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diff --git a/old/7xplk10.txt b/old/7xplk10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5047b83 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7xplk10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,25028 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions Of Holy Scripture +by Alexander Maclaren + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Expositions Of Holy Scripture + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8200] +[This file was first posted on July 1, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + + + + +E-text prepared by Anne Folland, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ST. LUKE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + + + + + + + +VOLUME I: ST. LUKE _Chaps. I to XII_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +ELIJAH COME AGAIN (Luke i. 5-17) + +TRUE GREATNESS (Luke i. 15) + +THE MAGNIFICAT (Luke i. 46-55) + +ZACHARIAS'S HYMN (Luke i. 67-80) + +THE DAYSPRING FROM ON HIGH (Luke i. 78,79) + +SHEPHERDS AND ANGELS (Luke ii. 8-20) + +WAS, IS, IS TO COME (Luke ii. 16; Luke xxiv. 51; Acts i. 11) + +SIMEON'S SWAN-SONG (Luke ii. 29,30) + +THE BOY IN THE TEMPLE (Luke ii. 49) + +JOHN THE PREACHER OF REPENTANCE (Luke iii. 1-14) + +JOHN'S WITNESS TO JESUS, AND GOD'S (Luke iii. 15-22) + +THE TEMPTATION (Luke iv. 1-13) + +PREACHING AT NAZARETH (Luke iv. 21) + +A SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM (Luke iv. 33-44) + +INSTRUCTIONS FOB FISHERMEN (Luke v. 4) + +FEAR AND FAITH (Luke v. 8; John xxi. 7) + +BLASPHEMER, OR--WHO? (Luke v. 17-26) + +LAWS OP THE KINGDOM (Luke vi. 20-31) + +THREE CONDENSED PARABLES (Luke vi. 41-49) + +WORTHY--NOT WORTHY (Luke vii. 4, 6, 7) + +JESUS AT THE BIER (Luke vii. 13-15) + +JOHN'S DOUBTS AND CHRIST'S PRAISE (Luke vii. 18-28) + +GREATNESS IN THE KINGDOM (Luke vii. 28) + +THWARTING GOD'S PURPOSE (Luke vii. 30) + +A GLUTTONOUS MAN AND A WINEBIBBER (Luke vii. 34) + +THE TWO DEBTORS (Luke vii. 41-43) + +LOVE AND FORGIVENESS (Luke vii. 47) + +GO INTO PEACE (Luke vii. 50) + +THE MINISTRY OP WOMEN (Luke viii 2,3) + +ONE SEED AND DIVERSE SOILS (Luke viii. 4-15) + +SEED AMONG THORNS (Luke viii. 14) + +A MIRACLE WITHIN A MIRACLE (Luke viii. 43-48) + +CHRIST TO JAIRUS (Luke viii. 50) + +BREAD FROM HEAVEN (Luke ix. 10-17) + +'THE LORD THAT HEALETH THEE' (Luke ix. 11) + +CHRIST'S CROSS AND OURS (Luke ix. 18-27) + +PRAYER AND TRANSFIGURATION (Luke ix. 29) + +'IN THE HOLY MOUNT' (Luke ix. 30, 31) + +CHRIST HASTENING TO THE CROSS (Luke ix. 51) + +CHRIST'S MESSENGERS: THEIR EQUIPMENT AND WORK (Luke x. 1-11; 17-20) + +NEIGHBOURS FAR OFF (Luke x. 25-37) + +HOW TO PRAY (Luke xi. 1-13) + +THE PRAYING CHRIST (Luke xi. 1) + +THE RICH FOOL (Luke xii. 13-23) + +ANXIOUS ABOUT EARTH, OR EARNEST ABOUT THE KINGDOM (Luke xii. 22-31) + +STILLNESS IN STORM (Luke xii. 29) + +THE EQUIPMENT OF THE SERVANTS (Luke xii. 35-36) + +THE SERVANT-LORD (Luke xii. 37) + +SERVANTS AND STEWARDS HERE AND HEREAFTER (Luke xii. 37, 43, 44) + +FIRE ON EARTH (Luke xii. 49) + + + + +ELIJAH COME AGAIN + + + 'There was, in the days of Herod the king of Judea, a + certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: + and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her + name was Elisabeth. 6. And they were both righteous + before God, walking in all the commandments and + ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7. And they had no + child, because that Elisabeth was barren; and they + both were now well stricken in years. 8. And it came + to pass, that, while he executed the priest's office + before God in the order of his course, 9. According to + the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn + incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. + 10. And the whole multitude of the people were praying + without at the time of incense. 11. And there appeared + unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right + side of the altar of incense. 12. And when Zacharias + saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. + 13. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: + for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall + bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. + 14. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many + shall rejoice at his birth. 15. For he shall be great + in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine + nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy + Ghost, even from his mother's womb. 16. And many of + the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their + God. 17. And he shall go before Him in the spirit and + power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to + the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the + just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.' + --LUKE i. 5-17. + +The difference between the style of Luke's preface (vs. 1-4) and the +subsequent chapters relating to the Nativity suggests that these are +drawn from some Hebrew source. They are saturated with Old Testament +phraseology and constructions, and are evidently translated by Luke. +It is impossible to say whence they came, but no one is more likely +to have been their original narrator than Mary herself. Elisabeth or +Zacharias must have communicated the facts in this chapter, for +there is no indication that those contained in this passage, at all +events, were known to any but these two. + +If we were considering a fictitious story, we should note the +artistic skill which prepared for the appearance of the hero by the +introduction first of his satellite; but the order of the narrative +is due, not to artistic skill, but to the divinely ordered sequence +of events. It was fitting that John's office as Forerunner should +begin even before his birth. So the story of his entrance into the +world prepares for that of the birth which hallows all births. + +I. We have first a beautiful outline picture of the quiet home in +the hill country. The husband and wife were both of priestly +descent, and in their modest lives, away among the hills, were +lovely types of Old Testament godliness. That they are pronounced +'blameless' militates against no doctrine of universal sinfulness. +It is not to be taken as dogma at all, but as the expression of +God's merciful estimate of His servants' characters. These two +simple saints lived, as all married believers should do, yoked +together in the sweet exercise of godliness, and helping each other +to all high and noble things. Hideous corruption of wedlock reigned +round them. Such profanations of it as were shown later by Herod and +Herodias, Agrippa and Bernice, were but too common; but in that +quiet nook these two dwelt 'as heirs together of the grace of life,' +and their prayers were not hindered. + +The most of the priests who appear in the Gospels are heartless +formalists, if not worse; yet not only Annas and Caiaphas and their +spiritual kindred ministered at the altar, but there were some in +whose hearts the ancient fire burned. In times of religious +declension, the few who still are true are mostly in obscure +corners, and live quiet lives, like springs of fresh water rising in +the midst of a salt ocean. John thus sprang from parents in whom the +old system had done all that it could do. In his origin, as in +himself, he represented the consummate flower of Judaism, and +discharged its highest office in pointing to the coming One. + +This 'blameless' pair had a crook in their lot. Childlessness was +then an especial sorrow, and many a prayer had gone up from both +that their solitary home might be gladdened by children's patter and +prattle. But their disappointed hope had not made them sour, nor +turned their hearts from God. If they prayed about it, they would +not murmur at it, and they were not thereby hindered from 'walking +in all God's commandments and ordinances blameless.' Let us learn +that unfulfilled wishes are not to clog our devotion, nor to silence +our prayers, nor to slacken our running the race set before us. + +II. We are carried away from the home among the hills to the crowded +Temple courts. The devout priest has come up to the city, leaving +his aged wife in solitude, for his turn of service has arrived. +Details of the arrangements of the sacerdotal 'courses' need not +detain us. We need only note that the office of burning incense was +regarded as an honour, was determined by lot, and took place at the +morning and evening sacrifice. So Zacharias, with his censer in his +hand, went to the altar which stood in front of the veil, flanked on +the right hand by the table of shewbread, and on the left by the +great lamp-stand. The place, his occupation, the murmur of many +praying voices without, would all tend to raise his thoughts to God; +and the curling incense, as it ascended, would truly symbolise the +going up of his heart in aspiration, desire, and trust. Such a man +could not do his work heartlessly or formally. + +Mark the manner of the angel's appearance. He was not seen as in the +act of coming, but was suddenly made visible standing by the altar, +as if he had been stationed there before; and what had happened was +not that he came, but that Zacharias's eyes were opened. So, when +Elisha's servant was terrified at the sight of the besiegers, the +prophet prayed that his eyes might be opened, and when they were, he +saw what had been there before, 'the mountain full of horses and +chariots of fire.' Not the Temple courts only, but all places are +full of divine messengers, and we should see them if our vision was +purged. But such considerations are not to weaken the supernatural +element in the appearance of this angel with his message. He was +sent, whatever that may mean in regard to beings whose relation to +place must be different from ours. He had an utterance of God's will +to impart. + +It has often been objected to these chapters that they are full of +angelic appearances, which modern thought deems suspicious. But +surely if the birth of Jesus was what we hold it to have been, the +coming into human life of the Incarnate Son of God, it is not legend +that angel wings gleam in their whiteness all through the story, and +angel voices adore the Lord of men as well as angels, and angel eyes +gaze on His cradle, and learn new lessons there. + +III. We have next the angel's message. The devoutest heart is +conscious of shrinking dread when brought face to face with +celestial brightness that has overflowed into our darkness. So 'Fear +not' is the first word on the messenger's lips, and one can fancy +the accent of sweetness and the calm of heart which followed. It has +often been thought that Zacharias had been praying for offspring +while he was burning incense; but the narrative does not say so, and +besides the fact that he had ceased to hope for children (as is +shown by his incredulity), surely it casts a slur on his religious +character to suppose that personal wishes were uppermost at so +sacred a moment. Prayers that he had long ago put aside as finally +refused, now started to life again. God delays often, but He does +not forget. Blessings may come to-day as the result of old prayers +which have almost passed from our memory and our hope. + +Observe how brief is the announcement of the child's birth, +important as that was to the father's heart, and how the prophecy +lingers on the child's future work, which is important for the +world. His name, character, and work in general are first spoken, +and then his specific office as the Forerunner is delineated at the +close. The name is significant. 'John' means 'The Lord is gracious.' +It was an omen, a condensed prophecy, the fulfilment of which +stretched beyond its bearer to Him as whose precursor alone was John +a token of God's grace. + +His character (ver. 15) puts first 'great in the sight of the Lord.' +Then there are some whom God recognises as great, small as we all +are before Him. And His estimate of greatness is not the world's +estimate. How Herod or Pilate or Caesar, or philosophers at Athens, +or rabbis in Jerusalem would have scoffed if they had been pointed +to the gaunt ascetic pouring out words which they would have thought +wild, to a crowd of Jews, and been told that that was the greatest +man in the world (except One)! The elements of greatness in the +estimate of God which is truth, are devotion to His service, burning +convictions, intense moral earnestness, superiority to sensuous +delights, clear recognition of Jesus, and humble self-abnegation +before Him. These are not the elements recognised in the world's +Pantheon. Let us take God's standard. + +John was to be a Nazarite, living not for the senses, but the soul, +as all God's great ones have to be. The form may vary, but the +substance of the vow of abstinence remains for all Christians. To +put the heel on the animal within, and keep it well chained up, is +indispensable, if we are ever to know the buoyant inspiration which +comes from a sacreder source than the fumes of the wine-cup. Like +John, we must flee the one if we would have the other, and be +'filled with the Holy Ghost.' + +The consequence of his character is seen in his work, as described +generally in verse 16. Only such a man can effect such a change, in +a time of religious decay, as to turn many to God. It needs a strong +arm to check the downward movement and to reverse it. No one who is +himself entangled in sense, and but partially filled with God's +Spirit, will wield great influence for good. It takes a Hercules to +stop the chariot racing down hill, and God's Herculeses are all made +on one pattern, in so far that they scorn delights, and empty +themselves of self and sense that they may be filled with the +Spirit. + +John's specific office is described in verse 17, with allusion to +the closing prophecy of Malachi. That prophecy had kindled an +expectation that Elijah, in person, would precede Messias. John was +like a reincarnation of the stern prophet. He came in a similar +epoch. His characteristic, like Elijah's, was 'power,' not +gentleness. If the earlier prophet had to beard Ahab and Jezebel, +the second Elijah had Herod and Herodias. Both haunted the desert, +both pealed out thunders of rebuke. Both shook the nation, and +stirred conscience. No two figures in Scripture are truer brethren +in spirit than Elijah the Tishbite and John the Baptist. + +His great work is to go before the Messiah, and to prepare Israel +for its King. Observe that the name of the coming One is not +mentioned in verse 17. 'Him' is enough. Zacharias knew who 'He' was. +But observe, too, that the same mysterious person is distinctly +called 'The Lord,' which in this connection, and having regard to +the original prophecy in Malachi, can only be the divine name. So, +in some fashion not yet made plain, Messiah's advent was to be the +Lord's coming to His people, and John was the Forerunner, in some +sense, of Jehovah Himself. + +But the way in which Israel was to be prepared is further specified +in the middle clauses of the verse, which are also based on +Malachi's words. The interpretation of 'to turn the hearts of the +fathers to the children' is very doubtful; but the best explanation +seems to be that the phrase means to bring back to the descendants +of the ancient fathers of the nation the ancestral faith and +obedience. They are to be truly Abraham's seed, because they do the +works and cherish the faith of Abraham. The words imply the same +truth which John afterwards launched as a keen-edged dart, 'Think +not to say, We have Abraham to our father.' Descent after the flesh +should lead to kindred in spirit. If it does not, it is nought. + +To turn 'the disobedient to the wisdom of the just' is practically +the same change, only regarded from another point of view. John was +sent to effect repentance, that change of mind and heart by which +the disobedient to the commands of God should be brought to possess +and exercise the moral and religious discernment which dwells only +in the spirits of the righteous. Disobedience is folly. True wisdom +cannot be divorced from rectitude. Real rectitude cannot live apart +from obedience to God. + +Such was God's intention in sending John. How sadly the real effects +of his mission contrast with its design! So completely can men +thwart God, as Jesus said in reference to John's mission, 'The +Pharisees and lawyers frustrated the counsel of God against +themselves, being not baptized of him.' Let us take heed lest we +bring to nothing, so far as we are concerned, His gracious purpose +of redemption in Christ! + + + + +TRUE GREATNESS + + + He shall be great in the sight of the Lord.'--LUKE i. 15. + +So spake the angel who foretold the birth of John the Baptist. 'In +the sight of the Lord'--then men are not on a dead level in His +eyes. Though He is so high and we are so low, the country beneath +Him that He looks down upon is not flattened to Him, as it is to us +from an elevation, but there are greater and smaller men in His +sight, too. No epithet is more misused and misapplied than that of +'a great man.' It is flung about indiscriminately as ribbons and +orders are by some petty State. Every little man that makes a noise +for a while gets it hung round his neck. Think what a set they are +that are gathered in the world's Valhalla, and honoured as the +world's great men! The mass of people are so much on a level, and +that level is so low, that an inch above the average looks gigantic. +But the tallest blade of grass gets mown down by the scythe, and +withers as quickly as the rest of its green companions, and goes its +way into the oven as surely. There is the world's false estimate of +greatness and there is God's estimate. If we want to know what the +elements of true greatness are, we may well turn to the life of this +man, of whom the prophecy went before him that he should be 'great +in the sight of the Lord.' That is gold that will stand the test. + +We may remember, too, that Jesus Christ, looking back on the career +to which the angel was looking forward, endorsed the prophecy and +declared that it had become a fact, and that 'of them that were born +of women there had not arisen a greater than John the Baptist.' With +the illumination of His eulogium we may turn to this life, then, and +gather some lessons for our own guidance. + +I. First, we note in John unwavering and immovable firmness and +courage. + +'What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with +the wind?' Nay! an iron pillar that stood firm whatsoever winds blew +against it. This, as I take it, is in some true sense the basis of +all moral greatness--that a man should have a grip which cannot be +loosened, like that of the cuttle-fish with all its tentacles round +its prey, upon the truths that dominate his being and make him a +hero. 'If you want me to weep,' said the old artist-poet, 'there must +be tears in your own eyes.' If you want me to believe, you yourself +must be aflame with conviction which has penetrated to the very +marrow of your bones. And so, as I take it, the first requisite +either for power with others, or for greatness in a man's own +development of character, is that there shall be this unwavering +firmness of grasp of clearly-apprehended truths, and unflinching +boldness of devotion to them. + +I need not remind you how magnificently, all through the life of our +typical example, this quality was stamped upon every utterance and +every act. It reached its climax, no doubt, in his bearding Herod +and Herodias. But moral characteristics do not reach a climax unless +there has been much underground building to bear the lofty pinnacle; +and no man, when great occasions come to him, develops a courage and +an unwavering confidence which are strange to his habitual life. +There must be the underground building; and there must have been +many a fighting down of fears, many a curbing of tremors, many a +rebuke of hesitations and doubts in the gaunt, desert-loving +prophet, before he was man enough to stand before Herod and say, 'It +is not lawful for thee to have her.' + +No doubt there is much to be laid to the account of temperament, but +whatever their temperament may be, the way to this unwavering +courage and firm, clear ring of indubitable certainty, is open to +every Christian man and woman; and it is our own fault, our own sin, +and our own weakness, if we do not possess these qualities. +Temperament! what on earth is the good of our religion if it is not +to modify and govern our temperament? Has a man a right to jib on +one side, and give up the attempt to clear the fence, because he +feels that in his own natural disposition there is little power to +take the leap? Surely not. Jesus Christ came here for the very +purpose of making our weakness strong, and if we have a firm hold +upon Him, then, in the measure in which His love has permeated our +whole nature, will be our unwavering courage, and out of weakness we +shall be made strong. + +Of course the highest type of this undaunted boldness and unwavering +firmness of conviction is not in John and his like. He presented +strength in a lower form than did the Master from whom his strength +came. The willow has a beauty as well as the oak. Firmness is not +obstinacy; courage is not rudeness. It is possible to have the iron +hand in the velvet glove, not of etiquette-observing politeness, but +of a true considerateness and gentleness. They who are likest Him +that was 'meek and lowly in heart,' are surest to possess the +unflinching resolve which set His face like a flint, and enabled Him +to go unhesitatingly and unrecalcitrant to the Cross itself. + +Do not let us forget, either, that John's unwavering firmness +wavered; that over the clear heaven of his convictions there did +steal a cloud; that he from whom no violence could wrench his faith +felt it slipping out of his grasp when his muscles were relaxed in +the dungeon; and that he sent 'from the prison'--which was the +excuse for the message--to ask the question, 'After all, art Thou He +that should come?' + +Nor let us forget that it was that very moment of tremulousness +which Jesus Christ seized, in order to pour an unstinted flood of +praise for the firmness of his convictions, on the wavering head of +the Forerunner. So, if we feel that though the needle of our compass +points true to the pole, yet when the compass-frame is shaken, the +needle sometimes vibrates away from its true direction, do not let +us be cast down, but believe that a merciful allowance is made for +human weakness. This man was great; first, because he had such +dauntless courage and firmness that, over his headless corpse in the +dungeon at Machaerus, might have been spoken what the Regent Moray +said over John Knox's coffin, 'Here lies one that never feared the +face of man.' + +II. Another element of true greatness that comes nobly out in the +life with which I am dealing is its clear elevation above worldly +good. + +That was the second point that our Lord's eulogium signalised. 'What +went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A man clothed in soft +raiment?' But you would have gone to a palace, if you had wanted to +see that, not to the reed-beds of Jordan. As we all know, in his +life, in his dress, in his food, in the aims that he set before him, +he rose high above all regard for the debasing and perishable +sweetnesses that appeal to flesh, and are ended in time. He lived +conspicuously for the Unseen. His asceticism belonged to his age, +and was not the highest type of the virtue which it expressed. As I +have said about his courage, so I say about his self-denial--Christ's +is of a higher sort. As the might of gentleness is greater than the +might of such strength as John's, so the asceticism of John is lower +than the self-government of the Man that came eating and drinking. + +But whilst that is true, I seek, dear brethren, to urge this old +threadbare lesson, always needed, never needed more than amidst the +senselessly luxurious habits of this generation, needed in few +places more than in a great commercial centre like that in which we +live, that one indispensable element of true greatness and elevation +of character is that, not the prophet and the preacher alone, but +every one of us, should live high above these temptations of gross +and perishable joys, should + + 'Scorn delights and live laborious days.' + +No man has a right to be called 'great' if his aims are small. And +the question is, not as modern idolatry of intellect, or, still +worse, modern idolatry of success, often makes it out to be, Has he +great capacities? or has he won great prizes? but has he greatly +used himself and his life? If your aims are small you will never be +great; and if your highest aims are but to get a good slice of this +world's pudding--no matter what powers God may have given you to +use--you are essentially a small man. + +I remember a vigorous and contemptuous illustration of St. Bernard's, +who likens a man that lives for these perishable delights which John +spurned, to a spider spinning a web out of his own substance, and +catching in it nothing but a wretched prey of poor little flies. +Such a one has surely no right to be called a great man. Our aims +rather than our capacity determine our character, and they who +greatly aspire after the greatest things within the reach of men, +which are faith, hope, charity, and who, for the sake of effecting +these aspirations, put their heels upon the head of the serpent and +suppress the animal in their nature, these are the men 'great in the +sight of the Lord.' + +III. Another element of true greatness, taught us by our type, is +fiery enthusiasm for righteousness. + +You may think that that has little to do with greatness. I believe +it has everything to do with it, and that the difference between men +is very largely to be found here, whether they flame up into the +white heat of enthusiasm for the things that are right, or whether +the only things that can kindle them into anything like earnestness +and emotion are the poor, shabby things of personal advantage. I +need not remind you how, all through John's career, there burned, +unflickering and undying, that steadfast light; how he brought to +the service of the plainest teaching of morality a fervour of +passion and of zeal almost unexampled and magnificent. I need not +remind you how Jesus Christ Himself laid His hand upon this +characteristic, when He said of him that 'he was a light kindled and +shining.' But I would lay upon all our hearts the plain, practical +lesson that, if we keep in that tepid region of lukewarmness which +is the utmost approach to tropical heat that moral and religious +questions are capable of raising in many of us, good-bye to all +chance of being 'great in the sight of the Lord.' We hear a great +deal about the 'blessings of moderation,' the 'dangers of +fanaticism,' and the like. I venture to think that the last thing +which the moral consciousness of England wants today is a +refrigerator, and that what it needs a great deal more than that is, +that all Christian people should be brought face to face with this +plain truth--that their religion has, as an indispensable part of +it, 'a Spirit of burning,' and that if they have not been baptized +in fire, there is little reason to believe that they have been +baptized with the Holy Ghost. + +I long that you and myself may be aflame for goodness, may be +enthusiastic over plain morality, and may show that we are so by our +daily life, by our rebuking the opposite, if need be, even if it +take us into Herod's chamber, and make Herodias our enemy for life. + +IV. Lastly, observe the final element of greatness in this man-absolute +humility of self-abnegation before Jesus Christ. + +There is nothing that I know in biography anywhere more beautiful, +more striking, than the contrast between the two halves of the +character and demeanour of the Baptist; how, on the one side, he +fronts all men undaunted and recognises no superior, and how neither +threats nor flatteries nor anything else will tempt him to step one +inch beyond the limitations of which he is aware, nor to abate one +inch of the claims which he urges; and on the other hand how, like +some tall cedar touched by the lightning's hand, he falls prone +before Jesus Christ and says, 'He must increase, and I must +decrease': 'A man can receive nothing except it be given him of +God.' He is all boldness on one side; all submission and dependence +on the other. + +You remember how, in the face of many temptations, that attitude was +maintained. The very message which he had to carry was full of +temptations to a self-seeking man to assert himself. You remember +the almost rough 'No!' with which, reiteratedly, he met the +suggestions of the deputation from Jerusalem that sought to induce +him to say that he was more than he knew himself to be, and how he +stuck by that infinitely humble and beautiful saying, 'I am a +voice'--that is all. You remember how the whole nation was in a kind +of conspiracy to tempt him to assert himself, and was ready to break +into a flame if he had dropped a spark, for all men were musing in +their heart whether he was the Christ or not,' and all the lawless +and restless elements would have been only too glad to gather round +him, if he had declared himself the Messiah. Remember how his own +disciples came to him, and tried to play upon his jealousy and to +induce him to assert himself: 'Master, He whom thou didst baptize'--and +so didst give Him the first credentials that sent men on His +course--'has outstripped thee, and all men are coming to Him.' And +you remember the lovely answer that opened such depths of unexpected +tenderness in the rough nature: 'He that hath the bride is the +bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom heareth the voice; and that +is enough to fill my cup with joy to the very brim.' And what +conceptions of Jesus Christ had John, that he thus bowed his lofty +crest before Him, and softened his heart into submission almost +abject? He knew Him to be the coming Judge, with the fan in His +hand, who could baptize with fire, and he knew Him to be 'the Lamb +of God which taketh away the sin of the world.' Therefore he fell +before Him. + +Brethren, we shall not be 'great in the sight of the Lord' unless we +copy that example of utter self-abnegation before Jesus Christ. +Thomas a Kempis says somewhere, 'He is truly great who is small in +his own sight, and thinks nothing of the giddy heights of worldly +honour.' You and I know far more of Jesus Christ than John the +Baptist did. Do we bow ourselves before Him as he did? The Source +from which he drew his greatness is open to us all. Let us begin +with the recognition of the Lamb of God that takes away the world's +sin, and with it ours. Let the thought of what He is, and what He +has done for us, bow us in unfeigned submission. Let it shatter all +dreams of our own importance or our own desert. The vision of the +Lamb of God, and it only, will crush in our hearts the serpent's +eggs of self-esteem and self-regard. + +Then, let our closeness to Jesus Christ, and our experience of His +power, kindle in us the fiery enthusiasm with which He baptizes all +His true servants, and let it because we know the sweetnesses that +excel, take from us all liability to be tempted away by the vulgar +and coarse delights of earth and of sense. Let us keep ourselves +clear of the babble that is round about us, and be strong because we +grasp Christ's hand. + +I have been speaking about no characteristic which may not be +attained by any man, woman, or child amongst us. 'The least in the +kingdom of heaven' may be greater than John. It is a poor ambition +to seek to be _called_ 'great.' It is a noble desire to _be_ 'great +in the sight of the Lord.' And if we will keep ourselves close to +Jesus Christ that will be attained. It will matter very little what +men think of us, if at last we have praise from the lips of Him who +poured such praise on His servant. We may, if we will. And then it will +not hurt us though our names on earth be dark and our memories perish +from among men. + + 'Of so much fame in heaven expect the meed.' + + + + +THE MAGNIFICAT + + 'And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, 47. And + my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. 48. For He + hath regarded the low estate of His hand-maiden: for, + behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me + blessed. 49. For He that is mighty hath done to me + great things; and holy is His name, 50. And His mercy + is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. + 51. He hath shewed strength with His arm: He hath + scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. + 52. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and + exalted them of low degree. 53. He hath filled the + hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent + empty away. 54. He hath holpen His servant Israel, in + remembrance of His mercy; 55. As He spake to our + fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.' + --LUKE i. 46-55. + +Birds sing at dawn and sunrise. It was fitting that the last strains +of Old Testament psalmody should prelude the birth of Jesus. To +disbelievers in the Incarnation the hymns of Mary and Zacharias are, +of course, forgeries; but if it be true nothing can be more +'natural' than these. The very features in this song, which are +appealed to as proof of its being the work of some unknown pious +liar or dishonest enthusiast, really confirm its genuineness. +Critics shake their heads over its many quotations and allusions to +Hannah's song and to other poetical parts of the Old Testament, and +declare that these are fatal to its being accepted as Mary's. Why? +must the simple village maiden be a poetess because she is the +mother of our Lord? What is more likely than that she should cast +her emotions into forms so familiar to her, and especially that +Hannah's hymn should colour hers? These old psalms provided the +mould into which her glowing emotions almost instinctively would +run, and the very absence of 'originality' in the song favours its +genuineness. + +Another point may be noticed as having a similar bearing; namely, +the very general and almost vague outline of the consequences of the +birth, which is regarded as being the consummation to Israel of the +mercy promised to the fathers. Could such a hymn have been written +when sad experience showed how the nation would reject their +Messiah, and ruin themselves thereby? Surely the anticipations which +glow in it bear witness to the time when they were cherished, as +prior to the sad tragedy which history unfolded. Little does Mary as +yet know that 'a sword shall pierce through' her 'own soul also,' +and that not only will 'all generations' call her 'blessed,' but +that one of her names will be 'Our Lady of Sorrows.' For her and for +us, the future is mercifully veiled. Only one eye saw the shadow of +the Cross stretching black and grim athwart the earliest days of +Jesus, and that eye was His own. How wonderful the calmness with +which He pressed towards that 'mark' during all His earthly life! + +The hymn is sometimes divided into four strophes or sections: first, +the expression of devout emotion (vs. 46-48a); second, the great +fact from which they arise (vs. 48b-50); third, the consequences of +the fact (vs. 51-53); fourth, its aspect to Israel as fulfilment of +promise. This division is, no doubt, in accordance with the course +of thought, but is perhaps somewhat too artificial for our purposes; +and we may rather simply note that in the earlier part the personal +element is present, and that in the later it fades entirely, and the +mighty deeds of God alone fill the meek singer's eye and lips. We +may consider the lessons of these two halves. + +I. The more personal part extends to the end of verse 50. It +contains three turnings or strophes, the first two of which have two +clauses each, and the third three. The first is verses 46 and 47, +the purely personal expression of the glad emotions awakened by +Elisabeth's presence and salutation, which came to Mary as +confirmation of the angel's annunciation. Not when Gabriel spoke, +but when a woman like herself called her 'mother of my Lord,' did +she break into praise. There is a deep truth there. God's voice is +made more sure to our weakness when it is echoed by human lips, and +our inmost hopes attain substance when they are shared and spoken by +another. We need not attribute to the maiden from Nazareth +philosophical accuracy when she speaks of her 'soul' and 'spirit.' +Her first words are a burst of rapturous and wondering praise, in +which the full heart runs over. Silence is impossible, and speech a +relief. They are not to be construed with the microscopic accuracy +fit to be applied to a treatise on psychology. 'All that is within' +her praises and is glad. She does not think so much of the +stupendous fact as of her own meekly exultant heart, and of God, to +whom its outgoings turn. There are moods in which the devout soul +dwells on its own calm blessedness and on God, its source, more +directly than on the gift which brings it. Note the twofold +act--magnifying and rejoicing. We magnify God when we take into our +vision some fragment more of the complete circle of His essential +greatness, or when, by our means, our fellows are helped to do so. +The intended effect of all His dealings is that we should think more +nobly--that is, more worthily--of Him. The fuller knowledge of His +friendly greatness leads to joy in Him which makes the spirit bound +as in a dance--for such is the meaning of the word 'rejoice'--and +which yet is calm and deep. Note the double name of God--Lord and +Saviour. Mary bows in lowly obedience, and looks up in as lowly, +conscious need of deliverance, and beholding in God both His majesty +and His grace, magnifies and exults at once. + +Verse 48 is the second turn of thought, containing, like the former, +two clauses. In it she gazes on her great gift, which, with maiden +reserve, she does not throughout the whole hymn once directly name. +Here the personal element comes out more strongly. But it is +beautiful to note that the 'lowliness' is in the foreground, and +precedes the assurance of the benedictions of all generations. The +whole is like a murmur of wonder that such honour should come to +her, so insignificant, and the 'behold' of the latter half verse is +an exclamation of surprise. In unshaken meekness of steadfast +obedience, she feels herself 'the handmaid of the Lord.' In +undisturbed humility, she thinks of her 'low estate,' and wonders +that God's eye should have fallen on her, the village damsel, poor +and hidden. A pure heart is humbled by honour, and is not so dazzled +by the vision of future fame as to lose sight of God as the source +of all. Think of that simple young girl in her obscurity having +flashed before her the certainty that her name would be repeated +with blessing till the world's end, and then thus meekly laying her +honours down at God's feet. What a lesson of how to receive all +distinctions and exaltations! + +Verses 49 and 50 end this part, and contain three clauses, in which +the personal disappears, and only the thought of God's character as +manifested in His wonderful act remains. It connects indeed with the +preceding by the 'to me' of verse 49; but the main subject is the +new revelation, which is not confined to Mary, of the threefold +divine glory fused into one bright beam, in the Incarnation. Power, +holiness, eternal mercy, are all there, and that in deeper and more +wondrous fashion than Mary knew when she sang. The words are mostly +quotations from the Old Testament, but with new application and +meaning. But even Mary's anticipations fell far short of the reality +of that power in weakness, that holiness mildly blended with +tenderest pity and pardoning love; that mercy which for all +generations was to stretch not only to 'them that fear Him,' but to +rebels, whom it would make friends. She saw but dimly and in part. +We see more plainly all the rays of divine perfection meeting in, +and streaming out to, the whole world, from her Son 'the effulgence +of the Father's glory.' + +II. The second part of the song is a lyric anticipation of the +historical consequences of the appearance of the Messiah, cast into +forms ready to the singer's hand, in the strains of Old Testament +prophecy. The characteristics of Hebrew poetry, its parallelism, its +antitheses, its exultant swing, are more conspicuous here than in +the earlier half. The main thought of verses 51 to 53 is that the +Messiah would bring about a revolution, in which the high would be +cast down and the humble exalted. This idea is wrought out in a +threefold antithesis, of which the first pair must have one member +supplied from the previous verse. Those who 'fear Him' are opposed +to 'the proud in the imagination of their hearts.' These are thought +of as an army of antagonists to God and His anointed, and thus the +word 'scattered' acquires great poetic force, and reminds us of many +a psalm, such as the Second and One hundred and tenth, where Messiah +is a warrior. + +The next pair represent the antithesis as being that of social +degree, and in it there may be traced a glance at 'Herod the King' +and the depressed line of David, to which the singer belonged, while +the meaning must not be confined to that. The third pair represent +the same opposites under the guise of poverty and riches. Mary is +not to be credited with purely spiritual views in these contrasts, +nor to be discredited with purely material ones. She, no doubt, +thought of her own oppressed nation as mainly meant by the hungry +and lowly; but like all pious souls in Israel, she must have felt +that the lowliness and hunger which Messiah was to ennoble and +satisfy, meant a condition of spirit conscious of weakness and sin, +and eagerly desiring a higher good and food than earth could give. +So much she had learned from many a psalm and prophet. So much the +Spirit which inspired psalmist and prophet spoke in her lowly and +exultant heart now. But the future was only revealed to her in this +wide, general outline. Details of manner and time were all still +blank. The broad truth which she foretold remains one of the salient +historical results of Christ's coming, and is the universal +condition of partaking of His gifts. He has been, and is, the most +revolutionary force in history; for without Him society is +constituted on principles the reverse of the true, and as the world, +apart from Jesus, is down-side up, the mission of His gospel is to +turn it upside-down, and so bring the right side uppermost. The +condition of receiving anything from Him is the humble recognition +of emptiness and need. If princes on their thrones will come to Him +just in the same way as the beggar on the dunghill does, they will +very probably be allowed to stay on them; and if the rich man will +come to Him as poor and in need of all things, he will not be 'sent +empty away.' But Christ is a discriminating Christ, and as the +prophet said long before Mary, 'I ... will bind up that which was +broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; and the fat and the +strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment.' + +The last turn in the song celebrates the faithfulness of God to His +ancient promises, and His help by His Messiah to Israel. The +designation of Israel as 'His servant' recalls the familiar name in +Isaiah's later prophecies. Mary sees in the great wonder of her +Son's birth the accomplishment of the hopes of ages, and an +assurance of God's mercy as for ever the portion of the people. We +cannot tell how far she had learned that Israel was to be counted, +not by descent but disposition. But, in any case, her eyes could not +have embraced the solemn facts of her Son's rejection by His and her +people. No shadows are yet cast across the morning of which her song +is the herald. She knew not the dark clouds of thunder and +destruction that were to sweep over the sky. But the end has not yet +come, and we have to believe still that the evening will fulfil the +promise of the morning, and 'all Israel shall be saved,' and that +the mercy which was promised from of old to Abraham and the fathers, +shall be fulfilled at last and abide with their seed for ever. + + + + +ZACHARIAS'S HYMN + + + 'And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy + Ghost, and prophesied, saying, 68. Blessed be the Lord + God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His + people, 69. And hath raised up an horn of salvation + for us in the house of His servant David; 70. As He + spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have + been since the world began; 71. That we should be + saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that + hate us; 72. To perform the mercy promised to our + fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, 73. The + oath which He sware to our father Abraham, 74. That He + would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of + the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, + 75. In holiness and righteousness before Him, all the + days of our life. 76. And thou, child, shalt be called + the Prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before + the face of the Lord to prepare His ways; 77. To give + knowledge of salvation unto His people, by the + remission of their sins, 78. Through the tender mercy + of our God; whereby the day-spring from on high hath + visited us, 79. To give light to them that sit in + darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet + into the way of peace. 80. And the child grew, and + waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the + day of his shewing unto Israel.'--LUKE i. 67-80. + +Zacharias was dumb when he disbelieved. His lips were opened when he +believed. He is the last of the Old Testament prophets, [Footnote: +In the strictest sense, John the Baptist was a prophet of the Old +dispensation, even though he came to usher in the New. (See Matt. +xi. 9-11.) In the same sense, Zacharias was the last prophet of the +Old dispensation, before the coming of his son to link the Old with +the New.] and as standing nearest to the Messiah, his song takes up +the echoes of all the past, and melts them into a new outpouring of +exultant hope. The strain is more impassioned than Mary's, and +throbs with triumph over 'our enemies,' but rises above the mere +patriotic glow into a more spiritual region. The complete +subordination of the personal element is very remarkable, as shown +by the slight and almost parenthetical reference to John. The father +is forgotten in the devout Israelite. We may take the song as +divided into three portions: the first (vs. 68-75) celebrating the +coming of Messiah, with special reference to its effect in freeing +Israel from its foes; the second (vs. 76, 77), the highly dramatic +address to his unconscious 'child'; the third (vs. 78, 79) returns +to the absorbing thought of the Messiah, but now touches on higher +aspects of His coming as the Light to all who sit in darkness. + +I. If we remember that four hundred dreary years, for the most part +of which Israel had been groaning under a foreign yoke, had passed +since the last of the prophets, and that during all that time devout +eyes had looked wearily for the promised Messiah, we shall be able +to form some faint conception of the surprise and rapture which +filled Zacharias's spirit, and leaps in his hymn at the thought that +now, at last, the hour had struck, and that the child would soon be +born who was to fulfil the divine promises and satisfy fainting +hopes. No wonder that its first words are a burst of blessing of +'the God of Israel.' The best expression of joy, when long-cherished +desires are at last on the eve of accomplishment, is thanks to God. +How short the time of waiting seems when it is past, and how +needless the impatience which marred the waiting! Zacharias speaks +of the fact as already realised. He must have known that the +Incarnation was accomplished; for we can scarcely suppose that the +emphatic tenses 'hath visited, hath redeemed, hath raised' are +prophetic, and merely imply the certainty of a future event. He must +have known, too, Mary's royal descent; for he speaks of 'the house +of David.' + +'A horn' of salvation is an emblem taken from animals, and implies +strength. Here it recalls several prophecies, and as a designation +of the Messiah, shadows forth His conquering might, all to be used +for deliverance to His people. The vision before Zacharias is that +of a victor king of Davidic race, long foretold by prophets, who +will set Israel free from its foreign oppressors, whether Roman or +Idumean, and in whom God Himself 'visits and redeems His people.' +There are two kinds of divine visitations--one for mercy and one for +judgment. What an unconscious witness it is of men's evil +consciences that the use of the phrase has almost exclusively +settled down upon the latter meaning! In verses 71-75, the idea of +the Messianic salvation is expanded and raised. The word 'salvation' +is best construed, as in the Revised Version, as in apposition with +and explanatory of 'horn of salvation.' This salvation has issues, +which may also be regarded as God's purposes in sending it. These +are threefold: first, to show mercy to the dead fathers of the race. +That is a striking idea, and pictures the departed as, in their +solemn rest, sharing in the joy of Messiah's coming, and perhaps in +the blessings which He brings. We may not too closely press the +phrase, but it is more than poetry or imagination. The next issue is +God's remembrance of His promises, or in other words, His fulfilment +of these. The last is that the nation, being set free, should serve +God. The external deliverance was in the eyes of devout men like +Zacharias precious as a means to an end. Political freedom was +needful for God's service, and was valuable mainly as leading to +that. The hymn rises far above the mere impatience of a foreign +yoke. 'Freedom to worship God,' and God worshipped by a ransomed +nation, are Zacharias's ideal of the Messianic times. + +Note his use of the word for priestly 'service.' He, a priest, has +not forgotten that by original constitution all Israel was a nation +of priests; and he looks forward to the fulfilment at last of the +ideal which so soon became impracticable, and possibly to the +abrogation of his own order in the universal priesthood. He knew not +what deep truths he sang. The end of Christ's coming, and of the +deliverance which He works for us from the hand of our enemies, +cannot be better stated than in these words. We are redeemed that we +may be priests unto God. Our priestly service must be rendered in +'holiness and righteousness,' in consecration to God and discharge +of all obligations; and it is to be no interrupted or occasional +service, like Zacharias's, which occupied but two short weeks in the +year, and might never again lead him within the sanctuary, but is to +fill with reverent activity and thankful sacrifice all our days. +However this hymn may have begun with the mere external conception +of Messianic deliverance, it rises high above that here, and will +still further soar beyond it. We may learn from this priest-prophet, +who anticipated the wise men and brought his offerings to the unborn +Christ, what Christian salvation is, and for what it is given us. + +II. There is something very vivid and striking in the abrupt address +to the infant, who lay, all unknowing, in his mother's arms. The +contrast between him as he was then and the work which waited him, +the paternal wonder and joy which yet can scarcely pause on the +child, and hurries on to fancy him in the years to come, going +herald-like before the face of the Lord, the profound prophetic +insight into John's work, are all noteworthy. The Baptist did +'prepare the way' by teaching that the true 'salvation' was not to +be found in mere deliverance from the Roman yoke, but in 'remission +of sin.' He thus not only gave 'knowledge of salvation,' in the +sense that he announced the fact that it would be given, but also in +the sense that he clearly taught in what it consisted. John was no +preacher of revolt, as the turbulent and impure patriots of the day +would have liked him to be, but of repentance. His work was to awake +the consciousness of sin, and so to kindle desires for a salvation +which was deliverance from sin, the only yoke which really enslaves. +Zacharias the 'blameless' saw what the true bondage of the nation +was, and what the work both of the Deliverer and of His herald must +be. We need to be perpetually reminded of the truth that the only +salvation and deliverance which can do us any good consist in +getting rid, by pardon and by holiness, of the cords of our sins. + +III. The thoughts of the Forerunner and his office melt into that of +the Messianic blessings from which the singer cannot long turn away. +In these closing words, we have the source, the essential nature, +and the blessed results of the gift of Christ set forth in a noble +figure, and freed from the national limitations of the earlier part +of the hymn. All comes from the 'bowels of mercy of our God,' as +Zacharias, in accordance with Old Testament metaphor, speaks, +allocating the seat of the emotions which we attribute to the heart. +Conventional notions of delicacy think the Hebrew idea coarse, but +the one allocation is just as delicate as the other. We can get no +deeper down or farther back into the secret springs of things than +this--that the root cause of all, and most especially of the mission +of Christ, is the pitying love of God's heart. If we hold fast by +that, the pain of the riddle of the world is past, and the riddle +itself more than half solved. Jesus Christ is the greatest gift of +that love, in which all its tenderness and all its power are +gathered up for our blessing. + +The modern civilised world owes most of its activity to the +quickening influence of Christianity. The dayspring visits us that +it may shine on us, and it shines that it may guide us into 'the way +of peace.' There can be no wider and more accurate description of +the end of Christ's mission than this--that all His visitation and +enlightenment are meant to lead us into the path where we shall find +peace with God, and therefore with ourselves and with all mankind. +The word 'peace,' in the Old Testament, is used to include the sum +of all that men require for their conscious well-being. We are at +rest only when all our relations with God and the outer world are +right, and when our inner being is harmonised with itself, and +supplied with appropriate objects. To know God for our friend, to +have our being fixed on and satisfied in Him, and so to be +reconciled to all circumstances, and a friend of all men--this is +peace; and the path to such a blessed condition is shown us only by +that Sun of Righteousness whom the loving heart of God has sent into +the darkness and torpor of the benighted wanderers in the desert. +The national reference has faded from the song, and though it still +speaks of 'us' and 'our,' we cannot doubt that Zacharias both saw +more deeply into the salvation which Christ would bring than to +limit it to breaking an earthly yoke, and deemed more worthily and +widely of its sweep, than to confine it within narrower bounds than +the whole extent of the dreary darkness which it came to banish from +all the world. + + + + +THE DAYSPRING FROM ON HIGH + + + 'The day-spring from on high hath visited us, 79. To + give light to them that sit in darkness and in the + shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of + peace.'--LUKE i. 78, 79. + +As the dawn is ushered in by the notes of birds, so the rising of +the Sun of Righteousness was heralded by song, Mary and Zacharias +brought their praises and welcome to the unborn Christ, the angels +hovered with heavenly music over His cradle, and Simeon took the +child in his arms and blessed it. The human members of this choir +may be regarded as the last of the psalmists and prophets, and the +first of Christian singers. The song of Zacharias, from which my +text is taken, is steeped in Old Testament allusions, and redolent +of the ancient spirit, but it transcends that. Its early part is +purely national, and hails the coming of the Messiah chiefly as the +deliverer of Israel from foreign oppressors, though even in it their +deliverance is regarded mostly as the means to an end, and the end +one very appropriate on the lips of a priestly prophet---viz. +sacerdotal service by the whole nation 'in holiness and +righteousness all their days.' + +But in this latter portion, which is separated from the former by +the pathetic, incidental, and slight reference to the singer's own +child, the national limits are far surpassed. The song soars above +them, and pierces to the very heart and kernel of Christ's work. +'The dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them +that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into +the way of peace.' Nothing deeper, nothing wider, nothing truer +about the mission and issue of Christ's coming could be spoken. And +thus we have to look at the three things that lie in this text, as +bearing upon our conceptions of Christ and His work--the darkness, +the dawn, and the directing light. + +I. The darkness. + +Zacharias, as becomes the last of the prophets, and a man whose +whole religious life was nourished upon the ancient Scriptures, +speaks almost entirely in Old Testament phraseology in this song. +And his description of 'them that sit in darkness and the shadow of +death' is taken almost verbally from the great words from the Book +of the Prophet Isaiah, who speaks, in immediate connection with his +prophecy of the coming of the Christ, of 'the people that walk in +darkness and them that dwell,' or sit, 'in the shadow of death, upon +whom the light hath shined.' + +The picture that rises before us is that of a group of travellers +benighted, bewildered, huddled together in the dark, afraid to move +for fear of pitfalls, precipices, wild beasts, and enemies; and so +sighing for the day and compelled to be inactive till it comes. That +is the picture of humanity apart from Jesus Christ, a darkness so +intense, so tragic, that it is, as it were, the very shadow of the +ultimate and essential darkness which is death, and in it men are +sitting torpid, unable to find their way and afraid to move. + +Now darkness, all the world over, is the emblem of three +things--ignorance, impurity, sorrow. And all men who are rent +away from Jesus Christ, or on whom His beams have not yet fallen, +this text tells us, have that triple curse lying upon them. + +Ignorance. Think of what, without Jesus Christ, the world has deemed +of the unseen, and of the God, if there be a God, that may inhabit +there. He has been to them a great Peradventure, a great Terror, a +great Inscrutable, a stone-eyed Fate, a thin, nebulous Nothing, with +no emotion, no attributes, no heart, no ear to hear, the nearest +approach to nonentity, according to the despairing saying of a +master of philosophy, that 'pure Being is equal to pure Nothing.' +And if all men do not rise to such heights of melancholy abstraction +as that, still how little there is of blessed certainty, how little +clearness of conception of a Divine Person that turns to us with +love and tenderness in His heart, apart from Christ and His +teaching! If you take away from civilised men all the knowledge of +God that they owe to Jesus Christ, what have you left? The ladder by +which they climbed is kicked away by a great many people nowadays, +but it is to Him that they owe the very conceptions in the name of +which some of them turn round and deny Him. + +Ignorance of God, ignorance of one's own self and of one's deepest +duties, and ignorance of that solemn future, the fact of which is +plain to most men, but the how of which is such a blank mystery but +for Jesus Christ--these things are elements of the darkness that +wraps the world. Go to heathendom if you want to see the problem +worked out, as to what men know outside of the revelation which +culminates in Jesus Christ. And take your own hearts, dear friends +who stand aside from that sweet Lord and light of our lives, and ask +yourselves, What do I know, with a certainty which is to me as +valid, as--yea! more valid than that given by sense and outward +perceptions? What do I know of God that I do not owe to Jesus +Christ? Nothing. You may guess much, you may hope a little, you may +dread a great deal, you may question more than all, but you will +_know_ nothing. + +Well, then, further, this solemn emblem stands for impurity. And we +have only to consult our own hearts to feel how true it is about us +all, that we dwell in a region all darkened, if not by the coarse +transgressions which men consent to call sins, yet darkened more +subtly and oftentimes more hopelessly by the obscuration of pure +selfishness and living to myself and by myself. Wherever that comes, +it is like the mists that steal up from some poisonous marsh, and +shut out stars and sky, and drape the whole country in a melancholy +veil. It is white but it is poisonous, it is white but it is +darkness all the same. There are other kinds of sin than the sins +that break the Ten Commandments; there are other kinds of sin than +the sins that the world takes cognisance of. The worst poisons are +the tasteless ones, and colourless gases are laden with fatal power. +We may walk in a darkness that may be felt, though there be nothing +in our lives that men call sin, and little there of which our +consciences are as yet educated enough to be ashamed. Rent from God, +man lives to himself, and so is sunk in darkness. + +And what shall I say about the third of the doleful triad of which +this pregnant emblem is the recognised symbol all the world over? +Surely, though earth be full of blessing, and life of possibilities +of joy, no man travels very far along the road without feeling that +the burden of sorrow is a burden that we all have to carry. There +are blessings in plenty, there is mirth more than enough. There is +'the laughter' which is 'the crackling of thorns' under a pot. There +are plenty of distractions and amusements, 'blessings more plentiful +than hope'; but yet the ground tone of every human life, when the +first flush of inexperience and novelty has worn off, apart from +God, is sadness, conscious of itself sometimes, and driven to all +manner of foolish attempts at forgetfulness, unconscious of itself +sometimes, and knowing not what is the disease of which it +languishes. There it is, like some persistent minor in a great piece +of music, wailing on through all the embroidery and lightsomeness of +the cheerfuller and loftier notes. 'Every heart knoweth its own +bitterness,' and every heart _has_ a bitterness of its own to +know. + +I do not understand how it is that men who have no religion in them +can bear their own sorrows and see their neighbours' and not go mad. +Sometimes the world seems to me to be moving round its central sun +with a doleful atmosphere of sighs wherever it goes, and all the +mirth and stir and bustle are but like a thin crust of grass with +flowers upon it, cast across the sulphurous depths of some volcano +that may slumber for a while, but is there all the same. + +Brother! you and I, away from Jesus Christ, have to face the +certainties of ignorance, of sin, of sorrow--ignorance unenlightened, +sin unconquered, sorrow uncomforted. + +And then comes the other tragic, and yet most picturesque emblem in +the representation here: 'They _sit_ in darkness.' Yes! what +can they do, poor creatures? They know not where to go. The light +has left them, inactivity is a necessity. And so, with folded hands, +they wish for the day, or try to forget the night by lighting some +little torch of their own that only serves to make darkness visible, +and dies all too soon, leaving them to lie down in sorrow. + +But, you say, 'What nonsense! Inactivity! look at the fierce energy +of life in our Western lands.' Well, grant it all, there may be +plenty of material activity attendant upon inward stagnation and +torpor. But, again, I would like to ask how much of the most +godless, commercial, artistic, intellectual activity of so-called +civilised and Christian countries is owing to the stimulus and +ferment that Jesus Christ brought. If you want to see how true it is +that men without Him _sit_ in the darkness, go to heathen +lands, and see the stagnation, the torpor, there. + +Now, dear brethren, all this is true about us, in the measure in +which we do not participate by faith and love, welcoming Him into +our hearts in the illumination that Jesus Christ brings. And what I +want to do is to lay upon the hearts and consciences of each of us +here this thought, that the solemn, tragic picture of my text is the +picture of me, separate from Christ, however I may try to conceal it +from myself, and to mask it from other people by busying myself with +inferior knowledges, by avoiding to listen to the answer that +conscience gives to the question as to my moral character, and by +befooling myself with noisy joys and tumultuous pleasures, in which +there is no pleasure. + +II. Now, note secondly, the dayspring, or dawn. + +My text, in the part on which I have just been speaking, links +itself with ancient Messianic prophecy, and this expression, 'the +dayspring from on high.' also links itself with other prophecies of +the same sort. Almost the last word of prophecy before the four +centuries of silence which Mary and Zacharias broke, was, 'Unto you +that fear His name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing +in His beams.' There can be little doubt, I think, that the allusion +of my text is to these all but the last words of the prophet +Malachi. For that final chapter of the Old Testament colours the +song both of Mary and of Zacharias. And it is to be observed that +the Greek translation of the Hebrew uses the same verb, of which the +cognate noun is here employed, for the rising of the Sun of +Righteousness. The picturesque old English word 'dayspring' means +neither more nor less than _sunrising_. And it is here used +practically as a name for Jesus Christ, who is Himself the Sun, +represented as rising over a darkened earth, and yet, with a +singular neglect of the propriety of the metaphor, as descending +from on high, not to shine on us from the sky, but to 'visit us' on +earth. + +Jesus Christ Himself, over and over again, said by implication, and +more than once by direct claim, 'I am the Light of the world.' And +my text is the anticipation, perhaps from lips that did not fully +understand the whole significance of the prophecy which they spoke, +of these later declarations. I have said that the darkness is the +emblem of three baleful things, of the converse of which light is +the symbol. As the darkness speaks to us of ignorance, so Christ, as +the Sun illumines us with the light of 'the knowledge of the glory +of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' For doubt we have blessed +certainty, for a far-off God we have the knowledge of God close at +hand. For an impassive will or a stony-eyed fate we have the +knowledge (and not only the wistful yearning after the knowledge) of +a loving heart, warm and throbbing. Our God is no unemotional +abstraction, but a living Person who can love, who can pity, and we +are speaking more than poetry when we say, God is compassion, and +compassion is God. This we know because 'He that hath seen Me hath +seen the Father.' And the solid certainty of a loving God, tender, +pitying, mighty to help, quick to hear, ready to forgive, waiting to +bless, is borne into our hearts, and comes there, sweet as the +sunshine, when we turn ourselves to the light of Christ. + +In like manner the darkness, born of our own sin, which wraps our +hearts, and shuts out so much that is fair and sweet and strong, +will pass away if we turn ourselves to Him. His light pouring into +our souls will hurt the eye at first, but it will hurt to cure. The +darkness of sin and alienation will pass, and the true light will +shine. + +The darkness of sorrow--well! it will not cease, but He will 'smooth +the raven down of darkness till it smiles,' and He will bring into +our griefs such a spirit of quiet submission as that they shall +change into a solemn scorn of ills, and be almost like gladnesses. +Peace, which is better than exuberant delight, will come to quiet +the sorrow of the soul that trusts in Jesus Christ. The day which is +knowledge, purity, gladsomeness, the cheerful day will be ours if we +hold by Him. We 'are all the children of the light and of the day'; +we 'are not of the night nor of darkness.' + +Brother, it is possible to grope at noontide as in the dark, and in +all the blaze of Christ's revelation still to be left in the +Cimmerian folds of midnight gloom. You can shut your eyes to the +sunshine; have you opened your hearts to its coming? + +I cannot dwell (your time will not allow of it) upon the other +points connected with this description of the day spring, except +just to point out in passing the singular force and depth of the +words--which I suppose are more forcible and deep than he who spoke +them understood at the time that visitation was described. The +dayspring is 'from on high.' This Sun has come down on to the earth. +It has not risen on a far-off horizon, but it has come down and +visited us, and walks among us. This Sun, our life-star, 'hath had +elsewhere its setting, and cometh from afar.' For He that rises upon +us as the Light of life, hath descended from the heavens, and was, +before He appeared amongst men. + +And His coming is a divine visitation. The word here 'hath +_visited_ us' (or 'shall visit us,' as the Revised Version +varies it), is chiefly employed in the Old Testament to describe the +divine acts of self-revelation, and these, mostly redemptive acts. +Zacharias employs it in that sense in the earlier portion of the +song, where he says that 'God hath visited and redeemed His people.' +And so from the use of this word we gather these two thoughts--God +comes to us when Christ comes to us, and His coming is wondrous, +blessed nearness, and nearness to each of us. 'What is man that Thou +shouldst be mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou shouldst +visit him?' said the old Psalmist. We say 'What is man that the +Dayspring from on high should come down upon earth, and round His +immortal beams, should, as it were, cast the veil and obscuration of +a human form; and so walk amongst us, the embodied Light and the +Incarnate God?' 'The dayspring from on high hath visited us.' + +III. Lastly, note the directing by the light. + +'To guide our feet into the way of peace.' This Sun stoops to the +office of the star that moved before the wise men and hovered over +His cradle, and becomes to each individual soul a guide and +director. The picture of my text, I suppose, carries us on to the +morning, when the benighted travellers catch the first gleams of the +rising sun and resume their activity, and there is a cheerful stir +through the encampment and the way is open before them once more, +and they are ready to walk in it. The force of the metaphor, +however, implies more than that, for it speaks to us of the wonder +that this universal Light should become the special guide of each +individual soul, and should not merely hang in the heavens, to cast +the broad radiance of its beams over the whole surface of the earth, +but should move before each man, a light unto _his_ feet and a +lamp to _his_ path, in special manifestation to him of his duty +and his life's pilgrimage. + +There is only one way of peace, and that is to follow His beams and +to be directed by His preceding us. Then we shall realise the most +indispensable of all the conditions of peace--Christ brings you and +me the reconciliation which puts us at peace with God, which is the +foundation of all other tranquillity. And He will guide docile feet +into the way of peace in yet another fashion--in that the following +of His example, the cleaving to Him, the holding by His skirts or by +His hand, and the treading in His footsteps, is the only way by +which the heart can receive the solid satisfaction in which it +rests, and the conscience can cease from accusing and stinging. The +way of wisdom is a path of pleasantness and a way of peace. Only +they who walk in Christ's footsteps have quiet hearts and are at +amity with God, in concord with themselves, friends of mankind, and +at peace with circumstances. There is no strife within, no strained +relations or hostile alienation to God, no gnawing unrest of +unsatisfied desires, no pricks of accusing conscience; for the man +who puts his hand into Christ's hand, and says, 'Order Thou my +footsteps by Thy word'; 'Where Thou goest I will go, and what Thou +commandest I will do.' + +Brother, put thy hand out from the darkness and clasp His, and 'the +darkness shall be light about thee'; and He will fulfil His own +promise when He said, 'I am the Light of the world. He that +followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of +life. + + + + +SHEPHERDS AND ANGELS + + + 'And there were in the same country shepherds abiding + in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. + 9. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and + the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they + were sore afraid. 10. And the angel said unto them, + Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of + great joy, which shall be to all people. 11. For unto + you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, + which is Christ the Lord. 12. And this shall be a sign + unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling + clothes, lying in a manger. 13. And suddenly there was + with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising + God, and saying, 14. Glory to God in the highest, and + on earth peace, good will toward men. 15. And it came + to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into + heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now + go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is + come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. + 16. And they came with haste, and found Mary and + Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 17. And when + they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying + which was told them concerning this child. 18. And all + they that heard it wondered at those things which were + told them by the shepherds. 19. But Mary kept all + these things, and pondered them in her heart. 20. And + the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God + for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it + was told unto them.'--LUKE ii. 8-20. + +The central portion of this passage is, of course, the angels' +message and song, the former of which proclaims the transcendent +fact of the Incarnation, and the latter hymns its blessed results. +But, subsidiary to these, the silent vision which preceded them and +the visit to Bethlehem which followed are to be noted. Taken +together, they cast varying gleams on the great fact of the birth of +Jesus Christ. + +Why should there be a miraculous announcement at all, and why should +it be to these shepherds? It seems to have had no effect beyond a +narrow circle and for a time. It was apparently utterly forgotten +when, thirty years after, the carpenter's Son began His ministry. +Could such an event have passed from memory, and left no ripple on +the surface? Does not the resultlessness cast suspicion on the +truthfulness of the narrative? Not if we duly give weight to the few +who knew of the wonder; to the length of time that elapsed, during +which the shepherds and their auditors probably died; to their +humble position, and to the short remembrance of extraordinary +events which have no immediate consequences. Joseph and Mary were +strangers in Bethlehem. Christ never visited it, so far as we know. +The fading of the impression cannot be called strange, for it +accords with natural tendencies; but the record of so great an +event, which was entirely ineffectual as regards future acceptance +of Christ's claims, is so unlike legend that it vouches for the +truth of the narrative. An apparent stumbling-block is left, because +the story is true. + +Why then, the announcement at all, since it was of so little use? +Because it was of some; but still more, because it was fitting that +such angel voices should attend such an event, whether men gave heed +to them or not; and because, recorded, their song has helped a world +to understand the nature and meaning of that birth. The glory died +off the hillside quickly, and the music of the song scarcely +lingered longer in the ears of its first hearers; but its notes echo +still in all lands, and every generation turns to them with wonder +and hope. + +The selection of two or three peasants as receivers of the message, +the time at which it was given, and the place, are all significant. +It was no unmeaning fact that the 'glory of the Lord' shone lambent +round the shepherds, and held them and the angel standing beside +them in its circle of light. No longer within the secret shrine, but +out in the open field, the symbol of the Divine Presence glowed +through the darkness; for that birth hallowed common life, and +brought the glory of God into familiar intercourse with its +secularities and smallnesses. The appearance to these humble men as +they 'sat simply chatting in a rustic row 'symbolised the +destination of the Gospel for all ranks and classes. + +The angel speaks by the side of the shepherds, not from above. His +gentle encouragement 'Fear not!' not only soothes their present +terror, but has a wider meaning. The dread of the Unseen, which lies +coiled like a sleeping snake in all hearts, is utterly taken away by +the Incarnation. All messages from that realm are thenceforward +'tidings of great joy,' and love and desire may pass into it, as all +men shall one day pass, and both enterings may be peaceful and +confident. Nothing harmful can come out of the darkness, from which +Jesus has come, into which He has passed, and which He fills. + +The great announcement, the mightiest, most wonderful word that had +ever passed angels' immortal lips, is characterised as 'great joy' +to 'all the people,' in which designation two things are to be +noted--the nature and the limitation of the message. In how many +ways the Incarnation was to be the fountain of purest gladness was +but little discerned, either by the heavenly messenger or the +shepherds. The ages since have been partially learning it, but not +till the 'glorified joy' of heaven swells redeemed hearts will all +its sorrow-dispelling power be experimentally known. Base joys may +be basely sought, but His creatures' gladness is dear to God, and if +sought in God's way, is a worthy object of their efforts. + +The world-wide sweep of the Incarnation does not appear here, but +only its first destination for Israel. This is manifest in the +phrase 'all the people,' in the mention of 'the city of David' and +in the emphatic 'you,' in contradistinction both from the messenger, +who announced what he did not share, and Gentiles, to whom the +blessing was not to pass till Israel had determined its attitude to +it. + +The titles of the Infant tell something of the wonder of the birth, +but do not unfold its overwhelming mystery. Magnificent as they are, +they fall far short of 'The Word was made flesh.' They keep within +the circle of Jewish expectation, and announce that the hopes of +centuries are fulfilled. There is something very grand in the +accumulation of titles, each greater than the preceding, and all +culminating in that final 'Lord.' Handel has gloriously given the +spirit of it in the crash of triumph with which that last word is +pealed out in his oratorio. 'Saviour' means far more than the +shepherds knew; for it declares the Child to be the deliverer from +all evil, both of sin and sorrow, and the endower with all good, +both of righteousness and blessedness. The 'Christ' claims that He +is the fulfiller of prophecy, perfectly endowed by divine anointing +for His office of prophet, priest, and king--the consummate flower +of ancient revelation, greater than Moses the law-giver, than +Solomon the king, than Jonah the prophet. 'The Lord' is scarcely to +be taken as the ascription of divinity, but rather as a prophecy of +authority and dominion, implying reverence, but not unveiling the +deepest secret of the entrance of the divine Son into humanity. That +remained unrevealed, for the time was not yet ripe. + +There would be few children of a day old in a little place like +Bethlehem, and none but one lying in a manger. The fact of the +birth, which could be verified by sight, would confirm the message +in its outward aspect, and thereby lead to belief in the angel's +disclosure of its inward character. The 'sign' attested the veracity +of the messenger, and therefore the truth of all his word--both of +that part of it capable of verification by sight and that part +apprehensible by faith. + +No wonder that the sudden light and music of the multitude of the +heavenly host' flashed and echoed round the group on the hillside. +The true picture is not given when we think of that angel choir as +floating in heaven. They stood in their serried ranks round the +shepherds and their fellows on the solid earth, and 'the night was +filled with music,' not from overhead, but from every side. Crowding +forms became all at once visible within the encircling 'glory,' on +every face wondering gladness and eager sympathy with men, from +every lip praise. Angels can speak with the tongues of men when +their theme is their Lord become man, and their auditors are men. +They hymn the blessed results of that birth, the mystery of which +they knew more completely than they were yet allowed to tell. + +As was natural for them, their praise is first evoked by the result +of the Incarnation in the highest heavens. It will bring 'glory to +God' there; for by it new aspects of His nature are revealed to +those clear-eyed and immortal spirits who for unnumbered ages have +known His power, His holiness, His benignity to unfallen creatures, +but now experience the wonder which more properly belongs to more +limited intelligences, when they behold that depth of condescending +Love stooping to be born. Even they think more loftily of God, and +more of man's possibilities and worth, when they cluster round the +manger, and see who lies there. + +'On earth peace.' The song drops from the contemplation of the +heavenly consequences to celebrate the results on earth, and gathers +them all into one pregnant word, 'Peace.' What a scene of strife, +discord, and unrest earth must seem to those calm spirits! And how +vain and petty the struggles must look, like the bustle of an ant-hill! +Christ's work is to bring peace into all human relations, those with +God, with men, with circumstances, and to calm the discords of souls +at war with themselves. Every one of these relations is marred by sin, +and nothing less thorough than a power which removes it can rectify +them. That birth was the coming into humanity of Him who brings peace +with God, with ourselves, with one another. Shame on Christendom that +nineteen centuries have passed, and men yet think the cessation of +war is only a 'pious imagination'! The ringing music of that angel +chant has died away, but its promise abides. + +The symmetry of the song is best preserved, as I humbly venture to +think, by the old reading as in the Authorised Version. The other, +represented by the Revised Version, seems to make the second clause +drag somewhat, with two designations of the region of peace. The +Incarnation brings God's 'good will' to dwell among men. In Christ, +God is well pleased; and from Him incarnate, streams of divine +complacent love pour out to freshen and fertilise the earth. + +The disappearance of the heavenly choristers does not seem to have +been so sudden as their appearance. They 'went away from them into +heaven,' as if leisurely, and so that their ascending brightness was +long visible as they rose, and attestation was thereby given to the +reality of the vision. The sleeping village was close by, and as +soon as the last gleam of the departing light had faded in the +depths of heaven, the shepherds went 'with haste,' untimely as was +the hour. They would not have much difficulty in finding the inn and +the manger. Note that they do not tell their story till the sight +has confirmed the angel message. Their silence was not from doubt; +for they say, before they had seen the child, that 'this thing' is +'come to pass,' and are quite sure that the Lord has told it them. +But they wait for the evidence which shall assure others of their +truthfulness. + +There are three attitudes of mind towards God's revelation set forth +in living examples in the closing verses of the passage. Note the +conduct of the shepherds, as a type of the natural impulse and +imperative duty of all possessors of God's truth. Such a story as +they had to tell would burn its way to utterance in the most +reticent and shyest. But have Christians a less wonderful message to +deliver, or a less needful one? If the spectators of the cradle +could not be silent, how impossible it ought to be for the witnesses +of the Cross to lock their lips! + +The hearers of the story did what, alas! too many of us do with the +Gospel. 'They wondered,' and stopped there. A feeble ripple of +astonishment ruffled the surface of their souls for a moment; but +like the streaks on the sea made by a catspaw of wind, it soon died +out, and the depths were unaffected by it. + +The antithesis to this barren wonder is the beautiful picture of the +Virgin's demeanour. She 'kept all these sayings, and pondered them +in her heart.' What deep thoughts the mother of the Lord had, were +hers alone. But we have the same duty to the truth, and it will +never disclose its inmost sweetness to us, nor take so sovereign a +grip of our very selves as to mould our lives, unless we too +treasure it in our hearts, and by patient brooding on it understand +its hidden harmonies, and spread our souls out to receive its +transforming power. A non-meditative religion is a shallow religion. +But if we hide His word in our hearts, and often in secret draw out +our treasure to count and weigh it, we shall be able to speak out of +a full heart, and like these shepherds, to rejoice that we have seen +even as it was spoken unto us. + + + + +WAS, IS, IS TO COME + + + '... The babe lying in a manger...'--LUKE ii. 16. + + '... While He blessed them, He was parted from them, + and carried up into heaven...'--LUKE xxiv. 51. + + 'This same Jesus... shall so come in like manner as + ye have seen Him go...'--ACTS I. 11. + +These three fragments, which I have ventured to isolate and bring +together, are all found in one author's writings. Luke's biography +of Jesus stretches from the cradle in Bethlehem to the Ascension +from Olivet. He narrates the Ascension twice, because it has two +aspects. In one it looks backward, and is necessary as the +completion of what was begun in the birth. In one it looks forward, +and makes necessary, as its completion, that coming which still lies +in the future. These three stand up, like linked summits in a +mountain. We can understand none of them unless we embrace them all. +If the story of the birth is true, a life so begun cannot end in an +undistinguished death like that of all men. And if the Ascension +from Olivet is true, that cannot close the history of His relations +to men. The creed which proclaims He was 'born of the Virgin Mary' +must go on to say '... He ascended up into heaven'; and cannot pause +till it adds '...From thence He shall come to judge the quick and +the dead.' So we have then three points to consider in this sermon. + +I. Note first, the three great moments. + +The thing that befell at Bethlehem, in the stable of the inn, was a +commonplace and insignificant enough event looked at from the +outside: the birth of a child to a young mother. It had its elements +of pathos in its occurring at a distance from home, among the +publicity and discomforts of an inn stable, and with some cloud of +suspicion over the mother's fair fame. But the outside of a fact is +the least part of it. A little film of sea-weed floats upon the +surface, but there are fathoms of it below the water. Men said, 'A +child is born.' Angels said, and bowed their faces in adoration, +'The Word has become flesh'. The eternal, self-communicating +personality in the Godhead, passed voluntarily into the condition of +humanity. Jesus was born, the Son of God came. Only when we hold +fast by that great truth do we pierce to the centre of what was done +in that poor stable, and possess the key to all the wonders of His +life and death. + +From the manger we pass to the mountain. A life begun by such a +birth cannot be ended, as I have said, by a mere ordinary death. The +Alpha and the Omega of that alphabet must belong to the same fount +of type. A divine conformity forbids that He who was born of the +Virgin Mary should have His body laid to rest in an undistinguished +grave. And so what Bethlehem began, Olivet carries on. + +Note the circumstances of this second of these great moments. The +place is significant. Almost within sight of the city, a stone's +throw probably from the home where He had lodged, and where He had +conquered death in the person of Lazurus; not far from the turn of the +road where the tears had come into His eyes amidst the shouting of the +rustic procession, as He had looked across the valley; just above +Gethsemane, where He had agonised on that bare hillside to which He +had often gone for communion with the Father in heaven. There, in some +dimple of the hill, and unseen but by the little group that surrounded +Him, He passed from their midst. The manner of the departure is yet +more significant than the place. Here were no whirlwind, no chariots +and horses of fire, no sudden rapture; but, as the narrative makes +emphatic, a slow, leisurely, self-originated floating upwards. He was +borne up from them, and no outward vehicle or help was needed; but by +His own volition and power He rose towards the heavens. 'And a cloud +received Him out of their sight'--the Shechinah cloud, the bright +symbol of the Divine Presence which had shone round the shepherds on +the pastures of Bethlehem, and enwrapped Him and the three disciples +on the Mount of Transfiguration. It came not to lift Him on its soft +folds to the heavens, but in order that, first, He might be plainly +seen till the moment that He ceased to be seen, and might not dwindle +into a speck by reason of distance; and secondly, that it might teach +the truth, that, as His body was received into the cloud, so He entered +into the glory which He 'had with the Father before the world was.' +Such was the second of these moments. + +The third great moment corresponds to these, is required by them, +and crowns them. The Ascension was not only the close of Christ's +earthly life which would preserve congruity with its beginning, but +it was also the clear manifestation that, as He came of His own +will, so He departed by His own volition. 'I came forth from the +Father, and am come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go +unto the Father.' Thus the earthly life is, as it were, islanded in +a sea of glory, and that which stretches away beyond the last moment +of visibility, is like that which stretched away beyond the first +moment of corporeity; the eternal union with the eternal Father. But +such an entrance on and departure from earth, and such a career on +earth, can only end in that coming again of which the angels spoke +to the gazing eleven. + +Mark the emphasis of their words. 'This same Jesus,' the same in His +manhood, 'shall so come, in like manner, as ye have seen Him go.' +How much the 'in like manner' may mean we can scarcely dogmatically +affirm. But this, at least, is clear, that it cannot mean less than +corporeally visible, locally surrounded by angel-guards, and +perhaps, according to a mysterious prophecy, to the same spot from +which He ascended. But, at all events, there are the three moments +in the manifestation of the Son of God. + +II. Look, in the second place, at the threefold phases of our Lord's +activity which are thus suggested. + +I need not dwell, in more than a sentence or two, on the first of +these. Each of these three moments is the inauguration of a form of +activity which lasts till the emergence of the next of the triad. + +The birth at Bethlehem had, for its consequence and purpose, a +threefold end: the revelation of God in humanity, the manifestation +of perfect manhood to men, and the rendering of the great sacrifice +for the sins of the world. These three--showing us God; showing +ourselves as we are and as we may be; as we ought to be, and, +blessed be His name, as we shall be, if we observe the conditions; +and the making reconciliation for the sins of the whole world--these +are the things for which the Babe lying in the manger was born and +came under the limitations of humanity. + +Turn to the second of the three, and what shall we say of it? That +Ascension has for its great purpose the application to men of the +results of the Incarnation. He was born that He might show us God +and ourselves, and that He might die for us. He ascended up on high +in order that the benefits of that Revelation and Atonement might be +extended through, and appropriated by, the whole world. + +One chief thought which is enforced by the narrative of the +Ascension is the permanence, the eternity of the humanity of Jesus +Christ. He ascended up where He was before, but He who ascended is +not altogether the same as He who had been there before, for He has +taken up with Him our nature to the centre of the universe and the +throne of God, and there, 'bone of our bone, and flesh of our +flesh,' a true man in body, soul, and spirit, He lives and reigns. +The cradle at Bethlehem assumes even greater solemnity when we think +of it as the beginning of a humanity that is never laid aside. So we +can look confidently to all that blaze of light where He sits, and +feel that, howsoever the body of His humiliation may have been +changed into the body of His glory, He still remains corporeally and +spiritually a true Son of man. Thus the face that looks down from +amidst the blaze, though it be 'as the sun shineth in his strength,' +is the old face; and the breast which is girded with the golden +girdle is the same breast on which the seer had leaned his happy +head; and the hand that holds the sceptre is the hand that was +pierced with the nails; and the Christ that is ascended up on high +is the Christ that loved and pitied adulteresses and publicans, and +took the little child in His gracious arms--'The same yesterday, and +to-day, and for ever.' + +Christ's Ascension is as the broad seal of heaven attesting the +completeness of His work on earth. It inaugurates His repose which +is not the sign of His weariness, but of His having finished all +which He was born to do. But that repose is not idleness. Rather it +is full of activity. + +On the Cross He shouted with a great voice ere He died, 'It is +finished.' But centuries, perhaps millenniums, yet will have to +elapse before the choirs of angels shall be able to chant, 'It is +done: the kingdoms of the world are the kingdoms of God and of His +Christ.' All the interval is filled by the working of that ascended +Lord whose session at the right hand of God is not only symbolical +of perfect repose and a completed sacrifice, but also of perfect +activity in and with His servants. + +He has gone--to rest, to reign, to work, to intercede, and to +prepare a place for us. For if our Brother be indeed at the right +hand of God, then our faltering feet may travel to the Throne, and +our sinful selves may be at home there. The living Christ, working +to-day, is that of which the Ascension from Olivet gives us the +guarantee. + +The third great moment will inaugurate yet another form of activity +as necessary and certain as either of the two preceding. For if His +cradle was what we believe it to have been, and if His sacrifice was +what Scripture tells us it is, and if through all the ages He, +crowned and regnant, is working for the diffusion of the powers of +His Cross and the benefits of His Incarnation, there can be no end +to that course except the one which is expressed for us by the +angels' message to the gazing disciples: He shall so come in like +manner as ye have seen Him go. He will come to manifest Himself as +the King of the world and its Lord and Redeemer. He will come to +inaugurate the great act of Judgment, which His great act of +Redemption necessarily draws after it, and Himself be the Arbiter of +the fates of men, the determining factor in whose fates has been +their relation to Him. No doubt many who never heard His name upon +earth will, in that day be, by His clear eye and perfect judgment, +discerned to have visited the sick and the imprisoned, and to have +done many acts for His sake. And for us who know Him, and have heard +His name, the way in which we stand affected in heart and will to +Christ reveals and settles our whole character, shapes our whole +being, and will determine our whole destiny. He comes, not only to +manifest Himself so as that 'every eye shall see Him,' and to divide +the sheep from the goats, but also in order that He may reign for +ever and gather into the fellowship of His love and the community of +His joys all who love and trust Him here. These are the triple +phases of our Lord's activity suggested by the three great moments. + +III. Lastly, notice the triple attitude which we should assume to +Him and to them. + +For the first, the cradle, with its consequence of the Cross, our +response is clinging faith, grateful memory, earnest following, and +close conformity. For the second, the Ascension, with its +consequence of a Christ that lives and labours for us, and is with +us, our attitude ought to be an intense realisation of the fact of +His present working and of His present abode with us. The centre of +Christian doctrine has, amongst average Christians, been far too +exclusively fixed within the limits of the earthly life, and in the +interests of a true and comprehensive grasp of all the blessedness +that Christianity is capable of bringing to men, I would protest +against that type of thought, earnest and true as it may be within +its narrow limits, which is always pointing men to the past fact of +a Cross, and slurs over and obscures the present fact of a living +Christ who is with us, and in us. One difference between Him and all +other benefactors and teachers and helpers is this, that, as ages go +on, thicker and ever-thickening folds of misty oblivion wrap them, +and their influence diminishes as new circumstances emerge, but this +Christ's power laughs at the centuries, and is untinged by oblivion, +and is never out of date. For all others we have to say--'having +served his generation,' or a generation or two more, 'according to +the will of God, he fell on sleep.' But Christ knows no corruption, +and is for ever more the Leader, and the Companion, and the Friend, +of each new age. + +Brethren! the Cross is incomplete without the throne. We are told to +go back to the historical Christ. Yes, Amen, I say! But do not let +that make us lose our grasp of the living Christ who is with us to-day. +Whilst we rejoice over the 'Christ that died,' let us go on with Paul +to say, 'Yea! rather, that is risen again, and is even at the right +hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.' + +For that future, discredited as the thought of the second corporeal +coming of the Lord Jesus in visible fashion and to a locality has +been by the fancies and the vagaries of so-called Apocalyptic +expositors, let us not forget that it is the hope of Christ's +Church, and that 'they who love His appearing' is, by the Apostle, +used as the description and definition of the Christian character. +We have to look forwards as well as backwards and upwards, and to +rejoice in the sure and certain confidence that the Christ who has +come is the Christ who will come. + +For us the past should be full of Him, and memory and faith should +cling to His Incarnation and His Cross. The present should be full +of Him, and our hearts should commune with Him amidst the toils of +earth. The future should be full of Him, and our hopes should be +based upon no vague anticipations of a perfectibility of humanity, +nor upon any dim dreams of what may lie beyond the grave; but upon +the concrete fact that Jesus Christ has risen, and that Jesus Christ +is glorified. Does my faith grasp the Christ that was--who died for +me? Does my heart cling to the Christ who is--who lives and reigns, +and with whom my life is hid in God? Do my hopes crystallise round, +and anchor upon, the Christ that is to come, and pierce the dimness +of the future and the gloom of the grave, looking onwards to that +day of days when He, who is our life, shall appear, and we shall +appear also with Him in glory? + + + + +SIMEON'S SWAN-SONG + + + 'Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, + according to Thy word: 30. For mine eyes have seen Thy + salvation.'--LUKE ii. 29,30. + +That scene, when the old man took the Infant in his withered arms, +is one of the most picturesque and striking in the Gospel narrative. +Simeon's whole life appears, in its later years, to have been under +the immediate direction of the Spirit of God. It is very remarkable +to notice how, in the course of three consecutive verses, the +operation of that divine Spirit upon him is noted. 'It was revealed +unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he +had seen the Lord's Christ.' 'And he came by the Spirit into the +Temple.' I suppose that means that some inward monition, which he +recognised to be of God, sent him there, in the expectation that at +last he was to 'see the Lord's Christ.' He was there before the +Child was brought by His parents, for we read 'He came by the Spirit +into the Temple, and when the parents brought in the Child Jesus ... +he took Him in his arms.' Think of the old man, waiting there in the +Sanctuary, told by God that he was thus about to have the fulfilment +of his life-long desire, and yet probably not knowing what kind of a +shape the fulfilment would take. There is no reason to believe that +he knew he was to see an infant; and he waits. And presently a +peasant woman comes in with a child in her arms, and there arises in +his soul the voice 'Anoint Him! for this is He!' And so, whether he +expected such a vision or no, he takes the Child in his arms, and +says, 'Lord! Now, now !--after all these years of waiting--lettest +Thou Thy servant depart in peace.' + +Now, it seems to me that there are two or three very interesting +thoughts deducible from this incident, and from these words. I take +three of them. Here we have the Old recognising and embracing the +New; the slave recognising and submitting to his Owner; and the +saint recognising and welcoming the approach of death. + +I. The Old recognising and embracing the New. + +It is striking to observe how the description of Simeon's character +expresses the aim of the whole Old Testament Revelation. All that +was meant by the preceding long series of manifestations through all +these years was accomplished in this man. For hearken how he is +described--'just and devout,' that is the perfection of moral +character, stated in the terms of the Old Testament; 'waiting for +the Consolation of Israel,' that is the ideal attitude which the +whole of the gradual manifestation of God's increasing purpose +running through the ages was intended to make the attitude of every +true Israelite--an expectant, eager look forwards, and in the +present, the discharge of all duties to God and man. 'And the Holy +Ghost was upon him'; that, too, in a measure, was the ultimate aim +of the whole Revelation of Israel. So this man stands as a bright, +consummate flower which had at last effloresced from the roots; and +in his own person, an embodiment of the very results which God had +patiently sought through millenniums of providential dealing and +inspiration. Therefore in this man's arms was laid the Christ for +whom he had so long been waiting. + +And he exhibits, still further, what God intended to secure by the +whole previous processes of Revelation, in that he recognises that +they were transcended and done with, that all that they pointed to +was accomplished when a devout Israelite took into his arms the +Incarnate Messiah, that all the past had now answered its purpose, +and like the scaffolding when the top stone of a building is brought +forth with shouting, might be swept away and the world be none the +poorer. And so he rejoices in the Christ that he receives, and sings +the swan-song of the departing Israel, the Israel according to the +Spirit. And that is what Judaism was meant to do, and how it was +meant to end, in an _euthanasia_, in a passing into the nobler +form of the Christian Church and the Christian citizenship. + +I do not need to remind you how terribly unlike this ideal the +reality was, but I may, though only in a sentence or two, point out +that that relation of the New to the Old is one that recurs, though +in lees sharp and decisive forms, in every generation, and in our +generation in a very special manner. It is well for the New when it +consents to be taken in the arms of the Old, and it is ill for the +Old when, instead of welcoming, it frowns upon the New, and instead +of playing the part of Simeon, and embracing and blessing the +Infant, plays the part of a Herod, and seeks to destroy the Child +that seems to threaten its sovereignty. We old people who are +conservative, if not by nature, by years, and you young people who +are revolutionary and innovating by reason of your youth, may both +find a lesson in that picture in the Temple, of Simeon with the +Infant Christ in his arms. + +II. Further, we have here the slave recognising and submitting to +his Owner. + +Now the word which is here employed for 'Lord' is one that very +seldom occurs in the New Testament in reference to God; only some +four or five times in all. And it is the harshest and hardest word +that can be picked out. If you clip the Greek termination off it, it +is the English word 'despot,' and it conveys all that that word +conveys to us, not only a lord in the sense of a constitutional +monarch, not only a lord in the polite sense of a superior in +dignity, but a despot in the sense of being the absolute owner of a +man who has no rights against the owner, and is a slave. For the +word 'slave' is what logicians call the correlative of this word +'despot,' and as the latter asserts absolute ownership and +authority, the former declares abject submission. So Simeon takes +these two words to express his relation and feeling towards God. +'Thou art the Owner, the Despot, and I am Thy slave.' That relation +of owner and slave, wicked as it is, when subsisting between two +men--an atrocious crime, 'the sum of all villainies,' as the good +old English emancipators used to call it--is the sum of all +blessings when regarded as existing between man and God. For what +does it imply? The right to command and the duty to obey, the +sovereign will that is supreme over all, and the blessed attitude of +yielding up one's will wholly, without reserve, without reluctance, +to that infinitely mighty, and--blessed be God!--infinitely loving +Will Absolute authority calls for abject submission. + +And again, the despot has the unquestioned right of life and death +over his slave, and if he chooses, can smite him down where he +stands, and no man have a word to say. Thus, absolutely, we hang +upon God, and because He has the power of life and death, every +moment of our lives is a gift from His hands, and we should not +subsist for an instant unless, by continual effluence from Him, and +influx into us, of the life which flows from Him, the Fountain of +life. + +Again, the slave-owner has entire possession of all the slave's +possessions, and can take them and do what he likes with them. And +so, all that I call mine is His. It was His before it became mine; +it remains His whilst it is mine, because I am His, and so what +seems to belong to me belongs to Him, no less truly. What, then, do +you do with your possessions? Use them for yourselves? Dispute His +ownership? Forget His claims? Grudge that He should take them away +sometimes, and grudge still more to yield them to Him in daily +obedience, and when necessary, surrender them? Is such a temper what +becomes the slave? What reason has he to grumble if the master comes +to him and says, 'This little bit of ground that I have given you to +grow a few sugar-canes and melons on, I am going to take back +again.' What reason have we to set up our puny wills against Him, if +He exercises His authority over us and demands that we should regard +ourselves not only as sons but also as slaves to whom the owner of +it and us has given a talent to be used for Him? + +Now, all that sounds very harsh, does it not? Let in one thought +into it, and it all becomes very gracious. The Apostle Peter, who +also once uses this word 'despot,' does so in a very remarkable +connection. He speaks about men's 'denying the despot that bought +them.' Ah, Peter! you were getting on very thin ice when you talked +about denial. Perhaps it was just because he remembered his sin in +the judgment hall that he used that word to express the very utmost +degree of degeneration and departure from Jesus. But be that as it +may, he bases the slave-owner's right on purchase. And Jesus Christ +has bought us by His own precious blood; and so all that sounds +harsh in the metaphor, worked out as I have been trying to do, +changes its aspect when we think of the method by which He has +acquired His rights and the purpose for which He exercises them. As +the Psalmist said, 'Oh, Lord! truly I am Thy slave. Thou hast loosed +my bonds.' + +III. So, lastly, we have here the saint recognising and welcoming +the approach of death. + +Now, it is a very singular thing, but I suppose it is true, that +somehow or other, most people read these words, 'Lord! now lettest +Thou Thy servant depart in peace,' as being a petition; 'Lord! now +_let_ Thy servant depart.' But they are not that at all. We +have here not a petition or an aspiration, but a statement of the +fact that Simeon recognises the appointed token that his days were +drawing to an end, and it is the glad recognition of that fact. +'Lord! I see now that the time has come when I may put aside all +this coil of weary waiting and burdened mortality, and go to rest.' +Look how he regards approaching death. 'Thou lettest Thy servant +depart' is but a feeble translation of the original, which is better +given in the version that has become very familiar to us all by its +use in a musical service, the _Nunc Dimittis_; 'Now Thou +_dost send away_' It is the technical word for relieving a +sentry from his post. It conveys the idea of the hour having come +when the slave who has been on the watch through all the long, weary +night, or toiling through all the hot, dusty day, may extinguish his +lantern, or fling down his mattock, and go home to his little hut. +'Lord! Thou dost dismiss me now, and I take the dismission as the +end of the long watch, as the end of the long toil.' + +But notice, still further, how Simeon not only recognises, but +welcomes the approach of death. 'Thou lettest Thy servant depart in +peace.' Yes, there speaks a calm voice tranquilly accepting the +permission. He feels no agitation, no fluster of any kind, but +quietly slips away from his post. And the reason for that peaceful +welcome of the end is 'for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.' That +sight is the reason, first of all, for his being sure that the +curfew had rung for him, and that the day's work was done. But it is +also the reason for the peacefulness of his departure. He went 'in +peace,' because of what? Because the weary, blurred, old eyes had +seen all that any man needs to see to be satisfied and blessed. Life +could yield nothing more, though its length were doubled to this old +man, than the sight of God's salvation. + +Can it yield anything more to us, brethren? And may we not say, if +we have seen that sight, what an unbelieving author said, with a +touch of self-complacency not admirable, 'I have warmed both hands +at the fire of life, and I am ready to depart.' We may go in peace, +if our eyes have seen Him who satisfies our vision, whose bright +presence will go with us into the darkness, and whom we shall see +more perfectly when we have passed from the sentry-box to the home +above, and have ceased to be slaves in the far-off plantation, and +are taken to be sons in the Father's house. 'Thou lettest Thy +servant depart in peace.' + + + + +THE BOY IN THE TEMPLE + + + 'And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought Me! + wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?' + --LUKE ii. 49. + +A number of spurious gospels have come down to us, which are full of +stories, most of them absurd and some of them worse, about the +infancy of Jesus Christ. Their puerilities bring out more distinctly +the simplicity, the nobleness, the worthiness of this one solitary +incident of His early days, which has been preserved for us. How has +it been preserved? If you will look over the narratives there will +be very little difficulty, I think, in answering that question. +Observing the prominence that is given to the parents, and how the +story enlarges upon what they thought and felt, we shall not have +much doubt in accepting the hypothesis that it was none other than +Mary from whom Luke received such intimate details. Notice, for +instance, 'Joseph and His mother knew not of it.' 'They supposed Him +to have been in the company.' 'And when they,' i.e. Joseph and Mary, +'saw Him, they were astonished'; and then that final touch, 'He was +subject to them,' as if His mother would not have Luke or us think +that this one act of independence meant that He had shaken off +parental authority. And is it not a mother's voice that says, 'His +mother kept all these things in her heart,' and pondered all the +traits of boyhood? Now it seems to me that, in these words of the +twelve-year-old boy, there are two or three points full of interest +and of teaching for us. There is-- + +I. That consciousness of Sonship. + +I am not going to plunge into a subject on which certainly a great +deal has been very confidently affirmed, and about which the less is +dogmatised by us, who must know next to nothing about it, the +better; viz. the inter-connection of the human and the divine +elements in the person of Jesus Christ. But the context leads us +straight to this thought--that there was in Jesus distinct growth in +wisdom as well as in stature, and in favour with God and man. And +now, suppose the peasant boy brought up to Jerusalem, seeing it for +the first time, and for the first time entering the sacred courts of +the Temple. Remember, that to a Jewish boy, his reaching the age of +twelve made an epoch, because he then became 'a son of the Law,' and +took upon himself the religious responsibilities which had hitherto +devolved upon his parents. If we will take that into account, and +remember that it was a true manhood which was growing up in the boy +Jesus, then we shall not feel it to be irreverent if we venture to +say, not that here and then, there began His consciousness of His +Divine Sonship, but that that visit made an epoch and a stage in the +development of that consciousness, just because it furthered the +growth of His manhood. + +Further, our Lord in these words, in the gentlest possible way, and +yet most decisively, does what He did in all His intercourse with +Mary, so far as it is recorded for us in Scripture--relegated her +back within limits beyond which she tended to advance. For she said, +'Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing,' no doubt thus +preserving what had been the usual form of speech in the household +for all the previous years; and there is an emphasis that would fall +upon her heart, as it fell upon none other, when He answered: 'Wist +ye not that I must be about My Father's business?' We are not +warranted in affirming that the Child meant all which the Man +afterwards meant by the claim to be the Son of God; nor are we any +more warranted in denying that He did. We know too little about the +mysteries of His growth to venture on definite statements of either +kind. Our sounding-lines are not long enough to touch bottom in this +great word from the lips of a boy of twelve; but this is clear, that +as He grew into self-consciousness, there came with it the growing +consciousness of His Sonship to His Father in heaven. + +Now, dear brethren, whilst all that is unique, and parts Him off +from us, do not let us forget that that same sense of Sonship and +Fatherhood must be the very deepest thing in us, if we are Christian +people after Christ's pattern. We, too, can be sons through Him, and +only through Him. I believe with all my heart in what we hear so +much about now--'the universal Fatherhood of God.' But I believe +that there is also a special relation of Fatherhood and Sonship, +which is constituted only, according to Scripture teaching in my +apprehension, through faith in Jesus Christ, and the reception of +His life as a supernatural life into our souls. God is Father of all +men--thank God for it! And that means, that He gives life to all +men; that in a very deep and precious sense the life which He gives +to every man is not only derived from, but is kindred with, His own; +and it means that His love reaches to all men, and that His +authority extends over them. But there is an inner sanctuary, there +is a better life than the life of nature, and the Fatherhood into +which Christ introduces us means, that through faith in Him, and the +entrance into our spirits of the Spirit of adoption, we receive a +life derived from, and kindred with, the life of the Giver, and that +we are bound to Him not only by the cords of love, but to obey the +parental authority. Sonship is the deepest thought about the +Christian life. + +It was an entirely new thought when Jesus spoke to His disciples of +their Father in heaven. It was a thrilling novelty when Paul bade +servile worshippers realise that they were no longer slaves, but +sons, and as such, heirs of God. It was the rapture of pointing to a +new star flaming out, as it were, that swelled in John's +exclamation: 'Beloved, now are we the sons of God!' For even though +in the Old Testament there are a few occasional references to +Israel's King or to Israel itself as being 'God's son,' as far as I +remember, there is only one reference in all the Old Testament to +parental love towards each of us on the part of God, and that is the +great saying in the 103rd Psalm: 'Like as a father pitieth his +children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.' For the most part +the idea connected in the Old Testament with the Fatherhood of God +is authority: 'If I be a Father, where is Mine honour?' says the +last of the prophets. But when we pass into the New, on the very +threshold, here we get the germ, in these words, of the blessed +thought that, as His disciples, we, too, may claim sonship to God +through Him, and penetrate beyond the awe of Divine Majesty into the +love of our Father God. Brethren, notwithstanding all that was +unique in the Sonship of Jesus Christ, He welcomes us to a place +beside Himself, and if we are the children of God by faith in Him, +then are we 'heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.' + +Now the second thought that I would suggest from these words is-- + +II. The sweet 'must' of filial duty. + +'How is it that ye sought Me?' That means: 'Did you not know where I +should be sure to be? What need was there to go up and down +Jerusalem looking for Me? You might have known there was only one +place where you would find Me. Wist ye not that I _must_ be +about My Father's business?' Now, the last words of this question +are in the Greek literally, as the margin of the Revised Version +tells us, 'in the things of My Father'; and that idiomatic form of +speech may either be taken to mean, as the Authorised Version does, +'about My Father's business,' or, with the Revised Version, 'in My +Father's house.' The latter seems the rendering most relevant in +this connection, where the folly of seeking is emphasised--the +certainty of His place is more to the point than that of His +occupation. But the locality carried the occupation with it, for why +must He be in the Father's house but to be about the Father's +business, 'to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His +Temple'? + +Do people know where to find us? Is it unnecessary to go hunting for +us? Is there a place where it is certain that we shall be? It was so +with this child Jesus, and it should be so with all of us who +profess to be His followers. + +All through Christ's life there runs, and occasionally there comes +into utterance, that sense of a divine necessity laid upon Him; and +here is its beginning, the very first time that the word occurs on +His lips, 'I must.' There is as divine and as real a necessity +shaping our lives because it lies upon and moulds our wills, if we +have the child's heart, and stand in the child's position. In Jesus +Christ the 'must' was not an external one, but He 'must be about His +Father's business,' because His whole inclination and will were +submitted to the Father's authority. And that is what will make any +life sweet, calm, noble. 'The love of Christ constraineth us.' There +is a necessity which presses upon men like iron fetters; there is a +necessity which wells up within a man as a fountain of life, and +does not so much drive as sweetly incline the will, so that it is +impossible for him to be other than a loving, obedient child. + +Dear friend, have we felt the joyful grip of that necessity? Is it +impossible for me not to be doing God's will? Do I feel myself laid +hold of by a strong, loving hand that propels me, not unwillingly, +along the path? Does inclination coincide with obligation? If it +does, then no words can tell the freedom, the enlargement, the +calmness, the deep blessedness of such a life. But when these pull +in two different ways, as, alas! they often do, and I have to say, +'I must be about my Father's business, and I had rather be about my +own if I durst,' which is the condition of a great many so-called +Christian people--then the necessity is miserable; and slavery, not +freedom, is the characteristic of such Christianity. And there is a +great deal of such to-day. + +And now one last word. On this sweet 'must,' and blessed compulsion +to be about the Father's business, there follows: + +III. The meek acceptance of the lowliest duties. + +'He went down to Nazareth, and was subject to them.' That is all +that is told us about eighteen years, by far the largest part of the +earthly life of Christ. Legend comes in, and for once not +inappropriately, and tells us, what is probably quite true, that +during these years, Jesus worked in the carpenter's shop, and as one +story says, 'made yokes,' or as another tells, made light implements +of husbandry for the peasants round Nazareth. Be that as it may, 'He +was subject unto them,' and that was doing the Father's will, and +being 'about the Father's business,' quite as much as when He was +amongst the doctors, and learning by asking questions as well as by +hearkening to their instructions. Everything depends on the motive. +The commonest duty may be 'the Father's business,' when we are doing +manfully the work of daily life. Only we do not turn common duty +into the Father's business, unless we remember Him in the doing of +it. But if we carry the hallowing and quickening influence of that +great 'must' into all the pettinesses, and paltrinesses, and +wearinesses, and sorrows of our daily trivial lives, then we shall +find, as Jesus Christ found, that the carpenter's shop is as sacred +as the courts of the Temple, and that to obey Mary was to do the +will of the Father in heaven. + +What a blessed transformation that would make of all lives! The +psalmist long ago said: 'One thing have I desired of the Lord, and +that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord +all the days of my life.' We may dwell in the house of the Lord all +the days of our lives. We may be in one or other of the many +mansions of the Father's house where-ever we go, and may be doing +the will of the Father in heaven in all that we do. Then we shall be +at rest; then we shall be strong; then we shall be pure; then we +shall have deep in our hearts the joyous consciousness, undisturbed +by rebellious wills, that now 'we are the sons of God,' and the +still more joyous hope, undimmed by doubts or mists, that 'it doth +not yet appear what we shall be'; but that wherever we go, it will +be but passing from one room of the great home into another more +glorious still. 'I must be about my Father's business'; let us make +that the motto for earth, and He will say to us in His own good time +'Come home from the field, and sit down beside Me in My house,' and +so we 'shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.' + + + + +JOHN THE PREACHER OF REPENTANCE + + + 'Now, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius + Cesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and + Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip + tetrarch of Iturea and of the region of Trachonitis, + and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, 2. Annas and + Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came + unto John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. + 3. And he came into all the country about Jordan, + preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission + of sins; 4. As it is written in the book of the words + of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying + in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make + His paths straight. 6. Every valley shall be filled, + and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and + the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways + shall be made smooth; 6. And all flesh shall see the + salvation of God. 7. Then said he to the multitude that + came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of + vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to + come! 8. Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of + repentance; and begin not to say within yourselves, We + have Abraham to our Father: for I say unto you, That + God is able of these stones to raise up children unto + Abraham. 9. And now also the axe is laid unto the root + of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not + forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. + 10. And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do + then? 11. He answereth and saith unto them, He that + hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; + and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. 12. Then + came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, + Master, what shall we do? 13. And he said unto them, + Exact no more than that which is appointed you. 14. And + the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what + shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no + man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with + your wages.'--LUKE iii. 144. + +Why does Luke enumerate so carefully the civil and ecclesiastical +authorities in verses 1 and 2? Not only to fix the date, but, in +accordance with the world-wide aspect of his Gospel, to set his +narrative in relation with secular history; and, further, to focus +into one vivid beam of light the various facts which witnessed to +the sunken civil and darkened moral and religious condition of the +Jews. What more needed to be said to prove how the ancient glory had +faded, than that they were under the rule of such a delegate as +Pilate, of such an emperor as Tiberius, and that the bad brood of +Herod's descendants divided the sacred land between them, and that +the very high-priesthood was illegally administered, so that such a +pair as Annas and Caiaphas held it in some irregular fashion between +them? It was clearly high time for John to come, and for the word of +God to come to him. + +The wilderness had nourished the stern, solitary spirit of the +Baptist, and there the consciousness of his mission and his message +'came to him'--a phrase which at once declares his affinity with the +old prophets. Out of the desert he burst on the nation, sudden as +lightning, and cleaving like it. Luke says nothing as to his garb or +food, but goes straight to the heart of his message, 'The baptism of +repentance unto remission of sins,' in which expression the +'remission' depends neither on 'baptism' alone, nor on 'repentance' +alone. The outward act was vain if unaccompanied by the state of +mind and will; the state of mind was proved genuine by submitting to +the act. + +In verses 7 to 14 John's teaching as the preacher of repentance is +summarised. Why did he meet the crowds that streamed out to him with +such vehement rebuke? One would have expected him to welcome them, +instead of calling them 'offspring of vipers,' and seeming to be +unwilling that they should flee from the wrath to come. But Luke +tells why. They wished to be baptized, but there is no word of their +repentance. Rather, they were trusting to their descent as exempting +them from the approaching storm, so that their baptism would not +have been the baptism which John required, being devoid of +repentance. Just because they thought themselves safe as being +'children of Abraham,' they deserved John's rough name, 'ye +offspring of vipers.' + +Rabbinical theology has much to say about 'the merits of the +fathers.' John, like every prophet who had ever spoken to the nation +of judgments impending, felt that the sharp edge of his words was +turned by the obstinate belief that judgments were for the Gentile, +and never would touch the Jew. Do we not see the same unbelief that +God can ever visit England with national destruction in full force +among ourselves? Not the virtues of past generations, but the +righteousness of the present one, is the guarantee of national +exaltation. + +John's crowds were eager to be baptized as an additional security, +but were slow to repent. If heaven could be secured by submitting to +a rite, 'multitudes' would come for it, but the crowd thins quickly +when the administrator of the rite becomes the vehement preacher of +repentance. That is so to-day as truly as it was so by the fords of +Jordan. John demanded not only repentance, but its 'fruits,' for +there is no virtue in a repentance which does not change the life, +were such possible. + +Repentance is more than sorrow for sin. Many a man has that, and yet +rushes again into the old mire. To change the mind and will is not +enough, unless the change is certified to be real by deeds +corresponding. So John preached the true nature of repentance when +he called for its fruits. And he preached the greatest motive for it +which he knew, when he pressed home on sluggish consciences the +close approach of a judgment for which everything was ready, the axe +ground to a fine edge, and lying at the root of the trees. If it lay +there, there was no time to lose; if it still lay, there was time to +repent before it was swinging round the woodman's head. We have a +higher motive for repentance in 'the goodness of God' leading to it. +But there is danger that modern Christianity should think too little +of 'the terror of the Lord,' and so should throw away one of the +strongest means of persuading men. John's advice to the various +classes of hearers illustrates the truth that the commonest field of +duty and the homeliest acts may become sacred. Not high-flying, +singular modes of life, abandoning the vulgar tasks, but the +plainest prose of jog-trot duty will follow and attest real +repentance. Every calling has its temptations--that is to say, every +one has its opportunities of serving God by resisting the Devil. + + + + +JOHN'S WITNESS TO JESUS, AND GOD'S + + + 'And as the people were in expectation, and all men + mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the + Christ, or not; 16. John answered, saying unto them + all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier + than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not + worthy to unloose: He shall baptize you with the Holy + Ghost, and with fire: 17. Whose fan is in His hand, + and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and will gather + the wheat into His garner; but the chaff He will burn + with fire unquenchable. 18. And many other things, in + his exhortation, preached he unto the people. 19. But + Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias + his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which + Herod had done, 20. Added yet this above all, that he + shut up John in prison. 21. Now, when all the people + were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being + baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, 22. And + the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, like a + dove, upon Him; and a voice came from heaven, which + said, Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well + pleased.'--LUKE iii. 15-22. + +This passage falls into three parts: John's witness to the coming +Messiah (vs. 15-17); John's undaunted rebuke of sin in high places, +and its penalty (vs. 18-20); and God's witness to Jesus (vs. 21, +22). + +I. Luke sharply parts off the Baptist's work as a preacher of +repentance and plain morality from his work as the herald who +preceded the king. The former is delineated in verses 7-14, and its +effect was to set light to the always smouldering expectation of the +Messiah. The people were ready to rally round him if he would say +that he was the coming deliverer. It was a real temptation, but his +unmoved humility, which lay side by side with his boldness, brushed +it aside, and poured an effectual stream of cold water on the +excitement. 'John answered' the popular questionings, of which he +was fully aware, and his answer crushed them. + +In less acute fashion, the same temptation comes to all who move the +general conscience. Disciples always seek to hoist their teacher +higher than is fitting. Adherence to him takes the place of +obedience to his message, and, if he is a true man, he has to damp +down misdirected enthusiasm. + +Mark John's clear apprehension of the limitations of his work. He +baptized with water, the symbol and means of outward cleansing. He +does not depreciate his position or the importance of his baptism, +but his whole soul bows in reverence before the coming Messiah, +whose great office was to transcend his, as the wide Mediterranean +surpassed the little lake of Galilee. His outline of that work is +grand, though incomplete. It is largely based upon Malachi's closing +prophecy, and the connection witnesses to John's consciousness that +he was the Elijah foretold there. He saw that the Messiah would +surpass him in his special endowment. Strong as he was, that other +was to be stronger. Probably he did not dream that that other was to +wield the divine might, nor that His perfect strength was to be +manifested in weakness, and to work its wonders by the might of +gentle, self-sacrificing love. But, though he dimly saw, he +perfectly adored. He felt himself unworthy (literally, insufficient) +to be the slave who untied (or, according to Matthew, 'bore') his +lord's sandals. How beautiful is the lowliness of that strong +nature! He stood erect in the face of priests and tetrarchs, and +furious women, and the headsman with his sword, but he lay prostrate +before his King. + +Strength and royal authority were not all that he had to proclaim of +Messiah. 'He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire.' We +observe that the construction here is different from that in verse +16 ('with water'), inasmuch as the preposition 'in' is inserted, +which, though it is often used 'instrumentaly,' is here, therefore, +more probably to be taken as meaning simply 'in.' The two nouns are +coupled under one preposition, which suggests that they are fused +together in the speaker's mind as reality and symbol. + +Fire is a frequently recurrent emblem of the Holy Spirit, both in +the Old and New Testament. It is not the destructive, but the +vitalising, glowing, transforming, energy of fire, which is +expressed. The fervour of holy enthusiasm, the warmth of ardent +love, the melting of hard hearts, the change of cold, damp material +into its own ruddy likeness, are all set forth in this great symbol. +John's water baptism was poor beside Messiah's immersion into that +cleansing fire. Fire turns what it touches into kindred flame. The +refiner's fire melts metal, and the scum carries away impurities. +Water washes the surface, fire pierces to the centre. + +But while that cleansing by the Spirit's fire was to be Messiah's +primary office, man's freedom to accept or reject such blessing +necessarily made His work selective, even while its destination was +universal. So John saw that His coming would part men into two +classes, according as they submitted to His baptism of fire or not. +The homely image of the threshing-floor, on some exposed, windy +height, carries a solemn truth. The Lord of the harvest has an +instrument in His hand, which sets up a current of air, and the +wheat falls in one heap, while the husks are blown farther, and lie +at the edge of the floor. Mark the majestic emphasis on the Christ's +ownership in the two phrases, '_His_ floor' and '_His_ garner.' + +Notice, too, the fact which determines whether a man is chaff or +wheat--namely, his yielding to or rejecting the fiery baptism which +Christ offers. Ponder that awful emblem of an empty, rootless, +fruitless, worthless life, which John caught up from Psalm I. +Thankfully think of the care and safe keeping and calm repose +shadowed in that picture of the wheat stored in the garner after the +separating act. And let us lay on awed hearts the terrible doom of +the chaff. There are two fires, to one or other of which we must be +delivered. Either we shall gladly accept the purging fire of the +Spirit which burns sin out of us, or we shall have to meet the +punitive fire which burns up us and our sins together. To be +cleansed by the one or to be consumed by the other is the choice +before each of us. + +II. Verses 18-20 show John as the preacher and martyr of +righteousness. Luke tells his fate out of its proper place, in order +to finish with him, and, as it were, clear the stage for Jesus. +Similarly the Baptist's desert life is told by anticipation in +chapter i. 80. That treatment of his story marks his subordination. +His martyrdom is not narrated by Luke, though he knew of it (Luke +ix. 7-9), and this brief summary is all that is said of his heroic +vehemence of rebuke to sin in high places, and of his suffering for +righteousness' sake. John's message had two sides to it, as every +gospel of God's has. To the people he spoke good tidings and +exhortations; to lordly sinners he pealed out stern rebukes. + +It needs some courage to tell a prince to his face that he is foul +with corruption, and, still more, to put a finger on his actual +sins. But he is no prophet who does not lift up his voice like a +trumpet, and speak to hardened consciences. King Demos is quite as +impatient of close dealing with his immorality as Herod was. London +and New York get as angry with the Christian men who fight against +their lust and drunkenness as ever he did, and would not be sorry if +they could silence these persistent 'fanatics' as conveniently as he +could. The need for courage like John's, and plain speech like his, +is not past yet. The 'good tidings' has rebuke as part of its +substance. The sword is two-edged. + +III. The narrative now turns to Jesus, and does not even name John +as having baptized Him. The peculiarities of Luke's account of the +baptism are instructive. He omits the conversation between Jesus and +John, and the fact of John's seeing the dove and hearing the voice. +Like Mark, he makes the divine voice speak directly to Jesus, +whereas Matthew represents it as spoken _concerning_ Him. The +baptism itself is disposed of in an incidental clause (_having +been baptized_). The general result of these characteristics is +that this account lays emphasis on the bearing of the divine witness +as borne to Jesus Himself. It does not deny, but simply ignores, its +aspect as a witness borne to John. + +Another striking point is Luke's mention of Christ's prayer, which +is thus represented as answered by the opened heavens, the +descending dove, and the attesting voice. We owe most of our +knowledge of Christ's prayers to this Evangelist, whose mission was +to tell of the Son of man. Mysteries beyond our plummets are +contained in this story; but however unique it is, it has this which +may be reproduced, that prayer unveiled heaven, and brought down the +dove to abide on the bowed head, and the divine attestation of +sonship to fill the waiting heart. + +We need not dwell on the beautiful significance of the emblem of the +dove. It symbolised both the nature of that gracious, gentle Spirit, +and the perpetuity and completeness of its abode on Jesus. Others +receive portions of that celestial fullness, but itself, as if +embodied in visible form, settled down on Him, and, with meekly +folded wings, tarried there unscared. 'God giveth not the Spirit by +measure unto Him.' + +Our Evangelist does not venture into the deep waters, nor attempt to +tell what was the relation between the Incarnate Word, as it dwelt +in Jesus before that descent, and the Spirit which came upon Him. We +shall be wise if we refrain from speculating on such points, and +content ourselves with knowing that there has been one manhood +capable of receiving and retaining uninterruptedly the whole Spirit +of God; and that He will fill us with the Spirit which dwelt in Him, +in measure and manner corresponding to our need and our faith. + +The heavenly voice spoke to the heart of the man Jesus. What was His +need of it, and what were its effects on Him, we do not presume to +affirm. But probably it originated an increased certitude of the +consciousness which dawned, in His answer to Mary, of His unique +divine sonship. To us it declares that He stands in an altogether +unexampled relation of kindred to the Father, and that His whole +nature and acts are the objects of God's complacency. But He has +nothing for Himself alone, and in Him we may become God's beloved +sons, well pleasing to the Father. + + + + +THE TEMPTATION + + + 4 And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned + from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the + wilderness, 2. Being forty days tempted of the devil. + And in those days He did eat nothing: and when they + were ended, He afterward hungered. 3. And the devil + said unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, command this + stone that it be made bread, 4. And Jesus answered him, + saying, It is written, That man shall not live by + bread alone, but by every word of God. 5. And the + devil, taking Him up into an high mountain, showed + unto Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of + time. 6. And the devil said unto Him, All this power + will I give Thee, and the glory of them: for that is + delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. + 7. If Thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be + Thine. 8. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get + thee behind Me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt + worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou + serve. 9. And he brought Him to Jerusalem and set Him + on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto Him, If + Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down from hence: + 10. For it is written, He shall give His angels charge + over Thee, to keep Thee; 11. And in their hands they + shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy + foot against a stone. 12. And Jesus answering, said + unto Him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord + Thy God. 13. And when the devil had ended all the + temptation, he departed from Him for a season.' + --LUKE iv. 1-13. + +If we adopt the Revised Version's reading and rendering, the whole +of the forty days in the desert were one long assault of Jesus by +Satan, during which the consciousness of bodily needs was suspended +by the intensity of spiritual conflict. Exhaustion followed this +terrible tension, and the enemy chose that moment of physical +weakness to bring up his strongest battalions. What a contrast these +days made with the hour of the baptism! And yet both the opened +heavens and the grim fight were needful parts of Christ's +preparation. As true man, He could be truly tempted; as perfect man, +suggestions of evil could not arise within, but must be presented +from without. He must know our temptations if He is to help us in +them, and He must 'first bind the strong man' if He is afterwards +'to spoil his house.' It is useless to discuss whether the tempter +appeared in visible form, or carried Jesus from place to place. The +presence and voice were real, though probably if any eye had looked +on, nothing would have been seen but the solitary Jesus, sitting +still in the wilderness. + +I. The first temptation is that of the Son of man tempted to +distrust God. Long experience had taught the tempter that his most +taking baits were those which appealed to the appetites and needs of +the body, and so he tries these first. The run of men are drawn to +sin by some form or other of these, and the hunger of Jesus laid Him +open to their power--if not on the side of delights of sense, yet on +the side of wants. The tempter quotes the divine voice at the +baptism with almost a sneer, as if the hungry, fainting Man before +him were a strange 'Son of God.' The suggestion sounds innocent +enough; for there would have been no necessary harm in working a +miracle to feed Himself. But its evil is betrayed by the words, 'If +Thou art the Son of God,' and the answer of our Lord, which begins +emphatically with 'man,' puts us on the right track to understand +why He repelled the insidious proposal even while He was faint with +hunger. To yield to it would have been to shake off for His own sake +the human conditions which He had taken for our sakes, and to seek +to cease to be Son of man in acting as Son of God. He takes no +notice of the title given by Satan, but falls back on His +brotherhood with man, and accepts the laws under which they live as +His conditions. + +The quotation from Deuteronomy, which Luke gives in a less complete +form than Matthew, implies, even in that incomplete form, that bread +is not the only means of keeping a man in life, but that God can +feed Him, as He did Israel in its desert life, with manna; or, if +manna fails, by the bare exercise of His divine will. Therefore +Jesus will not use His power as Son of God, because to do so would +at once take Him out of His fellowship with man, and would betray +His distrust of God's power to feed Him there in the desert. How +soon His confidence was vindicated Matthew tells us. As soon as the +devil departed from Him, 'angels came and ministered unto Him.' The +soft rush of their wings brought solace to His spirit, wearied with +struggle, and once again 'man did eat angels' food.' + +This first temptation teaches us much. It makes the manhood of our +Lord pathetically true, as showing Him bearing the prosaic but +terrible pinch of hunger, carried almost to its fatal point. It +teaches us how innocent and necessary wants may be the devil's +levers to overturn our souls. It warns us against severing ourselves +from our fellows by the use of distinctive powers for our own +behoof. It sets forth humble reliance on God's sustaining will as +best for us, even if we are in the desert, where, according to +sense, we must starve; and it magnifies the Brother's love, who for +our sakes waived the prerogatives of the Son of God, that He might +be the brother of the poor and needy. + +II. The second temptation is that of the Messiah, tempted to grasp +His dominion by false means. The devil finds that he must try a +subtler way. Foiled on the side of the physical nature, he begins to +apprehend that he has to deal with One loftier than the mass of men; +and so he brings out the glittering bait, which catches the more +finely organised natures. Where sense fails, ambition may succeed. +There is nothing said now about 'Son of God.' The relation of Jesus +to God is not now the point of attack, but His hoped--for relation +to the world. Did Satan actually transport the body of Jesus to some +eminence? Probably not. It would not have made the vision of all the +kingdoms any more natural if he had. The remarkable language 'showed +... all ... in a moment of time' describes a physical impossibility, +and most likely is meant to indicate some sort of diabolic +phantasmagoria, flashed before Christ's consciousness, while His +eyes were fixed on the silent, sandy waste. + +There is much in Scripture that seems to bear out the boast that the +kingdoms are at Satan's disposal. But he is 'the father of lies' as +well as the 'prince of this world,' and we may be very sure that his +authority loses nothing in his telling. If we think how many thrones +have been built on violence and sustained by crime, how seldom in +the world's history the right has been uppermost, and how little of +the fear of God goes to the organisation of society, even to-day, in +so-called Christian countries, we shall be ready to feel that in +this boast the devil told more truth than we like to believe. Note +that he acknowledges that the power has been 'given,' and on the +fact of the delegation of it rests the temptation to worship. He +knew that Jesus looked forward to becoming the world's King, and he +offers easy terms of winning the dignity. Very cunning he thought +himself, but he had made one mistake. He did not know what kind of +kingdom Jesus wished to establish. If it had been one of the bad old +pattern, like Nebuchadnezzar's or Caesar's, his offer would have +been tempting, but it had no bearing on One who meant to reign by +love, and to win love by loving to the death. + +Worshipping the devil could only help to set up a devil's kingdom. +Jesus wanted nothing of the 'glory' which had been 'given' him. His +answer, again taken from Deuteronomy, is His declaration that His +kingdom is a kingdom of obedience, and that He will only reign as +God's representative. It defines His own position and the genius of +His dominion. It would come to the tempter's ears as the broken law, +which makes his misery and turns all his 'glory' into ashes. This is +our Lord's decisive choice, at the outset of His public work, of the +path of suffering and death. He renounces all aid from such arts and +methods as have built up the kingdoms of earth, and presents Himself +as the antagonist of Satan and his dominion. Henceforth it is war to +the knife. + +For us the lessons are plain. We have to learn what sort of kingdom +Jesus sets up. We have to beware, in our own little lives, of ever +seeking to accomplish good things by questionable means, of trying +to carry on Christ's work with the devil's weapons. When churches +lower the standard of Christian morality, because keeping it up +would alienate wealthy or powerful men, when they wink hard at sin +which pays, when they enlist envy, jealousy, emulation of the baser +sort in the service of religious movements, are they not worshipping +Satan? And will not their gains be such as he can give, and not such +as Christ's kingdom grows by? Let us learn, too, to adore and be +thankful for the calm and fixed decisiveness with which Jesus chose +from the beginning, and trod until the end, with bleeding but +unreluctant feet, the path of suffering on His road to His throne. + +III. The third temptation tempts the worshipping Son to tempt God. +Luke arranges the temptations partly from a consideration of +locality, the desert and the mountain being near each other, and +partly in order to bring out a certain sequence in them. First comes +the appeal to the physical nature, then that to the finer desires of +the mind; and these having been repelled, and the resolve to worship +God having been spoken by Jesus, Luke's third temptation is +addressed to the devout soul, as it looks to the cunning but shallow +eyes of the tempter. Matthew, on the other hand, in accordance with +his point of view, puts the specially Messianic temptation last. The +actual order is as undiscoverable as unimportant. In Luke's order +there is substantially but one change of place--from the solitude of +the wilderness to the Temple. As we have said, the change was +probably not one of the Lord's body, but only of the scenes flashed +before His mind's eye. 'The pinnacle of the Temple' may have been +the summit that looked down into the deep valley where the enormous +stones of the lofty wall still stand, and which must have been at a +dizzy height above the narrow glen on the one side and the Temple +courts on the other. There is immense, suppressed rage and malignity +in the recurrence of the sneer, 'If Thou art the Son of God' and in +the use of Christ's own weapon of defence, the quotation of +Scripture. + +What was wrong in the act suggested? There is no reference to the +effect on the beholders, as has often been supposed; and if we are +correct in supposing that the whole temptation was transacted in the +desert, there could be none. But plainly the point of it was the +suggestion that Jesus should, of His own accord and needlessly, put +Himself in danger, expecting God to deliver Him. It looked like +devout confidence; it was really 'tempting God'. It looked like the +very perfection of the trust with which, in the first round of this +duel, Christ had conquered; it was really distrust, as putting God +to proof whether He would keep His promises or no. It looked like +the very perfection of that worship with which He had overcome in +the second round of the fight; it wag really self-will in the mask +of devoutness. It tempted God, because it sought to draw Him to +fulfil to a man on self-chosen paths His promises to those who walk +in ways which He has appointed. + +We trust God when we look to Him to deliver us in perils met in meek +acceptance of His will. We tempt Him when we expect Him to save us +from those encountered on roads that we have picked oat for +ourselves. Such presumption disguised as filial trust is the +temptation besetting the higher regions of experience, to which the +fumes of animal passions and the less gross but more dangerous airs +from the desires of the mind do not ascend. Religious men who have +conquered these have still this foe to meet. Spiritual pride, the +belief that we may venture into dangers either to our natural or to +our religious life, where no call of duty takes us, the thrusting +ourselves, unbidden, into circumstances where nothing but a miracle +can save us-these are the snares which Satan lays for souls that +have broken his coarser nets. The three answers with which Jesus +overcame are the mottoes by which we shall conquer. Trust God, by +whose will we live. Worship God, in whose service we get all of this +world that is good for us. Tempt not God, whose angels keep us in +our ways, when they are His ways, and who reckons trust that is not +submission to His ways to be tempting God, and not trusting Him. + +'All the temptation' was ended. So these three made +a complete whole, and the quiver of the enemy was for +the time empty. He departed 'for a season,' or rather, +until an opportunity. He was foiled when he tried +to tempt by addressing desires. His next assault will +be at Gethsemane and Calvary, when dread and the +shrinking from pain and death will be assailed as +vainly. + + + + +PREACHING AT NAZARETH + + + 'And He began to say unto them, This day is this + scripture fulfilled In your ears.'--LUKE iv. 21. + +This first appearance of our Lord, in His public work at Nazareth, +the home of His childhood, was preceded, as we learn from John's +Gospel, by a somewhat extended ministry in Jerusalem. In the course +of it, He cast the money-changers out of the Temple, did many +miracles, had His conversation with Nicodemus, and on His return +towards Galilee met the woman of Samaria at the well. The report of +these things, no doubt, had preceded Him, and kindled the Nazarenes' +curiosity to see their old companion who had suddenly shot up into a +person of importance, and had even made a sensation in the +metropolis. A great man's neighbours are keen critics of, and slow +believers in, his greatness. So it was natural and very prudent that +Jesus should not begin His ministry in Nazareth. + +We can easily imagine the scene that morning in the little village, +nestling among the hills. How many memories would occupy Christ as +He entered the synagogue, where He had so often sat a silent +worshipper! How Mary's eyes would fill with tears if she was there, +and how the companions of His boyhood, who used to play with Him, +would watch Him; all curious, some sympathetic, some jealous, some +contemptuous! + +The synagogue service began with prayer and praise. Then followed +two readings, one from the Law, one from the Prophets. When the +latter point was reached, in accordance with usage, Jesus rose, +thereby signifying His desire to be reader of the Prophetic portion. +We can understand how there would be a movement of quickened +attention as the roll was handed to Him and He turned its sheets. He +'found the place'; that looks as if He sought for it; that is to +say, that it was not the appointed lesson for the day--if there was +such--but that it was a passage selected by Himself. + +I need not enter upon the divergences between Luke's quotation as +given in our English version and the Hebrew. They are partly due to +the fact that he is quoting from memory the Greek version of the +LXX. He inserts, for instance, one clause which is not found in that +place in Isaiah, but in another part of the same prophet. Having +read standing, as was the usage, in token of reverence for the +Scripture, Jesus resumed His seat, not as having finished, but, as +was the usage, taking the attitude of the teacher, which signified +authority. And then, His very first sentence was the most unlimited +assertion that the great words which He had been reading had reached +their full accomplishment in Himself. They are very familiar to our +ears. If we would understand their startling audacity we must listen +to them with the ears of the Nazarenes, who had known Him ever since +He was a child. 'This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.' +Now, it seems to me that this first sermon of our Lord's to His old +fellow-townsmen brings into striking prominence some characteristics +of His whole teaching, to which I desire briefly to direct +attention. + +I. I note Christ's self-assertion. + +To begin in Nazareth with such words as these in my text was +startling enough, but it is in full accord with the whole tone of +our Lord's teaching. If you will carefully search for the most +essential characteristics and outstanding differentia of the words +of Jesus Christ, even if you make all allowance that some make +for the non-historical character of the Gospels, you have this left +as the residuum, that the impression which He made upon the men that +were nearest to Him, and that caught up most fully the spirit of His +teaching, was that the great thing that differentiated it from all +other was His unhesitating persistence in pushing into the very +forefront, His testimony about Himself. I do not think that there is +anything parallel to that anywhere else amongst the men whom the +world recognises as being great religious geniuses or great moral +teachers. What characterises as perfectly unique our Lord's teaching +is not only the blessed things that He said about God or the deep +truths that He said about men and their duty, or the sad things that +He said about men and their destiny, or the radiant hopes that He +unveiled as to men and their possibility, but what He said about +Himself. His message was not so much 'Believe in God and do right,' +as it was 'Believe in Me and follow Me.' + +I need only point you to the Sermon on the Mount, which is popularly +supposed to contain very little of Christ's reference to Himself, and to +remind you how there, in that authoritative proclamation of the laws of +the new kingdom, He calmly puts His own utterances as co-ordinate +with--nay! as superior to--the utterances of the ancient law, and sweeps +aside Moses--though recognising Moses' divine mission--with an 'I say +unto you.' I need only remind you, further, how, at the end of that +'compendium of reasonable morality,' He lays down this principle--that +these sayings of 'Mine' are a rock-foundation, on which whoever builds +shall never be put to confusion. This is but a specimen of the golden +thread, if I may call it so, of self-assertion which runs through the +whole of our Lord's teaching. + +Now, I venture to say that this undeniable characteristic is only +warranted on the supposition that He is the Son of God, and His work +the salvation of the world. If He is so, if 'He that hath seen Me +hath seen the Father,' if the revelation of Himself which He makes +is the Revelation of God, if His death is for the life of the world; +and if, when we honour Him, we honour God; when we trust Him, we +trust God; when we obey Him we obey God; then I can understand His +persistent self-assertion. But otherwise does He not deliberately +intercept emotions which are only rightly directed to God? Does He +not claim prerogatives, such as forgiveness of sins, bestowal of +life, answering of prayer, which are only possessed by the Divine +Being? + +I know that many who will not go with me in my intellectual +formularising of the truth about Christ's nature do bow to Him with +unfeigned reverence. But it seems to me, I humbly confess, that +there is no logical basis for such reverence except the full-toned +recognition that the mystery of His self-assertion is explained by +the mystery of His nature, God manifest in the flesh. I, for my +part, do not see how the moral perfectness of Jesus Christ is to be +saved, in view of that unmistakable strand in His teaching, unless +by such admission. Rather, I feel that the recognition of it brings +us face to face with the tremendous alternative, and that the people +who were moved to indignation by His self-assertion because they +recognised not His divine origin, and said 'This man blasphemeth'; +'This deceiver said,' have more to say in defence of their +conclusion than those who bow before Him with reverence, and declare +Him to be the pattern of all human perfectness, and yet falter when +they are asked to join in the great confession, 'Thou are the +Christ, the Son of the living God.' + +II. Secondly, note here our Lord's sad conception of humanity. + +There are, as it were, two strands running through the prophetic +passage which He quotes, one in reference to Himself, one in +reference to those whom He came to help. To the latter I now turn, +to get our Lord's point of view when He looked upon the facts of +human life. + +No man will ever do much for the world whose ears have not been +opened to hear its sad music. An inadequate conception of its +miseries is sure to lead to inadequate prescriptions for their +remedy. We must bear upon our own hearts the burdens that we seek to +lift off our brothers' shoulders. There is nothing about the +Master's words concerning mankind more pathetic and more plain than +the sad, stern, and yet pitying view which He always took concerning +them and their condition. + +In the passage on which Jesus based His claims, as given by Luke, +one of the clauses is probably not in this place genuine, for 'the +healing of the brokenhearted' should be struck out of the true text. +There are then four symbols employed: the poor, the captives, the +blind, the bruised. And these four are representations of the result +of one fell cause, and that is--sin. + +Sin impoverishes. Our true wealth is God. No man that possesses Him, +by love, and trust, and conformity of will and effort to His +discerned will, is poor, whatever else he has, whatever else he +lacks. And no man who has lost this one durable treasure, the loving +communion with, and possession of, God, in mind and heart and will +and effort, but is a pauper whatever else he possesses. Wherever a +man has sold himself to his own will, and has made himself and his +own inclinations and misread good his centre and his aim, which is +the definition of sin, there bankruptcy and poverty have come. +Thieves sometimes beset travellers from the gold mines, as they are +bringing down their dust or their nuggets to market, and empty the +pockets of the gold, and fill them up with sand. That is what sin +does for us; it takes away our true treasure, and befools us by +giving us what seems to be solid till we come to open the bag; and +then there is no power in it to buy anything for us. 'Why will ye +spend your labour for that which satisfieth not?' The one poverty is +the impoverishment that lays hold of every soul that wrenches +itself, in self-will, apart from God. Sin makes poor. + +Sin not only impoverishes, but imprisons 'the captives.' Ah! you +have only to think of your own experience to find out what that +means. Is there nothing in the set of your affections, in the +mastery that your passion has over you, in the habits of your lives, +which you know as well as God knows it, to be wrong and ruinous, and +of which you have tried to get rid? I know the answer, and every one +of us, if we will look into our own hearts, knows it: we are 'tied +and bound by the chains of our sin.' You do not need to go to +inebriate homes, where there are people that would cut their right +hands off if they could get rid of the craving, and cannot, to find +instances of this bondage. We have only to be honest with ourselves, +and to try to pull the boat against the stream instead of letting it +drift with it, to know the force with which the current runs. A tiny +thread like a spider's draws after it a bit of cotton a little +thicker, and knotted to that there is a piece of pack-thread, and +after that a two-stranded cord, and then a cable that might hold an +ironclad at anchor. That is a parable of how we draw to ourselves, +by imperceptible degrees, an ever-thickening set of manacles that +bind our wills and make us the servants of sin. 'His slaves ye are +whom ye obey.' Sin imprisons. That is, your sin--do not let us +befool ourselves with abstractions--_your_ sin imprisons you. + +Sin blinds. Wherever there comes over a soul the mist of self-will +and self-regard, sight fails; and all the greatest things are +blurred and blotted. The man that is immersed in his own evil is +like one plunged in the ocean. The cold, salt waters are about him, +and above him; and to him the glories of the sky, and the brightness +of the sun, the tenderness of the colouring, are all blotted out. He +who goes through life as some of us do, never seeing God, never +seeing the loftiest beauty of goodness, never beholding with any +clearness of vision the radiant possibilities of the future and its +awful threatenings, may indeed see the things an inch from the point +of his nose; but he is blind and cannot see afar off, and can only +behold, and that darkly, the insignificances that are around him. +Sin blinds. + +And sin bruises. It takes all the health out of us, and makes us, +from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, masses of +'wounds and bruises and putrifying sores.' + +The enchantress having worked all this havoc, then gives us a cup of +illusion which, when we drink, we know not that there is anything +the matter with us. We are like a lunatic in a cell, who thinks +himself a prince in a palace, and though living on porridge and +milk, fancies that he is partaking of all the dainties of a +luxurious table. The deceitfulness of sin is not the least of its +tragical consequences. + +III. Lastly, we have here our Lord's conception of Himself and of +His own work. + +Your time will not allow of my dwelling upon this as I would fain +have done, but let me point out one or two of the salient features +of this initial programme of His. He claims to be the theme and the +fulfilment of prophecy. Now, whatever influences modern notions +about the genesis of the Old Testament, and the characteristics of +its prophetic utterances may have done, they have not touched, and +they never will touch, this one central characteristic of all that +old system, that embedded in it there was an onward-looking gaze, +anticipatory of a higher fulfilment and a further development of all +that it taught. To those of us to whom Christ's words are the end of +all strife I need only point out that, here, He endorses the belief +that prophetic utterances, however they may have had, and did have, +a lower and immediate meaning, were only realised in the whole sweep +and significance in Himself. So He presents Himself before His +acquaintances in the little synagogue at Nazareth, and before the +whole world to all time, as the centre-point and pivot on which the +history of the world, so to speak, revolves; all that was before +converging to Him, all that was after flowing down from Him. 