have fallen into wrong habits that you never dreamed had dominion over +you. So, I say, remember and repent. + +Brethren, I do not wish to exaggerate, I do not wish to urge upon you +one-sided views of your character or conduct. I give all credit to +many excellences, many acts of sacrifice, many acts of service; and +yet I say that the main reason why any of us have a good opinion of +ourselves is because we have no knowledge of ourselves; and that the +safest attitude for all of us, in looking back over what we have made +of life, is, hands on mouths, and mouths in dust, and the cry coming +from them, 'Unclean! unclean!' A little mud in a stream may not be +perceptible when you take a wine-glassful of it and look at it, but if +you saw a river-full or a lake-full you would soon discover the taint. +Summon up the past year to the sessions of silent thought, and let the +light of God's will pour in upon it, and you will find how dark has +been the flow of the river of your lives. + +The best use which the memory can serve for us is that it should drive +us closer to Jesus Christ, and make us cling more closely to Him. That +past can be cancelled, these multitudinous sins can be forgiven. +Memory should be one of the strongest strands in the cord that binds +our helplessness to the all-forgiving and all-cleansing Christ. + +III. Lastly, let me say, remember and hope. + +Memory and Hope are twins. The latter can only work with the materials +supplied by the former. Hope could paint nothing on the blank canvas +of the future unless its palette were charged by Memory. Memory brings +the yarn which Hope weaves. + +Our thankful remembrance of a past which was filled and moulded by +God's perpetual presence and care ought to make us sure of a future +which will in like manner be moulded. 'Thou hast been my help'--if we +can say that, then we may confidently pray, and be sure of the answer, +'Leave me not nor forsake me, O God of my salvation.' And if we feel, +as memory teaches us to feel, that God has been working for us, and +with us, we can say with another Psalmist: 'Thy mercy, O Lord, +endureth for ever. Forsake not the work of Thine own hands'; and we +can rise to his confidence, 'The Lord with perfect that which +concerneth me.' + +Our remembrance, even of our imperfections and our losses and our +sorrows, may minister to our hope. For surely the life of every man on +earth, but most eminently the life of a Christian man, is utterly +unintelligible, a mockery and a delusion and an incredibility, if +there be a God at all, unless it prophesies of a region in which +imperfection will be ended, aspirations will be fulfilled, desires +will be satisfied. We have so much, that unless we are to have a great +deal more, we had better have had nothing. We have so much, that if +there be a God at all, we must have a great deal more. The new moon, +with a ragged edge, 'even in its imperfection beautiful,' is a prophet +of the complete resplendent orb. 'On earth the broken arc, in heaven +the perfect round.' + +Further, the memory of defeat may be the parent of the hope of +victory. The stone Ebenezer, 'Hitherto hath the Lord helped us,' was +set up to commemorate a victory that had been won on the very site +where Israel, fighting the same foes, had once been beaten. There is +no remembrance of failure so mistaken as that which takes the past +failure as certain to be repeated in the future. Surely, though we +have fallen seventy times seven--that is 490, is it not?--at the 491st +attempt we may, and if we trust in God we shall, succeed. + +So, brethren, let us set our faces to a new year with thankful +remembrance of the God who has shaped the past, and will mould the +future. Let us remember our failures, and learn wisdom and humility +and trust in Christ from our sins. Let us set our 'hope on God, and +not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.' + + + +THE GRADUAL HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN + + +'And Jesus cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto Him, +and besought Him to touch him. 23. And He took the blind man by the +hand, and led him out of the town; and when He had spit on his eyes, +and put His hands upon Him, He asked him if he saw ought. 24. And he +looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. 25. After that He +put His hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was +restored, and saw every man clearly.'--Mark viii. 22-25. + +This miracle, which is only recorded by the Evangelist Mark, has about +it several very peculiar features. Some of these it shares with one +other of our Lord's miracles, which also is found only in this Gospel, +and which occurred nearly about the same time--that miracle of healing +the deaf and dumb man recorded in the previous chapter. Both of them +have these points in common: that our Lord takes the sufferer apart +and works His miracle in privacy; that in both there is an abundant +use of the same singular means--our Lord's touch and the saliva upon +His finger; and that in both there is the urgent injunction of entire +secrecy laid upon the recipient of the benefit. + +But this miracle had another peculiarity in which it stands absolutely +alone, and that is that the work is done in stages; that the power +which at other times has but to speak and it is done, here seems to +labour, and the cure comes slowly; that in the middle Christ pauses, +and, like a physician trying the experiment of a drug, asks the +patient if any effect is produced, and, getting the answer that some +mitigation is realised, repeats the application, and perfect recovery +is the result. + +Now, how unlike that is to all the rest of Christ's miraculous working +we do not need to point out; but the question may arise, What is the +meaning, and what the reason, and what the lessons of this unique and +anomalous form of miraculous working? It is to that question that I +wish to turn now; for I think that the answer will open up to us some +very precious things in regard to that great Lord, the revelation of +whose heart and character is the inmost and the loftiest meaning of +both His words and His works. + +I take these three points of peculiarity to which I have referred: the +privacy, the strange and abundant use of means veiling the miraculous +power, and the gradual, slow nature of the cure. I see in them these +three things: Christ isolating the man that He would heal; Christ +stooping to the sense-bound nature by using outward means; and Christ +making His power work slowly, to keep abreast of the man's slow faith. + +I. First, then, here we have Christ isolating the man whom He wanted +to heal. + +Now, there may have been something about our Lord's circumstances and +purposes at the time of this miracle which accounted for the great +urgency with which at this period He impressed secrecy upon all around +Him. What that was it is not necessary for us to inquire here, but +this is worth noticing, that in obedience to this wish, on His own +part, for privacy at the time, He covers over with a veil His +miraculous working, and does it quietly, as one might almost say, in a +corner. He never sought to display His miraculous working; here He +absolutely tries to hide it. That fact of Christ's taking pains to +conceal His miracle carries in it two great truths--first, about the +purpose and nature of miracles in general, and second, about His +character--as to each of which a few words may be said. + +This fact, of a miracle done in intended secrecy, and shrouded in deep +darkness, suggests to us the true point of view from which to look at +the whole subject of miracles. + +People say they were meant to be attestations of His divine mission. +Yes, no doubt that is true partially; but that was never the sole nor +even the main purpose for which they were wrought; and when any one +asked Jesus Christ to work a miracle for that purpose only, He rebuked +the desire and refused to gratify it. He wrought His miracles, not +coldly, in order to witness to His mission, but every one of them was +the token, because it was the outcome, of His own sympathetic heart +brought into contact with human need. And instead of the miracles of +Jesus Christ being cold, logical proofs of His mission, they were all +glowing with the earnestness of a loving sympathy, and came from Him +at sight of sorrow as naturally as rays beam out from the sun. + +Then, on the other hand, the same fact carries with it, too, a lesson +about His character. Is not He here doing what He tells us to do; 'Let +not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth'? He dares not wrap +His talent in a napkin, He would be unfaithful to His mission if He +hid His light under a bushel. All goodness 'does good by stealth,' +even if it does not 'blush to find it fame'--and that universal mark +of true benevolence marked His. He had to solve in His human life what +we have to solve, the problem of keeping the narrow path between +ostentation of powers and selfish concealment of faculty; and He +solved it thus, 'leaving us an example that we should follow in His +steps.' + +But that is somewhat aside from the main purpose to which I intended +to turn in these first remarks. Christ did not invest the miracle with +any of its peculiarities for His own sake only. All that is singular +about it, will, I think, find its best explanation in the condition +and character of the subject, the man on whom it was wrought. What +sort of a man was he? Well, the narrative does not tell us much, but +if we use our historical imagination and our eyes we may learn +something about him. First he was a Gentile; the land in which the +miracle was wrought was the half-heathen country on the east side of +the Sea of Galilee. In the second place, it was other people that +brought him; he did not come of his own accord. Then again, it is +their prayer that is mentioned, not his--he asked nothing. + +You see him standing there hopeless, listless; not believing that this +Jewish stranger is going to do anything for him; with his impassive +blind face glowing with no entreaty to reinforce his companions' +prayers. And suppose he was a man of that sort, with no expectation of +anything from this Rabbi, how was Christ to get at him? It is of no +use to speak to him. His eyes are shut, so cannot see the sympathy +beaming in His face. There is one thing possible--to lay hold of Him +by the hand; and the touch, gentle, loving, firm, says this at least: +'Here is a man that has some interest in me, and whether He can do +anything or not for me, He is going to try something.' Would not that +kindle an expectation in him? And is it not in parable just exactly +what Jesus Christ does for the whole world? Is not that act of His by +which He put out His hand and seized the unbelieving limp hand of the +blind man that hung by his side, the very same in principle as that by +which He 'taketh hold of the seed of Abraham,' and is made like to His +brethren? Are not the mystery of the Incarnation and the meaning of it +wrapped up as in a germ in that little simple incident, 'He put out +His hand and touched him'? + +Is there not in it, too, a lesson for all you good-hearted Christian +men and women, in all your work? If you want to do anything for your +afflicted brethren, there is only one way to do it-to come down to +their level and get hold of their hands, and then there is some chance +of doing them good. We must be content to take the hands of beggars if +we are to make the blind to see. + +And then, having thus drawn near to the man, and established in his +heart some dim expectation of something coming, He gently led him away +out of the little village. I wonder no painter has ever painted that, +instead of repeating _ad nauseam_ two or three scenes out of the +Gospels. I wonder none of them has ever seen what a parable it is--the +Christ leading the blind man out into solitude before He can say to +him, 'Behold!' How, as they went, step by step, the poor blind eyes +not telling the man where they were going, or how far away he was +being taken from his friends, his conscious dependence upon this +stranger would grow! How he would feel more and more at each step, 'I +am at His mercy; what is He going to do with me?' And how thus there +would be kindled in his heart some beginnings of an expectation, as +well as some surrendering of himself to Christ's guidance! These two +things, the expectation and the surrender, have in them, at all +events, some faint beginnings and rude germs of the highest faith, to +lead up to which is the purpose of all that Christ here does. + +And is not that what He does for us all? Sometimes by sorrows, +sometimes by sick-beds, sometimes by shutting us out from chosen +spheres of activity, sometimes by striking down the dear ones at our +sides, and leaving us lonely in the desert-is He not saying to us in a +thousand ways, 'Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place'? As +Israel was led into the wilderness that God might 'speak to her +heart,' so often Christ draws us aside, if not by outward providences +such as these, yet by awaking in us the solemn sense of personal +responsibility and making us feel our solitude, that He may lead us to +feel His all-sufficient companionship. + +Ah! brethren, here is a lesson from all this--if you wish Jesus Christ +to give you His highest gifts and to reveal to you His fairest beauty, +you must be alone with Him. He loves to deal with single souls. Our +lives, many of them, can never be outwardly alone. We are jammed up +against one another in such a fashion, and the hurry and pressure of +city life is so great with us all, that it is often impossible for us +to secure outward secrecy and solitude. But a man maybe alone in a +crowd; the heart may be gathered up into itself, and there may be a +still atmosphere round about us in the shop and in the market and +amongst the busy ways of men, in which we and Christ shall be alone +together. Unless there be, I do not think any of us will see the King +in His beauty or the far-off land. 'I was left alone, and I saw this +great vision,' is the law for all true beholding. + +So, dear brethren, try to feel how awful this earthly life of ours is +in its necessary solitude; that each of us by himself must shape out +his own destiny, and make his own character; that every unit of the +swarms upon our streets is a unit that has to face the solemn facts of +life for and by itself; that alone we live, that alone we shall die; +that alone we shall have to give account of ourselves before God, and +in the solitude let the hand of your heart feel for His hand that is +stretched out to grasp yours, and listen to Him saying, 'Lo! I am with +you always, even to the end of the world.' There was no dreariness in +the solitude when it was _Christ_ that 'took the blind man by the hand +and led him out of the city.' + +II. We have Christ stooping to a sense-bound nature by the use of +material helps. + +No doubt there was something in the man, as I have said, which made it +advisable that these methods should be adopted. If he were the sort of +person that I have described, slow of faith, not much caring about the +possibility of cure, and not having much hope that any cure would come +to pass--then we can see the fitness of the means adopted: the hand +laid upon the eyes, the finger, possibly moistened with saliva, +touching the ball, the pausing to question, the repeated application. +These make a ladder by which his hope and confidence might climb to +the apprehension of the blessing. And that points to a general +principle of the divine dealings. God stoops to a feeble faith, and +gives to it outward things by which it may rise to an apprehension of +spiritual realities. + +Is not that the meaning of the whole complicated system of Old +Testament revelation? Is not that the meaning of the altars, and +priests, and sacrifices, and the old cumbrous apparatus of the Mosaic +law? Was it not all a picture-book in which the infant eyes of the +race might see in a material form deep spiritual realities? Was not +that the meaning and explanation of our Lord's parabolic teaching? He +veils spiritual truth in common things that He may reveal it by common +things--taking fishermen's boats, their nets, a sower's basket, a +baker's dough, and many another homely article, and finding in them +the emblems of the loftiest truth. + +Is not that the meaning of His own Incarnation? It is of no use to +talk to men about God--let them see Him; no use to preach about +principles--give them the facts of His life. Revelation does not +consist in the setting forth of certain propositions about God, but in +the exhibition of the acts of God in a human life. + + 'And so the Word had breath, and wrought + With human hands the creed of creeds.' + +And still further, may we not say that this is the inmost meaning and +purpose of the whole frame of the material universe? It exists in +order that, as a parable and a symbol, it may proclaim the things that +are unseen and eternal. Its depths and heights, its splendours and its +energies are all in order that through them spirits may climb to the +apprehension of the 'King, eternal, immortal, invisible,' and the +realities of His spiritual kingdom. + +So in regard to all the externals of Christianity, forms of worship, +ordinances, and so on--all these, in like manner, are provided in +condescension to our weakness, in order that by them we may be lifted +above themselves; for the purpose of the Temple is to prepare for the +time and the place where the seer 'saw no temple therein.' They are +but the cups that carry the wine, the flowers whose chalices bear the +honey, the ladders by which the soul may climb to God Himself, the +rafts upon which the precious treasure may be floated into our hearts. + +If Christ's touch and Christ's saliva healed, it was not because of +anything in them; but because He willed it so; and He Himself is the +source of all the healing energy. Therefore, let us keep these +externals in their proper place of subordination, and remember that in +Him, not in them, lies the healing power; and that even Christ's touch +may become the object of superstitious regard, as it was when that +poor woman came through the crowd to lay her finger on the hem of His +garment, thinking that she could bear away a surreptitious blessing +without the conscious outgoing of His power. He healed her because +there was a spark of faith in her superstition, but she had to I earn +that it was not the hem of the garment but the loving will of Christ +that cured, in order that the dross of superstitious reliance on the +outward vehicle might be melted away, and the pure gold of faith in +His love and power might remain. + +III. Lastly, we have Christ accommodating the pace of His power to the +slowness of the man's faith. + +The whole story, as I have said, is unique, and especially this part +of it--'He put His hands upon him, and asked him if he saw aught.' One +might have expected an answer with a little more gratitude in it, with +a little more wonder in it, with a little more emotion in it. Instead +of these it is almost surly, or at any rate strangely reticent-a +matter-of-fact answer to the question, and there an end. As our +Revised Version reads it better: 'I see men, for I behold them as +trees walking.' Curiously accurate! A dim glimmer had come into the +eye, but there is not yet distinctness of outline nor sense of +magnitude, which must be acquired by practice. The eye has not yet +been educated, and it was only because these blurred figures were in +motion that he knew they were not trees. 'After that He put His hands +upon his eyes and made him look up,' or, as the Revised Version has it +with a better reading, 'and he looked steadfastly,' with an eager +straining of the new faculty to make sure that he had got it, and to +test its limits and its perfection. 'And he was restored and saw all +things clearly.' + +Now I take it that the worthiest view of that strangely protracted +process, broken up into two halves by the question that is dropped +into the middle, is this, that it was determined by the man's faith, +and was meant to increase it. He was healed slowly because he believed +slowly. His faith was a condition of his cure, and the measure of it +determined the measure of the restoration; and the rate of the growth +of his faith settled the rate of the perfecting of Christ's work on +him. As a rule, faith in His power to heal was a condition of Christ's +healing, and that mainly because our Lord would rather make men +believing than sound of body. They often wanted only the outward +miracle, but He wanted to make it the means of insinuating a better +healing into their spirits. And so, not that there was any necessary +connection between their faith and the exercise of His miraculous +power, but in order that He might bless them with His best gifts, He +usually worked on the principle 'According to your faith be it unto +you.' And here, as a nurse or a mother with her child might do, He +keeps step with the little steps, and goes slowly because the man goes +slowly. + +Now, both the gradual process of illumination and the rate of that +process as determined by faith, are true for us. How dim and partial a +glimmer of light comes to many a soul at the outset of the Christian +life! How little a new convert knows about God and self and the starry +truths of His great revelation! Christian progress does not consist in +seeing new things, but in seeing the old things more clearly: the same +Christ, the same Cross, only more distinctly and deeply apprehended, +and more closely incorporated into my very being. We do not grow away +from Him, but we grow into knowledge of Him. The first lesson that we +get is the last lesson that we shall learn, and He is the 'Alpha' at +the beginning, and the 'Omega' at the end of that alphabet, the +letters of which make up our knowledge for earth and heaven. + +But then let me remind you that just in the measure in which you +expect blessing of any kind, illumination and purifying and help of +all sorts from Jesus Christ, just in that measure will you get it. You +can limit the working of Almighty power, and can determine the rate at +which it shall work on you. God fills the water-pots 'to the brim,' +but not beyond the brim; and if, like the woman in the Old Testament +story, we stop bringing vessels, the oil will stop flowing. It is an +awful thing to think that we have the power, as it were, to turn a +stopcock, and so increase or diminish, or cut off altogether, the +supply of God's mercy and Christ's healing and cleansing love in our +hearts. You will get as much of God as you want and no more. The +measure of your desire is the measure of your capacity, and the +measure of your capacity is the measure of God's gift. 'Open thy mouth +wide and I will fill it!' And if your faith is heavily shod and steps +slowly, His power and His grace will step slowly along with it, +keeping rank and step. 'According to your faith shall it be unto you.' + +Ah! dear friends, 'Ye are not straitened in Me, ye are straitened in +yourselves.' Desire Him to help and bless you, and He will do it. +Expect Him to do it, and He will do it. Go to Him like the other blind +man and say to Him--'Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me, that +I may receive my sight,' and He will lay His hand upon you, and at any +rate a glimmer will come, which will grow in the measure of your +humble, confident desire, until at last He takes you by the hand and +leads you out of this poor little village of a world and lays His +finger for a brief moment of blindness upon your eyes and asks you if +you see aught. Then you will look up, and the first face that you will +behold will be His, whom you saw 'as through a glass darkly' with your +dim eyes in this twilight world. + +May that be your experience and mine, through His mercy! + + + +CHRIST'S CROSS, AND OURS + + +'And Jesus went out, and His disciples, into the towns of Caesarea +Philippi: and by the way He asked His disciples, saying unto them, +Whom do men say that I am? 28. And they answered, John the Baptist: +but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets. 29. And He saith +unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith +unto Him, Thou art the Christ. 30. And He charged them that they +should tell no man of Him. 31. And He began to teach them, that the +Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and +of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days +rise again. 32. And He spake that saying openly. And Peter took Him, +and began to rebuke Him. 33. But when He had turned about and looked +on His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: +for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that +be of men. 34. And when He had called the people unto Him with His +disciples also, He said unto them, Whosoever will come after Me, let +him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35. For +whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose +his life for My sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. 36 For +what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose +his own soul? 37. Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? +38. Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this +adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of Man be +ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy +angels. IX. 1. And He said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That +there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, +till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.'--Mark viii. +27-ix. 1. + + +Our Lord led His disciples away from familiar ground into the +comparative seclusion of the country round Caesarea Philippi, in order +to tell them plainly of His death. He knew how terrible the +announcement would be, and He desired to make it in some quiet spot, +where there would be collectedness and leisure to let it sink into +their minds. His consummate wisdom and perfect tenderness are equally +and beautifully shown in His manner of disclosing the truth which +would try their faithfulness and fortitude. From the beginning He had +given hints, gradually increasing in clearness; and now the time had +come for full disclosure. What a journey that was! He, with the heavy +secret filling His thoughts; they, dimly aware of something absorbing +Him, in which they had no part. And at last, 'in the way,' as if moved +by some sudden impulse--like that which we all know, leading us to +speak out abruptly what we have long waited to say--He gives them a +share in the burden of His thought. But, even then, note how He leads +up to it by degrees. This passage has the announcement of the Cross as +its centre, prepared for, on the one hand, by a question, and +followed, on the other, by a warning that His followers must travel +the same road. + +I. Note the preparation for the announcement of the Cross (verses +27-30). Why did Christ begin by asking about the popular judgment of +His personality? Apparently in order to bring clearly home to the +disciples that, as far as the masses were concerned, His work and +theirs had failed, and had, for net result, total misconception. Who +that had the faintest glimmer of what He was could suppose that the +stern, fiery spirits of Elijah or John had come to life again in Him? +The second question, 'But whom say ye that I am?' with its sharp +transition, is meant to force home the conviction of the gulf between +His disciples and the whole nation. He would have them feel their +isolation, and face the fact that they stood alone in their faith; and +He would test them whether, knowing that they did stand alone, they +had courage and tenacity to re-assert it. The unpopularity of a belief +drives away cowards, and draws the brave and true. If none else +believed in Him, that was an additional reason for loving hearts to +cleave to Him; and those only truly know and love Him who are ready to +stand by Him, if they stand alone--_Athanasius contra mundum_. Mark, +too, that this is the all-important question for every man. Our own +individual 'thought' of Him determines our whole worth and fate. + +Mark gives Peter's confession in a lower key, as it were, than Matthew +does, omitting the full-toned clause, 'The Son of the living God.' +This is not because Mark has a lower conception than his brother +Evangelist, for the first words of this Gospel announce that it is +'the Gospel of Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God.' And, as he has +identified the two conceptions at the outset, he must, in all +fairness, be supposed to consider that the one implies the other, and +to include both here. But possibly there is truth in the observation +that the omission is one of a number of instances in which this Gospel +passes lightly over the exalted side of Christ's nature, in accordance +with its purpose of setting Him forth rather as the Servant than as +the Lord. It is not meant that that exalted side was absent from +Mark's thoughts, but that his design led him rather to emphasise the +other. Matthew's is the Gospel of the King; Mark's, of the Worker. + +The omission of Christ's eulogium on Peter has often been pointed out +as an interesting corroboration of the tradition that he was Mark's +source; and perhaps the failure to record the praise, and the +carefulness to tell the subsequent rebuke, reveal the humble-hearted +'elder' into whom the self-confident young Apostle had grown. Flesh +delights to recall praise; faith and self-knowledge find more profit +in remembering errors forgiven and rebukes deserved, and in their +severity, most loving. How did these questions and their answers serve +as introduction to the announcement of the Cross? In several ways. +They brought clearly before the disciples the hard fact of Christ's +rejection by the popular voice, and defined their own position as +sharply antagonistic. If His claims were thus unanimously tossed +aside, a collision must come. A rejected Messiah could not fail to be, +sooner or later, a slain Messiah. Then clear, firm faith in His +Messiahship was needed to enable them to stand the ordeal to which the +announcement, and, still more, its fulfilment, would subject them. A +suffering Messiah might be a rude shock to all their dreams; but a +suffering Jesus, who was not Messiah, would have been the end of their +discipleship. Again, the significance and worth of the Cross could +only be understood when seen in the light of that great confession. +Even as now, we must believe that He who died was the Son of the +living God before we can see what that Death was and did. An imperfect +conception of who Jesus is takes the meaning and the power out of all +His life, but, most of all, impoverishes the infinite preciousness of +His Death. + +The charge of silence contrasts singularly with the former employment +of the Apostles as heralds of Jesus. The silence was partly punitive +and partly prudential. It was punitive, inasmuch as the people had +already had abundantly the proclamation of His gospel, and had cast it +away. It was in accordance with the solemn law of God's retributive +justice that offers rejected should be withdrawn; and from them that +had not, even that which they had should be taken away. Christ never +bids His servants be silent until men have refused to hear their +speech. The silence enjoined was also prudential, in order to avoid +hastening on the inevitable collision; not because Christ desired +escape, but because He would first fulfil His day. + +II. We have here the announcement of the Cross (verses 31-33). There +had been many hints before this; for Christ saw the end from the +beginning, however far back in the depths of time or eternity we place +that beginning. We do not sufficiently realise that His Death was +before Him, all through His days, as the great purpose for which He +had come. If the anticipation of sorrow is the multiplication of +sorrow, even when there is hope of escaping it, how much must His have +been multiplied, and bitterness been diffused through all His life, by +that foresight, so clear and constant, of the certain end! How much +more gracious and wonderful His quick sympathy, His patient self +forgetfulness, His unwearied toil, show against that dark background! + +Mark here the solemn necessity. Why 'must' He suffer? Not because of +the enmity of the three sets of rejecters. He recognises no necessity +which is imposed by hostile human power. The cords which bind this +sacrifice to the horns of the altar were not spun by men's hands. The +great 'must' which ruled His life was a cable of two strands--obedience +to the Father, and love to men. These haled Him to the +Cross, and fastened Him there. He would save; therefore He 'must' die. +The same 'must' stretches beyond death. Resurrection is a part of His +whole work; and, without it, His Death has no power, but falls into +the undistinguished mass of human mortality. Bewildered as the +disciples were, that assurance of resurrection had little present +force, but even then would faintly hint at some comfort and blessed +mystery. What was to them a nebulous hope is to us a sun of certitude +and cheer, 'Christ that died' is no gospel until you go on to say, +'Yea, rather, that is risen again.' + +Peter's rash 'rebuke,' like most of his appearances in the Gospel, is +strangely compounded of warm-hearted, impulsive love and presumptuous +self-confidence. No doubt, the praise which he had just received had +turned his head, not very steady in these early days at its best, and +the dignity which had been promised him would seem to him to be sadly +overclouded by the prospect opened in Christ's forecast. But he was +not thinking of himself; and when he said, 'This shall not be unto +Thee,' probably he meant to suggest that they would all draw the sword +to defend their Master. Mark's use of the word 'rebuke,' which is also +Matthew's, seems to imply that he found fault with Christ. For what? +Probably for not trusting to His followers' arms, or for letting +Himself become a victim to the 'must,' which Peter thought of as +depending only on the power of the ecclesiastics in Jerusalem. He +blames Christ for not hoisting the flag of a revolt. + +This blind love was the nearest approach to sympathy which Christ +received; and it was repugnant to Him, so as to draw the sharpest +words from Him that He ever spoke to a loving heart. In his eagerness, +Peter had taken Jesus on one side to whisper his suggestion; but +Christ will have all hear His rejection of the counsel. Therefore He +'turned about,' facing the rest of the group, and by the act putting +Peter behind Him, and spoke aloud the stern words. Not thus was He +wont to repel ignorant love, nor to tell out faults in public; but the +act witnessed to the recoil of His fixed spirit from the temptation +which addressed His natural human shrinking from death, as well as to +His desire that once for all, every dream of resistance by force +should be shattered. He hears in Peter's voice the tone of that other +voice, which, in the wilderness, had suggested the same temptation to +escape the Cross and win the crown by worshipping the Devil; and he +puts the meaning of His instinctive gesture into the same words in +which he had rejected that earlier seducing suggestion. Jesus was a +man, and 'the things that be of men' found a response in His sinless +nature. It shrank from pain and the Cross with innocent and inevitable +shrinking. Does not the very severity of the rebuke testify to its +having set some chords vibrating in His soul? Note that it may be the +work of 'Satan' to appeal to 'the things that be of men,' however +innocent, if by so doing obedience to God's will is hindered. Note, +too, that a Simon may be 'Peter' at one moment, and 'Satan' at the +next. + +III. We have here the announcement of the Cross as the law for the +disciples too (verses 34-38). Christ's followers must follow, but men +can choose whether they will be His followers or not. So the 'must' is +changed into 'let him,' and the 'if any man will' is put in the +forefront. The conditions are fixed, but the choice as to accepting +the position is free. A wider circle hears the terms of discipleship +than heard the announcement of Christ's own sufferings. The terms are +for all and for us. The law is stated in verse 34, and then a series +of reasons for it, and motives for accepting it, follow. + +The law for every disciple is self-denial and taking up his cross. How +present His own Cross must have been to Christ's vision, since the +thought is introduced here, though He had not spoken of it, in +foretelling His own death! It is not Christ's Cross that we have to +take up. His sufferings stand alone, incapable of repetition and +needing none; but each follower has his own. To slay the life of self +is always pain, and there is no discipleship without crucifying 'the +old man.' Taking up my cross does not merely mean meekly accepting +God-sent or men-inflicted sorrows, but persistently carrying on the +special form of self-denial which my special type of character +requires. It will include these other meanings, but it goes deeper +than they. Such self-immolation is the same thing as following Christ; +for, with all the infinite difference between His Cross and ours, they +are both crosses, and on the one hand there is no real discipleship +without self-denial, and on the other there is no full self-denial +without discipleship. + +The first of the reasons for the law, in verse 35, is a paradox, and a +truth with two sides. To wish to save life is to lose it; to lose it +for Christ's sake is to save it. Both are true, even without taking +the future into account. The life of self is death; the death of the +lower self is the life of the true self. The man who lives absorbed in +the miserable care for his own well-being is dead to all which makes +life noble, sweet, and real. Flagrant vice is not needed to kill the +real life. Clean, respectable selfishness does the work effectually. +The deadly gas is invisible, and has no smell. But while all +selfishness is fatal, it is self-surrender and sacrifice, 'for My sake +and the gospel's,' which is life-giving. Heroism, generous +self-devotion without love to Christ, is noble, but falls short of +discipleship, and may even aggravate the sin of the man who exhibits +it, because it shows what treasures he could lay at Christ's feet, if +he would. It is only self-denial made sweet by reference to Him that +leads to life. Who is this who thus demands that He should be the +motive for which men shall 'hate' their own lives, and calmly assumes +power to reward such sacrifice with a better life? The paradox is +true, if we include a reference to the future, which is usually taken +to be its only meaning; but on that familiar thought we need not +enlarge. + +The 'for' of verse 36 seems to refer back to the law in verse 34, and +the verse enforces the command by an appeal to self-interest, which, +in the highest sense of the word, dictates self-sacrifice. The men who +live for self are dead, as Christ has been saying. Suppose their +self-living had been 'successful' to the highest point, what would be +the good of all the world to a dead man? 'Shrouds have no pockets.' He +makes a poor bargain who sells his soul for the world. A man gets +rich, and in the process drops generous impulses, affections, interest +in noble things, perhaps principle and religion. He has shrivelled and +hardened into a mere fragment of himself; and so, when success comes, +he cannot much enjoy it, and was happier, poor and sympathetic and +enthusiastic and generous, than he is now, rich and dwindled. He who +loses himself in gaining the world does not win it, but is mastered by +it. This motive, too, like the preceding, has a double application--to +the facts of life here, when they are seen in their deepest reality, +and to the solemn future. + +To that future our Lord passes, as His last reason for the command and +motive for obeying it, in verse 38. One great hindrance to out-and-out +discipleship is fear of what the world will say. Hence come +compromises and weak compliance on the part of disciples too timid to +stand alone, or too sensitive to face a sarcasm and a smile. A +wholesome contempt for the world's cackle is needed for following +Christ. The geese on the common hiss at the passer-by who goes +steadily through the flock. How grave and awful is that irony, if we +may call it so, which casts the retribution in the mould of the sin! +The judge shall be 'ashamed' of such unworthy disciples--shall blush +to own such as His. May we venture to put stress on the fact that He +does not say that He will reject them? They who were ashamed of Him +were secret and imperfect disciples. Perhaps, though He be ashamed of +them, though they have brought Him no credit, He will not wholly turn +from them. + +How marvellous the transition from the prediction of the Cross to this +of the Throne! The Son of Man must suffer many things, and the same +Son of Man shall come, attended by hosts of spirits who own Him for +their King, and surrounded by the uncreated blaze of the glory of God +in which He sits throned as His native abode. We do not know Jesus +unless we know Him as the crucified Sacrifice for the world's sins, +and as the exalted Judge of the world's deeds. + +He adds a weighty word of enigmatical meaning, lest any should think +that He was speaking only of some far-off judgment. The destruction of +Jerusalem seems to be the event intended, which was, in fact, the +beginning of retribution for Israel, and the starting-point of a more +conspicuous manifestation of the kingdom of God. It was, therefore, a +kind of rehearsal, or picture in little, of that coming and ultimate +great day of the Lord, and was meant to be a 'sign' that it should +surely come. + + + +THE TRANSFIGURATION + + +'And after six days Jesus taketh with Him Peter, and James, and John, +and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and He +was transfigured before them. 3. And His raimemt became shining, +exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them. 4. +And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking +with Jesus. 5. And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is +good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for +Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. 6. For he wist not what to +say; for they were sore afraid. 7. And there was a cloud that +overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is +My beloved Son: hear Him. 8. And suddenly, when they had looked round +about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves. 9. +And as they came down from the mountain, He charged them that they +should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of Man were +risen from the dead. 10. And they kept that saying with themselves, +questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should +mean. 11. And they asked Him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elias +must first come? 12. And He answered and told them, Elias verily +cometh first, and restoreth all things; and how it is written of the +Son of Man, that He must suffer many things, and be set at nought. 13. +But I say unto you, That Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto +him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him.'--Mark ix. 2-13. + +All three Evangelists are careful to date the Transfiguration by a +reference to the solemn new teaching at Caesarea, and Mark's 'six +days' plainly cover the same time as Luke's 'eight'--the former +reckoning excluding in the count, and the latter including, the days +on which the two incidents occurred. If we would understand the +Transfiguration, then, we must look at it as the sequel to Jesus' open +announcement of His death. His seeking the seclusion of the hills, +attended only by the innermost group of the faithful three, is a +touching token of the strain to which that week had subjected Him. How +Peter's heart must have filled with thankfulness that, notwithstanding +the stern rebuke, he was taken with the other two! There were three +stages in the complex incident which we call the Transfiguration--the +change in Jesus' appearance, the colloquy with Moses and Elijah, and +the voice from the cloud. + +Luke, who has frequent references to Jesus' prayers, tells us that the +change in our Lord's countenance and raiment took place 'as He +prayed'; and probably we are reverently following his lead if we think +of Jesus' prayer as, in some sense, the occasion of the glorious +change. So far as we know, this was the only time when mortal eyes saw +Him absorbed in communion with the Father. It was only 'when He ceased +praying' in a certain place that 'they came to Him' asking to be +taught to pray (Luke xi. 1); and in Gethsemane the disciples slept +while He prayed beneath the olives quivering in the moonlight. It may +be that what the three then saw did not occur then only. 'In such an +hour of high communion with' His Father the elevated spirit may have +more than ordinarily illuminated the pure body, and the pure body may +have been more than ordinarily transparent. The brighter the light, +fed by fragrant oil within an alabaster lamp, the more the alabaster +will glow. Faint foreshadowings of the spirit's power to light up the +face with unearthly beauty of holiness are not unknown among us. It +may be that the glory which always shone in the depths of His +perfectly holy manhood rose, as it were, to the surface for that one +time, a witness of what He really was, a prophecy of what humanity may +become. + +Did Jesus will His transfiguration, or did it come about without His +volition, or perhaps even without His consciousness? Did it continue +during all the time on the mountain, or did it pass when the second +stage of the incident began? We cannot tell. Matthew and Mark both say +that Jesus was transfigured 'before' the three, as if the making +visible of the glory had special regard to them. It may be that Jesus, +like Moses, 'knew not that the skin of His face shone'; at all events, +it was the second stage of the incident, the conversation with Elijah +and Moses, that had a special message of strength for Him. The first +and third stages were, apparently, intended for the three and for us +all; and the first is a revelation, not only of the veiled glory that +dwelt in Jesus, but of the beauty that may pass into a holy face, and +of the possibilities of a bodily frame becoming a 'spiritual body,' +the adequate organ and manifestation of a perfect spirit. Paul teaches +the prophetic aspect of the Transfiguration when he says that Jesus +'shall _change_ the body of our humiliation that it may be fashioned +like unto the body of His glory.' + +Luke adds two very significant points to the accounts by Matthew and +Mark--namely, the disciples' sleep, and the subject on which Moses and +Elijah talked with Jesus. Mark lays the main stress on the fact that +the two great persons of the old economy, its founder and its +restorer, the legislator and the chief of the prophets, came from the +dim region to which one of them had passed in a chariot of fire, and +stood by the transfigured Christ, as if witnessing to Him as the +greater, to whom their ministries were subordinate, and in whom their +teachings centred. Jesus is the goal of all previous revelation, +mightier than the mightiest who are honoured by being His attendants. +He is the Lord both of the dead and of the living, and the 'spirits of +just men made perfect' bow before Him, and reverently watch His work +on earth. + +So much did that appearance proclaim to the mortal three, but their +slumber showed that they were not principally concerned, and that the +other three had things to speak which they were not fit to hear. The +theme was the same which had been, a week before, spoken to them, and +had doubtless been the subject of all Jesus' teachings for these 'six +days.' No doubt, their horror at the thought, and His necessary +insistence on it, had brought Him to need strengthening. And these two +came, as did the angel in Gethsemane, and, like him, in answer to +Christ's prayer, to bring the sought-for strength. How different it +would be to speak to them 'of the decease which He should accomplish +at Jerusalem,' from speaking to the reluctant, protesting Twelve! And +how different to listen to them speaking of that miracle of divine +love expressed in human death from the point of view of the +'principalities and powers in heavenly places,' as over against the +remonstrances and misunderstandings with which He had been struggling +for a whole week! The appearance of Moses and Elijah teaches us the +relation of Jesus to all former revelation, the interest of the +dwellers in heavenly light in the Cross, and the need which Jesus felt +for strengthening to endure it. + +Peter's foolish words, half excused by his being scarcely awake, may +be passed by with the one remark that it was like him to say +something, though he did not know what to say, and that it would +therefore have been wise to say nothing. + +The third part of this incident, the appearance of the cloud and the +voice from it, was for the disciples. Luke tells us that it was a +'bright' cloud, and yet it 'overshadowed them.' That sets us on the +right track and indicates that we are to think of the cloud of glory, +which was the visible token of the divine presence, the cloud which +shone lambent between the cherubim, the cloud which at last 'received +Him out of their sight.' Luke tells, too, that 'they entered into it.' +Who entered? Moses and Elijah had previously 'departed from Him.' +Jesus and the disciples remained, and we cannot suppose that the three +could have passed into that solemn glory, if He had not led them in. +In that sacred moment He was 'the way,' and keeping close to Him, +mortal feet could pass into the glory which even a Moses had not been +fit to behold. The spiritual significance of the incident seems to +require the supposition that, led by Jesus, they entered the cloud. +They were men, therefore they were afraid; Jesus was with them, +therefore they stood within the circle of that light and lived. + +The voice repeated the attestation of Jesus as the 'beloved Son' of +the Father, which had been given at the baptism, but with the +addition, 'Hear Him,' which shows that it was now meant for the +disciples, not, as at the baptism, for Jesus Himself. While the +command to listen to His voice as to the voice from the cloud is +perfectly general, and lays all His words on us as all God's words, it +had special reference to the disciples, and that in regard to the new +teaching which had so disturbed them--the teaching of the necessity +for His death. 'The offence of the Cross' began with the first clear +statement of it, and in the hearts that loved Him best and came most +near to understanding Him. To fail in accepting His teaching that it +'behoved the Son of Man to suffer,' is to fail in accepting it in the +most important matter. There are sounds in nature too low-pitched to +be audible to untrained ears, and the message of the Cross is unheard +unless the ears of the deaf are unstopped. If we do not hear Jesus +when He speaks of His passion, we may almost as well not hear Him at +all. + +Moses and Elijah had vanished, having borne their last testimony to +Jesus. Peter had wished to keep them beside Jesus, but that could not +be. Their highest glory was to fade in His light. They came, they +disappeared; He remained--and remains. 'They saw no man any more, save +Jesus only with themselves.' So should it be for us in life. So may it +be with us in death! 'Hear Him,' for all other voices are but for a +time, and die into silence, but Jesus speaks for eternity, and 'His +words shall not pass away.' When time is ended, and the world's +history is all gathered up into its final issue, His name shall stand +out alone as Author and End of all. + + + +'THIS IS MY BELOVED SON: HEAR HIM' + + +'And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of +the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son: hear Him.'--Mark ix. 7. + +With regard to the first part of these words spoken at the +Transfiguration, they open far too large and wonderful a subject for +me to do more than just touch with the tip of my finger, as it were, +in passing, because the utterance of the divine words, 'This is My +beloved Son,' in all the depth of their meaning and loftiness, is laid +as the foundation of the two words that come after, which, for us, are +the all-important things here. And so I would rather dwell upon them +than upon the mysteries of the first part, but a sentence must be +spared. If we accept this story before us as the divine attestation of +the mystery of the person and nature of Jesus Christ, we must take the +words to mean--as these disciples, no doubt, took them to +mean--something pointing to a unique and solitary revelation which He +bore to the Divine Majesty. We have to see in them the confirmation of +the great truth that the manhood of Jesus Christ was the supernatural +creation of a direct divine power. 'Conceived of the Holy Ghost, born +of the Virgin Mary'; therefore, 'that Holy Thing which shall be born +of thee shall be called the Son of God.' And we have to go, as I take +it, farther back than the earthly birth, and to say, 'No man hath seen +God at any time--the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the +Father.' He was the Son here by human birth, and was in the bosom of +the Father all through that human life. 'He hath declared Him,' and so +not only is there here the testimony to the miraculous incarnation, +and to the true and proper Divinity and Deity of Jesus Christ, but +there is also the witness to the perfectness of His character in the +great word, 'This is My beloved Son,' which points us to an unbroken +communion of love between Him and the Father, which tells us that in +the depths of that divine nature there has been a constant play of +mutual love, which reveals to us that in His humanity there never was +anything that came as the faintest film of separation between His will +and the will of the Father, between His heart and the heart of God. + +But this revelation of the mysterious personality of the divine Son, +the perfect harmony between Him and God, is here given as the ground +of the command that follows: 'Hear Him.' God's voice bids you listen +to Christ's voice--God's voice bids you listen to Christ's voice as +His voice. Listen to Him when He speaks to you about God--do not trust +your own fancy, do not trust your own fear, do not trust the dictates +of your conscience, do not consult man, do not listen to others, do +not speculate about the mysteries of the earth and the heavens, but go +to Him, and listen to the only begotten Son in the bosom of the +Father. He declares unto us God; in Him alone we have certain +knowledge of a loving Father in heaven. Hear Him when He tells us of +God's tenderness and patience and love. Hear Him above all when He +says to us, 'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so +must the Son of Man be lifted up.' Hear Him when He says, 'The Son of +Man came to give His life a ransom for many.' Hear Him when He speaks +of Himself as Judge of you and me and all the world, and when He says, +'The Son of Man shall come in His glory, and before Him shall be +gathered all nations.' Hear Him then. Hear Him when He calls you to +Himself. Hear Him when He says to you, 'Come unto Me all ye that +labour and are heavy laden.' Hear Him when He says, 'If any man come +unto Me he shall never thirst.' Hear Him when He says, 'Cast your +burden upon Me, and I will sustain you.' Hear Him when He commands. +Hear Him when He says, 'If ye love Me keep My commandments,' and when +He says, 'Abide in Me and I in you,' hear Him then. 'In all time of +our tribulation, in all time of our well-being, in the hour of death, +and in the day of judgment,' let us listen to Him. + +Dear friends there is no rest anywhere else; there is no peace, no +pleasure, no satisfaction--except close at His side. 'Speak Lord! for +Thy servant heareth.' 'To whom shall we go but unto Thee? Thou hast +the words of eternal life.' Look how these disciples, grovelling there +on their faces, were raised by the gentle hand laid upon their +shoulder, and the blessed voice that brought them back to +consciousness, and how, as they looked about them with dazed eyes, all +was gone. The vision, the cloud, Moses and Elias--the lustre and +radiance and the dread voice were past, and everything was as it used +to be. Christ stood alone there like some solitary figure relieved +against a clear daffodil sky upon some extended plain, and there was +nothing else to meet the eye but He. Christ is there, and in Him is +all. + +That is a summing up of all Divine revelation. 'God, who at sundry +times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the +prophets, hath, in these last days, spoken unto us by His Son.' Moses +dies, Elijah fades, clouds and symbols and voices and all mortal +things vanish, but Jesus Christ stands before us, the manifest God, +for ever and ever, the sole illumination of the world, It is also a +summing up of all earthly history. All other people go. The beach of +time is strewed with wrecked reputations and forgotten glories. And I +am not ashamed to say that I believe that, as the ages grow, and the +world gets further away in time from the Cross upon Calvary, more and +more everything else will sink beneath the horizon, and Christ alone +be left to fill the past as He fills the present and the future. + +We may make that scene the picture of our lives. Distractions and +temptations that lie all round us are ever seeking to drag us away. +There is no peace anywhere but in having Christ only--my only pattern, +my only hope, my only salvation, my only guide, my only aim, my only +friend. The solitary Christ is the sufficient Christ, and that for +ever. Take Him for your only friend, and you need none other. Then at +death there may be a brief spasm of darkness, a momentary fear, +perchance, but then the touch of a Brother's hand will be upon us as +we lie there prone in the dust, and we shall lift up our eyes, and lo! +life's illusions are gone, and life's noises are fallen dumb, and we +'see no man any more, save Jesus only,' with ourselves. + + + +JESUS ONLY! + +'They saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves.'--Mark ix. +8. + +The Transfiguration was the solemn inauguration of Jesus for His +sufferings and death. + +Moses, the founder, and Elijah, the restorer, of the Jewish polity, +the great Lawgiver and the great Prophet, were present. The former had +died and been mysteriously buried, the latter had been translated +without 'seeing death.' So both are visitors from the unseen world, +appearing to own that Jesus is the Lord of that dim land, and that +there they draw their life from Him. The conversation is about +Christ's 'decease,' the wonderful event which was to constitute Him +Lord of the living and of the dead. The divine voice of command, 'Hear +Him!' gives the meaning of their disappearance. At that voice they +depart and Jesus is left alone. The scene is typical of the ultimate +issue of the world's history. The King's name only will at last be +found inscribed on the pyramid. Typical, too, is it not, of a +Christian's blessed death? When the 'cloud' is past no man is seen any +more but 'Jesus only.' + +I. The solitary Saviour. + +The disciples are left alone with the divine Saviour. + +1. He is alone in His nature. 'Son of God.' + +2. He is alone in the sinlessness of His manhood. 'My Beloved Son!' + +3. He is alone as God's Voice to men. 'Hear Him!' + +The solitary Saviour, because sufficient. 'Thou, O Christ, art all I +want.' + +Sufficient, too, for ever. + +His life is eternal. + +His love is eternal. + +The power of His Cross Is eternal. + +II. The vanishing witnesses. + +1. The connection of the past with Christ. The authority of the two +representatives of the Old Covenant was only (a) derived and +subordinate; (b) prophetic; (c) transient. + +2. The thought may be widened into that of the relation of all +teachers and guides to Jesus Christ. + +3. The two witness to the relation of the unseen world to Jesus +Christ. + +(a) Its inhabitants are undying. + +(b) Are subject to the sway of Jesus. + +(c) Are expectantly waiting a glorious future. + +4. They witness to the central point of Christ's work--'His decease.' +This great event is the key to the world's history. + +III. The waiting disciples. + +1. What Christian life should be. Giving Him our sole trust and +allegiance. + +(a) Seeing Him in all things. + +(b) Constant communion. 'Abide in Me.' + +(c) Using everything as helps to Him. + +2. What Christian death may become. + + + +CHRIST'S LAMENT OVER OUR FAITHLESSNESS + + +'He answereth him and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I +be with you? how long shall I suffer you?'--Mark ix. 19. + +There is a very evident, and, I think, intentional contrast between +the two scenes, of the Transfiguration, and of this healing of the +maniac boy. And in nothing is the contrast more marked than in the +demeanour of these enfeebled and unbelieving Apostles, as contrasted +with the rapture of devotion of the other three, and with the lowly +submission and faith of Moses and Elias. Perhaps, too, the difference +between the calm serenity of the mountain, and the hell-tortured +misery of the plain--between the converse with the sainted perfected +dead, and the converse with their unworthy successors--made Christ +feel more sharply and poignantly than He ordinarily did His disciples' +slowness of apprehension and want of faith. At any rate, it does +strike one as remarkable that the only occasion on which there came +from His lips anything that sounded like impatience and a momentary +flash of indignation was, when in sharpest contrast with 'This is my +beloved Son: hear Him,' He had to come down from the mountain to meet +the devil-possessed boy, the useless agony of the father, the sneering +faces of the scribes, and the impotence of the disciples. Looking on +all this, He turns to His followers--for it is to the Apostles that +the text is spoken, and not to the crowd outside--with this most +remarkable exclamation: 'O faithless generation! how long shall I be +with you? how long shall I suffer you?' + +Now, I said that these words at first sight looked almost like a +momentary flash of indignation, as if for once a spot had come on His +pallid cheek--a spot of anger--but I do not think that we shall find +it so if we look a little more closely. + +The first thing that seems to be in the words is not anger, indeed, +but a very distinct and very pathetic expression of Christ's infinite +pain, because of man's faithlessness. The element of personal sorrow +is most obvious here. It is not only that He is sad for their sakes +that they are so unreceptive, and He can do so little for them--I +shall have something to say about that presently--but that He feels +for Himself, just as we do in our poor humble measure, the chilling +effect of an atmosphere where there is no sympathy. All that ever the +teachers and guides and leaders of the world have in this respect had +to bear--all the misery of opening out their hearts in the frosty air +of unbelief and rejection--Christ endured. All that men have ever felt +of how hard it is to keep on working when not a soul understands them, +when not a single creature believes in them, when there is no one that +will accept their message, none that will give them credit for pure +motives--Jesus Christ had to feel, and that in an altogether singular +degree. There never was such a lonely soul on this earth as His, just +because there never was one so pure and loving. 'The little hills +rejoice _together_? as the Psalm says, 'on every side,' but the great +Alpine peak is alone there, away up amongst the cold and the snows. +Thus lived the solitary Christ, the uncomprehended Christ, the +unaccepted Christ. Let us see in this exclamation of His how humanly, +and yet how divinely, He felt the loneliness to which His love and +purity condemned Him. + +The plain felt soul-chilling after the blessed communion of the +mountain. There was such a difference between Moses and Elias and the +voice that said, 'This is My beloved Son: hear Him,' and the disbelief +and slowness of spiritual apprehension of the people down below there, +that no wonder that for once the pain that He generally kept +absolutely down and silent, broke the bounds even of His restraint, +and shaped for itself this pathetic utterance: 'How long shall I be +with you? how long shall I suffer you?' + +Dear friends, here is 'a little window through which we may see a +great matter' if we will only think of how all that solitude, and all +that sorrow of uncomprehended aims, was borne lovingly and patiently, +right away on to the very end, for every one of us. I know that there +are many of the aspects of Christ's life in which Christ's griefs tell +more on the popular apprehension; but I do not know that there is one +in which the title of 'The Man of Sorrows' is to all deeper thinking +more pathetically vindicated than in this--the solitude of the +uncomprehended and the unaccepted Christ and His pain at His +disciples' faithlessness. + +And then do not let us forget that in this short sharp cry of +anguish--for it is that--there may be detected by the listening ear +not only the tone of personal hurt, but the tone of disappointed and +thwarted love. Because of their unbelief He knew that they could not +receive what He desired to give them. We find Him more than once in +His life, hemmed in, hindered, baulked of His purpose, thwarted, as I +may say, in His design, simply because there was no one with a heart +open to receive the rich treasure that He was ready to pour out. He +had to keep it locked up in His own spirit, else it would have been +wasted and spilled upon the ground. 'He could do no mighty works there +because of their unbelief'; and here He is standing in the midst of +the men that knew Him best, that understood Him most, that were +nearest to Him in sympathy; but even they were not ready for all this +wealth of affection, all this infinitude of blessing, with which His +heart is charged. They offered no place to put it. They shut up the +narrow cranny through which it might have come, and so He has to turn +from them, bearing it away unbestowed, like some man who goes out in +the morning with his seed-basket full, and finds the whole field where +he would fain have sown covered already with springing weeds or +encumbered with hard rock, and has to bring back the germs of possible +life to bless and fertilise some other soil. 'He that goeth forth +weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with joy'; +but He that comes back weeping, bearing the precious seed that He +found no field to sow in, knows a deeper sadness, which has in it no +prophecy of joy. It is wonderfully pathetic and beautiful, I think, to +see how Jesus Christ knew the pains of wounded love that cannot get +expressed because there is not heart to receive it. + +Here I would remark, too, before I go to another point, that these two +elements--that of personal sorrow and that of disappointed love and +baulked purposes--continue still, and are represented as in some +measure felt by Him now. It was to disciples that He said, 'O +faithless generation!' He did not mean to charge them with the entire +absence of all confidence, but He did mean to declare that their poor, +feeble faith, such as it was, was not worth naming in comparison with +the abounding mass of their unbelief. There was one spark of light in +them, and there was also a great heap of green wood that had not +caught the flame and only smoked instead of blazing. And so He said to +them, 'O _faithless_ generation!' + +Ay, and if He came down here amongst us now, and went through the +professing Christians in this land, to how many of us--regard being +had to the feebleness of our confidence and the strength of our +unbelief--He would have to say the same thing, 'O faithless +generation!' + +The version of that clause in Matthew and Luke adds a significant +word,--'faithless and _perverse_ generation.' The addition carries a +grave lesson, as teaching us that the two characteristics are +inseparably united; that the want of faith is morally a crime and sin; +that unbelief is at once the most tragic manifestation of man's +perverse will, and also in its turn the source of still more obstinate +and wide-spreading evil. Blindness to His light and rejection of His +love, He treats as the very head and crown of sin. Like intertwining +snakes, the loathly heads are separate; but the slimy convolutions are +twisted indistinguishably together, and all unbelief has in it the +nature of perversity, as all perversity has in it the nature of +unbelief. 'He will convince the world of sin, because they believe not +on Me.' + +May we venture to say, as we have already hinted, that all this pain +is in some mysterious way still inflicted on His loving heart? Can it +be that every time we are guilty of unbelieving, unsympathetic +rejection of His love, we send a pang of real pain and sorrow into the +heart of Christ? It is a strange, solemn thought. There are many +difficulties which start up, if we at all accept it. But still it does +appear as if we could scarcely believe in His perpetual manhood, or +think of His love as being in any real sense a human love, without +believing that He sorrows when we sin; and that we can grieve, and +wound, and cause to recoil upon itself, as it were, and close up that +loving and gracious Spirit that delights in being met with answering +love. If we may venture to take our love as in any measure analogous +to His--and unless we do, His love is to us a word without meaning--we +may believe that it is so. Do not we know that the purer our love, and +the more it has purified us, the more sensitive it becomes, even while +the less suspicious it becomes? Is not the purest, most unselfish, +highest love, that by which the least failure in response is felt most +painfully? Though there be no anger, and no change in the love, still +there is a pang where there is an inadequate perception, or an +unworthy reception, of it. And Scripture seems to countenance the +belief that Divine Love, too, may know something, in some mysterious +fashion, like that feeling, when it warns us, 'Grieve not the Holy +Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.' So +_we_ may venture to say, Grieve not the Christ of God, who redeems us; +and remember that we grieve Him most when we will not let Him pour His +love upon us, but turn a sullen, unresponsive unbelief towards His +pleading grace, as some glacier shuts out the sunshine from the +mountain-side with its thick-ribbed ice. + +Another thought, which seems to me to be expressed in this wonderful +exclamation of our Lord's, is--that this faithlessness bound Christ to +earth, and kept Him here. As there is not anger, but only pain, so +there is also, I think, not exactly impatience, but a desire to +depart, coupled with the feeling that He cannot leave them till they +have grown stronger in faith. And that feeling is increased by the +experience of their utter helplessness and shameful discomfiture +during His brief absence They had shown that they were not fit to be +trusted alone. He had been away for a day up in the mountain there, +and though they did not build an altar to any golden calf, like their +ancestors, when their leader was absent, still when He comes back He +finds things all gone wrong because of the few hours of His absence. +What would they do if He were to go away from them altogether? They +would never be able to stand it at all. It is impossible that He +should leave them thus--raw, immature. The plant has not yet grown +sufficiently strong to take away the prop round which it climbed. 'How +long must I be with you?' says the loving Teacher, who is prepared +ungrudgingly to give His slow scholars as much time as they need to +learn their lesson. He is not impatient, but He desires to finish the +task; and yet He is ready to let the scholars' dulness determine the +duration of His stay. Surely that is wondrous and heart-touching love, +that Christ should let their slowness measure the time during which He +should linger here, and refrain from the glory which He desired. We do +not know all the reasons which determined the length of our Lord's +life upon earth, but this was one of them,--that He could not go away +until He had left these men strong enough to stand by themselves, and +to lay the foundations of the Church. Therefore He yielded to the plea +of their very faithlessness and backwardness, and with this wonderful +word of condescension and appeal bade them say for how many more days +He must abide in the plain, and turn His back on the glories that had +gleamed for a moment on the mountain of transfiguration. + +In this connection, too, is it not striking to notice how long His +short life and ministry appeared to our Lord Himself? There is to me +something very pathetic in that question He addressed to one of His +Apostles near the end of His pilgrimage: 'Have I been so long time +with you, and yet hast thou not known Me?' It was not so very +long--three years, perhaps, at the outside--and much less, if we take +the shortest computation; and yet to Him it had been long. The days +had seemed to go tardily. He longed that the 'fire' which He came to +fling on earth were already 'kindled,' and the moments seemed to drop +so slowly from the urn of time. But neither the holy longing to +consummate His work by the mystery of His passion, to which more than +one of His words bear witness, nor the not less holy longing to be +glorified with 'the glory which He had with the Father before the +world was,' which we may reverently venture to suppose in Him, could +be satisfied till his slow scholars were wiser, and His feeble +followers stronger. + +And then again, here we get a glimpse into the depth of Christ's +patient forbearance. We might read these other words of our text, 'How +long shall I suffer you?' with such an intonation as to make them +almost a threat that the limits of forbearance would soon be reached, +and that lie was not going to 'suffer them' much longer. Some +commentators speak of them as expressing 'holy indignation,' and I +quite believe that there is such a thing, and that on other occasions +it was plainly spoken in Christ's words. But I fail to catch the tone +of it here. To me this plaintive question has the very opposite of +indignation in its ring. It sounds rather like a pledge that as long +as they need forbearance they will get it; but, at the same time, a +question of 'how long' that is to be. It implies the inexhaustible +riches and resources of His patient mercy. And Oh, dear brethren! that +endless forbearance is the only refuge and ground of hope we have. +_His_ perfect charity 'is not soon angry; beareth all things,' +and 'never faileth.' To it we have all to make the appeal-- + + 'Though I have most unthankful been + Of all that e'er Thy grace received; + Ten thousand times Thy goodness seen, + Ten thousand times Thy goodness grieved; + Yet, Lord, the chief of sinners spare.' + +And, thank God! we do not make our appeal in vain. + +There is rebuke in His question, but how tender a rebuke it is! He +rebukes without anger. He names the fault plainly. He shows distinctly +His sorrow, and does not hide the strain on His forbearance. That is +His way of cure for His servants' faithlessness. It was His way on +earth; it is His way in heaven. To us, too, comes the loving rebuke of +this question, 'How long shall I suffer you?' + +Thank God that our answer may be cast into the words of His own +promise: 'I say not unto thee, until seven times; but until seventy +times seven.' 'Bear with me till Thou hast perfected me; and then bear +me to Thyself, that I may be with Thee for ever, and grieve Thy love +no more.' So may it be, for 'with Him is plenteous redemption,' and +His forbearing 'mercy endureth for ever.' + + + +THE OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH + + +Jesus said unto him, If them canst believe, all things are possible to +him that believeth.'--Mark ix. 23. + +The necessity and power of faith is the prominent lesson of this +narrative of the healing of a demoniac boy, especially as it is told +by the Evangelist Mark, The lesson is enforced by the actions of all +the persons in the group, except the central figure, Christ. The +disciples could not cast out the demon, and incur Christ's plaintive +rebuke, which is quite as much sorrow as blame: 'O faithless +generation I how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer +you?' And then, in the second part of the story, the poor father, +heart-sick with hope deferred, comes into the foreground. The whole +interest is shifted to him, and more prominence is given to the +process by which his doubting spirit is led to trust, than to that by +which his son is healed. + +There is something very beautiful and tender in Christ's way of +dealing with him, so as to draw him to faith. He begins with the +question, 'How long is it ago since this came unto him?' and so +induces him to tell all the story of the long sorrow, that his +burdened heart might get some ease in speaking, and also that the +feeling of the extremity of the necessity, deepened by the very +dwelling on all his boy's cruel sufferings, might help him to the +exercise of faith. Truly 'He knew what was in man,' and with +tenderness born of perfect knowledge and perfect love, He dealt with +sore and sorrowful hearts. This loving artifice of consolation, which +drew all the story from willing lips, is one more little token of His +gentle mode of healing. And it is profoundly wise, as well as most +tender. Get a man thoroughly to know his need, and vividly to feel his +helpless misery, and you have carried him a long way towards laying +hold of the refuge from it. + +How wise and how tender the question is, is proved by the long +circumstantial answer, in which the pent-up trouble of a father's +heart pours itself out at the tiny opening which Christ has made for +it. He does not content himself with the simple answer, 'Of a child,' +but with the garrulousness of sorrow that has found a listener that +sympathises, goes on to tell all the misery, partly that he may move +his hearer's pity, but more in sheer absorption with the bitterness +that had poisoned the happiness of his home all these years. And then +his graphic picture of his child's state leads him to the plaintive +cry, in which his love makes common cause with his son, and unites +both in one wretchedness. 'If thou canst do anything, have compassion +on _us_ and help _us_.' + +Our Lord answers that appeal in the words of our text. There are some +difficulties in the rendering and exact force of these words with +which I do not mean to trouble you. We may accept the rendering as in +our Bible, with a slight variation in the punctuation. If we take the +first clause as an incomplete sentence, and put a break between it and +the last words, the meaning will stand out more clearly: 'If thou +canst believe--all things are possible to him that believeth.' We +might paraphrase it somewhat thus: Did you say 'If thou canst do +anything'? That is the wrong 'if.' There is no doubt about that. The +only 'if' in the question is another one, not about me, but about you. +'If _thou_ canst believe--' and then the incomplete sentence might be +supposed to be ended with some such phrase as 'That is the only +question. If thou canst believe--all depends on that. If thou canst +believe, thy son will be healed,' or the like. Then, in order to +explain and establish what He had meant in the half-finished saying, +He adds the grand, broad statement, on which the demand for the man's +faith as the only condition of his wish being answered reposes: 'All +things are possible to him that believeth.' + +That wide statement is meant, I suppose, for the disciples as well as +for the father. 'All things are possible' both in reference to +benefits to be received, and in reference to power to be exercised. +'If thou canst believe, poor suppliant father, thou shalt have thy +desire. If thou canst believe, poor devil-ridden son, thou shalt be +set free. If ye can believe, poor baffled disciples, you will be +masters of the powers of evil.' + +Do you remember another 'if' with which Christ was once besought? +'There came a leper to Him, beseeching Him, and kneeling down to Him, +and saying unto Him, If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.' In some +respects that man had advanced beyond the father in our story, for he +had no doubt at all about Christ's power, and he spoke to Him as +'Lord.' But he was somehow not quite sure about Christ's heart of +pity. On the other hand, the man in our narrative has no doubt about +Christ's compassion. He may have seen something of His previous +miracles, or there may still have been lying on our Lord's countenance +some of the lingering glory of the Transfiguration--as indeed the +narrative seems to hint, in its emphatic statement of the astonishment +and reverential salutations of the crowd when He approached--or the +tenderness of our Lord's listening sympathy may have made him feel +sure of His willingness to help. At any rate, the leper's 'if' has +answered itself for him. His own lingering doubt, Christ waives aside +as settled. His 'if' is answered for ever. So these two 'ifs' in +reference to Christ are beyond all controversy; His power is certain, +and His love. The third 'if' remains, the one that refers to us--'If +thou canst believe'; all hinges on that, for 'all things are possible +to him that believeth.' + +Here, then, we have our Lord telling us that faith is omnipotent. That +is a bold word; He puts no limitations; 'all things are possible.' I +think that to get the true force of these words we should put +alongside of them the other saying of our Lord's, 'With God all things +are possible.' That is the foundation of the grand prerogative in our +text. The power of faith is the consequence of the power of God. All +things are possible to Him; therefore, all things are possible to me, +believing in Him. If we translate that into more abstract words, it +just comes to the principle that the power of faith consists in its +taking hold of the power of God. It is omnipotent because it knits us +to Omnipotence. Faith is nothing in itself, but it is that which +attaches us to God, and then His power flows into us. Screw a pipe on +to a water main and turn a handle, and out flows the water through the +pipe and fills the empty vessel. Faith is as impotent in itself as the +hollow water pipe is, only it is the way by which the connection is +established between the fulness of God and the emptiness of man. By it +divinity flows into humanity, and we have a share even in the divine +Omnipotence. 'My strength is made perfect in weakness.' In itself +nothing, it yet grasps God, and therefore by it we are strong, because +by it we lay hold of His strength. Great and wonderful is the grace +thus given to us, poor, struggling, sinful men, that, looking up to +the solemn throne, where He sits in His power, we have a right to be +sure that a true participation in His greatness is granted to us, if +once our hearts are fastened to Him. + +And there is nothing arbitrary nor mysterious in this flowing of +divine power into our hearts on condition of our faith. It is the +condition of possessing Christ, and in Christ, salvation, +righteousness, and strength, not by any artificial appointment, but in +the very nature of things. There is no other way possible by which God +could give men what they receive through their faith, except only +their faith. + +In all trust in God there are two elements: a sense of need and of +evil and weakness, and a confidence more or less unshaken and strong +in Him, His love and power and all-sufficiency; and unless both of +these two be in the heart, it is, in the nature of things, impossible, +and will be impossible to all eternity, that purity and strength and +peace and joy, and all the blessings which Christ delights to give to +faith, should ever be ours. + +Unbelief, distrust of Him, which separates us from Him and closes the +heart fast against His grace, must cut us off from that which it does +not feel that it needs, nor cares to receive; and must interpose a +non-conducting medium between us and the electric influences of His +might. When Christ was on earth, man's want of faith dammed back His +miracle-working power, and paralysed His healing energy. How strange +that paradox sounds at first hearing, which brings together +Omnipotence and impotence, and makes men able to counter-work the +loving power of Christ. 'He could there do no mighty work.' The +Evangelist intends a paradox, for he uses two kindred words to express +the inability and the mighty work; and we might paraphrase the saying +so as to bring out the seeming contradiction: 'He there had no power +to do any work of power.' The same awful, and in some sense +mysterious, power of limiting and restraining the influx of His love +belongs to unbelief still, whether it take the shape of active +rejection, or only of careless, passive non-reception. For faith makes +us partakers of divine power by the very necessity of the case, and +that power can attach itself to nothing else. So, 'if thou canst +believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.' + +Still further, we may observe that there is involved here the +principle that our faith determines the amount of our power. That is +true in reference to our own individual religious life, and it is true +in reference to special capacities for Christ's service. Let me say a +word or two about each of these. They run into each other, of course, +for the truest power of service is found in the depth and purity of +our own personal religion, and on the other hand our individual +Christian character will never be deep or pure unless we are working +for the Master. Still, for our present purpose, these two inseparable +aspects of the one Christian life may be separated in thought. + +As to the former, then, the measure of my trust in Christ is the +measure of all the rest of my Christian character. I shall have just +as much purity, just as much peace, just as much wisdom or gentleness +or love or courage or hope, as my faith is capable of taking up, and, +so to speak, holding in solution. The 'point of saturation' in a man's +soul, the quantity of God's grace which he is capable of absorbing, is +accurately measured by his faith. How much do I trust God? That will +settle how much I can take in of God. + +So much as we believe, so much can we contain. So much as we can +contain, so much shall we receive. And in the very act of receiving +the 'portion of our Father's goods that falleth' to us, we shall feel +that there is a boundless additional portion ready to come as soon as +we are ready for it, and thereby we shall be driven to larger desires +and a wider opening of the lap of faith, which will ever be answered +by 'good measure, pressed together and running over, measured into our +bosoms.' But there will be no waste by the bestowment of what we +cannot take. 'According to your faith, be it unto you.' That is the +accurate thermometer which measures the temperature of our spiritual +state. It is like the steam-gauge outside the boiler, which tells to a +fraction the pressure of steam within, and so the power which can at +the moment be exerted. + +May I make a very simple, close personal application of this thought? +We have as much religious life as we desire; that is, we have as much +as our faith can take. There is the reason why such hosts of so-called +Christians have such poor, feeble Christianity. _We_ dare not say of +any, 'They have a name to live, and are dead.' There is only one Eye +who can tell when the heart has ceased to beat. But we may say that +there are a mournful number of people who call themselves Christians, +who look so like dead that no eye but Christ's can tell the +difference. They are in a syncope that will be death soon, unless some +mighty power rouse them. + +And then, how many more of us there are, not so bad as that, but still +feeble and languid, whose Christian history is a history of weakness, +while God's power is open before us, of starving in the midst of +abundance, broken only by moments of firmer faith, and so of larger, +happier possession, that make the poverty-stricken ordinary days +appear ten times more poverty-stricken. The channel lies dry, a waste +chaos of white stones and driftwood for long months, and only for an +hour or two after the clouds have burst on the mountains does the +stream fill it from bank to bank. Do not many of us remember moments +of a far deeper and more earnest trust in Christ than marks our +ordinary days? If such moments were continuous, should not we be the +happy possessors of beauties of character and spiritual power, such as +would put our present selves utterly to shame? And why are they not +continuous? Why are our possessions in God so small, our power so +weak? Dear friends! 'ye are not straitened in yourselves.' The only +reason for defective spiritual progress and character is defective +faith. + +Then look at this same principle as it affects our faculties for +Christian service. There, too, it is true that all things are possible +to him that believeth. The saying had an application to the disciples +who stood by, half-ashamed and half-surprised at their failure to cast +out the demon, as well as to the father in his agony of desire and +doubt. For them it meant that the measure of Christian service was +mainly determined by the measure of their faith. It would scarcely be +an exaggeration to say that in Christ's service a man can do pretty +nearly what he believes he can do, if his confidence is built, not on +himself, but on Christ. + +If those nine Apostles, waiting there for their Master, had thought +they could cast out the devil from the boy, do you not think that they +could have done it? I do not mean to say that rash presumption, +undertaking in levity and self-confidence unsuitable kinds of work, +will be honoured with success. But I do mean to say that, in the line +of our manifest duty, the extent to which we can do Christ's work is +very much the extent to which we believe, in dependence on Him, that +we can do it. If we once make up our minds that we shall do a certain +thing by Christ's help and for His sake, in ninety cases out of a +hundred the expectation will fulfil itself, and we shall do it. 'Why +could not we cast him out?' They need not have asked the question. +'Why could not you cast him out? Why, because you did not think you +could, and with your timid attempt, making an experiment which you +were not sure would succeed, provoked the failure which you feared.' +The Church has never believed enough in its Christ-given power to cast +out demons. We have never been confident enough that the victory was +in our hands if we knew how to use our powers. + +The same thing is true of each one of us. Audacity and presumption are +humility and moderation, if only we feel that 'our sufficiency is of +God.' 'I can do all things' is the language of simple soberness, if we +go on to say 'through Christ which strengthened me.' + +There is one more point, drawn from these words, viz., our faith can +only take hold on the divine promises. Such language as this of my +text and other kindred sayings of our Lord's has often been extended +beyond its real force, and pressed into the service of a mistaken +enthusiasm, for want of observing that very plain principle. The +principle of our text has reference to outward things as well as to +the spiritual life. But there are great exaggerations and +misconceptions as to the province of faith in reference to these +temporal things, and consequently there are misconceptions and +exaggerations on the part of many very good people as to the province +of prayer in regard to them. + +It seems to me that we shall be saved from these, if we distinctly +recognise a very obvious principle, namely, that 'faith' can never go +further than God's clear promises, and that whatever goes beyond God's +word is not faith, but something else assuming its appearance. + +For instance, suppose a father nowadays were to say: 'My child is sore +vexed with sickness. I long for his recovery. I believe that Christ +can heal him. I believe that He will. I pray in faith, and I know that +I shall be answered.' Such a prayer goes beyond the record. Has Christ +told you that it is His will that your child shall be healed? If not, +how can you pray in faith that it is? You may pray in confidence that +he will be healed, but such confident persuasion is not faith. Faith +lays hold of Christ's distinct declaration of His will, but such +confidence is only grasping a shadow, your own wishes. The father in +this story was entitled to trust, because Christ told him that his +trust was the condition of his son's being healed. So in response to +the great word of our text, the man's faith leaped up and grasped our +Lord's promise, with 'Lord, I believe.' But before Christ spoke, his +desires, his wistful longing, his imploring cry for help, had no +warrant to pass into faith, and did not so pass. + +Christ's word must go before our faith, and must supply the object for +our faith, and where Christ has not spoken, there is no room for the +exercise of any faith, except the faith, 'It is the Lord; let Him do +what seemeth to Him good.' That is the true prayer of faith in regard +to all matters of outward providence where we have no distinct word of +God's which gives unmistakable indication of His will. The 'if' of the +leper, which has no place in the spiritual region, where we know that +'this is the will of God, even our sanctification,' has full force in +the temporal region, where we do not know before the event what the +will of the Lord is, 'If Thou wilt, Thou canst,' is there our best +prayer. + +Wherever a distinct and unmistakable promise of God's goes, it is safe +for faith to follow; but to outrun His word is not faith, but +self-will, and meets the deserved rebuke, 'Should it be according to +thy mind?' There _are_ unmistakable promises about outward things on +which we may safely build. Let us confine our expectations within the +limits of these, and turn them into the prayer of faith, so shooting +back whence they came His winged words, 'This is the confidence that +we have, that if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us.' +Thus coming to Him, submitting all our wishes in regard to this world +to His most loving will, and widening our confidence to the breadth of +His great and loving purpose in regard to our own inward life, as well +as in regard to our practical service, His answer will ever be, 'Great +is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt.' + + + +UNBELIEVING BELIEF + + +'And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with +tears, Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.'--Mark ix. 24. + +We owe to Mark's Gospel the fullest account of the pathetic incident +of the healing of the demoniac boy. He alone gives us this part of the +conversation between our Lord and the afflicted child's father. The +poor man had brought his child to the disciples, and found them unable +to do anything with him. A torrent of appeal breaks from his lips as +soon as the Lord gives him an opportunity of speaking. He dwells upon +all the piteous details with that fondness for repetition which sorrow +knows so well. Jesus gives him back his doubts. The father said, 'If +thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us.' Christ's +answer, according to the true reading, is not as it stands in our +Authorised Version, 'If thou canst _believe_'--throwing, as it were, +the responsibility on the man--but it is a quotation of the father's +own word, 'If Thou _canst_,' as if He waved it aside with superb +recognition of its utter unfitness to the present case. 'Say not, If +Thou canst. _That_ is certain. All things are possible to thee' (not +to _do_, but to _get_) 'if'--which is the only 'if' in the case--'thou +believest. I can, and if thy faith lays hold on My Omnipotence, all is +done.' + +That majestic word is like the blow of steel upon flint; it strikes a +little spark of faith which lights up the soul and turns the smoky +pillar of doubt into clear flame of confidence. 'Lord, I believe; help +Thou mine unbelief.' + +I think in these wonderful words we have four things--the birth, the +infancy, the cry, and the education, of faith. And to these four I +turn now. + +I. First, then, note here the birth of faith. + +There are many ways to the temple, and it matters little by which of +them a man travels, if so be he gets there. There is no royal road to +the Christian faith which saves the soul. And yet, though identity of +experience is not to be expected, men are like each other in the +depths, and only unlike on the surfaces, of their being. Therefore one +man's experience carefully analysed is very apt to give, at least, the +rudiments of the experience of all others who have been in similar +circumstances. So I think we can see here, without insisting on any +pedantic repetition of the same details in every case, in broad +outline, a sketch-map of the road. There are three elements here: +eager desire, the sense of utter helplessness, and the acceptance of +Christ's calm assurances. Look at these three. + +This man knew what he wanted, and he wanted it very sorely. Whosoever +has any intensity and reality of desire for the great gifts which +Jesus Christ comes to bestow, has taken at least one step on the way +to faith. Conversely, the hindrances which block the path of a great +many of us are simply that we do not care to possess the blessings +which Jesus Christ in His Gospel offers. I am not talking now about +the so-called intellectual hindrances to belief, though I think that a +great many of these, if carefully examined, would be found, in the +ultimate analysis, to repose upon this same stolid indifference to the +blessings which Christianity offers. But what I wish to insist upon is +that for large numbers of us, and no doubt for many men and women whom +I address now, the real reason why they have not trust in Jesus Christ +is because they do not care to possess the blessings which Jesus +Christ brings. Do you desire to have your sins forgiven? Has purity +any attraction for you? Do you care at all about the calm and pure +blessings of communion with God? Would you like to live always in the +light of His face? Do you want to be the masters of your own lusts and +passions? I do not ask you, Do you want to go to Heaven or to escape +Hell, when you die? but I ask, Has that future in any of its aspects +any such power over you as that it stirs you to any earnestness and +persistency of desire, or is it all shadowy and vain, ineffectual and +dim? + +What we Christian teachers have to fight against is that we are +charged to offer to men a blessing that they do not want, and have to +create a demand before there can be any acceptance of the supply. +'Give us the leeks and garlics of Egypt,' said the Hebrews in the +wilderness; 'our soul loatheth this light bread.' So it is with many +of us; we do not want God, goodness, quietness of conscience, purity +of life, self-consecration to a lofty ideal, one-thousandth part as +much as we want success in our daily occupations, or some one or other +of the delights that the world gives. I remember Luther, in his rough +way, has a story--I think it is in his _Table-talk_--about a herd of +swine to whom their keeper offered some rich dainties, and the pigs +said, 'Give us grains.' That is what so many men do when Jesus Christ +comes with His gifts and His blessings. They turn away, but if they +were offered some poor earthly good, all their desires would go out +towards it, and their eager hands would be scrambling who should first +possess it. + +Oh brethren, if we saw things as they are, and our needs as they are, +nothing would kindle such intensity of longing in our hearts as that +rejected or neglected promise of life eternal and divine which Jesus +Christ brings. If I could only once wake in some indifferent heart +this longing, that heart would have taken at least the initial step to +a life of Christian godliness. + +Further, we have here the other element of a sense of utter +helplessness. How often this poor father had looked at his boy in the +grip of the fiend, and had wrung his hands in despair that he could +not do anything for him! That same sense of absolute impotence is one +which we all, if we rightly understand what we need, must cherish. Can +you forgive your own sins? Can you cleanse your own nature? Can you +make yourselves other than you are by any effort of volition, or by +any painfulness of discipline? To a certain small extent you can. In +regard to superficial culture and eradication, your careful husbandry +of your own wills may do much, but you cannot deal with your deepest +needs. If we understand what is required, in order to bring one soul +into harmony and fellowship with God, we shall recognise that we +ourselves can do nothing to save, and little to help ourselves. 'Every +man his own redeemer,' which is the motto of some people nowadays, may +do very well for fine weather and for superficial experience, but when +the storm comes it proves a poor refuge, like the gay pavilions that +they put up for festivals, which are all right whilst the sun is +shining and the flags are fluttering, but are wretched shelters when +the rain beats and the wind howls. We can do nothing for ourselves. +The recognition of our own helplessness is the obverse, so to speak, +and underside, of confidence in the divine help. The coin, as it were, +has its two faces. On the one is written, 'Trust in the Lord'; on the +other is written, 'Nothing in myself.' A drowning man, if he tries to +help himself, only encumbers his would-be rescuer, and may drown him +too. The truest help he can give is to let the strong arm that has +cleft the waters for his sake fling itself around him and bear him +safe to land. So, eager desire after offered blessings and +consciousness of my own impotence to secure them--these are the +initial steps of faith. + +And the last of the elements here is, listening to the calm assurance +of Jesus Christ: 'If Thou canst! Do not say that to Me; I can, and +because I can, all things are possible for thee to receive.' In like +manner He stands at the door of each of our hearts and speaks to each +of our needs, and says: 'I can satisfy it. Rest for thy soul, +cleansing for thy sins, satisfaction for thy desires, guidance for thy +pilgrimage, power for thy duties, patience in thy sufferings--all +these will come to thee, if thou layest hold of My hand.' His +assurance helps trembling confidence to be born, and out of doubt the +great calm word of the Master smites the fire of trust. And we, dear +brethren, if we will listen to Him, shall surely find in Him all that +we need. Think how marvellous it is that this Jewish peasant should +plant Himself in the front of humanity, over against the burdened, +sinful race of men, and pledge Himself to forgive and to cleanse their +sins, to bear all their sicknesses, to be their strength in weakness, +their comfort in sorrow, the rest of their hearts, their heaven upon +earth, their life in death, their glory in heaven, and their all in +all; and not only should pledge Himself, but in the blessed experience +of millions should have more than fulfilled all that He promised. +'They trusted in Him, and were lightened, and their faces were not +ashamed.' Will you not answer His sovereign word of promise with your +'Lord, I believe'? + +II. Then, secondly, we have here the infancy of faith. + +As soon as the consciousness of belief dawned upon the father, and the +effort to exercise it was put forth, there sprang up the consciousness +of its imperfection. He would never have known that he did not believe +unless he had tried to believe. So it is in regard to all excellences +and graces of character. The desire of possessing some feeble degree +of any virtue or excellence, and the effort to put it forth, is the +surest way of discovering how little of it we have. On the other side, +sorrow for the lack of some form of goodness is itself a proof of the +partial possession, in some rudimentary and incipient form, of that +goodness. The utterly lazy man never mourns over his idleness; it is +only the one that would fain work harder than he does, and already +works tolerably hard, who does so. So the little spark of faith in +this man's heart, like a taper in a cavern, showed the abysses of +darkness that lay unillumined round about it. + +Thus, then, in its infancy, faith may and does coexist with much +unfaith and doubt. The same state of mind, looked at from its two +opposite ends, as it were, may be designated faith or unbelief; just +as a piece of shot silk, according to the angle at which you hold it, +may show you only the bright colours of its warp or the dark ones of +its weft. When you are travelling in a railway train with the sun +streaming in at the windows, if you look out on the one hand you will +see the illumined face of every tree and blade of grass and house; and +if you look out on the other, you will see their shadowed side. And so +the same landscape may seem to be all lit up by the sunshine of +belief, or to be darkened by the gloom of distrust. If we consider how +great and how perfect ought to be our confidence, to bear any due +proportion to the firmness of that upon which it is built, we shall +not be slow to believe that through life there will always be the +presence in us, more or less, of these two elements. There will be all +degrees of progress between the two extremes of infantile and mature +faith. + +There follows from that thought this practical lesson, that the +discovery of much unbelief should never make a man doubt the reality +or genuineness of his little faith. We are all apt to write needlessly +bitter things against ourselves when we get a glimpse of the +incompleteness of our Christian life and character. But there is no +reason why a man should fancy that he is a hypocrite because he finds +out that he is not a perfect believer. But, on the other hand, let us +remember that the main thing is not the maturity, but the progressive +character, of faith. It was most natural that this man in our text, at +the very first moment when he began to put his confidence in Jesus +Christ as able to heal his child, should be aware of much +tremulousness mingling with it. But is it not most unnatural that +there should be the same relative proportion of faith and unbelief in +the heart and experience of men who have long professed to be +Christians? You do not expect the infant to have adult limbs, but you +do expect it to grow. True, faith at its beginning may be like a grain +of mustard seed, but if the grain of mustard seed be alive it will +grow to a great tree, where all the fowls of the air can lodge in the +branches. Oh! it is a crying shame and sin that in all Christian +communities there should be so many grey-headed babies, men who have +for years and years been professing to be Christ's followers, and +whose faith is but little, if at all, stronger--nay! perhaps is even +obviously weaker--than it was in the first days of their profession. +'Ye have need of milk, and not of strong meat,' very many of you. And +the vitality of your faith is made suspicious, not because it is +feeble, but because it is not growing stronger. + +III. Notice the cry of infant faith. + +'Help Thou mine unbelief' may have either of two meanings. The man's +desire was either that his faith should be increased and his unbelief +'helped' by being removed by Christ's operation upon his spirit, or +that Christ would 'help' him and his boy by healing the child, though +the faith which asked the blessing was so feeble that it might be +called unbelief. There is nothing in the language or in the context to +determine which of these two meanings is intended; we must settle it +by our own sense of what would be most likely under the circumstances. +To me it seems extremely improbable that, when the father's whole soul +was absorbed in the healing of his son, he should turn aside to ask +for the inward and spiritual process of having his faith strengthened. +Rather he said, 'Heal my child, though it is unbelief as much as faith +that asks Thee to do it.' + +The lesson is that, even when we are conscious of much tremulousness +in our faith, we have a right to ask and expect that it shall be +answered. Weak faith _is_ faith. The tremulous hand _does_ touch. The +cord may be slender as a spider's web that binds a heart to Jesus, but +it _does_ bind. The poor woman in the other miracle who put out her +wasted finger-tip, coming behind Him in the crowd, and stealthily +touching the hem of His garment, though it was only the end of her +finger-nail that was laid on the robe, carried away with her the +blessing. And so the feeblest faith joins the soul, in the measure of +its strength, to Jesus Christ. + +But let us remember that, whilst thus the cry of infant faith is +heard, the stronger voice of stronger faith is more abundantly heard. +Jesus Christ once for all laid down the law when He said to one of the +suppliants at His feet, 'According to your faith be it unto you.' The +measure of our belief is the measure of our blessing. The wider you +open the door, the more angels will crowd into it, with their white +wings and their calm faces. The bore of the pipe determines the amount +of water that flows into the cistern. Every man gets, in the measure +in which he desires. Though a tremulous hand may hold out a cup into +which Jesus Christ will not refuse to pour the wine of the kingdom, +yet the tremulous hand will spill much of the blessing; and he that +would have the full enjoyment of the mercies promised, and possible, +must 'ask in faith, nothing wavering.' The sensitive paper which +records the hours of sunshine in a day has great gaps upon its line of +light answering to the times when clouds have obscured the sun; and +the communication of blessings from God is intermittent, if there be +intermittency of faith. If you desire an unbroken line of mercy, joy, +and peace, keep up an unbroken continuity of trustful confidence. + +IV. Lastly, we have here the education of faith. + +Christ paid no heed in words to the man's confession of unbelief, but +proceeded to do the work which answered his prayer in both its +possible meanings. He responded to imperfect confidence by His perfect +work of cure, and, by that perfect work of cure, He strengthened the +imperfect confidence which it had answered. + +Thus He educates us by His answers--His over-answers--to our poor +desires; and the abundance of His gifts rebukes the poverty of our +petitions more emphatically than any words of remonstrance beforehand +could have done. He does not lecture us into faith, but He blesses us +into it. When the Apostle was sinking in the flood, Jesus Christ said +no word of reproach until He had grasped him with His strong hand and +held him safe. And then, when the sustaining touch thrilled through +all the frame, then, and not till then, He said--as we may fancy, with +a smile on His face that the moonlight showed--as knowing how +unanswerable His question was, 'O thou of little faith, _wherefore_ +didst thou doubt?' That is how He will deal with us if we will; +over-answering our tremulous petitions, and so teaching us to hope +more abundantly that 'we shall praise Him more and more.' + +The disappointments, the weaknesses, the shameful defeats which come +when our confidence fails, are another page of His lesson-book. The +same Apostle of whom I have been speaking got that lesson when, +standing on the billows, and, instead of looking at Christ, looking at +their wrath and foam, his heart failed him, and because his heart +failed him he began to sink. If we turn away from Jesus Christ, and +interrupt the continuity of our faith by calculating the height of the +breakers and the weight of the water that is in them, and what will +become of us when they topple over with their white crests upon our +heads, then gravity will begin to work, and we shall begin to sink. +And well for us if, when we have sunk as far as our knees, we look +back again to the Master and say, 'Lord, save me; I perish!' The +weakness which is our own when faith sleeps, and the rejoicing power +which is ours because it is His, when faith wakes, are God's education +of it to fuller and ampler degrees and depth. We shall lose the +meaning of life, and the best lesson that joy and sorrow, calm and +storm, victory and defeat, can give us, unless all these make us +'rooted and grounded in faith.' + +Dear friend, do you desire your truest good? Do you know that you +cannot win it, or fight for it to gain it, or do anything to obtain +it, in your own strength? Have you heard Jesus Christ saying to you, +'Come ... and I will give you rest'? Oh! I beseech you, do not turn +away from Him, but like this agonised father in our story, fall at His +feet with 'Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief,' and He will +confirm your feeble faith by His rich response. + + + +RECEIVING AND FORBIDDING + + +'And He came to Capernaum: and being in the house He asked them, What +was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? 34. But they held +their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who +should be the greatest. 35. And He sat down, and called the Twelve, +and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be +last of all, and servant of all. 36. And He took a child, and set him +in the midst of them: and when He had taken him in His arms, He said +unto them, 37. Whosoever shall receive one of such children in My +name, receiveth Me: and whosoever shall receive Me, receiveth not Me, +but Him that sent Me. 38. And John answered Him, saying, Master, we +saw one casting out devils in Thy name, and he followeth not us: and +we forbad him, because he followeth not us. 39. But Jesus said, Forbid +him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in My name, that +can lightly speak evil of Me. 40. For he that is not against us is on +our part. 41. For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in +My name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall +not lose his reward. 42. And whosoever shall offend one of these +little ones that believe in Me, it is better for him that a millstone +were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.'--Mark ix. +33-42. + +Surely the disciples might have found something better to talk about +on the road from Caesarea, where they had heard from Jesus of His +sufferings, than this miserable wrangle about rank! Singularly enough, +each announcement of the Cross seems to have provoked something of the +sort. Probably they understood little of His meaning, but hazily +thought that the crisis was at hand when He should establish the +kingdom; and so their ambition, rather than their affection, was +stirred. Perhaps, too, the dignity bestowed on Peter after his +confession, and the favour shown to the three witnesses of the +Transfiguration, may have created jealousy. Matthew makes the quarrel +to have been about future precedence; Mark about present. The one was +striven for with a view to the other. How chill it must have struck on +Christ's heart, that those who loved Him best cared so much more for +their own petty superiority than for His sorrows! + +I. Note the law of service as the true greatness (verses 33-35). 'When +He was in the house, He asked them.' He had let them talk as they +would on the road, walking alone in front, and they keeping, as they +thought, out of ear-shot; but, when at rest together in the house +(perhaps Peter's) where He lived in Capernaum, He lets them see, by +the question and still more by the following teaching, that He knew +what He asked, and needed no answer. The tongues that had been so loud +on the road were dumb in the house--silenced by conscience. His +servants still do and say many things on the road which they would not +do if they saw Him close beside them, and they sometimes fancy that +these escape Him. But when they are 'in the house' with Him, they will +find that He knew all that was going on; and when He asks the account +of it, they, too, will be speechless. 'A thing which does not appear +wrong by itself shows its true character when brought to the judgment +of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. (_Bengel_). + +Christ deals with the fault with much solemnity, seating Himself, as +Teacher and Superior, and summoning the whole Twelve to hear. We do +not enter on the difficult question of the relation of Mark's report +of our Lord's words to those of the other Evangelists, but rather try +to bring out the significance of their form and connection here. Note, +then, that here we have not so much the nature of true greatness, as +the road to it. 'If any man would be first,' he is to be least and +servant, and thereby he will reach his aim. Of course, that involves +the conception of the nature of true greatness as service, but still +the distinction is to be kept in view. Further, 'last of all' is not +the same as 'servant of all.' The one phrase expresses humility; the +other, ministry. An indolent humility, so very humble that it does +nothing for others, and a service which if not humble, are equally +incomplete, and neither leads to or is the greatness at which alone a +Christian ought to aim. There are two paradoxes here. The lowest is +the highest, the servant is the chief; and they may be turned round +with equal truth--the highest is the lowest, and the chief is the +servant. The former tells us how things really are, and what they look +like, when seen from the centre by His eye. The latter prescribes the +duties and responsibilities of high position. In fact and truth, to +sink is the way to rise, and to serve is the way to rule--only the +rise and the rule are of another sort than contents worldly ambition, +and the Christian must rectify his notions of what loftiness and +greatness are. On the other hand, distinguishing gifts of mind, heart, +leisure, position, possessions, or anything else, are given us for +others, and bind us to serve. Both things follow from the nature of +Christ's kingdom, which is a kingdom of love; for in love the vulgar +distinctions of higher and lower are abolished, and service is +delight. This is no mere pretty sentiment, but a law which grips hard +and cuts deep. Christ's servants have not learned it yet, and the +world heeds it not; but, till it governs all human society, and pulls +up ambition, domination, and pride of place by the roots, society will +groan under ills which increase with the increase of wealth and +culture in the hands of a selfish few. + +II. Note the exhibition of the law in a life. Children are quick at +finding out who loves them, and there would always be some hovering +near for a smile from Christ. With what eyes of innocent wonder the +child would look up at Him, as He gently set him there, in the open +space in front of Himself! Mark does not record any accompanying +words, and none were needed, The unconsciousness of rank, the +spontaneous acceptance of inferiority, the absence of claims to +consideration and respect, which naturally belong to childhood as it +ought to be, and give it winningness and grace, are the marks of a +true disciple, and are the more winning in such because they are not +of nature, but regained by self-abnegation. What the child is we have +to become. This child was the example of one-half of the law, being +'least of all,' and perfectly contented to be so; but the other half +was not shown in him, for his little hands could do but small service. +Was there, then, no example in this scene of that other requirement? +Surely there was; for the child was not left standing, shy, in the +midst, but, before embarrassment became weeping, was caught up in +Christ's arms, and folded to His heart. He had been taken as the +instance of humility, and he then became the subject of tender +ministry. Christ and he divided the illustration of the whole law +between them, and the very inmost nature of true service was shown in +our Lord's loving clasp and soothing pressure to His heart. It is as +if He had said, 'Look! this is how you must serve; for you cannot help +the weak unless you open your arms and hearts to them.' Jesus, with +the child held to His bosom, is the living law of service, and the +child nestling close to Him, because sure of His love, is the type of +the trustful affection which we must evoke if we are to serve or help. +This picture has gone straight to the hearts of men; and who can count +the streams of tenderness and practical kindliness of which it has +been the source? + +Christ goes on to speak of the child, not as the example of service, +but of being served. The deep words carry us into blessed mysteries +which will recompense the lowly servants, and lift them high in the +kingdom. Observe the precision of the language, both as regards the +persons received and the motive of reception. 'One of such little +children' means those who are thus lowly, unambitious, and unexacting. +'In My name' defines the motive as not being simple humanity or +benevolence, but the distinct recognition of Christ's command and +loving obedience to His revealed character. No doubt, natural +benevolence has its blessings for those who exercise it; but that +which is here spoken of is something much deeper than nature, and wins +a far higher reward. + +That reward is held forth in unfathomable words, of which we can but +skim the surface. They mean more than that such little ones are so +closely identified with Him that, in His love, He reckons good done to +them as done to Him. That is most blessedly true. Nor is it true only +because He lovingly reckons the deed as done to Him, though it really +is not; but, by reason of the derived life which all His children +possess from Him, they are really parts of Himself; and in that most +real though mystic unity, what is done to them is, in fact, done to +Him. Further, if the service be done in His name, then, on whomsoever +it may be done, it is done to Him. This great saying unveils the true +sacredness and real recipient of all Christian service. But more than +that is in the words. When we 'receive' Christ's little ones by help +and loving ministry, we receive Him, and in Him God, for joy and +strength. Unselfish deeds in His name open the heart for more of +Christ and God, and bring on the doer the blessing of fuller insight, +closer communion, more complete assimilation to his Lord. Therefore +such service is the road to the true superiority in His kingdom, which +depends altogether on the measure of His own nature which has flowed +into our emptiness. + +III. The Apostles' conscience-stricken confession of their breach of +the law (verses 38-40). Peter is not spokesman this time, but John, +whose conscience was more quickly pricked. At first sight, the +connection of his interruption with the theme of the discourse seems +to be merely the recurrence of the phrase, 'in Thy name'; but, besides +that, there is an obvious contrast between 'receiving' and +'forbidding.' The Apostle is uneasy when he remembers what they had +done, and, like an honest man, he states the case to Christ, +half-confessing, and half-asking for a decision. He begins to think +that perhaps the man whom they had silenced was 'one such little +child,' and had deserved more sympathetic treatment. How he came to be +so true a disciple as to share in the power of casting out devils, and +yet not to belong to the closer followers of Jesus, we do not know, +and need not guess. So it was; and John feels, as he tells the story, +that perhaps their motives had not been so much their Master's honour +as their own. 'He followeth not us,' and yet he is trenching on our +prerogatives. The greater fact that he and they followed Christ was +overshadowed by the lesser that he did not follow them. There spoke +the fiery spirit which craved the commission to burn up a whole +village, because of its inhospitality. There spoke the spirit of +ecclesiastical intolerance, which in all ages has masqueraded as zeal +for Christ, and taken 'following us' and 'following Him' to be the +same thing. But there spoke, too, a glimmering consciousness that +gagging men was not precisely 'receiving' them, and that if 'in Thy +name' so sanctified deeds, perhaps the unattached exorcist, who could +cast out demons by it, was 'a little one' to be taken to their hearts, +and not an enemy to be silenced. Pity that so many listen to the law, +and do not, like John, feel it prick them! + +Christ forbids such 'forbidding,' and thereby sanctions +'irregularities' and 'unattached' work, which have always been the +bugbears of sticklers for ecclesiastical uniformity, and have not +seldom been the life of Christianity. That authoritative, +unconditional 'forbid him not' ought, long ago, to have rung the +funeral knell of intolerance, and to have ended the temptation to +idolise 'conformity,' and to confound union to organised forms of the +Christian community with union to Christ. But bigotry dies hard. The +reasons appended serve to explain the position of the man in question. +If he had wrought miracles in Christ's name, he must have had some +faith in it; and his experience of its power would deepen that. So +there was no danger of his contradicting himself by speaking against +Jesus. The power of 'faith in the Name' to hallow deeds, the certainty +that rudimentary faith will, when exercised, increase, the guarantee +of experience as sure to lead to blessing from Jesus, are all involved +in this saying. But its special importance is as a reason for the +disciples' action. Because the man's action gives guarantees for his +future, they are not to silence him. That implies that they are only +to forbid those who do speak evil of Christ; and that to all others, +even if they have not reached the full perception of truth, they are +to extend patient forbearance and guidance. 'The mouth of them that +speak lies shall be stopped'; but the mouth that begins to stammer His +name is to be taught and cherished. + +Christ's second reason still more plainly claims the man for an ally. +Commentators have given themselves a great deal of trouble to +reconcile this saying with the other--'He that is not with Me is +against Me.' If by reconciling is meant twisting both to mean the same +thing, it cannot be done. If preventing the appearance of +contradiction is meant, it does not seem necessary. The two sayings do +not contradict, but they complete, each other. They apply to different +classes of persons, and common-sense has to determine their +application. This man did, in some sense, believe in Jesus, and worked +deeds that proved the power of the Name. Plainly, such work was in the +same direction as the Lord's and the disciples'. Such a case is one +for the application of tolerance. But the principle must be limited by +the other, else it degenerates into lazy indifference. 'He that is not +against us is for us,' if it stood alone, would dissolve the Church, +and destroy distinctions in belief and practice which it would be +fatal to lose. 'He that is not with Me is against Me,' if it stood +alone, would narrow sympathies, and cramp the free development of +life. We need both to understand and get the good of either. + +IV. We have the reward of receiving Christ's little ones set over +against the retribution that seizes those who cause them to stumble +(verses 41, 42). These verses seem to resume the broken thread of +verse 37, whilst they also link on to the great principle laid down in +verse 40. He that is 'not against' is 'for,' even if he only gives a +'cup of water' to Christ's disciple because he is Christ's. That shows +that there is some regard for Jesus in him. It is a germ which may +grow. Such an one shall certainly have his reward. That does not mean +that he will receive it in a future life, but that here his deed shall +bring after it blessed consequences to himself. Of these, none will be +more blessed than the growing regard for the Name, which already is, +in some degree, precious to him. The faintest perception of Christ's +beauty, honestly lived out, will be increased. Every act strengthens +its motive. The reward of living our convictions is firmer and more +enlightened conviction. Note, too, that the person spoken of belongs +to the same class as the silenced exorcist, and that this reads the +disciples a further lesson. Jesus will look with love on the acts +which even a John wished to forbid. Note, also, that the disciples +here are the recipients of the kindness. They are no longer being +taught to receive the 'little ones,' but are taught that they +themselves belong to that class, and need kindly succour from these +outsiders, whom they had proudly thought to silence. + +The awful, reticent words, which shadow forth and yet hide the fate of +those who cause the feeblest disciple to stumble, are not for us to +dilate upon. Jesus saw the realities of future retribution, and +deliberately declares that death is a less evil than such an act. The +'little ones' are sacred because they are His. The same relation to +Him which made kindness to them so worthy of reward, makes harm to +them so worthy of punishment. Under the one lies an incipient love to +Him; under the other, a covert and perhaps scarcely conscious +opposition. It is devil's work to seduce simple souls from allegiance +to Christ. There are busy hands to-day laying stumbling-blocks in the +way, especially of young Christians--stumbling-blocks of doubt, of +frivolity, of slackened morality, and the like. It were better, says +One who saw clearly into that awful realm beyond, if a heavy millstone +were knotted about their necks, and they were flung into the deepest +place of the lake that lay before Him as he spoke. He does not speak +exaggerated words; and if a solemn strain of vehemence, unlike His +ordinary calm, is audible here, it is because what He knew, and did +not tell, gave solemn earnestness to His veiled and awe-inspiring +prophecy of doom. What imagination shall fill out the details of the +'worse than' which lurks behind that 'better'? + + + +AN UNANSWERED QUESTION + + +'What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?'--Mark ix. +33. + +Was it not a strange time to squabble when they had just been told of +His death? Note-- + +I. The variations of feeling common to the disciples and to us all: +one moment 'exceeding sorrowful,' the next fighting for precedence. + +II. Christ's divine insight into His servants' faults. This question +was put because He knew what the wrangle had been about. The +disputants did not answer, but He knew without an answer, as His +immediately following warnings show. How blessed to think that Psalm +cxxxix. applies to Him--'There is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O +Lord! Thou knowest it altogether,' + +III. The compassion of Christ seeking to cure the sins He sees. His +question is not to rebuke, but to heal; so His perfect knowledge is +blended with perfect love. + +IV. The test of evil. They were ashamed to tell Him the cause of their +dispute. + +V. The method of cure. The presence of Christ is the end of strife and +of sin in general. + + + +SALTED WITH FIRE + + +'Every one shall be salted with fire.'--Mark ix. 49. + +Our Lord has just been uttering some of the most solemn words that +ever came from His gracious lips. He has been enjoining the severest +self-suppression, extending even to mutilation and excision of the +eye, the hand, or the foot, that might cause us to stumble. He has +been giving that sharp lesson on the ground of plain common sense and +enlightened self-regard. It _is_ better, obviously, to live maimed +than to die whole. The man who elects to keep a mortified limb, and +thereby to lose life, is a suicide and a fool. It is a solemn thought +that a similar mad choice is possible in the moral and spiritual +region. + +To these stern injunctions, accompanied by the awful sanctions of that +consideration, our Lord appends the words of my text. They are obscure +and have often been misunderstood. This is not the place to enter on a +discussion of the various explanations that have been proposed of +them. A word or two is all that is needful to put us in possession of +the point of view from which I wish to lay them on your hearts at this +time. + +I take the 'every one' of my text to mean not mankind generally, but +every individual of the class whom our Lord is addressing--that is to +say, His disciples. He is laying down the law for all Christians. I +take the paradox which brings together 'salting' and 'fire,' to refer, +not to salt as a means of communicating savour to food, but as a means +of preserving from putrefaction. And I take the 'fire' here to refer, +not to the same process which is hinted at in the awful preceding +words, 'the fire in not quenched,' but to be set in opposition to that +fire, and to mean something entirely different. There is a fire that +destroys, and there is a fire that preserves; and the alternative for +every man is to choose between the destructive and the conserving +influences. Christian disciples have to submit to be 'salted with +fire,' lest a worse thing befall them, + +I. And so the first point that I would ask you to notice here is--that +fiery cleansing to which every Christian must yield. + +Now I have already referred to the relation between the words of my +text and those immediately preceding, as being in some sense one of +opposition and contrast. I think we are put on the right track for +understanding the solemn words of this text if we remember the great +saying of John the Baptist, where, in precisely similar fashion, there +are set side by side the two conceptions of the chaff being cast into +the unquenchable fire (the same expression as in our text), and 'He +shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.' + +The salting fire, then, which cleanses and preserves, and to which +every Christian soul must submit itself, to be purged thereby, is, as +I take it, primarily and fundamentally the fire of that Divine Spirit +which Christ Himself told us that He had come to cast upon the earth, +and yearned, in a passion of desire, to see kindled. The very frequent +use of the emblem in this same signification throughout Scripture, I +suppose I need not recall to you. It seems to me that the only worthy +interpretation of the words before us, which goes down into their +depths and harmonises with the whole of the rest of the teaching of +Scripture, is that which recognises these words of my text as no +unwelcome threat, as no bitter necessity, but as a joyful promise +bringing to men, laden and burdened with their sins, the good news +that it is possible for them to be purged from them entirely by the +fiery ministration of that Divine Spirit. Just as we take a piece of +foul clay and put it into the furnace, and can see, as it gets +red-hot, the stains melt away, as a cloud does in the blue, from its +surface, so if we will plunge ourselves into the influences of that +divine power which Christ has come to communicate to the world, our +sin and all our impurities will melt from off us, and we shall be +clean. No amount of scrubbing with soap and water will do it. The +stain is a great deal too deep for that, and a mightier solvent than +any that we can apply, if unaided and unsupplied from above, is needed +to make us clean. 'Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean,' +especially when the would-be bringer is himself the unclean thing? +Surely not one. Unless there be a power _ab extra_, unparticipant of +man's evils, and yet capable of mingling with the evil man's inmost +nature, and dealing with it, then I believe that universal experience +and our individual experience tell us that there is no hope that we +shall ever get rid of our transgressions. + +Brethren, for a man by his own unaided effort, however powerful, +continuous, and wisely directed it may be, to cleanse himself utterly +from his iniquity, is as hopeless as it would be for him to sit down +with a hammer and a chisel and try by mechanical means to get all the +iron out of a piece of ironstone. The union is chemical, not +mechanical. And so hammers and chisels will only get a very little of +the metal out. The one solvent is fire. Put the obstinate crude ore +into your furnace, and get the temperature up, and the molten metal +will run clear. There should be mountains of scoriae, the dross and +relics of our abandoned sins, around us all. + +If we desire to be delivered, let us go into the fire. It will burn up +all our evil, and it will burn up nothing else. Keep close to Christ. +Lay your hearts open to the hallowing influences of the motives and +the examples that lie in the story of His life and death. Seek for the +fiery touch of that transforming Spirit, and be sure that you quench +Him not, nor grieve Him. And then your weakness will be reinvigorated +by celestial powers, and the live coal upon your lips will burn up all +your iniquity. + +But, subordinately to this deepest meaning, as I take it, of the great +symbol of our text, let me remind you of another possible application +of it, which follows from the preceding. God's Spirit cleanses men +mainly by raising their spirits to a higher temperature. For coldness +is akin to sin, and heavenly warmth is akin to righteousness. +Enthusiasm always ennobles, delivers men, even on the lower reaches of +life and conduct from many a meanness and many a sin. And when it +becomes a warmth of spirit kindled by the reception of the fire of +God, then it becomes the solvent which breaks the connection between +me and my evil. It is the cold Christian who makes no progress in +conquering his sin. The one who is filled with the love of God, and +has the ardent convictions and the burning enthusiasm which that love +ought to produce in our hearts, is the man who will conquer and eject +his evils. + +Nor must we forget that there is still another possible application of +the words. For whilst, on the one hand, the Divine Spirit's method of +delivering us is very largely that of imparting to us the warmth of +ardent, devout emotion; on the other hand, a part of this method is +the passing of us through the fiery trials and outward disciplines of +life. 'Every one shall be salted with fire' in that sense. And we have +learned, dear brethren, but little of the loving kindness of the Lord +if we are not able to say, 'I have grown more in likeness to Jesus +Christ by rightly accepted sorrows than by anything besides.' Be not +afraid of calamities; be not stumbled by disaster. Take the fiery +trial which is sent to you as being intended to bring about, at the +last, the discovery 'unto praise and honour and glory' of your faith, +that is 'much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be +tried with fire.' 'Every one shall be salted with fire,' the Christian +law of life is, Submit to the fiery cleansing. Alas! alas! for the +many thousands of professing Christians who are wrapping themselves in +such thick folds of non-conducting material that that fiery energy can +only play on the surface of their lives, instead of searching them to +the depths. Do you see to it, dear brethren, that you lay open your +whole natures, down to the very inmost roots, to the penetrating, +searching, cleansing power of that Spirit. And let us all go and say +to Him, 'Search me, O God! and try me, and see if there be any wicked +way in me.' + +II. Notice the painfulness of this fiery cleansing. + +The same ideas substantially are conveyed in my text as are expressed, +in different imagery, by the solemn words that precede it. The +'salting with fire' comes substantially to the same thing as the +amputation of the hand and foot, and the plucking out of the eye, that +cause to stumble. The metaphor expresses a painful process. It is no +pleasant thing to submit the bleeding stump to the actual cautery, and +to press it, all sensitive, upon the hot plate that will stop the flow +of blood. But such pain of shrinking nerves is to be borne, and to be +courted, if we are wise, rather than to carry the hand or the eye that +led astray unmutilated into total destruction. Surely that is common +sense. + +The process is painful because we are weak. The highest ideal of +Christian progress would be realised if one of the metaphors with +which our Lord expresses it were adequate to cover the whole ground, +and we grew as the wheat grows, 'first the blade, then the ear, after +that the full corn in the ear.' But the tranquillity of vegetable +growth, and the peaceful progress which it symbolises, are not all +that you and I have to expect. Emblems of a very different kind have +to be associated with that of the quiet serenity of the growing corn, +in order to describe all that a Christian man has to experience in the +work of becoming like his Master. It is a fight as well as a growth; +it is a building requiring our continuity of effort, as well as a +growth. There is something to be got rid of as well as much to be +appropriated. We do not only need to become better, we need to become +less bad. Squatters have camped on the land, and cling to it and hold +it _vi et armis_; and these have to be ejected before peaceful +settlement is possible. + +One might go on multiplying metaphors _ad libitum_, in order to bring +out the one thought that it needs huge courage to bear being +sanctified, or, if you do not like the theological word, to bear being +made better. It is no holiday task, and unless we are willing to have +a great deal that is against the grain done to us, and in us, and by +us, we shall never achieve it. We have to accept the pain. Desires +have to be thwarted, and that is not pleasant. Self has to be +suppressed, and that is not delightsome. A growing conviction of the +depth of one's own evil has to be cherished, and that is not a +grateful thought for any of us. Pains external, which are felt by +reason of disciplinary sorrows, are not worthy to be named in the same +day as those more recondite and inward agonies. But, brother, they are +all 'light' as compared with the exceeding weight of 'glory,' coming +from conformity to the example of our Master, which they prepare for +us. + +And so I bring you Christ's message: He will have no man to enlist in +His army under false pretences. He will not deceive any of us by +telling us that it is all easy work and plain sailing. Salting by fire +can never be other than to the worse self an agony, just because it is +to the better self a rapture. And so let us make up our minds that no +man is taken to heaven in his sleep, and that the road is a rough one, +judging from the point of view of flesh and sense; but though rough, +narrow, often studded with sharp edges, like the plough coulters that +they used to lay in the path in the old rude ordeals, it still leads +straight to the goal, and bleeding feet are little to pay for a seat +at Christ's right hand. + +III. Lastly, notice the preservative result of this painful cleansing. + +Our Lord brings together, in our text, as is often His wont, two +apparently contradictory ideas, in order, by the paradox, to fix our +attention the more vividly upon His words. Fire destroys; salt +preserves. They are opposites. But yet the opposites may be united in +one mighty reality, a fire which preserves and does not destroy. The +deepest truth is that the cleansing fire which the Christ will give us +preserves us, because it destroys that which is destroying us. If you +kill the germs of putrefaction in a hit of dead flesh, you preserve +the flesh; and if you bring to bear upon a man the power which will +kill the thing that is killing him, its destructive influence is the +condition of its conserving one. + +And so it is, in regard to that great spiritual influence which Jesus +Christ is ready to give to every one of us. It slays that which is +slaying us, for our sins destroy in us the true life of a man, and +make us but parables of walking death. When the three Hebrews were +cast into the fiery furnace in Babylon, the flames burned nothing but +their bonds, and they walked at liberty in the fire. And so it will be +with us. We shall be preserved by that which slays the sins that would +otherwise slay us. + +Let me lay on your hearts before I close the solemn alternative to +which I have already referred, and which is suggested by the +connection of my text with the preceding words. There is a fire that +destroys and is not quenched. Christ's previous words are much too +metaphorical for us to build dogmatic definitions upon. But Jesus +Christ did not exaggerate. If here and now sin has so destructive an +effect upon a man, O, who will venture to say that he knows the limits +of its murderous power in that future life, when retribution shall +begin with new energy and under new conditions? Brethren, whilst I +dare not enlarge, I still less dare to suppress; and I ask you to +remember that not I, or any man, but Jesus Christ Himself, has put +before each of us this alternative--either the fire unquenchable, +which destroys a man, or the merciful fire, which slays his sins and +saves him alive. + +Social reformers, philanthropists, you that have tried and failed to +overcome your evil, and who feel the loathly thing so intertwisted +with your being that to pluck it from your heart is to tear away the +very heart's walls themselves, here is a hope for you. Closely as our +evil is twisted in with the fibres of our character, there is a hand +that can untwine the coils, and cast away the sin, and preserve the +soul. And although we sometimes feel as if our sinfulness and our sin +were so incorporated with ourselves that it made oneself, with a man's +head and a serpent's tail, let us take the joyful assurance that if we +trust ourselves to Christ, and open our hearts to His power, we can +shake off the venomous beast into the fire and live a fuller life, +because the fire has consumed that which would otherwise have consumed +us. + + + +'SALT IN YOURSELVES' + + +'Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.'