'They +that went before, and they that followed after, cried, Hosanna! +blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord.' + +He claims to possess the whole fullness of the divine Spirit: 'The +Spirit of the Lord is upon Me.' That is a reminiscence, no doubt, of +the experience by the fords of the Jordan, at the Baptism. But it +also opens up a wondrous consciousness, on His part, of a complete +and uninterrupted possession of the divine life in all its fullness, +which involves an entire separation from the miseries and needs of +men. He claims to be the Messiah of the Old Covenant, with all the +fullness of meaning, and loftiness of dignity which clustered round +that word and that thought. He claims not only to proclaim, but to +bestow, the blessings of which He speaks. For He not only comes to +'preach good tidings to the poor,' but 'to heal the broken-hearted,' +and 'to set at liberty all them that are bound.' He is the Gospel +which He utters. He not merely proclaims the favour of heaven, but +He brings 'the acceptable year of the Lord.' + +This, in barest outline--which is all that your time will admit--is +the summary of what Jesus Christ, in that first sermon in the +synagogue at Nazareth, asserted Himself to be. + +He does not detail the means by which He is about to bring the +golden year, the year of Jubilee, 'the acceptable year of the Lord.' +But I venture to say that it is hard to find, in the life of Jesus +Christ, that which fulfils Christ's own programme, as thus +announced, unless you bring in His death on the Cross for the +abolition of sin, His Resurrection for the abolition of death; His +reign in glory for the bestowment on all sinful and bruised souls of +the Spirit of healing and of righteousness. + +These Nazarenes listened. Their hearts and consciences attested the +magnetic power of His personality, and the truth of His word. So do +the hearts and consciences of most of us. They wondered at the 'words +of grace'--whose matter was grace, whose manner was gracious--that +proceeded from His mouth. So do most of us. But they let the incipient +movement of their hearts be arrested by the cold, carping question, +'Is not this Joseph's son?' and all the enthusiasm chilled into +indifference; 'indignation' followed, and some of those who had +almost been drawn to Him, in an hour's time had their hands on His +robe, to cast Him from the brow of the hill on which their village +was built. Every man who comes to the point of feeling some emotions +towards Christ as his Redeemer, as his King, is at a fork of the +road. He may either take to the right, which will lead him to full +communion and acceptance; or he may go to the left, which will carry +him away out into the desert. The critical hour in the alchemist's +laboratory was when the lead in his crucible began to melt. If a +cold current got at it, it resumed its dead solidity, and no gold +could be made. + +Brother! do not let the world's cold currents get at your heart and +freeze it again, if you feel that in any measure it is beginning to +melt into penitence, and to flow with faith. The same voice that in +the synagogue of Nazareth said, 'He hath anointed Me to preach the +Gospel to the poor' speaks to us to-day from heaven, saying, 'I +counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest +be rich ... and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest +see.' + + +*** + +A SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM + + + 'And in the synagogue there was a man which had a + spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud + voice, 34. 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. 35. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy + peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had + thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt + him not. 36. And they were all amazed, and spake among + themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with + authority and power He commandeth the unclean spirits, + and they come out. 37. And the fame of Him went out + into every place of the country round about. 38. And + He arose out of the synagogue, and entered into + Simon's house: and Simon's wife's mother was taken + with a great fever; and they besought Him for her. + 39. And He stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and + it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered + unto them. 40. Now, when the sun was setting, all they + that had any sick with divers diseases brought them + unto Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them, + and healed them. 41. And devils also came out of many, + crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ, the Son of + God. And He, rebuking them, suffered them not to speak: + for they knew that He was Christ. 42. And when it was + day, He departed, and went into a desert place; and the + people sought Him, and came unto Him, and stayed Him, + that He should not depart from them. 43. And He said + unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other + cities also: for therefore am I sent. 44. And He + preached in the synagogues of Galilee.'--LUKE iv.33-44. + +There are seven references to Christ's preaching in the synagogues +in this chapter, and only two in the rest of this Gospel. Probably +our Lord somewhat changed His method, and Luke, as the Evangelist of +the gospel for Gentile as well as Jew, emphasises the change, as +foreshadowing and warranting the similar procedure in Paul's +preaching. This lesson takes us down from the synagogue at Nazareth, +among its hills, to that at Capernaum, on the lakeside, where Jesus +was already known as a worker of miracles. The two Sabbaths are in +sharp contrast. The issue of the one is a tumult of fury and hate; +that of the other, a crowd of suppliants and an eager desire to keep +Him with them. The story is in four paragraphs, each showing a new +phase of Christ's power and pity. + +I. Verses 33-37 present Christ as the Lord of that dark world of +evil. The hushed silence of the synagogue, listening to His gentle +voice, was suddenly broken by shrieks of rage and fear, coming from +a man who had been sitting quietly among the others. Possibly his +condition had not been suspected until Christ's presence roused his +dreadful tyrant. The man's voice is at the demon's service, and only +Jesus recognises who speaks through the wretched victim. We take for +granted the reality of demoniacal possession, as certified for all +who believe Jesus, by His words and acts in reference to it, as well +as forced on us, by the phenomena themselves, which are clearly +distinguishable from disease, madness, or sin. The modern aversion +to the supernatural is quite as much an unreasonable prejudice as +any old woman's belief in witchcraft and Professor Huxley, making +clumsy fun of the 'pigs at Gadara,' is holding opinions in the same +sublime indifference to evidence of facts as the most superstitious +object of his narrow-visioned scorn. + +Napoleon called 'impossible' a 'beast of a word.' So it is in +practical life,--and no less so when glibly used to discredit +well-attested facts. We neither aspire to the omniscience which +pronounces that there can be no possession by evil spirits, nor +venture to brush aside the testimony of the Gospels and the words of +Christ, in order to make out such a contention. + +Note the rage and terror of the demon. The presence of purity is a +sharp pain to impurity, and an evil spirit is stirred to its depths +when in contact with Jesus. Monstrous growths that love the dark +shrivel and die in sunshine. The same presence which is joy to some +may be a very hell to others. We may approach even here that state +of feeling which broke out in these shrieks of malignity, hatred, +and dread. It is an awful thing when the only relief is to get away +from Jesus, and when the clearest recognition of His holiness only +makes us the more eager to disclaim any connection with Him. That is +the hell of hells. In its completeness, it makes the anguish of the +demon; in its rudiments, it is the misery of some men. + +Observe too, the unclean spirit's knowledge, not only of the +birthplace and name, but of the character and divine relationship of +Jesus. That is one of the features of demoniacal possession which +distinguish it from disease or insanity, and is quite incapable of +explanation on any other ground. It gives a glimpse into a dim +region, and suggests that the counsels of Heaven, as effected on +earth, are keenly watched and understood by eyes whose gleam is +unsoftened by any touch of pity or submission. It is most natural, +if there are such spirits, that they should know Jesus while men +knew Him not, and that their hatred should keep pace with their +knowledge, even while by the knowledge the hatred was seen to be +vain. + +Observe Christ's tone of authority and sternness. He had pity for +men, who were capable of redemption, but His words and demeanour to +the spirits are always severe. He accepts the most imperfect +recognition from men, and often seems as if labouring to evoke it, +but He silences the spirits' clear recognition. The confession which +is 'unto salvation' comes from a heart that loves, not merely from a +head that perceives; and Jesus accepts nothing else. He will not +have His name soiled by such lips. + +Note, still further, Christ's absolute control of the demon. His +bare word is sovereign, and secures outward obedience, though from +an unsubdued and disobedient will. He cannot make the foul creature +love, but He can make him act. Surely Omnipotence speaks, if demons +hear and obey. Their king had been conquered, and they knew their +Master. The strong man had been bound, and this is the spoiling of +his house. The question of the wondering worshippers in the +synagogue goes to the root of the matter, when they ask what they +must think of the whole message of One whose word gives law to the +unclean spirits; for the command to them is a revelation to us, and +we learn His Godhead by the power of His simple word, which is but +the forth-putting of His will. + +We cannot but notice the lurid light thrown by the existence of such +spirits on the possibility of undying and responsible beings +reaching, by continued alienation of heart and will from God, a +stage in which they are beyond the capacity of improvement, and +outside the sweep of Christ's pity. + +II. Verses 38 and 39 show us Christ in the gentleness of His healing +power, and the immediate service of gratitude to Him. The scene in +the synagogue manifested 'authority and power,' and was prompted by +abhorrence of the demon even more than by pity for his victim; but +now the Lord's tenderness shines unmingled with sternness. Mark +gives details of this cure, which, no doubt, came from Peter--such +as his joint ownership of the house with his brother, the names of +the companions of Jesus, and the infinitely tender action of taking +the sick woman by the hand and helping her to rise. But Luke, the +physician, is more precise in his description of the case: 'holden +by a great fever.' He traces the cure to the word of rebuke, which, +no doubt, accompanied the clasp of the hand. + +Here again Christ puts forth divine power in producing effects in +the material sphere by His naked word. 'He spake and it was done.' +That truly divine prerogative was put forth at the bidding of His +own pity, and that pity which wielded Omnipotence was kindled by the +beseechings of sorrowing hearts. Is not this miracle, which shines +so lustrously by the side of that terrible scene with the demon, a +picture in one case, and that the sickness of one poor and probably +aged woman, of the great truth that heartens all our appeals to Him? +He who moves the forces of Deity still from His throne lets us move +His heart by our cry. + +Luke is especially struck with one feature in the case--the +immediate return of usual strength. The woman is lying, the one +minute, pinned down and helpless with 'great fever,' and the next is +bustling about her domestic duties. No wonder that a physician +should think so abnormal a case worthy of note. When Christ heals, +He heals thoroughly, and gives strength as well as healing. What +could a woman, with no house of her own, and probably a poor +dependant on her son-in-law, do for her healer? Not much. But she +did what she could, and that without delay. The natural impulse of +gratitude is to give its best, and the proper use of healing and new +strength is to minister to Him. Such a guest made humble household +cares worship; and all our poor powers or tasks, consecrated to His +praise and become the offerings of grateful hearts, are lifted into +greatness and dignity. He did not despise the modest fare hastily +dressed for Him; and He still delights in our gifts, though the +cattle on a thousand hills are His. 'I will sup with him,' says He, +and therein promises to become, as it were, a guest at our humble +tables. + +III. Verses 40 and 41 show us the all-sufficiency of Christ's pity +and power. The synagogue worship would be in the early morning, and +the healing of the woman immediately after, and the meal she +prepared the midday repast. The news had time to spread; and as soon +as the sinking sun relaxed the Sabbatical restrictions, a motley +crowd came flocking round the house, carrying all the sick that +could be lifted, all eager to share in His healing. The same kind of +thing may be seen yet round many a traveller's tent. It did not +argue real faith in Him, but it was genuine sense of need, and +expectation of blessing from His hand; and the measure of faith was +the measure of blessing. They got what they believed He could give. +If their faith had been larger, the answers would have been greater. + +But men are quite sure that they want to be well when they are ill, +and bodily healing will be sought with far more earnestness and +trouble than soul-healing. Crowds came to Jesus as Physician who +never cared to come to Him as Redeemer. Offer men the smaller gifts, +and they will run over one another in their scramble for them; but +offer them the highest, and they will scarcely hold out a languid +hand to take them. + +But the point made prominent by Luke is the inexhaustible fullness +of pity and power, which met and satisfied all the petitioners. The +misery spoke to Christ's heart; and so as the level rays of the +setting sun cast a lengthening shadow among the sad groups, He moved +amidst them, and with gentle touch healed them all. To-day, as then, +the fountain of His pity and healing power is full, after thousands +have drawn from it, and no crowd of suppliants bars our way to His +heart or His hands. He has 'enough for all, enough for each, enough +for ever more.' + +The reference to demoniacs adds nothing to the particulars in the +earlier verses except the evidence it gives of the frequency of +possession then. + +IV. Verses 42-44 show us Jesus seeking seclusion, but willingly +sacrificing it at men's call. He withdraws in early morning, not +because His store of power was exhausted, or His pity had tired, but +to renew His communion with the Father. He needed solitude and +silence, and we need it still more. No work worth doing will ever be +done for Him unless we are familiar with some quiet place, where we +and God alone together can hold converse, and new strength be poured +into our hearts. Our Lord is here our pattern, also, of willingly +leaving the place of communion when duty calls and men implore. We +must not stay on the Mount of Transfiguration when demoniac boys are +writhing on the plain below, and heart-broken fathers wearying for +our coming. A great, solemn 'must' ruled His life, as it should do +ours, and the fulfilment of that for which He 'was sent' ever was +His aim, rather than even the blessedness of solitary communion or +repose of the silent hour of prayer. + + + + +INSTRUCTIONS FOR FISHERMEN + + + 'Now when He had left speaking, He said unto Simon, + Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a + draught.'--LUKE v. 4. + +The day's work begins early in the East. So the sun, as it rose +above the hills on the other side of the lake, shone down upon a +busy scene, fresh with the dew and energy of the morning, on the +beach by the little village of Bethsaida. One group of fishermen was +washing their nets, their boats being hauled up on the strand. A +crowd of listeners was thus early gathered round the Teacher; but +the fishermen, who were His disciples, seem to have gone on with +their work, never minding Christ or the crowd. It is sometimes quite +as religious to be washing nets as to be listening to Christ's +teaching. + +The incident which follows the words of my text, and which is called +the first miraculous draught of fishes, is stamped by our Lord +Himself with a symbolic purpose; for at the end of it He says: 'Fear +not! from henceforth thou shalt catch men.' And that flings back a +flood of light on the whole story; and not only warrants but obliges +us to take it as being by Him intended for the instruction in their +Christian work of these four whom He has chosen to be His workers. +However many of our Lord's miracles may not come under this category +of symbolism (and I, for my part, do not believe that there are any +of them which do not), this one clearly does. We have His own +commentary to compel us to interpret its features as meaning +something beyond what appears on the surface. I take it, then, that +we have here a first vivid code of instructions which our Lord gives +to all His servants who do work for Him; and I wish to look at the +various stages of this incident from that point of view. + +If there are any of my hearers who think to themselves, 'Ah, well! +he is not going to say anything that I have anything to do with,' so +much the worse for you, if you are not a Christian; or, so much the +worse for you if, being a Christian, you are not an active servant. +Jesus Christ had four disciples who were fishermen, and out of them +He made four fishers of men. The obligation is universal. + +I. The Law of Service. + +'Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.' +Now there is nothing more remarkable in the whole narrative than the +matter-of-course fashion in which our Lord takes the disposal of +these men, and orders them about. It is not explicable unless we +fall back upon what Luke does not tell us, but John does, in his +Gospel, that this was by no means the first time that He had come +across Peter and Andrew his brother, or James and John his brother. +We do not need to trouble ourselves with the chronological question +how long before they had been drawn to Him at the fords of Jordan by +the witness of John the Baptist, and by the witness of some of them +to the others. The relationship had been then commenced which is +presupposed by our Lord's authoritative tone here. It leads in the +incident of my text to a closer discipleship, which did not admit of +Simon and John hauling or cleaning their nets any more. They had +been disciples before in a certain loose fashion, a fashion which +permitted them to go home and look after their ordinary avocations. +Hence-forward they were disciples in a much more stringent fashion. +It was because they had already said 'Rabbi! Thou art the Son of +God! Thou art the King of Israel,' that this strange imperative +command, inexplicable, except by the supplement of the last of the +four Gospels, came from Christ's lips and secured immediate +obedience. + +If we thus understand that His authority follows on our +discipleship, and that the words of my text, first of all, insist +upon and assert His right to command and absolutely dispose of the +activities, resources, and persons of all His disciples, we have +learned something that we only need to practise in order to make our +lives noble with a strange nobility, and blessed and sweet with an +unearthly sanctity and blessedness. + +Further, the words of my text not only declare for us thus the +absolute authority of Jesus Christ over all His disciples, but also +reveal His sweet promise and gracious assurance that He cares to +guide, to direct, to prescribe spheres, to determine methods, to +lead those who docilely look to Him and wait upon Him, in paths in +which their activity may most profitably be employed for Him and for +His Church. If there is anything that is declared to us plainly in +the Scriptures, with regard to the relationships between men and +Jesus Christ, it is this, that a docile heart will always be a +guided heart, partly by inward whispers, which only they disbelieve +who limit God in His relation to men, beyond what they have a right +to do; and partly by outward providences which only they disbelieve +who limit God in His power over the external world, beyond what they +have a right to do. He will guide, sometimes with His eye, to which +the loving eye flashes back response; sometimes with His whispered +word, when the noises of earth and the pulsations of self-will are +stilled; sometimes with His rod, which the less sensitive of His +sons do often need; sometimes by successes in paths that we venture +upon tentatively and timidly; and sometimes by failures in paths +into which we rush confidently and presumptuously; but always, the +waiting heart is a guided heart, and if we listen we shall hear +'This is the way, walk ye in it.' And sometimes it is God's will +that we should make mistakes, for these too help us to learn His +will. + +But, further, and more particularly, I do not think that I am unduly +reading too much meaning into this story, if I ask you to put emphasis +upon one word, 'Launch out into the _deep_.' As long as you keep +pottering along, a boat's length from the shore, you will only catch +little fishes. The big ones, and the heavy takes are away out yonder. +Go out there, if you want to get them. Which, being translated, is +this--The same spirit of daring enterprise, which is a condition of +success in secular matters, is no less potent a factor in the success +of Christian men in their enterprises for Jesus Christ. As long as we +keep Him down, within the limits of use and wont, and are horribly +afraid of anything that our great-grandfathers did not use to do, +there will be very few fish in the bottom of the boat. + +Oh, brethren! if one thinks of the world into which it has been +God's providence to put us, a world all seething with new +aspirations and unrest--if we think of the condition of the great +city in which we live, which is only a specimen of the cities of +England, and of the tragical insufficiency of Christian enterprise +and effort, as compared with the overwhelming masses of the +community, surely, surely, there is nothing more wanted to make +Christian people wake up from their old jog-trot habits, and cast +themselves with new earnestness, new daring and enterprise, into +forms of service which conscience and sober wisdom may approve. Of +course, I do not forget that any such new methods must each approve +themselves at the tribunal of the Christian consciousness. It is no +part of my business here to descend into details and particulars, +but I do want to lay on my own heart, and especially on the hearts +of the members of the church of which I have the honour to be the +pastor, and also upon all other Christian people whom my voice may +reach, the solemn responsibility which the conditions of life in our +generation lay upon Christian men and women, 'Launch out into the +deep and let down your nets.' I believe, for my part, that if all +the good, God-fearing, Christ-loving men and women in Manchester +were to hear this voice sounding in their ears, and to obey it, they +would change the face of the city. + +II. The Response. + +Peter, characteristically, speaks out, and says exactly what a +fisherman would be likely to say to a carpenter from Nazareth, that +came down to teach him his business. The landsman would not know +what the fisherman knew well enough, that it was useless to go +fishing in the morning if you had not caught anything all night. +There was very little chance of getting any better success when the +sun's rays were glinting on the surface of the water. + +'We have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing.' Experience +said, 'No! do not.' Christ said, 'Yes! do.' And so when Peter has +made a clean breast of his objection, founded on experience, he goes +on with the consent prompted by the devotion and consecration of +love, 'nevertheless.' A great word that. 'We have toiled all the +night, and have taken nothing; nevertheless at _Thy_ word we will +let down the net. So here goes.' And away they went, breakfastless +perhaps, with their nets half cleaned, and sleepy and tired with the +night's work. + +Here, then, we see obedience that springs delighted to obey, because +it is impelled by love. That is the spirit which can be trusted to +go out into the deep, which does not ask whether things are +recognised and usual or not, but which, if once it is sure of the +Lord's will, takes no counsel of anything else. How should it, +seeing that there is nothing so delightsome to a heart that truly +loves as to know and do the will of its beloved? And that, dear +brethren, is the spirit that all we Christian people need--a deeper, +more vivid, more continual, soul-subduing, muscle-straining +consciousness that Jesus Christ 'loved me and gave Himself for me.' +Then His whisper will be like thunder, and the motto of our lives +will be 'At Thy word, I will!' + +Further, here is obedience that was not in the least degree +depressed by the recognition of past failure. All night long they +had been dropping the net overboard, and drawing it in, and with +horny, wet hands seeking in its meshes, and finding nothing. Then +overboard with it again, and more pulling at the heavy sweeps, till +the dawn began to show, and all in vain. Now the weary task must be +done all over again, though in all the past hours though they were +the best, there has been only failure. + +I think that our Christian courage and consecration would be +immensely increased, if we could learn the lesson of my text; and +feel that, however often in the past I may have broken down, the +word of Christ's command, which thrills into my will, is also the +word of Christ's promise which should stay my heart, and give me the +assurance that past defeat shall be converted into future victory. + +There is an obedience which did not grudge fresh toil before the +effect of past toils had been quite got over. The nets, as I said, +were only half cleaned. It was a pity to begin and dirty them again. +The fishers had had a very hard night's toil. If they had been like +some of us they would have said, 'Oh! I have been working hard all +the night. I cannot possibly do any more this morning.' 'I am so +very busy with my business all the week, that it is perfectly absurd +to talk about my teaching in a Sunday-school.' That was not their +spirit at all. No matter how they had to rub their eyes to get the +sleep out of them, they just bundled the nets into the boat once +more, pushed her down the strand, and shoved her out into the blue +waters at Christ's bidding. And that is the sort of workmen that He +wants, and that you and I should be. + +Further, we have here an obedience that kept the Master's word +sounding in its heart whilst it was at work. 'At Thy word will I let +down the net.' + +Ah! we very often begin working with a very pure motive, and as we +go on, the motive gradually oozes away, and what was begun in the +spirit is continued in the flesh; and what was begun with a true +devotion to Jesus Christ is continued because we were doing it +yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, and +because it is the custom to do it. So we go on. The heart having all +gone out of our service, the blessing is gone out of it too. But if +we will keep our hearts near that Lord and listen to His voice +calling us, wearied or not wearied, beaten before or not beaten +before, and do as He bids us, launch out into the deep, we shall not +toil in vain. + +III. The result. + +Christ's command ever includes His promise. Work done for Him is never +resultless. True, His most faithful servants have often to say, if +they look at their few sheaves with the eye of sense, 'I have spent +my strength for nought.' True, the Apostolic experience is, at the +best, but too exactly repeated, 'Some believed, and some believed not.' +Christ's Gospel always produces its twofold effect, being 'a savour of +life unto life, or of death unto death.' If the great Sower, when He +went forth to sow, expected but a fourth part of the seed to fall into +good ground, His servants need look for no larger results. But still +it remains true that honest, earnest work for Jesus, wisely planned +and prayerfully carried out with self-oblivion and self-surrender, will +not be unblessed. If our labour is 'in the Lord,' it will not be 'in +vain.' Just as pain is a danger signal, pointing to mischief at work +on the body, so failure in achieving the results of Christian service +is, for the most part, an indication of something wrong in method or +spirit. + +But, if we are toiling in loving obedience to Christ's voice, and +seeking His direction as to sphere and manner of service, we may be +quite sure of this, that whether we get, immediately or no, the +outward and visible results which this incident promises to all who +fulfil the conditions, we shall get the results which were +symbolised in the second form of this miraculous draught of fishes. +For, if you remember, there was another incident at the end of +Christ's life, modelled upon this one, and equally significant, +though in a different fashion. On that occasion, when the disciples +had been toiling all the night, and saw, in the dim twilight of the +morning, the questionable figure standing on the shore there, they +were bidden to bring of the fish that they had caught, and when they +came to land they saw a fire of coals, and fish laid thereon, and +bread; and His voice said, 'Come, and eat!' Blessed are the workers +that work for the Master, for living they shall not be left without +His blessing, and dying, 'they rest from their labours'--by the side +of that mysterious fire, and Christ-provided food--'and their works +do follow them, in that they bring of the fish which they have +caught. + + + + +FEAR AND FAITH + + + 'When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, + saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.' + --LUKE v. 8. + + 'Now, when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he + girt his fisher's coat unto him,... and did cast + himself into the sea.'--JOHN xxi. 7. + +These two instances of the miraculous draught of fishes on the Lake +of Gennesareth are obviously intended to be taken in conjunction. +Their similarities and their differences are equally striking and +equally instructive. In the fragment of the incident which I have +selected for our consideration now, we have the same man, in the +same scene and circumstances, in the presence of the same Lord, +acting under the influences of the same motive, and doing two +exactly opposite things. + +In the first case, the miracle at once struck him with the +consciousness that he was now, in some way, he knew not how, in the +immediate presence of the supernatural. That was immediately +followed by a quick spasm and sense of sin, and that again by a +recoil of terror, and that again by the cry, 'Go out of the boat; +for I am a sinful man, O Lord.' + +In the other instance, as soon as he saw (or rather, by the help of +his friend's clearer sight, learned) that that dim and questionable +figure on the morning beach there, was the Lord, the sight brought +back his sin to his mind. But this time the consciousness of sin +sent him splashing over the side, and through the shallow water, to +struggle anyhow to get close to his Lord, not because he thought +more complacently of himself or less loftily of his Master, but +because he had learned that the best place for a sinful man was as +close to Christ as ever he could get. And so, if we put these two +incidents together, we get two or three thoughts that it is worth +our while to dwell upon. + +I. I ask you to notice, first, that instinctive and swift awaking of +conscience. + +This was not Peter's first acquaintance with Jesus Christ, nor his +first enrolment in the ranks of disciples. John's Gospel tells the +very beginning, and how, long before this incident, he had +recognised Jesus Christ to be the King of Israel. This was not his +first experience of a miracle. There had been many wrought in +Capernaum of which probably he was an observer; and he had been at +the wedding of Cana of Galilee; and in many ways and at many times, +no doubt had seen manifestations of our Lord's supernatural power. +But here, in his own boat, with his own nets, about his own sort of +work, the thing came home to him as it never had come home before. +And although he had long ago recognised Jesus Christ as the Messiah, +there is a new, tremulous accession of conviction in that 'O Lord!' +It means more than 'Master,' as he had just called Jesus. It means +more than he knew himself, no doubt, but it means at least a great, +sudden illumination as to who and what Christ was. And so the +consciousness of sin flashes upon him at once, as a consequence of +that new vision of the divine, as manifested in Jesus Christ. The +links of the process of thought are suppressed. We only see the two +ends of it. He passed through a series of thoughts with lightning +rapidity. The beginning was the recognition of Christ as in some +sense the manifestation to him of the Divine Presence, and the end +of it was the recognition of his own sinfulness. He had no new +facts; but new meaning and vitality were given to the facts that had +long been familiar to him. The first result of this was a new +conviction of his own hollowness and evil; and then, side by side +with that sense of demerit and sin, came this other trembling +apprehension of personal consequences. And so, not thinking so much +about the sin as about the punishment that he thought must +necessarily come when the holy and the impure collided, he cried, +'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!' + +Now I take it that you get there, in that one instance, packed into +small and picturesque compass, just the outlines of what it is +reasonable and right that there should always go on in a heart when +it first catches a glimpse of the purity, and holiness, and nearness +of God, and of the awful, solemn verity that we do, each of us for +himself, stand in a living, personal relation to Him. That sudden +conviction may come by a thousand causes. A sunset opening the gates +to the infinite distance may do it. A chance word may do it. A +phrase in a sermon may do it. Some personal sorrow or sickness may +do it. Any accidental push may touch the spring, and then the door +flies open, for we all of us carry, buried deep down in most of us, +and not easily got at, that hidden conviction, only needing the +letting in of air to flame up, that we have indeed to do with a +living God; that we are sinful and He is pure, and that, that being +the case, the discord between us, if we come to close quarters, must +end disastrously for us. + +You remember the grand vision of Isaiah, how, when he saw the King +sitting on His throne, 'high and lifted up, and His train filled the +Temple,' the first thought was, not of rapture at the Apocalypse, +not of adoration of the greatness, not of aspiration after the +purity, not of any desire to join in the 'Holy! Holy! Holy!' of the +burning spirits, but 'Woe is me, for I am undone; for mine eyes have +seen the King; for I am a man of unclean lips.' Ah, brethren! +whenever the commonplaces of our professed religious belief are +turned into realities for us, and these things that we have all been +familiar with from our childhood, flame before us as true and real, +then there comes something analogous to the experience of that other +Old Testament character--'I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the +ear, but now mine eyes see Thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and +repent in dust and ashes.' + +And then there comes, in like manner, and there ought to come, along +with this new vision of a God in His purity, and the new sense of my +own sinfulness, the apprehension of personal evil. For, although it +be the lowest of its functions, it is a function of conscience, not +only to say to me, 'It is wrong to do what is wrong,' but to say, +too, 'If you do wrong, you will have to bear the consequences.' I +believe that a part of the instinctive voice of conscience is the +declaration, not only of a law, but of a Lawgiver, and that part of +its message to me is not only that sin is a transgression of the +law, but that 'the wages of sin is death.' + +Now, let me ask you to ask yourselves whether it is not a strange +and solemn and sad testimony to the reality and universality of the +fact of sin that the sense of impurity and dread of its issues are +the uniform results of any vivid, thrilling consciousness of +nearness to God. And let me ask you to ask yourself one other +question, and that is, whether it is a wise thing to live upon a +surface that may be shattered at any moment; whether that is true +peace which needs but a touch to melt away; whether you are wise +with all this combustible material deep down in your conscience, in +paying no regard to it but living and frolicking, and feasting and +trafficking, and lusting and sinning on the surface, like those +light-hearted, light-headed fools that build their houses on the +slopes of volcanoes when the lava rush may come at any moment? + +II. That brings me to note, secondly, the mistaken cry of fear. + +Peter felt uneasy in the presence of that pure eye, and he also +felt, and was mistaken in feeling, that somehow or other he would be +safer if he was not so near the Master. Well, if it were true that +Jesus Christ brought God near to him, and if it were true that the +proximity of God was the revelation of his blackness and the +premonition and prophecy of evil to himself, would getting Christ +out of the boat help him much? The facts would remain the same. The +departure of the physician does not tend to cure the disease; and +thus the cry,' Go away from me because I am sinful,' was all but +ludicrous if it had not been so tragical in its misapprehension of +the facts of the case and the cure for them. + +Now the parallel to that, with you and me, is--what? How do we +commit this same error? By trying to get rid of the thoughts which +evoke these uncomfortable feelings of being impure and in peril. But +does ceasing to remember the facts make any difference in the facts? +Surely not. Just recall for a moment the many ways in which people +manage to blind themselves to these plain, and to some of us +unwelcome, truths. You may do it by availing yourselves of that +strange power that we all have, of not attending to things that we +do not like to think about. It is a strange thing that a man should +be able to do that; it is a sad thing that any man should be fool +enough to do it. But there are many among my hearers, I have no +doubt whatever, who know that if they were to let their thoughts +dwell on the facts of their own characters and relation to God they +would be uncomfortable, and who, therefore, do their best to keep +such thoughts at a safe distance. So, as soon as the sermon is over, +some of you will begin to criticise me, or to discuss politics, or +gossip, and so get rid of the impressions that the truth might +produce. Or you fling yourselves into business. One of the reasons +for the fierce energy which some men throw into their common +avocations is their knowledge that if they have leisure, there may +come into their chambers, and sit down beside them there, these +unwelcome thoughts, that kill mirth. Some of you try to get rid of +the Christ out of your boat by another way. You plunge into +sensualism, and live in the low, vulgar atmosphere of fleshly +delight and sensuous excitements in order to drown thought. And some +of you do it by the even simpler process of merely giving no heed to +such thoughts when kindled. The fire, unfed and unstirred, goes out. +That is one way in which people come to have consciences, to use the +dreadful words of the New Testament, 'seared as with a hot iron.' If +you will only never listen to it, it will stop speaking after a +while, and then you will have an exemption from all these thoughts. +When Felix first heard about temperance and righteousness and +judgment to come he trembled, but paid no heed to his tremor, and +said, 'Go away for this time, and when I am not busy at anything +else, I will have thee back again.' He did have Paul back again many +a time, and communed with him, but we never read that he trembled +any more. The impression is not always reproduced, although the +circumstances that produced it at first may be. The most +impenetrable armour in which to clothe oneself against the sword of +the Spirit is hammered out of former convictions that were never +acted on. A soul cased in these is very hard to get at. + +But consider the folly of seeking to get rid of truth, however +unwelcome, under the delusion that it ceases to be true because we +cease to look at it. Christ's leaving the boat would not have helped +Peter. The facts remained, however he refused to look at them. If he +could have changed them by getting rid of Him who reminded him of +them, it might have been worth while to send Him away--but to +dismiss the physician is a new way of curing the disease. Pain is an +alarm bell for the physical nature to point to something wrong +there, and this sense of evil, this shrinking from God regarded as +the judge, is the alarm bell in the spiritual nature to warn of +something wrong there. Do you think that you banish the danger for +which the alarm bell is rung because you wrap a clout round the +clapper so as to prevent it from sounding? and do you think that you +make it less true that 'every transgression and disobedience shall +receive its just recompense of reward' by bidding your conscience +hold its peace when it tells you so, or by trying to drown its voice +amidst the shouts of revelry, or the whirr of spindles, or the roar +of traffic? By no means. The facts remain; and nothing except what +deals with the facts is the cure which a wise man will adopt. + +You remember the old story of the king of Babylon who sat feasting +on the night when the city was captured. When the Finger came out +and wrote upon the wall, 'Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin,' it did not +stop the feast. They went on with their rioting, and whilst they +were carousing, the enemy was creeping up the dried bed of the +diverted river, 'and in that night was Belshazzar slain' amidst his +wine-cups, and the flowers on his temples were dabbled with his +blood. No more insane way of curing the consciousness of sin and the +dread of judgment than that of stifling the voice that evokes it was +ever dreamed of in an asylum. + +III. Lastly, notice the right place for a sinful man. + +On the second occasion to which our texts refer we have the Apostle +far more deeply conscious of his sin than he was on the first. He +remembered his denial, and no doubt he remembered also the secret +interview that Jesus Christ had with him on the day of the +Resurrection, when, no doubt, He communicated to him His frank and +full assurance of forgiveness, He knows far more of Christ's dignity +and character and nature after the Resurrection than he had done on +that day, long ago, by the banks of the lake. The deeper sense of +his own sin, and the clearer and loftier view of who and what Jesus +Christ was, send him struggling to his Master, and make him blessed +only at His feet. + +Ah yes, brother! the superficial knowledge of my evil may drive me +away from Jesus Christ; the deepest conviction of it will send me +right into His arms. A partial knowledge of the divine nature as +revealed in Him as judge, and punitive and necessarily antagonistic +to the blackness of my sin, in the lustrous whiteness of His purity, +may drive me away from Him, but the deeper knowledge of God +manifested in Jesus Christ, the long-suffering, the gentle, loving, +pardoning, will send me to Him in all the depth of my self-abasement +and in the confidence in His love as covering over my sin and +accepting me. Where does the child go when it has transgressed +against its mother's word? Into its mother's arms to hide its face +upon her bosom near her heart. 'Against Thee, Thee only have I +sinned'; and therefore to Thee, Thee only will I go. Only in +nearness to Jesus Christ can we get the anodyne that quiets the +conscience--the blessed assurance of forgiveness that lightens us of +our burden and dread, and the power for holiness that will change +our impurity into the likeness of His own purity. He, and He only, +can forgive. He, and He only, brings the loving God into the midst +of unloving men. He, and He only, hath offered the sacrifice in +which all sin is done away. He, and He only, by the communication of +His Spirit and life to me, will make me pure and deliver me from the +burden of my sin. + +And so the man who knows his own need and Christ's grace will not +say, 'Depart from me for I am a sinful man,' but he will say, 'Leave +me never, nor forsake me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord; but in Thee +I have forgiveness and righteousness.' + +Dear friends! that consciousness of demerit once evoked in a man's +heart, however imperfectly, as I believe it is in some of your +hearts now, must issue in one of two things. Either it will send you +further into darkness to get away from the light, as the bats in a +cave will flit to the deepest recesses of it in order to escape the +torch, or it will bring you nearer to Him, and at His feet you will +find cleansing. + +Oh, dear friends!--strangers many of you, but all friends--let me +beseech you that, if the merciful Spirit of God is in any measure +using my poor words to touch your consciences and hearts, you would +not venture to seek escape from the convictions which are stirring +in you by any other way than by betaking yourselves to the Cross. +Let it not be, I pray you, that because you know yourselves to be in +need of forgiveness, and to stand in peril of judgment, you say to +God,' Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.' +But rather do you cast yourselves into Christ's arms and keep near +Him; saying as this same Peter did, on another occasion, 'Lord! to +whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.' + + + + +BLASPHEMER, OR--WHO? + + + 'And it came to pass on a certain day, as He was + teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the + law sitting by, which were come out of every town of + Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem; and the power of + the Lord was present to heal them. 18. And, behold, + men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a + palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to + lay him before Him. 19. And when they could not find + by what way they might bring him in because of the + multitude, they went upon the house-top, and let him + down through the tiling, with his couch, into the + midst before Jesus. 20. And when He saw their faith, + He said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. + 21. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, + saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who + can forgive sins but God alone? 22. But when Jesus + perceived their thoughts, He, answering, said unto + them, What reason ye in your hearts? 23. Whether is + easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, + Rise up and walk! 24. But that ye may know that the + Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (He + said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, + Arise, and take up thy couch, and go unto thine house. + 25. And immediately he rose up before them, and took + up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, + glorifying God. 26. And they were all amazed, and they + glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We + have seen strange things to-day.'--LUKE v. 17-26. + +Luke describes the composition of the unfriendly observers in this +crowd with more emphasis and minuteness than the other Evangelists +do. They were Pharisees and doctors, and they were assembled from +every part of Galilee, and even from Judea, and, what was most +remarkable, from Jerusalem itself. Probably the conflict with the +authorities in the capital recorded in John v. had taken place by +this time, and if so, a deputation from the Sanhedrim would very +naturally be despatched to Capernaum, and its members would as +naturally summon the local lights to sit with them, and watch this +revolutionary young teacher, who had no licence from them, and +apparently not much reverence for them. + +One can easily imagine that these heresy-hunters would be much too +superior persons to mix with the crowd about the door of Peter's +house, and would, as Luke says, be 'sitting by,' near enough to see +and hear, but far enough to show that they had no share in the +vulgar enthusiasm of these provincial peasants. They were too holy +to mingle with the mob, so they kept together by themselves, and +waited hopefully for some heresy or breach of their multitudinous +precepts. They got more than they expected. + +We may note the contrast between their cynical watchfulness and the +glorious manifestations for which they had no eyes. 'The power of +the Lord'--that is, of Christ--'was' (operative) 'in His healing,' +or, according to another reading, 'to heal them.' But the critics +took no heed of that. There is a temper of mind which is sharp-eyed +as a lynx for faults, and blind as a bat to evidences of divine +power in the Gospel or its adherents. Some noses are keen to smell +stenches, and dull to perceive fragrance. The race of such +inquisitors is not extinct. + +They contrast, too, with the earnestness of the four friends who +brought the paralysed man. The former sat cool and critical, because +they had no sense of need either for themselves or for others. The +latter made all the effort they could to fight through the crowd, +and then took to the roof by some outside stair, and hastily +stripping off enough of the tiling, lowered their friend, bed and +all, right down in front of the young Rabbi. The house would be low, +and the roof slight, and Jesus was probably seated in an open inner +court or verandah, At any rate, the description gives a piece of +local colour, and presents no improbability. + +Earnestness in striving to come oneself or to bring a dear one to +Christ's feet seems a supremely absurd waste of energy to a cynical +critic, who feels no need of anything that Christ can give. It looks +rather different to the paralytic on his couch, and to the friends +who long for his healing. + +The first lesson from this incident is that our deepest need is +forgiveness. No doubt, something in the paralytic's case determined +Christ's method with him. Perhaps his sickness had been brought on +by dissipation, and possibly conscience was lashing him with a whip +of scorpions, so that, while his friends sought for his healing, he +himself was more anxious for pardon. It is very unlikely that Jesus +would have offered forgiveness unless He had known that it was +yearned for. But whether that is so or not, we may fairly generalise +the order of givings in this miracle, and draw from it the lesson +that what Jesus then gave first is His chief gift. In most of His +other miracles He gave bodily healing first. First or second, it is +always Christ's chief gift in the beginning of discipleship. His +miracles of bodily healing are parables of that higher miracle. This +incident brings out what is always the order of relative importance, +whether it is that of chronological sequence or not. + +And we all need to lay that truth to heart for ourselves. No +tinkering with superficial discomforts, or culture of intellect and +taste, or success in worldly pursuits, will avail to stanch the deep +wound through which our life-blood is ebbing out. We need something +that goes deeper than all these styptics. Only a power which can +deal with our sense of sin, and soothe that into blessed assurance +of pardon, is strong enough to grapple with our true root of misery. +It is useless to give a man dying of cancer medicine for pimples. +That is what all attempts to make man happy and restful while sin +remains unforgiven, are doing. + +Social reformers need this lesson. Many voices proclaim many gospels +to-day. Culture, economical or social reconstruction, is trumpeted +as the panacea. But it matters comparatively little how society is +organised. If its individual members retain their former natures, +the former evils will come back, whatever its organisation. The only +thorough cure for social evils is individual regeneration. Christ +deals with men singly, and remoulds society by renewing the +individual. The most elaborate machinery may be used for filtering +the black waters. What will be the good of that if the fountain of +blackness is not sealed up, or rather purified, at its hidden +source? Make the tree good, and its fruit will be good. To make the +tree good, you must begin with dealing with sin. + +The second lesson from this incident is that Christ's claim to +forgive sins is either blasphemy or the manifest token of divinity. +These Pharisees scented heresy at once. They were blind to the +pathos of the story, and hard as millstones towards the poor +sufferer's wistful looks. But they pounced at once gleefully on +Christ's words. They were perfectly right in their premises that +forgiveness was a divine prerogative which no man could share. For +sin is the name of evil, when considered in its relation to God. He +only can forgive it, for 'against Thee, Thee only,' as David +confessed, is it committed. True, the same act may be full of +harmful results to men, and may be a breach of human law, but in its +character as sin it refers to God only. Forgiveness is the +outpouring of God's love on a sinner, uninterrupted by his sin. Only +God can pour out that love. + +But the cavillers were quite wrong in their conclusion. He did not +'blaspheme.' The fact that Jesus knew and answered their whispered +or unspoken 'reasonings in their hearts' might have taught them that +here was more than a rabbi, or even a prophet. But He goes on to +reiterate His assertion that He has power to forgive sins. + +Observe that He does not deny their premises. Nor does He, as He was +bound in common honesty to do, set them right if they were wrong in +supposing that He had claimed divine power. A wise religious +teacher, who saw himself misunderstood as asserting that he could +give what he only meant to assure a penitent that God would give, +would have instantly said, 'Do not mistake me. I am only doing what +every servant of God's should and can do, telling this poor brother +that God is ready to forgive. God forbid that I should be supposed +to do more than to declare his forgiveness!' Christ's answer is the +strongest possible contrast to that. He knew what these Pharisees +supposed Him to have meant by His authoritative words, and knowing +it, He repeats them, and points to the miracle about to be done as +their vindication. + +Is there any possible way of escaping from the conclusion that Jesus +solemnly and deliberately laid claim to exercise the divine +prerogative of dispensing pardon? If He did, what shall we say of +Him? Surely there is no third judgment of Him and His words +possible; but either the Pharisees were right, and 'this man,' this +pattern of all meekness and perfect example of humility, blasphemed, +or else Peter was right when he said, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son +of the living God.' + +The third lesson is that the visible effects of Christ's power +attest the reality of His claim to produce the invisible effects of +peaceful assurance of forgiveness. It was equally easy to say, 'Thy +sins are forgiven thee,' and to say, 'Take up thy bed and walk.' It +was equally impossible for a mere man to forgive, and to give the +paralytic muscular force to move. But the one saying could be +tested, and its fulfilment verified by sight. The other could not; +but if the visible impossibility was done, it was a witness that the +invisible one could be. + +The striking way in which our Lord weaves in His command to the +palsied man to take up his bed with His words to the Pharisees is +preserved in all the Gospels, and gives vividness to the narrative, +while it brings out the main purpose of the miracle. It was a +demonstration in the visible sphere of Christ's power in the +invisible. Both were divine acts, and that which could be verified +by sight established the reality of that which could not. + +The same principle may be widely extended. It includes all the +outward effects of Christ's gospel in the world. There are abundance +of these which are patent to fair-minded observers. If one wishes to +know what these are, he has only to contrast heathen lands with +those in which, however imperfectly, Jesus is recognised as King and +Example. The lives of His disciples are full of faults, but they +should, and in a measure, do, witness to the reality of His gifts of +forgiveness and conquest of sin. He has done more to restore +strength to humanity paralysed for good than all other would-be +physicians put together have done; and since He has visibly effected +such manifest changes on outward lives, it is no rash conclusion to +draw that He can change the inward nature. If He has healed the +palsy, that is a work surpassing human power, and it proves that He +can forgive the sin which brought the paralysis, and tied the +helpless sufferer to his couch of pain. + + + + + +LAWS OF THE KINGDOM + + + 'And He lifted up His eyes on His disciples, and said, + Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God, + 21. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be + filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall + laugh. 22. Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, + and when they shall separate you from their company, + and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as + evil, for the Son of man's sake. 23. Rejoice ye in + that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward + is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their + fathers unto the prophets. 24. But woe unto you that + are rich! for ye have received your consolation. + 25. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. + Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and + weep. 26. Woe unto you when all men shall speak well + of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. + 27. But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, + do good to them which hate you, 28. Bless them that + curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use + you. 29. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one + cheek, offer also the other; and him that taketh away + thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also. 30. Give + to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that + taketh away thy goods ask them not again. 31. And as + ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them + likewise.'--LUKE vi. 20-31. + +Luke condenses and Matthew expands the Sermon on the Mount. The +general outline is the same in both versions. The main body of both +is a laying down the law for Christ's disciples. Luke, however, +characteristically omits what is prominent in Matthew, the polemic +against Pharisaic righteousness, and the contrast between the moral +teaching of Christ and that of the law. These were appropriate in a +Gospel which set forth Jesus as the crown of earlier revelation, +while Luke is true to the broad humanities of his Gospel, in setting +forth rather the universal aspect of Christian duty, and gathering +it all into the one precept of love. + +The fragment which forms the present passage falls into two parts--the +description of the subjects of the kingdom and their blessedness, +contrasted with the character of the rebels; and the summing up of +the law of the kingdom in the all-including commandment of love. + +I. The subjects and blessedness of the kingdom, and the rebels. It +is to be well kept in view that the discourse is addressed to 'His +disciples.' That fact remembered would have saved some critics from +talking nonsense about the discrepancy between Luke and Matthew, and +supposing that the former meant merely literal poverty, hunger, and +tears. No doubt he omits the decisive words which appear in Matthew, +who appends 'in spirit' to 'poor,' and 'after righteousness' to +'hunger and thirst,' but there is no ground for supposing that Luke +meant anything else than Matthew. + +Notice that in our passage the sayings are directly addressed to the +disciples, while in Matthew they are cast into the form of general +propositions. In that shape, the additions were needed to prevent +misunderstanding of Christ, as if He were talking like a vulgar +demagogue, flattering the poor, and inveighing against the rich. +Matthew's view of the force of the expressions is involved in Luke's +making them an address _to the disciples.,_ 'Ye poor' at once +declares that our Lord is not thinking of the whole class of +literally needy, but of such of these as He saw willing to learn of +Him. No doubt, the bulk of them were poor men as regards the world's +goods, and knew the pinch of actual want, and had often had to weep. +But their earthly poverty and misery had opened their hearts to +receive Him, and that had transmuted the outward wants and sorrows +into spiritual ones, as is evident from their being disciples; and +these are the characteristics which He pronounces blessed. In this +democratic and socialistic age, it is important to keep clearly in +view the fact that Jesus was no flatterer of poor men as such, and +did not think that circumstances had such power for good or evil, as +that virtue and true blessedness were their prerogatives. + +The foundation characteristic is poverty of spirit, the +consciousness of one's own weakness, the opposite of the delusion +that we are 'rich and increased with goods.' All true subjection to +the kingdom begins with that accurate, because lowly, estimate of +ourselves. Humility is life, lofty mindedness is death. The heights +are barren, rivers and fertility are down in the valleys. + +Luke makes hunger the second characteristic, and weeping the third, +while Matthew inverts that order. Either arrangement suggests +important thoughts. Desire after the true riches naturally follows +on consciousness of poverty, while, on the other hand, sorrow for +one's conscious lack of these may be regarded as preceding and +producing longing. In fact, the three traits of character are +contemporaneous, and imply each other. Outward condition comes into +view, only in so far as it tends to the production of these +spiritual characteristics, and has, in fact, produced them, as it +had done, in some measure, in the disciples. The antithetical +characteristics of the adversaries of the kingdom are, in like +manner, mainly spiritual; and their riches, fullness, and laughter +refer to circumstances only in so far as actual wealth, abundance, +and mirth tend to hide from men their inward destitution, +starvation, and misery. + +But what paradoxes to praise all that flesh abhors, and to declare +that it is better to be poor than rich, better to feel gnawing +desire than to be satisfied, better to weep than to laugh! How +little the so-called Christian world believes it! How dead against +most men's theory and practice Christ goes! These Beatitudes have a +solemn warning for all, and if we really believed them, our lives +would be revolutionised. The people who say, 'Give me the Sermon on +the Mount: I don't care for your doctrines, but I can understand +_it,' have not felt the grip of these Beatitudes. + +Note that the blessings and woes are based on the future issues of +the two states of mind. These are not wholly in the future life, for +Jesus says, 'Yours _is_ the kingdom.' That kingdom is a state +of obedience to God, complete in that future world, but begun here. +True poverty secures entrance thither, since it leads to submission +of will and trust. True hunger is sure of satisfaction, since it +leads to waiting on God, who 'will fulfil the desire of them that +fear Him.' Sorrow which is according to God, cannot but bring us +near Him who 'will wipe away tears from off all faces.' + +On the other hand, they who in condition are prosperous and +satisfied with earth, and in disposition are devoid of suspicion of +their own emptiness, and draw their joys and sorrows from this world +alone, cannot but have a grim awaking waiting for them. Here they +will often feel that earth's goods are no solid food, and that +nameless yearnings and sadness break in on their mirth; and in the +dim world beyond, they will start to find their hands empty and +their souls starving. + +The fourth of Luke's Beatitudes contrasts the treatment received +from men by the subjects and the enemies of the kingdom. Better to +be Christ's martyr than the world's favourite! Alas, how few +Christians wear the armour of that great saying! They would not set +so much store by popularity, nor be so afraid of being on the +unpopular side, if they did. + +II. The second part of the passage contains the summary of the laws +of the kingdom from the lips of the King. Its keynote is love. The +precept follows strikingly on the predictions of excommunication and +hatred. The only weapon to fight hate is love. 'The hate of hate, +the scorn of scorn,' are not Christian dispositions, though Tennyson +tells us that they are the poet's. So much the worse for him if they +are! First, the commandment, so impossible to us unless our hearts +are made Christlike by much dwelling with Christ, is laid down in +the plainest terms. Enmity should only stimulate love, as a gash in +some tree bearing precious balsam makes the fragrant treasure flow. +Who of us has conformed to that law which in three words sums up +perfection? How few of us have even honestly tried to conform to it! + +But the command becomes more stringent as it advances. The sentiment +is worth much, but it must bear fruit in act. So the practical +manifestations of it follow. Deeds of kindness, words of blessing, +and highest of all, and the best help to fulfilling the other two, +prayer, are to be our meek answers to evil. Why should Christians +always let their enemies settle the terms of intercourse? They are +not to be mere reverberating surfaces, giving back echoes of angry +voices. Let us take the initiative, and if men scowl, let us meet +them with open hearts and smiles. 'A soft answer turneth away +wrath.' 'It takes two to make a quarrel.' Frost and snow bind the +earth in chains, but the silent sunshine conquers at last, and evil +can be overcome with good. + +Our Lord goes on to speak of another form of love--namely, patient +endurance of wrong and unreasonableness. He puts that in terms so +strong that many readers are fain to pare down their significance. +Non-resistance is commanded in the most uncompromising fashion, and +illustrated in the cases of assault, robbery, and pertinacious +mendicancy. The world stands stiffly on its rights; the Christian is +not to bristle up in defence of his, but rather to suffer wrong and +loss. This is regarded by many as an impossible ideal. But it is to +be observed that the principle involved is that love has no limits +but itself. There may be resistance to wrong, and refusal of a +request, if love prompts to these. If it is better for the other man +that a Christian should not let him have his way or his wish, and if +the Christian, in resisting or refusing, is honestly actuated by +love, then he is fulfilling the precept when he says 'No' to some +petition, or when he resists robbery. We must live near Jesus Christ +to know when such limitations of the precept come in, and to make +sure of our motives. + +The world and the Church would be revolutionised if even approximate +obedience were rendered to this commandment. Let us not forget that +it _is_ a commandment, and cannot be put aside without disloyalty. + +Christ then crystallises His whole teaching on the subject of our +conduct to others into the immortal words which make our wishes for +ourselves the standard of our duty to others, and so give every man +an infallible guide. We are all disposed to claim more from others +than we give to them. What a paradise earth would be if the two +measuring-lines which we apply to their conduct and to our own were +exactly of the same length! + + + + +THREE CONDENSED PARABLES + + + 'And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy + brother's eye, but perceiveth not the beam that is in + thine own eye? 42. Either, how canst thou say to thy + brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in + thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam + that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out + first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt + thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy + brother's eye. 43. For a good tree bringeth not forth + corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth + good fruit. 44. For every tree is known by his own + fruit: for of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a + bramble-bush gather they grapes. 45. A good man, out + of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that + which is good; and an evil man, out of the evil + treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is + evil; for of the abundance of the heart his mouth + speaketh, 46. And why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do + not the things which I say? 47. Whosoever cometh to + Me, and heareth My sayings, and doeth them, I will + shew you to whom he is like: 48. He is like a man + which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the + foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the + stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not + shake it; for it was founded upon a rock. 49. But he + that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that, + without a foundation, built an house upon the earth; + against which the stream did beat vehemently, and + immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was + great.'--LUKE vi. 41-49. + +Three extended metaphors, which may almost be called parables, close +Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount, and constitute this +passage. These are the mote and the beam, the good and bad trees, +the houses on the rock and on the sand. Matthew puts the first of +these earlier in the sermon, and connects it with other precepts +about judging others. But whichever order is the original, that +adopted by Luke has a clear connection of thought underlying it +which will come out as we proceed. + +I. The striking and somewhat ludicrous image of the beam and the +mote is found in Rabbinical writings, and may have been familiar to +Christ's hearers. But His use of it is deeper and more searching +than the rabbis' was. He has just been speaking of blind guides and +their blind followers. That 'parable,' as Luke calls it, naturally +images another defect which may attach to the eye. A man may be +partly blind because some foreign body has got in. If we might +suppose a tacit reference to the Pharisees in the blind guides, +their self-complacent censoriousness would be in view here; but the +application of the saying is much wider than to them only. + +Verse 41 teaches that the accurate measurement of the magnitude of +our own failings should precede our detection of our brother's. +Christ assumes the commonness of the opposite practice by asking +'why' it is so. And we have all to admit that the assumption is +correct. The keenness of men's criticism of their neighbour's faults +is in inverse proportion to their familiarity with their own. It is +no unusual thing to hear some one, bedaubed with dirt from head to +foot, declaiming with disgust about a speck or two on his +neighbour's white robes. + +Satan reproving sin is not an edifying sight, but Satan criticising +sin is still less agreeable. If only 'he that is without sin among +you' would fling stones, there would be fewer reputations pelted +than there are. Most men know less about their own faults than about +their brother's. They use two pairs of spectacles--one which +diminishes, and is put on for looking at themselves; one which +magnifies, and is worn for their neighbour's benefit. But when their +respective good qualities are to be looked at, the other pair is +used in each case. That is men's way, all the world over. + +Christ's question asks the reason for this all but universal +dishonesty of having two weights and measures for faults. He would +have us ponder on the cause, that we may discover the remedy. He +would have us reflect, that we may get a vivid conviction of the +unreasonableness of the practice. There is nothing in the fact that +a fault is mine which should make it small in my judgment; nor, on +the other hand, in the accident that it is another's, which should +make it seem large. A fault is a fault, whoever it belongs to, and +we should judge ourselves and others by the same rule. Only we +should be most severe in its application to ourselves, for we cannot +tell how much our brother has had, to diminish the criminality of +his sin, and we can tell, if we will be honest, how much we have +had, to aggravate that of ours. So the conscience of a true +Christian works as Paul's did when he said 'Of whom I am chief,' and +is more disposed to make its own motes into beams than to censure +its brother's. + +The reason, so far as there is a reason, can only lie in our +diseased selfishness, which is the source of all sin. And the +blindness to our 'beams' is partly produced by their very presence. +All sin blinds conscience. A man with a beam in his eye would not be +able to see much. One device of sin, practised in order to withdraw +the doer's attention from his own deed, is to make him censorious of +his fellows, and to compound for the sins he is inclined to by +condemning other people's. + +Verse 42 teaches that the conquest of our own discovered evils must +precede efficient attempts to cure other people's. To pose as a +curer of them while we are ignorant of our own faults is, +consciously or unconsciously, hypocrisy, for it assumes a hatred of +evil, which, if genuine, would have found first a field for its +working in ourselves. An oculist with diseased eyes would not be +likely to be a successful operator. 'Physician, heal thyself' would +fit him well, and be certainly flung at him. A cleansed eye will +see the brother's mote clearly, but only in order to help its +extraction. It is a delicate bit of work to get it out, and needs a +gentle hand. + +Our discernment of others' faults must be compassionate, not to be +followed by condemnation nor self-complacency but by loving efforts +to help to a cure. And such will not be made unless we have learned +our own sinfulness, and can go to the wrongdoer in brotherly +humility, and win him to use the 'eye-salve' which our conduct shows +has healed us. + +II. The second compressed parable of the two trees springs from the +former naturally, as stating the general law of which verse 42 gives +one case, namely, that good deeds (such as casting out the mote) can +only come from a good heart (made good by confession of its own +evils and their ejection). It is often said that Christ's teaching +is unlike that of His Apostles in that He places stress on works, +and says little of faith. But how does He regard works? As fruits. +That is to say, they are of value in His eyes only as being products +and manifestations of character. He does not tell us in this parable +how the character which will effloresce in blossoms and set in +fruits of goodness is produced. That comes in the next parable. But +here is sufficiently set forth the great central truth of Christian +ethics that the inward disposition is the all-important thing, and +that deeds are determined as to their moral quality by the character +from which they have proceeded. + +Our actions are our self-revelations. The words are not to be +pressed, as if they taught the entire goodness of one class of men, +so that all their acts were products of their good character, nor +the unmingled evil of another, so that no good of any kind or in any +degree is in them or comes from them. They must be read as embodying +a general truth which is not as yet fully exemplified in any +character or conduct. + +In verse 45 the same idea is presented under a different figure--that +of a wealthy man who brings his possessions out of his store-house. +The application of the figure is significantly varied so as to include +the other great department of human activity. Speech is act. It, too, +will be according to the cast of the inner life. Of course, feigned +speech of all sorts is not in view. The lazy judgment of men thinks +less of words than of deeds. Christ always attaches supreme importance +to them. Intentional lying being excluded, speech is an even more +complete self-revelation than act. When one thinks of the floods of +foul or idle or malicious talk which half drown the world as being +revelations of the sort of hearts from which they have gushed, one +is appalled. What a black, seething fountain that must be which +spurts up such inky waters! + +III. The third parable, of the two houses, shows in part how hearts may +be made 'good.' It is attached to the preceding by verse 46. Speech +does not always come from 'the abundance of the heart.' Many call Him +Lord who do not act accordingly. Deeds must confirm words. If the two +diverge, the latter must be taken as the credible self-revelation. Now +the first noticeable thing here is Christ's bold assumption that His +words are a rock foundation for any life. He claims to give an absolute +and all-sufficient rule of conduct, and to have the right to command +every man. + +And people read such words and then talk about their Christianity +not being the belief of His divinity, but the practice of the Sermon +on the Mount! His words are the foundation for every firm, lasting +life. They are the basis of all true thought about God, ourselves, +our duties, our future. 'That rock was Christ.' Every other +foundation is as sand. Unless we build on Him, we build on +changeable inclinations, short-lived desires, transitory aims, +evanescent circumstances. Only the Christ who ever liveth, and is +ever 'the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,' is fit to be +the foundation of lives that are to be immortal. + +Note the two houses built on the foundations. The metaphor suggests +that each life is a whole with a definite character. Alas, how many +of our lives are liker a heap of stones tilted at random out of a cart +than a house with a plan. But there is a character stamped on every +life, and however the man may have lived from hand to mouth without +premeditation, the result has a character of its own, be it temple +or pig-sty. Each life, too, is built up by slow labour, course by +course. Our deeds become our dwelling-places. Like coral-insects, we +live in what we build. Memory, habit, ever-springing consequences, +shape by slow degrees our isolated actions into our abodes. What do +we build? + +One storm tries both houses. That may refer to the common trials of +every life, but it is best taken as referring to the future +judgment, when God 'will lay judgment to the line, and righteousness +to the plummet'; and whatever cannot stand that test will be +swept away. Who would run up a flimsy structure on some windy +headland in northern seas? The lighthouses away out in ocean are +firmly bonded into living rock. Unless our lives are thus built on +and into Christ, they will collapse into a heap of ruin. 'Behold I +lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious +corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make +haste.' + + + + +WORTHY-NOT WORTHY + + + '... They besought Him ... saying, That he was worthy + for whom He should do this:... 6. I am not worthy that + Thou shouldest enter under my roof: 7. Wherefore + neither thought I myself worthy to come unto Thee....' + --LUKE vii. 4. 6. 7. + +A Roman centurion, who could induce the elders of a Jewish village +to approach Jesus on his behalf, must have been a remarkable person. +The garrison which held down a turbulent people was not usually +likely to be much loved by them. But this man, about whom the +incident with which our texts are connected is related, was +obviously one of the people of whom that restless age had many, who +had found out that his creed was outworn, and who had been drawn to +Judaism by its lofty monotheism and its austere morality. He had +gone so far as to build a synagogue, and thereby, no doubt, incurred +the ridicule of his companions, and perhaps the suspicions of his +superiors. What would the English authorities think of an Indian +district officer that conformed to Buddhism or Brahminism, and built +a temple? That is what the Roman officials would think of our +centurion. And there were other beautiful traits in his character. +He had a servant 'that was dear to him.' It was not only the nexus +of master and servant and cash payments that bound these two +together. And very beautiful is this story, when he himself speaks +about this servant. He does not use the rough word which implies a +bondservant, and which is employed throughout the whole of the rest +of the narrative, but a much gentler one, and speaks of him as his +'boy.' So he had won the hearts of these elders so far as to make +them swallow their dislike to Jesus, and deign to go to Him with a +request which implied His powers at which at all other times they +scoffed. + +Now, we owe to Luke the details which show us that there was a +double deputation to our Lord--the first which approached Him to ask +His intervention, and the second which the centurion sent when he +saw the little group coming towards his house, and a fresh gush of +awe rose in his heart. The elders said, 'He is worthy'; he said, 'I +am not worthy.' The verbal resemblance is, indeed, not so close in +the original as in our versions, for the literal rendering of the +words put into the centurion's mouth is 'not fit.' But still the +evident antithesis is preserved: the one saying expresses the +favourable view that partial outsiders took of the man, the other +gives the truer view that the man took of himself. And so, putting +away the story altogether, we may set these two verdicts side by +side, as suggesting wider lessons than those which arise from the +narrative itself. + +I. And, first, we have here the shallow plea of worthiness. + +These elders did not think loftily of Jesus Christ. The conception +that we have of Him goes a long way to settle whether it is possible +or not for us to approach Him with the word 'worthy' on our lips. +The higher we lift our thought of Christ, the lower becomes our +thought of ourselves. These elders saw the centurion from the +outside, and estimated him accordingly. There is no more frequent, +there is no more unprofitable and impossible occupation, than that +of trying to estimate other people's characters. Yet there are few +things that we are so fond of doing. Half our conversation consists +of it, and a very large part of what we call literature consists of +it; and it is bound to be always wrong, whether it is eulogistic or +condemnatory, because it only deals with the surface. + +Here we have the shallow plea advanced by these elders in reference +to the centurion which corresponds to the equally shallow plea that +some of us are tempted to advance in reference to ourselves. The +disposition to do so is in us all. Luther said that every man was +born with a Pope in his belly. Every man is born with a Pharisee in +himself, who thinks that religion is a matter of barter, that it is +so much work, buying so much favour here, or heaven hereafter. +Wherever you look, you see the working of that tendency. It is the +very mainspring of heathenism, with all its penances and +performances. It is enshrined in the heart of Roman Catholicism, +with its dreams of a treasury of merits, and works of supererogation +and the like. Ay! and it has passed over into a great deal of what +calls itself Evangelical Protestantism, which thinks that, somehow +or other, it is all for our good to come here, for instance on a +Sunday, though we have no desire to come and no true worship in us +when we have come, and to do a great many things that we would much +rather not do, and to abstain from a great many things that we are +strongly inclined to, and all with the notion that we have to bring +some 'worthiness' in order to move Jesus Christ to deal graciously +with us. + +And then notice that the religion of barter, which thinks to earn +God's favour by deeds, and is, alas! the only religion of +multitudes, and subtly mingles with the thoughts of all, tends to +lay the main stress on the mere external arts of cult and ritual. +'He loveth our nation, and hath built us a synagogue'; not, 'He is +gentle, good, Godlike.' 'He has built a synagogue.' That is the type +of work which most people who fall into the notion that heaven is to +be bought, offer as the price. I have no doubt that there are many +people who have never caught a glimpse of any loftier conception than +that, and who, when they think--which they do not often do--about +religious subjects at all, are saying to themselves, 'I do as well +as I can,' and who thus bring in some vague thought of the mercy of +God as a kind of make-weight to help out what of their own they put +in the scale. Ah, dear brethren! that is a wearying, an endless, a +self-torturing, an imprisoning, an enervating thought, and the plea +of 'worthiness' is utterly out of place and unsustainable before God. + +II. Now let me turn to the deeper conviction which silences that +plea. + +'I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof, wherefore +neither thought I myself worthy to come unto Thee.' This man had a +loftier conception of who and what Christ was than the elders had. +To them He was only one of themselves, perhaps endowed with some +kind of prophetic power, but still one of themselves. The centurion +had pondered over the mystic power of the word of command, as he +knew it by experience in the legion, or in the little troop of which +he, though a man under the authority of his higher officers, was the +commander; and he knew that even his limited power carried with it +absolute authority and compelled obedience. And he had looked at +Christ, and wondered, and thought, and had come at last to a dim +apprehension of that great truth that, somehow or other, in this Man +there did lie a power which, by the mere utterance of His will, +could affect matter, could raise the dead, could still a storm, +could banish disease, could quell devils. He did not formulate his +belief, he could not have said exactly what it led to, or what it +contained, but he felt that there was something divine about Him. +And so, seeing, though it was but through mists, the sight of that +great perfection, that divine humanity and human divinity, he bowed +himself and said, 'Lord! I am not worthy.' + +When you see Christ as He is, and give Him the honour due to His +name, all notions of desert will vanish utterly. + +Further, the centurion saw himself from the inside, and that makes +all the difference. Ah, brethren! most of us know our own characters +just as little as we know our own faces, and find it as difficult to +form a just estimate of what the hidden man of the heart looks like +as we find it impossible to form a just estimate of what we look to +other people as we walk down the street. But if we once turned the +searchlight upon ourselves, I do not think that any of us would long +be able to stand by that plea, 'I am worthy.' Have you ever been on +a tour of discovery, like what they go through at the Houses of +Parliament on the first day of each session, down into the cellars +to see what stores of explosive material, and what villains to fire +it, may be lurking there? If you have once seen yourself as you are, +and take into account, not only actions but base tendencies, foul, +evil thoughts, imagined sins of the flesh, meannesses and basenesses +that never have come to the surface, but which you know are bits of +you, I do not think that you will have much more to say about 'I am +worthy.' The flashing waters of the sea may be all blazing in the +sunshine, but if they were drained off, what a frightful sight the +mud and the ooze at the bottom would be! Others look at the dancing, +glittering surface, but you, if you are a wise man, will go down in +the diving-bell sometimes, and for a while stop there at the bottom, +and turn a bull's-eye straight upon all the slimy, crawling things +that are there, and that would die if they came into the light. + +'I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof.' But then, +as I have said, most of us are strangers to ourselves. The very fact +of a course of action which, in other people, we should describe +with severe condemnation, being ours, bribes us to indulgence and +lenient judgment. Familiarity, too, weakens our sense of the +foulness of our own evils. If you have been in the Black Hole all +night, you do not know how vitiated the atmosphere is. You have to +come out into the fresh air to find out that. We look at the errors +of others through a microscope; we look at our own through the wrong +end of the telescope; and the one set, when we are in a cynical +humour, seem bigger than they are; and the other set always seem +smaller. + +Now, that clear consciousness of my own sinfulness ought to underlie +all my religious feelings and thoughts. I believe, for my part, that +no man is in a position to apprehend Christianity rightly who has +not made the acquaintance of his own bad self. And I trace a very +large proportion of the shallow Christianity of this day as well as +of the disproportion in which its various truths are set forth, and +the rising of crops of erroneous conceptions just to this, that this +generation has to a large extent lost--no, do not let me say this +generation, _you and I_--have to a large extent lost, that +wholesome consciousness of our own unworthiness and sin. + +But on the other hand, let me remind you that the centurion's deeper +conviction is not yet the deepest of all, and that whilst the +Christianity which ignores sin is sure to be impotent, on the other +hand the Christianity which sees very little but sin is bondage and +misery, and is impotent too. And there are many of us whose type of +religion is far gloomier than it should be, and whose motive of +service is far more servile than it ought to be, just because we +have not got beyond the centurion, and can only say, 'I am not +worthy; I am a poor, miserable sinner.' + +III. And so I come to the third point, which is not in my text, but +which both my texts converge upon, and that is the deepest truth of +all, that worthiness or unworthiness has nothing to do with Christ's +love. + +When these elders interceded with Jesus, He at once rose and went +with them, and that not because of their intercession or of the +certificate of character which they had given, but because His own +loving heart impelled Him to go to any soul that sought His help. So +we are led away from all anxious questionings as to whether we are +worthy or no, and learn that, far above all thoughts either of undue +self-complacency or of undue self-depreciation, lies the motive for +Christ's gracious and healing approach in + + 'His ceaseless, unexhausted love, + Unmerited and free.' + +This is the truth to which the consciousness of sinfulness and +unworthiness points us all, for which that consciousness prepares +us, in which that consciousness does not melt away, but rather is +increased and ceases to be any longer a burden or a pain. Here, +then, we come to the very bed-rock of everything, for + + 'Merit lives from man to man, + But not from man, O Lord, to Thee.' + +Jesus Christ comes to us, not drawn by our deserts, but impelled by +His own love, and that love pours itself out upon each of us. So we +do not need painfully to amass a store of worthiness, nor to pile up +our own works, by which we may climb to heaven. 'Say not, who shall +ascend up into heaven,' to bring Christ down again, 'but the word is +nigh thee, that if thou wilt believe with thine heart, thou shalt be +saved.' Worthiness or unworthiness is to be swept clean out of the +field, and I am to be content to be a pauper, to owe everything to +what I have done nothing to procure, and to cast myself on the sole, +all-sufficient mercy of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. + +And then comes liberty, and then comes joy. If the gift is given +from no consideration of men's deserts, then the only thing that men +have to do is to exercise the faith that takes it. As the Apostle +says in words that sound very hard and technical, but which, if you +would only ponder them, are throbbing with vitality, 'It is of faith +that it might be by grace.' Since He gives simply because He loves, +the only requisites are the knowledge of our need, the will to +receive, the trust that, in clasping the Giver, possesses the gift. + +The consciousness of unworthiness will be deepened. The more we know +ourselves to be sinful, the more we shall cleave to Christ, and the +more we cleave to Christ, the more we shall know ourselves to be +sinful. Peter caught a glimpse of what Jesus was when he sat in the +boat, and he said, 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!' +But Peter saw both himself and his Lord more clearly, that is more +truly, when, subsequent to his black treachery, his brother Apostle +said to him concerning the figure standing on the beach in the grey +morning, 'It is the Lord,' and he flung himself over the side and +floundered through the water to get to his Master's feet. For that +is the place for the man who knows himself unworthy. The more we are +conscious of our sin, the closer let us cling to our Lord's +forgiving heart, and the more sure we are that we have that love +which we have not earned, the more shall we feel how unworthy of it +we are. As one of the prophets says, with profound meaning, 'Thou +shalt be ashamed and confounded, and never open thy mouth any more +because of thy transgression, when I am pacified towards thee for +all that thou hast done.' The child buries its face on its mother's +breast, and feels its fault the more because the loving arms clasp +it close. + +And so, dear brethren, deepen your convictions, if you are deluded +by that notion of merit; deepen your convictions, if you see your +own evil so clearly that you see little else. Come into the light, +come into the liberty, rise to that great thought, 'Not by works of +righteousness which we have done, but by His mercy He saved us.' +Have done with the religion of barter, and come to the religion of +undeserved grace. If you are going to stop on the commercial level, +'the wages of sin is death'; rise to the higher ground: 'the gift of +God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.' + + + + +JESUS AT THE BIER + + + 'And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, + and said unto her, Weep not. 14. And He came and + touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. + And He said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. + 15. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. + And He delivered him to his mother.'--LUKE vii. 13-15. + +We owe our knowledge of this incident to Luke only. He is the +Evangelist who specially delights in recording the gracious +relations of our Lord with women, and he is also the Evangelist who +delights in telling us of unasked miracles which Christ performed. +Both of these characteristics unite in this story, and it may have +been these, rather than the fact of its being a narrative of a +resurrection, that found for it a place in this Gospel. + +Be that as it may, it is obvious to remark that this miracle was not +wrought with any intention of establishing Christ's claims thereby. +Its motive was simply pity; its purpose was merely to comfort a +desolate woman whose hope and love and defence were lying stretched +on her boy's bier. Was that a sufficient reason for a miracle? +People tell us that a test of a spurious miracle is that it is done +without any adequate purpose to be served. Jesus Christ thought that +to comfort one poor, sorrowful heart was reason enough for putting +His hand out, and dragging the prey from the very jaws of death, so +loftily did He think of human sorrow and of the comforting thereof. + +Now I think we unduly limit the meaning of our Lord's miracles when we +regard them as specially intended to authenticate His claims. They are +not merely the evidences of revelation; they are themselves a large +part of revelation. My purpose in this sermon is to look at this +incident from that one point of view, and to try to set clearly before +our minds what it shows us of the character and work of Jesus Christ. +And there are three things on which I desire to touch briefly. We have +Him here revealed to us as the compassionate Drier of all tears; the +life-giving Antagonist of death; and as the Re-uniter of parted hearts. + +Note, then, these three things. + +I. First of all, look at that wonderful revelation that lies here of +Jesus Christ as the compassionate Drier of all tears. + +The poor woman, buried in her grief, with her eyes fixed on the +bier, has no thought for the little crowd that came up the rocky +road, as she and her friends are hurrying down it to the place of +graves. She was a stranger to Christ, and Christ a stranger to her. +The last thing that she would have thought of would have been +eliciting any compassion from those who thus fortuitously met her on +her sad errand. But Christ looks, and His eye sees far more deeply +and far more tenderly into the sorrow of the desolate, childless +widow than any human eyes looked. And as swift as was His perception +of the sorrow, so swiftly does He throw Himself into sympathy with +it. The true human emotion of unmingled pity wells up in His heart +and moves Him to action. + +And just because the manhood was perfect and sinless, therefore the +sympathy of Christ was deeper than any human sympathy, howsoever +tender it may be; for what unfits us to feel compassion is our +absorption with ourselves. That makes our hearts hard and +insensitive, and is the true, 'witches' mark'--to recur to the old +fable--the spot where no external pressure can produce sensation. +The ossified heart of the selfish man is closed against divine +compassion. Since Jesus Christ forgot Himself in pitying men, and +Himself 'took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses,' He must have +been what none of us are--free from all taint of selfishness, and +from all insensibility born of sin. + +But there is another step to be taken. That pitying Christ, on the +rocky road outside the little Galilean village, feeling all the pain +and sorrow of the lonely mother--that is God! 'Lo! this is our God; +and we have waited for Him.' Ay! waited through all the +uncompassionating centuries, waited in the presence of the false +gods, waited whilst men have been talking about an impassive Deity +careless in the heavens, over whose serene blessedness no shadow can +ever pass. This is our God. No impassive monster that no man can +love or care for, but a God with a heart, a God that can pity, a God +who, wonderful as it is, can and does enter, in the humanity of +Jesus Christ, into a fellow-feeling of our infirmities. + +If Jesus Christ in His pity was only a perfect and lovely example of +unselfish sympathy such as man can exercise, what in the name of +common-sense does it matter to me how much, or how tenderly, He +pitied those past generations? The showers and the sunshine of this +summer will do as much good to the springing corn in the fields to-day +as the pity of a dead, human Christ will do for you and me. In our +weaknesses, in our sorrows great and small, in our troubles and +annoyances, you and I need, dear brethren, a living Jesus to pity +us, there in the heavens, just as He pitied that poor woman outside +the gate of Nain. Blessed be God!, we have Him. The human Christ is +the manifestation of the Divine, and as we listen to the Evangelist +that says, 'When He saw her He had compassion upon her,' we bow our +heads and feel that the old psalmist spoke a truth when He said, +'His compassions fail not,' and that the old prophet spoke a truth, +the depth of which his experience did not enable him to fathom, when +he said that 'in all their afflictions He was afflicted.' + +Then, note that the pitying Christ dries the tears before He raises +the dead. That is beautiful, I think. 'Weep not,' He says to the +woman--a kind of a prophecy that He is going to take away the +occasion for weeping; and so He calls lovingly upon her for some +movement of hope and confidence towards Himself. With what an +ineffable sweetness of cadence in His sympathetic voice these words +would be spoken! How often, kindly and vainly, men say to one +another, 'Weep not,' when they are utterly powerless to take away or +in the smallest degree to diminish the occasion for weeping! And how +often, unkindly, in mistaken endeavour to bring about resignation +and submission, do well-meaning and erring good people say to +mourners in the passion of their sorrow, 'Weep not!' Jesus Christ +never dammed back tears when tears were wholesome, and would bring +blessing. And Jesus Christ never said, 'Dry your tears,' without +stretching out His own hand to do it. + +How does He do it? First of all by the assurance of His sympathy. +Ah! in that word there came a message to the lonely heart, as there +comes a message, dear brethren, to any man or woman among us now who +may be fighting with griefs and cares or sorrows, great or small--the +assurance that Jesus Christ knows all about your pain and will help +you to bear it if you will let Him. The sweet consciousness of +Christ's sympathy is the true antidote to excessive grief. + +And He dries the tears, not only by the assurance of His sympathy, +but by encouraging expectation and hope. When He said, 'Weep not,' +He was pledging Himself to do what was needed in order to stay the +flow of weeping. And He would encourage us, in the midst of our +cares and sorrows and loneliness, not indeed to suppress the natural +emotion of sorrow, nor to try after a fantastic and unreal +suppression of its wholesome signs, but to weep as though we wept +not, because beyond the darkness and the dreariness we see the +glimmering of the eternal day. He encourages expectation as the +antagonist of sorrow, for the curse of sorrow is that it is ever +looking backwards, and the true attitude for all men who have an +immortal Christ to trust, and an immortality for themselves to +claim, is that not 'backward' should their 'glances be, but forward +to their Father's home.' These are the thoughts that dry our tears, +the assurance of the sympathy of Christ, and the joyous expectation +of a great good to be ours, where beyond those voices there is +peace. + +Brother! it may be with all of us--for all of us carry some burden +of sorrow or care--as it is with the hedgerows and wet ploughed +fields to-day; on every spray hangs a raindrop, and in every +raindrop gleams a reflected sun. And so all our tears and sorrows +may flash into beauty, and sparkle into rainbowed light if the smile +of His face falls upon us. + +And then, still further, this pitying Christ is moved by His pity to +bring unasked gifts. No petition, no expectation, not the least +trace of faith or hope drew from Him this mighty miracle. It came +welling up from His own heart. And therein it is of a piece with all +His work. For the divine love of which Christ is the Bearer, the +Agent, and the Channel for us men, 'tarries not for men, nor waiteth +for the sons of men,' but before we ask, delights to bestow itself, +and gives that which no man ever sought, even the miracles of the +Incarnation and Crucifixion of Jesus Christ our Lord. If heaven had +waited until men's prayers had forced its gates ere it sent forth +its greatest gift, it had waited for ever, and all mankind had +perished. God's love flows out of its own expansive and diffusive +nature. Its necessity is to impart itself, and its nature and +property is to give. A measureless desire to bestow itself, and in +itself all good, is the definition of the love of God. And Christ +comes 'to the unthankful and to the evil,' bringing a gift which +none of us have asked, and giving as much of Himself as He can give, +undesired, to every heart, that thereby we may be led to desire +these better gifts which cannot be bestowed unless we seek them. + +So here we have the compassion of the human Christ, which is the +divine compassion, drying all tears and giving unasked blessings. + +II. Note, secondly, the further revelation of our Lord here as being +the life-giving Antagonist of Death. + +There is something exceedingly picturesque, and if I might use the +word, dramatic, in the meeting of these two processions outside the +city gate, the little crowd of mourners hurrying, according to the +Eastern fashion, down the hill to the place of tombs, and the other +little group toiling up the hill to the city. There Life and Death +stand face to face. Jesus Christ puts out His hand, and lays it upon +the bier, not to communicate anything, but simply to arrest its +progress. Is it not a parable of His work in the world? His great +work is to stop the triumphant march of Death--that grim power which +broods like a thundercloud over humanity, and sucks up all +brightness into its ghastly folds, and silences all song. He comes +and says 'Stop'; and it stands fixed upon the spot. He arrests the +march of Death. Not indeed that He touches the mere physical fact. +The physical fact is not what men mean by death. It is not what they +cower before. What the world shrinks from is the physical fact plus +its associations, its dim forebodings, its recoilings from the +unknown regions into which the soul goes from out of 'the warm +precincts of the cheerful day,' and plus the possibilities of +retribution, the certainty of judgment. All these Christ sweeps +away, so that we may say, 'He hath abolished Death,' even though we +all have to pass through the mere externals of dying, for the dread +of Death is gone for ever, if we trust Him. + +And then note, still further, we have Christ here as the Life-giver. +'Young man, I say unto thee, Arise!' + +Christ took various methods of imparting His miraculous power. These +methods varied, as it would appear, according to the religious +necessities of the subjects or beholders of the miracle. Sometimes +He touched, sometimes He employed still more material vehicles, such +as the clay with which He moistened the eyes of the blind man, and +the spittle with which He touched the ears of the deaf. But all +these various methods were but helps to feeble faith, and in the +case of all the raisings from the dead it is the voice alone that is +employed. + +So, then, what is the meaning of that majestic 'I say unto thee, +Arise'? He claims to work by His own power. Unless Jesus Christ +wielded divine authority in a fashion in which no mere human +representative and messenger of God ever has wielded it, for Him to +stand by that bier and utter, 'I say unto thee, Arise!' was neither +more nor less than blasphemy. And yet the word had force. He assumed +to act by His own power, and the event showed that He assumed not +too much. 'The Son quickeneth whom He will.' + +Further, He acts by His bare word. So He did on many other +occasions--rebuking the fever and it departs, speaking to the wind +and it ceases, calling to the dead and they come forth. And who is +He, the bare utterance of whose will is supreme, and has power over +material things? Let that centurion whose creed is given to us in +the earlier portion of this chapter answer the question. 'I say to +my servant, Go! and he goeth; Come! and he cometh; Do this! and he +doeth it. Speak Thou, and all the embattled forces of the universe +will obey Thine autocratic and sovereign behest,' they 'hearken to +His commandments, and do the voice of His word.' + +Then note, still further, that this voice of Christ's has power in +the regions of the dead. Wherever that young man was, he heard; in +whatsoever state or condition he was, his personality felt and +obeyed the magnetic force of Christ's will. The fact that the Lord +spake and the boy heard, disposes, if it be true, of much error, and +clears away much darkness. Then the separation of body and soul +_is_ a separation and not a destruction. Then consciousness is +not a function of the brain, as they tell us. Then man lives wholly +after he is dead. Then it is possible for the spirit to come out of +some dim region, where we know not, in what condition we know not. +Only this we know--that, wherever it is, Christ's will has authority +there; and there, too, is obedience to His commandment. + +And so let me remind you that this Voice is not only revealing as to +Christ's authority and power, and illuminative as to the condition +of the disembodied dead, but it is also prophetic as to the future. +It tells us that there is nothing impossible or unnatural in that +great assurance. 'The hour is coming when they that are in the +graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth.' There shall be +for the dead a reunion with a body, which will bring men again into +connection with an external universe, and be the precursor of a +fuller judgment and an intenser retribution. + +Brethren, that Voice that raised one poor bewildered boy to sit up +on his bier, and begin to speak--broken exclamations possibly, and +stammering words of astonishment--shall be flung, like a trumpet +that scatters marvellous sounds, through the sepulchres of the +nations and compel all to stand before the throne. You and I will +hear it; let us be ready for it. + +III. So, lastly, we have here the revelation of our Lord as the +Reuniter of parted hearts. + +That is a wonderfully beautiful touch, evidently coming from an +eye-witness--'He delivered him to his mother.' That was what it had +all been done for. The mighty miracle was wrought that that poor +weeping woman might be comforted. + +May we not go a step further? May we not say, If Jesus Christ was so +mindful of the needs of a sorrowful solitary soul here upon earth, will +He be less mindful of the enduring needs of loving hearts yonder in the +heavens? If He raised this boy from the dead that his mother's arms +might twine round him again, and his mother's heart be comforted, will +He not in that great Resurrection give back dear ones to empty, +outstretched arms, and thereby quiet hungry hearts? It is impossible +to suppose that, continuing ourselves, we should be deprived of our +loves. These are too deeply engrained and enwrought into the very +texture of our being for that to be possible. And it is as impossible +that, in the great day and blessed world where all lost treasures are +found, hearts that have been sad and solitary here for many a day +shall not clasp again the souls of their souls--'and with God be the +rest.' + +So, though we know very little, surely we may take the comfort of +such a thought as this, which should be very blessed and sweet to +some of us, and with some assurance of hope may feel that the risen +boy at the gate of Nain was not the last lost one whom Christ, with +a smile, will deliver to the hearts that mourn for them, and there +we 'shall clasp inseparable hands with joy and bliss in over-measure +for ever.' 'And so shall we'--they and I, for that is what _we_ +means--' so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one +another with these words.' + + + + +JOHN'S DOUBTS AND CHRIST'S PRAISE + + + 'And the disciples of John shewed him of all these + things. 19. And John calling unto him two of his + disciples, sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou He + that should come? or look we for another? 20. When + the men were come unto Him, they said, John Baptist + hath sent us unto Thee, saying, Art Thou He that + should come? or look we for another? 21. And in the + same hour He cured many of their infirmities and + plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were + blind He gave sight. 22. Then Jesus, answering, said + unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye + have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame + walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead + are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. + 23. And blessed is be, whosoever shall not be offended + in Me. 24. And when the messengers of John were + departed, He began to speak unto the people concerning + John. What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? + A reed shaken with the wind? 25. But what went ye out + for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, + they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live + delicately, are in kings' courts. 26. But what went ye + out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and + much more than a prophet. 27. This is he, of whom it + is written, Behold, I send My messenger before Thy + face, which shall prepare Thy way before Thee. 28. For + I say unto you, Among those that are born of women + there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; + but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater + than he.'--LUKE vii. 18-28. + +We take three stages in this passage--the pathetic message from the +prisoner, Christ's double answer to it, and His grand eulogium on +John. + +I. The message from the prisoner. Had mists of doubt crept over +John's clear conviction that Jesus was the Messiah? Some have +thought it incredible that the man who had seen the descending dove, +and heard the voice proclaiming 'This is My beloved Son,' should +ever have wavered. But surely our own experience of the effect of +circumstances and moods on our firmest beliefs gives us parallels to +John's doubts. A prison would be especially depressing to the +desert-loving Baptist; compelled inaction would fret his spirit; he +would be tempted to think that, if Jesus were indeed the Bridegroom, +he might have spared a thought for the friend of the Bridegroom +languishing in Machaerus. Above all, the kind of works that Jesus +was doing did not fill the _role_ of the Messiah as he had +conceived it. Where were the winnowing fan, the axe laid to the +roots of the trees, the consuming fire? This gentle friend of +publicans and sinners was not what he had expected the One mightier +than himself to be. + +Probably his disciples went farther in doubting than he did, but his +message was the expression of his own hesitations, as is suggested +by the answer being directed to him, not to the disciples. It may +have also been meant to stir Jesus, if He were indeed Messiah, to +'take to Himself His great power.' But the most natural explanation +of it is that John's faith was wavering. The tempest made the good +ship stagger. But reeling faith stretched out a hand to Jesus, and +sought to steady itself thereby. We shall not come to much harm if +we carry our doubts as to Him to be cleared by Himself. John's +gloomy prison thoughts may teach us how much our faith may be +affected by externals and by changing tempers of mind, and how +lenient, therefore, should be our judgments of many whose trust may +falter when a strain comes. It may also teach us not to write bitter +things against ourselves because of the ups and downs of our +religious experience, but yet to seek to resist the impression that +circumstances make on it, and to aim at keeping up an equable +temperature, both in the summer of prosperity and the winter of +sorrow. + +II. The twofold answer. Its first part was a repetition of the same +kind of miracles, the news of which had evoked John's message; and +its second part was simply the command to report these, with one +additional fact--that good tidings were preached to the poor. That +seemed an unsatisfactory reply, but it meant just this--to send John +back to think over these deeds of gracious pity and love as well as +of power, and to ask himself whether they were not the fit signs of +the Messiah. It is to be noted that the words which Christ bids the +disciples speak to their master would recall the prophecies in +Isaiah xxxv. 5 and lxi. 1, and so would set John to revise his ideas +of what prophecy had painted Messiah as being. The deepest meaning +of the answer is that love, pity, healing, are the true signs, not +judicial, retributive, destructive energy. John wanted the lightning; +Christ told him that the silent sunshine exerts energy, to which the +fiercest flash is weak. We need the lesson, for we are tempted to +exalt force above love, if not in our thoughts of God, yet in looking +at and dealing with men; and we are slow to apprehend the teaching of +Bethlehem and Calvary, that the divinest thing in God, and the strongest +power among men, is gentle, pitying, self-sacrificing love. Rebuke +could not be softer than that which was sent to John in the form of +a benediction. To take offence at Jesus, either because He is not what +we expect Him to be, or for any other reason, is to shut oneself out +from the sum of blessings which to accept Him brings with it. + +III. Christ's eulogium on John. How lovingly it was timed! The +people had heard John's message and its answer, and might expect +some disparaging remarks about his vacillation. But Jesus chooses +that very time to lavish unstinted praise on him. That is praise +indeed. The remembrance of the Jordan banks, where John had +baptized, shapes the first question. The streams of people would not +have poured out there to look at the tall reeds swaying in the +breeze, nor to listen to a man who was like them. He who would rouse +and guide others must have a firm will, and not be moved by any +blast that blows. Men will rally round one who has a mind of his own +and bravely speaks it, and who has a will of his own, and will not +be warped out of his path. The undaunted boldness of John, of whom, +as of John Knox, it might be said that 'he never feared the face of +man,' was part of the secret of his power. His imprisonment +witnessed to it. He was no reed shaken by the wind, but like another +prophet, was made 'an iron pillar, and brazen walls' to the whole +house of Israel. But he had more than strength of character, he had +noble disregard for worldly ease. Not silken robes, like courtiers', +but a girdle of camels' hair, not delicate food, but locusts and +wild honey, were his. And that was another part of his power, as it +must be, in one shape or other, of all who rouse men's consciences, +and wake up generations rotting away in self-indulgence. John's +fiery words would have had no effect if they had not poured hot from +a life that despised luxury and soft ease. If a man is once +suspected of having his heart set on material good, his usefulness +as a Christian teacher is weakened, if not destroyed. But even these +are not all, for Jesus goes on to attest that John was a prophet, +and something even more; namely, the forerunner of the Messiah. As, +in a royal progress, the nearer the king's chariot the higher the +rank, and they who ride just in front of him are the chiefest, so +John's proximity in order of time to Jesus distinguished him above +those who had heralded him long ages ago. It is always true that, +the closer we are to Him, the more truly great we are. The highest +dignity is to be His messenger. We must not lose sight of the +exalted place which Jesus by implication claims for Himself by such +a thought, as well as by the quotation from Malachi, and by the +alteration in it of the original 'My' and 'Me' to 'Thy' and 'Thee.' +He does not mean that John was the greatest man that ever lived, as +the world counts greatness, but that in the one respect of relation +to Him, and consequent nearness to the kingdom, he surpassed all. + +The scale employed to determine greatness in this saying is position +in regard to the kingdom, and while John is highest of those who +(historically) were without it, because (historically) he was +nearest to it, the least _in_ it is greater than the greatest +without. The spiritual standing of John and the devout men before +him is not in question; it is their position towards the +manifestation of the kingdom in time that is in view. We rejoice to +believe that John and many a saint from early days were subjects of +the King, and have been 'saved into His everlasting kingdom.' But +Jesus would have us think greatly of the privilege of living in the +light of His coming, and of being permitted by faith to enter His +kingdom. The lowliest believer knows more, and possesses a fuller +life born of the Spirit, than the greatest born of woman, who has +not received that new birth from above. + + + + +GREATNESS IN THE KINGDOM + + + 'He that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than + he.'--LUKE vii. 28. + +We were speaking in a preceding sermon about the elements of true +greatness, as represented in the life and character of John the +Baptist. As we remarked then, our Lord poured unstinted eulogium +upon the head of John, in the audience of the people, at the very +moment when he showed himself weakest. 'None born of women' was, in +Christ's eyes, 'greater than John the Baptist.' The eulogium, +authoritative as it was, was immediately followed by a depreciation +as authoritative, from Christ's lips: 'The least in the kingdom is +greater than he.' Greatness depends, not on character, but on +position. The contrast that is drawn is between being _in_ and +being _out_ of the kingdom; and this man, great as he was among +them 'that are born of women,' stood but upon the threshold; +therefore, and only therefore, and in that respect, was he 'less +than the least' who was safely within it. + +Now, there are two things in these great words of our Lord to notice +by way of introduction. One is the calm assumption which He makes of +authority to marshal men, to stand above the greatest of them, and +to allocate their places, because He knows all about them; and the +other is the equally calm and strange assumption of authority which +He makes, in declaring that the least within the kingdom is greater +than the greatest without. For the kingdom is embodied in Him, its +King, and He claimed to have opened the door of entrance into it. +'The kingdom of God,' or of heaven--an old Jewish idea--means, +whatever else it means, an order of things in which the will of God +is supreme. Jesus Christ says, 'I have come to make that real reign +of God, in the hearts of men, possible and actual.' So He presents +Himself in these words as infinitely higher than the greatest +within, or the greatest without the kingdom, and as being Himself +the sovereign arbiter of men's claims to greatness. Greater than the +greatest is He, the King; for if to be barely across the threshold +stamps dignity upon a man, what shall we say of the conception of +His own dignity which He formed who declared that He sat on the +throne of that kingdom, and was its Monarch? + +I. The first thought that I suggest is the greatness of the little +ones in the kingdom. + +As I have said, our Lord puts the whole emphasis of His +classification on men's position. Inside all are great, greater than +any that are outside. The least in the one order is greater than the +greatest in the other. So, then, the question comes, How does a man +step across that threshold? Our Lord evidently means the expression +to be synonymous with His true disciples. We may avail ourselves, in +considering how men come to be in the kingdom, of His own words. +Once He said that unless we _received_ it as little children, +we should never be _within_ it. There the blending of the two +metaphors adds force and completeness to the thought. The kingdom is +without us, and is offered to us; we must receive it as a gift, and +it must come into us before we can be in it. The point of comparison +between the recipients of the kingdom and little children does not +lie in any sentimental illusions about the innocence of childhood, +but in its dependence, in its absence of pretension, in its sense of +clinging helplessness, in its instinctive trust. All these things in +the child are natural, spontaneous, unreflecting, and therefore of +no value. You and I have to think ourselves back to them, and to +work ourselves back to them, and to fight ourselves back to them, +and to strip off their opposites which gather round us in the course +of our busy, effortful life. Then they become worth infinitely more +than their instinctive analogues in the infant. The man's absence of +pretension and consciousness of helplessness and dependent trust are +beautiful and great, and through them the kingdom of God, with all +its lights and glories, pours into his heart, and he himself steps +into it, and becomes a true servant and subject of the King. + +Then there is another word of the Master's, equally illuminative, as +to how we pass into the kingdom, when He spoke to the somewhat +patronising Pharisee that came to talk to Him by night, and +condescended to give the young Rabbi a certificate of approval from +the Sanhedrim, 'We know that Thou art a Teacher come from God.' +Christ's answer was, in effect, 'Knowing will not serve your turn. +There is something more than that wanted: "Except a man be born of +water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."' +So, another condition of entering the kingdom--that is, of coming +for myself into the attitude of lowly, glad submission to God's +will--is the reception into our natures of a new life-principle, so +that we are not only, like the men whom Christ compared with John, +'born of women,' but by a higher birth are made partakers of a +higher life, and born of the Spirit of God. These are the +conditions--on our side the reception with humility, helplessness, +dependent trust like those of children, on God's side the imparting, +in answer to that dependence and trust, of a higher principle of +life--these are the conditions on which we can pass out of the realm +of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. + +This being so, then we have next to consider the greatness that +belongs to the least of those who thus have crossed the threshold, +and have come to exercise joyous submission to the will of God. The +highest dignity of human nature, the loftiest nobility of which it +is capable, is to submit to God's will. 'Man's chief end is to +glorify God.' There is nothing that leads life to such sovereign +power as when we lay all our will at His feet, and say, 'Break, +bend, mould, fashion it as Thou wilt.' We are in a higher position +when we are in God's hand. His tools and the pawns on His board, +than we are when we are seeking to govern our lives at our pleasure. +Dignity comes from submission, and they who keep God's commandments +are the aristocracy of the world. + +Then, further, there comes the thought that the greatness that +belongs to the least of the little ones within the kingdom springs +from their closer relation to the Saviour, whose work they more +clearly know and more fully appropriate. It is often said that the +Sunday-school child who can repeat the great text, 'God so loved the +world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth +in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,' stands far +above prophet, righteous man, and John himself. This is not exactly +true, for knowledge of the truth is not what introduces into the +kingdom; but it is true that the weakest, the humblest, the most +ignorant amongst us, who grasps that truth of the God-sent Son whose +death is the world's life, and who lives, therefore, nestling close +to Jesus Christ, walks in a light far brighter than the twilight +that shone upon the Baptist, or the yet dimmer rays that reached +prophets and righteous men of old. It is not a question of +character; it is a question of position. True greatness is +regulated, by closeness to Jesus Christ, and by apprehension and +appropriation of His work to myself. The dwarf on the shoulders of +the giant sees further than the giant; and 'the least in the +kingdom,' being nearer to Jesus Christ than the men of old could +ever be, because possessing the fuller revelation of God in Him, is +greater than the greatest without. They who possess, even in germ, +that new life-principle which comes in the measure of a man's faith +in Christ, thereby are lifted above saints and martyrs and prophets +of old. The humblest Christian grasps a fuller Christ, and therein +possesses a fuller spiritual life, than did the ancient heroes of +the faith. Christ's classification here says nothing about +individual character. It says nothing about the question as to the +possession of true religion or of spiritual life by the ancient +saints, but it simply declares that because we have a completer +revelation, we therefore, grasping that revelation, are in a more +blessed position, 'God having provided some better thing for us, +that they without us should not be made perfect.' The lowest in a +higher order is higher than the highest in a lower order. As the +geologist digs down through the strata, and, as he marks the +introduction of new types, declares that the lowest specimen of the +mammalia is higher than the highest preceding of the reptiles or of +the birds, so Christ says, 'He that is lowest in the kingdom of +heaven is greater than he.' + +Brethren! these thoughts should stimulate and should rebuke us that +having so much we make so little use of it. We know God more fully, +and have mightier motives to serve Him, and larger spiritual helps +in serving Him than had any of the mighty men of old. We have a +fuller revelation than Abraham had; have we a tithe of his faith? We +have a mightier Captain of the Lord's host with us than stood before +Joshua; have we any of his courage? We have a tenderer and fuller +revelation of the Father than had psalmists of old; are our +aspirations greater after God, whom we know so much better, than +were theirs in the twilight of revelation? A savage with a shell and +a knife of bone will make delicate carvings that put our workers, +with their modern tools, to shame. A Hindoo, weaving in a shed, with +bamboos for its walls and palm leaves for its roof, and a rude loom, +the same as his ancestors used three thousand years ago, will turn +out muslins that Lancashire machinery cannot rival. We are exalted +in position, let us see to it that Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, +and all the saints, do not put us to shame, lest the greatest should +become the guiltiest, and exaltation to heaven should lead to +dejection to hell. + +II. Notice the littleness of the great ones in the kingdom. + +Our Lord here recognises the fact that there will be varieties of +position, that there will be an outer and an inner court in the +Temple, and an aristocracy in the kingdom. 'In a great house there +are not only vessels of gold and silver, but of wood and of clay.' +When a man passes into the territory, it still remains an open +question how far into the blessed depths of the land he will +penetrate. Or, to put away the figure, if as Christian people we +have laid hold of Jesus Christ, and in Him have received the kingdom +and the new life-power, there still remains the question, how much +and how faithfully we shall utilise the gifts, and what place in the +earthly experience and manifestation of His kingdom we shall occupy. +There are great and small within it. + +So it comes to be a very important question for us all, how we may +not merely be content, as so many of us are, with having scraped +inside and just got both feet across the boundary line, but may +become great in the kingdom. Let me answer that question in three +sentences. The little ones in Christ's kingdom become great by the +continual exercise of the same things which admitted them there at +first. If greatness depends on position in reference to Jesus +Christ, the closer we come to Him and the more we keep ourselves in +loving touch and fellowship with Him, the greater in the kingdom we +shall be. Again, the little ones in Christ's kingdom become great by +self-forgetting service. 'He that will be great among you, let him +be your minister.' Self-regard dwarfs a man, self-oblivion magnifies +him. If ever you come across, even in the walks of daily life, +traces in people of thinking much of themselves, and of living +mainly for themselves, down go these men in your estimation at once. +Whether you have a beam of the same sort in your own eye or not, you +can see the mote in theirs, and you lower your appreciation of them +immediately. It is the same in Christ's kingdom, only in an infinitely +loftier fashion. There, to become small is to become great. Again, the +little ones in Christ's kingdom become great, not only by cleaving +close to the Source of all greatness, and deriving thence a higher +dignity by the suppression and crucifixion of self-esteem and +self-regard, but by continual obedience to their Lord's commandment. +As He said on the Sermon on the Mount, 'Whoso shall do and teach one +of the least of these commandments shall be called great in the kingdom +of heaven.' The higher we are, the more we are bound to punctilious +obedience to the smallest injunction. The more we are obedient to +the lightest of His commandments, the greater we become. Thus the +least in the kingdom may become the greatest there, if only, cleaving +close to Christ, he forgets himself, and lives for others, and does +the Father's will. + +III. Lastly, I travel for a moment beyond my text, and note the +perfect greatness of all in the perfected kingdom. + +The very notion of a kingdom of God established in reality, however +imperfectly here on earth, demands that somewhere, and some time, +and somehow, there should be an adequate, a universal and an eternal +manifestation and establishment of it. If, here and now, dotted +about over the world, there are men who, with much hindrance and +many breaks in their obedience, are still the subjects of that +realm, and trying to do the will of God, unless we are reduced to +utter bewilderment intellectually, there must be a region in which +that will shall be perfectly done, shall be continually done, shall +be universally done. The obedience that we render to Him, just +because it is broken by so much rebellion, slackened by so much +indifference, hindered by so many clogs, hampered by so many +limitations, points, by its attainments and its imperfections alike, +to a region where the clogs and limitations and interruptions shall +have all vanished, and the will of the Lord shall be the life and +the light thereof. + +So there rises up before us the fair prospect of that heavenly +kingdom, in which all that here is interrupted and thwarted tendency +shall have become realised effect. + +That state must necessarily be a state of continual advance. For if +greatness consists in apprehension and appropriation of Christ and +His work, there are no limits to the possible expansion and +assimilation of a human heart to Him, and the wealth of His glory is +absolutely boundless. An infinite Christ to be assimilated, and an +indefinite capacity of assimilation in us, make the guarantee that +eternity shall see the growing progress of the subjects of the +kingdom, in resemblance to the King. + +If there is this endless progress, which is the only notion of +heaven that clothes with joy and peace the awful thought of unending +existence, then there will be degrees there too, and the old +distinction of 'least' and 'greatest' in the kingdom will subsist to +the end. The army marches onwards, but they are not all abreast. +They that are in front do not intercept any of the blessings or of +the light that come to the rearmost files; and they that are behind +are advancing and envy not those who lead the march. + +Only let us remember, brother, that the distinction of least and +great in the kingdom, in its imperfect forms on earth, is carried +onwards into the kingdom in its perfect form into heaven. The +highest point of our attainment here is the starting-point of our +progress yonder. 'An entrance shall be ministered'; it may be +'ministered abundantly,' or we may be 'saved yet so as by fire.' Let +us see to it that, being least in our own eyes, we belong to the +greatest in the kingdom. And that we may, let us hold fast by the +Source of all greatness, Christ Himself, and so we shall be launched +on a career of growing greatness, through the ages of eternity. To +be joined to Him is greatness, however small the world may think us. +To be separate from Him is to be small, though the hosannas of the +world may misname us great. + + + + +THWARTING GOD'S PURPOSE + + + 'The Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God + against themselves, being not baptized of Him.' + --LUKE vii. 30. + +Our Lord has just been pouring unstinted praise on the head of John +the Baptist. The eulogium was tenderly timed, for it followed, and +was occasioned by the expression, through messengers, of John's +doubts of Christ's Messiahship. Lest these should shake the people's +confidence in the Forerunner, and make them think of him as weak and +shifting, Christ speaks of him in the glowing words which precede my +text, and declares that he is no 'reed shaken with the wind.' + +But what John was was of less moment to Christ's listeners than was +what they had done with John's message. So our Lord swiftly passes +from His eulogium upon John to the sharp thrust of the personal +application to His hearers. In the context He describes the twofold +treatment which that message had received; and so describes it as, +in the description, to lay bare the inmost characteristics of the +reception or rejection of the message. As to the former, He says +that the mass of the common people, and the outcast publicans, +'justified God'; by which remarkable expression seems to be meant +that their reception of John's message and baptism acknowledged +God's righteousness in accusing them of sin and demanding from them +penitence. + +On the other hand, the official class, the cultivated people, +the orthodox respectable people--that is to say, the dead +formalists--'rejected the counsel of God against themselves.' + +Now the word 'rejected' would be more adequately rendered +'_frustrated,_' thwarted, made void, or some such expression, +as indeed it is employed in other places of Scripture, where it is +translated 'disannulled,' 'made void,' and the like. And if we take +that meaning, there emerge from this great word of the Master's two +thoughts, that to disbelieve God's word is to thwart God's purpose, +and that to thwart His purpose is to harm ourselves. + +I. And I remark, first, that the sole purpose which God has in view +in speaking to us men is our blessing. + +I suppose I need not point out to you that 'counsel' here does not +mean _advice_, but _intention_. In regard to the matter immediately +in hand, God's purpose or _counsel_ in sending the Forerunner was, +first of all, to produce in the minds of the people a true consciousness +of their own sinfulness and need of cleansing; and so to prepare the +way for the coming of the Messiah, who should bring the inward gift +which they needed, and so secure their salvation. The intention +was, first, to bring to repentance, but that was a preparation for +bringing to them full forgiveness and cleansing. And so we may fairly +widen the thought into the far greater and nobler one which applies +especially to the message of God in Jesus Christ, and say that +the only design which God has in view, in the gospel of His Son, is +the highest blessing--that is, the salvation--of every man to whom +it is spoken. + +Now, by the gospel, which, as I say, has thus one single design in +the divine mind, I mean, what I think the New Testament means, the +whole body of truths which underlie and flow from the fact of +Christ's Death, Resurrection, and Ascension, which in brief are +these--man's sin, man's helplessness, the Incarnation of the Son of +God, the Death of Christ as the sacrifice for the world's sin; +Faith, as the one hand by which we grasp the blessing, and the gift +of a Divine Spirit which follows upon our faith, and bestows upon us +sonship and likeness to God, purity of life and character, and +heaven at last. That, as I take it, is in the barest outline what is +meant by the gospel of Jesus Christ. + +And now I want to press upon you, dear friends, that that great and +sublime body of truths made known to us, as I believe, from God +Himself, has one sole object in view and none beside--viz. that +every man who hears it may partake of the salvation and the hope +which it brings. It has a twofold effect, alas! but the twofold +effect does not imply a twofold purpose. There have been schemes of +so-called Christian theology which have darkened the divine +character in this respect, and have obscured the great thought that +God has one end in view, and one only, when He speaks to us in all +good faith, desiring nothing else but only that we shall be gathered +into His heart, and made partakers of His love. He is not willing +that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of +the truth. + +If so, the question comes very sharp and direct to each of us, Is +that gospel fulfilling its purpose in me? There are many subordinate +good things flowing from the Christian revelation, such as blessings +for social outward life, which are as flowers that spring up in its +path; but unless it has effected its one purpose in regard to you +and me, it has failed altogether. God meant His word to save your +soul. Has it done so? It is a question that any man can answer if +he--will be honest with himself. + +Further, this single purpose of the divine speech embraces in its +intention each of the hearers of that message. I want to gather the +wide-flowing generality, 'God so loved the world that He sent His +Son that whosoever believeth,' into this sharp point, 'God so loved +_me_, that He sent His Son that _I_, believing, might have +life eternal.' We shall never understand the universality of +Christianity until we have appreciated the personality and the +individuality of its message to each of us. God does not lose thee in +the crowd, do not thou lose thyself in it, nor fail to apprehend that +_thou_ art personally meant by His broadest declarations. It is +_thy_ salvation that Christ had in view when He became man and +died on the Cross; and it is thy salvation that He had in view when +He said to His servants, 'Go into _all_ the world'--there is +universality--'and preach the Gospel to _every_ creature'--there +is individuality. + +Then, further, God is verily seeking to accomplish this purpose even +now, by my lips, in so far as I am true to my Master and my message. +The outward appearance of what we are about now is that I am trying, +lamely enough, to speak to you. You may judge this service by rules +of rhetoric, or anything else you like. But you have not got to the +bottom of things unless you feel, as I am praying that every one of +you may feel, that even with all my imperfections on my head--and I +know them better than you can tell me them--I, like all true men who +are repeating God's message as they have caught it, neither more nor +less, and have sunk themselves in it, may venture to say, as the +Apostle said: 'Now, then, we are ambassadors for God, as though God +did beseech by us, we pray in Christ's stead.' John's voice was a +revelation of God's purpose, and the voice of every true preacher of +Jesus Christ is no less so. + +II. Secondly, this single divine purpose, or 'counsel,' may be +thwarted. + +'They frustrated the counsel of God.' Of all the mysteries of this +inexplicable world, the deepest, the mother-mystery of all, is, that +given an infinite will and a creature, the creature can thwart the +infinite. I said that was the mystery of mysteries: 'Our wills are +ours we know not how,'--No! indeed we don't!--'Our wills are ours to +make them Thine.' But that purpose necessarily requires the +possibility of the alternative that our wills are ours, and we +_refuse_ 'to make them Thine.' The possibility is mysterious; +the reality of the fact is tragic and bewildering. We need no proof +except our own consciousness; and if that were silenced we should +have the same fact abundantly verified in the condition of the world +around us, which sadly shows that not yet is God's 'will' done 'on +earth as it is in heaven,' but that men can and do lift themselves +up against God and set themselves in antagonism to His most gracious +purposes. And whosoever refuses to accept God's message in Christ +and God's salvation revealed in that message is thus setting himself +in battle array against the infinite, and so far as in him lies +(that is to say, in regard to his own personal condition and +character) is thwarting God's most holy will. + +Now, brethren, I said that there was only one thought in the divine +heart when He sent His Son, and that was to save you and me and all +of us. But that thought cannot but be frustrated, and made of none +effect, as far as the individual is concerned, by unbelief. For +there is no way by which any human being can become participant of +the spiritual blessings which are included in that great word +'salvation,' except by simple trust in Jesus Christ. I cannot too +often and earnestly insist upon this plain truth, which, plain as it +is, is often obscured, and by many people is never apprehended at +all, that when the Apostle says 'It is the power of God unto +salvation to every one that believeth,' he is laying down no +limitation of the universality or of the adequacy of that power, but +is only setting forth the plain condition, inherent in the very +nature of things and in the nature of the blessings bestowed, that +if a man does not trust God he cannot get them, and God cannot give +him them, though His heart yearns to give him them He cannot do it. +How can any man get any good out of a medicine if he locks his teeth +and won't take it? How can any truth that I refuse to believe +produce any effect upon me? How is it possible for the blessings of +forgiveness and cleansing to be bestowed upon men who neither know +their need of forgiveness nor desire to be washed from their sins? +How can there be the flowing of the Divine Spirit into a heart which +is tightly barred against His entrance? In a word, how a man can be +saved with the salvation that the Gospel offers, except on condition +of his simple trust in Christ the Giver, I, for my part, fail to +see. And so I remind you that the thwarting of God's counsel is the +awful prerogative of unbelief. + +Then, note that, in accordance with the context, you do not need to +put yourselves to much effort in order to bring to nought God's +gracious intention about you. 'They thwarted the counsel of God, +being _not_ baptized of Him.' They did not _do_ anything. They simply +did nothing, and that was enough. There is no need for violent +antagonism to the counsel. Fold your hands in your lap, and the gift +will not come into them. Clench them tightly, and put them behind +your back, and it cannot come. A negation is enough to ruin a man. You +do not need to do anything to slay yourselves. In the ocean, when the +lifebelt is within reach, simply forbear to put out your hand to it, +and down you will go, like a stone, to the very bottom. 'They rejected +the counsel,' 'being _not_'--and that was all. + +Further, the people who are in most danger of frustrating God's gracious +purpose are not blackguards, not men and women steeped to the eyebrows +in the stagnant pool of sensuous sin, but clean, respectable +church-and-chapel-going, sermon-hearing, doctrine-criticising Pharisees. +The man or woman who is led away by the passions that are lodged in +his or her members is not so hopeless as the man into whose spiritual +nature there has come the demon of self-complacent righteousness, or +who, as is the case with many a man and woman sitting in these pews +now, has listened to, or at all events, has _heard_, men +preaching, as I am trying to preach, ever since childhood, and has +never done anything in consequence. These are the hopeless people. The +Pharisees--and there are hosts of their great-great-grandchildren in +all our congregations--'the Pharisees ... frustrated the counsel of +God.' + +III. Lastly, this thwarting brings self-inflicted harm. + +A little skiff of a boat comes athwart the bows of a six thousand +ton steamer, with triple-expansion engines, that can make twenty +knots an hour. What will become of the skiff, do you think? You can +thwart God's purpose about yourself, but the great purpose goes on +and on. And 'Who hath hardened himself against Him and prospered?' +You can thwart the purpose, but it is kicking against the pricks. + +Consider what you lose when you will have nothing to do with that +divine counsel of salvation. Consider not only what you lose, but +what you bring upon yourself; how you bind your sin upon your +hearts; how you put out your hands, and draw disease and death +nearer to yourselves; how you cannot turn away from, or be +indifferent to, the gracious, sweet, pleading voice that speaks to +you from the Cross and the Throne, without doing damage--in many +more ways than I have time to enlarge upon now--to your own +character and inward nature. And consider how there lie behind dark +and solemn results about which it does not become me to speak, but +which it still less becomes me--believing as I do--to suppress. +'After death the judgment'; and what will become of the thwarters of +the divine counsel then? + +These wounds, many, deep, deadly as they are, are self-inflicted. +There do follow, on God's message and unbelief of it, awful +consequences; but these are not His intention. They are the results +of our misuse of His gracious word. 'Oh, Israel!' wailed the +prophet, 'thou hast destroyed _thyself_' Man's happiness or woe +is his own making, and his own making only. There is no creature in +heaven or earth or hell that is chargeable with your loss but +yourself. We are our own betrayers, our own murderers, our own +accusers, our own avengers, and--I was going to say, and it is true +--our own hell. + +Dear friends! this message comes to you once more now, that Jesus +Christ has died for your sins, and that if you will trust Him as +your Saviour, and obey Him as your Sovereign, you will he saved with +an everlasting salvation. Even through my lips God speaks to you. +What are you going to do with His message? Are you going to receive +it, and 'justify' Him, or are you going to reject it, and thwart +Him? You thwart Him if you treat my words now as a mere sermon to be +criticised and forgotten; you thwart Him if you do anything with His +message except take it to your heart and rest wholly upon it. Unless +you do you are suicides; and neither God, nor man, nor devil is +responsible for your destruction. He can say to you, as His servant +said: 'Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean.' Jesus Christ +is calling to every one of us, 'Turn ye! turn ye! Why will ye die? +As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.' + + + + +A GLUTTONOUS MAN AND A WINEBIBBER + + + 'The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye + say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a + friend of publicans and sinners!'--LUKE vii. 34. + +Jesus Christ very seldom took any notice of the mists of calumny +that drifted round Him. 'When He was reviled He reviled not again.' +If ever He did allude to them it was for the sake of the people who +were harming themselves by uttering them. So here, without the +slightest trace of irritation, He quotes a malignant charge which +was evidently in the popular mouth, and of which we should never +have known if He had not repeated it; not with anger, but simply in +order that He might point to the capricious inconsistency of finding +fault with John and Himself on precisely opposite grounds. The +former did not suit because he came neither eating nor drinking. +Well, if His asceticism did not please, surely the geniality of a +Christ who comes doing both will be hailed. But He is rejected like +the other. What is the cause of this dislike that can look two +different ways at once? Not the traits that it alleges, but +something far deeper, a dislike to the heavenly wisdom of which John +and Jesus were messengers. The children of wisdom would see that +there was right in both courses; the children of folly would condemn +them both. If the message is unwelcome, nothing that the messenger +can say or do will be right. + +The same kind of thing is common to-day. Never mind consistency, +find fault with Christianity on all its sides, and with all its +preachers, though you have to contradict yourself in doing so. +Object to this man that he is too learned and doctrinal; to that one +that he is too illiterate, and gives no food for thought; to this +one that he is always thundering condemnation; to that one that he +is always running over with love; to this one that he is perpetually +harping upon duties; to that other one that he is up in the clouds, +and forgets the tasks of daily life; to this one that he is +sensational; to that one that he is dull; and so on, and so on. The +generation that liked neither piping nor mourning has its +representatives still. + +But my business now is not with the inconsistency of the objectors +to John and Jesus, but simply with this caricature which He quotes +from them of some of His characteristics. It is a distorted +refraction of the beam of light that comes from His face, through +the muddy, thick medium of their prejudice. And if we can, I was +going to say, pull it straight again, we shall see something of His +glories. I take the two clauses of my text separately because they +are closely connected with our design, and cover different ground. + +I. I ask you to note, first, the enemies' attestation to Christ's +genial participation in the joys and necessities of common life. + +'The Son of man came eating and drinking.' There is nothing that +calumny, if it be malignant enough, cannot twist into an accusation; +and out of glorious and significant facts, full of lessons and +containing strong buttresses of the central truth of the Gospel, +these people made this charge, 'a winebibber and gluttonous.' The +facts were facts; the inferences were slanders. + +Notice how precious, how demonstrative of the very central truth of +Christianity, is that plain fact, 'The Son of man came eating and +drinking.' Then that pillar of all our hope, the Incarnation of the +word of God, stands irrefragable. Sitting at tables, hungering in +the wilderness, faint by the well, begging a draught of water from a +woman, and saying on His Cross 'I thirst!'--He is the Incarnation of +Deity, the manifestation of God in the flesh. Awe and mystery and +reverence and hope and trust clasp that fact, in which prejudice and +dislike could only find occasion for a calumny. + +By eating and drinking He declared that 'forasmuch as the children +were partakers of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise took part in +the same.' If it is true that every spirit that confesseth that +Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God,' then it is true that +no miracle in His life, nor any of the supernatural glories which we +are accustomed to regard as evidences of His majesty, are more +blessed, or more important as revelations of His nature, than the +fact that 'the Son of man came eating and drinking.' + +But, still further, mark how the truth which gave colour to the +slander attests that Jesus Christ presents to the world the highest +type of manhood. The ideal for life is not the suppression, but the +consecration, of material satisfactions and pleasures of appetite. +And they are likest to the Master who, like the Master, come eating +and drinking, and yet ever hold all appetites and desires rigidly +under control, and subordinate them all to loftier purposes. John +the Baptist could be an ascetic; the Pattern Man must not be. + +The highest type of religion, as it is shown to us in His perfect +life, includes the acceptance of all pure material blessings. +Asceticism is second best; the religion that can take and keep +secondary all outward and transitory sources of enjoyment, and can +hallow common life, is loftier than all pale hermits and emaciated +types of sanctity, who preserve their purity only by avoiding things +which it were nobler to enjoy and to subdue. + +There is nothing more striking about the Old Testament than the fact +that its heroes and saints were kindly with their kind, and took +part in common life, accepting, enjoying its blessings. They were +warriors, statesmen, shepherds, vinedressers; 'they bought, they +sold, they planted, they builded; they married and were given in +marriage,' and all the while they were the saints of God. That was a +nobler type of religion than the one that came after it, into which +Jesus Christ was born. When devotion cools it crusts; and the crust +is superstition and formalism and punctilious attention to the +proprieties of worship and casuistry, instead of joyful obedience to +a law, and abstinence from, instead of sanctification of, earthly +delights and supplies. + +So, protesting against all that, and showing the more excellent way, +and hallowing the way because He trod it, 'the Son of man came +eating and drinking.' Hence-forward every table may be a communion +table, and every meal may be a sacrament, eaten in obedience to His +dying injunction: 'This do in remembrance of Me.' If we can feel +that Christ sits with us at the feast, the feast will be pure and +good. If it is of such a sort as that we dare not fancy Him keeping +us company there, it is no place for us. Wherever Jesus Christ went +the consecration of His presence lingers still; whatever Jesus +Christ did His servants may do, if in the same spirit and in the +same manner. + +He hallowed infancy when He lay an infant in His mother's arms; He +hallowed childhood when, as a boy, He was obedient to His parents; +He hallowed youth during all those years of quiet seclusion and +unnoticed service in Nazareth; He hallowed every part of human life +and experience by bearing it. Love is consecrated because He loved; +tears are sacred because He wept; life is worship, or may be made +so, because He passed through it; and death itself is ennobled and +sanctified because He has died. + +Only let us remember that, if we are to exercise this blessed +hallowing of common things, of which He has set us the example, we must +use them as He did; that is, in such sort as that our communion with +God shall not be broken thereby, and that nothing in them shall darken +the vision and clip the wings of the aspiring and heavenward-gazing +spirit. Brethren! the tendency of this day--and one rejoices, in many +respects, that it is so--is to revolt against the extreme of narrowness +in the past that prescribed and proscribed a great many arbitrary and +unnecessary abstinences and practices as the sign of a Christian +profession. But whilst I would yield to no man in my joyful application +of the principle that underlies that great fact that 'He came eating +and drinking,' I do wish at this point to put in a _caveat_ which +perhaps may not be so welcome to some of you as the line of thought +that I have been pursuing. It is this: it is an error to quote +Christ's example as a cover for luxury and excess, and grasping at +material enjoyments which are not innocent in themselves, or are mixed +up with much that is not innocent. There is many a table spread by +so-called Christian people where Jesus Christ will not sit. Many a +man darkens his spirit, enfeebles his best part, blinds himself to the +things beyond, by reason of his taking the liberty, as he says, which +Christianity, broadly and generously interpreted, gives, of +participating in all outward delights. I have said that asceticism is +not the highest, but it is sometimes necessary. It is better to enjoy +and to subdue than to abstain and to suppress, but abstinence and +suppression are often essential to faithfulness and noble living. If +I find that my enjoyment of innocent things harms me, or is tending to +stimulate cravings beyond my control; or if I find that abstinence from +innocent things increases my power to help a brother, and to fight +against a desolating sin; or if things good and innocent in +themselves, and in some respects desirable and admirable, like the +theatre, for instance, are irretrievably intertwisted with evil +things, then Christ's example is no plea for our sharing in such. It +is better for us to cut off the offending hand, and so, though +maimed, to enter into life, than to keep two hands and go into the +darkness of death. Jesus Christ 'came eating and drinking,' and +therefore the highest and the best thing is that Christian people +should innocently, and with due control, and always keeping +themselves in touch with God, enjoy all outward blessings, only +subject to this law, 'whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, +to do all to the glory of God,' and remembering this warning, 'He +that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.' + +II. Now, secondly, notice the enemies' witness that Christ is the +Friend of outcasts. + +As I said about the other charge, so I say of this, the facts were +facts, the inferences were errors. The slanderers saw, as nobody +could help seeing, that there was a strange kind of mutual +attraction between Jesus and publicans and sinners; that harlots as +well as little children seemed to be drawn to Him; and that He +obviously delighted in the company of those at whose presence, +partly from pride, partly from national enmity, partly from +heartless self-righteousness, Pharisaism gathered its dainty skirts +around itself in abhorrence, lest a speck should fall upon their +purity. That being the fact, low natures, who always misunderstand +lofty ones, because they can only believe in motives as low as their +own, said of Jesus, 'Ah! you can tell what sort of a man He is by +the company He keeps. He is the friend of publicans because He is a +bad Jew; the friend of sinners because He likes their wicked ways.' + +There was a mysterious sense of sympathy which drew Jesus Christ to +these poor people and drew them to Him. It would have been a long +while before any penitent woman would have come in and wept over +the feet of Gamaliel and his like. It would have been a long while +before any sinful men would have found their way, with tears and yet +with trust, to these self-righteous hypocrites. But perfect purity +somehow draws the impure, though assumed sanctity always repels +them. And it is a sign, not that a man is bad, but that he is good +in a Christlike fashion, if the outcasts that durst not come near +your respectable people find themselves drawn to Him. Oh! if there +were more of us liker Jesus Christ in our purity, there would be +more of us who would deserve the calumny which is praise--'the +friend of sinners.' + +It was an attestation of His love, as I need not remind you. I +suppose there is nothing more striking in the whole wonderful and +unique picture of Jesus Christ drawn in the Gospels than the way in +which two things, which we so often fancy to be contradictory, blend +in the most beautiful harmony in Him--viz. infinite tenderness and +absolute condemnation of transgression. To me the fact that these +two characteristics are displayed in perfect harmony in the life of +Jesus Christ as written in these Gospels, is no small argument for +believing the historical veracity of the picture there drawn. For I +do not know a harder thing for a dramatist, or a romancer, or a +legend-monger to effect than to combine, in one picture--without +making the combination monstrous-these two things, perfect purity +and perfect love for the impure. + +But, dear brethren, remember, that if we are to believe Jesus +Christ's own words, that strange love of His, which embraced in its +pure clasp the outcasts, was not only the love of a perfect Man, but +it was the love of God Himself. 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the +Father.' When we see Jesus Christ looking across the valley to the +city, with tears in His sad and gentle eyes; and when we see harlots +and sinners coming near Him with new hope, and a strange +consciousness of a fascination which He wields; and when we see Him +opening His heart to all the impure, just as He laid His clean hand +on the leper's ulcers, let us rejoice to believe that the Friend of +publicans and sinners is God manifest in the flesh. + +Then, still further, this wondrous, seeking love of His for all the +outcasts is the sign to us of His boundless hopefulness concerning +the most degraded. + +The world talks of races too low to be elevated, of men too hardened +to be softened. Jesus Christ walks through the hospitals of this +world, and nowhere sees incurables. His hope is boundless, because, +first of all, He sees the dormant possibilities that slumber in the +most degraded; and because, still more, He knows that He bears in +Himself a power that will cleanse the foulest and raise the most +fallen. There are some metals that resist all attempts to volatilise +them by the highest temperature producible in our furnaces. Carry +them up into the sun and they will all pass into vapour. No man or +woman who ever lived, or will live, is so absolutely besotted, and +held by the chains of his or her sins, as that Jesus cannot set them +free. His hope for outcasts is boundless, because He knows that +every sin can be cleansed by His precious blood. Therefore, +Christianity should know nothing of desperate cases. There should be +no incurables in our estimate of the world, but our hope should be +as boundless as the Master's, who drew to Himself the publicans +and sinners, and made them saints. + +I need not remind you how this is the unique glory of Christ and of +Christianity. Men have been asking the question whether Christianity +is played out or not. What has been the motive power of all the +great movements for the elevation of mankind that have occurred for +the last nineteen centuries? What was it that struck the fetters of +the slaves? What is it that sends men out amongst savage tribes? Has +there ever been found a race of men so degraded that the message of +Christ's love could not find its way into their hearts? Did not +Darwin subscribe to the Patagonian Mission--a mission which takes in +hand perhaps the lowest types of humanity in the world--and did he +not do it because his own eyes had taught him that in this strange +superstition that we call the Gospel there is a power that, somehow +or other, nothing else can wield? Brethren! if the Church begins to +lose its care for, and its power of drawing, outcasts and sinners, +it has begun to lose its hold on Christ. The sooner such a Church +dies the better, and there will be few mourners at its funeral. + +The Friend of publicans and sinners has set the example to all of us +His followers. God be thanked that there are signs to-day that +Christian people are more and more waking up to the consciousness of +their obligations in regard to the outcasts in their own and other +lands. Let them go to them, as Jesus Christ did, with no false +flatteries, but with plain rebukes of sin, and yet with manifest +outgoing of the heart, and they will find that the same thing which +drew these poor creatures to the Master will draw others to the +feeblest, faintest reflection of Him in His servants. + +And, last of all, dear friends, let each think that Jesus Christ is +my Friend, and your Friend, because He is the Friend of sinners, and +we are sinners. If He did not love sinners there would be nobody for +Him to love. The universality of sin, however various in its degrees +and manifestations, makes more wonderful the universal sweep of His +friendship. + +How do I know that He is my Friend? 'Greater love hath no man than +this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,' and when we +were yet enemies He was our Friend, and died for us. How shall we +requite that love? 'Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command +you to do.' All over the Eastern world to this day the name by which +the Patriarch Abraham is known is the 'Friend' or the 'Companion.' +Well for us, for time and for eternity, if, knowing that Jesus is +our Friend, we yield ourselves, in faith and love, to become His +friends! + + + + +THE TWO DEBTORS + + + 'There was a certain creditor which had two debtors; + the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. + 42. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly + forgave them both. Tell Me therefore, which of them + will love him most? 43. Simon answered and said, I + suppose that he to whom he forgave most.'--LUKE vii.41-43. + +We all know the lovely story in which this parable is embedded. A +woman of notoriously bad character had somehow come in contact with +Jesus Christ, and had by Him been aroused from her sensuality and +degradation, and calmed by the assurance of forgiveness. So, when +she heard that He was in her own town, what could she do but hasten +to the Pharisee's house, and brave the cruel, scornful eyes of the +eminently respectable people that would meet her there? She carries +with her part of the spoils and instruments of her sinful adornment, +to devote it to His service; but before she can open the cruse, her +heart opens, and the hot tears flow on His feet, inflicting an indignity +where she had meant an honour. She has nothing at hand to repair the +fault, she will not venture to take her poor garment, which might have +done it, but with a touch, she loosens her long hair, and with the +ingenuity and self-abasement of love, uses that for a towel. Then, +gathering confidence from her reception, and carried further than she +had meant, she ventures to lay her sinful lips on His feet, as if asking +pardon for the tears that would come--the only lips, except those of +the traitor, that are recorded as having touched the Master. And only +then does she dare to pour upon Him her only wealth. + +What says the Pharisee? Has he a heart at all? He is scandalised at +such a scene at his respectable table; and no wonder, for he could +not have known that a change had passed upon the woman, and her evil +repute was obviously notorious. He does not wonder at her having +found her way into his house, for the meal was half public. But he +began to doubt whether a Man who tolerates such familiarities from +such a person could be a prophet; or if He were, whether He could be +a good man. 'He would have known her if He had been a prophet,' +thinks he. The thought is only a questionably true one. 'If He had +known her, He would have thrust her back with His foot,' he thinks; +and that thought is obviously false. But Simon's righteousness was +of the sort that gathers up its own robes about it, and shoves back +the poor sinner into the filth. 