--Mark ix. +50. + +In the context 'salt' is employed to express the preserving, +purifying, divine energy which is otherwise spoken of as 'fire.' The +two emblems produce the same result. They both salt--that is, they +cleanse and keep. And if in the one we recognise the quick energy of +the Divine Spirit as the central idea, no less are we to see the same +typified under a slightly different aspect in the other. The fire +transforms into its own substance and burns away all the grosser +particles. The salt arrests corruption, keeps off destruction, and +diffuses its sanative influence through all the particles of the +substance with which it comes in contact. And in both metaphors it is +the operation of God's cleansing Spirit, in its most general form, +that is set forth, including all the manifold ways by which God deals +with us to purge us from our iniquity, to free us from the death which +treads close on the heels of wrongdoing, the decomposition and +dissolution which surely follow on corruption. + +This the disciples are exhorted to have in themselves that they may be +at peace one with another. Perhaps we shall best discover the whole +force of this saying by dealing-- + +I. With the symbol itself and the ideas derived from it. + +The salt cleanses, arrests corruption which impends over the dead +masses, sweetens and purifies, and so preserves from decay and +dissolution. It works by contact, and within the mass. It thus stands +as an emblem of the cleansing which God brings, both in respect (a) to +that on which it operates, (b) to the purpose of its application, and +(c) to the manner in which it produces its effects. + +(a) That on which it operates. + +There is implied here a view of human nature, not flattering but true. +It is compared with a dead thing, in which the causes that bring about +corruption are already at work, with the sure issue of destruction. +This in its individual application comes to the assertion of sinful +tendency and actual sin as having its seat and root in all our souls, +so that the present condition is corruption, and the future issue is +destruction. The consequent ideas are that any power which is to +cleanse must come from without, not from within; that purity is not to +be won by our own efforts, and that there is no disposition in human +nature to make these efforts. There is no recuperative power in human +nature. True, there may be outward reformation of habits, etc., but, +if we grasp the thought that the taproot of sin is selfishness, this +impotence becomes clearer, and it is seen that sin affects all our +being, and that therefore the healing must come from beyond us. + +(b) The purpose--namely, cleansing. + +In salt we may include the whole divine energy; the Word, the Christ, +the Spirit. So the intention of the Gospel is mainly to make clean. +Preservation is a consequence of that. + +(c) The manner of its application. + +Inward, penetrating, by contact; but mainly the great peculiarity of +Christian ethics is that the inner life is dealt with first, the will +and the heart, and afterwards the outward conduct. + +II. The part which we have to take in this cleansing process. + +'Have salt' is a command; and this implies that while all the +cleansing energy comes from God, the working of it on our souls +depends on ourselves. + +(a) Its original reception depends on our faith. + +The 'salt' is here, but our contact with it is established by our +acceptance of it. There is no magical cleansing; but it must be +received within if we would share in its operation. + +(b) Its continuous energy is not secured without our effort. + +Let us just recall the principle already referred to, that the 'salt' +implies the whole cleansing divine energies, and ask what are these? +The Bible variously speaks of men as being cleansed by the 'blood of +Christ,' by the 'truth,' by the 'Spirit.' Now, it is not difficult to +bring all these into one focus, viz., that the Spirit of God cleanses +us by bringing the truth concerning Christ to bear on our +understandings and hearts. + +We are sanctified in proportion as we are coming under the influence +of Christian truth, which, believed by our understandings and our +hearts, supplies motives to our wills which lead us to holiness by +copying the example of Christ. + +Hence the main principle is that the cleansing energy operates on us +in proportion as we are influenced by the truths of the Gospel. + +Again, it works in proportion as we seek for, and submit to, the +guidance of God's Holy Spirit. + +In proportion as we are living in communion with Christ. + +In proportion as we seek to deny ourselves and put away those evil +things which 'quench the Spirit.' + +This great grace, then, is not ours without our own effort. No +original endowment is enough to keep us right. There must be the daily +contact with, and constant renewing of the Holy Ghost. Hence arises a +solemn appeal to all Christians. + +Note the independence of the Christian character. + +'In yourselves.' 'The water that I shall give him shall be in him a +fountain,' etc. Not, therefore, derived from the world, nor at +second-hand from other men, but you have access to it for yourselves. +See that you use the gift. 'Hold fast that which thou hast,' for there +are enemies to withstand--carelessness, slothfulness, and +self-confidence, etc. + +III. The relation to one another of those who possess this energy. + +In proportion as Christians have salt in themselves, they will be at +peace with one another. Remember that all sin is selfishness; +therefore if we are cleansed from it, that which leads to war, +alienation, and coldness will be removed. Even in this world there +will be an anticipatory picture of the perfect peace which will abound +when all are holy. Even now this great hope should make our mutual +Christian relations very sweet and helpful. + +Thus emerges the great principle that the foundation of the only real +love among men must be laid in holiness of heart and life. Where the +Spirit of God is working on a heart, there the seeds of evil passions +are stricken out. The causes of enmity and disturbance are being +removed. Men quarrel with each other because their pride is offended, +or because their passionate desires after earthly things are crossed +by a successful rival, or because they deem themselves not +sufficiently respected by others. The root of all strife is self-love. +It is the root of all sin. The cleansing which takes away the root +removes in the same proportion the strife which grows from it. We +should not be so ready to stand on our rights if we remembered how we +come to have any hopes at all. We should not be so ready to take +offence if we thought more of Him who is not soon angry. All the train +of alienations, suspicions, earthly passions, which exist in our minds +and are sure to issue in quarrels or bad blood, will be put down if we +have 'salt in ourselves.' + +This makes a very solemn appeal to Christian men. The Church is the +garden where this peace should flourish. The disgrace of the Church is +its envyings, jealousies, ill-natured scandal, idle gossip, love of +preeminence, willingness to impute the worst possible motives to one +another, sharp eyes for our brother's failings and none for our own. I +am not pleading for any mawkish sentimentality, but for a manly +peacefulness which comes from holiness. The holiest natures are always +the most generous. + +What a contrast the Church ought to present to the prevailing tone in +the world! Does it? Why not? Because we do not possess the 'salt.' The +dove flees from the cawing of rooks and the squabbling of kites and +hawks. + +The same principle applies to all our human affections. Our loves of +all sorts are safe only when they are pure. Contrast the society based +on common possession of the one Spirit with the companionships which +repose on sin, or only on custom or neighbourhood. In all these there +are possibilities of moral peril. + +The same principle intensified gives us a picture of heaven and of +hell. In the one are the 'solemn troops and sweet societies'; in the +other, no peace, no confidence, no bonds, only isolation, because sin +which is selfishness lies at the foundation of the awful condition. + +Friends, without that salt our souls are dead and rotting. Here is the +great cure. Make it your own. So purified, you will be preserved, but, +on the other hand, unchecked sin leads to quick destruction. + +The dead, putrefying carcass--what a picture of a soul abandoned to +evil and fit only for Gehenna! + + + +CHILDREN AND CHILDLIKE MEN + + +'And they brought young children to Him, that He should touch them: +and His disciples rebuked those that brought them. 14. But when Jesus +saw it, He was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little +children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the +kingdom of God. 15. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive +the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.' +--Mark x. 13-15. + +It was natural that the parents should have wanted Christ's blessing, +so that they might tell their children in later days that His hand had +been laid on their heads, and that He had prayed for them. And Christ +did not think of it as a mere superstition. The disciples were not so +akin to the children as He was, and they were a great deal more tender +of His dignity than He. They thought of this as an interruption +disturbing their high intercourse with Christ. 'These children are +always in the way, this is tiresome,' etc. + +I. Christ blessing children. + +It is a beautiful picture: the great Messiah with a child in His arms. +We could not think of Moses or of Paul in such an attitude. Without +it, we should have wanted one of the sweetest, gentlest, most human +traits in His character; and how world-wide in its effect that act has +been! How many a mother has bent over her child with deeper love; how +many a parent has felt the sacredness of the trust more vividly; how +many a mother has been drawn nearer to Christ; and how many a little +child has had childlike love to Him awakened by it; how much of +practical benevolence and of noble sacrifice for children's welfare, +how many great institutions, have really sprung from this one deed! + +And, if we turn from its effects to its meaning, it reveals Christ's +love for children:--in its human side, as part of His character as +man; in its deeper aspect as a revelation of the divine nature. It +corrects dogmatic errors by making plain that, prior to all ceremonies +or to repentance and faith, little children are loved and blessed by +Him. Unconscious infants as these were folded in His arms and love. It +puts away all gloomy and horrible thoughts which men have had about +the standing of little children. + +This is an act of Christ to infants expressive of His love to them, +His care over them, their share in His salvation. Baptism is an act of +man's, a symbol of his repentance and dying to sin and rising to a new +life in Christ, a profession of his faith, an act of obedience to his +Lord. It teaches nothing as to the relation of infants to the love of +Jesus or to salvation. It does not follow that because that love is +most sure and precious, baptism must needs be a sign of it. The +question, what does baptism mean, must be determined by examination of +texts which speak about baptism; not by a side-light from a text which +speaks about something else. There is no more reason for making +baptism proclaim that Jesus Christ loves children than for making it +proclaim that two and two make four. + +II. The child's nearness to Christ. + +'Of such is the kingdom.' 'Except ye be converted and become like +little children,' etc. Now this does not refer to innocence; for, as a +matter of fact, children are not innocent, as all schoolmasters and +nurses know, whatever sentimental poets may say. Innocence is not a +qualification for admission to the kingdom. And yet it is true that +'heaven lies about us in our infancy,' and that we are further off +from it than when we were children. Nor does it mean that children are +naturally the subjects of the kingdom, but only that the +characteristics of the child are those which the man must have, in +order to enter the kingdom; that their natural disposition is such as +Christ requires to be directed to Him; or, in other words, that +childhood has a special adaptation to Christianity. For instance, take +dependence, trust, simplicity, unconsciousness, and docility. + +These are the very characteristics of childhood, and these are the +very emotions of mind and heart which Christianity requires. Add the +child's strong faculty of imagination and its implicit belief; making +the form of Christianity as the story of a life so easy to them. And +we may add too: the absence of intellectual pride; the absence of the +habit of dallying with moral truth. Everybody is to the child either a +'good' man or a 'bad.' They have an intense realisation of the unseen; +an absence of developed vices and hard worldliness; a faculty of +living in the present, free from anxious care and worldly hearts. But +while thus they have special adaptation for receiving, they too need +to come to Christ. These characteristics do not make Christians. They +are to be directed to Christ. 'Suffer them to come unto Me,' the +youngest child needs to, can, ought to, come to Christ. And how +beautiful their piety is, 'Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings +Thou hast perfected praise.' Their fresh, unworn trebles struck on +Christ's ear. Children ought to grow up in Christian households, +'innocent from much transgression.' We ought to expect them to grow up +Christian. + +III. The child and the Church. + +The child is a pattern to us men. We are to learn of them as well as +teach them; what they are naturally, we are to strive to become, not +childish but childlike. 'Even as a weaned child' (see Psalm cxxxi.). +The child-spirit is glorified in manhood. It is possible for us to +retain it, and lose none of the manhood. 'In malice be ye children, +but in understanding be men.' The spirit of the kingdom is that of +immortal youth. + +The children are committed to our care. + +The end of all training and care is that they should by voluntary act +draw near to Him. This should be the aim in Sunday schools, for +instance, and in families, and in all that we do for the poor around +us. + +See that we do not hinder their coming. This is a wide principle, +viz., not to do anything which may interfere with those who are weaker +and lower than we are finding their way to Jesus. The Church, and we +as individual Christians, too often hinder this 'coming.' + +Do not hinder by the presentation of the Gospel in a repellent form, +either hardly dogmatic or sour. + +Do not hinder by the requirement of such piety as is unnatural to a +child. + +Do not hinder by inconsistencies. This is a warning for Christian +parents in particular. + +Do not hinder by neglect. '_Despise_ not one of these little ones.' + + + +ALMOST A DISCIPLE + + +'And when He was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and +kneeled to Him, and asked Him. Good Master, what shall I do that I may +inherit eternal life! 18. And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou Me +good! there is none good but one, that is, God. 19. Thou knowest the +commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do +not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. 20. +And he answered and said unto Him, Master, all these have I observed +from my youth, 21. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto +him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, +and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and +come, take up the cross, and follow Me. 22. And he was sad at that +saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions. 23. And +Jesus looked round about and saith unto His disciples, How hardly +shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! 24. And the +disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answereth again, and +saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in +riches to enter into the kingdom of God! 25. 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. 26. And they were astonished out of measure, +saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? 27. And Jesus looking +upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with +God all things are possible.'--Mark x. 17-27. + +There were courage, earnestness, and humility in this young ruler's +impulsive casting of himself at Christ's feet in the way, with such a +question. He was not afraid to recognise a teacher in Him whom his +class scorned and hated; he was deeply sincere in his wish to possess +eternal life, and in his belief that he was ready to do whatever was +necessary for that end; he bowed himself as truly as he bent his knees +before Jesus, and the noble enthusiasm of youth breathed in his +desires, his words, and his gesture. + +But his question betrayed the defect which poisoned the much that was +right and lovable in him. He had but a shallow notion of what was +'good,' as is indicated by his careless ascription of goodness to one +of whom he knew so little as he did of Jesus, and by his conception +that it was a matter of deeds. He is too sure of himself; for he +thinks that he is ready and able to do all good deeds, if only they +are pointed out to him. + +How little he understood the resistance of 'the mind of the flesh' to +discerned duty! Probably he had had no very strong inclinations to +contend against, in living the respectable life that had been his. It +is only when we row against the stream that we find out how fast it +runs. He was wrong about the connection of good deeds and eternal +life, for he thought of them as done by himself, and so of buying it +by his own efforts. Fatal errors could not have been condensed in +briefer compass, or presented in conjunction with more that is +admirable, than in his eager question, asked so modestly and yet so +presumptuously. + +Our Lord answers with a coldness which startles; but it was meant to +rouse, like a dash of icy water flung in the face. 'Why callest thou +Me good?' is more than a waving aside of a compliment, or a lesson in +accuracy of speech. It rebukes the young man's shallow conception of +goodness, as shown by the facility with which he bestowed the epithet. +'None is good save one, even God,' cuts up by the roots his notion of +the possibility of self-achieved goodness, since it traces all human +goodness to its source in God. If He is the only good, then we cannot +perform good acts by our own power, but must receive power from Him. +How, then, can any man 'inherit eternal life' by good deeds, which he +is only able to do because God has poured some of His own goodness +into him? Jesus shatters the young man's whole theory, as expressed in +his question, at one stroke. + +But while His reply bears directly on the errors in the question, it +has a wider significance. Either Jesus is here repudiating the notion +of His own sinlessness, and acknowledging, in contradiction to every +other disclosure of His self-consciousness, that He too was not +through and through good, or else He is claiming to be filled with +God, the source of all goodness, in a wholly unique manner. It is a +tremendous alternative, but one which has to be faced. While one is +thankful if men even imperfectly apprehend the character and nature of +Jesus, one cannot but feel that the question may fairly be put to the +many who extol the beauty of His life, and deny His divinity, 'Why +callest thou Me good?' Either He is 'God manifest in the flesh,' or He +is not 'good.' + +The remainder of Christ's answer tends to deepen the dawning +conviction of the impossibility of meriting eternal life by acts of +goodness, apart from dependence on God. He refers to the second half +of the Decalogue only, not as if the first were less important, but +because the breaches of the second are more easily brought to +consciousness. In thus answering, Jesus takes the standpoint of the +law, but for the purpose of bringing to the very opposite conviction +from that which the young ruler expresses in reply. He declares that +he has kept them all from his youth. Jesus would have had him confess +that in them was a code too high to be fully obeyed. 'By the law is +the knowledge of sin,' but it had not done its work in this young man. +His shallow notion of goodness besets and blinds him still. He is +evidently thinking about external deeds, and is an utter stranger to +the depths of his own heart. It was an answer betraying great +shallowness in his conception of duty and in his self-knowledge. + +It is one which is often repeated still. How many of us are there who, +if ever we cast a careless glance over our lives, are quite satisfied +with their external respectability! As long as the chambers that look +to the street are fairly clean, many think that all is right. But what +is there rotting and festering down in the cellars? Do we ever go down +there with the 'candle of the Lord' in our hands? If we do, the +ruler's boast, 'All these have I kept,' will falter into 'All these +have I broken.' + +But let us be thankful for the love that shone in Christ's eyes as He +looked on him. We may blame; He loved. Jesus saw the fault, but He saw +the longing to be better. The dim sense of insufficiency which had +driven this questioner to Him was clear to that all-knowing and +all-loving heart. Do not let us harshly judge the mistakes of those +who would fain be taught, nor regard the professions of innocence, +which come from defective perception, as if they were the proud +utterances of a Pharisee. + +But Christ's love is firm, and can be severe. It never pares down His +requirements to make discipleship easier. Rather it attracts by +heightening them, and insisting most strenuously on the most difficult +surrender. That is the explanation of the stringent demand next made +by Him. He touched the poisonous swelling as with a sharp lancet when +He called for surrender of wealth. We may be sure that it was this +man's money which stood between him and eternal life. If something +else had been his chief temptation, that something would have been +signalised as needful to be given up. There is no general principle of +conduct laid down here, but a specific injunction determined by the +individual's character. All diseases are not treated with the same +medicines. The command is but Christ's application of His broad +requirement, 'If thine eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out.' The +principle involved is, surrender what hinders entire following of +Jesus. When that sacrifice is made, we shall be in contact with the +fountain of goodness, and have eternal life, not as payment, but as a +gift. + +'His countenance fell,' or, according to Mark's picturesque word, +'became lowering,' like a summer sky when thunder-clouds gather. The +hope went out of his heart, and the light faded from his eager face. +The prick of the sharp spear had burst the bubble of his superficial +earnestness. He had probably never had anything like so repugnant a +duty forced upon him, and he cannot bring himself to yield. Like so +many of us, he says, 'I desire eternal life,' but when it comes to +giving up the dearest thing he recoils. 'Anything else, Lord, thou +shalt have, and welcome, but not that.' And Christ says, 'That, and +nothing else, I must have, if thou art to have Me.' So this man 'went +away sorrowful.' His earnestness evaporated; he kept his possessions, +and he lost Christ. A prudent bargain! But we may hope that, since 'he +went away sorrowful,' he felt the ache of something lacking, that the +old longings came back, and that he screwed up his resolution to make +'the great surrender,' and counted his wealth 'but dung, that he might +win Christ.' + +What a world of sad and disappointed love there would be in that look +of Jesus to the disciples, as the young ruler went away with bowed +head! How graciously He anticipates their probable censure, and turns +their thoughts rather on themselves, by the acknowledgment that the +failure was intelligible, since the condition was hard! How pityingly +His thoughts go after the retreating figure! How universal the +application of His words! Riches may become a hindrance to entering +the kingdom. They do so when they take the first place in the +affections and in the estimates of good. That danger besets those who +have them and those who have them not. Many a poor man is as much +caught in the toils of the love of money as the rich are. Jesus +modifies the form of His saying when He repeats it in the shape of +'How hardly shall they that trust in riches,' etc. It is difficult to +have, and not to trust in them. Rich men's disadvantages as to living +a self-sacrificing Christian life are great. To Christ's eyes, their +position was one to be dreaded rather than to be envied. + +So opposed to current ideas was such a thought, that the disciples, +accustomed to think that wealth meant happiness, were amazed. If the +same doctrine were proclaimed in any great commercial centre to-day, +it would excite no less astonishment. At least, many Christians and +others live as if the opposite were true. Wealth possessed, and not +trusted in, but used aright, may become a help towards eternal life; +but wealth as commonly regarded and employed by its possessors, and as +looked longingly after by others, is a real, and in many cases an +insuperable, obstacle to entering the strait gate. As soon drive a +camel, humps and load and all, through 'a needle's eye,' as get a man +who trusts in the uncertainty of riches squeezed through that portal. +No communities need this lesson more than our great cities. + +No wonder that the disciples thought that, if the road was so +difficult for rich men, it must be hard indeed. Christ goes even +farther. He declares that it is not only hard, but 'impossible,' for a +man by his own power to tread it. That was exactly what the young man +had thought that he could do, if only he were directed. + +So our Lord's closing words in this context apply, not only to the +immediately preceding question by the disciples, but may be taken as +the great truth conveyed by the whole incident, Man's efforts can +never put him in possession of eternal life. He must have God's power +flowing into him if he is to be such as can enter the kingdom. It is +the germ of the subsequent teaching of Paul; 'The gift of God is +eternal life.' What we cannot do, Christ has done for us, and does in +us. We must yield ourselves to Him, and surrender ourselves, and +abandon what stands between us and Him, and then eternal life will +enter into us here, and we shall enter into its perfect possession +hereafter. + + + +CHRIST ON THE ROAD TO THE CROSS + + +'And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before +them: and they were amazed; and as they followed they were afraid.' +--Mark x. 32. + +We learn from John's Gospel that the resurrection of Lazarus +precipitated the determination of the Jewish authorities to put Christ +to death; and that immediately thereafter there was held the council +at which, by the advice of Caiaphas, the formal decision was come to. +Thereupon our Lord withdrew Himself into the wilderness which +stretches south and east of Jerusalem; and remained there for an +unknown period, preparing Himself for the Cross. Then, full of calm +resolve, He came forth to die. This is the crisis in our Lord's +history to which my text refers. The graphic narrative of this +Evangelist sets before us the little company on the steep rocky +mountain road that leads up from Jericho to Jerusalem; our Lord, far +in advance of His followers, with a fixed purpose stamped upon His +face, and something of haste in His stride, and that in His whole +demeanour which shed a strange astonishment and awe over the group of +silent and uncomprehending disciples. + +That picture has not attracted the attention that it deserves. I think +if we ponder it with sympathetic imagination helping us, we may get +from it some very great lessons and glimpses of our Lord's inmost +heart in the prospect of His Cross. And I desire simply to set forth +two or three of the aspects of Christ's character which these words +seem to me to suggest. + +I. We have here, then, first, what, for want of a better name, I would +call the heroic Christ. + +I use the word to express simply strength of will brought to bear in +the resistance to antagonism; and although that is a side of the +Lord's character which is not often made prominent, it is there, and +ought to have its due importance. + +We speak of Him, and delight to think of Him, as the embodiment of all +loving, gracious, gentle virtues, but Jesus Christ as the ideal man +unites in Himself what men are in the habit, somewhat superciliously, +of calling the masculine virtues, as well as those which they somewhat +contemptuously designate the feminine. I doubt very much whether that +is a correct distinction. I think that the heroism of endurance, at +all events, is far more an attribute of a woman than of a man. But be +that as it may, we are to look to Jesus Christ as presenting before us +the very type of all which men call heroism in the sense that I have +explained, of an iron will, incapable of deflection by any antagonism, +and which coerces the whole nature to obedience to its behests. + +There is nothing to be done in life without such a will. 'To be weak +is to be miserable, doing or suffering.' And our Master has set us the +example of this; that unless there run through a man's life, like the +iron framework on the top of the spire of Antwerp Cathedral, on which +graceful fancies are strung in stone, the rigid bar of an iron purpose +that nothing can bend, the life will be nought and the man will be a +failure. Christ is the pattern of heroic endurance, and reads to us +the lesson to resist and persist, whatever stands between us and our +goal. + +So here, the Cross before Him flung out no repelling influence towards +Him, but rather drew Him to itself. There is no reason that I can find +for believing the modern theory of the rationalists' school that our +Lord, in the course of His mission, altered His plan, or gradually had +dawning upon His mind the conviction that to carry out His purposes He +must be a martyr. That seems to me to be an entire misreading of the +Gospel narrative which sets before us much rather this, that from the +beginning of our Lord's public career there stood unmistakably before +Him the Cross as the goal. He entertained no illusions as to His +reception. He did not come to do certain work, and, finding that He +could not do it, accepted the martyr's _role_; but He came for the +twofold purpose of serving by His life, and of redeeming by His death. +'He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His +life a ransom for the many.' And this purpose stood clear before Him, +drawing Him to itself all through His career. + +But, further, Christ's character teaches us what is the highest form +of such strength and tenacity, viz., gentleness. There is no need to +be brusque, obstinate, angular, self-absorbed, harsh, because we are +fixed and determined in our course. These things are the caricatures +and the diminutions, not the true forms nor the increase, of strength. +The most tenacious steel is the most flexible, and he that has the +most fixed and definite resolve may be the man that has his heart most +open to all human sympathies, and is strong with the almightiness of +gentleness, and not with the less close-knit strength of roughness and +of hardness. Christ, because He is perfect love, is perfect power, and +His will is fixed because it is love that fixes it. So let us take the +lesson that the highest type of strength is strength in meekness, and +that the Master who, I was going to say, kept His strength of will +under, but I more correctly say, manifested His strength of will +through, His gentleness, is the pattern for us. + +II. Then again, we see here not only the heroic, but what I may call +the self-sacrificing Christ. + +We have not only to consider the fixed will which this incident +reveals, but to remember the purpose on which it was fixed, and that +He was hastening to His Cross. The very fact of our Lord's going back +to Jerusalem, with that decree of the Sanhedrim still in force, was +tantamount to His surrender of Himself to death. It was as if, in the +old days, some excommunicated man with the decree of the Inquisition +pronounced against him had gone into Rome and planted himself in the +front of the piazza before the buildings of the Holy Office, and +lifted up his testimony there. So Christ, knowing that this council +has been held, that this decree stands, goes back, investing of set +purpose His return with all the publicity that He can bring to bear +upon it. For this once He seems to determine that He will 'cause His +voice to be heard in the streets'; He makes as much of a demonstration +as the circumstances will allow, and so acts in a manner opposite to +all the rest of His life. Why? Because He had determined to bring the +controversy to an end. Why? Was He flinging away His life in mere +despair? Was He sinfully neglecting precautions? Was the same +fanaticism of martyrdom which has often told upon men, acting upon +Him? Were these His reasons? No, but He recognised that now that +'hour' of which He spoke so much had come, and of His own loving will +offered Himself as our Sacrifice. + +It is all-important to keep in view that Christ's death was His own +voluntary act. Whatever external forces were brought to bear in the +accomplishment of it, He died because He chose to die. The 'cords' +which bound this sacrifice to the horns of the altar were cords woven +by Himself. + +So I point to the incident of my text, as linking in along with the +whole series of incidents marking the last days of our Lord's life, in +order to stamp upon His death unmistakably this signature, that it was +His own act. Therefore the publicity that was given to His entry; +therefore His appearance in the Temple; therefore the increased +sharpness and unmistakableness of His denunciations of the ruling +classes, the Pharisees and the scribes. Therefore the whole history of +the Passion, all culminating in leaving this one conviction, that He +had 'power to lay down His life,' that neither Caiaphas nor Annas, nor +Judas, nor the band, nor priests, nor the Council, nor Pilate, nor +Herod, nor soldiers, nor nails, nor cross, nor all together, killed +Jesus, but that Jesus died because He would. The self-sacrifice of the +Lord was not the flinging away of the life that He ought to have +preserved, nor carelessness, nor the fanaticism of a martyr, nor the +enthusiasm of a hero and a champion, but it was the voluntary death of +Him who of His own will became in His death the 'oblation and +satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.' Love to us, and +obedience to the Father whose will He made His own, were the cords +that bound Christ to the Cross on which He died. His sacrifice was +voluntary; witness this fact that when He saw the Cross at hand He +strode before His followers to reach that, the goal of His mission. + +III. I venture to regard the incident as giving us a little glimpse of +what I may call the shrinking Christ. + +Do we not see here a trace of something that we all know? May not part +of the reason for Christ's haste have been that desire which we all +have, when some inevitable grief or pain lies before us, to get it +over soon, and to abbreviate the moments that lie between us and it? +Was there not something of that feeling in our Lord's sensitive nature +when He said, for instance, 'I have a baptism to be baptized with, and +how am I straitened until it be accomplished'? 'I am come to send fire +upon the earth, and O! how I wish that it were already kindled!' Was +there not something of the same feeling, which we cannot call +impatient, but which we may call shrinking from the Cross, and +therefore seeking to draw the Cross nearer, and have done with it, in +the words which He addressed to the betrayer, 'That thou doest, do +quickly,' as if He were making a last appeal to the man's humanity, +and in effect saying to him, 'If you have a heart at all, shorten +these painful hours, and let us have it over'? + +And may we not see, in that swift advance in front of the lagging +disciples, some trace of the same feeling which we recognise to be so +truly human? + +Christ _did_ shrink from His Cross. Let us never forget that He +recoiled from it, with the simple, instinctive, human shrinking from +pain and death which is a matter of the physical nervous system, and +has nothing to do with the will at all. If there had been no shrinking +from it there had been no fixed will. If there had been no natural +instinctive drawing back of the physical nature and its connections +from the prospect of pain and death, there had been none of the +heroism of which I am speaking. Though it does not become us to +dogmatise about matters of which we know so little, I think we may +fairly say that that shrinking never rose up into the regions of +Christ's will; never became a desire; never became a purpose. +Howsoever the ship might be tossed by the waves, the will always kept +its level equilibrium. Howsoever the physical nature might incline to +this side or to that, the will always kept parallel with the great +underlying divine will, the Father's purpose which He had come to +effect. There was shrinking which was instinctive and human, but it +never disturbed the fixed purpose to die. It had so much power over +Him as to make Him march a little faster to the Cross, but it never +made Him turn from it. And so He stands before us as the Conqueror in +a real conflict, as having yielded Himself up by a real surrender, as +having overcome a real difficulty, 'for the joy that was set before +Him, having endured the Cross, despising the shame.' + +IV. So, lastly, I would see here the lonely Christ. + +In front of His followers, absorbed in the thought of what was drawing +so near, gathering together His powers in order to be ready for the +struggle, with His heart full of the love and the pity which impelled +Him, He is surrounded as with a cloud which shuts Him 'out from their +sight,' as afterwards the cloud of glory 'received Him.' + +What a gulf there was between them and Him, between their thoughts and +His, as He passed up that rocky way! What were they thinking about? +'By the way they had disputed amongst themselves which of them should +be the greatest.' So far did they sympathise with the Master! So far +did they understand Him! Talk about men with unappreciated aims, +heroes that have lived through a lifetime of misunderstanding and +never have had any one to sympathise with them! There never was such a +lonely man in the world as Jesus Christ. Never was there one that +carried so deep In His heart so great a purpose and so great a love, +which none cared a rush about. And those that were nearest Him, and +loved Him best, loved Him so blunderingly and so blindly that their +love must often have been quite as much of a pain as of a joy. + +In His Passion that solitude reached the point of agony. How touching +in its unconscious pathos is His pleading request, 'Tarry ye here, and +watch with Me!' How touching in their revelation of a subsidiary but +yet very real addition to His pains are His words, 'All ye shall be +offended because of Me this night.' Oh, dear brethren! every human +soul has to go down into the darkness alone, however close may be the +clasping love which accompanies us to the portal; but the loneliness +of death was realised by Jesus Christ in a very unique and solemn +manner. For round Him there gathered the clouds of a mysterious agony, +only faintly typified by the darkness of eclipse which hid the +material sun in the universe, what time He died. + +And all this solitude, the solitude of unappreciated aims, and +unshared purposes, and misunderstood sorrow during life, and the +solitude of death with its elements ineffable of atonement;--all this +solitude was borne that no human soul, living or dying, might ever be +lonely any more. 'Lo! I,' whom you all left alone, 'am with you,' who +left Me alone, 'even till the end of the world.' + +So, dear brethren, ponder that picture that I have been trying very +feebly to set before you, of the heroic, self-sacrificing, shrinking, +solitary Saviour. Take Him as your Saviour, your Sacrifice, your +Pattern; and hear Him saying, 'If any man serve Me, let him follow Me, +and where I am there shall also My servant be.' + +An old ecclesiastical legend conies into my mind at the moment, which +tells how an emperor won the true Cross in battle from a pagan king, +and brought it back, with great pomp, to Jerusalem; but found the gate +walled up, and an angel standing before it, who said, 'Thou bringest +back the Cross with pomp and splendour. He that died upon it had shame +for His companion; and carried it on His back, barefooted, to +Calvary.' Then, says the chronicler, the emperor dismounted from his +steed, cast off his robes, lifted the sacred Rood on his shoulders, +and with bare feet advanced to the gate, which opened of itself, and +he entered in. + +_We_ have to go up the steep rocky road that leads from the plain +where the Dead Sea is, to Jerusalem. Let us follow the Master, as He +strides before us, the Forerunner and the Captain of our salvation. + + + +DIGNITY AND SERVICE + + +'And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto Him, saying, +Master, we would that Thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall +desire. 36. And He said unto them, What would ye that I should do for +you? 37. They said unto Him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on Thy +right hand, and the other on Thy left hand, in Thy glory. 38. But +Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup +that I drink of! and he baptized with the baptism that I am baptized +with! 39. And they said unto Him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye +shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism +that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized: 40. But to sit on My +right hand and on My left hand is not Mine to give; but it shall be +given to them for whom it its prepared. 41. And when the Ten heard it, +they began to be much displeased with James and John. 42. But Jesus +called them to Him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are +accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and +their great ones exercise authority upon them. 43. But so shall it not +be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your +minister: 44. And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be +servant of all. 45. For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered +unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.'--Mark +x. 35-45. + +How lonely Jesus was! While He strode before the Twelve, absorbed in +thoughts of the Cross to which He was pressing, they, as they +followed, 'amazed' and 'afraid,' were thinking not of what He would +suffer, but of what they might gain. He saw the Cross. They understood +little of it, but supposed that somehow it would bring in the kingdom, +and they dimly saw thrones for themselves. Hence James and John try to +secure the foremost places, and hence the others' anger at what they +thought an unfair attempt to push in front of them. What a contrast +between Jesus, striding on ahead with 'set' face, and the Twelve +unsympathetic and self-seeking, lagging behind to squabble about +pre-eminence! We have in this incident two parts: the request and its +answer, the indignation of the Ten and its rebuke. The one sets forth +the qualifications for the highest place in the kingdom; the other, +the paradox that pre-eminence there is service. + +James and John were members of the group of original disciples who +stood nearest to Jesus, and of the group of three whom He kept +specially at His side. Their present place might well lead them to +expect pre-eminence in the kingdom, but their trick was mean, as being +an underhand attempt to forestall Peter, the remaining one of the +three, as putting forward their mother as spokeswoman, and as +endeavouring to entrap Jesus into promising before the disclosure of +what was desired. Matthew tells that the mother was brought in order +to make the request, and that Jesus brushed her aside by directing His +answer to her sons ('Ye know not what _ye_ ask'). The attempt to get +Jesus' promise without telling what was desired betrayed the +consciousness that the wish was wrong. His guarded counter-question +would chill them and make their disclosure somewhat hesitating. + +Note the strangely blended good and evil of the request. The gold was +mingled with clay; selfishness and love delighting in being near Him +had both place in it. We may well recognise our own likenesses in +these two with their love spotted with self-regard, and be grateful +for the gentle answer which did not blame the desire for pre-eminence, +but sought to test the love. It was not only to teach them, that He +brought them back to think of the Cross which must precede the glory, +but because His own mind was so filled with it that He saw that glory +only as through the darkness which had to be traversed to reach it. +But for us all the question is solemn and heart-searching. + +Was not the answer, 'We are able,' too bold? They knew neither what +they asked nor what they promised; but just as their ignorant question +was partly redeemed by its love, their ignorant vow was ennobled by +its very rashness, as well as by the unfaltering love in it. They did +not know what they were promising, but they knew that they loved Him +so well that to share anything with Him would be blessed. So it was +not in their own strength that the swift answer rushed to their lips, +but in the strength of a love that makes heroes out of cowards. And +they nobly redeemed their pledge. We, too, if we are Christ's, have +the same question put to us, and, weak and timid as we are, may +venture to give the same answer, trusting to His strength. + +The full declaration of what had been only implied in the previous +question follows. Jesus tells the two, and us all, that there are +degrees in nearness to Him and in dignity in that future, but that the +highest places are not given by favouritism, but attained by fitness. +He does not deny that He gives, but only that He gives without regard +to qualification. Paul expected the crown from 'the righteous Judge,' +and one of these two brethren was chosen to record His promise of +giving a seat on His throne to all that overcome. 'Those for whom it +is prepared' are those who are prepared for it, and the preparation +lies in 'being made conformable to His death,' and being so joined to +Him that in spirit and mind we are partakers of His sufferings, +whether we are called to partake of them in outward form or not. + +The two had had their lesson, and next the Ten were to have theirs. +The conversation with the former had been private, for it was hearing +of it that made the others so angry. We can imagine the hot words +among them as they marched behind Jesus, and how they felt ashamed +already when 'He called them.' What they were to be now taught was not +so much the qualifications for pre-eminence in the kingdom, whether +here or hereafter, as the meaning of preeminence and the service to +which it binds. In the world, the higher men are, the more they are +served; in Christ's kingdom, both in its imperfect earthly and in its +perfect heavenly form, the higher men are, the more they serve. +So-called 'Christian' nations are organised on the former un-Christian +basis still. But wherever pre-eminence is not used for the general +good, there authority rests on slippery foundations, and there will +never be social wellbeing or national tranquillity until Christ's law +of dignity for service and dignity by service shapes and sweetens +society. 'But it is not so among you' laid down the constitution for +earth, and not only for some remote heaven; and every infraction of +it, sooner or later, brings a Nemesis. + +The highest is to be the lowest; for He who is 'higher than the +highest' has shown that such is the law which He obeys. The point in +the heaven that is highest above our heads is in twelve hours deepest +beneath our feet. Fellowship in Christ's sufferings was declared to be +the qualification for our sharing in His dignity. His lowly service +and sacrificial death are now declared to be the pattern for our use +of dignity. Still the thought of the Cross looms large before Jesus, +and He is not content with presenting Himself as the pattern of +service only, but calls on His disciples to take Him as the pattern of +utter self-surrender also. We cannot enter on the great teaching of +these words, but can only beseech all who hear them to note how Jesus +sets forth His death as the climax of His work, without which even +that life of ministering were incomplete; how He ascribes to it the +power of ransoming men from bondage and buying them back to God; and +of how He presents even these unparalleled sufferings, which bear or +need no repetition as long as the world lasts, as yet being the +example to which our lives must be conformed. So His lesson to the +angry Ten merges into that to the self-seeking two, and declares to +each of us that, if we are ever to win a place at His right hand in +His glory, we must here take a place with Him in imitating His life of +service and His death of self-surrender for men's good. 'If we endure, +we shall also reign with Him.' + + + +BARTIMAEUS + + +Blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side +begging.'--Mark x. 46. + +The narrative of this miracle is contained in all the Synoptical +Gospels, but the accounts differ in two respects--as to the number of +men restored to sight, and as to the scene of the miracle. Matthew +tells us that there were two men healed, and agrees with Mark in +placing the miracle as Jesus was leaving Jericho. Mark says that there +was one, and that the place was outside the gate in departing. Luke, +on the other hand, agrees with Matthew as to the number, and differs +from him and Mark as to the place, which he sets at the entrance into +the city. The first of these two discrepancies may very easily be put +aside. The greater includes the less; silence is not contradiction. To +say that there was one does not deny that there were two. And if +Bartimaeus was a Christian, and known to Mark's readers, as is +probable from the mention of his name, it is easily intelligible how +he, being also the chief actor and spokesman, should have had Mark's +attention concentrated on him. As to the other discrepancy, many +attempts have been made to remove it. None of them are altogether +satisfactory. But what does it matter? The apparent contradiction may +affect theories as to the characteristics of inspired books, but it +has nothing to do with the credibility of the narratives, or with +their value for us. + +Mark's account is evidently that of an eye-witness. It is full of +little particulars which testify thereto. Whether Bartimaeus had a +companion or not, he was obviously the chief actor and spokesman. And +the whole story seems to me to lend itself to the enforcement of some +very important lessons, which I will try to draw from it. + +I. Notice the beggar's petition and the attempts to silence it. + +Remember that Jesus was now on His last journey to Jerusalem. That +night He would sleep at Bethany; Calvary was but a week off. He had +paused to win Zacchaeus, and now He has resumed His march to His +Cross. Popular enthusiasm is surging round Him, and for the first time +He does not try to repress it. A shouting multitude are escorting Him +out of the city. They have just passed the gates, and are in the act +of turning towards the mountain gorge through which runs the Jerusalem +road. A long file of beggars is sitting, as beggars do still in +Eastern cities, outside the gate, well accustomed to lift their +monotonous wail at the sound of passing footsteps. Bartimaeus is +amongst them. He asks, according to Luke, what is the cause of the +bustle, and is told that 'Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.' The name +wakes strange hopes in him, which can only be accounted for by his +knowledge of Christ's miracles done elsewhere. It is a witness to +their notoriety that they had filtered down to be the talk of beggars +at city gates. And so, true to his trade, he cries, 'Jesus ... have +mercy upon me!' + +Now, note two or three things about that cry. The first is the clear +insight into Christ's place and dignity. The multitude said to him, +'Jesus of _Nazareth_ passeth by.' That was all they cared for or knew. +He cried, 'Jesus, thou _Son of David_,' distinctly recognising our +Lord's Messianic character, His power and authority, and on that power +and authority he built a confidence; for he says not as some other +suppliants had done, either 'If Thou wilt Thou canst,' or 'If Thou +canst do anything, have compassion on us.' He is sure of both the +power and the will. + +Now, it is interesting to notice that this same clear insight other +blind men in the Evangelist's story are also represented as having +had. Blindness has its compensations. It leads to a certain steadfast +brooding upon thoughts, free from disturbing influences. Seeing Jesus +did not produce faith; not seeing Him seems to have helped it. It left +imagination to work undisturbed, and He was all the loftier to these +blind men, because the conceptions of their minds were not limited by +the vision of their eyes. At all events, here is a distinct piece of +insight into Christ's dignity, power, and will, to which the seeing +multitudes were blind. + +Note, further, how in the cry there throbs the sense of need, deep and +urgent. And note how in it there is also the realisation of the +possibility that the widely-flowing blessings of which Bartimaeus had +heard might be concentrated and poured, in their full flood, upon +himself. He individualises himself, _his_ need, Christ's power and +willingness to help _him_. And because he has heard of so many who +have, in like manner, received His healing touch, he comes with the +cry, 'Have mercy upon me.' + +All this is upon the low level of physical blessings needed and +desired. But let us lift it higher. It is a mirror in which we may see +ourselves, our necessities, and the example of what our desire ought +to be. Ah! brethren, the deep consciousness of impotence, need, +emptiness, blindness, lies at the bottom of all true crying to Jesus +Christ. If you have never gone to Him, knowing yourself to be a sinful +man, in peril, present and future, from your sin, and stained and +marred by reason of it, you never have gone to Him in any deep and +adequate sense at all. Only when I thus know myself am I driven to +cry, 'Jesus! have mercy on me.' And I ask you not to answer to me, but +to press the question on your own consciences--'Have I any experience +of such a sense of need; or am I groping in the darkness and saying, I +see? am I weak as water, and saying I am strong?' 'Thou knowest not +that thou art poor, and naked, and blind'; and so that Jesus of +Nazareth should be passing by has never moved thy tongue to call, 'Son +of David, have mercy upon me!' + +Again, this man's cry expressed a clear insight into something at +least of our Lord's unique character and power. Brethren, unless we +know Him to be all that is involved in that august title, 'the Son of +David,' I do not think our cries to Him will ever be very earnest. It +seems to me that they will only be so when, on the one hand, we +recognise our need of a Saviour, and, on the other hand, behold in Him +the Saviour whom we need. I can quite understand--and we may see +plenty of illustrations of it all round us--a kind of Christianity +real as far as it goes, but in my judgment very superficial, which has +no adequate conception of what sin means, in its depth, in its power +upon the victim of it, or in its consequences here and hereafter; and, +that sense being lacking, the whole scale of Christianity, as it were, +is lowered, and Christ comes to be, not, as I think the New Testament +tells us that He is, the Incarnate Word of God, who for us men and for +our salvation 'bare our sins in His own body on the tree,' and 'was +made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in +Him,' but an Example, a Teacher, or a pure Model, or a social +Reformer, or the like. If men think of Him only as such, they will +never cry to Him, 'Have mercy upon me!' + +Dear friends, I pray you, whether you begin with looking into your own +hearts and recognising the crawling evils that have made their home +there, and thence pass to the thought of the sort of Redeemer that you +need and find in Christ--or whether you begin at the other side, and, +looking upon the revealed Christ in all the fulness in which He is +represented to us in the Gospels, from thence go back to ask +yourselves the question, 'What sort of man must I be, if that is the +kind of Saviour that I need?'--I pray you ever to blend these two +things together, the consciousness of your own need of redemption in +His blood and the assurance that by His death we are redeemed, and +then to cry, 'Lord! have mercy upon _me_,' and claim your individual +share in the wide-flowing blessing. Turn all the generalities of His +grace into the particularity of your own possession of it. We have to +go one by one to His cross, and one by one to pass through the wicket +gate. We have not cried to Him as we ought, if our cry is only +'Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have +mercy upon us.' We must be alone with Him, that into our own hearts we +may receive all the fulness of His blessing; and our petition must be +'Thou Son of David! have mercy upon _me_.' Have you cried that? + +Notice, further, the attempts to stifle the cry. No doubt it was in +defence of the Master's dignity, as they construed it, that the people +sought to silence the persistent, strident voice piercing through +their hosannas. Ah! they did not know that the cry of wretchedness was +far sweeter to Him than their shallow hallelujahs. Christian people of +all churches, and of some stiffened churches very especially, have +been a great deal more careful of Christ's dignity than He is, and +have felt that their formal worship was indecorously disturbed when by +chance some earnest voice forced its way through it with the cry of +need and desire. But this man had been accustomed for many a day, +sitting outside the gate, to reiterate his petition when it was +unattended to, and to make it heard amidst the noise of passers-by. So +he was persistently bold and importunate and shameless, as the shallow +critics thought, in his crying. The more they silenced him, the more a +great deal he cried. Would God that we had more crying like that; and +that Christ's servants did not so often seek to suppress it, as some +of them do! If there are any of you who, by reason of companions, or +cares, or habits, or sorrows, or a feeble conception of your own need +or a doubtful recognition of Christ's power and mercy, have been +tempted to stop your supplications, do like Bartimaeus, and the more +these, your enemies, seek to silence the deepest voice that is in you, +the more let it speak. + +II. So, notice Christ's call and the suppliant's response. + +'He stood still, and commanded him to be called.' Remember that He was +on His road to His Cross, and that the tension of spirit which the +Evangelists notice as attaching to Him then, and which filled the +disciples with awe as they followed Him, absorbed Him, no doubt, at +that hour, so that He heard but little of the people's shouts. But He +did hear the blind beggar's cry, and He arrested His march in order to +attend to it. + +Now, dear friends, I am not merely twisting a Biblical incident round +to an interpretation which it does not bear, but am stating a plain +un-rhetorical truth when I say that it is so still. Jesus Christ is no +dead Christ who is to be remembered only. He is a living Christ who, +at this moment, is all that He ever was, and is doing in loftier +fashion all the gracious things that He did upon earth. That pause of +the King is repeated now, and the quick ear which discerned the +difference between the unreal shouts of the crowd, and the agony of +sincerity in the cry of the beggar, is still open. He is in the +heavens, surrounded by its glories, and, as I think Scripture teaches +us, wielding providence and administering the affairs of the universe. +He does not need to pause in order to hear you and me. If He did, He +would--if I may venture upon such an impossible supposition--bid the +hallelujahs of heaven hush themselves, and suspend the operations of +His providence if need were, rather than that you or I, or any poor +man who cries to Him, should be unheard and unhelped. The living +Christ is as tender a friend, has as quick an ear, is as ready to help +at once, to-day, as He was when outside the gate of Jericho; and every +one of us may lift his or her poor, thin voice, and it will go +straight up to the throne, and not be lost in the clamour of the +hallelujahs that echo round His seat. Christ still hears and answers +the cry of need. Send you it up, and you will find that true. + +Notice the suppliant's response. That is a very characteristic +right-about-face of the crowd, who one moment were saying, 'Hold your +tongue and do not disturb Him,' and the next moment were all eager to +encumber him with help, and to say, 'Rise up, be of good cheer; He +calleth thee.' No thanks to them that He did. And what did the man do? +Sprang to his feet--as the word rightly rendered would be--and flung +away the frowsy rags that he had wrapped round him for warmth and +softness of seat, as he waited at the gate; 'and he came to Jesus.' +Brethren, 'casting aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily +beset us, let us run' to the same Refuge. You have to abandon +something if you are to go to Christ to be healed. I dare say you know +well enough what it is. I do not; but certainly there is something +that entangles your legs and keeps you from finding your way to Him. +If there is nothing else, there is yourself and your trust in self, +and that is to be put away. Cast away the 'garment spotted with the +flesh' and go to Christ, and you will receive succour. + +III. Notice the question of all-granting love, and the answer of +conscious need. + +'What wilt Thou that I should do unto thee?' A very few hours before +He had put the same question with an entirely different significance, +when the sons of Zebedee came to Him, and tried to get Him to walk +blindfold into a promise. He upset their scheme with the simple +question, 'What is it that you want?' which meant, 'I must know and +judge before I commit Myself,' But when He said the same thing to +Bartimaeus He meant exactly the opposite. It was putting the key of +the treasure-house into the beggar's hand. It was the implicit pledge +that whatever he desired he should receive. He knew that the thing +this man wanted was the thing that He delighted to give. + +But the tenderness of these words, and the gracious promise that is +hived in them, must not make us forget the singular authority that +speaks in them. Think of a man doing as Jesus Christ did--standing +before another and saying, 'I will give you anything that you want.' +He must be either a madman or a blasphemer, or 'God manifest in the +flesh'; Almighty power guided by infinite love. + +And what said the man? He had no doubt what he wanted most--the +opening of these blind eyes of his. And, dear brother, if we knew +ourselves as well as Bartimaeus knew his blindness, we should have as +little doubt what it is that we need most. Suppose you had this +wishing-cap that Christ put on Bartimaeus's head put on yours: what +would you ask? It is a penetrating question if men will answer it +honestly. Think what you consider to be your chief need. Suppose Jesus +Christ stood where I stand, and spoke to you: 'What wilt thou that I +should do for you?' If you are a wise man, if you know yourself and +Him, your answer will come as swiftly as the beggar's--'Lord! heal me +of my blindness, and take away my sin, and give me Thy salvation.' +There is no doubt about what it is that every one of us needs most. +And there should be no doubt as to what each of us would ask first. + +The supposition that I have been making is realised. That gracious +Lord is here, and is ready to give you the satisfaction of your +deepest need, if you know what it is, and will go to Him for it. 'Ask! +and ye shall receive.' + +IV. Lastly, notice, sight given, and the Giver followed. + +Bartimaeus had scarcely ended speaking when Christ began. He was blind +at the beginning of Christ's little sentence; he saw at the end of it. +'Go thy way; thy faith hath saved thee.' The answer came instantly, +and the cure was as immediate as the movement of Christ's heart in +answer. + +I am here to proclaim the possibility of an immediate passage from +darkness to light. Some folk look askance at us when we talk about +sudden conversions, but these are perfectly reasonable; and the +experience of thousands asserts that they are actual. As soon as we +desire, we have, and as soon as we have, we see. Whenever the lungs +are opened the air rushes in; sometimes the air opens the lungs that +it may. The desire is all but contemporaneous with the fulfilment, in +Christ's dealing with men. The message is flashed along the wire from +earth to heaven, in an incalculably brief space of time, and the +answer comes, swift as thought and swifter than light. So, dear +friends, there is no reason whatever why a similar instantaneous +change should not pass over any man who hears the Good News. He may be +unsaved when his hearing of it begins, and saved when his hearing of +it ends. It is for himself to settle whether it shall be so or not. + +Here we have a clear statement of the path by which Christ's mercy +rushes into a man's soul. 'Thy faith hath saved thee.' But it was +Christ's power that saved him. Yes, it was; but it was faith that made +it possible for Christ's power to make him whole. Physical miracles +indeed did not always require trust in Christ, as a preceding +condition, but the possession of Christ's salvation does, and cannot +but do so. There must be trust in Him, in order that we may partake of +the salvation which is owing solely to His power, His love, His work +upon the Cross. The condition is for us; the power comes from Him. My +faith is the hand that grasps His; it is His hand, not mine, that +holds me up. My faith lays hold of the rope; it is the rope and the +Person above who holds it, that lift me out of the 'horrible pit and +the miry clay.' My faith flees for refuge to the city; it is the city +that keeps me safe from the avenger of blood. Brother! exercise that +faith, and you will receive a better sight than was poured into +Bartimaeus's eyes. + +Now, all this story should be the story of each one of us. One +modification we have to make upon it, for we do not need to cry +persistently for mercy, but to trust in, and to take, the mercy that +is offered. One other difference there is between Bartimaeus and many +of my hearers. He knew what he needed, and some of you do not. But +Christ is calling us all, and my business now is to say to each of you +what the crowd said to the beggar, 'Rise! be of good cheer; He calleth +thee.' If you will fling away your hindrances, and grope your path to +His feet, and fall down before Him, knowing your deep necessity, and +trusting to Him to supply it, He will save you. Your new sight will +gaze upon your Redeemer, and you will follow Him in the way of loving +trust and glad obedience. + +Jesus Christ was passing by. He was never to be in Jericho any more. +If Bartimaeus did not get His sight then, he would be blind all his +days. Christ and His salvation are offered to thee, my brother, now. +Perhaps if you let Him pass, you will never hear Him call again, and +may abide in the darkness for ever. Do not run the risk of such a +fate. + + + +AN EAGER COMING + + +'And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.'