'She is a sinner,' says he. No, +Simon! she _was_ a sinner, but she _is_ a penitent, and is +on the road to be a saint, and having been washed, she is a great +deal cleaner than thou art, who art only white-washed. + +Our Lord's parable is the answer to the Pharisee's thought, and in +it Jesus shows Simon that He knows him and the woman a great deal +better than he did. There are three things to which briefly I ask +your attention--the common debt, in varying amounts; the common +insolvency; and the love, like the debt, varying in amount. Now, +note these things in order. + +I. There is, first of all, the common debt. + +I do not propose to dwell at all upon that familiar metaphor, +familiar to us all from its use in the Lord's Prayer, by which sin +and the guilt of sin are shadowed forth for us in an imperfect +fashion by the conception of debt. For duty neglected is a debt to +God, which can only be discharged by a penalty. And all sin, and its +consequent guilt and exposure to punishment, may be regarded under +the image of indebtedness. + +But the point that I want you to notice is that these two in our +parable, though they are meant to be portraits of Simon and the +woman, are also representatives of the two classes to one or other +of which we all belong. They are both debtors, though one owes but a +tenth of what the other does. That is to say, our Lord here draws a +broad distinction between people who are outwardly respectable, +decent, cleanly living, and people who have fallen into the habit, +and are living a life, of gross and open transgression. There has +been a great deal of very pernicious loose representation of the +attitude of Christianity in reference to this matter, common in +evangelical pulpits. And I want you to observe that our Lord draws a +broad line and says, 'Yes! you, Simon, are a great deal better than +that woman was. She was coarse, unclean, her innocence gone, her +purity stained. She had been wallowing in filth, and you, with your +respectability, your rigid morality, your punctilious observance of +the ordinary human duties, you were far better than she was, and had +far less to answer for than she had.' Fifty is only a tenth of five +hundred, and there is a broad distinction, which nothing ought to be +allowed to obliterate, between people who, without religion, are +trying to do right, to keep themselves in the paths of morality and +righteousness, to discharge their duty to their fellows, controlling +their passions and their flesh, and others who put the reins upon +the necks of the horses and let them carry them where they will, and +live in an eminent manner for the world and the flesh and the devil. +And there is nothing in evangelical Christianity which in the +smallest degree obliterates that distinction, but rather it +emphasises it, and gives a man full credit for any difference that +there is in his life and conduct and character between himself and +the man of gross transgression. + +But then it says, on the other side, the difference which does +exist, and is not to be minimised, is, after all, a difference of +degree. They are both debtors. They stand in the same relation to +the creditor, though the amount of the indebtedness is extremely +different. We are all sinful men, and we stand in the same relation +to God, though one of us may be much darker and blacker than the +other. + +And then, remember, that when you begin to talk about the guilt of +actions in God's sight, you have to go far below the mere surface. +If we could see the infinite complexity of motives--aggravations on +the one side and palliations on the other--which go to the doing of +a single deed, we should not be so quick to pronounce that the +publican and the harlot are worse than the Pharisee. It is quite +possible that an action which passes muster in regard to the +morality of the world may, if regard be had (which God only can +exercise) to the motive for which it is done, be as bad as, if not +worse than, the lust and the animalism, drunkenness and debauchery, +crime and murder, which the vulgar scales of the world consider to +be the heavier. If you once begin to try to measure guilt, you will +have to pass under the surface appearance, and will find that many a +white and dazzling act has a very rotten inside, and that many a +very corrupt and foul one does not come from so corrupt a source as +at first sight might seem to be its origin. Let us be very modest in +our estimate of the varying guilt of actions, and remember that, +deep down below all diversities, there lies a fundamental identity, +in which there is no difference, that all of us respectable people +that never broke a law of the nation, and scarcely ever a law of +propriety, in our lives, and the outcasts, if there are any here +now, the drunkards, the sensualists, all of us stand in this respect +in the same class. We are all debtors, for we have 'all sinned and +come short of the glory of God,' A viper an inch long and the +thickness of whipcord has a sting and poison in it, and is a viper. +And if the question is whether a man has got small-pox or not, one +pustule is as good evidence as if he was spotted all over. So, +remember, he who owes five hundred and he who owes the tenth part of +it, which is fifty, are both debtors. + +II. Now notice the common insolvency. + +'They had nothing to pay.' Well, if there is no money, 'no effects' +in the bank, no cash in the till, nothing to distrain upon, it does +not matter very much what the amount of the debt is, seeing that +there is nothing to meet it, and whether it is fifty or five hundred +the man is equally unable to pay. And that is precisely our +position. + +I admit, of course, that men without any recognition of God's +pardoning mercy, or any of the joyful impulse that comes from the +sense of Christ's redemption, or any of the help that is given by +the indwelling of the Spirit who sanctifies may do a great deal in +the way of mending their characters and making themselves purer and +nobler. But that is not the point which my text contemplates, +because it deals with a past. And the fact that lies under the +metaphor of my text is this, that none of us can in any degree +diminish our sin, considered as a debt to God. What can you and I do +to lighten our souls of the burden of guilt? What we have written we +have written. Tears will not wash it out, and amendment will not +alter the past, which stands frowning and irrevocable. If there be a +God at all, then our consciences, which speak to us of demerit, +proclaim guilt in its two elements--the sense of having done wrong, +and the foreboding of punishment therefor. Guilt cannot be dealt +with by the guilty one: it must be Some One else who deals with it. +He, and only He against whom we have sinned, can touch the great +burden that we have piled upon us. + +Brother! we have nothing to pay. We may mend our ways; but that does +not touch the past. We may hate the evil; that will help to keep us +from doing it in the future, but it does not affect our +responsibility for what is done. We cannot touch it; there it stands +irrevocable, with this solemn sentence written over the black pile, +'Every transgression and disobedience shall receive its just +recompense of reward.' We have nothing to pay. + +But my text suggests, further, that a condition precedent to +forgiveness is the recognition by us of our penniless insolvency. +Though it is not distinctly stated, it is clearly and necessarily +implied in the narrative, that the two debtors are to be supposed as +having come and held out a couple of pairs of empty hands, and sued +in _forma pauperis_. You must recognise your insolvency if you +expect to be forgiven. God does not accept dividends, so much in the +pound, and let you off the rest on consideration thereof. If you are +going to pay, you have to pay all; if He is going to forgive, you +have to let Him forgive all. It must be one thing or the other, and +you and I have to elect which of the two we shall stand by, and +which of the two shall be applied to us. + +Oh, dear friends! may we all come and say, + + Nothing in my hand I bring, + Simply to Thy Cross I cling. + +III. And so, lastly, notice the love, which varies with the +forgiveness. + +'Tell Me which of them will love him most.' Simon does not penetrate +Christ's design, and there is a dash of supercilious contempt for the +story and the question, as it seems to me, in the languid, half-courteous +answer:--'I suppose, if it were worth my while to think about such a +thing, that he to whom he forgave the most.' He did not know what a +battery was going to be unmasked. Jesus says, 'Thou hast rightly judged.' + +The man that is most forgiven is the man that will love most. Well, +that answer is true if all other things about the two debtors are +equal. If they are the same sort of men, with the same openness to +sentiments of gratitude and generosity, the man who is let off the +smaller debt will generally be less obliged than the man who is let +off the larger. But it is, alas! not always the case that we can +measure benefits conferred by gratitude shown. Another element comes +in--namely, the consciousness of the benefit received--which +measures the gratitude far more accurately than the actual benefit +bestowed. And so we must take both these things, the actual amount +of forgiveness, so to speak, which is conferred, and the depth of +the sense of the forgiveness received, in order to get the measure +of the love which answers it. So that this principle breaks up into +two thoughts, of which I have only just a word or two to say. + +First, it is very often true that the greatest sinners make the +greatest saints. There have been plenty of instances all down the +history of the world, and there are plenty of instances, thank God, +cropping up every day still in which some poor, wretched outcast, +away out in the darkness, living on the husks that the swine do eat, +and liking to be in the pigstye, is brought back into the Father's +house, and turns out a far more loving son and a far better servant +than the man that had never wandered away from it. 'The publicans +and the harlots' do often yet 'go into the Kingdom of God before' +the respectable people. + +And there are plenty of people in Manchester that you would not +touch with a pair of tongs who, if they could be got hold of, would +make far more earnest and devoted Christians than you are. The very +strength of passion and feeling which has swept them wrong, rightly +directed, would make grand saints of them, just as the very same +conditions of climate which, at tropics, bring tornadoes and +cyclones and dreadful thunder-storms, do also bring abundant +fertility. The river which devastates a nation, dammed up within +banks, may fertilise half a continent. And if a man is brought out +of the darkness, and looks back upon the years that are wasted, that +may help him to a more intense consecration. And if he remembers the +filth out of which Jesus Christ picked him, it will bind him to that +Lord with a bond deep and sacred. + +So let no outcast man or woman listening to me now despair. You can +come back from the furthest darkness, and whatever ugly things you +have in your memories and your consciences, you may make them +stepping-stones on which to climb to the very throne of God. Let no +respectable people despise the outcasts; there may be the making in +them of far better Christians than we are. + +But, on the other hand, let no man think lightly of sin. Though it +can be forgiven and swept away, and the gross sinner may become the +great saint, there will be scars and bitter memories and habits +surging up again after we thought they were dead; and the old ague +and fever that we caught in the pestilential land will hang by us +when we have migrated into a more wholesome climate. It is never +good for a man to have sinned, even though, through his sin, God may +have taken occasion to bring him near to Himself. + +But the second form of this principle is always true--namely, that +those who are most conscious of forgiveness will be most fruitful of +love. The depth and fervour of our individual Christianity depends +more largely on the clearness of our consciousness of our own +personal guilt and the firmness of our grasp of forgiveness than +upon anything else. + +Why is it that such multitudes of you professing Christians are such +icebergs in your Christianity? Mainly for this reason--that you have +never found out, in anything like an adequate measure, how great a +sinner you are, and how sure and sweet and sufficient Christ's +pardoning mercy is. And so you are like Simon--you will ask Jesus to +dinner, but you will not give Him any water for His feet or ointment +for His head. You will do the conventional and necessary pieces of +politeness, but not one act of impulse from the heart ever comes +from you. You discharge 'the duties of religion.' What a phrase! You +discharge the duties of religion. Ah! My brother, if you had been +down into the horrible pit and the miry clay, and had seen a hand +and a face looking down, and an arm outstretched to lift you; and if +you had ever known what the rapture was after that subterraneous +experience of having your feet set upon a rock and your goings +established, you would come to Him and you would say, 'Take me all, +O Lord! for I am all redeemed by Thee.' 'To whom little is forgiven +the same loveth little.' Does not that explain the imperfect +Christianity of thousands of us? + +Fifty pence and five hundred pence are both small sums. Our Lord had +nothing to do here with the absolute amount of debt, but only with the +comparative amount of the two debts. But when He wanted to tell the +people what the absolute amount of the debt was, he did it in that +other story of the Unfaithful Servant. He owed his lord, not fifty +pence (fifty eightpences or thereabouts), not five hundred pence, but +'ten thousand talents,' which comes to near two and a half millions +of English money. And that is the picture of our indebtedness to God. +'We have nothing to pay.' Here is the payment--that Cross, that dying +Christ. Turn your faith there, my brother, and then you will get ample +forgiveness, and that will kindle love, and that will overflow in +service. For the aperture in the heart at which forgiveness enters in +is precisely of the same width as the one at which love goes out. +Christ has loved us all, and perfectly. Let us love Him back again, +who has died that we might live, and borne our sins in His own body. + + + + +LOVE AND FORGIVENESS + + + 'Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved + much.'--LUKE vii. 47. + +This story contains three figures, three persons, who may stand for +us as types or representatives of the divine love and of all its +operation in the world, of the way in which it is received or rejected, +and of the causes and consequences of its reception or rejection. There +is the unloving, cleanly, respectable, self-complacent Pharisee, with +all his contempt for 'this woman.' There is the woman, with gross sin +and mighty penitence, the great burst of love that is flowing out of +her heart sweeping away before it, as it were, all the guilt of her +transgressions. And, high over all, brooding over all, loving each, +knowing each, pitying each, willing to save and be the Friend and +Brother of each, is the embodied and manifested divine Love, the +knowledge of whom is love in our hearts, and is 'life eternal.' So that +now I have simply to ask you to look with me, for a little while, at +these three persons as representing for us the divine love that comes +forth amongst sinners, and the twofold form in which that love is +received. There is, first, Christ the love of God appearing amongst +men, the foundation of all our love to Him. Then there is the woman, +the penitent sinner, lovingly recognising the divine love. And then, +last, there is the Pharisee, the self-righteous man, ignorant of +himself, and empty of all love to God. These are the three figures to +which I ask your attention now. + +I. We have Christ here standing as a manifestation of the divine +love coming forth amongst sinners. His person and His words, the +part He plays in this narrative, and the parable that He speaks in +the course of it, have to be noticed under this head. + +First, then, you have this idea--that He, as bringing to us the love +of God, shows it to us, as not at all dependent upon our merits or +deserts: 'He frankly forgave them both' are the deep words in which +He would point us to the source and the ground of all the love of +God. Brethren, have you ever thought what a wonderful and blessed +truth there lies in the old words of one of the Jewish prophets, 'I +do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for Mine holy +Name's sake'? The foundation of all God's love to us sinful men, +that saying tells us, lies not in us, nor in anything about us, not +in anything external to God Himself. He, and He alone, is the cause +and reason, the motive and the end, of His own love to our world. +And unless we have grasped that magnificent thought as the +foundation of all our acceptance in Him, I think we have not yet +learnt half of the fullness which, even in this world, may belong to +our conceptions of the love of God--a love that has no motive but +Himself; a love that is not evoked even (if I may so say) by regard +to His creatures' wants; a love, therefore, which is eternal, being +in that divine heart before there were creatures upon whom it could +rest; a love that is its own guarantee, its own cause--safe and +firm, therefore, with all the firmness and serenity of the divine +nature-incapable of being affected by our transgression, deeper than +all our sins, more ancient than our very existence, the very essence +and being of God Himself. 'He frankly forgave them both.' If you +seek the source of divine love, you must go high up into the +mountains of God, and learn that it, as all other of His (shall I +say) emotions, and feelings, and resolutions, and purposes, owns no +reason but Himself, no motive but Himself; lies wrapped in the +secret of His nature, who is all-sufficient for His own blessedness, +and all whose work and being is caused by, and satisfied, and +terminates in His own fullness. 'God is love': therefore beneath all +considerations of what we may want--deeper and more blessed than all +thoughts of a compassion that springs from the feeling of human +distress and the sight of man's misery--lies this thought of an +affection which does not need the presence of sorrow to evoke it, +which does not want the touch of our finger to flow out, but by its +very nature is everlasting, by its very nature is infinite, by its +very nature must be pouring out the flood of its own joyous fullness +for ever and ever! + +Then, again, Christ standing here for us as the representative and +revelation of this divine love which He manifests to us, tells us, +too, that whilst it is not caused by us, but comes from the nature +of God, it is not turned away by our sins. 'This man, if he were a +prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that +toucheth Him,' says the unloving and self-righteous heart, 'for she +is a sinner.' Ah! there is nothing more beautiful than the +difference between the thought about sinful creatures which is +natural to a holy being, and the thought about sinful creatures +which is natural to a self-righteous being. The one is all contempt; +the other, all pity. He knew what she was, and therefore He let her +come close to Him with the touch of her polluted hand, and pour out +the gains of her lawless life and the adornments of her former +corruption upon His most blessed and most holy head. His knowledge +of her as a sinner, what did it do to His love for her? It made that +love gentle and tender, as knowing that she could not bear the +revelation of the blaze of His purity. It smoothed His face and +softened His tones, and breathed through all His knowledge and +notice of her timid and yet confident approach. 'Daughter, I know +all about it--all thy wanderings and thy vile transgressions: I know +them all, and My love is mightier than all these. They may be as the +great sea, but my love is like the everlasting mountains, whose +roots go down beneath the ocean, and My love is like the everlasting +heaven, whose brightness covers it all over.' God's love is Christ's +love; Christ's love is God's love. And this is the lesson that we +gather--that that infinite and divine loving-kindness does not turn +away from thee, my brother and my friend, because thou art a sinner, +but remains hovering about thee, with wooing invitations and with +gentle touches, if it may draw thee to repentance, and open a +fountain of answering affection in thy seared and dry heart. The +love of God is deeper than all our sins. 'For His great love +wherewith He loved us, when we were dead in sins, He quickened us.' + +Sin is but the cloud behind which the everlasting sun lies in all +its power and warmth, unaffected by the cloud; and the light will +yet strike, the light of His love will yet pierce through, with its +merciful shafts bringing healing in their beams, and dispersing all +the pitchy darkness of man's transgression. And as the mists gather +themselves up and roll away, dissipated by the heat of that sun in +the upper sky, and reveal the fair earth below--so the love of +Christ shines in, molting the mist and dissipating the fog, thinning +it off in its thickest places, and at last piercing its way right +through it, down to the heart of the man that has been lying beneath +the oppression of this thick darkness, and who thought that the fog +was the sky, and that there was no sun there above. God be thanked! +the everlasting love of God that comes from the depth of His own +being, and is there because of Himself, will never be quenched +because of man's sin. + +And so, in the next place, Christ teaches us here that this divine +love, when it comes forth among sinners, necessarily manifests +itself first in the form of forgiveness. There was nothing to be +done with the debtors until the debt was wiped out; there was no +possibility of other gifts of the highest sort being granted to +them, until the great score was cancelled and done away with. When +the love of God comes down into a sinful world, it must come first +and foremost as pardoning mercy. There are no other terms upon which +there can be a union betwixt the loving-kindness of God, and the +emptiness and sinfulness of my heart, except only this--that first +of all there shall be the clearing away from my soul of the sins +which I have gathered there, and then there will be space for all +other divine gifts to work and to manifest themselves. Only do not +fancy that when we speak about forgiveness, we simply mean that a +man's position in regard to the penalties of sin is altered. That is +not all the depth of the scriptural notion of forgiveness. It +includes far more than the removal of outward penalties. The heart +of it all is, that the love of God rests upon the sinner, unturned +away even by his sins, passing over his sins, and removing his sins +for the sake of Christ. My friend, if you are talking in general +terms about a great divine loving-kindness that wraps you round--if +you have a great deal to say, apart from the Gospel, about the love +of God as being your hope and confidence--I want you to reflect on +this, that the first word which the love of God speaks to sinful men +is pardon; and unless that is your notion of God's love, unless you +look to that as the first thing of all, let me tell you, you may +have before you a very fair picture of a very beautiful, tender, +good-natured benevolence, but you have not nearly reached the height +of the vigour and yet the tenderness of the Scripture notion of the +love of God. It is not a love which says, 'Well, put sin on one +side, and give the man the blessings all the same,' not a love which +has nothing to say about that great fact of transgression, not a +love which gives it the go-by, and leaves it standing: but a love +which passes into the heart through the portal of pardon, a love +which grapples with the fact of sin first, and has nothing to say to +a man until it has said that message to him. + +And but one word more on this part of my subject--here we see the +love of God thus coming from Himself; not turned away by man's sins; +being the cause of forgiveness; expressing itself in pardon; and +last of all, demanding service. 'Simon, thou gavest Me no water, +thou gavest Me no kiss, My head thou didst not anoint: I expected +all these things from thee--I desired them all from thee: My love +came that they might spring in thy heart; thou hast not given them; +My love is wounded, as it were disappointed, and it turns away from +thee!' Yes, after all that we have said about the freeness and +fullness, the unmerited, and uncaused, and unmotived nature of that +divine affection--after all that we have said about its being the +source of every blessing to man, asking nothing from him, but giving +everything to him; it still remains true, that God's love, when it +comes to men, comes that it may evoke an answering echo in the human +heart, and 'though it might be much bold to enjoin, yet for love's +sake rather beseeches' us to give unto Him who has given all unto +us. There, then, stands forth in the narrative, Christ as a +revelation of the divine love amongst sinners. + +II. Now, in the second place, let us look for a moment at 'this +woman' as the representative of a class of character--the penitent +lovingly recognising the divine love. + +The words which I have read as my text contain a statement as to the +woman's character: 'Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she +loved much.' Allow me just one word of explanation, in the shape of +exposition, on these words. Great blunders have been built upon +them. I dare say you have seen epitaphs--(I have)--written often on +gravestones with this misplaced idea on them--'Very sinful; but +there was a great deal of love in the person; and for the sake of +the love, God passed by the sin!' Now, when Christ says 'She loved +much,' He does not mean to say that her love was the cause of her +forgiveness--not at all. He means to say that her love was the proof +of her forgiveness, and that it was so because her love was a +consequence of her forgiveness. As, for instance, we might say, 'The +woman is in great distress, for she weeps'; but we do not mean +thereby that the weeping is the reason of the distress, but the +means of our knowing the sorrow. It is the proof because it is the +consequence. Or (to put it into the simplest shape) the love does +not go before the forgiveness, but the forgiveness goes before the +love; and because the love comes after the forgiveness, it is the +sign of the forgiveness. That this is the true interpretation, you +will see if you look back for a moment at the narrative which +precedes, where He says, 'He frankly forgave them both: tell me, +therefore, which of them will love him most?' Pardon is the +pre-requisite of love, and love is a consequence of the sense of +forgiveness. + +This, then, is the first thing to observe: all true love to God is +preceded in the heart by these two things--a sense of sin, and an +assurance of pardon. Brethren, there is no love possible--real, +deep, genuine, worthy of being called love of God--which does not +start with the belief of my own transgression, and with the thankful +reception of forgiveness in Christ. You do nothing to get pardon for +yourselves; but unless you have the pardon you have no love to God. +I know that sounds a very hard thing--I know that many will say it +is very narrow and very bigoted, and will ask, 'Do you mean to tell +me that the man whose bosom glows with gratitude because of earthly +blessings, has no love--that all that natural religion which is in +people, apart from this sense of forgiveness in Christ, do you mean +to tell me that this is not all genuine?' Yes, most assuredly; and I +believe the Bible and man's conscience say the same thing. I do not +for one moment deny that there may be in the hearts of those who are +in the grossest ignorance of themselves as transgressors, certain +emotions of instinctive gratitude and natural religiousness, directed +to some higher power dimly thought of as the author of their blessings +and the source of much gladness: but has that kind of thing got any +living power in it? I demur to its right to be called love to God at +all, for this reason--because it seems to me that the object that is +loved is not God, but a fragment of God. He who but says, 'I owe to +Him breath and all things; in Him I live and move, and have my being,' +has left out one-half at least of the Scriptural conception of God. +Your God, my friend, is not the God of the Bible, unless He stands +before you clothed in infinite loving-kindness indeed; but clothed +also in strict and rigid justice. Is your God perfect and entire? If +you say that you love Him, and if you do so, is it as the God and +Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Have you meditated on the depths of +the requirements of His law? Have you stood silent and stricken at +the thought of the blaze of His righteousness? Have you passed through +all the thick darkness and the clouds with which He surrounds His +throne, and forced your way at last into the inner light where He +dwells? Or is it a vague divinity that you worship and love? Which? +Ah, if a man study his Bible, and try to find out for himself, from +its veracious records, who and what manner of God the living God is, +there will be no love in his heart to that Being except only when he +has flung himself at His feet, and said, 'Father of eternal purity, +and God of all holiness and righteousness, forgive Thy child, a +sinful broken man--forgive Thy child, for the sake of Thy Son!' That, +and that alone, is the road by which we come to possess the love of +God, as a practical power, filling and sanctifying our souls; and +such is the God to whom alone our love ought to be rendered; and I +tell you (or rather the Bible tells you, and the Gospel and the +Cross of Christ tell you), there is no love without pardon, no +fellowship and sonship without the sense of sin and the +acknowledgment of foul transgression! + +So much, then, for what precedes the love of Christ in the heart; +now a word as to what follows. 'Her sins, which are many, are +forgiven; for she loved much.' The sense of sin precedes +forgiveness: forgiveness precedes love; love precedes all acceptable +and faithful service. If you want to do, love. If you want to know, +love. This poor woman knew Christ a vast deal better than that +Pharisee there. He said, 'This man is not a prophet; He does not +understand the woman.' Ay, but the woman knew herself better than +the Pharisee knew himself, knew herself better than the Pharisee +knew her, knew Christ, above all, a vast deal better than he did. +Love is the gate of all knowledge. + +This poor woman brings her box of ointment, a relic perhaps of past +evil life, and once meant for her own adornment, and pours it on His +head, lavishes offices of service which to the unloving heart seem +bold in the giver and cumbersome to the receiver. It is little she +can do, but she does it. Her full heart demands expression, and is +relieved by utterance in deeds. The deeds are spontaneous, welling +out at the bidding of an inward impulse, not drawn out by the force +of an external command. It matters not what practical purpose they +serve. The motive of them makes their glory. Love prompts them, love +justifies them, and His love interprets them, and His love accepts +them. The love which flows from the sense of forgiveness is the +source of all obedience as well as the means of all knowledge. + +Brethren, we differ from each other in all respects but one, 'We +have all sinned and come short of the glory of God'; we all need the +love of Christ; it is offered to us all; but, believe me, the sole +handle by which you can lay hold of it, is the feeling of your own +sinfulness and need of pardon. I preach to you a love that you do +not need to buy, a mercy that you do not need to bribe, a grace that +is all independent of your character, and condition, and merits, +which issues from God for ever, and is lying at your doors if you +will take it. You are a sinful man; Christ died for you. He comes to +give you His forgiving mercy. Take it, be at rest. So shalt thou +love and know and do, and so shall He love and guide thee! + +III. Now one word, and then I have done. A third character stands +here--the unloving and self-righteous man, all ignorant of the love +of Christ. + +He is the antithesis of the woman and her character. You remember +the traditional peculiarities and characteristics of the class to +which he belonged. He is a fair specimen of the whole of them. +Respectable in life, rigid in morality, unquestionable in orthodoxy; +no sound of suspicion having ever come near his belief in all the +traditions of the elders; intelligent and learned, high up among the +ranks of Israel! What was it that made this man's morality a piece +of dead nothingness? What was it that made his orthodoxy just so +many dry words, from out of which all the life had gone? What was +it? This one thing: there was no love in it. As I said, Love is the +foundation of all obedience; without it, morality degenerates into +mere casuistry. Love is the foundation of all knowledge; without it, +religion degenerates into a chattering about Moses, and doctrines, +and theories; a thing that will neither kill nor make alive, that +never gave life to a single soul or blessing to a single heart, and +never put strength into any hand for the conflict and strife of +daily life. There is no more contemptible and impotent thing on the +face of the earth than morality divorced from love, and religious +thoughts divorced from a heart full of the love of God. Quick +corruption or long decay, and in either case death and putrefaction, +are the end of these. You and I need that lesson, my friends. It is +of no use for us to condemn Pharisees that have been dead and in +their graves for nineteen hundred years. The same thing besets us +all; we all of us try to get away from the centre, and dwell +contented on the surface. We are satisfied to take the flowers and +stick them into our little gardens, without any roots to them, when +of course they all die out! People may try to cultivate virtue +without religion, and to acquire correct notions of moral and +spiritual truth; and partially and temporarily they may succeed, but +the one will be a yoke of bondage, and the other a barren theory. I +repeat, love is the basis of all knowledge and of all right-doing. +If you have got that firm foundation laid in the soul, then the +knowledge and the practice will be builded in God's own good time; +and if not, the higher you build the temple, and the more aspiring +are its cloud-pointing pinnacles, the more certain will be its +toppling some day, and the more awful will be the ruin when it +comes. The Pharisee was contented with himself, and so there was no +sense of sin in him, therefore there was no penitent recognition of +Christ as forgiving and loving him, therefore there was no love to +Christ. Because there was no love, there was neither light nor heat +in his soul, his knowledge was barren notions, and his painful +doings were soul-destructive self-righteousness. + +And so it all comes round to the one blessed message: My friend, God +hath loved us with an everlasting love. He has provided an eternal +redemption and pardon for us. If you would know Christ at all, you +must go to Him as a sinful man, or you are shut out from Him +altogether. If you _will_ go to Him as a sinful being, fling +yourself down there, not try to make yourself better, but say, 'I am +full of unrighteousness and transgression; let Thy love fall upon me +and heal me'; you will get the answer, and in your heart there shall +begin to live and grow up a root of love to Him, which shall at last +effloresce into all knowledge and unto all purity of obedience; for +he that hath had much forgiveness, loveth much; and 'he that loveth +knoweth God,' and 'dwelleth in God, and God in Him'! + + + + +GO INTO PEACE + + + 'And He said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee: + go in peace.'--LUKE vii. 50. + +We find that our Lord twice, and twice only, employs this form of +sending away those who had received benefits from His hand. On both +occasions the words were addressed to women: once to this woman, who +was a sinner, and who was gibbeted by the contempt of the Pharisee +in whose house the Lord was; and once to that poor sufferer who +stretched out a wasted hand to lay upon the hem of His garment, in +the hope of getting healing--filching it away unknown to the Giver. +In both cases there is great tenderness; in the latter case even +more so than in the present, for there He addressed the tremulous +invalid as 'daughter'; and in both cases there is a very remarkable +connection hinted at between faith and peace; 'Thy faith hath saved +thee, go in peace.' + +Now, there are three things that strike me about these words; the +first of them is this-- + +I. The dismissal of the woman. + +One might have expected that our Lord would have flung the shield of +His companionship, for a little while, at any rate, over this +penitent, and so have saved her from the scoffs and sneers of her +neighbours, who knew that she was a sinner. One might have supposed +that the depth of her gratitude, as expressed by her costly offering +and by her tears, would have spoken to His heart, and that He would +have let her stop beside Him for a little while; but no! Jesus said +to her in effect; 'You have got what you wished; go away, and take +care of it.' Such a dismissal is in accordance with the way in which +He usually acted. For very seldom indeed, after He had gathered the +first nucleus of four disciples, do we find that He summoned any +individual to His side. Generally He broke the connection between +Himself and the recipients of His benefits at as early a moment as +possible, and dismissed them. And that was not only because He did +not wish to be surrounded and hampered by a crowd of slightly +attached disciples, but for two other reasons; one, the good of the +people themselves, and the other, that, scattered all over northern +Palestine, they might in their several circles become centres of +light and evangelists for the King. He dispersed them that He might +fling the seed broadcast over the land. + +Jesus Christ says to us, if we have been saved by our faith, 'Go!' +And He intends two things thereby. First, to teach us that it is +good for us to stand by ourselves, to feel responsibility for the +ordering of our lives, not to have a visible Presence at our sides +to fall back upon, but to grow by solitude. There is no better way +of growing reliant, of becoming independent of circumstances, and in +the depths of our own hearts being calm, than by being deprived of +visible stay and support, and thus drawing closer and closer to our +unseen Companion, and leaning harder and heavier upon Him. 'It is +expedient for you that I go away.' For solitude and self-reliance, +which is bottomed upon self-distrust and reliance upon Him, are the +things that make men and women strong. So, if ever He carries us +into the desert, if ever He leaves us forsaken and alone, as we +think, if ever He seems--and sometimes He does with some people, and +it is only seeming--to withdraw Himself from us, it is all for the +one purpose, that we may grow to be mature men and women, not always +children, depending upon go-carts of any kind, and nurses' hands and +leading-strings. Go, and alone with Christ realise by faith that you +are not alone. Christian men and women, have you learned that +lesson--to be able to do without anybody and anything because your +whole hearts are filled, and your courage is braced up and +strengthened by the thought that the absent Christ is the present +Christ? + +There is another reason, as I take it, for which this separation of +the new disciple from Jesus was so apparently mercilessly and +perpetually enforced. At the very moment when one would have thought +it would have done this woman good to be with the Lord for a little +while longer, she is sent out into the harshly judging world. Yes, +that is always the way by which Christian men and women that have +received the blessing of salvation through faith can retain it, and +serve Him--by going out among men and doing their work there. The +woman went home. I dare say it was a home, if what they said about +her was true, that sorely needed the leavening which she now would +bring. She had been a centre of evil. She was to go away back to the +very place where she had been such, and to be a centre of good. She +was to contradict her past by her present which would explain itself +when she said she had been with Jesus. For the very same reason for +which to one man that besought to be with Him, He said, 'No, no! go +away home and tell your friends what great things God has done for +you,' He said to this woman, and He says to you and me, 'Go, and +witness for Me.' Communion with Him is blessed, and it is meant to +issue in service for Him. 'Let us make here three tabernacles,' said +the Apostle; and there was scarcely need for the parenthetical +comment, 'not knowing what he said.' But there was a demoniac boy +down there with the rest of the disciples, and they had been trying +in vain to free him from the incubus that possessed him, and as long +as that melancholy case was appealing to the sympathy and help of +the transfigured Christ, it was no time to stop on the Mount. +Although Moses and Elias were there, and the voice from God was +there, and the Shechinah cloud was there, all were to be left, to go +down and do the work of helping a poor, struggling child. So Jesus +Christ says to us, 'Go, and remember that work is the end of +emotion, and that to do the Master's will in the world is the surest +way to realise His presence.' + +II. Now, the second point I would suggest is-- + +The region into which Christ admitted this woman. It is remarkable +that in the present case, and in that other to which I have already +referred, the phraseology employed is not the ordinary one of that +familiar Old Testament leave-taking salutation, which was the +'goodbye' of the Hebrews, 'Go in peace.' But we read occasionally in +the Old Testament a slight but eloquent variation. It is not 'Go in +peace,' as our Authorised Version has it, but 'Go into peace,' and +that is a great deal more than the other. 'Go in peace' refers to +the momentary emotion; 'Go into peace' seems, as it were, to open +the door of a great palace, to let down the barrier on the borders +of a land, and to send the person away upon a journey through all +the extent of that blessed country. Jesus Christ takes up this as He +does a great many very ordinary conventional forms, and puts a +meaning into it. Eli had said to Hannah, 'Go into peace.' Nathan had +said to David, 'Go into peace.' But Eli and Nathan could only wish +that it might be so; their wish had no power to realise itself. +Christ takes the water of the conventional salutation and turns it +into the wine of a real gift. When He says, 'Go into peace,' He puts +the person into the peace which He wishes them, and His word is like +a living creature, and fulfils itself. + +So He says to each of us: 'If you have been saved by faith, I open +the door of this great palace. I admit you across the boundaries of +this great country. I give you all possible forms of peace for +yours.' Peace with God--that is the foundation of all--then peace +with ourselves, so that our inmost nature need no longer be torn in +pieces by contending emotions, 'I dare not' waiting upon 'I would,' +and 'I ought' and 'I will' being in continual and internecine +conflict; but heart and will, and calmed conscience, and satisfied +desires, and pure affections, and lofty emotions being all drawn +together into one great wave by the attraction of His love, as the +moon draws the heaped waters of the ocean round the world. So our +souls at rest in God may be at peace within themselves, and that is +the only way by which the discords of the heart can be tuned to one +key, into harmony and concord; and the only way by which wars and +tumults within the soul turn into tranquil energy, and into peace +which is not stagnation, but rather a mightier force than was ever +developed when the soul was cleft by discordant desires. + +In like manner, the man who is at peace with God, and consequently +with himself, is in relations of harmony with all things and with +all events. 'All things are yours if ye are Christ's.' 'The stars in +their courses fought against Sisera,' because Sisera was fighting +against God; and all creatures, and all events, are at enmity with +the man who is in antagonism and enmity to Him who is Lord of them +all. But if we have peace with God, and peace with ourselves, then, +as Job says, 'Thou shalt make a league with the beasts of the field, +and the stones of the field shall be at peace with thee.' 'Thy faith +hath saved thee; go into peace.' + +Remember that this commandment, which is likewise a promise and a +bestowal, bids us progress in the peace into which Christ admits us. +We should be growingly unperturbed and calm, and 'there is no joy +but calm,' when all is said and done. We should be more and more +tranquil and at rest; and every day there should come, as it were, a +deeper and more substantial layer of tranquillity enveloping our +hearts, a thicker armour against perturbation and calamity and +tumult. + +III. And now there is one last point here that I would suggest, +namely: + +The condition on which we shall abide in the Land of Peace. + +Our Lord said to both these women: 'Thy faith hath saved thee.' To +the other one it was even more needful to say it than to this poor +penitent prostitute, because that other one had the notion that, +somehow or other, she could steal away the blessing of healing by +contact of her finger with the robe of Jesus. Therefore He was +careful to lift her above that sensuous error, and to show her what +it was in her that had drawn healing 'virtue' from Him. In substance +He says to her: 'Thy faith, not thy forefinger, has joined thee to +Me; My love, not My garment, has healed thee.' + +There have been, and still are, many copyists of the woman's mistake who +have ascribed too much healing and saving power to externals--sacraments, +rites, and ceremonies. If their faith is real and their longing earnest, +they get their blessing, but they need to be educated to understand +more clearly what is the human condition of receiving Christ's saving +power, and that robe and finger have little to do with it. + +The sequence of these two sayings, the one pointing out the channel +of all spiritual blessing, the other, the bestowment of the great +blessing of perfect peace, suggests that the peace is conditional on +the faith, and opens up to us this solemn truth, that if we would +enjoy continuous peace, we must exercise continuous faith. The two +things will cover precisely the same ground, and where the one stops +the other will stop. Yesterday's faith does not secure to-day's +peace. As long as I hold up the shield of faith, it will quench all +the fiery darts of the wicked, but if I were holding it up +yesterday, and have dropped it to-day, then there is nothing between +me and them, and I shall be wounded and burned before long. No past +religious experience avails for present needs. If you would have +'your peace' to be 'as the waves of the sea,' your trust in Christ +must be continuous and strong. The moment you cease trusting, that +moment you cease being peaceful. Keep behind the breakwater, and you +will ride smoothly, whatever the storm. Venture out beyond it, and +you will be exposed to the dash of the waves and the howling of the +tempest. Your own past tells you where the means of blessing are. It +was your faith that saved you, and it is as you go on believing that +you 'Go into peace'. + + + + +THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN + + + 'And certain women, which had been healed of evil + spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out + of whom went seven devils, 3. And Joanna the wife of + Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, + which ministered unto Him of their substance.' + --LUKE viii. 2,3. + +The Evangelist Luke has preserved for us several incidents in our +Lord's life in which women play a prominent part. It would not, I +think, be difficult to bring that fact into connection with the main +characteristics of his Gospel, but at all events it is worth +observing that we owe to him those details, and the fact that the +service of these grateful women was permanent during the whole of +our Lord's wandering life after His leaving Galilee. An incidental +reference to the fact is found in Matthew's account of the +Crucifixion, but had it not been for Luke we should not have known +the names of two or three of them, nor should we have known how +constantly they adhered to Him. As to the women of the little group, +we know very little about them. Mary of Magdala has had a very hard +fate. The Scripture record of her is very sweet and beautiful. +Delivered by Christ from that mysterious demoniacal possession, she +cleaves to Him, like a true woman, with all her heart. She is one of +the little group whose strong love, casting out all fear, nerved +them to stand by the Cross when all the men except the gentle +Apostle of love, as he is called, were cowering in corners, afraid +of their lives, and she was one of the same group who would fain +have prolonged their ministry beyond His death, and who brought the +sweet spices with them in order to anoint Him, and it was she who +came to the risen Lord with the rapturous exclamation, 'Rabboni, my +Master.' By strange misunderstanding of the Gospel story, she has +been identified with the woman who was a sinner in the previous +chapter in this book, and her fair fame has been blackened and her +very name taken as a designation of the class to which there is no +reason whatever to believe she belonged. Demoniacal possession was +neither physical infirmity nor moral evil, however much it may have +simulated sometimes the one or the other. + +Then as to Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, old Church +tradition tells us that she was the consort of the nobleman whose +son Christ healed at Capernaum. It does not seem very likely that +Herod's steward would have been living in Capernaum, and the +narrative before us rather seems to show that she herself was the +recipient of healing from His hands. However that may be, Herod's +court was not exactly the place to look for Christian disciples, was +it? But you know they of Caesar's household surrounded with their +love the Apostle whom Nero murdered, and it is by no means an +uncommon experience that the servants' hall knows and loves the +Christ that the lord in the saloon does not care about. + +And then as for Susanna, is it not a sweet fate to be known to all +the world for ever more by one line only, which tells of her service +to her Master? + +So I will try to take out of these little incidents in our text some +plain lessons about this matter of Christian service and ministry to +Christ, with which it seems to be so full. It will apply to +missionary work and all other sorts of work, and perhaps will take +us down to the bottom of it all, and show us the foundation on which +it should all rest. + +Let me ask you for a moment to look with me first of all at the +centre figure, as being an illustration of--what shall I say? may I +venture to use a rough word and say the pauper Christ?--as the great +Pattern and Motive for us, of the love that becomes poor. We very +often cover the life of our Lord with so much imaginative reverence +that we sometimes lose the hard angles of the facts of it. Now, I +want you to realise it, and you may put it into as modern English as +you like, for it will help the vividness of the conception, which is +a simple, prosaic fact, that Jesus Christ was, in the broadest +meaning of the word, a pauper; not indeed with the sodden poverty +that you can see in our slums, but still in a very real sense of the +word. He had not a thing that He could call His own, and when He +came to the end of His life there was nothing for His executioners +to gamble for except His one possession, the seamless robe. He is +hungry, and there is a fig-tree by the roadside, and He comes, +expecting to get His breakfast off that. He is tired, and He borrows +a fishing-boat to lie down and sleep in. He is thirsty, and He asks +a woman of questionable character to give Him a draught of water. He +wants to preach a sermon about the bounds of ecclesiastical and +civil society, and He says, 'Bring Me a penny.' He has to be +indebted to others for the beast of burden on which He made His +modest entry into Jerusalem, for the winding sheet that wrapped Him, +for the spices that would embalm Him, for the grave in which He lay. +He was a pauper in a deeper sense of the word than His Apostle when +he said, 'Having nothing, and yet possessing all things, as poor, +and yet making many rich.' For let us remember that the great +mystery of the Gospel system--the blending together in one act and +in one Person all the extremes of lowliness and of the loftiness +which go deep down into the very profundities of the Gospel, is all +here dramatised, as it were, and drawn into a picturesque form on +the very surface; and the same blending together of poverty and +absolute love, which in its loftiest form is the union in one Person +of Godhead and of manhood, is here for us in this fact, that all the +dark cloud of poverty, if I may so say, is shot through with strange +gleams of light like sunshine caught and tangled in some cold, wet +fog, so that whenever you get some definite and strange mark of +Christ's poverty, you get lying beside it some definite and strange +mark of His absoluteness and His worth. For instance, take the +illustration I have already referred to--He borrows a fishing-boat +and lies down, weary, to sleep on the wooden pillow at the end of +it; aye, but He rises and He says, 'Peace, be still,' and the waves +fall. He borrows the upper room, and with a stranger's wine and +another man's bread He founds the covenant and the sacrament of His +new kingdom. He borrows a grave; aye, but He comes out of it, the +Lord both of the dead and of the living. And so we have to say, +'Consider the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was +rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty +might become rich.' + +The noblest life that was ever lived upon earth-I hope you and I +think it is a great deal more than that, but we all think it is that +at any rate--the noblest life that was ever lived upon earth was the +life of a poor man. Remember that pure desires, holy aspirations, +noble purposes, and a life peopled with all the refinement and +charities that belong to the spirit, and that is ever conscious of +the closest presence of God and of the innate union with Him, is +possible under such conditions, and so remember that the pauper +Christ is, at the least, the perfect Man. + +But then what I more immediately intended was to ask you to take +that central figure with this external fact of His poverty, of the +depth of His true inanition, the emptying of Himself for our sakes, +as being the great motive, and Oh! thank God that with all humility, +we may venture to say, the great Pattern to which you and I have to +conform. There is the reason why we say, 'I love to speak His name,' +there is the true measure of the devotion of the consecration and +the self-surrender which He requires. Christ gave all for us even to +the uttermost circumference of external possession, and standing in +the midst of those for whose sakes He became poor, He turns to them +with a modest appeal when He says, 'Minister unto Me, for I have +made Myself to need your ministrations for the sake of your +redemption.' So much, then, for the first point which I would desire +to urge upon you from this incident before us. + +Now, in the next place, and pursuing substantially the same course +of thought, let me suggest to you to look at the love--the love here +that stoops to be served. + +It is a familiar observation and a perfectly true one that we have no +record of our Lord's ever having used miraculous power for the supply +of His own wants, and the reason for that, I suppose, is to be found +not only in that principle of economy and parsimony of miraculous +energy, so that the supernatural in His life was ever pared down to +the narrowest possible limits, and inosculated immediately with the +natural, but it is also to be found in this--let me put it into very +plain words--that Christ liked to be helped and served by the people +that He loved, and that Christ knew that they liked it as well as He. +It delighted Him, and He was quite sure that it delighted them. You +fathers and mothers know what it is when one of your little children +comes, and seeing you engaged about some occupation says, 'Let me +help you.' The little hand perhaps does not contribute much to the +furtherance of your occupation. It may be rather an encumbrance than +otherwise, but is not there a gladness in saying 'Yes, here, take +this and do this little thing for me'? And do not we all know how +maimed and imperfect that love is which only gives, and how maimed +and imperfect that love is which only receives, so that there must +be an assumption of both attitudes in all true commerce of affection, +and that same beautiful flashing backwards and forwards from the two +poles which makes the sweetness of our earthly love find its highest +example there in the heavens. There are the two mirrors facing each +other, and they reverberate rays from one polished surface to another, +and so Christ loves and gives, and Christ loves and takes, and His +servants love and give, and His servants love and take. Sometimes we +are accustomed to speak of it as the highest sign of our Lord's true, +deep conviction that He has given so much to us. It seems to me we may +well pause and hesitate whether the mightiness and the wonderfulness +of His love to us are shown more in that He gives everything to us, +or in that He takes so much from us. It is much to say, 'The Son of +man came not to be ministered unto but to minister'; I do not know +but that it is more to say that the Son of man let this record be +written: 'Certain women also which ministered to Him of their +substance.' At all events there it stands and for us. What although +we have to come and say, 'All that I bring is Thine'; what then? +Does a father like less to get a gift from his boy because he gave +him the shilling to buy it? And is there anything that diminishes +the true sweetness of our giving to Christ, and as we may believe +the true sweetness to Him of receiving it from us, because we have +to herald all our offerings, all our love, aspirations, desires, +trust, conformity, practical service, substantial help, with the +old acknowledgment, 'All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have +we given Thee.' + +Now, dear friends, all these principles which I have thus +imperfectly touched upon as to the necessity of the blending of the +two sides in all true commerce of love, the giving and bestowing the +expression of the one affection in both hearts, all bears very +directly upon the more special work of Christian men in spreading +the name of Christ among those who do not know it. You get the same +economy of power there that I was speaking about. The supernatural +is finished when the divine life is cast into the world. 'I am come +to fling fire upon the earth,' said He, 'and oh, that it were +already kindled!' _There_ is the supernatural; after that you +have to deal with the thing according to the ordinary laws of human +history and the ordinary conditions of man's society. God trusts the +spread of His word to His people; there will not be one moment's +duration of the barely, nakedly supernatural beyond the absolute +necessity. Christ comes; after that you and I have to see to it, and +then you say, 'Collections, collections, collections, it is always +collections. This society and that society and the other society, +there is no end of the appeals that are made. Charity sermons--men +using the highest motives of the Gospel for no purpose but to get a +shilling or two out of people's pockets. I am tired of it.' Very +well; all I have to say is, first of all, 'Ye have not resisted unto +blood'; some people have had to pay a great deal more for their +Gospel than you have. And another thing, a man that had lost a great +deal more for his Master than ever you or I will have to do, said, +'Unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace +given, that I should preach amongst the heathen the unsearchable +riches of Christ.' Ah! a generous, chivalrous spirit, a spirit +touched to fine issues by the fine touch of the Lord's love, will +feel that it is no burden; or if it be a burden, it is only a burden +as a golden crown heavy with jewels may be a burden on brows that +are ennobled by its pressure. This grace is given, and He has +crowned us with the honour that we may serve Him and do something +for Him. + +Dear brethren! of all the gracious words that our Master has spoken +to us, I know not that there is one more gracious than when He said, +'Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature'; and +of all the tender legacies that He has left His Church, though there +be included amongst these His own peace and His own Spirit, I know +not that there is any more tender or a greater sign of His love +towards us and His confidence in us than when departing to the far +country to receive a kingdom and to return, He gave authority to His +servants, and to every man his work.' + +And so, in the next place, let me ask you to look for a moment at +the complement to this love that stoops to serve and delights to +serve--the ministry or service of our love. Let me point to two +things. + +It seems to me that the simple narrative we have before us goes very +deep into the heart of this matter. It gives us two things--the +foundation of the service and the sphere of the service. + +First there is the foundation--'Certain women which had been healed +of evil spirits and infirmities.' Ah, there you come to it! The +consciousness of redemption is the one master touch that evokes the +gratitude which aches to breathe itself in service. There is no +service except it be the expression of love. That is the one great +Christian principle; and the other is that there is no love that +does not rest on the consciousness of redemption; and from these +two--that all service and obedience are the utterance and eloquence +of love, and that all love has its root in the sense of redemption--you +may elaborate all the distinct characteristics and peculiarities +of Christian ethics, whereby duty becomes gladness. 'I will,' and 'I +ought' overlap and cover each other like two of Euclid's triangles; +and whatsoever He commands that I spring to do; and so though the +burden be heavy, considered in regard to its requirements, and +though the yoke do often press, considered _per se_, yet +because the cords that fasten the yoke to our neck are the cords of +love, I can say, 'My burden is light.' One of the old psalms puts it +thus; 'O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; Thou hast loosed my bonds; +and because Thou hast loosed, therefore O hear me; speak, Lord, for +Thy servant heareth.' + +So much then for the foundation--now for the sphere. 'Ah,' you say, +'there is no parallel there, at any rate. These women served Him +with personal ministration of their substance.' Well, I think there +is a parallel notwithstanding. If I had time I should like to dwell +upon the side thoughts connected with that sphere of service, and +remind you how very prosaic were their common domestic duties, +looking after the comfort of Christ and the travel-stained Twelve +who were with Him--let us put it into plain English--cooking their +dinners for them, and how that became a religious act. Take the +lesson out of it, you women in your households, and you men in your +counting-houses and behind your counters, and you students at your +dictionaries and lexicons. The commonest things done for the Master +flash up into worship, or as good old George Herbert puts it-- + + 'A servant with this clause + Makes drudgery divine; + Who sweeps a room, as for Thy cause, + Makes that and th' action fine.' + +But then beyond that, is there any personal ministration to do? If +any of you have ever been in St. Mark's Convent at Florence, I dare +say you will remember that in the Guest Chamber the saintly genius +of Fra Angelico has painted, as an appropriate frontispiece, the two +pilgrims on the road to Emmaus, praying the unknown man to come in +and partake of their hospitality; and he has draped them in the +habit of his order, and he has put Christ as the Representative of +all the poor and wearied and wayworn travellers that might enter in +there and receive hospitality, which is but the lesson, 'Inasmuch as +ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have +done it unto Me.' + +And there is another thing, dear friends. Do we not minister to Him +best when we do the thing that is nearest His heart and help Him +most in the purpose of His life and in His death? What would you +think of a would-be helper of some great reformer who said: 'I will +give you all sorts of material support; but I have not a grain of +sympathy with the cause to which you have devoted your life. I think +it is madness and nonsense: I will feed you and house you and make +you comfortable, but I do not care one rush for the object for which +you are to be housed and fed and made comfortable.' Jesus Christ let +these poor women help Him that He might live to bear the Cross; He +lets you and me help Him for that for which on the Cross He died; +'This honour have all the saints'; The foundation of our service is +the consciousness of redemption; its sphere is ministering to Him in +that which is nearest His heart. + +And then, brethren, there is another thing that does not so +immediately belong to the incident before us, but which suggests +itself to me in connection with it. We have tried to show the motive +and the pattern, the foundation and the sphere, of the service: let +me add a last thought--the remembrance and the record of it. + +How strange that is, that just as a beam of light coming into a room +would enable us to see all the motes dancing up and down that lay in +its path, so the beam from Christ's life shoots athwart the society +of His age, and all those little insignificant people come for a +moment into the full lustre of the light. Years before and years +afterward they lived, and we do not know anything about them; but +for an instant they crossed the illuminated track and there they +blazed. How strange Pharisees, officials, and bookmen of all sorts +would have felt if anybody had said to them: 'Do you see that +handful of travel-stained Galileans there, those poor women you have +just passed by the way? Well, do you know that these three women's +names will never perish as long as the world lasts?' So we may learn +the eternity of work done for Him. Ah, a great deal of it may be +forgotten and unrecorded! How many deeds of faithful love and noble +devotion are all compressed into those words, 'which ministered unto +Him'! It is the old story of how life shrinks, and shrinks, and +shrinks in the record. How many acres of green forest ferns in the +long ago time went to make up a seam of coal as thick as a sixpence? +But still there is the record, compressed indeed, but existent. + +And how many names may drop out and not be associated with the work +which they did? Do you not think that these anonymous 'many others +which ministered' were just as dear to Jesus Christ as Mary and +Joanna and Susannah? A great many people helped Him whose deeds are +related in the Gospel, but whose names are not recorded. But what +does it matter about that? With many 'others of my fellow-labourers +also,' says St. Paul; 'whose names'--well, I have forgotten them; +but that is of little consequence; they 'are in the Lamb's book of +life.' And so the work is eternal, and will last on in our blessed +consciousness and in His remembrance who will never forget any of +it, and we shall self-enfold the large results, even if the rays of +dying fame may fade. + +And there is one other thought on this matter of the eternity of the +work on which I would just touch for an instant. + +How strange it must be to these women now! If, as I suppose, you and +I believe, they are living with Christ, they will look up to Him and +think, 'Ah! we remember when we used to find your food and prepare +for your household comforts, and there Thou art on the throne! How +strange and how great our earthly service seems to us now!' So it +will be to us all when we get up yonder. We shall have to say, +'Lord, when saw I Thee?' He will put a meaning into our work and a +majesty into it that we know nothing about at present. So, brethren, +account the name of His slaves your highest honour, and the task +that love gives you your greatest joy. When we have in our poor love +poorly ministered unto Him who in His great love greatly died for +us, then, at the last, the wonderful word will be fulfilled: 'Verily +I say unto you, He shall gird Himself and make them to sit down to +meat and will come forth and serve them.' + + + + +ONE SEED AND DIVERSE SOILS + + + 'And when much people were gathered together, and were + come to Him out of every city, He spake by a parable: + 5. A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, + some fell by the wayside; and it was trodden down, and + the fowls of the air devoured it. 6. And some fell upon + a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered + away, because it lacked moisture. 7. And some fell + among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and + choked it. 8. And other fell on good ground, and sprang + up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when He had said + these things, He cried, He that hath ears to hear, let + him hear. 9. And His disciples asked Him, saying, What + might this parable be? 10. And He said, Unto you it is + given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but + to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, + and hearing they might not understand. 11. Now the + parable is this; The seed is the word of God. 12. Those + by the way-side are they that hear: then cometh the + devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, + lest they should believe and be saved. 13. They on the + rock are they which, when they hear, receive the word + with joy; and these have no root, which for a while + believe, and in time of temptation fall away. 14. And + that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they + have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares, and + riches, and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit + to perfection. 15. But that on the good ground are + they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard + the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.' + --LUKE viii. 4-16. + +Luke is particular in dating this parable as spoken at a time when +crowds resorted to Jesus, and the cities of Galilee seemed emptied +out to hear Him. No illusions as to the depth or worth of this +excitement beset Him. Sadly He looked on the eager multitudes, +because He looked through them, and saw how few of them were +bringing 'an honest and good heart' for the soil of His word. Just +because He saw the shallowness of the momentary enthusiasm, He spoke +this pregnant parable from a heavy heart, and as He tells us in His +explanation of it to the disciples (ver. 10), uses the parabolic +garb as a means of hiding the truth from the unsusceptible, and of +bringing it home to those who were prepared to receive it. Every +parable has that double purpose of obscuring and revealing. The +obscuring is punitive, but the punishment is meant to be remedial. +God never cheats men by a revelation that does not reveal, and the +very hiding is meant to stimulate to a search which cannot be vain. + +The broad outstanding fact of the parable is tragic. Three failures +and one success! It may be somewhat lightened by observing that the +proportion which each 'some' bears to the whole seed-basketful is +not told; but with all alleviation, it is sad enough. What a lesson +for all eager reformers and apostles of any truth, who imagine that +they have but to open their mouths and the world will listen! What a +warning for any who are carried off their feet by their apparent +'popularity'! What a solemn appeal to all hearers of God's message! + +I. Commentators have pointed out that all four kinds of soil might +have been found close together by the lake, and that there may have +been a sower at work within sight. But the occasion of the parable +lay deeper than the accident of local surroundings. A path through a +cornfield is a prosaic enough thing, but one who habitually holds +converse with the unseen, and ever sees it shining through the seen, +beholds all things 'apparelled in celestial light,' and finds deep +truths in commonplace objects. The sower would not intentionally +throw seed on the path, but some would find its resting-place there. +It would lie bare on the surface of the hard ground, and would not +be there long enough to have a chance of germinating, but as soon as +the sower's back was turned to go up the next furrow, down would +come the flock of thievish birds that fluttered behind him, and bear +away the grains. The soil might be good enough, but it was so hard +that the seed did not get in, but only lay on it. The path was of +the same soil as the rest of the field, only it had been trodden +down by the feet of passengers, perhaps for many years. + +A heart across which all manner of other thoughts have right of way +will remain unaffected by the voice of Jesus, if He spoke His +sweetest, divinest tones, still more when He speaks but through some +feeble man. The listener hears the words, but they never get farther +than the drum of his ear. They lie on the surface of his soul, which +is beaten hard, and is non-receptive. How many there are who have +been listening to the preaching of the Gospel, which is in a true +sense the sowing of the seed, all their lives, and have never really +been in contact with it! Tramp, tramp, go the feet across the path, +heavy drays of business, light carriages of pleasure, a never-ending +stream of traffic and noise like that which pours day and night +through the streets of a great city, and the result is complete +insensibility to Christ's voice. + +If one could uncover the hearts of a congregation, how many of them +would be seen to be occupied with business or pleasures, or some +favourite pursuit, even while they sit decorously in their pews! How +many of them hear the preacher's voice without one answering thought +or emotion! How many could not for their lives tell what his last +sentence was! No marvel, then, that, as soon as its last sound has +ceased, down pounce a whole covey of light-winged fancies and +occupations, and carry off the poor fragments of what had been so +imperfectly heard. One wonders what percentage of remembrances of a +sermon is driven out of the hearers' heads in the first five minutes +of their walk home, by the purely secular conversation into which +they plunge so eagerly. + +II. The next class of hearers is represented by seed which has had +somewhat better fate, inasmuch as it has sunk some way in, and begun +to sprout. The field, like many a one in hilly country, had places +where the hard pan of underlying rock had only a thin skin of earth +over it. Its very thinness helped quick germination, for the rock +was near enough to the surface to get heated by the sun. So, with +undesirable rapidity, growth began, and shoots appeared above ground +before there was root enough made below to nourish them. There was +only one possible end for such premature growth--namely, withering +in the heat. No moisture was to be drawn from the shelf of rock, and +the sun was beating fiercely down, so the feeble green stem drooped +and was wilted. + +It is the type of emotional hearers, who are superficially touched +by the Gospel, and too easily receive it, without understanding what +is involved. They take it for theirs 'with joy,' but are strangers +to the deep exercises of penitence and sorrow which should precede +the joy. 'Lightly come, lightly go,' is true in Christian life as +elsewhere. Converts swiftly made are quickly lost. True, the most +thorough and permanent change may be a matter of a moment; but, if +so, into that moment emotions will be compressed like a great river +forced through a mountain gorge, which will do the work of years. + +Such surface converts fringe all religious revivals. The crowd +listening to our Lord was largely made up of them. These were they +who, when a ground of offence arose, 'went back, and walked no more +with Him.' They have had their successors in all subsequent times of +religious movement. Light things are caught up by the wind of a +passing train, but they soon drop to the ground again. Emotion is +good, if there are roots to it. But 'these have no root.' The Gospel +has not really touched the depths of their natures, their wills, +their reason, and so they shrivel up when they have to face the toil +and self-sacrifice inherent in a Christian life. + +III. The third parcel of seed advanced still farther. It rooted and +grew. But the soil had other occupants. It was full of seeds of +weeds and thorns (not thorn _bushes_). So the two crops ran a +race, and as ill weeds grow apace, the worse beat, and stifled the +green blades of the springing corn, which, hemmed in and shut out +from light and air, came to nothing. + +The man represented has not made clean work of his religion. He has +received the good seed, but has forgotten that something has to be +grubbed up and cast out, as well as something to be taken in, if he +would grow the fair fruits of Christian character. He probably has +cut down the thorns, but has left their roots or seeds where they +were. He has fruit of a sort, but it is scanty, crude, and green. +Why? Because he has not turned the world out of his heart. He is +trying to unite incompatibles, one of which is sure to kill the +other. His 'thorns' are threefold, as Luke carefully distinguishes +them into 'cares and riches and pleasures,' but they are one in +essence, for they are all 'of this life.' If he is poor, he is +absorbed in cares; if rich, he is yet more absorbed in wealth, and +his desires go after worldly pleasures, which he has not been +taught, by experience of the supreme pleasure of communion with God, +to despise. + +Mark that this man does not 'fall away.' He keeps up his Christian +name to the end. Probably he is a very influential member of the +church, universally respected for his wealth and liberality, but his +religion has been suffocated by the other growth. He has fruit, but +it is not to 'perfection.' If Jesus Christ came to Manchester, one +wonders how many such Christians He would discover in the chief +seats in the synagogues. + +IV. The last class avoids the defects of the three preceding. The +soil is soft, deep, and clean. The seed sinks, roots, germinates, +has light and air, and brings forth ripened grain. The 'honest and +good heart' in which it lodges has been well characterised as one +'whose aim is noble, and who is generously devoted to his aim' +(Bruce, _The Parabolic Teaching of Christ_, p. 33). Such a soul +Christ recognises as possible, prior to the entrance into it of the +word. There are dispositions which prepare for the reception of the +truth. But not only the previous disposition, but the subsequent +attitude to the word spoken, is emphasised by our Lord. 'They having +heard the word, hold it fast.' Docilely received, it is steadily +retained, or held with a firm grip, whoever and whatever may seek to +pluck it from mind or heart. + +Further, not only tenacity of grasp, but patient perseverance of +effort after the fruit of Christian character, is needed. There must +be perseverance in the face of obstacles within and without, if +there is to be fruitfulness. The emblem of growth does not suffice +to describe the process of Christian progress. The blade becomes the +ear, and the ear the full corn, without effort. But the Christian +disciple has to fight and resist, and doggedly to keep on in a +course from which many things would withdraw him. The nobler the +result, the sorer the process. Corn grows; character is built up as +the result, first of worthily receiving the good seed, and then of +patient labour and much self-suppression. + +These different types of character are capable of being changed. The +path may be broken up, the rock blasted and removed, the thorns +stubbed up. We make ourselves fit or unfit to receive the seed and +bear fruit. Christ would not have spoken the parable if He had not +hoped thereby to make some of His hearers who belonged to the three +defective classes into members of the fourth. No natural, +unalterable incapacity bars any from welcoming the word, housing it +in his heart, and bringing forth fruit with patience. + + + + +SEED AMONG THORNS + + + 'And that which fell among thorns are they, which, + when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with + cares, and riches, and pleasures of this life, and + bring no fruit to perfection.'--Luke viii. 14. + +No sensible sower would cast his seed among growing thorn-bushes, +and we must necessarily understand that the description in this +verse is not meant to give us the picture of a field in which these +were actually growing, but rather of one in which they had been +grubbed up, and so preparation been made for the sowing of the seed. +They had been grubbed up, but they had not been grubbed out. The +roots were there, although the branches and the stems had been cut +down, or if the roots were not there, abundant seeds were lying +buried, and when the good seed was sown it went into ground full of +them--and that was the blunder out of which all the mischief came. + +I. These three different instances of failure in this parable +represent to us, first, the seed carried off at the very beginning, +before it has sunk into the ground and before it has had time to +germinate. It lies on the surface and it goes at once. But suppose +it is safely piloted past that first danger, then comes another +peril. It gets a little deeper into the ground, but there is a shelf +of rock an inch or two below the skin of soil, and the poor little +rootlets cannot get through that, and so when the hot Syrian sun +shines down upon the field, there is an unnatural heat, and a swift +vegetation. There is growth, but the same sun that at first +stimulated the unnaturally rapid growth, gets a little hotter or +continues to pour down during the fervid summer and dries up the +premature vegetation which it had called into feeble life. That +second seed went further on the road towards fruit. + +But suppose a seed is piloted past that second risk, there comes +this third one. This seed gets deeper still, and does take root, and +does grow, and does bear fruit. That is to say, this is a picture of +a real Christian, in whom the seed of the kingdom, which is the word +of God, has taken root, and to whom there has been the communication +of the divine life that is in the seed; and yet that, too, comes to +grief, and our parable tells us how--by three things, the thorns, +the growth of the thorns, and the choking of the word. + +Luke puts the interpretation of the thorns even more vividly than +the other Evangelists, because he represents them as being three +different forms of one thing, 'cares and riches and pleasures,' +which all come into the one class, 'of this life.' Or, in other +words, the present world, with all its various appeals to our animal +and sensual nature, with all its possible delights for part of our +being, a real and important part of it; and with all the troubles +and anxieties which it is cowardly for us to shirk, and impossible +for us to escape--this world is ever present to each of us, and if +there is anything in us to which it appeals, then certainly the +thorns will come up. The cares and the wealth and the pleasures are +three classes of one thing. Perhaps the first chiefly besets +struggling people; the second mainly threatens well-to-do people; +the third, perhaps, is most formidable to leisurely and idle people. +But all three appeal to us all, for in every one of us there are the +necessary anxieties of life, and every one of us knows that there is +real and substantial good to a part of our being, in the possession +of a share of this world's wealth, without which no man can live, +and all of us carry natures to which the delights of sense do +legitimately and necessarily appeal. + +So the soil for the growth of the thorns is always in us all. But +what then? Are these things so powerful in our hearts as that they +become hindrances to our Christian life? That is the question. The +cares and the occupation of mind with, and desire for, the wealth +and the pleasures are of God's appointment. He did not make them +thorns, but you and I make them thorns; and the question for us is, +has our Christianity driven out the undue regard to this life, +regarded in these three aspects--undue in measure or in any other +respect, by which they are converted into hindrances that mar our +Christian life? Dear brethren, it is not enough to say, 'I have +received the word into my heart.' There is another question besides +that--Has the word received into your heart cast out the thorns? Or +are they and the seed growing there side by side? The picture of my +text is that of a man who, in a real fashion, has accepted the +Gospel, but who has accepted it so superficially as that it has not +exercised upon him the effect that it ought to produce, of expelling +from him the tendencies which may become hindrances to his Christian +life. If we have known nothing of 'the expulsive power of a new +affection,' and if we thought it was enough to cut down the thickest +and tallest thorn-bushes, and to leave all the seeds and the roots +of them in our hearts, no wonder if, as we get along in life, they +grow up and choke the word. 'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon'; that +is just putting into a sentence the lesson of my text. + +II. Further, note the growth of the thorns. Luke employs a very +significant phrase. He says, 'When they have heard they _go +forth_, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of +this life.' That is to say, the path of daily life upon which we all +have to walk, the common duties which necessarily draw us to +themselves, will certainly stimulate the growth of the thorns if +these are not rooted out. Life is full of appeals to our desires +after earthly good or pleasure, to our greed after earthly gain, to +our dread of earthly sorrow, of pain, of loss, and of poverty. As +surely as we are living, and have to go out into the world day by +day, so surely will the thorns grow if they are left in us. And so +we come back to the old lesson that because we are set in this +world, with all its temptations that appeal so strongly to many +needs and desires of our nature, we must make thorough work of our +religion if it is to be of any good to us at all, and we are not to +go on the Christian pilgrimage with one foot upon the higher level +and the other upon the lower, like a man walking with one foot on +the kerbstone and the other on the roadway. Let us be one thing or +the other, out and out, thorough and consistent. If we have the +seed in our hearts, remember that _we_ are responsible for its +growth. + +Let us make certain that we have cast out the thorns. There is an +old German proverb, the vulgarity of which may be excused for its +point. 'You must not sit near the fire if your head is made of +butter.' We should not try to walk through this wicked world without +making very certain that we have stubbed the thorns out of our +hearts. Oh, dear friends! here is the secret to the miserable +inconsistencies of the great bulk of professing Christians. They +have got the seed in, but they have not got the thorns out. + +III. Lastly, mark the choking of the growth. Of course it is rapid, +according to the old saying, 'Ill weeds grow apace.' 'They are +choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life and +bring no fruit to perfection.' The weeds grow faster than the seed. +'Possession is nine-tenths of the law,' and they have got possession +of the soil, and their roots go far and strike deep, and so they +come up, with their great, strong, coarse, quick-growing stems and +leaves, and surround the green, infant, slender shoot, and keep the +air and light out from it, and exhaust all the goodness of the soil, +which has not nutriment in it enough for the modest seed and for the +self-asserting thorn. And so the thorn beats in the race, and grows +inches whilst the other grows hairbreadths. Is not that a true +statement of our experience? If Christian men and women permit as +much of their interest and affection and effort and occupation of +mind to go out towards the world and worldly things, as, alas! most +of us do, no wonder if the tiny, yellow, rather than green, blade is +choked and gets covered with parasitical disease, and perhaps dies +at last. You cannot grow two crops on one field. Some of us have +tried; it will never do. It must be one thing or another, and we +must make up our minds whether we are going to cultivate corn or +thorn. May God help us to make the right choice of the crop we +desire to bear! + +Our text tells us that this man, represented by the seed among +thorns, was a Christian, did, and does, bear fruit, but, as Luke +says, 'brings no fruit to perfection.' The first seed never grew at +all; the second got the length of putting forth a blade; this one +has got as far as the ear, but not so far as 'the full corn in the +ear.' It has fruited, but the fruit is green and scanty, not +ripened, as it ought to be, since it grows under such a sky and was +taken out of such a seed-basket as our seed has come from. It brings +forth no fruit _to perfection_';--is not that a picture of so +many Christian people? One cannot say that they are not Christians. +One cannot say that there are no signs of a divine life in them. One +cannot say but that they do a good many things that are right and +pure, and obviously the result of a Divine Spirit working upon them; +but all that they do just falls short of the crowning grace and +beauty. There is always something about it that strikes one as being +incomplete. They are Christian men and Christian women bringing +forth many of the fruits of the Christian life, but the climax +somehow or other is always absent. The pyramid goes up many stages, +but there is never the gilded summit flashing in the light--'No +fruit to perfection.' + +Dear brethren, let us take our poor, imperfect services, and lay +them down at the Master's feet, and ask Him to help us to make clean +work of these hearts of ours, and to turn out of them all our +worldly hankerings after the seen and temporal. Then we shall bear +fruit that He will gather into His garner. The cares and the +pleasures and the wealth that terminate in, and are occupied with, +this poor fleeting present are small and insignificant. Let us try +to yield ourselves up wholly to the higher influences of that Divine +Spirit, and in true consecration receive the engrafted word. And +then He will give to us to drink of that river of His pleasures, +drinking of which we shall not thirst, nor need to come to any of +earth's fountains to draw. If the Saviour comes in in His power, He +will cast out the uncleanness that dwells in us and make us fruitful +as He would have us to be. + + + + +A MIRACLE WITHIN A MIRACLE + + + 'And a woman, having an issue of blood twelve years, + which had spent all her living upon physicians, + neither could be healed of any, 44. Came behind Him, + and touched the border of His garment: and immediately + her issue of blood stanched. 45. And Jesus said, Who + touched Me? When all denied, Peter, and they that were + with Him, said, Master, the multitude throng Thee and + press Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me? 46. And + Jesus said, Somebody hath touched Me: for I perceive + that virtue is gone out of Me. 47. And when the woman + saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and, + falling down before Him, she declared unto Him before + all the people for what cause she had touched Him, and + how she was healed immediately. 48. And He said unto + her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made + thee whole; go in peace.'--LUKE viii. 43-48. + +The story of Jairus's daughter is, as it were, cut in two by that of +the poor invalid woman. What an impression of calm consciousness of +power and of leisurely dignity is made by Christ's having time to +pause, even on His way to a dying sufferer, in order to heal, as if +parenthetically, this other afflicted one! How Jairus must have +chafed at the delay! He had left his child 'at the point of death' +and here was the Healer loitering, as it must have seemed to a +father's agony of impatience. + +But Jesus, with His infinite calm and as infinite power, can afford +to let the one wait and even die, while He tends the other. The +child shall receive no harm, and her sister in sorrow has as great a +claim on Him as she. He has leisure of heart to feel for each, and +power for both. We do not rob one another of His gifts. Attending to +one, He does not neglect another. + +This miracle illustrates the genuineness and power of feeble and +erroneous faith, and Christ's merciful way of strengthening and +upholding it. The woman, a poor, shrinking creature, has been made +more timid by long illness, disappointed hopes of cure, and by +poverty. She does not venture to stop Jesus, as He goes with an +important official of the synagogue to heal his daughter, but creeps +up in the crowd behind Him, puts out a wasted, trembling hand to +touch the tasselled fringe of His robe--and she is whole. + +She would fain have glided away with a stolen cure, but Jesus forced +her to stand out before the throng, and with all their eyes on her, +to conquer diffidence and womanly reticence, and tell all the truth. +Strange contrast, this, to His usual avoidance of notoriety and +regard for shrinking weakness! But it was true kindness, for it was +the discipline by which her imperfect faith was cleared and +confirmed. + +It is easy to point out the imperfections in this woman's faith. It +was very ignorant. She was sure that this Rabbi would heal her, but +she expected it to be done by the material contact of her finger +with His robe. She had no idea that Christ's will, much less His +love, had anything to do with His cures. She thinks that she may +carry away the blessing, and He be none the wiser. It is easy to +say, What blank ignorance of Christ's way of working! what grossly +superstitious notions! Yes, and with them all what a hunger of +intense desire to be whole, and what absolute confidence that a +finger-tip on His robe was enough! + +Her faith was very imperfect, but the main fact is that she had it. +Let us be thankful for a living proof of the genuineness of ignorant +and even of superstitious faith. There are many now who fall with +less excuse into a like error with this woman's, by attaching undue +importance to externals, and thinking more of the hem of the garment +and its touch by a finger than of the heart of the wearer and the +grasp of faith. But while we avoid such errors, let us not forget +that many a poor worshipper clasping a crucifix may be clinging to +the Saviour, and that Christ does accept faith which is tied to +outward forms, as He did this woman's. + +There was no real connection between the touch of her finger and her +healing, but she thought that there was, and Christ stoops to her +childish thought, and lets her make the path for His gift. +'According to thy faith be it unto thee': His mercy, like water, +takes the shape of the containing vessel. + +The last part of the miracle, when the cured woman is made the bold +confessor, is all shaped so as to correct and confirm her imperfect +faith. We note this purpose in every part of it. She had thought of +the healing energy as independent of His knowledge and will. +Therefore she is taught that He was aware of the mute appeal, and of +the going out of power in answer to it. The question, 'Who touched +me?' has been regarded as a proof that Jesus was ignorant of the +person; but if we keep the woman's character and the nature of her +disease in view, we can suppose it asked, not to obtain information, +but to lead to acknowledgment, and that without ascribing to Him in +asking it any feigning of ignorance. + +The contrast between the pressure of the crowd and the touch of +faith has often been insisted on, and carries a great lesson. The +unmannerly crowd hustled each other, trod on His skirts, and elbowed +their way to gape at Him, and He took no heed. But His heart +detected the touch, unlike all the rest, and went out with healing +power towards her who touched. We may be sure that, though a +universe waits before Him, and the close-ranked hosts of heaven +stand round His throne, we can reach our hands through them all, and +get the gifts we need. + +She had shrunk from publicity, most naturally. But if she had stolen +away, she would have lost the joy of confession and greater +blessings than the cure. So He mercifully obliges her to stand +forth. In a moment she is changed from a timid invalid to a +confessor. A secret faith is like a plant growing in the dark, the +stem of which is blanched and weak, and its few blossoms pale and +never matured. 'With the mouth confession is made unto salvation.' + +Christ's last word to her is tender. He calls her 'Daughter'--the +only woman whom He addressed by such a name. He teaches her that her +faith, not her finger, had been the medium through which His healing +power had reached her. He confirms by His authoritative word the +furtive blessing: '_Be_ whole of thy plague.' And she goes, +having found more than she sought, and felt a loving heart where she +had only seen a magic-working robe. + + + + +CHRIST TO JAIRUS + + + 'When Jesus heard it, He answered, saying, Fear not: + believe only, and she shall be made whole.' + --LUKE viii. 60. + +The calm leisureliness of conscious power shines out very +brilliantly from this story of the raising of Jairus's daughter. The +father had come to Jesus, in an agony of impatience, and besought +Him to heal his child, who lay 'at the point of death.' Not a moment +was to be lost. Our Lord sets out with him, but on the road pauses +to attend to another sufferer, the woman who laid her wasted finger +on the hem of Christ's robe. How Jairus must have chafed at the +delay, and thought every moment an eternity; and perhaps said hard +things In his heart about Christ's apparent indifference! Delay +seemed to be fatal, for before Christ had finished speaking to the +woman, the messenger comes with a word which appears to me to have +in it a touch of bitterness and of blame. 'Trouble not the Master' +sounds as if the speaker hinted that the Master was thinking it a +trouble, and had not put Himself much about to meet the necessity. +But one's gain shall not be another's loss, and Christ does not let +any applicant to Him suffer whilst He attends to any other. Each has +an equal claim on His heart. So He turns to the father with the +words that I have read for my text. + +They are the first of three sayings of our Lord round which this +whole narrative is remarkably grouped. I have read the first, but I +mean to speak about all three. There is a word of encouragement +which sustains a feeble faith: there is a word of revelation which +smooths the grimness of death; 'She is not dead but sleepeth'; and +there is a word of power which goes into the darkness, and brings +back the child; 'Maiden, arise!' Now, I think if we take these +three, we get the significance of this whole incident. + +I. First, then, the word of cheer which sustains a staggering faith. + +'When Jesus heard this, He said unto him, Fear not, believe only, +and she shall be made whole.' How preposterous this rekindling of +hope must have seemed to Jairus when the storm had blown out the +last flickering spark! How irrelevant, if it were not cruel, the +'Fear not!' must have sounded when the last possible blow had +fallen. And yet, because of the word in the middle, embedded between +the obligation to hope and the prohibition to fear, neither the one +nor the other is preposterous, 'Only believe.' That is in the +centre; and on the one side,' Fear not!'--a command ridiculous +without it; and on the other side, 'Hope!' an injunction impossible +apart from faith. + +Jesus Christ is saying the very same things to us. His fundamental +commandment is 'Only believe,' and there effloresce from it the two +things, courage that never trembles, and hope that never despairs. +'Only believe'--usually He made the outflow of His miraculous power +contingent upon the faith, either of the sufferer himself or of some +others. There was no necessity for the connection. We have instances +in His life of miracles wrought without faith, without asking, simply +at the bidding of His own irrepressible pity. But the rule in regard +to His miracles is that faith was the condition that drew out the +miraculous energy. The connection between our faith and our experience +of His supernatural, sustaining, cleansing, gladdening, enlightening +power is closer than that. For without our trust in Him, He can do +no mighty works upon us, and there must be confidence, on our part, +before there is in our experience the reception into our lives of His +highest blessings; just because they are greater and deeper, and belong +to a more inward sphere than these outward and inferior miracles of +bodily healing. Therefore the connection between our faith and His +gifts to us is inevitable, and constant, and the commandment 'Only +believe,' assumes a more imperative stringency, in regard to our +spiritual experience, than it ever did in regard to those who felt +the power of His miracle-working hand. So it stands for us, as the +one central appeal and exhortation which Christ, by His life, by the +record of His love, by His Cross and Passion, by His dealings and +pleadings with us through His Spirit, and His providence to-day, is +making to us all. 'Only believe'--the one act that vitally knits the +soul to Christ, and makes it capable of receiving unto itself the +fullness of His loftiest blessings. + +But we must note the two clauses which stand on either side of this +central commandment. They deal with two issues of faith. One forbids +fear, the other gives fuel for the fire of hope. On the one hand, +the exhortation, 'Fear not,' which is the most futile that +can be spoken if the speaker does not touch the cause of the fear, +comes from His lips with a gracious power. Faith is the one +counterpoise of fear. There is none other for the deepest dreads +that lie cold and paralysing, though often dormant, in every human +spirit; and that ought to lie there. If a man has not faith in God, +in Christ, he ought to have fear. For there rise before him, +solitary, helpless, inextricably caught into the meshes of this +mysterious and awful system of things--a whole host of possible, or +probable, or certain calamities, and what is he to do? stand there +in the open, with the pelting of the pitiless storm coming down upon +him? The man is an idiot if he is not afraid. And what is to calm +those rational fears, the fear of wrath, of life, of death, of what +lies beyond death? You cannot whistle them away. You cannot ignore +them always. You cannot grapple with them in your own strength. +'Only believe,' says the Comforter and the Courage-bringer. The +attitude of trust banishes dread, and nothing else will effectually +and reasonably do it. 'I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear.' Him +who can slay and who judges. You have, and you cannot break, a +connection with God. He ought to be one of two things--your +ghastliest dread or your absolute trust. 'Only believe then,' 'fear +not.' Believe not, _then_ be afraid; for you have reason to be. + +Men say, 'Oh! keep your courage up'; and they contribute no means to +keep it up: Christ says 'Fear not; only believe,' and gives to faith +the courage which He enjoins. Like a child that never dreams of any +mischief being able to reach it when the mother's breast is beneath +its head, and the mother's arms are round its little body, each of +us may rest on Christ's breast, and feel His arm round about us. +Then we may smile at all that men call evils; and whether they are +possible, or probable, or certain, we can look at them all and say, +'Ah! I have circumvented you.' 'All things work together for good to +them that' trust Christ. 'Fear not; only believe.' + +But on the other hand, from that simple faith will spring up also +hope that cannot despair. 'She shall be made whole.' Irreversible +disasters have no place in Christian experience. There are no +irrevocable losses to him who trusts. There are no wounds that +cannot be stanched, when we go to Him who has the balm and the +bandage. Although it is true that dead faces do not smile again upon +us until we get beyond earth's darkness, it is also true that bonds +broken may be knit in a finer fashion, if faith instead of sense +weaves them together; and that in the great future we shall find +that the true healing of those that went before was not by +deliverance from, but by passing through, the death that emancipates +from the long disease of earthly life. + +Brethren! if we trust Christ we may 'hope perfectly.' If we do not +trust Him our firmest hopes are as spiders' webs that are swept away +by a besom; and our deepest desires remain unfulfilled. 'Only +believe,' then, on the one side, 'Fear not,' and on the other side +'Hope ever.' + +II. We have here a word of revelation which softens the grimness of +death. + +Our Lord reaches the house of affliction, and finds it a house of +hubbub and noise. The hired mourners, with their shrill shrieks, +were there already, bewailing the child. The tumult jarred upon His +calmness, and He says 'Weep not; she is not dead but sleepeth.' One +wonders how some people have read those words as if they declared +that the apparent physical death was only a swoon or a faint, or +some kind of coma, and that so there was no miracle at all in the +case. 'They laughed Him to scorn; knowing that she was dead.' You +can measure the hollowness of their grief by its change into +scornful laughter when a promise of consolation began to open before +them. And you can measure their worth as witnesses to the child's +resurrection by their absolute certainty of her death. + +But notice that our Lord never forbids weeping unless He takes away +its cause. 'Weep not,' is another of the futile forms of words with +which men try to encourage and comfort one another. There is nothing +more cruel than to forbid tears to the sad heart. Jesus Christ never +did that except when He was able to bring that which took away +occasion for weeping. He lets grief have its way. He means us to run +rivers of waters down our cheeks when He sends us sorrows. We shall +never get the blessing of these till we have felt the bitterness of +them. We shall never profit by them if we stoically choke back the +manifestations of our grief, and think that it is submissive to be +dumb. Let sorrow have way. Tears purge the heart from which their +streams come. But Jesus Christ says to us all, 'Weep not,' because +He comes to us all with that which, if I may so say, puts a rainbow +into the tear-drops, and makes it possible that the great paradox +should be fulfilled in our hearts, 'As sorrowful yet always +rejoicing.' Weep not; or if you weep, let the tears have +thankfulness as well as grief in them. It is a difficult +commandment, but it is possible when His lips tell us not to weep, +and we have obeyed the central exhortation, 'Only believe.' + +Note, further, in this second of our Lord's words, how He smooths +away the grimness of death. I do not claim for Him anything like a +monopoly of that most obvious and natural symbolism which regards +death as a sleep. It must have occurred to all who ever looked upon +a corpse. But I do claim that when He used the metaphor, and by His +use of it modified the whole conception of death in the thoughts of +His disciples, He put altogether different ideas into it from that +which it contained on the lips of others. He meant to suggest the +idea of repose-- + + 'Sleep, full of rest from head to foot.' + +The calm immobility of the body so lately racked with pain, or +restless in feverish tossings, is but a symbol of the deeper +stillness of truer repose which remaineth for the people of God and +laps the blessed spirits who 'sleep in Jesus.' He meant to suggest +the idea of separation from this material world. He did not mean to +suggest the idea of unconsciousness. A man is not unconscious when +he is asleep, as dreams testify. He meant, above all, if sleep, then +waking. + +So the grim fact is smoothed down, not by blinking any of its +aspects, but by looking deeper into them. They who, only believing, +have lived a life of courage and of hope, and have fronted sorrows, +and felt the benediction of tears, pass into the great darkness, and +know that they there are rocked to sleep on a loving breast, and, +sleeping in Jesus, shall wake with the earliest morning light. + +This is a revelation for all His servants. And how deeply these +words, and others like them which He spake at the grave of Lazarus +and at other times, were dinted into the consciousness of the +Christian Church, is manifested by the fact, not only that they are +recurrently used by Apostles in their Epistles, but that all through +the New Testament you scarcely ever find the physical fact of +dissolution designated by the name 'death,' but all sorts of +gracious paraphrases, which bring out the attractive and blessed +aspects of the thing, are substituted. It is a 'sleep'; it is a +'putting off the tabernacle'; it is a 'departure'; it is a pulling +up of the tent-pegs, and a change of place. We do not need the ugly +word, and we do not need to dread the thing that men call by it. The +Christian idea of death is not the separation of self from its +house, of the soul from the body, but the separation of self from +God, who is the life. + +III. So, lastly, the life-giving word of power. + +'Maiden, arise!' All the circumstances of the miracle are marked by +the most lovely consideration, on Christ's part, of the timidity of +the little girl of twelve years of age. It is because of that that +He seeks to raise her in privacy, whereas the son of the widow of +Nain and Lazarus were raised amidst a crowd. It is because of that +that He selects as His companions in the room only the three chief +Apostles as witnesses, and the father and mother of the child. It is +because of that that He puts forth His hand and grasps hers, in +order that the child's eyes when they open should see only the +loving faces of parents, and the not less loving face of the +Master; and that her hand, when it began to move again, should +clasp, first, His own tender hand. It is for the same reason that +the remarkable appendix to the miracle is given--'He commanded that +they should give her food.' Surely that is an inimitable note of +truth. No legend-manufacturer would have dared to drop down to such +a homely word as that, after such a word as 'Maiden, arise!' An +economy of miraculous power is shown here, such as was shown when, +after Lazarus came forth, other hands had to untie the grave-clothes +which tripped him as he stumbled along. Christ will do by miracle +what is needful and not one hairs-breadth more. In His calm majesty +He bethinks Himself of the hungry child, and entrusts to others the +task of giving her food. That homely touch is, to me, indicative of +the simple veracity of the historian. + +But the life-giving word itself; what can we say about it? Only this +one thing: here Jesus Christ exercises a manifest divine prerogative. +It was no more the syllables that He spoke than it was the touch of +His hand that raised the child. What was it? The forth-putting of +His will, which went away straight into the darkness; and if the +disembodied spirit was in a locality, went straight there; and somehow +or other, laid hold of the spirit, and somehow or other, reinstated it +in its home. Christ's will, like the king's writ, runs through all the +universe. 'He spake, and it was done';--whose prerogative is that? +God's; and God manifest in the flesh exercised it. The words of the +Incarnate Word have power over physical things. + +Here, too, are the prelude and first-fruits of our resurrection. Not +that there are not wide differences between the raising of this +child, and that future resurrection to which Christian hope looks +forward, but that in this one little incident, little, compared with +the majestic scale of the latter, there come out these two things--the +demonstration that conscious life runs on, irrespective of the accident +of its being united with or separated from a bodily organisation; and +the other, that Jesus Christ has power over men's spirits, and can +fit them at His will to bodies appropriate to their condition. Time +is no element in the case. What befalls the particles of the human +frame is no element in the case. 'Thou sowest not the body that shall +be.' But if that Lord had the power which He showed in that one +chamber, with that one child, then, as a little window may show us +great matters, so we see through this single incident the time when +'they that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come +forth.' + +Brethren! there is a higher lesson still; He that gives and gives +again, physical life, does so as a symbol of the highest gift which +He can bestow upon us all. If we 'only believe,' then, 'you hath He +quickened which were dead in trespasses and sins ... and for His +great love wherewith He loved us.... He hath raised us up together, +and made us sit together, in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.' + + + + +BREAD FROM HEAVEN + + + 'And the apostles, when they were returned, told Him + all that they had done. And He took them, and went + aside privately into a desert place belonging to the + city, called Bethsaida. 11. And the people, when they + knew it, followed Him; and He received them, and spake + unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that + had need of healing. 12. And when the day began to + wear away, then came the twelve, and said unto Him, + Send the multitude away, that they may go into the + towns and country round about, and lodge, and get + victuals; for we are here in a desert place. 13. But He + said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said, We + have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we + should go and buy meat for all this people. 14. (For + they were about five thousand men.) And He said to His + disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company. + 15. And they did so, and made them all sit down. + 16. Then He took the five loaves, and the two fishes; + and, looking up to heaven, He blessed them, and brake, + and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude. + 17. And they did eat, and were all filled: and there + was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve + baskets.'--LUKE ix. 10-17. + +The Apostles needed rest after their trial trip as evangelists. John +the Baptist's death had just been told to Christ. The Passover was +at hand, and many pilgrims were on the march. Prudence and care for +His followers as well as Himself suggested a brief retirement, and +our Lord sought it at the Eastern Bethsaida, a couple of miles up +the Jordan from its point of entrance to the lake. Matthew and Mark +tell us that He went by boat, which Luke does not seem to have +known. Mark adds that the curious crowd, which followed on foot, +reached the place of landing before Him, and so effectually +destroyed all hope of retirement. It was a short walk round the +north-western part of the head of the lake, and the boat would be in +sight all the way, so that there was no escape for its passengers. + +Luke records the self-oblivious cordiality of Christ's reception of +the intrusive crowd. Without a sigh or sign of impatience, He +'welcomed them'--a difficult thing to do, and one which few of us +could have achieved. The motives of most of them can have been +nothing higher than what leads vulgar people of all ranks and +countries to buzz about distinguished men, utterly regardless of +delicacy or considerateness. They want to see the notoriety, no +matter what it costs him. But Jesus received them patiently, +because, as Mark touchingly tells, He was 'moved with pity,' and saw +in their rude crowding round Him the token of their lack of guides +and teachers. They seemed to Him, not merely a mob of intrusive +sight-seers, but like a huddled mass of unshepherded sheep. + +Christ's heart felt more lovingly than ours because His eye saw +deeper, and His eye saw deeper because His heart felt more lovingly. +If we would live nearer Him, we should see, as He did, enough in +every man to draw our pity and help, even though he may jostle and +interfere with us. + +The short journey to Bethsaida would be in the early morning, and a +long day of toil followed instead of the hoped-for quiet. Note that +singular expression, 'Them that had need of healing He healed.' Why +not simply 'them that were sick'? Probably to bring out the thought +that misery made unfailing appeal to Him, and that for Him to see +need was to supply it. His swift compassion, His all-sufficient +power to heal, and the conditions of receiving His healing, are all +wrapped up in the words. Coming to the miracle itself, we may throw +the narrative into three parts--the preliminaries, the miracle, and +the abundant overplus. + +I. Our Lord leads up to the miracle by forcing home on the minds of +the disciples the extent of the need and the utter inadequacy of +their resources to meet it, and by calling on them and the crowd for +an act of obedience which must have seemed to many of them +ludicrous. John shows us that He had begun to prepare them, at the +moment of meeting the multitude, by His question to Philip. That had +been simmering in the disciples' minds all day, while they leisurely +watched Him toiling in word and work, and now they come with their +solution of the difficulty. Their suggestion was a very sensible one +in the circumstances, and they are not to be blamed for not +anticipating a miracle as the way out. However many miracles they +saw, they never seem to have expected another. That has been thought +to be unnatural, but surely it is true to nature. They moved in a +confusing mixture of the miraculous and the natural which baffled +calculation as to which element would rule at any given moment. +Their faith was feeble, and Christ rebuked them for their slowness +to learn the lesson of this very miracle and its twin feeding of the +four thousand. They were our true brothers in their failure to grasp +the full meaning of the past, and to trust His power. + +The strange suggestion that the disciples should feed the crowd must +have appeared to them absurd, but it was meant to bring out the +clear recognition of the smallness of their supply. Therein lie +great lessons. Commands are given and apparent duties laid on us, in +order that we may find out how impotent we are to do them. It can +never be our duty to do what we cannot do, but it is often our duty +to attempt tasks to which we are conspicuously inadequate, in the +confidence that He who gives them has laid them on us to drive us to +Himself, and there to find sufficiency. The best preparation of His +servants for their work in the world is the discovery that their own +stores are small. Those who have learned that it is their task to +feed the multitude, and who have said 'We have no more than such and +such scanty resources,' are prepared to be the distributors of His +all-sufficient supply. + +What a strange scene that must have been as the hundred groups of +fifty each arranged themselves on the green grass, in the setting +sunlight, waiting for a meal of which there were no signs! It took a +good deal of faith to seat the crowd, and some faith for the crowd +to sit. How expectant they would be! How they would wonder what was +to be done next! How some of them would laugh, and some sneer, and +all watch the event! We, too, have to put ourselves in the attitude +to receive gifts of which sense sees no sign; and if, in obedience +to Christ's word, we sit down expecting Him to find the food, we +shall not be disappointed, though the table be spread in the +wilderness, and neither storehouse nor kitchen be in sight. + +II. The miracle itself has some singular features. Like that of the +draught of fishes, it was not called forth by the cry of suffering, +nor was the need which it met one beyond the reach of ordinary +means. It was certainly one of the miracles most plainly meant to +strike the popular mind, and the enthusiasm excited by it, according +to John's account, was foreseen by Christ. Why did He evoke +enthusiasm which He did not mean to gratify? For the very purpose of +bringing the carnal expectations of the crowd to a head, that they +might be the more conclusively disappointed. The miracle and its +sequel sifted and sent away many 'disciples,' and were meant to do +so. + +All the accounts tell of Christ's 'blessing.' Matthew and Mark do +not say what He blessed, and perhaps the best supplement is 'God,' +but Luke says that He blessed the food. What He blesses is blessed; +for His words are deeds, and communicate the blessing which they +speak. The point at which the miraculous multiplication of the food +came in is left undetermined, but perhaps the difference in the +tenses of the verbs hints at it. 'Blessed' and 'brake' are in the +tense which describes a single act; 'gave' is in that which +describes a continuous repeated action. The pieces grew under His +touch, and the disciples always found His hands full when they came +back with their own empty. But wherever the miraculous element +appeared, creative power was exercised by Jesus; and none the less +was it creative, because there was the 'substratum' of the loaves +and fishes. Too much stress has been laid on their being used, and +some commentators have spoken as if without them the miracle could +not have been wrought. But surely the distinction between pure +creation and multiplication of a thing already existing vanishes +when a loaf is 'multiplied' so as to feed a thousand men. + +The symbolical aspect of the miracle is set forth in the great +discourse which follows it in John's Gospel. Jesus is the 'Bread of +God which came down from heaven.' That Bread is broken for us. Not +in His Incarnation alone, but in His Death, is He the food of the +world; and we have not only to 'eat His flesh,' but to 'drink His +blood,' if we would live. Nor can we lose sight of the symbol of His +servants' task. They are the distributors of the heaven-sent bread. +If they will but take their poor stores to Jesus, with the +acknowledgment of their insufficiency, He will turn them into +inexhaustible supplies, and they will find that 'there is that +scattereth, and yet increaseth.' What Christ blesses is always +enough. + +III. The abundance left over is significant. Twelve baskets, such as +poor travellers carried their belongings in, were filled; that is to +say, each Apostle who had helped to feed the hungry had a basketful +to bring off for future wants. The 'broken pieces' were not crumbs +that littered the grass, but the portions that came from Christ's +hands. + +His provision is more than enough for a hungry world, and they who +share it out among their fellows have their own possession of it +increased. There is no surer way to receive the full sweetness and +blessing of the Gospel than to carry it to some hungry soul. These +full baskets teach us, too, that In Christ's gift of Himself as the +Bread of Life there is ever more than at any given moment we can +appropriate. The Christian's spiritual experiences have ever an +element of infinity in them; and we feel that if we were able to +take in more, there would be more for us to take. Other food cloys +and does not satisfy, and leaves us starving. Christ satisfies and +does not cloy, and we have always remaining, yet to be enjoyed, the +boundless stores which neither eternity will age nor a universe +feeding on them consume. The Christian's capacity of partaking of +Christ grows with what it feeds on, and he alone is safe in +believing that 'To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more +abundant.' + + + + +THE LORD THAT HEALETH THEE' + + + 'He healed them that had need of healing.'--Luke ix. 11. + +Jesus was seeking a little quiet and rest for Himself and His +followers. For that purpose He took one of the fishermen's boats to +cross to the other side of the sea. But the crowd, inconsiderate and +selfish, like all crowds, saw the course of the boat, and hurried, +as they could easily do, on foot round the head of the lake, to be +ready for Him wherever He might land. So when He touched the shore, +there they all were, open-mouthed and mostly moved by mere +curiosity, and the prospect of a brief breathing-space vanished. + +But not a word of rebuke or disappointment came from His lips, and +no shade of annoyance crossed His spirit. Perhaps with a sigh, but +yet cheerfully, He braced Himself to work where He had hoped for +leisure. It was a little thing, but it was the same in kind, though +infinitely smaller in magnitude, as that which led Him to lay aside +'the glory that He had with the Father before the world was,' and +come to toil and die amongst men. + +But what I especially would note are Luke's remarkable words here. +Why does he use that periphrasis, 'Them that had need of healing,' +instead of contenting himself with straightforwardly saying, 'Them +that were sick,' as do the other Evangelists? Well, I suppose he +wished to hint to us the Lord's discernment of men's necessities, +the swift compassion which moved to supply a need as soon as it was +observed, and the inexhaustible power by which, whatsoever the +varieties of infirmity, He was able to cure and to bring strength. +'He healed them that had need of healing,' because His love could +not look upon a necessity without being moved to supply it, and +because that love wielded the resources of an infinite power. + +Now, all our Lord's miracles are parables, illustrating upon a lower +platform spiritual facts; and that is especially true about the +miracles of healing. So I wish to deal with the words before us as +having a direct application to ourselves, and to draw from them two +or three very old, threadbare, neglected lessons, which I pray God +may lead some of us to recognise anew our need of healing, and +Christ's infinite power to bestow it. There are three things that I +want to say, and I name them here that you may know where I am +going. First, we all need healing; second, Christ can heal us all; +third, we are not all healed. + +I. We all need healing. + +The people in that crowd were not all diseased. Some of them He +taught; some of them He cured; but that crowd where healthy men +mingled with cripples is no type of the condition of humanity. +Rather we are to find it in that Pool of Bethesda, with its five +porches, wherein lay a multitude of impotent folk, tortured with +varieties of sickness, and none of them sound. Blessed be God! we +are in _Bethesda_, which means 'house of mercy,' and the +fountain that can heal is perpetually springing up beside us all. +There is a disease, dear brethren, which affects and infects all +mankind, and it is of that that I wish to speak to you two or three +plain, earnest words now. Sin is universal. + +What does the Bible mean by sin? Everything that goes against, or +neglects God's law. And if you will recognise in all the acts of +every life the reference, which really is there, to God and His +will, you will not need anything more to establish the fact that +'all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.' Whatever +other differences there are between men, there is this fundamental +similarity. Neglect--which is a breach--of the law of God pertains +to all mankind. Everything that we do ought to have reference to +Him. _Does_ everything that we do have such reference? If not, +there is a quality of evil in it. For the very definition of sin is +living to myself and neglecting Him. He is the centre, and if I +might use a violent figure, every planet that wrenches itself away +from gravitation towards, and revolution round, that centre, and +prefers to whirl on its own axis, has broken the law of the +celestial spheres, and brought discord into the heavenly harmony. +All men stand condemned in this respect. + +Now, there is no need to exaggerate. I am not saying that all men +are on the same level. I know that there are great differences in +the nobleness, purity, and goodness of lives, and Christianity has +never been more unfairly represented than when good men have called, +as they have done with St. Augustine, the virtues of godless men, +'splendid vices.' But though the differences are not unimportant, +the similarity is far more important. The pure, clean-living man, +and the loving, gentle woman, though they stand high above the +sensuality of the profligate, the criminal, stand in this respect on +the same footing that they, too, have to put their hands on their +mouths, and their mouths in the dust, and cry 'Unclean!' I do not +want to exaggerate, and sure I am that if men will be honest with +themselves there is a voice that responds to the indictment when I +say sadly, in the solemn language of Scripture, 'we all have sinned +and come short of the glory of God.' For there is no difference. If +you do not believe in a God, you can laugh at the old wife's notion +of 'sin.' If you do believe in a God, you are shut up to believe +this other thing, 'Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.' + +And, brethren, if this universal fact is indeed a fact, it is the +gravest element in human nature. It matters very little, in +comparison, whether you and I are wise or foolish, educated or +illiterate, rich or poor, happy or miserable. All the superficial +distinctions which separate men from one another, and are all right +in their own places, dwindle away into nothing before this solemn +truth that in every frame there is a plague spot, and that the +leprosy has smitten us all. + +But, brethren, do not let us lose ourselves in generalities. All +means each, and each means me. We all know how hard it is to bring +general truths to bear, with all their weight, upon ourselves. That +is an old commonplace: 'All men think all men mortal but +themselves'; and we are quite comfortable when this indictment is +kept in the general terms of universality--'All have sinned.' +Suppose I sharpen the point a little. God grant that the point may +get to some indurated conscience here. Suppose, instead of reading +'All have sinned,' I beseech each one of my hearers to strike out +the general word, and put in the individual one, and to say +'_I_ have sinned.' You have to do with this indictment just as +you have to do with the promises and offers of the Gospel--wherever +there is a 'whosoever' put your pen through it, and write your own +name over it. The blank cheque is given to us in regard to these +promises and offers, and we have to fill in our own names. The +charge is handed to us, in regard to this indictment, and if we are +wise we shall write our own names there, too. + +Dear brethren, I leave this on your consciences, and I will venture to +ask that, if not here, at any rate when you get quietly home to-night, +and lie down on your beds, you would put to yourselves the question, +'Is it I?' And sure I am that, if you do, you will see a finger +pointing out of the darkness, and hear a voice sterner than that of +Nathan, saying 'Thou art the man.' + +II. Christ can heal us all. + +I was going to use an inappropriate word, and say, the _superb_ ease +with which He grappled with, and overcame, all types of disease is a +revelation on a lower level of the inexhaustible and all-sufficient +fullness of His healing power. He can cope with all sin-the world's +sin, and the individual's. And, as I believe, He alone can do it. + +Just look at the problem that lies before any one who attempts to +stanch these wounds of humanity. What is needed in order to deliver +men from the sickness of sin? Well! that evil thing, like the fabled +dog that sits at the gate of the infernal regions, is three-headed. +And you have to do something with each of these heads if you are to +deliver men from that power. + +There is first the awful power that evil once done has over us of +repeating itself on and on. There is nothing more dreadful to a +reflective mind than the damning influence of habit. The man that +has done some wrong thing once is a _rara avis_ indeed. If +once, then twice; if twice, then onward and onward through all the +numbers. And the intervals between will grow less, and what were +isolated points will coalesce into a line; and impulses wax as +motives wane, and the less delight a man has in his habitual form of +evil the more is its dominion over him, and he does it at last not +because the doing of it is any delight, but because the _not_ +doing of it is a misery. If you are to get rid of sin, and to eject +the disease from a man, you have to deal with that awful degradation +of character, and the tremendous chains of custom. That is one of +the heads of the monster. + +But, as I said, sin has reference to God, and there is another of +the heads, for with sin comes guilt. The relation to God is +perverted, and the man that has transgressed stands before Him as +guilty, with all the dolefulness that that solemn word means; and +that is another of the heads. + +The third is this--the consequences that follow in the nature of +penalty. 'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' So long +as there is a universal rule by God, in which all things are +concatenated by cause and effect, it is impossible but that 'Evil +shall slay the wicked.' And that is the third head. These three, +habit, guilt, and penalty, have all to be dealt with if you are +going to make a thorough job of the surgery. + +And here, brethren, I want not to argue but to preach. Jesus Christ +died on the Cross for you, and your sin was in His heart and mind +when He died, and His atoning sacrifice cancels the guilt, and +suspends all that is dreadful in the penalty of the sin. Nothing +else--nothing else will do that. Who can deal with guilt but the +offended Ruler and Judge? Who can trammel up consequences but the +Lord of the Universe? The blood of Jesus Christ is the sole and +sufficient oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole +world. + +That disposes of two of the monster's heads. What about the third? +Who will take the venom out of my nature? What will express the +black drop from my heart? How shall the Ethiopian change his skin or +the leopard his spots? How can the man that has become habituated to +evil 'learn to do well'? Superficially there may be much +reformation. God forbid that I should forget that, or seem to +minimise it. But for the thorough ejection from your nature of the +corruption that you have yourselves brought into it, I believe--and +that is why I am here, for I should have nothing to say if I did not +believe it--I believe that there is only one remedy, and that is +that into the sinful heart there should come, rejoicing and +flashing, and bearing on its broad bosom before it all the rubbish +and filth of that dunghill, the great stream of the new life that is +given by Jesus Christ. He was crucified for our offences, and He +lives to bestow upon us the fullness of His own holiness. So the +monster's heads are smitten off. Our disease and the tendency to it, +and the weakness consequent upon it, are all cast out from us, and +He reveals Himself as 'the Lord who healeth thee.' + +Now, dear brethren, you may say 'That is all very fine talking.' +Yes! but it is something a great deal more than fine talking. For +nineteen centuries have established the fact that it is so; and with +all their imperfections there have been millions, and there are +millions to-day, who are ready to say, 'Behold! it is not a +delusion; it is not rhetoric, _I_ have trusted in Him and He +has made _me_ whole.' + +Now, if these things that I have been saying do fairly represent the +gravity of the problem which has to be dealt with in order to heal +the sicknesses of the world, then there is no need to dwell upon the +thought of how absolutely confined to Jesus Christ is the power of +thus dealing. God forbid that I should not give full weight to all +other methods for partial reformation and bettering of humanity. I +would wish them all God-speed. But, brethren, there is nothing else +that will deal either with my sin in its relation to God, or in its +relation to my character, or in its relation to my future, except +the message of the Gospel. There are plenty of other things, very +helpful and good in their places, but I do want to say, in one word, +that there is nothing else that goes deep enough. + +Education? Yes! it will do a great deal, but it will do nothing in +regard to sin. It will alter the type of the disease, because the +cultured man's transgressions will be very different from those of +the illiterate boor. But wise or foolish, professor, student, +thinker, or savage with narrow forehead and all but dead brain, are +alike in this, that they are sinners in God's sight. I would that I +could get through the fence that some of you have reared round you, +on the ground of your superior enlightenment and education and +refinement, and make you feel that there is something deeper than +all that, and that you may be a very clever, and a very well +educated, a very highly cultured, an extremely thoughtful and +philosophical sinner, but you are a sinner all the same. + +And again, we hear a great deal at present, and I do not desire that +we should hear less, about social and economic and political +changes, which some eager enthusiasts suppose will bring the +millennium. Well, if the land were nationalised, and all 'the means +of production and distribution' were nationalised, and everybody got +his share, and we were all brought to the communistic condition, +what then? That would not make men better, in the deepest sense of +the word. The fact is, these people are beginning at the wrong end. +You cannot better humanity merely by altering its environment for +the better. Christianity reverses the process. It begins with the +inmost man, and it works outwards to the circumference, and that is +the thorough way. Why! suppose you took a company of people out of +the slums, for instance, and put them into a model lodging-house, +how long will it continue a model? They will take their dirty habits +with them, and pull down the woodwork for firing, and in a very +short time make the place where they are as like as possible to the +hovel whence they came. You must change the men, and then you can +change their circumstances, or rather they will change them for +themselves. Now, all this is not to be taken as casting cold water +on any such efforts to improve matters, but only as a protest +against its being supposed that these _alone_ are sufficient to +rectify the ills and cure the sorrows of humanity. 'Ye have healed +the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly.' The patient is +dying of cancer, and you are treating him for a skin disease. It is +Jesus Christ alone who can cure the sins, and therein the sorrows, +of humanity. + +III. Lastly, we are not all healed. + +That is only too plain. All the sick in the crowd round Christ were +sent away well, but the gifts He bestowed so broadcast had no +relation to their spiritual natures, and gifts that have relation to +our spiritual nature cannot be thus given in entire disregard of our +actions in the matter. + +Christ cannot heal you unless you take His healing power. He did on +earth sometimes, though not often, cure physical disease without the +requirement of faith on the part of the healed person or his +friends, but He cannot (He would if He could) do so in regard to the +disease of sin. There, unless a man goes to Him, and trusts Him, and +submits his spirit to the operation of Christ's pardoning and +hallowing grace, there cannot be any remedy applied, nor any cure +effected. That is no limitation of the universal power of the +Gospel. It is only saying that if you do not take the medicine you +cannot expect that it will do you any good, and surely that is plain +common-sense. There are plenty of people who fancy that Christ's +healing and saving power will, somehow or other, reach every man, +apart from the man's act. It is all a delusion, brethren. If it +could it would. But if salvation could be thus given, independent of +the man, it would come down to a mere mechanical thing, and would +not be worth the having. So I say, first, if you will not take the +medicine you cannot get the cure. + +I say, second, if you do not feel that you are ill you will not take +the medicine. A man crippled with lameness, or tortured with fever, +or groping in the daylight and blind, or deaf to all the sounds of +this sweet world, could not but know that he was a subject for the +healing. But the awful thing about our disease is that the worse you +are the less you know it; and that when conscience ought to be +speaking loudest it is quieted altogether, and leaves a man often +perfectly at peace, so that after he has done evil things he wipes +his mouth and says, 'I have done no harm.' + +So, dear brethren, let me plead with you not to put away these poor +words that I have been saying to you, and not to be contented until +you have recognised what is true, that you--_you_, stand a +sinful man before God. + +There is surely no madness comparable to the madness of the man that +prefers to keep his sin and die, rather than go to Christ and live. +We all neglect to take up many good things that we might have if we +would, but no other neglect is a thousandth part so insane as that +of the man who clings to his evil and spurns the Lord. Will you look +into your own hearts? Will you recognise that awful solemn law of +God which ought to regulate all our doings, and, alas! has been so +often neglected, and so often transgressed by each of us? Oh! if +once you saw yourselves as you are, you would turn to Him and say, +'Heal me'; and you would be healed, and He would lay His hand upon +you. If only you will go, sick and broken, to Him, and trust in His +great sacrifice, and open your hearts to the influx of His healing +power, He will give you 'perfect soundness'; and your song will be, +'Bless the Lord, O my soul.... Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; +who healeth thy diseases.' + +May it be so with each of us! + + + + +CHRIST'S CROSS AND OURS + + + 'And it came to pass, as He was alone praying, His + disciples were with Him; and He asked them, saying, + Whom say the people that I am I 19. They answering, + said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and + others say, that one of the old prophets is risen + again. 20. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I + am? Peter answering, said, The Christ of God. 21. And + He straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell + no man that thing; 22. Saying, The Son of man must + suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, + and chief priests, and scribes, and be slain, and be + raised the third day. 23. And He said to them all, If + any man will come after Me. let him deny himself, and + take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24. For + whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but + whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same + shall save it. 25. For what is a man advantaged, if he + gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast + away? 26. For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me, and of + My words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when + He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father's, + and of the holy angels. 27. But I tell you of a truth, + there be some standing here, which shall not taste of + death, till they see the kingdom of God.'--Luke ix. 18-27. + +This passage falls into three distinct but closely connected parts: +the disciples' confession of Christ by Peters mouth, the revelation +to them of Christ's sufferings as necessarily involved in His +Messiahship, and His extension to them of the law of suffering as +necessarily involved in discipleship. Luke dwells much more lightly +than Matthew on the first of these stages, omitting the eulogium and +benediction on Simon Bar-Jona, and the great words about the rock on +which the Church is built, but he retains the essentials, and +emphasises the connection of the three parts by his very brevity in +regard to the first. + +I. Luke has special interest in recording Christ's prayers, and +though he does not tell us where the great confession was made, he +tells what Jesus did before it was made. We may well suppose that +His solitary thoughts had been busied with the sufferings on which +He was soon to enter, and that His resolve to impart the knowledge +of these to His followers was felt by Him to be a sharp trial of +their loyalty. The moment was a fateful one. How should fateful +moments be prepared for but by communion with the Father? No doubt +the feebleness of the disciples was remembered in His petitions. + +Jesus' double question was intended, first, to make the disciples +feel the gulf which separated them from the rest of the nation, and +so to make them hold the faster by their unshared faith, and be +ready to suffer for it, if needful, as probably it would be. It +braces true men to know that they are but a little company in the +midst of multitudes who laugh at their belief. That Jesus should +have seen that it was safe to accentuate the disciples' isolation +indicates the reality which He discerned in their faith, imperfect +as it was. + +'Whom say ye that I am?' Jesus brings them to articulate utterance +of the thought that had been slowly gathering distinctness in their +minds. We see our beliefs more clearly, and hold them more firmly, +when we put them into definite words. The question acted like a +chemical element dropped into a solution, which precipitates its +solid matter. Nebulous opinions are gathered up into spheres of +light by the process of speaking them. That question is all-important +for us. Our conceptions of Christ's nature and office determine our +relation to Him and our whole cast of life. True, we may say that He +is Lord, and not be His disciples, but we are not His disciples as He +would have us unless His Messiahship stands out clear and axiomatic +in our thoughts of Him. The conviction must pass into feeling, and +thence into life, but it must underlie all real discipleship. +Doctrine is not Christianity, but it is the foundation of +Christianity. The Apostolic confession here is the 'irreducible +minimum' of the Christian creed. + +It does not contain more than Nathanael had said at the beginning, +but here it is spoken, not as Peter's private belief, but he is the +mouthpiece of all. 'Whether it were I or they, so we' believe. This +confession summed up the previous development of the disciples, and +so marked the end of one stage and the beginning of another. Christ +would have them, as it were, take stock of their convictions, as +preliminary to opening a new chapter of teaching. + +II. That new chapter follows at once. The belief in Him as Messiah +is the first story of the building, and the second is next piled on +it. The new lesson was a hard one for men whose hopes were coloured +by Jewish dreams of a kingdom. They had to see all these vulgar +visions melting away, and to face a stern, sad reality. The very +fact that He was the Messiah necessarily drew after it the fact of +suffering. Whence did the 'must' arise? From the divine purpose, +from the necessities of the case, and the aim of His mission. These +had shaped prophetic utterances, and hence there was yet another +form of the 'must,' namely, the necessity for the Messiah's +fulfilling these predictions. + +No doubt our Lord led His saddened listeners to many a prophetic +saying which current expositions had smoothed over, but which had +for many years set before Him His destiny. What a scene that would +be--the victim calmly pointing to the tragic words which flashed +ominous new meanings to the silent hearers, stricken with awe and +grief as the terrible truth entered their minds! What had become of +their dreams? Gone, and in their place shame and death. They had +fancied a throne; the vision melted into a cross. + +We note the minute particularity of Jesus' delineation, and the +absolute certainty in His plain declaration of the fact and time of +the Resurrection. It is not wonderful that that declaration should +have produced little effect. The disciples were too much absorbed +and confounded by the dismal thought of His death to have ears for +the assurance of His Resurrection. Comfort coming at the end of the +announcement of calamities so great finds no entrance into, nor room +in, the heart. We all let a black foreground hide from us a brighter +distance. + +III. The Master's feet mark the disciples' path. If suffering was +involved in Messiahship, it is no less involved in discipleship. The +cross which is our hope is also our pattern. In a very real sense we +have to be partakers of the sufferings of Christ, and no faith in +these as substitutionary is vital unless it leads to being conformed +to His death. The solemn verses at the close of this lesson draw out +the law of Christian self-denial as being inseparable from true +discipleship. + +Verse 23 lays down the condition of following Jesus as being the +daily bearing, by each, of his own cross. Mark that self-denial is +not prescribed for its own sake, but simply as the means of +'following.' False asceticism insists on it, as if it were an end; +Christ treats it as a means. Mark, too, that it is 'self' which is +to be denied--not this or that part of our nature, but the central +'self.' The will is the man, and _it_ is to be brought into +captivity to Jesus, so that the true Christian says, 'I live; yet +not I, but Christ liveth in me.' That is much deeper, harder, +wholesomer teaching than separate austerities or forsakings of this +or that. + +Verse 24 grounds this great requirement on the broad principle that +to make self the main object of life is the sure way to ruin +oneself, and that to slay self is the road to true life. Note that +it is he who '_would_ save' his life that loses it, because the +desire is itself fatal, whether carried out or not; while it is he +who _does_ 'lose' his life for Christ that preserves it, +because even if the extreme evil has been suffered, the possession +of our true lives is not imperilled thereby. No doubt the words +refer primarily to literal death, and threaten the cowards who +sacrifice their convictions for the sake of keeping a whole skin +with the failure of their efforts, while they promise the martyr +dying in the arena or at the stake a crown of life. But they go far +beyond that. They carry the great truth that to hug self and to make +its preservation our first aim is ruinous, and the corresponding +one, that to slay self for Christ's sake is to receive a better +self. Self-preservation is suicide; self-immolation is not only +self-preservation, but self-glorification with glory caught from +Jesus. Give yourselves to Him, and He gives you back to yourselves, +ennobled and transfigured. + +Verse 25 urges obedience to the precept, by an appeal to reasonable +self-regard and common-sense. The abnegation enjoined does not +require that we should be indifferent to our own well-being. It is +right to consider what will 'profit,' and to act accordingly. The +commercial view of life, if rightly taken, with regard to all a +man's nature through all the duration of it, will coincide +accurately with the most exalted. It 'pays' to follow Christ. +Christian morality has not the hypersensitive fear of appealing to +self-interest which superfine moralists profess nowadays. And the +question in verse 25 admits of only one answer, for what good is the +whole world to a dead man? If our accounts are rightly kept, a world +gained shows poorly on the one side, against the entry on the other +of a soul lost. + +Verse 26 tells in what that losing oneself consists, and enforces +the original exhortation by the declaration of a future appearance +of the Son of man. He of whom Christ is then ashamed loses his own +soul. To live without His smile is to die, to be disowned by Him is +to be a wreck. To be ashamed of Jesus is equivalent to that base +self-preservation which has been denounced as fatal. If a man +disavows all connection with Him, He will disavow all connection +with the disavower. A man separated from Jesus is dead while he +lives, and hereafter will live a living death, and possess neither +the world for which he sacrificed his own soul nor the soul for +which he sacrificed it. + +We cannot but note the authoritative tone of our Lord in these +verses. He claims the obedience and discipleship of all men. He +demands that all shall yield themselves unreservedly to Him, and +that, even if actual surrender of life is involved, it shall be +gladly given. He puts our relation to Him as determining our whole +present and future. He assumes to be our Judge, whose smile is life, +whose averted face darkens the destiny of a man. Whom say ye that He +who dared to speak thus conceived Himself to be? Whom say ye that He +is? + +Verse 27 recalls us from the contemplation of that far-off +appearance to something nearer. Remembering the previous +announcement of our Lord's sufferings, these words seem intended to +cheer the disciples with the hope that the kingdom would still be +revealed within the lifetime of some then present. Remembering the +immediately preceding words, this saying seems to assure the +disciples that the blessed recompense of the life of self-crucifying +discipleship is not to be postponed to that future, but may be +enjoyed on earth. Remembering Christ's word, 'Except a man be born +again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,' we doubt whether there is +any reference here to the destruction of Jerusalem, as is commonly +understood. Are not the words rather a declaration that they who are +Christ's true disciples shall even here enter into the possession of +their true selves, and find the Messianic hopes more than fulfilled? +The future indicated will then be no more remote than the completion +of His work by His death and Resurrection, or, at the farthest, the +descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, by which the fuller life of +renewed natures was bestowed on those who were following Jesus in +daily self-surrender. + + + + +PRAYER AND TRANSFIGURATION + + + 'And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was + altered.'--LUKE ix. 29. + +This Evangelist is especially careful to record the instances of our +Lord's prayers. That is in accordance with the emphasis which he +places on Christ's manhood. In this narrative of the Transfiguration +it is to Luke that we owe our knowledge of the connection between +our Lord's prayer and the radiance of His face. It may be a question +how far such transfiguration was the constant accompaniment of our +Lord's devotion. It is to be remembered that this is the only time +at which others were present while He prayed, and perhaps it may be +that whensoever, on the mountain top or in the solitude of the +wilderness, He entered into closer communion with His heavenly +Father, that radiance shone from His face, though no eye beheld and +no tongue has recorded the glory. + +But that is a mere supposition. However that may be, it would seem +that the light on Christ's face was not merely a reflection caught +from above, but it was also a rising up from within of what always +abode there, though it did not always shine through the veil of +flesh. And in so far it presents no parallel with anything in our +experience, nor any lesson for us. But to regard our Lord's +Transfiguration as only the result of the indwelling divinity +manifested is to construe only one half of the fact that we have to +deal with, and the other half does afford for us a precious lesson. +'As He prayed the fashion of His countenance was altered'; and as we +pray, and in the measure in which we truly and habitually do hold +communion, shall we, too, partake of His Transfiguration. + +The old story of the light that flashed upon the face of the +Lawgiver, caught by reflection from the light of God in which He +walked, is a partial parallel to Christ's Transfiguration, and both +the one and the other incident, amongst their other lessons, do also +point to some mysterious and occult relation between the indwelling +soul and the envious veil of flesh which, under certain +circumstances, might become radiant with the manifestation of that +indwelling power. + +I. The one great lesson which I seek now to enforce from this +incident is, that communion with God transfigures. + +Prayer is more than petitions. It is not necessarily cast into words +at all. In its widest, which is its truest sense, it is the attitude +and exercise of devout contemplation of God and intercourse in +heart, mind, and will with Him, a communion which unites aspiration +and attainment, longing and fruition, asking and receiving, seeking +and finding, a communion which often finds itself beggared for +words, and sometimes even seems to transcend thought. How different +is such an hour of rapt communion with the living God from the +miserable notions which so many professing Christians have of +prayer, as if it were but spoken requests, more or less fervent and +sincere, for things that they want! The noblest communion of a soul +with God can never be free from the consciousness of need and +dependence. Petition must ever be an element in it, but supplication +is only a corner of prayer. Such conscious converse with God is the +very atmosphere in which the Christian soul should always live, and +if it be an experience altogether strange to us we had better ask +ourselves whether we yet know the realities of the Christian life, +or have any claim to the name. 'Truly, our fellowship is with the +Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ,' and if we have no share in +that fellowship we do not belong to the class of whom it is the mark +and possession. + +Of course, such communion is not to be attained or maintained without +effort. Sense wars against it. Tasks which are duties interrupt the +enjoyment of it in its more conscious forms. The hard-working man +may well say, 'How can I, with my business cares calling--for my +undivided attention all day long, keep up such communion?' The +toiling mother may well say, 'How can I, in my little house, with my +children round me, and never a quiet minute to myself, get such?' +True, it is hard, and the highest and sweetest forms of communion +cannot be reached by us while so engaged, and therefore we all need +seasons of solitude and repose, in which, being left alone, we may +see the Great Vision, and, the clank of the engines being silenced, +we may hear the Great Voice saying, 'Come up hither.' Such seasons +the busiest have on one day in every week, and such seasons we shall +contrive to secure for ourselves daily, if we really want to be +intimate with our heavenly Friend. + +And for the rest it is not impossible to have real communion with +God in the midst of anxious cares and absorbing duties; it is +possible to be like the nightingales, that sing loudest in the trees +by the dusty roadsides, possible to be in the very midst of anxiety +and worldly work, and yet to keep our hearts in heaven and in touch +with God. We do not need many words for communion, but we do need to +make efforts to keep ourselves near Him in desire and aspiration, +and we need jealous and constant watchfulness over our motives for +work, and our temper and aim in it, that neither the work nor our +way of doing it may draw us away. There will be breaches in the +continuity of our conscious communion, but there need not be any in +the reality of our touch with God. For He can be with us, 'like some +sweet, beguiling melody, so sweet we know not we are listening to +it.' There may be a real contact of the spirit with Him, though it +would be hard at the moment to put it into words. + +'As He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered.' Such +communion changes and glorifies a man. The very secret of the Gospel +way of making men better is--transfiguration by the vision of God. +Yes! to be much with God is the true way to mend our characters, and +to make them like His. I do not under-value the need of effort in +order to correct faults and acquire virtues. We do not receive +sanctification as we receive justification, by simple faith. For the +latter the condition is 'Only believe,' for the former it is 'Work +out your own salvation.' No man is cured of his evil tendencies +without a great deal of hard work conscientiously directed to +curbing them. + +But all the hard work, and all the honest purpose in the world, will +not do it without this other thing, the close communion with God, +and incomparably the surest way to change what in us is wrong, and +to raise what in us is low, and to illumine what in us is dark, is +to live in habitual beholding of Him who is righteousness without +flaw, and holiness supreme, and light without any darkness at all. +That will cure faults. That will pull the poison fangs out of +passions. That will do for the evil in us what the snake-charmers do +by subtle touches, turn the serpent into a rigid rod that does not +move nor sting. That will lift us up high above the trifles of life, +and dwarf all here that imposes upon us with the lie that it is +great, and precious, and permanent; and that will bring us into +loving contact with the living 'Beauty of holiness,' which will +change us into its own fair likeness. + +We see illustrations of this transforming power of loving communion +in daily life. People that love each other, and live beside each +other, and are often thinking about one another, get to drop into +each other's ways of looking at things; and even sometimes you will +catch strange imitations and echoes of the face and voice, in two +persons thus knit together. And if you and I are bound to God by a +love which lasts, even when it does not speak, and which is with us +even when our hands are busy with other things, then be sure of +this, we shall get like Him whom we love. We shall be like Him even +here, for even here we shall see Him. Partial assimilation is the +condition of vision; and the vision is the condition of growing +assimilation. The eye would not see the sun unless there were a +little sun imaged on the retina. And a man that sees God gets like +the God he sees; 'for we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a +glass (or, rather, mirroring as a glass does) the glory of God, are +changed into the same image.' The image on the mirror is only on the +surface; but if my heart is mirroring God He sinks in, and abides +there, and changes me from glory to glory. So it is when we keep +near Christ, who is manifest in the flesh, that we get liker Him day +by day, and the fashion of our countenances will be altered. + +Now there is a test for our Christianity. Does my religion alter me? +If it does not, what right or reason have I to believe that it is +genuine at all? Is there a process of purifying going on in my +inward nature? Am I getting any more like Jesus Christ than I was +ten years ago? I say I live with Him and by Him. If I do I shall +become like Him. Do not work at the hopeless task of purifying +yourselves without His help, but go and stay in the sun if you want +to get warm. Lo as the bleachers do, spread the foul cloth on the +green grass, below the blazing sunshine, and that will take all the +dirt out. Believing and loving, and holding fast by Jesus Christ in +true communion, we, too, become like Him we love. + +II. Another thought is suggested by these words--namely, that this +transfiguring will become very visible in the life if it be really +in our inmost selves. + +Even in the most literal sense of the words it will be so. Did you +never see anybody whose face was changed by holier and nobler +purposes coming into their lives? I have seen more than one or two +whose features became as the face of an angel as they grew more and +more unselfish, and more and more full of that which, in the most +literal sense of the words, was in them the beauty of holiness. The +devil writes his mark upon people's faces. The world and the flesh +do so. Go into the streets and look at the people that you meet. +Care, envy, grasping griping avarice, discontent, unrest, blotches +of animalism, and many other prints of black fingers are plain +enough on many a face. And on the other hand, if a man or a woman +get into their hearts the refining influences of God's grace and +love by living near the Master, very soon the beauty of expression +which is born of consecration and unselfishness, the irradiation of +lofty emotions, the tenderness caught from Him, will not be lacking, +and some eyes that look upon them will recognise the family +likeness. + +But that may be said to be mere fancy. Perhaps it is, or perhaps +there is truth in it deeper and more far-reaching than we know. +Perhaps the life fashions the body, and the 'body of our glory' may +be moulded in immortal loveliness by the perfect Christ-derived life +within it. But be that as it may, the main point to be observed here +is rather this. If we have the real, transforming influence of +communion with Jesus Christ in our hearts, it will certainly rise to +the surface, and show itself in our lives. As oil poured into water +will come to the top, so that inward transforming will not continue +hidden within, 'The king's daughter is all-glorious _within_, +but also 'her _clothing_ is of wrought gold.' The inward life, +beautiful because knit to Him, will have corresponding with it and +flowing from it an outward life of manifest holy beauty. + +'His name shall be in their foreheads,' stamped there, where +everybody can see it. Is that where you and I carry Christ's name? +It is well that it should be in our hearts, it is hypocrisy that it +should be in our foreheads unless it is in our hearts first. But if +it be in the latter it will surely be in the former. + +Now, dear friends, there is a simple and sure touchstone for us all. +Do not talk about communion with Christ being the life of your +religion, unless the people that have to do with you, your brothers +and sisters, or fathers and mothers, your wives and children, your +servants or your masters, would endorse it and say 'Yes! I take +knowledge of him, he has been with Jesus.' Do you think that it is +easier for anybody to believe in, and to love God, 'whom he hath not +seen' because of you, 'his brother whom he hath seen'? The Christ in +the heart will be the Christ in the face and in the life. + +Alas! why is it that so little of this radiance caught from heaven +shines from us? There is but one answer. It is because our communion +with God in Christ is so infrequent, hurried, and superficial. We +should be like those luminous boxes which we sometimes see, shining +in the dark with light absorbed from the day; but, like them, we +need to be exposed to the light and to lie in it if we are to be +light. 'Now are ye light in the Lord,' and only as we abide in Him +by continuous communion shall we resemble Him or reflect Him. + +III. The perfection of communion will be the perfection of visible +transformation. + +Possibly the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ had an element of +prophecy in it, and pointed onwards to the order of things when His +glorified humanity should be enthroned on the throne of the +universe, and have left the limitations of flesh with the folded +grave-clothes in the empty sepulchre. As the two majestic forms of +the Lawgiver and the Prophet shared His glory on Hermon, and held +converse with Him there, so we may see in that mysterious group +wrapped in the bright cloud the hint of a hope which was destined to +grow to clearness and certainty. Christ's glorified bodily humanity +is the type to which all His followers will be conformed. Gazing on +Him they shall be like Him, and will grow liker as they gaze. +Through eternal ages the double process will go on, and they shall +become ever more assimilated, and therefore capable of truer, +completer vision, and ever seeing Him more fully as He is, and +therefore progressively changed into more perfect resemblance. Nor +will that blessed change into advancing glory be shut up in their +hearts nor lack beholders. For in that realm of truth and reality +all that is within will be visible, our life will no longer fall +beneath our aspirations, nor practice be at variance with the +longings and convictions of our best selves. Then the Christlike +spirit will possess a body which is its glad and perfect servant, +and through which its beauty will shine undimmed. 'When Christ, who +is our life, shall be manifested, then shall we also be manifested +with Him in glory.' + + + + +'IN THE HOLY MOUNT' + + + 'And, behold, there talked with Him two men, which + were Moses and Elias: 31. Who appeared in glory, and + spake of His decease which He should accomplish at + Jerusalem.'--LUKE ix. 30, 31. + +The mysterious incident which is commonly called the Transfiguration +contained three distinct portions, each having its own special +significance and lesson. The first was that supernatural change in +the face and garments of our Lord from which the whole incident +derives its name. The second was the appearance by His side of these +two mighty dead participating in the strange lustre in which He +walked, and communing with Him of His death. And the last was the +descent of the bright cloud, visible as bright even amidst the +blazing sunshine on the lone hillside, and the mysterious attesting +Voice that spoke from out of its depths. + +I leave untouched altogether the first and the last of these three +portions, and desire briefly to fix our attention on this central +one. Now it is to be observed that whilst all the three Synoptic +Evangelists tell us of the Transfiguration, of the appearance of +Moses and Elias, and of the Cloud and the Voice, only Luke knows, +or at least records, and therefore alone probably knows, what it was +that they spoke of. Peter and James and John, the only human +witnesses, were lying dazed and drunken with sleep, whilst Christ's +countenance was changed; and during all the earlier portion at all +events of His converse with Moses and Elias. And it was only when +these were about to depart that the mortals awoke from their +slumber. So they probably neither heard the voices nor knew their +theme, and it was reserved for this Evangelist to tell us the +precious truth that the thing about which Lawgiver, Prophet, and the +Greater than both spake in that mysterious communion was none other +than the Cross. + +I think, then, that if we look at this incident from the point of +view which our Evangelist enables us to take, we shall get large and +important lessons as to the significance of the death of Jesus +Christ, in many aspects, and in reference to very many different +persons. I see at least four of these. This incident teaches us what +Christ's death was to Himself; what it was in reference to previous +revelation; what it was in reference to past generations; and what +it may be in reference to His servants' death. And upon these four +points I desire briefly to touch now. + +I. First, then, I see here teaching as to what the death of the Lord +Jesus Christ was in reference to Himself. + +What was it that brought these men--the one who had passed in a +whirlwind to heaven, and the other who had been led by a mysterious +death to slumber in an unknown grave--what was it that brought these +men to stand there upon the side of the slopes of Hermon? It was not +to teach Christ of the impending Cross. For, not to touch upon other +points, eight days before this mysterious interview He had foretold +it in the minutest details to His disciples. It was not for the sake +of Peter and James and John, lying coiled in slumber there, that +they broke the bands of death, and came back from 'that bourne from +which no traveller returns,' but it was for Christ, or for +themselves, or perhaps for both, that they stood there. + +You remember that in Gethsemane 'there appeared an angel from heaven +strengthening Him.' And one of the old devout painters has +marvellously embraced the deepest meaning of that vision when he has +painted for us the strengthening angel displaying in the heavens the +Cross on which He must die, as if the holding of it up before Him as +the divine will gave the strength that He needed. And I think in +some analogous way we are to regard the mission and message to Jesus +of these two men in our text. We know that clear before Him, all His +life long, there stood the certainty of the Cross. We know that He +came, not merely to teach, to minister, to bless, to guide, but that +He came to give His life a ransom for many. But we know, too, that +from about this point of time in His life the Cross stood more +distinctly, if that may be, before Him; or at all events, that it +pressed more upon His vision and upon His spirit. And doubtless +after that time when He spoke to the disciples so plainly and +clearly of what was coming upon Him, His human nature needed the +retirement of the mountain-side and prayer which preceded and +occasioned this mysterious incident. Christ shrank from His Cross +with sinless, natural, human shrinking of the flesh. That never +altered His purpose nor shook His will, but He needed, and He got, +strength from the Father, ministered once by an angel from heaven, +and ministered, as I suppose, another time by two men who looked at +death from the other side, and 'who spoke to Him of His decease +which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.' + +And now it is to be noticed that the words which our Evangelist +employs are remarkable, and one of them, at least, is all but +unique. The expression translated in my text 'decease' is the same +Greek word which, untranslated, names the second book of the Old +Testament--_Exodus_. And it literally means neither more nor +less than a departure or 'going out.' It is only employed in this +one passage and in another one to which I shall have occasion to +refer presently, which is evidently based and moulded upon this one, +to signify _death_. And the employment of it, perhaps upon +these undying tongues of the sainted dead--or, at all events, in +reference to the subject of their colloquy--seems to us to suggest +that part of what they had to say to the Master and what they had to +hear from Him was that His death was His departure in an altogether +unique, solitary, and blessed sense. 'I came forth from the Father, +and I am come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the +Father.' Not dragged by any necessity, but of His own sovereign +will, He passes from earth to the state where He was before. And as +He stands there on the mountain with His radiant face and His white +robes, this thought as to His death brings to Him comfort and +strength, even whilst He thinks of the suffering of the Cross. + +But, still further, the other word which is here employed helps us +to understand what our Lord's death was to Him; 'He should +_accomplish_' it as a thing to be fulfilled. And that involves +two ideas, the one that Christ in His death was consciously +submitting to a gladly accepted divine _must_, and was accomplishing +the purpose of Love which dwelt in the heavens and sent Him, as well +as His own purpose of love which would redeem and save. The necessity +of the death of Christ if sin is to be put away, if we are ever to have +a hope of immortality, the necessity of the death of Christ if the +mercy of God is to pour out upon a sinful and rebellious world, the +necessity of the death of Christ, if the deep purposes of the divine +heart are ever to be realised, and the yearning compassion of the +Saviour's soul is ever to reach its purpose--all lie in that great +word that 'His decease' was by Him to be 'accomplished.' This is the +fulfilling of the heart of God, this is the fulfilling of the +compassion of the Christ. It is the accomplishment of the divine +purpose from eternity. + +Still further, the word, as I think, suggests another kind of +fulfilment. He was to 'accomplish' His death. That is to say, every +drop of that bitter cup, drop by drop, bitterness by bitterness, +pang by pang, desolation by desolation, He was to drink; and He +drank it. Every step of that road sown with ploughshares and live +coals He was to tread, with bleeding, blistered, slow, unshrinking +feet. And He trod it. He _accomplished_ it; hurrying over none +of the sorrow, perfunctorily doing none of the tasks. And after the +weary moments had ticked themselves away, and the six hours of +agony, when the minutes were as drops of blood falling slowly to the +ground, were passed, He inverted the cup, and it was empty, and He +said 'It is finished'; and He gave up the ghost, having +accomplished His decease in Jerusalem.' + +II. Further, note in this incident what that death is in regard to +previous revelation. + +I need not remind you, I suppose, that we have here the two great +representative figures of the past history of Israel--the Lawgiver, +who, according to the Old Testament, was not only the medium of +declaring the divine will, but the medium of establishing Sacrifice +as well as Law, and the Prophet, who, though no written words of his +have been preserved, and nothing of a predictive and Messianic +character seems to have dropped from His lips, yet stood as the +representative and head of the great prophetic order to which so +much of the earlier revelation was entrusted. And now here they two +stand with Christ on the mountain; and the theme about which they +spake with Him there is the theme of which the former revelation had +spoken in type and shadow, in stammering words, 'at sundry times and +in divers manners,' to the former generations--viz. the coming of +the great Sacrifice and the offering of the great Propitiation. All +the past of Israel pointed onwards to the Cross, and in that Cross +its highest word was transcended, its faintest emblems were +explained and expressed, its unsolved problems which it had raised +in order that they might be felt to be unsolved, were all answered, +and that which had been set forth but in shadow and symbol was given +to the world in reality for evermore. In Moses Law and Sacrifice, +and in Elijah the prophetic function, met by the side of Christ, +'and spake of His decease.' + +Now, dear friends, let me say one word here before I pass on. There +is a great deal being said nowadays about the position of the Old +Testament, the origin of its ritual, and other critical, and, to some +extent, historical, questions. I have no doubt that we have much to +learn upon these subjects; but what I would now insist upon is this, +that all these subjects, about which people are getting so excited, +and some of them so angry, stand, and may be dealt with, altogether +apart from this central thought, that the purpose and meaning, the +end and object of the whole preliminary and progressive revelation of +God from the beginning, are to lead straight up to Jesus Christ and +to His Cross. And if we understand that, and feel that 'the testimony +of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,' and that law and sacrifice, +commandments and altar, Sinai and Zion, the fiery words that were +spoken in the wilderness, and the perpetual burnt-offering that went +up in the Temple, had one mission--viz. to 'prepare the way of the +Lord'--we have grasped the essential truth as to the Old Revelation; +and if we do not understand that, we may be as scholarly and erudite +and original as we please, but we miss the one truth which is worth +grasping. The relation between the Old revelation and the New is this, +that Christ was pointed to by it all, and that in Himself He sums up +and surpasses and antiquates, because He fulfils, all the past. + +Therefore Moses and Elijah came to witness as well as to encourage. +Their presence proclaimed that Christ was the meaning of all the +past, and the crown of the divine revelation. And they faded away, +and Jesus was found alone standing there, as He stands for ever +before all generations and all lands, the sole, the perfect, the +eternal Revealer of the heart and will of God. 'God, who at sundry +times and in divers manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets, +hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.' + +III. Again, we have here set before us the death of Christ in its +relation to past generations. + +I need not dwell upon anything that was mysterious or anomalous in +the last moments upon earth of either Moses or Elijah. I do not +suppose that there is any reference to the undoubted peculiarities +which existed in the case of both. But they came from that dim +region where the dead were waiting for the coming of the Saviour, +and by some means, we know not how, were clothed with something that +was like an immortal body, and capable of entering into this +material universe. There they stood, witnesses that Christ's death +was of interest to all those sleeping generations in the past. We +know not anything, or scarcely anything, of the condition of the +sainted dead who died before Christ came. But this is clear, that +these two came from the land where silent expectancy had ruled, and +came perhaps to carry back to their brethren the tidings that the +hour was ready to strike, and that soon amongst them there would +stand the Eternal Life. + +But, be that as it may, does not that group on the mountain-side +teach us this, that the Cross of Jesus Christ had a backward as well +as a forward power, and that for all the generations who had died, +'not having received the promises, but having seen them and saluted +them from afar,' the influence of that Sacrifice had opened the +gates of the Kingdom where they were gathered in hope, even as it +opens for us, and all subsequent generations, the gates of the +paradise of God? + +I know not whether there be truth in the ancient idea that when the +Master died He passed into that _Hades_ where were assembled +the disembodied spirits of the righteous dead, and led captivity +captive, taking them with Him into a loftier Paradise. But this I am +sure of, that Christ's Cross has always been the means and channel +whereby forgiveness and hope and heaven have been given to men, and +that the old dream of the devout painter which he has breathed upon +the walls of the convent in Florence is true in spirit whatever it +may be in letter, that the Christ who died went down into the dark +regions, burst the bars and broke the gates of iron, and crushed the +demon porter beneath the shattered portal, and that out of the dark +rock-hewn caverns there came streaming the crowds of the sainted +dead, with Adam at their head, and many another who had seen His day +afar off and been glad, stretching out eager hands to grasp the +life-giving hand of the Redeemer that had come to them too. + +Moses and Elias were the 'first-fruits of them that slept,' and +there were others, when the bodies of the saints rose from the grave +and appeared in the Holy City unto many. And their presence, and the +presence of these two there, typified for us the great fact that the +Cross of Christ is the redemption of pre-Christian as well as of +Christian ages; and that He is the Lord both of the dead and of the +living. + +IV. And so, lastly, this incident may suggest also what that death +of Jesus Christ may be in reference to the deaths of His servants. + +I do not find that thought in the words of our text, but in the +reference to them which is made in the second epistle attributed to +Peter, who was present at the Transfiguration. There is a very +remarkable passage in that Epistle, in the context of which there +are distinct verbal allusions to the narrative of the Transfiguration, +and in it the writer employs the same word to describe his own death +which is employed here. It is the only other instance in Scripture +of its use in that sense. And so I draw this simple lesson; that +mighty death which was accomplished upon Calvary, which is the crown +and summit of all Revelation, beyond which God has nothing that He +can say or do to make men sure of His heart and recipients of +forgiveness, which was the channel of pardon for all past ages, and +the hope of the sainted dead--that death may turn for us our departure +into its own likeness. For us, too, all the grimness, all the darkness, +all the terror, may pass away, and it may become simply a change of +place, and a going home to God. If we believe that Jesus died, we +believe that He has thereby smoothed and softened and lessened our +death into a sleep in Him. + +Nor need we forget the special meaning of the word. If we have set +our hopes upon Christ, and, as sinful men and women, have cast the +burden of our sins, and the weight of our salvation, on His strong +arm, then life will be blessed, and death, when it comes, will be a +true Exodus, the going out of the slaves from the land of bondage, +and passing through the divided sea, not into a weary wilderness, +but into the light of the love and the blessedness of the land where +our Brother is King, and where we shall share His reign. + +I have been speaking to you of what Christ's death is in many +regions of the universe, in many eras of time. My brother, what is +Christ's death to you? Can you say, 'The life that I live in the +flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave +Himself for me?' + + + + +CHRIST HASTENING TO THE CROSS + + + 'And it came to pass, when the time was come that He + should be received up, He stedfastly set His face to + go to Jerusalem.'--LUKE ix. 51. + +There are some difficulties, with which I need not trouble you here, +as to bringing the section of this Gospel to which these words are +the introduction, into its proper chronological place in relation to +the narratives; but, putting these on one side for the present, +there seems no doubt that the Evangelist's intention here is to +represent the beginning of our Lord's last journey from Galilee to +Jerusalem--a journey which was protracted and devious, and the +narrative of which in this Gospel, as you will perceive, occupies a +very large portion of its whole contents. + +The picture that is given in my text is that of a clear knowledge of +what waited Him, of a steadfast resolve to accomplish the purpose of +the divine love, and that resolve not without such a shrinking of +some part of His nature that He had 'to _set_ His face to go to +Jerusalem.' + +The words come into parallelism very strikingly with a great +prophecy of the Messiah in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, where we +read, 'The Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be +confounded'--or, as the words have been rendered, 'shall not suffer +myself to be overcome by mockery'--'therefore have I set my face +like a flint.' In the words both of the Prophet and of the +Evangelist there is the same idea of a resolved will, as the result +of a conscious effort directed to prevent circumstances which tended +to draw Him back, from producing their effect. The graphic narrative +of the Evangelist Mark adds one more striking point to that picture +of high resolve. He tells us, speaking of what appears to be the +final epoch in this long journey to the Cross, '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.' What a picture +that is, Christ striding along the steep mountain path far in +advance--impelled by that same longing which sighs so wonderfully +in His words, 'How am I straitened till it be accomplished,'--with +solemn determination in the gentle face, and His feet making haste to +run in the way of the Father's commandments! And lagging behind, the +little group, awed into almost stupor, and shrinking in +uncomprehending terror from that light of unconquerable resolve and +more than mortal heroism that blazed in His eyes! + +If we fix, then, on this picture, and as we are warranted in doing, +regard it as giving us a glimpse of the very heart of Christ, I +think it may well suggest to us considerations that may tend to make +more real to us that sacrifice that He made, more deep to us that +love by which He was impelled, and may perhaps tend to make our love +more true and our resolve more fixed. 'He set His face to go to +Jerusalem.' + +I. First, then, we may take, I think, from these words, the thought +of the perfect clearness with which all through Christ's life He +foresaw the inevitable and purposed end. + +Here, indeed, the Evangelist leaps over the suffering of the Cross, +and thinks only of the time when He shall be lifted up upon the +throne; but in that calm and certain prevision which, in His +manhood, the Divine Son of God did exercise concerning His own +earthly life, between Him and the glory there ever stood the black +shadow thrown by Calvary. When He spoke of being 'lifted up,' He +ever meant by that pregnant and comprehensive word, at once man's +elevation of Him on the accursed tree, and the Father's elevation of +Him upon the throne at His right hand! The future was, if I may so +say, in His eye so foreshortened that the two things ran into one, +and the ambiguous expression did truly connote the one undivided act +of prescient consciousness in which He at once recognised the Cross +and the throne. And so, when the time was come that He should be +received up, He 'steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.' + +Now, there is another thing to be noticed. That vision of the +certain end which here fills His mind and impels His conduct, was by +no means new with Him. Modern unbelieving commentators and critics +upon the Gospels have tried their best to represent Christ's life +as, at a certain point in it, being modified by His recognition of +the fact that His mission was a failure, and that there was nothing +left for Him but martyrdom! I believe that that is as untrue to the +facts of the Gospel story upon any interpretation of them, as it is +repulsive to the instincts of devout hearts; and without troubling +you with thoughts about it I need only refer to two words of His. +When was it that He said, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I +will build it up'? When was it that He said, 'As Moses lifted up the +serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted +up'? The one saying was uttered at the very beginning of His public +work, and the other in His conversation with Nicodemus. On the +testimony of these two sayings, if there were none else, I think +there is no option but to believe that from the first there stood +clear before Him the necessity and the certainty of the Cross, and +that it was no discovery made at a certain point of His course. + +And then, remember that we are not to think of Him as, like many an +earthly hero and martyr, regarding a violent and bloody death as +being the very probable result of faithful boldness, but to believe +that He, looking on from the beginning to that end, regarded it +always as being laid upon Him by a certain divine necessity, into +which necessity He entered with the full submission and acquiescence +of His own will, and from the beginning knew that Calvary was the +work for which He had come, and that His love would fail of its +expression, and the divine purpose would fail of its realisation, +and His whole mission would fail of all its meaning, unless He died +for men. The martyr looks to the scaffold and says, 'It stands in my +way, and I must either be untrue to conscience or I must go there, +and so I will go.' Christ said, 'The Cross is in My path, and on it +and from it I shall exercise the influence, to exercise which I have +come into the world, and there I shall _do_ the thing which I +came forth from the Father to do.' He thought of His death not as +the end of His work, but as the centre-point of it; not as the +termination of His activity, but as its climax, to which all the +rest was subordinated, and without which all the rest was nought. He +does not die, and so seal a faithful life by an heroic death,--but +dies, so bearing and bearing away man's sin. He regarded from the +beginning 'the glory that should follow,' and the suffering through +which He had to wade to reach it, in one and the same act of +prescience, and said, 'Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is +written of Me.' + +And I think, dear friends, if we carried with us more distinctly +than we do that one simple thought, that in all the human joys, in +all the apparently self-forgetting tenderness, of that Lord who had +a heart for every sorrow and an ear for every complaint, and a hand +open as day and full of melting charity for every need--that in +every moment of that life, in the boyhood, in the dawning manhood, +in the maturity of His growing human powers--there was always +present one black shadow, towards which He ever went straight with +the consent of His will and with the clearest eye, we should +understand something more of how His life as well as His death was a +sacrifice for us sinful men! + +We honour and love men who crush down their own sorrows in order to +help their fellows. We wonder with almost reverence when we see some +martyr, in sight of the faggots, pause to do a kindness to some +weeping heart in the crowd, or to speak a cheering word. We admire +the leisure and calm of spirit which he displays. But all these +pale, and the very comparison may become an insult, before that +heart which ever discerned Calvary, and never let the sight hinder +one deed of kindness, nor silence one gracious word, nor check one +throb of sympathy. + +II. Still further, the words before us lead to a second +consideration, which I have just suggested in my last sentence--Our +Lord's perfect willingness for the sacrifice which He saw before +Him. + +We have here brought into the narrowest compass, and most clearly +set forth, the great standing puzzle of all thought, which can only +be solved by action. On the one side there is the distinctest +knowledge of a divine purpose that _will_ be executed; on the +other side there is the distinctest consciousness that at each step +towards the execution of it He is constrained by no foreign and +imposed necessity, but is going to the Cross by His own will. 'The +Son of Man must be lifted up.' 'It _became_ Him to make the +Captain of salvation perfect through sufferings.' 'It _behoved_ +Him to be made in all points like His brethren.' The Eternal Will of +the Father, the purpose purposed before the foundation of the world, +the solemn prophecies from the beginning of time, constituted the +necessity, and involved the certainty, of His death on the Cross. +But are we, therefore, to think that Jesus Christ was led along the +path that ended there, by a force which overbore and paralysed His +human will? Was not His life, and especially His death, +_obedience_? Was there not, therefore, in Him, as in us all, +the human will that could cheerfully submit; and must there not, +then, have been, at each step towards the certain end, a fresh act +of submission and acceptance of the will of the Father that had sent +Him? + +'Clear knowledge of the end as divinely appointed and certain'; yes, +one might say, and if so, there could have been no voluntariness in +treading the path that leads to it. 'Voluntariness in treading the +path that leads to it, and if so, there could have been no divine +ordination of the end.' Not so! When human thought comes, if I may +so say, full butt against a stark, staring contradiction like that, +it is no proof that either of the propositions is false. It is only +like the sign-boards that the iceman puts upon the thin ice, +'dangerous!' a warning that that is not a place for us to tread. We +have to keep a firm hold of what is certified to us, on either side, +by its appropriate evidence, and leave the reconciliation, if it can +ever be given to finite beings, to a higher wisdom, and, perchance, +to another world! + +But that is a digression from my more immediate purpose, which is +simply to bring before our minds, as clearly as I can, that perfect, +continuous, ever-repeated willingness, expressing itself in a chain +of constant acts that touch one upon the other, which Christ +manifested to embrace the Cross, and to accomplish what was at once +the purpose of the Father's will and the purpose of His own. + +And it may be worth while, just for a moment, to touch lightly upon +some of the many points which bring out so clearly in these Gospel +narratives the wholly and purely voluntary character of Christ's +death. + +Take, for instance, the very journey which I am speaking of now. Christ +went up to Jerusalem, says my text. What did He go there for? He went, +as you will see, if you look at the previous circumstance,--He went in +order, if I might use such a word, to precipitate the collision, and to +make His Crucifixion certain. He was under the ban of the Sanhedrim; +but perfectly safe as long as He had stopped up among the hills of +Galilee. He was as unsafe when He went up to Jerusalem as John Huss +when he went to the Council of Constance with the Emperor's safe-conduct +in his belt; or as a condemned heretic would have been in the old days, +if he had gone and stood in that little dingy square outside the palace +of the Inquisition at Rome, and there, below the obelisk, preached his +heresies! Christ had been condemned in the council of the nation; but +there were plenty of hiding-places among the Galilean hills, and the +frontier was close at hand, and it needed a long arm to reach from +Jerusalem all the way across Samaria to the far north. Knowing that, +He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and, if I might use +the expression, went straight into the lion's mouth. Why? Because He +chose to die. + +And, then, take another circumstance. If you will look carefully at +the Scripture narrative, you will find that from about this point in +His life onwards there comes a distinct change in one very important +respect. Before this He shunned publicity; after this He courted it. +Before this, when He spoke in veiled words of His sufferings, He +said to His disciples, 'Tell no man till the Son of man be risen +from the dead.' Hereafter though there are frequent prophecies of +His sufferings, there is no repetition of that prohibition. He goes +up to Jerusalem, and His triumphal entry adds fuel to the fire. His +language at the last moment appeals to the publicity of His final +visit to that city--'Was I not daily with you in the Temple and ye +laid no hands upon Me?' Everything that He could do He does to draw +attention to Himself--everything, that is to say, within the limits +of the divine decorum, which was ever observed in His life, of whom +it was written long, long ago, 'He shall not strive, nor cry, nor +cause His voice to be heard in the streets.' There is, then, a most +unmistakable change to be felt by any who will carefully read the +narratives in their bearing upon this one point--a resolve to draw +the eyes of the enemy upon Himself. + +And to the same purpose, did you ever notice how calmly, with full +self-consciousness, distinctly understanding what He is doing, +distinctly knowing to what it will lead, He makes His words ever +heavier and heavier, and more and more sharply pointed with +denunciations, as the last loving wrestle between Himself and the +scribes and Pharisees draws near to its bloody close? Instead of +softening He hardens His tones--if I dare use the word, where all is +the result of love--at any rate He keeps no terms; but as the danger +increases His words become plainer and sterner, and approach as near +as ever _His_ words could do to bitterness and rebuke. It was +then, whilst passionate hate was raging round Him, and eager eyes +were gleaming revenge, that He poured out His sevenfold woes upon +the 'hypocrites,' the 'blind guides,' the 'fools,' the 'whited +sepulchres,' the 'serpents,' the 'generation of vipers,' whom He +sees filling up the measure of their fathers in shedding His +righteous blood. + +And again, the question recurs--Why? And again, besides other +reasons, which I have not time to touch upon here, the answer, as it +seems to me, must unmistakably be, Because He willed to die, and He +willed to die because He loved us. + +The same lesson is taught, too, by that remarkable incident +preserved for us by the Gospel of John, of the strange power which +accompanied His avowal of Himself to the rude soldiers who had come +to seize Him, and which struck them to the ground in terror and +impotence. One flash comes forth to tell of the sleeping lightning +that He will not use, and then having revealed the might that could +have delivered Him from their puny arms, He returns to His attitude +of self-surrender for our sakes, with those wonderful words which +tell how He gave up Himself that we might be free, 'If ye seek Me, +let these go their way.' The scene is a parable of the whole work of +Jesus; it reveals His power to have shaken off every hand laid upon +Him, His voluntary submission to His else impotent murderers, and +the love which moved Him to the surrender. + +Other illustrations of the same sort I must leave untouched at +present, and only remind you of the remarkable peculiarity of the +language in which all the Evangelists describe the supreme moment +when Christ passed from His sufferings. 'When He had cried with a +loud voice, He yielded up the ghost,'--He sent away the spirit--'He +breathed out' (His spirit), 'He gave up the ghost.' In simple truth, +He 'committed His spirit' into the Father's hand. And I believe that +it is an accurate and fair comment to say, that that is no mere +euphemism for death, but carries with it the thought that He was +_active_ in that moment; that the nails and the spear and the +Cross did not kill Christ, but that Christ _willed_ to die! And +though it is true on the one side, as far as men's hatred and +purpose are concerned. 'Whom with wicked hands ye have crucified and +slain'; on the other side, as far as the deepest verity of the fact +is concerned, it is still more true, 'I have power to lay it down, +and I have power to take it again.' + +But at all events, whatever you may think of such an exposition as +that, the great principle which my text illustrates for us at an +earlier stage is, at least, irrefragably established--that our dear +Lord, when He died, died, because He _willed_ to do so. He was +man and therefore He _could_ die; but He was not man in such +fashion as that He _must_ die. In His bodily frame was the +possibility, not the necessity, of death. And that being so, the +very fact of His death is the most signal proof that He is Lord of +death as well as of life. He dies not because He must, He dies not +because of faintness and pain and wounds. These and they who +inflicted them had no power at all over Him. He chooses to die; and +He wills it because He wills to fulfil the eternal purpose of divine +love, which is His purpose, and to bring life to the world. His hour +of weakness was His hour of strength. They lifted Him on a cross, +and it became a throne. In the moment when death seemed to conquer +Him, He was really using it that He might abolish it. When He gave +tip the ghost, He showed Himself Lord of death as marvellously and +as gloriously as when He burst its bands and rose from the grave; +for this grisly shadow, too, was His servant, and He says to him, +'Come, and he cometh; do this, and he doeth it.' 'Thou didst +overcome the sharpness of death' when Thou didst willingly bow Thy +head to it, and didst die not because Thou _must_, but because +Thou _wouldest_. + +III. Still further, let me remind you how, in the language of this +verse, there is also taught us that there was in Christ a natural +human shrinking from the Cross. + +The steadfast and resolved will held its own, overcoming the natural +human reluctance. 'He _set_ His face.' People are afraid to +talk--and the instinct, the reverent instinct, is right, however we +may differ from the application of it--people are afraid to talk, as +if there was any shrinking in Christ from the Cross. I believe there +was. Was the agony in Gethsemane a reality or a shadow, when He +said, 'O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass?' What did +that prayer mean, if there was not something in His nature that +recoiled from the agony and mysterious horror of these awful hours? +Let us take heed lest in our reverence we destroy the very notion on +which our hope rests--that of Christ as suffering. For that one word +involves all that I say--Did Christ _suffer_ or did He not? If +He suffered, then human nature shrank from it. The two ideas are +correlative, you cannot part them--suffering and reluctance, a +perfectly innocent, natural, inevitable, human instinct, inseparable +from corporeity, that makes men recoil from pain. 'He endured the +Cross,' says the Book--if there was not reluctance what was there to +'endure'? 'Despising the shame'--if there was not something from +which He shrank, what was there to 'despise'? 'He _set_ His +face'--if there was not something in Him that hung back, what need +was there for the hardening of the countenance? If Christ has +suffered, then His flesh and blood quivered beforehand with the +pangs and shrank from these, and He would have been spared the cup. +Such instinctive recoil is not evil, it is not rebellion, it is not +unwillingness to submit to the Father's will. His whole being clave +to that, and never swerved from it for one moment. But still, +because the path was darkened by mysterious blackness, and led to a +Cross, therefore He, even He, who did always the things that pleased +the Father, and ever delighted to do His will, needed to '_set_ +His face' to go up to the mountain of sacrifice. + +And now, if you will take along with that the other thought that I +suggested at the beginning of these remarks, and remember that this +shrinking must have been as continuous as the vision, and that this +overcoming of it must have been as persistent and permanent as the +resolve, I think we get a point of view from which to regard that +life of Christ's--full of pathos, full of tender appeals to our +hearts and to our thankfulness. + +All along that consecrated road He walked, and each step represented +a separate act of will, and each separate act of will represented a +triumph over the reluctance of flesh and blood. As we may say, every +time that He planted His foot on the flinty path the blood flowed. +Every step was a pain like that of a man enduring the ordeal and +walking on burning iron or sharp steel. + +The old taunt of His enemies, as they stood beneath His Cross, might +have been yielded to--'If Thou be the Son of God, come down and we +will believe.' I ask why did not He? I know that, to those who think +less loftily of Christ than we who believe Him to be the Son of God, +the words sound absurd--but I for one believe that the only thing +that kept Him there, the only answer to that question is--Because He +loved me with an everlasting love, and died to redeem me. Because of +that love, He came to earth; because of that love, He tabernacled +among us; because of that love, He gazed all His life long on the +Cross of shame; because of that love, He trod unfaltering, with +eager haste and solemn resolve, the rough and painful road; because +of that love, He listened not to the voice that at the beginning +tempted Him to win the world for Himself by an easier path; because +of that love, He listened not--though He could have done so--to the +voices that at the end taunted Him with their proffered allegiance +if He would come down from the Cross; because of that love, He gave +up His spirit. And through all the weariness and contumely and pain, +that love held His will fixed to its purpose, and bore Him over +every hindrance that barred His path. Many waters quench it not. +_That_ love is stronger than death; mightier than all opposing +powers; deep and great beyond all thought or thankfulness. It +silences all praise. It beggars all recompense. To believe it is +life. To feel it is heaven. + +But one more remark I would make on this whole subject. We are far +too much accustomed to think of our Saviour as presenting only the +gentle graces of human nature. He presents those that belong to the +strong side of our nature just as much. In Him are all power, manly +energy, resolved consecration; everything which men call heroism is +there. 'He steadfastly set His face.' And everything which men call +tenderest love, most dewy pity, most marvellous and transcendent +patience, is all there too. The type of manhood and the type of +womanhood are both and equally in Jesus Christ; and He is _the_ +Man, whole, entire, perfect, with all power breathed forth in all +gentleness, with all gentleness made steadfast and mighty by His +strength. 'And he said unto me, Behold the lion of the tribe of +Judah. And I beheld, and lo, a lamb!'--the blended symbols of kingly +might, and lowly meekness, power in love, and love in power. The +supremest act of resolved consecration and heroic self-immolation +that ever was done upon earth--an act which we degrade by +paralleling it with any other--was done at the bidding of love that +pitied us. As we look up at that Cross we know not whether is more +wonderfully set forth the pitying love of Christ's most tender +heart, or the majestic energy of Christ's resolved will. The blended +rays pour out, dear brethren, and reach to each of us. Do not look +to that great sacrifice with idle wonder. Bend upon it no eye of +mere curiosity. Beware of theorising merely about what it reveals +and what it does. Turn not away from it carelessly as a twice-told +tale. But look, believing that all that divine and human love pours +out its treasure upon you, that all that firmness of resolved +consecration and willing surrender to the death of the Cross was for +you. Look, believing that you had then, and have now, a place in His +heart, and in His sacrifice. Look, remembering that it was because +He would save you, that Himself He could not save, + +And as, from afar, we look on that great sight, let His love melt +our hearts to an answering fervour, and His fixed will give us, too, +strength to delight in obedience, to set our faces like a flint. Let +the power of His sacrifice, and the influence of His example which +that sacrifice commends to our loving copy, and the grace of His +Spirit whom He, since that sacrifice, pours upon men, so mould us +that we, too, like Him, may 'quit us like men, be strong,' and all +our strength and 'all our deeds' be wielded and 'done in charity.' + + + + +CHRIST'S MESSENGERS: THEIR EQUIPMENT AND WORK + + + 'After these things, the Lord appointed other seventy + also, and sent them two and two before His face into + every city and place whither He Himself would come. + 2. Therefore said He unto them, The harvest truly is + great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore + the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth + labourers into His harvest. 3. Go your ways: behold, I + send you forth as lambs among wolves. 4. Carry neither + purse, nor scrip, nor shoes; and salute no man by the + way. 5. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, + Peace be to this house. 6. And if the son of peace be + there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall + turn to you again. 7. And in the same house remain, + eating and drinking such things as they give: for the + labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to + house. 8. And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they + receive you, eat such things as are set before you: + 9. And heal the sick that are therein; and say unto + them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. 10. But + into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you + not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, + and say, 11. Even the very dust of your city, which + cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: + notwithstanding, be ye sure of this, that the kingdom + of God is come nigh unto you.... 17. And the seventy + returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils + are subject unto us through Thy name. 18. And He said + unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from + heaven. 19. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on + serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the + enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you. + 20. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the + spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, + because your names are written in heaven.' + --LUKE x. 1-11: 17-20. + +The mission of the Seventy is clearly distinguished from and +contrasted with that of the Twelve by the word 'others' in verse 1, +which points back to Luke ix.1. The Twelve were prohibited from +going beyond Jews; the Seventy were under no such restriction, and +were probably sent to the half-Gentile districts on the east of +Jordan. The number of twelve had reference to the number of the +tribes; that of seventy may have referred to the number of the +elders, but it has also been suggested that its reference is to the +supposed number of the nations. The appointment of the Twelve was to +a permanent office; that of the Seventy to a transitory mission. +Much of the charge given to either is given to both, as is most +natural, since they had the same message, and both were sent to +prepare for Christ's personal ministry. But though the Seventy were +sent out but for a short time, permanent principles for the +guidance, not only of Christian workers, but of all Christian lives, +are embodied in the charge which they received. + +We note, first, that all personal service should be preceded by +intense realisation of the immense field, and of the inadequacy, of +Christian effort, which vision will culminate in prayer for more +toilers to be 'sent forth.' The word implies a certain measure of +compulsion, for an overmastering impulse is always needed to +overcome human reluctance and laziness. No man has ever done large +service for God who has not felt that, like the prophet, he was laid +hold of by the Spirit, and borne away, whether he would or no. 'I +must speak,' is felt by every true messenger of God. The prayer was +answered by the sending of the pray-ers, as it often is. Note how +Jesus implies that He is Lord of the harvest, in that His sending +them is the answer to the petition. Note, too, the authority which +He claims to exercise supreme sovereignty over the lives of men. He +has the right to fling them into deadly peril for no other purpose +than to proclaim His name. Lambs, ringed round by wolves with white, +gleaming teeth, have little chance of life. Jesus gives His servants +full warning of dangers, and on the very warning builds an +exhortation to quiet confidence; for, if the sentence ends with +'lambs in the midst of wolves,' it begins with 'I send you forth,' +and that is enough, for He will defend them when He seeth the wolf +coming. Not only so, but He will also provide for all their needs, +so they want no baggage nor money, nor even a staff. A traveller +without any of these would be in poor case, but they are not to +carry such things, because they carry Jesus. He who sends them forth +goes with them whom He sends. Now, this precept, in its literal +form, was expressly abolished afterwards (Luke xxii. 36), but the +spirit of it is permanent. If Christ sends us, we may trust Him to +take care of us as long as we are on His errands. + +Energetic pursuit of their work, unimpeded by distractions of social +intercourse, is meant by the prohibition of saluting by the way. +That does not mean churlish isolation, but any one who has ever seen +two Easterns 'saluting' knows what a long-drawn-out affair it is. +How far along the road one might have travelled while all that empty +ceremony was being got through! The time for salutations is when the +journey is over. They mean something then. The great effect of the +presence of Christ's servants should be to impart the peace which +they themselves possess. We should put reality into conventional +courtesies. All Christians are to be peacemakers in the deepest +sense, and especially in regard to men's relations with God. The +whole scope of our work may be summed up as being to proclaim and +bring peace with God, with ourselves, with all others, and with +circumstances. The universality of our message is implied in the +fact that the salutation is to be given in every house entered, and +without any inquiry whether a 'son of peace' is there. The reflex +blessedness of Christian effort is taught in the promise that the +peace, vainly wished for those who would not receive it, is not +wasted like spilt water, but comes back like a dove, to the hand of +its sender. If we do no other person good, we bless ourselves by all +work for others. + +The injunctions as to conduct in the house or city that receives the +messengers carry two principles of wide application. First, they +demand clear disinterestedness and superiority to vulgar appetites. +Christ's servants are not to be fastidious as to their board and +lodging. They are not to make demands for more refined diet than +their hosts are accustomed to have, and they are not to shift their +quarters, though it were from a hovel to a palace. The suspicion +that a Christian worker is fond of good living and sensuous delights +robs his work of power. But the injunction teaches also that there +is no generosity in those who hear the message giving, and no +obligation laid on those who deliver it by their receiving, enough +to live and work on. The less we obviously look for, the more shall +we probably receive. A high-minded man need not scruple to take the +'hire'; a high-minded giver will not suppose that he has hired the +receiver to be his servant. + +The double substance of the work is next briefly stated. The order +in which its two parts stands is remarkable, for the healing of the +sick is put first, and the proclamation of the nearness of the +kingdom second. Possibly the reason is that the power to heal was a +new gift. Its very priority in mention may imply that it was but a +means to an end, a part of the equipment for the true and proper +work of preaching the coming of the kingdom and its King. At all +events, let us learn that Jesus wills the continual combination of +regard to the bodily wants and sicknesses, and regard to the +spiritual needs of men. + +The solemn instructions as to what was to be done in the case of +rejection breathe a spirit the reverse of sanguine. Jesus had no +illusions as to the acceptance of the message, and He will send no +man out to work hiding from him the difficulties and opposition +probably to be encountered. Much wisdom lies in deciding when a field +of labour or a method of work should be abandoned as hopeless--for +the present and for the individual worker, at all events. To do it +too soon is cowardice; to delay it too long is not admirable +perseverance, but blindness to plain providences. To shake off the +dust is equivalent to severing all connection. The messenger will +not bring away the least thing belonging to the city. But whatever +men's unbelief, it does not affect the fact, but it does affect +their relation to the fact. The gracious message was at first that +'the kingdom of God is come nigh _unto you_,' but the last +shape of it leaves out 'unto you': for rejection of the word cuts +off from beneficial share in the word, and the kingdom, when it +comes, has no blessing for the unbelieving soul. + +The return of the Seventy soon followed their being sent forth. They +came back with a childish, surprised joy, and almost seem to have +thought that Jesus would be as much astonished and excited as they +were with the proof of the power of His name. They had found that +they could not only heal the sick, but cast out demons. Jesus' +answer is meant to quiet down their excitement by teaching them that +He had known what they were doing whilst they were doing it. When +did He behold Satan fall from heaven? The context seems to require +that it should be at the time when the Seventy were casting out +demons. The contest between the personal Source of evil and Jesus +was fought out by the principals, not by their subordinates, and it +is already victoriously decided in Christ's sight. Therefore, as the +sequel of His victory, He enlarges His gifts to His servants, +couching the charter in the words of a psalm (Ps. xci.). Nothing can +harm the servant without the leave of the Master, and if any evil +befall him in his work, the evil in the evil, the poison on the +arrow-head, will be wiped off and taken away. But great as are the +gifts to the faithful servant, they are less to be rejoiced in than +his personal inclusion among the citizens of heaven. Gifts and +powers are good, and may legitimately be rejoiced in; but to possess +eternal life, and to belong to the mother-city of us all, the New +Jerusalem, is better than all gifts and all powers. + + + + +NEIGHBOURS FAR OFF + + + 'And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted + Him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal + life? 26. He said unto him, What is written in the law? + how readest thou? 27. And he, answering, said, Thou + shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and + with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with + all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 28. And He + said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and + thou shalt live. 29. But he, willing to justify + himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? + 30. And Jesus, answering, said, A certain man went down + from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, + which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and + departed, leaving him half dead. 31. And by chance + there came down a certain priest that way; and when he + saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32. And + likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and + looked on him, and passed by on the other side. 33. But + a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he + was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, + 34. And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring + in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and + brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35. And on + the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence, + and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care + of him: and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come + again, I will repay thee. 36. Which now of these three, + thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among + the thieves! 37. And he said. He that showed mercy on + him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.' + --LUKE x. 25-37. + +The lawyer's first question was intended to 'tempt' Jesus, which +here seems to mean, rather, 'to test'; that is, to ascertain His +orthodoxy or His ability. Christ walks calmly through the snare, as +if not seeing it. His answer is unimpeachably orthodox, and withal +just hints in the slightest way that the question was needless, +since one so learned in the law knew well enough what were the +conditions of inheriting life. The lawyer knows the letter too well +to be at a loss what to answer. But it is remarkable that he gives +the same combination of two passages which Jesus gives in His last +duel with the Pharisees (Matt. xxii; Mark xii.). Did Jesus adopt +this lawyer's summary? Or is Luke's narrative condensed, omitting +stages by which Jesus led the man to so wise an answer? + +Our Lord's rejoinder has a marked tone of authority, which puts the +lawyer in his right place. His answer is commended, as by one whose +estimate has weight; and his practice is implicitly condemned, as by one +who knows, and has a right to judge. 'This do' is a sharp sword-thrust. +It also unites the two 'loves' as essentially one, by saying 'This'-not +'these'--'do.' The lawyer feels the prick, and it is his defective +practice, not his question, which he seeks to 'justify.' He did not +think that his love to God needed any justification. He had fully done +his duty there, but about the other half he was less sure. So he tried +to ride off, lawyer-like, on a question of the meaning of words. 'Who +is my neighbour?' is the question answered by the lovely story of the +kindly Samaritan. + +I. The main purpose, then, is to show how far off men may be, and +yet be neighbours. The lawyer's question, 'Who is my neighbour?' is +turned round the other way in Christ's form of it at the close. It +is better to ask 'Whose neighbour am I?' than 'Who is my neighbour?' +The lawyer meant by the word 'a person whom I am bound to love.' He +wanted to know how far an obligation extended which he had no mind +to recognise an inch farther than he was obliged. Probably he had in +his thought the Rabbinical limitations which made it as much duty to +'hate thine enemy' as to 'love thy neighbour.' Probably, too, he +accepted the national limitations, which refused to see any +neighbours outside the Jewish people. + +'Neighbourhood,' in his judgment, implied 'nearness,' and he wished to +know how far off the boundaries of the region included in the command +lay. There are a great many of us like him, who think that the +obligation is a matter of geography, and that love, like force, is +inversely as the square of the distance. A good deal of the so-called +virtue of 'patriotism' is of this spurious sort. But Christ's way of +putting the question sweeps all such limitations aside. 'Who became +neighbour to' the wounded man? 'He who showed mercy on him,' said the +lawyer, unwilling to name the Samaritan, and by his very reluctance +giving the point to his answer which Christ wished to bring out. We +are not to love because we are neighbours in any geographical sense, +but we become neighbours to the man farthest from us when we love and +help him. The relation has nothing to do with proximity. If we prove +ourselves neighbours to any man by exercising love to him, then the +relation intended by the word is as wide as humanity. We recognise +that A. is our neighbour when a throb of pity shoots through our +heart, and thereby we become neighbours to him. + +The story is not, properly speaking, a parable, or imaginary +narrative of something in the physical world intended to be +translated into something in the spiritual region, but it is an +illustration (by an imaginary narrative) of the actual virtue in +question. Every detail is beautifully adapted to bring out the +lesson that the obligation of neighbourly affection has nothing to +do with nearness either of race or religion, but is as wide as +humanity. The wounded man was probably a Jew, but it is significant +that his nationality is not mentioned. He is 'a certain man,' that +is all. The Samaritan did not ask where he was born before he helped +him. So Christ teaches us that sorrow and need and sympathy and help +are of no nationality. + +That lesson is still more strongly taught by making the helper a +Samaritan. Perhaps, if Jesus had been speaking in America, he would +have made him a negro; or, if in France, a German; or, if in +England, a 'foreigner.' It was a daring stroke to bring the despised +name of 'Samaritan' into the story, and one sees what a hard morsel +to swallow the lawyer found it, by his unwillingness to name him +after all. + +The nations have not yet learned the deep, simple truth of this +parable. It absolutely forbids all limitations of mercy and help. It +makes every man the neighbour of every man. It carries in germ the +great truth of the brotherhood of the race. 'Humanity' is a purely +Christian word, and a conception that was never dreamed of before +Christ had showed us the unity of mankind. We slowly approximate to +the realisation of the teaching of this story, which is oftener +admired than imitated, and perhaps oftenest on the lips of people +who obey it least. + +II. Another aspect of the parable is its lesson as to the true +manifestations of neighbourliness. The minutely detailed account of +the Samaritan's care for the half-dead man is not only graphic, but +carries large lessons. Compassionate sentiments are very well. They +must come first. The help that is given as a matter of duty, without +the outgoing of heart, will be worth little, and soon cease to flow; +but the emotion that does not drive the wheels of action, and set to +work to stanch the sorrows which cause it to run so easily, is worth +still less. It hardens the heart, as all feeling unexpressed in +action does. If the priest and Levite had gone up to the man, and +said, 'Ah, poor fellow, poor fellow! how sorry we are for you! +somebody ought to come and help you,' and so had trudged on their +way, they would have been worse than they are painted as being. + +The various acts are enumerated as showing the genius of true love. +We notice the swift, cool-headed deftness of the man, his having at +hand the appliances needed, the business-like way in which he goes +about his kindness, his readiness to expend his wine and oil, his +willingness to do the surgeon's work, his cheerful giving up of his +'own beast,' while he plodded along on foot, steadying the wounded +man on his ass; his care for him at the inn; his generosity, and +withal his prudence, in not leaving a great sum in the host's hands, +but just enough to tide over a day or two, and his wise hint that he +would audit the accounts when he came back. This man's quick +compassion was blended with plenty of shrewdness, and was as +practical as the hardest, least compassionate man could have been. +There is need for organisation, 'faculty,' and the like, in the work +of loving our neighbour. A thousand pities that sometimes Christian +charity and Christian common-sense dissolve partnership. The +Samaritan was a man of business, and he did his compassion in a +business-like fashion, as we should try to do. + +III. Another lesson inwrought into the parable is the divorce +between religion and neighbourliness, as shown in the conduct of the +priest and Levite. Jericho was one of the priestly cities, so that +there would be frequent travellers on ecclesiastical errands. The +priest was 'going down' (that is from Jerusalem), so he could not +plead a 'pressing public engagement' at the Temple. The verbal +repetition of the description of the conduct of both him and the +Levite serves to suggest its commonness. They two did exactly the +same thing, and so would twenty or two hundred ordinary passers by. +They saw the man lying in a pool of blood, and they made a wide +circuit, and, even in the face of such a sight, went on their way. +Probably they said to themselves, 'Robbers again; the sooner we get +past this dangerous bit, the better.' We see that they were +heartless, but they did not see it. We do the same thing ourselves, +and do not see that we do; for who of us has not known of many +miseries which we could have done something to stanch, and have left +untouched because our hearts were unaffected? The world would be a +changed place if every Christian attended to the sorrows that are +plain before him. + +Let professing Christians especially lay to heart the solemn lesson +that there does lie in their very religion the possibility of their +being culpably unconcerned about some of the world's wounds, and +that, if their love to God does not find a field for its +manifestation in active love to man, worship in the Temple will be +mockery. Philanthropy is, in our days, often substituted for +religion. The service of man has been put forward as the only real +service of God. But philanthropic unbelievers and unphilanthropic +believers are equally monstrosities. What God hath joined let not +man put asunder. That simple 'and,' which couples the two great +commandments, expresses their indissoluble connection. Well for us +if in our practice they are blended in one! + +It is not spiritualising this narrative when we say that Jesus is +Himself the great pattern of the swift compassion and effectual +helpfulness which it sets forth. Many unwise attempts have been made +to tack on spiritual meanings to the story. These are as irreverent +as destructive of its beauty and significance. But to say that +Christ is the perfect example of that love to every man which the +narrative portrays, has nothing in common with these fancies. It is +only when we have found in Him the pity and the healing which we +need, that we shall go forth into the world with love as wide as +His. + + + + +HOW TO PRAY + + + 'And it came to pass, that, as He was praying in a + certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples + said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also + taught His disciples. 2. And He said unto them, When + ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed + be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in + heaven, so in earth. 3. Give us day by day our daily + bread. 4. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive + every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into + temptation; but deliver us from evil. 5. And He said + unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall + go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend + me three loaves; 6. For a friend of mine in his journey + is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? + 7. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me + not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me + in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. 8. I say unto you, + Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his + friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and + give him as many as he needeth. 9. And I say unto you, + Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall + find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10. For + every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh + findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. + 11. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a + father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, + will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12. Or if he + shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13. If + ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto + your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father + give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him!--LUKE xi. 1-13. + +Christ's praying fired the disciples with desire to pray like Him. +There must have been something of absorption and blessedness in His +communion with the Father which struck them with awe and longing, +and which they would fain repeat. Do our prayers move any to taste +the devotion and joy which breathe through them? But low conceptions +mingled with high desires in their request. They think that if He +will give them a form, that will be enough; and they wish to be as +well off as John's disciples, whose relation to their master seems +to them parallel with theirs to Jesus. + +Our Lord's answer meets and transcends their wish. He does give them +a model prayer, and He adds encouragements to pray which inculcate +confidence and persistence. The passage, then, falls into two parts--the +pattern prayer (vs. 2-4), and the spirit of prayer as enforced by some +encouragements (vs. 5-13). The material is so rich that we can but +gather the surface wealth. Deep mines must lie unexplored here. + +I. The pattern of prayer. We call it the Lord's Prayer, but it is so +only in the sense that He gives it. It is our prayer for our use. +His own prayers remain unrecorded, except those in the upper room +and at Gethsemane. This is the type to which His servants' prayers +are to be conformed. 'After this manner pray ye,' whether in these +words or not. And the repetition of the words is often far enough +away from catching their spirit. To suppose that our Lord simply met +the disciples' wish by giving them a form misconceives the genius of +His work. He gave something much better; namely, a pattern, the +spirit of which we are to diffuse through all our petitions, + +Two salient features of the prayer bring out the two great +characteristics of all true Christian prayer. First, we note the +invocation. It is addressed to the Father. Our prayers are, then, +after the pattern only when they are the free, unembarrassed, +confident, and utterly frank whispers of a child to its father. +Confidence and love should wing the darts which are to reach heaven. +That name, thoroughly realised, banishes fear and self-will, and +inspires submission and aspiration. To cry,' Abba, Father,' is the +essence of all prayer. Nothing more is needed. + +The broad lesson drawn from the order of requests is the second +point to be noticed. If we have the child's spirit, we shall put the +Father's honour first, and absolutely subordinate our own interests +to it. So the first half of the prayer, like the first half of the +Decalogue, deals with God's name and its glory. Alas! it is hard +even for His child to keep this order. Natural self-regard must be +cast out by love, if we are thus to pray. How few of us have reached +that height, not in mere words, but in unspoken desires! + +The order of the several petitions in the first half of the prayer +is significant. God's name (that is, His revealed character) being +hallowed (that is, recognised as what it is), separate from all +limitation and creatural imperfection, and yet near in love as a +Father is, the coming of His kingdom will follow; for where He is +known and honoured for what He is He will reign, and men, if they +rightly knew Him, would fall before Him and serve Him. The hallowing +of His name is the only foundation for His kingdom among us, and all +knowledge of Him which does not lead to submission to His rule is +false or incomplete. + +The outward, visible establishment of God's kingdom in human society +follows individual acquaintance with His name. The doing of God's +will is the sign of His kingdom having come. The ocean is blue, like +the sky which it mirrors. Earth will be like heaven. + +The second half of the prayer returns to personal interests; but +God's child has many brethren, and so His prayer is, not for 'me' +and 'my,' but for 'us' and 'ours.' Our first need, if we start from +the surface and go inwards, is for the maintenance of bodily life. +So the petition for bread has precedence, not as being most, but +least, important. We are to recognise God's hand in blessing our +daily toil. We are to limit our desires to necessaries, and to leave +the future in His hands. Is this 'the manner' after which Christians +pray for perishable good? Where would anxious care or eager rushing +after wealth be, if it were? + +A deeper need, the chief in regard to the inner man, is deliverance +from sin, in its two aspects of guilt and power. So the next +petition is for pardon. Sin incurs debt. Forgiveness is the +remission of penalty, but the penalty is not merely external +punishment. The true penalty is separation from God, and His +forgiveness is His loving on, undisturbed by sin. If we truly call +God Father, the image of His mercifulness will be formed in us; and +unless we are forgiving, we shall certainly lose the consciousness +of being forgiven, and bind our sins on our backs in all their +weight. God's children need always to pray 'after this manner, 'for +sin is not entirely conquered. + +Pardon is meant to lead on to holiness. Hence the next clause in +effect prays for sanctification. Knowing our own weakness, we may +well ask not to be placed in circumstances where the inducements to +sin would be strong, even while we know that we may grow thereby, if +we resist. The shortened form of the prayer in Luke, according to +the Revised Version, omits 'deliver us from evil'; but that clause +is necessary to complete the idea. Whether we read 'evil' or 'the +evil one,' the clause refers to us as tempted, and, as it were, in +the grip of an enemy too strong for us. God alone can extricate us +from the mouth of the lion. He will, if we ask Him. The only evil is +to sin away our consciousness of sonship and to cling to the sin +which separates us from God. + +II. A type of prayer is not all that we need. The spirit in which we +pray is still more important. So Jesus goes on to enjoin two things +chiefly; namely, persistence and filial confidence. He presents to +us a parable with its application (vs. 5-10), and the germ of a +parable with its (vs. 11-13). Observe that these two parts deal with +encouragements to confidence drawn, first, from our own experience +in asking, and, second, with encouragements drawn from our own +experience in giving. In the former we learn from the man who will +not take 'no,' and so at last gets 'yes'; in the latter, from the +Father who will certainly give His child what he asks. + +In the parable two points are to be specially noted--the persistent +suppliant pleads not for himself so much as for the hungry +traveller, and the man addressed gives without any kindliness, from +the mere wish to be left at peace. As to both points, an _a +fortiori_ argument is implied. If a man can so persevere when +pleading for another, how much more should we do so when asking for +ourselves! And if persistence has such power with selfish men, how +much more shall it avail with Him who slumbers not nor sleeps, and +to whom we can never come at an inopportune moment, and who will +give us because we are His friends, and He ours! The very ugliness +of character ascribed to the owner of the loaves, selfish in his +enjoyment of his bed, in his refusal to turn out on an errand of +neighbourliness, and in his final giving, thus serves as a foil to +the character of Him to whom our prayers are addressed. + +The application of the parable lies in verses 9 and 10. The efforts +enjoined are in an ascending scale, and 'ask' and 'knock' allude to +the parable. To 'seek' is more than to ask, for it includes active +exertion; and for want of seeking by conduct appropriate to our +prayers, we often ask in vain. If we pray for temporal blessings, +and then fold our hands, and sit with our mouths open for them to +drop into, we shall not get them. If we ask for higher goods, and +rise from our knees to live worldly lives, we shall get them as +little. Knocking is more than either, for it implies a continuous +hammering on the door, like Peter's when he stood in the morning +twilight at Mary's gate. Asking and seeking must be continuous if +they are to be rewarded. + +Verse 10 grounds the promise of verse 9 on experience. It is he who +asks that gets. In men's giving it is not universally true that +petitions are answered, nor that gifts are not given unasked. Nor is +it true about God's lower gifts, which are often bestowed on the +unthankful, and not seldom refused to His children. But it is +universally true in regard to His highest gifts, which are never +withheld from the earnest asker who adds to his prayers fitting +conduct, and prays always without fainting, and which are not and +cannot be given unless desire for them opens the heart for their +reception, and faith in God assures him who prays that he cannot ask +in vain. + +The germ of a parable with its application (vs. 11-13) draws +encouragement from our own experience in giving. It guards against +misconceptions of God which might arise from the former parable, and +comes back to the first word of the Lord's Prayer as itself the +guarantee of every true desire of His child being heard and met. +Bread, eggs, and fish are staple articles of food. In each case +something similar in appearance, but useless or hurtful, is +contrasted with the thing asked by the child. The round loaves of +the East are not unlike rounded, wave-washed stones, water-serpents +are fishlike, and the oval body of a quiescent scorpion is similar +to an egg. Fathers do not play tricks with their hungry children. +Though we are all sinful, parental love survives, and makes a father +wise enough to know what will nourish and what would poison his +child. + +Alas! that is only partially true, for many a parent has not a +father's heart, and is neither impelled by love to give good things +to, nor to withhold evil ones from, his child. But it is true with +sufficient frequency to warrant the great _a fortiori_ argument +which Jesus bases on it. Our heavenly Father's love, the archetype +of all parental affection, is tainted by no evil and darkened by no +ignorance. He loves perfectly and wisely, therefore He cannot but +give what His child needs. + +But the child often mistakes, and thinks that stones are bread, +serpents fish, and scorpions eggs. So God often has to deny the +letter of our petitions, in order not to give us poison. Luke's +version of the closing promise, in which 'the Holy Spirit' stands +instead of Matthew's 'good things,' sets the whole matter in the +true light; for that Spirit brings with Him all real good, and, +while many of our desires have, for our own sakes, to be denied, we +shall never hold up empty hands and have to let them fall still +empty, if we desire that great encyclopediacal gift which our loving +Father waits to bestow. It cannot be given without our petition, it +will never be withheld from our petition. + + + + +THE PRAYING CHRIST + + + '... As He was praying in a certain place, when He + ceased, one of His disclples said unto Him, Lord, + teach us to pray.'--LUKE xi. 1. + +It is noteworthy that we owe our knowledge of the prayers of Jesus +principally to the Evangelist Luke. There is, indeed, one solemn +hour of supplication under the quivering shadows of the olive-trees +in Gethsemane which is recorded by Matthew and Mark as well; and +though the fourth Gospel passes over that agony of prayer, it gives +us, in accordance with its ruling purpose, the great chapter that +records His priestly intercession. But in addition to these +instances the first Gospel furnishes but one, and the second but +two, references to the subject. All the others are found in Luke. + +I need not stay to point out how this fact tallies with the many +other characteristics of the third Gospel, which mark it as +eminently the story of the Son of Man. The record which traces our +Lord's descent to Adam rather than to Abraham; which tells the story +of His birth, and gives us all we know of the 'child Jesus'; which +records His growth in wisdom and stature, and has preserved a +multitude of minute points bearing on His true manhood, as well as +on the tenderness of His sympathy and the universality of His work, +most naturally emphasises that most precious indication of His +humanity--His habitual prayerfulness. The Gospel of the King, which +is the first Gospel, or of the Servant, which is the second, or of +the Son of God, which is the fourth, had less occasion to dwell on +this. Royalty, practical Obedience, Divinity, are their respective +themes. Manhood is Luke's, and he is ever pointing us to the +kneeling Christ. + +Consider, then, for a moment, how precious the prayers of Jesus are, +as bringing Him very near to us in His true manhood. There are deep +and mysterious truths involved with which we do not meddle now. But +there are also plain and surface truths which are very helpful and +blessed. We thank God for the story of His weariness when He sat on +the well, and of His slumber when, worn out with a hard day's work, +He slept on the hard wooden pillow in the stern of the fishing-boat +among the nets and the litter. It brings Him near to us when we read +that He thirsted, and nearer still when the immortal words fall on +our wondering ears, 'Jesus wept.' But even more precious than these +indications of His true participation in physical needs and human +emotion, is the great evidence of His prayers, that He too lived a +life of dependence, of communion, and of submission; that in our +religious life, as in all our life, He is our pattern and +forerunner. As the Epistle to the Hebrews puts it, He shows that He +is not ashamed to call us brethren by this, that He too avows that +He lives by faith; and by His life--and surely pre-eminently by His +prayers--declares, I will put my trust in Him.' We cannot think of +Christ too often or too absolutely as the object of faith; and as +the hearer of our cries; but we may, and some of us do, think of Him +too seldom as the pattern of faith, and as the example for our +devotion. We should feel Him a great deal nearer us; and the fact of +His manhood would not only be grasped more clearly by orthodox +believers, but would be felt in more of its true tenderness, if we +gave more prominence in our thoughts to that picture of the praying +Christ. + +Another point that may be suggested is, that the highest, holiest +life needs specific acts and times of prayer. A certain fantastical +and overstrained spirituality is not rare, which professes to have +got beyond the need of such beggarly elements. Some tinge of this +colours the habits of many people who are scarcely conscious of its +presence, and makes them somewhat careless as to forms and times of +public or of that of private worship. I do not think that I am wrong +in saying that there is a growing laxity in that matter among people +who are really trying to live Christian lives. We may well take the +lesson which Christ's prayers teach us, for we all need it, that no +life is so high, so holy, so full of habitual communion with God, +that it can afford to do without the hour of prayer, the secret +place, the uttered word. If we are to 'pray without ceasing,' by the +constant attitude of communion and the constant conversion of work +into worship, we must certainly have, and we shall undoubtedly +desire, special moments when the daily sacrifice of doing good +passes into the sacrifice of our lips. The devotion which is to be +diffused through our lives must be first concentrated and evolved in +our prayers. These are the gathering-grounds which feed the river. +The life that was all one long prayer needed the mountain-top and +the nightly converse with God. He who could say, 'The Father hath +not left Me alone, for I do always the things that please Him,' felt +that He must also have the special communion of spoken prayer. What +Christ needed we cannot afford to neglect. + +Thus Christ's own prayers do, in a very real sense, 'teach us to +pray.' But it strikes me that, if we will take the instances in +which we find Him praying, and try to classify them in a rough way, +we may gain some hints worth laying to heart. Let me attempt this +briefly now. + +First, then, the praying Christ teaches us to pray as a rest after +service. + +The Evangelist Mark gives us, in his brief, vivid way, a wonderful +picture in his first chapter of Christ's first Sabbath-day of +ministry in Capernaum. It was crowded with work. The narrative goes +hurrying on through the busy hours, marking the press of rapidly +succeeding calls by its constant reiteration--'straightway,' +'immediately,' 'forthwith,' 'anon,' 'immediately.' He teaches in the +synagogue; without breath or pause He heals a man with an unclean +spirit; then at once passes to Simon's house, and as soon as He +enters has to listen to the story of how the wife's mother lay sick +of a fever. They might have let Him rest for a moment, but they are +too eager, and He is too pitying, for delay. As soon as He hears, He +helps. As soon as He bids it, the fever departs. As soon as she is +healed, the woman is serving them. There can have been but a short +snatch of such rest as such a house could afford. Then when the +shadows of the western hills began to fall upon the blue waters of +the lake, and the sunset ended the restrictions of the Sabbath, He +is besieged by a crowd full of sorrow and sickness, and all about +the door they lie, waiting for its opening. He could not keep it +shut any more than His heart or His hand, and so all through the +short twilight, and deep into the night, He toils amongst the dim, +prostrate forms. What a day it had been of hard toil, as well as of +exhausting sympathy! And what was His refreshment? An hour or two +of slumber; and then, 'in the morning, rising up a great while +before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and +there prayed' (Mark i. 35). + +In the same way we find Him seeking the same repose after another +period of much exertion and strain on body and mind. He had +withdrawn Himself and His disciples from the bustle which Mark +describes so graphically. 'There were many coming and going, and +they had no leisure, so much as to eat.' So, seeking quiet, He takes +them across the lake into the solitudes on the other side. But the +crowds from all the villages near its head catch sight of the boat in +crossing, and hurry round; and there they all are at the landing-place, +eager and exacting as ever. He throws aside the purpose of rest, and +all day long, wearied as He was, 'taught them many things.' The closing +day brings no respite. He thinks of their hunger, before His own +fatigue, and will not send them away fasting. So He ends that day of +labour by the miracle of feeding the five thousand. The crowds gone to +their homes, He can at last think of Himself; and what is His rest? He +loses not a moment in 'constraining' His disciples to go away to the +other side, as if in haste to remove the last hindrance to something +that He had been longing to get to. 'And when He had sent them +away, He departed into a mountain to pray' (Mark vi. 46; Matt. xiv. 23). + +That was Christ's refreshment after His toil. So He blended +contemplation and service, the life of inward communion and the life +of practical obedience. How much more do we need to interpose the +soothing and invigorating influences of quiet communion between +the acts of external work, since our work may harm us, as His never +did Him. It may disturb and dissipate our communion with God; it may +weaken the very motive from which it should arise; it may withdraw +our gaze from God and fix it upon ourselves. It may puff us up with +the conceit of our own powers; it may fret us with the annoyances of +resistance; it may depress us with the consciousness of failure; and +in a hundred other ways may waste and wear away our personal +religion. The more we work the more we need to pray. In this day of +activity there is great danger, not of doing too much, but of +praying too little for so much work. These two--work and prayer, +action and contemplation--are twin-sisters. Each pines without the +other. We are ever tempted to cultivate one or the other +disproportionately. Let us imitate Him who sought the mountain-top +as His refreshment after toil, but never left duties undone or +sufferers unrelieved in pain. Let us imitate Him who turned from the +joys of contemplation to the joys of service without a murmur, when +His disciples broke in on His solitude with, 'all men seek Thee,' +but never suffered the outward work to blunt His desire for, nor to +encroach on the hour of, still communion with His Father. Lord, +teach us to work; Lord, teach us to pray. + +The praying Christ teaches us to pray as a preparation for important +steps. + +Whilst more than one Gospel tells us of the calling of the Apostolic +Twelve, the Gospel of the manhood alone narrates (Luke vi. 12) that +on the eve of that great epoch in the development of Christ's +kingdom, 'He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all +night in prayer to God.' Then, 'when it was day,' He calls to Him +His disciples, and chooses the Twelve. + +A similar instance occurs, at a later period, before another great +epoch in His course. The great confession made by Peter, 'Thou art +the Christ, the Son of the living God,' was drawn forth by our Lord +to serve as basis for His bestowment on the Apostles of large +spiritual powers, and for the teaching, with much increased detail +and clearness, of His approaching sufferings. In both aspects it +distinctly marks a new stage. Concerning it, too, we read, and again +in Luke alone (ix. 18), that it was preceded by solitary prayer. + +Thus He teaches us where and how we may get the clear insight into +circumstances and men that may guide us aright. Bring your plans, your +purposes to God's throne. Test them by praying about them. Do nothing +large or new--nothing small or old either, for that matter--till you +have asked there, in the silence of the secret place, 'Lord, what +wouldest Thou have me to do?' There is nothing bitterer to parents +than when children begin to take their own way without consulting them. +Do you take counsel of your Father, and have no secrets from Him. It +will save you from many a blunder and many a heartache; it will make +your judgment clear, and your step assured, even in new and difficult +ways, if you will learn from the praying Christ to pray before you +plan, and take counsel of God before you act. + +Again, the praying Christ teaches us to pray as the condition of +receiving the Spirit and the brightness of God. + +There were two occasions in the life of Christ when visible signs +showed His full possession of the Divine Spirit, and the lustre of +His glorious nature. There are large and perplexing questions +connected with both, on which I have no need to enter. At His +baptism the Spirit of God descended visibly and abode on Jesus. At +His transfiguration His face shone as the light, and His garments +were radiant as sunlit snow. Now on both these occasions our Gospel, +and our Gospel alone, tells us that it was whilst Christ was in the +act of prayer that the sign was given: 'Jesus being baptized, and +praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended' (iii. +21, 22). 'As He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, +and His raiment was white and glistening' (ix. 29). + +Whatever difficulty may surround the first of these narratives +especially, one thing is clear, that in both of them there was a +true communication from the Father to the man Jesus. And another +thing is, I think, clear too, that our Evangelist meant to lay +stress on the preceding act as the human condition of such +communication. So if we would have the heavens opened over our +heads, and the dove of God descending to fold its white wings, and +brood over the chaos of our hearts till order and light come there, +we must do what the Son of Man did--pray. And if we would have the +fashion of our countenances altered, the wrinkles of care wiped out, +the traces of tears dried up, the blotches of unclean living healed, +and all the brands of worldliness and evil exchanged for the name of +God written on our foreheads, and the reflected glory irradiating +our faces, we must do as Christ did--pray. So, and only so, will +God's Spirit fill our hearts, God's brightness flash in our faces, +and the vesture of heaven clothe our nakedness. + +Again, the praying Christ teaches us to pray as the preparation for +sorrow. Here all the three Evangelists tell us the same sweet and +solemn story. It is not for us to penetrate further than they carry +us into the sanctities of Gethsemane. Jesus, though hungering for +companionship in that awful hour, would take no man with Him there; +and He still says, 'Tarry ye here, while I go and pray yonder.' But +as we stand afar off, we catch the voice of pleading rising through +the stillness of the night, and the solemn words tell us of a Son's +confidence, of a man's shrinking, of a Saviour's submission. The +very spirit of all prayer is in these broken words. That was truly +'The Lord's Prayer' which He poured out beneath the olives in the +moonlight. It was heard when strength came from heaven, which He +used in 'praying more earnestly.' It was heard when, the agony past +and all the conflict ended in victory, He came forth, with that +strange calm and dignity, to give Himself first to His captors and +then to His executioners, the ransom for the many. + +As we look upon that agony and these tearful prayers, let us not +only look with thankfulness, but let that kneeling Saviour teach us +that in prayer alone can we be forearmed against our lesser sorrows; +that strength to bear flows into the heart that is opened in +supplication; and that a sorrow which we are made able to endure is +more truly conquered than a sorrow which we avoid. We have all a +cross to carry and a wreath of thorns to wear. If we want to be fit +for our Calvary--may we use that solemn name?--we must go to our +Gethsemane first. + +So the Christ who prayed on earth teaches us to pray; and the Christ +who intercedes in heaven helps us to pray, and presents our poor +cries, acceptable through His sacrifice, and fragrant with the +incense from His own golden censer. + + 'O Thou by whom we come to God, + The Life, the Truth, the Way; + The path of prayer Thyself hast trod; + Lord! teach us how to pray.' + + + + +THE RICH FOOL + + + 'And one of the company said unto Him, Master, speak + to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. + 14. And He said unto him, Man, who made Me a judge or + a divider over you? 15. And He said unto them, Take + heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life + consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he + possesseth. 16. And He spake a parable unto them, + saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth + plentifully: 17. And he thought within himself, saying, + What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow + my fruits! 18. And he said, This will I do: I will pull + down my barns, and build greater; and there will I + bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19. And I will say + to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many + years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. + 20. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy + soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those + things be, which thou hast provided! 21. So is he that + layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward + God. 22. And He said unto his disciples, Therefore I + say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye + shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. + 23. The life is more than meat, and the body is more + than raiment'--LUKE xii. 13-23. + +What a gulf between the thoughts of Jesus and those of this +unmannerly interrupter! Our Lord had been speaking solemnly as to +confessing Him before men, the divine help to be given, and the +blessed reward to follow, and this hearer had all the while been +thinking only of the share in his father's inheritance, out of +which he considered that his brother had cheated him. Such +indifference must have struck a chill into Christ's heart, and how +keenly he felt it is traceable in the curt and stern brushing aside +of the man's request. The very form of addressing him puts him at a +distance. 'Man' is about as frigid as can be. Our Lord knew the +discouragement of seeing that His words never came near some of His +hearers, and had no power to turn their thoughts even for a minute +from low objects. 'What do I care about being confessed before the +angels, or about the Holy Spirit to teach me? What I want is my +share of the paternal acres. A rabbi who will help me to these is +the rabbi for me.' John Bunyan's 'man with the muck-rake' had his +eyes so glued to the ground and the muck that he did not see the +crown hanging above him. How many of us find the sermon time a good +opportunity for thinking about investments and business! + +Christ's answer is intentionally abrupt and short. It deals with +part only of the man's error, the rest of which, being an error to +which we are all exposed, and which was the root of the part special +to him, is dealt with in the parable that follows. Because the man +was covetous, he could see in Jesus nothing more than a rabbi who +might influence his brother. Our sense of want largely shapes our +conception of Christ. Many to-day see in Him mainly a social (and +economical) reformer, because our notion of what we and the world +need most is something to set social conditions right, and so to +secure earthly well-being. They who take Jesus to be first and +foremost 'a judge or a divider' fail to see His deepest work or +their own deepest need. He will be all that they wish Him to be, if +they will take Him for something else first. He will 'bid' men +'divide the inheritance' with their brethren after men have gone to +Him for salvation. + +But covetousness, or the greedy clutching at more and more of +earthly good, has its roots in us all, and unless there is the most +assiduous weeding, it will overrun our whole nature. So Jesus puts +great emphasis into the command, 'Take heed, and keep yourselves,' +which implies that without much 'heed' and diligent inspection of +ourselves (for the original word is 'see'), there will be no +guarding against the subtle entrance and swift growth of the vice. +We may be enslaved by it, and never suspect that we are. Further, +the correct reading is 'from _all_ covetousness,' for it has +many shapes, besides the grossest one of greed for money. The reason +for the exhortation is somewhat obscure in construction, but plain +in its general meaning, and sufficiently represented by the +Authorised and Revised Versions. The Revised Version margin gives +the literal translation, 'Not in a man's abundance consisteth his +life, from the things which he possesseth,' on which we may note +that the second clause is obviously to be completed from the first, +and that the difference between the two seems to lie mainly in the +difference of prepositions, 'from' or 'out of in the second clause +standing instead of 'in' in the first, while there may be also a +distinction between 'abundance' and 'possessions' the former being a +superfluous amount of the latter. The whole will then mean that life +does not _consist in_ possessions, however abundant, nor does +it _come out of_ anything that simply belongs to us in outward +fashion. Not what we possess, but what we are, is the important +matter. + +But what does 'life' mean? The parable shows that we cannot leave +out the notion of physical life. No possessions keep a man alive. +Death knocks at palaces and poor men's hovels. Millionaires and +paupers are huddled together in his net. But we must not leave out +the higher meaning of life, for it is eminently true that the real +life of a man has little relation to what he possesses. Neither +nobleness nor peace nor satisfaction, nor anything in which man +lives a nobler life than a dog, has much dependence on property of +any sort. Wealth often chokes the channels by which true life would +flow into us. 'We live by admiration, hope, and love,' and these may +be ours abundantly, whatever our portion of earth's riches. +Covetousness is folly, because it grasps at worldly good, under the +false belief that thereby it will secure the true good of life, but +when it has made its pile, it finds that it is no nearer peace of +heart, rest, nobleness, or joy than before, and has probably lost +much of both in the process of making it. The mad race after wealth, +which is the sin of this luxurious, greedy, commercial age, is the +consequence of a lie--that life does consist in the abundance of +possessions. It consists in knowing 'Thee the only true God, and +Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.' Is there any saying of Jesus +Christ's more revolutionary, or less believed by His professed +followers, than this? + +The story of the rich fool is not a parable in the narrower meaning +of that word--that is, a description of some event or thing in the +natural sphere, transferred by analogy to the spiritual--but an +imaginary narrative exemplifying in a concrete instance the +characteristics of the class of covetous men. The first point noted +is that accumulated wealth breeds anxiety rather than satisfaction. +The man is embarrassed by his abundance. The trouble of knowing how +to keep it is as great as the labour of acquiring it, and the +enjoyment of it is still in the future. Many a rich man is more +worried about his securities than he was in making his money. There +are so many 'bags with holes' that he is at his wits' end for +investments, and the first thing he looks at in his morning's paper +is the share list, the sight of which often spoils his breakfast. + +The next point is the selfish and arrogant sense of possession, as +betrayed by the repetition of 'my'--my fruits, my barns, my corn, +and my goods. He has no thought of God, nor of his own stewardship. +He recognises no claim on his wealth. If he had looked a little +beyond himself, he would have seen many places where he could have +bestowed his fruits. Were there no poor at his gates? He had better +have poured some riches into the laps of these than have built a new +barn. Corn laid up would breed weevils; dispersed, it would bring +blessings. + +Again, this type of covetous men is a fool because he reckons on +'many years.' The goods may last, but will he? He can make sure that +they will suffice for a long time, but he cannot make sure of the +long time. Again, he blunders tragically in his estimate of the +power of worldly goods to satisfy. 'Eat, drink,' might be said to +his body, but to say it to his soul, and to fancy that these +pleasures of sense would put it at ease, is the fatal error which +gnaws like a worm at the root of every worldly life. The word here +rendered 'take thine ease' is cognate with Christ's in His great +promise, 'Ye shall find rest unto your souls.' Not in abundance of +worldly goods, but in union with Him, is that rest to be found which +the covetous man vainly promises himself in filled barns and +luxurious idleness. + +There is a grim contrast between what the rich man said and what God +said. The man's words were empty breath; God's are powers, and what +He says is a deed. The divine decree comes crashing into the +abortive human plans like a thunder-clap into a wood full of singing +birds, and they are all stricken silent. So little does life consist +in possessions that all the abundance cannot keep the breath in a +man for one moment. His life is 'required of him,' not only in the +sense that he has to give it up, but also inasmuch as he has to +answer for it. In that requirement the selfishly used wealth will be +'a swift witness against' him, and instead of ministering to life +or ease, will 'eat his flesh as fire.' Molten gold dropping on flesh +burns badly. Wealth, trusted in and selfishly clutched, without +recognition of God the giver or of others' claims to share it, will +burn still worse. + +The 'parable' is declared to be of universal application. Examples +of it are found wherever there are men who selfishly lay up +treasures for their own delectation, and 'are not rich toward God.' +That expression is best understood in this connection to mean, not +rich in spiritual wealth, but in worldly goods used with reference +to God, or for His glory and service. So understood, the two +phrases, laying up treasure for oneself and being rich towards God, +are in full antithesis. + + + + +ANXIOUS ABOUT EARTH, OR EARNEST ABOUT THE KINGDOM + + + 'And He said unto His disciples, Therefore I say unto + you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; + neither for the body, what ye shall put on. 23. The + life is more than meat, and the body is more than + raiment. 24. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow + nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and + God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the + fowls? 25. And which of you with taking thought can + add to his stature one cubit? 26. If ye then be not + able to do that thing which is least, why take ye + thought for the rest? 27. Consider the lilies how they + grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto + you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed + like one of these. 28. If then God so clothe the grass, + which is to-day in the field, and to-morrow is cast + into the oven; how much more will He clothe you, O ye + of little faith! 29. And seek not ye what ye shall eat, + or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. + 30. For all these things do the nations of the world + seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need + of these things. 31. But rather seek ye the kingdom of + God; and all these things shall he added unto you.' + --LUKE xii. 22-31. + +The parable of the rich fool was spoken to the multitude, but our +Lord now addresses the disciples. 'Therefore' connects the following +with the foregoing teachings. The warnings against anxiety are +another application of the prohibition of laying up treasure for +self. Torturing care is the poor man's form of worldliness, as +luxurious self-indulgence is the rich man's. There are two kinds of +gout, as doctors tell us--one from high living, and one from poverty +of blood. This passage falls into two parts--the prohibition against +anxious care (vs. 22-31), and the exhortation to set the affections +on the true treasure (vs. 31-34). + +I. The first part gives the condemnation of anxiety about earthly +necessities. The precept is first stated generally, and then +followed by a series of reasons enforcing it. As to the precept, we +may remark that the disciples were mostly poor men, who might think +that they were in no danger of the folly branded in the parable. +They had no barns bursting with plenty, and their concern was how to +find food and clothing, not what to do with superfluities. Christ +would have them see that the same temper may be in them, though it +takes a different shape. Dives and Lazarus may be precisely alike. + +The temper condemned here is 'self-consuming care,' the opposite of +trust. Its misery is forcibly expressed by the original meaning of +the Greek word, which implies being torn in pieces, and thus paints +the distraction and self-inflicted harrassment which are the lot of +the anxious mind. Prudent foresight and strenuous work are equally +outside this prohibition. Anxiety is so little akin to foresight +that it disables from exercising it, and both hinders from seeing +what to do to provide daily bread, and from doing it. + +The disciples' danger of being thus anxious may be measured by the +number and variety of reasons against it given by Jesus. The first +of these is that such anxiety does not go deep enough, and forgets +how we come to have lives to be fed and bodies to be clothed. We +have received the greater, life and body, without our anxiety. The +rich fool could keep his goods, but not his 'soul' or 'life.' How +superficial, then, after all, our anxieties are, when God may end +life at any moment! Further, since the greater is given, the less +which it needs will also be given. The thought of God as 'a faithful +creator' is implied. We must trust Him for the 'more'; we may trust +Him for the less. + +The second reason bids us look with attention at examples of +unanxious lives abundantly fed. Perhaps Elijah's feathered +providers, or the words of the Psalmist (Ps. cxlvii. 9), were in +Christ's mind. The raven was one of the 'unclean' birds, and of ill +omen, from Noah's days, and yet had its meat in due season, though +that meat was corpses. Notice the allusions to the preceding parable +in 'sow not, neither reap,' and in 'neither have storehouse nor +barn.' In these particulars the birds are inferior to us, and, so to +speak, the harder to care for. If they who neither work nor store +still get their living, shall not we, who can do both? Our superior +value is in part expressed by the capacity to sow and reap; and +these are more wholesome occupations for a man than worrying. + +How lovingly Jesus looked on all creatures, and how clearly He saw +everywhere God's hand at work! As Luther said, 'God spends every +year in feeding sparrows more than the revenues of the King of +France.' + +The third reason is the impotence of anxiety (ver. 25). It is +difficult to decide between the two possible renderings here. That +of 'a cubit' to the 'stature' corresponds best with the growth of +the lilies, while 'age' preserves an allusion to the rich fool, and +avoids treating the addition of a foot and a half to an ordinary +man's height as a small thing. But age is not measured by cubits, +and it is best to keep to 'stature.' + +At first sight, the argument of verse 23 seems to be now inverted, +and what was 'more' to be now 'least.' But the supposed addition, if +possible, would be of the smallest importance as regards ensuring +food or clothing, and measured by the divine power required to +effect it, is less than the continual providing which God does. That +smaller work of His, no anxiety will enable us to do. How much less +can we effect the complicated and wide-reaching arrangements needed +to feed and clothe ourselves! Anxiety is impotent. It only works on +our own minds, racking them in vain, but has no effect on the +material world, not even on our own bodies, still less on the +universe. + +The fourth reason bids us look with attention at examples of +unanxious existence clothed with beauty. Christ here teaches the +highest use of nature, and the noblest way of looking at it. The +scientific botanist considers how the lilies grow, and can tell all +about cells and chlorophyll and the like. The poet is in raptures +with their beauty. Both teach us much, but the religious way of +looking at nature includes and transcends both the others. Nature is +a parable. It is a visible manifestation of God, and His ways there +shadow His ways with us, and are lessons in trust. + +The glorious colours of the lily come from no dyer's vats, nor the +marvellous texture of their petals from any loom. They are inferior +to us in that they do not toil or spin, and in their short +blossoming time. Man's 'days are as grass; as a flower of the field +so he flourisheth'; but his date is longer, and therefore he has a +larger claim on God. 'God clothes the grass of the field' is a truth +quite independent of scientific truths or hypotheses about how He +does it. If the colours of flowers depend on the visits of insects, +God established the dependence, and is the real cause of the +resulting loveliness. + +The most modern theories of the evolutionist do not in the least +diminish the force of Christ's appeal to creation's witness to a +loving Care in the heavens. But that appeal teaches us that we miss +the best and plainest lesson of nature, unless we see God present +and working in it all, and are thereby heartened to trust quietly in +His care for us, who are better than the ravens because we have to +sow and reap, or than the lilies because we must toil and spin. + +Verse 29 adds to the reference to clothing a repeated prohibition as +to the other half of our anxieties, and thus rounds off the whole +with the same double warning as in verse 22. But it gives a striking +metaphor in the new command against 'being of doubtful mind.' The +word so rendered means to be lifted on high, and thence to be tossed +from height to depth, as a ship in a storm. So it paints the +wretchedness of anxiety as ever shuttlecocked about between hopes +and fears, sometimes up on the crest of a vain dream of good, +sometimes down in the trough of an imaginary evil. We are sure to be +thus the sport of our own fancies, unless we have our minds fixed on +God in quiet trust, and therefore stable and restful. + +Verse 30 gives yet another reason against not only anxiety, but +against that eager desire after outward things which is the parent +of anxiety. If we 'seek after' them, we shall not be able to avoid +being anxious and of doubtful mind. Such seeking, says Christ, is +pure heathenism. The nations of the world who know not God make +these their chief good, and securing them the aim of their lives. If +we do the like, we drop to their level. What is the difference +between a heathen and a Christian, if the Christian has the same +objects and treasures as the heathen? That is a question which a +good many so-called Christians at present would find it hard to +answer. + +But the crowning reason of all is kept for the last. Much of what +precedes might be spoken by a man who had but the coldest belief in +Providence. But the great and blessed faith in our Father, God, +scatters all anxious care. How should we be anxious if we know that +we have a Father in heaven, and that He knows our needs? He +recognises our claims on Him. He made the needs, and will send the +supply. That is a wide truth, stretching far beyond the mere earthly +wants of food and raiment. My wants, so far as God has made me to +feel them, are prophecies of God's gifts. He has made them as doors +by which He will come in and bless me. How, then, can anxious care +fret the heart which feels the Father's presence, and knows that its +emptiness is the occasion for the gift of a divine fullness? Trust +is the only reasonable temper for a child of such a father. Anxious +care is a denial of His love or knowledge or power. + +II. Verses 31-34 point out the true direction of effort and +affection, and the true way of using outward good so as to secure +the higher riches. It is useless to tell men not to set their +longings or efforts on worldly things unless you tell them of +something better. Life must have some aim, and the mind must turn to +something as supremely good. The only way to drive out heathenish +seeking after perishable good is to fill the heart with the love and +longing for eternal and spiritual good. The ejected demon comes back +with a troop at his heels unless his house be filled. To seek 'the +kingdom,' to count it our highest good to have our wills and whole +being bowed in submission to the loving will of God, to labour after +entire conformity to it, to postpone all earthly delights to that, +and to count them all but loss if we may win it--this is the true +way to conquer worldly anxieties, and is the only course of life +which will not at last earn the stern judgment, 'Thou fool.' + +That direction of all our desires and energies to the attainment of +the kingdom which is the state of being ruled by the will of God, is +to be accompanied with joyous, brave confidence. How should they +fear whose desires and efforts run parallel with the 'Father's good +pleasure'? They are seeking as their chief good what He desires, as +His chief delight, to give them. Then they may be sure that, if He +gives that, He will not withhold less gifts than may be needed. He +will not 'spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar,' nor allow His +children, whom He has made heirs of a kingdom, to starve on their +road to their crown. If they can trust Him to give them the kingdom, +they may surely trust Him for bread and clothes. + +Mark, too, the tenderness of that 'little flock.' They might fear +when they contrasted their numbers with the crowds of worldly men; +but, being a flock, they have a shepherd, and that is enough to +quiet anxiety. + +Seeking and courage are to be crowned by surrender of outward good +and the use of earthly wealth in such manner as that it will secure +an unfailing treasure in heaven. The manner of obeying this command +varies with circumstances. For some the literal fulfilment is best; +and there are more Christian men to-day whose souls would be +delivered from the snares if they would part with their possessions +than we are willing to believe. + +Sometimes the surrender is rather to be effected by the conscientious +consecration and prayerful use of wealth. That is for each man to +settle for himself. But what is not variable is the obligation to set +the kingdom high above all else, and to use all outward wealth, as +Christ's servants, not for luxury and self-gratification, but as in +His sight and for His glory. Let us not be afraid of believing what +Jesus and His Apostles plainly teach, that wealth so spent here is +treasured in heaven, and that a Christian's place in the future life +depends upon this among other conditions--how he used his money here. + + + + +STILLNESS IN STORM + + '... Neither be ye of doubtful mind.'--LUKE xii. 29. + +I think that these words convey no very definite idea to most +readers. The thing forbidden is not very sharply defined by the +expression which our translators have employed, but the original +term is very picturesque and precise. + +The word originally means 'to be elevated, to be raised as a +meteor,' and comes by degrees to mean to be raised in one special +way--namely, as a boat is tossed by a tough sea. So there is a +picture in this prohibition which the fishermen and folk dwelling by +the Sea of Galilee with its sudden squalls would understand: 'Be +not pitched about'; now on the crest, now in the trough of the wave. + +The meaning, then, is substantially identical with that of the +previous words, 'Take no thought for your life,' with this +difference, that the figures by which the thing prohibited is +expressed are different, and that the latter saying is wider than +the former. + +The former prohibits 'taking thought,' by which our Lord of course +means not reasonable foresight, but anxious foreboding. And the word +which He uses, meaning at bottom as it does, 'to be distracted or +rent asunder,' conveys a striking picture of the wretched state to +which such anxiety brings a man. Nothing tears us to pieces like +foreboding care. Then our text forbids the same anxiety, as well as +other fluctuations of feeling that come from setting our hopes and +hearts on aught which can change; and its figurative representation +of the misery that follows on fastening ourselves to the perishable, +is that of the poor little skiff, at one moment high on the crest of +the billow, at the next down in the trough of the sea. + +So both images point to the unrest of worldliness, and while the +unrest of care is uppermost in the one, the other includes more than +simply care, and warns us that all occupation with simply creatural +things, all eager seeking after 'what ye shall eat or what ye shall +drink' or after more refined forms of earthly good, brings with it +the penalty and misery of 'for ever tossing on the tossing wave.' +Whosoever launches out on to that sea is sure to be buffeted about. +Whoso sets his heart on the uncertainty of anything below the +changeless God will without doubt be driven from hope to fear, from +joy to sorrow, and his soul will be agitated as his idols change, +and his heart will be desolate when his idols perish. + +Our Lord, we say, forbids our being thus tossed about. He seems to +believe that it is in our own power to settle whether we shall be or +no. That sounds strange; one can fancy the answer: 'What is the use +of telling a man not to be buffeted about by storm? Why, he cannot +help it. If the sea is running high the little boat cannot lie quiet +as if in smooth water. Do not talk to me about not being moved, +unless you can say to the tumbling sea of life, "Peace, be still!" +and make it + + "quite forget to rave, + While birds of peace sit brooding on the charmed wave."' + +The objection is sound after a fashion. Change there must be, and +fluctuation of feeling. But there is such a thing as 'peace +subsisting at the heart of endless agitation.' You may remember the +attempt that was made some years ago to build a steamer in which +the central saloon was to hang perfectly still while the outer hull +of the ship pitched and rolled with the moving sea. It was a +failure, but the theory was sound and looked practicable. At any +rate, it is a parable of what may be in our lives. If I might +venture, without seeming irreverence, to modernise and so to +illustrate this command of our Lord's, I would say, that He here +bids us do for our life's voyage across a stormy sea, exactly what +the 'Bessemer' ship was an attempt to do in its region--so to poise +and control the oscillations of the central soul that however the +outward life may be buffeted about, there may be moveless rest +within. He knows full well that we must have rough weather, but He +would have us counteract the motion of the sea, and keep our hearts +in stillness. 'In the world ye shall have tribulation,' but in Him +ye may have peace. + +He does not wish us to be blind to the facts of life, but to take +_all_ the facts into our vision. A partial view of the so-called +facts certainly will lead to tumultuous alternations of hope and +fear, of joy and sorrow. But if you will take them all into account, +you can be quiet and at rest. For here is a fact as real as the +troubles and changes of life: 'Your Father knoweth that ye have +need of these things.' Ah! the recognition of that will keep our +inmost hearts full of sweet peace, whatever may befall the outward +life. Only take all the facts of your condition, and accept Christ's +word for that greatest and surest of all--the loving Father's +knowledge of your needs, and it will not be hard to obey Christ's +command, and keep yourself still, because fixed on Him. + +But now consider the teachings here as to the true source of the +agitation which our Lord forbids. The precept itself affords no +light on that subject, but the context shows us the true origin of +the evil. + +The first point to observe is how remarkably our Lord identifies +this anxiety and restlessness which He forbids with what at first +sight seems its exact opposite, namely a calmness and peace which he +also condemns as wholly bad. The whole series of warnings of which +our text is part begins with the story of the rich man whose ground +brought forth plentifully. His fault was not that he was tossed +about with care and a doubtful mind, but the very opposite. His sin +was in saying, 'Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; +take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.' + +Notice, then, that our Lord begins by pointing out the great madness +and the great sin of being thus at rest, and trusting in earthly +possessions: and then with a 'Therefore, I say unto you,' He turns +to the opposite pole of worldly feeling, and shows us how, although +opposite, it is yet related. The warning, 'Take no thought for your +life' follows as an inference from the picture of the folly of the +man that lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. + +That is to say, the two faults are kindred and in some sense the +same. The rich fool stretching himself out to rest on the pile of +his possessions, and the poor fool tossing about on the billows of +unquiet thought, are at bottom under the influence of the same +folly, though their circumstances are opposite, and their moods seem +to be so too. + +The one man is just the other turned inside out. When he is rich and +has got plenty of outward goods, he has no anxiety, because he +thinks that they are supreme and all-sufficient. When he is poor and +has not got enough of them, he has no rest, because he thinks that +they are supreme and all-sufficient. Anxious care and satisfied +possession are at bottom the very same thing. The man who says, 'My +mountain stands strong,' because he has got a quantity of money or +the like; and the man who says, 'Oh, dear me, what is going to +become of me?' because he thinks he has not got enough, only need to +exchange circumstances and they will exchange cries. + +The same figure is concave or convex according to the side from +which you look at it. From one it swells out into rounded fullness; +from the other it gapes as in empty hungriness. So the rich fool of +the preceding parable and the anxious, troubled man of my text are +the same man looked at from opposite sides or set in opposite +circumstances. The root of both the rest of the one and of the +anxiety of the other is the over-estimate of outward good. + +Then, still further, notice how our Lord here brands this forbidden +fluctuation of feeling as being at bottom pure heathenism. Most +significant double reasons for our text follow it, introduced by a +double 'for.' The first reason is, 'For all these things do the +nations of the world seek after'; the second is, 'For your Father +knoweth that ye have need of these things.' The former points the +lesson of the contradiction between such trouble of mind and the +position of disciples. For pure heathens it is all natural; for men +who do not know that they have a Father in heaven, there is nothing +strange or anomalous in care and anxiety, nor in the race after +riches. But for you, it is in diametrical contradiction to all your +professions, in flagrant inconsistency with all your belief, in flat +denial of that mighty truth that you have a Father who cares for +you, and that His love is enough. Every time you yield to such cares +or thoughts you are going down to the level of pure heathenism. That +is a sharp saying. Our Lord's steady hand wields the keen +dissecting-knife here, and lays bare with unsparing cuts the ugly +growth. We give the thing condemned a great many honourable names, +such as 'laying up for a rainy day,' or 'taking care for the future +of my children,' or 'providing things honest in the sight of all +men,' and a host of others, with which we gloss and gild over +unchristian worldly-mindedness. + +There are actions and feelings which are rightly described by such +phrases, that are perfectly right, and against them Jesus Christ +never said a word. + +But much of what we deceive ourselves by calling reasonable +foresight is rooted distrust of God, and much practical heathenism +creeps into our lives under the guise of 'proper prudence.' The +ordinary maxims of the world christen many things by names of +virtues and yet they remain vices notwithstanding. + +I do not know that there is any region in which Christian men have +more to be on their guard, lest they be betrayed into deadening +inconsistencies, than this of the true limits of care for material +wealth, and of provision for the future outward life. + +Those of us, especially, who are engaged in business, and who live +in our great commercial cities, have hard work to keep from dropping +down to the heathen level which is adopted on all sides. It is not +easy for such a man to resist the practical belief that money is the +one thing needful, and he the happy man who has made a fortune. The +false estimate of worldly good is in the air about us, and we have +to be on our guard, or else, before we know where we are, we shall +have breathed the stupefying poison and feel its narcotic influence +slackening the pulses and dimming the eye of our spirits. We need +special watchfulness and prayer, or we shall not escape this subtle +danger, which is truly for many of us 'the pestilence that walketh +in darkness.' + +So be not tossed about by these secularities, for the root of them +all is heathenish distrust of your Father in heaven. + +Then, finally, we have the cure for all agitation. Christ here puts in +our own hands, in that thought, 'Your Father knoweth that ye have need +of these things,' the one weapon with which we can conquer. There is +the true anchorage for tempest-tossed spirits, the land-locked haven +where they can ride, whatever winds blow and waves break outside the bar. + +I remarked that our Lord here seemed to give an injunction which the +facts of life would prevent our obeying, and so it would be, had He +not pointed us to that firm truth, which, if we believe it, will +keep us unmoved. There is no more profitless expenditure of breath +than the ordinary moralist's exhortations to, or warnings against, +states of feeling and modes of mind. Our emotions are very partially +under our direct control. Life cannot be calm by willing to be so. +But what we can do is to think of a truth which will sway our moods. +If you can substitute some other thought for the one which breeds +the emotion you condemn, it will fall silent of itself, just as the +spindles will stop if you shut off steam, or the mill-wheel if you +turn the stream in another direction. So Christ gives us a great +thought to cherish, knowing that if we let it have fair play in our +minds, we shall be at rest: 'Your Father knoweth that ye have need +of these things.' Surely that is enough for calmness. Why should, or +how can we be, troubled if we believe that? + +'He knows.' What a wonderful confidence in His heart and resources +is silently implied in that word! If He knows that you need, you may +be quite sure that you will not want. 'He knows'; and His fatherly +heart is our guarantee that to know and to supply our need, are one +and the same thing with Him; and His deep treasure of exhaustless +good is our guarantee that our need can never go beyond His +fullness, nor He ever, like us, see a sorrow He cannot comfort, a +want that He cannot meet. + +Enough that He knows; 'the rest goes without saying.' The whole +burden of solicitude is shifted off our shoulders, if once we get +into the light of that great truth. A man is made restful in the +midst of all the changes and storms of life, not by trying to work +himself into tranquillity, not by mere dint of coercing his feelings +through sheer force of will, not by ignoring any facts, but simply +by letting this truth stand before his mind. It scatters cares, as +the silent moon has power, by her mild white light, to clear away a +whole skyful of piled blacknesses. + +One other word of practical advice, as to how to carry out this +injunction, is suggested by the context, which goes on, 'Seek ye +first the kingdom of God.' + +A boat will roll most when, from lack of a strong hand at the helm, +she has got broadside to the run of the sea. There she lies rocking +about just as the blow of the wave may fall, and drifting wherever +the wind may take her. There are two directions in which she will be +comparatively steady; one, when her head is kept as near the wind as +may be, and the other when she runs before it. Either will be +quieter than washing about anyhow. May we make a parable out of +that? If you want to have as little pitching and tossing as possible +on your voyage, keep a good strong hand on the tiller. Do not let +the boat lie in the trough of the sea, but drive her right against +the wind, or as near it as she will sail. That is to say, have a +definite aim to which you steer, and keep a straight course for +that. So Christ says to us here. Be not filled with agitations, but +seek the Kingdom. The definite pursuit of the higher good will +deaden the lower anxieties. The active energies called out in the +daily efforts to bring my whole being under the dominion of the +sovereign will of God, will deliver me from a crowd of tumultuous +desires and forebodings. I shall have neither leisure nor +inclination to be anxious about outward things, when I am engaged +and absorbed in seeking the kingdom. So 'bear up and steer right +onward,' and it will be smooth sailing. + +Sometimes, too, we shall have to try the other tack, and run +_before_ the storm, which again will give us the minimum of +commotion. That, being translated, is, 'Let the winds and the waves +sometimes have their way.' Yield to them in the sweetness of +submission and the strength of resignation. Even when all the stormy +winds strive on the surface sea, recognise them as God's messengers +'fulfilling His word.' Submission is not rudderless yielding to the +gale, that tosses us on high and sinks us again, as the waves list. +This frees us from their power, even while they roll mountains high. + +Then keep firm trust in your Father's knowledge; strenuously seek +the kingdom. In quietness accept the changeful methods of his +unchanging providence. Thus shall your hearts be kept in peace +amidst the storm of life, with the happy thought, '_So_ He +bringeth them unto their desired haven.' + + + + +THE EQUIPMENT OF THE SERVANTS + + + 'Let your loins be girded about, and your lights + burning; 36. And ye yourselves like unto men that wait + for their Lord.'--Luke xii. 35, 36. + +These words ought to stir us like the sound of a trumpet. But, by long +familiarity, they drop upon dull ears, and scarcely produce any effect. +The picture that they suggest, as an emblem of the Christian state, is +a striking one. It is midnight, a great house is without its master, +the lord of the palace is absent, but expected back, the servants are +busy in preparation, each man with his robe tucked about his middle, +in order that it may not interfere with his work, his lamp in his hand +that he may see to go about his business and his eye ever turned to +the entrance to catch the first sign of the coming of his master. Is +that like your Christian life? If we are His servants that is what we +ought to be, having three things--girded loins, lighted lamps, waiting +hearts. These are sharp tests, solemn commandments, but great +privileges, for blessedness as well as strength, and calm peace whatever +happens, belong to those who obey these injunctions and have these +things. + +I. The girded loins. + +Every child knows the long Eastern dress; and that the first sign +that a man is in earnest about any work would be that he should +gather his skirts around him and brace himself together. + +The Christian service demands concentration. It needs the fixing of +all a man's powers upon the one thing, the gathering together of all +the strength of one's nature, and binding it with cords until its +softest and loosest particles are knit together, and become strong. +Why! you can take a handful of cotton-down, and if you will squeeze +it tight enough, it will be as hard and as heavy as a bullet and +will go as far, and have as much penetrating power and force of +impact. The reason why some men hit and make no dint is because they +are not gathered together and braced up by a vigorous concentration. + +The difference between men that succeed and men that fail in +ordinary pursuits is by no means so much intellectual as moral; and +there is nothing which more certainly commands any kind of success +than giving yourselves with your whole concentrated power to the +task in hand. If we succeed in anything we must focus all our power +on it. Only by so doing, as a burning-glass does the sun's rays, +shall we set anything on fire. + +And can a vigorous Christian life be grown upon other conditions +than those which a vigorous life of an ordinary sort demands? Why +should it be easier to be a prosperous Christian than to be a +prosperous tradesman? Why should there not be the very same law in +operation in the realm of the higher riches and possessions that +rules in the realm of the lower? 'Gird up the loins _of your +mind_,' says the Apostle, echoing the Master's word here. The +first condition of true service is that you shall do it with +concentrated power. + +There is another requirement, or perhaps rather another side of the +same, expressed in the figure. One reason why a man tucked up his +robe around his waist, when he had anything to do that needed all +his might, was that it might not catch upon the things that +protruded, and so keep him back. Concentration, and what I may call +detachment, go together. In order that there shall be the one, there +must be the other. They require each other, and are, in effect, but +the two sides of the same thing contemplated in regard to hindrances +without, or contemplated in regard to the relation of the several +parts of a man's nature to each other. + +Observe that Luke immediately precedes the text with:--'Sell that ye +have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a +treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief +approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, +there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about.' That +is to say, do not let your affections go straggling anywhere and +everywhere, but gather them together, and that you may gather them +together tear away the robe from the briars and thorns which catch +you as you pass, and gird the long flowing skirts close to +yourselves in order that they may not be caught by these hindrances. +There is no Christian life worth living except upon condition of +wrenching oneself away from dependence upon idolatry of, or longing +for, perishable things. The lesson of my text is the same as the +solemn lesson which the beloved Apostle sharpened his gentle lips to +pronounce when he said, 'If any man love the world, the love of the +Father is not in him.' 'Gird up your loins,' detach heart, desire, +effort from perishable things, and lift them above the fleeting +treasures and hollow delusive sparkles of earth's preciousness, and +set them on the realities and eternities at God's right hand. 'For +where the treasure is, there will the heart be also,' and only that +heart can never be stabbed by disappointment, nor bled to death by +losses, whose treasure is as sure as God and eternal as Himself. +'Let your loins be girded about.' + +And then there is another thing suggested, which is the consequence +of these two. The girding up of the loins is not only the symbol of +concentration and detachment, but of that for which the +concentration and the detachment are needful--viz. alert readiness +for service. The servant who stands before his lord with his belt +buckled tight indicates thereby that he is ready to run whenever and +wherever he is bid. Our girded loins are not merely in order to give +strength to our frame, but in order that, having strength given to +our frame, we may be ready for all work. That which is needful for +any faithful discharge of any servant's duty is most of all needful +for the discharge of the highest duty and the noblest service to the +Master who has the right to command all our service. + +There are three emblems in Scripture to all of which this metaphor +applies. The soldier, before he flings himself into the fight, takes +in another hole in his leather belt in order that there may be +strength given to his spine, and he may feel himself all gathered +together for the deadly struggle, and the Christian soldier has to +do the same thing. 'Stand therefore, having your loins girt about +with truth.' + +The traveller, before he starts upon his long road, girds himself, +and gathers his robes round him; and we have to 'run with +perseverance the race set before us'; and shall never do it if our +garments, however delicately embroidered, are flapping about our +feet and getting in our way when we try to run. + +The servant has to be _succinct_, girded together for his work, +even as the Master, when He took upon Him the form of a servant, +'took a towel and girded Himself.' His servants have to follow His +example, to put aside the needless vesture and brace themselves with +the symbol of service. So as soldiers, pilgrims, servants, the +condition of doing our work is, girding up the loins. + +II. Further, there are to be the burning lamps. + +If we follow the analogy of Scripture symbolism, significance +belongs to that emblem, making it quite worthy to stand by the side +of the former one. You remember Christ's first exhortation in the +Sermon on the Mount immediately following the Beatitudes: 'Ye are +the salt of the earth, ye are the light of the world. Men do not +light a candle, and put it under a bushel. _Let your light so +shine before men_, that they may see your good deeds.' If we +apply that key to decipher the hieroglyphics, the burning lamps +which the girded servants are to bear in the darkness are the whole +sum of the visible acts of Christian people, from which there may +flash the radiance of purity and kindness, 'So shines a good deed in +a naughty world.' The lamp which the Christian servant is to bear is +a character illuminated from above (for it is a kindled lamp, and +the light is derived), and streaming out a brilliance into the +encircling murky midnight which speaks of hospitable welcome and of +good cheer in the lighted hall within. + +Now, what is the connection between that exhibition of a lustrous +and pure Christian character and the former exhortation? Why this, +if you do not gird your loins your lamp will go out. Without the +concentrated effort and the continually repeated detachment and the +daily renewed 'Lord! here am I, send me,' of the alert and ready +servant, there will be no shining of the life, no beauty of the +character, but dimness will steal over the exhibition of Christian +graces. Just as, often, in the wintry nights, a star becomes +suddenly obscured, and we know not why, but some thin vaporous cloud +has come between us and it, invisible in itself but enough to blur +its brightness, so obscuration will befall the Christian character +unless there be continual concentration and detachment. Do you want +your lights to blaze? You trim them--though it is a strange mixture +of metaphor--you trim them when you gird your loins. + +III. Lastly, the waiting hearts. + +An attitude of expectancy does not depend upon theories about the +chronology of prophecy. It is Christ's will that, till He comes, we +know 'neither the day nor the hour.' We may, as I suppose most of us +do, believe that we shall die before He comes. Be it so. That need +not affect the attitude of expectance, for it comes to substantially +the same thing whether Christ comes to us or we go to Him. And the +certain uncertainty of the end of our individual connection with +this fleeting world stands in the same relation to our hopes as the +coming of the Master does, and should have an analogous effect on +our lives. Whatever may be our expectation as to the literal coming +of the Lord, that future should be very solid, very real, very near +us in our thoughts, a habitual subject of contemplation, and ever +operative upon our hearts and conduct. + +Ah! if we never, or seldom, and then sorrowfully, look forward to +the future, and contemplate our meeting with our Master, I do not +think there is much chance of our having either our loins girt, or +our lamps burning. + +One great motive for concentration, detachment, and alertness of +service, as well as for exhibiting the bright graces of the +Christian character, is to be found in the contemplation of the two +comings of the Lord. We should be ever looking back to the Cross, +forward to the Throne, and upwards to the Christ, the same on them +both. If we have our gathering together with Him ever in view, then +we shall be willing to yield all for Him, to withdraw ourselves from +everything besides for the excellency of His knowledge; and +whatsoever He commands, joyfully and cheerfully to do. + +The reason why such an immense and miserable proportion of +professing Christians are all unbraced and loose-girt, and their +lamps giving such smoky and foul-smelling and coarse radiance, is +because they look little back to the Cross, and less forward to the +Great White Throne. But these two solemn and sister sights are far +more real than the vulgar and intrusive illusions of what we call +the present. That is a shadow, they are the realities; that is but a +transitory scenic display, like the flashing of the Aurora Borealis +for a night in the wintry sky, these are the fixed, unsetting stars +that guide our course. Therefore let us turn away from the lying +present, with its smallnesses and its falsities, and look backwards +to Him that died, forward to Him that is coming. And, as we nourish +our faith on the twofold fact, a history and a hope, that Christ has +come, and that Christ shall come, we shall find that all devotion +will be quickened, and all earnestness stirred to zeal, and the dim +light will flame into radiance and glory. + +He comes in one of two characters which lie side by side here, as +they do in fact. To the waiting servants He comes as the Master who +shall gird Himself and go forth and serve them; to those who wait +not, He comes as a thief, not only in the suddenness nor the +unwelcomeness of His coming, but as robbing them of what they would +fain keep, and dragging from them much that they ought never to have +had. And it depends upon ourselves whether, we waiting and watching +and serving and witnessing for Him, He shall come to us as our Joy, +or as our Terror and our Judge. + + + + +THE SERVANT-LORD + + + Verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and + make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth, + and serve them.--LUKE xii. 37. + +No one would have dared to say that except Jesus Christ. For surely, +manifold and wonderful as are the glimpses that we get in the New +Testament of the relation of perfect souls in heaven to Him, none of +them pierces deeper, rises higher, and speaks more boundless +blessing, than such words as these. Well might Christ think it +necessary to preface them with the solemn affirmation which always, +upon His lips, points, as it were, an emphatic finger to, or +underlines that which He is about to proclaim. 'Verily I say unto +you,' if we had not His own word for it, we might hesitate to +believe. And while we have His own word for it, and do not hesitate +to believe, it is not for us to fathom or exhaust, but lovingly and +reverently and humbly, because we know it but partially, to try to +plumb the unfathomable depth of such words. 'He shall gird Himself, +and cause them to sit down to meat; and come forth and serve them.' + +I. Then we have, first of all, the wonderful revelation of the +Servant-Lord. + +For the name of dignity is employed over and over again in the +immediate context, and so makes more wonderful the assumption here +of the promise of service. + +And the words are not only remarkable because they couple so closely +together the two antagonistic ideas, as we fancy them, of rule and +service, authority and subordination, but because they dwell with +such singular particularity of detail upon all the stages of the +menial office which the Monarch takes upon Himself. First, the +girding, assuming the servant's attire; then the leading of the +guests, wondering and silent, to the couches where they can recline; +then the coming to them as they thus repose at the table, and the +waiting upon their wants and supplying all their need. It reminds us +of the wonderful scene, in John's Gospel, where we have coupled +together in the same intimate and interdependent fashion the two +thoughts of dignity and of service--'Jesus, knowing that the Father +had given all things into His hand, and that He came from God and +went to God,' made this use of His consciousness and of His +unlimited and universal dominion, that 'He laid aside His garments, +and took a towel, and girded Himself, and washed the disciples' +feet'; thus teaching what our text teaches in still another form, +that the highest authority means the lowliest service, that the +purpose of power is blessing, that the very sign and mark of dignity +is to stoop, and that the crown of the Universe is worn by Him who +is the Servant of all. + +But beyond that general idea which applies to the whole of the +divine dealings and especially to the earthly life of Him who came, +not to be ministered unto, but to minister, the text sets forth +special manifestations of Christ's ministering love and power, which +are reserved for heaven, and are a contrast with earth. The Lord who +is the Servant girds Himself. That corresponds with the commandment +that went before, 'Let your loins be girded,' and to some extent +covers the same ground and suggests the same idea. With all +reverence, and following humbly in the thoughts that Christ has +given us by the words, one may venture to say that He gathers all +His powers together in strenuous work for the blessing of His +glorified servants, and that not only does the metaphor express for +us His taking upon Himself the lowly office, but also the employment +of all that He is and has there in the heavens for the blessing of +the blessed ones that sit at His table. + +Here upon earth, when He assumed the form of a Servant in His +entrance into humanity, it was accompanied with the emptying Himself +of His glory. In the symbolical incident in John's Gospel, to which +I have already referred, He laid aside His garments before He +wrapped around Him the badge of service. But in that wondrous +service by the glorified Lord there is no need for divesting ere He +serves, but the divine glories that irradiate His humanity, and by +which He, our Brother, is the King of kings and the Lord of the +Universe, are all used by Him for this great, blessed purpose of +gladdening and filling up the needs of the perfected spirits that +wait, expectant of their food, upon Him. His girding Himself for +service expresses not only the lowliness of His majesty and the +beneficence of His power, but His use of all which He has and is for +the blessing of those whom He keeps and blesses. + +I need not remind you, I suppose, how in this same wonderful picture +of the Servant-Lord there is taught the perpetual--if we may so say, +the increased--lowliness of the crowned Christ. When He was here on +earth, He was meek and holy; exalted in the heavens, He is, were it +possible, meeker and more lowly still, because He stoops from a +loftier elevation. The same loving, gentle, gracious heart, holding +all its treasures for its brethren, is the heart that now is girded +with the golden girdle of sovereignty, and which once was girt with +the coarse towel of the slave. Christ is for ever the Servant, +because He is for ever the Lord of them that trust in Him. Let us +learn that service is dominion; that 'he that is chiefest among us' +is thereby bound to be 'the servant' and the helper 'of all.' + +II. Notice, the servants who are served and serve. + +There are two or three very plain ideas, suggested by the great +words of my text, in regard to the condition of those whom the Lord +thus ministers to, and waits upon. I need not expand them, because +they are familiar to us all, but let me just touch them. 'He shall +make them to sit down to meat.' The word, as many of you know, +really implies a more restful attitude--'He shall make them recline +at meat.' What a contrast to the picture of toil and effort, which +has just been drawn, in the command,' Let your loins be girded +about, and your lamps burning, and ye yourselves as men that wait +for their Lord!' Here, there must be the bracing up of every power, +and the careful tending of the light amid the darkness and the gusts +that threaten to blow it out, and every ear is to be listening and +every eye strained, for the coming of the Lord, that there may be no +unpreparedness or delay in flinging open the gates. But then the +tension is taken off and the loins ungirded, for there is no need +for painful effort, and the lamps that burn dimly and require +tending in the mephitic air are laid aside, and 'they need no +candle, for the Lord is the light thereof'; and there is no more +intense listening for the first foot-fall of One who is coming, for +He has come, and expectation is turned into fellowship and fruition. +The strained muscles can relax, and instead of effort and weariness, +there is repose upon the restful couches prepared by Him. Threadbare +and old as the hills as the thought is, it comes to us toilers with +ever new refreshment, like a whiff of fresh air or the gleam of the +far-off daylight at the top of the shaft to the miner, cramped at +his work in the dark. What a witness the preciousness of that +representation of future blessedness as rest to us all bears to the +pressure of toil and the aching, weary hearts which we all +carry! The robes may flow loose then, for there is neither pollution +to be feared from the golden pavement, nor detention from briars or +thorns, nor work that is so hard as to be toil or so unwelcome as to +be pain. There is rest from labour, care, change, and fear of loss, +from travel and travail, from tired limbs and hearts more tired +still, from struggle and sin, from all which makes the unrest of +life. + +Further, this great promise assures us of the supply of all wants +that are only permitted to last long enough to make a capacity for +receiving the eternal and all-satisfying food which Christ gives the +restful servants. Though 'they hunger no more,' they shall always +have appetite. Though they 'thirst no more,' they shall ever desire +deeper draughts of the fountain of life. Desire is one thing, +longing is another. Longing is pain, desire is blessedness; and that +we shall want and know ourselves to want, with a want which lives +but for a moment ere the supply pours in upon it and drowns it, is +one of the blessednesses to which we dare to look forward. Here we +live, tortured by wishes, longings, needs, a whole menagerie of +hungry mouths yelping within us for their food. There we wait upon +the Lord, and He gives a portion in due season. + +The picture in the text brings with it all festal ideas of light, +society, gladness, and the like, on which I need not dwell. But let +me just remind you of one contrast. The ministry of Christ, when He +was a servant here upon earth, was symbolised by His washing His +disciples' feet, an act which was part of the preparation of the +guests for a feast. The ministry of Christ in heaven consists, not +in washing, for 'he that is washed is clean every whit' there, and +for ever more--but in ministering to His guests that abundant feast +for which the service and the lustration of earth were but the +preparation. The servant Christ serves us here by washing us from +our sins in His own blood, both in the one initial act of +forgiveness and by the continual application of that blood to the +stains contracted in the miry ways of life. The Lord and Servant +serves His servants in the heavens by leading them, cleansed to His +table, and filling up every soul with love and with Himself. + +But all that, remember, is only half the story. Our Lord here is not +giving us a complete view of the retributions of the heavens, He is +only telling us one aspect of them. Repose, society, gladness, +satisfaction, these things are all true. But heaven is not lying +upon couches and eating of a feast. There is another use of this +metaphor in this same Gospel, which, at first sight, strikes one as +being contradictory to this. Our Lord said: 'Which of you, having a +servant ploughing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, +when he is come from the field, go and sit down to meat, and will +not rather say unto him, make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird +thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward +thou shalt eat and drink.' These two representations are not +contradictory. Put the two halves together like the two pictures in +a stereoscope and, as you look, they will go together into one solid +image, of which the one part is the resting at the table of the +feast, and the other part is that entrance into heaven is not +cessation, but variation, of service. It was dirty, cold, muddy work +out there in the field ploughing, and when the man comes back with +his soiled, wet raiment and his weary limbs a change of occupation +is rest. It is better for him to be set to 'make ready wherewith I +may eat and drink,' than to be told to sit down and do nothing. + +So the servants are served, and the servants serve. And these two +representations are not contradictory, but they fill up the +conception of perfect blessedness. For remember, if we may venture +to say so, that the very same reason which makes Christ the Lord +serve His servants makes the servants serve Christ the Lord. For love, +which underlies their relationship, has for its very life-breath doing +kindnesses and good to its objects, and we know not whether it is more +blessed to the loving heart to minister to, or to be ministered to by, +the heart which it loves. So the Servant-Lord and the servants, +serving and served, are swayed in both by the same motive and rejoice +in the interchange of offices and tokens of love. + +III. Mark the earthly service which leads to the heavenly rest. + +I have already spoken about Christ's earthly service, and reminded +you that there is needed, first of all, that we should partake in +His purifying work through His blood and His Spirit that dwells in +us, ere we can share in His highest ministrations to His servants in +the heavens. But there is also service of ours here on earth, which +must precede our receiving our share in the wonderful things +promised here. And the nature of that service is clearly stated in +the preceding words, 'Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when +He cometh shall find'--doing what? Trying to make themselves better? +Seeking after conformity to His commandments? No! 'Whom the Lord +when He cometh shall find _watching_.' It is character rather +than conduct, and conduct only as an index of character--disposition +rather than deeds--that makes it possible for Christ to be hereafter +our Servant-Lord. And the character is more definitely described in +the former words. Loins girded, lights burning, and a waiting which +is born of love. The concentration and detachment from earth, which +are expressed by the girded loins, the purity and holiness of +character and life, which are symbolised by the burning lights, and +the expectation which desires, and does not shrink from, His coming +in His Kingdom to be the Judge of all the earth--these things, being +built upon the acceptance of Christ's ministry of washing, fit us +for participation in Christ's ministry of the feast, and make it +possible that even we shall be of those to whom the Lord, in that +day, will come with gladness and with gifts. 'Blessed are the +servants whom the Lord shall find so watching.' + + + + +SERVANTS AND STEWARDS HERE AND HEREAFTER + + + 'Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when He + cometh, shall find watching: Verily I shall say unto + you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit + down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. + + Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He cometh, + shall find so doing. 44. Of a truth I say unto you, + that He will make him ruler over all that he hath. + --LUKE xii. 37, 43, and 44. + +You will, of course, observe that these two passages are strictly +parallel in form. Our Lord evidently intends them to run side by +side, and to be taken together. The divergences are as significant +and instructive as the similarities, and the force of these will be +best brought out by just recalling, in a sentence or two, the +occasion for the utterance of the second of the two passages which I +have taken for my text. When our Lord had finished His previous +address and exhortations, Peter characteristically pushed his oar in +with the question, 'Do these commandments refer to us, the Apostles, +or to all,' the whole body of disciples? Our Lord admits the +distinction, recognises in His answer that the 'us,' the Twelve, +were nearer Christ than the general mass of His followers, and +answers Peter's question by reiterating what He has been saying in a +slightly different form. He had spoken before about servants. Now He +speaks about 'stewards,' because the Apostles did stand in that +relation to the other disciples, as being slaves indeed, like the +rest of the household, but slaves in a certain position of +authority, by the Master's appointment, and charged with providing +the nourishment which, of course, means the religious instruction, +of their fellow-servants. + +So, notice that the first benediction is upon the 'servants,' the +second is upon the servants who are 'stewards.' The first +exhortation requires that when the Master comes He shall find the +servants watching; the second demands that when He comes He shall +find the stewards doing their work. The first promise of reward +gives the assurance that the watching servants shall be welcomed +into the house, and be waited on by the Master himself; the second +gives the assurance that the faithful steward shall be promoted to +higher work. We are all servants, and we are all, if we are +Christian men, stewards of the manifold grace of God. + +So, then, out of these two passages thus brought together, as our +Lord intended that they should be, we gather two things: the twofold +aspect of life on earth--watchfulness and work; and the twofold hope +of life in heaven--rest and rule. 'Blessed is that servant whom his +Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching.' 'Blessed is that steward +whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find'--not merely watching, +but--'so doing.' + +I. The twofold attitude here enjoined. + +The first idea in watchfulness is keeping awake; and the second is +looking out for something that is coming. Both these conceptions are +intertwined in both our Lord's use of the metaphor of the watching +servant, and in the echoes of it which we find abundantly in the +Apostolic letters. The first thing is to keep ourselves awake all +through the soporific night, when everything tempts to slumber. Even +the wise virgins, with trimmed lamps and girt loins, do in some degree +succumb to the drowsy influences around them, and like the foolish +ones, slumber, though the slumbers of the two classes be unlike. +Christian people live in the midst of an order of things which tempts +them to close the eyes of their hearts and minds to all the real and +unseen glories above and around them, and that might be within them, +and to live for the comparatively contemptible and trivial things of +this present. Just as when a man sleeps, he loses his consciousness +of solid external realities, and passes into a fantastic world of his +own imaginations, which have no correspondence in external facts, and +will vanish like + + 'The baseless fabric of a dream, + If but a cock shall crow,' + +so the men who are conscious only of this present life and of the +things that are seen, though they pride themselves on being wide +awake, are, in the deepest of their being, fast asleep, and are +dealing with illusions which will pass and leave nought behind, as +really as are men who lie dreaming upon couches, and fancy +themselves hard at work. Keep awake; that is the first thing; which, +being translated into plain English, points just to this, that +unless we make a dead lift of continuous effort to keep firm grasp +of God and Christ, and of all the unseen magnificences that are +included in these two names, as surely as we live we shall lose our +hold upon them, and fall into the drugged and diseased sleep in +which so many men around us are plunged. It sometimes seems to one +as if the sky above us were raining down narcotics upon us, so +profoundly are the bulk of men unconscious of realities, and +befooled by the illusions of a dream. + +Keep yourselves awake first, and then let the waking, wide-opened +eye, be looking forward. It is the very _differentia_, so to +speak, the characteristic mark and distinction of the Christian +notion of life, that it shifts the centre of gravity from the +present into the future, and makes that which is to come of far more +importance than that which is, or which has been. No man is living +up to the height of his Christian responsibilities or privileges +unless there stands out before him, as the very goal and aim of his +whole life, what can never be realised until he has passed within +the veil, and is at rest in the 'secret place of the Most High.' To +live for the future is, in one aspect, the very definition of a +Christian. + +But the text reminds us of the specific form which that future +anticipation is to take. It is not for us, as it is for men in the +world, to fix our hopes for the future on abstract laws of the +progress of humanity, or the evolution of the species, or the +gradual betterment of the world, and the like. All these may be +true: I say nothing about them. But what we have to fill our future +with is that 'that same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye +have seen Him go.' It is much to be lamented that curious +chronological speculations have so often discredited that great +central hope of the Church, which is properly altogether independent +of them; and that, because people have got befogged in interpreting +such symbols as beasts, and horses, and trumpets, and seals, and the +like, the Christian Church as a whole should so feebly be holding by +that great truth, without which, as it seems to me, the truth which +many of us are tempted to make the exclusive one, loses half its +significance. No man can rightly understand the whole contents of +the blessed proclamation, 'Christ has come,' unless he ends the +sentence with 'and Christ will come.' Blessed is 'that servant whom +the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching.' + +Of course I need not remind you that much for which that second +coming of the Lord is precious, and an object of hope to the world +and the Church, is realised by the individual in the article of +death. Whether Christ comes to the world or I go to Christ, the +important thing is that there result union and communion, the reign +of righteousness and peace, the felicities of the heavenly state. +And so, dear brethren, just because of the uncertainty that drapes +the future, and which we are often tempted to make a reason for +dismissing the anticipation of it from our minds, we ought the more +earnestly to give heed that we keep that end ever before us, and +whether it is reached by His coming to us, or our going to Him, +anticipate, by the power of realising faith grasping the firm words +of Revelation, the unimaginable, and--until it is experienced--the +incommunicable blessedness revealed in these great, simple words, +'So shall we ever be with the Lord.' + +But, then, look at the second of the aspects of Christian duty which +is presented here, that watchfulness is to lead on to diligent work. + +The temptation for any one who is much occupied with the hope of +some great change and betterment in the near future is to be +restless and unable to settle down to his work, and to yield to +distaste of the humdrum duties of every day. If some man that kept a +little chandler's shop in a back street was expecting to be made a +king to-morrow, he would not be likely to look after his poor trade +with great diligence. So we find in the Apostle Paul's second +letter--that to the Thessalonians--that he had to encounter, as well +as he could, the tendency of hope to make men restless, and to +insist upon the thought--which is the same lesson as is taught us by +the second of our texts--that if a man hoped, then he had with +quietness to work and eat his own bread, and not be shaken in mind. + +'Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find +so doing.' It may seem humble work to serve out hunches of bread and +pots of black broth to the family of slaves, when the steward is +expecting the coming of the master of the house, and his every nerve +is tingling with anticipation. But it is steadying work, and it is +blessed work. It is better that a man should be found doing the +homeliest duty as the outcome of his great expectations of the +coming of his Master, than that he should be fidgeting and restless +and looking only at that thought till it unfits him for his common +tasks. Who was it who, sitting playing a game of chess, and being +addressed by some scandalised disciple with the question, 'What +would you do if Jesus Christ came, and you were playing your game?' +answered, 'I would finish it'? The best way for a steward to be +ready for the Master, and to show that he is watching, is that he +should be 'found so doing' the humble task of his stewardship. The +two women that were squatting on either side of the millstone, and +helping each other to whirl the handle round in that night were in +the right place, and the one that was taken had no cause to regret +that she was not more religiously employed. The watchful servant +should be a working servant. + +II. And now I have spent too much time on this first part of my +discourse; so I must condense the second. Here are two aspects of +the heavenly state, rest and rule. + +'Verily I say unto you, He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit +down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.' I do not know +that there is a more wonderful promise, with more light lying in its +darkness, in all Scripture than that. Jesus Christ continues in the +heavens to be found in 'the form of a servant.' As here He girded +Himself with the towel of humiliation in the upper room, so there He +girds Himself with the robes of His imperial majesty, and uses all +His powers for the nourishment and blessedness of His servants. His +everlasting motto is, 'I am among you as one that serveth.' On earth +His service was to wash His disciples' feet; in heaven the pure foot +contracts no stain, and needs no basin: but in heaven He still +serves, and serves by spreading a table, and, as a King might do at +some ceremonial feasts, waiting on the astonished guests. + +I say nothing about all the wonderful ideas that gather round that +familiar but never-to-be-worn-into-commonplace emblem of the feast. +Repose, in contrast with the girded loins and the weary waiting of +the midnight watch; nourishment, and the satisfaction of all +desires; joy, society--all these things, and who knows how much +more, that we shall have to get there to understand, lie in that +metaphor, 'Blessed is that servant' who is served by the Master, and +nourished by His presence? + +But modern popular presentations of the future life have far too +predominantly dwelt upon that side of it. It is a wonderful +confession of 'the weariness, the fever, and the fret,' the hunger +and loneliness of earthly experience, that the thought of heaven as +the opposite of all these things should have almost swallowed up the +other thought with which our Lord associates it here. He would not +have us think only of repose. He unites with that representation, so +fascinating to us weary and heavy-laden, the other of administrative +authority. He will set him 'over all that he hath.' + +The steward gets promotion. 'On twelve thrones judging the twelve +tribes of Israel'--these are to be the seats, and that is to be the +occupation of the Twelve. 'Thou hast been faithful over a few +things; I will make thee ruler over many things.' The relation +between earthly faithfulness and heavenly service is the same in +essence as that between the various stages of our work here. The +reward for work here is more work; a wider field, greater +capacities. And what depths of authority, of new dignity, of royal +supremacy, lie in those solemn and mysterious words, I know not--'He +will set him over all that he hath.' My union with Christ is to be +so close as that all His is mine and I am master of it. But at all +events this we can say, that faithfulness here leads to larger +service yonder; and that none of the aptitudes and capacities which +have been developed in us here on earth will want a sphere when we +pass yonder. + +So let watchfulness lead to faithfulness, and watchful faithfulness +and faithful watchfulness will lead to repose which is activity, and +rule which is rest. + + + + +FIRE ON EARTH + + + 'I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, + if it be already kindled!'--LUKE xii. 49. + +We have here one of the rare glimpses which our Lord gives us into +His inmost heart, His thought of His mission, and His feelings about +it. If familiarity had not weakened the impression, and dulled the +edge, of these words, how startling they would seem to us! 'I am +come'--then, He was, before He came, and He came by His own +voluntary act. A Jewish peasant says that He is going to set the +world on fire-and He did it. But the triumphant certitude and +consciousness of a large world-wide mission is all shadowed in the +next clause. I need not trouble you with questions as to the precise +translation of the words that follow. There may be differences of +opinion about that, but I content myself with simply suggesting that +a fair representation of the meaning would be, 'How I wish that it +was already kindled!' There is a longing to fulfil the purpose of +His coming and a sense that something has to be done first, and what +that something if, our Lord goes on to say in the next verse. This +desirable end can only be reached through a preliminary painful +ordeal, 'but I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I +straitened till it be accomplished.' If I might use such an +incongruous figure, the fire that is to flash and flame through the +world emerges from the dark waters of that baptism. Our Lord goes on +still further to dwell upon the consequence of His mission and of +His sufferings. And that, too, shadows the first triumphant thought +of the fire that He was to send on earth. For, the baptism being +accomplished, and the fire therefore being set at liberty to flame +through the world, what follows? Glad reception? Yes, and angry +rejection. Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell +you, nay! but rather division.' The fire, the baptism, and the +sword; these three may sum up our Lord's vision of the purpose, +means, and mingled result of His mission. But it is only with regard +to the first of these that I wish to speak now. + +I. The fire which Christ longed to cast upon the earth. + +Now, opinions differ as to what is meant by this fire Some would +have, it to mean the glow of love kindled in believing hearts, and +others explain it by other human emotions or by the transformation +effected in the world by Christ's coming. But while these things are +the results of the fire kindled on earth, that fire itself means not +these effects, but the cause of them. It is _brought_ before it +kindles a flame on earth. + +He does not kindle it simply in humanity, but He launches it into +the midst of humanity. It is something from above that He flings +down upon the earth. So it is not merely a quickened intelligence, a +higher moral life, or any other of the spiritual and religious +transformations which are effected in the world by the mission of +Christ that is primarily to be kept in view here, but it is the +Heaven-sent cause of these transformations and that flame. If we +catch the celestial fire, we shall flash and blaze, but the fire +which we catch is not originated on earth. In a word it is God's +Divine Spirit which Christ came to communicate to the world. + +I need not remind you, I suppose, how such an interpretation of the +words before us is in entire correspondence with the symbolism both +of the Old and New Testament. I do not dwell upon the former at all, +and with regard to the latter I need only remind you of the great +words by which the Forerunner of the Lord set forth His mighty work, +in contrast with the superficial cleansing which John himself had to +proclaim. 