--Mark x. +50. + +Mark's vivid picture--long wail of the man, crowd silencing him, but +wheeling round when Christ calls him--and the quick energy of the +beggar, flinging away his cloak, springing to his feet--and blind as +he was, groping his way. + +I. What we mean by coming to Jesus:--faith, communion, occupation of +mind, heart, and will. + +II. How eagerly we shall come when we are conscious of need. This man +wanted his eyesight: do we not want too? + +III. We must throw off our hindrances if we would come to Him. +Impediments of various kinds. 'Lay aside every weight'--not only sins, +but even right things that hinder. Occupations, pursuits, affections, +possessions, sometimes have to be put away altogether; sometimes but +to be minimised and kept in restraint. There is no virtue in +self-denial except as it helps us to come nearer Him. + +IV. We must do it with quick, glad energy. Bartimaeus springs to his +feet at once with a bound. So we should leap to meet Jesus, our +sight-giver. How slothful and languid we often are. We do not put half +as much heart into our Christian life as people do into common things. +Far more pains are taken by a ballet-dancer to learn her posturing +than by most Christians to keep near Christ. + + + +LOVE'S QUESTION + + +'What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?'--Mark x. 51. + +'What wilt Thou have me to do!'--Acts ix. 6. + +Christ asks the first question of a petitioner, and the answer is a +prayer for sight. Saul asks the second question of Jesus, and the +answer is a command. Different as they are, we may bring them +together. The one is the voice of love, desiring to be besought in +order that it may bestow; the other is the voice of love, desiring to +be commanded in order that it may obey. + +Love delights in knowing, expressing, and fulfilling the beloved's +wishes. + +I. The communion of Love delights on both sides in knowing the +beloved's wishes. Christ delights in knowing ours. He encourages us to +speak though He knows, because it is pleasant to Him to hear, and good +for us to tell. His children delight in knowing His will. + +II. It delights in expressing wishes--His commandments are the +utterance of His Love: His Providences are His loving ways of telling +us what He desires of us, and if we love Him as we ought, both +commandments and providences will be received by us as lovers do gifts +that have 'with my love' written on them. + +On the other hand, our love will delight in telling Him what we wish, +and to speak all our hearts to Jesus will be our instinct in the +measure of our love to Him. + +III. It delights in fulfilling wishes--puts key of treasure-house into +our hands. He refused John and James. Be sure that He does still +delight to give us our desires, and so be sure that when any of these +are not granted there must be some loving reason for refusal. + +Our delight should be in obedience, and only when our wills are +submitted to His does He say to us, 'What wilt thou?' 'If ye abide in +Me and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall +be done unto you.' + + + +A ROYAL PROGRESS + + +'... Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye +be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; +loose him, and bring him.'--Mark xi. 2. + +Two considerations help us to appreciate this remarkable incident of +our Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The first of these is its +date. It apparently occurred on the Sunday of the Passion Week. The +Friday saw the crosses on Calvary. The night before, Jesus had sat at +the modest feast that was prepared in Bethany, where Lazarus was one +of the guests, Martha was the busy servant, and Mary poured out the +lavish treasures of her love upon His feet. The resurrection of +Lazarus had created great popular excitement; and that excitement is +the second consideration which throws light upon this incident. The +people had rallied round Christ, and, consequently, the hatred of the +official and ecclesiastical class had been raised to boiling-point. It +was at that time that our Lord deliberately presented Himself before +the nation as the Messiah, and stirred up still more this popular +enthusiasm. Now, if we keep these two things in view, I think we shall +be at the right point from which to consider the whole incident. To +it, and not merely to the words which I have chosen as our +starting-point, I wish to draw attention now. I am mistaken if there +are not in it very important and practical lessons for ourselves. + +I. First, note that deliberate assumption by Christ of royal +authority. + +I shall have a good deal to say presently about the main fact which +bears upon that, but in the meantime I would note, in passing, a +subsidiary illustration of it, in the errand on which He sent these +messengers to the little 'village over against' them; and in the words +which He put into their mouths. They were to go, and, without a word, +to loose and bring away the colt fastened at a door, where it was +evidently waiting the convenience of its owner to mount it. If, as was +natural, any objection or question was raised, they were to answer +exactly as servants of a king would do, if he sent them to make +requisition on the property of his subjects, 'The Lord hath need of +him.' + +I do not dwell on our Lord's supernatural knowledge as coming out +here; nor on the fact that the owner of the colt was probably a +partial disciple, perhaps a secret one--ready to recognise the claim +that was made. But I ask you to notice here the assertion, in act and +word, of absolute authority, to which all private convenience and +rights of possession are to give way unconditionally. The Sovereign's +need is a sovereign reason. What He requires He has a right to take. +Well for us, brethren, if we yield as glad, as swift, and as +unquestioning obedience to His claims upon us, and upon our +possessions, as that poor peasant of Bethphage gave in the incident +before us! + +But there is not only the assertion, here, of absolute authority, but +note how, side by side with this royal style, there goes the +acknowledgment of poverty. Here is a pauper King, who having nothing +yet possesses all things. 'The Lord'--that is a great title--'hath +need of him'--that is a strange verb to go with such a nominative. But +this little sentence, in its two halves of authority and of +dependence, puts into four words the whole blessed paradox of the life +of Jesus Christ upon earth. 'Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He +became poor'; and being Lord and Owner of all things, yet owed His +daily bread to ministering women, borrowed a boat to preach from, a +house wherein to lay His head, a shroud and a winding-sheet to enfold +His corpse, a grave in which to lie, and from which to rise, 'the Lord +of the dead and of the living.' + +Not only so, but there is another thought suggested by these words. +The accurate, or, at least, the probable reading, of one part of the +third verse is given in the Revised Version, 'Say ye that the Lord +hath need of him, and straightway he will send him _back_ hither.' +That is to say, these last words are not Christ's assurance to His two +messengers that their embassy would succeed, but part of the message +which He sends by them to the owner of the colt, telling him that it +was only a loan which was to be returned. Jesus Christ is debtor to no +man. Anything given to Him comes back again. Possessions yielded to +that Lord are recompensed a hundredfold in this life, if in nothing +else in that there is a far greater sweetness in that which still +remains. 'What I gave I have,' said the wise old epitaph. It is always +true. Do you not think that the owner of the patient beast, on which +Christ placidly paced into Jerusalem on His peaceful triumph, would be +proud all his days of the use to which his animal had been put, and +would count it as a treasure for the rest of its life? If you and I +will yield our gifts to Him, and lay them upon His altar, be sure of +this, that the altar will ennoble and will sanctify all that is laid +upon it. All that we have rendered to Him gains fragrance from His +touch, and comes back to us tenfold more precious because He has +condescended to use it. + +So, brethren, He still moves amongst us, asking for our surrender of +ourselves and of our possessions to Him, and pledging Himself that we +shall lose nothing by what we give to Him, but shall be infinitely +gainers by our surrender. He still needs us. Ah! if He is ever to +march in triumph through the world, and be hailed by the hosannas of +all the tribes of the earth, it is requisite for that triumph that His +children should surrender first themselves, and then all that they +are, and all that they have, to Him. To us there comes the message, +'The Lord hath need of you.' Let us see that we answer as becomes us. + +But then, more important is the other instance here of this assertion +of royal authority. I have already said that we shall not rightly +understand it unless we take into full account the state of popular +feeling at the time. We find in John's Gospel great stress laid on the +movement of curiosity and half-belief which followed on the +resurrection of Lazarus. He tells us that crowds came out from +Jerusalem the night before to gaze upon the Lifebringer and the +quickened man. He also tells us that another enthusiastic crowd +flocked out of Jerusalem before Jesus sent for the colt to the +neighbouring village. We are to keep in mind, therefore, that what He +did here was done in the midst of a great outburst of popular +enthusiasm. We are to keep in mind, too, the season of Passover, when +religion and patriotism, which were so closely intertwined in the life +of the Jews, were in full vigorous exercise. It was always a time of +anxiety to the Roman authorities, lest this fiery people should break +out into insurrection. Jerusalem at the Passover was like a great +magazine of combustibles, and into it Jesus flung a lighted brand +amongst the inflammable substances that were gathered there. We have +to remember, too, that all His life long He had gone exactly on the +opposite tack. Remember how He betook Himself to the mountain +solitudes when they wanted to make Him a king. Remember how He was +always damping down Messianic enthusiasm. But here, all at once, He +reverses His whole conduct, and deliberately sets Himself to make the +most public and the most exciting possible demonstration that He was +'King of Israel.' + +For what was it that He did? Our Evangelist here does not quote the +prophecy from Zechariah, but two other Evangelists do. Our Lord then +deliberately dressed Himself by the mirror of prophecy, and assumed +the very characteristics which the prophet had given long ago as the +mark of the coming King of Zion. If He had wanted to excite a popular +commotion, that is what He would have done. + +Why did He act thus? He was under no illusion as to what would follow. +For the night before He had said: 'She hath come beforehand to anoint +My body for the burial.' He knew what was close before Him in the +future. And, because He knew that the end was at hand, He felt that, +once at least, it was needful that He should present Himself solemnly, +publicly, I may almost say ostentatiously, before the gathered nation, +as being of a truth the Fulfiller and the fulfilment of all the +prophecies and the hopes built upon them that had burned in Israel, +with a smoky flame indeed, but for so many ages. He also wanted to +bring the rulers to a point. I dare not say that He precipitated His +death, or provoked a conflict, but I do say that deliberately, and +with a clear understanding of what He was doing, He took a step which +forced them to show their hand. For after such a public avowal of who +He was, and such public hosannas surging round His meek feet as He +rode into the city, there were but two courses open for the official +class: either to acknowledge Him, or to murder Him. Therefore He +reversed His usual action, and deliberately posed, by His own act, as +claiming to be the Messiah long prophesied and long expected. + +Now, what do you think of the man that did that? _If_ He did it, then +either He is what the rulers called Him, a 'deceiver,' swollen with +inordinate vanity and unfit to be a teacher, or else we must fall at +His feet and say 'Rabbi! Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of +Israel.' I venture to believe that to extol Him and to deny the +validity of His claims is in flagrant contradiction to the facts of +His life, and is an unreasonable and untenable position. + +II. Notice the revelation of a new kind of King and Kingdom. + +Our Evangelist, from whom my text is taken, has nothing to say about +Zechariah's prophecy which our Lord set Himself to fulfil. He only +dwells on the pathetic poverty of the pomp of the procession. But +other Evangelists bring into view the deeper meaning of the incident. +The centre-point of the prophecy, and of Christ's intentional +fulfilment of it, lies in the symbol of the meek and patient animal +which He bestrode. The ass was, indeed, used sometimes in old days by +rulers and judges in Israel, but the symbol was chosen by the prophet +simply to bring out the peacefulness and the gentleness inherent in +the Kingdom, and the King who thus advanced into His city. If you want +to understand the meaning of the prophet's emblem, you have only to +remember the sculptured slabs of Assyria and Babylon, or the paintings +on the walls of Egyptian temples and tombs, where Sennacherib or +Rameses ride hurtling in triumph in their chariots, over the bodies of +prostrate foes; and then to set by the side of these, 'Rejoice! O +daughter of Zion; thy King cometh unto thee riding upon an ass, and +upon a colt the foal of an ass.' If we want to understand the +significance of this sweet emblem, we need only, further, remember the +psalm that, with poetic fervour, invokes the King: 'Gird Thy sword +upon Thy thigh, O Most Mighty, and in Thy majesty ride prosperously +... and Thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows +are sharp in the heart of the King's enemies; the people fall under +Thee.' That is all that that ancient singer could conceive of the +triumphant King of the world, the Messiah; a conqueror, enthroned in +His chariot, and the twanging bowstring, drawn by His strong hand, +impelling the arrow that lodged in the heart of His foes. And here is +the fulfilment. 'Go ye into the village over against you, and ye shall +find a colt tied ... And they set Him thereon.' Christ's kingdom, like +its King, has no power but gentleness and the omnipotence of patient +love. + +If 'Christian' nations, as they are called, and Churches had kept the +significance of that emblem in mind, do you think that their hosannas +would have gone up so often for conquerors on the battlefields; or +that Christian communities would have been in complicity with war and +the glorifying thereof, as they have been? And, if Christian churches +had remembered and laid to heart the meaning of this triumphal entry, +and its demonstration of where the power of the Master lay, would they +have struck up such alliances with worldly powers and forms of force +as, alas! have weakened and corrupted the Church for hundreds of +years? Surely, surely, there is no more manifest condemnation of war +and the warlike spirit, and of the spirit which finds the strength of +Christ's Church in anything material and violent, than is that +solitary instance of His assumption of royal state when thus He +entered into His city. I need not say a word, brethren, about the +nature of Christ's kingdom as embodied in His subjects, as represented +in that shouting multitude that marched around Him. How Caesar in his +golden house in Rome would have sneered and smiled at the Jewish +peasant, on the colt, and surrounded by poor men, who had no banners +but the leafy branches from the trees, and no pomp to strew in his way +but their own worn garments! And yet these were stronger in their +devotion, in their enthusiastic conviction that He was the King of +Israel and of the whole earth, than Caesar, with all his treasures and +with all his legions and their sharp swords. Christ accepts poor +homage because He looks for hearts; and whatever the heart renders is +sweet to Him. He passes on through the world, hailed by the +acclamations of grateful hearts, needing no bodyguard but those that +love Him; and they need to bear no weapons in their hands, but their +mission is to proclaim with glad hearts hosannas to the King that +'cometh in the name of the Lord.' + +There is one more point that I may note. Another of the Evangelists +tells us that it was when the humble cortege swept round the shoulder +of Olivet, and caught sight of the city gleaming in the sunshine, +across the Kedron valley, that they broke into the most rapturous of +their hosannas, as if they would call to the city that came in view to +rejoice and welcome its King. And what was the King doing when that +sight burst upon Him, and while the acclamations eddied round Him? His +thoughts were far away. His eyes with divine prescience looked on to +the impending end, and then they dimmed, and filled with tears; and He +wept over the city. + +That is our King; a pauper King, a meek and patient King, a King that +delights in the reverent love of hearts, a King whose armies have no +swords, a King whose eyes fill with tears as He thinks of men's woes +and cries. Blessed be such a King! + +III. Lastly, we have the Royal visitation of the Temple. + +Our Evangelist has no word to speak about the march of the procession +down into the valley, and up on the other side, and through the gate, +and into the narrow streets of the city that was 'moved' as they +passed through it. His language sounds as if he considered that our +Lord's object in entering Jerusalem at all was principally to enter +the Temple. He 'looked round on all things' that were there. Can we +fancy the keen observance, the recognition of the hidden bad and good, +the blazing indignation, and yet dewy pity, in those eyes? His +visitation of the Temple was its inspection by its Lord. And it was an +inspection in order to cleanse. To-day He looked; to-morrow He wielded +the whip of small cords. His chastisement is never precipitate. +Perfect knowledge wields His scourge, and pronounces condemnation. + +Brethren, Jesus Christ comes to us as a congregation, to the church to +which we belong, and to us individually, with the same inspection. He +whose eyes are a flame of fire, says to His churches to-day, 'I know +thy works.' What would He think if He came to us and tested us? + +In the incident of my text He was fulfilling another ancient prophecy, +which says, 'The Lord shall suddenly come to His Temple, and ... sit +as a refiner of silver ... like a refiner's fire and as fuller's soap +... and He shall purify the sons of Levi.... Then shall the offering +of Jerusalem be pleasant, as in the days of old.' + +We need nothing more, we should desire nothing more earnestly, than +that He would come to us: 'Search me, O Christ, and know me. And see +if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.' +Jesus Christ is the King of England as truly as of Zion; and He is +your King and mine. He comes to each of us, patient, meek, loving; +ready to bless and to cleanse. Dear brother, do you open your heart to +Him? Do you acknowledge Him as your King? Do you count it your highest +honour if He will use you and your possessions, and condescend to say +that He has need of such poor creatures as we are? Do you cast your +garments in the way, and say: 'Ride on, great Prince'? Do you submit +yourself to His inspection, to His cleansing? + +Remember, He came once on 'a colt, the foal of an ass, meek, and +having salvation.' He will come 'on the white horse, in righteousness +to judge and to make war' and with power to destroy. + +Oh! I beseech you, welcome Him as He comes in gentle love, that when +He comes in judicial majesty you may be among the 'armies of heaven +that follow after,' and from immortal tongues utter rapturous and +undying hosannas. + + + +CHRIST'S NEED OF US AND OURS + + +'... Say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will +send him hither.'--Mark xi. 3. + +You will remember that Jesus Christ sent two of His disciples into the +village that looked down on the road from Bethany to Jerusalem, with +minute instructions and information as to what they were to do and +find there. The instructions may have one of two explanations--they +suggest either superhuman knowledge or a previous arrangement. +Perhaps, although it is less familiar to our thoughts, the latter is +the explanation. There is a remarkable resemblance, in that respect, +to another incident which lies close beside this one in time, when our +Lord again sent two disciples to make preparation for the Passover, +and, with similar minuteness, told them that they would find, at a +certain point, a man bearing a pitcher of water. Him they were to +accost, and he would take them to the room that had been prepared. Now +the old explanation of both these incidents is that Jesus Christ knew +what was going to happen. Another possible explanation, and in my view +more probable and quite as instructive, is, that Jesus Christ had +settled with the two owners what was to happen. Clearly, the owner of +the colt was a disciple, because at once he gave up his property when +the message was repeated, 'the _Lord_ hath need of him.' Probably he +had been one of the guests at the modest festival that had been held +the night before, in the village close by, in Simon's house, and had +seen how Mary had expended her most precious possession on the Lord, +and, under the influence of the resurrection of Lazarus, he, too, +perhaps, was touched, and was glad to arrange with Jesus Christ to +have his colt waiting there at the cross-road for his Master's +convenience. But, be that as it may, it seems to me that this +incident, and especially these words that I have read for a text, +carry very striking and important lessons for us, whether we look at +them in connection with the incident itself, or whether we venture to +give them a somewhat wider application. Let me take these two points +in turn. + +I. Now, what strikes one about our Lord's requisitioning the colt is +this, that here is a piece of conduct on His part singularly unlike +all the rest of His life. All through it, up to this last moment, His +one care was to damp down popular enthusiasm, to put on the drag +whenever there came to be the least symptom of it, to discourage any +reference to Him as the Messiah-King of Israel, to shrink back from +the coarse adulation of the crowd, and to glide quietly through the +world, blessing and doing good. But now, at the end, He flings off all +disguise. He deliberately sets Himself, at a time when popular +enthusiasm ran highest and was most turbid and difficult to manage, at +the gathering of the nation for the Passover in Jerusalem, to cast an +effervescing element into the caldron. If He had planned to create a +popular rising, He could not have done anything more certain to bring +it about than what He did that morning when He made arrangements for a +triumphal procession into the city, amidst the excited crowds gathered +from every quarter of the land. Why did He do that? What was the +meaning of it? + +Then there is another point in this requisitioning of the colt. He not +only deliberately set Himself to stir up popular excitement, but He +consciously did what would be an outward fulfilment of a great +Messianic prophecy. I hope you are wiser than to fancy that +Zechariah's prophecy of the peaceful monarch who was to come to Zion, +meek and victorious, and riding upon a 'colt the foal of an ass,' was +fulfilled by the outward fact of Christ being mounted on this colt +'whereon never man sat.' That is only the shell, and if there had been +no such triumphal entry, our Lord would as completely have fulfilled +Zechariah's prophecy. The fulfilment of it did not depend on the petty +detail of the animal upon which He sat when He entered the city, nor +even on that entrance. The meaning of the prophecy was that to Zion, +wherever and whatever it is, there should come that Messianic King, +whose reign owed nothing to chariots and horses and weapons of war for +its establishment, but who, meek and patient, pacing upon the humble +animal used only for peaceful services, and not mounted on the +prancing steed of the warrior, should inaugurate the reign of majesty +and of meekness. Our Lord uses the external fact just as the prophet +had used it, as of no value in itself, but as a picturesque emblem of +the very spirit of His kingdom. The literal fulfilment was a kind of +finger-post for inattentive onlookers, which might induce them to look +more closely, and so see that He was indeed the King Messiah, because +of more important correspondences with prophecy than His once riding +on an ass. Do not so degrade these Old Testament prophecies as to +fancy that their literal fulfilment is of chief importance. That is +the shell: the kernel is the all-important thing, and Jesus Christ +would have fulfilled the _role,_ that was sketched for Him by the +prophets of old, just as completely if there never had been this +entrance into Jerusalem. + +But, further, the fact that He had to borrow the colt was as +significant as the choice of it. For so we see blended two things, the +blending of which makes the unique peculiarity and sublimity of +Christ's life: absolute authority, and meekness of poverty and +lowliness. A King, and yet a pauper-King! A King claiming His +dominion, and yet obliged to borrow another man's colt in order that +He might do it! A strange kind of monarch!--and yet that remarkable +combination runs through all His life. He had to be obliged to a +couple of fishermen for a boat, but He sat in it, to speak words of +divine wisdom. He had to be obliged to a lad in the crowd for barley +loaves and fishes, but when He took them into His hands they were +multiplied. He had to be obliged for a grave, and yet He rose from the +borrowed grave the Lord of life and death. And so when He would pose +as a King, He has to borrow the regalia, and to be obliged to this +anonymous friend for the colt which made the emphasis of His claim. +'Who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we +through His poverty might be rich.' + +II. And now turn for a moment to the wider application of these words. + +'The Lord hath need of him.' That opens the door to thoughts, that I +cannot crowd into the few minutes that I have at my disposal, as to +that great and wonderful truth that Christ cannot assume His kingdom +in this world without your help, and that of the other people whose +hearts are touched by His love. 'The Lord hath need' of them. Though +upon that Cross of Calvary He did all that was necessary for the +redemption of the world and the salvation of humanity as a whole, yet +for the bearing of that blessing into individual hearts, and for the +application of the full powers that are stored in the Gospel and in +Jesus, to their work in the world, the missing link is man. We 'are +fellow-labourers with God.' We are Christ's tools. The instruments by +which He builds His kingdom are the souls that have already accepted +His authority. 'The Lord hath need of him,' though, as the psalmist +sings, 'If I were hungry I would not tell thee, for all the beasts of +the forest are Mine.' Yes, and when the Word was made flesh, He had +need of one of the humblest of the beasts. The Christ that redeemed +the world needs us, to carry out and to bring into effect His +redemption. 'God mend all,' said one, and the answer was, 'We must +help Him to mend it.' + +Notice again the authoritative demand, which does not contemplate the +possibility of reluctance or refusal. 'The Lord hath need of him.' +That is all. There is no explanation or motive alleged to induce +surrender to the demand. This is a royal style of speech. It is the +way in which, in despotic countries, kings lay their demands upon a +poor man's whole plenishing and possession, and sweep away all. + +Jesus Christ comes to us in like fashion, and brushes aside all our +convenience and everything else, and says, 'I want you, and that is +enough.' Is it not enough? Should it not be enough? If He demands, He +has the right to demand. For we are His, 'bought with a price.' All +the slave's possessions are his owner's property. The slave is given a +little patch of garden ground, and perhaps allowed to keep a fowl or +two, but the master can come and say, 'Now _I_ want them,' and the +slave has nothing for it but to give them up. + +'The Lord hath need of him' is in the autocratic tone of One who has +absolute power over us and ours. And that power, where does it come +from? It comes from His absolute surrender of Himself to us, and +because He has wholly given Himself for us. He does not expect us to +say one contrary word when He sends and says, 'I have need of you, or +of yours.' + +Here, again, we have an instance of glad surrender. The last words of +my text are susceptible of a double meaning. 'Straightway he will send +him hither'--who is 'he'? It is usually understood to be the owner of +the colt, and the clause is supposed to be Christ's assurance to the +two messengers of the success of their errand. So understood, the +words suggest the great truth that Love loosens the hand that grasps +possessions, and unlocks our treasure-houses. There is nothing more +blessed than to give in response to the requirement of love. And so, +to Christ's authoritative demand, the only proper answer is obedience +swift and glad, because it is loving. Many possibilities of joy and +blessing are lost by us through not yielding on the instant to +Christ's demands. Hesitation and delay are dangerous. In 'straightway' +complying are security and joy. If the owner had begun to say to +himself that he very much needed the colt, or that he saw no reason +why some one else's beast should not have been taken, or that he would +send the animal very soon, but must have the use of him for an hour or +two first, he would probably never have sent him at all, and so would +have missed the greatest honour of his life. As soon as I know what +Christ wants from me, without delay let me do it; for if I begin with +delaying I shall probably end with declining. The Psalmist was wise +when he laid emphasis on the swiftness of his obedience, and said, 'I +made haste and delayed not, but made haste to keep Thy commandments.' + +But another view of the words makes them part of the message to the +owner of the colt, and not of the assurance to the disciples. 'Say ye +that the Lord hath need of him, and that straightway (when He has done +with him) He will send him back again.' That is a possible rendering, +and I am disposed to think it is the proper one. By it the owner is +told that he is not parting with his property for good and all, that +Jesus only wishes to borrow the animal for the morning, and that it +will be returned in the afternoon. What does that view of the words +suggest to us? Do you not think that that colt, when it did come +back--for of course it came back some time or other,--was a great deal +more precious to its owner than it ever had been before, or ever could +have been if it had not been lent to Christ, and Christ had not made +His royal entry upon it? Can you not fancy that the man, if he was, as +he evidently was, a disciple and lover of the Lord, would look at it, +especially after the Crucifixion and the Ascension, and think, 'What +an honour to me, that I provided the mount for that triumphal entry!'? +It is always so. If you wish anything to become precious, lend it to +Jesus Christ, and when it comes back again, as it will come back, +there will be a fragrance about it, a touch of His fingers will be +left upon it, a memory that He has used it. If you desire to own +yourselves, and to make yourselves worth owning, give yourselves to +Christ. If you wish to get the greatest possible blessing and good out +of possessions, lay them at His feet. If you wish love to be hallowed, +joy to be calmed, perpetuated, and deepened, carry it to Him. 'If the +house be worthy, your peace shall rest upon it; if not,' like the dove +to the ark when it could find no footing in the turbid and drowned +world, 'it shall come back to you again. Straightway He will 'send him +back again,' and that which I give to Jesus He will return enhanced, +and it will be more truly and more blessedly mine, because I have laid +it in His hands. This 'altar' sanctifies the giver and the gift. + + + +NOTHING BUT LEAVES + + +'And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, He came, if haply He +might find any thing thereon: and when He came to it, He found nothing +but leaves; ... 14. And Jesus ... said unto it, No man eat fruit of +thee hereafter for ever.'--Mark xi. 13, 14. + +The date of this miracle has an important bearing on its meaning and +purpose. It occurred on the Monday morning of the last week of +Christ's ministry. That week saw His last coming to Israel, 'if haply +He might find any thing thereon.' And if you remember the foot-to-foot +duel with the rulers and representatives of the nation, and the words, +weighty with coming doom, which He spoke in the Temple on the +subsequent days, you will not doubt that the explanation of this +strange and anomalous miracle is that it is an acted parable, a symbol +of Israel in its fruitlessness and in its consequent barrenness to all +coming time. + +This is the only point of view, as it seems to me, from which the +peculiarities of the miracle can either be warranted or explained. It +is our Lord's only destructive act. The fig-tree grew by the wayside; +probably, therefore, it belonged to nobody, and there was no right of +property affected by its loss. He saw it from afar, 'having leaves,' +and that was why, three months before the time, He went to look if +there were figs on it. For experts tell us that in the fig-tree the +leaves accompany, and do not precede, the fruit. And so this one tree, +brave in its show of foliage amidst leafless companions, was a +hypocrite unless there were figs below the leaves. Therefore Jesus +came, if haply He might find anything thereon, and finding nothing, +perpetuated the condition which He found, and made the sin its own +punishment. + +Now all that is plain symbol, and so I ask you to look with me, for a +few moments, at these three things--(1) What Christ sought and seeks; +(2) What He found and often finds; (3) What He did when He found it. + +I. What Christ sought and seeks. + +He came 'seeking fruit.' Now I may just notice, in passing, how +pathetically and beautifully this incident suggests to us the true, +dependent, weak manhood of that great Lord. In all probability He had +just come from the home of Mary and Martha, and it is strange that +having left their hospitable abode He should be 'an hungered.' But so +it was. And even with all the weight of the coming crisis pressing +upon His soul, He was conscious of physical necessities, as one of us +might have been, and perhaps felt the more need for sustenance because +so terrible a conflict was waiting Him. Nor, I think, need we shrink +from recognising another of the characteristics of humanity here, in +the limitations of His knowledge and in the real expectation, which +was disappointed, that He might find fruit where there were leaves. I +do not want to plunge into depths far too deep for any man to find +sure footing in, nor seek to define the undefinable, nor to explain +how the divine inosculates with the human, but sure I am that Jesus +Christ was not getting up a scene in order to make a parable out of +His miracle; and that the hunger and the expectancy and the +disappointment were all real, however they afterwards may have been +turned by Him to a symbolical purpose. And so here we may see the weak +Christ, the limited Christ, the true human Christ. But side by side, +as is ever the case, with this manifestation of weakness, there comes +an apocalypse of power. Wherever you have, in the history of our Lord, +some signal exemplification of human infirmity, you have flashed out +through 'the veil, that is, His flesh,' some beam of His glory. Thus +this hungry Man could say, 'No fruit grow on thee henceforward for +ever'; and His bare word, the mere forth-putting and manifestation of +His will, had power on material things. That is the sign and impress +of divinity. + +But I pass from that, which is not my special point now. What did +Christ seek? 'Fruit.' And what is fruit in contradistinction to +leaves? Character and conduct like His. That is our fruit. All else is +leafage. As the Apostle says, 'Love, joy, hope, peace, righteousness +in the Holy Ghost'; or, to put it into one word, Christ-likeness in +our inmost heart and nature, and Christ-likeness, so far as it may be +possible for us, in our daily life, that is the one thing that our +Lord seeks from us. + +O brethren! we do not realise enough for ourselves, day by day, that +it was for this end that Jesus Christ came. The cradle in Bethlehem, +the weary life, the gracious words, the mighty deeds, the Cross on +Calvary, the open grave, Olivet with His last footprints; His place on +the throne, Pentecost, they were all meant for this, to make you and +me good men, righteous people, bearing the fruits of holy living and +conduct corresponding to His own pattern. Emotions of the selectest +kind, religious experience of the profoundest and truest nature, these +are blessed and good. They are the blossom which sets into fruit. And +they come for this end, that by the help of them we may be made like +Jesus Christ. He has yet to learn what is the purpose and the meaning +of the Gospel who fixes upon anything else as its ultimate design than +the production in us, as the results of the life of Christ dwelling in +our hearts, of character and conduct like to His. + +I suppose I ought to apologise for talking such commonplace platitudes +as these, but, brethren, the most commonplace truths are usually the +most important and the most impotent. And no 'platitude' is a +platitude until you have brought it so completely into your lives that +there is no room for a fuller working of it out. So I come to you, +Christian men and women, real and nominal, now with this for my +message, that Jesus Christ seeks from you this first and foremost, +that you shall be good men and women 'according to the pattern that +has been showed us in the Mount,' according to the likeness of His own +stainless perfection. + +And do not forget that Jesus Christ hungers for that goodness. That is +a strange, and infinitely touching, and absolutely true thing. He is +only 'satisfied,' and the hunger of His heart appeased, when 'He sees +of the travail of His soul' in the righteousness of His servants. I +passed a day or two ago, in a country place, a great field on which +there was stuck up a board that said, '----'s trial ground for seeds.' +This world is _Christ's_ trial ground for seeds, where He is testing +you and me to see whether it is worth while cultivating us any more, +and whether we can bring forth any 'fruit to perfection' fit for the +lips and the refreshment of the Owner and Lord of the vineyard Christ +longs for fruit from us. And--strange and wonderful, and yet true--the +'bread' that He eats is the service of His servants. That, amongst +other things, is what is meant by the ancient institution of +sacrifice, 'the food of the gods.' Christ's food is the holiness and +obedience of His children. He comes to us, as He came to that +fig-tree, seeking from _us_ this fruit which He delights in receiving. +Brethren, we cannot think too much of Christ's unspeakable gift in +itself and in its consequences; but we may easily think too little, +and I am sure that a great many of us do think too little, of Christ's +demands. He is not an austere man, 'reaping where He did not sow'; but +having sowed so much, He does look for the harvest. He comes to us +with the heart-moving appeal, 'I have given all to thee; what givest +thou to Me?' 'My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill; +and he fenced it and planted it, and built a tower and a wine-press in +it'--and what then?--'and he looked that it should bring forth +grapes.' Christ comes to each of you professing Christians, and asks, +'What fruit hast thou borne after all My sedulous husbandry?' + +II. Now note, in the next place, what Christ found. + +'Nothing but leaves.' I have already said that we are told that the +habit of growth of these trees is that the fruit accompanies, and +sometimes precedes, the leaves. Whether it is so or no, let me remind +you that leaves are an outcome of the life as well as fruit, and that +they benefit the tree, and assist in the production of the fruit which +it ought to bear. And so the symbol suggests things that are good in +themselves, ancillary and subsidiary to the production of fruit, but +which sometimes tend to such disproportionate exuberance of growth as +that all the life of the tree runs to leaf, and there is riot a berry +to be found on it. + +And if you want to know what such things are, remember the condition +of the rulers of Israel at that time. They prided themselves upon +their nominal, external, hereditary connection with a system of +revelation, they trusted in mere ritualisms, they had ossified +religion into theology, and degraded morality into casuistry. They +thought that because they had been born Jews, and circumcised, and +because there was a daily sacrifice going on in the Temple, and +because they had Rabbis who could split hairs _ad infinitum_, +therefore they were the 'temple of the Lord,' and God's chosen. + +And that is exactly what hosts of pagans, masquerading as Christians, +are doing in all our so-called Christian lands, and in all our +so-called Christian congregations. In any community of so-called +Christian people there is a little nucleus of real, earnest, +God-fearing folk, and a great fringe of people whose Christianity is +mostly from the teeth outward, who have a nominal and external +connection with religion, who have been 'baptized' and are +'communicants,' who think that religion lies mainly in coming on a +Sunday, and with more or less toleration and interest listening to a +preacher's words and joining in external worship, and all the while +the 'weightier matters of the law'--righteousness, justice, and the +love of God--they leave untouched. What describes such a type of +religion with more piercing accuracy than 'nothing but leaves'? + +External connection with God's Church is a good thing. It is meant to +make us better men and women. If it does not, it is a bad thing. Acts +of worship, more or less elaborate--for it is not the elaboration of +ceremonial, but the mistaken view of it, that does the harm--acts of +worship may be helpful, or may be absolute barriers to real religious +life. They are becoming so largely to-day. The drift and trend of +opinion in some parts of so-called Christendom is in the direction of +outward ceremonial. And I, for one, believe that there are few things +doing more harm to the Christian character of England to-day than the +preposterous recurrence to a reliance on the mere externals of +worship. Of course we Dissenters pride ourselves on having no +complicity with the sacramentarian errors which underlie these. But +there may be quite as much of a barrier between the soul and Christ, +reared by the bare worship of Nonconformists, or by the no-worship of +the Society of Friends. If the absence of form be converted into a +form, as it often is, there may be as lofty and wide a barrier raised +by these as by the most elaborate ritual of the highest ceremonial +that exists in Christendom. And so I say to you, dear brethren, seeing +that we are all in danger of cleaving to externals and substituting +these which are intended to be helps to the production of godly life +and character, it becomes us all to listen to the solemn word of +exhortation that comes out of my text, and to beware lest our religion +runs to leaf instead of setting into fruit. + +It does so with many of us; that is a certainty. I am thinking about +no individual, about no individuals, but I am only speaking common +sense when I say that amongst as many people as I am now addressing +there will be an appreciable proportion who have no notion of religion +as anything beyond a more or less imperative and more or less +unwelcome set of external observances. + +III. And so, lastly, let me ask you to notice what Christ did. + +I do not need to trouble myself nor you with vindicating the morality +of this miracle against the fantastic objections that often have been +made against it; nor need I say a word more than I have already said +about its symbolical meaning. Israel was in that week being asked for +the last time to 'bring forth fruit' to the Lord of the vineyard. The +refusal bound barrenness on the synagogue and on the nation, if not +absolutely for ever, at all events until 'it shall turn to the Lord,' +and partake again of 'the root and fatness' from which it has been +broken off. What thirsty lips since that week have ever got any good +out of Rabbinism and Judaism? No 'figs' have grown on that 'thistle.' +The world has passed it by, and left all its subtle casuistries and +painfully microscopic studies of the letter of Scripture--with utter +oblivion of its spirit--left them all severely and wisely alone. +Judaism is a dead tree. + +And is there nothing else in this incident? 'No man eat fruit of thee +hereafter for ever'; the punishment of that fruitlessness was +confirmed and eternal barrenness. _There_ is the lesson that the +punishment of any Bin is to bind the sin upon the doer of it. + +But, further, the church or the individual whose religion runs to leaf +is useless to the world. What does the world care about the +ceremonials and the externals of worship, and a painful orthodoxy, and +the study of the letter of Scripture? Nothing. A useless church or a +Christian, from whom no man gets any fruit to cool a thirsty, parched +lip, is only fit for what comes after the barrenness, and that is, +that every tree that bringeth 'not forth good fruit is hewn down and +cast into the fire.' The churches of England, and we, as integral +parts of these, have solemn duties lying upon us to-day; and if we +cannot help our brethren, and feed and nourish the hungry and thirsty +hearts and souls of mankind, then--then! the sooner we are plucked up +and pitched over the vineyard wall, which is the fate of the barren +vine, the better for the world and the better for the vineyard. + +The fate of Judaism teaches, to all of us professing Christians, very +solemn lessons. 'If God spared not the natural branches, take heed +lest He also spare not thee.' What has become of the seven churches of +Asia Minor? They hardened into chattering theological 'orthodoxy,' and +all the blood of them went to the surface, so to speak. And so down +came the Mohammedan power--which was strong then because it did +believe in a God, and not in its own belief about a God--and wiped +them off the face of the earth. And so, brethren, we have, in this +miracle, a warning and a prophecy which it becomes all the Christian +communities of this day, and the individual members of such, to lay +very earnestly to heart. + +But do not let us forget that the Evangelist who does not tell us the +story of the blasted fig-tree does tell us its analogue, the parable +of the barren fig-tree, and that in it we read that when the fiat of +destruction had gone forth, there was one who said, 'Let it alone this +year also that I may dig about it, ... and if it bear fruit, well! If +not, after that thou shalt cut it down.' So the barren tree may become +a fruitful tree, though it has hitherto borne nothing but leaves. Your +religion may have been all on the surface and in form, but you can +come into touch with Him in whom is our life and from whom comes our +fruitfulness. He has said to each of us, 'As the branch cannot bear +fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except +ye abide in Me.' + + + +DISHONEST TENANTS + + +'And He began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a +vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the +winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went +into a far country. 2. And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a +servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the +vineyard. 3. And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away +empty. 4. And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they +cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully +handled. 5. And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many +others; beating some, and killing some 6. Having yet therefore one +son, his well beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They +will reverence my son. 7. But those husbandmen said among themselves, +This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be +ours. 8. And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the +vineyard. 9. What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? He will +come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto +others. 10. And have ye not read this scripture: The stone which the +builders rejected is become the head of the corner: 11. This was the +Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? 12. And they sought to +lay hold on Him, but feared the people: for they knew that He had +spoken the parable against them; and they left Him, and went their +way.'--Mark xii. 1-12. + +The ecclesiastical rulers had just been questioning Jesus as to the +authority by which He acted. His answer, a counter-question as to +John's authority, was not an evasion. If they decided whence John +came, they would not be at any loss as to whence Jesus came. If they +steeled themselves against acknowledging the Forerunner, they would +not be receptive of Christ's message. That keen-edged retort plainly +indicates Christ's conviction of the rulers' insincerity, and in this +parable He charges home on these solemn hypocrites their share in the +hereditary rejection of messengers whose authority was unquestionable. +Much they cared for even divine authority, as they and their +predecessors had shown through centuries! The veil of parable is +transparent here. Jesus increased in severity and bold attack as the +end drew near. + +I. The parable begins with a tender description of the preparation and +allotment of the vineyard. The picture is based upon Isaiah's lovely +apologue (Isaiah v. 1), which was, no doubt, familiar to the learned +officials. But there is a slight difference in the application of the +metaphor which in Isaiah means the nation, and in the parable is +rather the theocracy as an institution, or, as we may put it roughly, +the aggregate of divine revelations and appointments which constituted +the religious prerogatives of Israel. + +Our Lord follows the original passage in the description of the +preparation of the vineyard, but it would probably be going too far to +press special meanings on the wall, the wine-press, and the watchman's +tower. The fence was to keep off marauders, whether passers-by or 'the +boar out of the wood' (Psalm lxxx. 12,13); the wine-press, for which +Mark uses the word which means rather the vat into which the juice +from the press proper flowed, was to extract and collect the precious +liquid; the tower was for the watchman. + +A vineyard with all these fittings was ready for profitable +occupation. Thus abundantly had God furnished Israel with all that was +needed for fruitful, happy service. What was true of the ancient +Church is still more true of us who have received every requisite for +holy living. Isaiah's solemn appeal has a still sharper edge for +Christians: 'Judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could +have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it?' + +The 'letting of the vineyard to husbandmen' means the committal to +Israel and its rulers of these divine institutions, and the holding +them responsible for their fruitfulness. It may be a question whether +the tenants are to be understood as only the official persons, or +whether, while these are primarily addressed, they represent the whole +people. The usual interpretation limits the meaning to the rulers, +but, if so, it is difficult to carry out the application, as the +vineyard would then have to be regarded as being the nation, which +confuses all. The language of Matthew (which threatens the taking of +the vineyard and giving it to another nation) obliges us to regard the +nation as included in the husbandmen, though primarily the expression +is addressed to the rulers. + +But more important is it to note the strong expressions for man's +quasi-independence and responsibility. The Jew was invested with full +possession of the vineyard. We all, in like manner, have intrusted to +us, to do as we will with, the various gifts and powers of Christ's +gospel. God, as it were, draws somewhat apart from man, that he may +have free play for his choice, and bear the burden of responsibility. +The divine action was conspicuous at the time of founding the polity +of Judaism, and then came long years in which there were no miracles, +but all things continued as they were. God was as near as before, but +He seemed far off. Thus Jesus has, in like manner, gone 'into a far +country to receive a kingdom and to return'; and we, the tenants of a +richer vineyard than Israel's, have to administer what He has +intrusted to us, and to bring near by faith Him who is to sense far +off. + +II. The next scenes paint the conduct of the dishonest vine-dressers. +We mark the stern, dark picture drawn of the continued and brutal +violence, as well as the flagrant unfaithfulness, of the tenants. +Matthew's version gives emphasis to the increasing harshness of +treatment of the owner's messengers, as does Mark's. First comes +beating, then wounding, then murder. The interpretation is +self-evident. The 'servants' are the prophets, mostly men inferior in +rank to the hierarchy, shepherds, fig-gatherers, and the like. They +came to rouse Israel to a sense of the purpose for which they had +received their distinguishing prerogatives, and their reward had been +contempt and maltreatment. They 'had trial of mockings and scourgings, +of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, +they were slain with the sword.' + +The indictment is the same as that by which Stephen wrought the +Sanhedrim into a paroxysm of fury. To make such a charge as Jesus did, +in the very Temple courts, and with the already hostile priests +glaring at Him while He spoke, was a deliberate assault on them and +their predecessors, whose true successors they showed themselves to +be. They had just been solemnly questioning Him as to His authority. +He answers by thus passing in review the uniform treatment meted by +them and their like to those who came with God's manifest authority. + +If a mere man had spoken this parable, we might admire the magnificent +audacity of such an accusation. But the Speaker is more than man, and +we have to recognise the judicial calmness and severity of His tone. +Israel's history, as it shaped itself before His 'pure eyes and +perfect judgment,' was one long series of divine favours and of human +ingratitude, of ample preparations for righteous living and of no +result, of messengers sent and their contumelious rejection. We wonder +at the sad monotony of such requital. Are we doing otherwise? + +III. Then comes the last effort of the Owner, the last arrow in the +quiver of Almighty Love. Two things are to be pondered in this part of +the parable. First, that wonderful glimpse into the depths of God's +heart, in the hope expressed by the Owner of the vineyard, brings out +very clearly Christ's claim, made there before all these hostile, keen +critics, to stand in an altogether singular relation to God. He +asserts His Sonship as separating Him from the class of prophets who +are servants only, and as constituting a relationship with the Father +prior to His coming to earth. His Sonship is no mere synonym for His +Messiahship, but was a fact long before Bethlehem; and its assertion +lifts for us a corner of the veil of cloud and darkness round the +throne of God. Not less striking is the expression of a frustrated +hope in 'they will reverence My Son.' Men can thwart God's purpose. +His divine charity 'hopeth all things.' The mystery thus sharply put +here is but that which is presented everywhere in the co-existence of +God's purposes and man's freedom. + +The other noteworthy point is the corresponding casting of the +vine-dressers' thoughts into words. Both representations are due to +the graphic character of parable; both crystallise into speech motives +which were not actually spoken. It is unnecessary to suppose that even +the rulers of Israel had gone the awful length of clear recognition of +Christ's Messiahship, and of looking each other in the face and +whispering such a fiendish resolve. Jesus is here dragging to light +unconscious motives. The masses did wish to have their national +privileges and to avoid their national duties. The rulers did wish to +have their sway over minds and consciences undisturbed. They did +resent Jesus' interference, chiefly because they instinctively felt +that it threatened their position. They wanted to get Him out of the +way, that they might lord it at will. They could have known that He +was the Son, and they suppressed dawning suspicions that He was. Alas! +they have descendants still in many of us who put away His claims, +even while we secretly recognise them, in order that we may do as we +like without His meddling with us! + +The rulers' calculation was a blunder. As Augustine says, 'They slew +Him that they might possess, and, because they slew, they lost.' So is +it always. Whoever tries to secure any desired end by putting away his +responsibility to render to God the fruit of his thankful service, +loses the good which he would fain clutch at for his own. All sin is a +mistake. + +The parable passes from thinly veiled history to equally transparent +prediction. How sadly and how unshrinkingly does the meek yet mighty +Victim disclose to the conspirators His perfect knowledge of the +murder which they were even now hatching in their minds! He foresees +all, and will not lift a finger to prevent it. Mark puts the 'killing' +before the 'casting out of the vineyard,' while Matthew and Luke +invert the order of the two things. The slaughtered corpse was, as a +further indignity, thrown over the wall, by which is symbolically +expressed His exclusion from Israel, and the vine-dressers' delusion +that they now had secured undisturbed possession. + +IV. The last point is the authoritative sentence on the evil-doers. +Mark's condensed account makes Christ Himself answer His own question. +Probably we are to suppose that, with hypocritical readiness, some of +the rulers replied, as the other Evangelists represent, and that Jesus +then solemnly took up their words. If anything could have enraged the +rulers more than the parable itself, the distinct declaration of the +transference of Israel's prerogatives to more worthy tenants would do +so. The words are heavy with doom. They carry a lesson for us. +Stewardship implies responsibility, and faithlessness, sooner or +later, involves deprivation. The only way to keep God's gifts is to +use them for His glory. 'The grace of God,' says Luther somewhere, 'is +like a flying summer shower.' Where are Ephesus and the other +apocalyptic churches? Let us 'take heed lest, if God spared not the +natural branches, He also spare not us.' + +Jesus leaves the hearers with the old psalm ringing in their ears, +which proclaimed that 'the stone which the builders rejected becomes +the head stone of the corner.' Other words of the same psalm had been +chanted by the crowd in the procession on entering the city. Their +fervour was cooling, but the prophecy would still be fulfilled. The +builders are the same as the vine-dressers; their rejection of the +stone is parallel with slaying the Son. + +But though Jesus foretells His death, He also foretells His triumph +after death. How could He have spoken, almost in one breath, the +prophecy of His being slain and 'cast out of the vineyard,' and that +of His being exalted to be the very apex and shining summit of the +true Temple, unless He had been conscious that His death was indeed +not the end, but the centre, of His work, and His elevation to +universal and unchanging dominion? + + + +GOD'S LAST ARROW + + +'Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him also last +unto them.'--Mark xii. 6. + +Reference to Isaiah v. There are differences in detail here which need +not trouble us. + +Isaiah's parable is a review of the theocratic history of Israel, and +clearly the messengers are the prophets; here Christ speaks of Himself +and His own mission to Israel, and goes on to tell of His death as +already accomplished. + +I. The Son who follows and surpasses the servants. + +(a) Our Lord here places Himself in the line of the prophets as coming +for a similar purpose. The mission _to Israel_ was the same. The +mission _of His life_ was the same. + +The last words of the lawgiver certainly point to a person (Deut. +xviii. 18): 'A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you like +unto me. Him shall ye hear.' How ridiculous the cool superciliousness +with which modern historical criticism 'pooh-poohs' that +interpretation! But the contrast is quite as prominent as the +resemblance. This saying is one which occurs in all the Synoptics, and +is as full a declaration of Sonship as any in John's Gospel. It +reposes on the scene at the baptism (Matt, iii.): 'This is My beloved +Son!' Such a saying was well enough understood by the Jews to mean +more than the 'Messiah.' It clearly involves kindred to the divine in +a far other and higher sense than any prophet ever had it. It involves +pre-existence. It asserts that He was the special object of the divine +love, the 'heir.' + +You cannot relieve the New Testament Christ of the responsibility of +having made such assertions. There they are! He did deliberately +declare that He was, in a unique sense, '_the_ Son' on whom the love +and complacency of the Father rested continually. + +II. The aggravation of men's sins as tending to the enhancement of the +divine efforts. + +The terrible Nemesis of evil is that it ever tends to reproduce itself +in aggravated forms. Think of the influence of habit; the searing of +conscience, so that we become able to do things that we would have +shrunk from at an earlier stage. Remember how impunity leads to +greater sin. So here the first servant is merely sent away empty, the +second is wounded and disgraced, the third is killed. All evil is an +inclined plane, a steady, downward progress. How beautifully the +opposite principle of the divine love and patience is represented as +striving with the increasing hate and resistance! According to +Matthew, the householder sent other servants '_more than_ the first,' +and the climax was that he sent his son. Mightier forces are brought +to bear. This attraction _increases_ as the square of the distance. +The blacker the cloud, the brighter the sun; the thicker the ice, the +hotter the flame; the harder the soil, the stronger the ploughshare. +Note, too, the undertone of sacrifice and of yearning for the son +which may be discerned in the 'householder's' words. The son is his +'dearest treasure,' his mightiest gift, than which is nothing higher. + +The mission of Christ is the ultimate appeal of God to men. + +In the primary sense of the parable Jesus does close the history of +the divine strivings with Israel. After Christ, the last of the +prophets, the divine voice ceases; after the blaze of that light all +is dark. There is nothing more remarkable in the whole history of the +world than that cessation in an instant, as it were, of the long, +august series of divine efforts for Israel. Henceforward there is an +awful silence. 'Forsaken Israel wanders lone.' + +And the principle involved for us is the same. + +'Christ crucified' is more than Christ miracle-working. That 'more' we +have, as the Jews had. But if that avails not, then nothing else will. + +He is 'last' because highest, strongest, and all-sufficient. + +He is 'last' inasmuch as all since are but echoes of His voice and +proclaimers of His grace. + +He is 'last' as the eternal and the permanent, the 'same for ever' +(Heb. xiii. 8). There are to be no new powers for the world; no new +forces to draw men to God. God's quiver is empty, His last bolt shot, +His most tender appeal made. + +III. The unwearied divine charity. + +'They will reverence My Son.' May we not say this is a divine hope? It +is not worth while to make a difficulty of the bold representation. It +is but parallel to all the dealings of God with men; and it sets forth +the possibility that He _might_ have won Israel back to God and to +obedience. It suggests the good faith and the earnestness with which +God sent Him, and He came, to bring Israel back to God. But we are not +to suppose that this divine hope excluded the divine purpose of His +death or was inconsistent with that, for He goes on to speak of His +death as if it were past (verse 8). This shows how distinctly He +foreknew it. + +Its highest aspect is not here, for it was not needed for the parable. +'With wicked hands ye have crucified,' etc., is true, as well as 'I +lay it down of Myself.' + +Let us lay to heart the solemn love which warns by prophesying, tells +what men are going to do in order that they may _not_ do it (and what +He will do in order that He may _not_ have to do it). And let us yield +ourselves to the power of Christ's death as God's magnet for drawing +us all back to Him; and as certain to bring about at last the +satisfaction of the Father's long-frustrated hope: 'They will +reverence my Son,' and the fulfilment of the Son's long-unaccomplished +prediction: 'I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men +unto Me.' + + + +NOT FAR AND NOT IN + + +'Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.'--Mark xii. 34, + +'A bruised reed He will not break, and the smoking flax He will not +quench.' + +Here is Christ's recognition of the low beginnings of goodness and +faith. + +This is a special case of a man who appears to have fully discerned +the spirituality and inwardness of law, and to have felt that the one +bond between God and man was love. He needed only to have followed out +the former thought to have been smitten by the conviction of his own +sinfulness, and to have reflected on the latter to have discovered +that he needed some one who could certify and commend God's love to +him, and thereby to kindle his to God. Christ recognises such +beginnings and encourages him to persevere: but warns him against the +danger of supposing himself in the kingdom, and against the +prolongation of what is only good as a transition state. + +This Scribe is an interesting study as being one who recognised the +Law in its spiritual meaning, in opposition to forms and ceremonies. +His intellectual convictions needed to be led on from recognition of +the spirituality of the Law to recognition of his own failures. 'By +law is the knowledge of sin.' His intellectual convictions needed to +pass over into and influence his heart and life. He recognised true +piety, and was earnestly striving after it, but entrance into the +kingdom is by faith in the Saviour, who is 'the Way.' So Jesus' praise +of him is but measured. For in him there was separation between +knowing and doing. + +I. Who are near? + +Christ's kingdom is near us all, whether we are heathen, infidel, +profligate or not. + +Here is a distinct recognition of two things--(a) Degrees of +approximation; (b) decisive separation between those who are, and +those who are not, within the kingdom. + +This Scribe was near, and yet not in, the kingdom, because, like so +many in all ages, he had an intellectual hold of principles which he +had never followed out to their intellectual issues, nor ever +enthroned as, in their practical issues, the guides of his life. How +constantly we find characters of similar incompleteness among +ourselves! + +How many of us have true thoughts concerning God's law and what it +requires, which ought, in all reason, to have brought us to the +consciousness of our own sin, and are yet untouched by one pang of +penitence! How many of us have lying in our heads, like disused +furniture in a lumber-room, what we suppose to be beliefs of ours, +which only need to be followed out to their necessary results to +refurnish with a new equipment the whole of our religious thinking! +How few of us do really take pains to bring our beliefs into clear +sunlight, and to follow them wherever they lead us! There is no +commoner fault, and no greater foe, than the hazy, lazy half-belief, +of which its owner neither knows the grounds nor perceives the +intellectual or the practical issues. + +There are multitudes who have, or have had, convictions of which the +only rational outcome is practical surrender to Jesus Christ by faith +and love. Such persons abound in Christian congregations and in +Christian homes. They are on the verge of 'the great surrender,' but +they do not go beyond the verge, and so they perpetrate 'the great +refusal.' And to all such the word of our text should sound as a +warning note, which has also hope in its bone. 'Not far from' is still +'outside.' + +II. Why they are only near. + +The reason is not because of anything apart from themselves. The +Christian gospel offers immediate entrance into the Kingdom, and all +the gifts which its King can bestow, to all and every one who will. So +that the sole cause of any man's non-entrance lies with himself. + +We have spoken of failure to follow out truths partially grasped, and +that constitutes a reason which affects the intellect mainly, and +plays its part in keeping men out of the Kingdom. + +But there are other, perhaps more common, reasons, which intervene to +prevent convictions being followed out into their properly consequent +acts. + +The two most familiar and fatal of these are:-- + +(a) Procrastination. + +(b) Lingering love of the world. + +III. Such men cannot continue near. + +The state is necessarily transitional. It must pass over into--(a) +Either going on and into the Kingdom, or (b) going further away from +it. + +Christ warns here, and would stimulate to action, for--(a) Convictions +not acted on die; (b) truths not followed out fade; (c) impressions +resisted are harder to be made again; (d) obstacles increase with +time; (e) the habit of lingering becomes strengthened. + +IV. Unless you are in, you are finally shut out. + +'City of refuge.' It was of no avail to have been _near_. 'Strive to +enter _in_.' + +Appeal to all such as are in this transition stage. + + + +THE CREDULITY OF UNBELIEF + + +'Many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive +many.'--Mark xiii. 6. + +'When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?'--Luke +xviii. 