'I indeed baptize you with water, but He shall baptize you +with the Holy Ghost and with fire.' I need only point to the +Pentecost, and the symbol there, of which the central point was the +cloven tongues, which symbolised not only the speech which follows +from all deep conviction, but the descent from above of the Spirit +of God, who is the Spirit of burning, on each bowed and willing +head. With these analogies to guide us, I think we shall not go far +wrong if we see in the words of my text our Lord's great symbolical +promise that the issue of His mission shall be to bring into the +heart of the world, so to speak, and to lodge in the midst of +humanity which is one great whole, a new divine influence that shall +flame and burn through the world. + +So, then, my text opens out into thoughts of the many-sided +applications of this symbol. What hopes for the world and ourselves +are suggested by that fire? Let us stick to the symbol closely, and +we shall then best understand the many-sided blessings that flash +and coruscate in the gift of the Spirit. + +It is the gift of life. No doubt, here and there in Scripture, fire +stands for a symbol of destroying power. But that is a less frequent +use than that in which it stands as a symbol of life. In a very real +sense life is warmth and death is cold. Is not respiration a kind of +combustion? Do not physiologists tell us that? Is not the centre of +the system and the father of all physical life that great blazing +sun which radiates heat? And is not this promise, 'I will send fire +on the earth,' the assurance that into the midst of our death there +shall come the quick energy of a living Spirit which shall give us +to possess some shadow of the immortal Being from which itself +flows? + +But, beyond that, there is another great promise here, of a +quickening energy. I use the word 'quickening,' not in the sense of +life-giving, but in the sense of stimulating. We talk about 'the +flame of genius,' the 'fervour of conviction,' about 'fiery zeal,' +about 'burning earnestness,' and the like; and, conversely, we speak +of 'cold caution,' and 'chill indifference,' and so on. Fire means +love, zeal, swift energy. This, then, is another side of this great +promise, that into the torpor of our sluggish lives He is waiting to +infuse a swift Spirit that shall make us glow and flame with +earnestness, burn with love, aspire with desire, cleave to Him with +the fervour of conviction, and be, in some measure, like those +mighty spirits that stand before the Throne, the seraphim that burn +with adoration and glow with rapture. A fire that shall destroy all +our sluggishness, and change it into swift energy of glad obedience, +may be kindled in our spirits by the Holy Spirit whom Christ gives. + +Still farther, the promise of my text sets forth, not only life-giving +and stimulating energy, but purifying power. Fire cleanses, as many +an ancient ritual recognised. For instance, the thought that underlay +even that savage 'passing the children through the fire to Moloch' was, +that thus passed, humanity was cleansed from its stains. And that is +true. Every man must be cleansed, if he is cleansed at all, by the +touch of fire. If you take a piece of foul clay, and push it into a +furnace, as it warms it whitens, and you can see the stains melting +off it as the fire exercises its beneficent and purifying mastery. So +the promise to us is of a great Spirit that will come, and by +communicating His warmth will dissipate our foulness, and the sins +that are enwrought into the substance of our natures will exhale from +the heated surface, and disappear. The ore is flung into the blast +furnace, and the scum rises to the surface, and may be ladled off, +and the pure stream, cleansed because it is heated, flows out +without scoriae or ash. All that was 'fuel for the fire' is burned; +and what remains is more truly itself and more precious. And so, +brother, you and I have, for our hope of cleansing, that we shall be +passed through the fire, and dwell in the everlasting burnings of a +Divine Spirit and a changeless love. + +The last thought suggested by the metaphor is that it promises not +only life-giving, stimulating, purifying, but also transforming and +assimilating energy. For every lump of coal in your scuttles may be +a parable; black and heavy, it is cast into the fire, and there it +is turned into the likeness of the flame which it catches and itself +begins to glow, and redden, and crackle, and break into a blaze. +That is like what you and I may experience if we will. The incense +rises in smoke to the heavens when it is heated: and our souls +aspire and ascend, an odour of a sweet smell, acceptable to God, +when the fire of that Divine Spirit has loosed them from the bonds +that bind them to earth, and changed them into His own likeness, We +all are 'changed from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the +Lord.' + +So I think if you take these plain teachings of this symbol you +learn something of the operations of that Divine Spirit to which our +Lord pointed in the great words of my text. + +II. And now I have a second thought to suggest--viz., what Christ +had to do before His longing could be satisfied. + +He longed, but the longing wish was not able to bring that on which +it was fixed. He had come to send this divine fire upon the earth; +but there was something that stood in the way; and something needed +to be done as a preliminary before the ultimate purpose of His +coming could be accomplished. What that was, as I have already tried +to point out, the subsequent verse tells us. I do not need, nor +would it be congruous with my present purpose, to comment upon it at +any length. We all know what He meant by the 'baptism,' that He had +to be baptized with, and what were the dark waters into which He had +to pass, and beneath which His sacred head had to be plunged. We all +know that by the 'baptism' He meant His passion and His Cross. I do +not dwell, either, upon the words of pathetic human shrinking with +which His vision of the Cross is here accompanied, but I simply wish +to signalise one thing, that in the estimation of Jesus Christ +Himself it was not in His power to kindle this holy fire in humanity +until He had died for men's sins. That must come first; the Cross +must precede Pentecost. There can be no Divine Spirit in His full +and loftiest powers poured out upon humanity until the Sacrifice has +been offered on the Cross for the sins of the world. We cannot read +all the deep reasons in the divine nature, and in human receptivity, +which make that sequence absolutely necessary, and that preliminary +indispensable. But this, at least, we know, that the Divine Spirit +whom Christ gives uses as His instrument and sword the completed +revelation which Christ completed in His Cross, Resurrection, and +Ascension, and that, until His weapon was fashioned, He could not +come. + +That thought is distinctly laid down in many places in Scripture, to +which I need not refer in more than a word. For instance, the +Apostle John tells us that, when our Lord spoke in a cognate figure +about the rivers of water which should flow from them who believed +on Him, He spake of that Holy Spirit who 'was not given because that +Jesus was not yet glorified.' We remember the words in the upper +chamber, 'If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, +but if I depart I will send Him unto you.' But enough for us that He +recognised the necessity, and that here His baptism of suffering +comes into view, not so much for what it was itself, the sacrifice +for the world's sin, as for that to which it was the necessary +preliminary and introduction, the bestowment on humanity of the gift +of the Divine Spirit. The old Greek legend of the Titan that stole +fire from heaven tells us that he brought it to earth in a reed. Our +Christ brings the heavenly fire in the fragile, hollow reed of His +humanity, and the reed has to be broken in order that the fire may +blaze out. 'How I wish that it were kindled! but I have a baptism to +be baptized with.' + +III. Lastly, what the world has to do to receive the fire. + +Take these triumphant words of our Lord about what He was to do +after His Cross, and contrast with them the world as it is to-day, +ay! and the Church as it is to-day. What has become of the fire? Has +it died down into grey ashes, choked with the cold results of its +own former flaming power? Was Jesus Christ deceiving Himself? was He +cherishing an illusion as to the significance and permanence of the +results of His work in the world? No! There is a difference between +B.C. and A.D. which can only be accounted for by the fulfilment of +the promise in my text, that He did bring fire and set the world +aflame. But the condition on which that fire will burn either +through communities, society, humanity, or in an individual life, is +trust in Him that gives it, and cleaving to Him, and the appropriate +discipline. 'This spake He of the Holy Spirit which they that +believe on Him should receive.' + +And they that do _not_ believe upon Him--what of them? The fire +is of no advantage to them. Some of you do as people in Swiss +villages do where there is a conflagration--you cover over your +houses with incombustible felts or other materials, and deluge them +with water, in the hope that no spark may light on you. There is no +way by which the fire can do its work on us except our opening our +hearts for the Firebringer. When He comes He brings the vital spark +with Him, and He plants it on the hearth of our hearts. Trust in +Him, believe far more intensely than the most of Christian people of +this day do in the reality of the gift of supernatural divine life +from Jesus Christ. I do believe that hosts of professing Christians +have no firm grip of this truth, and, alas! very little verification +of it in their lives. Your heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit to +them that ask Him. 'Covet earnestly the best gifts'; and take care +that you do not put the fire out--'quench not the Holy Spirit,' as +you will do if you 'fulfil the lusts of the flesh.' I remember once +being down in the engine-room of an ocean-going steamer. There were +the furnaces, large enough to drive an engine of five or six +thousand horsepower. A few yards off there were the refrigerators, +with ice hanging round the spigots that were put in to test the +temperature. Ah! that is like many a Christian community, and many +an individual Christian. Here is the fire; there is the frost. +Brethren, let us seek to be baptized with fire, lest we should be +cast into it, and be consumed by it. + + +END OP VOL. I. + + + + + + +VOLUME II: ST. LUKE _Chaps. XIII to XXIV_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +TRUE SABBATH OBSERVANCE (Luke xiii. 10-17) + +THE STRAIT GATE (Luke xiii. 22-30). + +CHRIST'S MESSAGE TO HEROD (Luke xiii. 32, 33) + +THE LESSONS OF A FEAST (Luke xiv. 1-14) + +EXCUSES NOT REASONS (Luke xiv. 18) + +THE RASH BUILDER (Luke xiv. 28) + +THAT WHICH WAS LOST (Luke xv. 4, 8, 11) + +THE PRODIGAL AND HIS FATHER (Luke xv. 11-24) + +GIFTS TO THE PRODIGAL (Luke xv. 22, 23) + +THE FOLLIES OF THE WISE (Luke xvi. 8) + +TWO KINDS OF RICHES (Luke xvi. 10-12) + +THE GAINS OF THE FAITHFUL STEWARD (Luke xvi. 12) + +DIVES AND LAZARUS (Luke xvi. 19-31) + +MEMORY IN ANOTHER WORLD (Luke xvi 25) + +GOD'S SLAVES (Luke xvii. 9-10) + +WHERE ABE THE NINE? (Luke xvii. 11-19) + +THREE KINDS OF PRAYING (Luke xviii. 1-14) + +ENTERING THE KINGDOM (Luke xviii. 15-30) + +THE MAN THAT STOPPED JESUS (Luke xviii. 40-41) + +MELTED BY KINDNESS (Luke xix. 5) + +THE TRADING SERVANTS (Luke xix. 16, 18) + +THE REWARDS OF THE TRADING SERVANTS (Luke xix. 17,19) + +A NEW KIND OP KING (Luke xix. 37-48) + +TENANTS WHO WANTED TO BE OWNERS (Luke xx. 9-19) + +WHOSE IMAGE AND SUPERSCRIPTION? (Luke xx. 24) + +WHEN SHALL THESE THINGS BE? (Luke xxi. 20-36) + +THE LORD'S SUPPER (Luke xxii. 7-20) + +PARTING PROMISES AND WARNINGS (Luke xxii. 24-37) + +CHRIST'S IDEAL OF A MONARCH (Luke xxii. 25, 26) + +THE LONELY CHRIST (Luke xxii. 28) + +A GREAT FALL AND A GREAT RECOVERY (Luke xxii. 32) + +GETHSEMANY (Luke xxii. 39-58) + +THE CROSS THE VICTORY AND DEFEAT OF DARKNESS (Luke xxii. 53) + +IN THE HIGH PRIEST'S PALACE (Luke xxii. 54-71) + +CHRIST'S LOOK (Luke xxii. 61) + +'THE RULERS TAKE COUNSEL TOGETHER' (Luke xxiii. 1-12) + +A SOUL'S TRAGEDY (Luke xxiii. 9) + +JESUS AND PILATE (Luke xxiii. 13-26) + +WORDS FROM THE CROSS (Luke xxiii. 33-46) + +THE DYING THIEF (Luke xxiii. 42) + +THE FIRST EASTER SUNRISE (Luke xxiv. 1-12) + +THE LIVING DEAD (Luke xxiv. 5-6) + +THE RISEN LORD'S SELF-REVELATION TO WAVERING DISCIPLES (Luke xxiv. +13-32) + +DETAINING CHRIST (Luke xxiv. 28, 29) + +THE MEAL AT EMMAUS (Luke xxiv, 30, 31) + +PETER ALONE WITH JESUS (Luke xxiv. 34) + +THE TRIUMPHANT END (Luke xxiv. 36-53) + +CHRIST'S WITNESSES (Luke xxiv. 48,49) + +THE ASCENSION (Luke xxiv. 50, 51; Acts i. 9) + + + + +TRUE SABBATH OBSERVANCE + + + 'And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the + Sabbath. 11. And, behold, there was a woman which had + a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed + together, and could in no wise lift up herself. + 12. And when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him, and + said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine + infirmity. 13. And He laid His hands on her: and + immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. + 14. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with + indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the + Sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six + days in which men ought to work: in them therefore + come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day. + 15. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou + hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath + loose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him + away to watering! 16. And ought not this woman, being + a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, + these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the + Sabbath day? 17. And when He had said these things, all + His adversaries were ashamed: and all the people + rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by + Him.'--LUKE xiii. 10-17. + +This miracle was wrought, unasked, on a woman, in a synagogue, and +by all these characteristics was specially interesting to Luke. He +alone records it. The narrative falls into two parts--the miracle, +and the covert attack of the ruler of the synagogue, with our Lord's +defence. + +What better place than the synagogue could there be for a miracle of +mercy? The service of man is best built on the service of God, and +the service of God is as truly accomplished in deeds of human +kindness done for His sake as in oral worship. The religious basis +of beneficence and the beneficent manifestation of religion are +commonplaces of Christian practice and thought from the beginning, +and are both set forth in our Lord's life. He did not substitute +doing good to men for worshipping God, as a once much-belauded +but now all-but-forgotten anti-Christian writer has done; but He +showed us both in their true relations. We have Christ's authority +for regarding the woman's infirmity as the result of demoniacal +possession, but the case presents some singular features. There +seems to have been no other consequence than her incapacity to stand +straight. Apparently the evil power had not touched her moral +nature, for she had somehow managed to drag herself to the synagogue +to pray; she 'glorified God' for her cure, and Christ called her 'a +daughter of Abraham,' which surely means more than simply that she +was a Jewess. It would seem to have been a case of physical +infirmity only, and perhaps rather of evil inflicted eighteen years +before than of continuous demoniacal possession. + +But be that as it may, there is surely no getting over our Lord's +express testimony here, that purely physical ills, not distinguishable +from natural infirmity, were then, in some instances, the work of a +malignant, personal power. Jesus knew the duration of the woman's +'bond' and the cause of it, by the same supernatural knowledge. That +sad, bowed figure, with eyes fixed on the ground, and unable to look +into His face, which yet had crawled to the synagogue, may teach us +lessons of patience and of devout submission. She might have found +good excuses for staying at home, but she, no doubt, found solace in +worship; and she would not have so swiftly 'glorified God' for her +cure, if she had not often sought Him in her infirmity. They who wait +on Him often find more than they expect in His house. + +Note the flow of Christ's unasked sympathy and help. We have already +seen several instances of the same thing in this Gospel. The sight +of misery ever set the chords of that gentle, unselfish heart +vibrating, as surely as the wind draws music from the Aeolian harp +strings. So it should be with us, and so would it be, if we had in +us 'the law of the Spirit of life in Christ' making us 'free from +the law of' self. But His spontaneous sympathy is not merely the +perfection of manhood; it is the revelation of God. Unasked, the +divine love pours itself on men, and gives all that it can give to +those who do not seek, that they may be drawn to seek the better +gifts which cannot be given unasked. God 'tarrieth not for man, nor +waiteth for the sons of men,' in giving His greatest gift. No +prayers besought Heaven for a Saviour. God's love is its own motive, +and wells up by its inherent diffusiveness. Before we call, He +answers. + +Note the manner of the cure. It is twofold--a word and a touch. The +former is remarkable, as not being, like most of the cures of +demoniacs, a command to the evil spirit to go forth, but an +assurance to the sufferer, fitted to inspire her with hope, and to +encourage her to throw off the alien tyranny. The touch was the +symbol to her of communicated power--not that Jesus needed a vehicle +for His delivering strength, but that the poor victim, crushed in +spirit, needed the outward sign to help her in realising the new +energy that ran in her veins, and strengthened her muscles. +Unquestionably the cure was miraculous, and its cause was Christ's +will. + +But apparently the manner of cure gave more place to the faith of +the sufferer, and to the effort which her faith in Christ's word and +touch heartened her to put forth, than we find in other miracles. +She 'could in no wise lift herself up,' not because of any +malformation or deficiency in physical power, but because that +malign influence laid a heavy hand on her will and body, and crushed +her down. Only supernatural power could deliver from supernatural +evil, but that power wrought through as well us OB her; and when she +believed that she was loosed from her infirmity, and had received +strength from Jesus, she was loosed. + +This makes the miracle no less, but it makes it a mirror in which +the manner of our deliverance from a worse dominion of Satan is +shadowed. Christ is come to loose us all from the yoke of bondage, +which bows our faces to the ground, and makes us unfit to look up. +He only can loose us, and His way of doing it is to assure us that +we are free, and to give us power to fling off the oppression in the +strength of faith in Him. + +Note the immediate cure and its immediate result. The 'back bowed +down always' for eighteen weary years is not too stiff to be made +straight at once. The Christ-given power obliterates all traces of +the past evil. Where He is the physician, there is no period of +gradual convalescence, but 'the thing is done suddenly'; and, though +in the spiritual realm, there still hang about pardoned men remains +of forgiven sin, they are 'sanctified' in their inward selves, and +have but to see to it that they work out in character and conduct +that 'righteousness and holiness of truth' which they have received +in the new nature given them through faith. + +How rapturous was the gratitude from the woman's lips, which broke +in upon the formal, proper, and heartless worship of the synagogue! +The immediate hallowing of her joy into praise surely augurs a +previously devout heart. Thanksgiving generally comes thus swiftly +after mercies, when prayer has habitually preceded them. The +sweetest sweetness of all our blessings is only enjoyed when we +glorify God for them. Incense must be kindled, to be fragrant, and +our joys must be fired by devotion, to give their rarest perfume. + +The cavils of the ruler and Christ's defence are the second part of +this incident. Note the blindness and cold-heartedness born of +religious formalism. This synagogue official has no eye for the +beauty of Christ's pity, no heart to rejoice in the woman's +deliverance, no ear for the music of her praise. All that he sees is +a violation of ecclesiastical order. That is the sin of sins in his +eyes. He admits the reality of Christ's healing power, but that does +not lead him to recognition of His mission. What a strange state of +mind it was that acknowledged the miracle, and then took offence at +its being done on the Sabbath! + +Note, too, his disingenuous cowardice in attacking the people when +he meant Christ. He blunders, too, in his scolding; for nobody had +come to be healed. They had come to worship; and even if they had +come for healing, the coming was no breach of Sabbath regulations, +whatever the healing might be. There are plenty of people like this +stickler for propriety and form, and if you want to find men blind +as bats to the manifest tokens of a divine hand, and hard as +millstones towards misery, and utterly incapable of glowing with +enthusiasm or of recognising it, you will find them among +ecclesiastical martinets, who are all for having 'things done +decently and in order,' and would rather that a hundred poor +sufferers should continue bowed down than that one of their +regulations should be broken in lifting them up. The more men are +filled with the spirit of worship, the less importance will they +attach to the pedantic adherence to its forms, which is the most +part of some people's religion. + +Mark the severity, which is loving severity, of Christ's answer. He +speaks to all who shared the ruler's thoughts, of whom there were +several present (v. 17, 'adversaries'). Piercing words which +disclose hidden and probably unconscious sins, are quite in place on +the lips into which grace was poured. Well for those who let Him +tell them their faults now, and do not wait for the light of +judgment to show themselves to themselves for the first time. + +Wherein lay these men's hypocrisy? They were pretending zeal for the +Sabbath, while they were really moved by anger at the miracle, which +would have been equally unwelcome on any day of the week. They were +pretending that their zeal for the Sabbath was the result of their +zeal for God, while it was only zeal for their Rabbinical niceties, +and had no religious element in it at all. They wished to make the +Sabbath law tight enough to restrain Jesus from miracles, while they +made it loose enough to allow them to look after their own +interests. + +Men may be unconscious hypocrites, and these are the most hopeless. +We are all in danger of fancying that we are displaying our zeal for +the Lord, when we are only contending for our own additions to, or +interpretations of, His will. There is no religion necessarily +implied in enforcing forms of belief or conduct. + +Our Lord's defence is, first of all, a conclusive _argumentum ad +hominem_, which shuts the mouths of the objectors; but it is much +more. The Talmud has minute rules for leading out animals on the +Sabbath: An ass may go out with his pack saddle if it was tied on +before the Sabbath, but not with a bell or a yoke; a camel may go +out with a halter, but not with a rag tied to his tail; a string of +camels may be led if the driver takes all the halters in his hand, +and does not twist them, but they must not be tied to one another--and +so on for pages. If, then, these sticklers for rigid observance of the +Sabbath admitted that a beast's thirst was reason enough for work to +relieve it, it did not lie in their mouths to find fault with the +relief of a far greater human need. + +But the words hold a wider truth, applicable to our conduct. The +relief of human sorrow is always in season. It is a sacred duty +which hallows any hour. 'Is not this the fast [and the feast too] +that I have chosen ... to let the oppressed go free, and that ye +break every yoke?' The spirit of the words is to put the exercise of +beneficence high above the formalities of worship. + +Note, too, the implied assertion of the dignity of humanity, the +pitying tone of the 'lo, these eighteen years,' the sympathy of the +Lord with the poor woman, and the implication of the terrible +tragedy of Satan's bondage. If we have His Spirit in us, and look at +the solemn facts of life as He did, all these pathetic +considerations will be present to our minds as we behold the misery +of men, and, moved by the thoughts of their lofty place in God's +scheme of things, of their long and dreary bondage, of the evil +power that holds them fast, and of what they may become, even sons +and daughters of the Highest, we shall be fired with the same +longing to help which filled Christ's heart, and shall count that +hour consecrated, and not profaned, in which we are able to bring +liberty to the captives, and an upward gaze of hope to them that +have been bowed down. + + + + +THE STRAIT GATE + + + 'And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, + and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23. Then said one unto + Him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And He said + unto them, 24. Strive to enter in at the strait gate: + for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and + shall not he able. 25. When once the Master of the + house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye + begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, + saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and He shall answer + and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: + 26. Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk + in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets. + 27. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence + ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity. + 28. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when + ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the + prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves + thrust out. 29. And they shall come from the east, and + from the west, and from the north, and from the south, + and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. 30. And, + behold, there are last which shall be first and there + are first which shall be last.'--LUKE xiii. 22-30 + +'Are there few that be saved?' The questioner's temper and motives +may be inferred from the tone of Christ's answer, which turns +attention from a mere piece of speculative curiosity to the grave +personal aspect of the condition of 'salvation,' and the possibility +of missing it. Whether few or many went in, there would be many left +out, and among these some of the listeners. Jesus speaks to 'them,' +the multitude, not to the questioner. The men who approach solemn +subjects lightly, and use them as material for raising profitless +questions for the sake of getting religious teachers in a corner, +exist still, and are best answered after Christ's manner. + +Of course, the speaker meant by being 'saved' participation in +Messiah's kingdom, regarded in the carnal Jewish fashion; and our +Lord's reply is primarily directed to setting forth the condition of +entrance into that kingdom, as the Jew expected it to be manifested +on earth. But behind that immediate reference lies a solemn +unveiling of the conditions of salvation in its deepest meaning, and +of the danger of exclusion from it. + +I. We note, first, the all-important exhortation with which Christ +seeks to sober a frivolous curiosity. In its primary application, the +'strait gate' may be taken to be the lowliness of the Messiah, and the +consequent sharp contrast of His kingdom with Jewish high-flown and +fleshly hopes. The passage to the promised royalty was not through a +great portal worthy of a palace, but by a narrow, low-browed wicket, +through which it took a man trouble to squeeze. For us, the narrow +gate is the self-abandonment and self-accusation which are +indispensable for entrance into salvation. + +'The door of faith' is a narrow one; for it lets no self-righteousness, +no worldly glories, no dignities, through. Like the Emperor at Canossa, +we are kept outside till we strip ourselves of crowns and royal robes, +and stand clothed only in the hair-shirt of penitence. Like Milton's +rebel angels entering their council chamber, we must make ourselves +small to get in. We must creep on our knees, so low is the vault; we +must leave everything outside, so narrow is it. We must go in one by +one, as in the turnstiles at a place of entertainment. The door opens +into a palace, but it is too strait for any one who trusts to himself. + +There must be effort in order to enter by it. For everything in our +old self-confident, self-centred nature is up in arms against the +conditions of entrance. We are not saved by effort, but we shall not +believe without effort. The main struggle of our whole lives should +be to cultivate self-humbling trust in Jesus Christ, and to 'fight +the good fight of faith.' + +II. We note the reason for the exhortation. It is briefly given in +verse 24 (last clause), and both parts of the reason there are +expanded in the following verses. Effort is needed for entrance, +because many are shut out. The questioner would be no better for +knowing whether few would enter, but he and all need to burn in on +their minds that many will _not_. + +Very solemnly significant is the difference between _striving_ +and _seeking_. It is like the difference between wishing and +willing. There may be a seeking which has no real earnestness in it, +and is not sufficiently determined, to do what is needful in order +to find. Plenty of people would like to possess earthly good, but +cannot brace themselves to needful work and sacrifice. Plenty would +like to 'go to heaven,' as they understand the phrase, but cannot +screw themselves to the surrender of self and the world. Vagrant, +halfhearted seeking, such as one sees many examples of, will never +win anything, either in this world or in the other. We must strive, +and not only seek. + +That is true, even if we do not look beyond time; but Jesus carries +our awed vision onwards to the end of the days, in the expansion of +his warning, which follows in verses 25-27. No doubt, the words had +a meaning for His hearers in reference to the Messianic kingdom, and +a fulfilment in the rejection of the nation. But we have to discern +in them a further and future significance. + +Observe that the scene suggested differs from the similar parable of +the virgins waiting for their Lord, in that it does not describe a +wedding feast. Here it is a householder already in his house, and, +at the close of the day, locking up for the night. Some of his +servants have not returned in time, have not come in through the +narrow gate, which is now not only narrow, but closed by the +master's own hand. The translation of that is that, by a decisive +act of Christ's in the future, the time for entrance will he ended. +As in reference to each stage of life, specific opportunities are +given in it for securing specific results, and these can never be +recovered if the stage is past; so mortal life, as a whole, is the +time for entrance, and if it is not used for that purpose, entrance +is impossible. If the youth will not learn, the man will be +ignorant. If the sluggard will not plough because the weather is +cold, he will 'beg in harvest.' If we do not strive to enter at the +gate, it is vain to seek entrance when the Master's own hand has +barred it. + +The language of our Lord here seems to shut us up to the conclusion +that life is the time in which we can gain our entrance. It is no +kindness to suggest that perhaps He does not shut the door quite +fast. We know, at all events, that it is wide open now. + +The words put into the mouths of the excluded sufficiently define +their characters, and the reasons why they sought in vain. Why did +they want to be in? Because they wished to get out of the cold +darkness into the warm light of the bountiful house. But they +neither knew the conditions of entrance nor had they any desire +after the true blessings within. Their deficiencies are plainly +marked in their pleas for admission. At first, they simply ask for +entrance, as if thinking that to wish was to have. Then, when the +Householder says that He knows nothing about them, and cannot let +strangers in, they plead as their qualification that they had eaten +and drunk in His presence, and that He had taught in their streets. +In these words, the relations of Christ's contemporaries are +described, and their immediate application to them is plain. + +Outward connection with Jesus gave no claim to share in His kingdom. +We have to learn the lesson which we who live amidst a widely +diffused, professing Christianity sadly need. No outward connection +with Christ, in Christian ordinances or profession, will avail to +establish a claim to have the door opened for us. A man may be a +most respectable and respected church-member, and have listened to +Christian teaching all his days, and have in life a vague wish to be +'saved,' and yet be hopelessly unfit to enter, and therefore +irremediably shut out. + +The Householder's answer, in its severity and calmness, indicates +the inflexible impossibility of opening to such seekers. It puts +stress on two things--the absence of any vital relationship between +Him and them, and their moral character. He knows nothing about +them, and not to be known by the Master of the house is necessarily +to be shut out from His household. They are known of the Shepherd +who know Him and hear His voice. They who are not must stay in the +desert. Such mutual knowledge is the basis of all righteousness, and +righteousness is the essential condition of entrance. + +These seekers are represented as still working iniquity. They had +not changed their moral nature. They wished to enter heaven, but +they still loved evil. How could they come in, even if the door had +been open? Let us learn that, while faith is the door, without +holiness no man shall see the Lord. The worker of iniquity has only +an outward relation to Jesus. Inwardly he is separated from Him, +and, at last, the outward relation will be adjusted to the inward, +and departure from Him will be inevitable, and that is ruin. + +III. Boldly and searchingly personal as the preceding words had +been, the final turn of Christ's answer must have had a still +sharper and more distasteful edge. He had struck a blow at Jewish +trust in outward connection with Messiah as ensuring participation +in His kingdom. He now says that the Gentiles shall fill the vacant +places. Many Jews will be unable to enter, for all their seeking, +but still there will be many saved; for troops of hated Gentiles +shall come from every corner of the earth, and the sight of them +sitting beside the fathers of the nation, while Israel after the +flesh is shut out, will move the excluded to weeping--the token of +sorrow, which yet has in it no softening nor entrance-securing +effect, because it passes into 'gnashing of teeth,' the sign of +anger. Such sorrow worketh death. + +Such fierce hatred, joined with stiff-necked obstinacy, has +characterised the Jew ever since Jerusalem fell. 'If God spared not +the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee.' Israel +was first, and has become last. The same causes which sent it from +the van to the rear have worked like effects in 'Christendom,' as +witness Asia Minor and the mosques into which Christian churches +have been turned. + +These causes will produce like effects wherever they become +dominant. Any church and any individual Christian who trusts in +outward connection with Christ, and works iniquity, will sooner or +later fall into the rear, and if repentance and faith do not lead it +or him through the strait gate, will be among those 'last' who are +so far behind that they are shut out altogether. Let us 'be not +high-minded, but fear.' + + + + +CHRIST'S MESSAGE TO HEROD + + + 'And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, + Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and + to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. + 33. Nevertheless I must walk to-day, and to-morrow, + and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet + perish out of Jerusalem.'--LUKE xiii. 32, 33. + +Even a lamb might be suspicious if wolves were to show themselves +tenderly careful of its safety. Pharisees taking Christ's life under +their protection were enough to suggest a trick. These men came to +Christ desirous of posing as counterworking Herod's intention to +slay Him. Our Lord's answer, bidding them go and tell Herod what He +immediately communicates to them, shows that He regarded them as in +a plot with that crafty, capricious kinglet. And evidently there was +an understanding between them. For some reason or other, best known +to his own changeable and whimsical nature, the man who at one +moment was eagerly desirous to see Jesus, was at the next as eagerly +desirous to get Him out of his territories; just as he admired and +murdered John the Baptist. The Pharisees, on the other hand, desired +to draw Him to Jerusalem, where they would have Him in their power +more completely than in the northern district. If they had spoken +all their minds they would have said, 'Go hence, or else we cannot +kill Thee.' So Christ answers the hidden schemes, and not the +apparent solicitude, in the words that I have taken for my text. +They unmask the plot, they calmly put aside the threats of danger. +They declare that His course was influenced by far other +considerations. They show that He clearly saw what it was towards +which He was journeying. And then, with sad irony, they declare that +it, as it were, contrary to prophetic decorum and established usage +that a prophet should be slain anywhere but in the streets of the +bloody and sacred city. + +There are many deep things in the words, which I cannot touch in the +course of a single sermon; but I wish now, at all events, to skim +their surface, and try to gather some of their obvious lessons. + +I. First, then, note Christ's clear vision of His death. + +There is some difficulty about the chronology of this period with +which I need not trouble you. It is enough to note that the incident +with which we are concerned occurred during that last journey of our +Lord's towards Jerusalem and Calvary, which occupies so much of this +Gospel of Luke. At what point in that fateful journey it occurred +may be left undetermined. Nor need I enter upon the question as to +whether the specification of time in our text, 'to-day, and to-morrow, +and the third day,' is intended to be taken literally, as some +commentators suppose, in which case it would be brought extremely +near the goal of the journey; or whether, as seems more probable from +the context, it is to be taken as a kind of proverbial expression for +a definite but short period. That the latter is the proper +interpretation seems to be largely confirmed by the fact that there +is a slight variation in the application of the designation of time +in the two verses of our text, 'the third day' in the former verse +being regarded as the period of the perfecting, whilst in the latter +verse it is regarded as part of the period of the progress towards +the perfecting. Such variation in the application is more congruous +with the idea that we have here to deal with a kind of proverbial +expression for a limited and short period. Our Lord is saying in +effect, 'My time is not to be settled by Herod. It is definite, and +it is short. It is needless for him to trouble himself; for in three +days it will be all over. It is useless for him to trouble himself, +or for you Pharisees to plot, for until the appointed days are past +it will not be over, whatever you and he may do.' The course He had +yet to run was plain before Him in this last journey, every step of +which was taken with the Cross full in view. + +Now the worst part of death is the anticipation of death; and it +became Him who bore death for every man to drink to its dregs that +cup of trembling which the fear of it puts to all human lips. We +rightly regard it as a cruel aggravation of a criminal's doom if he +is carried along a level, straight road with his gibbet in view at +the end of the march. But so it was that Jesus Christ travelled +through life. + +My text comes at a comparatively late period of His history. A few +months or weeks at the most intervened between Him and the end. But +the consciousness which is here so calmly expressed was not of +recent origin. We know that from the period of His transfiguration +He began to give His death a very prominent place in His teaching, +but it had been present with Him long before He thus laid emphasis +upon it in His communications with His disciples. For, if we accept +John's Gospel as historical, we shall have to throw back His first +public references to the end to the very beginning of His career. +The cleansing of the Temple, at the very outset of His course, was +vindicated by Him by the profound words, 'Destroy this Temple, and +in three days I will raise it up.' During the same early visit to +the capital city He said to Nicodemus, 'As Moses lifted up the +serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted +up.' So Christ's career was not like that of many a man who has +begun, full of sanguine hope as a possible reformer and benefactor +of his fellows, and by slow degrees has awakened to the +consciousness that reformers and benefactors need to be martyrs ere +their ideals can be realised. There was no disillusioning in +Christ's experience. From the commencement He knew that He came, not +only to minister, but also 'to give His life a ransom for the many.' +And it was _not_ a mother's eye, as a reverent modern painter +has profoundly, and yet erroneously, shown us in his great work in +our own city gallery--it was not a mother's eye that first saw the +shadow of the Cross fall on her unconscious Son, but it was Himself +that all through His earthly pilgrimage knew Himself to be the Lamb +appointed for the sacrifice. This Isaac toiled up the hill, bearing +the wood and the knife, and knew where and who was the Offering. + +Brethren, I do not think that we sufficiently realise the importance +of that element in our conceptions of the life of Jesus Christ. What +a pathos it gives to it all! What a beauty it gives to His +gentleness, to His ready interest in others, to His sympathy for all +sorrow, and tenderness with all sin! How wonderfully it deepens the +significance, the loveliness, and the pathos of the fact that 'the +Son of Man came eating and drinking,' remembering everybody but +Himself, and ready to enter into all the cares and the sorrows of +other hearts, if we think that all the while there stood, grim and +certain, before Him that Calvary with its Cross! Thus, through all +His path, He knew to what He was journeying. + +II. Then again, secondly, let me ask you to note here our Lord's own +estimate of the place which His death holds in relation to His whole +work. + +Notice that remarkable variation in the expression in our text. 'The +third day I shall be _perfected_.... It cannot be that a +prophet _perish_ out of Jerusalem.' Then, somehow or other, the +'perishing' is 'perfecting.' There may be a doubt as to the precise +rendering of the word translated by 'perfecting'; but it seems to me +that the only meaning congruous with the context is that which is +suggested by the translation of our Authorised Version, and that our +Lord does not mean to say 'on the third day I shall complete My work +of casting out devils and curing diseases,' but that He masses the +whole of His work into two great portions--the one of which +includes all His works and ministrations of miracles and of mercy; +and the other of which contains one unique and transcendent fact, +which outweighs and towers above all these others, and is the +perfecting of His work, and the culmination of His obedience, +service, and sacrifice. + +Now, of course, I need not remind you that the 'perfecting' thus +spoken of is not a perfecting of moral character or of individual +nature, but that it is the same perfecting which the Epistle to the +Hebrews speaks about when it says, 'Being made perfect, He became +the Author of eternal salvation to all them which obey Him.' That is +to say, it is His perfecting in regard to office, function, work for +the world, and not the completion or elevation of His individual +character. And this 'perfecting' is effected in His 'perishing.' + +Now I want to know in what conceivable sense the death of Jesus Christ +can be the culmination and crown of His work, without which it would +be a torso, an incomplete fragment, a partial fulfilment of the +Father's design, and of His own mission, unless it be that that death +was, as I take it the New Testament with one voice in all its parts +declares it to be, a sacrifice for the sins of the world. I know of +no construing of the fact of the death on the Cross which can do +justice to the plain words of my text, except the old-fashioned +belief that therein He made atonement for sin, and thereby, as the +Lamb of God, bore away the sins of the world. + +Other great lives may be crowned by fair deaths, which henceforward +become seals of faithful witness, and appeals to the sentiments of +the heart, but there is no sense that I know of in which from +Christ's death there can flow a mightier energy than from such a +life, unless in the sense that the death is a sacrifice. + +Now I know there has been harm done by the very desire to exalt +Christ's great sacrifice on the Cross; when it has been so separated +from His life as that the life has not been regarded as a sacrifice, +nor the death as obedience. Rather the sacrificial element runs +through His whole career, and began when He became flesh and +tabernacled amongst us; but yet as being the apex of it all, without +which it were all-imperfect, and in a special sense redeeming men +from the power of death, that Cross is set forth by His own word. +For Him to 'perish' was to 'be perfected.' As the ancient prophet +long before had said, 'When His soul shall make an offering for +sin,' then, paradoxical as it may seem, the dead Man shall 'see,' +and 'shall see His seed.' Or, as He Himself said, 'If a corn of +wheat fall into the ground it abideth alone, but if it die it +bringeth forth much fruit.' + +I do not want to insist upon any theories of Atonement. I do want to +insist that Christ's own estimate of the significance and purpose +and issue of His death shall not be slurred over, but that, +recognising that He Himself regarded it as the perfecting of His +work, we ask ourselves very earnestly how such a conception can be +explained if we strike out of our Christianity the thought of the +sacrifice for the sins of the world. Unless we take Paul's gospel, +'How that He died for our sins according to the Scriptures,' I for +one do not believe that we shall ever get Paul's results, 'Old +things are passed away; all things are become new.' If you strike +the Cross off the dome of the temple, the fires on its altars will +soon go out. A Christianity which has to say much about the life of +Jesus, and knows not what to say about the death of Christ, will be +a Christianity that will neither have much constraining power in our +lives, nor be able to breathe a benediction of peace over our +deaths. If we desire to be perfected in character, we must have +faith in that sacrificial death which was the perfecting of Christ's +work. + +III. And so, lastly, notice our Lord's resolved surrender to the +discerned Cross. + +There is much in this aspect in the words of my text which I cannot +touch upon now; but two or three points I may briefly notice. + +Note then, I was going to say, the superb heroism of His calm +indifference to threats and dangers. He will go hence, and relieve +the tyrant's dominions of His presence; but He is careful to make it +plain that His going has no connection with the futile threatenings +by which they have sought to terrify Him. 'Nevertheless'--although I +do not care at all for them or for him--'nevertheless I must journey +to-day and tomorrow! But that is not because I fear death, but +because I am going to My death; for the prophet must die in +Jerusalem.' We are so accustomed to think of the 'gentle Jesus, meek +and mild' that we forget the 'strong Son of God.' If we were talking +about a man merely, we should point to this calm, dignified answer +as being an instance of heroism, but we do not feel that that word +fits Him. There are too many vulgar associations connected with it, +to be adapted to the gentleness of His fixed purpose that blenched +not, nor faltered, whatsoever came in the way. + +Light is far more powerful than lightning. Meekness may be, and in +Him was, wedded to a will like a bar of iron, and a heart that knew +not how to fear. If ever there was an iron hand in a velvet glove it +was the hand of Christ. And although the perspective of virtues +which Christianity has introduced, and which Christ exhibited in His +life, gives prominence to the meek and the gentle, let us not forget +that it also enjoins the cultivation of the 'wrestling thews that +throw the world.' 'Quit you like men; be strong; let all your deeds +be done in charity.' + +Then note, too, the solemn law that ruled His life. 'I _must_ +walk.' That is a very familiar expression upon His lips. From that +early day when He said, 'Wist ye not that I _must_ be about My +Father's business,' to that last when He said, 'The Son of Man +_must_ be lifted up,' there crops out, ever and anon, in the +occasional glimpses that He allows us to have of His inmost spirit, +this reference of all His actions to a necessity that was laid upon +Him, and to which He ever consciously conformed. That necessity +determined what He calls so frequently 'My time; My hour'; and +influenced the trifles, as they are called, as well as the great +crises, of His career. It was the Father's will which made the Son's +_must_. Hence His unbroken communion and untroubled calm. + +If we want to live near God, and if we want to have lives of peace +amidst convulsions, we, too, must yield ourselves to that all +encompassing sovereign necessity, which, like the great laws of the +universe, shapes the planets and the suns in their courses and their +stations; and holds together two grains of dust, or two motes that +dance in the sunshine. To gravitation there is nothing great and +nothing small. God's _must_ covers all the ground of our lives, +and should ever be responded to by our 'I will.' + +And that brings me to the last point, and that is, our Lord's glad +acceptance of the necessity and surrender of the Cross. What was it +that made Him willing to take that 'must' as the law of His life? +First, a Son's obedience; second, a Brother's love. There was no +point in Christ's career, from the moment when in the desert He put +away the temptation to win the kingdoms of the world by other than +the God-appointed means, down to the last moment when on His dying +ears there fell another form of the same temptation in the taunt, +'Let Him come down from the cross, and we will believe on Him'; when +He could not, if He had chosen to abandon His mission, have saved +Himself. No compulsion, no outward hand impelling Him, drove Him +along that course which ended on Calvary; but only that He would +save others, and therefore 'Himself He cannot save.' + +True, there were natural human shrinkings, just as the weight and +impetus of some tremendous billow buffeting the bows of the ship +makes it quiver; but this never affected the firm hand on the +rudder, and never deflected the vessel from its course. Christ's +'soul was troubled,' but His will was fixed, and it was fixed by His +love to us. Like one of the men who in after ages died for His dear +sake, He may be conceived as refusing to be bound to the stake by +any bands, willing to stand there and be destroyed because He wills. +Nothing fastened Him to the Cross but His resolve to save the world, +in which world was included each of us sitting listening and +standing speaking, now. Oh, brethren! shall not we, moved by such +love, with like cheerfulness of surrender, give ourselves to Him who +gave Himself for us? + + + + +THE LESSONS OF A FEAST + + + 'And it came to pass, as He went into the house of one + of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day, + that they watched Him. 2. And, behold, there was a + certain man before Him which had the dropsy. 3. And + Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, + saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? 4. And + they held their peace. And He took him, and healed him, + and let him go; 5. And answered them, saying, Which of + you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and + will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day? + 6. And they could not answer Him again to these things. + 7. And He put forth a parable to those which were + bidden, when He marked how they chose out the chief + rooms; saying unto them, 8. When thou art bidden of any + man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room, + lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; + 9. And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, + Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take + the lowest room. 10. But when thou art bidden, go and + sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade + thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up + higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence + of them that sit at meat with thee. 11. For whosoever + exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth + himself shall be exalted. 12. Then said He also to him + that bade Him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, + call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy + kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid + thee again, and a recompense be made thee. 13. But when + thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the + lame, the blind: 14. And thou shalt be blessed; for + they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be + recompensed at the resurrection of the just.' + --LUKE xiv. 1-14. + +Jesus never refused an invitation, whether the inviter were a +Pharisee or a publican, a friend or a foe. He never mistook the +disposition of His host. He accepted 'greetings where no kindness +is,' and on this occasion there was none. The entertainer was a spy, +and the feast was a trap. What a contrast between the malicious +watchers at the table, ready to note and to interpret in the worst +sense every action of His, and Him loving and wishing to bless even +them! The chill atmosphere of suspicion did not freeze the flow of +His gentle beneficence and wise teaching. His meek goodness remained +itself in the face of hostile observers. The miracle and the two +parables are aimed straight at their errors. + +I. How came the dropsical man there? Possibly he had simply strayed +in to look on at the feast, as the freedom of manners then would +permit him to do. The absence of any hint that he came hoping for a +cure, and of any trace of faith on his part, or of speech to him on +Christ's, joined with his immediate dismissal after his cure, rather +favours the supposition that he had been put as the bait of the +trap, on the calculation that the sight of him would move Jesus to +heal him. The setters of the snare were 'watching' whether it would +work, and Jesus 'answered' their thoughts, which were, doubtless, +visible in their eyes. His answer has three stages--a question which +is an assertion, the cure, and another affirming question. All three +are met with sulky silence, which speaks more than words would have +done. The first question takes the 'lawyers' on their own ground, +and in effect asserts that to heal did not break the Sabbath. Jesus +challenges denial of the lawfulness of it, and the silence of the +Pharisees confesses that they dare not deny. 'The bare fact of +healing is not prohibited,' they might have said, 'but the acts +necessary for healing are.' But no acts were necessary for this +Healer's power to operate. The outgoing of His will had power. Their +finespun distinctions of deeds lawful and unlawful were spiders' +webs, and His act of mercy flew high above the webs, like some fair +winged creature glancing in the sunshine, while the spider sits in +his crevice balked. The broad principle involved in Jesus' first +question is that no Sabbath law, no so-called religious restriction, +can ever forbid helping the miserable. The repose of the Sabbath is +deepened, not disturbed, by activity for man's good. + +The cure is told without detail, probably because there were no +details to tell. There is no sign of request or of faith on the +sufferer's part; there seems to have been no outward act on Christ's +beyond 'taking' him, which appears simply to mean that He called him +nearer, and then, by a simple exercise of His will, healed him. +There is no trace of thanks or of wonder in the heart of the +sufferer, who probably never had anything more to do with his +benefactor. Silently he comes on the stage, silently he gets his +blessing, silently he disappears. A strange, sad instance of how +possible it is to have a momentary connection with Jesus, and even +to receive gifts from His hand, and yet to have no real, permanent +relation to Him! + +The second question turns from the legal to a broader consideration. +The spontaneous workings of the heart are not to be dammed back by +ceremonial laws. Need calls for immediate succour. You do not wait +for the Sabbath's sun to set when your ox or your ass is in a pit. +(The reading 'son' instead of 'ox,' as in the Revised Version +margin, is incongruous.) Jesus is appealing to the instinctive wish +to give immediate help even to a beast in trouble, and implies that +much more should the same instinct be allowed immediate play when +its object is a man. The listeners were self-condemned, and their +obstinate silence proves that the arrow had struck deep. + +II. The cure seems to have taken place before the guests seated +themselves. Then came a scramble for the most honourable places, on +which He looked with perhaps a sad smile. Again the silence of the +guests is noticeable, as well as the calm assumption of authority +by Jesus, even among such hostile company. Where He comes a guest, +He becomes teacher, and by divine right He rebukes. The lesson is +given, says Luke, as 'a parable,' by which we are to understand that +our Lord is not here giving, as might appear if His words are +superficially interpreted, a mere lesson of proper behaviour at a +feast, but is taking that behaviour as an illustration of a far +deeper thing. Possibly some too ambitious guest had contrived to +seat himself in the place of honour, and had had to turn out, and, +with an embarrassed mien, had to go down to the very lowest place, +as all the intermediate ones were full. His eagerness to be at the +top had ended in his being at the bottom. That is a 'parable,' says +Jesus, an illustration in the region of daily life, of large truths +in morals and religion. It is a poor motive for outward humility and +self-abasement that it may end in higher honour. And if Jesus was +here only giving directions for conduct in regard to men, He was +inculcating a doubtful kind of morality. The devil's + + darling sin + Is the pride that apes humility.' + +Jesus was not recommending that, but what is crafty ambition, +veiling itself in lowliness for its own purposes, when exercised in +outward life, becomes a noble, pure, and altogether worthy, thing in +the spiritual sphere. For to desire to be exalted in the kingdom is +wholly right, and to humble one's self with a direct view to that +exaltation is to tread the path which He has hallowed by His own +footsteps. The true aim for ambition is the honour that cometh from +God only, and the true path to it is through the valley; for 'God +resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.' + +III. Unbroken silence still prevailed among the guests, but again +Jesus speaks as teacher, and now to the host. A guest does not +usually make remarks on the composition of the company, Jesus could +make no 'recompense' to His entertainer, but to give him this +counsel. Again, He inculcated a wide general lesson under the guise +of a particular exhortation appropriate to the occasion. Probably +the bulk of the guests were well-to-do people of the host's own +social rank, and, as probably, there were onlookers of a lower +degree, like the dropsical man. The prohibition is not directed +against the natural custom of inviting one's associates and equals, +but against inviting them only, and against doing so with a sharp +eye to the advantages to be derived from it. That weary round of +giving a self-regarding hospitality, and then getting a return +dinner or evening entertainment from each guest, which makes up so +much of the social life among us, is a pitiful affair, hollow and +selfish. What would Jesus say--what does Jesus say--about it all? +The sacred name of hospitality is profaned, and the very springs of +it dried up by much of our social customs, and the most literal +application of our Lord's teaching here is sorely needed. + +But the words are meant as a 'parable,' and are to be widened out to +include all sorts of kindnesses and helps given in the sacred name +of charity to those whose only claim is their need. 'They cannot +recompense thee'--so much the better, for, if an eye to their doing +so could have influenced thee, thy beneficence would have lost its +grace and savour, and would have been simple selfishness, and, as +such, incapable of future reward. It is only love that is lavished +on those who can make no return which is so free from the taint of +secret regard to self that it is fit to be recognised as love in the +revealing light of that great day, and therefore is fit to be +'recompensed in the resurrection of the just.' + + + + +EXCUSES NOT REASONS + + + 'They all with one consent began to make excuse. + --LUKE xiv. 18. + +Jesus Christ was at a feast in a Pharisee's house. It was a strange +place for Him--and His words at the table were also strange. For He +first rebuked the guests, and then the host; telling the former to +take the lower rooms, and bidding the latter widen his hospitality +to those that could not recompense him. It was a sharp saying; and +one of the other guests turned the edge of it by laying hold of our +Lord's final words: 'Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection +of the just,' and saying, no doubt in a pious tone and with a devout +shake of the head, 'Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the +Kingdom of God.' It was a very proper thing to say, but there was a +ring of conventional, commonplace piety about it, which struck +unpleasantly on Christ's ear. He answers the speaker with that +strange story of the great feast that nobody would come to, as if He +had said, 'You pretend to think that it is a blessed thing to eat +bread in the Kingdom of God, Why! You will not eat bread when it is +offered to you.' + +I dare say you all know enough of the parable to make it unnecessary +for me to go over it. A great feast is prepared; invitations, more +or less general, are sent out at first, everything is ready; and, +behold, there is a table, and nobody to sit at it. A strange +experience for a hospitable man! And so he sends his servants to +beat up the unwilling guests, and, one after another, with more or +less politeness, refuses to come. + +I need not follow the story further. In the latter part of the +parable our Lord shadows the transference of the blessings of the +Kingdom to the Gentiles, outcasts as the Jews thought them, skulking +in the hedges and tramping on the highways. In the first part He +foreshadows the failure of His own preaching amongst His own people. +But Jews and Englishmen are very much alike. The way in which these +invited guests treated the invitation to this feast is being +repeated, day by day, by thousands of men round us; and by some of +ourselves. 'They all, with one consent, began to make excuse.' + +I. The first thing that I would desire you to notice is the +strangely unanimous refusal. + +The guests' conduct in the story is such as life and reality would +afford no example of. No set of people, asked to a great banquet, +would behave as these people in the parable do. Then, is the +introduction of such an unnatural trait as this a fault in the +construction of narrative? No! Rather it is a beauty, for the very +point of the story is the utter unnaturalness of the conduct +described, and the contrast that is presented between the way in +which men regard the lower blessings from which these people are +represented as turning, and in which they regard the loftier +blessings that are offered. Nobody would turn his hack upon such a +banquet if he had the chance of going to it. What, then, shall we +say of those who, by platoons and regiments, turn their backs upon +this higher offer? The very preposterous unnaturalness of the +conduct, if the parable were a true story, points to the deep +meaning that lies behind it: that in that higher region the +unnatural is the universal, or all but universal. + +And, indeed, it is so. One would almost venture to say that there is +a kind of law according to which the more valuable a thing is the +less men care to have it; or, if you like to put it into more +scientific language, the attraction of an object is in the inverse +ratio to its worth. Small things, transitory things, material +things, everybody grasps at; and the number of graspers steadily +decreases as you go up the scale in preciousness, until, when you +reach the highest of all, there are the fewest that want them. Is +there anything lower than good that merely gratifies the body? Is +there anything that the most of men want more? Are there many things +lower in the scale than money? Are there many things that pull more +strongly? Is not truth better than wealth? Are there more pursuers +of it than there are of the former? For one man who is eager to +know, and counts his life well spent, in following knowledge + + 'Like a sinking star, + Beyond the furthest bounds of human thought,' + +there are a hundred who think it rightly expended in the pursuit +after the wealth that perishes. Is not goodness higher than truth, +and are not the men that are content to devote themselves to +becoming wise more numerous than those that are content to devote +themselves to becoming pure? And, topmost of all, is there anything +to be compared with the gifts that are held out to us in that great +Saviour and in His message? And is there anything that the mass of +men pass by with more unanimous refusal than the offered feast which +the great King of humanity has provided for His subjects? What is +offered for each of us, pressed upon us, in the gift of Jesus +Christ? Help, guidance, companionship, restfulness of heart, power +of obedience, victory over self, control of passions, supremacy over +circumstances, tranquillity deep and genuine, death abolished, +Heaven opened, measureless hopes following upon perfect fruition, +here and hereafter. These things are all gathered into, and their +various sparkles absorbed in, the one steady light of that one great +encyclopaediacal word--Salvation. These gifts are going begging, +lying at our doors, offered to every one of us, pressed upon all on +the simple condition of taking Christ for Saviour and King. And what +do we do with them? 'They all, with one consent, began to make +excuse.' + +One hears of barbarous people that have no use for the gold that +abounds in their country, and do not think it half as valuable as +glass beads. That is how men estimate the true and the trumpery +treasures which Christ and the world offer. I declare it seems to me +that, calmly looking at men's nature, and their duration, and then +thinking of the aims of the most of them, we should not be very far +wrong if we said an epidemic of insanity sits upon the world. For +surely to turn away from the gold and to hug the glass beads is very +little short of madness. 'This their way is their folly, and their +posterity approve their sayings.' + +And now notice that this refusal may be, and often in fact is, +accompanied with lip recognition of the preciousness of the +neglected things. That Pharisee who put up the pillow of his pious +sentiment--a piece of cant, because he did not feel what he was +saying--to deaden the cannon-ball of Christ's word, is only a +pattern of a good many of us who think that to say, 'Blessed is he +that eateth bread in the Kingdom of God,' with the proper unctuous +roll of the voice, is pretty nearly as good as to take the bread +that is offered to us. There are no more difficult people to get at +than the people, of whom I am sure I have some specimens before me +now, who bow their heads in assent to the word of the Gospel, and by +bowing them escape its impact, and let it whistle harmlessly over. +You that believe every word that I or my brethren preach, and never +dream of letting it affect your conduct--if there be degrees in that +lunatic asylum of the world, surely you are candidates for the +highest place. + +II. Now, secondly, notice the flimsy excuses. + +'They all, with one consent, began.' I do not suppose that they had +laid their heads together, or that our Lord intends us to suppose +that there was a conspiracy and concert of refusal, but only that +without any previous consultation, all had the same sentiments, and +offered substantially the same answer. All the reasons that are +given come to one and the same thing--viz. occupation with present +interests, duties, possessions, or affections. There are differences +in the excuses which are not only helps to the vividness of the +narrative, but also express differences in the speakers. One man is +a shade politer than the others. He puts his refusal on the ground +of necessity. He 'must,' and so he courteously prays that he may be +held excused. The second one is not quite so polite; but still there +is a touch of courtesy about him too. He does not pretend necessity +as his friend had done, but he simply says, 'I _am_ going'; and +that is not quite so courteous as the former answer, but still he +begs to be excused. The last man thinks that he has such an +undeniable reason that he may be as brusque as he likes, and so he +says, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come' and I do +not make any apologies. So with varying degrees of apparent +recognition of the claims of host and feast, the ground of refusal +is set forth as possessions in two cases, and as affections in the +third; and these so fill the men's hearts and minds that they have +no time to attend to the call that summons them to the feast. + +Now it is obvious to note that the alleged necessity in one of these +excuses was no necessity at all. Who made the 'must'? The man himself. +The field would not run away though he waited till to-morrow. The +bargain was finished, for he had bought it. There was no necessity +for his going, and the next day would have done quite as well as +to-day; so the 'must' was entirely in his own mind. That is to say, +a great many of us mask inclinations under the garb of imperative +duties and say, 'We are so pressed by necessary obligations and +engagements that we really have not got any time to attend to these +higher questions which you are trying to press upon us.' You remember +the old story. 'I must live,' said the thief. 'I do not see the +necessity,' said the judge. A man says, 'I _must_ be at business +to-morrow morning at half-past eight. How can I think about religion?' +Well, if you really _must_, you _can_ think about it. But if you +are only juggling and deceiving yourself with inclinations that pose as +necessities, the sooner the veil is off the better, and you understand +whereabouts you are, and what is your true position in reference to the +Gospel of Jesus Christ. + +But then let me, only in a word, remind you that the other side of +the excuse is a very operative one. 'I have married a wife, and +therefore I cannot come.' There are some of us around whom the +strong grasp of earthly affections is flung so embracingly and +sweetly that we cannot, as we think, turn our loves upward and fix +them upon God. Fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, parents and +children, remember Christ's deep words, 'A man's foes shall be they +of his own household'; and be sure that the prediction is fulfilled +many a time by the hindrances of their love even more than by the +opposition of their hatred. + +All these excuses refer to legitimate things. It is perfectly right +that the man should go and see after his field, perfectly right that +the ten bullocks should be harnessed and tried, perfectly right that +the sweetness of wedded love should be tasted and drunk, perfectly +wrong that any of them should be put as a reason for not accepting +Christ's offer. Let us take the lesson that legitimate business and +lawful and pure affections may ruin a soul, and may constitute the +hindrance that blocks its road to God. + +Brethren, I said that these were flimsy excuses. I shall have to +explain what I mean by that in a moment. As excuses they are flimsy; +but as reasons which actually operate with hundreds of people, +preventing them from being Christians, they are not flimsy; they are +most solid and real. Our Lord does not mean them as exhaustive. +There are a great many other grounds upon which different types of +character turn away from the offered blessings of the Gospel, which +do not come within view of the parable. But although not exhaustive +they are widely operative. I wonder how many men and women there are +listening to me now of whom it is true that they are so busy with +their daily occupations that they have not time to be religious, and +of how many men, and perhaps more especially women, among us at this +moment it is true that their hearts are so ensnared with loves that +belong to earth--beautiful and potentially sacred and elevating as +these are--that they have not time to turn themselves to the one +eternal Lover of their souls. Let me beseech you, dear friends--and +you especially who are strangers to this place and to my voice--to +do what I cannot, and would not if I could, lay these thoughts on +your own hearts, and ask yourselves, 'Is it I?' + +And then before I pass from this point of my discourse, remember +that the contrariety between these duties and the acceptance of the +offered feast existed only in the imagination of the men that made +them. There is no reason why you should not go to the feast and see +after your field. There is no reason why you should not love your +wife and go to the feast. God's summons comes into collision with +many wishes, but with no duties or legitimate occupations. The more +a man accepts and lives upon the good that Jesus Christ spreads +before him, the more fit will he be for all his work, and for all +his enjoyments. The field will be better tilled, the bullocks will +be better driven, the wife will be more wisely, tenderly, and +sacredly loved if in your hearts Christ is enthroned, and whatsoever +you do you do as for Him. It is only the excessive and abusive +possession of His gifts and absorption in our duties and relations +that turns them into impediments in the path of our Christian life. +And the flimsiness of the excuse is manifest by the fact that the +contrarity is self-created. + +III. Lastly, note the real reason. + +I have said that as pretexts the three explanations were +unsatisfactory. When a man pleads a previous engagement as a reason +for not accepting an invitation, nine times out of ten it is a +polite way of saying, 'I do not want to go.' It was so in this case. +How all these absolute impossibilities, which made it perfectly out +of the question that the three recreants should sit down at the +table, would have melted into thin air if, by any chance, there had +come into their minds a wish to be there! They would have found +means to look after the field and the cattle and the home, and to be +in their places notwithstanding, if they had wanted. The real reason +that underlies men's turning away from Christ's offer is, as I said +in the beginning of my remarks, that they do not care to have it. +They have no inclinations and no tastes for the higher and purer +blessings. + +Brother, do not let us lose ourselves in generalities. I am talking +about you, and about the set of your inclinations and tastes. And I +want you to ask yourself whether it is not a fact that some of you +like oxen better than God; whether it is not a fact that if the two +were there before you, you would rather have a good big field made +over to you than have the food that is spread upon that table. + +Well then what is the cause of the perverted inclination? Why is it +that when Christ says, 'Child, come to Me, and I will give thee +pardon, peace, purity, power, hope, Heaven, Myself,' there is no +responsive desire kindled in the heart? Why do I not want God? Why +do I not care for Jesus Christ? Why do the blessings about which +preachers are perpetually talking seem to me so shadowy, so remote +from anything that I need, so ill-fitting to anything that I desire? +There must be something very deeply wrong. This is what is wrong, +your heart has shaken itself loose from dependence upon God; and you +have no love as you ought to have for Him. You prefer to stand +alone. The prodigal son, having gone away into the far country, +likes the swine's husks better than the bread in his father's house, +and it is only when the supply of the latter coarse dainty gives out +that the purer taste becomes strong. Strange, is it not? but yet it +is true. + +Now there are one or two things that I want to say about this +indifference, resulting from preoccupation and from alienation, and +which hides its ugliness behind all manner of flimsy excuses. One is +that the reason itself is utterly unreasonable. I have said the true +reason is indifference. Can anybody put into words which do not +betray the absurdity of the position, the conduct of the man who +says, 'I do not want God; give me five yoke of oxen. That is the +real good, and I will stick by that.' There is one mystery in the +world, and if it were solved everything would be solved; and that +mystery is that men turn away from God and cleave to earth. No +account can be given of sin. No account can be given of man's +preference for the lesser and the lower; and neglect of the greater +and the higher, except to say it is utterly inexplicable and +unreasonable. + +I need not say such indifference is shameful ingratitude to the +yearning love which provides, and the infinite sacrifice by which +was provided, this great feast to which we are asked. It cost Christ +pains, and tears, and blood, to prepare that feast, and He looks to +us, and says to us, 'Come and drink of the wine which I have +mingled, and eat of the bread which I have provided at such a cost.' +There are monsters of ingratitude, but there are none more +miraculously monstrous than the men who look, as some of us are +doing, untouched on Christ's sacrifice, and listen unmoved to +Christ's pleadings. + +The excuses will disappear one day. We can trick our consciences; we +can put off the messengers; we cannot deceive the Host. All the thin +curtains that we weave to veil the naked ugliness of our +unwillingness to accept Christ will be burnt up one day. And I pray +you to ask yourselves, 'What shall I say when He comes and asks me, +"Why was thy place empty at My table"?' 'And he was speechless.' Do +not, dear brethren, refuse that gift, lest you bring upon yourselves +the terrible and righteous wrath of the Host whose invitation you +are slighting, and at whose table you are refusing to sit. + + + + +THE RASH BUILDER + + + 'Which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not + down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have + sufficient to finish it?'--LUKE xiv. 28. + +Christ sought for no recruits under false pretences, but rather +discouraged than stimulated light-hearted adhesion. His constant +effort was to sift the crowds that gathered round Him. So here great +multitudes are following Him, and how does He welcome them? Does He +lay Himself out to attract them? Luke tells us that He _turned_ +and faced the following multitude; and then, with a steady hand, +drenched with cold water the too easily kindled flame. Was that +because He did not wish them to follow Him? He desired every soul in +that crowd for His own, and He knew that the best way to attract is +sometimes to repel; and that a plain statement of the painful +consequences of a course will quench no genuine enthusiasm, but may +turn a mere flash in the pan into a purpose that will flame through +a life. + +So our Lord lays down in stringent words the law of discipleship as +being self-sacrifice; the abandonment of the dearest, and the +acceptance of the most painful. And then He illustrates the law by +these two expanded similes or condensed parables, of the rash +builder and the rash soldier. Each contains a side of the Christian +life, and represents one phase of what a true disciple ought to be. +I wish to look with you now at the first of these two comparisons. + +I. Consider then, first, the building, or the true aim of +discipleship. + +The building of the tower represents what every human life ought to +aim at, the rearing up of a strong, solid structure in which the +builder may dwell and be at rest. + +But then remember we are always building, consciously or +unconsciously. By our transitory actions we are all rearing up a +house for our souls in which we have to dwell; building character +from out of the fleeting acts of conduct, which character we have to +carry with us for ever. Soft invertebrate animals secrete their own +shells. That is what we are doing-making character, which is the +shield of self, as it were; and in which we have to abide. + +My friend, what are you building? A prison; a mere garden-house of +lustful delights; or a temple fortress in which God may dwell +reverenced, and you may abide restful? Observe that whilst all men +are thus unconsciously and habitually rearing up a permanent abode +by their transient actions, every life that is better than a brute's +ought to have for its aim the building up of ourselves into firm +strength. The development of character is what we ought to ask from, +and to secure by, this fleeting life of ours. Not enjoyment; that is +a miserable aim. Not the satisfaction of earthly desires; not the +prosperity of our business or other ordinary avocations. The demand +that we should make upon life, and the aim which we should have +clearly before us in all that we do, is that it may contribute to +the formation of a pure and noble self, to the development of +character into that likeness to Jesus Christ, which is perfection +and peace and blessedness. + +And while that is true about all life, it is eminently true in +regard to the highest form of life, which is the Christian life. +There are dreadful mistakes and imperfections in the ordinary vulgar +conception of what a Christian is, and what he is a Christian for. +What do you think men and women are meant to be Christians for? That +they may get away from some material and outward hell? Possibly. +That they may get celestial happiness? Certainly. But are these the +main things? By no means. What people are meant to be Christians for +is that they may be shaped into the likeness of Jesus Christ; or to +go back to the metaphor of my text, the meaning and aim of Christian +discipleship is not happiness, but the building up of the tower in +which the man may dwell. + +Ah, friend; is that your notion of what a Christian is; and of what +he is a Christian for, to be like the Master? Alas! alas! how few of +us, honestly and continually and practically, lay to heart the +stringent and grand conception which underlies this metaphor of our +Lord's, who identifies the man that was thinking of being His +disciple with the man that sits down intending to build a tower. + +II. So, secondly, note the cost of the building, or the conditions +of discipleship. + +Building is an expensive amusement, as many a man who has gone +rashly in for bricks and mortar has found out to his cost. And the +most expensive of all sorts of building is the building up of +Christian character. That costs more than anything else, but there +are a number of other things less noble and desirable, which share +with it, to some extent, in the expenditure which it involves. + +Discipleship demands constant reference to the plan. A man that +lives as he likes, by impulse, by inclination, or ignobly yielding +to the pressure of circumstances and saying, 'I could not help +myself, I was carried away by the flood,' or 'Everybody round about +me is doing it, and I could not be singular'--will never build +anything worth living in. It will be a born ruin--if I may so say. +There must be continual reference to the plan. That is to say, if a +man is to do anything worth doing, there must be a very clear marking +out to himself of what he means to secure by life, and a keeping of +the aim continually before him as his guide and his pole-star. Did +you ever see the pretty architect's plans, that were all so white and +neat when they came out of his office, after the masons have done with +them-all thumb-marked and dirty? I wonder if your Bibles are like +that? Do we refer to the standard of conduct with anything like the +continual checking of our work by the architect's intention, which +every man who builds anything that will stand is obliged to practise? +Consult your plan, the pattern of your Master, the words of your +Redeemer, the gospel of your God, the voice of judgment and conscience, +and get into the habit of living, not like a vegetable, upon what +happens to be nearest its roots, nor like a brute, by the impulses of +the unreasoning nature, but clear above these put the understanding, +and high above that put the conscience, and above them all put the +will of the Lord. Consult your plan if you want to build your tower. + +Then, further, another condition is continuous effort. You cannot +'rush' the building of a great edifice. You have to wait till the +foundations get consolidated, and then by a separate effort every +stone has to be laid in its bed and out of the builder's hands. So +by slow degrees, with continuity of effort, the building rises. + +Now there has been a great deal of what I humbly venture to call +one-sidedness talked about the way by which Christian character is +to be developed and perfected. And one set of the New Testament +metaphors upon that subject has been pressed to the exclusion of the +others, and the effortless growth of the plant has been presented as +if it were the complete example of Christian progress. I know that +Jesus Christ has said: 'First the blade, then the ear; after that +the full corn in the ear.' But I know that He has also said, 'Which +of you, intending to build a tower'--and that involves the idea of +effort; and that He has further said, 'Or what king, going to make +war against another king'--and that involves the idea of antagonism +and conflict. And so, on the whole, I lay it down that this is one +of the conditions of building the tower, that the energy of the +builder should never slacken, but, with continual renewal of effort, +he should rear his life's building. + +And then, still further, there is the fundamental condition of all; +and that is, self-surrender. Our Lord lays this down in the most +stringent terms in the words before my text, where He points to two +directions in which that spirit is required to manifest itself. One +is detachment from persons that are dearest, and even from one's own +selfish life; the other is the acceptance of things that are most +contrary to one's inclinations, against the grain, painful and hard +to bear. And so we may combine these two in this statement: If any +man is going to build a Christlike life he will have to detach +himself from surrounding things and dear ones, and to crucify self +by suppression of the lower nature and the endurance of evils. The +preceding parable which is connected in subject with the text, the +story of the great supper, and the excuses made for not coming to +it, represents two-thirds of the refusals as arising from the undue +love for, and regard to, earthly possessions, and the remaining +third as arising from the undue love to, and regard for, the +legitimate objects of affection. And these are the two chords that +hold most of us most tightly. It is not Christianity alone, dear +brethren, that says that if you want to do anything worth doing, you +must detach yourself from outward wealth. It is not Christianity +alone that says that, if you want to build up a noble life, you must +not let earthly love dominate and absorb your energy; but it is +Christianity that says so most emphatically, and that has best +reason to say so. + +Concentration is the secret of all excellence. If the river is to +have any scour in it that will sweep away pollution and corruption, +it must not go winding and lingering in many curves, howsoever +flowery may be the banks, nor spreading over a broad bed, but you +must straighten it up and make it deep that it may run strong. And +if you will diffuse yourself all over these poor, wretched worldly +goods, or even let the rush of your heart's outflow go in the +direction of father and mother, wife and children, brethren and +sisters, forgetting Him, then you will never come to any good nor be +of use in this world. But if you want to be Christians after +Christ's pattern, remember that the price of the building is rigidly +to sacrifice self, 'to scorn delights and live laborious days,' and +to keep all vagrant desires and purposes within rigid limits, and +absolutely subordinated to Himself. + +On the other hand, there is to be the acceptance of what is painful +to the lower nature. Unpleasant consequences of duty have to be +borne, and the lower self, with its appetites and desires, has to be +crucified. The vine must be mercilessly pruned in tendrils, leaves, +and branches even, though the rich sap may seem to bleed away to +waste, if we are to grow precious grapes out of which may be +expressed the wine of the Kingdom. We must be dead to much if we are +to be alive to anything worth living for. + +Now remember that Christ's demand of self-surrender, self-sacrifice, +continuous effort, rigid limitation, does not come from any mere +false asceticism, but is inevitable in the very nature of the case, +and is made also by all worthy work. How much every one of us has +had to shear off our lives, how many tastes we have had to allow to +go ungratified, how many capacities undeveloped, in how many +directions we have had to hedge up our way, and not do, or be this, +that, or the other; if we have ever done anything in any direction +worthy the doing! Concentration and voluntary limitation, in order +to fix all powers on the supreme aim which judgment and conscience +have enjoined is the condition of all excellence, of all sanity of +living, and eminently of all Christian discipleship. + +III. Further, note the failures. + +The tower of the rash builder stands a gaunt, staring ruin. + +Whosoever throws himself upon great undertakings or high aims, +without a deliberate forecast of the difficulties and sacrifices +they involve, is sure to stop almost before he has begun. Many a man +and woman leaves the starting-point with a rush, as if they were +going to be at the goal presently, and before they have run fifty +yards turn aside and quietly walk out of the course. I wonder how +many of you began, when you were lads or girls, to study some +language, and stuck before you had got through twenty pages of the +grammar, or to learn some art, and have still got the tools lying +unused in a dusty corner. And how many of you who call yourselves +Christians began in the same fashion long ago to run the race? 'Ye +did run well.' What did hinder you? What hindered Atalanta? The +golden apples that were flung down on the path. Oh, the Church is +full of these abortive Christians; ruins from their beginning, +standing gaunt and windowless, the ground-plan a great palace, the +reality a hovel that has not risen a foot for the last ten years. I +wonder if there are any stunted Christians of that sort in this +congregation before me, who began under the influence of some +impulse or emotion, genuine enough, no doubt, but who had taken no +account of how much it would cost to finish the building. And so the +building is not finished, and never will be. + +But I should remark here that what I am speaking about as failure is +not incomplete attainment of the aim. For all our lives have to +confess that they incompletely attain their aim; and lofty aims, +imperfectly realised, and still maintained, are the very salt of +life, and beautiful 'as the new moon with a ragged edge, e'en in its +imperfection beautiful.' Paul was an old man and an advanced +Christian when he said, 'Not as though I had already attained, +either were already perfect, but I follow after.' And the highest +completeness to which the Christian builder can reach in this life +is the partial accomplishment of his aim and the persistent +adherence to and aspiration after the unaccomplished aim. It is not +these incomplete but progressive and aspiring lives that are +failures, but it is the lives of men who have abandoned high aims, +and have almost forgotten that they ever cherished them. + +And what does our Lord say about such? That everybody laughs at +them. It is not more than they deserve. An out-and-out Christian +will often be disliked, but if he is made a mock of there will be a +_soupcon_ of awe and respect even in the mockery. Half-and-half +Christians get, and richly deserve, the curled lip and sarcasm of a +world that knows when a man is in earnest, and knows when he is an +incarnate sham. + +IV. Lastly, I would have you observe the inviting encouragement +hidden in the apparent repelling warning. + +If we read my text isolated, it may seem as if the only lesson that +our Lord meant to be drawn from it was a counsel of despair. 'Unless +you feel quite sure that you can finish, you had better not begin.' +Is that what He meant to say? I think not. He did mean to say, 'Do +not begin without opening your eyes to what is involved in the +beginning.' But suppose a man had taken His advice, had listened to +the terms, and had said, 'I cannot keep them, and I am going to +fling all up, and not try any more'--is that what Jesus Christ +wanted to bring him to? Surely not. And that it is not so arises +plainly enough from the observation that this parable and the +succeeding one are both sealed up, as it were, with 'So likewise, +whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he +cannot be My disciple.' + +Now, if I may so say, there are two kinds of 'forsaking all that we +have.' One is the forsaking by which we become disciples; and the +other the forsaking by which we continue true disciples. The +conviction that they had not sufficient to finish is the very +conviction that Christ wished to root in the minds of the crowds. +He exhibits the difficulties in order that they may feel they cannot +cope with them. What then? That they may 'forsake' all their own +power to cope with them. + +That is the first kind of 'forsaking all that we have.' That makes a +disciple. The recognition of my own utter impotence to do the things +which yet I see must be done, is the underside of trust in Him. And +that trust in Him brings the power that makes it possible for us to +do the things which we cannot of ourselves do, and the consciousness +of the impotence to do which is the first step toward doing them. It +is the self-sufficient man who is sure to be bankrupt before he has +finished his building; but he who has no confidence in himself, and +recognises the fact that he cannot build, will go to Jesus Christ +and say, 'Lord, I am poor and needy. Come Thou Thyself and be my +strength.' Such a forsaking of all that we have in the recognition +of our own poverty and powerlessness brings into the field an Ally +for our reinforcement that has more than the twenty thousand that +are coming against us, and will make us strong. + +And then, if, knowing our weakness, our misery, our poverty, and +cleaving to Jesus Christ in simple confidence in His divine power +breathed into our weakness, and His abundant riches lavished upon +our poverty, we cast ourselves into the work to which He calls us by +His grace, then we shall find that the sweet and certain assurance +that we have Him for the possession and the treasure of our lives +will make parting with everything else, not painful, but natural and +necessary and a joy, as the expression of our supreme love to Him. +It should not, and would not be difficult to fling away paste gems +and false riches if our hands were filled with the jewels that +Christ bestows. And it will not be difficult to slay the old man +when the new Christ lives in us, by our faith and submission. + +So, dear brethren, it all comes to this. We are all builders; what +kind of a work is your life's work going to turn out? Are you +building on the foundation, taking Jesus Christ for the anchor of +your hope, for the basis of your belief, for the crown of your aims, +for your all and in all? Are you building upon Him? If so, then the +building will stand when the storm comes and the 'hail sweeps away +the refuges' that other men have built elsewhere. But are you +building on that foundation the gold of self-denial, the silver of +white purity, the precious stones of variously-coloured and +Christlike virtues? Then your work will indeed be incomplete, but +its very incompleteness will be a prophecy of the time when 'the +headstone shall be brought forth with shoutings'; and you may humbly +trust that the day which 'declares every man's work of what sort it +is' will not destroy yours, but that it will gleam and flash in the +light of the revealing and reflecting fires. See to it that you are +building _for_ eternity, _on_ the foundation, _with_ the fair stones +which Jesus Christ gives to all those who let Him shape their lives. He +is at once, Architect, Material, Foundation; and in Him 'every several +building fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord.' + + + + +'THAT WHICH WAS LOST' + + + 'An hundred sheep ... ten pieces of silver,... two + sons.'--LUKE XV. 4,8,11. + +The immediate occasion of these three inimitable parables, which have +found their way to the heart of the world, needs to be remembered in +order to grasp their import and importance. They are intended to +vindicate Christ's conduct in associating with outcasts and +disreputable persons whom His Pharisaical critics thought a great +deal too foul to be touched by clean hands. They were not meant to +set forth with anything like completeness either what wanderers had +to do to go back to God, or what God had done to bring wanderers back +to Himself. If this had been remembered, many misconceptions, +widespread and mischievous, especially affecting the meaning of the +last of the three parables--that of the Prodigal Son--would have been +avoided. The purpose of the parables accounts for Christ's accepting +the division which His antagonists made of men, into 'righteous,' like +themselves, and 'unclean,' like the publicans and sinners. There was a +far deeper truth to be spoken about the condition of humanity than +that. But for the purposes of His argument Christ passes it by. The +remembrance of the intention of the parables explains their +incompleteness as a statement of what people call 'the way of +salvation.' They were not meant to teach us that, but they were meant +to show us that a human instinct which prizes lost things because they +are lost has something corresponding to it in the divine nature, and +so to vindicate the conduct of Christ. + +I venture to isolate these three statements of the subjects of the +parables, because I think that looking at the threefold aspect in +which the one general thought is presented may help us to some +useful considerations. + +I. I ask you, then, to look with me, first, at the varying causes of +loss. + +The sheep was lost, the _drachma_ was lost, the son was lost. +But in each case the reason for the loss was different. Whilst I +would avoid all fanciful inserting into our Lord's words of more +than they can fairly bear, I would also avoid superficial evacuating +them of any of their depth of significance. So I think it is not +unintentional nor unimportant that in these three metaphors there +are set forth three obviously distinct operative causes for man's +departure from God. + +The sheep did not intend to go anywhere, either to keep with or to +leave the shepherd. It simply knew that grass was sweet, and that +there, ahead of it, was another tuft, and it went after that. So it +nibbled itself away out of the path, out of the shepherd's care, out +of the flock's companionship. It was heedless; and therefore it was +lost. + +Now that is a fair statement of facts in regard to thousands of men, +of whom I have no doubt there are some listening to me now. They do +not intend any mischief, they have no purpose of rebellion or +transgression, but they live what we call animal lives. The sheep +knows only where the herbage is abundant and fresh: and it goes +there. An animal has no foresight, and is the happier because it +cannot look before and after. It has only a rudimentary conscience, +if it has that. Its inclinations are restrained by no sense of +obligation. Many men live just so, without restraint upon appetite, +without checking of inclination, without foresight except of the +material good which a certain course of conduct may get. So, all +unwitting, meaning no mischief, they wander further and further from +the right road, and find themselves at last in a waterless desert. + +Dear friends, am I speaking to any now who have too much yielded to +inclinations, who have been unwilling to look forward to the end, +and ask themselves what all will come to at the last, and who +scarcely know what it is to take heed unto their ways, except in so +far as worldly prudence may dictate certain courses of conduct for +the purpose of securing certain worldly and perishable ends? I would +plead, especially with the younger portion of my congregation, to +take the touching picture of this first parable as a solemn prophecy +of what certainly befalls every man who sets out upon his path +without careful consideration of whither it leads to at the last; +and who lives for the present, in any of its forms, and who lets +himself be led by inclinations or appetites. The animal does so, +and, as a rule, its instincts are its sufficient guide. But you and +I are blessed or cursed, as the case may be, with higher powers, +which, if we do not use, we shall certainly land in the desert. If a +man who is meant to guide himself by intelligence, reason, will, +foresight, conscience, chooses to go down to the level of the beast, +the faculties that serve the beast will not serve the man. And even +the sheep is lost from the flock if it yields only to these. + +But how it speaks of the Lord's tender sympathy for the wanderers +that He should put in the forefront of the parables this explanation +of the condition of men, and should not at first charge it upon them +as sin, but only as heedlessness and folly! There is much that in +itself is wrong and undesirable, the criminality of which is +diminished by the fact that it was heedlessly done, though the +heedlessness itself is a crime. + +Now turn to the second parable. The coin was heavy, so it fell; it +was round, so it rolled; it was dead, so it lay. And there are +people who are things rather than persons, so entirely have they +given up their wills, and so absolutely do they let themselves be +determined by circumstances. It was not the _drachma_ that lost +itself, but it was the law of gravitation that lost it, and it had +no power of resistance. This also is an explanation--partial, as I +shall have to show you in a moment, but still real,--of a great deal +of human wandering. There are masses of men who have no more power +to resist the pressure of circumstances and temptations than the +piece of silver had when it dropped from the woman's open palm and +trundled away into some dark corner. That lightens the darkness of +much of the world's sin. + +But for you to abnegate the right and power of resisting +circumstances is to abdicate the sovereignty with which God has +crowned you. All men are shaped by externals, but the shape which +the externals impose upon us is settled by ourselves. Here are two +men, for instance, exposed to precisely the same conditions: but one +of them yields, and is ruined; the other resists, and is raised and +strengthened. As Jesus Christ, so all things have a double +operation. They are 'either a savour of life unto life or a savour +of death unto death.' There is the stone. You may build upon it, or +you may stumble over it: you take your choice. Here is the adverse +circumstance. You may rule it, or you may let it rule you. +Circumstances and outward temptations are the fool's masters, and +the wise man's servants. It all depends on the set of the sail and +the firmness of the hand that grasps the tiller, which way the wind +shall carry the ship. The same breeze speeds vessels on directly +opposite courses, and so the same circumstances may drive men in two +contrary directions, sending the one further and further away from, +and drawing the other nearer and nearer to, the haven of their +hearts. + +Dear friends, as we have to guard against the animal life of +yielding to inclinations and inward impulse, of forgetting the +future, and of taking no heed to our paths, so, unless we wish to +ruin ourselves altogether, we have to fight against the mechanical +life which, with a minimum of volition, lets the world do with us +what it will. And sure I am that there are men and women in this +audience at this time who have let their lives be determined by +forces that have swept them away from God. + +In the third parable the foolish boy had no love to his father to +keep him from emigrating. He wanted to be his own master, and to get +away into a place where he thought he could sow his wild oats and no +news of it ever reach the father's house. He wanted to have the +fingering of the money, and to enjoy the sense of possession. And so +he went off on his unblessed road to the harlots and the swine's +trough. + +And _that_ is no parable; that is a picture. The other two were +parabolical representations; this is the thing itself. For +carelessness of the bonds that knit a heart to God; hardness of an +unresponsive heart unmelted by benefits; indifference to the +blessedness of living by a Father's side and beneath His eye; the +uprising of a desire of independence and the impatience of control; +the exercise of self will--these are causes of loss that underlie +the others of which I have been speaking, and which make for every +one of us the essential sinfulness of our sin. It is rebellion, and +it is rebellion against a Father's love. + +Now, notice, that whilst the other two that we have been speaking +about do partially explain the terrible fact that we go away from +God, their explanation is only partial, and this grimmer truth +underlies them. There are modern theories, as there were ancient +ones, that say: 'Oh! sin is a theological bugbear. There is not any +such thing. It is only indifference, ignorance, error.' And then +there are other theorists that say: 'Sin! There is no sin in +following natural laws and impulses. Circumstances shape men; +heredity shapes them. The notion that their actions are criminal is +a mere figment of an exploded superstition.' + +Yes! and down below the ignorance, and inadvertence, and error, and +heredity, and domination of externals, there lies the individual +choice in each case. The man knows--however he sophisticates +himself, or uses other people to provide him with sophistries--that +he need not have done that thing unless he had chosen to do it. You +cannot get beyond or argue away that consciousness. And so I say +that all these immoral teachings, which are very common to-day, omit +from the thing that they profess to analyse the very characteristic +element of it, which is, as our Lord taught us, not the following +inclination like a silly sheep; not the rolling away, in obedience +to natural law, like the drachma; but the rising up of a rebellious +will that desires a separation, and kicks against control, as in the +case of the son. + +So, dear friends, whilst I thankfully admit that much of the +darkness of human conduct may be lightened by the representations of +our two first parables, I cannot but feel that we have to leave to +God the determination in each case of how far these have diminished +individual criminality; and that we have to remember for ourselves +that our departure from God is not explicable unless we recognise +the fact that we have chosen rather to be away from Him than to be +with Him; and that we like better to have our goods at our own +disposal, and to live as it pleases ourselves. + +II. So note, secondly, the varying proportions of loss and +possession. + +A hundred sheep; ten drachmas; two sons. The loss in one case is 1 +per cent., a trifle; in the other case 10 per cent., more serious; +in the last case 50 per cent., heartbreaking. Now, I do not suppose +that our Lord intended any special significance to be attached to +these varying numbers. Rather they were simply suggested by the cast +of the parable in which they respectively occurred. A hundred sheep +is a fair average flock; ten pieces of silver are the modest hoard +of a poor woman; two sons are a family large enough to represent the +contrast which is necessary to the parable. But still we may +permissibly look at this varying proportion in order to see whether +it, too, cannot teach us something. + +It throws light upon the owner's care and pains in seeking. In one +aspect, these are set forth most strikingly by the parable in which +the thing lost bears the smallest proportion to the thing still +retained. The shepherd might well have said: 'One in a hundred does +not matter much. I have got the ninety and nine.' But he went to +look for it. But, in another aspect, the woman, of course, has a +more serious loss to face, and possibly seeks with more anxiety. And +when you come up to the last case, where half the household is +blotted out, as it were, then we can see the depth of anxiety and +pains and care which must necessarily follow. + +But beyond the consideration that the ascending proportion suggests +increasing pains and anxiety, there is another lesson, which seems +to me even more precious, and it is this, that it matters very +little to the loser how much he keeps, or what the worth of the lost +thing is. There is something in human nature which makes anything +that is lost precious by reason of its loss. Nobody can tell how +large a space a tree fills until it is felled. If you lose one tiny +stone out of a ring, or a bracelet, it makes a gap, and causes +annoyance altogether disproportionate to the lustre that it had when +it was there. A man loses a small portion of his fortune in some +unlucky speculation, and the loss annoys him a great deal more than +the possession solaced him, and he thinks more about the hundreds +that have vanished than about the thousands that remain. Men are +made so. It is a human instinct, that apart altogether from the +consideration of its intrinsic worth, and the proportion it bears to +that which is still possessed, the lost thing draws, and the loser +will take any pains to find it. + +So Christ says, When a woman will light a candle and sweep the house +and search diligently till she finds her lost sixpence (for the +drachma was worth little more), and will bring in all her neighbours +to rejoice with her, that is like God; and the human instinct which +prizes lost things, not because of their value, but because they are +lost, has something corresponding to it in the heart of the Majesty +of the heavens. It is Christ's vindication, of course, as I need not +remind you, of His own conduct. He says in effect, to these +Pharisees, 'You are finding fault with Me for doing what we all do. +I am only acting in accordance with a natural human instinct; and +when I thus act God Himself is acting in and through Me.' + +If I had time, I think I could show that this principle, brought out +in my texts, really sweeps away one of the difficulties which modern +science has to suggest against Evangelical Christianity. We hear it +said, 'How can you suppose that a speck of a world like this, amidst +all these flaming orbs that stud the infinite depths of the heavens, +is of so much importance in God's sight that His Son came down to +die for it?' The magnitude of the world, as compared with others, +has nothing to do with the question. God's action is determined by +its moral condition. If it be true that here is sin, which rends men +away from Him, and that so they are lost, then it is supremely +natural that all the miracles of the Christian revelation should +follow. The _rationale_ of the Incarnation lies in this, 'A +certain man had a hundred sheep.... One of them went astray ... and +He went into the wilderness and found it.' + +III. Now I meant to have said a word about the varying glimpses that +we have here, into God's claims upon us, and His heart. + +Ownership is the word that describes His relation to us in the first +two parables; love is the word that describes it in the third. But +the ownership melts into love, because God does not reckon that He +possesses men by natural right of creation or the like, unless they +yield their hearts to Him, and give themselves, by their own joyful +self-surrender, into His hands. But I must not be tempted to speak +upon that matter; only, before I close, let me point you to that +most blessed and heart-melting thought, that God accounts Himself to +have lost something when a man goes away from Him. + +That word 'the lost' has another, and in some senses a more +tragical, significance in Scripture. The lost are lost to themselves +and to blessedness. The word implies destruction; but it also +carries with it this, that God prizes us, is glad to have us, and, I +was going to say, feels an incompleteness in His possessions when +men depart from Him. + +Oh, brethren, surely such a thought as that should melt us; and if, +as is certainly the case, we have strayed away from Him into green +pastures, which have ended in a wilderness, without a blade of +grass; or if we have rolled away from Him in passive submission to +circumstances; or if we have risen up in rebellion against Him, and +claimed our separate right of possession and use of the goods that +fall to us, if we would only think that He considers that He has +lost us, and prizes us because we are lost to Him, and wants to get +us back again, surely, surely it would draw us to Himself. Think of +the greatness of the love into which the ownership is merged, as +measured by the infinite price which He has paid to bring us back, +and let us all say, 'I will arise and go to my Father.' + + + + +THE PRODIGAL AND HIS FATHER + + + 'And He said, A certain man had two sons: 12. And the + younger of them said to his father, Father, give me + the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he + divided unto them his living. 13. And not many days + after the younger son gathered all together, and took + his journey into a far country, and there wasted his + substance with riotous living. 14. And when he had + spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; + and he began to be in want. 15. And he went and joined + himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him + into his fields to feed swine. 16. And he would fain + have filled his belly with the husks that the swine + did eat: and no man gave unto him. 17. And when he + came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of + my father's have bread enough, and to spare, and I + perish with hunger! 18. I will arise and go to my + father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned + against Heaven, and before thee, 19. And am no more + worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy + hired servants. 20. And he arose, and came to his + father. But when he was yet a great way off, his + father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell + on his neck, and kissed him. 21. And the son said unto + him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy + sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. + 22. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth + the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on + his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23. And bring hither + the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be + merry: 24. For this my son was dead, and is alive + again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to + be merry.'--LUKE xv. 11-24. + +The purpose of the three parables in this chapter has to be kept in +mind. Christ is vindicating His action in receiving sinners, which +had evoked the murmurings of the Pharisees. The first two parables, +those of the lost sheep and the lost drachma, appeal to the common +feeling which attaches more importance to lost property just because +it is lost than to that which is possessed safely. This parable +rises to a higher level. It appeals to the universal emotion of +fatherhood, which yearns over a wandering child just because he has +wandered. + +We note a further advance, in the proportion of one stray sheep to +the ninety-nine, and of one lost coin to the nine, contrasted with +the sad equality of obedience and disobedience in the two sons. One +per cent., ten per cent., are bearable losses, but fifty per cent. +is tragic. + +I. The first part (vs. 11-16) tells of the son's wish to be his own +master, and what came of it. The desire to be independent is good, +but when it can only be attained by being dependent on him whose +authority is irksome, it takes another colour. This foolish boy +wished to be able to use his father's property as his own, but he +had to get the father's consent first. It is a poor beginning of +independence when it has to be set up in business by a gift. + +That is the essential absurdity in our attempts to do without God +and to shake off His control. We can only get power to seem to do it +by misusing His gifts. When we say, 'Who is Lord over us?' the +tongues which say it were given us by Him. The next step soon +followed. 'Not many days after,' of course, for the sense of +ownership could not be kept up while near the father. A man who +wishes to enjoy worldly good without reference to God is obliged, in +self-defence, to hustle God out of his thoughts as soon and as +completely as possible. + +The 'far country' is easily reached; and it is far, though a step +can land us in it. A narrow bay may compel a long journey round its +head before those on its opposite shores can meet. Sin takes us far +away from God, and the root of all sin is that desire of living to +one's self which began the prodigal's evil course. + +The third step in his downward career, wasting his substance in riotous +living, comes naturally after the two others; for all self-centred life +is in deepest truth waste, and the special forms of gross dissipation +to which youth is tempted are only too apt to follow the first sense +of being their own masters, and removed from the safeguards of their +earthly father's home. Many a lad in our great cities goes through the +very stages of the parable, and, when a mother's eye is no longer on +him, plunges into filthy debauchery. But living which does not outrage +the proprieties may be riotous all the same; for all conduct which +ignores God and asserts self as supreme is flagrantly against the +very nature of man, and is reckless waste. + +Such a 'merry' life is sure to be 'short.' There is always famine in +the land of forgetfulness of God, and when the first gloss is off +its enjoyments, and one's substance is spent, its pinch is felt. The +unsatisfied hunger of heart, which dogs godless living, too often +leads but to deeper degradation and closer entanglement with low +satisfactions. Men madly plunge deeper into the mud in hope of +finding the pearl which has thus far eluded their search. + +A miserable thing this young fool had made of his venture, having +spent his capital, and now being forced to become a slave, and being +set to nothing better than to feed swine. The godless world is a +hard master, and has very odious tasks for its bondsmen. The unclean +animals are fit companions for one who made himself lower than they, +since filth is natural to them and shameful for him. They are better +off than he is, for husks do nourish them, and they get their fill, +but he who has sunk to longing for swine's food cannot get even +that. The dark picture is only too often verified in the experience +of godless men. + +II. The wastrel's returning sanity is described in verses 17-20_a_. +'He came to himself.' Then he had been beside himself before. It is +insanity to try to shake off God, to aim at independence, to wander +from Him, to fling away our 'substance,' that is, our true selves, +and to starve among the swine-troughs. He remembers the bountiful +housekeeping at home, as starving men dream of feasts, and he thinks +of himself with a kind of pity and amazement. + +There is no sign that his conscience smote him, or that his heart +woke in love to his father. His stomach, and it only, urged him to +go home. He did, indeed, feel that he had been wrong, and had +forfeited the right to be called a son, but he did not care much for +losing that name, or even for losing the love to which it had the +right, if only he could get as much to eat as one of the hired +servants, whose relation to the master was less close, and, in +patriarchal times, less happy, than that of slaves born in the +house. + +One good thing about the lad was that he did not let the grass grow +under his feet, but, as soon as he had made the resolution, began to +carry it into effect. The bane of many a resolve to go back to God +is that it is 'sicklied o'er' by procrastination. The ragged +prodigal has not much to leave which need hold him, but many such a +one says, 'I will arise and go to my father to-morrow,' and lets all +the to-morrows become yesterdays, and is sitting among the swine +still. + +Low as the prodigal's motive for return was, the fact of his return +was enough. So is it in regard to our attitude to the gospel. Men +may be drawn to give heed to its invitations from the instinct of +self-preservation, or from their sense of hungry need, and the +belief that in it they will find the food they crave for, while +there may be little consciousness of longing for more from the +Father than the satisfaction of felt wants. The longing for a place +in the Father's heart will spring up later, but the beginning of +most men's taking refuge in God as revealed in Christ is the gnawing +of a hungry heart. The call to all is, 'Ho, every one that +thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come +ye, buy, and eat.' + +III. The climax of the parable, for which all the rest is but as +scaffolding, is the father's welcome (vs. 20_b_-24). Filial +love may die in the son's heart, but paternal yearning lives in the +father's. The wanderer's heart would be likely to sink as he came +nearer the father's tent. It had seemed easy to go back when he +acted the scene in imagination, but every step homewards made the +reality more difficult. + +No doubt he hesitated when the old home came in sight, and perhaps +his resolution would have oozed out at his finger ends if he had had +to march up alone in his rags, and run the gauntlet of servants +before he came to speech with his father. So his father's seeing him +far off and running to meet him is exquisitely in keeping, as well +as movingly setting forth how God's love goes out to meet His +returning prodigals. That divine insight which discerns the first +motions towards return, that divine pity which we dare venture to +associate with His infinite love, that eager meeting the shamefaced +and slow-stepping boy half-way, and that kiss of welcome before one +word of penitence or request had been spoken, are all revelations of +the heart of God, and its outgoings to every wanderer who sets his +face to return. + +Beautifully does the father's welcome make the son's completion of +his rehearsed speech impossible. It does not prevent his expression +of penitence, for the more God's love is poured over us, the more we +feel our sin. But he had already been treated as a son, and could +not ask to be taken as a servant. Beautifully, too, the father gives +no verbal answer to the lad's confession, for his kiss had answered +it already; but he issues instructions to the servants which show +that the pair have now reached the home and entered it together. + +The gifts to the prodigal are probably significant. They not only +express in general the cordiality of the welcome, but seem to be +capable of specific interpretations, as representing various aspects +of the blessed results of return to God. The robe is the familiar +emblem of character. The prodigal son is treated like the high-priest +in Zechariah's vision; his rags are stripped off, and he is clothed +anew in a dress of honour. 'Them he also justified: and whom he +justified, them he also sanctified.' The ring is a token of wealth, +position, and honour. It is also a sign of delegated authority, and +is an ornament to the hand. So God gives His prodigals, when they +come back, an elevation which unforgiven beings do not reach, and +sets them to represent Him, and arrays them in strange beauty. No +doubt the lad had come back footsore and bleeding, and the shoes +may simply serve to keep up the naturalness of the story. But probably +they suggest equipment for the journey of life. That is one of the +gifts that accompany forgiveness. Our feet are shod with the +preparedness of the gospel of peace. + +Last of all comes the feast. Heaven keeps holiday when some poor +waif comes shrinking back to the Father. The prodigal had been +content to sink his sonship for the sake of a loaf, but he could not +get bread on such terms. He had to be forgiven and bathed in the +outflow of his father's love before he could be fed; and, being thus +received, he could not but be fed. The feast is for those who come +back penitently, and are received forgivingly, and endowed richly by +the Father in heaven. + + + + +GIFTS TO THE PRODIGAL + + + '... Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and + put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23. And + bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it....' + --LUKE XV. 22, 23. + +God's giving always follows His forgiving. It is not so with us. We +think ourselves very magnanimous when we pardon; and we seldom go on +to lavish favours where we have overlooked faults. Perhaps it is right +that men who have offended against men should earn restoration by acts, +and should have to ride quarantine, as it were, for a time. But I +question whether forgiveness is ever true which is not, like God's, +attended by large-hearted gifts. If pardon is only the non-infliction +of penalty, then it is natural enough that it should be considered +sufficient by itself, and that the evildoer should not be rewarded +for having been bad. But if pardon is the outflow of the love of the +offended to the offender, then it can scarcely be content with simply +giving the debtor his discharge, and turning him into the world +penniless. + +However that may be with regard to men, God's forgiveness is +essentially the communication of God's love to us sinners, as if we +had never sinned at all. And, that being so, that love cannot stay +its working until it has given all that it can bestow or we can +receive. God does not do things by halves; and He always gives when +He forgives. + +Now that is the great truth of the last part of this immortal +parable. And it is one of the points in which it differs from, and +towers high above, the two preceding ones. The lost sheep was +carried back to the pastures, turned loose there, needed no further +special care, and began to nibble as if nothing had happened. The +lost drachma was simply put back in the woman's purse. But the lost +son was pardoned, and, being pardoned, was capable of receiving, and +received, greater gifts than he had before. These gifts are very +remarkably detailed in the words of our text. + +Now, of course, it is always risky to seek for a spiritual +interpretation of every point in a parable, many of which points are +mere drapery. But, on the other hand, we may very easily fall into the +error of treating as insignificant details which really are meant to +be full of instruction. And I cannot help thinking--although many +would differ from me,--that this detailed enumeration of the gifts +to the prodigal is meant to be translated into the terms of spiritual +experience. So I desire to look at them as suggesting for us the +gifts of God which accompany forgiveness. I take the catalogue as +it stands--the Robe, the Ring, the Shoes, the Feast. + +I. First, the Robe. + +'Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him.' That was the +command. This detail, of course, like all the others, refers back +to, and casts light upon, the supposed condition of the spendthrift +when he came back. There he stood, ragged, with the stain of travel +and the stench of the pig-sty upon his garments, some of them, no +doubt, remains of the tawdry finery that he had worn in the world; +wine-spots, and stains, and filth of all sorts on the rags. The +father says, 'Take them all off him, and put the best robe upon +him.' What does that mean? + +Well, we all know the very familiar metaphor by which qualities of +mind, traits of character, and the like are described as being the +dress of the spirit. We talk about being 'arrayed in purity,' 'clad +in zeal,' 'clothed with humility,' 'vested with power,' and so on. +If we turn to Scripture, we find running through it a whole series +of instances of this metaphor, which guide us at once to its true +meaning. Zechariah saw in vision the high priest standing at the +heavenly tribunal, clad in filthy garments. A voice said, 'Take away +the filthy garments from him,' and the interpretation is added: +'Behold! I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will +clothe thee with a change of raiment.' You remember our Lord's +parable of the man with a wedding garment. You remember the Apostle +Paul's frequent use of the metaphor of 'putting off the old man, +putting on the new.' You remember, finally, the visions of the last +days, in which the Seer in Patmos saw the armies in heaven that +followed their victorious Commander, 'clothed in fine linen, white and +pure, which is the righteousness of the saints.' If we put all these +together, surely I am not forcing a meaning on a non-significant +detail, when I say that here we have shadowed for us the great thought, +that the result of the divine forgiveness coming upon a man is that he +is clothed with a character which fits him to sit down at his Father's +table. They tell us that forgiveness is impossible, because things +done must have their consequences, and that character is the slow +formation of actions, precipitated, as it were, from our deeds. That +is all true. But it does not conflict with this other truth that there +may and does come into men's hearts, when they set their faith on +Jesus Christ, a new power which transforms the nature and causes +old things to pass away. + +God's forgiveness revolutionises a life. Similar effects follow even +human pardons for small offences. Brute natures are held in by +penalties, and to them pardon means impunity, and impunity means +licence, and licence means lust. But wherever there is a heart with +love to the offended in it, there is nothing that will so fill it +with loathing of its past self as the assurance that the offended, +though loved, One loves, and is not offended, and that free +forgiveness has come. Whether is it the rod or the mother's kiss +that makes a child hate its sin most? And if we lift our thoughts to +Him, and think how He, up there in the heavens, + + 'Who mightest vengeance best have took,' + +bends over us in frank, free forgiveness, then surely that, more +than all punishments or threatenings or terrors, will cause us to +turn away from our evil, and to loathe the sins which are thus +forgiven. The prophet went very deep when he said, 'Thou shalt be +ashamed and confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of +thine iniquity, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou +hast done, saith the Lord.' + +But not only so, there is given along with forgiveness, and wrapped +up in it, a new power, which makes all things new, and changes a +man. It would be a poor Gospel for me to stand up and preach if I +had only to proclaim to men the divine forgiveness; and if that only +meant that hell's door was barred and some outward heaven was flung +open. But the true Gospel offers forgiveness as preliminary to the +bestowal of the highest gifts of God. The pardoned man is stripped +of his rags and clothed with a new nature which God Himself bestows. + +That is what we all need. We have not all been in the pig-sty; we +have not all fallen into gross sin. We _have_ all turned our +backs on our Father; we _have_ all wanted to be independent; we +_have_ all preferred the far-off land to being near home. And, +dear brethren, the character that you have made for yourselves +clings to you like the poisoned Nessus' shirt to Hercules. You +cannot strip it off. You may get part of it away, but you cannot +entirely cast it from your limbs, nor free yourselves from the +entanglements of its tatters. Go to God, and He will smile away your +sin, and His forgiving love will melt the stains and the evil, as +the sun this morning drank up the mists; and they who come knowing +themselves to be foul, and needing forgiveness, will surely receive +from Him 'the fine linen white and pure, the righteousness of +saints.' + +II. The Ring. + +This prodigal lad only wanted to be placed in the position of a +slave, but his father said, 'Put a ring on his finger.' The ring is +an emblem of wealth, position, honour; that is one signification of +this gift to the penitent. Still further, it is an ornament to the +hand on which it glistens; that is another. It is a sign of +delegated authority and of representative character; as when Joseph +was exalted to be the second man in Egypt, and Pharaoh's signet ring +was plucked off and placed upon his finger. All these thoughts are, +as it seems to me, clustered in, and fairly deducible from, this one +detail. + +Freedom, exaltation, dignity of position are expressed. And that +opens up a thought which needs to be set forth with many +reservations, and much guarding, but still is true--viz., that, by +the mercy and miraculous loving-kindness and quickening power of God +in the Gospel, it is possible that the lower a man falls the higher +he may rise. I know, of course, that it is better to be innocent +than to be cleansed. I know, and every man that looks into his own +heart knows, that forgiven sins may leave scars; that the memory may +be loaded with many a foul and many a painful remembrance; that the +fetters may be stricken off the limbs, but the marks of them, and +the way of walking that they compelled, may persist long after +deliverance. But I know, too, that redeemed men are higher in final +position than angels that never fell; and that, though it is too +much to say that the greater the sinner the greater the saint, it +still remains true that sin repented and forgiven may be, as it +were, an elevation upon which a man may stand to reach higher than, +apparently, he otherwise would in the divine life. + +And so, though I do not say to any man, Make the experiment; for, +indeed, the poorest of us has sins enough to get all the benefit out +of repentance and forgiveness which is included in them, yet, if +there is any man here--and I hope there is--saying to himself, +'I have got too low down ever to master this, that, or the other +evil; I have stained myself so foully that I cannot hope to have the +black marks erased,' I say to such; 'Remember that the man who ended +with a ring on his finger, honoured and dignified, was the man that +had herded with pigs, and stank, and all but rotted, with his +fleshly crimes.' And so nobody need doubt but that for him, however +low he has gone, and however far he has gone, there is restoration +possible to a higher dignity than the pure spirits that never +transgressed at any time God's commandment will ever attain; for he +who has within himself the experience of repentance, of pardon, and +who has come into living contact with Jesus Christ as Redeemer, can +teach angels how blessed it is to be a child of God. + +Nor less distinctly are the other two things which I have referred +to brought out in this metaphor. Not only is the ring the sign of +dignity, but it is also the sign of delegated authority and +representative character. God sets poor penitents to be His +witnesses in His world, and to do His work here. And a ring is an +ornament to the hand that wears it; which being translated is this: +where God gives pardon, He gives a strange beauty of character, to +which, if a man is true to himself, and to his Redeemer, he will +assuredly attain. There should be no lives so lovely, none that +flash with so many jewelled colours, as the lives of the men and +women who have learned what it is to be miserable, what it is to +repent, what it is to be forgiven. So, though our 'hands have been +full of blood,' as the prophet says, though they have dabbled in all +manner of pollution, though they have been the ready instruments of +many evil things, we may all hope that, cleansed and whitened, even +our hands will not want the lustre of that adornment which the +loving father clasped upon the fingers of his penitent boy. + +III. Further, 'Shoes on his feet.' + +No doubt he had come back barefooted and filthy and bleeding, and it +was needful for the 'keeping' of the narrative that this detail +should appear. But I think it is something more than drapery. + +Does it not speak to us of equipment for the walk of life? God +_does_ prepare men for future service, and for every step that +they have to take, by giving to them His forgiveness for all that +is past. The sense of the divine pardon will in itself fit a man, as +nothing else will, for running with patience the race that is set +before him. God does communicate, along with His forgiveness, to +every one who seeks it, actual power to 'travel on life's common way +in cheerful godliness'; and his feet are 'shod with the preparedness +of the gospel of peace.' + +Ah, brethren, life is a rough road for us all, and for those whose +faces are set towards duty, and God, and self-denial, it is +especially so, though there are many compensating circumstances. +There are places where sharp flints stick up in the path and cut the +feet. There are places where rocks jut out for us to stumble over. +There are all the trials and sorrows that necessarily attend upon +our daily lives, and which sometimes make us feel as if our path +were across heated ploughshares, and every step was a separate +agony. God will give us, if we go to Him for pardon, that which will +defend us against the pains and the sorrows of life. The bare foot +is cut by that which the shod foot tramples upon unconscious. + +There are foul places on all our paths, over which, when we pass, if +we have not something else than our own naked selves, we shall +certainly contract defilement. God will give to the penitent man, if +he will have it, that which will keep his feet from soil, even when +they walk amidst filth. And if, at any time, notwithstanding the +defence, some mud should stain the foot, and he that is washed needs +again to wash his feet, the Master, with the towel and the basin, +will not be far away. + +There are enemies and dangers in life. A very important part of the +equipment of the soldier in antiquity was the heavy boot, which +enabled him to stand fast, and resist the rush of the enemy. God +will give to the penitent man, if he will have it, that which will +set his foot upon a rock, 'and establish his goings,' and which +'will make him able to withstand in the evil day, and having done +all, to stand.' + +Brethren, defence, stability, shielding from pains, and protection +against evil are all included in this great promise, which each of +us may realise, if we will, for ourselves. + +IV. Lastly, the Feast. + +Now that comes into view in the parable, mainly as teaching us the +great truth that Heaven keeps holiday, when some poor waif comes +shrinking back to his Father. But I do not touch upon that truth +now, though it is the main significance of this last part of the +story. + +The prodigal was half starving, and the fatted calf was killed 'for +him,' as his ill-conditioned brother grumbled. Remember what it was +that drove him back--not his heart, nor his conscience, but his +stomach. He did not bethink himself to go back, because dormant +filial affection woke up, or because a sense that he had been wrong +stirred in him, but because he was hungry; and well he might be, +when 'the husks that the swine did eat' were luxuries beyond his +reach. Thank God for the teaching that even so low a motive as that +is accepted by God; and that, if a man goes back, even for no better +reason--as long as he does go back, he will be welcomed by the +Father. This poor boy was quite content to sink his sonship for the +sake of a loaf; and all that he wanted was to stay his hunger. So he +had to learn that he could not get bread on the terms that he +desired, and that what he wished most was not what he needed first. +He had to be forgiven and bathed in the outflow of his father's love +before he could be fed. And, being thus received, he could not fail +to be fed. So the message for us is, first, forgiveness, and then +every hunger of the heart satisfied; all desires met; every needful +nourishment communicated, and the true bread ours for ever, if we +choose to eat. 'The meek shall eat and be satisfied.' + +I need not draw the picture--that picture of which there are many +originals sitting in these pews before me--of the men that go for +ever roaming with a hungry heart, through all the regions of life +separate from God; and whether they seek their nourishment in the +garbage of the sty, or whether fastidiously they look for it in the +higher nutriment of mind and intellect and heart, still are +condemned to be unfilled. + +Brethren, 'Why do you spend your money for that ... which satisfies +not?' Here is the true way for all desires to be appeased. Go to God +in Jesus Christ for forgiveness, and then everything that you need +shall be yours. 'I counsel thee to buy of Me ... white raiment that +thou mayest be clothed.' 'He that eateth of this bread shall live +for ever.' + + + + +THE FOLLIES OF THE WISE + + + 'The children of this world are in their generation + wiser than the children of light.'--LUKE xvi. 8. + +The parable of which these words are the close is remarkable in that +it proposes a piece of deliberate roguery as, in some sort, a +pattern for Christian people. The steward's conduct was neither more +nor less than rascality, and yet, says Christ, 'Do like that!' + +The explanation is to be found mainly in the consideration that what +was faithless sacrifice of his master's interests, on the part of the +steward, is, in regard to the Christian man's use of earthly gifts, +the right employment of the possessions which have been entrusted to +him. But there is another vindication of the singular selection of +such conduct as an example, in the consideration that what is praised +is not the dishonesty, but the foresight, realisation of the facts of +the case, promptitude, wisdom of various kinds exhibited by the +steward. And so says our Lord--shutting out the consideration of ends, +and looking only for a moment at means,--the world can teach the +Church a great many lessons; and it would be well for the Church if +its members lived in the fashion in which the men of the world do. +There is eulogium here, a recognition of splendid qualities, +prostituted to low purposes; a recognition of wisdom in the adaptation +of means to an end; and a limitation of the recognition, because it is +only _in their generation_ that 'the children of this world are +wiser than the children of light.' + +I. So we may look, first, at these two classes, which our Lord +opposes here to one another. + +'The children of this world' would have, for their natural +antithesis, the children of another world. The 'children of light' +would have, for their natural antithesis, 'the children of +darkness.' But our Lord so orders His words as to suggest a double +antithesis, one member of which has to be supplied in each case, and +He would teach us that whoever the children of this world may be, +they are 'children of darkness'; and that the 'children of light' +are so, just because they are the children of another world than +this. Thus He limits His praise, because it is the sons of darkness +that, in a certain sense, are wiser than the enlightened ones. And +that is what makes the wonder and the inconsistency to which our +Lord is pointing. We can understand a man being a consistent, +thorough-paced fool all through. But men whose folly is so dashed +and streaked with wisdom, and others whose wisdom is so spotted and +blurred with folly, are the extraordinary paradoxes which experience +of life presents to us. + +The children of this world are of darkness; the children of light +are the children of another world. Now I need not spend more than a +sentence or two in further explaining these two antitheses. I do not +intend to vindicate them, or to vindicate our Lord's distinct +classification of men into these two halves. What does He mean by +the children of this world? The old Hebrew idiom, the children of +so-and-so, simply suggests persons who are so fully possessed and +saturated with a given quality, or who belong so entirely to a given +person, as that they are spoken of as if they stood to it, or to +him, in the relation of children to their parents. And a child of +this world is a man whose whole thoughts, aims, and objects of life +are limited and conditioned by this material present. But the word +which is employed here, translated rightly enough 'world,' is not +the same as that which is often used, especially in John's writings, +for the same idea. Although it conveys a similar idea, still it is +different. The characteristic quality of the visible and material +world which is set forth by the expression here employed is its +transiency. 'The children of this epoch' rather than 'of this world' +is the meaning of the phrase. And it suggests, not so much the +inadequacy of the material to satisfy the spiritual, as the absurdity +of a man fixing his hopes and limiting his aims and life-purpose +within the bounds of what is destined to fade and perish. Fleeting +wealth, fleeting honours, mortal loves, wisdom, and studies that pass +away with the passing away of the material; these, however elevating +some of them may be, however sweet some of them may be, however +needful all of them are in their places, are not the things to which +a man can safely lash his being, or entrust his happiness, or wisely +devote his life. And therefore the men who, ignoring the fact that +they live and the world passes, make themselves its slaves, and +itself their object, are convicted by the very fact of the +disproportion between the duration of themselves and of that which +is their aim, of being children of the darkness. + +Then we come to the other antithesis. The children of light are so +in the measure in which their lives are not dependent exclusively +upon, nor directed solely towards, the present order and condition +of things. If there be a _this,_ then there is a _that_. If there be an +age which is qualified as being present, then that implies that there +is an age or epoch which is yet to come. And that coming 'age' should +regulate the whole of our relations to that age which at present is. For +life is continuous, and the coming epoch is the outcome of the present. +As truly as 'the child is father of the man,' so truly is Eternity the +offspring of Time, and that which we are to-day determines that which +we shall be through the ages. He that recognises the relations of the +present and the future, who sees the small, limited things of the +moment running out into the dim eternity beyond, and the track +unbroken across the gulfs of death and the broad expanse of countless +years, and who therefore orders the little things here so as to secure +the great things yonder, he, and only he, who has made time the +'lackey to eternity,' and in his pursuit of the things seen and +temporal, regards them always in the light of things unseen and eternal, +is a child of light. + +II. The second consideration suggested here is the limited and +relative wisdom of the fools. + +The children of this world, who are the children of darkness, and +who at bottom are thoroughly unwise, considered relatively, 'are +wiser than the children of light.' The steward is the example. 'A +rogue is always'--as one of our thinkers puts it--'a roundabout +fool.' He would have been a much wiser man if he had been an +honester one; and, instead of tampering with his lord's goods, had +faithfully administered them. + +But, shutting out the consideration of the moral quality of his +action, look how much there was in it that was wise, prudent, and +worthy of praise. There were courage, fertility of resource, a clear +insight into what was the right thing to do. There was a wise +adaptation of means to an end. There was promptitude in carrying out +the wise means that suggested themselves to him. The design was bad. +Granted. We are not talking about goodness, but about cleverness. +So, very significantly, in the parable the person cheated cannot +help saying that the cheat was a clever one. The 'lord,' although he +had suffered by it, 'commended the unjust steward, because he had +done wisely.' + +Did you never know in Manchester some piece of sharp practice, about +which people said, 'Ah, well, he is a clever fellow,' and all but +condoned the immorality for the sake of the smartness? The lord and +the steward belong to the same level of character; and vulpine +sagacity, astuteness, and qualities which ensure success in material +things seem to both of them to be of the highest value. 'The children +of this world, _in their generation'_--but only in it--are wiser +than the children of light.' + +Now I draw a very simple, practical lesson, and it is just this, +that if Christian men, in their Christian lives, would practise the +virtues that the world practises, in pursuit of its shabby aims and +ends, their whole Christian character would be revolutionised. Why, +a boy will spend more pains in learning to whistle than half of you +do in trying to cultivate your Christian character. The secret of +success religiously is precisely the same as the secret of success +in ordinary things. Look at the splendid qualities that go to the +making of a successful housebreaker. Audacity, resource, secrecy, +promptitude, persistence, skill of hand, and a hundred others, are +put into play before a man can break into your back kitchen and +steal your goods. Look at the qualities that go to the making of a +successful amuser of people. Men will spend endless time and pains, +and devote concentration, persistence, self-denial, diligence, to +learning how to play upon some instrument, how to swing upon a +trapeze, how to twist themselves into abnormal contortions. Jugglers +and fiddlers, and circus-riders and dancers, and people of that sort +spend far more time upon efforts to perfect themselves in their +profession, than ninety-nine out of every hundred professing +Christians do to make themselves true followers of Jesus Christ. +They know that nothing is to be got without working for it, and +there is nothing to be got in the Christian life without working for +it any more than in any other. + +Shut out the end for a moment, and look at the means. From the ranks +of criminals, of amusers, and of the purely worldly men of business +that we come in contact with every day, we may get lessons that +ought to bring a blush to all our cheeks, when we think to ourselves +how a wealth of intellectual and moral qualities and virtues, such +as we do not bring to bear on our Christian lives, are by these men +employed in regard of their infinitely smaller pursuits. + +Oh, brethren! we ought to be our own rebukes, for it is not only +other people who show forth in other fields of life the virtues that +would make so much better Christians of us, if we used them in ours, +but that we ourselves carry within ourselves the condemning +contrast. Look at your daily life! Do you give anything like the +effort to grow in the knowledge of your Lord and Saviour, Jesus +Christ, that you do to make or maintain your position in the world? +When you are working side by side with the children of this world +for the same objects, you keep step with them, and are known to be +diligent in business as they are. When you pass into the church, +what do you do there? Are we not ice in one half of our lives, and +fire in the other? We may well lay to heart these solemn words of +our Lord, and take shame when we think that not only do the unwise, +who choose the world as their portion, put us to shame in their +self-denial, their earnestness, their absorption, their clear +insight into facts, their swiftness in availing themselves of every +opportunity, their persistence and their perseverance, but that we +rebuke ourselves because of the difference between the earnestness +with which we follow the things that are of this world, and the +languor of our pursuit after the things that are unseen and eternal. + +Of course the reasons for the contrast are easy enough to apprehend, +and I do not need to spend time upon them. The objects that so have +power to stimulate and to lash men into energy, continuously through +their lives, lie at hand, and a candle near will dim the sunshine +beyond. These objects appeal to sense, and such make a deeper +impression than things that are shown to the mind, as every picture-book +may prove to us. And we, in regard to the aims of our Christian life, +have to make a continual effort to bring and keep them before us, or +they are crowded out by the intrusive vulgarities and dazzling +brilliances of the present. And so it comes to pass that the men who +hunt after trifles that are to perish set examples to the men who say +that they are pursuing eternal realities. 'Go to the ant, thou sluggard, +consider her ways and be wise.' Go to the men of the world, thou +Christian, and do not let it be said that the devil's scholars are more +studious and earnest than Christ's disciples. + +III. Lastly, note the conclusive folly of the partially wise. + +'In their generation,' says Christ; and that is all that can be said, +The circle runs round its 360 degrees, and these people take a segment +of it, say forty-five degrees, and all the rest is as non-existent. If +I am to call a man a wise man out and out, there are two things that I +shall have to be satisfied about concerning him. The one is, what is +he aiming at? and the other, how does he aim at it? In regard to the +means, the men of the world bear the bell, and carry away the supremacy. +Let in the thought of the end, and things change. Two questions reduce +all the world's wisdom to stark, staring insanity. The first question +is, 'What are you doing it for?' And the second question is, 'And +suppose you get it, what then?' Nothing that cannot pass the barrier +of these two questions satisfactorily is other than madness, if taken +to be the aim of a man's life. You have to look at the end, and the +whole circumference of the circle of the human being, before you serve +out the epithets of 'wise' and 'foolish.' + +I need not dwell on the manifest folly of men who give their lives +to aims and ends of which I have already said that they are +disproportioned to the capacity of the pursuer. Look at yourselves, +brothers; these hearts of yours that need an infinite love for their +satisfaction, these active spirits of yours that can never be at +rest in creatural perfection; these troubled consciences of yours +that stir and moan inarticulately over unperceived wounds until they +are healed by Christ. How can any man with a heart and a will, and a +progressive spirit and intellect, find what he needs in anything +beneath the stars? 'Whose image and superscription hath it? They say +unto Him, Caesar's'; we say 'God's.' 'Render unto God the things +that are God's.' The man who makes anything but God his end and aim +is relatively wise and absolutely foolish. + +Let me remind you too, that the same sentence of folly passes, if we +consider the disproportion between the duration of the objects and +of him who makes them his aim. You live, and if you are a wise man, +your treasures will be of the kind that last as long as you. 'They +call their lands after their own name; they think that their houses +shall continue for ever. They go down into the dust. Their glory +shall not descend after them,' and, therefore, 'this, their way, is +their folly.' + +Brethren, all that I would say may be gathered into two words. Let +there be a proportion between your aims and your capacity. That +signifies, let God be your end. And let there be a correspondence +between your end and your means. That signifies, 'Thou shalt love +the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with +all thy strength, and with all thy mind.' Or else, when everything +comes to be squared up and settled, the epitaph on your gravestone +will deservedly be; 'Thou fool !' + + + + +TWO KINDS OF RICHES + + + 'He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful + also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is + unjust also in much. 11. If therefore ye have not been + faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to + your trust the true riches? 12. And if ye have not been + faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give + you that which is your own?'--LUKE xvi. 10-12. + +That is a very strange parable which precedes my text, in which our +Lord takes a piece of crafty dishonesty on the part of a steward who +had been embezzling his lord's money as in some sense an example for +us Christian people, There are other instances in which He does the +same thing, finding a soul of goodness in things evil, as, for +instance, in the parable of the Unjust Judge. Similar is the New +Testament treatment of war or slavery, both of which diabolical +things are taken as illustrations of what in the highest sphere are +noble and heavenly things. + +But having delivered the parable, our Lord seems, in the verses that +I have read, to anticipate the objection that the unfaithfulness of +the steward can never be an example for God's stewards; and in the +words before us, amongst other things, He says substantially this, +that whilst the steward's using his lord's wealth in order to help +his lord's debtors was a piece of knavery and unfaithfulness, in us +it is not unfaithfulness, but the very acme of faithfulness. In the +text we have the thought that there are two kinds of valuable things +in the world, a lower and a higher; that men may be very rich in +regard to the one, and very poor in regard to the other. In respect +to these, 'There is that maketh himself rich, and yet hath nothing; +there is that maketh himself poor, and yet hath great riches.' More +than that, the noblest use of the lower kind of possessions is to +secure the possession of the highest. And so He teaches us the +meaning of life, and of all that we have. + +Now, there are three things in these words to which I would turn +your attention--the two classes of treasure, the contrast of +qualities between these two, and the noblest use of the lower. + +I. The Two Classes of Treasure. + +Now, we shall make a great mistake if we narrow down the +interpretation of that word 'mammon' in the context (which is 'that +which is least,' etc., here) to be merely money. It covers the whole +ground of all possible external and material possessions, whatsoever +things a man can only have in outward seeming, whatsoever things +belong only to the region of sense and the present. All that is in +the world, in fact, is included in the one name. And you must widen +out your thoughts of what is referred to here in this prolonged +contrast which our Lord runs between the two sets of treasures, so +as to include, not only money, but all sorts of things that belong +to this sensuous and temporal scene. And, on the other hand, there +stands opposite to it, as included in, and meant by, that which is +'most,' 'that which is the true riches,' 'that which is your own'; +everything that holds of the unseen and spiritual, whether it be +treasures of intellect and lofty thought, or whether it be pure and +noble aims, or whether it be ideals of any kind, the ideals of art, +the aspirations of science, the lofty aims of the scholar and the +student--all these are included. And the very same standard of +excellence which declares that the treasures of a cultivated +intellect, of a pure mind, of a lofty purpose, are higher than the +utmost of material good, and that 'wisdom is better than rubies,' +the very same standard, when applied in another direction, declares +that above the treasures of the intellect and the taste are to be +ranked all the mystical and great blessings which are summoned up in +that mighty word salvation. And we must take a step further, for +neither the treasures of the intellect, the mind, and the heart, nor +the treasures of the spiritual life which salvation implies, can be +realised and reached unless a man possesses God. So in the deepest +analysis, and in the truest understanding of these two contrasted +classes of wealth you have but the old antithesis: the world--and +God. He that has God is rich, however poor he may be in reference to +the other category; and he that has Him not is poor, however rich he +may be. 'The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places,' says the +Psalmist; and 'I have a goodly heritage,' because he could also say, +'God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.' So there +is the antithesis, the things of time and sense, the whole mass of +them knit together on the one hand; the single God alone by Himself +on the other. Of these two classes of valuable things our Lord goes +on next to tell us the relative worth. For we have here + +II. The Contrast between the Two. + +That contrast is threefold, as you observe, 'that which is least.' +or, perhaps better, 'that which is very little.' and 'that which is +much.' That is a contrast in reference to degree. But degree is a +shallow word, which does not cover the whole ground, nor go down +to the depths. So our Lord comes next to a contrast in regard to +essential nature, 'the unrighteous mammon' and 'the true riches.' +But even these contrasts in degree and in kind do not exhaust all +the contrasts possible, for there is another, the contrast in +reference to the reality of our possession: 'that which is +another's'; 'that which is your own.' Let us, then, take these three +things, the contrast in degree, the contrast in kind, the contrast +in regard to real possession. + +First, then, and briefly, mental and spiritual and inward blessings, +salvation, God, are more than all externals. Our Lord gathers all +the conceivable treasures of earth, jewels and gold and dignities, +and scenes of sensuous delights, and everything that holds to the +visible and the temporal, and piles them into one scale, and then He +puts into the other the one name, God; and the pompous nothings fly +up and are nought, and have no weight at all. Is that not true? Does +it need any demonstration, any more talk about it? No! + +But then comes in sense and appeals to us, and says, 'You cannot get +beyond my judgment. These things are good.' Jesus Christ does not +say that they are not, but sense regards them as far better than +they are. They are near us, and a very small object near us, by the +laws of perspective, shuts out a mightier one beyond us. We in +Manchester live in a community which is largely based on, and +actuated and motived in its diligence by the lie that material good +is better than spiritual good, that it is better to be a rich man +and a successful merchant than to be a poor and humble and honest +student; that it is better to have a balance at your bankers than to +have great and pure and virginal thoughts in a clean heart; that a +man has done better for himself when he has made a fortune than when +he has God in his heart. And so we need, and God knows it was never +more needed in Manchester than to-day, that we should preach and +preach and preach, over and over again, this old-fashioned +threadbare truth, which is so threadbare and certain that it has +lost its power over the lives of many of us, that all that, at its +mightiest, is very little, and that this, at its least, is very +much. Dear brethren, you and I know how hard it is always, +especially how hard it is in business lives, to keep this as our +practical working faith. We say we believe, and then we go away and +live as if we believed the opposite. I beseech you listen to the +scale laid down by Him who knew all things in their measure and +degree, and let us settle it in our souls, and live as if we had +settled it, that it is better to be wise and good than to be rich +and prosperous, and that God is more than a universe of worlds, if +we have Him for our own. + +But to talk about a contrast in degree degrades the reality, for it +is no matter of difference of measurement, but it is a matter of +difference of kind. And so our Lord goes on to a deeper phase of the +contrast, when He pits against one another 'the unrighteous mammon' +and 'the true riches.' Now, there is some difficulty in that +contrast. The two significant terms do not seem to be precise +opposites, and possibly they are not intended to be logically +accurate counterparts of each other. But what is meant by 'the +unrighteous mammon'? I do not suppose that the ordinary explanation +of that verse is quite adequate. We usually suppose that by so +stigmatising the material good, He means to suggest how hard it is +to get it--and you all know that--and how hard it is to keep it, and +how hard it is to administer it, without in some measure falling +into the sin of unrighteousness. But whilst I dare say that may be +the signification intended, if we were to require that the word here +should be a full and correct antithesis to the other phrase, 'the +true riches,' we should need to suppose that 'unrighteous' here +meant that which falsely pretended to be what it was not. And so we +come to the contrast between the deceitfulness of earthly good and +the substantial reality of the heavenly. Will any fortune, even +though it goes into seven figures, save a man from the miseries, the +sorrows, the ills that flesh is heir to? Does a great estate make a +man feel less desolate when he stands by his wife's coffin? Will any +wealth 'minister to a mind diseased'? Will a mountain of material +good calm and satisfy a man's soul? You see faces just as +discontented, looking out of carriage windows, as you meet in the +street. 'Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.' There is no +proportion between abundance of external good of any kind and happy +hearts. We all know that the man who is rich is not happier than the +poor man. And I, for my part, believe that the raw material of +happiness is very equally distributed through the world, and that it +is altogether a hallucination by which a poor man thinks, 'If I were +wealthy like that other man, how different my life would be.' No, it +would not; you would be the same man. The rich man that fancies that +because he is rich he is 'better off,' as they say, than his poor +brother, and the poor man who thinks that he would be 'better off' +if he were richer than he is now, are the same man turned inside +out, so to speak; and common to both of them is that fallacy, that +wealth and material good contribute much to the real blessedness and +nobleness of the man who happens to own it. + +But then, perhaps, we have rather to regard this unrighteous mammon +as so designated from another point of view. You will remember that +all through the context our Lord has been insisting on the notion of +stewardship. And I take it that what He means here is to remind us +that whenever we claim any of our possessions, especially our +external ones, as our own, we thereby are guilty of defrauding both +God and man, and are unrighteous, and it is unrighteous thereby. +Stewardship is a word which describes our relation to all that we +have. Forget that, and then whatever you have becomes 'the +unrighteous mammon.' There is the point in which Christ's teaching +joins hands with a great deal of unchristian teaching in this +present day which is called Socialism and Communism. Christianity is +not communistic. It asserts as against other men your right of +property, but it limits that right by this, that if you interpret +your right of property to mean the right to 'do what you like with +your own,' ignoring your stewardship to God, and the right of your +fellows to share in what you have, then you are an unfaithful +steward, and your mammon is unrighteous. And that principle, the +true communism of Christianity, has to be worked into modern society +in a way that some of us do not dream of, before modern society will +be organised on Christian principles. These words of my text are no +toothless words which are merely intended to urge Christian people +on to a sentimental charity, and to a niggardly distribution of part +of their possessions: but they underlie the whole conception of +ownership, as the New Testament sets it forth. Wherever the +stewardship that we owe to God, and the participation that we owe to +men, are neglected in regard to anything that we have, there God's +good gifts are perverted and have become 'unrighteous mammon.' + +And, then, on the other hand, our Lord sets forth here the contrast +in regard to 'the true riches', which are such, inasmuch as they +really correspond to the idea of wealth being a true good to a man, +and making him rich to all the intents of bliss. He that has the +treasures of a pure mind, of a lofty aim, of a quiet conscience, of +a filled and satisfied and therefore calmed heart; he that has the +treasure of salvation; he that has the boundless wealth of God---he +has the bullion, while the poor rich people that have the material +good have the scrip of an insolvent company, which is worth no more +than the paper on which it is written. There are two currencies--one +solid metal, the other worthless paper. The one is 'true riches,' +and the other the 'unrighteous mammon.' + +Then there is a last contrast, and that is with regard to the +reality of our possession. On the one hand, that which I fondly call +my own is by our Lord stamped with the proprietor's mark, of +somebody else, 'that which is Another's.' It was His before He gave +it, it was His when He gave it, it is His after He has given it. My +name is never to be written on my property so as to erase the name +of the Owner. I am a steward; I am a trustee; it all belongs to Him. +That is one rendering of this word. But the phrase may perhaps point +in another direction. It may suggest how shadowy and unreal, as +being merely external, and how transitory is our ownership of wealth +and outward possessions. A man says, 'It is mine.' What does he mean +by that? It is not his own in any real sense. I get more good out of +a rich man's pictures, or estate, if I look at them with an eye that +loves them, than he does. The world belongs to the man that can +enjoy it and rightly use it. And the man that enjoys it and uses it +aright is the man who lives in God. Nothing is really yours except +that which has entered into the substance of your soul, and become +incorporated with your very being, so that, as in wool dyed in the +grain, the colour will never come out. What I am, that I have; what +I only have, that, in the deepest sense, I have not. 