8. + +It was the same generation that is represented in these two texts as +void of faith in the Son of Man, and as credulously giving heed to +impostors. Unbelief and superstition are closely allied. Religion is +so vital a necessity, that if the true form of it be cast aside, some +false form will be eagerly seized in order to fill the aching void. +Men cannot permanently live without some sort of a faith in the +Unseen, but they can determine whether it shall be a worthy +recognition of a worthy conception of that Unseen, or a debasing +superstition. An epoch of materialism in philosophic thought has +always been followed by violent reaction, in which quacks and fanatics +have reaped rich harvests. If the dark is not peopled with one loved +Face, our busy imagination will fill it with a crowd of horrible ones. + +Just as a sailor, looking out into the night over a solitary, +islandless sea, sees shapes; intolerant of the islandless expanse, +makes land out of fogbanks; and, sick of silence, hears 'airy tongues' +in the moanings of the wind and the slow roll of the waves, so men +shudderingly look into the dark unknown, and if they see not their +Father there, will either shut their eyes or strain them in gazing it +into shape. The sight of Him is religion, the closed eye is +infidelity, the strained gaze is superstition. The second and the +third are each so unsatisfying that they perpetually pass over into +one another and destroy one another, as when I shut my eyes, I see +slowly shaping itself a coloured image of my eye, which soon flickers +and fluctuates into black nothingness again, and then rises once more, +once more to fade. Men, if they believe not in God, then do service to +'them which by nature are no gods.' + +But let us come to more immediately Christian thoughts. Christ does +what men so urgently require to be done, that if they do not believe +in Him they will be forced to shape out for themselves some fancied +ways of doing it. The emotions which men cherish towards Him so +irrepressibly need an object to rest on, that if not He, then some far +less worthy one, will be chosen to receive them. + +It is just to the illustration of these thoughts that I seek to turn +now, and in such alternatives as these-- + +I. Reception of Christ as the Revealer is the only escape from unmanly +submission to unworthy pretenders. + +That function is one which the instincts of men teach them that they +need. + +Christ comes to satisfy the need as the visible true embodiment of the +Father's love, of the Father's wisdom. + +If He be rejected--what then? Why, not that the men who reject will +contentedly continue in darkness--that is never possible; but that +some manner or other of satisfying the clamant need will be had +recourse to, and then that to it will be transferred the submission +and credence that should have been His. If we have Him for our Teacher +and Guide, then all other teachers and guides will take their right +places. We shall not angrily repel their power, nor talk loudly about +'the right of private judgment,' and our independence of all men's +thoughts. We are not so independent. We shall thankfully accept all +help from all men wiser, better, more manly than ourselves, whether +they give us uttered words of wisdom and beauty, having 'grace poured +into their lips,' or whether they give us lives ennobled by strenuous +effort, or whether they give us greater treasure than all these--the +sight once more of a loving heart. All is good, all is helpful, all we +shall receive; but in proportion to the felt obligations we are laid +under to them will be the felt authority of that saying, 'Call no man +your master on earth, for One is your Master, even Christ.' That +command forbids our slavishly accepting any human domination over our +faith, but it no less emphatically forbids our contemptuously +rejecting any human helper of our joy, for it closes with 'and all ye +are brethren'--bound then to mutual observance, mutual helpfulness, +mutual respect for each other's individuality, mutual avoidance of +needless division. To have Him for his Guide makes the human guide +gentle and tender among his disciples 'as a nurse among her children,' +for he remembers 'the gentleness of Christ,' and he dare not be other +than an imitator of Him. A Christian teacher's spirit will always be, +'not for that we have dominion over your faith, but we are helpers of +your joy'; his most earnest word, 'I beseech you, therefore, +brethren'; his constant desire, 'He must increase. I must decrease.' +And to have Christ for our Guide makes the taught lovingly submissive +to all who by largeness of gifts and graces are set by Him above them, +and yet lovingly recalcitrant at any attempt to compel adhesion or +force dogmas. The one freedom from undue dependence on men and men's +opinions lies in this submission to Jesus. Then we can say, when need +is, 'I have a Master. To Him I submit; if _you_ seek to be master, I +demur: of them who seemed to be somewhat, whatsoever they were, it +maketh no matter to me.' + +But the greatest danger is not that our guides shall insist on our +submission, but that we shall insist on giving it. It is for all of us +such a burden to have the management of our own fate, the forming of +our own opinions, the fearful responsibility of our own destiny, that +we are all only too ready to say to some man or other, from love or +from laziness, 'Where thou goest, I will go; thy people shall be my +people, and thy God my God.' + +Few things are more strange and tragic than the eagerness with which +people who are a great deal too enlightened to render allegiance to +Jesus Christ will install some teacher of their own choosing as their +authoritative master, will swallow his dicta, swear by him, and glory +in being called by his name. What they think it derogatory to their +mental independence to give to the Teacher of Nazareth, they freely +give to their chosen oracle. It is not in 'the last times' only that +men who will not endure sound teaching 'heap to themselves teachers +after their own lusts,' and have 'the ears' which are fast closed to +'the Truth' wide open 'to fables.' + +On the small scale we see this melancholy perversity of conduct +exemplified in every little coterie and school of unbelievers. + +On the great scale Mohammedanism and Buddhism, with their millions of +adherents, write the same tragic truth large in the history of the +world. + +II. Faith in the reconciling Christ is the only sure deliverance from +debasing reliance on false means of reconciliation. + +In a very profound sense ignorance and sin are the same fact regarded +under two different aspects. And in the depths of their natures men +have the longing for some Power who shall put away sin, as they have +the longing for one that will dispel ignorance. The consciousness of +alienation from God lies in the human heart, dormant indeed for the +most part, but like a coiled, hibernating snake, ready to wake and +strike its poison into the veins. Christ by His great work, and +specially by His sacrificial death, meets that universal need. + +But closely as His work fits men's needs, it sharply opposes some of +their wishes, and of their interpretations of their needs. The Jew +'demands a sign,' the Greek craves a reasoned system of 'wisdom,' and +both concur in finding the Cross an 'offence.' + +But the rejection of Jesus as the Reconciler does not quiet the +cravings, which make themselves heard at some time or other in most +consciences, for deliverance from the dominion and from the guilt of +sin. And men are driven to adopt other expedients to fill up the void +which their turning away from Jesus has left. Sometimes they fall back +on a vague reliance on a vague assertion that 'God is merciful'; +sometimes they reason themselves into a belief--or, at any rate, an +assertion--that the conception of sin is an error, and that men are +not guilty. Sometimes they manage to silence the inward voice that +accuses and condemns, by dint of not listening to it or drowning it by +other noises. + +But these expedients fail them some time or other, and then, if they +have not cast the burden of their sin and their sins on the great +Reconciler, they either have to weary themselves with painful and vain +efforts to be their own redeemers, or they fall under the domination +of a priest. + +Hence the hideous penances of heathenism; and hence, too, the power of +sacramentarian and sacerdotal perversions of evangelical truth. + +III. Faith in Christ as the Regenerator is the only deliverance from +baseless hopes for the world. + +The world is today full of moaning voices crying, 'Art thou He that +should come, or do we look for another?' and it is full of confident +voices proclaiming other means of its regeneration than letting Christ +'make all things new.' + +The conviction that society needs to be reconstituted on other +principles is spread everywhere, and is often associated with intense +disbelief in Christ the Regenerator. + +Has not the past proved that all schemes for the regeneration of +society which do not grapple with the fact of sin, and which do not +provide a means of infusing into human nature a new impulse and +direction, will end in failure, and are only too likely to end in +blood? These two requirements are met by Jesus, and by Him only, and +whoever rejects Him and His gift of pardon and cleansing, and His +inbreathing of a new life into the individual, will fail in his +effort, however earnest and noble in many aspects, to redeem society +and bring about a fair new world. + +It is pitiable to see the waste of high aspiration and eager effort in +so many quarters today. But that waste is sure to attend every scheme +which does not start from the recognition of Christ's work as the +basis of the world's transformation, and does not crown Him as the +King, because He is the Saviour, of mankind. + + + +AUTHORITY AND WORK + + +'For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his +house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, +and commanded the porter to watch.'--Mark xiii. 34. + +Church order is not directly touched on in the Gospels, but the +principles which underlie all Church order are distinctly laid down. +The whole community of Christian people is a family or household, +being brethren because possessors of a new life through Christ. In +that household there is one 'Master,' and all its members are +'servants.' That name suggests the purpose for which they exist; the +meaning of all their offices, dignities, etc. + +I. The authority with which the servants are invested. + +We hear a great deal about the authority of the Church in these days, +as a determiner of truth and as a prescriber of Christian action. It +means generally official authority, the power of guidance and +definition of the Church's action, etc., which some people think is +lodged in the hands of preachers, pastors, priests, either +individually or collectively. There is nothing of that sort meant +here. Whatever this authority is, it belongs to the whole body of the +servants, not to individuals among them. It is the prerogative of the +whole _ecclesia_, not of some handful of them. 'This honour,' whatever +it be, 'have all the saints.' + +Explain by reference to 'the kings of the earth exercise lordship over +them'; 'the greatest shall be your servant.' It is then but another +name for capacity for service, power to bless, etc. + +And this idea is still further borne out if we go back to the parable +of our text. A man leaves his house in charge of his servants. To them +is committed the responsibility for his goods. His honour and +interests are in their hands. They have control over his possessions. +This is the analogy which our Lord suggests as presenting a vivid +likeness to our position in the world. + +Christ has committed the care of His kingdom, the glory of His name, +the growth of His cause in the world to His Church, and has endowed it +with all 'talents,' _i.e._ gifts needful for that work. Or, to put it +in other words, they are His representatives in the world. They have +to defend His honour. His name is scandalised or glorified by their +actions. They have to see to His interests. They are charged with the +carrying out of His mind and purposes. + +The foundation of all is laid. Henceforth building on it is all, and +that is to be done by men. Human lips and Christian effort--not +without the divine Spirit in the word--are to be the means. + +It is as when some commander plans his battle, and from an eminence +overlooks the current of the fight, and marks the plunging legions as +they struggle through the smoke. He holds all the tremendous machinery +in his hands. The plan and the glory are his, but the execution of the +plan lies with the troops. + +In a still more true sense all the glory of the Christian conquest of +the world is His, but still the instruments are ourselves. The whole +counsel of God is on our side. We 'go not a warfare at our own +charges.' Note the perfect consistency of this with all that we hold +of the necessity of divine influence, etc. + +His servants are intrusted with all His 'goods.' They have authority +over the gifts which He has given them, _i.e._ Christian men are +stewards of Christ's riches for others. + +They have access to the free use of them all for themselves. + +Thus the 'authority' is all derived. It is all given for the sake of +others. It is all capacity for service. Hence-- + +II. The authority with which the servants are invested binds every one +of them to hard work for Christ. + +'To every man his work' + +(1) Gifts involve duties. That is the first great thought. To have +received binds us to impart. 'Freely ye have received, freely give.' + +All selfish possession of the gifts which Christ bestows is grave sin. + +The price at which they were procured, that miracle and mystery of +self-sacrifice, is the great pattern as well as the great motive for +our service. + +The purpose for which we have received them is plainly set forth: in +the existence of the solidarity in which we are all bound; in the +definite utterances of Scripture. + +The need for their exercise is only too palpable in the condition of +things around us. + +(2) In this multitude of servants every one has his own task. + +The universality of the great gift leads to a corresponding +universality of obligation. All Christians have their gifts. Each of +us has his special work marked out for him by character, +relationships, circumstances, natural tastes, etc. + +How solemn a divine call there is in these individual peculiarities +which we so often think of as unimportant accidents, or regard mainly +in their bearing on our own ease and comfort! How reverently we should +regard the diversities which are thus revelations of God's will +concerning our tasks! How earnestly we should seek to know what it is +that we are fitted for! + +The importance of all protests against priestly assumption lies here, +that they strengthen the force with which we proclaim that every man +has his 'work.' + +Ponder the variety of characters and gifts which Christ gives and +desires His servants to use, and the indispensable need for them all. +The ideal Church is the 'body' of Christ, in which each member has its +place and function. + +Our fault in this matter. + +(3) The duties are to be done in the spirit of hard toil. + +The servant has 'his work' allotted him, and the word implies that the +work calls for effort. The race is not to be run without dust and +sweat. Our Christian service is not to be regarded as a 'bye-product' +or _parergon_. It is, so to speak, a _vocation_, not an _avocation_. +It deserves and demands all the energy that we can put forth, +continuity and constancy, plan and system. Nothing is to be done for +God, any more than for ourselves, without toil. 'In the sweat of thy +brow shalt thou eat bread and give it to others.' + +III, To do this work, watchfulness is needed. + +The division of tasks between 'servant' and 'porter' is only part of +the drapery of the parable. To show that watchfulness belongs to all, +see the two following verses. + +What is this watchfulness? + +Not constant fidgety curiosity about the coming of the Lord; not +hunting after apocalyptic dates. The modern impression seems to be +that such study is 'watchfulness.' Christ says that the time of His +coming is hidden (see previous verses). Ignorance of that is the very +reason why we are to watch. Watchfulness, then, is just a profound and +constant feeling of the transiency of this present. The mind is to be +kept detached from it; the eye and heart are to be going out to things +'unseen and eternal'; we are to be familiarising ourselves with the +thought that the world is passing away. + +This watchfulness is an indispensable part of our 'work.' The true +Christian thought of the transiency of the world sets us to work the +more vigorously in it, and increases, not diminishes, our sense of the +importance of time and of earthly things, and braces us to our tasks +by the thought of the brevity of opportunity, as well as by guarding +us against tastes and habits which eat all earnestness out of the +soul. + +Thus 'working and watching,' happy will be the servant whom his Lord +will find 'so doing,' _i.e._ at work, not idly looking for Him. Our +common duties are the best preparation for our Lord's coming. + + + +THE ALABASTER BOX + + +'And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a +good work on Me.... 8. She hath done what she could: she is come +aforehand to anoint My body to the burying. 9. Verily I say unto you. +Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, +this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of +her.'--Mark xiv. 6-9. + +John's Gospel sets this incident in its due framework of time and +place, and tells us the names of the actors. The time was within a +week of Calvary, the place was Bethany, where, as John significantly +reminds us, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, thereby connecting +the feast with that incident; the woman who broke the box of ointment +and poured the perfume on the head and feet of Jesus was Mary; the +first critic of her action was Judas. Selfishness blames love for the +profusion and prodigality, which to it seem folly and waste. The +disciples chimed in with the objection, not because they were superior +to Mary in wisdom, but because they were inferior in consecration. + +John tells us, too, that Martha was 'amongst them that served.' The +characteristics of the two sisters are preserved. The two types of +character which they respectively represent have great difficulty in +understanding and doing justice to one another. Christ understands and +does justice to them both. Martha, bustling, practical, utilitarian to +the finger-tips, does not much care about listening to Christ's words +of wisdom. She has not any very high-strung or finely-spun emotions, +but she can busy herself in getting a meal ready; she loves Him with +all her heart, and she takes her own way of showing it. But she gets +impatient with her sister, and thinks that her sitting at Christ's +feet is a dreamy waste of time, and not without a touch of +selfishness, 'taking no care for me, though I have got so much on my +back.' And so, in like manner, Mary is made out to be a monster of +selfishness; 'Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, +and given to the poor?' She could not serve, she would only have been +in Martha's road if she had tried. But she had one precious thing +which was her very own, and she caught it up, and in the irrepressible +burst of her thankful love, as she saw Lazarus sitting there at the +table beside Jesus, she poured the liquid perfume on His head and +feet. He casts His shield over the poor, unpractical woman, who did +such an utterly useless thing, for which a basin of water and a towel +would have served far better. There are a great many useless things +which, in Heaven's estimate, are more valuable than a great many +apparently more practical ones. Christ accepts the service, and in His +deep words lays down three or four principles which it would do us all +good to carry with us into our daily lives. So I shall now try to +gather from these utterances of our Lord's some great truths about +Christian service. + +I. The first of them is the motive which hallows everything. + +'She hath wrought a good work on Me.' Now that is pretty nearly a +definition of what a good work is, and you see it is very unlike our +conventional notions of what constitutes a 'good work.' Christ implies +that anything, no matter what are its other characteristics, that is +'on' Him, that is to say, directed towards Him under the impulse of +simple love to Him, is a 'good work'; and the converse follows, that +nothing which has not that saving salt of reference to Him in it +deserves the title. Did you ever think of what an extraordinary +position that is for a man to take up? 'Think about Me in what you do, +and you will do good. Do anything, no matter what, because you love +Me, and it will be lifted up into high regions, and become +transfigured; a good work.' He took the best that any one could give +Him, whether it was of outward possessions or of inward reverence, +abject submission, and love and trust. He never said to any man, 'You +are going over the score. You are exaggerating about Me. Stand up, for +I also am a Man.' He did say once, 'Why callest thou Me good?' not +because it was an incorrect attribution, but because it was a mere +piece of conventional politeness. And in all other cases, not only +does He accept as His rightful possession the utmost of reverence that +any man can do Him, and bring Him, but He here implies, if He does +not, as He almost does, specifically declare, that to be done for His +sake lifts a deed into the region of 'good' works. + +Have you reflected what such an attitude implies as to the +self-consciousness of the Man who took it, and whether it is +intelligible, not to say admirable, or rather whether it is not worthy +of reprobation, except upon one hypothesis--'Thou art the everlasting +Son of the Father,' and all men honour God when they honour the +Incarnate Word? But that is aside from my present purpose. + +Is not this conception, that the motive of reverence and love to Him +ennobles and sanctifies every deed, the very fundamental principle of +Christian morality? All things are sanctified when they are done for +His sake. You plunge a poor pebble into a brook, and as the sunlit +ripples pass over its surface, the hidden veins of delicate colour +come out and glow, and the poor stone looks a jewel, and is magnified +as well as glorified by being immersed in the stream. Plunge your work +into Christ, and do it for Him, and the giver and the gift will be +greatened and sanctified. + +But, brethren, if we take this point of view, and look to the motive, +and not to the manner or the issues, or the immediate objects, of our +actions, as determining whether they are good or no, it will +revolutionise a great many of our thoughts, and bring new ideas into +much of our conventional language. 'A good work' is not a piece of +beneficence or benevolence, still less is it to be confined to those +actions which conventional Christianity has chosen to dignify by the +name. It is a designation that should not be clotted into certain +specified corners of a life, but be extended over them all. The things +which more specifically go under such a name, the kind of things that +Judas wanted to have substituted for the utterly useless, lavish +expenditure by this heart that was burdened with the weight of its own +blessedness, come, or do not come, under the designation, according as +there is present in them, not only natural charity to the poor whom +'ye have always with you,' but the higher reference of them to Christ +Himself. All these lower forms of beneficence are imperfect without +that. And instead of, as we have been taught by authoritative voices +of late years, the service of man being the true service of God, the +relation of the two terms is precisely the opposite, and it is the +service of God that will effloresce into all service of man. Judas did +not do much for the poor, and a great many other people who are +sarcastic upon the 'folly,' the 'uncalculating impulses' of Christian +love, with its 'wasteful expenditure,' and criticise us because we are +spending time and energy and love upon objects which they think are +moonshine and mist, do little more than he did, and what beneficence +they do exercise has to be hallowed by this reference to Jesus before +it can aspire to be beneficence indeed. + +I sometimes wish that this generation of Christian people, amid its +multifarious schemes of beneficence, with none of which would one +interfere for a moment, would sometimes let itself go into +manifestations of its love to Jesus Christ, which had no use at all +except to relieve its own burdened heart. I am afraid that the lower +motives, which are all right and legitimate when they are lower, are +largely hustling the higher ones into the background, and that the +river has got so many ponds to fill, and so many canals to trickle +through, and so many plantations to irrigate and make verdant, that +there is a danger of its falling low at its fountain, and running +shallow in its course. One sometimes would like to see more things +done for Him that the world would call 'utter folly,' and 'prodigal +waste,' and 'absolutely useless.' Jesus Christ has a great many +strange things in His treasure-house--widows' mites, cups of water, +Mary's broken vase--has He anything of yours? 'She hath wrought a good +work on Me.' + +II. Now, there is another lesson that I would gather from our Lord's +apologising for Mary, and that is the measure and the manner of +Christian service. + +'She hath done what she could'; that is generally read as if it were +an excuse. So it is, or at least it is a vindication of the manner and +the direction of Mary's expression of love and devotion. But whilst it +is an apologia for the form, it is a high demand in regard to the +measure. + +'She hath done what she could.' Christ would not have said that if she +had taken a niggardly spoonful out of the box of ointment, and +dribbled that, in slow and half-grudging drops, on His head and feet. +It was because it _all_ went that it was to Him thus admirable. I +think it is John Foster who says, 'Power to its last particle is +duty.' The question is not how much have I done, or given, but could I +have done or given more? We Protestants have indulgences of our own; +the guinea or the hundred guineas that we give in a certain direction, +we some of us seem to think, buy for us the right to do as we will +with all the rest. But 'she hath done what she could.' It all went. +And that is the law for us Christian people, because the Christian +life is to be ruled by the great law of self-sacrifice, as the only +adequate expression of our recognition of, and our being affected by, +the great Sacrifice that gave Himself for us. + + 'Give all thou canst! High Heaven rejects the lore + Of nicely calculated less or more.' + +But whilst thus there is here a definite demand for the entire +surrender of ourselves and our activities to Jesus Christ, there is +also the wonderful vindication of the idiosyncrasy of the worker, and +the special manner of her gift. It was not Mary's _metier_ to serve at +the table, nor to do any practical thing. She did not know what there +was for her to do; but something she _must_ do. So she caught up her +alabaster box, and without questioning herself about the act, let her +heart have its way, and poured it out on Christ. It was the only thing +she could do, and she did it. It was a very useless thing. It was an +entirely unnecessary expenditure of the perfume. There might have been +a great many practical purposes found for it, but it was her way. + +Christ says to each of us, Be yourselves, take circumstances, +capacities, opportunities, individual character, as laying down the +lines along which yon have to travel. Do not imitate other people. Do +not envy other people; be yourselves, and let your love take its +natural expression, whatever folk round you may snarl and sneer and +carp and criticise. 'She hath done what she could,' and so He accepts +the gift. + +Engineers tell us that the steam-engine is a very wasteful machine, +because so little of the energy is brought into actual operation. I am +afraid that there are a great many of us Christian people like that, +getting so much capacity, and turning out so little work. And there +are a great many more of us who simply pick up the kind of work that +is popular round us, and never consult our own bent, nor follow this +humbly and bravely, wherever it will take us. 'She hath done what she +could.' + +III. And now the last thought that I would gather from these words is +as to the significance and the perpetuity of the work which Christ +accepts. + +'She hath come beforehand to anoint My body to the burying.' I do not +suppose that such a thought was in Mary's mind when she snatched up +her box of ointment, and poured it out on Christ's head. But it was a +meaning that He, in His tender pity and wise love and foresight, put +into it, pathetically indicating, too, how the near Cross was filling +His thought, even whilst He sat at the humble rustic feast in Bethany +village. + +He puts meaning into the service of love which He accepts. Yes, He +always does. For all the little bits of service that we can bring get +worked up into the great whole, the issues of which lie far beyond +anything that we conceive, 'Thou sowest not that body that shall be, +but bare grain ... and God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him.' +We cast the seed into the furrows. Who can tell what the harvest is +going to be? We know nothing about the great issues that may suddenly, +or gradually, burst from, or be evolved out of, the small deeds that +we do. So, then, let us take care of the end, so to speak, which is +under our control, and that is the motive. And Jesus Christ will take +care of the other end that is beyond our control, and that is the +issue. He will bring forth what seemeth to Him good, and we shall be +as much astonished 'when we get yonder' at what has come out of what +we did here, as poor Mary, standing there behind Him, was when He +translated her act into so much higher a meaning than she had seen in +it. + +'Lord! when saw we Thee hungry and fed Thee?' We do not know what we +are doing. We are like the Hindoo weavers that are said to weave their +finest webs in dark rooms; and when the shutters come down, and not +till then, shall we find out the meanings of our service of love. + +Christ makes the work perpetual as well as significant by declaring +that 'in the whole world this shall be preached for a memorial of +her.' Have not 'the poor' got far more good out of Mary's box of +ointment than the three hundred pence that a few of them lost by it? +Has it not been an inspiration to the Church ever since? 'The house +was filled with the odour of the ointment.' The fragrance was soon +dissipated in the scentless air, but the deed smells sweet and +blossoms for ever. It is perpetual in its record, perpetual in God's +remembrance, perpetual in its results to the doer, and in its results +in the world, though these may be indistinguishable, just as the brook +is lost in the river and the river in the sea. + +But did you ever notice that the Evangelist who records the promise of +perpetual remembrance of the act does not tell us who did it, and that +the Evangelists who tell us who did it do not record the promise of +perpetual remembrance? Never mind whether your deed is labelled with +your address or not, God knows to whom it belongs, and that is enough. +As Paul says in one of his letters, 'other my fellow-labourers also, +whose names are in the Book of Life.' Apparently he had forgotten the +names, or perhaps did not think it needful to occupy space in his +letter with detailing them, and so makes that graceful, +half-apologetic suggestion that they are inscribed on a more august +page. The work and the worker are associated in that Book, and that is +enough. + +Brethren, the question of Judas is far more fitting when asked of +other people than of Christians. 'To what purpose is this waste?' may +well be said to those of you who are taking mind, and heart, and will, +capacity, and energy, and all life, and using it for lower purposes +than the service of God, and the manifestation of loving obedience to +Jesus Christ. 'Why do ye spend money for that which is not bread?' Is +it not waste to buy disappointments at the price of a soul and of a +life? Why do ye spend that money thus? 'Whose image and superscription +hath it?' Whose name is stamped upon our spirits? To whom should they +be rendered? Better for us to ask ourselves the question to-day about +all the godless parts of our lives, 'To what purpose is this waste?' +than to have to ask it yonder! Everything but giving our whole selves +to Jesus Christ is waste. It is not waste to lay ourselves and our +possessions at His feet. 'He that loveth his life shall lose it, and +he that loseth his life for My sake, the same shall find it.' + + + +A SECRET RENDEZVOUS + + +'And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the pastorer, +His disciples said unto Him, Where wilt Thou that we go and prepare +that Thou mayest eat the passover? 13. And He sendeth forth two of His +disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall +meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him. 14. And +wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The +Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the +passover with My disciples? 15. And he will show you a large upper +room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us. 16. And His +disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as He had said +unto them: and they made ready the passover.'--Mark xiv. 12-16. + +This is one of the obscurer and less noticed incidents, but perhaps it +contains more valuable teaching than appears at first sight. + +The first question is--Miracle or Plan? Does the incident mean +supernatural knowledge or a preconcerted token, like the provision of +the ass at the entry into Jerusalem? I think that there is nothing +decisive either way in the narrative. Perhaps the balance of +probability lies in favour of the latter theory. A difficulty in its +way is that no communication seems to pass between the two disciples +and the man by which he could know them to be the persons whom he was +to precede to the house. There are advantages in either theory which +the other loses; but, on the whole, I incline to believe in a +preconcerted signal. If we lose the supernatural, we gain a suggestion +of prudence and human adaptation of means to ends which makes the +story even more startlingly real to us. + +But whichever theory we adopt, the main points and lessons of the +narrative remain the same. + +I. The remarkable thing in the story is the picture it gives us of +Christ as elaborately adopting precautions to conceal the place. + +They are at Bethany. The disciples ask where the passover is to be +eaten. The easy answer would have been to tell the name of the man and +his house. That is not given. The deliberate round-aboutness of the +answer remains the same whether miracle or plan. The two go away, and +the others know nothing of the place. Probably the messengers did not +come back, but in the evening Jesus and the ten go straight to the +house which only He knew. + +All this secrecy is in strong contrast with His usual frank and open +appearances. + +What is the reason? To baffle the traitor by preventing him from +acquiring previous knowledge of the place. He was watching for some +quiet hour in Jerusalem to take Jesus. So Christ does not eat the +passover at the house of any well-known disciple who had a house in +Jerusalem, but goes to some man unknown to the Apostolic circle, and +takes steps to prevent the place being known beforehand. + +All this looks like the ordinary precautions which a man who knew of +the plots against him would take, and might mean simply a wish to save +his life. But is that the whole explanation? _Why_ did He wish to +baffle the traitor? + +(a) Because of His desire to eat the passover with the disciples. His +loving sympathy. + +(b) Because of His desire to found the new rite of His kingdom. + +(c) Because of His desire to bring His death into immediate connection +with the Paschal sacrifice. There was no reason of a selfish kind, no +shrinking from death itself. + +The fact that such precautions only meet us here, and that they stand +in strongest contrast with the rest of His conduct, emphasises the +purely voluntary nature of His death: how He _chose_ to be betrayed, +taken, and to die. They suggest the same thought as do the staggering +back of His would-be captors in Gethsemane, at His majestic word, 'I +am He.... Let these go their way.' The narrative sets Him forth as the +Lord of all circumstances, as free, and arranging all events. + +Judas, the priests, Pilate, the soldiers, were swept by a power which +they did not know to deeds which they did not understand. The Lord of +all gives Himself up in royal freedom to the death to which nothing +dragged Him but His own love. + +Such seem to be the lessons of this narrative in so far as it bears on +our Lord's own thoughts and feelings. + +II. We note also the authoritative claim which He makes. + +One reading is 'my guest-chamber,' and that makes His claim even more +emphatic; but apart from that, the language is strong in its +expression of a right to this unknown man's 'upper room.' Mark the +singular blending here, as in all His earthly life, of poverty and +dignity--the lowliness of being obliged to a man for a room; the royal +style, 'The Master saith.' + +So even now there is the blending of the wonderful fact that He puts +Himself in the position of needing anything from us, with the absolute +authority which He claims over us and ours. + +III. The answer and blessedness of the unknown disciple. + +(a) Jesus knows disciples whom the other disciples know not. + +This man was one of the of 'secret' disciples. There is no excuse for +shrinking from confession of His name; but it is blessed to believe +that His eye sees many a 'hidden one.' He recognises their faith, and +gives them work to do. Add the striking thought that though this man's +name is unrecorded by the Evangelist, it is known to Christ, was +written in His heart, and, to use the prophetic image, 'was graven on +the palms of His hands.' + +(b) The true blessedness is to be ready for whatever calls He may make +on us. These may sometimes be sudden and unlooked for. But the +preparation for obeying the most sudden or exacting summons of His is +to have our hearts in fellowship with Him. + +(c) The blessedness of His coming into our hearts, and accepting our +service. + +How honoured that man felt then! how much more so as years went on! +how most of all now! + +Our greatest blessedness that He does come into the narrow room of our +hearts: 'If any man open the door, I will sup with him.' + + + +THE NEW PASSOVER + + +'And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover, +the disciples said unto Him, Where wilt Thou that we go and prepare +that Thou mayest eat the Passover? 13. And He sendeth forth two of His +disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall +meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him. 14. And +wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The +Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the +Passover with My disciples? 15. And he will shew you a large upper +room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us. 16. And His +disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as He had said +unto them: and they made ready the Passover. 17. And in the evening He +cometh with the twelve. 18. And as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, +Verily I say unto you, One of you which eateth with Me shall betray +Me. 19. And they began to be sorrowful, and to say unto Him one by +one, Is it I? and another said, Is it I? 20. And He answered and said +unto them, It is one of the twelve, that dippeth with Me in the dish. +21. The Son of Man indeed goeth, as it is written of Him: but woe to +that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! good were it for that man +if he had never been born. 22. And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, +and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this +is My body. 23. And He took the cup, and when He had given thanks, He +gave it to them: and they all drank of it. 24. And He said unto them, +This is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many. 25. +Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, +until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God. 26. And when +they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.'--Mark +xiv. 12-26. + +This passage falls into three sections--the secret preparation for the +Passover (verses 12-17), the sad announcement of the betrayer (verses +18-21), and the institution of the Lord's Supper (verses 22-26). It +may be interesting to notice that in the two former of these Mark's +account approximates to Luke's, while in the third he is nearer +Matthew's. A comparison of the three accounts, noting the slight, but +often significant, variations, should be made. Nothing in the Gospels +is trivial. 'The dust of that land is gold.' + +I. The secret preparation for the Passover. The three Evangelists all +give the disciples' question, but only Luke tells us that it was in +answer to our Lord's command to Peter and John to go and prepare the +Passover. They very naturally said 'Where?' as they were all strangers +in Jerusalem. Matthew may not have known of our Lord's initiative; but +if Mark were, as he is, with apparent correctness, said to have been, +Peter's mouthpiece in his Gospel, the reticence as to the prominence +of that Apostle is natural, and explains the omission of all but the +bare fact of the despatch of the two. The curiously roundabout way in +which they are directed to the 'upper room' is only explicable on the +supposition that it was intended to keep them in the dark till the +last moment, so that no hint might leak from them to Judas. Whether +the token of the man with the waterpot was a preconcerted signal or an +instance of our Lord's supernatural knowledge and sovereign sway, his +employment as a silent and probably unconscious guide testifies to +Christ's wish for that last hour to be undisturbed. A man carrying a +water-pot, which was woman's special task, would be a conspicuous +figure even in the festival crowds. The message to the householder +implies that he recognised 'the Master' as his Master, and was ready +to give up at His requisition even the chamber which he had prepared +for his own family celebration of the feast. + +Thus instructed, the two trusted Apostles left Bethany, early in the +day, without a clue of their destination reaching Judas's hungry +watchfulness. Evidently they did not return, and in the evening Jesus +led the others straight to the place. Mark says that He came 'with the +twelve'; but he does not mean thereby to specify the number, but to +define the class, of His attendants. + +Each figure in this preparatory scene yields important lessons. Our +Lord's earnest desire to secure that still hour before pushing out +into the storm speaks pathetically of His felt need of companionship +and strengthening, as well as of His self-forgetting purpose to help +His handful of bewildered followers and His human longing to live in +faithful memories. His careful arrangements bring vividly into sight +the limitations of His manhood, in that He, 'by whom all things +consist,' had to contrive and plan in order to baffle for a moment His +pursuers. And, side by side with the lowliness, as ever, is the +majesty; for while He stoops to arrange, He sees with superhuman +certitude what will happen, moves unconscious feet with secret and +sovereign sway, and in royal tones claims possession of His servant's +possessions. + +The two messengers, sent out with instructions which would only guide +them half-way to their destination, and obliged, if they were to move +at all, to trust absolutely to His knowledge, present specimens of the +obedience still required. He sends us out still on a road full of +sharp turnings round which we cannot see. We get light enough for the +first stage; and when it is traversed, the second will be plainer. + +The man with the water-pot reminds us how little we may be aware of +the Hand which guides us, or of our uses in His plans. 'I girded thee, +though thou hast not known Me,'--how little the poor water-bearer knew +who were following, or dreamed that he and his load would be +remembered for ever! + +The householder responded at once, and gladly, to the authoritative +message, which does not ask a favour, but demands a right. Probably he +had intended to celebrate the Passover with his own family, in the +large chamber on the roof, with the cool evening air about it, and the +moonlight sleeping around. But he gladly gives it up. Are we as ready +to surrender our cherished possessions for His use? + +II. The sad announcement of the traitor (verses 18-21). As the Revised +Version indicates more clearly than the Authorised, the purport of the +announcement was not merely that the betrayer was an Apostle, but that +he was to be known by his dipping his hand into the common dish at the +same moment as our Lord. The prophetic psalm would have been +abundantly fulfilled though Judas's fingers had never touched +Christ's; but the minute accomplishment should teach us that Jewish +prophecy was the voice of divine foreknowledge, and embraced small +details as well as large tendencies. Many hands dipped with Christ's, +and so the sign was not unmistakably indicative, and hence was +privately supplemented, as John tells us, by the giving of 'the sop.' +The uncertainty as to the indication given by the token is reflected +by the reiterated questions of the Apostles, which, in the Greek, are +cast in a form that anticipates a negative answer: 'Surely not I?' +Mark omits the audacious hypocrisy of Judas's question in the same +form, and Christ's curt, sad answer which Matthew gives. His brief and +vivid sketch is meant to fix attention on the unanimous shuddering +horror of these faithful hearts at the thought that they could be thus +guilty--a horror which was not the child of presumptuous +self-confidence, but of hearty, honest love. They thought it +impossible, as they felt the throbbing of their own hearts--and +yet--and yet--might it not be? As they probed their hearts deeper, +they became dimly aware of dark gulfs of possible unfaithfulness half +visible there, and so betook themselves to their Master, and +strengthened their loyalty by the question, which breathed at once +detestation of the treason and humble distrust of themselves. It is +well to feel and speak the strong recoil from sin of a heart loyal to +Jesus. It is better to recognise the sleeping snakes, the +possibilities of evil in ourselves, and to take to Christ our +ignorance and self-distrust. It is wiser to cry 'Is it I?' than to +boast, 'Although all shall be offended, yet will not I.' 'Hold Thou me +up, and I shall be safe.' + +Our Lord answers the questions by a still more emphatic repetition of +the distinctive mark, and then, in verse 21, speaks deep words of +mingled pathos, dignity, and submission. The voluntariness of His +death, and its uniqueness as His own act of return to His eternal +home, are contained in that majestic 'goeth,' which asserts the +impotence of the betrayer and his employers, without the Lord's own +consent. On the other hand, the necessity to which He willingly bowed +is set forth in that 'as it is written of Him.' And what sadness and +lofty consciousness of His own sacred personality and judicial +authority are blended in the awful sentence on the traitor! What was +He that treachery to Him should be a crime so transcendent? What right +had He thus calmly to pronounce condemnation? Did He see into the +future? Is it the voice of a Divine Judge, or of a man judging in his +own cause, which speaks this passionless sentence? Surely none of His +sayings are more fully charged with His claims to pre-existence, +divinity, and judicial authority, than this which He spoke at the very +moment when the traitor's plot was on the verge of success. + +III. The institution of the Lord's Supper (verses 22-26). Mark's +account is the briefest of the three, and his version of Christ's +words the most compressed. It omits the affecting 'Do this for +remembering Me,' which is pre-supposed by the very act of instituting +the ordinance, since it is nothing if not memorial; and it makes +prominent two things--the significance of the elements, and the +command to partake of them. To these must be added Christ's attitude +in 'blessing' the bread and cup, and His distribution of them among +the disciples. The Passover was to Israel the commemoration of their +redemption from captivity and their birth as a nation. Jesus puts +aside this divinely appointed and venerable festival to set in its +stead the remembrance of Himself. That night, 'to be much remembered +of the children of Israel,' is to be forgotten, and come no more into +the number of the months; and its empty place is to be filled by the +memory of the hours then passing. Surely His act was either arrogance +or the calm consciousness of the unique significance and power of His +death. Think of any mere teacher or prophet doing the like! The world +would meet the preposterous claim implied with deserved and +inextinguishable laughter. Why does it not do so with Christ's act? + +Christ's view of His death is written unmistakably on the Lord's +Supper. It is not merely that He wishes _it_ rather than His life, His +miracles, or words, to be kept in thankful remembrance, but that He +desires one aspect of it to be held high and clear above all others. +He is the true 'Passover Lamb,' whose shed and sprinkled blood +establishes new bonds of amity and new relations, with tender and +wonderful reciprocal obligations, between God and the 'many' who truly +partake of that sacrifice. The key-words of Judaism--'sacrifice,' +'covenant,' 'sprinkling with blood'--are taken over into Christianity, +and the ideas they represent are set in its centre, to be cherished as +its life. The Lord's Supper is the conclusive answer to the allegation +that Christ did not teach the sacrificial character and atoning power +of His death. What, then, did He teach when He said, 'This is My blood +of the covenant, which is shed for many'? + +The Passover was a family festival, and that characteristic passes +over to the Lord's Supper. Christ is not only the food on which we +feed, but the Head of the family and distributor of the banquet. He is +the feast and the Governor of the feast, and all who sit at that table +are 'brethren.' One life is in them all, and they are one as partakers +of One. + +The Lord's Supper is a visible symbol of the Christian life, which +should not only be all lived in remembrance of Him, but consists in +partaking by faith of His life, and incorporating it in ours, until we +come to the measure of perfect men, which, in one aspect, we reach +when we can say, 'I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' + +There is a prophetic element, as well as a commemorative and symbolic, +in the Lord's Supper, which is prominent in Christ's closing words. He +does not partake of the symbols which He gives; but there comes a +time, in that perfected form of the kingdom, when perfect love shall +make all the citizens perfectly conformed to the perfect will of God. +Then, whatsoever associations of joy, of invigoration, of festal +fellowship, clustered round the wine-cup here, shall be heightened, +purified, and perpetuated in the calm raptures of the heavenly feast, +in which He will be Partaker, as well as Giver and Food. 'Thou shalt +make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures.' The King's lips will +touch the golden cup filled with un-foaming wine, ere He commends it +to His guests. And from that feast they will 'go no more out,' neither +shall the triumphant music of its great 'hymn' be followed by any +Olivet or Gethsemane, or any denial, or any Calvary; but there shall +be 'no more sorrow, nor sin, nor death'; for 'the former things are +passed away,' and He has made 'all things new.' + + + +'IS IT I?' + + +'Is it I?'--Mark xiv. 19 + +The scene shows that Judas had not as yet drawn any suspicion on +himself. + +Here the Apostles seem to be higher than their ordinary stature; for +they do not take to questioning one another, or even to protest, 'No!' +but to questioning Christ. + +I. The solemn prophecy. + +It seems strange at first sight that our Lord should have introduced +such thoughts then, disturbing the sweet repose of that hallowed hour. +But the terrible fact of the betrayal was naturally suggested by the +emblems of His death, and still more by the very confiding familiarity +of that hour. His household were gathered around Him, and the more +close and confidential the intercourse, the bitterer that thought to +Him, that one of the little band was soon to play the traitor. It is +the cry of His wounded love, the wail of His unrequited affection, +and, so regarded, is infinitely touching. It is an instance of that +sad insight into man's heart which in His divinity He possessed. What +a fountain of sorrow for His manhood was that knowledge! how it +increases the pathos of His tenderness! Not only did He read hearts as +they thought and felt in the present, but He read their future with +more than a prophet's insight. He saw how many buds of promise would +shrivel, how many would go away and walk no more with Him.' + +That solemn prophecy may well be pondered by all Christian assemblies, +and specially when gathered for the observance of the Lord's Supper. +Perhaps never since that first institution has a community met to +celebrate it without Him who 'walks amid the candlesticks,' with eyes +as a flame of fire marking a Judas among the disciples. There is, I +think, no doubt that Judas partook of the Lord's Supper. But be that +as it may, he was among the number, and our Lord knew him to be 'the +traitor.' + +In its essence Judas's sin can be repeated still, and the thought of +that possibility may well mingle with the grateful and adoring +contemplations suitable to the act of partaking of the Lord's Supper. +In the hour of holiest Christian emotion the thought that I may betray +the Lord who has died for me will be especially hateful, and to +remember the possibility then will do much to prevent its ever +becoming a reality. + +II. The self-distrustful question, 'Is it I?' + +It suggests that the possibilities of the darkest sin are in each of +us, and especially, that the sin of treason towards Christ is in each +of us. + +Think generally of the awful possibilities of sin in every soul. + +All sin has one root, so it is capable of passing from one form to +another as light, heat, and motion do, or like certain diseases that +are Protean in their forms. One sin is apt to draw others after it. +'None shall want her mate.' Wild beasts of 'the desert' meet with wild +beasts of 'the islands.' Sins are gregarious, as it were; they 'hunt +in couples.' 'Then goeth he, and taketh with him seven other spirits +more wicked than himself.' + +The roots of all sin are in each. Men may think that they are +protected from certain forms of sin by temperament, but identity of +nature is deeper than varieties of temperament. The greatest sins are +committed by yielding to very common motives. Love of money is not a +rare feeling, but it led Judas to betray Jesus. Anger is thought to be +scarcely a sin at all, but it often moves an arm to murder. + +Temptations to each sin are round us all. We walk in a tainted +atmosphere. + +There is progress in evil. No man reaches the extreme of depravity at +a bound. Judas's treachery was of slow growth. + +So still there is the constant operation and pressure of forces and +tendencies drawing us away from Jesus Christ. We, every one of us, +know that, if we allowed our nature to have its way, we should leave +Him and 'make shipwreck of faith and of a good conscience.' The forms +in which we might do it might vary, but do it we should. We are like a +man desperately clutching some rocky projection on the face of a +precipice, who knows that if once he lets go, he will be dashed to +pieces. 'There goes John Bradford, but for the grace of God!' But for +this same restraining grace, to what depths might we not sink? So, in +all Christian hearts there should be profound consciousness of their +own weakness. The man 'who fears no fall' is sure to have one. It is +perilous to march through an enemy's country in loose order, without +scouts and rearguard. Rigorous control is ever necessary. Brotherly +judgment, too, of others should result from our consciousness of +weakness. Examples of others falling are not to make us say cynically, +'We are all alike,' but to set us to think humbly of ourselves, and to +supplicate divine keeping,' Lord, save _me_, or I perish!' + +III. The safety of the self-distrustful. + +When the consciousness of possible falling is brought home to us, we +shall carry, if we are wise, all our doubts as to ourselves to Jesus. +There is safety in asking Him, 'Is it I?' To bare our inmost selves +before Him, and not to shrink, even if that piercing gaze lights on +hidden meannesses and incipient treachery, may be painful, but is +healing. He will keep us from yielding to the temptation of which we +are aware, and which we tell frankly to Him. The lowly sense of our +own liability to fall, if it drives us closer to Him, will make it +certain that we shall not fall. + +While the other disciples asked 'Is it I?' John asked 'Who is it?' The +disciple who leaned on Christ's bosom was bathed in such a +consciousness of Christ's love that treason against it was impossible. +He, alone of the Evangelists, records his question, and he tells us +that he put it, 'leaning back as he was, on Jesus's breast.' For the +purpose of whispering his interrogation, he changed his attitude for a +moment so as to press still closer to Jesus. How could one who was +thus nestling nearer to that heart be the betrayer? The consciousness +of Christ's love, accompanied with the effort to draw closer to Him, +is our surest defence against every temptation to faithlessness or +betrayal of Him. + +Any other fancied ground of security is deceptive, and will sooner or +later crumble beneath our deceived feet. On this very occasion, Peter +built a towering fabric of profession of unalterable fidelity on such +shifting ground, and saw it collapse into ruin in a few hours. Let us +profit by the lesson! + +That wholesome consciousness of our weakness need not shade with +sadness the hours of communion, but it may well help us to turn them +to their highest use in making them occasions for lowlier +self-distrust and closer cleaving to Him. If we thus use our sense of +weakness, the sweet security will enter our souls that belongs to +those who have trusted in the great promise: 'He shall not fall, for +God Is able to make him stand.' The blessed ones who are kept from +falling and 'presented faultless before the presence of His glory,' +will hear with wonder the voice of the Judge ascribing to them deeds +of service to Him of which they had not been conscious, and will have +to ask once more the old question, but with a new meaning: 'Lord, is +it I? when saw we Thee an hungered, and fed Thee?' + + + +'STRONG CRYING AND TEARS' + + +'And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and He saith to +His disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray. 33. And He taketh with +Him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be +very heavy; 34. And saith onto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful +unto death: tarry ye here, and watch. 35. And He went forward a +little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, +the hour might pass from Him. 36. And He said, Abba, Father, all +things are possible unto Thee; take away this cup from Me: +nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt. 37. And He cometh, +and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou! +couldest not thou watch one hour? 38. Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter +into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. 39. +And again He went away, and prayed, and spake the same words. 40. And +when He returned, He found them asleep again, (for their eyes were +heavy,) neither wist they what to answer Him. 41. And He cometh the +third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest, it +is enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of Man is betrayed into +the hands of sinners. 42. Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth Me +is at hand.--Mark xiv. 32-42. + +The three who saw Christ's agony in Gethsemane were so little affected +that they slept. We have to beware of being so little affected that we +speculate and seek to analyse rather than to bow adoringly before that +mysterious and heart-subduing sight. Let us remember that the place is +'holy ground.' It was meant that we should look on the Christ who +prayed 'with strong crying and tears,' else the three sleepers would +not have accompanied Him so far; but it was meant that our gaze should +be reverent and from a distance, else they would have gone with Him +into the shadow of the olives. + +'Gethsemane' means 'an oil-press.' It was an enclosed piece of ground, +according to Matthew and Mark; a garden, according to John. Jesus, by +some means, had access to it, and had 'oft-times resorted thither with +His disciples.' To this familiar spot, with its many happy +associations, Jesus led the disciples, who would simply expect to pass +the night there, as many Passover visitors were accustomed to bivouac +in the open air. + +The triumphant tone of spirit which animated His assuring words to His +disciples, 'I have overcome the world,' changed as they passed through +the moonlight down to the valley, and when they reached the garden +deep gloom lay upon Him. His agitation is pathetically and most +naturally indicated by the conflict of feeling as to companionship. He +leaves the other disciples at the entrance, for He would fain be alone +in His prayer. Then, a moment after, He bids the three, who had been +on the Mount of Transfiguration and with Him at many other special +times, accompany Him into the recesses of the garden. But again need +of solitude overcomes longing for companionship, and He bids them stay +where they were, while He plunges still further into the shadow. How +human it is! How well all of us, who have been down into the depths of +sorrow, know the drawing of these two opposite longings! + +Scripture seldom undertakes to tell Christ's emotions. Still seldomer +does He speak of them. But at this tremendous hour the veil is lifted +by one corner, and He Himself is fain to relieve His bursting heart by +pathetic self-revelation, which is in fact an appeal to the three for +sympathy, as well as an evidence of His sharing the common need of +lightening the burdened spirit by speech. Mark's description of +Christ's feelings lays stress first on their beginning, and then on +their nature as being astonishment and anguish. A wave of emotion +swept over Him, and was in marked contrast with His previous +demeanour. + +The three had never seen their calm Master so moved. We feel that such +agitation is profoundly unlike the serenity of the rest of His life, +and especially remarkable if contrasted with the tone of John's +account of His discourse in the upper room; and, if we are wise, we +shall gaze on that picture drawn for us by Mark with reverent +gratitude, and feel that we look at something more sacred than human +trembling at the thought of death. + +Our Lord's own infinitely touching words heighten the impression of +the Evangelist's 'My soul is exceeding sorrowful,' or, as the word +literally means, 'ringed round with sorrow.' A dark orb of distress +encompassed Him, and there was nowhere a break in the gloom which shut +Him in. And this is He who, but an hour before, had bequeathed His +'joy' to His servants, and had bidden them 'be of good cheer,' since +He had 'conquered the world.' + +Dare we ask what were the elements of that all-enveloping horror of +great darkness? Reverently we may. That astonishment and distress no +doubt were partly due to the recoil of flesh from death. But if that +was their sole cause, Jesus has been surpassed in heroism, not only by +many a martyr who drew his strength from Him, but by many a rude +soldier and by many a criminal. No! The waters of the baptism with +which He was baptized had other sources than that, though it poured a +tributary stream into them. + +We shall not understand Gethsemane at all, nor will it touch our +hearts and wills as it is meant to do, unless, as we look, we say in +adoring wonder, 'The Lord hath made to meet on Him the iniquity of us +all.' It was the weight of the world's sin which He took on Him by +willing identification of Himself with men, that pressed Him to the +ground. Nothing else than the atoning character of Christ's sufferings +explains so far as it can be explained, the agony which we are +permitted to behold afar off. + +How nearly that agony was fatal is taught us by His own word 'unto +death,' A little more, and He would have died. Can we retain reverence +for Jesus as a perfect and pattern man, in view of His paroxysm of +anguish in Gethsemane, if we refuse to accept that explanation? Truly +was the place named 'The Olive-press,' for in it His whole being was +as if in the press, and another turn of the screw would have crushed +Him. + +Darkness ringed Him round, but there was a rift in it right overhead. +Prayer was His refuge, as it must be ours. The soul that can cry, +'Abba, Father!' does not walk in unbroken night. His example teaches +us what our own sorrows should also teach us--to betake ourselves to +prayer when the spirit is desolate. In that wonderful prayer we +reverently note three things: there is unbroken consciousness of the +Father's love; there is the instinctive recoil of flesh and the +sensitive nature from the suffering imposed; and there is the absolute +submission of the will, which silences the remonstrance of flesh. +Whatever the weight laid on Jesus by His bearing of the sins of the +world, it did not take from Him the sense of sonship. But, on the +other hand, that sense did not take from Him the consciousness that +the world's sin lay upon Him. In like manner His cry on the Cross +mysteriously blended the sense of communion with God and of +abandonment by God. Into these depths we see but a little way, and +adoration is better than speculation. + +Jesus shrank from 'this cup,' in which so many bitter ingredients +besides death were mingled, such as treachery, desertion, mocking, +rejection, exposure to 'the contradiction of sinners.' There was no +failure of purpose in that recoil, for the cry for exemption was +immediately followed by complete submission to the Father's will. No +perturbation in the lower nature ever caused His fixed resolve to +waver. The needle always pointed to the pole, however the ship might +pitch and roll. A prayer in which 'remove this from me' is followed by +that yielding 'nevertheless' is always heard. Christ's was heard, for +calmness came back, and His flesh was stilled and made ready for the +sacrifice. + +So He could rejoin the three, in whose sympathy and watchfulness He +had trusted--and they all were asleep! Surely that was one ingredient +of bitterness in His cup. We wonder at their insensibility; and how +they must have wondered at it too, when after years taught them what +they had lost, and how faithless they had been! Think of men who could +have seen and heard that scene, which has drawn the worshipping regard +of the world ever since, missing it all because they fell asleep! They +had kept awake long enough to see Him fall on the ground and to hear +His prayer, but, worn out by a long day of emotion and sorrow, they +slept. + +Jesus was probably rapt in prayer for a considerable time, perhaps for +a literal 'hour.' He was specially touched by Peter's failure, so +sadly contrasted with his confident professions in the upper room; but +no word of blame escaped Him. Rather He warned them of swift-coming +temptation, which they could only overcome by watchfulness and prayer. +It was indeed near, for the soldiers would burst in, before many +minutes had passed, polluting the moonlight with their torches and +disturbing the quiet night with their shouts. What gracious allowance +for their weakness and loving recognition of the disciples' imperfect +good lie in His words, which are at once an excuse for their fault and +an enforcement of His command to watch and pray! 'The flesh is weak,' +and hinders the willing spirit from doing what it wills. It was an +apology for the slumber of the three; it is a merciful statement of +the condition under which all discipleship has to be carried on. 'He +knoweth our frame.' Therefore we all need to watch and pray, since +only by such means can weak flesh be strengthened and strong flesh +weakened, or the spirit preserved in willingness. + +The words were not spoken in reference to Himself, but in a measure +were true of Him. His second withdrawal for prayer seems to witness +that the victory won by the first supplication was not permanent. +Again the anguish swept over His spirit in another foaming breaker, +and again He sought solitude, and again He found tranquillity--and +again returned to find the disciples asleep. 'They knew not what to +answer Him' in extenuation of their renewed dereliction. + +Yet a third time the struggle was renewed. And after that, He had no +need to return to the seclusion, where He had fought, and now had +conclusively conquered by prayer and submission. We too may, by the +same means, win partial victories over self, which may be interrupted +by uprisings of flesh; but let us persevere. Twice Jesus' calm was +broken by recrudescence of horror and shrinking; the third time it +came back, to abide through all the trying scenes of the passion, but +for that one cry on the Cross, 'Why hast Thou forsaken Me?' So it may +be with us. + +The last words to the three have given commentators much trouble. +'Sleep on now, and take your rest,' is not so much irony as 'spoken +with a kind of permissive force, and in tones in which merciful +reproach was blended with calm resignation.' So far as He was +concerned, there was no reason for their waking. But they had lost an +opportunity, never to return, of helping Him in His hour of deepest +agony. He needed them no more. And do not we in like manner often lose +the brightest opportunities of service by untimely slumber of soul, +and is not 'the irrevocable past' saying to many of us, 'Sleep on now +since you can no more do what you have let slip from your drowsy +hands'? + +'It is enough' is obscure, but probably refers to the disciples' +sleep, and prepares for the transition to the next words, which summon +them to arise, not to help Him by watching, but to meet the traitor. +They had slept long enough, He sadly says. That which will effectually +end their sleepiness is at hand. How completely our Lord had regained +His calm superiority to the horror which had shaken Him is witnessed +by that majestic 'Let us be going.' He will go out to meet the +traitor, and, after one flash of power, which smote the soldiers to +the ground, will yield Himself to the hands of sinners. + +The Man who lay prone in anguish beneath the olive-trees comes forth +in serene tranquillity, and gives Himself up to the death for us all. +His agony was endured for us, and needs for its explanation the fact +that it was so. His victory through prayer was for us, that we too +might conquer by the same weapons. His voluntary surrender was for us, +that 'by His stripes we might be healed.' Surely we shall not sleep, +as did these others, but, moved by His sorrows and animated by His +victory, watch and pray that we may share in the virtue of His +sufferings and imitate the example of His submission. + + + +THE SLEEPING APOSTLE + + +'Simon, sleepest thou!'