'Shrouds have +no pockets,' says the Spanish proverb. 'His glory will not descend +after him,' says the psalm. That is a poor possession which only is +outward whilst it lasts, and which ends so soon. But there is wealth +that comes into me. There are riches that cannot be parted from me. +I can make my own a great inheritance, which is wrought into the +very substance of my being, and will continue so inwrought, into +whatsoever worlds or states of existence any future may carry me. +So, and only so, is anything my own. Let these contrasts dominate +our lives. + +I see our space is gone; I must make this sermon a fragment, and +leave what I intended to have made the last part of it for possible +future consideration. Only let me press upon you in one closing word +this, that the durable riches are only found in God, and the riches +that can be found in God are brought to every one of us by Him 'in +whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' of goodness +and grace. If we will make ourselves poor, by consciousness of our +need, and turn with faith to Jesus, then we shall receive from Him +those riches which are greatest, which are true, which are our own +in that they pass into our very being, in that they were destined +for us from all eternity by the love of God; and in having them we +shall be rich indeed, and for ever. + + + + +THE GAINS OF THE FAITHFUL STEWARD + + + 'If ye have not been faithful in that which is another + man's, who shall give you that which is your own?' + --LUKE xvi. 12. + +In a recent sermon on this context I dealt mainly with the threefold +comparison which our Lord runs between the higher and the lower kind +of riches. The one is stigmatised as 'that which is least,' the +unrighteous mammon,' 'that which is another's'; whilst the higher is +magnified as being 'that which is most,' 'the true riches,' 'your +own.' What are these two classes? On the one hand stand all +possessions which, in and after possession, remain outside of a man, +which may survive whilst he perishes, or perish while he survives. +On the other hand are the riches which pass into him, and become +inseparable from him. Noble aims, high aspirations, pure thoughts, +treasures of wisdom, treasures of goodness--these are the real +wealth corresponding to man's nature, destined for his enrichment, +and to last with him for ever. But we may gather the whole contrast +into two words: the small, the 'unrighteous,' the wealth which being +mine is not mine but remains another's, and foreign to me, is the +world. The great riches, the 'true riches,' the good destined for +me, and for which I am destined, is God. In these two words you have +the antithesis, the real antithesis, God _versus_ the world. + +Now let us turn rather to the principle which our Lord here lays +down, in reference to these two classes of good, or of possessions. +He tells us that the faithful use of the world helps us to the +possession of God; or, to put it into other words, that how we +handle money and what money can buy, has a great deal to do with our +religious enjoyment and our religious life, and that that is true, +both in regard to our partial possession of God here and now, and to +our perfect possession of Him in the world to come. + +Now I wish to say one or two very plain things about this matter, +and I hope that you will not turn away from them because they are +familiar and trite. Considering how much of your lives, especially +as regards men of business, is taken up with money, its acquisition, +its retention, its distribution, there are few things that have more +to do with the vigour or feebleness of your Christian life than the +way in which you handle these perishable things. + +I wish to say a word or two, first, about + +I. What our Lord means by this faithfulness to which He attaches +such tremendous issues. + +Now, you will remember, that the starting point of my text is that +parable of the unjust steward, whose conduct, knavish as it was, is +in some sense presented by our Lord to His disciples, and to us, as +a pattern. But my text, and the other two verses which are parallel +with it, seem to have amongst their other purposes this: to put in a +caveat against supposing that it is the unfaithfulness of the +steward which is recommended for our imitation. And so the first +point that is suggested in regard to this matter of faithfulness +about the handling of outward good is that we have to take care that +it is rightly acquired, for though the unjust steward was commended +for the prudent use that he made of dishonestly acquired gain, it is +the prudent use, and not the manner of the acquisition which we are +to take as our examples. Initial unfaithfulness in acquisition is +not condoned or covered over by any pious and benevolent use +hereafter. Mediaeval barons left money for masses. Plenty of +Protestants do exactly the same thing. Brewers will build +cathedrals, and found picture galleries, and men that have made +their money foully will fancy that they atone for that by leaving it +for some charitable purpose. The caustic but true wit of a Scottish +judge said about a great bequest which was supposed to be--whether +rightly or wrongly, I know not--of that sort, that it was 'the +heaviest fire insurance premium that had been paid in the memory of +man.' 'The money does not stink,' said the Roman Emperor, about the +proceeds of an unsavoury tax. But the money unfaithfully won does +stink when it is thrown into God's treasury. 'The price of a dog +shall not come into the sanctuary of the Lord.' Do not think that +money doubtfully won is consecrated by being piously spent. + +But there are more things than that here, for our Lord sums up the +whole of a Christian man's duties in regard to the use of this +external world and all its good, in that one word 'faithful,' which +implies discharge of responsibility, recognition of obligation, the +continual consciousness that we are not proprietors but stewards. +Unless we carry that consciousness with us into all the phases of +our connection with perishable goods they become--as I shall have to +show you in a moment,--hindrances instead of helps to our possession +of God. + +I am not going to talk revolutionary socialism, or anything of that +sort, but I am bound to reiterate my own solemn conviction that +until, practically as well as theoretically, the Christian Church in +all its branches brings into its creed, and brings out in its +practice, the great thought of stewardship, especially in regard to +material and external good, but also in regard to the durable riches +of salvation, the nations will be full of unrest, and thunder-clouds +heavily boding storm and destruction will lower on the horizon. What +we have, we have that we may impart; what we have in all forms of +having, we have because we have received. We are distributing +centres, that is all--I was going to say like a nozzle, perforated +with many holes, at the end of the spout of a watering-can. That is +a Christian man's relation to his possessions. We are stewards. +'It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful' + +Now let me ask you to notice-- + +II. The bearing of this faithfulness in regard to the lower wealth +on our possession of the higher. + +Jesus says in this context, twice over, that faithfulness with +regard to the former is the condition of our being entrusted with +the latter. Now, remember, by way of illustration of this thought, +what all this outward world of goodness and beauty is mainly meant +for. What? It is all but scaffolding by which, and within the area +of which, the building may arise. The meaning of the world is to +make character. All that we have, aye! and all that we do, and the +whole of the events and circumstances with which we come in contact +here on earth, are then lifted to their noblest function, and are +then understood in their deepest meaning when we look upon them as +we do upon the leaping-poles and bars and swings of a gymnasium,--as +meant to develop thews and muscles, and make men of us. That is what +they are here for, and that is what we are here for. Not enjoyment, +and not sorrow, except in so far as these two are powers in +developing character, not plunging ourselves in the enjoyments of +sense. Wealth and poverty, gain and loss, love gratified and love +marred, possessions sweet, when preserved, and possessions that +become sweeter by being removed; all these are simply meant as +whetstones on which the keen blade may be sharpened, as forces +against which, trying ourselves, our deftness and strength may be +increased. They are all meant to make us men, and if we faithfully +use these externals with a recognition of their source, with a wise +estimate of their subordination so as that our desires shall not +cleave to them solely, and with a fixed determination to use them as +ministers to make ourselves nobler, wiser, stronger, liker to God +and His Christ, then the world will minister to our possession of +God, and being 'faithful in that which is least,' we shall thereby +be more capable of receiving that which is greatest. But if, on the +other hand, we so forget our true wealth, and become so besotted and +absorbed in our adhesion to, and our desires after, fleeting good, +then the capacities that were noble will fade and shrivel, being +unused; aims and purposes that were elevated and pure will die out +unsatisfied; windows in our souls which commanded a wide, glorious +prospect will gradually be bricked up; burdens which hinder our +running will be piled upon our backs, and the world will have +conquered us, whilst we are dreaming that we have conquered the +world. You look at a sea anemone in a pool on the rocks when the +tide is out, all its tendrils outstretched, and its cavity wide +open. Some little bit of seaweed, or some morsel of half-putrefying +matter, comes in contact with it, and instantly every tentacle is +retracted, and the lips are tightly closed, so that you could not +push a bristle in. And when your tentacles draw themselves in to +clutch the little portion of worldly good, of whatever sort it is, +that has come into your hold, there is no room to get God in there, +and being 'unfaithful in that which is least' you have made it +impossible that you should possess 'that which is most.' Ah! there +are some of us that were far better Christians long ago, when we +were poorer men, than we are to-day, and there are some of us that +know what it is to have the heart so filled with baser liquors that +there is no room for the ethereal nectar. If the world has filled my +soul, where is God to dwell? + +There is another way in which we may look at this matter. I have +said that the main use of these perishable and fragmentary good +things around us is to develop character, by our administration of +them. Another way of putting the same thought is that their main use +is to show us God. If we faithfully use the lesser good it will +become transparent, and reveal to us the greater. We hear a great +deal about deepening the spiritual life by prayers, and conventions, +and Bible readings and the like. I have no word to say except in +full sympathy with all such. But I do believe that the best means, +the most powerful means, by which the great bulk of Christian men +could deepen their spiritual lives would be a more honest and +thoroughgoing attempt to 'be faithful in that which is least.' We +have so much to do with it necessarily, that few, if any, things +have more power in shaping our whole characters than our manner of +administering the wealth, the material good, that comes to our +hands. + +And so, dear brethren, I beseech you remember that the laws of +perspective are such as that a minute thing near at hand shuts out +the vision of a mighty thing far off, and a hillock by my side will +hide the Himalayas at a distance, and a sovereign may block out God; +and 'that which is least' has the diabolical power of seeming +greater to us than, and of obscuring our vision of, 'that which is +most.' + +May I remind you that all these thoughts about the bearing of +faithfulness in administering the lower of our possessions, on the +attainment of higher, apply to us whatever be the amount of these +outward goods that we have? I suppose there were not twelve poorer +men in all Palestine that day than the twelve to whom my text was +originally addressed. Three of them had left their nets and their +fishing-boats, one of them we know had left his counting-house, as a +publican, and all his receipts and taxes behind him. What they had +we know not, but at all events they were the poor of this world. Do +not any of you that happen to be modestly or poorly off think that +my sermon is a sermon for rich men. It is not what we have, but how +we handle it, that is in question. 'The cares of this world, and the +deceitfulness of riches,' were bracketed together by Jesus Christ as +the things that 'choke the word,' and make it unfruitful. The poor +man who wants, and the rich man who uses unfaithfully, are alike hit +by the words of my text. + +Now, further, let me ask you to look at + +III. The bearing of faithfulness in this life on the fuller +possession of our true riches in the life hereafter. + +There lies under this whole context a striking conception of life +here in its relation to the life hereafter, A father sets his son, +or a master sets his apprentice, to some small task, an experiment +made upon a comparatively worthless body, supplies him with material +which it does not much matter whether he spoils or not, and then if +by practice the hand becomes deft, he is set to better work. God +sets us to try our 'prentice hands here in the world, and if we +administer that rightly, not necessarily perfectly, but so as to +show that there are the makings of a good workman in us by His +gracious help, then the next life comes, with its ampler margin, +with its wider possibilities, with its nobler powers, and there we +are set to use in loftier fashion the powers which we made our own +being here. 'Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make +thee ruler over many things.' + +I have said that the great use of the world and all its wealth is to +make character. I have said that that character determines our +capacity for the possession of God. I have said that our +administration of worldly wealth is one chief factor in determining +our character. Now I say that that character persists. There are +great changes, changes the significance and the scope and the +consequences of which we can never know here. But the man remains, +in the main direction of his being, in the character which he has +made for himself by his use of God's world and of Christ's Spirit. +And so the way in which we handle the trivialities and temporalities +here has eternal consequences. We sit in a low room with the +telegraph instrument in front of us, and we click off our messages, +and they are recorded away yonder, and we shall have to read them +one day. Transient causes produce permanent effects. The seas which +laid down the great sandstone deposits that make so large a portion +of the framework of this world have long since evaporated. But the +footprints of the seabird that stalked across the moist sand, and +the little pits made by the raindrops that fell countless +millenniums ago on the red ooze, are there yet, and you may see them +in our museums. And so our faithfulness, or our unfaithfulness, here +has made the character which is eternal, and on which will depend +whether we shall, in the joys of that future life, possess God in +fullness, or whether we shall lose Him, as our portion and our +Friend. + +Now, dear brethren, do not forget that all this that I have been +saying is the second page in Christ's teaching; and the first page +is an entirely different one. I have been saying that we make +character, and that character determines our possession of God and +His grace. But there is another thing to be said. The central +thought of Christ's gospel is that God, in His sweetness, in His +pardoning mercy, in His cleansing Spirit, is given to the very men +whose characters do not deserve it. And the same Lord who said, 'If +ye have not been faithful in that which is least, who shall give you +that which is greatest?' says also from the heavens,' I counsel thee +to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.' My +text, and the principle that is involved in it, do not contradict +the great truth that we are saved by simple faith, however unworthy +we are. That is the message to begin with. And unless you have +received it you are not standing in the place where the message that +I have been insisting upon has a personal bearing on you. But if you +have taken Christ for your salvation, remember, Christian brother +and sister, that it is not the same thing in regard either to your +Christian life on earth, or to your heavenly glory, whether you have +been living faithfully as stewards in your handling of earth's +perishable good, or whether you have clung to it as your real +portion, have used it selfishly, and by it have hidden God from your +hearts. To Christian men is addressed the charge that we trust not +in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, and that we be +'rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, +that we lay up in store for ourselves a good foundation against the +time to come'; and so 'lay hold on the life that is life indeed.' + + + + +DIVES AND LAZARUS + + + 'There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in + purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every + day: 20. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, + which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21. And + desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the + rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked + his sores. 22. And it came to pass, that the beggar + died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's + bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23. And + in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and + seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. + 24. And he cried, and said, Father Abraham, have mercy + on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of + his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am + tormented in this flame. 25, But Abraham said, Son, + remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good + things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is + comforted, and thou art tormented. 26. And besides all + this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: + so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; + neither can they pass to us, that would come from + thence. 27. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, + father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's + house: 28. For I have five brethren; that he may + testify unto them lest they also come into this place + of torment. 29. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses + and the prophets; let them hear them. 30. And he said, + Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the + dead, they will repent. 31. And he said unto him, If + they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they + be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.' + --Luke xvi. 19-31. + +This, the sternest of Christ's parables, must be closely connected +with verses 13 and 14. Keeping them in view, its true purpose is +plain. It is meant to rebuke, not the possession of wealth, but its +heartless, selfish use. Christ never treats outward conditions as +having the power of determining either character or destiny. What a +man does with his conditions settles what he is and what becomes of +him. Nor does the parable teach that the use of wealth is the only +determining factor, but, as every parable must do, it has to isolate +the lesson it teaches in order to burn it into the hearers. + +There are three parts in the story--the conduct of the rich man, his +fate, and the sufficiency of existing warnings to keep us from his +sin and his end. + +I. Properly speaking, we have here, not a parable--that is, a +representation of physical facts which have to be translated into +moral or religious truths--but an imaginary narrative, embodying a +normal fact in a single case. The rich man does not stand for +something else, but is one of the class of which Jesus wishes to set +forth the sin and fate. It is very striking that neither he nor the +beggar is represented as acting, but each is simply described. The +juxtaposition of the two figures carries the whole lesson. + +It has sometimes been felt as a difficulty that the one is not said +to have done anything bad, nor the other to have been devout or +good; and some hasty readers have thought that Jesus was here +teaching the communistic doctrine that wealth is sin, and that +poverty is virtue. No such crude trash came from His lips. But He +does teach that heartless wallowing in luxury, with naked, starving +beggars at the gate, is sin which brings bitter retribution. The +fact that the rich man does nothing is His condemnation. He was not +damned because he had a purple robe and fine linen undergarments, +nor because he had lived in abundance, and every meal had been a +festival, but because, while so living, he utterly ignored Lazarus, +and used his wealth only for his own gratification. Nothing more +needs to be said about his character; the facts sufficiently show +it. + +Still less needs to be said about that of Lazarus. In this part of +the narrative he comes into view simply as the means of bringing out +the rich man's heartlessness and self-indulgence. For the purposes +of the narrative his disposition was immaterial; for it is not our +duty to help only deserving or good people. Manhood and misery are +enough to establish the right to sympathy and succour. There may be +a hint of character in the name 'Lazarus,' which probably means 'God +is help.' Since this is the only name in the parables, it is natural +to give it significance, and it most likely suggests that the beggar +clung to God as his stay. It may glance, too, at the riddle of life, +which often seems to mock trust by continued trouble. Little outward +sign had Lazarus of divine help, yet he did not cast away his +confidence. No doubt, he sometimes got some crumbs from Dives' +table, but not from Dives. That the dogs licked his sores does not +seem meant as either alleviation or aggravation, but simply as +vividly describing his passive helplessness and utterly neglected +condition. Neither he nor any one drove them off. + +But the main point about him is that he was at Dives' gate, and +therefore thrust before Dives' notice, and that he got no help. The +rich man was not bound to go and hunt for poor people, but here was +one pushed under his nose, as it were. Translate that into general +expressions, and it means that we all have opportunities of +beneficence laid in our paths, and that our guilt is heavy if we +neglect these. 'The poor ye have always with you.' The guilt of +selfish use of worldly possessions is equally great whatever is the +amount of possessions. Doing nothing when Lazarus lies at our gate +is doing great wickedness. These truths have a sharp edge for us as +well as for the 'Pharisees who were covetous'; and they are wofully +forgotten by professing Christians. + +II. In the second part of the narrative, our Lord follows the two, +who had been so near each other and yet so separated, into the land +beyond the grave. It is to be especially noticed that, in doing so, +He adopts the familiar Rabbinical teaching as to Hades. He does not +thereby stamp these conceptions of the state of the dead with His +assent; for the purpose of the narrative is not to reveal the +secrets of that land, but to impress the truth of retribution for +the sin in question. It would not be to a group of Pharisaic +listeners that He would have unveiled that world. + +He takes their own notions of it--angel bearers, Abraham's bosom, +the two divisions in Hades, the separation, and yet communication, +between them. These are Rabbis' fancies, not Christ's revelations. +The truths which He wished to force home lie in the highly +imaginative conversation between the rich man and Abraham, which +also has its likeness in many a Rabbinical legend. + +The difference between the ends of the two men has been often +noticed, and lessons, perhaps not altogether warranted, drawn from +it. But it seems right to suppose that the omission of any notice of +the beggar's burial is meant to bring out that the neglect and +pitilessness, which had let him die, left his corpse unburied. +Perhaps the dogs that had licked his sores tore his flesh. A fine +sight that would be from the rich man's door! The latter had to die +too, for all his purple, and to be swathed in less gorgeous robes. +His funeral is mentioned, not only because pomp and ostentation went +as far as they could with him, but to suggest that he had to leave +them all behind. 'His glory shall not descend after him.' + +The terrible picture of the rich man's torments solemnly warns us of +the necessary end of a selfish life such as his. The soul that lives +to itself does not find satisfaction even here; but, when all +externals are left behind, it cannot but be in torture. That is not +drapery. Character makes destiny, and to live to self is death. +Observe, too, that the relative positions of Dives and Lazarus are +reversed--the beggar being now the possessor of abundance and +delights, while the rich man is the sufferer and the needy. + +Further note that the latter now desires to have from the former the +very help which in life he had not given him, and that the +retribution for refusing succour here is its denial hereafter. There +had been no sharing of 'good things' in the past life, but the rich +man had asserted his exclusive rights to them. They had been 'thy +good things' in a very sinful sense, and Lazarus had bean left to +carry his evil things alone. There shall be no communication of good +now. Earth was the place for mutual help and impartation. That world +affords no scope for it; for there men reap what they have sown, and +each character has to bear its own burden. + +Finally, the ineffaceableness of distinctions of character, and +therefore of destiny, is set forth by the solemn image of the great +gulf which cannot be crossed. It is indeed to be remembered that our +Lord is speaking of 'the intermediate state,' before resurrection +and final judgment, and that, as already remarked, the intention of +the narrative is not to reveal the mysteries of the final state. But +still the impression left by the whole is that life here determines +life hereafter, and that character, once set and hardened here, +cannot be cast into the melting-pot and remoulded there. + +III. The last part of the narrative teaches that the fatal sin of +heartless selfishness is inexcusable. The rich man's thought for his +brethren was quite as much an excuse for himself. He thought that, +if he had only known, things would have been different. He shifts +blame from himself on to the insufficiency of the warnings given +him. And the two answers put into Abraham's mouth teach the +sufficiency of 'Moses and the prophets,' little as these say about +the future, and the impossibility of compelling men to listen to a +divine message to which they do not wish to listen. + +The fault lies, not in the deficiency of the warnings, but in the +aversion of the will. No matter whether it is Moses or a spirit from +Hades who speaks, if men do not wish to hear, they will not hear. +They will not be persuaded--for persuasion has as much, or more, to +do with the heart and inclination than with the head. We have as +much witness from heaven as we need. The worst man knows more of +duty than the best man does. Dives is in torments because he lived +for self; and he lived for self, not because he did not know that it +was wrong, but because he did not choose to do what he knew to be +right. + + + + +MEMORY IN ANOTHER WORLD + + + 'Abraham said, Son, remember!'--LUKE xvi. 25. + +It is a very striking thought that Christ, if He be what we suppose +Him to be, knew all about the unseen present which we call the +future, and yet was all but silent in reference to it. Seldom is it +on His lips at all. Of arguments drawn from another world He has +very few. Sometimes He speaks about it, but rather by allusion than +in anything like an explicit revelation. This parable out of which +my text is taken, is perhaps the most definite and continuous of His +words about the invisible world; and yet all the while it lay there +before Him; and standing on the very verge of it, with it spread out +clear before His gaze, He reads off but a word or two of what He +sees, and then shuts it in in darkness, and says to us, in the spirit +of a part of this parable, 'You have Moses and the prophets--hear +them: if these are not enough, it will not be enough for you if all +the glories of heaven and all the ghastliness of hell are flashed and +flamed before you.' We, too, if we are to 'prophesy according to the +proportion of faith,' must not leave out altogether references to a +future life in its two departments, and such motives as may be based +upon them; only, I think, we ought always to keep them in the same +relative amount to the whole of our teaching in which Christ kept them. + +This parable, seeing that it _is_ a parable, of course cannot +be trusted as if it were a piece of simple dogmatic revelation, to +give us information, facts, so as to construct out of it a theory of +the other world. We are always in the double danger in parables, of +taking that for drapery which was meant to be essence, and taking +that for essence which was meant to be drapery. And so I do not +profess to read from this narrative any very definite and clear +knowledge of the future; but I think that in the two words which I +have ventured to take as a text, we get the basis of very impressive +thoughts with regard to the functions of memory in another world. + +'Son, remember!' It is the voice, the first voice, the perpetual +voice, which meets every man when he steps across the threshold of +earth into the presence chamber of eternity. All the future is so +built upon and interwoven with the past, that for the saved and for +the lost alike this word might almost be taken as the motto of their +whole situation, as the explanation of their whole condition. Memory +in another world is indispensable to the gladness of the glad, and +strikes the deepest note in the sadness of the lost. There can be no +need to dwell at any length on the simple introductory thought, that +there must be memory in a future state. Unless there were +remembrance, there could be no sense of individuality. A man cannot +have any conviction that he is himself, but by constant, though +often unconscious, operation of this subtle act of remembrance. +There can be no sense of personal identity except in proportion +as there is clearness of recollection. Then again, if that future +state be a state of retribution, there must be memory. Otherwise, +there might be joy, and there might be sorrow, but the why and the +wherefore of either would be entirely struck out of a man's +consciousness, and the one could not be felt as reward, nor the +other as punishment. If, then, we are to rise from the grave the +same men that we are laid in it, and if the future life has this for +its characteristic, that it is a state either of recompense and +reward, or of retribution and suffering, then, for both, the +clearness and constant action, of memory are certainly needed. But +it is not to the simple fact of its existence that I desire to +direct your attention now. I wish, rather, to suggest to you one or +two modifications under which it must apparently work in another +world. When men remember _there_, they will remember very +differently from the way in which they remember _here_. Let us +look at these changes-constituting it, on the one hand, an +instrument of torture; and, on the other, a foundation of all our +gladness. + +I. First, in another state, memory will be so widened as to take in +the whole life. + +We believe that what a man is in this life, he is more in another, +that tendencies here become results yonder, that his sin, that his +falsehood, that his whole moral nature, be it good or bad, becomes +there what it is only striving to be here. We believe that in this +present life our capacities of all sorts are hedged in, thwarted, +damped down, diluted, by the necessity which there is for their +working through this material body of ours. We believe that death is +the heightening of a man's stature--if he be bad, the intensifying +of his badness; if he be good, the strengthening of his goodness. We +believe that the contents of the intellectual nature, the capacities +of that nature also, are all increased by the fact of having done +with earth and having left the body behind. It is, I think, the +teaching of common-sense, and it is the teaching of the Bible. True, +that for some, that growth will only be a growth into greater power +of feeling greater sorrow. Such an one grows up into a Hercules; but +it is only that the Nessus shirt may wrap round him more tightly, +and may gnaw him with a fiercer agony. But whether saved or lost--he +that dies is greater than when yet living; and all his powers are +intensified and strengthened by that awful experience of death and +by what it brings with it. + +Memory partakes in the common quickening. There are not wanting +analogies and experiences in our present life to let us see that, in +fact, when we talk about forgetting we ought to mean nothing more +than the temporary cessation of conscious remembrance. Everything +which you do leaves its effect with you for ever, just as long-forgotten +meals are in your blood and bones to-day. Every act that a man performs +is there. It has printed itself upon his soul, it has become a part of +himself: and though, like a newly painted picture, after a little while +the colours sink in, why is that? Only because they have entered into +the very fibre of the canvas, and have left the surface because they +are incorporated with the substance, and they want but a touch of +varnish to flash out again! We forget _nothing_, in the sense of not +being able, some time or another, to recall it; we forget much in the +sense of ceasing for a time to have it in our thoughts. + +For we know, in our own case, how strangely there come swimming up +before us, out of the depths of the dim waters of oblivion--as one +has seen some bright shell drawn from the sunless sea-caves, and +gleaming white and shapeless far down before we had it on the +surface--past thoughts, we know not whence or how. Some one of the +million of hooks, with which all our life is furnished, has laid +hold of some subtle suggestion which has been enough to bring them +up into consciousness. We said we had forgotten them. What does it +mean? Only that they had sunk into the deep, beneath our +consciousness, and lay there to be brought up when needful. There is +nothing more strange than the way in which some period of my life, +that I supposed to be an entire blank--if I will think about it for +a little while, begins to glimmer into form. As the developing +solution brings out the image on the photographic plate, so the mind +has the strange power, by fixing the attention, as we say (a short +word which means a long, mysterious thing) upon that past that is +half-remembered and half-forgotten, of bringing it into clear +consciousness and perfect recollection. And, there are instances, +too, of a still more striking kind, familiar to some of us how in +what people call morbid states, men remember their childhood, which +they had forgotten for long years. You may remember that old story +of the dying woman beginning to speak in a tongue unknown to all +that stood around her bed. When a child she had learned some +northern language, in a far-off land. Long before she had learned to +shape any definite remembrances of the place, she had been taken +away, and not having used, had forgotten the speech. But at last +there rushed up again all the old memories, and the tongue of the +dumb was loosed, and she spake! People would say, 'the action of +disease.' It may be, but that explains nothing. Perhaps in such +states the spirit is working in a manner less limited by the body +than in health, and so showing some slight prelude of its powers +when it has shuffled off this mortal coil. But be that as it may, +these morbid phenomena, and the other more familiar facts already +referred to, unite to show us that the sphere of recollection is +much wider than that occupied at any given moment by memory. +Recollection is the servant of Memory, as our great poet tells us in +his wise allegory, and + + 'does on him still attend, + To reach whenever he for ought does send.' + +We cannot lay aside anything that we have ever done or been so +utterly but that that servant can find it and bring it to his lord. +We forget nothing so completely but that we shall be able to recall +it. Of that awful power we may say, without irreverence, 'Thou hast +set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy +countenance.' + +The fragmentary remembrances which we have now, lift themselves +above the ocean of forgetfulness like islands in some Archipelago, +the summits of sister hills, though separated by the estranging sea +that covers their converging sides and the valleys where their roots +unite. The solid land is there, though hidden. Drain off the sea, +and there will be no more isolated peaks, but continuous land. In +this life we have but the island memories heaving themselves into +sight, but in the next the Lord shall 'cause the sea to go back by +the breath of His mouth,' and the channels of the great deep of a +human heart's experiences and actions shall be laid bare. 'There +shall be no more sea'; but the solid land of a whole life will +appear when God says, 'Son, remember!' + +So much, then, for my first consideration--namely, that memory in a +future state will comprehend the whole of life. Another thing is, +that memory in a future state will probably be so rapid as to +embrace all the past life at once. We do not know, we have no +conception of, the extent to which our thinking, and feeling, and +remembrance, are made tardy by the slow vehicle of this bodily +organisation in which the soul rides. But we have in our own lives +instances enough to make us feel that there lie in us dormant, +mysterious powers by which the rapidity of all our operations of +thought and feeling will be enhanced marvellously, like the +difference between a broad-wheeled waggon and an express train! At +some turning point of your life, when some great joy flashed, or +some great shadow darkened upon you all at once; when some crisis +that wanted an instantaneous decision appeared--why, what regions of +thought, purpose, plan, resolution; what wilderness of desolate +sorrow, and what paradises of blooming gladness, your soul has gone +through in a moment. Well, then, take another illustration: A +sleeper, feeling a light finger laid upon his shoulder, does not +know what it is; in an instant he awakes and says, 'Is it you?' but +between that touch and that word there may be a whole life run +through, a whole series of long events dreamt and felt. As on the +little retina of an eye there can be painted on a scale +inconceivably minute, every tree and mountain-top in the whole wide +panorama--so, in an instant, one may run through almost a whole +lifetime of mental acts. Then, again, you remember that +illustration, often used on this subject, about the experience of +those who have been brought face to face with sudden death, and +escaped it. The drowning man, when he comes to himself, tells us, +that in the interval betwixt the instant when he felt he was going +and the passing away of consciousness, all his life stood before +him; as if some flash in a dark midnight had lighted up a whole +mountain country--there it all was! Ah, brethren! we know nothing +yet about the rapidity with which we may gather before us a whole +series of events; so that although we have to pass from one to +another, the succession may be so swift, as to produce in our own +minds the effect of all being co-existent and simultaneous. As the +child flashing about him a bit of burning stick, may seem to make a +circle of flame, because the flame-point moves so quickly--so +memory, though it does go from point to point, and dwells for some +inconceivably minute instant on each part of the remembrance, may +yet be gifted with such lightning speed, with such rapidity and +awful quickness of glance, as that to the man himself the effect +shall be that his whole life is spread out there before him in one +instant, and that he, Godlike, sees the end and the beginning side +by side. Yes; from the mountain of eternity we shall look down, and +behold the whole plain spread before us. Down here we get lost and +confused in the devious valleys that run off from the roots of the +hills everywhere, and we cannot make out which way the streams are +going, and what there is behind that low shoulder of hill yonder: +but when we get to the summit peak, and look down, it will all shape +itself into one consistent whole, and we shall see it all at once. +The memory shall be perfect--perfect in the range of its grasp, and +perfect in the rapidity with which it brings up all its objects +before us at every instant. + +Once more: it seems as if, in another world, memory would not only +contain the whole life, and the whole life simultaneously; but would +perpetually attend or haunt us. A constant remembrance! It does not +lie in our power even in this world, to decide very much whether we +shall remember or forget. It does not come within a man's will to +forget or to remember. He cannot say, 'I will remember'; for if he +could, he would have remembered already. He cannot say, 'I will +forget'; for the very effort fixes his attention on the obnoxious +thing. All that we can do, when we seek to remember, is to wander +back to somewhere about that point in our life where the shy thing +lurks, and hope to catch some sight of it in the leafy coverts: and +all we can do, when we want to forget, is to try and fill our mind +with other subjects, and in the distractions of them to lose the +oppressive and burdensome thoughts. But we know that that is but a +partial remedy, that we cannot succeed in doing it. There are +presences that will not be put by. There are memories that +_will_ start up before us, whether we are willing or not. Like +the leprosy in the Israelite's house, the foul spot works its way +out through all the plaster and the paint; and the house is foul +because it is there. Oh, my friend! you are a happy and a singular +man if there is nothing in your life that you have tried to bury, +and the obstinate thing _will_ not be buried, but meets you +again when you come away from its fancied grave. I remember an old +castle where they tell us of a foul murder committed in a vaulted +chamber with a narrow window, by torchlight one night; and there, +they say, there are the streaks and stains of blood on the black +oak floor; and they have planed, and scrubbed, and planed again, and +thought they were gone--but there they always are, and continually +up comes the dull reddish-black stain, as if oozing itself out +through the boards to witness to the bloody crime again! The +superstitious fable is a type of the way in which a foul thing, a +sinful and bitter memory--gets ingrained into a man's heart. He +tries to banish it, and gets rid of it for a while. He goes back +again, and the spots are there, and will be there for ever; and the +only way to get rid of them is to destroy the soul in which they +are. + +Memory is not all within the power of the will on earth: and +probably, memory in another world is still more involuntary and +still more constant. Why? Because I read in the Bible that there is +work in another world for God's servants to do; but I do not read +that there is work for anybody else but God's servants to do. The +work of an unforgiven sinner is done when he dies, and that not only +because he is going into the state of retribution, but because no +rebel's work is going to be suffered in that world. The time for +that is past. And so, if you will look, all the teachings of the +Bible about the future state of those who are not in blessedness, +give us this idea--a monotonous continuance of idleness, shutting +them up to their own contemplations, the memories of the past and +the agonies of the future. There are no distractions for such a man +in another world. He has thought, he has conscience, he has +remembrance. He has a sense of pain, of sin, of wrong, of loss. He +has one 'passive fixed endurance, all eternal and the same'; but I +do not read that his pain is anodyned and his sorrow soothed by any +activity that his hand finds to do. And, in a most tragic sense, we +may say, 'there is neither work, nor labour, nor device,' in that +dark world where the fruits of sin are reaped in monotonous +suffering and ever-present pain. A memory, brethren, that +i>will_ have its own way--what a field for sorrow and lamentation +that is, when God says at last, 'Now go--go apart; take thy life +with thee; read it over; see what thou hast done with it!' One old +Roman tyrant had a punishment in which he bound the dead body of the +murdered to the living body of the murderer, and left them there +scaffolded. And when that voice comes, 'Son, remember!' to the +living soul of the godless, unbelieving, impenitent man, there is +bound to him the murdered past, the dead past, his own life; and, in +Milton's awful and profound words, + + 'Which way I fly is hell--myself am hell!' + +There is only one other modification of this awful faculty that I +would remind you of; and that is, that in a future life memory will +be associated with a perfectly accurate knowledge of the consequences +and a perfectly sensitive conscience as to the criminality of the +past. You will have cause and consequence put down before you, meeting +each other at last. There will be no room then to say, 'I wonder how +such and such a thing will work out,' 'I wonder how such a thing can +have come upon me'; but every one will have his whole life to look +back upon, and will see the childish sin that was the parent of the +full-grown vice, and the everlasting sorrow that came out of that +little and apparently transitory root. The conscience, which here +becomes hardened by contact with sin, and enfeebled because unheeded, +will then be restored to its early sensitiveness and power, as if the +labourer's horny palm were to be endowed again with the softness of +the infant's little hand. If you will take and think about that, +brother, _there_ is enough--without any more talk, without any +more ghastly, sensual external figures--_there_ is enough to make +the boldest tremble; a memory embracing all the past, a memory rapidly +grasping and constantly bringing its burden, a judgment which admits +of no mistakes, and a conscience which has done with palliations and +excuses! + +It is not difficult to see how that is an instrument of torture. It +is more difficult to see how such a memory can be a source of +gladness; and yet it can. The old Greeks were pressed with that +difficulty: they said to themselves, If a man remembers, there can +be no Elysium for him. And so they put the river of forgetfulness, +the waters of Lethe, betwixt life and the happy plains. Ah, +_we_ do not want any river of oblivion betwixt us and everlasting +blessedness. Calvary is on this side, and that is enough! Certainly +it is one of the most blessed things about 'the faith that is in Christ +Jesus,' that it makes a man remember his own sinfulness with penitence, +not with pain--that it makes the memory of past transgressions full +of solemn joy, because the memory of _past_ transgressions but brings +to mind the depth and rushing fullness of that river of love which has +swept them all away as far as the east is from the west. Oh, brother, +brother! you cannot forget your sins; but it lies within your own +decision whether the remembrance shall be thankfulness and blessedness, +or whether it shall be pain and loss for ever. Like some black rock that +heaves itself above the surface of a sunlit sea, and the wave runs +dashing over it, and the spray, as it falls down its sides, is all +rainbowed and lightened, and there comes beauty into the mighty +grimness of the black thing;--so a man's transgressions rear themselves +up, and God's great love, coming sweeping itself against them and over +them, makes out of the sin an occasion for the flashing more brightly +of the beauty of His mercy, and turns the life of the pardoned penitent +into a life of which even the sin is not pain to remember. So, then, +lay your hand upon Christ Jesus. Put your heart into His keeping. Go +to Him with your transgressions, He will forget them, and make it +possible for you to remember them in such a way that the memory will +become to you the very foundation of all your joy, and will make +heaven's anthem deeper and more harmonious when you say, 'Now unto +Him that hath washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath +made us kings and priests unto God, unto Him be glory for ever and +ever!' And, on the other hand, _if not_, then, 'Son, remember!' +will be the word that begins the future retribution, and shuts you +up with a wasted past, with a gnawing conscience, and an upbraiding +heart: to say, + + 'I backward cast my ee + On prospects drear! + And forward, though I canna see, + I guess and fear!' + + + + +GOD'S SLAVES + + + 'Doth He thank that servant because he did the things + that were commanded him! I trow not. 10. So likewise + ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are + commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we + have done that which was our duty to do.' + --LUKE xvii. 9-10. + +There are two difficulties about these words. One is their apparent +entire want of connection with what precedes--viz., the disciples' +prayer, 'Lord, increase our faith,' and the other is the harshness +and severity of tone which marks them, and the view of the less +attractive side of man's relation to God which is thrown into +prominence in them. He must be a very churlish master who never says +'Thank you,' however faithful his servant's obedience may be. And he +must be a very inconsiderate master, who has only another kind of +duty to lay upon the shoulders of the servant that has come in after +a long day's ploughing and feeding of cattle. Perhaps, however, the +one difficulty clears away the other, and if we keep firm hold of +the thought that the words of my text, and those which are +associated with them, are an answer to the prayer, 'Lord, increase +our faith,' the stern and somewhat repelling characteristics of the +words may somewhat change. + +I. So I look, first, at the husk of apparent harshness and severity. +The relation between master and hired servant is not the one that is +in view, but the relation between a master and the slave who is his +property, who has no rights, who has no possessions, whose life and +death and everything connected with him are at the absolute disposal +of his master. It is a foul and wicked relation when existing +between men, and it has been full of cruelty and atrocities. But +Jesus Christ lays His hand upon it, and says, 'That is the relation +between men and God; that is the relation between men and Me.' + +And what is involved therein? Absolute authority; so that the slave +is but, as it were, an animated instrument in the hand of the +master, with no will of his own, and no rights and no possessions. +That is not all of our relation to God, blessed be His Name! But +that is _in_ our relation to Him, and the highest title that a +man can have is the title which the Apostles in after days bound +upon their foreheads as a crown of honour--'A slave of Jesus +Christ.' + +Then, if that relation is laid as being the basis of all our +connection with God, whatever else there may be also involved, these +two things which in the human relation are ugly and inconsiderate, +and argue a very churlish and selfish nature on the part of the +human master, belong essentially to our relation to God. 'Which of +you, having a servant, ploughing or feeding cattle, will say unto +him ... when he has come from the field, Go (immediately) and sit +down to meat, and will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith +I may sup, and gird thyself and serve me, till I have eaten and +drunken: and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?' You will get your +supper by-and-by, but you are here to work, says the master, and +when you have finished one task, that does not involve that you are +to rest; it involves only that you are to take up another. And +however wearisome has been the ploughing amongst the heavy clods all +day long, and tramping up and down the furrows, when you come in you +are to clean yourself up, and get my supper ready, 'and afterward +thou shalt eat and drink.' + +As I have said, such a speech would argue a harsh human master, but is +there not a truth which is not harsh in it in reference to us and God? +Duty never ends. The eternal persistence through life of the obligation +to service is what is taught us here, as being inherent in the very +relation between the Lord and Owner of us all and us His slaves. +Moralists and irreligious teachers say grand things about the eternal +sweep of the great law of duty. The Christian thought is the higher +one, 'Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon +me,' and wherever I am I am under obligation to serve Thee, and no past +record of work absolves me from the work of the present. From the +cradle to the grave I walk beneath an all-encompassing, overarching +firmament of duty. As long as we draw breath we are bound to the +service of Him whose slaves we are, and whose service is perfect freedom. + +Such is the bearing of this apparently repulsive representation of +our text, which is not so repulsive if you come to think about it. +It does not in the least set aside the natural craving for +recreation and relaxation and repose. It does not overlook God's +obligation to keep His slave alive, and in good condition for doing +His work, by bestowing upon him the things that are needful for him, +but it does meet that temptation which comes to us all to take that +rest which circumstances may make manifestly not God's will, and it +says to us, 'Forget the things that are behind, and reach forth unto +the things that are before.' You have done a long day's work with +plough or sheep-crook. The reward for work is more work. Come away +indoors now, and nearer the Master, prepare His table. 'Which of +you, having a servant, will not do so with him?' And that is how He +does with us. + +Then, the next thought here, which, as I say, has a harsh exterior, +and a bitter rind, is that one of the slave doing his work, and +never getting so much as 'thank you' for it. But if you lift this +interpretation too, into the higher region of the relation between +God and His slaves down here, a great deal of the harshness drops +away. For what does it come to? Just to this, that no man among us, +by any amount or completeness of obedience to the will of God +establishes claims on God for a reward. You have done your duty--so +much the better for you, but is that any reason why you should be +decorated and honoured for doing it? You have done no more than your +duty. 'So, likewise, ye, when ye have done all things that are +commanded you'--even if that impossible condition were to be +realised--'say we are unprofitable servants'; not in the bad sense +in which the word is sometimes used, but in the accurate sense of +not having brought any profit or advantage, more than was His +before, to the Master whom we have thus served. It is a blessed +thing for a man to call _himself_ an unprofitable servant; it +is an awful thing for the Master to call him one. If _we_ say +'we are unprofitable servants,' we shall be likely to escape the +solemn words from the Lord's lips: 'Take ye away the unprofitable +servant, and cast him into outer darkness.' There are two that may +use the word, Christ the Judge, and man the judged, and if the man +will use it, Christ will not. 'If we judge ourselves we shall not be +judged.' + +Now, although, as I have said about the other part of this text, +it is not meant to exhaust our relations to God, or to say the +all-comprehensive word about the relation of obedience to blessedness; +it is meant to say + + 'Merit lives from man to man, + And not from man, O Lord! to Thee.' + +No one can reasonably build upon his own obedience, or his own work, +nor claim as by right, for reward, heaven or other good. So my text +is the anticipation of Paul's teaching about the impossibility of a +man's being saved by his works, and it cuts up by the root, not only +the teaching as to a treasure of 'merits of the saints,' and 'works +of supererogation,' and the like; but it tells us, too, that we must +beware of the germs of that self-complacent way of looking at +ourselves and our own obedience, as if they had anything at all to +do with our buying either the favour of God, or the rewards of the +faithful servant. + +II. Now, all that I have been saying may sound very harsh. Let us +take a second step, and try if we can find out the kernel of grace +in the harsh husk. + +I hold fast by the one clue that Jesus Christ is here replying to +the Apostle's prayer, 'Lord, increase our faith.' He had been laying +down some very hard regulations for their conduct, and, naturally, +when they felt how difficult it would be to come within a thousand +miles of what He had been bidding them, they turned to Him with that +prayer. It suggests that faith is there, in living operation, or +they would not have prayed to Him for its increase. And how does He +go about the work of increasing it? In two ways, one of which does +not enter into my present subject. First, by showing the disciples +the power of faith, in order to stimulate them to greater effort for +its possession. He promised that they might say to the fig tree, 'Be +thou plucked up and planted in the sea,' and it should obey them. +The second way was by this context of which I am speaking now. How +does it bear upon the Apostles' prayer? What is there in this +teaching about the slave and his master, and the slave's work, and +the incompatibility of the notion of reward with the slave's +service, to help to strengthen faith? There is this that this +teaching beats down every trace of self-confidence, and if we take +it in and live by it, makes us all feel that we stand before God, +whatever have been our deeds of service, with no claims arising +from any virtue or righteousness of our own. We come empty-handed. +If the servant who has done all that is commanded has yet to say, 'I +can ask nothing from Thee, because I have done it, for it was all in +the line of my duty,' what are we to say, who have done so little +that was commanded, and so much that was forbidden? + +So, you see, the way to increased faith is not by any magical +communication from Christ, as the Apostles thought, but by taking +into our hearts, and making operative in our lives, the great truth +that in us there is nothing that can make a claim upon God, and that +we must cast ourselves, as deserving nothing, wholly into His +merciful hands, and find ourselves held up by His great unmerited +love. Get the bitter poison root of self-trust out of you, and then +there is some chance of getting the wholesome emotion of absolute +reliance on Him into you. Jesus Christ, if I might use a homely +metaphor, in these words pricks the bladder of self-confidence which +we are apt to use to keep our heads above water. And it is only when +it is pricked, and we, like the Apostle, feel ourselves beginning to +sink, that we fling out a hand to Him, and clutch at His +outstretched hand, and cry, 'Lord, save me, I perish!' One way to +increase our faith is to be rooted and grounded in the assurance +that duty is perennial, and that our own righteousness establishes +no claim whatever upon God. + +III. Finally, we note the higher view into which, by faith, we come. + +I have been saying, with perhaps vain repetition, that the words of +our text and context do not exhaust the whole truth of man's +relation to God. They do exhaust the truth of the relation of God to +any man that has not faith in his heart, because such a man is a +slave in the worst sense, and any obedience that he renders to God's +will externally is the obedience of a reluctant will, and is hard +and harsh, and there is no end _to_ it, and no good _from_ +it. But if we accept the position, and recognise our own impotence, +and non-desert, and humbly say, 'Not by works of righteousness which +we have done, but by His mercy He saves us,' then we come into a +large place. The relation of master and slave does not cover all the +ground _then_. 'Henceforth, I call you not slaves, but friends,' And +when the wearied slave comes into the house, the new task is not +a new burden, for he is a son as well as a slave; but the work is +a delight, and it is a joy to have something more to do for his Father. +If our service is the service of sons, sweetened by love, then there +will be abundant thanks from the Father, who is not only our owner, +but our lover. + +For Christian service--that is to say, service based upon faith and +rendered in love--_does_ minister delight to our Father in +heaven, and He Himself has called it an 'odour of a sweet smell, +acceptable unto God.' And if our service on earth has been thus +elevated and transformed from the compulsory obedience of a slave +to the joyful service of a son, then our reception when at sundown +the plough is left in the furrow and we come into the house will be +all changed too. 'Which of you, having a servant, will say to him, +Go and sit down to meat, and will not rather say to him, Make ready +whilst I eat and drink?' That is the law for earth, but for heaven +it is this, 'Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He +cometh, shall find watching. Verily, I say unto you, that He shall +gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth +and serve them.' The husk is gone now, I think, and the kernel is +left. Loving service is beloved by God, and rewarded by the +ministering, as a servant of servants, to us by Him who is King of +kings and Lord of lords. + +'Lord, increase our faith,' that we may so serve Thee on earth, and +so be served by Thee in heaven. + + + + +WHERE ARE THE NINE? + + + 'And it came to pass, as He went to Jerusalem, that He + passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. + 12. And as He entered into a certain village, there met + Him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: + 13. And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, + Master, have mercy on us. 14. And when He saw them, He + said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. + And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were + cleansed. 15. And one of them, when he saw that he was + healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified + God. 16. And fell down on his face at His feet, giving + Him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. 17. And Jesus + answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where + are the nine? 18. There are not found that returned to + give glory to God, save this stranger. 19. And He said + unto him, Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee + whole.'--LUKE xvii. 11-19. + +The melancholy group of lepers, met with in one of the villages on +the borders of Samaria and Galilee, was made up of Samaritans and +Jews, in what proportion we do not know. The common misery drove +them together, in spite of racial hatred, as, in a flood, wolves +and sheep will huddle close on a bit of high ground. Perhaps they +had met in order to appeal to Jesus, thinking to move Him by their +aggregated wretchedness; or possibly they were permanently +segregated from others, and united in a hideous fellowship. + +I. We note the lepers' cry and the Lord's strange reply. Of course +they had to stand afar off, and the distance prescribed by law +obliged them to cry aloud, though it must have been an effort, for +one symptom of leprosy is a hoarse whisper. Sore need can +momentarily give strange physical power. Their cry indicates some +knowledge. They knew the Lord's name, and had dim notions of His +authority, for He is addressed as Jesus and as Master. They knew +that He had power to heal, and they hoped that He had 'mercy,' which +they might win for themselves by entreaty. There was the germ of +trust in the cry forced from them by desperate need. But their +conceptions of Him, and their consciousness of their own +necessities, did not rise above the purely physical region, and He +was nothing to them but a healer. + +Still, low and rude as their notions were, they did present a point +of contact for Christ's 'mercy,' which is ever ready to flow into +every heart that is lowly, as water will into all low levels. Jesus +seems to have gone near to the lepers, for it was 'when He saw,' not +when He heard, them that He spoke. It did not become Him to 'cry, +nor cause His voice to be heard in the street,' nor would He cure as +from afar, but He approaches those whom He heals, that they may see +His face, and learn by it His compassion and love. His command +recognised and honoured the law, but its main purpose, no doubt, was +to test, and thereby to strengthen, the leper's trust. To set out to +the priest while they felt themselves full of leprosy would seem +absurd, unless they believed that Jesus could and would heal them. +He gives no promise to heal, but asks for reliance on an implied +promise. He has not a syllable of sympathy; His tender compassion is +carefully covered up. He shuts down, as it were, the lantern-slide, +and not a ray gets through. But the light was behind the screen all +the while. We, too, have sometimes to act on the assumption that +Jesus has granted our desires, even while we are not conscious that +it is so. We, too, have sometimes to set out, as it were, for the +priests, while we still feel the leprosy. + +II. We note the healing granted to obedient faith. The whole ten set +off at once. They had got all they wanted from the Lord, and had no +more thought about Him. So they turned their backs on Him. How +strange it must have been to feel, as they went along, the gradual +creeping of soundness into their bones! How much more confidently +they must have stepped out, as the glow of returning health asserted +itself more and more! The cure is a transcendent, though veiled, +manifestation of Christ's power; for it is wrought at a distance, +without even a word, and with no vehicle. It is simply the silent +forth-putting of His power. 'He spake, and it was done' is much, for +only a word which is divine can affect matter. But 'He willed, and +it was done,' is even more. + +III. We note the solitary instance of thankfulness. The nine might +have said, 'We are doing what the Healer bade us do; to go back to +Him would be disobedience.' But a grateful heart knows that to +express its gratitude is the highest duty, and is necessary for its +own relief. How like us all it is to hurry away clutching our +blessings, and never cast back a thought to the giver! This leper's +voice had returned to Him, and his 'loud' acknowledgments were very +different from the strained croak of his petition for healing. He +knew that he had two to thank--God and Jesus; he did not know that +these two were one. His healing has brought him much nearer Jesus +than before, and now he can fall at His feet. Thankfulness knits us +to Jesus with a blessed bond. Nothing is so sweet to a loving heart +as to pour itself out in thanks to Him. + +'And he was a Samaritan.' That may be Luke's main reason for telling +the story, for it corresponds to the universalistic tendency of his +Gospel. But may we not learn the lesson that the common human +virtues are often found abundantly in nations and individuals +against whom we are apt to be deeply prejudiced? And may we not +learn another lesson--that heretics and heathen may often teach +orthodox believers lessons, not only of courtesy and gratitude, but +of higher things? A heathen is not seldom more sensitive to the +beauty of Christ, and more touched by the story of His sacrifice, +than we who have heard of Him all our days. + +IV. We note Christ's sad wonder at man's ingratitude and joyful +recognition of 'this stranger's' thankfulness. A tone of surprise as +well as of sadness can be detected in the pathetic double questions. +'Were not _the_ ten'--all of them, the ten who stood there but +a minute since--'cleansed? but where are the nine?' Gone off with +their gift, and with no spark of thankfulness in their selfish +hearts. 'Were there none found that returned to give glory to God, +save this stranger?' The numbers of the thankless far surpass those +of the thankful. The fewness of the latter surprises and saddens +Jesus still. Even a dog knows and will lick the hand that feeds it, +but 'Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider.' We increase +the sweetness of our gifts by thankfulness for them. We taste them +twice when we ruminate on them in gratitude. They live after their +death when we bless God and thank Jesus for them all. We impoverish +ourselves still more than we dishonour Him by the ingratitude which +is so crying a fault. One sorrow hides many joys. A single crumpled +rose-leaf made the fairy princess's bed uncomfortable. Some of us +can see no blue in our sky if one small cloud is there. Both in +regard to earthly and spiritual blessings we are all sinners by +unthankfulness, and we all lose much thereby. + +Jesus rejoiced over 'this stranger,' and gave him a greater gift at +last than he had received when the leprosy was cleared from his +flesh. Christ's raising of him up, and sending him on his way to +resume his interrupted journey to the priest, was but a prelude to +'Thy faith hath made thee whole,' or, as the Revised Version margin +reads, 'saved thee.' Surely we may take that word in its deepest +meaning, and believe that a more fatal leprosy melted out of this +man's spirit, and that the faith which had begun in a confidence +that Jesus could heal, and had been increased by obedience to the +command which tried it, and had become more awed and enlightened +by experience of bodily healing, and been deepened by finding a +tongue to express itself in thankfulness, rose at last to such +apprehension of Jesus, and such clinging to Him in grateful love, +as availed to save 'this stranger' with a salvation that healed +his spirit, and was perfected when the once leprous body was left +behind, to crumble into dust. + + + + +THREE KINDS OP PRAYING + + + 'And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that + men ought always to pray, and not to faint; 2. Saying, + There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, + neither regarded man: 3. And there was a widow in that + city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine + adversary. 4. And he would not for a while: but + afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not + God, nor regard man; 5. Yet because this widow + troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual + coming she weary me. 6. And the Lord said, Hear what + the unjust judge saith. 7. And shall not God avenge + His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, + though He bear long with them! 8. I tell you that He + will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son + of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth? + 9. And He spake this parable unto certain which + trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and + despised others: 10. Two men went up into the temple + to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. + 11. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, + God, I thank thee, that I am not as Other men are, + extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this + publican. 11. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes + of all that I possess. 13. And the publican, standing + afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto + heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be + merciful to me a sinner. 14. I tell you, this man went + down to his house justified rather than the other: for + every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and + he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.' + --LUKE xviii. 1-14. + +The two parables in this passage are each prefaced by Luke's +explanation of their purpose. They are also connected by being both +concerned with aspects of prayer. But the second was apparently not +spoken at the same time as the first, but is put here by Luke as in +an appropriate place. + +I. The wearisome widow and the unrighteous judge. The similarities +and dissimilarities between this parable and that in chapter xi. 5-8 +are equally instructive. Both take a very unlovely character as open +to the influence of persistent entreaty; both strongly underscore +the unworthiness and selfishness of the motive for yielding. Both +expect the hearers to use common-sense enough to take the sleepy +friend and the worried judge as contrasts to, not parables, of Him +to whom Christians pray. But the judge is a much worse man than the +owner of the loaves, and his denial of the justice which it was his +office to dispense is a crime; the widow's need is greater than the +man's, and the judge's cynical soliloquy, in its unabashed avowal of +caring for neither God nor man, and being guided only by regard to +comfort, touches a deep depth of selfishness. The worse he was, the +more emphatic is the exhortation to persistence. If the continual +dropping of the widow's plea could wear away such a stone as that, +its like could wear away anything. Yes, and suppose that the judge +were as righteous and as full of love and wish to help as this judge +was of their opposites; suppose that instead of the cry being a +weariness it was a delight; suppose, in short, that, to go back to +chapter xi., we 'call on Him as Father who, without respect of +persons, judgeth': then our 'continual coming' will surely not be +less effectual than hers was. + +But we must note the spiritual experience supposed by the parable to +belong to the Christian life. That forlorn figure of the widow, with +all its suggestions of helplessness and oppression, is Christ's +picture of His Church left on earth without Him. And though of +course it is a very incomplete representation, it is a true +presentation of one side and aspect of the devout life on earth. 'In +the world ye shall have tribulation,' and the truer His servants are +to Him, and the more their hearts are with Christ in God, the more +they will feel out of touch with the world, and the more it will +instinctively be their 'adversary.' If the widow does not feel the +world's enmity, it will generally be because she is not a 'widow +indeed.' + +And another notable fact of Christian experience underlies the +parable; namely that the Church's cry for protection from the +adversary is often apparently unheard. In chapter xi. the prayer was +for supply of necessities, here it is for the specific blessing of +protection from the adversary. Whether that is referred to the needs +of the Church or of the individual, it is true that usually the help +sought is long delayed. It is not only 'souls under the altar' that +have to cry 'How long, O Lord, dost Thou not avenge?' One thinks of +years of persecution for whole communities, or of long, weary days +of harassment and suffering for individuals, of multitudes of +prayers and groans sent up into a heaven that, for all the answers +sent down, might as well be empty, and one feels it hard to hold by +the faith that 'verily, there is a God that' heareth. + +We have all had times when our faith has staggered, and we have +found no answer to our heart's question: 'Why tarry the wheels of +His chariot?' Many of us have felt what Mary and Martha felt when +'Jesus abode still two days in the place where He was' after He had +received their message, in which they had been so sure of His coming +at once when He heard that 'he whom Thou lovest is sick,' that they +did not ask Him to come. The delays of God's help are a constant +feature in His providence, and, as Jesus says here, they are but too +likely to take the life out of faith. + +But over against these we have to place Jesus' triumphant assurance +here: 'He will avenge them speedily.' Yes, the longest delay may yet +be 'right early,' for heaven's clock does not beat at the same rate +as our little chronometers. God is 'the God of patience,' and He has +waited for millenniums for the establishment of His kingdom on +earth; His 'own elect' may learn long-suffering from Him, and need +to take to heart the old exhortation, 'If the vision tarry, wait for +it, for it will surely come, and will not tarry.' Yes, God's delays +are not delays, but are for our profit that we may always pray and +not faint, and may keep alight the flame of the sure hope that the +Son of man cometh, and that in His coming all adversaries shall be +destroyed, and the widow, no longer a widow, but the bride, go in to +the feast and forget her foes, and 'the days of her mourning be +ended.' + +II. The Pharisee and the publican. + +Luke's label on this parable tells us that it was spoken to a group +of the very people who were personated in it by the Pharisee. One +can fancy their faces as they listened, and how they would love the +speaker! Their two characteristics are self-righteousness and +depreciation of every one else, which is the natural result of such +trust in self. The self-adulation was absolute, the contempt was +all-embracing, for the Revised Version rightly renders 'set +_all_ others at nought.' That may sound exaggerated, but the +way to judge of moral characteristics is to take them in their +fullest development and to see what they lead to then. The two +pictures heighten each other. The one needs many strokes to bring +out the features, the other needs but one. Self-righteousness takes +many shapes, penitence has but one emotion to express, one cry to +utter. + +Every word in the Pharisee's prayer is reeking with self-complacency. +Even the expression 'prayed with himself' is significant, for it +suggests that the prayer was less addressed to God than to himself, +and also that his words could scarcely be spoken in the hearing of +others, both because of their arrogant self-praise and of their +insolent calumnies of 'all the rest.' It was not prayer to God, but +soliloquy in his own praise, and it was in equal parts adulation of +himself and slander of other men. So it never went higher than the +inner roof of the temple court, and was, in a very fatal sense, 'to +himself.' + +God is complimented with being named formally at first, and in the +first two words, 'I thank thee,' but that is only formal +introduction, and in all the rest of his prayer there is not a trace +of praying. Such a self-satisfied gentleman had no need to ask for +anything, so he brought no petitions. He uses the conventional +language of thanksgiving, but his real meaning is to praise himself +to God, not to thank God for himself. God is named once. All the +rest is I, I, I. He had no longing for communion, no aspiration, no +emotion. + +His conception of righteousness was mean and shallow. And as St. +Bernard notes, he was not so much thankful for being righteous as +for being alone in his goodness. No doubt he was warranted in +disclaiming gross sins, but he was glad to be free from them, not +because they were sins, but because they were vulgar. He had no +right to fling mud either on 'all the rest' or on 'this publican,' +and if he had been really praying or giving thanks he would have had +enough to think of in God and himself without casting sidelong and +depreciatory glances at his neighbours. He who truly prays 'sees no +man any more,' or if he does, sees men only as subjects for +intercession, not for contempt. The Pharisee's notion of +righteousness was primarily negative, as consisting in abstinence +from flagrant sins, and, in so far as it was positive, it dealt +entirely with ceremonial acts. Such a starved and surface conception +of righteousness is essential to self-righteousness, for no man who +sees the law of duty in its depth and inwardness can flatter himself +that he has kept it. To fast twice a week and to give tithes of all +that one acquired were acts of supererogation, and are proudly +recounted as if God should feel much indebted to the doer for paying +Him more than was required. The Pharisee makes no petitions. He +states his claims, and tacitly expects that God will meet them. + +Few words are needed to paint the publican; for his estimate of +himself is simple and one, and what he wants from God is one thing, +and one only. His attitude expresses his emotions, for he does not +venture to go near the shining example of all respectability and +righteousness, nor to lift his eyes to heaven. Like the penitent +psalmist, his iniquities have taken hold on him, so that he is 'not +able to look up.' Keen consciousness of sin, true sorrow for sin, +earnest desire to shake off the burden of sin, lowly trust in God's +pardoning mercy, are all crowded into his brief petition. The arrow +thus feathered goes straight up to the throne; the Pharisee's prayer +cannot rise above his own lips. + +Jesus does not leave His hearers to apply the 'parable,' but drives +its application home to them, since He knew how keen a thrust was +needed to pierce the triple breastplate of self-righteousness. The +publican was 'justified'; that is, accounted as righteous. In the +judgment of heaven, which is the judgment of truth, sin forsaken is +sin passed away. The Pharisee condensed his contempt into +'_this_ publican'; Jesus takes up the 'this' and turns it into +a distinction, when He says, '_this man_ went down to his house +justified.' God's condemnation of the Pharisee and acceptance of the +publican are no anomalous aberration of divine justice, for it is a +universal law, which has abundant exemplifications, that he that +exalteth himself is likely to be humbled, and he that humbles +himself to be exalted. Daily life does not always yield examples +thereof, but in the inner life and as concerns our relations to God, +that law is absolutely and always true. + + + + +ENTERING THE KINGDOM + + + 'And they brought unto Him also infants, that He would + touch them: but when His disciples saw it, they rebuked + them. 16. But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, + Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid + them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. + 17. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive + the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise + enter therein. 18. And a certain ruler asked Him, + saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit + eternal life? 19. And Jesus said unto him, Why callest + thou Me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. + 20. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit + adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false + witness, Honour thy father and thy mother. 21. And he + said, All these have I kept from my youth up. 22. Now + when Jesus heard these things, He said unto him, Yet + lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and + distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure + in heaven: and come, follow Me. 23. And when he heard + this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. + 24. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful He + said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter + into the kingdom of God? 25. For it is easier for a + camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich + man to enter into the kingdom of God. 26. And they + that heard it said, Who then can be saved? 27. And He + said, The things which are impossible with men are + possible with God. 28. Then Peter said, Lo, we have + left all, and followed Thee. 29. And He said unto + them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath + left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or + children, for the kingdom of God's sake, 30. Who shall + not receive manifold more in this present time, and in + world to come life everlasting.'--LUKE xviii. 15-30. + +In this section Luke rejoins the other two Evangelists, from whom +his narrative has diverged since Luke ix. 51. All three bring +together these two incidents of the children in Christ's arms and +the young ruler. Probably they were connected in time as well as in +subject. Both set forth the conditions of entering the kingdom, +which the one declares to be lowliness and trust, and the other to +be self-renunciation. + +I. We have the child-likeness of the subjects of the kingdom. No +doubt there was a dash of superstition in the impulse that moved the +parents to bring their children to Jesus, but it was an eminently +natural desire to win a good man's blessing, and one to which every +parent's heart will respond. It was not the superstition, but the +intrusive familiarity, that provoked the disciples' rebuke. A great +man's hangers-on are always more careful of his dignity than he is, +for it increases their own importance. + +The tender age of the children is to be noted. They were 'babes,' +and had to be brought, being too young to walk, and so having +scarcely yet arrived at conscious, voluntary life. It is 'of such' +that the subjects of the kingdom are composed. What, then, are the +qualities which, by this comparison, Jesus requires? Certainly not +innocence, which would be to contradict all his teaching and to shut +out the prodigals and publicans, and clean contrary to the whole +spirit of Luke's Gospel. Besides, these scarcely conscious infants +were not 'innocent,' for they had not come to the age of which +either innocence or guilt can be predicated. What, then, had they +which the children of the kingdom must have? + +Perhaps the sweet and meek little 131st Psalm puts us best on the +track of the answer. It may have been in our Lord's mind; it +certainly corresponds to His thought. 'My heart is not haughty, nor +mine eyes lofty.... I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a +weaned child with his mother.' The infant's lowliness is not yet +humility; for it is instinct rather than virtue. It makes no claims, +thinks no lofty thoughts of self; in fact, has scarcely begun to +know that there is a self at all. On the other hand, clinging trust +is the infant's life. It, too, is rudimentary and instinctive, but +the impulse which makes the babe nestle in its mother's bosom may +well stand for a picture of the conscious trust which the children +of the kingdom must have. The child's instinct is the man's virtue. +We have + + 'To travel back + And tread again that ancient track,' + +regaining as the conscious temper of our spirits those excellences +of humility and trust of which the first faint types may be seen in +the infant in arms. The entrance gate is very low, and, if we hold +our heads high, we shall not get through it. It must be on our hands +and knees that we go in. There is no place in the kingdom for those +who trust in themselves. We must rely wholly on God manifest in His +Son. + +So intent is Luke in pointing the lesson that he passes by in +silence the infinitely beautiful and touching incident which the +world perhaps knows better than any other in our Lord's life--that +of His taking the infants in His arms and blessing them. In many +ways that incident would have been peculiarly suitable for this +Gospel, which delights to bring out the manhood and universal +beneficence of Jesus. But if Luke knew of it, he did not care to +bring in anything which would weaken the lesson of the conditions of +entering the kingdom. + +II. We have self-renunciation as the condition of entering the +kingdom. The conversation with the ruler (vs. 18-23) sets forth its +necessity; the sad exclamation to the bystanders (vs. 24-27) teaches +its difficulty; and the dialogue with Peter as representing the +twelve (vs. 28-30), its reward. + +(1) The necessity of self-renunciation. The ruler's question has +much blended good and evil. It expresses a true earnestness, a +dissatisfaction with self, a consciousness of unattained bliss and a +longing for it, a felt readiness to take any pains to secure it, a +confidence in Christ's guidance--in short, much of the child spirit. +But it has also a too light estimate of what good is, a mistaken +notion that 'eternal life' can be won by external deeds, which +implies fatal error as to its nature and his own power to do these. +This superficial estimate of goodness, and this over confidence in +his ability to do good acts, are the twin mistakes against which +Christ's treatment of him is directed. + +Adopting Luke's version of our Lord's answer, the counter-question, +which begins it, lays hold of the polite address, which had slipped +from the ruler's lips as mere form, and bids him widen out his +conceptions of 'good.' Jesus does not deny that He has a right to +the title, but questions this man's right to give it Him. The ruler +thought of Jesus only as a man, and, so thinking, was too ready with +his adjective. Conventional phrases of compliment may indicate much +of the low notions from which they spring. He who is so liberal with +his ascriptions of goodness needs to have his notions of what it is +elevated. Jesus lays down the great truth which this man, in his +confidence that he by his own power could do any good needed for +eternal life, was perilously forgetting. God is the only good, and +therefore all human goodness must come from Him; and if the ruler is +to do 'good,' he must first be good, by receiving goodness from God. + +But the saying has an important bearing on Christ's character. The +world calls Him good. Why? There is none good but God. So we are +face to face with this dilemma--Either Jesus Christ is God manifest +in the flesh, or He is not good. + +Having thus tried to deepen his conceptions, and awaken his +consciousness of imperfection, our Lord meets the man on his own +ground by referring him to the Law, which abundantly answered his +inquiry. The second half of the commandments are alone quoted +by Him; for they have especially to do with conduct, and the +infractions of them are more easily recognised than those of the +first. The ruler expected that some exceptional and brilliant deeds +would be pointed out and he is relegated to the old homely duties, +which it is gross crime not to do. + +A shade of disappointment and impatience is in his protestation that +he had done all these ever since he was a lad. No doubt he had, and +his coming to Jesus confessed that though he had, the doing had not +brought him 'eternal life.' Are there not many youthful hearts which +would have to say the same, if they would be frank with themselves? +They have some longings after a bliss and calm which they feel is +not theirs. They have kept within the lines of that second half of +the Decalogue, but that amount and sort of 'good thing' has not +brought peace. Jesus looks on all such as He did on this young man, +'loves' them, and speaks further to them as He did to him. What +was lacking? The soul of goodness, without which these other things +were 'dead works.' And what is that soul? Absolute self-renunciation +and following Christ. For this man the former took the shape of +parting with his wealth, but that external renunciation in itself +was as 'dead' and impotent to bring eternal life as all his other +good acts had been. It was precious as a means to an end--the +entrance into the number of Christ's disciples; and as an expression +of that inward self-surrender which is essential for discipleship. + +The real stress of the condition is in its second half, 'Follow me.' +He who enters the company of Christ's followers enters the kingdom, +and has eternal life. If he does not do that, he may give his goods +to feed the poor, and it profiteth him nothing. Eternal life is not +the external wages for external acts, but the outcome and consequence +of yielding self to Jesus, through whom goodness, which keeps the +law, flows into the soul. + +The requirement pierced to the quick. The man loved the world more +than eternal life, after all. But though he went away, he went +sorrowful; and that was perhaps the presage that he would come back. + +(2) Jesus follows him with sad yearning, and, we may be sure, still +sought to draw him back. His exclamation is full of the charity +which makes allowance for temptation. It speaks a universal truth, +never more needed than in our days, when wealth has flung its golden +chains round so many professing Christians. How few of us believe +that it gets harder for us to be disciples as we grow richer! There +are multitudes in our churches who would be far nearer Christ than +they are ever likely to be, if they would literally obey the +injunction to get rid of their wealth. + +We are too apt to take such commands as applicable only to the +individuals who received them, whereas, though, no doubt, the +spirit, and not the letter, is the universal element in them, there +are far more of us than we are willing to confess, who need to obey +the letter in order to keep the spirit. What a depth of vulgar +adoration of the power of money is in the disciples' exclamation, +'If rich men cannot get into the kingdom, who can get in!' Or +perhaps it rather means, If self-renunciation is the condition, who +can fulfil it? The answer points us all to the only power by which +we can do good, and overcome self; namely by God's help. God is +'good,' and we can be good too, if we look to Him. God will fill our +souls with such sweetness that earth will not be hard to part with. + +(3) The last paragraph of this passage teaches the reward of +self-renunciation. Peter shoves his oar in, after his fashion. It +would have been better if he had not boasted of their surrender, +but yet it was true that they had given up all. Only a fishing-boat +and a parcel of old nets, indeed, but these were all they had to +give; and God's store, which holds His children's surrendered +valuables, has many things of small value in it--cups of cold water +and widows' mites lying side by side with crowns and jewels. + +So Jesus does not rebuke the almost innocent self-congratulation, +but recognises in it an appeal to his faithfulness. It was really a +prayer, though it sounded like a vaunt, and it is answered by +renewed assurances. To part with outward things for Christ's sake or +for the kingdom's sake--which is the same thing--is to win them +again with all their sweetness a hundred-fold sweeter. Gifts given +to Him come back to the giver mended by His touch and hallowed by +lying on His altar. The present world yields its full riches only to +the man who surrenders all to Jesus. And the 'eternal life,' which +the ruler thought was to be found by outward deeds, flows +necessarily into the heart which is emptied of self, that it may be +filled with Him who is the life, and will be perfected yonder. + + + + +THE MAN THAT STOPPED JESUS + + + 'And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be brought + unto Him: and when he was come near, He asked him, + 41. Saying, What wilt thou that I shall do unto + thee?'--LUKE xviii. 40-41. + +This story of the man that stopped Christ is told by the three +'Synoptic' Evangelists, and it derives a special value from having +occurred within a week of the Crucifixion. You remember how +graphically Mark tells how the blind man hears who is passing and +immediately begins to cry with a loud voice to Christ to have mercy +upon him; how the officious disciples--a great deal more concerned +for the Master's dignity than He was Himself--tried to silence him; +and how, with a sturdy persistence and independence of externals +which often goes along with blindness, 'he cried the more a great +deal' because they did try, and then how he won the distinction of +being the man that stopped Christ. When Jesus stood still, and +commanded him to be called, the crowd wheeled right round at once, and +instead of hindering, encumbered him with help, and bade him to 'rise, +and be of good cheer.' Then he flings away some poor rag that he had +had to cover himself sitting there, and wearing his under-garment +only, comes to Christ, and Jesus asks, 'What do you want?' A promise +in the shape of a question. Bartimaeus knows what he wants, and +answers without hesitation, and so he gets his request. + +Now, I think in all this incident, and especially in its centre +part, which I have read, there are great lessons for us. And the +first of them is, I see here a wonderful revelation of Christ's +quick sympathy at a moment when He was most absorbed. + +I said that all this occurred within a week of our Lord's +Crucifixion. If you will recall the way in which that last journey +to Jerusalem is described in the Evangelists, you will see that +there was something very extraordinary about the determination and +tension of spirit which impelled Jesus along the road, all the +way from Galilee. Mark says that the disciples followed and were +amazed. There was something quite unlike what they had been +accustomed to, in His face and bearing, and it was so strange to +them that they were puzzled and frightened. We read, too, that their +amazement and fright prevented them from going very near Him on the +road; 'as they _followed_ they were afraid.' Then the story +goes on to tell how James and John, with their arrogant wish, did +draw closer to Him, the rest of them lagging behind, conscious of a +certain unaccustomed distance between Him and them, which only the +ambitious two dared to diminish. Further, one of the Evangelists +speaks of His face being 'set' to go to Jerusalem, the gentle +lineaments fixed in a new expression of resolution and absorption. +The Cross was flinging its shadow over Him. He was bracing Himself +up for the last struggle. If ever there was a moment of His life +when we might have supposed that He would be oblivious of externals, +and especially of the individual sorrows of one poor blind beggar +sitting by the roadside, it was that moment. But however plunged in +great thoughts about the agonising suffering that He was going to +front, and the grand work that He was going to do, and the great +victory that He was going to win so soon, He had + + 'A heart at leisure from itself + To soothe and sympathise.' + +Even at that supreme hour He stood still and commanded him to be +called. I wonder if it is saying too much to say that in the +exercise of that power of healing and helping Bartimaeus, Jesus +found some relief from the pressure of impending sorrow. + +Brethren, is not that a lesson for us all? It is not spiritualising, +allegorising, cramming meanings into an incident that are not in it, +when we say--Think of Jesus Christ as one of ourselves, knowing that +He was going to His death within a week, and then think of Him +turning to this poor man. Is not that a pattern for us? We are often +more selfish in our sorrows than in our joys. Many of us are inclined, +when we are weighed down by personal sorrows, to say, 'As long as I +have this heavy weight lying on my heart, how can you expect me to +take an interest in the affairs of others, or to do Christian work, +or to rise to the calls of benevolence and the cries of need?' We do +not expect _you_ to do it; but Jesus Christ did it, 'leaving us +an example that we should follow in His steps.' Next to the blessed +influences of God's own Spirit, and the peace-bringing act of submission, +there is no such comfort for sorrow, as to fling ourselves into others' +griefs, and to bear others' burdens. Our Lord, with His face set like +a flint, on the road to the Cross, but yet sufficiently free of heart +to turn to Bartimaeus, reads a lesson that rebukes us all, and should +teach us all. + +Further, do we not see here a beautiful concrete instance, on the +lower plane, of the power of earnest desire. + +No enemy could have stopped Christ on that road; no opposition could +have stopped Him, no beseeching on the part of loving and ignorant +friends, repeating the temptation in the wilderness--or the foolish +words of Peter, 'This shall not be unto Thee,' could have stopped +Him. He would have trodden down all such flimsy obstacles, as a lion +'from the thickets of Jordan' crashes through the bulrushes, but +this cry stopped Him, 'Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me, +and the Cross and all else that He was hastening to, great as it was +for the world, had to wait its turn, for something else had to be +done first. There was noise enough on the road, the tramp of many +feet, the clatter of many eager tongues, but the voice of one poor +man sitting in the dust there by the roadside, found its way through +all the noise to Christ's ears. 'Which things are an allegory.' +There is an ocean of praise always, as I might so say breaking upon +Christ's Throne, but the little stream of my petitions flows +distinguishable through all that sea. As one of our poets says, we +may even think of Him as 'missing my little human praise' when the +voice of one poor boy was not heard. Surely amidst all the +encouragements that we have to believe that our cry is not sent up +into an empty heaven, nor into deaf ears, and that all the multitude +of creatures that wait before that Throne do not prevent the +individualising knowledge and the individualising love of Jesus +Christ from coming straight to every one of us, this little incident +is not the least instructive and precious. He that heard Bartimaeus +will hear us. + +In like manner, may I not say that here we have an illustration of +how Christ, who has so much besides to do, would suspend other work, +if it were needful, in order to do what we need? As I have said, the +rest had to wait. Bartimaeus stopped Christ. And our hand, if it be +the hand of faith, put out to the hem of the garment as Jesus of +Nazareth passeth by, will so far stop Him as that He will do what we +wish, if what we wish is in accordance with our highest good. There +was another man in Jericho who stopped Christ, on that same journey; +for not only the petition of Bartimaeus, but the curiosity--which +was more than curiosity--of Zacchaeus, stopped Him, and He who stood +still, though He had His face set like a flint to go to Jerusalem, +because Bartimaeus cried, stood still and looked up into the +sycamore tree where the publican was--the best fruit that ever it +bore--and said, 'Zacchaeus; come down, I must abide at thy house.' +Why _must_ He abide? Because He discerned there a soul that He +could help and save, and that arrested Him on His road to the Cross. + +So, dear friends, amidst all the work of administering the universe +which He does, and of guiding and governing and inspiring His +Church, which He does, if you ask for the supply of your need He +would put that work aside for a moment, if necessary, to attend to +you. That is no exaggeration; it is only a strong way of putting the +plain truth that Christ's love individualises each of its objects; +and lavishes itself upon each one of us; as if there were no other +beings in the universe but only our two selves. + +And then, remember too, that what Bartimaeus got was not taken from +anyone else. Nobody suffered because Jesus paused to help him. They +sat down in ranks, five thousand of them, and as they began to eat, +those that were first served would be looked upon with envious eye +by the last 'ranks,' who would be wondering if the bits of bread and +the two small fishes were enough to go round. But the first group +was fed full and the last group had as much, and they took up 'of +the fragments that remained, twelve baskets full.' + + 'Enough for all, enough for each, + Enough for evermore.' + +There is one more thought rising out of this story. It teaches a +wonderful lesson as to the power which Christ puts into the hand of +believing prayer. + +'What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?' He had asked the same +question a little while before, under very different circumstances. +When James and John came and tried to beguile Him into a blind +promise, because they knew that It was not likely that they would +get what they asked if they said it out at first. He avoided the +snare with that same question, To them the question was a refusal; +they had said: 'Master, we will that Thou wouldst do whatever we +should desire'; and He said: 'What is it that ye desire? Let Me know +that first.' But when blind Bartimaeus cried, Jesus smiled down upon +him--though his sightless eyeballs could not see the smile, there +would be a smile in the cadence of His words--and He said: 'What +wouldst thou that I should do for thee?' To this suppliant that +question was a promise--'I will do what you want.' He puts the key +of the royal treasure-house into the hand of faith, and says, 'Go in +and help yourself. Take what you will.' + +Only, of course, we must remember that there are limitations in the +very nature of the case, imposed not arbitrarily, but because the +very nature of the truest gifts creates them, and these limitations +to some of us sound as if they took all the blessedness out of the +act of prayer. 'We know,' says one of the Apostles, 'that if we ask +anything according to His will He heareth us.' Some of us think that +that is a very poor kind of charter, but it sets the necessary limit +to the omnipotence of faith. 'What wouldst thou that I should do for +thee?' Unless our answer always, and at bottom, is, 'Not my will, +but Thine,' we have not yet learnt the highest blessing, nor the +truest meaning, of prayer. For to pray does not mean to insist, to +press our wishes on God, but it means, first, to desire that our +wills may be brought into harmony with His. The old Rabbis hit upon +great truths now and then, and one of them said, 'Make God's will +thy will, that He may make thy will His will.' If any poor, blind +Bartimaeus remembers that, and asks accordingly, he has the key to +the royal treasury in his possession, and he may go in and plunge +his hand up to the wrist in jewels and diamonds, and carry away bars +of gold, and it will all be his. + +When this man, who had no sight in his eyeballs, knew that whatever +he wanted he should have, he did not need to pause long to consider +what it was that he wanted most. If you and I had that Aladdin's +lamp given to us, and had only to rub it for a mighty spirit to come +that would fulfil our wishes, I wonder if we should be as sure of +what we wanted. If we were as conscious of our need as the blind man +was of his, we should pause as little in our response to the +question: 'What wouldst thou that I should do for thee?' 'Lord! Dost +Thou not see that mine eyes are dark? What else but sight can I +want?' Jesus still comes to us with the same question. God grant +that we may all say; 'Lord, how canst Thou ask us? Dost Thou not see +that my soul is stained, my love wandering, my eyeballs dim? Give me +Thyself!' If we thus ask, then the answer will come as quickly to us +as it did to this blind man: 'Go thy way! Thy faith hath saved +thee,' and that 'Go thy way' will not be dismissal from the Presence +of our Benefactor, but our 'way' will be the same as Bartimaeus' +was, when he received his sight, and 'followed Jesus in the way.' + + + + +MELTED BY KINDNESS + + + 'And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up, and saw + him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come + down; for to-day I must abide at thy house.' + --LUKE xix. 5. + +It is characteristic of Luke that only he tells the story +of Zacchaeus. He always dwells with special interest on incidents +bringing out the character of Christ as the Friend of outcasts. His +is eminently the Gospel of forgiveness. For example, we owe to Him +the three supreme parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the +prodigal son, as well as those of the Pharisee and the publican +praying in the Temple; and of the good Samaritan. It is he that +tells us that all the publicans and sinners came near to Jesus to +hear Him; and he loses no opportunity of enforcing the lesson with +which this incident closes, 'The Son of Man is come to seek and to +save that which was lost.' It is because of the light that it throws +upon that great thought that he tells this fascinating story of +Zacchaeus. I need not repeat it. We all remember it, and the +quaintness and grotesqueness of part of it fix it in people's +memories. We know how the rich tax gatherer, pocketing his dignity, +and unable to see over the heads of the crowd, scrambled up into the +branches of the sycamore tree that overhung the road; and there was +found by the eye of love, and surprised by the words of kindness, +which melted him down, and made a new man of him on the spot. The +story seems to me to be full of teaching, to which I desire to turn +your attention at this time. + +I. First, note the outcast, drawn by imperfect motives to Jesus +Christ. + +It has been supposed that this man was a Gentile, but his Jewish +name establishes his origin. And, if so, the fact that he was a +publican and a Jew says a good deal about his character. There are +some trades which condemn, to a certain extent, the men who engage +in them. You would not expect to find a man of sensitive honour +acting as a professional spy; or one of earnest religious character +keeping a public-house. You would not expect to find a very good Jew +condescending to be the tool of the Roman Government. Zacchaeus was +at the head of the revenue office in Jericho, a position of +considerable importance, inasmuch as there was a large volume of +trade through that city from its situation near the fords of the +Jordan, and from the fertility of the plain in which it stood. He +had made some money, and probably made it by very questionable +means. He was the object, not undeservedly, of the execration and +suspicion of his countrymen. Italians did not love Italians who took +service under Austria. Irishmen did not love Irishmen who in the bad +old days used to collect church cess. And so Jews had no very kind +feeling towards Jews who became Caesar's servants. That a man should +be in such a position indicated that he cared more for money than +for patriotism, religion, or popular approval. His motto was the +motto of that Roman Emperor who said, 'Money has no smell,' out of +whatever cesspool it may have been fished up. But the consciousness +of being encompassed by universal hatred would induce the object of +it to put on an extra turn of the screw, and avenge upon individuals +the general hostility. So we may take it for granted that Zacchaeus, +the head of the Jericho custom-house, and rich to boot, was by no +means a desirable character. + +What made him want to see Jesus Christ? He said to himself, curiosity; +but probably he was doing himself injustice, and there was something +else working below than merely the wish to see what sort of man was +this Rabbi Joshua from Galilee that everybody was talking about. Had +he heard that Jesus had a soft place in His heart for his class? Or +was he, perhaps, beginning to get tired of being the butt of universal +hatred, and finding that money scarcely compensated for that? Or was +there some reaching out towards some undefined good, and a +dissatisfaction with a very defined present, though unnamed, evil? +Probably so. Like some of us, he put the trivial motive uppermost +because he was half ashamed of the half-conscious better one. + +I wonder if there are any here now who said to themselves that they +would come out of curiosity to hear the preacher, or from some such +ordinary motive, and who all the while have, lying deep below that, +another reason altogether, a dim feeling that it is not all right +between them and God, and that here may be the place to have it put +right? At all events, from whatsoever imperfect motives little +Zacchaeus was perched up in the sycamore there, he went to +see Christ, and he got more than he went for. Unconsciously we may +be drawn, and imperfect motives may lead us to a perfect Saviour. + +He sets us an example in another way. Do not be too punctilious +about dignity in pursuing aims that you know to be good. It would be +a sight to bring jeers and grins on the faces of the crowd to see +the rich man of the custom-house sitting up amongst the leaves. But +he did not mind about that if he got a good look at the Rabbi when +He passed. People care nothing for ridicule if their hearts are set +upon a thing. I wish there were more of us who did not mind being +laughed at if only what we did helped us to see Jesus Christ. Do not +be afraid of ridicule. It is not a test of truth; in nine cases out +of ten it is the grimace of fools. + +II. Then, further, notice the self-invited Guest. + +When the little procession stopped under the sycamore tree, +Zacchaeus would begin to feel uncomfortable. He may have had +experience in past times of the way in which the great doctors of +orthodoxy were in the habit of treating a publican, and may have +begun to be afraid that this new one was going to be like all the +rest, and elicit some kind of mob demonstration against him. The +crowd would be waiting with intense curiosity to see what would pass +between the Rabbi and the revenue collector. They would all be very +much astonished. 'Zacchaeus! make haste and come down. To-day I must +abide at thy house.' Perhaps it was the first time since he had been +a child at his mother's knee that he had heard his name pronounced +in tones of kindness. There was not a ragged beggar in Jericho who +would not have thought himself degraded by putting his foot across +the threshold that Jesus now says He will cross. + +It is the only time in which we read that Jesus volunteered to go +into any house. He never offers to go where He is not wanted, any +more than He ever stays away where He is. And so the very fact of +His saying 'I will abide at thy house,' is to me an indication +that, deep down below Zacchaeus' superficial and vulgar curiosity, +there was something far more noble which our Lord fosters into life +and consciousness by this offer. + +Many large truths are suggested by it on which we may touch. We have +in Christ's words an illustration of His individualising knowledge. +'Zacchaeus, come down.' There is no sign that anybody had told Christ +the name, or that He knew anything about Zacchaeus before by human +knowledge. But the same eye that saw Nathanael under the fig-tree +saw Zacchaeus in the sycamore; and, seeing in secret, knew without +being told the names of both. Christ does not name men in vain. He +generally, when He uses an individual's name in addressing him, means +either to assert His knowledge of his character, or His authority +over him, or in some way or other to bespeak personal adhesion and +to promise personal affection. So He named some of His disciples, +weaving a bond that united each single soul to Himself by the act. +This individualising knowledge and drawing love and authority are all +expressed, as I think, in that one word 'Zacchaeus.' And these are as +true about us as about him. The promises of the New Testament, the +words of Jesus Christ, the great, broad, universal 'whosoevers' of +His assurance and of His commandments are as directly meant for each +of us as if they were in an envelope with our names upon them and put +into our hands. We, too, are spoken to by Him by our names, and for +us, too, there may be a personal bond of answering love that knits us +individually to the Master, as there certainly is a bond of personal +regard, compassion, affection, and purpose of salvation in His heart +in regard of each single soul of all the masses of humanity. I should +have done something if I should have been able to gather into a point, +that blessedly pierced some heart to let the life in, the broad truths +of the Gospel. 'Whosoever will, let him come.' Say to yourself, 'That +is me.' 'Whosoever cometh I will in no wise cast out.' Say to yourself, +'That is me.' And in like manner with all the general declarations, +and especially with that chiefest of them all, 'God so loved the world +that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him +should not perish.' Read it as you may--and you will never read it +right until you do--'God so loved _me_'--John, Mary, or whatever +be your name--'Jesus so loved _me_ that if _I_ believe upon +Him _I_ shall not perish, but have everlasting life.' + +Then, note, further, how here we get the revelation, in a concrete +form, of Christ's perfect willingness and desire to make common +cause, and dwell with the most degraded and outcast. I have said +that this is the only instance in which He volunteered to be a +guest. Pharisees asked Him, and He did not refuse. The publican's +dwelling, which was tabooed, He opened the door of by His own hand. +And that is what He always does. + +This little incident may be taken to be, not merely a symbol of His +whole dealings, but an illustration, in small, of the same principle +which has its largest embodiment and illustration in the fact of His +Incarnation and Manhood. Why did Jesus Christ take flesh and dwell +among us? Because He desired to seek and to save that which is lost. +Why did He go into the publican's house, and brave the sneers of the +crowd, and associate Himself with the polluted? For the same reason. +Microscopic crystals and gigantic ones are due to the same forces +working in the same fashion. This incident is more than a symbol; it +is a little instance of the operation of the law which finds its +supreme and transcendent instance in the fact that the Eternal Son +of God bowed the heavens and came down 'and dwelt among us, and we +beheld His glory.' + +His example is our pattern. A Christian church which does not +imitate its Master in its frank and continual willingness to +associate itself with the degraded and the outcast has lost one of +the truest signs of its being vitalised with the life of Christ. +There is much in this day in the condition of Christian communities +to make men dissatisfied and fearful. But there is one thing which, +though in all its developments one cannot sympathise with it, is in +its essence wholly good, and that is the new and quickened +consciousness that a church which does not address itself to the +outcasts has no business to live; and that Christian people who are +too proud of their righteousness to go amongst the unclean and the +degraded are a great deal more of Pharisees than Christians, and +have need to learn which be the first principles of the religion +which they profess. Self-righteousness gathers up its skirts in holy +horror; perfect righteousness goes cheerily and without fear amongst +the outcasts, for where should the physician go but to the sick, and +where should Christ be found but in the house of the publican? + +Further, the saying of our Lord suggests His recognition of the +great law that ruled His life. Chronology here is of much +importance. We do not generally remember that the scene with +Zacchaeus was within about a week of the Crucifixion. Our Lord was +on that last journey to Jerusalem to die, during the whole of which +there was over His demeanour a tension of holy impatience, +altogether unlike His usual manner, which astonished and amazed the +disciples as they followed Him. He set His face like a flint to go +to Jerusalem; and strode before them on the way as if He were eager +to reach the culmination of His sufferings and of His work. Thus +borne on the wings of the strong desire to be perfected on the +Cross, He is arrested on His path. Nothing else was able to stop +Him, but 'To-day I _must_ abide in thy house.' There was a soul +to be saved; and the world's sacrifice had to wait till the single +soul was secured. Christ hurrying, if I may use the word, at all +events steadfastly and without wavering, pressing towards the Cross, +let His course be stopped by this need. The highest 'must' was +obedience to the Father's will, and parallel with that need there +was the other, of rescuing the Father's prodigal sons. So this elder +Brother owned the obligation, and paused on the road to Calvary, to +lodge in the house of Zacchaeus. Let us learn the sweet lesson, +and take the large consolations that lie in such a thought. + +Again, the utterance of this self-invited Guest suggests His +over-abundant fulfilment of timid, half-conscious desires. I said at +the beginning of my remarks that only curiosity was on the surface; +but that the very fact that our Lord addressed Himself to the man +seemed to imply that He descried in him something more than mere vulgar +curiosity. And the glad leap with which Zacchaeus came down from his +tree might have revealed to Zacchaeus himself, as no doubt it did to +some of the bystanders, what it was that he had been dimly wishing. +So with us all there are needs, longings, half-emerging wishes, that +have scarcely come into the field of consciousness, but yet have +power enough to modify our actions. Jesus Christ understands all +about us, and reads us better than we do ourselves; and is ready to +meet, and by meeting to bring into full relief, these vague feelings +after an undefined good. Brethren, He is to us, if we will let Him +be, all that we want; and He is to us all that we need, although we +only half know that we need it, and never say to ourselves that we +wish it. + +There is a last thought deducible from these words of our Lord's; +and that is, His leaving a man to decide whether he will have Him or +no. 'Make haste and come down, for to-day I _must_ abide at thy +house. Yes! but if Zacchaeus had stuck in his tree, Christ's 'must' +would not have been fulfilled. He would have gone on to Jerusalem if +the publican had not scrambled down in haste. He forces Himself on +no man; He withholds Himself from no man. He respects that awful +prerogative of being the architects of our own evil and our own +good, by our own free and unconstrained choice. + +Did you ever think that it was now or never with this publican; that +Jesus Christ was never to go through the streets of Jericho any +more; that it was Zacchaeus' last chance; and that, if he had not +made haste, he would have lost Christ for ever? And so it is yet. +There may be some in this place at this moment to whom Jesus Christ +is now making His last appeal. I know not; no man knows. A Rabbi +said, when they asked him when a man should repent, 'Repent on the +last day of your lives.' And they said, 'But we do not know when +that will be.' And he said, 'Then repent _now_.' So I say, +because some of you may never hear Christ's Gospel again, and +because none of us know whether we shall or not; make sure work of +it _now_, and do not let Jesus Christ go out of the city and +up the road between the hills yonder; for if once the folds of the +ravine shut Him from sight He will never be back in Jericho, or seen +by Zacchaeus any more for ever. + +III. And so, lastly, notice the outcast melted by kindness. + +We do not know at what stage in our Lord's intercourse with the +publican he 'stood and said, Half of my goods I give to the poor,' +and so on. But whensoever it was, it was the sign of the entire +revolution that had been wrought upon him by the touch of that +loving hand, and by the new fountain of sympathy and love +that he had found in Jesus Christ. + +Some people have supposed, indeed, that his words do not mark a vow +for the future, but express his practice in the past. But it seems +to me to be altogether incongruous that Zacchaeus should advertise +his past good in order to make himself out to be not quite so bad as +people thought him, and, therefore, not so unworthy of being +Christ's host. Christ's love kindles sense of our sin, not +complacent recounting of our goodness. So Zacchaeus said, 'Lord! +Thou hast loved me, and I wonder. I yield, and fling away my black +past; and, so far as I can, make restitution for it.' + +The one transforming agency is the love of Christ received into the +heart. I do not suppose that Zacchaeus knew as much about Jesus +Christ even after the conversation as we do; nor did he see His love +in that supreme death on the Cross as we do. But the love of the +Lord made a deep dint in his heart, and revolutionised his whole +nature. The thing that will alter the whole current and set of a +man's affections, that will upset his estimate of the relative value +of material and spiritual, and that will turn him inside out and +upside down, and make a new man of him, is the revelation of the +supreme love that in Jesus Christ has come into the world, with an +individualising regard to each of us, and has died on the Cross for +the salvation of us all. Nothing else will do it. People had frowned +on Zacchaeus, and it made him bitter. They had execrated and +persecuted him; and his only response was setting his teeth more +firmly and turning the screw a little tighter when he had the +chance. You can drive a man into devilry by contempt. If you want to +melt him into goodness, try love. The Ethiopian cannot change his +skin, but Jesus Christ can change his heart, and that will change +his skin by degrees. The one transforming power is faith in the love +of Jesus Christ. + +Further, the one test of a true reception of Him is the abandonment +of past evil and restitution for it as far as possible. People say +that our Gospel is unreal and sentimental, and a number of other +ugly adjectives. Well! If it ever is so, it is the fault of the +speakers, and not of the Gospel. For its demands from every man that +accepts it are intensely practical, and nothing short of a complete +turning of his back upon his old self, shown in the conclusive +forsaking of former evil, however profitable or pleasant, and +reparation for harm done to men, satisfies them. + +It is useless to talk about loving Jesus Christ and trusting Him, +and having the sweet assurance of forgiveness, and a glorious hope +of heaven, unless these have made you break off your bad habits of +whatsoever sort they may be, and cast them behind your backs. Strong +emotion, sweet deep feeling, assured confidence in the sense of +forgiveness and the hope of heaven, are all very well. Let us see +your faith by your works; and of these works the chief is--Behold +the evil that I did, I do it no more: 'Behold! Lord! the half of my +goods I give to the poor.' There was a young ruler, a chapter before +this, who could not make up his mind to part with wealth in order to +follow Christ. This man has so completely made up his mind to follow +Christ that he does not need to be bidden to give up his worldly +goods. The half given to the poor, and fourfold restoration to those +whom he had wronged, would not leave much. How astonished Zacchaeus +would have been if anybody had said to him that morning, 'Zacchaeus! +before this night falls you will be next door to a pauper, and you +will be a happier man than you are now!' + +So, dear friends, like him, all of us may, if we will, and if we +need, make a sudden right-about-face that shall alter the complexion +of our whole future. People tell us that sudden conversions are +suspicious. So they may be in certain cases. But the moment when a +man makes up his mind to change the direction in which his face is +set will always be a moment, however long may be the hesitation, and +the meditation, and the preparation that led up to it. + +Jesus Christ is standing before each of us as truly as He did before +that publican, and is saying to us as truly as He said to him, 'Let +Me in.' 'Behold! I stand at the door and knock. If any man open ... +I will enter.' If He comes in He will teach you what needs to be +turned out if He is to stop; and will make the sacrifice blessed and +not painful; and you will be a happier and a richer man with Christ +and nothing than with all beside and no Christ. + + + + +THE TRADING SERVANTS + + + 'Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath + gained ten pounds.... And the second came, saying, + Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds.' + --LUKE xix.16, 18. + +The Evangelist, contrary to his usual practice, tells us what was +the occasion of this parable. It was spoken at Jericho, on our +Lord's last journey to Jerusalem, Bethany was but a day's march +distant; Calvary but a week ahead. An unusual tension of spirit +marked our Lord's demeanour, and was noticed by the disciples with +awe. It infected them, and the excitable crowd, which was more than +usually excitable because on its way to the passover festival. The +air was electric, and everybody felt that something was impending. +They 'thought that the kingdom of God should _immediately_ +appear.' So Christ spoke this parable to damp down that expectation +which might easily flash up into the flame of rebellion. He tells +them His real programme. He was to go a long way off to receive +the kingdom. That was a familiar experience amongst the nations +tributary to Rome, and more than one of the Herodian family had +passed through it. In the meantime there was to be a period of +expectancy. It was to be a long time, for he had to go to a 'far +country,' and it was to be extended enough for the servants to turn +their money over many times during His absence. When He did return +it was not to do what they expected. They thought that the kingdom +meant Jewish lordship over subject nations. He teaches them that it +meant the destruction of the rebellious citizens, and a rigid +scrutiny of the servants' faithfulness. + +Now, the words of my two texts bring out in connection with this +outline of the future some large lessons which I desire to draw. + +I. Notice the small capital that the servants receive to trade with. + +It was a pound apiece, which, numismatic authorities tell us, is +somewhat about the same value as some L6 odd of English money; +though, of course, the purchasing power would be considerably +greater. A small amount, and an equal amount to every servant--these +are the two salient points of this parable. They make the broad +distinction between it and the other parable, which is often mixed +up with it, the parable of the talents. There, instead of the amount +being excessively small, it is exceedingly great; for a talent was +worth some L400, and ten talents would be L4000, a fair capital for +a man to start with. The other point of difference between the two +parables, which belongs to the essence of each, is that while the +gift in the one case is identical, in the other case it is graduated +and different. + +Now, to suppose that these are but two varying versions of the same +parable, which the Evangelists have manipulated is, in my judgment, +to be blind to the plainest of the lessons to be drawn from them. + +There are two sorts of gifts. In one, all Christian men, the +Master's servants, are alike; in another, they differ. Now, what is +the thing in which all Christians are alike? What gift do they all +possess equally; rich and poor, largely endowed or slenderly +equipped; 'talented'--as we use the word from the parable--or not? +The rich man and the poor, the wise man and the foolish, the +cultured man and the ignorant, the Fijian and the Englishman, have +one thing alike--the message of salvation which we call the Gospel +of the blessed Lord. That is the 'pound.' We all stand upon an equal +platform there, however differently we are endowed in respect of +capacities and other matters. All have it; and all have the same. + +Now if that is the interpretation of this parable, there are +considerations that flow from that thought, and on which I would +dwell for a moment. + +The first of them is the apparent smallness of the gift. You may +feel a difficulty in accepting that explanation, and may have been +saying to yourselves that it cannot be correct, because Jesus Christ +would never compare the unspeakable gift of His message of salvation +through Him, to that paltry sum. But throw yourselves back to the +moment of utterance, and I think you will feel the pathos and power +of the metaphor. Here was that handful of disciples set in the midst +of a hostile world, dead against them, with its banded superstitions, +venerable idolatries, systematised philosophies, the force of the +mightiest instruments of material power that the world had ever seen, +in the organisation and military power of Rome. And there stood twelve +Galilean men, with their simple, unlettered message; one poor 'pound,' +and that was all. 'The foolishness of preaching,' the message which to +'the Jews was a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks was folly,' was all +that they were equipped with. Their Master, who left them to seek a +Kingdom, had so little to bestow, before He received His crown, that +all that He could spare them was that small sum. They had to go into +business in a very poor way. They had to be content to do a very +insignificant retail trade. 'The foolishness of God is wiser than men; +and the weakness of God is stronger than men.' The old experience of +the leather sling and the five stones out of the brook, in the hand of +the stripling, that made short work of the brazen armour of the giant, +and penetrated with a whizz into his thick skull, and laid him +prostrate, was to be repeated. 'He called his servants, and gave +them'--a pound apiece! If you and I, Christian men and women, were +true to the Master's legacy, and believed that we have in it more +wealth than the treasures of wisdom and knowledge or force which the +world has laid up, we should find that our mite was more than they all +have in their possession. + +Further, the texts suggest the purpose for which the pound is given. +The servants had to live on it themselves, no doubt. So have we. +They had to trade with it. So have we. Now that means two things. +We get the Gospel, not as some of us lazily suppose, in order to +secure that we shall not be punished for our past sins whilst we +live, and go to heaven when we die. We get it, not only to enjoy its +consolations and its sweetness, but to do business with. + +And there are two ways in which this trading is to be done by us. +The main one is the honest application of the principles and powers +of the Gospel to the moulding of our own characters, and the making +us better, purer, gentler, more heavenly-minded, and more +Christlike. That is the first trading that we have to carry on with +the Word. We get it not for an indolent assent, as so many of us +misuse it. We receive it not merely to say, 'Oh I believe it,' and +there an end, but that we may bring it to bear upon all our conduct, +and that it may be the chief formative influence in our characters. +Christian people! is that what you do with your Christianity? Is the +Gospel moulding you, hour by hour, moment by moment? Have you +brought all its great truths to bear upon your daily lives? Have +you inwrought its substance into, not merely your understandings +or your emotions, but your daily conduct? Is it indeed the life of +your lives, and the leaven that is leavening your whole character? +You have it to trade with; see that you do not wrap it in a napkin, +and stow it idly away in some corner. + +Then there is the other way of trading and that is, telling it to +others. That is an obligation incumbent on all Christians. There may +be differences in regard to other gifts, which determine the manner +in which each shall use the equal gift which we all possess alike. +But these are of subordinate importance. The main thing is to feel +that the possession of Christian faith, which is our way of +receiving the pound, carries with it indissolubly the obligation of +Christian evangelism. However it may be discharged, discharged it is +to be, by every true servant. I am sometimes half disposed to think +that it would have been better for the Church if there had never +been any men in my position, on whom the mass of unspiritual, idle +because busy, and silent because little-loving, Christian professors +contentedly roll the whole obligation to preach God's Gospel. My +brethren, the world is not going to be evangelised by officials. +Until all Christian people wake up to the sense that they have the +'pound' to trade with, there will be nothing adequate done to bring +the world to the obedience and the love of Jesus Christ. You say you +have the Gospel; if you have it what are you doing with it? + +Self-centred Christianity, if such a thing were possible, is a +mistake. It is generally a sham; it is always a crime. A man that +puts away his pound, and never goes out and says, 'Come, share with +me in the wealth that I have found in Jesus Christ' will be like a +miser that puts his hoardings into an old stocking, and hides it in +the ground somewhere. When he goes to dig it up, he is only too +likely to find that all the coins have slipped out. If you want to +keep your Christianity, let the air into it. If you want it to +increase, sow it. There are hosts of you who would be far happier +Christian people, if you came out of your shells and traded with +your pound. + +II. Observe the varying profits of the trading. + +The one man says, 'Thy pound hath gained ten pounds.' The other +says, 'Thy pound hath gained five pounds.' And the others who are +not mentioned, no doubt, had also varying results to present. Now +that inequality of profits from an equal capital to start with, is +but a picturesque way of saying what is, alas! too obviously true, +that Christian people do not all stand on the same level in regard +to the use they have made of, and the benefits they have derived +from, the one equal gift which was bestowed upon them. It is +the same to every one at the beginning, but differences develop as +they go on. One man makes twice as much out of it as another does. + +Now, let us distinctly understand what sort of differences these are +which our Lord signalises here. Let me clear away a mistake which +may interfere with the true lessons of this parable, that the +differences in question are the superficial ones in apparent results +which follow from difference of endowments, or from difference of +influential position. That is the kind of meaning that is often +attached to the 'ten pounds' or the 'five pounds' in the text. We +think that the ten pounder is the man who has been able to do some +large spiritual work for Jesus Christ, that fills the world with its +greatness, the man who has been set in some most conspicuous place, +and by reason of intellectual ability or other talent has been able +to gather in many souls into the kingdom; but that is not Christ's +way of estimating. We should be going dead in the teeth of +everything that He teaches if we thought that such as these were the +differences intended. No, no! Every man that co-operates in a great +work with equal diligence and devotion has an equal place in his +eyes. The soldier that clapped Luther on the back as he was going +into the Diet of Worms, and said, 'You have a bigger fight to fight +than we ever had; cheer up, little monk!' stands on the same level +as the great reformer, if what he did was done from the game motive +and with as full consecration of himself. The old law of Israel +states the true principle of Christian recompense: they that 'abide +by the stuff' have the same share in the spoil as they 'that go down +into the battle.' All servants who have exercised equal faithfulness +and equal diligence stand on the same level and have the same +success; no matter how different may be their estimation in the eyes +of men; no matter how different may be the conspicuousness of the +places that they fill in the eyes of the world whilst they live, or +in the records of the Church when they are dead. Equal diligence +will issue in equal results in the development of character, and the +only reason for the diversity of results is the diversity of +faithfulness and of zeal in trading with the pound. + +Notice, too, before I go further, how all who trade make profits. +There are no bad debts in that business. There are no investments +that result in a loss. Everybody that goes into it makes something +by it; which is just to say that any man who is honest and earnest +in the attempt to utilise the powers of Christ's Gospel for his own +culture, or for the world's good, will succeed in reality, however +he may seem to fail in appearance. There are no commercial failures +in this trading. The man with his ten pounds of profit made them +because he worked hardest. The man that made the five made all that +his work entitled him to. There was no one who came and said, 'Lord! +I put thy pound into my little shop, and I did my best with it, and +it is all gone!' Every Christian effort is crowned with success. + +III. Lastly, we have here the final declaration of profits. + +The master has come back. He is a king now, but he is the master +still, and he wants to know what has become of the money that was +left in the servants' hands. Now, that is but a metaphorical way of +bringing to our minds that which we cannot conceive of without +metaphor--viz., the retribution that lies beyond the grave for us +all. Although we cannot conceive it without metaphor, we may reach, +through the metaphor to some apprehension, at any rate, of the facts +that lie behind it. There are two points in reference to this final +declaration of profits suggested here. + +The first is this, that all the profit is ascribed to the capital. +Neither of the two men say: 'I, with thy pound, have gained,' but +'Thy pound hath gained.' That is accurately true. For if I accept, +and live by, any great moral truth or principle, it is the principle +or the truth that is the real productive cause of the change in my +life and character. I, by my acceptance of it, simply put the belt +on the drum that connects my loom with the engine, but it is the +engine that drives the looms and the shuttle, and brings out the web +at last. And so, Christian people who, with God's grace in their +hearts, have utilised the 'pound,' and thereby made themselves +Christlike, have to say, 'It was not I, but Christ in me. It was the +Gospel, and not my faith in the Gospel, that wrought this change.' +Is it your teeth or your dinner that nourishes you? Is it the Gospel +or your trust in the Gospel that is the true cause of your +sanctifying? + +With regard to the other aspect of this trading, the same thing is +true. Is it my word or Christ's Word ministered by me that helps any +of my hearers who are helped? Surely! surely! there is no question +about that. It is the 'pound' that gains the 'pounds.' 'Paul +planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So, then, +neither is he that planteth anything nor he that watereth, but God +that giveth the increase.' + +The other consideration suggested by these words is the exact +knowledge of the precise results of a life, which is possessed at +last. Each servant knew precisely what was the net outcome of his +whole activity. That is exactly what we do not know here, and never +shall, and never can know. But yonder all illusions will have +vanished; and there will be two sorts of disillusionising then. Men, +for instance, of my profession, whose names are familiar, and who +hold high places in the esteem of the Church, and may be tempted to +suppose that they have done a great deal--I am afraid that many of +us will find, when we get yonder, that we have not done nearly so +much as our admirers in this world, and we ourselves, were sometimes +tempted to think that we had done. The searching light that comes in +will show a great many seamy places in the cloth that looks very +sound when it is inspected in the twilight. And there will be +another kind of disillusionising. Many a man has said, 'Lord! I have +laboured in vain, and spent my strength for nought,' who will find +out that he was mistaken, and that where he saw failure there were +solid results; that where he thought the grain had perished in the +furrows, it had sprung up and borne fruit unto life everlasting. +'Lord! when saw we Thee in prison, and visited Thee?' We never knew +that we had done anything of the sort. 'Behold! I was left alone,' +said the widowed Jerusalem when she was restored to her husband, +'these'--children that have gathered round me--'where had they +been?' We shall know, for good or bad, exactly the results of our +lives. + +We shall have to tell them. The slothful servant, too, was under +this compulsion of absolute honesty. If he had not been so, do you +think he would have ventured to stand up before his master, a king +now, and insult him to his face? But he had to turn himself inside +out, and tell then what he had thought in his inmost heart. So +'every one of us shall give an account of himself to God'; and like +a man in the bankruptcy court, we shall have to explain our books, +and go into all our transactions. We are working in the dark today. +Our work will be seen as it is, in the light. The coral reef rises +in the ocean, and the creatures that made it do not see it. The +ocean will be drained away, and the reef will stand up sheer and +distinct. + +My brother! 'I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire'--and +when you have bought your pound, see that you use it; for 'it is +required in stewards that a man be found faithful.' + + + + +THE REWARDS OF THE TRADING SERVANTS + + + 'Because thou hast been faithful in a very little, + have thou authority over ten cities... Be thou also + over five cities.'--LUKE xix. 17, 19. + +The relation between this parable of the pounds and the other of the +talents has often been misunderstood, and is very noteworthy. They +are not two editions of one parable variously manipulated by the +Evangelists, but they are two parables presenting two kindred and +yet diverse aspects of one truth. They are neither identical, as +some have supposed, nor contradictory, as others have imagined; but +they are complementary. The parable of the talents represents the +servants as receiving different endowments; one gets five; another +two; another one. They make the same rate of profit with their +different endowments. The man that turned his two talents into four +did just as well as he that turned his five into ten. In either case +the capital is doubled. Since the diligence is the same, the rewards +are the same, and to each is given the identical same eulogium and +the same entrance into the joy of his Lord. So the lesson of that +parable is that, however unequal are our endowments, there may be as +much diligence shown in the use of the smallest as in the greatest, +and where that is the case, the man with the small endowments will +stand on the same level of recompense as the man with the large. + +But that is not all. This parable comes in to complete the thoughts. +Here all the servants get the same gift, the one pound, but they +make different profits out of it, one securing twice as much as the +other. And, inasmuch as the diligence has been different, the +rewards are different. So the lesson of this parable is that unequal +faithfulness in the use of the same opportunities results in unequal +retribution and reward. Unequal faithfulness, I say, because, of +course, in both parables it is presupposed that the factor in +producing the profit is not any accidental circumstance, but the +earnestness and faithfulness of the servant. Christ does not pay for +results; He pays for motives. And it is not because the man has made +a certain number of pounds, but because in making them he has shown +a certain amount of faithfulness, that he is rewarded. Christ does +not say, 'Well done! good and _successful_ servant,' but 'Well +done! good and _faithful_ servant.' + +So, keeping these two sides of the one truth in view, I desire now +to draw out two or three of the lessons which seem to me to lie in +the principle laid down in my texts, of the unequal results of the +unequal diligence of these servants. + +I. I would note the solemn view of this present life that underlies +the whole. + +'Thou hast been faithful in a very little; have thou authority over +five cities.' Well, that rests upon the thought that all our present +life here is a stewardship, which in its nature is preparatory to +larger work yonder. And that is the point of view from which alone +it is right to look at, and possible to understand, this else +unintelligible and bewildering life on earth. Clearly enough, to +anybody that has eyes in his head, moral ends are supreme in man's +relation to nature, and in man's life. We are here for the sake of +making character, and of acquiring aptitudes and capacities which +shall be exercised hereafter. The whole of our earthly career is the +exercise of stewardship in regard to all the gifts with which we +have been entrusted, in order that by the right exercise of that +stewardship we may develop ourselves and acquire powers. + +Now if it is clear that the whole meaning and end of the present +life are to make character, and that we have to do with the material +and the transient only, in order that, like the creatures that build +up the coral reefs, we may draw from the ever-varying waves of the +ocean that welters around us solid substance which we can pile up +into an enduring monument--is this process of making character, and +developing ourselves, to be cut short by such a contemptible thing +as the death of the body? One very distinguished evolutionist, who +has been forced onwards from his position to a kind of theism, +declares that he is driven to a belief in immortality because he +must believe in the reasonableness of God's work. And it seems to me +that if indeed--as is plainly the case--moral ends are supreme in +our life's history, it brings utter intellectual bewilderment and +confusion to suppose that these ends are kept in view up till the +moment of death, and that then down comes the guillotine and cuts +off all. God does not take the rough ore out of the mine, and deal +with it, and change it to polished steel, and shape His weapons, and +then take them when they are at their highest temper and their +sharpest edge, and break them across His knee. No! if here we are +shaped, it is because yonder there is work for the tool. + +So all here is apprenticeship, and the issues of to-day are recorded +in eternity. We are like men perched up in a signal-box by the side +of the line; we pull over a lever here, and it lifts an arm half a +mile off. The smallest wheel upon one end of a shaft may cause +another ten times its diameter to revolve, at the other end of the +shaft through the wall there. Here we prepare, yonder we achieve. + +II. Note the consequent littleness and greatness of this present. + +'Thou hast been faithful in a very little.' Some of you may remember +a recent sermon on the previous part of this parable, in which I +tried to bring out an explanation of the small sum with which these +servants were entrusted--the pound apiece for their little retail +businesses--and found reason to believe that the interpretation of +that gift was the Gospel of Jesus Christ which, in comparison with +the world's wisdom and philosophies and material forces, seemed such +a very insignificant thing. If we keep that interpretation in view +in treating my present text, then there is hinted to us the contrast +between the necessary limitations and incompletenesses even of the +revelation of God in Jesus Christ which we have here, and the flood +of glory and of light, which shall pour upon our eyes when the veil +of flesh and sense has dropped away. Here we know in part; here, +even with the intervention of the Eternal and Incarnate Word of God, +the Revealer of the Father, we see as in a glass darkly; there face +to face. The magnificences and the harmonies of that great +revelation of God in Jesus Christ, which transcends all human +thought and all worldly wisdom, are but a point, in comparison with +the continent of illumination which shall come to us hereafter. 'The +moon that rules the night' is the revelation that we have to-day, +the reflection and echo of the sun that will rule the unsetting day +of the heavens. + +But I pass from that aspect of the words before us to the other, +which, I suppose, is rather to be kept in view, in which the +faithfulness in a very little points to the smallness of this +present, as measured against that infinite future to which it +conducts. Much has been said upon that subject, which is very +antagonistic to the real ideas of Christianity. Life here, and this +present, have been depreciated unduly, untruly, and unthankfully. +And harm has been done, not only to the men who accept that +estimate, but to the world that scoffs at it. There is nothing in +the Bible, which is at all in sympathy with the so-called religious +depreciation of the present, but there is this--'the things that are +seen are temporal; the things that are unseen are eternal.' The +lower hills look high when beheld from the flat plain that stretches +on this side of them; but, if the mist lifts, the great white peaks +come out beyond them, glittering in the sunshine, and with the +untrodden snows on their inaccessible pinnacles; and nobody thinks +about the green foothills, with the flowers upon them, any more. +Brethren, think away the mist, for you can, and open your eyes, and +see the snow-clad hills of eternity, and then you will understand +how low is the elevation of the heights in the foreground. The +greatness of the future makes the present little, but the little +present is great, because its littleness is the parent of the great +future. 'The child is father of the man'; and earth's narrow range +widens out into the infinitude of eternity and of heaven. The only +thing that gives real greatness and sublimity to our mortal life is +its being the vestibule to another. Historically you will find that, +wherever faith in a future life has become dim, as it has become dim +in large sections of the educated classes to-day, there the general +tone of strenuous endeavour has dropped, and the fatal feeling of +'It is not worth while' begins to creep over society. 'Is life worth +living?' is the question that is asked on all sides of us to-day. +And the modern recrudescence of pessimism has along with it, as one +of the main thoughts which cut the nerves of effort, doubt of, and +disbelief in, a future. It is because the very little opens out into +the immeasurably great, and the passing moments tick us onwards into +an unpassing eternity, that the moments are worth living through, +and the fleeting insignificances of earth's existence become solemn +and majestic as the portals of heaven. + +III. Notice the future form of activity prepared for by faithful +trading. + +'Thou hast been faithful in a very little; have thou authority over +ten cities.' Now I do not need to spend a word in dwelling on the +contrast between the two pictures of the huckster with his little +shop and the pound of capital to begin with, and the vizier that has +control of ten of the cities of his master. That is too plain to +need any enforcement. We are all here, all us Christian people +especially, like men that keep a small shop, in a back street, with +a few trivial things in the window, but we are heirs of a kingdom. +That is what Christ wants us to lay to heart, so that the little +shop shall not seem so very small, and its smoky obscurity shall be +irradiated by true visions of what it will lead to. + +Nor do I wish to risk any kind of fanciful and precarious +speculations as to the manner and the sphere of the authority that +is here set forth; only I would keep to one or two plain things. +Faithfulness here prepares for participation in Christ's authority +hereafter. For we are not to forget that whilst the master, the +nobleman, was away seeking the kingdom, all that he could give his +servants was the little stock-in-trade with which he started them, +and that it is because he has won his kingdom that he is able to +dispense to them the larger gifts of dominion over the ten and the +five cities. The authority is delegated, but it is more than that-- +it is shared. For it is participation in, and not merely delegation +from, the King and His rule, that is set forth in this and in other +places of Scripture, for 'they shall sit down with Me on My throne, +even as I also overcame and am set down with My Father on His +throne.' + +If, then, the rule set forth, in whatever sphere and in whatever +fashion it may be exercised, is participation in Christ's authority, +let us not forget that therefore it is a rule of which the manifestation +is service. In heaven as on earth, and for the Lord in heaven as for the +Lord on earth, and for the servants in heaven as for the servants on +earth, the law stands irrefragable and eternal--'If any man will be +chief among you, let him be your minister.' The authority over the ten +cities is the capacity and opportunity of serving and helping every +citizen in them all. What that help may be let us leave. It is better +to be ignorant than to speculate about matters where there is no +possibility of certainty. Ignorance is more impressive than knowledge, +only be sure that no dignity can live amidst the pure light of the +heavens, except after the fashion of the dignity of the Lord of all, +who there, as here, is the servant of all. + +But there is a thought in connection with this great though dim +revelation of the future, which may well be laid to heart by us. And +that is, that however close and direct the dependence on, and the +communion with, Jesus Christ, the King of all His servants, in that +future state is, it shall not be so close and direct as to exclude +room for the exercise of brotherly sympathy and brotherly aid. We +shall have Christ for our life and our light and our glory. But +there, as here, we shall help one another to have Him more fully, +and to understand Him more perfectly. What further lies in these +great words, I do not venture to guess. Enough to know that Christ +will be all in all, and that Christ in each will help the others to +know Christ more fully. + +Only remember, we have to take this great conception of the future +as being one that implies largely increased and ennobled activity. A +great deal of very cheap ridicule has been cast upon the Christian +conception of the future life as if it was an eternity of idleness +and of repose. Of repose, yes; of idleness, no! For it is no +sinecure to be the governor of ten cities. There will be a good deal +of work to be done, in order to discharge that office properly. Only +it will be work that does not disturb repose, and at one and the +same moment His servants will serve in constant activity, and gaze +upon His face in calm contemplation. Christ's session at the right +hand of God does not interfere with Christ's continual activity +here. And, in like manner, His servants shall rest from their +labours, but not from their work; they shall serve Him undisturbed, +and shall repose, but not idly. + +IV. Lastly, our texts remind us of the variety in recompense which +corresponds to diversity in faithfulness. + +I need but say a word about that. The one man gets his ten cities +because his faithfulness has brought in ten pounds. The other gets +five, corresponding to his faithfulness. As I said, our Lord pays, +not for results, except in so far as these are conditioned and +secured by the diligence of His servants. And so we come to the old +familiar, and yet too often forgotten, conception of degrees in +dignity, degrees in nearness to Him. That thought runs all through +the New Testament representations of a future life, sometimes more +clearly, sometimes more obscurely, but generally present. It is in +entire accordance with the whole conception of that future, because +the Christian notion of it is not that it is an arbitrary reward, +but that it is the natural outcome of the present; and, of course, +therefore, varying according to the present, of which it is the +outcome. We get what we have wrought for. We get what we are capable +of receiving, and what we are capable of receiving depends upon what +has been our faithfulness here. + +Now, that is perfectly consistent with the other side of the truth +which the twin parable sets forth--viz., that the recompenses of the +future are essentially one. All the servants, who were entrusted +with the Talents, received the same eulogium, and entered into the +same joy of their Lord. That is one side of the truth. And the other +is, that the degree in which Christian people, when they depart +hence, possess the one gift of eternal life, and Christ-shared joy +is conditioned by their faithfulness and diligence here. Do not let +the Gospel that says 'The gift of God is eternal life' make you +forget the completing truths, that the measure in which a man +possesses that eternal life depends on his fitness for it, and that +fitness depends on his faithfulness of service and his union with +his Lord. + +We obscure this great truth often by reason of the way in which we +preach the deeper truth on which it rests--forgiveness and +acceptance all unmerited, through faith in Jesus Christ. But the two +things are not contradictory; they are complementary. No man +will be faithful as a steward who is not full of faith as a penitent +sinner. No man will enter into the joy of his Lord, who does not +enter in through the gate of penitence and trust, but, having +entered, we are ranked according to the faithfulness of our service +and diligence of stewardship. 'Wherefore, giving all diligence, make +your calling and election sure, for so an entrance shall be +ministered unto you _abundantly_ into the everlasting kingdom +of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' + + + + +A NEW KIND OF KING + + + 'And when He was come nigh, even now at the descent of + the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the + disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud + voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; + 38. Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the + name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the + highest. 38. And some of the Pharisees from among the + multitude said unto Him, Master, rebuke Thy disciples. + 40. And He answered and said unto them, I tell you + that, if these should hold their peace, the stones + would immediately cry out. 41. And when He was come + near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, 42. Saying, + If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy + day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now + they are hid from thine eyes. 43. For the days shall + come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench + about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in + on every side, 44. And shall lay thee even with the + ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall + not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou + knewest not the time of thy visitation. 45. And he + went into the temple, and began to cast out them that + sold therein, and them that bought; 46. Saying unto + them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: + but ye have made it a den of thieves. 47. And He + taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and + the scribes and the chief of the people sought to + destroy Him, 48. And could not find what they might + do: for all the people were very attentive to hear + Him.'--LUKE xix. 37-48. + +'He went on before.' What concentrated determination, and almost +eagerness, impelled His firm and swift steps up the steep, weary +road! Mark tells that the disciples followed, 'amazed'--as they well +might be--at the unusual haste, and strange preoccupation on the +face, set as a flint. + +Luke takes no notice of the stay at Bethany and the sweet seclusion +which soothed Jesus there. He dwells only on the assertion of +royalty, which stamped an altogether unique character on the +remaining hours of Christ's life. + +I. The narrative brings into prominence Christ's part in originating +the triumphal entry (vs. 30-34). He sent for the colt with the +obvious intention of stimulating the people to just such a +demonstration as followed. + +As to the particulars, we need only note that the most obvious +explanation of His knowledge of the circumstances that the +messengers would encounter, is that it was supernatural. Only one +other explanation is possible; namely, that the owners of the animal +were secret disciples, with whom our Lord had arranged to send for +it, and had settled a sign and countersign, by which they would know +His messengers. But that is a less natural explanation. + +Note the remarkable blending of dignity and poverty in 'The Lord +hath need of him.' It asserts sovereign authority and absolute +rights, and it confesses need and penury. He is a King, but He has +to borrow even a colt to make His triumphal entry on. Though He was +rich, for our sakes He became poor. + +Jesus then deliberately brought about His public entry. He thereby +acts in a way perfectly unlike His whole previous course. And He +stirs up popular feelings at a time when they were specially +excitable by reason of the approaching Passover and its crowds. +Formerly He had avoided the danger which He now seems to court, and +had gone up to the feast 'as it were in secret.' But it was fitting +that once, for the last time, He should assert before the gathered +Israel that He was their King, and should make a last appeal. +Formerly He had sought to avoid attracting the attention of the +rulers; now He knows that the end is near, and deliberately makes +Himself conspicuous, though--or we might say because--He knew that +thereby He precipitated His death. + +The nature of His dominion is as plainly taught by the humble pomp +as is its reality. A pauper King, who makes His public entrance into +His city mounted on a borrowed ass, with His followers' clothes for +a saddle, attended by a shouting crowd of poor peasants, for weapons +or banners had but the branches plucked from other people's trees, +was a new kind of king. + +We do not need Matthew's quotation of the prophet's vision of the +meek King coming to Zion on an ass, to understand the contrast of +this kingdom with such a dominion as that of Rome, or of such +princes as the Herods. Gentleness and peace, a sway that rests not +on force nor wealth, are shadowed in that rustic procession and the +pathetic poverty of its leader, throned on a borrowed colt, and +attended, not by warriors or dignitaries, but by poor men unarmed, +and saluted, not with the blare of trumpets, but with the shouts of +joyful, though, alas! fickle hearts. + +II. We have the humble procession with the shouting disciples and +the background of hostile spies. The disciples eagerly caught at the +meaning of bringing the colt, and threw themselves with alacrity +into what seemed to them preparation for the public assertion of +royalty, for which they had long been impatient. Luke tells us that +they lifted Jesus on to the seat which they hurriedly prepared, +while some spread their garments in the way--the usual homage to a +king: + + 'Ride on triumphantly; behold, we lay + Our lusts and proud wills in Thy way.' + +How different the vision of the future in their minds and His! They +dreamed of a throne; He knew it was a Cross. Round the southern +shoulder of Olivet they came, and, as the long line of the Temple +walls, glittering in the sunshine across the valley, burst on the +view, and their approach could be seen from the city, they broke +into loud acclamations, summoning, as it were, Jerusalem to welcome +its King. + +Luke's version of their chant omits the Jewish colouring which it +has in the other Gospels, as was natural, in view of his Gentile +readers. Christ's royalty and divine commission are proclaimed from +a thousand throats, and then up swells the shout of praise, which +echoes the angels' song at Bethlehem, and ascribes to His coming, +power to make peace in heaven with an else alienated world, and thus +to make the divine glory blaze with new splendour even in the +highest heavens. + +Their song was wiser than they knew, and touched the deepest, +sweetest mysteries of the unity of the Son with the Father, of +reconciliation by the blood of His Cross, and of the new lustre +accruing to God's name thereby, even in the sight of principalities +and powers in heavenly places. They meant none of these things, +but they were unconscious prophets. Their shouts died away, and +their faith was almost as short-lived. With many of them, it +withered before the branches which they waved. + +High-wrought emotion is a poor substitute for steady conviction. But +cool, unemotional recognition of Christ as King is as unnatural. If +our hearts do not glow with loyal love, nor leap up to welcome Him; +if the contemplation of His work and its issues on earth and in +heaven does not make our dumb tongues sing--we have need to ask +ourselves if we believe at all that He is the King and Saviour of +all and of us. There were cool observers there, and they make the +foil to the glad enthusiasm. Note that these Pharisees, mingling in +the crowd, have no title for Jesus but 'Teacher.' He is no king to +them. To those who regard Jesus but as a human teacher, the +acclamations of those to whom He is King and Lord always sound +exaggerated. + +People with no depth of religious life hate religious emotion, and +are always seeking to repress it. A very tepid worship is warm +enough for them. Formalists detest genuine feeling. Propriety is +their ideal. No doubt, too, these croakers feared that this tumult +might come to formidable size, and bring down Pilate's heavy hand on +them. + +Christ's answer is probably a quoted proverb. It implies His entire +acceptance of the character which the crowd ascribed to Him, His +pleasure in their praises, and, in a wider aspect, His vindication +of outbursts of devout feeling, which shock ecclesiastical martinets +and formalists. + +III. We see the sorrowing King plunged in bitter grief in the very +hour of His triumph. Who can venture to speak of that infinitely +pathetic scene? The fair city, smiling across the glen, brings +before His vision the awful contrast of its lying compassed by +armies and in ruins. He hears not the acclamation of the crowd. 