--Mark xiv. 37 + +It is a very old Christian tradition that this Gospel is in some sense +the Apostle Peter's. There are not many features in the Gospel itself +which can be relied on as confirming this idea. Perhaps one such may +be found in this plaintive remonstrance, which is only preserved for +us here. Matthew's Gospel, indeed, tells us that the rebuke was +addressed to Peter, but blunts the sharp point of it as directed to +him, by throwing it into the plural, as if spoken to all the three +slumberers: 'What, could ye not watch with Me one hour?' To Matthew, +the special direction of the words was unimportant, but Peter could +never forget how the Master had come out from the shadow of the olives +to him lying there in the moonlight, and stood before him worn with +His solitary agony, and in a voice yet tremulous from His awful +conflict, had said to _him_, so lately loud in his professions of +fidelity, 'Sleepest _thou_?' + +It was but an hour or two since he had been saying, and meaning, 'I +will lay down my life for Thy sake,' and this was what all that +fervour had come to. No wonder if there is almost a tone of surprise +discernible in our Lord's word, as if He who 'marvelled at the +unbelief' of those who were not His followers, marvelled still more at +the imperfect sympathy of those who were, and marvelled most of all at +such a sudden ebb of such a flood of devotion. Surprise and sorrow, +the pain of a loving heart thrown back upon itself, the sharp pang of +feeling how much less one is loved than one loves, the pleading with +His forgetful servant, rebuke without anger, all breathe through the +question, so pathetic in its simplicity, so powerful to bow in +contrition by reason of its very gentleness and self-restraint. + +The record of this Evangelist proves how deep it sank into the +impulsive, loving heart of the apostle, and yet the denials in the +high priest's palace, which followed so soon, show how much less power +it had on him on the day when it was spoken, than it gained as he +looked back on it through the long vista of years that had passed, +when he told the story to Mark. + +The first lesson to be gathered from these words is drawn from the +name by which our Lord here addresses the apostle: '_Simon_, sleepest +thou?' + +Now the usage of Mark's Gospel in reference to this apostle's name is +remarkably uniform and precise. Both his names occur in Mark's +catalogue of the Apostles: 'Simon he surnamed Peter.' He is never +called by both again, but before that point he is always Simon, and +after it he is always Peter, except in this verse. The other +Evangelists show similar purpose, for the most part, in their +interchange of the names. Luke, for instance, always calls him Simon +up to the same point as Mark, except once where he uses the form +'Simon Peter,' and thereafter always Peter, except in Christ's solemn +warning, 'Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you,' and in the +report of the tidings that met the disciples on their return from +Emmaus, 'The Lord hath appeared to Simon.' So Matthew calls him Simon +in the story of the first miraculous draught of fishes, and in the +catalogue of Apostles, and afterwards uniformly Peter, except in +Christ's answer to the apostle's great confession, where He names him +'Simon Bar Jona,' in order, as would appear, to bring into more solemn +relief the significance of the immediately following words, 'Thou art +Peter.' In John's Gospel, again, we find the two forms 'Simon Peter' +and the simple 'Peter' used throughout with almost equal frequency, +while 'Simon' is only employed at the very beginning, and in the +heart-piercing triple question at the end, 'Simon, son of Jonas, +lovest thou Me?' + +The conclusion seems a fair one from these details that, on the whole, +the name Simon brings into prominence the natural unrenewed humanity, +and the name Peter suggests the Apostolic office, the bold confessor, +the impulsive, warm-hearted lover and follower of the Lord. And it is +worth noticing that, with one exception, the instances in which he is +called by his former name, after his designation to the apostolate, +occur in words addressed to him by our Lord. + +He had given the name, and surely His withdrawal of it was meant to be +significant, and must have struck with boding, rebuking emphasis on +the ear and conscience of the apostle. 'Simon, Simon, Satan hath +desired to have you': 'Remember thy human weakness, and in the sore +conflict that is before thee, trust not to thine own power.' 'Simon, +sleepest thou?' 'Can I call thee Peter now, when thou hast not cared +for My sorrow enough to wake while I wrestled? Is this thy fervid +love?' 'Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?' 'Thou wast Peter because +thou didst confess Me; thou hast fallen back to thine old level by +denying Me. It is not enough that in secret I should have restored +thee to My love. Here before thy brethren, thou must win back thy +forfeited name and place by a confession as open as the denial, and +thrice repeated like it. Once thou hast answered, but still thou art +"Simon." Twice thou hast answered, but not yet can I call thee +"Peter." Thrice thou hast answered, by each reply effacing a former +denial, and now I ask no more. Take back thine office; henceforth thou +shalt be called "Cephas" as before.' + +And so it was. In the Acts of the Apostles, and in Paul's letters, +'Peter' or 'Cephas' entirely obliterates 'Simon.' Only for ease in +finding him, the messengers of Cornelius are to ask for him in Joppa +by the name by which he would be known outside the Church, and his old +companion James begins his speech to the council at Jerusalem by +referring with approbation to what 'Simeon' had said, as if he liked +to use the old name, that brought back memories of the far-off days in +Galilee, before they had known the Master. + +Very touching, too, is it to notice how the apostle himself, while +using the name by which he was best known in the Church, in the +introduction to his first Epistle, calls himself 'Simon Peter' in his +second, as if to the end he felt that the old nature clung to him, and +was not yet, 'so long as he was in this tabernacle,' wholly subdued +under the dominion of the better self, which his Master had breathed +into him. + +So we see that a bit of biography and an illustration of a large truth +are wrapped up for us in so small a matter as the apparently +fortuitous use of one or other of these names. I do not suppose that +in every instance where either of them occur, we can explain their +occurrence by a reference to such thoughts. But still there is an +unmistakable propriety in several instances in the employment of one +rather than the other, and we may fairly suggest the lesson as put +hero in a picturesque form, which Paul gives us in definite words, +'The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the +flesh.' The better and the worse nature contend in all Christian +souls, or, as our Lord says with such merciful leniency in this very +context, 'The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.' However real +and deep the change which passes over us when 'Christ is formed in +us,' it is only by degrees that the transformation spreads through our +being. The renewing process follows upon the bestowment of the new +life, and works from its deep inward centre outwards and upwards to +the circumference and surface of our being, on condition of our own +constant diligence and conflict. + +True, 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature'; but also, and +precisely because he is, therefore the daily and hourly exhortation +is, 'Put on the new man.' The leaven is buried in the dough, and must +be well kneaded up with it if the whole is to be leavened. Peter is +still Simon, and sometimes seems to be so completely Simon that he has +ceased to be Peter. He continues Simon Peter to his own consciousness +to the very end, however his brethren call him. The struggle between +the two elements in his nature makes the undying interest of his +story, and brings him nearer to us than any of the other disciples +are. We, too, have to wage the conflict between the old nature and the +new; for us, too, the worse part seems too often to be the stronger, +if not the only part. The Master has often to speak to us, as if His +merciful all-seeing eye could discern in us nothing of our better +selves which are in truth Himself, and has to question our love. We, +too, have often to feel how little those who think best of us know +what we are. But let us take heart and remember that from every fall +it is possible to rise by penitence and secret converse with Him, and +that if only we remember to the end our lingering weakness, and +'giving all diligence,' cleave to Him, 'an entrance shall be +ministered unto us abundantly into His everlasting kingdom.' + +We may briefly notice, too, some other lessons from this slumbering +apostle. + +Let us learn, for instance, to distrust our own resolutions. An hour +or two at the most had passed since the eager protestation, 'Though +all should deny Thee, yet will not I. I will lay down my life for Thy +sake.' It had been most honestly said, at the dictate of a very loving +heart, which in its enthusiasm was over-estimating its own power of +resistance, and taking no due account of obstacles. The very utterance +of the rash vow made him weaker, for some of his force was expended in +making it. The uncalculating, impulsive nature of the man makes him a +favourite with all readers, and we sympathise with him, as a true +brother, when we hear him blurting out his big words, followed so soon +by such a contradiction in deeds. He is the same man all through his +story, always ready to push himself into dangers, always full of rash +confidence, which passes at once into abject fear when the dangers +which he had not thought about appear. + +His sleep in the garden, following close on his bold words in the +upper chamber, is just like his eager wish to come to Christ on the +water, followed by his terror. He desires to be singled out from the +others; he desires to be beside his Master, and then as soon as he +feels a dash of spray on his cheek, and the heaving of that uneasy +floor beneath him, all his confidence collapses and he shrieks to +Christ to save him. It is just like his thrusting himself into the +high priest's palace--no safe place, and bad company for him by the +coal fire--and then his courage oozing out at his fingers' ends as +soon as a maidservant's sharp tongue questioned him. It is just like +his hearty welcome of the heathen converts at Antioch, and his ready +breaking through Jewish restrictions, and then his shrinking back into +his old shell again, as soon as 'certain came down from Jerusalem.' + +And in it all, he is one of ourselves. We have to learn to distrust +all our own resolutions, and to be chary of our vows. 'Better is it +that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not +pay.' So, aware of our own weakness, and the flutterings of our own +hearts, let us not mortgage the future, nor lightly say 'I will'--but +rather let us turn our vows into prayers, + + 'Nor confidently say, + "I never will deny Thee, Lord" + But, "Grant I never may."' + +Let us note, too, the slight value of even genuine emotion. The very +exhaustion following on the strained emotions which these disciples +had been experiencing had sent them to sleep. Luke, in his +physician-like way, tells us this, when he says that they 'slept for +sorrow.' We all know how some great emotion which we might have +expected would have held our eyes waking, lulls to slumber. Men sleep +soundly on the night before their execution. A widow leaves her +husband's deathbed as soon as he has passed away, and sleeps a +dreamless sleep for hours. The strong current of emotion sweeps +through us, and leaves us dry. Sheer exhaustion and collapse follow +its intenser forms. And even in its milder, nothing takes so much out +of a man as emotion. Reaction always follows, and people are in some +degree unfitted for sober work by it. Peter, for example, was all the +less ready for keeping awake, and for bold confession, because of the +vehement emotions which had agitated him in the upper chamber. We +have, therefore, to be chary, in our religious life, of feeding the +flames of mere feeling. An unemotional Christianity is a very poor +thing, and most probably a spurious and unreal thing. But a merely +emotional Christianity is closely related to practical unholiness, and +leads by a very short straight road to windy wordy insincerity and +conscious hypocrisy. Emotion which is firmly based upon an intelligent +grasp of God's truth, and which is at once translated into action, is +good. But unless these two conditions be rigidly observed, it darkens +the understanding and enfeebles the soul. + +Lastly, notice how much easier it is to purpose and to do great things +than small ones. + +I have little doubt that if the Roman soldiers had called on Peter to +have made good his boast, and to give up his life to rescue his +Master, he would have been ready to do it. We know that he was ready +to fight for Him, and in fact did draw a sword and offer resistance. +He could die for Him, but he could not keep awake for Him. The great +thing he could have done, the little thing he could not do. + +Brethren, it is far easier once in a way, by a dead lift, to screw +ourselves up to some great crisis which seems worthy of a supreme +effort of enthusiasm and sacrifice, than it is to keep on persistently +doing the small monotonies of daily duty. Many a soldier will bravely +rush to the assault in a storming-party, who would tremble in the +trenches. Many a martyr has gone unblenching to the stake for Christ, +who had found it far harder to serve Him in common duties. It is +easier to die for Him than to watch with Him. So let us listen to His +gentle voice, as He speaks to us, not as of old in the pauses of His +agony, and His locks wet with the dews of the night, but bending from +His throne, and crowned with many crowns: 'Sleepest them? Watch and +pray, lest ye enter into temptation.' + + + +THE CAPTIVE CHRIST AND THE CIRCLE ROUND HIM + + +'And immediately, while He yet spake, cometh Judas, one of the twelve, +and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief +priests and the scribes and the elders. 44. And he that betrayed Him +had given them a token, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is +He; take Him, and lead Him away safely. 45. And as soon as he was +come, he goeth straightway to Him, and saith, Master, Master; and +kissed Him. 46. And they laid their hands on Him, and took Him. 47. +And one of them that stood by drew a sword, and smote a servant of the +high priest, and cut off his ear. 48. And Jesus answered and said unto +them, Are ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and with staves +to take Me? 49. I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye +took Me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled. 50. And they all +forsook Him, and fled. 51. And there followed Him a certain young man, +having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young man laid +hold on Him: 52. And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them +naked. 53. And they led Jesus away to the high priest: and with him +were assembled all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. +54. And Peter followed Him afar off, even into the palace of the high +priest: and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the +fire.'--Mark xiv. 43-54. + +A comparison of the three first Gospels in this section shows a degree +of similarity, often verbal, which is best accounted for by supposing +that a common (oral?) 'Gospel,' which had become traditionally fixed +by frequent and long repetition, underlies them all. Mark's account is +briefest, and grasps with sure instinct the essential points; but, +even in his brevity, he pauses to tell of the young man who so nearly +shared the Lord's apprehension. The canvas is narrow and crowded; but +we may see unity in the picture, if we regard as the central fact the +sacrilegious seizure of Jesus, and the other incidents and persons as +grouped round it and Him, and reflecting various moods of men's +feelings towards Him. + +I. The avowed and hypocritical enemies of incarnate love. Again we +have Mark's favourite 'straightway,' so frequent in the beginning of +the Gospel, and occurring twice here, vividly painting both the sudden +inburst of the crowd which Interrupted Christ's words and broke the +holy silence of the garden, and Judas's swift kiss. He is named--the +only name but our Lord's in the section; and the depth of his sin is +emphasised by adding 'one of the twelve.' He is not named in the next +verse, but gibbeted for immortal infamy by the designation, 'he that +betrayed Him.' There is no dilating on his crime, nor any bespattering +him with epithets. The passionless narrative tells of the criminal and +his crime with unsparing, unmoved tones, which have caught some echo +beforehand of the Judge's voice. To name the sinner, and to state +without cloak or periphrasis what his deed really was, is condemnation +enough. Which of us could stand it? + +Judas was foremost of the crowd. What did he feel as he passed swiftly +into the shadow of the olives, and caught the first sight of Jesus? +That the black depths of his spirit were agitated is plain from two +things--the quick kiss, and the nauseous repetition of it. Mark says, +'Straightway ... he kissed Him much.' Probably the swiftness and +vehemence, so graphically expressed by these two touches, were due, +not only to fear lest Christ should escape, and to hypocrisy +overacting its part, but to a struggle with conscience and ancient +affection, and a fierce determination to do the thing and have it +over. Judas is not the only man who has tried to drown conscience by +hurrying into and reiterating the sin from which conscience tries to +keep him. The very extravagances of evil betray the divided and stormy +spirit of the doer. In the darkness and confusion, the kiss was a +surer token than a word or a pointing finger would have been; and +simple convenience appears to have led to its selection. But what a +long course of hypocrisy must have preceded and how complete the +alienation of heart must have become, before such a choice was +possible! That traitor's kiss has become a symbol for all treachery +cloaked in the garb of affection. Its lessons and warnings are +obvious, but this other may be added--that such audacity and +nauseousness of hypocrisy is not reached at a leap, but presupposes +long underground tunnels of insincere discipleship, through which a +man has burrowed, unseen by others, and perhaps unsuspected by +himself. Much hypocrisy of the unconscious sort precedes the +deliberate and conscious. + +How much less criminal and disgusting was the rude crowd at Judas's +heels! Most of them were mere passive tools. The Evangelist points +beyond them to the greater criminals by his careful enumeration of all +classes of the Jewish authorities, thus laying the responsibility +directly on their shoulders, and indirectly on the nation whom they +represented. The semi-tumultuous character of the crowd is shown by +calling them 'a multitude,' and by the medley of weapons which they +carried. Half-ignorant hatred, which had had ample opportunities of +becoming knowledge and love, offended formalism, blind obedience to +ecclesiastical superiors, the dislike of goodness--these impelled the +rabble who burst into the garden of Gethsemane. + +II. Incarnate love, bound and patient. We may bring together verses +46, 48, and 49, the first of which tells in simplest, briefest words +the sacrilegious violence done to Jesus, while the others record His +calm remonstrance. 'They laid hands on Him.' That was the first stage +in outrage--the quick stretching of many hands to secure the +unresisting prisoner. They 'took Him,' or, as perhaps we might better +render, 'They held Him fast,' as would have been done with any +prisoner. Surely, the quietest way of telling that stupendous fact is +the best! It is easy to exclaim, and, after the fashion of some +popular writers of lives of Christ, to paint fancy pictures. It is +better to be sparing of words, like Mark, and silently to meditate on +the patient long-suffering of the love which submitted to these +indignities, and on the blindness which had no welcome but this for +'God manifest in the flesh.' Both are in full operation to-day, and +the germs of the latter are in us all. + +Mark confines himself to that one of Christ's sayings which sets in +the clearest light His innocence and meek submissiveness. With all its +calmness and patience, it is majestic and authoritative, and sounds as +if spoken from a height far above the hubbub. Its question is not only +an assertion of His innocence, and therefore of his captor's guilt, +but also declares the impotence of force as against Him--'Swords and +staves to take Me!' All that parade of arms was out of place, for He +was no evil-doer; needless, for He did not resist; and powerless, +unless He chose to let them prevail. He speaks as the stainless, +incarnate Son of God. He speaks also as Captain of 'the noble army of +martyrs,' and His question may be extended to include the truth that +force is in its place when used against crime, but ludicrously and +tragically out of place when employed against any teacher, and +especially against Christianity. Christ, in His persecuted confessors, +puts the same question to the persecutors which Christ in the flesh +put to His captors. + +The second clause of Christ's remonstrance appeals to their knowledge +of Him and His words, and to their attitude towards Him. For several +days He had daily been publicly teaching in the Temple. They had laid +no hands on Him. Nay, some of them, no doubt, had helped to wave the +palm-branches and swell the hosannas. He does not put the contrast of +then and now in its strongest form, but spares them, even while He +says enough to bring an unseen blush to some cheeks. He would have +them ask, 'Why this change in us, since He is the same? Did He deserve +to be hailed as King a few short hours ago? How, then, before the +palm-branches are withered, can He deserve rude hands?' Men change in +their feelings to the unchanging Christ; and they who have most +closely marked the rise and fall of the tide in their own hearts will +be the last to wonder at Christ's captors, and will most appreciate +the gentleness of His rebuke and remonstrance. + +The third clause rises beyond all notice of the human agents, and +soars to the divine purpose which wrought itself out through them. +That divine purpose does not make them guiltless, but it makes Jesus +submissive. He bows utterly, and with no reluctance, to the Father's +will, which could be wrought out through unconscious instruments, and +had been declared of old by half-understanding prophets, but needed +the obedience of the Son to be clear-seeing, cheerful, and complete. +We, too, should train ourselves to see the hand that moves the pieces, +and to make God's will our will, as becomes sons. Then Christ's calm +will be ours, and, ceasing from self, and conscious of God everywhere, +and yielding our wills, which are the self of ourselves, to Him, we +shall enter into rest. + +III. Rash love defending its Lord with wrong weapons (verse 47). Peter +may have felt that he must do something to vindicate his recent +boasting, and, with his usual headlong haste, stops neither to ask +what good his sword is likely to do, nor to pick his man and take +deliberate aim at him. If swords were to be used, they should do +something more effectual than hacking off a poor servant's ear. There +was love In the foolish deeds and a certain heroism in braving the +chance of a return thrust or capture, which should go to Peter's +credit. If he alone struck a blow for his Master, it was because the +others were more cowardly, not more enlightened. Peter has had rather +hard measure about this matter, and is condemned by some of us who +would not venture a tenth part of what he ventured for his Lord then. +No doubt, this was blind and blundering love, with an alloy of +rashness and wish for prominence; but that is better than unloving +enlightenment and caution, which is chiefly solicitous about keeping +its own ears on. It is also worse than love which sees and reflects +the image of the meek Sufferer whom it loves. Christ and His cause are +to be defended by other weapons. Christian heroism endures and does +not smite. Not only swords, but bitter words which wound worse than +they, are forbidden to Christ's soldier. We are ever being tempted to +fight Christ's battles with the world's weapons; and many a 'defender +of the faith' in later days, perhaps even in this very enlightened +day, has repeated Peter's fault with less excuse than he, and with +very little of either his courage or his love. + +IV. Cowardly love forsaking its Lord (verse 50). 'They all forsook +Him, and fled.' And who will venture to say that he would not have +done so too? The tree that can stand such a blast must have deep +roots. The Christ whom they forsook was, to them, but a fragment of +the Christ whom we know; and the fear which scattered them was far +better founded and more powerful than anything which the easy-going +Christians of to-day have to resist. Their flight may teach us to +place little reliance on our emotions, however genuine and deep, and +to look for the security for our continual adherence to Christ, not to +our fluctuating feelings, but to His steadfast love. We keep close to +Him, not because our poor fingers grasp His hand--for that grasp is +always feeble, and often relaxed--but because His strong and gentle +hand holds us with a grasp which nothing can loosen. Whoso trusts in +his own love to Christ builds on sand, but whoso trusts in Christ's +love to him builds on rock. + +V. Adventurous curiosity put to flight (verses 51, 52). Probably this +young man was Mark. Only he tells the incident, which has no bearing +on the course of events, and was of no importance but to the person +concerned. He has put himself unnamed in a corner of his picture, as +monkish painters used to do, content to associate himself even thus +with his Lord. His hastily cast-on covering seems to show that he had +been roused from sleep. Mingled love and curiosity and youthful +adventurousness made him bold to follow when Apostles had fled. No +effort appears to have been made to stop their flight; but he is laid +hold of, and, terrified at his own rashness, wriggles himself out of +his captors' hands. The whole incident singularly recalls Mark's +behaviour on Paul's first missionary journey. There are the same +adventurousness, the same inconsiderate entrance on perilous paths, +the same ignominious and hasty retreat at the first whistle of the +bullets. A man who pushes himself needlessly into difficulties and +dangers without estimating their force is pretty sure to take to his +heels as soon as he feels them, and to cut as undignified a figure as +this naked fugitive. + +VI. Love frightened, but following (verse 54). Fear had driven Peter +but a little way. Love soon drew him and John back. Sudden and often +opposite impulses moved Ms conduct and ruffled the surface of his +character, but, deep down, the core was loyal love. He followed, but +afar off; though 'afar off,' he did follow. If his distance betrayed +his terror, his following witnessed his bravery. He is not a coward +who is afraid, but he who lets his fear hinder him from duty or drive +him to flight. What is all Christian living but following Christ afar +off? And do the best of us do more, though we have less apology for +our distance than Peter had? 'Leaving us an example, that ye should +follow His steps' said he, long after, perhaps remembering both that +morning and the other by the lake when he was bidden to leave other +servants' tasks to the Master's disposal, and, for his own part, to +follow Him. + +His love pushed him into a dangerous place. He was in bad company +among the inferior sort of servants huddled around the fire that cold +morning, at the lower end of the hall; and as its light flickered on +his face, he was sure to be recognised. But we have not now to do with +his denial. Rather he is the type of a true disciple, coercing his +human weakness and cowardice to yield to the attraction which draws +him to his Lord, and restful in the humblest place where he can catch +a glimpse of His face, and so be, as he long after alleged it as his +chief title to authority to have been, 'a witness of the sufferings of +Christ.' + + + +THE CONDEMNATION WHICH CONDEMNS THE JUDGES + + +'And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against +Jesus to put Him to death; and found none. 56. For many bare false +witness against Him, but their witness agreed not together. 57. And +there arose certain, and bare false witness against Him, saying, 58. +We heard Him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, +and within three days I will build another made without hands. 59. But +neither so did their witness agree together. 60. And the high priest +stood up in their midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest Thou +nothing? what is it which these witness against Thee? 61. But He held +His peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked Him, and +said unto Him, Art Thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? 62. And +Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of Man, sitting on the +right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. 63. Then the +high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further +witnesses? 64. Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they +all condemned Him to be guilty of death. 65. And some began to spit on +Him, and to cover His face, and to buffet Him, and to say unto Him, +Prophesy: and the servants did strike Him with the palms of their +hands.'--Mark xiv. 55-65. + +Mark brings out three stages in our Lord's trial by the Jewish +authorities--their vain attempts to find evidence against Him, which +were met by His silence; His own majestic witness to Himself, which +was met by a unanimous shriek of condemnation; and the rude mockery of +the underlings. The other Evangelists, especially John, supply many +illuminative details; but the essentials are here. It is only in +criticising the Gospels that a summary and a fuller narrative are +dealt with as contradictory. These three stages naturally divide this +paragraph. + +I. The judges with evil thoughts, the false witnesses, and the silent +Christ (verses 55-61). The criminal is condemned before He is tried. +The judges have made up their minds before they sit, and the Sanhedrim +is not a court of justice, but a slaughter-house, where murder is to +be done under sanction of law. Mark, like Matthew, notes the unanimity +of the 'council,' to which Joseph of Arimathea--the one swallow which +does not make a summer--appears to have been the only exception; and +he probably was absent, or, if present, was silent. He did 'not +consent'; but we are not told that he opposed. That ill-omened +unanimity measures the nation's sin. Flagrant injustice and corruption +in high places is possible only when society as a whole is corrupt or +indifferent to corruption. This prejudging of a case from hatred of +the accused as a destroyer of sacred tradition, and this hunting for +evidence to bolster up a foregone conclusion, are preeminently the +vices of ecclesiastical tribunals and not of Jewish Sanhedrim or Papal +Inquisition only. Where judges look for witnesses for the prosecution, +plenty will be found, ready to curry favour by lies. The eagerness to +find witnesses against Jesus is witness for Him, as showing that +nothing in His life or teaching was sufficient to warrant their +murderous purpose. His judges condemn themselves in seeking grounds to +condemn Him, for they thereby show that their real motive was personal +spite, or, as Caiaphas suggested, political expediency. + +The single specimen of the worthless evidence given may be either a +piece of misunderstanding or of malicious twisting of innocent words; +nor can we decide whether the witnesses contradicted one another or +each himself. The former is the more probable, as the fundamental +principle of the Jewish law of evidence ('two or three witnesses') +would, in that case, rule out the testimony. The saying which they +garble meant the very opposite of what they made it mean. It +represented Jesus as the restorer of that which Israel should destroy. +It referred to His body which is the true Temple; but the symbolic +temple 'made with hands' is so inseparably connected with the real, +that the fate of the one determines that of the other. Strangely +significant, therefore, is it, that the rulers heard again, though +distorted, at that moment when they were on their trial, the +far-reaching sentence, which might have taught them that in slaying +Jesus they were throwing down the Temple and all which centred in it, +and that by His resurrection, His own act, He would build up again a +new polity, which yet was but the old transfigured, even 'the Church, +which is His body.' His work destroys nothing but 'the works of the +devil.' He is the restorer of the divine ordinances and gifts which +men destroy, and His death and resurrection bring back in nobler form +all the good things lost by sin, 'the desolations of many +generations.' The history of all subsequent attacks on Christ is +mirrored here. The foregone conclusion, the evidence sought as an +after-thought to give a colourable pretext, the material found by +twisting His teaching, the blindness which accuses Him of destroying +what He restores, and fancies itself as preserving what it is +destroying, have all reappeared over and over again. + +Our Lord's silence is not only that of meekness, 'as a sheep before +her shearers is dumb.' It is the silence of innocence, and, if we may +use the word concerning Him, of scorn. He will not defend Himself to +such judges, nor stoop to repel evidence which they knew to be +worthless. But there is also something very solemn and judicial in His +locked lips. They had ever been ready to open in words of loving +wisdom; but now they are fast closed, and this is the penalty for +despising, that He ceases to speak. Deaf ears make a dumb Christ, What +will happen when Jesus and His judges change places, as they will one +day do? When He says to each, 'Answerest thou nothing? What is it +which these, thy sins, witness against thee?' each will be silent with +the consciousness of guilt and of just condemnation by His all-knowing +justice. + +II. Christ's majestic witness to Himself received with a shriek of +condemnation. What a supreme moment that was when the head of the +hierarchy put this question and received the unambiguous answer! The +veriest impostor asserting Messiahship had a right to have his claims +examined; but a howl of hypocritical horror is all which Christ's +evoke. The high priest knew well enough what Christ's answer would be. +Why, then, did he not begin by questioning Jesus, and do without the +witnesses? Probably because the council wished to find some pretext +for His condemnation without bringing up the real reason; for it +looked ugly to condemn a man for claiming to be Messias, and to do it +without examining His credentials. The failure, however, of the false +witnesses compelled the council to 'show their hands,' and to hear and +reject our Lord solemnly and, so to speak, officially, laying His +assertion of dignity and office before them, as the tribunal charged +with the duty of examining His proofs. The question is so definite as +to imply a pretty full and accurate knowledge of our Lord's teaching +about Himself. It embraces two points--office and nature; for 'the +Christ' and 'the Son of the Blessed' are not equivalents. The latter +title points to our Lord's declarations that He was the Son of God, +and is an instance of the later Jewish superstition which avoided +using the divine name. Loving faith delights in the name of the Lord. +Dead formalism changes reverence into dread, and will not speak it. + +Sham reverence, feigned ignorance, affected wish for information, the +false show of judicial impartiality, and other lies and vices not a +few, are condensed in the question; and the fact that the judge had to +ask it and hear the answer, is an instance of a divine purpose working +through evil men, and compelling reluctant lips to speak words the +meaning and bearing of which they little know. Jesus could not leave +such a challenge unanswered. Silence then would have been abandonment +of His claims. It was fitting that the representatives of the nation +should, at that decisive moment, hear Him declare Himself Messiah. It +was not fitting that He should be condemned on any other ground. In +that answer, and its reception by the council, the nation's rejection +of Jesus is, as it were, focused and compressed. This was the end of +centuries of training by miracle, prophet and psalmist--the saddest +instance in man's long, sad history of his awful power to frustrate +God's patient educating! + +Our Lord's majestic 'I am,' in one word answers both parts of the +question, and then passes on, with strange calm and dignity, to point +onwards to the time when the criminal will be the judge, and the +judges will stand at His bar. 'The Son of Man,' His ordinary +designation of Himself, implies His true manhood, and His +representative character, as perfect man, or, to use modern language, +the 'realised ideal' of humanity. In the present connection, its +employment in the same sentence as His assertion that He is the Son of +God goes deep into the mystery of His twofold nature, and declares +that His manhood had a supernatural origin and wielded divine +prerogatives. Accordingly there follows the explicit prediction of His +assumption of the highest of these after His death. The Cross was as +plain to Him as ever; but beyond it gleamed the crown and the throne. +He anticipates 'sitting on the right hand of power,' which implies +repose, enthronement, judicature, investiture with omnipotence, and +administration of the universe. He anticipates 'coming in the clouds +of heaven,' which distinctly claims to be the future Judge of the +world. His hearers could scarcely fail to discern the reference to +Daniel's prophecy. + +Was ever the irony of history more pungently exemplified than in an +Annas and Caiaphas holding up hands of horror at the 'blasphemies' of +Jesus? They rightly took His words to mean more than the claim of +Messiahship as popularly understood. To say that He was the Christ was +not 'blasphemy,' but a claim demanding examination; but to say that +He, the Son of Man, was Son of God and supreme Judge was so, according +to their canons. How unconsciously the exclamation, 'What need we +further witnesses?' betrays the purpose for which the witnesses had +been sought, as being simply His condemnation! They were 'needed' to +compass His death, which the council now gleefully feels to be +secured. So with precipitate unanimity they vote. And this was +Israel's welcome to their King, and the outcome of all their history! +And it was the destruction of the national life. That howl of +condemnation pronounced sentence on themselves and on the whole order +of which they were the heads. The prisoner's eyes alone saw then what +we and all men may see now--the handwriting on the wall of the high +priest's palace: 'Weighed in the balance, and found wanting.' + +III. The savage mockers and the patient Christ (verse 65). There is an +evident antithesis between the 'all' of verse 64 and the 'some' of +verse 65, which shows that the inflictors of the indignities were +certain members of the council, whose fury carried them beyond all +bounds of decency. The subsequent mention of the 'servants' confirms +this, especially when we adopt the more accurate rendering of the +Revised Version, 'received Him with blows.' Mark's account, then, is +this: that, as soon as the unanimous howl of condemnation had beep +uttered, some of the 'judges'(!) fell upon Jesus with spitting and +clumsy ridicule and downright violence, and that afterwards He was +handed over to the underlings, who were not slow to copy the example +set them at the upper end of the hall. + +It was not an ignorant mob who thus answered His claims, but the +leaders and teachers--the _creme de la creme_ of the nation. A wild +beast lurks below the Pharisee's long robes and phylacteries; and the +more that men have changed a living belief in religion for a formal +profession, the more fiercely antagonistic are they to every attempt +to realise its precepts and hopes. The 'religious' men who mock Jesus +in the name of traditional religion are by no means an extinct +species. It is of little use to shudder at the blind cruelty of dead +scribes and priests. Let us rather remember that the seeds of their +sins are in us all, and take care to check their growth. What a +volcano of hellish passion bursts out here! Spitting expresses +disgust; blinding and asking for the names of the smiters is a clumsy +attempt at wit and ridicule; buffeting is the last unrestrained form +of hate and malice. The world has always paid its teachers and +benefactors in such coin; but all other examples pale before this +saddest, transcendent instance. Love is repaid by hate; a whole nation +is blind to supreme and unspotted goodness; teachers steeped in 'law +and prophets' cannot see Him of and for whom law and prophets +witnessed and were, when He stands before them. The sin of sins is the +failure to recognise Jesus for what He is. His person and claims are +the touchstone which tries every beholder of what sort He is. + +How wonderful the silent patience of Jesus! He withholds not His face +'from shame and spitting.' He gives 'His back to the smiters.' Meek +endurance and passive submission are not all which we have to behold +there. This is more than an uncomplaining martyr. This is the +sacrifice for the world's sin; and His bearing of all that men can +inflict is more than heroism. It is redeeming love. His sad, loving +eyes, wide open below their bandage, saw and pitied each rude smiter, +even as He sees us all. They were and are eyes of infinite tenderness, +ready to beam forgiveness; but they were and are the eyes of the +Judge, who sees and repays His foes, as those who smite Him will one +day find out. + + + +CHRIST AND PILATE: THE TRUE KING AND HIS COUNTERFEIT + + +'And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation +with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, +and carried Him away, and delivered Him to Pilate. 2. And Pilate asked +Him, Art Thou the King of the Jews? And He answering said unto him, +Thou sayest it. 3. And the chief priests accused Him of many things: +but He answered nothing. 4. And Pilate asked Him again, saying, +Answerest Thou nothing? behold how many things they witness against +Thee. 6. But Jesus yet answered nothing; so that Pilate marvelled. 6. +Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they +desired. 7. And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with +them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in +the insurrection. 8. And the multitude crying aloud began to desire +him to do as he had ever done unto them. 9. But Pilate answered them, +saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews? 10. For +he knew that the chief priests had delivered Him for envy. 11. But the +chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas +unto them. 12. And Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will +ye then that I shall do unto Him whom ye call the King of the Jews? +13. And they cried out again, Crucify Him. 14. Then Pilate said unto +them, Why, what evil hath He done? And they cried out the more +exceedingly, Crucify Him. 15. And so Pilate, willing to content the +people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had +scourged Him, to be crucified. 16. And the soldiers led Him away into +the hall, called Praetorium; and they call together the whole band. +17. And they clothed Him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, +and put it about His head, 18. And began to salute Him, Hail, King of +the Jews! 19. And they smote Him on the head with a reed, and did spit +upon Him, and bowing their knees worshipped Him. 20. And when they had +mocked Him they took off the purple from Him, and put His own clothes +on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him.'--Mark xv. 1-20. + +The so-called trial of Jesus by the rulers turned entirely on his +claim to be Messias; His examination by Pilate turns entirely on His +claim to be king. The two claims are indeed one, but the political +aspect is distinguishable from the higher one; and it was the Jewish +rulers' trick to push it exclusively into prominence before Pilate, in +the hope that he might see in the claim an incipient insurrection, and +might mercilessly stamp it out. It was a new part for them to play to +hand over leaders of revolt to the Roman authorities, and a governor +with any common sense must have suspected that there was something hid +below such unusual loyalty. What a moment of degradation and of +treason against Israel's sacredest hopes that was when its rulers +dragged Jesus to Pilate on such a charge! Mark follows the same method +of condensation and discarding of all but the essentials, as in the +other parts of his narrative. He brings out three points--the hearing +before Pilate, the popular vote for Barabbas, and the soldiers' +mockery. + +I. The true King at the bar of the apparent ruler (verses 1-6). The +contrast between appearance and reality was never more strongly drawn +than when Jesus stood as a prisoner before Pilate. The One is +helpless, bound, alone; the other invested with all the externals of +power. But which is the stronger? and in which hand is the sceptre? On +the lowest view of the contrast, it is ideas _versus_ swords. On the +higher and truer, it is the incarnate God, mighty because voluntarily +weak, and man 'dressed in a little brief authority,' and weak because +insolently 'making his power his god.' Impotence, fancying itself +strong, assumes sovereign authority over omnipotence clothed in +weakness. The phantom ruler sits in judgment on the true King. Pilate +holding Christ's life in his hand is the crowning paradox of history, +and the mystery of self-abasing love. One exercise of the Prisoner's +will and His chains would have snapped, and the governor lain dead on +the marble 'pavement.' + +The two hearings are parallel, and yet contrasted. In each there are +two stages--the self-attestation of Jesus and the accusations of +others; but the order is different. The rulers begin with the +witnesses, and, foiled there, fall back on Christ's own answer, +Pilate, with Roman directness and a touch of contempt for the +accusers, goes straight to the point, and first questions Jesus. His +question was simply as to our Lord's regal pretensions. He cared +nothing about Jewish 'superstitions' unless they threatened political +disturbance. It was nothing to him whether or no one crazy fanatic +more fancied himself 'the Messiah,' whatever that might be. Was He +going to fight?--that was all which Pilate had to look after. He is +the very type of the hard, practical Roman, with a 'practical' man's +contempt for ideas and sentiments, sceptical as to the possibility of +getting hold of 'truth,' and too careless to wait for an answer to his +question about it; loftily ignorant of and indifferent to the notions +of the troublesome people that he ruled, but alive to the necessity of +keeping them in good humour, and unscrupulous enough to strain justice +and unhesitatingly to sacrifice so small a thing as an innocent life +to content them. + +What could such a man see in Jesus but a harmless visionary? He had +evidently made up his mind that there was no mischief in Him, or he +would not have questioned Him as to His kingship. It was a new thing +for the rulers to hand over dangerous patriots, and Pilate had +experience enough to suspect that such unusual loyalty concealed +something else, and that if Jesus had really been an insurrectionary +leader, He would never have fallen into Pilate's power. Accordingly, +he gives no serious attention to the case, and his question has a +certain half-amused, half-pitying ring about it. 'Thou a king? '--poor +helpless peasant! A strange specimen of royalty this! How constantly +the same blindness is repeated, and the strong things of this world +despise the weak, and material power smiles pityingly at the helpless +impotence of the principles of Christ's gospel, which yet will one day +shatter it to fragments, like a potter's vessel! The phantom ruler +judges the real King to be a powerless shadow, while himself is the +shadow and the other the substance. There are plenty of Pilates to-day +who judge and misjudge the King of Israel. + +The silence of Jesus in regard to the eager accusations corresponds to +His silence before the false witnesses. The same reason dictated both. +His silence is His most eloquent answer. It calmly passes by all these +charges by envenomed tongues as needing no reply, and as utterly +irrelevant. Answered, they would have lived in the Gospels; +unanswered, they are buried. Christ can afford to let many of His foes +alone. Contradictions and confutations keep slanders and heresies +above water, which the law of gravitation would dispose of if they +were left alone. + +Pilate's wonder might and should have led him further. It should have +prompted to further inquiry, and that might have issued in clearer +knowledge. It was the little glimmer of light at the far-off end of +his cavern, which, travelled towards, might have brought him into free +air and broad day. One great part of his crime was neglecting the +faint monitions of which he was conscious. His light may have been +dim, but it would have brightened; and he quenched it. He stands as a +tremendous example of possibilities missed, and of the tragedy of a +soul that has looked on Jesus, and has not yielded to the impressions +made on him by the sight. + +II. The people's favourite (verses 7-15), 'Barabbas' means 'son of the +father,' His very name is a kind of caricature of the 'Son of the +Blessed,' and his character and actions present in gross form the sort +of Messias whom the nation really wanted. He had headed some one of +the many small riots against Rome which were perpetually sputtering up +and being trampled out by an armed heel. There had been bloodshed, in +which he had himself taken part ('a murderer,' Acts iii. 14). And this +coarse, red-handed desperado is the people's favourite, because he +embodied their notions and aspirations, and had been bold enough to do +what every man of them would have done if he had dared. He thought and +felt, as they did, that freedom was to be won by the sword. The +popular hero is as a mirror which reflects the popular mind. He echoes +the popular voice, a little improved or exaggerated. Jesus had taught +what the people did not care to hear, and given blessings which even +the recipients soon forgot, and lived a life whose 'beauty of +holiness' oppressed and rebuked the common life of men. What chance +had truth and kindness and purity against the sort of bravery that +slashes with a sword, and is not elevated above the mob by +inconvenient reach of thought or beauty of character? Even now, after +nineteen centuries of Christ's influence have modified the popular +ideals, what chance have they? Are the popular 'heroes' of Christian +nations saints, teachers, lovers of men, in whom their Christ-likeness +is the thing venerated? The old saying that the voice of the people is +the voice of God receives an instructive commentary in the vote for +Barabbas and against Jesus. That was what a plebiscite for the +discovery of the people's favourite came to. What a reliable method of +finding the best man universal suffrage, manipulated by wirepullers +like these priests, is! and how wise the people are who let it guide +their judgments, or still wiser, who fret their lives out in angling +for its approval! Better be condemned with Jesus than adopted with +Barabbas. + +That fatal choice revealed the character of the choosers, both in +their hostility and admiration; for excellence hated shows what we +ought to be and are not, and grossness or vice admired shows what we +would fain be if we dared. It was the tragic sign that Israel had not +learned the rudiments of the lesson which 'at sundry times and in +divers manners' God had been teaching them. In it the nation renounced +its Messianic hopes, and with its own mouth pronounced its own +sentence. It convicted them of insensibility to the highest truth, of +blindness to the most effulgent light, of ingratitude for the richest +gifts. It is the supreme instance of short-lived, unintelligent +emotion, inasmuch as many who on Friday joined in the roar, 'Crucify +Him!' had on Sunday shouted 'Hosanna!' till they were hoarse. + +Pilate plays a cowardly and unrighteous part in the affair, and tries +to make amends to himself for his politic surrender of a man whom he +knew to be innocent, by taunts and sarcasm. He seems to see a chance +to release Jesus, if he can persuade the mob to name Him as the +prisoner to be set free, according to custom. His first proposal to +them was apparently dictated by a genuine interest in Jesus, and a +complete conviction that Rome had nothing to fear from this 'King.' +But there are also in the question a sneer at such pauper royalty, as +it looked to him, and a kind of scornful condescension in +acknowledging the mob's right of choice. He consults their wishes for +once, but there is haughty consciousness of mastery in his way of +doing it. His appeal is to the people, as against the priests whose +motives he had penetrated. But in his very effort to save Jesus he +condemns himself; for, if he knew that they had delivered Christ for +envy, his plain duty was to set the prisoner free, as innocent of the +only crime of which he ought to take cognisance. So his attempt to +shift the responsibility off his own shoulders is a piece of cowardice +and a dereliction of duty. His second question plunges him deeper in +the mire. The people had a right to decide which was to be released, +but none to settle the fate of Jesus. To put that in their hands was +an unconditional surrender by Pilate, and the sneer in 'whom _ye_ call +the King of the Jews' is a poor attempt to hide from them and himself +that he is afraid of them. Mark puts his finger on the damning blot in +Pilate's conduct when he says that his motive for condemning Jesus was +his wish to content the people. The life of one poor Jew was a small +price to pay for popularity. So he let policy outweigh righteousness, +and, in spite of his own clear conviction, did an innocent man to +death. That would be his reading of his act, and, doubtless, it did +not trouble his conscience much or long, but he would leave the +judgment-seat tolerably satisfied with his morning's work. How little +he knew what he had done! In his ignorance lies his palliation. His +crime was great, but his guilt is to be measured by his light, and +that was small. He prostituted justice for his own ends, and he did +not follow out the dawnings of light that would have led him to know +Jesus. Therefore he did the most awful thing in the world's history. +Let us learn the lesson which he teaches! + +III. The soldiers' mockery (verses 16-20). This is characteristically +different from that of the rulers, who jeered at His claim to +supernatural enlightenment, and bade Him show His Messiahship by +naming His smiters. The rough legionaries knew nothing about a +Messiah, but it seemed to them a good jest that this poor, scourged +prisoner should have called Himself a King, and so they proceed to +make coarse and clumsy merriment over it. It is like the wild beast +playing with its prey before killing it. The laughter is not only +rough, but cruel. There was no pity for the Victim 'bleeding from the +Roman rods,' and soon to die. And the absence of any personal hatred +made this mockery more hideous. Jesus was nothing to them but a +prisoner whom they were to crucify, and their mockery was sheer +brutality and savage delight in torturing. The sport is too good to be +kept by a few, so the whole band is gathered to enjoy it. How they +would troop to the place! They get hold of some robe or cloth of the +imperial colour, and of some flexible shoots of some thorny plant, and +out of these they fashion a burlesque of royal trappings. Then they +shout, as they would have done to Caesar, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' +repeating again with clumsy iteration the stale jest which seems to +them so exquisite. Then their mood changes, and naked ferocity takes +the place of ironical reverence. Plucking the mock sceptre, the reed, +from His passive hand, they strike the thorn-crowned Head with it, and +spit on Him, while they bow in mock reverence before Him, and at last, +when tired of their sport, tear off the purple, and lead him away to +the Cross. + +If we think of who He was who bore all this, and of why He bore it, we +may well bow not the knee but the heart, in endless love and +thankfulness. If we think of the mockers--rude Roman soldiers, who +probably could not understand a word of what they heard on the streets +of Jerusalem--we shall do rightly to remember our Lord's own plea for +them, 'they know not what they do,' and reflect that many of us with +more knowledge do really sin more against the King than they did. +Their insult was an unconscious prophecy. They foretold the basis of +His dominion by the crown of thorns, and its character by the sceptre +of reed, and its extent by their mocking salutations; for His Kingship +is founded in suffering, wielded with gentleness, and to Him every +knee shall one day bow, and every tongue confess that the King of the +Jews is monarch of mankind. + + + +THE DEATH WHICH GIVES LIFE + + +'And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of +the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear His cross. 22. +And they bring Him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being +interpreted, The place of a skull. 23. And they gave Him to drink wine +mingled with myrrh: but He received it not. 24. And when they had +crucified Him, they parted His garments, casting lots upon them, what +every man should take. 25. And it was the third hour, and they +crucified Him. 26. And the superscription of His accusation was +written over, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 27. And with Him they crucify two +thieves; the one on His right hand, and the other on His left. 28. And +the Scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And He was numbered with the +transgressors. 29. And they that passed by railed on Him, wagging +their heads, and saying, Ah, Thou that destroyest the temple, and +buildest it in three days, 30. Save Thyself, and come down from the +cross. 31. Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among +themselves with the scribes, He saved others; Himself He cannot save. +32. Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we +may see and believe. And they that were crucified with Him reviled +Him. 33. And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the +whole land until the ninth hour. 34. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried +with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, +being interpreted, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? 35. And +some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, He +calleth Elias. 36. And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar, +and put it on a reed, and gave Him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us +see whether Elias will come to take Him down. 37. And Jesus cried with +a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. 38. And the veil of the temple +was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. 39. And when the +centurion, which stood over against Him, saw that He so cried out, and +gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.'--Mark +xv. 21-39. + +The narrative of the crucifixion is, in Mark's hands, almost entirely +a record of what was done to Jesus, and scarcely touches what was done +by Him. We are shown the executioners, the jeering rabble, the +triumphant priests, the fellow-sufferers reviling; but the only +glimpses we get of Him are His refusal of the stupefying draught, His +loud cries, and His giving up the ghost. The narrative is perfectly +calm, as well as reverently reticent. It would have been well if our +religious literature had copied the example, and treated the solemn +scene in the same fashion. Mark's inartificial style of linking long +paragraphs with the simple 'and' is peculiarly observable here, where +every verse but vv. 30 and 32, which are both quotations, begins with +it. The whole section is one long sentence, each member of which adds +a fresh touch to the tragic picture. The monotonous repetition of +'and,' 'and,' 'and,' gives the effect of an endless succession of the +wares of sorrow, pain, and contumely which broke over that sacred +head. We shall do best simply to note each billow as it breaks. + +The first point is the impressing of Simon to bear the Cross. That was +not dictated by compassion so much as by impatience. Apparently the +weight was too heavy for Jesus, and the pace could be quickened by +making the first man who could be laid hold of help to carry the load. +Mark adds that Simon was the 'father of Alexander and Rufus,' whom he +supposes to need no introduction to his readers. There is a Rufus +mentioned in Romans xvi. 13 as being, with his mother, members of the +Roman Church. Mark's Gospel has many traces of being primarily +intended for Romans. Possibly these two Rufuses are the same; and the +conjecture may be allowable that the father's fortuitous association +with the crucifixion led to the conversion of himself and his family, +and that his sons were of more importance or fame in the Church than +he was. Perhaps, too, he is the 'Simeon called Niger' (bronzed by the +hot African sun) who was a prophet of Antioch, and stands by the side +of a Cyrenian (Acts xiii. 1). It is singular that he should be the +only one of all the actors in the crucifixion who is named; and the +fact suggests his subsequent connection with the Church. If so, the +seeking love of God found him by a strange way. On what apparently +trivial accidents a life may be pivoted, and how much may depend on +turning to right or left in a walk! In this bewildering network of +interlaced events, which each ramifies in so many directions, the only +safety is to keep fast hold of God's hand and to take good care of the +purity of our motives, and let results alone. + +The next verse brings us to Golgotha, which is translated by the three +Evangelists, who give it as meaning 'the place of a skull.' The name +may have been given to the place of execution with grim +suggestiveness; or, more probably, Conder's suggested identification +is plausible, which points to a little, rounded, skull-shaped knoll, +close outside the northern wall, as the site of the crucifixion. In +that case, the name would originally describe the form of the height, +and be retained as specially significant in view of its use as the +place of execution. That was the 'place' to which Israel led its King! +The place of death becomes a place of life, and from the mournful soil +where the bones of evildoers lay bleaching in the sun springs the +fountain of water of life. + +Arrived at that doleful place, a small touch of kindness breaks the +monotony of cruelty, if it be not merely apart of the ordinary routine +of executions. The stupefying potion would diminish, but would +therefore protract, the pain, and was possibly given for the latter +rather than the former effect. But Jesus 'received it not.' He will +not, by any act of His, lessen the bitterness. He will drink to the +dregs the cup which His Father hath given Him, and therefore He will +not drink of the numbing draught. It is a small matter comparatively, +but it is all of a piece with the greater things. The spirit of His +whole course of voluntary, cheerful endurance of all the sorrows +needful to redeem the world, is expressed in His silent turning away +from the draught which might have alleviated physical suffering, but +at the cost of dulling conscious surrender. + +The act of crucifixion is but named in a subsidiary clause, as if the +writer turned away, with eyes veiled in reverence, from the sight of +man's utmost sin and Christ's utmost mystery of suffering love. He can +describe the attendant circumstances, but his pen refuses to dwell +upon the central fact. The highest art and the simplest natural +feeling both know that the fewest words are the most eloquent. He will +not expressly mention the indignity done to the sacred Body in which +'dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead,' but leaves it to be inferred +from the parting of Christ's raiment, the executioner's perquisite. He +had nothing else belonging to Him, and of even that poor property He +is spoiled. According to John's more detailed account, the soldiers +made an equal parting of His garments except the seamless robe, for +which they threw lots. So the 'parting' applies to one portion, and +the 'casting lots' to another. The incident teaches two things: on the +one hand, the stolid indifference of the soldiers, who had crucified +many a Jew, and went about their awful work as a mere piece of routine +duty; and, on the other hand, the depth of the abasement and shame to +which Jesus bowed for our sakes. 'Naked shall I return thither' was +true in the most literal sense of Him whose earthly life began with +His laying aside His garments of divine glory, and ended with rude +legionaries parting 'His raiment' among them. + +Mark alone tells the hour at which Jesus was nailed to the Cross +(verse 25). Matthew and Luke specify the sixth and ninth hours as the +times of the darkness and of the death; but to Mark we owe our +knowledge of the fact that for six slow hours Jesus hung there, +tasting death drop by drop. At any moment of all these sorrow-laden +moments He could have come down from the Cross, if He would. At each, +a fresh exercise of His loving will to redeem kept Him there. + +The writing on the Cross is given here in the most condensed fashion +(verse 26). The one important point is that His 'accusation' +was--'King of the Jews.' It was the official statement of the reason +for His crucifixion, put there by Pilate as a double-barrelled +sarcasm, hitting both Jesus and the nation. The rulers winced under +the taunt, and tried to get it softened; but Pilate sought to make up +for his unrighteous facility in yielding Jesus to death, by obstinacy +and jeers. So the inscription hung there, a truth deeper than its +author or its angry readers knew, and a prophecy which has not +received all its fulfilment yet. + +The narrative comes back, in verse 27, to the sad catalogue of the +insults heaped on Jesus. Verse 28 is probably spurious here, as the +Revised Version takes it to be; but it truly expresses the intention +of the crucifixion of the thieves as being to put Him in the same +class as they, and to suggest that He was a ringleader, pre-eminent in +evil. Possibly the two robbers may have been part of Barabbas' band, +who had been brigands disguised as patriots; and, if so, the insult +was all the greater. But, in any case, the meaning of it was to bring +Him down, in the eyes of beholders, to the level of vulgar criminals. +If a Cranmer or a Latimer had been bound to the stake with a +housebreaker or a cut-throat, that would have been a feeble image of +the malicious contumely thus flung at Jesus; but His love had +identified Him with the worst sinners in a far deeper and more real +way, and not a crime had stained these men's hands, but its weight +pressed on Him. He numbered Himself with transgressors, that they may +be numbered with His saints. + +Then follows (verses 29-32) the threefold mockery by people, priests, +and fellow-sufferers. That is spread over three hours, and is all +which Mark has to tell of them. Other Evangelists give us words spoken +by Jesus; but this narrative has only one of the seven words from the +Cross, and gives us the picture rather of the silent Sufferer, bearing +in meek resolution all that men can lay on Him. Both pictures are +true, for the words are too few to make notable breaches in the +silence. The mockery harps on the old themes, and witnesses at once +the malicious cruelty of the mockers and the innocence of the Victim, +at whom even such malice could find nothing to fling except these +stale taunts. The chance passengers, of whom there would be a stream +to and from the adjacent city gate, 'wag their heads' in gratified and +fierce hate. The calumny of the discredited witnesses, although even +the biased judges had not dared to treat it as true, has lodged in the +popular mind, and been accepted as proved. Lies are not killed when +they are shown to be lies. They travel faster than truth. Ears were +greedily open for the false witnesses' evidence which had been closed +to Christ's gracious teaching. The charge that He was a would-be +destroyer of the Temple obliterated all remembrance of miracles and +benefits, and fanned the fire of hatred in men whose zeal for the +Temple was a substitute for religion. Are there any of them left +nowadays--people who have no real heart-hold of Christianity, but are +fiercely antagonistic to supposed destroyers of its externals, and not +over-particular to the evidence against them? These mockers thought +that Christ's being fastened to the Cross was a _reductio ad absurdum_ +of His claim to build the Temple. How little they knew that it led +straight to that rebuilding, or that they, and not He, were indeed the +destroyers of the holy house which they thought that they were +honouring, and were really making 'desolate'! + +The priests do not take up the people's mockery, for they know that it +is based upon a falsehood; but they scoff at His miracles, which they +assume to be disproved by His crucifixion. Their venomous gibe is +profoundly true, and goes to the very heart of the gospel. Precisely +because 'He saved others,' therefore 'Himself He cannot save'--not, as +they thought, for want of power, but because His will was fixed to +obey the Father and to redeem His brethren, and therefore He must die +and cannot deliver Himself. But the necessity and inability both +depend on His will. The priests, however, take up the other part of +the people's scoff. They unite the two grounds of condemnation in the +names 'the Christ, the King of Israel,' and think that both are +disproved by His hanging there. But the Cross is the throne of the +King. A sacrificial death is the true work of the Messiah of law, +prophecy, and psalm; and because He did not come down from the Cross, +therefore is He 'crowned with glory and honour' in heaven, and rules +over grateful and redeemed hearts on earth. + +The midday darkness lasted three hours, during which no word or +incident is recorded. It was nature divinely draped in mourning over +the sin of sins, the most tragic of deaths. It was a symbol of the +eclipse of the Light of the world; but ere He died it passed, and the +sun shone on His expiring head, in token that His death scattered our +darkness and poured day on our sad night. The solemn silence was +broken at last by that loud cry, the utterance of strangely blended +consciousness of possession of God and of abandonment by Him, the +depths of which we can never fathom. But this we know: that our sins, +not His, wove the veil which separated Him from His God. Such +separation is the real death. Where cold analysis is out of place, +reverent gratitude may draw near. Let us adore, for what we can +understand speaks of a love which has taken on itself the iniquity of +us all. Let us silently adore, for all words are weaker than that +mystery of love. + +The first hearers of that cry misunderstood it, or cruelly pretended +to do so, in order to find fresh food for mockery. 'Eloi' sounded like +enough to 'Elijah' to suggest to some of the flinty hearts around a +travesty of the piteous appeal. They must have been Jews, for the +soldiers knew nothing about the prophet; and if they were Scribes, +they could scarcely fail to recognise the reference to the +Twenty-second Psalm, and to understand the cry. But the opportunity +for one more cruelty was too tempting to be resisted, and savage +laughter was man's response to the most pitiful prayer ever uttered. +One man in all that crowd had a small touch of human pity, and, +dipping a sponge in the sour drink provided for the soldiers, reached +it up to the parched lips. That was no stupefying draught, and was +accepted. Matthew's account is more detailed, and represents the words +spoken as intended to hinder even that solitary bit of kindness. + +The end was near. The lips, moistened by the 'vinegar,' opened once +more in that loud cry which both showed undiminished vitality and +conscious victory; and then He 'gave up the ghost,' _sending away_ His +spirit, and dying, not because the prolonged agony had exhausted His +energy, but because He chose to die, He entered through the gate of +death as a conqueror, and burst its bars when He went in, and not only +when He came out. + +His death rent the Temple veil. The innermost chamber of the Divine +Presence is open now, and sinful men have 'access with confidence by +the faith of Him,' to every place whither He has gone before. Right +into the secret of God's pavilion we can go, now and here, knowledge +and faith and love treading the path which Jesus has opened, and +coming to the Father by Him. Bight into the blaze of the glory we +shall go hereafter; for He has gone to prepare a place for us, and +when He overcame the sharpness of death He opened the gate of heaven +to all believers. + +Jews looked on, unconcerned and unconvinced by the pathos and triumph +of such a death. But the rough soldier who commanded the executioners +had no prejudices or hatred to blind his eyes and ossify his heart. +The sight made its natural impression on him; and his exclamation, +though not to be taken as a Christian confession or as using the +phrase 'Son of God' in its deepest meaning, is yet the beginning of +light. Perhaps, as he went thoughtfully to his barrack that afternoon, +the process began which led him at last to repeat his first +exclamation with deepened meaning and true faith. May we all gaze on +that Cross, with fuller knowledge, with firm trust, and endless love! + + + +SIMON THE CYRENIAN + + +'And they compel one Simon, a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of +the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear His +Cross.'--Mark xv. 21. + +How little these soldiers knew that they were making this man +immortal! What a strange fate that is which has befallen chose persons +in the Gospel narrative, who for an instant came into contact with +Jesus Christ. Like ships passing athwart the white ghostlike splendour +of moonlight on the sea, they gleam silvery pure for a moment as they +cross its broad belt, and then are swallowed up again in the darkness. + +This man Simon, fortuitously, as men say, meeting the little +procession at the gate of the city, for an instant is caught in the +radiance of the light, and stands out visible for evermore to all the +world; and then sinks into the blackness, and we know no more about +him. This brief glimpse tells us very little, and yet the man and his +act and its consequences may be worth thinking about. + +He was a Cyrenian; that is, he was a Jew by descent, probably born, +and certainly resident, for purposes of commerce, in Cyrene, on the +North African coast of the Mediterranean. No doubt he had come up to +Jerusalem for the Passover; and like very many of the strangers who +flocked to the Holy City for the feast, met some difficulty in finding +accommodation in the city, and so was obliged to go to lodge in one of +the outlying villages. From this lodging he is coming in, in the +morning, knowing nothing about Christ nor His trial, knowing nothing +of what he is about to meet, and happens to see the procession as it +is passing out of the gate. He is by the centurion impressed to help +the fainting Christ to carry the heavy Cross. He probably thought +Jesus a common criminal, and would resent the task laid upon him by +the rough authority of the officer in command. But he was gradually +touched into some kind of sympathy; drawn closer and closer, as we +suppose, as he looked upon this dying meekness; and at last, yielded +to the soul-conquering power of Christ. + +Tradition says so, and the reasons for supposing that it was right may +be very simply stated. The description of him in our text as 'the +father of Alexander and Rufus' shows that, by the time when Mark +wrote, his two sons were members of the Christian community, and had +attained some eminence in it. A Rufus is mentioned in the salutations +in Paul's Epistle to the Romans, as being 'elect in the Lord,' that is +to say, 'eminent,' and his mother is associated in the greeting, and +commended as having been motherly to Paul as well as to Rufus. Now, if +we remember that Mark's Gospel was probably written in Rome, and for +Roman Christians, the conjecture seems a very reasonable one that the +Rufus here was the Rufus of the Epistle to the Romans. If so, it would +seem that the family had been gathered into the fold of the Church, +and in all probability, therefore, the father with them. + +Then there is another little morsel of possible evidence which may +just be noticed. We find in the Acts of the Apostles, in the list of +the prophets and teachers in the Church at Antioch, a 'Simon, who is +called Niger' (that is, black, the hot African sun having tanned his +countenance, perhaps), and side by side with him one 'Lucius of +Cyrene,' from which place we know that several of the original brave +preachers to the Gentiles in Antioch came. It is possible that this +may be our Simon, and that he who was the last to join the band of +disciples during the Master's life and learned courage at the Cross +was among the first to apprehend the world-wide destination of the +Gospel, and to bear it beyond the narrow bounds of his nation. + +At all events, I think we may, with something like confidence, believe +that his glimpse of Christ on that morning and his contact with the +suffering Saviour ended in his acceptance of Him as his Christ, and in +his bearing in a truer sense the Cross after Him. + +And so I seek now to gather some of the lessons that seem to me to +arise from this incident. + +I. First, the greatness of trifles. If Simon had started from the +little village where he lodged five minutes earlier or later, if he +had walked a little faster or slower, if he had happened to be lodging +on the other side of Jerusalem, or if the whim had taken him to go in +at another gate, or if the centurion's eye had not chanced to alight +on him in the crowd, or if the centurion's fancy had picked out +somebody else to carry the Cross, then all his life would have been +different. And so it is always. You go down one turning rather than +another, and your whole career is coloured thereby. You miss a train, +and you escape death. Our lives are like the Cornish rocking stones, +pivoted on little points. The most apparently insignificant things +have a strange knack of suddenly developing unexpected consequences, +and turning out to be, not small things at all, but great and decisive +and fruitful. + +Let us then look with ever fresh wonder on this marvellous contexture +of human life, and on Him that moulds it all to His own perfect +purposes. Let us bring the highest and largest principles to bear on +the smallest events and circumstances, for you can never tell which of +these is going to turn out a revolutionary and formative influence in +your life. And if the highest Christian principle is not brought to +bear upon the trifles, depend upon it, it will never be brought to +bear upon the mighty things. The most part of every life is made up of +trifles, and unless these are ruled by the highest motives, life, +which is divided into grains like the sand, will have gone by, while +we are waiting for the great events which we think worthy of being +regulated by lofty principles. 'Take care of the pence and the pounds +will take care of themselves.' + +Look after the trifles, for the law of life is like that which is laid +down by the Psalmist about the Kingdom of Jesus Christ: 'There shall +be a handful of corn in the earth,' a little seed sown in an +apparently ungenial place 'on the top of the mountains.' Ay! but this +will come of it, 'The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon,' and the +great harvest of benediction or of curse, of joy or of sorrow, will +come from the minute seeds that are sown in the great trifles of our +daily life. + +Let us learn the lesson, too, of quiet confidence in Him in whose +hands the whole puzzling, overwhelming mystery lies. If a man once +begins to think of how utterly incalculable the consequences of the +smallest and most commonplace of his deeds may be, how they may run +out into all eternity, and like divergent lines may enclose a space +that becomes larger and wider the further they travel; if, I say, a +man once begins to indulge in thoughts like these, it is difficult for +him to keep himself calm and sane at all, unless he believes in the +great loving Providence that lies above all, and shapes the +vicissitude and mystery of life. We can leave all in His hands--and if +we are wise we shall do so--to whom _great_ and _small_ are terms that +have no meaning; and who looks upon men's lives, not according to the +apparent magnitude of the deeds with which they are filled, but simply +according to the motive from which, and the purpose towards which, +these deeds were done. + +II. Then, still further, take this other lesson, which lies very +plainly here--the blessedness and honour of helping Jesus Christ. If +we turn to the story of the Crucifixion, in John's Gospel, we find +that the narratives of the three other Gospels are, in some points, +supplemented by it. In reference to our Lord's bearing of the Cross, +we are informed by John that when He left the judgment hall He was +carrying it Himself, as was the custom with criminals under the Roman +law. The heavy cross was laid on the shoulder, at the intersection of +its arms and stem, one of the arms hanging down in front of the +bearer's body, and the long upright trailing behind. + +Apparently our Lord's physical strength, sorely tried by a night of +excitement and the hearings in the High priest's palace and before +Pilate, as well as by the scourging, was unequal to the task of +carrying, albeit for that short passage, the heavy weight. And there +is a little hint of that sort in the context. In the verse before my +text we read, 'They led Jesus out to crucify Him,' and in the verse +after, 'they bring,' or _bear_ 'Him to the place Golgotha,' as if, +when the procession began, they led Him, and before it ended they had +to carry Him, His weakness having become such that He Himself could +not sustain the weight of His cross or of His own enfeebled limbs. So, +with some touch of pity in their rude hearts, or more likely with +professional impatience of delay, and eager to get their task over, +the soldiers lay hold of this stranger, press him into the service and +make him carry the heavy upright, which trailed on the ground behind +Jesus. And so they pass on to the place of execution. + +Very reverently, and with few words, one would touch upon the physical +weakness of the Master. Still, it does not do us any harm to try to +realise how very marked was the collapse of His physical nature, and +to remember that that collapse was not entirely owing to the pressure +upon Him of the mere fact of physical death; and that it was still +less a failure of His will, or like the abject cowardice of some +criminals who have had to be dragged to the scaffold, and helped up +its steps; but that the reason why His flesh failed was very largely +because there was laid upon Him the mysterious burden of the world's +sin. Christ's demeanour in the act of death, in such singular contrast +to the calm heroism and strength of hundreds who have drawn all their +heroism and strength from Him, suggests to us that, looking upon His +sufferings, we look upon something the significance of which does not +lie on the surface; and the extreme pressure of which is to be +accounted for by that blessed and yet solemn truth of prophecy and +Gospel alike--'The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.' + +But, apart from that, which does not enter properly into my present +contemplations, let us remember that though changed in form, very +truly and really in substance, this blessedness and honour of helping +Jesus Christ is given to us; and is demanded from us, too, if we are +His disciples. He is despised and set at nought still. He is crucified +afresh still. There are many men in this day who scoff at Him, mock +Him, deny His claims, seek to cast Him down from His throne, rebel +against His dominion. It is an easy thing to be a disciple, when all +the crowd is crying 'Hosanna!' It is a much harder thing to be a +disciple when the crowd, or even when the influential cultivated +opinion of a generation, is crying 'Crucify Him! crucify Him!' And +some of you Christian men and women have to learn the lesson that if +you are to be Christians you must be Christ's companions when His back +is at the wall as well as when men are exalting and honouring Him, +that it is your business to confess Him when men deny Him, to stand by +Him when men forsake Him, to avow Him when the avowal is likely to +bring contempt upon you from some people, and thus, in a very real +sense, to bear His Cross after Him. 'Let us go forth unto Him without +the camp, bearing His reproach';--the tail end of His Cross, which is +the lightest! He has borne the heaviest end on His own shoulders; but +we have to ally ourselves with that suffering and despised Christ if +we are to be His disciples. + +I do not dwell upon the lesson often drawn from this story, as if it +taught us to 'take up _our_ cross daily and follow Him.' That is +another matter, and yet is closely connected with that about which I +speak; but what I say is, Christ's Cross has to be carried to-day; and +if we have not found out that it has, let us ask ourselves if we are +Christians at all. There will be hostility, alienation, a comparative +coolness, and absence of a full sense of sympathy with you, in many +people, if you are a true Christian. You will come in for a share of +contempt from the wise and the cultivated of this generation, as in +all generations. The mud that is thrown after the Master will spatter +your faces too, to some extent; and if you are walking with Him you +will be, to the extent of your communion with Him, objects of the +aversion with which many men regard Him. Stand to your colours. Do not +be ashamed of Him in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. + +And there is yet another way in which this honour of helping the Lord +is given to us. As in His weakness He needed some one to aid Him to +bear His Cross, so in His glory He needs our help to carry out the +purposes for which the Cross was borne. The paradox of a man's +carrying the Cross of Him who carried the world's burden is repeated +in another form. He needs nothing, and yet He needs us. He needs +nothing, and yet He needed that ass which was tethered at 'the place +where two ways met,' in order to ride into Jerusalem upon it. He does +not need man's help, and yet He does need it, and He asks for it. And +though He bore Simon the Cyrenian's sins 'in His own body on the +tree,' He needed Simon the Cyrenian to help Him to bear the tree, and +He needs us to help Him to spread throughout the world the blessed +consequences of that Cross and bitter Passion. So to us all is granted +the honour, and from us all are required the sacrifice and the +service, of helping the suffering Saviour. + +III. Another of the lessons which may very briefly be drawn from this +story is that of the perpetual recompense and record of the humblest +Christian work. There were different degrees of criminality, and +different degrees of sympathy with Him, if I may use the word, in that +crowd that stood round the Master. The criminality varied from the +highest degree of violent malignity in the Scribes and Pharisees, down +to the lowest point of ignorance, and therefore all but entire +innocence, on the part of the Roman legionaries, who were merely the +mechanical instruments of the order given, and stolidly 'watched Him +there,' with eyes which saw nothing. + +On the other hand, there were all grades of service and help and +sympathy, from the vague emotions of the crowd who beat their breasts, +and the pity of the daughters of Jerusalem, or the kindly-meant help +of the soldiers, who would have moistened the parched lips, to the +heroic love of the women at the Cross, whose ministry was not ended +even with His life. But surely the most blessed share in that day's +tragedy was reserved for Simon, whose bearing of the Cross may have +been compulsory at first, but became, ere it was ended, willing +service. But whatever were the degrees of recognition of Christ's +character, and of sympathy with the meaning of His sufferings, yet the +smallest and most transient impulse of loving gratitude that went out +towards Him was rewarded then, and is rewarded for ever, by blessed +results in the heart that feels it. + +Besides these results, service for Christ is recompensed, as in the +instance before us, by a perpetual memorial. How little Simon knew +that 'wherever in the whole world this gospel was preached, there +also, this that _he_ had done should be told for a memorial of _him_!' +How little he understood when he went back to his rural lodging that +night, that he had written his name high up on the tablet of the +world's memory, to be legible for ever. Why, men have fretted their +whole lives away to win what this man won, and knew nothing of--one +line in the chronicle of fame. + +So we may say, it shall be always, 'I will never forget any of their +works.' We may not leave our deeds inscribed in any records that men +can read. What of that, If they are written in letters of light in the +'Lamb's Book of Life,' to be read out by Him before His Father and the +holy angels, in that last great day? We may not leave any separable +traces of our services, any more than the little brook that comes down +some gulley on the hillside flows separate from its sisters, with whom +it has coalesced, in the bed of the great river, or in the rolling, +boundless ocean, What of that so long as the work, in its +consequences, shall last? Men that sow some great prairie broadcast +cannot go into the harvest-field and say, 'I sowed the seed from which +that ear came, and you the seed from which this one sprang.' But the +waving abundance belongs to them all, and each may be sure that his +work survives and is glorified there,--'that he that soweth and he +that reapeth may rejoice together.' So a perpetual remembrance is sure +for the smallest Christian service. + +IV. The last lesson that I would draw is, let us learn from this +incident the blessed results of contact with the suffering Christ. +Simon the Cyrenian apparently knew nothing about Jesus Christ when the +Cross was laid on his shoulders. He would be reluctant to undertake +the humiliating task, and would plod along behind Him for a while, +sullen and discontented, but by degrees be touched by more of +sympathy, and get closer and closer to the Sufferer. And if he stood +by the Cross when it was fixed, and saw all that transpired there, no +wonder if, at last, after more or less protracted thought and search, +he came to understand who He was that he had helped, and to yield +himself to Him wholly. + +Yes! dear brethren, Christ's great saying, 'I, if I be lifted up, will +draw all men unto Me,' began to be fulfilled when He began to be +lifted up. The centurion, the thief, this man Simon, by looking on the +Cross, learned the Crucified. + +And it is the only way by which any of us will ever learn the true +mystery and miracle of Christ's great and loving Being and work. I +beseech you, take your places there behind Him, near His Cross; gazing +upon Him till your hearts melt, and you, too, learn that He is your +Lord, and your Saviour, and your God. The Cross of Jesus Christ +divides men into classes as the Last Day will. It, too, parts +men--'sheep' to the right hand, 'goats' to the left. If there was a +penitent, there was an impenitent thief; if there was a convinced +centurion, there were gambling soldiers; if there were hearts touched +with compassion, there were mockers who took His very agonies and +flung them in His face as a refutation of His claims. On the day when +that Cross was reared on Calvary it began to be what it has been ever +since, and is at this moment to every soul who hears the Gospel, 'a +savour of life unto life, or of death unto death.' Contact with the +suffering Christ will either bind you to His service, and fill you +with His Spirit, or it will harden your hearts, and make you tenfold +more selfish--that is to say, 'tenfold more a child of hell'--than you +were before you saw and heard of that divine meekness of the suffering +Christ. Look to Him, I beseech you, who bears what none can help Him +to carry, the burden of the world's sin. Let Him bear yours, and yield +to Him your grateful obedience, and then take up your cross daily, and +bear the light burden of self-denying service to Him who has borne the +heavy load of sin for you and all mankind. + + + +THE INCREDULOUS DISCIPLES + + +'And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of +James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and +anoint Him. 2. And very early in the morning, the first day of the +week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. 3. And +they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the +door of the sepulchre? 4. And when they looked, they saw that the +stone was rolled away: for it was very great. 6. And entering into the +sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in +a long white garment; and they were affrighted. 6. And he saith unto +them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was +crucified: He is risen; He is not here: behold the place where they +laid Him. 7. But go your way, tell His disciples and Peter that He +goeth before yon into Galilee: there shall ye see Him, as He said unto +you. 8. And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for +they trembled and were amazed: neither said they anything to any man; +for they were afraid. 9. Now, when Jesus was risen early the first day +of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had +cast seven devils. 10. And she went and told them that had been with +Him, as they mourned and wept. 11. And they, when they had heard that +He was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. 12. After that +He appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went +into the country. 13. And they went and told it unto the residue: +neither believed they them.'--Mark xvi. 1-13. + +It is not my business here to discuss questions of harmonising or of +criticism. I have only to deal with the narrative as it stands. Its +peculiar character is very plain. The manner in which the first +disciples learned the fact of the Resurrection, and the disbelief with +which they received it, much rather than the Resurrection itself, come +into view in this section. The disciples, and not the risen Lord, are +shown us. There is nothing here of the earthquake, or of the +descending angel, or of the terrified guard, or of our Lord's +appearance to the women. The two appearances to Mary Magdalene and to +the travellers to Emmaus, which, in the hands of John and Luke, are so +pathetic and rich, are here mentioned with the utmost brevity, for the +sake chiefly of insisting on the disbelief of the disciples who heard +of them. Mark's theme is mainly what they thought of the testimony to +the Resurrection. + +I. He shows us, first, bewildered love and sorrow. We leave the +question whether this group of women is the same as that of which Luke +records that Joanna was one, as well as the other puzzle as to +harmonising the notes of time in the Evangelists. May not the +difference between the time of starting and that of arrival solve some +of the difficulty? When all the notes are more or less vague, and +refer to the time of transition from dark to day, when every moment +partakes of both and may be differently described as belonging to +either, is precision to be expected? In the whirl of agitation of that +morning, would any one be at leisure to take much note of the exact +minute? Are not these 'discrepancies' much more valuable as +confirmation of the story than precise accord would have been? It is +better to try to understand the feelings of that little band than to +carp at such trifles. + +Sorrow wakes early, and love is impatient to bring its tribute. So we +can see these three women, leaving their abode as soon as the doleful +grey of morning permitted, stealing through the silent streets, and +reaching the rock-cut tomb while the sun was rising over Olivet. Where +were Salome's ambitious hopes for her two sons now? Dead, and buried +in the Master's grave. The completeness of the women's despair, as +well as the faithfulness of their love, is witnessed by their purpose. +They had come to anoint the body of Him to whom in life they had +ministered. They had no thought of a resurrection, plainly as they had +been told of it. The waves of sorrow had washed the remembrance of His +assurances on that subject clean out of their minds. Truth that is +only half understood, however plainly spoken, is always forgotten when +the time to apply it comes. We are told that the disbelief of the +disciples in the Resurrection, after Christ's plain predictions of it, +is 'psychologically impossible.' Such big words are imposing, but the +objection is shallow. These disciples are not the only people who +forgot in the hour of need the thing which it most concerned them to +remember, and let the clouds of sorrow hide starry promises which +would have turned mourning into dancing, and night into day. Christ's +sayings about His resurrection were not understood in their, as it +appears to us, obvious meaning when spoken. No wonder, then, that they +were not expected to be fulfilled in their obvious meaning when He was +dead. We shall have a word to say presently about the value of the +fact that there was no anticipation of resurrection on the part of the +disciples. For the present it is enough to note how these three loving +souls confess their hopelessness by their errand. Did they not know, +too, that Joseph and Nicodemus had been beforehand with them in their +labour of love? Apparently not. It might easily happen, in the +confusion and dispersion, that no knowledge of this had reached them; +or perhaps sorrow and agitation had driven it out of their memories; +or perhaps they felt that, whether others had done the same before or +no, they must do it too, not because the loved form needed it, but +because their hearts needed to do it. It was the love which must +serve, not calculation of necessity, which loaded their hands with +costly spices. The living Christ was pleased with the 'odour of a +sweet smell,' from the needless spices, meant to re-anoint the dead +Christ, and accepted the purpose, though it came from ignorance and +was never carried out, since its deepest root was love, genuine, +though bewildered. + +The same absence of 'calm practical common sense' is seen in the too +late consideration, which never occurred to the three women till they +were getting near the tomb, as to how to get into it. They do not seem +to have heard of the guard; but they know that the stone is too heavy +for them to move, and none of the men among the disciples had been +taken into their confidence. 'Why did they not think of that before? +what a want of foresight!' says the cool observer. 'How beautifully +true to nature!' says a wiser judgment. To obey the impulse of love +and sorrow without thinking, and then to be arrested on their road by +a difficulty, which they might have thought of at first, but did not +till they were close to it, is surely just what might have been +expected of such mourners. Mark gives a graphic picture in that one +word 'looking up,' and follows it with picturesque present tenses. +They had been looking down or at each other in perplexity, when they +lifted their eyes to the tomb, which was possibly on an eminence. What +a flash of wonder would pass through their minds when they saw it +open! What that might signify they would be eager to hurry to find +out; but, at all events, their difficulty was at an end. When love to +Christ is brought to a stand in its venturous enterprises by +difficulties occurring for the first time to the mind, it is well to +go close up to them; and it often happens that when we do, and look +steadily at them, we see that they are rolled away, and the passage +cleared which we feared was hopelessly barred. + +II. The calm herald of the Resurrection and the amazed hearers. +Apparently Mary Magdalene had turned back as soon as she saw the +opened tomb, and hurried to tell that the body had been carried off, +as she supposed. The guard had also probably fled before this; and so +the other two women enter the vestibule, and there find the angel. +Sometimes one angel, sometimes two, sometimes none, were visible +there. The variation in their numbers in the various narratives is not +to be regarded as an instance of 'discrepancy.' Many angels hovered +round the spot where the greatest wonder of the universe was to be +seen, 'eagerly desiring to look into' that grave. The beholder's eye +may have determined their visibility. Their number may have +fluctuated. Mark does not use the word 'angel' at all, but leaves us +to infer what manner of being he was who first proclaimed the +Resurrection. + +He tells of his youth, his attitude, and his attire. The angelic life +is vigorous, progressive, buoyant, and alien from decay. Immortal +youth belongs to them who 'excel in strength' because they 'do his +commandments.' That waiting minister shows us what the children of the +Resurrection shall be, and so his presence as well as his speech +expounds the blessed mystery of our life in the risen Lord. His serene +attitude of sitting 'on the right side' is not only a vivid touch of +description, but is significant of restfulness and fixed +contemplation, as well as of the calmness of a higher life. That still +watcher knows too much to be agitated; but the less he is moved, the +more he adores. His quiet contrasts with and heightens the impression +of the storm of conflicting feelings in the women's tremulous natures. +His garments symbolise purity and repose. How sharply the difference +between heaven and earth is given in the last words of verse 5! They +were 'amazed,' swept out of themselves in an ecstasy of bewilderment +in which hope had no place. Terror, surprise, curiosity, wonder, blank +incapacity to know what all this meant, made chaos in them. + +The angel's words are a succession of short sentences, which have a +certain dignity, and break up the astounding revelation he has to make +into small pieces, which the women's bewildered minds can grasp. He +calms their tumult of spirit. He shows them that he knows their +errand. He adoringly names his Lord and theirs by the names recalling +His manhood, His lowly home, and His ignominious death. He lingers on +the thought, to him covering so profound a mystery of divine love, +that his Lord had been born, had lived in the obscure village, and +died on the Cross. Then, in one word, he proclaims the stupendous fact +of His resurrection as His own act--'He is risen.' This crown of all +miracles, which brings life and immortality to light, and changes the +whole outlook of humanity, which changes the Cross into victory, and +without which Christianity is a dream and a ruin, is announced in a +single word--the mightiest ever spoken save by Christ's own lips. It +was fitting that angel lips should proclaim the Resurrection, as they +did the Nativity, though in either 'He taketh not hold of angels,' and +they had but a secondary share in the blessings. Yet that empty grave +opened to 'principalities and powers in heavenly places' a new +unfolding of the manifold wisdom and love of God. + +The angel--a true evangelist--does not linger on the wondrous +intimation, but points to the vacant place, which would have been so +drear but for his previous words, and bids them approach to verify his +assurance, and with reverent wonder to gaze on the hallowed and now +happy spot. A moment is granted for feeling to overflow, and certainty +to be attained, and then the women are sent on their errand. Even the +joy of that gaze is not to be selfishly prolonged, while others are +sitting in sorrow for want of what they know. That is the law for all +the Christian life. First make sure work of one's own possession of +the truth, and then hasten to tell it to those who need it. + +'And Peter'--Mark alone gives us this. The other Evangelists might +pass it by; but how could Peter ever forget the balm which that +message of pardon and restoration brought to him, and how could +Peter's mouthpiece leave it out? Is there anything in the Gospels more +beautiful, or fuller of long-suffering and thoughtful love, than that +message from the risen Saviour to the denier? And how delicate the +love which, by calling him Peter, not Simon, reinstates him in his +official position by anticipation, even though in the subsequent full +restoration scene by the lake he is thrice called Simon, before the +complete effacement of the triple denial by the triple confession! + +Galilee is named as the rendezvous, and the word employed, 'goeth +before you,' is appropriate to the Shepherd in front of His flock. +They had been 'scattered,' but are to be drawn together again. He is +to 'precede' them there, thus lightly indicating the new form of their +relations to Him, marked during the forty days by a distance which +prepared for his final withdrawal. Galilee was the home of most of +them, and had been the field of His most continuous labours. There +would be many disciples there, who would gather to see their risen +Lord ('five hundred at once'); and there, rather than in Jerusalem +which had slain Him, was it fitting that He should show Himself to His +friends. The appearances in Jerusalem were all within a week (if we +except the Ascension), and the connection in which Mark introduces +them (if verse 14 be his) seems to treat them as forced on Christ by +the disciples' unbelief, rather than as His original intention. It +looks as if He meant to show Himself in the city only to one or two, +such as Mary, Peter, and some others, but to reserve His more public +appearance for Galilee. + +How did the women receive the message? Mark represents them as +trembling in body and in an ecstasy in mind, and as hurrying away +silent with terror. Matthew says that they were full of 'fear and +great joy,' and went in haste to tell the disciples. In the whirl of +feeling, there were opposites blended or succeeding one another; and +the one Evangelist lays hold of one set, and the other of the other. +It is as impossible to catalogue the swift emotions of such a moment +as to separate and tabulate the hues of sunrise. The silence which +Mark tells of can only refer to their demeanour as they 'fled.' His +object is to bring out the very imperfect credence which, at the best, +was given to the testimony that Christ was risen, and to paint the +tumult of feeling in the breasts of its first recipients. His picture +is taken from a different angle from Matthew's; but Matthew's contains +the same elements, for he speaks of 'fear,' though he completes it by +'joy.' + +III. The incredulity of the disciples. The two appearances to Mary +Magdalene and the travellers to Emmaus are introduced mainly to record +the unbelief of the disciples. A strange choice that was, of the woman +who had been rescued from so low a debasement, to be first to see Him! +But her former degradation was the measure of her love. Longing eyes, +that have been washed clean by many a tear of penitent gratitude, are +purged to see Jesus; and a yearning heart ever brings Him near. The +unbelief of the story of the two from Emmaus seems to conflict with +Luke's account, which tells that they were met by the news of Christ's +appearance to Simon. But the two statements are not contradictory. If +we remember the excitement and confusion of mind in which they were, +we shall not wonder if belief and unbelief followed each other, like +the flow and recoil of the waves. One moment they were on the crest of +the billows, and saw land ahead; the next they were down in the +trough, and saw only the melancholy surge. The very fact that Peter +was believed, might make them disbelieve the travellers; for how could +Jesus have been in Jerusalem and Emmaus at so nearly the same time? + +However the two narratives be reconciled, it remains obvious that the +first disciples did not believe the first witnesses of the +Resurrection, and that their unbelief is an important fact. It bears +very distinctly on the worth of their subsequent conviction. It has +special bearing on the most modern form of disbelief in the +Resurrection, which accounts for the belief of the first disciples on +the ground that they expected Christ to rise, and that they then +persuaded themselves, in all good faith, that He had risen. That +monstrous theory is vulnerable at all points, but one sufficient +answer is--the disciples did not expect Christ to rise again, and were +so far from it that they did not believe that He had risen when they +were told it. Their original unbelief is a strong argument for the +reliableness of their final faith. What raised them from the stupor of +despair and incredulity? Only one answer is 'psychologically' +reasonable: they at last believed because they saw. It is incredible +that they were conscious deceivers; for such lives as they lived, and +such a gospel as they preached, never came from liars. It is as +incredible that they were unconsciously mistaken; for they were wholly +unprepared for the Resurrection, and sturdily disbelieved all +witnesses for it, till they saw with their own eyes, and had 'many +infallible proofs.' Let us be thankful for their unbelief and its +record, and let us seek to possess the blessing of those 'that have +not seen, and yet have believed!' + + + +PERPETUAL YOUTH + + +'And entering Into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the +right side, clothed in a long white garment.'--Mark xvi. 5. + +Many great truths concerning Christ's death, and its worth to higher +orders of being, are taught by the presence of that angel form, clad +in the whiteness of his own God-given purity, sitting in restful +contemplation in the dark house where the body of Jesus had lain. +'Which things the angels desire to look into.' Many precious lessons +of consolation and hope, too, lie in the wonderful words which he +spake from his Lord and theirs to the weeping waiting women. But to +touch upon these ever so slightly would lead us too far from our more +immediate purpose. + +It strikes one as very remarkable that this superhuman being should be +described as a '_young_ man.' Immortal youth, with all of buoyant +energy and fresh power which that attribute suggests, belongs to those +beings whom Scripture faintly shows as our elder brethren. No waste +decays their strength, no change robs them of forces which have ceased +to increase. For them there never comes a period when memory is more +than hope. Age cannot wither them. As one of our modern mystics has +said, hiding imaginative spiritualism under a crust of hard, dry +matter-of-fact, 'In heaven the oldest angels are the youngest.' + +What is true of them is true of God's children, who are 'accounted +worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead,' for +'they are equal unto the angels.' For believing and loving souls, +death too is a birth. All who pass through it to God, shall, in deeper +meaning than lay in the words at first, 'return unto the days of their +youth'; and when the end comes, and they are 'clothed with their house +from heaven,' they shall stand by the throne, like him who sat in the +sepulchre, clothed with lustrous light and radiant with unchanging +youth. + +Such a conception of the condition of the dead in Christ may be +followed out in detail into many very elevating and strengthening +thoughts. Let me attempt to set forth some of these now. + +I. The life of the faithful dead is eternal progress towards infinite +perfection. + +For body and for spirit the life of earth is a definite whole, with +distinct stages, which succeed each other in a well-marked order. +There are youth, and maturity, and decay--the slow climbing to the +narrow summit, a brief moment there in the streaming sunshine, and +then a sure and gradual descent into the shadows beneath. The same +equable and constant motion urges the orb of our lives from morning to +noon, and from noon to evening. The glory of the dawning day, with its +golden clouds and its dewy freshness, its new awakened hopes and its +unworn vigour, climbs by silent, inevitable stages to the hot noon. +But its ardours flame but for a moment; but for a moment does the sun +poise itself on the meridian line, and the short shadow point to the +pole. The inexorable revolution goes on, and in due time come the +mists and dying purples of evening and the blackness of night. The +same progress which brings April's perfumes burns them in the censer +of the hot summer, and buries summer beneath the falling leaves, and +covers its grave with winter's snow. + + 'Everything that grows + Holds in perfection but a little moment.' + +So the life of man, being under the law of growth, is, in all its +parts, subject to the consequent necessity of decline. And very +swiftly does the direction change from ascending to descending. At +first, and for a little while, the motion of the dancing stream, which +broadens as it runs, and bears us past fields each brighter and more +enamelled with flowers than the one before it, is joyous; but the slow +current becomes awful as we are swept along when we would fain moor +and land--and to some of us it comes to be tragic and dreadful at +last, as we sit helpless, and see the shore rush past and hear the +roar of the falls in our ears, like some poor wretch caught in the +glassy smoothness above Niagara, who has flung down the oars, and, +clutching the gunwale with idle hands, sits effortless and breathless +till the plunge comes. Many a despairing voice has prayed as the sands +ran out, and joys fled, 'Sun, stand thou still on Gibeon; and thou, +Moon, in the valley of Ajalon,' but in vain. Once the wish was +answered; but, for all other fighters, the twelve hours of the day +must suffice for victory and for joy. Time devours his own children. +The morning hours come to us with full hands and give, the evening +hours come with empty hands and take; so that at the last 'naked shall +he return to go as he came.' Our earthly life runs through its +successive stages, and for it, in body and mind, old age is the child +of youth. + +But the perfect life of the dead in Christ has but one phase, youth. +It is growth without a limit and without decline. To say that they are +ever young is the same thing as to say that their being never reaches +its climax, that it is ever but entering on its glory; that is, as we +have said, that the true conception of their life is that of eternal +progress towards infinite perfection. + +For what is the goal to which they tend? The likeness of God in +Christ--all His wisdom, His love, His holiness. He is all theirs, and +His whole perfection is to be transfused into their growing greatness. +'He is made unto them of God. wisdom, and righteousness, and salvation +and redemption,' nor can they cease to grow till they have outgrown +Jesus and exhausted God. On the one hand is infinite perfection, +destined to be imparted to the redeemed spirit. On the other hand is a +capability of indefinite assimilation to, by reception of, that +infinite perfection. We have no reason to set bounds to the possible +expansion of the human spirit. If only there be fitting circumstances +and an adequate impulse, it may have an endless growth. Such +circumstances and such impulse are given in the loving presence of +Christ in glory. Therefore we look for an eternal life which shall +never reach a point beyond which no advance is possible. 'The path of +the just' in that higher state 'shineth more and more,' and never +touches the zenith. Here we float upon a landlocked lake, and on every +side soon reach the bounding land; but there we are on a shoreless +ocean, and never hear any voice that says, 'Hitherto shalt thou come, +and no farther.' Christ will be ever before us, the yet unattained end +of our desires; Christ will be ever above us, fairer, wiser, holier, +than we; after unsummed eternities of advance there will yet stretch +before us a shining way that leads to Him. The language, which was +often breathed by us on earth in tones of plaintive confession, will +be spoken in heaven in gladness, 'Not as though I had attained, either +were perfect, but I follow after,' The promise that was spoken by Him +in regard to our mortality will be repeated by Him in respect to our +celestial being, 'I am come that they might have life, and that they +might have it _more abundantly_.' And as this advance has no natural +limit, either in regard to our Pattern or to ourselves, there will be +no reverse direction to ensue. Here the one process has its two +opposite parts; the same impulse carries up to the summit and forces +down from it. But it is not so then. There growth will never merge +into decay, nor exacting hours come to recall the gifts, which their +free-handed sisters gave. + +They who live in Christ, beyond the grave, begin with a relative +perfection. They are thereby rendered capable of more complete +Christ-likeness. The eye, by gazing into the day, becomes more +recipient of more light; the spirit cleaves closer to a Christ more +fully apprehended and more deeply loved; the whole being, like a plant +reaching up to the sunlight, grows by its yearning towards the light, +and by the light towards which it yearns--lifts a stronger stem and +spreads a broader leaf, and opens into immortal flowers tinted by the +sunlight with its own colours. This blessed and eternal growth towards +Him whom we possess, to begin with, and never can exhaust, is the +perpetual youth of God's redeemed. + +We ought not to think of those whom we have loved and lost as if they +had gone, carrying with them declining powers, and still bearing the +marks of this inevitable law of stagnation, and then of decay, under +which they groaned here. Think of them rather as having, if they sleep +in Jesus, reversed all this, as having carried with them, indeed, all +the gifts of matured experience and ripened wisdom which the slow +years bring, but likewise as having left behind all the weariness of +accomplished aims, the monotony of a formed character, the rigidity of +limbs that have ceased to grow. Think of them as receiving again from +the hands of Christ much of which they were robbed by the lapse of +years. Think of them as then crowned with loving-kindness and +satisfied with good, so that 'their youth is renewed like the +eagle's.' Think of them as again joyous, with the joy of beginning a +career, which has no term but the sum of all perfection in the +likeness of the infinite God. They rise like the song-bird, aspiring +to the heavens, circling round, and ever higher, which 'singing still +doth soar, and soaring ever singeth'--up and up through the steadfast +blue to the sun! 'Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the +young men shall utterly fall; but they that wait upon the Lord shall +renew their strength.' They shall lose the marks of age as they grow +in eternity, and they who have stood before the throne the longest +shall be likest him who sat in the sepulchre young with immortal +strength, radiant with unwithering beauty. + +II. The life of the faithful dead recovers and retains the best +characteristics of youth. + +Each stage of our earthly course has its own peculiar characteristics, +as each zone of the world has its own vegetation and animal life. And, +for the most part, these characteristics cannot be anticipated in the +preceding stage, nor prolonged into the succeeding. To some small +extent they will bear transplanting, and he is nearest a perfect man +who carries into each period of his life some trace of the special +beauty of that which went before, making 'the child the father of the +man,' and carrying deep into old age the simple self-forgetfulness of +the child and the energy of the youth. But this can only be partially +done by any effort; and even those whose happily constituted +temperaments make it comparatively easy for them, do often carry the +weakness rather than the strength of the earlier into the later +epochs. It is easier to be always childish than to be always +childlike. The immaturity and heedlessness of youth bear carriage +better than the more precious vintages of that sunny land--its +freshness of eye and heart, its openness of mind, its energy of hand. +Even when these are in any measure retained--beautiful as they are in +old age--they are but too apt to be associated with an absence of the +excellences more proper to the later stages of life, and to involve a +want of patient judgment, of sagacious discrimination, of rooted +affections, of prudent, persistent action. Beautiful indeed it is when +the grace of the child and the strength of the young man live on in +the fathers, and when the last of life encloses all that was good in +all that went before. But miserable it is, and quite as frequent a +case, when grey hairs cover a childish brain, and an aged heart throbs +with the feverish passion of youthful blood. So for this life it is +difficult, and often not well, that youth should be prolonged into +manhood and old age. + +But the thought is none the less true, that the perfection of our +being requires the reappearance and the continuance of all that was +good in each successive stage of it in the past. The brightest aspects +of youth will return to all who live in Jesus, beyond the grave, and +will be theirs for ever. Such a consideration branches out into many +happy anticipations, which we can but very cursorily touch on here. + +For instance--Youth is the time for hope. The world then lies all +before us, fair and untried. We have not learnt our own weakness by +many failures, nor the dread possibilities that lie in every future. +The past is too brief to occupy us long, and its furthest point too +near to be clothed in the airy purple, which draws the eye and stirs +the heart. We are conscious of increasing powers which crave for +occupation. It seems impossible but that success and joy shall be +ours. So we live for a little while in a golden haze; we look down +from our peak upon the virgin forests of a new world, that roll away +to the shining waters in the west, and then we plunge into their mazes +to hew out a path for ourselves, to slay the wild beasts, and to find +and conquer rich lands. But soon we discover what hard work the march +is, and what monsters lurk in the leafy coverts, and what diseases +hover among the marshes, and how short a distance ahead we can see, +and how far off it is to the treasure-cities that we dreamed of; and +if at last we gain some cleared spot whence we can look forward, our +weary eyes are searching at most for a place to rest, and all our +hopes have dwindled to hopes of safety and repose. The day brings too +much toil to leave us leisure for much anticipation. The journey has +had too many failures, too many wounds, too many of our comrades left +to die in the forest glades, to allow of our expecting much. We plod +on, sometimes ready to faint, sometimes with lighter hearts, but not +any more winged by hope as in the golden prime,--unless indeed for +those of us who have fixed our hopes on God, and so get through the +march better, because, be it rough or smooth, long or short, He moves +before us to guide, and all our ways lead to Him. But even for these +there comes, before very long, a time when they are weary of hoping +for much more here, and when the light of youth fades into common day. +Be it so! They will get the faculty and the use of it back again in +far nobler fashion, when death has taken them away from all that is +transient, and faith has through death given for their possession and +their expectation, the certitudes of eternity. It will be worth while +to look forward again, when we are again standing at the beginning of +a life. It will be possible once more to hope, when disappointments +are all past. A boundless future stretching before us, of which we +know that it is all blessed, and that we shall reach all its +blessedness, will give back to hearts that have long ceased to drink +of the delusive cup which earthly hope offered to their lips, the joy +of living in a present, made bright by the certain anticipation of a +yet brighter future. Losing nothing by our constant progress, and +certain to gain all which we foresee, we shall remember and be glad, +we shall hope and be confident. With 'the past unsighed for, and the +future sure,' we shall have that magic gift, which earth's +disappointments dulled, quickened by the sure mercies of the heavens. + +Again, youth has mostly a certain keenness of relish for life which +vanishes only too soon. There are plenty of our young men and women +too, of this day, no doubt, who are as _blase_ and wearied before they +are out of their 'teens as if they were fifty. So much the sadder for +them, so much the worse for the social state which breeds such +monsters. For monsters they are: there ought to be in youth a sense of +fresh wonder undimmed by familiarity, the absence of satiety, a joy in +joyful things because they are new as well as gladsome. The poignancy +of these early delights cannot long survive. Custom stales them all, +and wraps everything in its robe of ashen grey. We get used to what +was once so fresh and wonderful, and do not care very much about +anything any more. We smile pitying smiles--sadder than any tears--at +'boyish enthusiasm,' and sometimes plume ourselves on having come to +'years which bring the philosophic mind'; and all the while we know +that we have lost a great gift, which here can never come back any +more. + +But what if that eager freshness of delight may yet be ours once +again? What if the eternal youth of the heavens means, amongst other +things, that _there_ are pleasures which always satisfy but never +cloy? What if, in perpetual advance, we find and keep for ever that +ever new gladness, which here we vainly seek in perpetual distraction? +What if constant new influxes of divine blessedness, and constant new +visions of God, keep in constant exercise that sense of wonder, which +makes so great a part of the power of youth? What if, after all that +we have learned and all that we have received, we still have to say, +'It doth not yet appear what we shall be'? Then, I think, in very +profound and blessed sense, heaven would be perpetual youth. + +I need not pause to speak of other characteristics of that period of +life--such as its enthusiasm, its life by impulse rather than by +reason, its buoyant energy and delight in action. All these gifts, so +little cared for when possessed, so often misused, so irrevocably gone +with a few brief years, so bitterly bewailed, will surely be found +again, where God keeps all the treasures that He gives and we let +fall. For transient enthusiasm, heaven will give us back a fervour of +love like that of the seraphs, that have burned before His throne +unconsumed and undecaying for unknown ages. For a life of instinctive +impulse, we shall titan receive a life in which impulse is ever +parallel with the highest law, and, doing only what we would, we shall +do only what we ought. For energy which wanes as the years wax, and +delight in action which is soon worn down into mechanical routine of +toil, there will be bestowed strength akin to His 'who fainteth not, +neither is weary.' All of which maturity and old age robbed us is +given back in nobler form. All the limitation and weakness which they +brought, the coldness, the monotony, the torpor, the weariness, will +drop away. But we shall keep all the precious things which they +brought us. None of the calm wisdom, the ripened knowledge, the +full-summed experience, the powers of service acquired in life's long +apprenticeship, will be taken from us. + +All will be changed indeed. All will be cleansed of the impurity which +attaches to all. All will be accepted and crowned, not by reason of +its goodness, but by reason of Christ's sacrifice, which is the +channel of God's mercy. Though in themselves unworthy, and having +nothing fit for the heavens, yet the souls that trust in Jesus, the +Lord of Life, shall bear into their glory the characters which by His +grace they wrought out here on earth, transfigured and perfected, but +still the same. And to make up that full-summed completeness, will be +given to them at once the perfection of all the various stages through +which they passed on earth. The perfect man in the heavens will +include the graces of childhood, the energies of youth, the +steadfastness of manhood, the calmness of old age; as on some tropical +trees, blooming in more fertile soil and quickened by a hotter sun +than ours, you may see at once bud, blossom, and fruit--the expectancy +of spring, and the maturing promise of summer, and the fulfilled +fruition of autumn--hanging together on the unexhausted bough. + +III. The faithful dead shall live in a body that cannot grow old. + +Scripture assures us, I believe, that the dead in Christ are now in +full, conscious enjoyment of His presence, and of all the blessedness +that to dwell in Christ can bring to a spirit. All, then, which we +have been saying applies to the present condition of those who sleep +in Jesus. As concerning toil and trouble they take rest in sleep, as +concerning contact with an outer world they slumber untroubled by its +noise; but as concerning their communion with their Lord they, like +us, 'whether we wake or sleep, live together with Him.' But we know +too, from Scripture, that the dead in Christ wait for the resurrection +of the body, without which they cannot be perfected, nor restored to +full activity of outward life in connection with an external creation. + +The lesson which we venture to draw from this text enforces the +familiar teaching of Scripture as to that body of glory--that it +cannot decay, nor grow old. In this respect, too, eternal youth may be +ours. Here we have a bodily organisation which, like all other living +bodies, goes through its appointed series of changes, wastes in +effort, and so needs reparation by food and rest, dies in growing, and +finally waxes old and dissolves. In such a house, a man cannot be ever +young. The dim eye and shaking hand, the wrinkled face and thin grey +hairs cannot but age the spirit, since they weaken its instruments. + +If the redeemed of the Lord are to be always young in spirit, they +must have a body which knows no weariness, which needs no repose, +which has no necessity of dying impressed upon it. And such a body +Scripture plainly tells us will belong to those who are Christ's, at +His coming. Our present acquaintance with the conditions of life makes +that great promise seem impossible to many learned men amongst us. And +I know not that anything but acquaintance with the sure word of God +and with a risen Lord will make that seeming impossibility again a +great promise for us. If we believe it at all, I think we must believe +it because the resurrection of Jesus Christ says so, and because the +Scriptures put it into articulate words as the promise of His +resurrection. 'Ye do err,' said Christ long ago, to those who denied a +resurrection, 'not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.' Then +knowledge of the Scriptures leads to belief in the resurrection of the +dead, and the remembrance of our ignorance of the power of God +disposes of all the doubts which are raised on the supposition that +His present works are the pattern of His future ones, or the limits of +His unexhausted energy. + +We are content then to fall back on Scripture words, and to believe in +the resurrection of the dead simply because it is, as we believe, told +us from God. + +For all who accept the message, this hope shines clear, of a +_building_ of God imperishable and solid, when contrasted with the +_tent_ in which we dwell here--of a body 'raised in incorruption,' +'clothed with immortality,' and so, as in many another phrase, +declared to be exempt from decay, and therefore vigorous with +unchanging youth. How that comes we cannot tell. Whether because that +body of glory has no proclivity to mutation and decay, or whether the +perpetual volition and power of God counteract such tendency and give, +as the Book of Revelation says,' to eat of the tree of life which is +in the midst of the paradise of God'--matters not at all. The truth of +the promise remains, though we have no means of knowing more than the +fact, that we shall receive a body, fashioned like His who dieth no +more. There shall be no weariness nor consequent need for +repose--'they rest not day nor night.' There shall be no faintness nor +consequent craving for sustenance-'they shall hunger no more neither +thirst any more.' There shall be no disease--'the inhabitant thereof +shall no more say, I am sick,' 'neither can they die any more, for +they are equal unto the angels.' + +And if all this is true, that glorious and undecaying body will then +be the equal and fit instrument of the perfected spirit, not, as it is +now, the adequate instrument only of the natural life. The deepest +emotions then will be capable of expression, nor as now, like some +rushing tide, choke the floodgates through whose narrow aperture they +try to press, and be all tossed into foam in the attempt. We shall +then seem what we are, as we shall also be what we ought. All outward +things will then be fully and clearly communicated to the spirit, for +that glorious body will be a perfect instrument of knowledge. All that +we desire to do we shall then do, nor be longer tortured with +tremulous hands which can never draw the perfect circle that we plan, +and stammering lips that will not obey the heart, and throbbing brain +that _will_ ache when we would have it clear. The ever-young spirit +will have for true yokefellow a body that cannot tire, nor grow old, +nor die. + +The aged saints of God shall rise then in youthful beauty. More than +the long-vanished comeliness shall on that day rest on faces that were +here haggard with anxiety, and pinched with penury and years. There +will be no more palsied hands, no more scattered grey hairs, no more +dim and horny eyes, no more stiffened muscles and slow throbbing +hearts. 'It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.' It is sown in +decaying old age, it is raised in immortal youth. His servants shall +stand in that day among 'the young-eyed cherubim,' and be like them +for ever. So we may think of the dead in Christ. + +But do not forget that Christian faith may largely do for us here what +God's grace and power will do for us in heaven, and that even now we +may possess much of this great gift of perpetual youth. If we live for +Christ by faith in Him, then may we carry with us all our days the +energy, the hope, the joy of the morning tide, and be children in evil +while men in understanding. With unworn and fresh heart we may 'bring +forth fruit in old age,' and have the crocus in the autumnal fields as +well as in the spring-time of our lives. So blessed, we may pass to a +peaceful end, because we hold His hand who makes the path smooth and +the heart quiet. Trust yourselves, my brethren, to the immortal love +and perfect work of the Divine Saviour, and by His dear might your +days will advance by peaceful stages, whereof each gathers up and +carries forward the blessings of all that went before, to a death +which shall be a birth. Its chill waters will be as a fountain of +youth from which you will rise, beautiful and strong, to begin an +immortality of growing power. A Christian life on earth solves partly, +a Christian life in heaven solves completely, the problem of perpetual +youth. For those who die in His faith and fear, 'better is the end +than the beginning, and the day of one's death than the day of one's +birth.' Christ keeps the good wine until the close of the feast. + + 'Such is Thy banquet, dearest Lord; + O give us grace, to cast + Our lot with Thine, to trust Thy word, + And keep our best till last.' + + + +THE ANGEL IN THE TOMB + + +'They saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long +white garment; and they were aifrighted. 6. And he saith unto them, Be +not affrighted. Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: He is +risen; He is not here; behold the place where they laid Him.'--Mark +xvi. 5,6. + +Each of the four Evangelists tells the story of the Resurrection from +his own special point of view. None of them has any record of the +actual fact, because no eye saw it. Before the earthquake and the +angelic descent, before the stone was rolled away, while the guards +perhaps slept, and before Love and Sorrow had awakened, Christ rose. +And deep silence covers the event. But in treating of the subsequent +portion of the narrative, each Evangelist stands at his own point of +view. Mark has scarcely anything to say about our Lord's appearance +after the Resurrection. His object seems mainly to be to describe +rather the manner in which the report of the Resurrection affected the +disciples, and so he makes prominent the bewildered astonishment of +the women. If the latter part of this chapter be his, he passes by the +appearance of our Lord to Mary Magdalene and to the two travellers to +Emmaus with just a word for each--contrasting singularly with the +lovely narrative of the former in John's Gospel and with the detailed +account of the latter in Luke's. He emphasises the incredulity of the +Twelve after receiving the reports, and in like manner he lays stress +upon the unbelief and hardness of heart which the Lord rebuked. + +So, then, this incident, the appearance of the angel, the portion of +his message to the women which we have read, and the way in which the +first testimony to the Resurrection affected its hearers, may suggest +to us some thoughts which, though subsidiary to the main teaching of +the Resurrection, may yet be important in their place. + +I. Note the first witness to the Resurrection. + +There are singular diversities in the four Gospels in their accounts +of the angelic appearances, the number, occupation, and attitude of +these superhuman persons, and contradictions may be spun, if one is so +disposed, out of these varieties. But it is wiser to take another view +of them, and to see in the varying reports, sometimes of one angel, +sometimes of two, sometimes of one sitting outside the sepulchre, +sometimes one within, sometimes none, either different moments of time +or differences produced by the different spiritual condition of the +beholders. Who can count the glancing wings of the white-winged flock +of sea-birds as they sail and turn in the sunshine? Who can count the +numbers of these 'bright-harnessed angels,' sometimes more, sometimes +less, flickering and fluttering into and out of sight, which shone +upon the vision of the weeping onlookers? We know too little about the +laws of angelic appearances; we know too little about the relation in +that high region between the seeing eye and the objects beheld to +venture to say that there is contradiction where the narratives +present variety. Enough for us to draw the lessons that are suggested +by that quiet figure sitting there in the inner vestibule of the +grave, the stone rolled away and the work done, gazing on the tomb +where the Lord of men and angels had lain. + +He was a youth. 'The oldest angels are the youngest,' says a great +mystic. The angels 'excel in strength' because they delight to do His +commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word.' The lapse of +ages brings not age to them who 'wait on the Lord' in the higher +ministries of heaven, and run unwearied, and walk unfainting, and when +they are seen by men are radiant with immortal youth. He was 'clothed +in a long white garment,' the sign at once of purity and of repose; +and he was sitting in rapt contemplation and quiet adoration there, +where the body of Jesus had lain. + +But what had he to do with the joy of Resurrection? It delivered _him_ +from no fears, it brought to him no fresh assurance of a life which +was always his. Wherefore was he there? Because that Cross strikes its +power upwards as well as downwards; because He that had lain there is +the Head of all creation, and the Lord of angels as well as of men; +because that Resurrection following upon that Cross, 'unto the +principalities and powers in heavenly places,' opened a new and +wonderful door into the unsounded and unfathomed abyss of divine love; +because into these things 'angels desire to look,' and, looking, are +smitten with adoring wonder and flushed with the illumination of a new +knowledge of what God is, and of what man is to God. The Resurrection +of the Prince of Life was no mystery to the angel. To him the mystery +was in His death. To us the death is not a mystery, but the +Resurrection is. That gazing figure looks from the other side upon the +grave which we contemplate from this side of the gulf of death; but +the eyes of both orders of Being fix upon the same hallowed spot--they +in adoring wonder that there a God should have lain; we in lowly +thankfulness that thence a man should have risen. + +Further, we see in that angel presence not only the indication that +Christ is his King as well as ours, but also the mark of his and all +his fellows' sympathetic participation in whatsoever is of so deep +interest to humanity. There is a certain tone of friendship and +oneness in his words. The trembling women were smitten into an ecstasy +of bewildered fear (as one of the words, 'affrighted' might more +accurately be rendered), and his consolation to them, 'Be not +affrighted, ye seek Jesus,' suggests that, in all the great sweep of +the unseen universe, whatsoever beings may people that to us +apparently waste and solitary space, howsoever many they may be, +'thick as the autumn leaves in Vallambrosa' or as the motes that dance +in the sunshine, they are all friends and allies and elder brethren of +those who seek for Jesus with a loving heart. No creature that owns +His sway can touch or injure or need terrify the soul that follows +after Christ. 