'He +wept,' or, rather, 'wailed,'--for the word does not imply tears so +much as cries. That sorrow is a sign of His real manhood, but it is +also a part of His revelation of the very heart of God. The form is +human, the substance divine. The man weeps because God pities. +Christ's sorrow does not hinder His judgments. The woes which wring +His heart will nevertheless be inflicted by Him. Judgment is His +'strange work,' alien from His desires; but it is His work. The eyes +which are as a flame of fire are filled with tears, but their glance +burns up the evil. + +Note the yearning in the unfinished sentence, 'If thou hadst known.' +Note the decisive closing of the time of repentance. Note the minute +prophetic details of the siege, which, if ever they were spoken, are +a distinct proof of His all-seeing eye. And from all let us fix in +our hearts the conviction of the pity of the judge, and of the +judgment by the pitying Christ. + +IV. We have Christ's exercise of sovereign authority in His Father's +house. Luke gives but a summary in verses 45-48, dwelling mainly on +two points. First he tells of casting out the traders. Two things +are brought out in the compressed narrative--the fact, and the +Lord's vindication of it. As to the former, it was fitting that at +the end of His career, as at the beginning, He should cleanse the +Temple. The two events are significant as His first and last acts. +The second one, as we gather from the other Evangelists, had a +greater severity about it than the first. + +The need for a second purifying indicated how sadly transient had +been the effect of the first, and was thus evidence of the depth of +corruption and formalism to which the religion of priests and people +had sunk. Christ had come to cleanse the Temple of the world's +religion, to banish from it mercenaries and self-interested +attendants at the altar, and, in a higher application of the +incident, to clear away all the degradations and uncleannesses which +are associated with worship everywhere but in His Church, and which +are ever seeking, like poisonous air, to find their way in thither +also, through any unguarded chink. + +The vindication of the act is in right royal style. The first +cleansing was defended by Him by pointing to the sanctity of 'My +Father's house'; the second, by claiming it as 'My house.' The +rebuke of the hucksters is sterner the second time. The profanation, +once driven out and returning, is deeper; for whereas, in the first +instance, it had made the Temple 'a house of merchandise,' in the +second it turned it into a 'den of robbers.' Thus evil assumes a +darker tint, like old oak, by lapse of time, and swiftly becomes +worse, if rebuked and chastised in vain. + +The second part of this summary puts in sharp contrast three +things--Christ's calm courage in continuous teaching in the Temple, +the growing bitter hatred of the authorities, who drew in their train +the men of influence holding no office, and the eager hanging of the +people on His words, which baffled the murderous designs of the +rulers. The same intentional publicity as in the entrance is +obvious. Jesus knew that His hour was come, and willingly presents +Himself a sacrifice. Meekly and boldly He goes on the appointed way. +He sees all the hate working round Him, and lets it work. The day's +task of winning some from impending ruin shall still be done. So +should His servants live, in patient discharge of daily duty, in the +face of death, if need be. + +The enemies, who heard His words and found in them only food for +deeper hatred, may warn us of the possibilities of antagonism to Him +that lie in the heart, and of the terrible judgment which they drag +down on their own heads, who hear, unmoved, His daily teaching, and +see, unrepentant, His dying love. The crowd that listened, and, in +less than a week yelled 'Crucify Him,' may teach us to take heed how +we hear, and to beware of evanescent regard for His teaching, which, +if it do not consolidate into resolved and thoroughgoing acceptance +of His work and submission to His rule, will certainly cool into +disregard, and may harden into hate. + + + + +TENANTS WHO WANTED TO BE OWNERS + + + 'Then began He to speak to the people this parable; A + certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to + husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long + time. 10. And at the season he sent a servant to the + husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of + the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent + him away empty. 11. And again he sent another servant: + and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, + and sent him away empty. 12. And again he sent a third: + and they wounded him also, and cast him out. 13. Then + said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will + send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him + when they see him. 14. But when the husbandmen saw him, + they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the + heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may + be ours. 15. So they cast him out of the vineyard, and + killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the + vineyard do unto them? 16. He shall come and destroy + these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to + others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid. + 17. And he beheld them, and said, what is this then that + is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the + same is become the head of the corner? 18. Whosoever + shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on + whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. + 19. And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour + sought to lay hands on Him; and they feared the people: + for they perceived that He had spoken this parable + against them.'--LUKE xx. 9-19. + +As the crisis came near, Jesus increased His severity and plainness +of speech. This parable, which was spoken very near the end of the +protracted duel with the officials in the Temple, is transparent in +its application, and hit its mark immediately. The rulers at once +perceived that it was directed against them. The cap fitted too well +not to be put on. But it contains prophecy as well as history, and +the reference to Jesus' impending fate is almost as transparent as +the indictment of the rulers, while the prediction of the +transference of the vineyard to others is as easy of translation as +either of the other points. + +Such plain speaking was fitting for last words. The urgency of +Christ's pleading love, as much as the intensity of His moral +indignation, made them plain. + +I. We note, first, the vineyard, its lord and its tenants. The +metaphor was familiar, for Isaiah had 'sung a song touching' Israel +as God's vineyard, and other prophets had caught up the emblem, so +that it had become a commonplace, known by all. The parable +distinctly alludes to Isaiah's words, and almost reproduces them. +Matthew's version enlarges on details of the appliances provided by +the owner, which makes the parallel with Isaiah still more +noticeable. But Luke summarises these into the simple 'planted.' +That covers the whole ground. + +God had given Israel a system of revelation, law, and worship, which +was competent to produce in those who received it, the fruit of +obedience and thankfulness. The husbandmen are primarily the rulers, +as the scribes and chief priests perceived; but the nation which +endorsed, by permitting their action, is included. The picture drawn +applies to us as truly as to the Jews. The transference of the +vineyard to another set of tenants, which Christ threatened at the +close of the parable, has been accomplished, and so we, by our +possession of the Gospel, are entrusted with the vineyard, and are +responsible for rendering the fruits of holy living and love. + +The owner 'let it out, and went into another country for a long +time.' That is a picturesque way of saying that we have apparent +possession, and are left free to act, God not being manifestly close +to us. He stands off, as it were, from the creatures whom He has +made, and gives them room to do as they will. But all our +possessions, as well as the revelation of Himself in Christ, are +only let to us, and we have rent to pay. + +The collectors sent for the fruit are, of course, the series of +prophets. Luke specifies three--a round number, indicating +completeness. He says nothing about the times between their +missions, but implies that the three covered the whole period till +the sending of the son. Their treatment was uniform, as the history +of Israel proved. The habit of rejecting the prophets was +hereditary. + +There is such a thing as national solidarity stretching through +ages. The bold charge made by Stephen was only an echo of this +parable, when he cried, 'As your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the +prophets did not your fathers persecute?' Each generation made the +ancestral sin its own, and staggered under a heavier burden of +guilt, till, at last, came a generation which had to bear the +penalty of all the blood of prophets shed from the beginning. +Nations live, though their component atoms die, and only national +repudiation of bequeathed sins can avert the crash which, sooner or +later, avenges them. + +The husbandmen treated the messengers with increasing contumely and +cruelty. Content with beating the first, they added shameful +treatment in the second case, and proceeded to wounding in the +third. If God's repeated appeals do not melt, they harden, the +heart. The persistence of His messengers leads to fiercer hatred, if +it does not produce yielding love. There is no bitterness equal to +that of the man who has often stiffened conscience against the +truth. + +II. So far, no doubt could be entertained of the meaning of the +scathing parable. There was probably as little about that of the +next part. We cannot but notice the broad distinction which Jesus +draws between Himself and the mightiest of the prophets. They were +the owner's 'slaves'; He was His 'beloved Son.' The writer of the +Epistle to the Hebrews begins his letter with the same contrast, +which he may have learned from the parable. It is a commonplace for +us, but let us ponder how it must have sounded to that hostile, +eager crowd, and ask ourselves how such assumptions can be +reconciled with the 'sweet reasonableness' of Jesus if he belonged +to the same category as an Isaiah or a Micah. + +The yearning of divine love for the fruit of reverence and obedience +is wonderfully expressed by the bold putting of an uncertain hope +into the owner's mouth. He must have known that he was running a +risk in sending his son, but he so much desires to bring the +dishonest workmen back to their duty that he is willing to run it. +The highly figurative expression is meant to emphasise God's longing +for men's hearts, and His patient love which 'hopeth all things' and +will not cease from effort to win us so long as an arrow remains in +His quiver. + +III. Our Lord now passes to prophecy. Deep sadness is in His tone as +He tells how the only effect of His coming had been to stir up +opposition. They 'saw Him' and were they touched? No, they only +gripped their privileges the tighter, and determined more fiercely +to assert their ownership. + +Nothing is more remarkable in the parable than the calmness of Jesus +in announcing His impending fate. He knows it all, and His voice has +no tremor, as He tells it as though He were speaking of another. The +very announcement that He penetrated the murderous designs hidden in +many of the hearers' hearts would tend to precipitate their +execution of these; but He is ready for the Cross, and its nearness +has no terror, not because He was impassive, or free from the +shrinking proper to flesh, but because He was resolved to save. +Therefore He was resolved to suffer. + +The husbandmen's reasonings with one another bring into plain words +thoughts which probably were not consciously held by any even of the +rulers. They open the question as to how far the rulers knew the +truth of Christ's claims. They at least knew what these were, and +they had fought down dawning convictions which, fairly dealt with, +would have broadened into daylight. They would not have been so +fiercely antagonistic if they had not been pricked by an uneasy +doubt whether, after all, perhaps there was something in these +claims. + +Nothing steels men against admitting a truth so surely as the +suspicion that, if they were to inquire a little farther, they might +find themselves believing it. Knowledge and ignorance blended in +these rulers as in us all. If they had not known at all, they would +not have needed the Saviour's dying prayer for their forgiveness; if +they had known fully, its very ground would have been taken away. + +The motive put into their mouths is the wish to seize the vineyard +for their own; and was not the very soul of the rulers' hostility +the determination to keep hold of the prerogatives of their offices, +while priests and people alike were deaf to Jesus, because they +wished to be no more troubled by being reminded of their obligations +to render obedience to God? The root of all rejection of Christ is +the desire of self-will to reign supreme. Men resent being reminded +that they are tenants, and are determined to assert ownership. + +Jesus carries the hearers beyond the final crime which filled the +measure of sin, and exhausted the resources of God. The sharp turn +from narrative to question, in verse 15, not only is like the sudden +thrust of a spear, but marks the transition from the present and +immediate future to a more distant day. The slaying of the heir was +the last act of the vine-dressers. The owner would act next. Luke, +like Mark, puts the threatening of retribution into Christ's lips, +while Matthew makes it the answer of the rulers to his question. +Luke alone gives the exclamation, 'God forbid!' The ready answer in +Matthew, and the pious interjection in Luke, have the same purpose,--to +blunt the application of the parable to themselves by appearing to be +unconcerned. + +Their levity and reluctance to take home the lesson moved our Lord +to sternness, which burned in His steadfast eyes as He looked on +them, and must have been remembered by some disciple whose memory +has preserved that look for us. It was the prelude to a still less +veiled prophecy of the fall of Israel. Jesus lays His hand on the +ancient prophecy of the stone rejected by the builders, and applies +it to Himself. He is the sure foundation of which Isaiah had spoken. +He is the stone rejected by Israel, but elevated to the summit of +the building, and there joining two diverging walls. + +The solemn warning closing the parable had its special meaning in +regard to Israel, but its dread force extends to us. To fall on the +stone while it lies lowly on the earth is to lame one's self, but to +have it fall on a man when it rushes down from its elevation is ruin +utter and irremediable. 'If they escaped not who refused Him that +spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from +Him that speaketh from heaven.' + + + + +WHOSE IMAGE AND SUPERSCRIPTION? + + + 'Whose image and superscription hath it?'--Luke xx. 24. + +It is no unusual thing for antagonists to join forces in order to +crush a third person obnoxious to both. So in this incident we have +an unnatural alliance of the two parties in Jewish politics who were +at daggers drawn. The representatives of the narrow conservative +Judaism, which loathed a foreign yoke, in the person of the +Pharisees and Scribes, and the Herodians, the partisans of a +foreigner and a usurper, lay their heads together to propose a +question to Christ which they think will discredit or destroy Him. +They would have answered their own question in opposite ways. One +would have said, 'It _is_ lawful to give tribute to Caesar'; +the other would have said, 'It is not.' But that is a small matter +when malice prompts. They calculate, 'If He says, No! we will +denounce Him to Pilate as a rebel. If He says, Yes! we will go to +the people and say, Here is a pretty Messiah for you, that has no +objection to the foreign yoke. Either way we shall end Him.' + +Jesus Christ serenely walks through the cobwebs, and lays His hand +upon the fact. 'Let Me see a silver penny!'--which, by the bye, was +the amount of the tribute--'Whose head is that?' The currency of the +country proclaims the monarch of the country. To stamp his image on +the coin is an act of sovereignty. 'Caesar's head declares that you +are Caesar's subjects, whether you like it or not, and it is too +late to ask questions about tribute when you pay your bills in +his money.' 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.' + +Does not the other side of Christ's answer--'to God the things that +are God's'--rest upon a similar fact? Does not the parallelism +require that we should suppose that the destiny of things to be +devoted to God is stamped upon them, whatever they are, at least as +plainly as the right of Caesar to exact tribute was inferred from +the fact that his money was the currency of the country? The thought +widens out in a great many directions, but I want to confine it to +one special line of contemplation, and to take it as suggesting to +each of us this great truth, that the very make of men shows that +they belong to God, and are bound to yield themselves to Him. If the +answer to the question be plain, and the conclusion irresistible, +about the penny with the image of Tiberius, the answer is no less +plain, nor the conclusion less irresistible, when we turn the +interrogation within, and, looking at our own being, say to +ourselves, 'Whose image and superscription hath _it_?' + +I. First, then, note the image stamped upon man, and the consequent +obligation. + +We can very often tell what a thing is for by noticing its make. The +instructed eye of an anatomist will, from a bone, divine the sphere +in which the creature to whom it belonged was intended to live. Just +as plainly as gills or lungs, fins or wings, or legs and arms, +declare the element in which the creature that possesses them is +intended to move, so plainly stamped upon all our natures is this, +that God is our Lord since we are made in a true sense in His image, +and that only in Him can we find rest. + +I need not remind you, I suppose, of the old word, 'Let us make man +in our own image.' Nor need I, I suppose, insist at any length upon +the truth that though, by the fact of man's sin, the whole glory and +splendour of the divine image in which he was made is marred and +defaced, there still remain such solemn, blessed, and awful +resemblances between man and God that there can be no mistake as to +which beings in the universe are the most kindred; nor any +misunderstanding as to who it is after whose likeness we are formed, +and in whose love and life alone we can be blessed. + +I am not going to weary you with thoughts for which, perhaps, the +pulpit is not the proper place; but let me just remind you of one or +two points. Is there any other being on this earth that can say of +itself 'I am'? God says '_I am that I am'_. You and I cannot +say that, but we alone, in this order of things, possess that solemn +and awful gift, the consciousness of our personal being. And, +brethren, whoever is able to say to himself 'I am' will never know +rest until he can turn to God and say 'Thou art,' and then, laying +his hand in the Great Father's hand, venture to say '_We_ are.' +We are made in His image, in that profoundest of all senses. + +But to come to something less recondite. We are like God in that we +can love; we are like Him in that we can perceive the right, and +that the right is supreme; we are like Him in that we have the power +to say 'I will.' And these great capacities demand that the creature +who thus knows himself to be, who thus knows the right, who thus can +love, who thus can purpose, resolve, and act, should find his home +and his refuge in fellowship with God. + +But if you take a coin, and compare it with the die from which it +has been struck, you will find that wherever in the die there is a +relief, in the coin there is a sunken place; and conversely. So +there are not only resemblances in man to the divine nature, which +bear upon them the manifest marks of his destiny, but there are +correspondences, wants, on our side, being met by gifts upon His; +hollow emptinesses in us being filled, when we are brought into +contact with Him, by the abundance of His outstanding supplies and +gifts. So the poorest, narrowest, meanest life has in it a depth of +desire, an ardour, and sometimes a pain and a madness of yearning +and longing which nothing but God can fill. Though we often +misunderstand the voice, and so make ourselves miserable by vain +efforts, our 'heart and our flesh,' in every fibre of our being, +'cry out for the living God.' And what we all want is some one Pearl +of great price into which all the dispersed preciousness and +fragmentary brilliances that dazzle the eye shall be gathered. We +want a Person, a living Person, a present Person, a sufficient +Person, who shall satisfy our hearts, our whole hearts, and that at +one and the same time, or else we shall never be at rest. + +Because, then, we are made dependent, because we possess these wild +desires, because immortal thirst attaches to our nature, because we +have consciences that need illuminating, wills that are only free +when they are absolutely submissive, hearts that are dissatisfied, +and left yearning, after all the sweetnesses of limited, transient, +and creatural affections, we bear on our very fronts the image of +God; and any man that wisely looks at himself can answer the +question, 'Whose image and superscription hath it?' in but one way. +'In the image of God created He him.' + +Therefore by loving fellowship, by lowly trust, by ardour of love, +by submissiveness of obedience, by continuity of contemplation, by +the sacrifice of self, we must yield ourselves to God if we would +pay the tribute manifestly owing to the Emperor by the fact that His +image and superscription are upon the coin. + +II. And so let me ask you to look, in the next place, at the +defacement of the image and the wrong expenditure of the coin. + +You sometimes get into your hands money on which there has been +stamped, by mischief, or for some selfish purpose, the name of some +one else than the king's or queen's which surrounds the head upon it. +And in like manner our nature has gone through the stamping-press +again, and another likeness has been deeply imprinted upon it. The +image of God, which every man has, is in some senses and aspects +ineffaceable by any course of conduct of theirs. But in another +aspect it is not like the permanent similitude stamped upon the +solid metal of the penny, but like the reflection, rather, that +falls upon some polished plate, or that is cast upon the white sheet +from a lantern. If the polished plate be rusty and stained, the +image is faint and indistinct; if it be turned away from the light +the image passes. And that is what some of you are doing. By living +to yourselves, by living day in and day out without ever remembering +God, by yielding to passions, lusts, ambitions, low desires, and the +like, you are doing your very best to erase the likeness which still +lingers in your nature. Is there any one here that has yielded to +some lust of the flesh, some appetite, drunkenness, gluttony, +impurity, or the like, and has so sold himself to it, as that that +part of the divine image, the power of saying 'I will,' has pretty +nearly gone? I am afraid there must be some who, by long submission +to passion, have lost the control that reason and conscience and a +firm steady purpose ought to give. Is there any man here who, by +long course of utter neglect of the divine love, has ceased to feel +that there is a heart at the centre of the universe, or that He has +anything to do with it? Brethren, the awful power that is given +to men of degrading themselves till, lineament by lineament, the +likeness in which they are made vanishes, is the saddest and most +tragical thing in the world. 'Like the beasts that perish,' says one +of the psalms, the men become who, by the acids and the files of +worldliness and sensuality and passion, have so rubbed away the +likeness of God that it is scarcely perceptible in them. Do I speak +to some such now? If there is nothing else left there is this, a +hunger for absolute good and for the satisfaction of your desires. +That is part of the proof that you are made for God, and that only +in Him can you find rest. + +All occupations of heart and mind and will and active life with +other things to the exclusion of supreme devotion to God are, then, +sacrilege and rebellion. The emperor's head was the token of +sovereignty and carried with it the obligation to pay tribute. Every +fibre in your nature protests against the prostitution of itself to +anything short of God. You remember the story in the Old Testament +about that saturnalia of debauchery, the night when Babylon fell, +when Bel-shazzar, in the very wantonness of godless insolence, could +not be satisfied with drinking his wine out of anything less sacred +than the vessels that had been brought from the Temple at Jerusalem. +That is what many of us are doing, taking the sacred cup which is +meant to be filled with the wine of the kingdom and pouring into it +the foaming but poisonous beverages which steal away our brains and +make us drunk, the moment before our empire totters to its fall and +we to our ruin. 'All the consecrated things of the house of the Lord +they dedicated to Baal,' says one of the narratives in the Book of +Chronicles. That is what some of us are doing, taking the soul that +is meant to be consecrated to God and find its blessedness there, +and offering it to false gods in whose service there is no +blessedness. + +For, dear friends, I beseech you, lay this to heart that you cannot +thus use the Godlike being that you possess without bringing down +upon your heads miseries and unrest. The raven, that black bird of +evil omen, went out from the ark, and flew homeless over the +weltering ocean. The souls that seek not God fly thus, strangers and +restless, through a drowned and lifeless world. The dove came back +with an olive branch in its beak. Souls that are wise and have made +their nests in the sanctuary can there fold their wings and be at +peace. As the ancient saint said, 'We are made for God, and only in +God have we rest.' 'Oh, that thou hadst hearkened to me, then had +thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the +sea.' Cannot you see the blessed, gentle gliding of the full stream +through the meadows with the sunshine upon its ripples? Such is the +heart that has yielded itself to God. In solemn contrast to that +lovely image, the same prophet has for a repeated refrain in his +book, 'The wicked is like the troubled sea which cannot rest,' but +goes moaning round the world, and breaking in idle foam upon every +shore, and still is unquiet for evermore. Brethren, only when we +render to God the thing that is God's--our hearts and ourselves-have +we repose. + +III. Now, lastly, notice the restoration and perfecting of the +defaced image. + +Because man is like God, it is possible for God to become like man. +The possibility of Revelation and of Redemption by an incarnate +Saviour depend upon the reality of the fact that man is made in the +image of God. Thus there comes to us that divine Christ, who lays +'His hands upon both' and being on the one hand the express image of +His person, so that He can say, 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the +Father,' on the other hand 'was in all points made like unto His +brethren,' with only the exception that the defacement which had +obliterated the divine image in them left it clear, untarnished, and +sharply cut in Him. + +Therefore, because Jesus Christ has come, our Brother, 'bone of our +bone, and flesh of our flesh,' made like unto us, and in our +likeness presenting to us the very image of God and eradiation of +His light, therefore no defacement that it is possible for men or +devils to make on this poor humanity of ours need be irrevocable and +final. All the stains may be blotted out, all the usurping +superscriptions may be removed and the original imprint restored. +The dints may be elevated, the too lofty points may be lowered, the +tarnish and the rust may be rubbed off, and, fairer than before, the +likeness of God may be stamped on every one of us, 'after the image +of Him that created us,' if only we will turn ourselves to that dear +Lord, and cast our souls upon Him. Christ hath become like us that +we might become like Him, and therein be partakers of the divine +nature. 'We all, reflecting as a glass does the glory of the Lord, +may be changed into the same image from glory to glory.' + +Nor do the possibilities stop there, for we look forward to a time +when, if I might pursue the metaphor of my text, the coinage shall +be called in and reminted, in new forms of nobleness and of +likeness. We have before us this great prospect, that 'we shall be +like Him, for we shall see Him as He is'; and in all the glories of +that heaven we shall partake, for all that is Christ's is ours, and +'we that have borne the image of the earthly shall also bear the +image of the heavenly.' + +I come to you, then, with this old question: 'Whose image and +superscription hath it?' and the old exhortation founded thereupon: +'Render therefore to God the thing that is God's'; and yield +yourselves to Him. Another question I would ask, and pray that you +may lay it to heart, 'To what purpose is this waste?' What are you +doing with the silver penny of your own soul? Wherefore do ye 'spend +it for that which is not bread?' Give yourselves to God; trust +yourselves to the Christ who is like you, and like Him. And, resting +upon His great love you will be saved from the prostitution of +capacities, and the vain attempts to satisfy your souls with the +husks of earth; and whilst you remain here will be made partakers of +Christ's life, and growingly of His likeness, and when you remove +yonder, your body, soul, and spirit will be conformed to His image, +and transformed into the likeness of His glory, 'according to the +mighty working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto +Himself.' + + + + +WHEN SHALL THESE THINGS BE? + + + 'And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, + then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. 21. Then + let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and + let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and + let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. + 22. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things + which are written may he fulfilled. 23. But woe unto + them that are with child, and to them that give suck, + in those days! for there shall be great distress in the + land, and wrath upon this people. 24. And they shall + fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away + captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be + trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the + Gentiles be fulfilled. 25. And there shall be signs in + the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon + the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea + and the waves roaring; 26. Men's hearts failing them + for fear, and for looking after those things which are + coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be + shaken. 27. And then shall they see the Son of man + coming in a cloud, with power and great glory. 28. And + when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, + and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth + nigh. 29. And He spake to them a parable; Behold the + fig-tree, and all the trees; 30. When they now shoot + forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer + is now nigh at hand. 31. So likewise ye, when ye see + these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of + God is nigh at hand. 32. Verily I say unto you, This + generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled. + 33. Heaven and earth shall pass away; but My words + shall not pass away. 34. And take heed to yourselves, + lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with + surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, + and so that day come upon you unawares. 35. For as a + snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face + of the whole earth. 36. Watch ye therefore, and pray + always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all + these things that shall come to pass, and to stand + before the Son of Man.'--LUKE xxi. 20-36. + +This discourse of our Lord's is in answer to the disciples' double +question as to the time of the overthrow of the Temple and the +premonitory signs of its approach. The former is answered with the +indefiniteness which characterises prophetic chronology; the +latter is plainly answered in verse 20. + +The whole passage divides itself in four well-marked sections. + +I. There is the prediction of the fall of Jerusalem (vs. 20-24). The +'sign' of her 'desolation' was to be the advance of the enemy to her +walls. Armies had been many times encamped round her, and many times +been scattered; but this siege was to end in capture, and no angel +of the Lord would stalk by night through the sleeping host, to +stiffen sleep into death, nor would any valour of the besieged +avail. Their cause was to be hopeless from the first. Flight was +enjoined. Usually the inhabitants of the open country took refuge in +the fortified capital when invasion harrowed their fields; but this +time, for 'them that are in the country' to 'enter therein' was to +throw away their last chance of safety. The Christians obeyed, and +fled, as we all know, across Jordan to Pella. The rest despised +Jesus' warning--if they knew it,---and perished. + +Mark the reason for the exhortation not to resist, but to flee: +These are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may +be fulfilled.' That is to say, the besiegers are sent by God to +execute His righteous and long-ago-pronounced judgments. Therefore +it is vain to struggle against them. Behind the Roman army is the +God of Israel. To dash against their cohorts is to throw one's self +on the thick bosses of the Almighty's buckler, and none who dare do +that can 'prosper.' Submission to His retributive hand is the only +way to escape being crushed by it. Chastisement accepted is +salutary, but kicking against it drives the goad deeper into the +rebellious limb. + +So great is the agony to be, that what should be a joy, the birth of +children, will be a woe, and the sweet duties of motherhood a curse, +while the childless will be happier than the fugitives burdened with +helpless infancy. We should note, too, that the 'distress' which +comes upon the land is presented in darker colours, and traced to +its origin, in (God's)'wrath' dealt out 'unto this people.' Happier +they who 'fall by the edge of the sword' than they who are led +'captive into all the nations.' + +A gleam of hope shoots through the stormy prospect, for the treading +down of Jerusalem by the Gentiles has a term set to it. It is to +continue 'till the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.' That +expression is important, for it clearly implies that these 'times' +are of considerable duration, and it thus places a period of +undefined extent between the fall of Jerusalem and the subsequent +prophecy. The word used for 'times' generally carries with it the +notion of opportunity, and here seems to indicate that the break-up +of the Jewish national existence would usher in a period in which +the 'Gentiles' would have the kingdom of God offered to them. The +history of the world since the city fell is the best comment on this +saying. + +II. Since the 'times of the Gentiles' are thus of indefinite +duration, they make a broad line of demarcation between what +precedes and what follows them. Clearly the prophecy in verses 25-27 +is separated in time from the fall of Jerusalem, and it is no +objection to that view that the separation is not more emphatically +pointed out by our Lord. These verses distinctly refer to His last +coming to judgment. Verse 27 is too grand and too distinctly cast in +the mould of the other predictions of that coming to be interpreted +of His ideal coming in the judgments on the city. + +The 'signs in sun and moon and stars' may refer in accordance with a +familiar symbolism, to the overthrow of royalties and dominions; the +sea roaring may, in like manner, symbolise agitations among the +people; but the 'cloud' and the 'power and great glory' with which +the Son of man comes, can mean nothing else than what they mean in +other prophetic passages; namely, His visible appearance, invested +with the shekinah light, and wielding divine authority before the +gaze of a world. + +The city's fall, then, was the initial stage of a process, the +duration of which is undefined here, but implied to be considerable, +and of which the closing stage is the personal coming of Jesus. The +same conclusion is supported by verse 28, which treats that fall as +the beginning of the fulfilment of the prophecy. + +III. That verse forms a transition to the section containing the +illustrative parable and the reiteration of the assurance that +Christ's words would certainly be fulfilled. The disciples might +naturally quake at the prospect, and wonder how they could face the +reality. Jesus gives them strong words of cheer, which apply to all +dreaded contingencies and to all social convulsions. What is a +messenger of destruction to Christless men and institutions is a +harbinger of full 'redemption' to His servants. Earthquakes but open +their prison doors and loose their bands, they should not shake +their hearts. + +Historically the fall of Jerusalem was a powerful factor in the +deliverance of the Church from Jewish swaddling-bands which hampered +its growing limbs. For all Christians the destruction of what can +perish brings fuller vision and possession of what cannot be shaken. +To Christ's friends, all things work for good. So the parable which +at first sight seems strangely incongruous becomes blessedly +significant and fitting. The gladsome blossoming of the trees, the +herald of the glories of summer, is a strange emblem of such a +tragedy, and summer itself is a still stranger one of that solemn +last judgment. But the might of humble trust in Him who comes to +judge makes His coming summer-like in the light and warmth with +which it floods the soul, and the rich fruitage which it produces +there. + +Observe, too, that the parable confirms the idea of a process having +stages, for the lesson of the blossoming fig-tree is not that summer +has come, but that it is nigh. + +The solemn assurance in verse 32, made more weighty by the 'Verily I +say,' seems at first sight to bring the final judgment within the +lifetime of the generation of the hearers. But it is noteworthy that +the expression 'till all things are fulfilled' is almost verbally +identical with that in verse 22, which refers only to the +destruction of Jerusalem, and is therefore most naturally +interpreted as having the same restricted application here. The +difference between the two phrases is significant, since in the +former the certainty of fulfilment is deduced from the fact of 'the +things' being written--that is, they must be accomplished because +they have been foretold in Scripture,--whereas in the latter Christ +rests the certainty of fulfilment on His own word. That majestic +assurance in verse 33 comes well from His lips, and makes claim that +His word shall outlast the whole present material order, and be +fulfilled in every detail. Think of a mere man saying that! + +IV. Exhortations corresponding to the predictions follow. Christ's +revelation of the future was neither meant to gratify idle curiosity +nor to supply a timetable in advance, but to minister encouragement +and to lead to watchfulness. Whether 'that day' (ver. 34) is +understood of the fall of Jerusalem or of the final coming of the +Lord, it will come 'as a snare' upon men who are absorbed with the +earth which they inhabit. They will be captured by it, as a covey of +birds in a field busily picking up grain, are netted by one sudden +fling of the fowler's net. A wary eye would have saved them. + +The exhortation is as applicable to us, for, whatever are our views +about unfulfilled prophecy, death comes to us all at a time which we +know not, as the Book of Ecclesiastes, using the same figure, says; +'Man knoweth not his time ... as the birds that are caught in the +snare.' Hearts must be kept above the grosser satisfactions of sense +and the less gross cares of life, being neither stupefied with +gorging earth's good, nor preoccupied with its gnawing anxieties, +both of which are destructive of the clear realisation of the +certain future. We are to preserve an attitude of wakefulness and of +expectancy, and, as the sure way to it, and to clearing our hearts +of perishable delights and shortsighted, self-consuming cares, we +are to keep them in a continual posture of supplication. If our +study of unfulfilled prophecy does that for us, it will have done +what Jesus means it to do; if it does not it matters little what +theories about its chronology we may adopt. + +The two stages which we have tried to point out in this passage are +clearly marked at the close, where escaping 'all these things that +shall come to pass' and standing 'before the Son of man' are +distinguished. True, both stages were to be included in the +experience of Christ's hearers, but they are none the less separate +stages. + +Luke's version of this great discourse gives less prominence to the +final coming than does Matthew's, and does not blend the two stages +so inextricably together; but it gives no hint of the duration of +the 'times of the Gentiles,' and might well leave the impression +that these were brief. Now in this close setting together of a +nearer and a much more remote future, with little prominence given +to the interval between, our Lord is but bringing His prophecy into +line with the constant manner of the older prophets. They and He +paint the future in perspective, and the distance, seen behind the +foreground, seems nearer than it really is. The spectator does not +know how many weary miles have to be traversed before the distant +blue hills are to be reached, nor what deep gorges lie between. + +Such bringing together of events far apart in time of fulfilment +rests in part on the fact that there have been many 'days of the +Lord,' many 'comings of Christ,' each of which is a result on a +small scale of the same retributive action of the Judge of all, as +shall be manifested on the largest scale in the last and greatest +day of the Lord. Therefore the true use of all these predictions is +that which Christ enforces here; namely, that they should lead us to +prayerful watchfulness and to living above earth, its goods and +cares. + + + + +THE LORD'S SUPPER + + + 'Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the + passover must be killed. 8. And He sent Peter and + John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we + may eat. 9. And they said unto Him, Where wilt thou + that we prepare? 10. And He said unto them, Behold, + when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man + meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into + the house where he entereth in. 11. And ye shall say + unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto + thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the + passover with My disciples? 12. And he shall shew you + a large upper room furnished: there make ready. + 13. And they went, and found as He had said unto them: + and they made ready the passover. 14. And when the + hour was come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles + with Him. 15. And He said unto them, With desire I + have desired to eat this passover with you before I + suffer: 16. For I say unto you, I will not any more + eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of + God. 17. And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and + said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: + 18. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit + of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. + 19. And He took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, + and gave unto them, saying, This is My body which is + given for you: this do in remembrance of Me. + 20. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This + cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed + for you.'--LUKE xxii. 7-20. + +Paul had his account of the Last Supper direct from Christ. Luke +apparently had his from Paul, so that the variations from Matthew and +Mark are invested with singular interest, as probably traceable to +the Lord of the feast Himself. Our passage has three sections--the +preparation, the revelation of Christ's heart, and the institution +of the rite. + +I. The Preparation.--Peculiar to Luke are the names of the disciples +entrusted with it, and the representation of the command, as +preceding the disciples' question 'Where?' The selection of Peter +and John indicates the confidential nature of the task, which comes +out still more plainly in the singular directions given to them. +Luke's order of command and question seems more precise than that of +the other Gospels, as making our Lord the originator instead of +merely responsive to the disciples' suggestion. + + +How is the designation of the place which Christ gives to be +understood? Was it supernatural knowledge, or was it the result of +previous arrangement with the 'goodman of the house'? Most probably +the latter; for he was in so far a disciple that he recognised Jesus +as 'the Master,' and was glad to have Him in his house, and the +chamber on the roof was ready 'furnished' when they came. Why this +mystery about the place? The verses before our passage tell the +reason. + +Judas was listening, too, for the answer to 'Where?' thinking that +it would give him the 'opportunity' which he sought 'to betray Him +in the absence of the multitude.' Jesus had much to say to His +disciples, and needed the quiet hours in the upper room, and +therefore sent away the two with directions which revealed nothing +to the others. If He had told the group where the house was, the +last supper might never have been instituted, nor the precious +farewell words, the holy of holies of John's Gospel, ever been +spoken. Jesus takes precautions to delay the Cross. He takes none to +escape it, but rather sets Himself in these last days to bring it +near. The variety in His action means no change in His mind, but +both modes are equally the result of His self-forgetting love to us +all. So He sends away Peter and John with sealed orders, as it were, +and the greedy ears of the traitor are balked, and none know the +appointed place till Jesus leads them to it. The two did not come +back, but Christ guided the others to the house, when the hour was +come. + +II. Verses 14-18 give a glimpse into Christ's heart as He partook, +for the last time, of the Passover. He discloses His earnest desire +for that last hour of calm before He went out to face the storm, and +reveals His vision of the future feast in the perfect kingdom. That +desire touchingly shows His brotherhood in all our shrinking from +parting with dear ones, and in our treasuring of the last sweet, sad +moments of being together. That was a true human heart, 'fashioned +alike' with ours, which longed and planned for one quiet hour before +the end, and found some bracing for Gethsemane and Calvary in the +sanctities of the Upper Room. But the desire was not for Himself +only. He wished to partake of that Passover, and then to transform +it for ever, and to leave the new rite to His servants. + +Our Lord evidently ate of the Passover; for we cannot suppose that +His words in verse 15 relate to an ungratified wish, but, as +evidently, that eating was finished before He spoke. We shall best +conceive the course of events if we suppose that the earlier stages +of the paschal ceremonial were duly attended to, and that the Lord's +Supper was instituted in connection with its later parts. We need +not discuss what was the exact stage at which our Lord spoke and +acted as in verses 15-17. It is sufficient to note that in them He +gives what He does not taste, and that, in giving, His thoughts +travel beyond all the sorrow and death to reunion and perfected +festal joys. These anticipations solaced His heart in that supreme +hour. 'For the joy that was set before Him' He 'endured the Cross,' +and this was the crown of His joy, that all His friends should share +it with Him, and sit at His table in His kingdom. + +The prophetic aspect of the Lord's Supper should never be left out +of view. It is at once a feast of memory and of hope, and is also a +symbol for the present, inasmuch as it represents the conditions of +spiritual life as being participation in the body and blood of +Christ. This is where Paul learned his 'till He come'; and that hope +which filled the Saviour's heart should ever fill ours when we +remember His death. + +III. Verses 19 and 20 record the actual institution of the Lord's +Supper. Note its connection with the rite which it transforms. The +Passover was the memorial of deliverance, the very centre of Jewish +ritual. It was a family feast, and our Lord took the place of the +head of the household. That solemnly appointed and long-observed +memorial of the deliverance which made a mob of slaves into a nation +is transfigured by Jesus, who calls upon Jew and Gentile to forget +the venerable meaning of the rite, and remember rather His work for +all men. It is strange presumption thus to brush aside the Passover, +and in effect to say, 'I abrogate a divinely enjoined ceremony, and +breathe a new meaning into so much of it as I retain.' Who is He who +thus tampers with God's commandments? Surely He is either One having +a co-ordinate authority, or----? But perhaps the alternative is best +left unspoken. + +The separation of the symbols of the body and blood plainly +indicates that it is the death of Jesus, and that a violent one, +which is commemorated. The double symbol carries in both its parts +the same truth, but with differences. Both teach that all our hopes +are rooted in the death of Jesus, and that the only true life of our +spirits comes from participation in His death, and thereby in His +life. But in addition to this truth common to both, the wine, which +represents His blood, is the seal of the 'new covenant.' Again we +mark the extraordinary freedom with which Christ handles the most +sacred parts of the former revelation, putting them aside as He +wills, to set Himself in their place. He declares, by this rite, +that through His death a new 'covenant' comes into force as between +God and man, in which all the anticipations of prophets are more +than realised, and sins are remembered no more, and the knowledge of +God becomes the blessing of all, and a close relationship of mutual +possession is established between God and us, and His laws are +written on loving hearts and softened wills. + +Nor is even this all the meaning of that cup of blessing; for blood +is the vehicle of life, and whoso receives Christ's blood on his +conscience, to sprinkle it from dead works, therein receives, not +only cleansing for the past, but a real communication of 'the Spirit +of life' which was 'in Christ' to be the life of his life, so as +that he can say, 'I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' Nor +is even this all; for, as wine is, all the world over, the emblem of +festivity, so this cup declares that to partake of Christ is to have +a fountain of joy in ourselves, which yet has a better source than +ourselves. Nor is this all; for 'this cup' is prophecy as well as +memorial and symbol, and shadows the new wine of the kingdom and the +marriage supper of the Lamb. + +'This is My body' could not have meant to the hearers, who saw Him +sitting there in bodily form, anything but 'this is a symbol of My +body.' It is but the common use of the word in explaining a +figurative speech or act. 'The field is the world; the tares are the +children of the wicked one; the reapers are the angels,'--and so in +a hundred cases. + +Luke alone preserves for us the command to 'do this,' which at once +establishes the rite as meant to be perpetual, and defines the true +nature of it. It is a memorial, and, if we are to take our Lord's +own explanation, only a memorial. There is nothing here of +sacramental efficacy, but simply the loving desire to be remembered +and the condescending entrusting of some power to recall him to +these outward symbols. Strange that, if the communion were so much +more, as the sacramentarian theory makes it, the feast's own Founder +should not have said a word to hint that it was. + +And how deep and yet lowly an insight into His hold on our hearts +the institution of this ordinance shows Him to have had! The Greek +is, literally, 'In order to My remembrance.' He knew that--strange +and sad as it may seem, and impossible as, no doubt, it did seem to +the disciples--we should be in constant danger of forgetting Him; +and therefore, in this one case, He enlists sense on the side of +faith, and trusts to these homely memorials the recalling, to our +treacherous memories, of His dying love. He wished to live in our +hearts, and that for the satisfaction of His own love and for the +deepening of ours. + +The Lord's Supper is a standing evidence of Christ's own estimate of +where the centre of His work lies. We are to remember His death. Why +should it be selected as the chief treasure for memory, unless it +was something altogether different from the death of other wise +teachers and benefactors? If it were in His case what it is in all +others, the end of His activity for blessing, and no part of His +message to the world, what need is there for the Lord's Supper, and +what meaning is there in it, if Christ's death were not the +sacrifice for the world's sin? Surely no view of the significance +and purpose of the Cross but that which sees in it the propitiation +for the world's sins accounts for this rite. A Christianity which +strikes the atoning death of Jesus out of its theology is sorely +embarrassed to find a worthy meaning for His dying command, 'This do +in remembrance of Me.' + +But if the breaking of the precious alabaster box of His body was +needed in order that 'the house' might be 'filled with the odour of +the ointment,' and if His death was the indispensable condition of +pardon and impartation of His life, then 'wheresoever this gospel +shall be preached in the whole world, there,' as its vital centre, +shall His death be proclaimed, and this rite shall speak of it for a +memorial of Him, and 'show the Lord's death till He come.' + + + + +PARTING PROMISES AND WARNINGS + + + 'And there was also a strife among them, which of them + should be accounted the greatest. 25. And He said unto + them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over + them; and they that exercise authority upon them are + called benefactors. 26. But ye shall not be so: but he + that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; + and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. 27. For + whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he + that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am + among you as He that serveth. 28. Ye are they which + have continued with Me in My temptations. 29. And I + appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath + appointed unto Me; 30. That ye may eat and drink at My + table in My kingdom and sit on thrones judging the + twelve tribes of Israel. 31. And the Lord said, Simon, + Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he + may sift you as wheat: 32. But I have prayed for thee, + that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, + strengthen thy brethren. 33. And he said unto Him, + Lord, I am ready to go with Thee, both into prison, + and to death. 34. And He said, I tell thee, Peter, the + cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt + thrice deny that thou knowest Me. 35. And He said unto + them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and + shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. + 36. Then said He unto them, But now, he that hath a + purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he + that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy + one. 37. For I say unto you, that this that is written + must yet be accomplished in Me, And He was reckoned + among the transgressors: for the things concerning Me + have an end.'--LUKE xxii. 24-37. + +It was blameworthy, but only too natural, that, while Christ's heart +was full of His approaching sufferings, the Apostles should be +squabbling about their respective dignity. They thought that the +half-understood predictions pointed to a brief struggle immediately +preceding the establishment of the kingdom, and they wished to have +their rank settled in advance. Possibly, too, they had been +disputing as to whose office was the menial task of presenting the +basin for foot-washing. So little did the first partakers of the +Lord's Supper 'discern the Lord's body,' and so little did His most +loving friends share His sorrows. + +I. Our Lord was not so absorbed in His anticipations of the near +Cross as to be unobservant of the wrangling among the Apostles. Even +then His heart was enough at leisure from itself to observe, to +pity, and to help. So He at once turns to deal with the false ideas +of greatness betrayed by the dispute. The world's notion is that the +true use and exercise of superiority is to lord it over others. +Tyrants are flattered by the title of benefactor, which they do not +deserve, but the giving of which shows that, even in the world, some +trace of the true conception lingers. It was sadly true, at that +time, that power was used for selfish ends, and generally meant +oppression. One Egyptian king, who bore the title Benefactor, was +popularly known as Malefactor, and many another old-world monarch +deserved a like name. + +Jesus lays down the law for His followers as being the exact +opposite of the world's notion. Dignity and pre-eminence carry +obligations to serve. In His kingdom power is to be used to help +others, not to glorify oneself. In other sayings of Christ's, +service is declared to be the way to _become_ great in the +kingdom, but here the matter is taken up at another point, and +greatness, already attained on whatever grounds, is commanded to be +turned to its proper use. The way to become great is to become +small, and to serve. The right use of greatness is to become a +servant. That has become a familiar commonplace now, but its +recognition as the law for civic and other dignity is all but +entirely owing to Christianity. What conception of such a use of +power has the Sultan of Turkey, or the petty tyrants of heathen +lands? The worst of European rulers have to make pretence to be +guided by this law; and even the Pope calls himself 'the servant of +servants.' + +It is a commonplace, but like many another axiom, universal +acceptance and almost as universal neglect are its fate. Ingrained +selfishness fights against it. Men admire it as a beautiful saying, +and how many of us take it as our life's guide? We condemn the +rulers of old who wrung wealth out of their people and neglected +every duty; but what of our own use of the fraction of power we +possess, or our own demeanour to our inferiors in world or church? +Have all the occupants of royal thrones or presidential chairs, all +peers, members of Parliament, senators, and congressmen, used their +position for the public weal? Do we regard ours as a trust to be +administered for others? Do we feel the weight of our crown, or are +we taken up with its jewels, and proud of ourselves for it? Christ's +pathetic words, giving Himself as the example of greatness that +serves, are best understood as referring to His wonderful act of +washing the disciples' feet. Luke does not record it, and probably +did not know it, but how the words are lighted up if we bring them +into connection with it! + +II. Verses 28 to 30 naturally flow from the preceding. They lift a +corner of the veil, and show the rewards, when the heavenly form of +the kingdom has come, of the right use of eminence in its earthly +form. How pathetic a glimpse into Christ's heart is given in that +warm utterance of gratitude for the imperfect companionship of the +Twelve! It reveals His loneliness, His yearning for a loving hand to +grasp, His continual conflict with temptations to choose an easier +way than that of the Cross. He has known all the pain of being +alone, and feeling in vain for a sympathetic heart to lean on. He +has had to resist temptation, not only in the desert at the +beginning, or in Gethsemane at the end, but throughout His life. He +treasures in His heart, and richly repays, even a little love dashed +with much selfishness, and faithfulness broken by desertion. We do +not often speak of the tempted Christ, or of the lonely Christ, or +of the grateful Christ, but in these great words we see Him as being +all these. + +The rewards promised point onwards to the perfecting of the kingdom +in the future life. We notice the profound thought that the kingdom +which His servants are to inherit is conferred on them, '_as_ +My Father hath appointed unto Me,'--that is, that it is a kingdom +won by suffering and service, and wielded by gentleness and for +others. 'If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.' The +characteristics of the future royalty of Christ's servants are given +in highly figurative language. A state of which we have no +experience can only be revealed under forms drawn from experience; +but these are only far-off approximations, and cannot be pressed. + +The sacred Last Supper suggested one metaphor. It was the last on +earth, but its sanctity would be renewed in heaven, and sadness and +separation and the following grief would not mar the perfect, +perpetual, joyful feast. What dim visions of rule and delegated +authority may lie in the other promise of judging the twelve tribes +of Israel, we must wait till we go to that world to understand. But +this is clear, that continuing with Jesus here leads to everlasting +companionship hereafter, in which all desires shall be satisfied, +and we shall share in His authority and be representatives of His +glory. + +III. But Jesus abruptly recalls Himself and the Twelve from these +remoter prospects of bliss to the nearer future of trial and +separation. The solemn warning to Peter follows with startling +suddenness. Why should they be fighting about precedence when they +were on the verge of the sorest trial of their constancy? And as for +Peter, who had, no doubt, not been the least loud-voiced in the +strife, he needed most of all to be sobered. Our narrow limits +forbid our doing even partial justice to the scene with him; but we +note the significant use of the old name 'Simon,' reminding the +Apostle of his human weakness, and its repetition, giving emphasis +to the address. + +We note, too, the partial withdrawal of the veil which hides the +spirit world from us, in the distinct declaration of the agency of a +personal tempter, whose power is limited, though his malice is +boundless, and who had to obtain God's permission ere he could +tempt. His sieve is made to let the wheat through, and to retain the +chaff. It will be hard to empty this saying of its force. Christ +taught the existence and operation of Satan; but He taught, too, +that He Himself was Satan's victorious antagonist and our prevailing +intercessor. He is so still. He does not seek to avert conflict from +us, but prays that our faith fail not, and Himself, too, fulfils the +prayer by strengthening us. + +Faith, then, conquers, and withstands Satan's sifting. If it holds +out, we shall not fall, though all the winds howl round us. We are +not passive between the two antagonists, but have to take our share +in the struggle. Partial failures may be followed by recovery, and +even tend to increase our power to strengthen other tempted ones, by +the experience gained of our own weakness, which deepens humility +and forbearance with others' faults, and by the experience of +Christ's strength, which makes us able to direct them to the source +of all safety. + +Peter's passionate avowal of readiness to bear anything, if only he +was with Christ, is the genuine utterance of a warm impulsive heart, +which took too little heed of Christ's solemn warning, and fancied +that the tide of present feeling would always run as strong as now. +Emotion fluctuates. Steadfast devotion is chary of mortgaging the +future by promises. He who knows himself is slow to say, 'I will,' +for he knows that 'Oh that I may!' is fitter for his weakness. Very +likely, if Peter had been offered fetters or the scaffold then and +there, he would have accepted them bravely; but it was a different +thing in the raw, cold morning, after an agitating night, and the +Master away at the far end of the great hall. A flippant maid's +tongue was enough to finish him then. + +It is sometimes easier to bear a great load for Christ than a small +one. Some of us could be martyrs at the stake more easily than +confessors among sneering neighbours. Jesus had spared the Apostle +in the former warning of his fall, but He spoke plainly at last, +since the former had been ineffectual; and He addressed him by his +new name of Peter, as if to heighten the sin of denial by recalling +the privileges bestowed. + +IV. The last part of the passage deals with the new conditions +consequent on Christ's departure. The Twelve had been exempt from +the care of providing for themselves while He was with them, but now +they are to be launched into the world alone, like fledglings from +the nest. Not that His presence is not with them or with us, but +that His absence throws the task of providing for wants and guarding +against dangers on themselves, as had not been the case during the +blessed years of companionship. Hence the injunctions in verse 36 +lay down the permanent law for the Church, while verse 37 assigns as +its reason the speedy fulfilment of the prophecies of Messiah's +sufferings. + +Substantially the meaning of the whole is: 'I am on the point of +leaving you, and, when I am gone, you must use common-sense means +for provision and protection. I provided for you while I was here, +without your co-operation. Remember how I did so, and trust Me to +provide in future, through your co-operation.' + +The life of faith does not exclude ordinary prudence and the use of +appropriate means. It is more in accord with Christ's mind to have a +purse to keep money in, and a wallet for food-stores, than to go +out, as some good people do, saying, 'The Lord will provide.' Yes, +He will; but it will be by blessing your common-sense and effort. As +to the difficulty felt in the injunction to buy a sword, our Lord +would be contradicting His whole teaching if He was here commanding +the use of arms for the defence of His servants or the promotion of +His kingdom. That He did not mean literal swords is plain from His +answer to the Apostles, who produced the formidable armament of two. + +'It is enough.' A couple are plenty to fight the Roman Empire with. +Yes, two too many, as was soon seen. The expression is plainly an +intensely energetic metaphor, taking line with purse and scrip. The +plain meaning of the whole is that we are called on to provide +necessary means of provision and defence, which He will bless. The +only sword permitted to His followers is the sword of the Spirit. + + + + +CHRIST'S IDEAL OF A MONARCH +[Footnote: Preached on the occasion of the death of Queen Victoria.] + + + 'And He said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles + exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise + authority upon them are called benefactors. 26. But ye + shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, + let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he + that doth serve.'--LUKE xxii. 25-26. + +There have been sovereigns of England whose death was a relief. There +have been others who were mourned with a certain tepid and decorous +regret. But there has never been one on whose bier have been heaped +such fragrant wreaths of universal love and sorrow as have been laid +upon hers whom we have not yet learned to call by another name than +that which has been musical for all these years--the Queen. Why has +her people's love thus compassed her? Surely, chiefly because they +felt and saw that Christ's ideal of rule, as stated in these words +of our text, was her ideal, which she had gone far to realise. Here +is the secret of her hold upon her people. Here is the reason why, +from almost all the world, tributes have come, and as has been well +said, 'They that loved not England loved her.' + +Now it would be impossible for me to speak words remote from the +thought that has been filling the nation's mind in these days. I can +add nothing to the many eloquent and just appreciations to which we +have listened in this past week, but I can draw your attention to +the underlying secret which moulded and shaped that life. And it +becomes the pulpit to do so. We Christians ought to infuse a +Christian element into everything. We should 'not sorrow as others,' +nor should we admire as others. We all unite in praising her, but +eulogiums which ignore the ground of the virtues which they extol +are superficial and misleading. I ask you to turn to the revelation +of the secret of the nation's love and sorrow suggested by the words +of my text. + +Christ sets forth, in two sharply contrasted pictures, the world's +ideal of a king and His ideal. The upper room was a strange place, +and the eve of Calvary was a still stranger time, for disciples to +squabble about pre-eminence. The Master was absorbed in the thought +of His Cross, the servants were quarrelling about their places in +His Kingdom. Perhaps it was the foot-washing that brought about the +unseemly strife that arose among them, each desiring to hand on the +menial office to another. Jesus Christ did it Himself; and to that, +perhaps, refer the touching words which Luke gives as following the +text; 'I am among you as he that serveth,' with the towel round His +loins, and the basin in His hand. + +The world's ideal of a King. + +Now, the one picture which He draws for us here, the world's ideal +of a king, is the portrait familiar enough to all who know anything +about that ancient order of society, of tyrants and despots, in +Assyria, Babylonia. Pharaohs and all the little kings round about +Judaea; the vile old Herod and his equally vile brood, were recent +or living examples of what the Master said when He sketched 'the +kings of the Gentiles,' They 'lord it over them.' Arrogant +superiority, imperious masterfulness, irresponsible wills, caprices +ungoverned, an absolute oblivion of duties, no thought of +responsibilities--these were the features of that ancient type of +monarch: and which, in spite of all constitutional hedges and +limitations, there is abundant room for the repetition of, even in +so-called Christian countries. + +And then, side by side with that, comes another characteristic: +'They that exercise authority upon them are called "benefactors."' +They demand titles which shall credit them with virtues that they +never try to possess, and live in a region filled with the fumes +from a thousand venal censers of a flattery which intoxicates and +makes giddy. A king in Egypt, very near our Lord's time, had borne +the title 'benefactor,' the very word that is employed here; even as +many a most ungracious sovereign has been called 'Your Most Gracious +Majesty.' + +The position tempts to such a type. And although the world has +outgrown it, yet, as I have said, there is ample room for the +recurrence to the old and obsolete form, unless a mightier hindrance +than human nature knows, come in to prevent it. An ancient prophet +lamented over the shepherds of Israel 'that do feed themselves,' and +indignantly asked, 'should not the shepherds feed the sheep?' He +meant precisely the same contrast which is drawn out at length in +these two pictures that we have before us now. + +The Christian conception. + +'Ye shall not be so.' The Christian conception is in sharp contrast +to, and the Christian realisation of the conception, should be the +absolute opposite of that type to which I have already referred. 'He +that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger'; that +suggests modesty and meekness of demeanour in bearing the loftiest +office. 'And he that is chief as he that doth serve'; that expresses +an activity, not self-regarding and self-centred, but ever used for +others. The simple words of Jesus Christ are the noblest expression +of, and, as I believe, have been the mightiest impulse in producing, +the modern recognition which, thank God! is becoming more and more +pronounced every day amongst us, that power means duty, that +elevation means the obligation to stoop, that true authority +expresses itself in service. We see that conviction growing in all +classes in England. Those who are lifted high are learning to-day, +as they never learned before, the responsibilities and obligations +of their position. And those who are low are beginning to apply the +principle as they never did before, and to test the worthiness of +the lofty, highly-endowed, wealthy, and noble, by their discharge of +the obligations of their position. And although it anticipates what +I have to say subsequently, I cannot but ask here, who shall say how +the Queen's example of authority becoming service has steadied the +Empire, and made a peaceful transition from the old type of +authority to the new, a possibility? Although not directly stated in +my text, there is implied in it another thought, namely, that whilst +power obliges to service, service brings power. He that uses his +influence, his authority, his capacities, his possessions, not for +himself, but for his brothers, will find that by the service he has +garnered in a harvest of authority, and power of command which +nothing else can ever give. + +Christ's ideal of a monarch. + +And now I may turn, without passing beyond the bounds of the pulpit +on such an occasion as the present, to look at the great illustration +of the Christian ideal which the royal life now closed has given. I +venture to say that, without exaggeration, and without irreverence, +our Queen might have taken for her own the declaration of our Lord +Himself on this occasion, 'I am among you as one that serveth.' She +served her people by the diligent discharge of the duties that were +laid upon her. During a strenuous reign of sixty-three years, she +left no arrears, nothing neglected, nothing postponed, nothing undone. +In sorrow as in joy, when life was young, and the love of husband and +family joys were new, as when husband and children were taken away, +and she was an old woman, lonelier because of her throne, she laboured +as 'ever in the great Taskmaster's eye.' That was serving her nation +by the will of God. She served her people by that swift, sincere +sympathy which claimed a share alike in great national and in small +private sorrows. Was there some shipwreck or some storm, that widowed +humble fisherfolk in their villages? The Queen's sympathy was the +first to reach them. Were the blinds drawn down in some colliery +village because of an explosion? The Queen's message was there to +bring a gleam of light into darkened homes. Did some great name in +literature or science pass away? Who but she was first to recognise +the loss, to speak gracious words of appreciation? Did some poor +shepherd die, in the strath where she made her Highland home? The +widowed Queen was beside the widowed peasant, to share and to solace. +Knowing sorrow herself only too well, she had learned to run to the +help of the wretched. Dowered doubly with a woman's gift of sympathy, +she had not let the altitude of a throne freeze its flow. + +She served her people yet more by letting them feel that she took +them into her confidence, spreading before them in the days of her +widowhood the cherished records that her happy pen had written in +the vanished days of her wifehood, opening her heart to us in mute +petition that we might give our hearts to her. She served her people +by the simplicity of her tastes and habits in these days of +senseless luxury, and fierce, sensuous excitement of living. She +served her people by the purity of her life, and so far as she could +by putting a barrier around her Court, across which nothing that was +foul could pass. 'He that worketh iniquity shall not tarry in my +house,' said an ancient king on taking his throne. And our Queen, to +the utmost of her power, said the same; and frowned down--stern for +once in a righteous cause--impurity in high places. Una had her +lion, and this protest of a woman's delicacy against the vices of +modern society is not the least of the services for which we have to +thank her. + +Let me remind you that all this patient self-surrender had its root +in Christian faith. She had taken her Lord for her example because +her faith had knit her to Him as her Saviour. + +Therefore she, as no other English sovereign, conquered the heart of +the nation, and was best loved by the best men and women. Never was +there a more striking confirmation of the truth that whoever in any +region reigns to serve will serve to reign. + +And now, before I close, let me remind you that the principles which +I have been trying to express grip us in our several spheres, quite +as tightly as they do those who may be more largely endowed, or more +loftily placed than ourselves. There is no ideal for a Christian +monarch which is not the ideal also for a Christian peasant. That +which is the duty of the highest is no less the duty of the lowest. +For us all it remains true that what we have we are bound to use, +not for ourselves, but as recognising both our stewardship to God +and the solidarity of humanity; to use for Him, that is to say, for +men. This is the secret of all high, noble, blessed life for +evermore. + +And, brethren, whilst I for one heartily rejoice in the growing +consciousness of responsibility which is being diffused through all +ranks of society today, and, bless God, for one impulse to that +recognition which, as I believe, came from the life now peacefully +closed, I shall be no doubt charged by some of you with old-fashioned +narrowness if I reiterate my own earnest conviction that we can rely +on nothing to bring about a thoroughgoing, a widely-diffused, and a +permanent altruism--to use the modern word--except the force that +comes from the motive which Jesus Christ Himself adduced, in this very +conversation, when He said, 'I am among you as he that serveth.' There +is our example, aye! and more than our example, lodged in Him, and +available for us, by our simple faith in Him. In love that seeks to +copy, lies the only power that will cast out self, that 'anarch old,' +from his usurped seat in our hearts, and will throne Jesus Christ +there. It needs a mighty lever to heave a planet from its orbit, and +to set it circling round another sun; and there is nothing that will +deliver any man, in any rank of life, from the dominion of self, +except submission to the dominion of Him who, because He died to +serve, deserves, and has won, the supreme right of authority and +dominion over human life. + +To use anything for self is to miss its highest goodness, and to mar +ourselves. To use anything for Christ and our brethren is to find +its sweetest sweetness, and to bless ourselves to the very +uttermost. Self-absorption is self-destruction; self-surrender is +self-acquisition. + +If we can truly say, 'I am among you as he that serveth,' if all our +possessions suggest to us obligations and all our powers impose on +us duties: then be we prince or peasant, rich or poor, entrusted +with many talents or with but one, we shall make the best of life +here, and pass to higher authority, which is nobler service +hereafter. Be the servant of all, and all are yours; serve Christ, +and possess yourselves--these are the lessons from that royal life +of service. May we learn them! May the King walk in his mother's +steps and hearken to 'the oracle which his mother taught him! + + + + +THE LONELY CHRIST + + + 'Ye are they which have continued with Me in My + temptations'--LUKE xxii 28. + +We wonder at the disciples when we read of the unseemly strife for +precedence which jars on the tender solemnities of the Last Supper. +We think them strangely unsympathetic and selfish; and so they were. +But do not let us be too hard on them, nor forget that there was a +very natural reason for the close connection which is found in the +gospels between our Lord's announcements of His sufferings and this +eager dispute as to who should be the greatest in the kingdom. They +dimly understood what He meant, but they did understand this much, +that His 'sufferings' were immediately to precede His 'glory'--and +so it is not, after all, to be so much wondered at if the apparent +approach of these made the settlement of their places in the +impending kingdom seem to them a very pressing question. We should +probably have thought so too, if we had been among them. + +Perhaps, too, the immediate occasion of this strife who should be +accounted the greatest, which drew from Christ the words of our text, +may have been the unwillingness of each to injure his possible claim +to pre-eminence by doing the servant's tasks at the modest meal. May +we not suppose that the basin and the towel were refused by one after +another, with muttered words growing louder and angrier: 'It is not +my place,' says Peter; 'you, Andrew, take it--and so from hand to +hand it goes, till the Master ends the strife and takes it Himself to +wash their feet. Then, when He had sat down again, He may have spoken +the words of which our text is part--in which He tells the wrangling +disciples what is the true law of honour in His kingdom, namely, +_service_, and points to Himself as the great example. With what +emphasis the pathetic incident of the foot-washing invests the clause +before our text: 'I am among you as he that serveth.' On that +disclosure of the true law of pre-eminence in His kingdom there +follows in this and following verses the assurance, that, unseemly as +their strife, there was reward for them, and places of dignity there, +because in all their selfishness and infirmity, they had still clung +to their Master. + +This being the original purpose of these words, I venture to use +them for another. They give us, if I mistake not, a wonderful +glimpse into the heart of Christ, and a most pathetic revelation of +His thoughts and experiences, all the more precious because it is +quite incidental and, we may say, unconscious. + +I. See then, here, the tempted Christ. + +In one sense, our Lord is His own perpetual theme. He is ever +speaking of Himself, inasmuch as He is ever presenting what He is to +us, and what He claims of us. In another sense, He scarcely ever +speaks of Himself, inasmuch as deep silence, for the most part, lies +over His own inward experiences. How precious, therefore, and how +profoundly significant is that word here--'in My temptations'! So He +summed up all His life. To feel the full force of the expression, it +should be remembered that the temptation in the wilderness was past +before His first disciple attached himself to Him, and that the +conflict in Gethsemane had not yet come when these words were +spoken. The period to which they refer, therefore, lies altogether +within these limits, including neither. After the former, 'Satan,' +we read, 'departed from Him for a season.' Before the latter, we +read, 'the prince of this world cometh.' The space between, of which +people are so apt to think as free from temptation, is the time of +which our Lord is speaking now. The time when His followers +'companied with Him' is to His consciousness the time of His +'temptations.' + +That is not the point of view from which the Gospel narratives +present it, for the plain reason that they are not autobiographies, +and that Jesus said little about the continuous assaults to which He +was exposed. It is not the point of view from which we often think +of it. We are too apt to conceive of Christ's temptations as all +gathered together--curdled and clotted, as it were, at the two ends +of His life, leaving the space between free. But we cannot +understand the meaning of that life, nor feel aright the love and +help that breathe from it, unless we think of it as a field of +continual and diversified temptations. + +How remarkable is the choice of the expression! To Christ, His life, +looking back on it, does not so much present itself in the aspect of +sorrow, difficulty or pain, as in that of temptation. He looked upon +all outward things mainly with regard to their power to help or to +hinder His life's work. So for us, sorrow or joy should matter +comparatively little. The evil in the evil should be felt to be sin, +and the true cross and burden of life should be to us, as to our +Master, the appeals it makes to us to abandon our tasks, and fling +away our filial dependence and submission. + +This is not the place to plunge into the thorny questions which +surround the thought of the tempted Christ. However these may be +solved, the great fact remains, that His temptations were most real +and unceasing. It was no sham fight which He fought. The story of +the wilderness is the story of a most real conflict; and that +conflict is waged all through His life. True, the traces of it are +few. The battle was fought on both sides in grim silence, as +sometimes men wage a mortal struggle without a sound. But if there +were no other witness of the sore conflict, the Victor's shout at +the close would be enough. His last words, 'I have overcome the +world,' sound the note of triumph, and tell how sharp had been the +strife. So long and hard had it been that He cannot forget it even +in heaven, and from the throne holds forth to all the churches the +hope of overcoming, 'even as I also overcame.' As on some +battlefield whence all traces of the agony and fury have passed +away, and harvests wave, and larks sing where blood ran and men +groaned their lives out, some grey stone raised by the victors +remains, and only the trophy tells of the forgotten fight, so that +monumental word, 'I have overcome' stands to all ages as the record +of the silent, life-long conflict. + +It is not for us to know how the sinless Christ was tempted. There +are depths beyond our reach. This we can understand, that a sinless +manhood is not above the reach of temptation; and this besides, +that, to such a nature, the temptations must be suggested from +without, not presented from within. The desire for food is simply a +physical craving, but another personality than His own uses it to +incite the Son to abandon dependence for His physical life on God. +The trust in God's protection is holy and good, and it may be truest +wisdom and piety to incur danger in dependence on it, when God's +service calls, but a mocking voice without suggests, under the cloak +of it, a needless rushing into peril at no call of conscience, and +for no end of mercy, which is not religion but self-will. The desire +to have the world for His own lay in Christ's deepest heart, but the +enemy of Christ and man, who thought the world his already, used it +as giving occasion to suggest a smoother and shorter road to win all +men unto Him than the 'Via Dolorosa' of the Cross. So the sinless +Christ was tempted at the beginning, and so the sinless Christ was +tempted, in various forms of these first temptations, throughout His +life. The path which He had to tread was ever before Him, the shadow +of the Cross was flung along His road from the first. The pain and +sorrow, the shame and spitting, the contradiction of sinners against +Himself, the easier path which needed but a wish to become His, the +shrinking of flesh--all these made their appeal to Him, and every +step of the path which He trod for us was trodden by the power of a +fresh consecration of Himself to His task and a fresh victory over +temptation. + +Let us not seek to analyse. Let us be content to worship, as we +look, Let us think of the tempted Christ, that our conceptions of +His sinlessness may be increased. His was no untried and cloistered +virtue, pure because never brought into contact with seducing evil, +but a militant and victorious goodness, that was able to withstand +in the evil day. Let us think of the tempted Christ that our +thankful thoughts of what He bore for us may be warmer and more +adequate, as we stand afar off and look on at the mystery of His +battle with our enemies and His. Let us think of the tempted Christ +to make the lighter burden of our cross, and our less terrible +conflict easier to bear and to wage. So will He 'continue with +_us_ in _our_ temptations,' and patience and victory flow to us from +Him. + +II. See here the lonely Christ. + +There is no aspect of our Lord's life more pathetic than that of His +profound loneliness. I suppose the most utterly solitary man that +ever lived was Jesus Christ. If we think of the facts of His life, +we see how His nearest kindred stood aloof from Him, how 'there were +none to praise, and very few to love'; and how, even in the small +company of His friends, there was absolutely none who either +understood Him or sympathised with Him. We hear a great deal about +the solitude in which men of genius live, and how all great souls +are necessarily lonely. That is true, and that solitude of great men +is one of the compensations which run through all life, and make the +lot of the many little, more enviable than that of the few great. +'The little hills rejoice together on every side,' but far above +their smiling companionships, the Alpine peak lifts itself into the +cold air, and though it be 'visited all night by troops of stars,' +it is lonely amid the silence and the snow. Talk of the solitude of +pure character amid evil, like Lot in Sodom, or of the loneliness of +uncomprehended aims and unshared thoughts--who ever experienced that +as keenly as Christ did? That perfect purity must needs have been +hurt by the sin of men as none else have ever been. That loving +heart yearning for the solace of an answering heart must needs have +felt a sharper pang of unrequited love than ever pained another. +That spirit to which the things that are seen were shadows, and the +Father and the Father's house the ever-present, only realities +must have felt itself parted from the men whose portion was in this +life, by a gulf broader than ever opened between any other two souls +that shared together human life. + +The more pure and lofty a nature, the more keen its sensitiveness, +the more exquisite its delights, and the sharper its pains. The more +loving and unselfish a heart, the more its longing for companionship: +and the more its aching in loneliness. + +Very significant and pathetic are many points in the Gospel story +bearing on this matter. The very choice of the Twelve had for its +first purpose, 'that they should be with Him,' as one of the +Evangelists tells us. We know how constantly He took the three who +were nearest to Him along with Him, and that surely not merely that +they might be 'eyewitnesses of His majesty' on the holy mount, or of +His agony in Gethsemane, but as having a real gladness and strength +even in their companionship amid the mystery of glory as amid the +power of darkness. We read of His being alone but twice in all the +gospels, and both times for prayer. And surely the dullest ear can +hear a note of pain in that prophetic word: 'The hour cometh that ye +shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone'; +while every heart must feel the pitiful pathos of the plea, 'Tarry +ye here, and watch with Me.' Even in that supreme hour, He longs for +human companionship, however uncomprehending, and stretches out His +hands in the great darkness, to feel the touch of a hand of flesh +and blood--and, alas, for poor feeble love!--He gropes for it in +vain. Surely that horror of utter solitude is one of the elements of +His passion grave and sorrowful enough to be named by the side of +the other bitterness poured into that cup, even as it was pain +enough to form a substantive feature of the great prophetic picture: +'I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for +comforters, but I found none.' + +So here, a deep pain in His loneliness is implied in these words of +our text which put the disciples' participation in the glories of +His throne as the issue of their loyal continuance with Him in the +conflict of earth. These, and these only, had been by His side, and +so much does He care for their companionship, that therefore they +shall share His dominion. + +That lonely Christ sympathises with all solitary hearts. If ever we +feel ourselves misunderstood and thrown back upon ourselves; if ever +our hearts' burden of love is rejected; if our outward lives be +lonely and earth yields nothing to stay our longing for companionship; +if our hearts have been filled with dear ones and are now empty or +filled only with tears, let us think of Him and say, 'Yet I am not +alone.' He lived alone, alone He died, that no heart might ever be +solitary any more. 'Could ye not watch with Me?' was His gentle rebuke +in Gethsemane. 'Lo, _I_ am with _you_ always,' is His mighty +promise from the throne. In every step of life we may have Him for +a companion, a friend closer than all others, nearer us than our very +selves, if we may so say--and in the valley of the shadow of death we +need fear no evil, for He will be with us. + +III. See here the grateful Christ. + +I almost hesitate to use the word, but there seems a distinct ring +of thanks in the expression, and in the connection. And we need not +wonder at that, if we rightly understand it. There is nothing in it +inconsistent with our Lord's character and relations to His +disciples. Do you remember another instance in which one seems to +hear the same tone, namely, in the marked warmth with which He +acknowledges the beautiful service of Mary in breaking the fragrant +casket of nard upon His head? + +All true love is glad when it is met, glad to give, and glad to +receive. Was it not a joy to Jesus to be waited on by the +ministering women? Would He not thank them because they served Him +for love? I trow, yes. And if any one stumbles at the word +'grateful' as applied to Him, we do not care about the word so long +as it is seen that His heart was gladdened by loving friends, and +that He recognised in their society a ministry of love. + +Notice, too, the loving estimate of what these disciples had done. +Their companionship had been imperfect enough at the best. They had +given Him but blind affection, dashed with much selfishness. In an +hour or two they would all have forsaken Him and fled. He knew all +that was lacking in them, and the cowardly abandonment which was so +near. But He has not a word to say of all this. He does not count +jealously the flaws in our work, or reject it because it is +incomplete. So here is the great truth clearly set forth, that +where there is a loving heart, there is acceptable service. It is +possible that our poor, imperfect deeds shall be an odour of a sweet +smell, acceptable, well-pleasing to Him. Which of us that is a +father is not glad at his children's gifts, even though they be +purchased with his own money, and be of little use? They mean love, +so they are precious. And Christ, in like manner, gladly accepts +what we bring, even though it be love chilled by selfishness, and +faith broken by doubt,--submission crossed by self-will. The living +heart of the disciples' acceptable service was their love, far less +intelligent and entire than ours may be. They were joined to their +Lord, though with but partial sympathy and knowledge, in His +temptations. It is possible for us to be joined to Jesus Christ more +closely and more truly than they were during His earthly life. Union +with Him here is union with Him hereafter. If we abide in Him amid +the shows and shadows of earth, He will continue with us in our +temptations, and so the fellowships begun on earth will be perfected +in heaven, 'if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be +glorified together.' + + + + +A GREAT FALL AND A GREAT RECOVERY + + + 'But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; + and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.' + --Luke xxii. 32. + +Our Lord has just been speaking words of large and cordial praise of +the steadfastness with which His friends had continued with Him in +His temptations, and it is the very contrast between that +continuance and the prevision of the cowardly desertion of the +Apostle which occasioned the abrupt transition to this solemn appeal +to him, which indicates how the forecast pained Christ's heart. He +does not let the foresight of Peter's desertion chill His praise of +Peter's past faithfulness as one of the Twelve. He does not let the +remembrance of Peter's faithfulness modify His rebuke for Peter's +intended and future desertion. He speaks to him, with significant +and emphatic reiteration of the old name of Simon that suggests +weakness, unsanctified and unhelped: 'Simon, Simon, Satan hath +desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.' _There_ is +a glimpse given, a corner of the curtain being lifted, into a dim +region in which faith should not refuse to discern so much light as +Christ has given, because superstition has so often fancied that it +saw what it only dreamed. But passing from that, the words before us +seem to me to suggest a threefold thought of the Intercessor for +tempted souls; of the consequent re-illumination of eclipsed faith; +and of the larger service for which the discipline of fall and +recovery fits him who falls. Let me say a word or two about each of +these thoughts. + +I. We have the Intercessor for tempted souls. + +Notice that majestic 'but' with which my text begins, 'Satan hath +desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, _but_ I +have prayed for thee.' He presents Himself, then, as the Antagonist, +the confident and victorious Antagonist, of whatsoever mysterious, +malignant might may lie beyond the confines of sense, and He says, +'My prayer puts the hook in leviathan's nose, and the malevolent +desire to sift, in order that not the chaff but the wheat may +disappear, comes all to nothing by the side of My prayer.' + +Note the discrimination of the intercession. He 'hath desired to +have you'--that is plural; 'I have prayed for thee'--that is +singular. The man that was in the greatest danger was the man +nearest to Christ's heart, and chiefly the object of Christ's +intercession. So it is always--the tenderest of His words, the +sweetest of His consolations, the strongest of His succours, the +most pleading and urgent of His petitions, the mightiest gifts of +His grace, are given to the weakest, the neediest, the men and women +in most sorrow and stress and peril, and they who want Him most +always have Him nearest. The thicker the darkness, the brighter His +light; the drearier our lives, the richer His presence; the more +solitary we are, the larger the gifts of His companionship. Our +need is the measure of His prayer. 'Satan hath desired to have you, +but thou, Peter, dost stand in the very focus of the danger, and so +on _thee_ are focussed, too, the rays of My love and care.' Be +sure, dear friends, that it is always so for us, and that when you +want Christ most, Christ is most to you. + +Then, I need not touch at any length upon that great subject on which +none of us can speak adequately or with full comprehension--viz. our +Lord as the Intercessor for us in all our weakness and need. We +believe in His continual manhood, we believe that He prayed upon +earth, we believe that He prays in heaven. His prayer is no mere +utterance of words: it is the presentation of a fact, the bringing +ever before the Infinite Divine Mind, as it were, of His great work +of sacrifice, as the condition which determines, and the channel +through which flows, the gift of sustaining grace from God Himself. +And so we may be sure that whensoever there come to any of us trials, +difficulties, conflicts, temptations, they are known to our Brother in +the skies, and the stormier the gales that threaten us, the closer He +wraps His protection round us. We have an Advocate and an Intercessor +before the Throne; His prayer is always heard. Oh, brethren! how +different our endurance would be, if we vividly believed that Christ +was praying for us! How it would take the sting out of sorrow, and +blunt the edge of temptation, if we realised that! O for a faith that +shall rend the heavens, and rise above the things seen and temporal, +and behold the eternal order of the universe, the central Throne, and +at the right hand of God, the Intercessor for all who love and trust +Him! + +II. Notice again the consequent re-illumination of eclipsed faith. + +'I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.' Did it fail? If +we look only at Peter's denial, we must answer, Yes. If we look at +the whole of the future life of the Apostle, we answer, No. Eclipse +is not extinction; the momentary untruthfulness to one's deepest +convictions is not the annihilation of these convictions. Christ's +prayer is never vain, and Christ's prayer was answered just because +Peter, though he fell, did not lie in the mud, but staggered to his +feet again, and with sore weeping and many an agony of shame, +struggled onward, with unconquerable hope, in the path from which, +for a moment, he strayed. Better one great outburst like his, the +nature of which there is no possibility of mistaking, than the going +on, as so many professing Christians do, from year to year, walking +in a vain show of godliness, and fancying themselves to be +disciples, when all the while they are recreants and apostates. +There is more chance of the recovery of a good man that has fallen +into some sin, 'gross as a mountain, open, palpable,' than there is +of the recovery of those who let their religion trickle out of them +in drops, and never know that their veins are empty until the heart +ceases to beat at all. + +Here, then, we have two large lessons from which we may take strength, +taught us by this darkening and re-illumination of an eclipsed faith. +One is that the sincerest love, the truest desire to follow Jesus, +the firmest faith, may be overborne, and the whole set of a life +contradicted for a time. Thank God, there is a vast difference between +conduct which is inconsistent with being a Christian and conduct which +is incompatible with being a Christian. It is dangerous, perhaps, to +apply the difference too liberally in judging ourselves; it is +imperative to apply it always in judging our fellows. But if it be +true that Peter meant, down to the very bottom of his heart, all that +he said when he said, 'I will lay down my life for Thee,' while yet +within a few hours afterwards the sad prophecy of our Lord was +fulfilled--'Thou shalt deny Me thrice!'--let us take the lesson, not, +indeed, to abate our horror of the sin, but on the one hand to cut +the comb of our own self-confidence, and on the other hand to judge +with all charity and tenderness the faults of our brethren. 'Be not +high-minded, but fear,' and when we look into the black gulf into +which Peter fell bodily, let us cry, 'Hold Thou me up and I shall be +safe.' + +The other lesson is that the deepest fall may be recovered. Our Lord in +the words of our text does not definitely prophesy what He subsequently +declares in plain terms, the fall of Peter, but He implies it when He +says, 'when thou art converted'--or, as the Revised Version reads it +much more accurately, 'when once thou hast turned again strengthen +thy brethren.' Then, the Apostle's face had been turned the wrong way +for a time, and he needed to turn right-about-face in order to renew +the old direction of his life. He came back for two reasons--one because +Christ prayed for him, and the other because he 'turned himself.' For +the only way back is through the valley of weeping and the dark lane +of penitence; and whosoever has denied with Peter, or at least grovelled +with Peter, or perhaps grovelled much more than Peter, 'denying the +Lord that bought him' by living as if He was not his Lord, will never +come back to the place that Peter again won for himself, but by the +road by which Peter went. 'The Lord turned and looked upon him,' and +Christ's face, with love and sorrow and reproach in it, taught him his +sin, and bowed his heart, 'and he went out and wept bitterly.' + +Peter and Judas both 'went out'; the one 'went out and hanged +himself,' because his conviction of his sin was unaccompanied with a +faith in his Master's love, and his repentance was only remorse; and +the other 'went out and wept bitterly,' and so came back with a +clean heart. And on the Resurrection morning he was ready for the +message: 'Go, tell His disciples, _and Peter_, He goeth before +you into Galilee.' And the Lord appeared to him, in that conversation, +the existence of which was known, though the particulars were unknown, +to the rest; and when 'He appeared unto Cephas,' spoke his full +forgiveness. There is the road back for all wanderers. + +III. The last thought is, the larger service for which such an +experience will fit him who falls. + +'Strengthen thy brethren when once thou hast turned again.' I need +not remind you how nobly the Apostle fulfilled this commandment. +Satan desired to have him, that he might sift him as wheat; but +Satan's sifting was in order that he might get rid of the wheat and +harvest the chaff. His malice worked indirectly the effect opposite +to his purpose, and achieved the same result as Christ's winnowing +seeks to accomplish--namely, it got rid of the chaff and kept the +wheat. Peter's vanity was sifted out of him, his self-confidence was +sifted out of him, his rash presumption was sifted out of him, his +impulsive readiness to blurt out the first thought that came into +his head was sifted out of him, and so his unreliableness and +changeableness were largely sifted out of him, and he became what +Christ said he had in him the makings of being--'Cephas, a rock,' +or, as the Apostle Paul, who was never unwilling to praise the +others, said, a man 'who looked like a pillar.' He 'strengthened his +brethren,' and to many generations the story of the Apostle who +denied the Lord he loved has ministered comfort. To how many tempted +souls, and souls that have yielded to temptation, and souls that, +having yielded, are beginning to grope their way back again out of +its vulgar delights and surfeiting sweetnesses, and find that there +is a desert to be traversed before they can again reach the place +where they stood before, has that story ministered hope, as it will +minister to the very end! The bone that is broken is stronger, they +tell us, at the point of junction, when it heals and grows again, +than it ever was before. And it may well be that a faith that has +made experience of falling and restoration has learned a depth of +self-distrust, a firmness of confidence in Christ, a warmth of +grateful love which it would never otherwise have experienced. + +The Apostle about whom we have been speaking seems to have carried +in his mind and memory an abiding impression from that bitter +experience, and in his letter when he was an old man, and all that +past was far away, he writes many words which sound like echoes and +reminiscences of it. In the last chapter of his epistle, in which he +speaks of himself as a witness of the sufferings of Christ, there +are numbers of verses which seem to point to what had happened in +the Upper Room. 'Ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.' +Jesus Christ had then said, 'He that is the greater among you, let +him be as the younger.' Peter says, 'Be clothed with humility'; he +remembers Christ wrapping a towel around Him, girding Himself, and +taking the basin. He says, 'God resisteth the proud,' and he +remembers how proud he had been, with his boast: 'Though all should +... yet will not I,' and how low he fell because he was 'fool' +enough to 'trust in his own heart.' 'Be sober, be vigilant; because +your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking +whom he may devour: whom resist, steadfast in the faith.' 'The God +of all grace stablish, strengthen, settle you.' He thus strengthened +his brethren when he reminded them of the temptation to which he +himself had so shamefully succumbed, and when he referred them for +all their strength to the source of it all, even God in Christ. + + + + +GETHSEMANE + + + 'And He came out, and went, as He was wont, to the + mount of Olives; and His disciples also followed Him. + 40. And when He was at the place, He said unto them, + Pray that ye enter not into temptation. 41. And He + was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and + kneeled down, and prayed, 42. Saying, Father, If Thou + be willing, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless, not + My will, but Thine, be done. 43. And there appeared an + angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him. 44. And, + being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly: and His + sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down + to the ground. 45. And when He rose up from prayer, + and was come to His disciples, He found them sleeping + for sorrow. 46. And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise + and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. 47. And while + He yet spake, beheld a multitude, and he that was + called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and + drew near unto Jesus to kiss Him. 48. But Jesus said + unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a + kiss? 49. When they which were about Him saw what would + follow, they said unto Him, Lord, shall we smite with + the sword? 50. And one of them smote a servant of the + high priest, and cut off his right ear. 51. And Jesus + answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And He touched + his ear, and healed him. 52. Then Jesus said unto the + chief priests, and captains of the temple, and the + elders, which were come to Him, Be ye come out, as + against a thief, with swords and staves? 53. When I + was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth + no hands against Me; but this is your hour, and the + power of darkness.'--Luke xxii. 39-53. + +'Put off thy shoes from off thy feet.' Cold analysis is out of place +here, where the deepest depth of a Saviour's sorrows is partly +disclosed, and we see Him bowing His head to the waves and billows +that went over Him, for our sakes. Luke's account is much condensed, +but contains some points peculiar to itself. It falls into two +parts--the solemn scene of the agony, and the circumstances of the +arrest. + +I. We look with reverent awe and thankfulness at that soul-subduing +picture of the agonising and submissive Christ which Luke briefly +draws. Think of the contrast between the joyous revelry of the +festival-keeping city and the sadness of the little company which +crossed the Kedron and passed beneath the shadow of the olive-trees +into the moonlit garden. Jesus needed companions there; but He needed +solitude still more. So He is 'parted from them'; but Luke alone +tells us how short the distance was--'as it were a stone's throw,' +and near enough for the disciples to see and hear something before +they slept. + +That clinging to and separation from His humble friends gives a +wonderful glimpse into Christ's desolation then. And how beautiful +is His care for them, even at that supreme hour, which leads to the +injunction twice spoken, at the beginning and end of His own +prayers, that they should pray, not for Him, but for themselves. He +never asks for men's prayers, but He does for their love. He thinks +of His sufferings as temptation for the disciples, and for the +moment forgets His own burden, in pointing them the way to bear +theirs. Did self-oblivious love ever shine more gloriously in the +darkness of sorrow? + +Luke omits the threefold withdrawal and return, but notes three +things--the prayer, the angel appearance, and the physical effects +of the agony. The essentials are all preserved in his account. The +prayer is truly 'the Lord's prayer,' and the perfect pattern for +ours. Mark the grasp of God's fatherhood, which is at once appeal +and submission. So should all prayer begin, with the thought, at all +events, whether with the word 'Father' or no. Mark the desire that +'this cup' should pass. The expression shows how vividly the +impending sufferings were pictured before Christ's eye. The keenest +pains of anticipation, which make so large a part of so many +sorrows, were felt by Him. He shrank from His sufferings. Did He +therefore falter in His desire and resolve to endure the Cross? A +thousand times, no! His will never wavered, but maintained itself +supreme over the natural recoil of His human nature from pain and +death. If He had not felt the Cross to be a dread, it had been no +sacrifice. If He had allowed the dread to penetrate to His will, He +had been no Saviour. But now He goes before us in the path which all +have, in their degree, to travel, and accepts pain that He may do +His work. + +That acceptance of the divine will is no mere 'If it must be so, let +it be so,' much as that would have been. But He receives in His +prayer the true answer--for His will completely coincides with the +Father's, and 'mine' is 'thine.' Such conformity of our wills with +God's is the highest blessing of prayer and the true deliverance. +The cup accepted is sweet; and though flesh may shrink, the inner +self consents, and in consenting to the pain, conquers it. + +Luke alone tells of the ministering angel; and, according to some +authorities, the forty-third and forty-fourth verses are spurious. +But, accepting them as genuine, what does the angelic appearance +teach us? It suggests pathetically the utter physical prostration +of Jesus. Sensuous religion has dwelt on that offensively, but let +us not rush to the opposite extreme, and ignore it. It teaches us +that the manhood of Jesus needed the communication of divine help as +truly as we do. The difficulty of harmonising that truth with His +divine nature was probably the reason for the omission of this verse +in some manuscripts. It teaches the true answer to His prayer, as so +often to ours; namely, the strength to bear the load, not the +removal of it. It is remarkable that the renewal of the solemn +'agony' and the intenser earnestness of prayer follow the +strengthening by the angel. + +Increased strength increased the conflict of feeling, and the +renewed and intensified conflict increased the earnestness of the +prayer. The calmness won was again disturbed, and a new recourse to +the source of it was needed. We stand reverently afar off, and ask, +not too curiously, what it is that falls so heavily to the ground, +and shines red and wet in the moonlight. But the question +irresistibly rises, Why all this agony of apprehension? If Jesus +Christ was but facing death as it presents itself to all men, His +shrinking is far beneath the temper in which many a man has fronted +the scaffold and the fire. We can scarcely save His character for +admiration, unless we see in the agony of Gethsemane something much +more than the shrinking from a violent death, and understand how +there the Lord made to meet on Him the iniquity of us all. If the +burden that crushed Him thus was but the common load laid on all +men's shoulders, He shows unmanly terror. If it were the black mass +of the world's sins, we can understand the agony, and rejoice to +think that our sins were there. + +II. The arrest. Three points are made prominent--the betrayer's +token, the disciples' resistance, the reproof of the foes, and in +each the centre of interest is our Lord's words. The sudden bursting +in of the multitude is graphically represented. The tumult broke the +stillness of the garden, but it brought deeper peace to Christ's +heart; for while the anticipation agitated, the reality was met with +calmness. Blessed they who can unmoved front evil, the foresight of +which shook their souls! Only they who pray as Jesus did beneath +the olives, can go out from their shadow, as He did, to meet the +foe. + +The first of the three incidents of the arrest brings into strong +prominence Christ's meek patience, dignity, calmness, and effort, +even at that supreme moment, to rouse dormant conscience, and save +the traitor from himself. Judas probably had no intention by his +kiss of anything but showing the mob their prisoner; but he must +have been far gone in insensibility before he could fix on such a +sign. It was the token of friendship and discipleship, and no doubt +was customary among the disciples, though we never hear of any lips +touching Jesus but the penitent woman's, which were laid on His +feet, and the traitor's. The worst hypocrisy is that which is +unconscious of its own baseness. + +Every word of Christ's answer to the shameful kiss is a sharp spear, +struck with a calm and not resentful hand right into the hardened +conscience. There is wistful tenderness and a remembrance of former +confidences in calling Him by name. The order of words in the +original emphasises the kiss, as if Jesus had said, 'Is that the +sign you have chosen? Could nothing else serve you? Are you so dead +to all feeling that you can kiss and betray?' The Son of man flashes +on Judas, for the last time, the majesty and sacredness against +which he was lifting his hand. 'Betrayest thou?' which comes last in +the Greek, seeks to startle by putting into plain words the guilt, +and so to rend the veil of sophistications in which the traitor was +hiding his deed from himself. Thus to the end Christ seeks to keep +him from ruin, and with meek patience resents not indignity, but +with majestic calmness sets before the miserable man the hideousness +of his act. The patient Christ is the same now as then, and meets +all our treason with pleading, which would fain teach us how black +it is, not because He is angry, but because He would win us to turn +from it. Alas that so often His remonstrances fall on hearts as +wedded to their sin as was Judas's! + +The rash resistance of the disciple is recorded chiefly for the sake +of Christ's words and acts. The anonymous swordsman was Peter, and +the anonymous victim was Malchus, as John tells us. No doubt he had +brought one of the two swords from the upper room, and, in a sudden +burst of anger and rashness, struck at the man nearest him, not +considering the fatal consequences for them all that might follow. +Peter could manage nets better than swords, and missed the head, in +his flurry and in the darkness, only managing to shear off a poor +slave's ear. When the Church takes sword in hand, it usually shows +that it does not know how to wield it, and as often as not has +struck the wrong man. Christ tells Peter and us, in His word here, +what His servants' true weapons are, and rebukes all armed +resistance of evil. 'Suffer ye thus far' is a command to oppose +violence only by meek endurance, which wins in the long run, as +surely as the patient sunshine melts the thick ice, which is ice +still, when pounded with a hammer. + +If 'thus far' as to His own seizure and crucifying was to be 'suffered,' +where can the breaking-point of patience and non-resistance be fixed? +Surely every other instance of violence and wrong lies far on this side +of that one. The prisoner heals the wound. Wonderful testimony that not +inability to deliver Himself, but willingness to be taken, gave Him +into the hands of His captors! Blessed proof that He lavishes benefits +on His foes, and that His delight is to heal all wounds and stanch +every bleeding heart! + +The last incident here is Christ's piercing rebuke, addressed, not to +the poor, ignorant tools, but to the prime movers of the conspiracy, +who had come to gloat over its success. He asserts His own innocence, +and hints at the preposterous inadequacy of 'swords and staves' to +take Him. He is no 'robber,' and their weapons are powerless, unless +He wills. He recalls His uninterrupted teaching in the Temple, as if +to convict them of cowardice, and perchance to bring to remembrance +His words there. And then, with that same sublime and strange majesty +of calm submission which marks all His last hours, He unveils to +these furious persecutors the true character of their deed. The +sufferings of Jesus were the meeting-point of three worlds--earth, +hell, and heaven. 'This is your hour.' But it was also Satan's hour, +and it was Christ's 'hour,' and God's. Man's passions, inflamed from +beneath, were used to work out God's purpose; and the Cross is at +once the product of human unbelief, of devilish hate, and of divine +mercy. His sufferings were 'the power of darkness.' + +Mark in that expression Christ's consciousness that He is the light, +and enmity to Him darkness. Mark, too, His meek submission, as +bowing His head to let the black flood flow over Him. Note that +Christ brands enmity to Him as the high-water mark of sin, the +crucial instance of man's darkness, the worst thing ever done. Mark +the assurance that animated Him, that the eclipse was but for an +'hour.' The victory of the darkness was brief, and it led to the +eternal triumph of the Light. By dying He is the death of death. +This Jonah inflicts deadly wounds on the monster in whose maw He lay +for three days. The power of darkness was shivered to atoms in the +moment of its proudest triumph, like a wave which is beaten into +spray as it rises in a towering crest and flings itself against the +rock. + + + + +THE CROSS THE VICTORY AND DEFEAT OF DARKNESS + + + 'This is your hour, and the power of darkness.' + --Luke xxii. 53. + +The darkness was the right time for so dark a deed. The surface +meaning of these pathetic and far-reaching words of our Lord's in +the garden to His captors is to point the correspondence between the +season and the act. As He has just said, 'He had been daily with +them in the Temple,' but in the blaze of the noontide they laid no +hands upon Him. They found a congenial hour in the midnight. But the +words go a great deal deeper than allusive symbolism of that sort. +Looking at them as giving us a little glimpse into the thoughts and +feelings of Christ, we can scarcely help tracing in them the very +clear consciousness that He was the Light, and that all antagonism +to Him was the work of darkness in an eminent and especial sense. +But whilst this unobscured consciousness, which no mere man could +venture so unqualifiedly to assert, is manifest in the words, there +is also in them, to my ear, a tone of majestic resignation, as if He +said, 'There! do your worst!' and bowed His head, as a man might do, +standing breast high in the sea, that the wave might roll over Him. +And there is in them, too, a shrinking as of horror from the surging +upon Him of the black tide to which He bows His head. + +But whilst thus pathetic and significant in their indication of the +feelings of our Lord, they have a wider and a deeper meaning still, +I think, if we ponder them; inasmuch as they open before us some +aspects of His sufferings and eminently of His Cross, which it +becomes us all to lay to heart. And it is to these that I desire to +turn your attention for a few moments. + +I. I see in them, then, first, this great thought, that the Cross of +Jesus Christ is the centre and the meeting-point for the energies of +three worlds. + +'This is your hour.' Now our Lord habitually speaks of His +sufferings, and of other points in His life, as being 'My hour,' by +which, of course, He means the time appointed to Him by God for the +doing of an appointed work. And that idea is distinctly to be +attached to the use of the word here. But, on the other hand, there +is emphasis laid on '_your_,' and that hour is thereby designated as +a time in which they could do as they would. It was their opportunity, +or, as we say in our colloquialism, now was their time when, unhindered, +they might carry into effect their purposes. + +So there is given us the thought of His passion and death as being +the most eminent and awful instance of men being left unchecked to +work out whatsoever was in their evil hearts, and to carry into +effect their blackest purposes. + +But, on the other hand, there goes with the phrase the idea to which +I have already referred; and 'this is their hour,' not merely in the +sense that it was their opportunity, but also that it was the hour +appointed by God and allotted them for their doing the thing which +their unhindered evil passions impelled them to do. And so we are +brought face to face with the most eminent instance of that great +puzzle that runs through all life--how God works out His lofty +designs by means of responsible agents, 'making the wrath of men to +praise Him,' and girding Himself with the remainder. + +Nor is that all. For the next words of my text bring in a third set +of powers as in operation. 'This is your hour' lets us see man +overarched by the abyss of the heavens, 'and the power of darkness' +lets us see the deep and awful forces that are working beneath and +surging upwards into humanity, and opens the subterranean volcanoes. +I do not say that there is any reference here to a personal +Antagonist of good, in whom these dark tendencies are focussed, but +there is a distinct reference to 'the darkness' as a whole, a kind +of organic whole, which operates upon men. Even when they think +themselves to be freest, and are carrying out their own wicked +designs, they are but the slaves of impulses that come straight from +the dark kingdom. If I may turn from the immediate purpose of my +sermon for a moment, I pray you to consider that solemn aspect of +our life, a film between two firmaments, like the earth with the +waters above and the waters beneath. On the one side it is open and +pervious to heavenly influences, and moulded by the overarching and +sovereign will, and on the other side it is all honeycombed beneath +with, and open to, the uprisings of evil, straight from the +bottomless pit. + +But if we turn to the more immediate purpose of the words, think for +a moment of the solemn and wonderful aspect which the Cross of +Christ assumes, thus contemplated. Three worlds focus their energies +upon it--heaven, earth, hell. Looked at from one side it is all +radiant and glorious, as the transcendent exhibition of the divine +love and sweetness and sacrifice and righteousness and tenderness. +But the sunshine that plays upon it shifts and passes, and looked at +from another point of view it is swathed in blackness, as the most +awful display of man's unbridled antagonism to the good. And looked +at from yet another, it assumes a still more lurid aspect as the +last stroke which the kingdom of darkness attempted to strike in +defence of its ancient and solitary reign. So earth, heaven, hell, +the God that works through man's evil passions, and yet does not +acquit them though He utilises them to a lofty issue; man that is +evil and thinks himself free; and the kingdom of darkness that uses +him as its slave--all hare part in that cross, which is thus the +result of such diametrically opposite forces. + +The divine government which reached its most beneficent ends through +the unbridled antagonism of sinful men, and made even the dark +counsels of the kingdom of darkness tributary to the diffusion of the +light, works ever in the same fashion. Antagonism and obedience both +work out its purposes. Let us learn to bow before that all-encompassing +Providence in whose great scheme both are included. Let us not confuse +ourselves by the attempt to make plain to our reason the harmony of the +two certain facts--man's freedom and God's sovereignty. Enough for us +to remember that the sin is none the less though the issue may coincide +with the divine purpose, for sin lies in the motive, which is ours, not +in the unintended result, which is God's. Enough for us to realise the +tremendous solemnity of the lives we live, with all sweet heavenly +influences falling on them from above, and all sulphurous suggestions +rising into them from the fires beneath, and to see to it that we keep +our hearts open to the one, and fast closed against the other. + +'This is your hour'--a time in which you feel yourselves free, and +yet are instruments in the hands of God, and also are tools in the +claws of evil. + +II. Still further, my text brings before us the thought that the +Cross is the high-water mark of man's sin. + +'This is the power of darkness'--the specimen instance of what it +would and can do. Strange to think that, amidst all the black +catalogue of evil deeds that have been done in this world from the +beginning, there is one deed which is the worst, and that it is this +one! Not that the doers were 'sinners above all men': for that is a +question of knowledge and of motives, but that the deed in itself +was the worst thing that ever man did. Of course I take for granted +the belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; that He came from +heaven, that He lived a life of perfect purity and beauty, and that +He died on the Cross as the Gospel tells us. And taking these things +for granted, is it not true that His rejection, His condemnation, +and His death do throw the most awful and solemn light upon what +poor humanity left to itself, and yielding to the suggestions and +the impulses of the kingdom of darkness, does when it comes in +contact with the Light? + +It is the great crucial instance of the incapacity of the average +man to behold spiritual beauty and lofty elevation of character. +People lament over the blindness of embruted souls to natural +beauty, to art, to high thinking, and so on; but all these, tragic +as they are, are nothing as compared with this stunning fact, that +perfect righteousness and perfect tenderness and ideal beauty of +character walked about the world for thirty and three years, and +that all the wise and religious men who came across Him thought that +the best thing they could do was to crucify Him. So it has ever been +from the days of Cain and Abel. As the Apostle John asks, 'Wherefore +slew be him?' For a very good reason, 'Because his own works were +evil, and his brother's righteous.' That is reason enough for +killing any prophets and righteous men. It was so in the past, and +in modified forms it is so today. The plain fact is that humanity +has in it a depth of incapacity to behold, and of angry +indisposition to admire, lofty and noble lives. The power of the +darkness to blind men is set forth once in the superlative degree +that we may all beware of it in the lower instances, by that fact, +the most tragical in the history of the world, 'the Light shineth in +the darkness, and the darkness apprehendeth it not.' + +And not only does that Cross mark the high-water mark of man's +blindness, and of man's hatred to the lofty and the true and the good, +but it marks, too, the awful power that seems, by the very make of the +world, to be lodged on the side of evil and against good. The dice +seem to be so terribly loaded. Virtue and beauty and truth and +tenderness, and all that is noble and lofty and heart-appealing, have +no chance against a mere piece of savage brutality. And that fact, +which has been repeated over and over again from the beginning, and +so largely makes the misery of mankind, reaches its very climax, and +most solemn and awful illustration, in the fact that a handful of +ruffians and a detachment of Roman soldiers were able to put an end +to the life of God manifest in the flesh. If we have nothing more to +say about Jesus than that He lived upon earth and did works of goodness +and of beauty for a few short years, and then died, and there an end, +it seems to me that the story of the Death of Christ is the most +despairing page in the whole history of humanity, and that it +accentuates and makes still more dreadful the dreadful old puzzle of +how it comes that, in a world with a God in it, evil seems to be so +riotously preponderant and good seems to be ever trodden under foot. +Either the Death of Christ, if He died and did not rise again, is the +strongest argument in the history of mankind for rank atheism, or +else it is true that He rose, the King of humanity, glorified and +exalted by the vain attempts of His foes. + +And now notice that this high-water mark, as I have called it, or +climax of human sin, was reached through very common and ordinary +transgressions. Judas betrayed Christ because he had always felt +uncomfortable with his earthly tendencies beside that pure spirit, +and also because he wanted to jingle the thirty pieces of silver in +his pocket. The priests did Him to death because He claimed the +Messiahship and to be the Son of God, and their formalism rose +against Him, and their blindness to all spiritual elevation made +them hate Him. Pilate sent Him to the Cross because he was a coward, +and thought that the life of a Jewish peasant was a small thing to +give in order to secure his position. And the mob howled at His +heels, and wagged their heads as they passed by, oblivious of His +miracles and His benevolence, simply because of the vulgar hatred of +anything that is lofty, and because they were so absorbed in +material things that they had no eyes for that radiant beauty. In +the whole list of these motives there is not a sin that you and I do +not commit, nor is there any one of them which may not be +reproduced, and as a matter of fact, is reproduced, by hundreds and +thousands in this professedly Christian land. + +Oh, brethren! the actual murderers are not the worst criminals, +though their deed be the worst, considered in itself. Those Roman +soldiers who nailed His hands to the Cross, and went back to their +barracks that night, quite comfortable and unconscious that they had +been doing anything beyond their routine military duty, were +innocent and white-handed compared with the men and women among us, +who, with the additional evidence of the Cross, and the empty grave, +and the throne in the heavens, and the Christian Church, still stand +aloof and say, 'We see no beauty in Him that we should desire Him.' +Take care lest your attitude to Jesus Christ bring the level of your +criminality close up to that high-water mark, or carry it even +beyond it, for it is possible to 'crucify the Son of God afresh,' +and they who do so have the greater guilt. + +III. Now, lastly, my text suggests that the temporary triumph of the +darkness is the eternal victory of the light. + +'_This_ is your hour'--not the next. 'This is your +_hour_.' Sixty minutes tick, and it will be gone. When Christ +was beaten He was Conqueror, and as He looked upon His Cross He +said, 'I have overcome the world.' The eclipse which hung over the +little hill and the land of Palestine, during the long hours of that +slowly passing day, ended before He died. And His death was but the +passing for a brief moment of the shadow of death across the bright +luminary which, when the shadow has passed, shines out and 'with new +spangled beams, flames in the forehead of the morning sky.' The +darkness triumphed, and in its triumph it was overcome. + +He, by dying, is the death of death. This Jonah inflicted a mortal +wound on the loathly monster in whose maw He lay for three days. He, +by bearing the penalty of sin, takes away the penalty of it for us +all. He, in the quenching of the light of His life in the night of +death, reveals God more than even He did in His life, and is never +more truly the Illuminator of mankind than when He lies in the +darkness of the grave and brings immortality to light. He, by His +death, delivers men from the kingdom of darkness, and translates +them into His own kingdom; giving them new powers for holiness, new +hopes, inspiriting them to rebellion against the tyrants that have +dominion over them; and thus conquering when He falls. The power of +the darkness is broken like a crested wave, toppling over at its +highest and dissolving in ineffectual spray. + +So we have encouragement for all momentary checks and defeats, if +there be such in our experience, when we are doing Christ's work. +The history of the Church repeats in all ages, generation after +generation, the same law to which the Master submitted: 'Except a +corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone; but if +it die it bringeth forth much fruit.' We conquer when we are +overcome; Christ conquered so, and His servants after Him. + +And now apply all these principles which I have so imperfectly +stated to your own personal lives. Men and the kingdom of darkness +over-reached and outwitted themselves when they slew Jesus Christ. +And so all antagonism to Him, whether it be theoretical or whether +it be practical, and alienation of heart only, is suicidal folly. +When it most succeeds it is nearest the breaking point of utter +failure, like a man sawing off the branch on which he sits. Every +man that sets himself against God in Christ, either to argue Him +down and talk Him out of existence, or to 'break His bands asunder +and cast away His cords,' has begun a Sisyphean task which will +never come to any good. All sin is essentially irrational and +opposed to the whole motion of the universe, and must necessarily be +annihilated and come to nothing. The coarse title of one of our old +English plays carries a great truth in it; 'The Devil is an Ass,' +and for the man that obeys the kingdom of darkness the right epitaph +is 'Thou fool! Oh, brothers! do not fling yourselves into that +hopeless struggle. Put yourselves on the right side in this age-long +conflict, of which the issue was determined before evil was, and was +accomplished when Christ died. For be sure of this, that as +certainly as 'The darkness is past, and the true Light now shineth,' +so certainly all they that fight against the light--and all men +fight against it who shut their eyes to it--are engaged in a +conflict of which only one issue is possible, and that is defeat, +bitter, complete, absolute. Rather let us all, though we be evil, +and though there be a bad self in us that knows itself to be evil +and hates the Light--let us all go to it. It may pain the eye, but +it is the only cure for the ophthalmia. Let us go to it, spread +ourselves out before it, and say, 'Search me, O Christ, and try me, +and see if there be any wicked way in me. Lead me, a blind man, into +the light.' And His answer will come: 'I am the Light of the world; +he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the +Light of life.' + + + + +IN THE HIGH PRIEST'S PALACE + + + 'Then took they Him, and led Him, and brought Him into + the high priest's house. And Peter followed afar off. + 55. And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of + the hall, and were set down together, Peter sat down + among them. 56. But a certain maid beheld him as he + sat by the fire, and earnestly looked upon him, and + said, This man was also with Him. 57. And he denied + Him, saying, Woman, I know Him not. 58. And, after a + little while, another saw him, and said, Thou art also + of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not. 59. And about + the space of one hour after another confidently + affirmed, saying, Of a truth this fellow also was with + Him; for he is a Galilean. 60. And Peter said, Man, I + know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he + yet spake, the cock crew. 61. And the Lord turned, and + looked upon Peter: and Peter remembered the word of + the Lord, how He had said unto him, Before the cock + crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice. 62. And Peter went + out, and wept bitterly. 63. And the men that held + Jesus mocked Him and smote Him. 64. And when they had + blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face, and + asked Him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote + Thee? 65. And many other things blasphemously spake + they against Him. 66. And as soon as it was day, the + elders of the people, and the chief priests, and the + scribes, came together, and led Him into their + council, 67. Saying, Art Thou the Christ? tell us. And + He said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not believe: + 68. And If I also ask you, ye will not answer Me, nor + let Me go. 69. Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on + the right hand of the power of God. 70. Then said they + all, Art Thou then the Son of God? And He said unto + them, Ye say that I am. 71. And they said, What need + we any further witness? for we ourselves have heard of + His own mouth.'--LUKE xxii. 54-71. + +The present passage deals with three incidents, each of which may be +regarded either as an element in our Lord's sufferings or as a +revelation of man's sin. He is denied, mocked, and formally rejected +and condemned. A trusted friend proves faithless, the underlings of +the rulers brutally ridicule His prophetic claims, and their masters +vote Him a blasphemer for assenting His divinity and Messiahship. + +I. We have the failure of loyalty and love in Peter's denials. I may +observe that Luke puts all Peter's denials before the hearing by the +council, from which it is clear that the latter was later than the +hearing recorded by Matthew and John. The first denial probably took +place in the great hall of the high priest's official residence, at +the upper end of which the prisoner was being examined, while the +hangers--on huddled round the fire, idly waiting the event. + +The morning air bit sharply, and Peter, exhausted, sleepy, sad, and +shivering, was glad to creep near the blaze. Its glinting on his +face betrayed him to a woman's sharp eye, and her gossiping tongue +could not help blurting out her discovery. Curiosity, not malice, +moved her; and there is no reason to suppose that any harm would +have come to Peter, if he had said, as he should have done, 'Yes, I +am His disciple.' The day for persecuting the servants was not yet +come, but for the present it was Jesus only who was aimed at. + +No doubt, cowardice had a share in the denials, but there was more +than that in them. Peter was worn out with fatigue, excitement, and +sorrow. His susceptible nature would be strongly affected by the +trying scenes of the last day, and all the springs of life would be +low. He was always easily influenced by surroundings, and just as, +at a later date, he was 'carried away' by the presence at Antioch of +the Judaisers, and turned his back on the liberal principles which +he had professed, so now he could not resist the current of opinion, +and dreaded being unlike even the pack of menials among whom he sat. +He was ashamed of his Master and hid his colours, not so much for +fear of bodily harm as of ridicule. Was there not a deeper depth +still in his denials, even the beginnings of doubt whether, after +all, Jesus was what he had thought Him? Christ prayed that Peter's +'faith' should not 'fail' or be totally eclipsed, and that may +indicate that the assault was made on his 'faith' and that it +wavered, though it recovered steadfastness. + +If he had been as sure of Christ's work and nature as when he made +his great confession, he could not have denied Him. But the sight of +Jesus bound, unresisting, and evidently at the mercy of the rulers, +might well make a firmer faith stagger. We have not to steel +ourselves to bear bodily harm if we confess Christ; but many of us +have to run counter to a strong current flowing around us, and to be +alone in the midst of unsympathising companions ready to laugh and +gibe, and some of us are tempted to waver in our convictions of +Christ's divinity and redeeming power, because He still seems to +stand at the bar of the wise men and leaders of opinion, and to be +treated by them as a pretender. It is a wretched thing to be +persecuted out of one's Christianity in the old-fashioned fire and +sword style; but it is worse to be laughed out of it or to lose it, +because we breathe an atmosphere of unbelief. Let the doctors at the +top of the hall and the lackeys round the fire who take their +opinions from them say what they like, but let them not make us +ashamed of Jesus. + +Peter slipped away to the gateway, and there, apparently, was again +attacked, first by the porteress and then by others, which +occasioned the second denial, while the third took place in the same +place, about an hour afterwards. One sin makes many. The devil's +hounds hunt in packs. Consistency requires the denier to stick to +his lie. Once the tiniest wing tip is in the spider's web, before +long the whole body will be wrapped round by its filthy, sticky +threads. + +If Peter had been less confident, he would have been more safe. If +he had said less about going to prison and death, he would have had +more reserve fidelity for the time of trial. What business had he +thrusting himself into the palace? Over-reliance on self leads +us to put ourselves in the way of temptations which it were wiser to +avoid. Had he forgotten Christ's warnings? Apparently so. Christ +predicts the fall that it may not happen, and if we listen to Him, +we shall not fall. + +The moment of recovery seems to have been while our Lord was passing +from the earlier to the later examination before the rulers. In the +very floodtide of Peter's oaths, the shrill cock-crow is heard, and +at the sound the half-finished denial sticks in his throat. At the +same moment he sees Jesus led past him, and that look, so full of +love, reproof, and pardon, brought him back to loyalty, and saved +him from despair. The assurance of Christ's knowledge of our sins +against Him melts the heart, when the assurance of His forgiveness +and tender love comes with it. Then tears, which are wholly humble +but not wholly grief, flow. They do not wash away the sin, but they +come from the assurance that Christ's love, like a flood, has swept +it away. They save from remorse, which has no healing in it. + +II. We have the rude taunts of the servants. The mockery here comes +from Jews, and is directed against Christ's prophetic character, +while the later jeers of the Roman soldiers make a jest of His +kingship. Each set lays hold of what seems to it most ludicrous in +His pretensions, and these servants ape their masters on the +judgment seat, in laughing to scorn this Galilean peasant who +claimed to be the Teacher of them all. Rude natures have to take +rude ways of expression, and the vulgar mockery meant precisely the +same as more polite and covert scorn means from more polished +people; namely, rooted disbelief in Him. These mockers were +contented to take their opinions on trust from priests and rabbis. +How often, since then, have Christ's servants been objects of +popular odium at the suggestion of the same classes, and how often +have the ignorant people been misled by their trust in their +teachers to hate and persecute their true Master! + +Jesus is silent under all the mockery, but then, as now, He knows +who strikes Him. His eyes are open behind the bandage, and see the +lifted hands and mocking lips. He will speak one day, and His speech +will be detection and condemnation. Then He was silent, as patiently +enduring shame and spitting for our sakes. Now He is silent, as +long-suffering and wooing us to repentance; but He keeps count and +record of men's revilings, and the day comes when He whose eyes are +as a flame of fire will say to every foe, 'I know thy works.' + +III. We have the formal rejection and condemnation by the council. +The hearing recorded in verses 66 to 71 took place 'as soon as it +was day,' and was apparently a more formal official ratification of +the proceedings of the earlier examination described by Matthew and +John. The ruler's question was put simply in order to obtain +material for the condemnation already resolved on. Our Lord's answer +falls into two parts, in the first of which He in effect declines to +recognise the _bona fides_ of His judges and the competency of +the tribunal, and in the second goes beyond their question, and +claims participation in divine glory and power. 'If I tell you, ye +will not believe'; therefore He will not tell them. + +Jesus will not unfold His claims to those who only seek to hear them +in order to reject, not to examine, them. Silence is His answer to +ingrained prejudice masquerading as honest inquiry. It is ever so. +There is small chance of truth at the goal if there be foregone +conclusions or biased questions at the starting-point. 'If I ask +you, ye will not answer.' They had taken refuge in judicious but +self-condemning silence when He had asked them the origin of John's +mission and the meaning of the One Hundred and Tenth Psalm, and +thereby showed that they were not seeking light. Jesus will gladly +speak with any who will be frank with Him, and let Him search their +hearts; but He will not unfold His mission to such as refuse to +answer His questions. But while thus He declines to submit Himself +to that tribunal, and in effect accuses them of obstinate blindness +and a fixed conclusion to reject the claims which they were +pretending to examine, He will not leave them without once more +asserting an even higher dignity than that of Messiah. As a prisoner +at their bar, He has nothing to say to them; but as their King and +future Judge, He has something. They desire to find materials for +sentence of death, and though He will not give these in the +character of a criminal before His judges, He also desires that the +sentence should pass, and He will declare His divine prerogatives +and fall possession of divine power in the hearing of the highest +court of the nation. + +It was fitting that the representatives of Israel, however +prejudiced, should hear at that supreme moment the full assertion of +full deity. It was fitting that Israel should condemn itself, by +treating that claim as blasphemy. It was fitting that Jesus should +bring about His death by His twofold claim--that made to the +Sanhedrim, of being the Son of God, and that before Pilate, of being +the King of the Jews. + +The whole scene teaches us the voluntary character of Christ's +Death, which is the direct result of this tremendous assertion. It +carries our thoughts forward to the time when the criminal of that +morning shall be the Judge, and the judges and we shall stand at His +bar. It raises the solemn question, Did Jesus claim truly when He +claimed divine power? If truly, do we worship Him? If falsely, what +was He? It mirrors the principles on which He deals with men +universally, answering 'him that cometh, according to the multitude +of his idols,' and meeting hypocritical pretences of seeking the +truth about Him with silence, but ever ready to open His heart and +the witness to His claims to the honest and docile spirits who are +ready to accept His words, and glad to open their inmost secrets to +Him. + + + + +CHRIST'S LOOK + + + 'And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter.' + --Luke xxii. 61. + +All four Evangelists tell the story of Peter's threefold denial and +swift repentance, but we owe the knowledge of this look of Christ's +to Luke only. The other Evangelists connect the sudden change in the +denier with his hearing the cock crow only, but according to Luke +there were two causes co-operating to bring about that sudden +repentance, for, he says, 'Immediately, while he yet spake, the cock +crew. And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter.' And we cannot +doubt that it was the Lord's look enforcing the fulfilment of His +prediction of the cock-crow that broke down the denier. + +Now, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to weave a consecutive +whole out of the four versions of the story of Peter's triple +denial. But this at least is clear from them all, that Jesus was +away at the upper, probably the raised, end of the great hall, and +that if any of the three instances of denial took place within that +building, it was at such a distance that neither could the words be +heard, nor could a look from one end of it to the other have been +caught. I think that if we try to localise, and picture the whole +scene ourselves, we are obliged to suppose that that look, which +smote Peter into swift collapse of penitence, came as the Lord Jesus +was being led bound down the hall out through the porch, past the +fire, and into the gloomy archway, on His road to further suffering. +As He was thus brought for a moment close to him, 'the Lord turned +and looked upon Peter,' and then He passed from his sight for ever, +as he would fear. + +I wish, then, to deal--although it must be very imperfectly and +inadequately--with that look that changed this man. And I desire to +consider two things about it: what it said, and what it did. + +I. What it said.--It spoke of Christ's knowledge, of Christ's pain, +of Christ's love. + +Of Christ's knowledge--I have already suggested that we cannot +suppose that the Prisoner at one end of the hall, intensely occupied +with the questionings and argumentation of the priests, and with the +false witnesses, could have heard the denial, given in tones subdued +by the place, at the other end. Still less could He have heard the +denials in louder tones, and accompanied with execrations, which +seemed to have been repeated in the porch without. But as He passed +the Apostle that look said: 'I heard them all--denials and oaths and +passion; I heard them all.' No wonder that after the Resurrection, +Peter, with that remembrance in his mind, fell at the Master's feet +and said, 'Lord! Thou knowest all things. Thou didst know what Thou +didst not hear, my muttered recreancy and treason, and my blurted +out oaths of denial. Thou knowest all things.' No wonder that when +he stood up amongst the Apostles after the Resurrection and the +Ascension, and was the mouthpiece of their prayers, remembering this +scene as well as other incidents, he began his prayer with 'Thou, +Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men.' But let us remember that +this--call it, if you like, supernatural--knowledge which Jesus +Christ had of the denial, is only one of a great body of facts in +His life, if we accept these Gospels, which show that, as one of the +Evangelists says, at almost the beginning of his history, 'He needed +not that any man should testify of man, for He knew what was in +man.' It is precisely on the same line, as His first words to Peter, +whom He greeted as he came to Him with 'Thou art Simon; thou shalt +be Cephas.' It is entirely on the same line as the words with which +He greeted another of this little group, 'When thou wast under the +fig-tree I saw thee.' It is on the same line as the words with which +He penetrated to the unspoken thoughts of His churlish entertainer +when He said, 'Simon! I have somewhat to say unto thee.' It +is on the lines on which we have to think of that Lord now as +knowing us all. He looks still from the judgment-seat, where He does +not stand as a criminal, but sits as the supreme and omniscient +Arbiter of our fates, and Judge of our actions. And He beholds us, +each of us, moment by moment, as we go about our work, and often, by +our cowardice, by our faithlessness, by our inconsistencies, 'deny +the Lord that bought' us. It is an awful thought, and therefore do +men put it away from them: 'Thou God seest me.' But it is stripped +of all its awfulness, while it retains all its purifying and +quickening power, when we think, as our old hymn has it: + + 'Though now ascended up on high, + He bends on earth a Brother's eye.' + +And we have not only to feel that the eye that looks upon us is +cognisant of our denials, but that it is an eye that pities our +infirmities, and knowing us altogether, loves us better than we +know. Oh! if we believed in Christ's look, and that it was the look +of infinite love, life would be less solitary, less sad, and we +should feel that wherever His glance fell there His help was sure, +and there were illumination and blessedness. The look spoke of +Christ's knowledge. + +Again, it spoke of Christ's pain. Peter had not thought that he was +hurting his Master by his denials; he only thought of saving +himself. And, perhaps, if it had come into his loving and impulsive +nature, which yielded to the temptation the more readily because of +the same impulsiveness which also led it to yield swiftly to good +influences, if he had thought that he was adding another pang to the +pains of his Lord whom he had loved through all his denial, even his +cowardice would have plucked up courage to 'confess, and deny not +but confess,' that he belonged to the Christ. But he did not +remember all that. And now there came into his mind--from that look, +the bitter thought, 'I have wrung His heart with yet another pang, +and at this supreme moment, when there is so much to rack and pain; +I have joined the tormentors.' + +And so, do we not pain Jesus Christ? Mysterious as it is, yet it +seems as if, since it is true that we please Him when we are obeying +Him, it must be somehow true that we pain Him when we deny Him, and +some kind of shadow of grief may pass even over that glorified +nature when we sin against Him, and forget Him, and repay His love +with indifference, and reject His counsel. We know that in His +earthly life there was no bitterer pang inflicted upon Him than the +one which the Psalmist prophesied, 'He that ate bread with Me hath +lifted up his heel against Me.' And we know that in the measure in +which human nature is purified and perfected, in that measure does +it become more susceptible and sensitive to the pain of faithless +friends. Chilled love, rejected endeavours to help--which are, +perhaps, the deepest and the most spiritual of sorrows which men can +inflict upon one another, Jesus Christ experienced in full measure, +heaped up and running over. And we, even we today, may be 'grieving +the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of +redemption.' Christ's knowledge of the Apostle's denials brought +pain to His heart. + +Again, the look spoke of Christ's love. There was in it saddened +disapprobation, but there was not in it any spark of anger; nor +what, perhaps, would be worse, any ice of withdrawal or indifference. +But there even at that supreme moment, lied against by false witnesses, +insulted and spit upon by rude soldiers, rejected by the priests as +an impostor and a blasphemer, and on His road to the Cross, when, if +ever, He might have been absorbed in Himself, was His heart at leisure +from itself, and in divine and calm self-oblivion could think of helping +the poor denier that stood trembling there beneath His glance. That +is of a piece with the majestic, yet not repelling calm, which marks +the Lord in all His life, and which reaches its very climax in the +Passion and on the Cross. Just as, whilst nailed there, He had leisure +to think of the penitent thief, and of the weeping mother, and of the +disciple whose loss of his Lord would be compensated by the gaining +of her to take care of, so as He was being borne to Pilate's judgment, +He turned with a love that forgot itself, and poured itself into the +denier's heart. Is not that a divine and eternal revelation for us? +We speak of the love of a brother who, sinned against seventy times +seven, yet forgives. We bow in reverence before the love of a mother +who cannot forget, but must have compassion on the son of her womb. We +wonder at the love of a father who goes out to seek the prodigal. But +all these are less than that love which beamed lambent from the eye +of Christ, as it fell on the denier, and which therein, in that one +transitory glance, revealed for the faith and thankfulness of all +ages an eternal fact. That love is steadfast as the heavens, firm as +the foundations of the earth. 'Yea! the mountains may depart and the +hills be removed, but My loving kindness shall not depart, neither +shall the covenant of My peace be removed.' It cannot be frozen, +into indifference. It cannot be stirred into heat of anger. It +cannot be provoked to withdrawal. Repelled, it returns; sinned +against, it forgives; denied, it meekly beams on in self-revelation; +it hopeth all things, it beareth all things. And He who, as He +passed out to Pilate's bar, cast His look of love on the denier, is +looking upon each of us, if we would believe it, with the same look, +pitiful and patient, reproachful, and yet forgiving, which unveils +all His love, and would fain draw us in answering love, to cast +ourselves at His feet, and tell Him all our sin. + +And now, let us turn to the second point that I suggested. + +II. What the look did. + +First, it tore away the veil that hid Peter's sin from himself. He +had not thought that he was doing anything wrong when he denied. He +had not thought about anything but saving his own skin. If he had +reflected for a moment no doubt he would have found excuses, as we +all can do. But when Christ stood there, what had become of the +excuses? As by a flash he saw the ugliness of the deed that he +himself had done. And there came, no doubt, into his mind in +aggravation of the denial, all that had passed from that very first +day when he had come to Christ's presence, all the confidences that +had been given to him, how his wife's mother had been healed, how he +himself had been cared for and educated, how he had been honoured +and distinguished, how he had boasted and vowed and hectored the day +before. And so he 'went out and wept bitterly.' + +Now _our_ sin captures us by lying to us, by blinding our +consciences. You cannot hear the shouts of the men on the bank +warning you of your danger when you are in the midst of the rapids, +and so our sin deafens us to the still small voice of conscience. +But nothing so surely reveals to us the true moral character of any +of our actions, be they right or wrong, as bringing them under +Christ's eye, and thinking to ourselves. 'Durst I do that if He +stood there beside me and saw it?' Peter could deny Him when He was +at the far end of the hall. He could not have denied Him if he had +had Him by his side. And if we will take our actions, especially any +of them about which we are in doubt, into His presence, then it will +be wonderful how conscience will be enlightened and quickened, how +the fiend will start up in his own shape, and how poor and small the +motives which tempted so strongly to do wrong will come to look, +when we think of adducing them to Jesus. What did a maid-servant's +flippant tongue matter to Peter then? And how wretchedly inadequate +the reason for his denial looked when Christ's eye fell upon him. +The most recent surgical method of treating skin diseases is to +bring an electric light, ten times as strong as the brightest street +lights, to bear upon the diseased patch, and fifty minutes of that +search-light clears away the disease. Bring the beam from Christ's +eye to bear on your lives, and you will see a great deal of leprosy, +and scurf, and lupus, and all that you see will be cleared away. The +look tore down the veil. + +What more did it do? It melted the denier's heart into sorrow. I can +quite understand a conscience being so enlightened as to be +convinced of the evil of a certain course, and yet there being none +of that melting into sorrow, which, as I believe, is absolutely +necessary for any permanent victory over sins. No man will ever +conquer his evil as long as he only shudderingly recoils from it. He +has to be broken down into the penitential mood before he will +secure the victory over his sin. You remember the profound words in +our Lord's pregnant parable of the seeds, how one class which +transitorily was Christian, had for its characteristic that +immediately with joy they received the word. Yes; a Christianity +that puts repentance into a parenthesis, and talks about faith only, +will never underlie a permanent and thorough moral reformation. +There is nothing that brings 'godly sorrow,' so surely as a glimpse +of Christ's love; and nothing that reveals the love so certainly as +the 'look.' You may hammer at a man's heart with law, principle, and +moral duty, and all the rest of it, and you may get him to feel that +he is a very poor creature, but unless the sunshine of Christ's love +shines down upon him, there will be no melting, and if there is no +melting there will be no permanent bettering. + +And there was another thing that the look did. It tore away the veil +from the sin; it made rivers of water flow from the melted heart in +sorrow of true repentance; and it kept the sorrow from turning into +despair. Judas 'went out and hanged himself.' Peter 'went out and +wept bitterly.' What made the one the victim of remorse, and the +other the glad child of repentance? How was it that the one was +stiffened into despair that had no tears, and the other was saved +because he could weep? Because the one saw his sin in the lurid +light of an awakened conscience, and the other saw his sin in the +loving look of a pardoning Lord. And that is how you and I ought to +see our sins. Be sure, dear friend, that the same long-suffering, +patient love is looking down upon each of us, and that if we will, +like Peter, let the look melt us into penitent self-distrust and +heart-sorrow for our clinging sins, then Jesus will do for us, as He +did for that penitent denier on the Resurrection morning. He will +take us apart by ourselves and speak healing words of forgiveness +and reconciliation, so that we, like him, will dare in spite of our +faithlessness, to fall at His feet and say, 'Lord, Thou knowest all +things; Thou knowest that I, erst faithless and treacherous, love +Thee; and all the more because Thou hast forgiven the denial and +restored the denier.' + + + + +'THE RULERS TAKE COUNSEL TOGETHER' + + + 'And the whole multitude of them arose, and led Him + unto Pilate. 2. And they began to accuse Him, saying, + We found this fellow perverting the nation, and + forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that He + Himself is Christ a King. 3. And Pilate asked Him, + saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And He answered + him and said, Thou sayest it. 4. Then said Pilate to + the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault + in this man. 5. And they were the more fierce, saying, + He stirreth up the people teaching throughout all + Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place. 6. When + Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man were + a Galilean. 7. And as soon as he knew that He belonged + unto Herod's jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who + himself also was at Jerusalem at that time. 8. And + when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he + was desirous to see Him of a long season, because he + had heard many things of Him; and he hoped to have + seen some miracle done by Him. 9. Then he questioned + with Him in many words; but He answered him nothing. + 10. And the chief priests and scribes stood and + vehemently accused Him. 11. And Herod with his men of + war set Him at nought, and mocked Him, and arrayed Him + in a gorgeous robe, and sent Him again to Pilate. + 12. And the same day Pilate and Herod were made + friends together: for before they were at enmity + between themselves.'--LUKE xxiii. 