'All the servants of our King in heaven and earth are +one,' and He sends forth His brightest and loftiest to be brethren and +ministers to them who shall be 'heirs of salvation.' So we may pass +through the darkest spaces of the universe and the loneliest valleys +of the shadow of death, sure that whosoever may be there will be our +friend if we are the friends of Christ. + +II. So much, then, for the first point that I would suggest here. +Note, secondly, the triumphant light cast upon the cradle and the +Cross. + +There is something very remarkable, because for purposes of +identification plainly unnecessary, in the minute particularity of the +designation which the angel lips give to Jesus Christ. 'Jesus, the +Nazarene, who was crucified.' Do you not catch a tone of wonder and a +tone of triumph in this threefold particularising of the humanity, the +lowly residence, and the Ignominious death? All that lowliness, +suffering, and shame are brought into comparison with the rising from +the dead. That is to say, when we grasp the fact of a risen Christ, we +look back upon all the story of His birth, His lowly life, His death +of shame, and see a new meaning in it, and new reasons for triumph and +for wonder. The cradle is illuminated by the grave, the Cross by the +empty sepulchre. As at the beginning there is a supernatural entrance +into life, so at the end there is a supernatural resumption of it. The +birth corresponds with the resurrection, and both witness to the +divinity. The lowly life culminates in the conquest over death; the +Nazarene despised, rejected, dwelling in a place that was a byword, +sharing all the modest lowliness and self-respecting poverty of the +Galilean peasants, has conquered death. The Man that was crucified has +conquered death. And the fact that He has risen explains and +illuminates the fact that He died. + +Brethren, let us lay this to heart, that unless we believe in the +Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the saying 'He was crucified' is the +saddest word that can be spoken about any of the great ones of the +past. If Jesus Christ be lying in some nameless grave, then all the +power of His death is gone, and He and it are nothing to me, or to +you, or to any of our fellow-men, more than a thousand deaths of the +mighty ones of old. But Easter day transfigures the gloom of the day +of the Crucifixion, and the rising sun of its morning gilds and +explains the Cross. Now it stands forth as the great redeeming power +of the world, where my sins and yours and the whole world's have been +expiated and done away. And now, instead of being ignominy, it is +glory, and instead of being defeat it is victory, and instead of +looking upon that death as the lowest point of the Master's +humiliation, we may look upon it as He Himself did, as the highest +point of His glorifying. For the Cross then becomes His great means of +winning men to Himself, and the very throne of His power. On the +historical fact of a Resurrection depend all the worth and meaning of +the death of Christ. 'If He be not risen our preaching is vain, and +your faith is also vain.' 'If Christ be not risen, ye are yet in your +sins.' But if what this day commemorates be true, then upon all His +earthly life is thrown a new light; and we first understand the Cross +when we look upon the empty grave. + +III. Again, notice here the majestic announcement of the great fact, +and its confirmation. + +'He is risen; He is not here.' The first preacher of the Resurrection +was an angel, a true ev-angel-ist. His message is conveyed in these +brief sentences, unconnected with each other, in token, not of +abruptness and haste, but of solemnity. 'He is risen' is one word in +the original--a sentence of one word, which announces the mightiest +miracle that ever was wrought upon earth, a miracle which opens the +door wide enough for all supernatural events recorded of Jesus Christ +to find an entrance to the understanding and the reason. + +'He is risen.' The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is declared by angel +lips to be His own act; not, indeed, as if He were acting separately +from the Father, but still less as if in it He were merely passive. +Think of that; a dead Christ raised Himself. That is the teaching of +the Scripture. I do not dwell here, at this stage of my sermon, on the +many issues that spring from such a conception, but this only I urge, +Jesus Christ was the Lord of life; held life and death, His own and +others', at His beck and will. His death was voluntary; He was not +passive in it, but He died because He chose. His resurrection was His +act; He rose because He willed. 'I have power to lay it down, I have +power to take it again.' No one said to Him, 'I say unto Thee, arise!' +The divine power of the Father's will did not work upon Him as from +without to raise Him from the dead; but He, the embodiment of +divinity, raised Himself, even though it is also true that He was +raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. These two statements +are not contradictory, but the former of them can only be predicated +of Him; and it sets Him on a pedestal immeasurably above, and +infinitely apart from, all those to whom life is communicated by a +divine act. He Himself is 'the Life,' and it was not possible that +Life should be holden of Death; therefore He burst its bonds, and, +like the ancient Jewish hero, though in far nobler fashion, our Samson +enters into the city which is a prison, and on His strong shoulders +bears away the gates, that none may ever there be prisoners without +hope. + +Now, then, note the confirmation of this stupendous fact. 'He is +risen; He is not here.' The grave was empty, and the trembling women +were called upon to look and see for themselves that the body was not +there. One remark is all that I wish to make about this matter--viz. +this, all theories, ancient or modern, which deny the Resurrection, +are shattered by this one question, What became of Jesus Christ's +body? We take it as a plain historical fact, which the extremest +scepticism has never ventured to deny, that the grave of Christ was +empty. The trumped-up story of the guards sufficiently shows that. +When the belief of a resurrection began to be spread abroad, what +would have been easier for Pharisees and rulers than to have gone to +the sepulchre and rolled back the stone, and said, 'Look there! there +is your risen Man, lying mouldering, like all the rest of us.' They +did not do it. Why? Because the grave was empty. Where was the body? +They had it not, else they would have been glad to produce it. The +disciples had it not, for if they had, you come back to the +discredited and impossible theory that, having it, and knowing that +they were telling lies, they got up the story of the Resurrection. +Nobody believes that nowadays--nobody can believe it who looks at the +results of the preaching of this, by hypothesis, falsehood. 'Men do +not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles.' And whether the +disciples were right or wrong, there can be no question in the mind of +anybody who is not prepared to swallow impossibilities compared to +which miracles are easy, that the first disciples heartily believed +that Jesus Christ was risen from the dead. As I say, one confirmation +of the belief lies in the empty grave, and this question may be put to +anybody that says 'I do not believe in your Resurrection':--'What +became of the sacred body of Jesus Christ?' + +Now, note the way in which the announcement of this tremendous fact +was received. With blank bewilderment and terror on the part of these +women, followed by incredulity on the part of the Apostles and of the +other disciples. These things are on the surface of the narrative, and +very important they are. They plainly tell us that the first hearers +did not believe the testimony which they themselves call upon us to +believe. And, that being the state of mind of the early disciples on +the Resurrection day, what becomes of the modern theory, which seeks +to explain the fact of the early belief in the Resurrection by saying, +'Oh, they had worked themselves into such a fever of expectation that +Jesus Christ would rise from the dead that the wish was father to the +thought, and they said that He did because they expected that He +would'? No! they did not expect that He would; it was the very last +thing that they expected. They had not in their minds the soil out of +which such imaginations would grow. They were perfectly unprepared to +believe it, and, as a matter of fact, they did not believe until they +had seen. So I think that that one fact disposes of a great deal of +pestilent and shallow talk in these days that tries to deny the +Resurrection and to save the character of the men that witnessed it. + +IV. And now, lastly, note here the summons to grateful contemplation. + +'Behold the place whore they laid Him.' To these women the call was +simply one to come and see what would confirm the witness. But we may, +perhaps, permissibly turn it to a wider purpose, and say that it +summons us all to thankful, lowly, believing, glad contemplation of +that empty grave as the basis of all our hopes. Look upon it and upon +the Resurrection which it confirms to us as an historical fact. It +sets the seal of the divine approval on Christ's work, and declares +the divinity of His person and the all-sufficiency of His mighty +sacrifice. Therefore let us, laden with our sins and seeking for +reconciliation with God, and knowing how impossible it is for us to +bring an atonement or a ransom for ourselves, look upon that grave and +learn that Christ has offered the sacrifice which God has accepted, +and with which He is well pleased. + +'Behold the place where they laid Him,' and, looking upon it, let us +think of that Resurrection as a prophecy, with a bearing upon us and +upon all the dear ones that have trod the common road into the great +darkness. Christ has died, therefore they live; Christ lives, +therefore we shall never die. His grave was in a garden--a garden +indeed. The yearly miracle of the returning 'life re-orient out of +dust,' typifies the mightier miracle which He works for all that trust +in Him, when out of death He leads them into life. The graveyard has +become 'God's acre'; the garden in which the seed sown in weakness is +to be raised in power, and sown corruptible is to be raised in +incorruption. + +'Behold the place where they laid Him,' and in the empty grave read +the mystery of the Resurrection as the pattern and the symbol of our +higher life; that, 'like as Christ was raised from the dead by the +glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.' +Oh to partake more and more of that power of His Resurrection! + +In Christ's empty grave is planted the true 'tree of life, which is in +the midst of the "true" Paradise of God.' And we, if we truly trust +and humbly love that Lord, shall partake of its fruits, and shall one +day share the glories of His risen life in the heavens, even as we +share the power of it here and now. + + + +LOVE'S TRIUMPH OVER SIN + + +'Tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth before yon into +Galilee.--Mark xvi, 7. + +This prevailing tradition of Christian antiquity ascribes this Gospel +to John Mark, sister's son to Barnabas, and affirms that in composing +it he was in some sense the 'interpreter' of the Apostle Peter. Some +confirmation of this alleged connection between the Evangelist and the +Apostle may be gathered from the fact that the former is mentioned by +the latter as with him when he wrote his First Epistle. And, in the +Gospel itself, there are some little peculiarities which seem to look +in the same direction. A certain speciality is traceable here and +there, both in omissions of incidents in the Apostle's life recorded +by some of the other Evangelists, and in the addition of slight facts +concerning him unnoticed by them. + +Chief among these is the place which his name holds in this very +remarkable message, delivered by the angels to the women who came to +Christ's tomb on the Resurrection morning. Matthew, who also reports +the angels' words, has only 'tell His disciples.' Mark adds the words, +which must have come like wine and oil to the bruised heart of the +denier, 'tell His disciples _and Peter_.' To the others, it was of +little importance that his name should have been named then; to him it +was life from the dead, that he should have been singled out to +receive a word of forgiveness and a summons to meet his Lord; as if He +had said through His angel messengers--'I would see them all; but +whoever may stay behind, let not _him_ be absent from our glad meeting +again.' + +We find, too, that the same individualising of the Apostle, which led +to his being thus greeted in the first thoughts of his risen Lord, led +also to an interview with Him on that same day, about which not a +syllable of detail is found in any Gospel, though the fact was known +to the whole body of the disciples. For when the two friends who had +met Christ at Emmaus came back in the night with their strange +tidings, their eagerness to tell their joyful news is anticipated by +the eagerness of the brethren to tell _their_ wonderful story: 'The +Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.' Paul, too, gives +that meeting, when the Lord was alone with the penitent, the foremost +place in his list of the evidences of Christ's resurrection, 'He was +seen of Cephas.' What passed then is hidden from all eyes. The secrets +of that hour of deep contrition and healing love Peter kept secretly +curtained from sight, in the innermost chamber of his memory. But we +may be sure that then forgiveness was sought and granted, and the bond +that fastened him to his Lord was welded together again, where it had +snapped, and was the stronger because it had been broken, and at the +point of fracture. + +The man must be first re-united to his Saviour, before the Apostle can +be reinstated in his functions. In secrecy, not beheld by any, is the +personal act of restoration to love and friendship effected; and then +in public, before his brethren, who were concerned in his official +position, but not in his personal relation to his Lord, the +reappointment of the pardoned disciple to his apostleship takes place. +His sin had had a public aspect, and his threefold denial must, in so +far as it was an outward act, be effaced by his threefold confession. +Then he becomes again 'Peter'--not merely 'Simon Bar Jonas'; and, as +the Book of the Acts shows, never ceases to hear the divine +commissions, 'Feed My sheep,' 'Follow Me'; nor ever forgets the +lessons he had learned in these bitter hours of self-loathing, and in +the rapturous moments when again he saw his Lord. + +Putting all these things together--this message from Christ, the +interview which followed it, and the subsequent history of the +Apostle--we have a connected series of facts which may illustrate for +us, better than many dry words of mine could do, the triumph over sin +of the forgiving love of Christ. + +I. Notice, then, first, the loving message with which He beckons the +wanderer back. + +If we try to throw ourselves back into the Apostle's black thoughts +during the interval between his denial and the Resurrection morning, +we shall better feel what this love-token from the grave must have +been to him. His natural character, as well as his real love for his +Master, ensured that his lies could not long content him. They were +uttered so vehemently because they were uttered in spite of inward +resistance. Overpowered by fear, beaten down from all his +vain-glorious self-confidence by a woman-servant's sharp tongue and +mocking eye, he lied--and then came the rebound. The same impulsive +vehemence which had hurried him into the fault, would swing him back +again to quick penitence when the cock crew, and that Divine Face, +turning slowly from before the judgment-seat with the sorrow of +wounded love upon it, silently said, 'Remember.' We can fancy how that +bitter weeping, which began so soon, grew more passionate and more +bitter when the end came. We are singularly happy if we do not know +the pang of remembering some fault to the loved dead--some hasty word, +some momentary petulance, some selfish disregard of their happiness, +some sullen refusal of their tenderness. How the thought that it is +all irrevocable now embitters the remorse! How passionately we long +that we could have one of the moments again, which seemed so trivial +while we possessed them, that we might confess and be forgiven, and +atone! And this poor, warm-hearted, penitent denier had to think that +his very last act to the Lord whom he loved so well had been such an +act of cowardly shrinking from acknowledging Him; and that +henceforward his memory of that dear face was to be for ever saddened +by that last look! That they should have parted so! that that sad gaze +was to be the last he should ever have, and that _it_ was to haunt him +for the rest of his life! We can understand how heavily the hours +passed on that dreary Saturday. If, as seems probable, he was with +John in his home, whither the latter had led the mother of our Lord, +what a group were gathered there, each with a separate pang from the +common sorrow! + +Into this sorrow come the tidings that all was not over, that the +irrevocable was not irrevocable, that perhaps new days of loyal love +might still be granted, in which the doleful failure of the past might +be forgotten; and then, whether before or after his hurried rush to +the grave we need not here stay to inquire, follows the message of our +text, a word of forgiveness and reconciliation, sent by the Lord as +the herald and outrider of His own coming, to bring gladness and hope +ere He Himself draws near. + +Think of this message as a revelation of love that is stronger than +death. + +The news of Christ's resurrection must have struck awe, but not +necessarily joy, into the disciples' hearts. The dearest ones suffer +so solemn a change to our apprehensions when they pass into the grave, +that to many a man it would be maddening terror to meet those whom he +loved and still loves. So there must have been a spasm of fear even +among Christ's friends when they heard of Him as risen again, and much +confusing doubt as to what would be the amount of resemblance to His +old self. They probably dreaded to find Him far removed from their +familiar love, forgetful perhaps of much of the old life, with other +thoughts than before, with the atmosphere of the other world round +about Him, which glorified Him indeed, but separated Him too from +those whose grosser lungs could live only in this thick air. These +words of our text would go far to scatter all such fears. They link on +the future to the past, as if His first thought when He rose had been +to gather up again the dropped threads of their intercourse, and to +carry on their ancient concord and companionship as though no break +had been at all. For all the disciples, and especially for him who is +especially named, they confirm the identity of Christ's whole +dispositions towards them now, with those which He had before. Death +has not changed Him at all. Much has been done since He left them; the +world's history has been changed, but nothing which has happened has +had any effect on the reality of His love, and on the inmost reality +of their companionship. In these respects they are where they were, +and even Calvary and the tomb are but as a parenthesis. The old bonds +are all re-knit, and the junction is all but imperceptible. + +This is how we have to think of our Lord now, in His attitude towards +us. We, too, may have our share in that message, which came like +morning twilight before He shone upon the apostles' darkness. To them +it proclaimed a love which was stronger than death. To us it may +declare a love which is stronger than all change of circumstances. He +is no more parted from us by the Throne than from them by the Cross. +He descended into 'the lower parts of the earth,' and His love lived +on, and so it does now, when He has 'ascended up far above all +heavens.' Love knows no difference of place, conditions, or functions. +From out of the blazing heart of the Glory the same tender face looks +that bent over sick men's pallets, and that turned on Peter in the +judgment-hall. The hand that holds the sceptre of the universe is the +hand that was nailed to the Cross, and that was stretched out to that +same Peter when he was ready to sink. The breast that is girt with the +golden girdle of priestly sovereignty is the same tender home on which +John's happy head rested in placid contentment. All the love that ever +flowed from Christ flows from Him still. To Him, 'whose nature and +whose name are Love,' it matters nothing whether He is in the house at +Bethany, or in the upper room, or hanging on the Cross, or lying in +the grave, or risen from the dead, or seated on the right hand of God. +He is the same everywhere and always. 'I have loved thee with an +everlasting love.' + +Again, this message is the revelation of a love that is not turned +away by our sinful changes. + +Peter may have thought that he had, with his own words, broken the +bond between him and his Lord. He had renounced his allegiance; was +the renunciation to be accepted? He had said, 'I am not one of them'; +did Christ answer, 'Be it so; one of them thou shalt no more be'? The +message from the women's lips settled the question, and let him feel +that, though his grasp of Christ had relaxed, Christ's grasp of him +had not, He might change, he might cease for a time to prize his +Lord's love, he might cease either to be conscious of it or to wish +for it; but that love could not change. It was unaffected by his +unfaithfulness, even as it had not been originated by his fidelity. +Repelled, it still lingered beside him. Disowned, it still asserted +its property in him. Being reviled, it blessed; being persecuted, it +endured; being defamed, it entreated; and, patient through all wrongs +and changes, it loved on till it had won back the erring heart, and +could fill it with the old blessedness again. + +And is not that same miracle of long-enduring love presented before +every one of us, as in Christ's heart for us? True, our sin interferes +with our sense of it, and modifies the form in which it must deal with +us; but, however real and disastrous may be the power of our evil in +troubling the communion of love between us and our Lord, and in +compelling Him to smite before He binds up, never forget that our sin +is utterly impotent to turn away the tide that sets to us from the +heart of Christ. Earthborn vapours may hang about the low levels, and +turn the gracious sun himself into a blood-red ball of lurid fire; but +they reach only a little way up, and high above their region is the +pure blue, and the blessed light pours down upon the upper surface of +the white mist, and thins away its opaqueness, and dries up its +clinging damp, and at last parts it into filmy fragments that float +out of sight, and the dwellers on the green earth see the sun, which +was always there even when they could not behold it, and which, by +shining on, has conquered all the obstructions that veiled its beams. +Sin is mighty, but one thing sin cannot do, and that is to make Christ +cease to love us. Sin is mighty, but one other thing sin cannot do, +and that is to prevent Christ from manifesting His love to us sinners, +that we may learn to love and so may cease to sin. Christ's love is +not at the beck and call of our fluctuating affections. It has its +source deeper than in the springs in our hearts, namely in the depths +of His own nature. It is not the echo or the answer to ours, but ours +is the echo to His; and that being so, our changes do not reach to it, +any more than earth's seasons affect the sun. For ever and ever He +loves. Whilst we forget Him, He remembers us. Whilst we repay Him with +neglect or with hate, He still loves. If we believe not, He still +abides faithful to His merciful purpose, and, in spite of all that we +can do, will not deny Himself, by ceasing to be the incarnate +Patience, the perfect Love. He is Himself the great ensample of that +'charity' which His Apostle painted; He is not easily provoked; He is +not soon angry; He beareth all things; He hopeth all things. We cannot +get away from the sweep of His love, wander we ever so far. The child +may struggle in the mother's arms, and beat the breast that shelters +it with its little hand; but it neither hurts nor angers that gentle +bosom, nor loosens the firm but loving grasp that holds it fast. He +carries, as a nurse does, His wayward children, and, blessed be His +name! His arm is too strong for us to shake it off, His love too +divine for us to dam it back. + +And still further, here we see a love which sends a special message +because of special sin. + +If one was to be singled out from the little company to receive by +name the summons of the Lord to meet Him in Galilee, we might have +expected it to have been that faithful friend who stood beneath the +Cross, till his Lord's command sent him to his own home; or that +weeping mother whom he then led away with him; or one of the two who +had been turned from secret disciples into confessors by the might of +their love, and had laid His body with reverent care in the grave in +the garden. Strange reward for true love that they should be merged in +the general message, and strange recompense for treason and cowardice +that Peter's name should be thus distinguished! Is sin, then, a +passport to His deeper love? Is the murmur true after all, 'Thou never +gavest me a kid, but as soon as this thy son is come, which hath +devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted +calf'? Yes, and no. No, inasmuch as the unbroken fellowship hath in it +calm and deep joys which the returning prodigal does not know, and all +sin lays waste and impoverishes the soul. Yes, inasmuch as He, who +knows all our needs, knows that the denier needs a special treatment +to bring him back to peace, and that the further a poor heart has +strayed from Him, the mightier must be the forthputting of manifested +love, if it is to be strong enough to travel across all the dreary +wastes, and draw back again, to its orbit among its sister planets, +the wandering star. The depth of our need determines the strength of +the restorative power put forth. They who had not gone away would come +at the call addressed to them all, but he who had sundered himself +from them and from the Lord would remain in his sad isolation, unless +some special means were used to bring him back. The more we have +sinned, the less can we believe in Christ's love; and so the more we +have sinned, the more marvellous and convincing does He make the +testimony and operations of His love to us. It is ever to the poor +bewildered sheep, lying panting in the wilderness, that He comes. +Among His creatures, the race which has sinned is that which receives +the most stupendous proof of the seeking divine love. Among men, the +publicans and the harlots, the denying Peters and the persecuting +Pauls, are they to whom the most persuasive entreaties of His love are +sent, and on whom the strongest powers of His grace are brought to +bear. Our sin cannot check the flow of His love. More marvellous +still, our sin occasions a mightier burst of the manifestation of His +love, for eyes blinded by selfishness and carelessness, or by fear and +despair, need to see a brightness beyond the noonday sun, ere they can +behold the amazing truth of His love to them; and what they need, they +get. 'Go, tell Peter.' + +Here, too, is the revelation of a love which singles out a sinful man +by name. + +Christ does not deal with us in the mass, but soul by soul. Our finite +minds have to lose the individual in order to grasp the class. Our +eyes see the wood far off on the mountain-side, but not the single +trees, nor each fluttering leaf. We think of 'the race'--the twelve +hundred millions that live to-day, and the uncounted crowds that have +been, but the units in that inconceivable sum are not separate in our +view. But He does not generalise so. He has a clear individualising +knowledge of each; each separately has a place in His mind or heart. +To each He says, 'I know thee by name.' He loves the world, because He +loves every single soul with a distinct love. And His messages of +blessing are as specific and individualising as the love from which +they come. He speaks to each of us as truly as He singled out Peter +here, as truly as when His voice from heaven said, 'Saul, Saul.' +English names are on His lips as really as Jewish ones. He calls to +_thee_ by _thy_ name--thou hast a share in His love. To thee the call +to trust Him is addressed, and to thee forgiveness, help, purity, life +eternal are offered. Thou hast sinned; that only infuses deeper +tenderness into His beseeching tones. Thou hast gone further front Him +than some of thy fellows; that only makes His recovering energy +greater. Thou hast denied His name; that only makes Him speak thine +with more persuasive invitation. + +Look, then, at this one instance of a love stronger than death, +mightier than sin, sending its special greeting to the denier, and +learn how deep the source, how powerful the flow, how universal the +sweep, of that river of the love of God, which streams to us through +the channel of Christ His Son. + +II. Notice, secondly, the secret meeting between our Lord and the +Apostle. + +That is the second stage in the victorious conflict of divine love +with man's sin. As I have said, that interview took place on the day +of the Resurrection, apparently before our Lord joined the two +sorrowful travellers to Emmaus, and certainly before He appeared to +the company gathered by night in the closed chamber. The fact was well +known, for it is referred to by Luke and by Paul, but nothing beyond +the fact seems to have been known, or at all events is made public by +them. All this is very significant and very beautiful. + +What tender consideration there is in meeting Peter alone, before +seeing him in the companionship of the others! How painful would have +been the rush of the first emotions of shame awakened by Christ's +presence, if their course had been checked by any eye but His own +beholding them! How impossible it would have then been to have poured +out all the penitent confessions with which his heart must have been +full, and how hard it would have been to have met for the first time, +and not to have poured them out! With most loving insight, then, into +the painful embarrassment, and dread of unsympathising standers-by, +which must have troubled the contrite Apostle, the Lord is careful to +give him the opportunity of weeping his fill on His own bosom, +unrestrained by any thought of others, and will let him sob out his +contrition to His own ear alone. Then the meeting in the upper chamber +will be one of pure joy to Peter, as to all the rest. The emotions +which he has in common with them find full play, in that hour when all +are reunited to their Lord. The experience which belongs to himself +alone has its solitary hour of unrecorded communion. The first to whom +He, who is 'separate from sinners,' appeared was 'Mary Magdalene, out +of whom He had cast seven devils.' The next were the women who bore +this message of forgiveness; and probably the next was the one among +all the company who had sinned most grievously. So wondrous is the +order of His preferences, coming ever nearest to those who need Him +most. + +And may we not regard this secret interview as representing for us +what is needed on our part to make Christ's forgiving love our own? +There must be the personal contact of my soul with the loving heart of +Christ, the individual act of my own coming to Him, and, as the old +Puritans used to say,' my transacting' with Him. Like the ocean of the +atmosphere, His love encompasses me, and in it I 'live, and move, and +have my being.' But I must let it flow into my spirit, and stir the +dormant music of ray soul. I can shut it out, sealing my heart +love-tight against it. I do shut it out, unless by my own conscious, +personal act I yield myself to Him, unless by my own faith I come to +Him, and meet Him, secretly and really as did the penitent Apostle, +whom the message, that proclaimed the love of his Lord, emboldened to +meet the Lord who loved, and by His own lips to be assured of +forgiveness and friendship. It is possible to stumble at noontide, as +in the dark. A man may starve, outside of barns filled with plenty, +and his lips may be parched with thirst, though he is within sight of +a broad river flowing in the sunshine. So a soul may stiffen into the +death of self and sin, even though the voice that wakes the dead to a +life of love be calling to it. Christ and His grace are yours if you +will, but the invitations and beseechings of His mercy, the constant +drawings of His love, the all-embracing offers of His forgiveness, may +be all in vain, if you do not grasp them and hold them fast by the +hand of faith. + +That personal act must be preceded by the message of His mighty love. +Ever He sends such messages as heralds of His coming, just as He +prepared the way for His own approach to the Apostle, by the words of +our text. Our faith must follow His word. Our love can only be called +forth by the manifestation of His. But His message must be followed by +that personal act, else His word is spoken in vain, and there is no +real union between our need and His fulness, nor any cleansing contact +of His grace with our foulness. + +Mark, too, the intensely individual character of that act of faith by +which a man accepts Christ's grace. Friends and companions may bring +the tidings of the risen Lord's loving heart, but the actual closing +with the Lord's mercy must be done by myself, alone with Him. + +As if there were not another soul on earth, I and He must meet, and in +solitude deep as that of death, each man for himself must yield to +Incarnate Love, and receive eternal life. The flocks and herds, the +wives and children, have all to be sent away, and Jacob must be left +alone, before the mysterious Wrestler comes whose touch of fire lames +the whole nature of sin and death, whose inbreathed power strengthens +to hold Him fast till He speaks a blessing, who desires to be +overcome, and makes our yielding to Him our prevailing with Him. As +one of the old mystics called prayer 'the flight of the lonely man to +the only God,' so we may call the act of faith the meeting of the soul +alone with Christ alone. Do you know anything of that personal +communion? Have you, your own very self, by your own penitence for +your own sin, and your own thankful faith in the Love which thereby +becomes truly yours, isolated yourself from all companionship, and +joined yourself to Christ? Then, through that narrow passage where we +can only walk singly, you will come into a large place. The act of +faith, which separates us from all men, unites us for the first time +in real brotherhood, and they who, one by one, come to Jesus and meet +Him alone, next find that they 'are come to the city of God, to an +innumerable company, to the festal choirs of angels, to the Church of +the First-born, to the spirits of just men made perfect.' + +III. Notice, finally, the gradual cure of the pardoned Apostle. + +He was restored to his office, as we read in the supplement to John's +Gospel. In that wonderful conversation, full as it is of allusions to +Peter's fall, Christ asks but one question, 'Lovest thou Me?' That +includes everything. 'Hast thou learned the lesson of My mercy? hast +thou responded to My love? then thou art fit for My work, and +beginning to be perfected.' So the third stage in the triumph of +Christ's love over man's sin is, when we, beholding that love flowing +towards us, and accepting it by faith, respond to it with our own, and +are able to say, 'Thou knowest that I love Thee.' + +The all-embracing question is followed by an equally comprehensive +command, 'Follow thou Me,' a two-worded compendium of all morals, a +precept which naturally results from love, and certainly leads to +absolute perfectness. With love to Christ for motive, and Christ +Himself for pattern, and following Him for our one duty, all things +are possible, and the utter defeat of sin in us is but a question of +time. + +And the certainty, as well as the gradual slowness, of that victory, +are well set forth by the future history of the Apostle. We know how +his fickleness passed away, and how his vehement character was calmed +and consolidated into resolved persistency, and how his love of +distinction and self-confidence were turned in a new direction, obeyed +a divine impulse, and became powers. We read how he started to the +front; how he guided the Church in the first stage of its development; +how whenever there was danger he was in the van, and whenever there +was work his hand was first on the plough; how he bearded and braved +rulers and councils; how--more difficult still for him--he lay quietly +in prison sleeping like a child, between his guards, on the night +before his execution; how--most difficult of all--he acquiesced in +Paul's superiority; and, if he still needed to be withstood and +blamed, could recognise the wisdom of the rebuke, and in his calm old +age could speak well of the rebuker as his 'beloved brother Paul.' Nor +was the cure a change in the great lines of his character. These +remain the same, the characteristic excellences possible to them are +brought out, the defects are curbed and cast out. The 'new man' is the +'old man' with a new direction, obeying a new impulse, but retaining +its individuality. Weaknesses become strengths; the sanctified +character is the old character sanctified; and it is still true that +'every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and +another after that.' + +It is very instructive to observe how deeply the experiences of his +fall, and of Christ's mercy then, had impressed themselves on Peter's +memory, and how constantly they were present with him all through his +after-life. His Epistles are full of allusions which show this. For +instance, to go a step further back in his life, he remembered that +the Lord had said to him, 'Thou art Peter,' 'a stone,' and that his +pride in that name had helped to his rash confidence, and so to his +sin. Therefore, when he is cured of these, he takes pleasure in +sharing his honour with his brethren, and writes, 'Ye also, as living +stones, are built up.' He remembered the contempt for others and the +trust in himself with which he had said, 'Though all should forsake +Thee, yet will not I'; and, taught what must come of that, he writes, +'Be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud, and giveth +grace to the humble.' He remembered how hastily he had drawn his sword +and struck at Malchus, and he writes, 'If when ye do well and suffer +for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.' He +remembered how he had been surprised into denial by the questions of a +sharp-tongued servant-maid, and he writes, 'Be ready always to give an +answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in +you, with meekness.' He remembered how the pardoning love of his Lord +had honoured him unworthy, with the charge, 'Feed My sheep,' and he +writes, ranking himself as one of the class to whom he speaks--'The +elders I exhort, who am also an elder ... feed the flock of God.' He +remembered that last command, which sounded ever in his spirit, +'Follow thou Me,' and discerning now, through all the years that lay +between, the presumptuous folly and blind inversion of his own work +and his Master's which had lain in his earlier question, 'Why cannot I +follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for Thy sake'--he writes to +all, 'Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye +should follow His steps,' + +So well had he learned the lesson of his own sin, and of that immortal +love which had beckoned him back, to peace at its side and purity from +its hand. Let us learn how the love of Christ, received into the +heart, triumphs gradually but surely over all sin, transforms +character, turning even its weakness into strength, and so, from the +depths of transgression and very gates of hell, raises men to God. + +To us all this divine message speaks. Christ's love is extended to us; +no sin can stay it; no fall of ours can make Him despair. He will not +give us up. He waits to be gracious. This same Peter once asked, 'How +oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?' And the +answer, which commanded unwearied brotherly forgiveness, revealed +inexhaustible divine pardon--'I say not unto thee until seven times, +but until seventy times seven.' The measure of the divine mercy, which +is the pattern of ours, is completeness ten times multiplied by +itself; we know not the numbers thereof. 'Let the wicked forsake his +way ... and let him return unto the Lord, for He will have mercy upon +him; and to our God, for He will multiply to pardon.' + + + +'FIRST TO MARY' + + +'... He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast +seven devils.'--Mark xvl. 9. + +A great pile of legend has been built on the one or two notices of +Mary Magdalene in Scripture. Art, poetry, and philanthropy have +accepted and inculcated these, till we almost feel as if they were +bits of the Bible. But there is not the shadow of a foundation for +them. She has generally been identified with the woman in Luke's +Gospel 'who was a sinner.' There is no reason at all for that +identification. On the contrary, there is a reason against it, in the +fact that immediately after that narrative she is named as one of the +little band of women who ministered to Jesus. + +Here is all that we know of her: that Christ cast out the seven +devils; that she became one of the Galilean women, including the +mothers of Jesus and of John, who 'ministered to Him of their +substance'; that she was one of the Marys at the Cross and saw the +interment; that she came to the sepulchre, heard the angel's message, +went to John with it, came back and stood without at the sepulchre, +saw the Lord, and, having heard His voice and clasped His feet, +returned to the little company, and then she drops out of the +narrative and is no more named. That is all. It is enough. There are +large lessons in this fact which Mark (or whoever wrote this chapter) +gives with such emphasis, 'He appeared first to Mary Magdalene.' + +Think what the Resurrection is--how stupendous and wonderful! Who +_might_ have been expected to be its witnesses? But see! the first eye +that beholds is this poor sin-stained woman's. What a distance between +the two extremes of her experience--devil-ridden and gazing on the +Risen Saviour! + +I. An example of the depth to which the soul of man can descend. + +This fact of possession is very obscure and strange. I doubt whether +we can understand it. But I cannot see how we can bring it down to the +level of mere disease without involving Jesus Christ in the charge of +consciously aiding in upholding what, if it be not an awful truth, is +one of the grimmest, ghastliest superstitions that ever terrified men. + +In all ways He gives in His adhesion to the fact of demoniacal +possession. He speaks to the demons, and _of_ them, rebukes them, +holds conversations with them, charges them to be silent. He +distinguishes between possession and diseases. 'Heal the sick, cleanse +the lepers, raise the dead'--these commands bring together forms of +sickness running its course; why should He separate from them His next +command and endowment, 'cast out devils,' unless because He regarded +demoniacal possession as separate from sickness in any form? He sees +in His casting of them out the triumph over the personal power of +evil. 'I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.' But while the +fact seems to be established, the thing is only known to us by its +signs. These were madness, melancholy, sometimes dumbness, sometimes +fits and convulsions; the man was dominated by an alien power; there +was a strange, awful double consciousness; 'We are many,' 'My name is +Legion.' There was absolute control by this alien power, which like +some parasitical worm had rooted itself within the poor wretch, and +there lived upon his blood and life juices--only that it lived in the +spirit, dominated the will, and controlled the nature. + +Probably there had always been the yielding to the impulse to sin of +some sort, or at any rate the man had opened the door for the devil to +come in. + +This woman had been in the deepest depths of this awful abyss. 'Seven' +is the numerical symbol of completeness, so she had been utterly +devil-ridden. And she had once been a little child in some Galilean +home, and parents had seen her budding beauty and early, gentle, +womanly ways. And now, think of the havoc! the distorted face, the +foul words, the blasphemous thoughts! + +And is this worse than our sinful case? Are not the devils that +possess us as real and powerful? + +II. An example of the cleansing power of Christ. + +We know nothing about how she had come under His merciful eye, nor any +of the circumstances of her healing, but only that this woman, with +whom the serpent was so closely intertwined, as in some pictures of +Eve's temptation, was not beyond His reach, and was set free. Note-- + +There is _no_ condition of human misery which Christ cannot alleviate. + +None is so sunk in sin that He cannot redeem them. + +For all in the world there is hope. + +Look on the extremest forms of sin. We can regard them all with the +assurance that Christ can cleanse them--prostitutes, thieves, +respectable worldlings. + +None is so bad as to have lost His love. + +None is so bad as to be excluded from the purpose of His death. + +None is so bad as to be beyond the reach of His cleansing power. + +None has wandered so far that he cannot come back. + +Think of the earliest believers--a thief, a 'woman that was a sinner,' +this Mary, a Zacchaeus, a persecuting Paul, a rude, rough jailer, etc. + +Remember Paul's description of a class of the Corinthian saints--'such +were some of you.' + +As long as man is man, so long is God ready to receive him back. There +is no place where sun does not shine. No heart is given over to +irremediable hardness. None ever comes to Christ in vain. + +The Saviour is greater than all our sins. + +The deliverance is more than sufficient for the worst. + +'God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.' + +Ezekiel's vision of dry bones. + +III. An example of how the remembrance of past and pardoned sin may be +a blessing. + +Mary evidently tried always to be beside Him. The cure had been +perfect, but perhaps there was a tremulous fear, as in the man that +prayed 'that he might be with Him.' + +And so, look how all the notices give us one picture of a heart set on +Him. There were-- + +(a) Consciousness of weakness, that made her long for His presence as +a security. + +(b) Deep love, that made her long for His presence as a joy. + +(c) Thankful gratitude, that made her long for opportunities to serve +Him. + +And this is what the remembrance of Jesus should be to us. + +IV. An example of how the most degraded may rise highest in fellowship +with Christ. + +'First' to her, because she needed Him and longed for Him. + +Now this is but an illustration of the great principle that by God's +mercy sin when it is hated and pardoned may be made to subserve our +highest joys. + +It is not sin which separates us from God, but it is unpardoned sin. +Not that the more we sin the more we are fit for Him, for all sin is +loss. There are ways in which even forgiven and repented sin may +injure a man. But there is nothing in it to hinder our coming close to +the Saviour and enjoying all the fulness of His love, so that if we +use it rightly it may become a help. + +If it leads us to that clinging of which we have just spoken, then we +shall come nearer to God for it. + +The divine presence is always given to those who long for it. + +Sin may help to kindle such longings. + +He who has been almost dead in the wilderness will keep near the +guide. The man that has been starved with cold in Arctic night will +prize the glory and grace of sunshine in fairer lands. + +Instances in Church history--Paul, Augustine, Bunyan. + +'Publicans and harlots go into the kingdom before you.' + +The noblest illustration is in heaven, where men lead the song of +Redemption. + +God uses sin as a black background on which the brightest rainbow +tints of His mercy are displayed. + +You can come to this Saviour whatever you have been. I say to no man, +'Sin, for it does not matter.' But I do say, 'If you are conscious of +sin, deep, dark, damning, that makes no barrier between you and God. +You may come all the nearer for it if you will let your past teach you +to long for His love and to lean on Him.' + +'He appeared first to Mary Magdalene,' and those who stand nearest the +throne and lead the anthems of heaven, and look up with undazzled +angels' faces to the God of their joy, whose name blazes on their +foreheads, all these were guilty, sinful men. But they 'have washed +their robes and made them white.' There will be in heaven some of the +worst sinners that ever lived on earth. There will not be one out of +whom He has not 'cast seven devils.' + + + +THE WORLD-WIDE COMMISSION + + +'Every creature.'--Mark xvi. 15. + +The missionary enterprise has been put on many bases. People do not +like commandments, but yet it is a great relief and strength to come +back to one, and answer all questions with 'He bids me!' + +Now, these words of our Lord open up the whole subject of the +Universality of Christianity. + +I. The divine audacity of Christianity. + +Take the scene. A mere handful of men, whether 'the twelve' or 'the +five hundred brethren' is immaterial. + +How they must have recoiled when they heard the sweeping command, 'Go +ye into all the world'! It is like the apparent absurdity of Christ's +quiet word: 'They need not depart; give ye them to eat,' when the only +visible stock of food was 'five loaves and two small fishes.' As on +that occasion, so in this final commandment they had to take Christ's +presence into account. 'I am with you.' + +So note the obviously world-wide extent of Christ's claim of dominion. +He had come into the world, to begin with, that 'the world through Him +might be saved.' 'If any man thirst, let him come.' The parables of +the kingdom of heaven are planned on the same grand scale. 'I will +draw all men unto Me.' It cannot be disputed that Jesus 'lived and +moved and had His being' in this vision of universal dominion. + +Here emerges the great contrast of Christianity with Judaism. Judaism +was intolerant, as all merely monotheistic faiths must be, and sure of +future universality, but it was not proselytising--not a missionary +faith. Nor is it so to-day. It is exclusive and unprogressive still. + +Mohammedanism in its fiery youth, because monotheistic was aggressive, +but it enforced outward profession only, and left the inner life +untouched. So it did not scruple to persecute as well as to +proselytise. Christianity is alone in calmly setting forth a universal +dominion, and in seeking it by the Word alone. 'Put up thy sword into +its sheath.' + +II. The foundations of this bold claim. + +Christ's sole and singular relation to the whole race. There are +profound truths embodied in this relation. + +(a) There is implied the adequacy of Christ for all. He is _for_ all, +because He is the only and all-sufficient Saviour. By His death He +offered satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. 'Look unto Me, +and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is +none else.' 'Neither is there 'salvation in any other, for there is +none other name,' etc. + +(b) The divine purpose of mercy for all. 'God will have all men to be +saved, and to come to a knowledge of the truth.' + +(c) The adaptation of the Gospel message to all. It deals with all men +as on one level. It addresses universal humanity. 'Unto you, O men, I +call, and My voice is to the sons of men.' It speaks the same language +to all sorts of men, to all stages of society, and in all ages. +Christianity has no esoteric doctrine, no inner circle of the +'initiated.' Consequently it introduces a new notion of privileged +classes. + +Note the history of Christianity in its relation to slavery, and to +inferior and down-trodden races. Christianity has no belief in the +existence of 'irreclaimable outcasts,' but proclaims and glories in +the possibility of winning any and all to the love which makes +godlike. There is one Saviour, and so there is only one Gospel for +'all the world.' + +III. Its vindication in facts. + +The history of the diffusion of the Gospel at first is significant. +Think of the varieties of civilisation it approached and absorbed. See +how it overcame the bonds of climate and language, etc. How unlike the +Europe of to-day is to the Europe of Paul's time! + +In this twentieth century Christianity does not present the marks of +an expiring superstition. + +Note, further, that the history of missions vindicates the world-wide +claim of the Gospel. Think of the wonderful number of converts in the +first fifty years of gospel preaching. The Roman empire was +Christianised in three centuries! Recall the innumerable testimonies +down to date; _e.g._ the absolute abandonment of idols in the South +Sea Islands, the weakening of caste in India, the romance of missions +in Central Africa, etc. etc. + +The character, too, of modern converts is as good as was that of +Paul's. The gospel in this century produces everywhere fruits like +those which it brought forth in Asia and Europe in the first century. +The success has been in every field. None has been abandoned as +hopeless. The Moravians in Greenland. The Hottentots. The Patagonians +(Darwin's testimony). Christianity has constantly appealed to all +classes of society. Not many 'noble,' but some in every age and land. + +IV. The practical duty. + +'Go ye and preach.' The matter is literally left in our hands. Jesus +has returned to the throne. Ere departing He announces the distinct +command. There it is, and it is age-long in its application,--'Preach!' +that is the one gospel weapon. Tell of the name and the work +of 'God manifest in the flesh.' First 'evangelise,' then 'disciple the +nations.' Bring _to_ Christ, then build up _in_ Christ. There are no +other orders. Let there be boundless trust in the divine gospel, and +it will vindicate itself in every mission-field. Let us think +imperially of 'Christ and the Church.' Our anticipations of success +should be world-wide in their sweep. + +As when they kindle the festival lamps round the dome of St. Peter's, +there is a first twinkling spot here and another there, and gradually +they multiply till they outline the whole in an unbroken ring of +light, so 'one by one' men will enter the kingdom, till at last 'every +knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.' + + 'He shall reign from shore to shore. + With illimitable sway.' + + + +THE ENTHRONED CHRIST + + +'So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was received up into +heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.'--Mark xvi. 19. + +How strangely calm and brief is this record of so stupendous an event! +Do these sparing and reverent words sound to you like the product of +devout imagination, embellishing with legend the facts of history? To +me their very restrainedness, calmness, matter-of-factness, if I may +so call it, are a strong guarantee that they are the utterance of an +eyewitness, who verily saw what he tells so simply. There is something +sublime in the contrast between the magnificence and almost +inconceivable grandeur of the thing communicated, and the quiet words, +so few, so sober, so wanting in all detail, in which it is told. + +That stupendous fact of Christ sitting at the right hand of God is the +one that should fill the present for us all, even as the Cross should +fill the past, and the coming for Judgment should fill the future. So +for us the one central thought about the present, in its loftiest +relations, should be the throned Christ at God's right hand. It is to +that thought of the session of Jesus by the side of the Majesty of the +Heavens that I wish to turn now, to try to bring out the profound +teaching that is in it, and the practical lessons which it suggests. I +desire to emphasise very briefly four points, and to see, in Christ's +sitting at the right hand, the revelation of these things:--The +exalted Man, the resting Saviour, the interceding Priest, and the +ever-active Helper. + +I. First, then, in that solemn and wondrous fact of Christ's sitting +at the right hand of God, we have the exalted Man. + +We are taught to believe, according to His own words, that in His +ascension Christ was but returning whence He came, and entering into +the 'glory which He had with the Father before the world was.' And +that impression of a return to His native and proper abode is strongly +conveyed to us by the narrative of His ascension. Contrast it, for +instance, with the narrative of Elijah's rapture, or with the brief +reference to Enoch's translation. The one was taken by God up into a +region and a state which he had not formerly traversed; the other was +borne by a fiery chariot to the heavens; but Christ slowly sailed +upwards, as it were, by His own inherent power, returning to His +abode, and ascending up where He was before. + +But whilst this is one side of the profound fact, there is another +side. What was new in Christ's return to His Father's bosom? This, +that He took His Manhood with Him. It was 'the Everlasting Son of the +Father,' the Eternal Word, which from the beginning 'was with God and +was God,' that came down from heaven to earth, to declare the Father; +but it was the Incarnate Word, the Man Christ Jesus, that went back +again. This most blessed and wonderful truth is taught with emphasis +in His own words before the Council, 'Ye shall see the Son of _Man_ +sitting on the right hand of power.' Christ, then, to-day, bears a +human body, not, indeed, the 'body of His humiliation,' but the body +of His glory, which is none the less a true corporeal frame, and +necessarily requires a locality. His ascension, whithersoever He may +have gone, was the true carrying of a real humanity, complete in all +its parts, Body, Soul, and Spirit, up to the very throne of God. + +Where that locality is it is bootless to speculate. Scripture says +that He ascended up 'far above all heavens'; or, as the Epistle to the +Hebrews has it, in the proper translation, the High Priest 'is passed +_through_ the heavens,' as if all this visible material creation was +rent asunder in order that He might soar yet higher beyond its limits +wherein reign mutation and decay. But wheresoever that place may be, +there is a place in which now, with a human body as well as a human +spirit, Jesus is sitting 'at the right hand of God.' + +Let us thankfully think how, in the profound language of Scripture, +'the Forerunner is for us entered'; how, in some mysterious manner, of +which we can but dimly conceive, that entrance of Jesus in His +complete humanity into the highest heavens is the preparation of a +place for us. It seems as if, without His presence there, there were +no entrance for human nature within that state, and no power in a +human foot to tread upon the crystal pavements of the celestial City, +but where He is, there the path is permeable, and the place native, to +all who love and trust Him. + +We may stand, therefore, with these disciples, and looking upwards as +the cloud receives Him out of our sight, our faith follows Him, still +our Brother, still clothed with humanity, still wearing a bodily +frame; and we say, as we lose Him from our vision, 'What is man'? +Capable of being lifted to the most intimate participation in the +glories of divinity, and though he be poor and weak and sinful here, +yet capable of union and assimilation with the Majesty that is on +high. For what Christ's Body is, the bodies of them that love and +serve Him shall surely be, and He, the Forerunner, is entered there +for us; that we too, in our turn, may pass into the light, and walk in +the full blaze of the divine glory; as of old the children in the +furnace were, unconsumed, because companioned by 'One like unto the +Son of Man.' + +The exalted Christ, sitting at the right hand of God, is the Pattern +of what is possible for humanity, and the prophecy and pledge of what +will be actual for all that love Him and bear the image of Him upon +earth, that they may be conformed to the image of His glory, and be +with Him where He is. What firmness, what reality, what solidity this +thought of the exalted bodily Christ gives to the else dim and vague +conceptions of a Heaven beyond the stars and beyond our present +experience! I believe that no doctrine of a future life has strength +and substance enough to survive the agonies of our hearts when we part +from our dear ones, the fears of our spirits when we look into the +unknown, inane future for ourselves; except only this which says +Heaven is Christ and Christ is Heaven, and points to Him and says, +'Where He is, there and that also shall His servants be.' + +II. Now, secondly, look at Christ's sitting at the right hand of God +as presenting to our view the Resting Saviour. + +That session expresses the idea of absolute repose after sore +conflict. It is the same thought which is expressed in those solemn +Egyptian colossal statues of deified conquerors, elevated to +mysterious union with their gods, and yet men still, sitting before +their temples in perfect stillness, with their mighty hands lying +quiet on their restful limbs; with calm faces out of which toil and +passion and change seem to have melted, gazing out with open eyes as +over a silent, prostrate world. So, with the Cross behind, with all +the agony and weariness of the arena, the dust and the blood of the +struggle, left beneath, He 'sitteth at the right hand of God the +Father Almighty.' + +The rest of the Christ after His Cross is parallel with and carries +the same meaning as the rest of God after the Creation. Why do we read +'He rested on the seventh day from all His works'? Did the Creative +Arm grow weary? Was there toil for the divine nature in the making of +a universe? Doth He not speak and it is done? Is not the calm, +effortless forth-putting of His will the cause and the means of +Creation? Does any shadow of weariness steal over that life which +lives and is not exhausted? Does the bush consume in burning? Surely +not. He rested from His works, not because He needed to recuperate +strength after action by repose, but because the works were perfect, +and in sign and token that His ideal was accomplished, and that no +more was needed to be done. + +And, in like manner, the Christ rests after His Cross, not because He +needed repose even after that terrible effort, or was panting after +His race, and so had to sit there to recover, but in token that His +work was finished and perfected, that all which He had come to do was +done; and in token, likewise, that the Father, too, beheld and +accepted the finished work. Therefore, the session of Christ at the +right hand of God is the proclamation from Heaven of what He cried +with His last dying breath upon the Cross: 'It is finished!' It is the +declaration that the world has had all done for it that Heaven can do +for it. It is the declaration that all which is needed for the +regeneration of humanity has been lodged in the very heart of the +race, and that henceforward all that is required is the evolving and +the development of the consequences of that perfect work which Christ +offered upon the Cross. So the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews +contrasts the priests who stood 'daily ministering and offering +oftentimes the same sacrifices' which 'can never take away sin,' with +'this Man who, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, +sat down at the right hand of God'; testifying thereby that His Cross +is the complete, sufficient, perpetual atonement and satisfaction for +the sins of the whole world. So we have to look back to that past as +interpreted by this present, to that Cross as commented upon by this +Throne, and to see in it the perfect work which any human soul may +grasp, and which all human souls need, for their acceptance and +forgiveness. The Son of Man set at the right hand of God is Christ's +declaration, 'I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do,' +and is also God's declaration, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am +well pleased.' + +III. Once more, we see here, in this great fact of Christ sitting at +the right hand of God, the interceding Priest. + +So the Scripture declares. The Epistle to the Hebrews over and over +again reiterates that thought that we have a Priest who has 'passed +into the heavens,' there to 'appear in the presence of God for us.' +And the Apostle Paul, in that great linked climax in the eighth +chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, has it, 'Christ that died, yea +rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who +also maketh intercession for us.' There are deep mysteries connected +with that thought of the intercession of Christ. It does not mean that +the divine heart needs to be won to love and pity. It does not mean +that in any mere outward and formal fashion Christ pleads with God, +and softens and placates the Infinite and Eternal love of the Father +in the heavens. It, at least, plainly means this, that He, our Saviour +and Sacrifice, is for ever in the presence of God; presenting His own +blood as an element in the divine dealing with us, modifying the +incidence of the divine law, and securing through His own merits and +intercession the outflow of blessings upon our heads and hearts. It is +not a complete statement of Christ's work for us that He died for us. +He died that He might have somewhat to offer. He lives that He may be +our Advocate as well as our propitiation with the Father. And just as +the High Priest once a year passed within the curtain, and there in +the solemn silence and solitude of the holy place sprinkled the blood +that he bore thither, not without trembling, and but for a moment +permitted to stay in the awful Presence, thus, but in reality and for +ever, with the joyful gladness of a Son in His 'own calm home, His +habitation from eternity,' Christ _abides_ in the Holy Place; and, at +the right hand of the Majesty of the Heavens, lifts up that prayer, so +strangely compact of authority and submission; 'Father, I _will_ that +these whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am.' The Son of Man +at the right hand of God is our Intercessor with the Father. 'Seeing, +then, that we have a great High Priest that is passed through the +heavens, let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace.' + +IV. Lastly, this great fact sets before us the ever-active Helper. + +The 'right hand of God' is the Omnipotent energy of God, and howsoever +certainly the language of Scripture requires for its full +interpretation that we should firmly hold that Christ's glorified body +dwells in a place, we are not to omit the other thought that to sit at +the right hand also means to wield the immortal energy of that divine +nature, over all the field of the Creation, and in every province of +His dominion. So that the ascended Christ is the ubiquitous Christ; +and He who is 'at the right hand of God' is wherever the power of God +reaches throughout His whole Universe. + +Remember, too, that it was once given to a man to look through the +opened heavens (through which Christ had 'passed') and to 'see the Son +of Man standing'--not sitting--'at the right hand of God.' Why to the +dying protomartyr was there granted that vision thus varied? Wherefore +was the attitude changed but to express the swiftness, the certainty +of His help, and the eager readiness of the Lord, who starts to His +feet, as it were, to succour and to sustain His dying servant? + +And so, dear friends, we may take that great joyful truth that both as +receiving 'gifts for men' and bestowing gifts upon them, and as +working by His providence in the world, and on the wider scale for the +well-being of His children and of the Church, the Christ who sits at +the right hand of God wields, ever with eager cheerfulness, all the +powers of omnipotence for our well-being, if we love and trust Him. We +may look quietly upon all perplexities and complications, because the +hands that were pierced for us hold the helm and the reins, because +the Christ who is our Brother is the King, and sits supreme at the +centre of the Universe. Joseph's brethren, that came up in their +hunger and their rags to Egypt, and found their brother next the +throne, were startled with a great joy of surprise, and fears were +calmed, and confidence sprang in their hearts. Shall not we be restful +and confident when our Brother, the Son of Man, sits ruling all +things? 'We see not yet all things put under' us, 'but we see Jesus,' +and that is enough. + +So the ascended Man, the resting Saviour and His completed work, the +interceding Priest, and the ever-active Helper, are all brought before +us in this great and blessed thought, 'Christ sitteth at the right +hand of God.' Therefore, dear friends, set your affection on things +above. Our hearts travel where our dear ones are. Oh how strange and +sad it is that professing Christians whose lives, if they are +Christians at all, have their roots and are hid with Christ in God, +should turn so few, so cold thoughts and loves thither! Surely 'where +your treasure is there will your heart be also.' Surely if Christ is +your Treasure you will feel that with Him is home, and that this is a +foreign land. 'Set your affection,' then, 'on things above,' while +life lasts, and when it is ebbing away, perhaps to our eyes too Heaven +may be opened, and the vision of the Son of Man standing to receive +and to welcome us may be granted. And when it has ebbed away, His will +be the first voice to welcome us, and He will lift us to share in His +glorious rest, according to His own wondrous promise, 'To him that +overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My Throne, even as I also +overcame, and am set down with My Father in His Throne.' + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions of Holy Scripture, by +Alexander Maclaren + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + +***** This file should be named 8071.txt or 8071.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/0/7/8071/ + +Produced by Tiffany Vergon, Dave Maddock and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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