1-12. + +Luke's canvas is all but filled by the persecutors, and gives only +glimpses of the silent Sufferer. But the silence of Jesus is +eloquent, and the prominence of the accusers and judges heightens +the impression of His passive endurance. We have in this passage the +Jewish rulers with their murderous hate; Pilate contemptuously +indifferent, but perplexed and wishing to shirk responsibility; and +Herod with his frivolous curiosity. They present three types of +unworthy relations to Jesus Christ. + +I. We see first the haters of Jesus. So fierce is their hatred that +they swallow the bitter pill of going to Pilate for the execution of +their sentence. John tells us that they began by trying to get +Pilate to decree the crucifixion without knowing Jesus' crime; but +that was too flagrant injustice, and too blind confidence in them, +for Pilate to grant. So they have to manufacture a capital charge on +the spot, and they are equal to the occasion. By the help of two +lies, and one truth so twisted as to be a lie, they get up an +indictment, which they think will be grave enough to compel the +procurator to do as they wish. + +Their accusation, if it had been ever so true, would have been +ludicrous on their lips; and we may be sure that, if it had been +true, they would have been Jesus' partisans, not His denouncers.' +The Gracchi complaining of sedition' are nothing to the Sanhedrim +accusing a Jew of rebellion against Rome. Every man in that crowd +was a rebel at heart, and would have liked nothing better than to +see the standard of revolt lifted in a strong hand. Pilate was not +so simple as to be taken in by such an accusation from such +accusers, and it fails. They return to the charge, and the 'more +urgent' character of the second attempt is found in its statement of +the widespread extent of Christ's teaching, but chiefly in the +cunning introduction of Galilee, notoriously a disaffected and +troublesome district. + +What a hideous and tragic picture we have here of the ferocity of +the hatred, which turned the very fountains of justice and guardians +of a nation into lying plotters against innocence, and sent these +Jewish rulers cringing before Pilate, pretending loyalty and +acknowledging his authority! They were ready for any falsehood and +any humiliation, if only they could get Jesus crucified. And what +had excited their hatred? Chiefly His teachings, which brushed aside +the rubbish both of ceremonial observance and of Rabbinical +casuistry, and placed religion in love to God and consequent love to +man; then His attitude of opposition to them as an order; and +finally His claim, which they never deigned to examine, to be the +Son of God. That, they said, was blasphemy, as it was, unless it +were true,--an alternative which they did not look at. So blinded +may men be by prejudice, and so mastered by causeless hatred of Him +who loves them all! + +These Jewish rulers were men like ourselves. Instead of shuddering +at their crime, as if it were something far outside of anything +possible for us, we do better if we learn from it the terrible +depths of hostility to Jesus, the tragic blindness to His character +and love, and the degradation of submission to usurpers, which must +accompany denial of His right to rule over us. 'They hated Me +without a cause,' said Christ; but He pointed to that hatred as sure +to be continued towards Him and His servants as long as 'the world' +continues the world. + +II. We have Pilate, indifferent and perplexed. Luke's very brief +account should be supplemented by John's, which shows us how +important the conversation, so much abbreviated by Luke, was. Of +course Pilate knew the priests and rulers too well to believe for a +moment that the reason they gave for bringing Jesus to him was the +real one, and his taking Jesus apart to speak with Him shows a wish +to get at the bottom of the case. So far he was doing his duty, but +then come the faults. These may easily be exaggerated, and we should +remember that Pilate was the most ignorant, and therefore the least +guilty, of all the persons mentioned in this passage. He had +probably never heard the name of Jesus till that day, and saw +nothing but an ordinary Jewish peasant, whom his countrymen, like +the incomprehensible and troublesome people they were, wished, for +some fantastic reason, to get killed. + +But that dialogue with his Prisoner should have sunk deeper into his +mind and heart. He was in long and close enough contact with Jesus +to have seen glimpses of the light, which, if followed, would have +led to clear recognition. His first sin was indifference, not +unmingled with scorn, and it blinded him. Christ's lofty and +wonderful explanation of the nature of His kingdom and His mission +to bear witness to the truth fell on entirely preoccupied ears, +which were quick enough to catch the faintest whispers of treason, +but dull towards 'truth.' When Jesus tried to reach his conscience +by telling him that every lover of truth would listen to His voice, +he only answered by the question, to which he waited not for an +answer, 'What is truth?' + +That was not the question of a theoretical sceptic, but simply of a +man who prided himself on being 'practical,' and left all talk about +such abstractions to dreamers. The limitations of the Roman +intellect and its characteristic over-estimate of deeds and contempt +for pure thought, as well as the spirit of the governor, who would +let men think what they chose, as long as they did not rebel, spoke +in the question. Pilate is an instance of a man blinded to all lofty +truth and to the beauty and solemn significance of Christ's words, +by his absorption in outward life. He thinks of Jesus as a harmless +fanatic. Little did he know that the truth, which he thought +moonshine, would shatter the Empire, which he thought the one solid +reality. So called practical men commit the same mistake in every +generation. 'All flesh is as grass;... the word of the Lord endureth +for ever.' + +Further, Pilate sinned in prostituting his office by not setting +free the prisoner when he was convinced of His innocence. 'I find no +fault in this man,' should have been followed by immediate release. +Every moment afterwards, in which He was kept captive, was the +condemnation of the unjust judge. He was clearly anxious to keep his +troublesome subjects in good humour, and thought that the judicial +murder of one Jew was a small price to pay for popularity. Still he +would have been glad to have escaped from what his official training +had taught him to recoil from, and what some faint impression, made +by his patient prisoner, gave him a strange dread of. So he grasps +at the mention of Galilee, and tries to gain two good ends at once +by handing Jesus over to Herod. + +The relations between Antipas and him were necessarily delicate, +like those between the English officials and the rajahs of native +states in India; and there had been some friction, perhaps about +'the Galileans, whose blood' he 'had mingled with their sacrifices.' +If there had been difficulties in connection with such a question of +jurisdiction, the despatch of Jesus to Herod would be a graceful way +of making the _amende honorable_, and would also shift an +unpleasant decision on to Herod's shoulders. Pilate would not be +displeased to get rid of embarrassment, and to let Herod be the tool +of the priests' hate. + +How awful the thought is of the contrast between Pilate's +conceptions of what he was doing and the reality! How blind to +Christ's beauty it is possible to be, when engrossed with selfish +aims and outward things! How near a soul may be to the light, and +yet turn away from it and plunge into darkness! How patient that +silent prisoner, who lets Himself be bandied about from one tyrant +to another, not because they had power, but because He loved the +world, and would bear the sins of every one of us! How terrible the +change when these unjust judges and He will change places, and +Pilate and Herod stand at His judgment-seat! + +III. We have the wretched, frivolous Herod. This is the murderer of +John Baptist--'that fox,' a debauchee, a coward, and as cruel as +sensuous. He had all the vices of his worthless race, and none of +the energy of its founder. He is by far the most contemptible of the +figures in this passage. Note his notion of, and his feeling to, +Jesus. He thought of our Lord as of a magician or juggler, who might +do some wonders to amuse the vacuous _ennui_ of his sated +nature. Time was when he had felt some twinge of conscience in +listening to the Baptist, and had almost been lifted to nobleness by +that strong arm. Time was, too, when he had trembled at hearing of +Jesus, and taken Him for his victim risen from a bloody grave. But +all that is past now. The sure way to stifle conscience is to +neglect it. Do that long and resolutely enough, and it will cease to +utter unheeded warnings. There will be a silence which may look like +peace, but is really death. Herod's gladness was more awful and +really sad than Herod's fear. Better to tremble at God's word than +to treat it as an occasion for mirth. He who hates a prophet because +he knows him to be a prophet and himself to be a sinner, is not so +hopeless as he who only expects to get sport out of the messenger of +God. + +Then note the Lord's silence. Herod plies Jesus with a battery of +questions, and gets no answer. If there had been a grain of +earnestness in them all, Christ would have spoken. He never is +silent to a true seeker after truth. But it is fitting that +frivolous curiosity should be unanswered, and there is small +likelihood of truth being found at the goal when there is nothing +more noble than that temper at the starting-point. Christ's silence +is the penalty of previous neglect of Christ's and His forerunner's +words. Jesus guides His conduct by His own precept, 'Give not that +which is holy unto the dogs'; and He knows, as we never can, who +come into that terrible list of men to whom it would only add +condemnation to speak of even His love. The eager hatred of the +priests followed Jesus to Herod's palace, but no judicial action is +recorded as taking place there. Their fierce earnestness of hate +seems out of place in the frivolous atmosphere. The mockery, in +which Herod is not too dignified to join his soldiers, is more in +keeping. But how ghastly it sounds to us, knowing whom they +ignorantly mocked! Cruelty, inane laughter, hideous pleasure in an +innocent man's pain, disregard of law and justice--all these they +were guilty of; and Herod, at any rate, knew enough of Jesus to give +a yet darker colouring to his share in the coarse jest. + +But how the loud laugh would have fallen silent if some flash had +told who Jesus was! Is there any of our mirth, perhaps at some of His +servants, or at some phase of His gospel, which would in like manner +stick in our throats if His judgment throne blazed above us? Ridicule +is a dangerous weapon. It does more harm to those who use it than to +those against whom it is directed. Herod thought it an exquisite jest +to dress up his prisoner as a king; but Herod has found out, by this +time, whether he or the Nazarene was the sham monarch, and who is the +real one. Christ was as silent under mockery as to His questioner. He +bears all, and He takes account of all. He bears it because He is the +world's Sacrifice and Saviour. He takes account of it, and will one +day recompense it, because He is the world's King, and will be its +Judge. Where shall we stand then--among the silenced mockers, or +among the happy trusters in His Passion and subjects of His dominion? + + + + +A SOUL'S TRAGEDY + + + 'Then Herod questioned with Him in many words; but He + answered him nothing.'--LUKE xxiii. 9. + +Four Herods play their parts in the New Testament story. The first +of them is the grim old tiger who slew the infants at Bethlehem, and +soon after died. This Herod is the second--a cub of the litter, with +his father's ferocity and lust, but without his force. The third is +the Herod of the earlier part of the Acts of the Apostles, a +grandson of the old man, who dipped his hands in the blood of one +Apostle, and would fain have slain another. And the last is Herod +Agrippa, a son of the third, who is only remembered because he +once came across Paul's path, and thought it such a good jest that +anything should be supposed capable of making a Christian out of +_him_. + +There is a singular family likeness in the whole of them, and a very +ugly likeness it is. This one was sensual, cruel, cunning, infirm of +purpose, capricious like a child or a savage. Roman policy amused +him with letting him play at being a ruler, but kept him well in +hand. And I suppose he was made a worse man by the difficulties of +his position as a subject-prince. + +Now I wish to put together the various incidents in this man's life +recorded in the Gospels, and try to gather some lessons from them +for you. + +I. First, I take him as an example of half-and-half convictions, and +of the inner discord that comes from these. + +I do not need to remind you of the shameful story of his repudiation +of his own wife, and of his disgusting alliance with the wife of his +half-brother, who was herself his niece. She was the stronger +spirit, a Biblical Lady Macbeth, the Jezebel to this Ahab; and, to +complete the parallel, Elijah was not far away. John the Baptist's +outspoken remonstrances of course made an implacable enemy of +Herodias, who did all she could to compass his death, but was unable +to manage that, though she secured his imprisonment. The reason for +her inability is given by the Evangelist Mark, in words which are +very inadequately rendered by our Authorised Version, but may be +found more correctly translated in the Revised Version. It is there +said that King 'Herod feared John'--the gaoler afraid of his +prisoner!--'knowing that he was a just man and a holy'--goodness is +awful. The worst men know it, and it extorts respect. 'And kept him +safe'--from Herodias, that is. 'And when he heard him he was +perplexed'--drawn this way and that way by these two magnets, +alternately veering to lust and to purity, hesitating between the +kisses of the beautiful temptress at his side and the words of the +prophet. And yet, with strange inconsistency, in all his +vacillations 'he heard him gladly'; for his better part approved the +nobler voice. And so he staggered on, having religion enough to +spoil some of his sinful delights, but not enough to shake them off. + +That is a picture for which in its essence many a man and woman +among us might have sat. For I suppose that there is nothing more +common than these half-and-half convictions which, like inefficient +bullets, get part way through the armoured shell of a ship, and +there stick harmless. Many of us have the clearest convictions in +our understandings, which have never penetrated to that innermost +chamber of all, where the will sits sovereign. It is so about little +things, it is so about great ones. Nothing is more common than that +a man shall know perfectly well that some possibly trivial habit +stands in the way of something that it is his interest or his duty +to pursue; but the knowledge lies inoperative in the outermost part +of him. It is so in regard to graver things. The majority of the +slaves of any vice whatsoever know perfectly well that they ought to +give it up, and yet nothing comes of the conviction. + +'He was much perplexed.' What a picture that is of the state of +unrest and conflict into which such half-and-half impressions of +duty cast a man. Such a one is like a vessel with its head now East, +now West, because there is some weak or ignorant steersman at the +helm. I know nothing more sure to produce inward unrest and +disturbance and desolation than that a man's knowledge of duty +should be clear, and his obedience to that knowledge partial. If we +have John down in the dungeon, if conscience is not allowed to be +master, there may be feasting and revelry going on above, but the +stern voice will come up through the grating now and then, and that +will spoil all the laughter. 'When he heard him, he was much +perplexed.' + +The reason for these imperfect convictions is generally found, as +Herod shows us, in the unwillingness to get rid of something which +has fastened its claws around us, and which we love too well, +although we know it is a serpent, to shake off. If Herod had once +been man enough to screw himself up, and say to Herodias, 'Now you +pack, and go about your business!' everything else would have come +right in time. But he could not make up his mind to sacrifice the +honeyed poison, and so everything went wrong in time. My friend, how +many of us are prevented from following out our clearest convictions +because they demand a sacrifice? 'If thine eye cause thee to +stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for +thee.' + +And then, further, note that these irresolute convictions and +shirking of plain duty are not atoned for by, though they are often +accompanied with, a strange acquiescence in, and approval of, God's +truth. Herod fancied, inconsistently enough, that he was making +some kind of compensation for disobedience to the message, by liking +to listen to the messenger. And there are a great many of us, all +whose Christianity consists in giving ear to the words which we +never think of obeying. I wonder how many of you there are who fancy +that you have no more concern with this sermon of mine than +approving or disapproving of it, as the case may be; and how many of +us there are who, all our lives long, have substituted criticism of +the Gospel as ministered by us poor preachers--be it approving or +disapproving criticism--for obedience to the Christ and acceptance +of His salvation. + +II. We see in Herod an example of the utter powerlessness of such +partial convictions and reformation. + +I am not going to tell over again the ghastly story of John's death, +which no other words than the Evangelist's can tell half so +powerfully. I need only remind you of the degradation of the poor +child Salome to the position of a dancing girl, the half-tipsy +generosity of the excited monarch, the grim request from lips so +young and still reddened by the excitement of the dance, Herod's +unavailing sorrow, his fantastic sense of honour which scrupled to +break a wicked promise, but did not scruple to kill a righteous man, +and the ghastly picture of the girl carrying a bleeding head--such a +gift!--to her mother. + +But out of that jumble of lust and blood I desire to gather one +lesson. There you have--in an extreme form, it is true--a tremendous +illustration of what half-and-half convictions may come to. Whether +or no we ever get anything like as far on the road as this man did +matters very little. The process which brought him there is the +thing that I seek to point to. It was because he had so long +tampered with the voice of his conscience that it was lulled into +silence at that last critical moment. And this is always the case, +that if a man is false to the feeblest conviction that he has in +regard to the smallest duty, he is a worse man all over ever after. +We cannot neglect any conviction of what we ought to do, without +lowering the whole tone of our characters and laying ourselves open +to assaults of evil from which we would once have turned shuddering +and disgusted. A partial thaw is generally followed by intenser +frost. An abortive insurrection is sure to issue in a more grinding +tyranny. A soul half melted and then cooled off is less easy to melt +than it was before. And so, dear brethren, remember this, that if +you do not swiftly and fully carry out in life and conduct +whatsoever you know you ought to be or do, you cannot set a limit to +what, some time or other, if a strong and sudden temptation is +sprung upon you, you may become. 'Is thy servant a dog that he +should do this thing?' Yes! But he did it. No mortal reaches the +extreme of evil all at once, says the wise old proverb; and the path +by which a man is let down into depths that he never thought it was +possible that he should traverse is by the continual neglect of the +small admonitions of conscience. Neglected convictions mean, sooner +or later, an outburst of evil. + +John's murder may illustrate another thing too--viz. how simple, +facile weakness of character may be the parent of all enormities. +Herod did not want to kill John. He very much wanted to keep him +alive. But he was not man enough to put his foot down, and say, +'There! I have said it; and there is to be no more talk about +slaying this prophet of God.' So the continual drop, drop, drop, of +Herodias' suggestions and wishes wore a hole, in the loose-textured +stone at last; and he did the thing that he hated to do and had long +fought against. Why? Because he was a poor weak creature. + +The lesson from this is one that I would urge upon all you young +people especially, that in a world like this, where there are so +many more voices soliciting us to evil than inviting us to good, to +be weak is, in the long run, to be wicked. So do you cultivate the +wholesome habit of saying 'No,' and do not be afraid of anything but +of hurting your conscience and sinning against God. + +III. Once more, we have in Herod an example of the awakening of +conscience. + +When Jesus began to be talked about beyond the narrow limits of the +shores of the Sea of Galilee, and especially when He began to +organise the Apostolate, and His name was spread abroad, some +rumours reached even the court, and there were divergent opinions +about Him. One man said, It is Elias; and another said, It is a +prophet, 'and Herod said, It is John, whom I beheaded. He has risen +from the dead, and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves +in him.' + +Ah, brethren! when a man has, away back in the chambers of his +memory, some wrong thing, be it great or be it little, he is at the +mercy of any chance or accident to have it revived in all its +vividness. It is an awful thing to walk this world with a whole +magazine of combustibles in our memories, on which any spark may +fall and light lurid and sulphurous flames. A chance thing may do +it, a scent, a look upon a face, a sound, or any trifle may bring +all at once before the wrongdoer that ancient evil. And no lapse of +time makes it less dreadful when it is unveiled. The chance thrust +of a boat-hook that gets tangled in the grey hairs of a corpse, +brings it up grim to the surface. Press a button, by accident, upon +a wall in some old castle, and a door flies open that leads away +down into black depths. You and I have depths of that sort in our +hearts. Then there are no more illusions about whose fault the deed +was. When Herod killed John, he said, 'Oh! It is not I! It is +Herodias. It is Salome. It is my oath. It is the respect I bear to +the people who heard me swear. I must do it, but I am not +responsible.' But when, in 'the sessions of silent thought,' the +deed came back to him, Salome and Herodias, the oath, and the +company were all out of sight, and he said, 'I! _I_ did it.' + +That is what we all shall have to do some day, in this world +possibly, in the next certainly. Men sophisticate themselves with +talk about palliations, and excuses, and temptations, and companions +and the like. And philosophers sophisticate themselves nowadays +with a great many learned explanations, which tend to show that a +man is not to blame for the wrong things he does. But all that +rubbish gets burned up when conscience wakes, and the doer says, +'Whom _I_ beheaded.' + +Brethren, unless we take refuge in the great sacrifice for the sins +of the world which Jesus Christ has made, we shall, possibly in this +life, and certainly hereafter, be surrounded by a company of our own +evil deeds risen from the dead, and every one of them will shake its +gory locks at us, and say, '_Thou_ didst it.' + +IV. The last lesson that I gather from this man's life is the final +insensibility which these half-and-half convictions tend to produce. + +Jesus Christ was sent by Pilate to Herod as a kind of peace-offering. +The two had been squabbling about some question of jurisdiction; and +so, partly to escape from the embarrassment of having to deal with +this enigmatical Prisoner, and partly out of a piece of politic +politeness, Pilate sends Jesus to Herod, because He was in his +jurisdiction. Think of the Lord of men and angels being handed about +from one to the other of these two scoundrels, as a piece of politeness! + +When Christ stands before Herod, note that all its former +convictions, partial or entire, and all its terrors superficial or +deep, have faded clean away from this frivolous soul. All that he +feels now is a childish delight in having this well-known Man before +him, and a hope that, for his delectation, Jesus will work a +miracle; much as he might expect a conjurer to do one of his tricks! +That is what killing John came to--an incapacity to see anything in +Jesus. + +'And he asked Him many questions, and Jesus answered him nothing.' +He locked His lips. Why? He was doing what He Himself enjoined: +'Give not that which is holy to the dogs. Cast not your pearls +before swine.' He said nothing, because He knew it was useless to +say anything. So the Incarnate Word, whose very nature and property +it is to speak, was silent before the frivolous curiosity of the man +that had been false to his deepest convictions. + +It is a parable, brother, of what is being repeated over and over +again amongst us. I dare not say that Jesus Christ is ever +absolutely dumb to any man on this side of the grave; but I dare not +refrain from saying that this condition of insensibility to His +words is one that we may indefinitely approach, and that the surest +way to approach it and to reach it is to fight down, or to neglect, +the convictions that lead up to Him. John was the forerunner of +Christ, and if Herod had listened to John, to him John would have +said: 'Behold the Lamb of God!' To you I say it, and beseech you to +take that Lamb of God as the Sacrifice for your sins, for the Healer +and Cleanser of your memories and your consciences, for the Helper +who will enable you joyfully to make all sacrifices to duty, and to +carry into effect every conviction which His own merciful hand +writes upon your hearts. And oh, dear friends, many of you strangers +to me, to whom my voice seldom comes, let me plead with you not to +be content with 'hearing' any of us 'gladly,' but to do what our +words point to, and to follow Christ the Saviour. If you hear the +Gospel, however imperfectly, as you are hearing it proclaimed now, +and if you neglect it as--must I say?--you are doing now, you will +bring another film over your eyes which may grow thick enough to +shut out all the light; you will wind another fold about your hearts +which may prove impenetrable to the sword of the Spirit; you will +put another plug in your ears which may make them deaf to the music +of Christ's voice. Do what you know you ought to do, yield +yourselves to Jesus Christ. And do it now, whilst impressions are +being made, lest, if you let them sleep, they may never return. +Felix trembled when Paul reasoned; but he waved away the messenger +and the message, and though he sent for Paul often, and communed +with him, he never trembled any more. + + 'There is a tide in the affairs of men + Which, taken at the flood,' + +would lead us into the haven of rest in Christ; and, if allowed to +pass, may leave us, stranded and shipwrecked, among the rocks. + + + + +JESUS AND PILATE + + + 'And Pilate, when he had called together the chief + priests and the rulers and the people, 14. Said unto + them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that + perverteth the people: and, behold, I having examined + Him before you, have found no fault in this man + touching those things whereof ye accuse Him: 15. No, + nor yet Herod; for I sent you to him: and lo, nothing + worthy of death is done unto Him. 16. I will therefore + chastise Him, and release Him. 17. (For of necessity + he must release one unto them at the feast.) 18. And + they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this + man, and release unto us Barabbas: 19. (Who for a + certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was + cast into prison.) 20. Pilate therefore, willing to + release Jesus, spake again to them. 21. But they cried, + saying, Crucify Him, crucify Him. 22. And he said unto + them the third time, Why, what evil hath He done? I + have found no cause of death in Him: I will therefore + chastise Him, and let Him go. 23. And they were + instant with loud voices, requiring that He might he + crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief + priests prevailed. 24. And Pilate gave sentence that + it should be as they required. 25. And he released + unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast + into prison, whom they had desired; but he delivered + Jesus to their will. 26. And as they led Him away, + they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out + of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that + he might bear it after Jesus.'--LUKE xxiii. 13-26. + +Luke here marks out three stages of the struggle between Pilate and +the Jews. Thrice did he try to release Jesus; thrice did they yell +their hatred and their demand for His blood. Then came the shameful +surrender by Pilate, in which, from motives of policy, he +prostituted Roman justice. Knowingly he sacrificed one poor Jew to +please his turbulent subjects; unknowingly he slew the Christ of +God. + +I. The first weak attempt to be just. + +Pilate invested it with a certain formality by convoking a +representative gathering of all classes, 'chief priests and the +rulers and the people.' The nation was summoned to decide solemnly +whether they would or would not put their Messiah to death, and a +Roman governor was their summoner. Surely the irony of fate (or, +rather, of Providence) could go no further than that. Pilate's +_resume_ of the proceedings up to the moment of his speaking is +not without a touch of sarcasm, in the contrast between 'ye' and 'I' +and 'Herod.' It is almost as if he had said, 'Why, herein is a +marvellous thing, that you should have a quicker scent for rebellion +than I or Herod!' He was evidently suspicious of the motives which +induced the 'rulers' to take the new role of eager defenders of +Roman authority, and ready to suspect something below such an +extraordinary transformation. Jews delivering up a Jew because he +was an insurgent against Caesar,--there must be something under +that! He lays stress on their having heard his examination of the +accused, as showing that he had gone into the matter thoroughly, +that the charges had broken down to their knowledge. He represents +his sending Jesus to Herod as done from the high motive of securing +the completest possible investigation, instead of its being a +despicable attempt to shirk responsibility and to pay an empty +compliment to an enemy. He reiterates his conviction of Jesus' +innocence, and then, after all this flourish about his own +carefulness to bring judicial impartiality to bear on the case, he +makes the lame and impotent conclusion of offering to 'chastise +Him.' + +What for? The only course for a judge convinced of a prisoner's +innocence is to set him free. But this was a bribe to the accusers, +offered in hope that the smaller punishment would content them. +Pilate knew that he was perpetrating flagrant injustice in such a +suggestion, and he tried to hide it by using a gentle word. +'Chastise' sounds almost beneficent, but it would not make the +scourging less cruel, nor its infliction less lawless. Compromises +are always ticklish to engineer, but a compromise between justice +and injustice is least likely of all to answer. This one signally +failed. The fierce accusers of Jesus were quick to see the sign of +weakness, both in the proposal itself and in their being asked if it +would be acceptable to them. Not so should a Roman governor have +spoken. If pressure had made the iron wall yield so far, a little +more and it would fall flat, and let them at their victim. + +Pilate was weak, vacillating, did not know what he wished. He wished +to do right, but he wished more to conciliate, for he knew that he +was detested, and feared to be accused to Rome. The other side knew +what they wanted, and were resolute. Encouraged by the hesitation +of Pilate, they 'cried out all together.' One hears the strident +yells from a thousand throats shrieking out the self-revealing and +self-destroying choice of Barabbas. He was a popular hero for the +very reason that he was a rebel. He had done what his admirers had +accused Jesus of doing, and for which they pretended that they had +submitted Him to Pilate's judgment. The choice of Barabbas convicts +the charges against Jesus of falsehood and unreality. The choice of +Barabbas reveals the national ideal. They did not want a Messiah +like Jesus, and had no eyes for the beauty of His character, nor +ears for the words of grace poured into His lips. They had no +horror of 'a murderer,' and great admiration for a rebel. Barabbas +was the man after their own heart. A nation that can reject Jesus +and choose Barabbas is only fit for destruction. A nation judges +itself by its choice of heroes. The national ideal is potent to +shape the national character. We to-day are sinking into an abyss +because of our admiration for the military type of hero; and there +is not such an immense difference between the mob that rejected +Jesus and applauded Barabbas and the mobs that shout round a +successful soldier, and scoff at the law of Christ if applied to +politics. + +II. The second, weaker attempt. + +Pilate repeated his proposal of release, but it was all but lost in +the roar of hatred. Note the contrast between 'Pilate spoke' (v. 20) +and 'they shouted.' It suggests his feeble effort swept away by the +rush of ferocity. And they have gathered boldness from his +hesitation, and are now prescribing the mode of Christ's punishment. +Now first the terrible word 'Crucify' is heard. Both Matthew and +Mark tell us that the priests and rulers had 'stirred up' the people +to choose Barabbas, but apparently the mob, once roused, needed no +further stimulant. + +Crowds are always cruel, and they are as fickle as cruel. The very +throats now hoarse with fiercely roaring 'Crucify Him' had been +strained by shouting 'Hosanna' less than a week since. The branches +strewed in His path had not had time to wither. 'The voice of the +people is the voice of God,'--sometimes. But sometimes it sounds +very like the voice of the enemy of God, and one would have more +confidence in it if it did not so often and so quickly speak, not +only 'in divers,' but in diverse, 'manners.' To make it the arbiter +of men's merit, still more to trim one's course so as to catch the +breeze of the popular breath, is folly, or worse. Men admire what +they resemble, or try to resemble, and Barabbas has more of his sort +than has Jesus. + +III. The final yielding. + +It is to Pilate's credit that he kept up his efforts so long. Luke +wishes to impress us with his persistency, as well as with the fixed +determination of the Jews, by his note of 'the third time.' Thrice was +the choice offered to them, and thrice did they put away the possibility +of averting their doom. But Pilate's persistency had a weak place, for +he was afraid of his subjects, and, while willing to save Jesus, was +not willing to imperil himself in doing it. Self-interest takes the +strength out of resolution to do right, like a crumbling stone in a +sea wall, which lets in the wave that ruins the whole structure. + +Pilate had come to the end of his shifts to escape pronouncing +sentence. The rulers had refused to judge Jesus according to their +law. Herod had sent Him back with thanks, but unsentenced. The Jews +would not have Him, but Barabbas, released, nor would they accept +scourging in lieu of crucifying. So he has to decide at last whether +to be just and fear not, or basely to give way, and draw down on his +head momentary applause at the price of everlasting horror. Luke +notices in all three stages the loud cries of the Jews, and in this +last one he gives special emphasis to them. 'Their voices +prevailed.' What a condemnation for a judge! He 'gave sentence that +what they asked for should be done.' Baseness in a judge could go no +farther. The repetition of the characterisation of Barabbas brings +up once more the hideousness of the people's choice, and the tragic +words 'to their will' sets in a ghastly light the flagrant injustice +of the judge, and yet greater crime of the Jews. To deliver Jesus to +their will was base; to entertain such a 'will' towards Jesus was +more than base,--it was 'the ruin of them, and of all Israel.' Our +whole lives here and hereafter turn on what is our 'will' to Him. + + + + +WORDS FROM THE CROSS + + + 'And when they were come to the place which is called + Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the malefactors, + one on the right hand, and the other on the left. + 34. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they + know not what they do. And they parted His raiment, + and cast lots. 35. And the people stood beholding. And + the rulers also with them derided Him, saying, He saved + others; let Him save Himself, if He be Christ, the + chosen of God. 36. And the soldiers also mocked Him, + coming to Him and offering Him vinegar. 37. And saying, + if Thou be the king of the Jews, save Thyself. 38. And + a superscription also was written over Him in letters + of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF + THE JEWS. 39. And one of the malefactors which were + hanged railed on Him, saying, If Thou be Christ, save + Thyself and us. 40. But the other answering rebuked + him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art + in the same condemnation? 41. And we indeed justly; + for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this + Man hath done nothing amiss. 42. And he said unto + Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy + kingdom. 43. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say + unto thee, To-day shall thou be with Me in paradise. + 44. And it was about the sixth hour, and there was + darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. + 45. And the sun was darkened, and the vail of the + temple was rent in the midst. 46. And when Jesus had + cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy + hands I commend My spirit: and having said thus, He + gave up the ghost.'--LUKE xxiii. 33-46. + +The calm tone of all the narratives of the Crucifixion is very +remarkable. Each Evangelist limits himself to the bare recording of +facts, without a trace of emotion. They felt too deeply to show +feeling. It was fitting that the story which, till the end of time, +was to move hearts to a passion of love and devotion, should be told +without any colouring. Let us beware of reading it coldly! This +passage is more adapted to be pondered in solitude, with the +thought, 'All this was borne for me,' than to be commented on. But a +reverent word or two is permissible. + +Luke's account is noticeably independent of the other three. The +three sayings of Christ's, round which his narrative is grouped, are +preserved by him alone. We shall best grasp the dominant impression +which the Evangelist unconsciously had himself received, and sought +to convey, by gathering the whole round these three words from the +Cross. + +I. The first word sets Jesus forth as the all-merciful Intercessor +and patient friend of sinners. It is very significantly set in the +centre of the paragraph (vs. 33-38) which recounts the heartless +cruelty and mockery of soldiers and rulers. Surrounded by that +whirlwind of abuse, contempt and ferocious glee at His sufferings, +He gave back no taunt, nor uttered any cry of pain, nor was moved to +the faintest anger, but let His heart go out in pity for all who +took part in that wicked tragedy; and, while 'He opened not His +mouth' in complaint or reviling, He did open it in intercession. But +the wonderful prayer smote no heart with compunction, and, after it, +the storm of mocking and savage triumph hurtled on as before. + +Luke gathers all the details together in summary fashion, and piles +them on one another without enlarging on any. The effect produced is +like that of a succession of breakers beating on some lonely rock, +or of blows struck by a battering-ram on a fortress. + +'They crucified Him,'--there is no need to say who 'they' were. +Others than the soldiers, who did the work, did the deed. Contempt +gave Him two malefactors for companions and hung the King of the +Jews in the place of honour in the midst. Did John remember what his +brother and he had asked? Matter-of-fact indifference as to a piece +of military duty, and shameless greed, impelled the legionaries to +cast lots for the clothes stripped from a living man. What did the +crucifying of another Jew or two matter to them? Gaping curiosity, +and the strange love of the horrible, so strong in the vulgar mind, +led the people, who had been shouting Hosanna! less than a week ago, +to stand gazing on the sight without pity but in a few hearts. + +The bitter hatred of the rulers, and their inhuman glee at getting +rid of a heretic, gave them bad preeminence in sin. Their scoff +acknowledged that He had 'saved others,' and their hate had so +blinded their eyes that they could not see how manifestly His +refusal to use His power to save Himself proved Him the Son of God. +He could not save Himself, just because He would save these scoffing +Rabbis and all the world. The rough soldiers knew little about Him, +but they followed suit, and thought it an excellent jest to bring +the 'vinegar,' provided in kindness, to Jesus with a mockery of +reverence as to a king. The gibe was double-barrelled, like the +inscription over the Cross; for it was meant to hit both this +Pretender to royalty and His alleged subjects. + +And to all this Christ's sole answer was the ever-memorable prayer. +One of the women who bravely stood at the Cross must have caught the +perhaps low-voiced supplication, and it breathed so much of the +aspect of Christ's character in which Luke especially delights that +he could not leave it out. It opens many large questions which +cannot be dealt with here. All sin has in it an element of +ignorance, but it is not wholly ignorance as some modern teachers +affirm. If the ignorance were complete, the sin would be +nonexistent. The persons covered by the ample folds of this prayer +were ignorant in very different degrees, and had had very different +opportunities of changing ignorance for knowledge. The soldiers and +the rulers were in different positions in that respect. But none +were so entirely blind that they had no sin, and none were so +entirely seeing that they were beyond the reach of Christ's pity or +the power of His intercession. In that prayer we learn, not only His +infinite forgivingness for insults and unbelief levelled at Himself, +but His exaltation as the Intercessor, whom the Father heareth +always. The dying Christ prayed for His enemies; the glorified +Christ lives to make intercession for us. + +II. In the second saying Christ is revealed as having the keys of +Hades, the invisible world of the dead. How differently the same +circumstances work on different natures! In the one malefactor, +physical agony and despair found momentary relief in taunts, flung +from lips dry with torture, at the fellow-sufferer whose very +innocence provoked hatred from the guilty heart. The other had been +led by his punishment to recognise in it the due reward of his +deeds, and thus softened, had been moved by Christ's prayer, and by +his knowledge of Christ's innocence, to hope that the same mercy +which had been lavished on the inflicters of His sufferings, might +stretch to enfold the partakers in it. + +At that moment the dying thief had clearer faith in Christ's coming +in His kingdom than any of the disciples had. Their hopes were +crumbling as they watched Him hanging unresisting and gradually +dying. But this man looked beyond the death so near for both Jesus +and himself, and believed that, after it, He would come to reign. We +may call him the only disciple that Christ then had. + +How pathetic is that petition, 'Remember me'! It builds the hope of +sharing in Christ's royalty on the fact of having shared in His +Cross. 'Thou wilt not forget Thy companion in that black hour, which +will then lie behind us.' Such trust and clinging, joined with such +penitence and submission, could not go unrewarded. + +From His Cross Jesus speaks in royal style, as monarch of that dim +world. His promise is sealed with His own sign-manual, 'Verily, I +say.' It claims to have not only the clear vision of, but the +authority to determine, the future. It declares the unbroken +continuance of personal existence, and the reality of a state of +conscious blessedness, in which men are aware of their union with +Him, the Lord of the realm and the Life of its inhabitants. It +graciously accepts the penitent's petition, and assures him that +the companionship, begun on the Cross, will be continued there. +'With Me' makes 'Paradise' wherever a soul is. + +III. The third word from the Cross, as recorded by Luke, reveals +Jesus as, in the act of dying, the Master of death, and its +Transformer for all who trust Him into a peaceful surrender of +themselves into the Father's hands. The circumstances grouped round +the act of His death bring out various aspects of its significance. +The darkness preceding had passed before He died, and it bore rather +on His sense of desertion, expressed in the unfathomably profound +and awful cry, 'Why hast Thou forsaken Me?' The rent veil is +generally taken to symbolise the unrestricted access into the +presence of God, which we have through Christ's death; but it is +worth considering whether it does not rather indicate the divine +leaving of the desecrated shrine, and so is the beginning of the +fulfilment of the deep word, 'Destroy this Temple.' + +But the centre-point of the section is the last cry which, in its +loudness, indicated physical strength quite incompatible with the +exhaustion to which death by crucifixion was generally due. It thus +confirms the view which sees, both in the words of Jesus and in the +Evangelist's expression for His death, clear indications that He +died, not because His physical powers were unable to live longer, +but by the exercise of His own volition. He died because He chose, +and He chose because He loved and would save. As St. Bernard says, +'Who is He who thus easily falls asleep when He wills? To die is +indeed great weakness, but to die thus is immeasurable power. Truly +the weakness of God is stronger than men.' + +Nor let us forget that, in thus dying, Jesus gave us an imitable +example, as well as revealed inimitable power. For, if we trust +ourselves, living and dying, to Him, we shall not be dragged +reluctantly, by an overmastering grasp against which we vainly +struggle, out of a world where we would fain stay, but we may +yield ourselves willingly, as to a Father's hand, which draws His +children gently to His own side, and blesses them, when there, with +His fuller presence. + + + + +THE DYING THIEF + + + 'And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou + comest into Thy kingdom.'--LUKE xxiii, 42. + +There is an old and true division of the work of Christ into three +parts--prophet, priest, and king. Such a distinction manifestly +exists, though it may be overestimated, or rather, the statement of +it may be exaggerated, if it be supposed that separate acts of His +discharge these separate functions, and that He ceases to be the one +before He becomes the other. Rather it is true that all His work is +prophetic, that all His work is priestly, and that His prophetic and +priestly work is the exercise of His kingly authority. But still the +division is a true one, and helps to set before us, clearly and +definitely, the wide range of the benefits of Christ's mission and +death. It is noteworthy that these three groups round the Cross, the +third of which we have to speak of now--that of the 'daughters of +Jerusalem,' that of the deriding scribes and the indifferent +soldiers, and this one of the two thieves--each presents us Christ +in one of the three characters. The words that He spoke upon the +Cross, with reference to others than Himself, may be gathered +around, and arranged under, that threefold aspect of Christ's work. +The _prophet_ said, 'Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, +but weep for yourselves, for the days are coming.' The _priest_ +said, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. 'The +_king_, in His sovereignty, ruled the heart of that penitent +man from His Cross, and while the crown shone athwart the smoke and +the agony of the death, the king 'opened the gates of the kingdom +of heaven unto all believers' when He said, 'This day shalt thou be +with Me in Paradise!' + +We shall not attempt, in dealing with this incident, to paint +pictures. I have a far more important thing to do than even to try +to bring vividly before your minds the scene on that little hill of +Calvary. It is the meaning that we are concerned with, and not the +mere externals. I take it for granted, then, that we know the +details:--the dying man in his agony, beginning to see dimly, as his +soul closed upon earthly things, who this was--patient, loving, +mighty there in His sufferings; and using his last breath to cry, +'Lord, remember me!'--and the sufferer throned in the majesty of His +meekness, and divinity of His endurance; calm, conscious, full of +felt but silent power, accepting homage, bending to the penitence, +loving the sinner, and flinging open the gates of the pale kingdoms +into which He was to pass, with these His last words. + +First, then, we see here an illustration of the Cross in its power +of drawing men to itself. It is strange to think that, perhaps, at +that moment the only human being who thoroughly believed in Christ +was that dying robber. The disciples are all gone. The most faithful +of them are recreant, denying, fleeing. A handful of women are +standing there, not knowing what to think about it, stunned but +loving; and alone (as I suppose), alone of all the sons of men, the +crucified malefactor was in the sunshine of faith, and could say +'I believe!' As everything of the future history of the world and of +the Gospel is typified in the events of the Crucifixion, it was +fitting that here again and at the last there should be a prophetic +fulfilment of His own saying, 'I, if I be lifted up, will draw all +men unto Me.' + +But mark, here we have a striking instance of the universal law of +the progress of the Gospel, in the two-fold effort of the +contemplation of the Cross. By its foot was to be seen the derision +of the scribes and the stupor of the soldiery; and now here are the +two thieves--the one chiming in with the universal reproaches; and +the other beholding the same event, having the same circumstances +displayed before him, and they influence him _thus_. Brethren, +it is just the history of the Gospel wherever it goes. It is its +history now, and among us. The Gospel is preached equally to every +man. The same message comes to us all, offering us the same terms. +Christ stands before each of us in the same attitude. And what is +the consequence? A parting of the whole mass of us, some to one side +and some to the other. So, when you take a magnet, and hold it to an +indiscriminate heap of metal filings, it will gather out all the +iron, and leave behind all the rest. 'I, if I be lifted up,' said +He, 'will draw all men unto Me.' The attractive power will go out +over the whole race of His brethren; but from some there will be no +response. In some hearts there will be no yielding to the +attraction. Some will remain rooted, obstinate, steadfast in their +place; and to some the lightest word will be mighty enough to stir +all the slumbering pulses of their sin-ridden hearts, and to bring +them, broken and penitent, for mercy to His feet. To the one He is +'a savour of life unto life, and to the other a savour of death unto +death.' The broadest doctrine of the universal adaptation, and the +universal intention too, of the Gospel, as the 'power of God unto +salvation,' contains hidden in its depths this undeniable fact, +that, be the cause what it may (and as I believe, the cause lies +with us, and is our fault) this separating, judging effect follows +from all faithful preaching of Christ's words. He came to judge the +world, 'that they which see not' (as He Himself said) 'might see, +and they which see might be made blind,' And on the Cross that +process went on in two men, alike in necessity, alike in +criminality, alike in this, that Death's icy finger was just being +laid upon their heart, to stop all the flow of its wild blood and +passion, but different in this, that the one of them turned himself, +by God's grace, and laid hold on the Gospel that was offered to him, +and the other turned himself away, and derided, and died. + +And now, there is another consideration. If we look at this man, this +penitent thief, and contrast him, his previous history, and his present +feelings, with the people that stood around, and rejected and scoffed, +we get some light as to the sort of thing that unfits men for perceiving +and accepting the Gospel when it is offered to them. Remember the other +classes of persons who were there. There were Roman soldiers, with very +partial knowledge of what they were doing, and whose only feeling was +that of entire indifference; and there were Jewish Rabbis, Pharisees, +Priests, and people, who knew a little more of what they were doing, +and whose feeling was derision and scorn. Now, if we mark the ordinary +scriptural representation, especially as to the last class, we cannot +help seeing that there comes out this principle:--The thing of all +others that unfits men for the reception of Christ as a Saviour, and +for the simple reliance on His atoning blood and divine mercy, is not +gross, long profligacy, and outward, vehement transgression; but it is +self-complacency, clean, fatal self-righteousness and self-sufficiency. + +Why was it that Scribes and Pharisees turned away from Him? For +three reasons. Because of their pride of wisdom. 'We are the men who +know all about Moses and the traditions of the elders; we judge this +new phenomenon not by the question, How does it come to our +consciences, and how does it appeal to our hearts? but we judge it +by the question, How does it fit our Rabbinical learning and subtle +casuistical laws? _We_ are the Priests and the Scribes; and the +people that know not the law, _they_ may accept a thing that +only appeals to the common human heart, but for us, in our +intellectual superiority, living remote from the common wants of the +lower class, not needing a rough outward Gospel of that sort, we can +do without such a thing, and we reject it.' They turned away from +the Cross, and their hatred darkened into derision, and their +menaces ended in a crucifixion, not merely because of a pride of +wisdom, but because of a complacent self-righteousness that knew +nothing of the fact of sin, that never had learned to believe itself +to be full of evil, that had got so wrapped up in ceremonies as to +have lost the life; that had degraded the divine law of God, with +all its lightning splendours, and awful power, into a matter of +'mint and anise and cummin.' They turned away for a third reason. +Religion had become to them a mere set of traditional dogmas, to +think accurately or to reason clearly about which was all that was +needful. Worship having become ceremonial, and morality having +become casuistry, and religion having become theology, the men were +as hard as a nether millstone, and there was nothing to be done with +them until these three crusts were peeled off the heart, and, close +and burning, the naked heart and the naked truth of God came into +contact. + +Brethren, change the name, and the story is true about _us_. +God forbid that I should deny that every form of gross, sensual +immorality, 'hardens all within' (as one poor victim of it said), +'and petrifies the feeling.' God forbid that I should seem to be +speaking slightingly of the exceeding sinfulness of such sin, or to +be pouring contempt upon the laws of common morality. Do not +misapprehend me so. Still it is not sin in its outward forms that +makes the worst impediment between a man and the Cross, but it is +sin plus self-righteousness which makes the insurmountable obstacle +to all faith and repentance. And oh! in our days, when passion is +tamed down by so many bonds and chains; when the power of society +lies upon all of us, prescribing our path, and keeping most of us +from vice, partly because we are not tempted, and partly because we +have been brought up like some young trees behind a wall, within the +fence of decent customs and respectable manners,--we have far more +need to tell orderly, respectable moral men--'My brother, that thing +that you have is worth nothing, as settling your position before God'; +than to stand up and thunder about crimes which half of us never heard +of, and perhaps only an infinitesimal percentage of us have ever +committed. All sin separates from God, but the thing that makes the +separation permanent is not the sin, but the ignorance of the sin. +Self-righteousness, aye, and pride of wisdom, they--they have perverted +many a nature, many a young man's glowing spirit, and have turned him +away from the Gospel. If there be a man here who is looking at the +simple message of peace and pardon and purity through Christ, and is +saying to himself, Yes; it may fit the common class of minds that +require outward signs and symbols, and must pin their faith to forms; +but for me with my culture, for me with my spiritual tendencies, for +me with my new lights, _I_ do not want any objective redemption; +_I_ do not want anything to convince _me_ of a divine love, and I +do not need any crucified Saviour to preach to _me_ that God is +merciful!--this incident before us has a very solemn lesson in it for +him. And if there be a man here who is living a life of surface +blamelessness, it has as solemn a lesson for him. Look at the Scribe, +and look at the Pharisee--religious men in their way, wise men in +their way, decent and respectable men in their way; and look at that +poor thief that had been caught in the wilderness amongst the caves +and dens, and had been brought red-handed with blood upon his sword, +and guilt in his heart, and nailed up there in the short and summary +process of a Roman jurisprudence;--and think that Scribe, and Pharisee, +and Priest, saw nothing in Christ; and that the poor profligate wretch +saw this in Him,--innocence that showed heavenly against his diabolical +blackness; and his heart stirred, and he laid hold of Him in the stress +of his mighty agony--as a drowning man catches at anything that +protrudes from the bank; and he held and shook it, and the thing was +fast, and he was safe! Not transgression shuts a man out from mercy. +Transgression, which belongs to us all, makes us subjects for the +mercy; but it is pride, self-righteousness, trust in ourselves, which +'bars the gates of mercy on mankind'; and the men that _are_ condemned +are condemned not only because they have transgressed the commandments +of God, but '_this_ is the condemnation, that light came into the +world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds +were evil.' + +And then (and but a word) we see here, too, the elements of which +acceptable faith consists. One does not exactly know by what steps +or through what process this poor dying thief passed, which issued +in faith--whether it was an impression from Christ's presence, +whether it was that he had ever heard anything about Him before, or +whether it was only that the wisdom which dwells with death was +beginning to clear his eyes as life ebbed away. But however he +_came_ to the conviction, mark what it was that he believed and +expressed,--I am a sinful man; all punishment that comes down upon me +is richly deserved: This man is pure and righteous; 'Lord, remember +me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom!' That is all--that is all. That +is the thing that saves a man. How much he _did_ know--whether he +knew all the depth of what he was saying, when he said 'Lord!' is a +question that we cannot answer; whether he understood what the +'kingdom' was that he was expecting, is a question that we cannot +solve; but this is clear--the intellectual part of faith may be dark +and doubtful, but the moral and emotional part of it is manifest and +plain. There was, '_I_ am nothing--_Thou_ art everything: I bring +myself and my emptiness unto Thy great fullness: fill it and make me +blessed!' Faith has that. Faith has in it repentance--repentance has in +it faith too. Faith has in it the recognition of the certainty and the +justice of a judgment that is coming down crashing upon every human +head; and then from the midst of these fears, and sorrows, and the +tempest of that great darkness, there rises up in the night of terrors, +the shining of one perhaps pale, quivering, distant, but divinely given +hope, 'My Saviour! My Saviour! He is righteous: He has died--He lives! +I will stay no longer; I will cast myself upon Him!' + +Once more--this incident reminds us not only of the attractive power +of the Cross, but of the prophetic power of the Cross. We have here +the Cross as pointing to and foretelling the Kingdom. Pointing out, +and foretelling: that is to say, of course, and only, if we accept +the scriptural statement of what these sufferings were, the Person +that endured them, and the meaning of their being endured. But the +only thing I would dwell upon here, is, that when we think of Christ +as dying for us, we are never to separate it from that other solemn +and future coming of which this poor robber catches a glimpse. They +crowned Him with thorns, and they gave Him a reed for His sceptre. +That mockery, so natural to the strong practical Romans in dealing +with one whom they thought a harmless enthusiast, was a symbol which +they who did it little dreamed of. The crown of thorns proclaims a +sovereignty founded on sufferings. The sceptre of feeble reed speaks +of power wielded in gentleness. The Cross leads to the crown. The +brow that was pierced by the sharp acanthus wreath, therefore wears +the diadem of the universe. The hand that passively held the mockery +of the worthless, pithless reed, therefore rules the princes of the +earth with the rod of iron. He who was lifted up to the Cross, was, +by that very act, lifted up to be a Ruler and Commander to the +peoples. For the death of the Cross God hath highly exalted Him to +be a Prince and a Saviour. The way to glory for Him, the power by +which He wields the kingdom of the world, is precisely through the +suffering. And therefore, whensoever there arises before us the +image of the one, oh! let there rise before us likewise the image of +the other. The Cross links on to the kingdom--the kingdom lights up +the Cross. My brother, the Saviour comes--the Saviour comes a King. +The Saviour that comes a King is the Saviour that has been here and +was crucified. The kingdom that He establishes is all full of +blessing, and love, and gentleness; and to us (if we will unite the +thoughts of Cross and Crown) there is opened up not only the +possibility of having boldness before Him in the day of judgment, +but there is opened up this likewise--the certainty that He 'shall +receive of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.' Oh, remember +that as certain as the historical fact--He died on Calvary; so +certain is the prophetic fact--He shall reign, and you and I will +stand there! I durst not touch that subject. Take it into your own +hearts; and think about it--a kingdom, a judgment-seat, a crown, a +gathered universe; separation, decision, execution of the sentence. +And oh! ask yourselves, 'When that gentle eye, with lightning in its +depths, falls upon _me_, individualises _me_, summons out _me_ to its +bar--how shall I stand?' 'Herein is our love made perfect, that we may +have boldness before Him in the day of judgment,' 'Lord, remember me +when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.' + +Finally. Here is the Cross as revealing and opening the true +Paradise.--'This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.' We have no +concern at present with the many subtle inferences as to the state +of the dead, and as to the condition of our Lord's human spirit before +the Resurrection, which have been drawn from these words. To me they +do seem fairly to bear the broad and single conclusion that the spirits +of the saved do enter at death into a state of conscious presence with +their Saviour, and therefore of joy and felicity. But beyond this we +have no firm ground for going. It is of more practical worth to note +that the penitent's vague prayer is answered, and over-answered. He +asks, 'When Thou comest'--whensoever that may be--'remember me.' 'I +shall stand afar off; do not let me be utterly forgotten.' Christ +answers--'Remember thee! thou shalt be _with Me_, close to My side. +Remember thee _when_ I come!--_this day_ shalt thou be with Me.' + +And what a contrast that is--the conscious blessedness rushing in +close upon the heels of the momentary darkness of death. At the one +moment there hangs the thief writhing in mortal agony; the wild +shouts of the fierce mob at his feet are growing faint upon his ear; +the city spread out at his feet, and all the familiar sights of +earth are growing dim to his filmy eye. The soldier's spear comes, +the legs are broken, and in an instant there hangs a relaxed corpse; +and the spirit, the spirit--is where? Ah! how far away; released +from all its sin and its sore agony, struggling up at once into such +strange divine enlargement, a new star swimming into the firmament +of heaven, a new face before the throne of God, another sinner +redeemed from earth! The conscious immediate blessedness of the +departed--be he what he may, be his life whatsoever it may have +been--who at last, dark, sinful, standing with one foot on the verge +of eternity, and poising himself for the flight, flings himself into +the arms of Christ--the everlasting blessedness, the Christ-presence +and the Christ-gladness, that is the message that the robber leaves +to us from his cross. Paradise is opened to us again. The Cross is +the true 'tree of life.' The flaming cherubim, and the sword that +turneth every way, are gone, and the broad road into the city, the +Paradise of God, with all its beauties and all its peaceful joy--a +better Paradise, 'a statelier Eden,' than that which we have lost, +is flung open to us for ever. + +Do not trust a death-bed repentance, my brother. I have stood by +many a death-bed, and few indeed have they been where I could have +believed that the man was in a condition physically (to say nothing +of anything else) clearly to see and grasp the message of the +Gospel. There is no limit to the mercy. I know that God's mercy is +boundless. I know that 'whilst there is life there is hope.' I know +that a man, going--swept down that great Niagara--if, before his +little skiff tilts over into the awful rapids, he can make one great +bound with all his strength, and reach the solid ground--I know he +may be saved. It is an awful risk to run. A moment's miscalculation, +and skiff and voyager alike are whelming in the green chaos below, +and come up mangled into nothing, far away down yonder upon the +white turbulent foam. '_One_ was saved upon the Cross,' as the +old divines used to tell us, 'that none might despair; and only one, +that none might presume.' _'Now_ is the accepted time, and +_now_ is the day of salvation!' + + + + +THE FIRST EASTER SUNRISE + + + 'Now, upon the first day of the week, very early in + the morning, they came onto the sepulchre, bringing + the spices which they had prepared, and certain others + with them. 2. And they found the stone rolled away + from the sepulchre. 3. And they entered in, and found + not the body of the Lord Jesus. 4. And it came to pass, + as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two + men stood by them in shining garments: 5. And as they + were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, + they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the + dead? 6. He is not here, but is risen: remember how He + spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, 7. Saying, + The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of + sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise + again. 8. And they remembered His words, 9. And + returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things + unto the eleven, and to all the rest. 10. It was Mary + Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, + and other women that were with them, which told these + things unto the apostles. 11. And their words seemed + to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. + 12. Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and + stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by + themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that + which was come to pass.'--LUKE xxiv. 1-12. + +No Evangelist narrates the act of Resurrection. Apocryphal Gospels +cannot resist the temptation of describing it. Why did the Four +preserve such singular reticence about what would have been +irresistible to 'myth' makers? Because they were not myth-makers, +but witnesses, and had nothing to say as to an act that no man had +seen. No doubt, the Resurrection took place in the earliest hours of +the first day of the week. The Sun of Righteousness rose before the +Easter Day sun. It was midsummer day for Him, while it was but +spring for earth's calendar. That early rising has no setting to +follow. + +The divergences of the Evangelists reach their maximum in the accounts +of the Resurrection, as is natural if we realise the fragmentary +character of all the versions, the severely condensed style of +Matthew's, the incompleteness of the genuine Mark's, the evidently +selective purpose in Luke's, and the supplementary design of John's. +If we add the perturbed state of the disciples, their separation from +each other, and the number of distinct incidents embraced in the +records, we shall not wonder at the differences, but see in them +confirmation of the good faith of the witnesses, and a reflection of +the hurry and wonderfulness of that momentous day. Differences there +are; contradictions there are not, except between the doubtful verses +added to Mark and the other accounts. We cannot put all the pieces +together, when we have only them to guide us. If we had a complete +and independent narrative to go by, we could, no doubt, arrange our +fragments. But the great certainties are unaffected by the small +divergences, and the points of agreement are vital. They are, for +example, that none saw the Resurrection, that the first to know of +it were the women, that angels appeared to them at the tomb, that +Jesus showed Himself first to Mary Magdalene, that the reports of the +Resurrection were not believed. Whether the group with whom this +passage has to do were the same as that whose experience Matthew +records we leave undetermined. If so, they must have made two visits +to the tomb, and two returns to the Apostles,--one, with only the +tidings of the empty sepulchre, which Luke tells; one, with the +tidings of Christ's appearance, as in Matthew. But harmonistic +considerations do not need to detain us at present. + +Sorrow and love are light sleepers, and early dawn found the brave +women on their way. Nicodemus had bound spices in with the body, and +these women's love-gift was as 'useless' and as fragrant as Mary's +box of ointment. Whatever love offers, love welcomes, though Judas +may ask 'To what purpose is this waste?' Angel hands had rolled away +the stone, not to allow of Jesus' exit, for He had risen while it +was in its place, but to permit the entrance of the 'witnesses of +the Resurrection.' So little did these women dream of such a thing +that the empty tomb brought no flash of joy, but only perplexity to +their wistful gaze. 'What does it mean?' was their thought. They and +all the disciples expected nothing less than they did a Resurrection, +therefore their testimony to it is the more reliable. + +Luke marks the appearance of the angels as sudden by that 'behold.' +They were not seen approaching, but at one moment the bewildered +women were alone, looking at each other with faces of dreary wonder, +and the next, 'two men' were standing beside them, and the tomb was +lighted by the sheen of their dazzling robes. Much foolish fuss has +been made about the varying reports of the angels, and 'contradictions' +have been found in the facts that some saw them and some did not, that +some saw one and some saw two, that some saw them seated and some saw +them standing, and so on. We know so little of the laws that govern +angelic appearances that our opinion as to the probability or veracity +of the accounts is mere guess-work. Where should a flight of angels +have gathered and hovered if not there? And should they not 'sit in +order serviceable' about the tomb, as around the 'stable' at Bethlehem? +Their function was to prepare a way in the hearts of the women for the +Lord Himself, to lessen the shock,--for sudden joy shocks and may +hurt,--as well as to witness that these 'things angels desire to look +into.' + +Their message flooded the women's hearts with better light than +their garments had spread through the tomb. Luke's version of it +agrees with Mark and Matthew in the all-important central part, 'He +is not here, but is risen' (though these words in Luke are not +beyond doubt), but diverges from them otherwise. Surely the message +was not the mere curt announcement preserved by any one of the +Evangelists. We may well believe that much more was said than any or +all of them have recorded. The angels' question is half a rebuke, +wholly a revelation, of the essential nature of 'the Living One,' +who was so from all eternity, but is declared to be so by His +rising, of the incongruity of supposing that He could be gathered +to, and remain with, the dim company of the dead, and a blessed +word, which turns sorrow into hope, and diverts sad eyes from the +grave to the skies, for all the ages since and to come. The angels +recall Christ's prophecies of death and resurrection, which, like so +many of His words to the disciples and to us, had been heard, and +not heard, being neglected or misinterpreted. They had questioned +'what the rising from the dead should mean,' never supposing that it +meant exactly what it said. That way of dealing with Christ's words +did not end on the Easter morning, but is still too often practised. + +If we are to follow Luke's account, we must recognise that the women +in a company, as well as Mary Magdalene separately, came back first +with the announcement of the empty tomb and the angels' message, and +later with the full announcement of having seen the Lord. But apart +from the complexities of attempted combination of the narratives, +the main point in all the Evangelists is the disbelief of the +disciples, 'Idle tales,' said they, using a very strong word which +appears only here in the New Testament, and likens the eager story +of the excited women to a sick man's senseless ramblings. That was +the mood of the whole company, apostles and all. Is that mood likely +to breed hallucinations? The evidential value of the disciples' +slowness to believe cannot be overrated. + +Peter's race to the sepulchre, in verse 12 of Luke xxiv., is omitted +by several good authorities, and is, perhaps, spurious here. If +allowed to stand as Luke's, it seems to show that the Evangelist had +a less complete knowledge of the facts than John. Mark, Peter's +'interpreter,' has told us of the special message to him from the +risen, but as yet unseen, Lord, and we may well believe that that +quickened his speed. The assurance of forgiveness and the hope of a +possible future that might cover over the cowardly past, with the +yearning to sob his heart out on the Lord's breast, sent him swiftly +to the tomb. Luke does not say that he went in, as John, with one of +his fine touches, which bring out character in a word, tells us that +he did; but he agrees with John in describing the effect of what +Peter saw as being only 'wonder,' and the result as being only that +he went away pondering over it all, and not yet able to grasp the +joy of the transcendent fact. Perhaps, if he had not had a troubled +conscience, he would have had a quicker faith. He was not given to +hesitation, but his sin darkened his mind. He needed that secret +interview, of which many knew the fact but none the details, ere he +could feel the full glow of the Risen Sun thawing his heart and +scattering his doubts like morning mists on the hills. + + + + +THE LIVING DEAD + + + 'Why seek ye the living among the dead! 6. He is not + here, but is risen.'--LUKE xxiv. 5,6. + +We can never understand the utter desolation of the days that lay +betwixt Christ's Death and His Resurrection. Our faith rests on +centuries. We know that that grave was not even an interruption to +the progress of His work, but was the straight road to His triumph +and His glory. We know that it was the completion of the work of +which the raising of the widow's son and of Lazarus were but the +beginnings. But these disciples did not know that. To them the +inferior miracles by which He had redeemed others from the power of +the grave, must have made His own captivity to it all the more +stunning; and the thought which such miracles ending so must have +left upon them, must have been something like, 'He saved others; +Himself He cannot save.' And therefore we can never think ourselves +fully back to that burst of strange sudden thankfulness with which +these weeping Marys found those two calm angel forms sitting with +folded wings, like the Cherubim over the Mercy-seat, but +overshadowing a better propitiation, and heard the words of my text, +'Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is +risen.' + +But yet, although the words before us, in the full depth and +preciousness of their meaning, of course could only be once +fulfilled, we may not only gather from them thoughts concerning that +one death and resurrection, but we may likewise apply them, in a +very permissible modification of meaning, to the present condition +of all who have departed in His faith and fear; since for us, too, +it is true that, whenever we go to an open grave, sorrowing for those +whom we love, or oppressed with the burden of mortality in any shape, +if our eyes are anointed, we can see there sitting the quiet angel +forms; and if our ears be purged from the noise of earth, we can hear +them saying to us, in regard to all that have gone away, 'Why seek ye +the living in these graves? They are not here; they are risen, as He +said.' The thoughts are very old, brethren. God be thanked that they +_are_ old! Perhaps to some of you they may come now with new power, +because they come with new application to your own present condition. +Perhaps to some of you they may sound very weak, and 'words weaker +than your grief will make grief more';--but such as they are, let us +look at them for a moment or two together now. + +The first thought, then, that these words of the angel messengers, +and the scene in which we find them, suggest, is this--The dead are +the living. + +Language, which is more accustomed and adapted to express the +appearances than the realities of things, leads us astray very much +when we use the phrase 'the dead' as if it expressed the continuance +of the condition into which men pass in the act of dissolution. It +misleads us no less, when we use it as if it expressed in itself the +whole truth even as to that act of dissolution. 'The dead' and 'the +living' are not names of two classes which exclude each other. Much +rather, there are _none_ who are _dead_. The dead are the living who +have died. Whilst they were dying they lived, and after they were dead +they lived more fully. All live unto God. 'God is not the God of the +dead, but of the living.' Oh, how solemnly sometimes that thought comes +up before us, that all those past generations which have stormed across +this earth of ours, and then have fallen into still forgetfulness, live +yet. Somewhere at this very instant, they now verily _are_! We say, +'They _were_, they _have been_'. There are no have beens! Life is life +for ever. _To be_ is eternal being. Every man that has died is at this +instant in the full possession of all his faculties, in the intensest +exercise of all his capacities, standing somewhere in God's great +universe, ringed with the sense of God's presence, and feeling in +every fibre of his being that life, which comes after death, is not less +real, but more real, not less great, but more great, not less full or +intense, but more full and intense, than the mingled life which, lived +here on earth, was a centre of life surrounded with a crust and +circumference of mortality. The dead are the living. They lived whilst +they died; and after they die, they live on for ever. + +Such a conviction has as a matter of fact been firmly grasped as an +unquestionable truth and a familiar operative belief only within the +sphere of the Christian revelation. From the natural point of view +the whole region of the dead is 'a land of darkness, without any +order, where the light is as darkness.' The usual sources of human +certainty fail us here. Reason is only able to stammer a +peradventure. Experience and consciousness are silent. 'The simple +senses' can only say that it looks as if Death were an end, the +final Omega. Testimony there is none from any pale lips that have +come back to unfold the secrets of the prison-house. + +The history of Christ's Death and Resurrection, His dying words +'_This day_ thou shalt be with Me in Paradise,' the full +identity of being with which He rose from the grave, the manhood +changed and yet the same, the intercourse of the forty days before +His ascension, which showed the continuance of all the old love +'stronger than death,' and was in all essential points like His +former intercourse with His disciples, though changed in form and +introductory to the times when they should see Him no more in the +flesh-these teach us, not as a peradventure, nor as a dim hope, nor +as a strong foreboding which may be in its nature prophetic, but as +a certainty based upon a historical fact, that Death's empire is +partial in its range and transitory in its duration. But, after we +are convinced of that, we can look again with new eyes even on the +external accompaniments of death, and see that sense is too hasty in +its conclusion that death is the final end. There is no reason from +what we see passing before our eyes then to believe, that it, with +all its pitifulness and all its pain, has any power at all upon the +soul. True, the spirit gathers itself into itself, and, poising +itself for its flight, becomes oblivious of what is passing round +about it. True, the tenant that is about to depart from the house in +which he has dwelt so long, closes the windows before he goes. But +what is there in the cessation of the power of communication with an +outer world--what is there in the fact that you clasp the nerveless +hand, and it returns no pressure; that you whisper gentle words that +you think might kindle a soul under the dull, cold ribs of death +itself, and get no answer--that you look with weeping gaze to catch +the response of affection from out of the poor filmy, closing, +tearless eyes there, and look in vain--what is there in all that to +lead to the conviction that _the spirit_ is participant of that +impotence and silence? Is not the soul only self-centring itself, +retiring from, the outposts, but not touched in the citadel? Is it +not only that as the long sleep of life begins to end, and the +waking eye of the soul begins to open itself on realities, the +sights and sounds of the dream begin to pass away? Is it not but +that the man, in dying, begins to be what he fully is when he is +dead, 'dead unto sin,' dead unto the world, that he may 'live unto +God' that he may live with God, that he may live really? And so we +can look upon that ending of life, and say, 'It is a very small +thing; it only cuts off the fringes of my life, it does not touch +_me_ at all' It only plays round about the husk, and does not +get at the core. It only strips off the circumferential mortality, +but the soul rises up untouched by it, and shakes the bands of death +from off its immortal arms, and flutters the stain of death from +off its budding wings, and rises fuller of life _because of +death_, and mightier in its vitality in the very act of +submitting the body to the law, 'Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt +thou return.' + +Touching but a part of the being, and touching that but for a +moment, death is no state, it is an act. It is not a condition, it +is a transition. Men speak about life as 'a narrow neck of land, +betwixt two unbounded seas': they had better speak about death as +that. It is an isthmus, narrow and almost impalpable, on which, for +one brief instant, the soul poises itself; whilst behind it there +lies the inland lake of past being, and before it the shoreless +ocean of future life, all lighted with the glory of God, and making +music as it breaks even upon these dark, rough rocks. Death is but a +passage. It is not a house, it is only a vestibule. The grave has a +door on its inner side. We roll the stone to its mouth and come +away, thinking that we have left them there till the Resurrection. +But when the outer access to earth is fast closed, the inner portal +that opens on heaven is set wide, and God says to His child, 'Come, +enter into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee ... until the +indignation be overpast!' Death is a superficial thing, and a +transitory thing--a darkness that is caused by the light, and a +darkness that ends in the light--a trifle, if you measure it by +duration; a trifle if you measure it by depth. The death of the mortal +is the emancipation and the life of the immortal. Then, brethren, we +may go with the words of my text, and look upon every green hillock +below which any that are dear to us are lying, and say to ourselves, +'Not _here_--God be thanked, no--not here: living, and not dead; +_yonder_, with the Master!' Oh, we think far too much of the grave, +and far too little of the throne and the glory! We are far too much +the creatures of sense; and the accompaniments of dissolution and +departure fill up our hearts and our eyes. Think them all away, +believe them all away, love them all away. Stand in the light of +Christ's life, and Christ's death, and Christ's rising, till you +feel, 'Thou art a shadow, not a substance--no real thing at all.' +Yes, a shadow; and where a shadow falls there must be sunlight above +to cast it. Look up, then, above the shadow Death, above the sin and +separation from God, of which it is the shadow! Look up to the +unsetting light of the Eternal life on the throne of the universe, +and see bathed in it the living dead in Christ! + +God has taken them to Himself, and we ought not to think (if we +would think as the Bible speaks) of death as being anything else +than the transitory thing which breaks down the brazen walls and +lets us into liberty. For, indeed, if you will examine the New +Testament on this subject, I think you will be surprised to find how +very seldom--scarcely ever--the word 'death' is employed to express +the mere fact of the dissolution of the connection between soul and +body. It is strange, but significant, that the Apostles, and Christ +Himself, so rarely use the word to express that which we exclusively +mean by it. They use all manner of other expressions as if they felt +that the _fact_ remains, but that all that made it death has +gone away. In a real sense, and all the more real because the +external fact continues, Christ 'hath abolished death.' Two men may go +down to the grave together: of one this may be the epitaph, 'He that +believeth in Christ shall never die'; and of the other--passing through +precisely the same physical experience and appearance, the dissolution +of soul and body, we may say,--'There, that is death--death as God +sent it, to be the punishment of man's sin.' The outward fact remains +the same, the whole inner character of it is altered. As to them that +believe, though they have passed through the experience of painful +separation--slow, languishing departure, or suddenly being caught up +in some chariot of fire; not only are they living now, but they never +died at all! Have you understood 'death' in the full, pregnant sense +of the expression, which means not only that _shadow_, the +separation of the body from the soul; but that _reality_, the +separation of the soul from life, because of the separation of the +soul from God? + +Then, secondly, this text, indeed the whole incident, may set before +us the other consideration that since they have died, they live a +better life than ours. + +I am not going to enter here, at any length, or very particularly, +into what seem to me to be the irrefragable scriptural grounds for +holding the complete, uninterrupted, and even intensified +consciousness of the soul of man, in the interval between death and +the Resurrection. 'Absent from the body, present with the Lord.' +'This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.' These words, if there +were none other, are surely enough; seeing that of all that dark +region we know only what it pleases God to tell us in the Bible, and +seeing that it does not please Him to give us more than hints and +glimpses of any part of it. But putting aside all attempts to +elaborate a full doctrine of the intermediate state from the few +Scripture expressions that bear on it, I merely allege, in general +terms, that the present life of departed saints is fuller and nobler +than that which they possessed on earth. They are even now, whatever +be the details of their condition, 'the spirits of just men made +perfect.' As yet the body is not glorified--but the spirits of the +perfected righteous are now parts of that lofty society whose head +is Christ, whose members are the angels of God, the saints on earth +and the equally conscious redeemed who 'sleep in Jesus.' + +In what particulars is their life now higher than it was? First, +they have close fellowship with Christ; then, they are separated +from this present body of weakness, of dishonour, of corruption; +then, they are withdrawn from all the trouble, and toil, and care of +this present life; and then, and not least surely, they have death +behind them, not having that awful figure standing on their horizon +waiting for them to come up with it. These are some of the elements +of the life of the sainted dead. What a wondrous advance on the life +of earth they reveal if we think of them! They are closer to Christ; +they are delivered from the body, as a source of weakness; as a +hinderer of knowledge; as a dragger-down of all the aspiring +tendencies of the soul; as a source of sin; as a source of pain. +They are delivered from all the necessity of labour which is agony, +of labour which is disproportionate to strength, of labour which +often ends in disappointment, of labour which is wasted so often in +mere keeping life in, of labour which at the best is a curse, though +it be a merciful curse too. They are delivered from that 'fear of +death' which, though it be stripped of its sting, is never +extinguished in any soul of man that lives; and they can smile at +the way in which that narrow and inevitable passage bulked so large +before them all their days, and after all, when they came to it, was +so slight and small! If these are parts of the life of them that +'sleep in Jesus,' if they are fuller of knowledge, fuller of wisdom, +fuller of love and capacity of love, and object of love; fuller of +holiness, fuller of energy, and yet full of rest from head to foot; +if all the hot tumult of earthly experience is stilled and quieted, +all the fever beating of this blood of ours for ever at an end; all +the 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune' done with for ever, +and if the calm face which we looked last upon, and out of which the +lines of sorrow, and pain, and sickness melted away, giving it a +nobler nobleness than we had ever seen upon it in life, is only an +image of the restful and more blessed being into which they have +passed,--if the dead are thus, then 'Blessed are the dead!' + +No wonder that one aspect of that blessedness--the '_sleeping_ +in Jesus'--has been the one that the weary have laid hold of at all +times; but do not let us forget what lies even in that figure of +sleep, or distort it as if it meant to express a less vivid life +than that here below. I think we sometimes misunderstand what the +Bible means when it speaks about death as a sleep, by taking it to +express the idea that that intermediate state is one of a kind of +depressed consciousness, and of a less full vitality than the +present. Not so. Sleep is rest, that is one reason for the +scriptural application of the word to death. Sleep is the cessation +of all connection with the external world, that is another reason. +As we play with the names of those that are familiar to us, so a +loving faith can venture to play, as it were, with the awful name of +Him who is King of Terrors, and to minimise it down to that shadow +and reflection of itself which we find in the nightly act of going +to rest. That may be another reason. But sleep is not unconsciousness; +sleep does not touch the spirit. Sleep sets us free from relations to +the outer world but the soul works as hard, though in a different way, +when we slumber as when we wake. People who know what it is to dream, +ought never to fancy that when the Bible talks about death as sleep, it +means to say to us that death is unconsciousness. By no means. Strip the +man of the disturbance that comes from a fevered body, and he will have +a calmer soul. Strip him of the hindrances that come from a body which +is like an opaque tower around his spirit, with only a narrow slit here +and a narrow door there--five poor senses, with which he can come into +connection with an outer universe; and, then surely, the spirit will have +wider avenues out to God, and larger powers of reception, because it +has lost the earthly tabernacle which, just in proportion as it brought +the spirit into connection with the earth to which the tabernacle +belongs, severed its connection with the heavens that are above. +They who have died in Christ live a fuller and a nobler life, by the +very dropping away of the body; a fuller and a nobler life, by the +very cessation of care, change, strife and struggle; and, above all, +a fuller and nobler life, because they 'sleep _in Jesus_,' and +are gathered into His bosom, and wake with Him yonder beneath the +altar, clothed in white robes, and with palms in their hands, +'waiting the adoption--to wit, the redemption of the body.' For +though death be a progress--a progress to the spiritual existence; +though death be a birth to a higher and nobler state; though it be +the gate of life, fuller and better than any which we possess; +though the present state of the departed in Christ is a state of +calm blessedness, a state of perfect communion, a state of rest and +satisfaction;--yet it is not the final and perfect state, either. + +And, therefore, in the last place, the better life, which the dead +in Christ are living now, leads on to a still fuller life when they +get back their glorified bodies. + +The perfection of man is body, soul, and spirit. That is man, as God +made him. The spirit perfected, the soul perfected, without the +bodily life, is but part of the whole. For the future world, in all +its glory, we have the firm basis laid that it, too, is to be in a +real sense a material world, where men once more are to possess +bodies as they did before, only bodies through which the spirit +shall work conscious of no disproportion, bodies which shall be fit +servants and adequate organs of the immortal souls within, bodies +which shall never break down, bodies which shall never hem in nor +refuse to obey the spirits that dwell in them, but which shall add +to their power, and deepen their blessedness, and draw them closer +to the God whom they serve and the Christ after the likeness of +whose glorious body they are fashioned and conformed. 'Body, soul, +and spirit,' the old combination which was on earth, is to be the +perfect humanity of heaven. The spirits that are perfected, that are +living in blessedness, that are dwelling in God, that are sleeping +in Christ, at this moment are waiting, stretching out (I say, not +longing, but) expectant hands of faith and hope; for that they would +not be unclothed, but clothed upon with their house which is from +heaven, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. + +We have nothing to say, now and here, about what that bodily +condition may be--about the differences and the identities between +it and our present earthly house of this tabernacle. Only +_this_ we know-reverse all the weakness of flesh, and you get +some faint notion of the glorious body. It is sown in corruption, +dishonour, and weakness. It is raised in incorruption, glory, and +power. Nay, more, it is sown a natural body, fit organ for the +animal life or nature, which stands connected with this material +universe; 'it is raised a spiritual body,' fit servant for the +spirit that dwells in it, that works through it, that is perfected +in its redemption. + +Why, then, seek the living among the dead? 'God giveth His beloved +sleep'; and in that peaceful sleep, realities, not dreams, come +round their quiet rest, and fill their conscious spirits and their +happy hearts with blessedness and fellowship. And when thus lulled +to sleep in the arms of Christ they have rested till it please Him +to accomplish the number of His elect, then, in His own time, He +will make the eternal morning to dawn, and the hand that kept them +in their slumber shall touch them into waking, and shall clothe them +when they arise according to the body of His own glory; and they +looking into His face, and flashing back its love, its light, its +beauty, shall each break forth into singing as the rising light of +that unsetting day touches their transfigured and immortal heads, in +the triumphant thanksgiving 'I am satisfied, for I awake in Thy +likeness.' + +'Therefore, comfort one another with these words,' and remember that +_we_ are of the day, not of the night; let us not, then, sleep +as do others; but let us reckon that Christ hath died for us, that +whether we wake on earth or sleep in the grave, or wake in heaven, +we may live together with Him! + + + + +THE RISEN LORD'S SELF-REVELATION TO WAVERING DISCIPLES + + + 'And, behold, two of them went that same day to a + village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about + threescore furlongs. 14. And they talked together of + all these things which had happened. 15. And it came + to pass, that, while they communed together and + reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them. + 16. But their eyes were holden that they should not + know Him. 17. And He said unto them, What manner of + communications are these that ye have one to another, + as ye walk, and are sad? 18. And the one of them, + whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto Him, Art + Thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known + the things which are come to pass there in these days? + 19. And He said unto them, What things? And they said + unto Him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a + prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the + people: 20. And how the chief priests and our rulers + delivered Him to be condemned to death, and have + crucified Him. 21. But we trusted that it had been He + which should have redeemed Israel: and besides all + this, to-day is the third day since these things were + done. 22. Yea, and certain women also of our company + made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; + 23. And when they found not His body, they came, + saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, + which said that He was alive. 24. And certain of them + which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it + even so as the women had said: but Him they saw not. + 26. Then He said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart + to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 26. Ought + not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter + into His glory? 27. And beginning at Moses and all the + prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures + the things concerning Himself. 28. And they drew nigh + unto the village, whither they went: and He made as + though He would have gone further. 29. But they + constrained Him, saying, Abide with us: for it is + toward evening, and the day is far spent. And He went + in to tarry with them. 30. And it came to pass, as He + sat at meat with them, He took bread, and blessed it, + and brake, and gave to them. 31. And their eyes were + opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished out of + their sight. 32 And they said one to another, Did not + our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by + the way and while He opened to us the scriptures?' + --LUKE xxiv. 13-32. + +These two disciples had left their companions after Peter's return +from the sepulchre and before Mary Magdalene hurried in with her +tidings that she had seen Jesus. Their coming away at such a crisis, +like Thomas's absence that day, shows that the scattering of the +sheep was beginning to follow the smiting of the shepherd. The +magnet withdrawn, the attracted particles fall apart. What arrested +that process? Why did not the spokes fall asunder when the centre +was removed? John's disciples crumbled away after his death. When +Theudas fell, all his followers 'were dispersed' and came to nought. +The Church was knit more closely together after the death that, +according to all analogy, should have scattered it. Only the fact +of the Resurrection explains the anomaly. No reasonable men would +have held together unless they had known that their Messianic hopes +had not been buried in Christ's grave. We see the beginnings of the +Resurrection of these hopes in this sweet story. + +I. We have first the two sad travellers and the third who joins +them. Probably the former had left the group of disciples on purpose +to relieve the tension of anxiety and sorrow by walking, and to get +a quiet time to bring their thoughts into some order. They were like +men who had lived through an earthquake; they were stunned, and +physical exertion, the morning quiet of the country, and the absence +of other people, would help to calm their nerves, and enable them to +realise their position. Their tone of mind will come out more +distinctly presently. Here it is enough to note that the 'things +which had come to pass' filled their minds and conversation. That +being so, they were not left to grope in the dark. 'Jesus Himself +drew near, and went with them.' Honest occupation of mind with the +truth concerning Him, and a real desire to know it, are not left +unhelped. We draw Him to our sides when we wish and try to grasp the +real facts concerning Him, whether they coincide with our +prepossessions or not. + +It is profoundly interesting and instructive to note the +characteristics of the favoured ones who first saw the risen Lord. +They were Mary, whose heart was an altar of flaming and fragrant +love; Peter, the penitent denier; and these two, absorbed in +meditation on the facts of the death and burial. What attracts +Jesus? Love, penitence, study of His truth. He comes to these with +the appropriate gifts for them, as truly--yea, more closely--as of +old. Perhaps the very doubting that troubled them brought Him to +their help. He saw that they especially needed Him, for their faith +was sorely wounded. Necessity is as potent a spell to bring Jesus as +desert. He comes to reward fixed and fervent love, and He comes, +too, to revive it when tremulous and cold. + +'Their eyes were holden,' says Luke; and similarly 'their eyes were +opened' (ver. 31). He makes the reason for His not being recognised +a subjective one, and his narrative affords no support to the theory +of a change in our Lord's resurrection body. How often does Jesus +still come to us, and we discern Him not! Our paths would be less +lonely, and our thoughts less sad, if we realised more fully and +constantly our individual share in the promise,' I am with you +always.' + +II. We have next the conversation (vs. 17-28). The unknown new-comer +strikes into the dialogue with a question which, on some lips, would +have been intrusive curiosity, and would have provoked rude retorts. +But there was something in His voice and manner which unlocked +hearts. Does He not still come close to burdened souls, and with a +smile of love on His face and a promise of help in His tones, ask us +to tell Him all that is in our hearts? 'Communications' told to Him +cease to sadden. Those that we cannot tell to Him we should not +speak to ourselves. + +Cleopas naively wonders that there should be found a single man in +Jerusalem ignorant of the things which had come to pass. He forgot +that the stranger might know these, and not know that they were +talking about them. Like the rest of us, he fancied that what was +great to him was as great to everybody. What _could_ be the +subject of their talk but the one theme? The stranger assumes +ignorance, in order to win to a full outpouring. Jesus wishes us to +put all fears and doubts and shattered hopes into plain words to +Him. Speech to Christ cleanses our bosoms of much perilous stuff. +Before He speaks in answer we are lightened. + +Very true to nature is the eager answer of the two. The silence once +broken, out flows a torrent of speech, in which love and grief, +disciples' pride in their Master, and shattered hopes, incredulous +bewilderment and questioning wonder, are blended. + +That long speech (vs. 19-24) gives a lively conception of the two +disciples' state of mind. Probably it fairly represented the thought +of all. We note in it the limited conception of Jesus as but a +prophet, the witness to His miracles and teaching (the former being +set first, as having more impressed their minds), the assertion of +His universal appreciation by the 'people,' the charging of the +guilt of Christ's death on 'our rulers,' the sad contrast between +the officials' condemnation of Him and their own fond Messianic +hopes, and the despairing acknowledgment that these were shattered. + +The reference to 'the third day' seems to imply that the two had +been discussing the meaning of our Lord's frequent prophecy about +it. The connection in which they introduce it looks as if they were +beginning to understand the prophecy, and to cherish a germ of hope +in His Resurrection, or, at all events, were tossed about with +uncertainty as to whether they dared to cherish it. They are chary +of allowing that the women's story was true; naively they attach +more importance to its confirmation by men. 'But Him they saw not,' +and, so long as He did not appear, they could not believe even +angels saying 'that He was alive.' + +The whole speech shows how complete was the collapse of the +disciples' Messianic hopes, how slowly their minds opened to admit +the possibility of Resurrection, and how exacting they were in the +matter of evidence for it, even to the point of hesitating to accept +angelic announcements. Such a state of mind is not the soil in which +hallucinations spring up. Nothing but the actual appearance of the +risen Lord could have changed these sad, cautious unbelievers to +lifelong confessors. What else could have set light to these rolling +smoke-clouds of doubt, and made them flame heaven-high and world-wide? + +'The ingenuous disclosure of their bewilderment appealed to their +Companion's heart, as it ever does. Jesus is not repelled by doubts +and perplexities, if they are freely spoken to Him. To put our +confused thoughts into plain words tends to clear them, and to bring +Him as our Teacher. His reproach has no anger in it, and inflicts no +pain, but puts us on the right track for arriving at the truth. If +these two had listened to the 'prophets,' they would have understood +their Master, and known that a divine 'must' wrought itself out in +His Death and Resurrection. How often, like them, do we torture +ourselves with problems of belief and conduct of which the solution +lies close beside us, if we would use it? + +Jesus claimed 'all the prophets' as His witnesses. He teaches us to +find the highest purpose of the Old Testament in its preparation for +Himself, and to look for foreshadowings of His Death and +Resurrection there. What gigantic delusion of self-importance that +was, if it was not the self-attestation of the Incarnate Word, to +whom all the written word pointed! He will still, to docile souls, +be the Interpreter of Scripture. They who see Him in it all are +nearer its true appreciation than those who see in the Old Testament +everything but Him. + +III. We have finally the disclosure and disappearance of the Lord. +The little group must have travelled slowly, with many a pause on +the road, while Jesus opened the Scriptures; for they left the city +in the morning, and evening was near before they had finished their +'threescore furlongs' (between seven and eight miles). His presence +makes the day's march seem short. + +'He made as though He would have gone further,' not therein assuming +the appearance of a design which He did not really entertain, but +beginning a movement which He would have carried out if the +disciples' urgency had not detained Him. Jesus forces His company on +no man. He 'would have gone further' if they had not said 'Abide +with us.' He will leave us if we do not keep Him. But He delights to +be held by beseeching hands, and our wishes 'constrain' Him. Happy +are they who, having felt the sweetness of walking with Him on the +weary road, seek Him to bless their leisure and to add a more +blissful depth of repose to their rest! + +The humble table where Christ is invited to sit, becomes a sacred +place of revelation. He hallows common life, and turns the meals +over which He presides into holy things. His disciples' tables +should be such that they dare ask their Lord to sit at them. But +how often He would be driven away by luxury, gross appetite, trivial +or malicious talk! We shall all be the better for asking ourselves +whether we should like to invite Jesus to our tables. He is there, +spectator and judge, whether invited or not. + +Where Jesus is welcomed as guest He becomes host. Perhaps something +in gesture or tone, as He blessed and brake the bread, recalled the +loved Master to the disciples' minds, and, with a flash, the glad +'It is He!' illuminated their souls. That was enough. His bodily +presence was no longer necessary when the conviction of His risen +life was firmly fixed in them. Therefore He disappeared. The old +unbroken companionship was not to be resumed. Occasional +appearances, separated by intervals of absence, prepared the +disciples gradually for doing without His visible presence. + +If we are sure that He has risen and lives for ever, we have a +better presence than that. He is gone from our sight that He may be +seen by our faith. That 'now we see Him not' is advance on the +position of His first disciples, not retrogression. Let us strive to +possess the blessing of 'those who have not seen, and yet have +believed.' + + + + +DETAINING CHRIST + + + 'And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they + went: and He made as though He would have gone further. + 29. But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us: + for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. + And He went in to tarry with them.'--LUKE xxiv. 28, 29. + +Of course, a chance companion, picked up on the road, is dropped when +the journey's end is reached. When these two disciples had come to +Emmaus, perhaps arriving at some humble inn or caravanserai, or +perhaps at the home of one of them, it would have been an unmannerly +intrusion for the Stranger who had met them on the road, and could +accompany them there without rudely forcing Himself on them, to have +inflicted His company further on them unless they had wished it. And so +'He made as though He would have gone further,' not pretending what +He did not mean, but doing what was but natural and proper in the +circumstances. But Jesus had a further motive for showing His intention +of parting company at the door of t he house in Emmaus. He desired to +evoke the expression of the desire of His two fellow-walkers that He +should tarry with them. Having evoked it, then with infinite +willingness omnipotence lets itself be controlled by feebleness, and +Jesus suffers Himself to be constrained by those whom, unknown to +themselves, He was gently and mightily constraining. 'He _made as +though,'_ unfortunately suggests to an English reader the idea of +acting a part, and of seeming to intend what was not really intended. +But there is no such thought in Luke's mind. + +The first suggestion that strikes one from this incident is just +this: Jesus Christ will certainly leave us if we do not detain Him. + +It is no more certain that that walk to Emmaus had its end, and that +that first day of the week, day of Resurrection though it was, was +destined to close in sunset and evening darkness, than that all +seasons of quickened intercourse with Jesus Christ, all times when +duty and grace and privilege seem to be very great and real, all +times when we awake more than ordinarily to the recognition of the +Presence of the Lord with us and of the glories that lie beyond, +tend to end and to leave us bare and deprived of the vision, unless +there be on our parts a distinct and resolute effort to make +perpetual that which in its nature is transient and comes to a +close, unless we avert its cessation. All motion tends to rest, and +Christian feeling falls under the same law. Nay, the more thrilling +the moment's experience the more exhausting is it, and the more +certain to be followed by depression and collapse. 'Action and +reaction are equal and contrary.' The height of the wave determines +the depth of the trough. Therefore Christian people have to be +specially careful towards the end of a time of special vitality and +earnestness; because, unless they by desire and by discipline of +their minds interpose, the natural result will be deadness in +proportion to the previous excitement. 'He made as though He would +have gone further,' and He certainly will unless His retreating +skirts be grasped at by the outstretched hands of faith and desire, +and the prayer go after Him, 'Abide with us for it is toward +evening.' + +That is quite true, too, in another application of the incident. +Convictions, spiritual experiences of a rudimentary sort, certainly +die away and leave people harder and worse than they were before, +unless they be fostered and cherished and brought to maturity and +invested with permanence by the honest efforts of the subjects of +the same. The grace of God, in the preaching of His Gospel, is like +a flying summer shower. It falls upon one land and then passes on +with its treasures and pours them out somewhere else. The religious +history of many countries and of long centuries is a commentary +written out in great and tragic characters on the profound truth +that lies in the simple incident of my text. Look at Palestine, look +at Asia Minor, at the places where the Gospel first won its +triumphs; look at Eastern Europe. What is the present condition of +these once fair lands but an illustration of this principle, that +Christ who comes to men in His grace is kept only by the earnestness +and faithfulness and desire of the men to whom He comes? + +And you and I, dear brethren, both as members of a Christian +community and in our individual capacity, have our religious +blessings on the same conditions as Ephesus and Constantinople had +theirs, and may fling them away by the same negligence as has ruined +large tracts of the world through long ages of time. Christ will +certainly go unless you keep Him. + +Then further, notice from my text this other thought, that Christ +seeks by His action to stimulate our desires for Him. + +'He made as though He would have gone further.' But while His feet were +directed to the road His heart remained with His two fellow-travellers +whom He was apparently leaving, and His wish was that the sight of His +retiring figure might kindle in their hearts great outgoings of desire +to which He would so gladly yield. It is the same action on His part, +only under a slightly different form, but actuated by the same motive +and the same in substance, as we find over and over again in the +gospels. You remember the instances. I need only refer to them in a word. + +Here is one: the dark lake, the rising moon behind the Eastern +hills, a figure coming out of the gloom across the stormy sea, and +when He reached the tossing fishing cobble it seemed as if He would +have passed by; and He would, but that the cry flung out over the +dark water stopped Him. + +Here are two blind men sitting by the roadside crying 'Thou Son of +David, have mercy upon us.' Not a word, not even a glance over His +shoulder, no stopping of His resolved stride; onwards towards +Jerusalem, Pilate, and Calvary. Because He did not heed their cry? +Because He did not infinitely long to help them? No. The purpose of +His apparent indifference was attained when 'they cried the more +earnestly, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon us.' + +Here is another. A woman half mad with anguish for her demon-ridden +daughter, calling after Him with the shrill shriek of Eastern sorrow +and disturbing the fine nerves of the disciples, but causing no +movements nor any sign that He even heard, or if He heard, heeded, +the ear-piercing and heart-moving cries. Why was that ear which was +always open to the call of misery closed now? Because He wished to +bring her to such an agony of desire as might open her heart very +wide for an amplitude of blessing; and so He let her cry, knowing +that the longer she called the more she would wish, and that the +more she wished the more He would bestow. + +And that is what He does with us all sometimes: seeming to leave our +wishes and our yearnings all unnoticed. Then the devil says to us, +'What's the use of crying to Him? He does not hear you.' But faith +hears the promise: 'Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it,' though +to sense there seems to be 'no voice nor any that answered.' + +Christ has no other reason in any of the delays and trying +prolongations of His answers than to make us capable of larger +blessing, because delay deepens our longing. He is infinitely +wishful to-day, as He was on that Resurrection evening, to draw near +to every heart and pour upon it the whole sunlit cataract of the +mighty fact that He lives to bless. But He cannot come to us unless +we desire Him, and He cannot give to us more of Himself than we +wish; and therefore He is obliged, as the first thing, to make our +desires larger and fuller, and then He will answer them. 'He could +there do no mighty works because of their unbelief.' + +Our faithlessness limits His power; our faith is the measure of our +capacity. + +Lastly, the text reminds us that Jesus Christ is glad to be forced. + +'They _constrained_': a very strong word, kindred to the other +one which our Lord Himself employs when He speaks about the 'kingdom +of heaven suffering violence, and the violent taking it by force.' +That bold expression gives emphatic utterance to the truth that +there is a real power lodged in the desires of humble hearts that +desire Him, so as that they can prescribe to Him what He shall do +for them and how much of Himself He shall give them. Our feebleness +can in a measure set in motion and regulate the energy of +Omnipotence. 'They constrained Him.' + +Do you remember who it was that was called 'a prince with God' and +how he won the title and was able to prevail? We, too, have the +charter given to us that we can--I speak it reverently--guide God's +hand and compel Omnipotence to bless us. We master Nature by +yielding to it and utilising its energies. We have power with God by +yielding to Him and conforming our desires to the longings of His +heart and asking the things that are according to His will. +'Concerning the work of My hands _command_ ye Me.' And what we, +leaning on His promise and in unison with His mighty purpose of +love, desire, _that_ will as certainly come down to us as every +stream must pour into the lowest levels and fill the depressions in +its course. + +You can make sure of Christ if two things are yours. He will always +remain with us if, on the one hand, we wish for Him honestly and +really to be with us all the day long, which would be extremely +inconvenient for some of us; and if, on the other hand, we take care +not to do the acts nor cultivate the tempers which drive Him away. +For 'How can two walk together except they be agreed?' And how can +we ask Him to come in and sit down in a house which is all full of +filth and worldliness? Turn the demons out and open the door, and +anything is more likely than that the door will stand gaping and the +doorway be unfilled by the meek presence of the Christ that enters +in. + +The old prayer is susceptible of application to our community and to +our individual hearts. When Israel prayed, 'Arise, O Lord, into Thy +rest; Thou and the Ark of Thy strength,' the answer was prompt and +certain. 'This is My rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have +desired it.' But the divine desire was not accomplished till the +human desire opened the Temple gates for the entrance of the Ark. + +'He made as though He would have gone further'; but they constrained +Him, and then He entered in. + + + + +THE MEAL AT EMMAUS + + + 'And it came to pass, as He sat at meat with them, He + took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to + them. 31. And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; + and He vanished out of their sight.'--LUKE xxiv. 30, 31. + +Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the Gospel accounts of +our Lord's intercourse with His disciples, in the interval between +the Resurrection and His Ascension, is the singular union of mystery +and simplicity which they present. There is a certain air of +remoteness and depth over all the intercourse, as if it meant more, +and was intended to teach more, than appears on the surface, as I +believe it was intended. And yet, at the same time, there is, along +with that, in most singular combination, the very utmost simplicity, +amounting almost sometimes to baseness and rudeness, as for +instance, here. Some poor house of entertainment, possibly, at any +rate, some poor man's house, in a little country village; the +company these two talkative, and yet despondent disciples; the fare +and the means of manifestation a bit of barley-bread; and out of +these materials are woven lessons that will live in the Church in +all ages. 'He took bread and blessed it, and brake.' These are the +words, almost verbatim, of the institution of the Lord's Supper. +They are the words, almost verbatim, with which more than one of the +Evangelists describes the miraculous feeding of the four and the +five thousand; and it was the old familiar act, expressed by the +Evangelist by the old familiar words, that opened the disciples' +eyes, and they knew Him. How simply the process of discovery is +told! It was quite natural that a casual stranger upon the road +should not say who He was; it was quite as natural that when He +entered into the closer relationship of sitting with the disciples +at the table, and sharing their hospitality, they should expect, as +indeed they did expect, that as they had been frank with Him, He +would be frank with them, and they would find out now who this +unknown teacher and apparent Rabbi was. And so, as it would seem, in +silence, or at least with nothing of any moment, the meal went on, +but all at once, at some point in the meal, the guest assumes the +position of the master of the house, takes upon Himself the function +and office of host, interrupts the progress of the meal by the +solemn prayer of blessing; and whilst the singularity of the action +drew their attention, perhaps some little peculiarity in His way of +doing it, or something else, opened the door for a whole stream of +associations and half-dormant remembrances to rush in, and they +remembered what they had heard of the last supper,--for these two +were not at it,--and they remembered what they had seen,--miraculous +feedings; and they remembered no doubt how He had always done with +them in the happy old days when He communed with them. At all +events, by the natural action of breaking the bread and sharing +it amongst them, the subjective hindrances which had stood in the +way of their recognising Him dropped away like scales from their +eyes, and they beheld Him, and then, without a word, He vanished out +of their sight, and the wearied, hungry men girded up their loins +and rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the brethren the story. + +Now, I think that, taking the event as it stands before us, and +especially marking the obviously intended parallelism in expression, +and I hare no doubt in action, between former miracles, the +institution of the Lord's Supper, and this neither sacramental nor +religious meal in the little village--I think we may get some +lessons worth pondering. + +I confine myself quite simply to the three points of the narrative:-- + + The distribution of the bread; + The discovery; + And the disappearance. + +'He took bread and blessed it, and brake and gave to them, and their +eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished out of their +sight.' + +I. Look, then, for a moment or two at the thoughts which I think are +intended to be conveyed to us by that first point--the action of +breaking and distributing the bread. + +I have said, incidentally, in my previous remarks, that there is a +singular air of remoteness, removedness, mystery, reticence, about +our Lord's relations to His disciples in the interval of these forty +days; and I suppose that that change from the frankness of His +former relations and the close contact in which the Apostles and +disciples had been brought during all the previous three years--I +suppose that that was intended to be the beginning of the +preparation of weaning and preparing them to do without Him +altogether. And along with that removedness, there is also, as I +take it, and as I have already said, a great depth of significance +about the whole of these events which lead people to deal with them +as being symbols, types, exhibitions on a material platform of great +spiritual truths; and although the habit of finding symbolical +meaning in historical events, especially as applied to the Gospels, +has been full of all manner of mischief, yet that there is that +element is not to be denied; and whilst we have to keep it down and +be very careful in our application of it, lest in finding ingenious +fanciful meanings, we lose the plain prose, which is always the best +and the most important, yet that element is there, and we have to +take heed that we do not push the denial of it to excess, as the +recognition of it has often been pushed. And so, from these two +points of view. I think the thing should be looked at. The plain +prose, then, of the matter is this--that at a given point in this +humble road-side meal, our Lord having been guest, having been +constrained to enter in by the loving importunity of these people, +becomes the host, takes upon Himself the position of the head of the +household, and in that position so acts as to bring to the disciples' +remembrance former deeds of miracles, and the institution of the +ordinance of the Lord's Supper, and that was the means of their +recognition. + +Well, then, if so, I think that we may say fairly that in this +breaking and distribution of the bread, there is first of all this +lesson--the old familiar blessed intercourse between Him and them +had not been put an end to then by all that had passed during these +three mysterious days; but they were as they used to be in regard to +the closeness of their relationship and the reality of their +intercourse. No doubt, in the former years, Christ had been in the +habit of always acting as the Head of the little family. When they +gathered for their frugal meals, He was the master, they the +disciples; He the elder brother, and they gathered about Him. And He +assumes the old position; and if we will try for a moment to throw +ourselves into their position and to see with their eyes, we shall +understand the pathetic beauty--I was going to say the poetic +beauty, but perhaps you would not like that word to be applied to +the history of our Redeemer--the pathetic beauty of the deed. They +had been thinking of themselves as forsaken of Him; the grave had +broken off all their sweet and blessed intercourse; they were alone +now. 'We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed +Israel.' He is gone! Even the poor consolation of looking upon the +place where He lies is denied us; for whatever may be doubtful this +is certain, that the grave is open and the body is not there. And so +they felt lost and scattered; and there comes to them this gleam of +consolation--I take my place amongst you just as I used to do; 'I am +He that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore.' +We used to sit together at the table; let that be repeated here once +more that you may learn, and all the world through you may learn, +that the accident of death, which affects only the externals of +society, has no power over the reality of the bond that knits even +two human hearts with love together, still less a power over the +reality of the bond that binds us to our Master. Death vanishes as a +nothing in their intercourse; they stand where they were; the +fellowship is unbroken; the society is the same; all that there used +to be of love and friendship, of peaceful concord, of true +association; it abides for ever! + +Thus, heavy with meaning and full of immortal hope may be the +simplest act wrought with the simplest materials, when the dead +Christ who lives takes His old place in the midst of His disciples, +and once again as He used to do, parts the bread between them. And, +dear brethren, though it has nothing to do with my present purpose, +may this thought not add a wider application to our text; may it not +be a comfort and hope to many of us to remember that the grim shadow +that stretches athwart our path, and gathers into its blackness so +many of our sunny sparkling joys, and takes the light and the +movement and the colour out of them, is only a shadow, and that the +substance lives in the shadow as it used to live in the sunshine, +and passes through the shadow and comes out on the other side, +blazing in more than its former lustre, and rich with more than its +former preciousness? For all whom we have loved and lost, the death +which was a nothing in regard to Christ's intercourse with His +disciples, is a nothing, too, in regard to our real intercourse and +sense of society and unity with them. They live in Him, and they are +more worthy to be loved than ever they were before. He who has +conquered Death for Himself has conquered it for us all; and every +true and pure human affection rooted in Him is as immortal as the +love that binds souls to Himself. Therefore, let us remember that +they sit at His table, and that we shall sit there some day too. + +II. Well, then, still further, another idea that I think belongs to +this first part of our thoughts as to the profound significance of our +Lord's here assuming the office and function of host, is this--we are +thereby taught the same lesson that we are taught by His institution +of the Communion, and taught by the whole details of His relation to +His disciples upon earth--that the true idea of the relation which +results from Him and His Presence is that of the Family. + +He takes His place at the head of the table; He is the Lord of the +household, though it be but a household of two men, and they belong +to the family and the society which He founds. Now it seems to me +that next to the great lesson which the Lord's Supper teaches us in +reference to our individual dependence upon Him, His death as being +all our hope and all our life, this is the most important lesson +that it teaches--the simplicity of the rite, the fact that it was +based upon the Jewish rite, which was a purely domestic one; the +fact that our Lord steps into the place of the head of the household +by His very presiding at the Passover service amongst His disciples; +the fact that He parts the common materials of the common meal and +uses them and it as the symbols of His death, and of our life +thereby--all that teaches us the same thing which the whole strain +of His teaching and the whole strain of the New Testament sets +forth--that the Church of Christ is then understood when we think of +it as being one family in Him, bound together by the bands of a +close brotherhood, relying upon Him as the fountain of its life; +having fellowship with one Father through that elder Brother; +pledged, therefore, to all fraternal kindness and frankness of +communion and of mutual help, and gladdened by the hope of +journeying onwards to Him. We cannot, of course, apply the analogy +round and round; but of all the forms of human association which +Christ has honoured and glorified by laying His hand upon them, and +showing that they are symbols of the society that He founds, and of +which He is the centre, it is not the kingdom, but the family that +is the nearest approach to the Church of the living God. + +And you and I, Christian men and women, if we come and sit at that +table of our Lord, let us remember that we thereby declare, not only +for ourselves that we enter into individual relations of reliance +upon Him, and draw our life from Him, but that we pledge ourselves +to the family bond, to be true to the brotherhood, that we declare +ourselves the sons of God and the brethren of all that are partakers +of the like precious faith. The thing has become a word, a name +amongst us. I wonder if any of you remember the bitter saying of one +of our modern teachers; he says that he found out somehow or other +how much less 'brethren' in the Church meant than 'brothers' out of +it. Let us learn the lesson and take the rebuke, and remember that +if the Lord's Supper means anything, it means that we belong to the +household of faith, and are members of the great family in heaven +and in earth. + +III. Well, then, still further connected with this first idea of the +lesson and significance of the distribution of the bread, I think we +may take another consideration, which is, in fact, only another +application of the one I have already been suggesting--Where Christ +is invited as a guest, He becomes the host. + +They constrained Him to abide with them; they made Him welcome to +their rude hospitality. It was little--a hut where poor men lay, a +bit of barley-bread. But it was theirs, and they gave it Him; and He +entered in and supped with them, and then, in the middle of it, the +relations were inverted, and they that had been showing the +hospitality became the guests, and the table that had been theirs +became His. 'And He took the bread and gave it to them.' You have +the same inversion of relation in that first miracle that He wrought +at Cana of Galilee, where invited as a guest, at a point in the +entertainment He provides the supplies for the further conduct of +it. You remember the words which contain the spiritual application +of the same thought--'Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any +man open the door, I will enter in and sup with him and he with Me.' +To put away the metaphor, it amounts to this--our Master never comes +empty-handed. Where He is invited, He comes to bestow; where He is +welcomed, He comes with His gifts; where we say, 'Do Thou take what +I offer,' He says, 'Do thou take Myself.' All His requirements are +veiled promises; all His commandments are assurances of His gifts. +He bestows that He may receive; He seems to take that He may enrich. +They that give to Christ receive back again more than all that they +gave, according to the profound words, 'There is no man that hath +left father or mother, or wife or children, or houses or lands, for +My sake and the Gospel's, but shall receive a hundredfold more in +this life, and in the world to come life everlasting.' The Christ +that is asked to come in order to receive, abides in order to +bestow. + +And then there is a second point, going on with the flow of this +little narrative before us, about which a word or two may be said. +The consequence of this assumption of the position of master, host, +bestower is--'Their eyes were opened, and they knew Him.' The +discovery of His person follows on the distribution of His gifts. + +Now, there is one point to be remarked before I deal with the +lessons which I think are capable of being gathered from this part +of our subject, and that is, that this narrative gives no sort of +support, as it seems to me, to the ordinary notion that, subsequent +to the Resurrection, there had passed upon our Lord's corporeal +frame any change whatsoever as the commencement of the glorification +of His earthly body. If you observe, the course of the narrative +takes pains to point out to us distinctly, that whatever may have +been the reason why they did not recognise Him at first, that reason +was entirely in them, and not at all in Him. It is not that He was +changed; it is that 'their eyes were holden'; and when they did +recognise Him, it is not that any change whatsoever is recorded as +having passed upon Him, but 'their eyes were opened, and they knew +Him.' And the same thing may be said, as I believe, about the whole +of the appearances, mysterious as they were, of our Lord, in the +interval between the Resurrection and the Ascension. I do not think, +for my part, (although I would by no means speak with confidence +about a matter that is so fragmentarily dealt with in Scripture), +but I do not think, for my part, that the narrative gives any +support whatsoever to the idea of any change analogous to that which +takes place upon us at our resurrection, having begun to take place +upon our Lord so long as He remained upon earth. The Ascension and +the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, in His case, are parts of one +process. He was raised with the body with which He was crucified; He +ascended up on high, and there the glorification, as far as +Scripture teaches, is, I conceive, commenced. At all events, there +is nothing in our narrative to support the idea of an incipient +transformation having begun with the Resurrection. + +But, passing by that, which has nothing to do with my main present +purpose, I may notice just one or two considerations in reference to +this discovery of our Lord. And the first and main one that I would +suggest is this--Where Christ is loved and desired, the veriest +trifles of common life may be the means of His discovery. We know not +what was the special point which brought dormant remembrance to life +again, and quickened the associations of the two, so that they knew +Jesus; even as we do not know what was the hindrance, whether +supernatural or whether by reason of their own fault, which prevented +the earlier recognition; but this at least we see, that in all +probability something in the manner of taking the bread and breaking +it, the well-remembered action of the Master, brought back to mind +the whole of the former relation, and a rush of associations and +memories pulled away the veil and scaled off the mists from their +eyes. And so, dear brethren, if we have loving, and waiting, and +Christ-desiring spirits, everything in this world--the common meal, +the events of every day, the most veritable trifles of our earthly +relationships--they will all have hooks and barbs, as it were, which +will draw after them thoughts of Him. There is nothing so small but +that to it there may be attached some filament which will bring after +it the whole majesty and grace of Christ and His love. Whether ye eat +or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all in remembrance of Him, and do +all to His glory. Oh, if we had in our inmost spirits a closer +fellowship with Him, and a truer relation to Him, we should be more +quick of apprehension. And, as in regard to those that we love, when +they are away from us, the fold of a garment, some bit of cloth lying +about the room, something upon the table, some common incident of the +day that used to be done in company with them, may bring a flood of +memories that sometimes is too strong for a weak heart, so with the +Lord, if we loved Him--everything would be (as it is to those whose +ears are purged) vocal with His name, and everything would be flushed +with the light that falls from His face, and everything would suffice +to remind us of our love, our hope, our joy. Especially let us +remember that He has entrusted--with strange humility and with +wonderful knowledge of us, and with the truest sympathy and tenderness +for our weakness--He has entrusted a large portion of our most +spiritual remembrance and recognition of Him to material things. Did it +ever strike you what a depth of what I may call Christ's condescension +there lay in this? 'Take this bread and this wine, and if you will not +remember Me because I loved you so well, if you will not remember Me +because I died for you, if earthly things and material realities will +drive Me out of your thoughts, at least remember Me because and when +earthly things and material realities become My agents and My +memorials. If you forget the Cross, perhaps a bit of bread will remind +you of Me; and I am not too proud to spurn the remembrance that roots +itself even in the material things of earth and by such means as that.' +'He took the bread and brake it.' They had listened to all His words +upon the road, and it never occurred to them who He was; they had walked +beside Him all day long, and even their burning hearts did not make them +suspect that it was the Master. It must needs be so--they whom wisdom +and truth and His spiritual Presence cannot teach to recognise, may be +led to recognise Him by the movement of His hands with the barley loaf, +and some intonation of His voice in blessing it. 'This do in remembrance +of Me' is the word of that deep pity that knows our frame and remembers +that we are dust, and is a word of the most marvellous condescension +that ever was uttered in human ears. + +IV. And then there is the final consideration here upon which I +touch but for a moment. The distribution and the discovery are +followed by the disappearance of the Lord, 'They knew Him, and'--and +what? And He let their hearts run over in thankful words? No. 'They +knew Him,' and so they all went back to Jerusalem happy together? +No. 'They knew Him, and--He vanished out of their sight.' Yes, for +two reasons. First, because when Christ's Presence is recognised +sense may be put aside. 'It is expedient for you that I go away.' +You and I, dear brethren, need no visible manifestation; we have +lost nothing though we have lost the bodily Presence of our Master. +It is more than made up to us, as He Himself assures us, and as we +shall see ourselves if we think for a moment, by the clearer +knowledge of His spiritual verity and stature, by the deeper +experience of the profounder aspects of His mission and message, by +the indwelling Spirit, and by the knowledge of Him working evermore +for us all. His going is a step in advance. 'If I go not away the +Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him +unto you.' The earthly manifestation was only the basis and the +platform for that which is purer and deeper in kind, and more +precious and powerful; and when the platform has been laid, then +there is no need for the continuance thereof. And so, when He was +manifested to the heart He disappeared from the eyes; and we, who +have not beheld Him, stand upon no lower level than they who did, +for the voice of our experience is, 'Whom having not seen we love; +in whom, though now we see Him not, yet believing, we rejoice with +joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.' + +And for another reason.--When Christ is discerned there is work to +be done. 'Their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and He vanished +out of their sight; and ... they rose up that same hour; and +returned to Jerusalem' and said, He was known to us in breaking of +bread, and He talked with us by the way. Yes, the vision of Christ +binds us to work, and while the more close and intimate and silent +communion has its rights and its place in life, it is never to be +made a substitute for the active exercise of our Christian vocation +to bear witness of Him, and to tell His name to those who need the +consolation of His Resurrection, and the joyful news that He lives +to bless. So then that meal by the wayside may stand as type and +symbol of the way in which we, like the two pedestrians on the road +and at the table, may have heart intercourse with Jesus, and may be +impelled thereby to labour for Him. + +There was another time, after the Resurrection, when in like manner +we read that our Lord took bread, and blessed and brake and gave it +to them; and that was in that mysterious meal upon the shores of the +Galilean Lake, which has always been recognised as having a +symbolical meaning--though the exposition and detail have often been +exaggerated and made absurd. In the one case it was two travellers +who met their Lord; it was in an inn that the recognition took +place; it was a brief moment of vision, followed by disappearance, +and the disappearance led on to work; but in the other story it was +when the morning broke that the Lord was manifest; it was after the +night of toil that His form appeared; His words to them were, 'Bring +of the fruits of your labours and lay them upon the beach at My +feet.' And in the light of the eternal morning, after the weary +night of toil, they who on earth in their journey and pilgrimage +have had Him walking with them as third in their sweet society, and +sitting with them in the tents and changeful residences of earth, +may expect to find Him waiting for them upon the shore; and, as one +says, 'It is the Lord!' and another dashes through the water to +reach Christ, the invitation to all of them will be, 'Come and sit +with Me at My table in My kingdom; I provide the meal, and you add +to it by that which you have caught.' 'They rest from their labours +and their works do follow them.' And so 'they go no more out, but +are ever with the Lord.' + + + + +PETER ALONE WITH JESUS + + + 'The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.' + --LUKE xxiv. 34. + +The other appearances of the risen Lord to individuals on the day of +Resurrection are narrated with much particularity, and at +considerable length. John gives us the lovely account of our Lord's +conversation with Mary Magdalene, Luke gives us in full detail the +story of the interview with the two travellers on the road to +Emmaus. Here is another appearance, known to 'the eleven, and them +that were with them' on the Resurrection evening, and enumerated by +Paul in his list of the appearances of the Lord, the account of +which was the common gospel of himself and all the others, and yet +deep silence is preserved in regard to it. No word escaped Peter's +lips as to what passed in the conversation between the denier and +his Lord. That is very significant. + +The other appearances of the risen Lord to individuals on the day of +Resurrection suggest their own reasons. He appeared first to Mary +Magdalene because she loved much. The love that made a timid woman +brave, and the sorrow that filled her heart, to the exclusion of +everything else, drew Jesus to her. The two on the road to Emmaus +were puzzled, honest, painful seekers after truth. It was worth +Christ's while to spend hours of that day of Resurrection in +clearing, questioning, and confirming sincere minds. Does not this +other appearance explain itself? The brief spasm of cowardice and +denial had changed into penitence when the Lord looked, and the +bitter tears that fell were not only because of the denial, but +because of the wound of that sharp arrow, the poisoned barb of which +we are happy if we have not felt the thought--'He will never know +how ashamed and miserable I am; and His last look was reproach, and +I shall never see His face any more.' To respond to, and to satisfy, +love, to clear and to steady thought, to soothe the agony of a +penitent, were worthy works for the risen Lord. I venture to think +that such a record of the use of such a day bears historical truth +on its very face, because it is so absolutely unlike what myth-making +or hallucination, or the excited imagination of enthusiasts would +have produced, if these had been the sources of the story of the +Resurrection. But apart from that, I wish in this sermon to try to +gather the suggestions that come to us from this interview, and from +the silence which is observed concerning them. + +With regard to-- + +I. The fact of the appearance itself. + +We can only come into the position rightly to understand its +precious significance, if we try to represent to ourselves the state +of mind of the man to whom it was granted. I have already touched +upon that; let me, in the briefest possible way, recapitulate. As I +have said, the momentary impulse to the cowardly crime passed, and +left a melted heart, true penitence, and profound sorrow. One sad +day slowly wore away. Early on the next came the message which +produced an effect on Peter so great, that the gospel, which in some +sense is his gospel (I mean that 'according to Mark') alone contains +the record of it--the message from the open grave: 'Tell my +disciples _and Peter_ that I go before you into Galilee.' There +followed the sudden rush to the grave, when the feet made heavy by a +heavy conscience were distanced by the light step of happy love, and +'the other disciple did outrun Peter.' The more impulsive of the two +dashed into the sepulchre, just as he afterwards threw himself over +the side of the boat, and floundered through the water to get to his +Lord's feet, whilst John was content with looking, just as he +afterwards was content to sit in the boat and say, 'It is the Lord.' +But John's faith, too, outran Peter's, and he departed 'believing,' +whilst Peter only attained to go away 'wondering.' And so another +day wore away, and at some unknown hour in it, Jesus stood before +Peter alone. + +What did that appearance say to the penitent man? Of course, it said +to him what it said to all the rest, that death was conquered. It +lifted his thoughts of his Master. It changed his whole atmosphere +from gloom to sunshine, but it had a special message for him. It +said that no fault, no denial, bars or diverts Christ's love. Peter, +no doubt, as soon as the hope of the Resurrection began to dawn upon +him, felt fear contending with his hope, and asked himself, 'If He +is risen, will He ever speak to me again?' And now here He is with a +quiet look on His face that says, 'Notwithstanding thy denial, see, +I have come to thee.' + +Ah, brethren! the impulsive fault of a moment, so soon repented of, +so largely excusable, is far more venial than many of our denials. +For a continuous life in contradiction to our profession is a +blacker crime than a momentary fall, and they who, year in and year +out, call themselves Christians, and deny their profession by the +whole tenor of their lives, are more deeply guilty than was the +Apostle, But Jesus Christ comes to us, and no sin of ours, no denial +of ours, can bar out His lingering, His reproachful, and yet His +restoring, love and grace. All sin is inconsistent with the +Christian profession. Blessed be God; we can venture to say that no +sin is incompatible with it, and none bars off wholly the love that +pours upon us all. True; we may shut it out. True; so long as the +smallest or the greatest transgression is unacknowledged and +unrepented, it forms a non-conducting medium around us, and isolates +us from the electric touch of that gracious love. But also true; it +is there hovering around us, seeking an entrance. If the door be +shut, still the knocking finger is upon it, and the great heart of +the Knocker is waiting to enter. Though Peter had been a denier, +because he was a penitent the Master came to him. No fault, no sin, +cuts us off from the love of our Lord. + +And then the other great lesson, closely connected with this, but +yet capable of being treated separately for a moment, which we +gather from the fact of the interview, is that Jesus Christ is +always near the sorrowing heart that confesses its evil. He knew of +Peter's penitence, if I might so say, in the grave; and, therefore, +risen, His feet hasted to comfort and to soothe him. As surely as +the shepherd hears the bleat of the lost sheep in the snowdrift, as +surely as the mother hears the cry of her child, so surely is a +penitent heart a magnet which draws Christ, in all His potent +fullness and tenderness, to itself. He that heard and knew the tears +of the denier, and his repentance, when in the dim regions of the +dead, no less hears and knows the first faint beginnings of sorrow +for sin, and bends down from His seat on the right hand of God, +saying, 'I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is +of a humble and contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, +and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.' No fault bars +Christ's love. Christ is ever near the penitent spirit; and whilst +he is yet a great way off, He has compassion, and runs and falls on +his neck and kisses him. + +Now let us look at-- + +II. The interview of which we know nothing. + +We know nothing of what did pass; we know what must have passed. +There is only one way by which a burdened soul can get rid of its +burden. There is only one thing that a conscience-stricken denier +can say to his Saviour. And--blessed be God!--there is only one +thing that a Saviour can say to a conscience-stricken denier. There +must have been penitence with tears; there must have been full +absolution and remission. And so we are not indulging in baseless +fancies when we say that we know what passed in that conversation, +of which no word ever escaped the lips of either party concerned. So +then, with that knowledge, just let me dwell upon one or two +considerations suggested. + +One is that the consciousness of Christ's love, uninterrupted by our +transgression, is the mightiest power to deepen penitence and the +consciousness of unworthiness. Do you not think that when the +Apostle saw in Christ's face, and heard from His lips, the full +assurance of forgiveness, he was far more ashamed of himself than he +had ever been in the hours of bitterest remorse? So long as there +blends with the sense of my unworthiness any doubt about the free, +full, unbroken flow of the divine love to me, my sense of my own +unworthiness is disturbed. So long as with the consciousness of +demerit there blends that thought--which often is used to produce +the consciousness, viz., the dread of consequences, the fear of +punishment--my consciousness of sin is disturbed. But sweep away +fear of penalty, sweep away hesitation as to the divine love, then I +am left face to face with the unmingled vision of my own evil, and +ten thousand times more than ever before do I recognise how black my +transgression has been; as the prophet puts it with profound truth, +'Thou shalt be ashamed and confounded, and never open thy mouth any +more, because of thy sins, when I am pacified towards thee for all +that thou hast done.' If you would bring a man to know how bad he +is, do not brandish a whip before his face, or talk to him about an +angry God. You may bray a fool in a mortar, and his foolishness will +not depart from him. You may break a man down with these violent +pestles, and you will do little more. But get him, if I may continue +the metaphor, not into the mortar, but set him in the sunshine of +the divine love, and that will do more than break, it will melt the +hardest heart that no pestle would do anything but triturate. The +great evangelical doctrine of full and free forgiveness through +Jesus Christ produces a far more vital, vigorous, transforming +recoil from transgression than anything besides. 'Do we make void +the law through faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law.' + +Then, further, another consideration may be suggested, and that is +that the acknowledgment of sin is followed by immediate forgiveness. +Do you think that when Peter turned to his Lord, who had come from +the grave to soothe him, and said, 'I have sinned,' there was any +pause before He said, 'and thou art forgiven'? The only thing that +keeps the divine love from flowing into a man's heart is the barrier +of unforgiven, because unrepented, sin. So soon as the acknowledgment +of sin takes away the barrier--of course, by a force as natural as +gravitation--the river of God's love flows into the heart. The +consciousness of forgiveness may be gradual; the fact of forgiveness +is instantaneous. And the consciousness may be as instantaneous as +the fact, though it often is not. 'I believe in the forgiveness of +sins'; and I believe that a man, that you, may at one moment be held +and bound by the chains of sin, and that at the next moment, as when +the angel touched the limbs of this very Apostle in prison, the +chains may drop from off ankles and wrists, and the prisoner may be +free to follow the angel into light and liberty. Sometimes the change +is instantaneous, and there is no reason why it should not be an +instantaneous change, experienced at this moment, by any man or woman +among us. Sometimes it is gradual. The Arctic spring comes with a +leap, and one day there is thick-ribbed ice, and a few days after +there are grass and flowers. A like swift transformation is within +the limits of possibility for any of us, and--blessed be God! within +the experience of a good many of us. There is no reason why it should +not be that of each of us, as well as of this Apostle. + +Then there is one other thought that I would suggest, viz., that the +man who is led through consciousness of sin and experience of +uninterrupted love which is forgiveness, is thereby led into a +higher and a nobler life. Peter's bitter fall, Peter's gracious +restoration, were no small part of the equipment which made him what +we see him in the days after Pentecost--when the coward that had +been ashamed to acknowledge his Master, and all whose impulsive and +self-reliant devotion passed away before a flippant servant-girl's +tongue, stood before the rulers of Israel, and said: 'Whether it be +right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, +judge ye!' The sense of sin, the assurance of pardon, shatter a +man's unwholesome self-confidence, and develop his self-reliance +based upon his trust in Jesus Christ. The consciousness of sin, and +the experience of pardon, deepen and make more operative in life the +power of the divine love. Thus, the publicans and the harlots do go +into the Kingdom of God many a time before the Pharisees. So let us +all be sure that even our sins and faults may be converted into +stepping stones to higher things. + +III. Lastly, notice the deep silence in which this interview is +shrouded. + +I have already pointed to the occupations of that Resurrection day +as bearing on their face the marks of veracity. It seems to me that +if the story of the Resurrection is not history, the talk between +the denier and the Master would have been a great deal too tempting +a subject for romancers of any kind to have kept their hands off. If +you read the apocryphal gospels you will see how eager they are to +lay hold of any point in the true gospels, and spin a whole farrago +of rubbish round about it. And do you think they could ever have let +this incident alone without spoiling it by expanding it, and putting +all manner of vulgarities into their story about it? But the men who +told the story were telling simple facts, and when they did not know +anything they said nothing. + +But why did not Peter say anything about it? Because nobody had +anything to do with it but himself and his Master. It was his +business, and no one else's. The other scene by the lake reinstated +him in his office, and it was public because it concerned others +also; but what passed when he was restored to his faith was of no +concern to any one but the Restorer and the restored. And so, dear +friends, a religion which has a great deal to say about its +individual experiences is in very slippery places. The less you +think about your emotions, and eminently the less you talk about +them, the sounder, the truer, and the purer they will be. Goods in a +shop-window get fly-blown very quickly, and lose their lustre. All +the deep secrets of a man's life, his love for his Lord, the way by +which he came to Him, his penitence for his sin, like his love for +his wife, had better speak in deeds than in words to others. Of +course while that is true on one side, we are not to forget the +other side. Reticence as to the secret things of my own personal +experience is never to be extended so as to include silence as to +the fact of my Christian profession. Sometimes it is needful, wise, +and Christlike for a man to lift the corner of the bridal curtain, +and let in the day to some extent, and to say, 'Of whom I am chief, +but I obtained mercy.' Sometimes there is no such mighty power to +draw others to the faith which we would fain impart, as to say, +'Whether this Man be a sinner or no, I know not; but one thing I +know, that whereas I was blind now I see.' Sometimes--always--a man +must use his own personal experience, cast into general forms, to +emphasise his profession, and to enforce his appeals. So very +touchingly, if you will turn to Peter's sermons in the Acts, you +will find that he describes himself there (though he does not hint +that it is himself) when he appeals to his countrymen, and says, 'Ye +denied the Holy One and the Just.' The personal allusion would make +his voice vibrate as he spoke, and give force to the charge. +Similarly, in the letter which goes by his name--the second of the +two Epistles of Peter--there is one little morsel of evidence that +makes one inclined to think that it is his, notwithstanding the +difficulties in the way, viz., that he sums up all the sins of the +false teachers whom he is denouncing in this: 'Denying the Lord that +bought them.' But with these limitations, and remembering that the +statement is not one to be unconditionally and absolutely put, let +the silence with regard to this interview teach us to guard the +depths of our own Christian lives. + +Now, dear brethren, have you ever gone apart with Jesus Christ, as +if He and you were alone in the world? Have you ever spread out all +your denials and faults before Him? Have you ever felt the swift +assurance of His forgiving love, covering over the whole heap, which +dwindles as His hand lies upon it? Have you ever felt the increased +loathing of yourselves which comes with the certainty that He has +passed by all your sins? If you have not, you know very little about +Christ, or about Christianity (if I may use the abstract word) or +about yourselves; and your religion, or what you call your religion, +is a very shallow and superficial and inoperative thing. Do not +shrink from being alone with Jesus Christ. There is no better place +for a guilty man, just as there is no better place for an erring +child than its mother's bosom. When Peter had caught a dim glimpse +of what Jesus Christ was, he cried: 'Depart from me, for I am a +sinful man, O Lord!' When he knew his Saviour and himself better, he +clung to Him because he was so sinful. Do the same, and He will say +to you: 'Son, thy sins be forgiven thee; Daughter, thy faith hath +made thee whole. Go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.' + + + + +THE TRIUMPHANT END + + + 'And as they thus spake, Jesus Himself stood in the + midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. + 37. But they were terrified and affrighted, and + supposed that they had seen a spirit. 38. And He said + unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts + arise in your hearts? 39. Behold My hands and My feet, + that it is I Myself: handle Me, and see; for a spirit + hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have. 40. And + when He had thus spoken, He shewed them His hands and + His feet. 41. And while they yet believed not for joy, + and wondered, He said unto them, Have ye here any + meat? 42. And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, + and of an honeycomb. 43. And He took it, and did eat + before them. 44. And He said unto them, These are the + words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with + you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were + written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and + in the psalms, concerning Me. 45. Then opened He their + understanding, that they might understand the + scriptures, 46. And said unto them, Thus it is written, + and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from + the dead the third day: 47. And that repentance and + remission of sins should be preached in His name among + all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48. And ye are + witnesses of these things. 49. And, behold, I send the + promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye in the + city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from + on high. 50. And He led them out as far as to Bethany; + and He lifted up His hands, and blessed them. 51. And + it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted + from them, and carried up into heaven. 52. And they + worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great + joy: 53. And were continually in the temple, praising + and blessing God.'--LUKE xxiv. 36-53. + +There are no marks of time in this passage, and, for anything that +appears, the narrative is continuous, and the Ascension might have +occurred on the evening of the Resurrection. But neither is there +anything to forbid interpreting this close of Luke's Gospel by the +fuller details contained in the beginning of his other treatise, the +Acts, where the space of forty days interposes between the +Resurrection and the Ascension. It is but reasonable to suppose that +an author's two books agree, when he gives no hint of change of +opinion, and it is reasonable to regard the narrative in this +passage as a summary of the whole period of forty days. If so, it +contains three things,--the first appearance of the risen Lord to +the assembled disciples (vs. 36-43), a condensed summary of the +teachings of the risen Lord (vs. 44-49), and an equally compressed +record of the Ascension (vs. 50-53). + +I. The proofs of the Resurrection graciously granted to incredulous +love (vs. 36-43). The disciples were probably assembled in the upper +room, where the Lord's Supper had been instituted, and which became +their ordinary meeting-place (Acts i.) up till Pentecost. What +sights that room saw! There, when night had come, they were +discussing the strange reports of the Resurrection, when, all +suddenly, they saw Jesus, not coming or moving, but standing in the +midst. Had He come in unnoticed by them in their eager talk? The +doors were shut. How had this calm Presence become visible all at +once? + +So little were they the enthusiastic, credulous people whom modern +theories which explain away the Resurrection assume them to have +been, that even His familiar voice in His familiar salutation, +tenfold more significant now than ever before, did not wake belief +that it was verily He. They fled to the ready refuge of supposing +that they saw 'a spirit.' Our Lord has no rebukes for their +incredulity, but patiently resumes His old task of instruction, and +condescends to let them have the evidence of two senses, not +shrinking from their investigating touch. When even these proofs +were seen by Him to be insufficient, He added the yet more cogent +one of 'eating before them.' Then they were convinced. + +Now their incredulity is important, and the acknowledgment shows the +simple historical good faith of the narrator. A witness who at first +disbelieved is all the more trustworthy. These hopeless mourners who +had forgotten all Christ's prophecies of His Resurrection, and were +so fixed in their despair that the two from Emmaus could not so far +kindle a gleam of hope as to make them believe that their Lord stood +before them, were not the kind of people in whom hallucination would +operate, as modern deniers of the Resurrection make them out to have +been. What changed their mood? A fancy? Surely nothing less than a +solid fact. Hallucination may lay hold on a solitary, morbid mind, +but it does not attack a company, and it scarcely reaches to +fancying touch and the sight of eating. + +Note Luke's explanation of the persistent incredulity, as being 'for +joy.' It is like his notice that the three in Gethsemane 'slept for +sorrow.' Great emotion sometimes produces effects opposite to what +might have been expected. Who can wonder that the mighty fact which +turned the black smoke of despair into bright flame should have +seemed too good to be true? The little notice brings the disciples +near to our experience and sympathy. Christ's loving forbearance and +condescending affording of more than sufficient evidence show how +little changed He was by Death and Resurrection. He is as little +changed by sitting at the right hand of God. Still He is patient +with our slow hearts. Still He meets our hesitating faith with +lavish assurances. Still He lets us touch Him, if not with the hand +of sense, with the truer contact of spirit, and we may have as firm +personal experience of the reality of His life and Presence as had +that wondering company in the upper room. + +II. Verses 44-49 are best taken as a summary of the forty days' +teaching. They fall into stages which are distinctly separated. +First we have (ver. 44) the reiteration of Christ's earlier +teaching, which had been dark when delivered, and now flashed up +into light when explained by the event. 'These are my words which I +spake,' and which you did not understand or note. Jesus asserts that +He is the theme of all the ancient revelation. If we suppose that +the present arrangement of the Old Testament existed then, its +present three divisions are named; namely, Law, Prophets, and +Hagiographa, as represented by its chief member. But, in any case, +He lays His hand on the whole book, and declares that He, and His +Death as sacrifice, are inwrought into its substance. 'The testimony +of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.' Whatever views we hold as to +the date and manner of origin of the Old Testament books, we miss +the most pregnant fact about them if we fail to recognise that they +all point onwards to Him. + +Another stage is marked by that remarkable expression, 'He opened +their mind.' His teaching was not, like ours, from without only. He +gave not merely instruction, but inspiration. It was not enough to +spread truth before the disciples. He did more; He made them able to +receive it. He gives no lesser gifts from the throne than He gave in +the upper room, and we may receive, if our minds are kept expectant +and in touch with Him, the same inward eye to see wondrous things +out of the Word. + +Verse 46, by its repetition of 'and He said,' seems to point to +another stage, in which the teaching as to the meaning of the Old +Testament passes into instructions for the future. Already Jesus had +hinted at the cessation of the old close intercourse in that +pathetic 'while I was yet with you,' and now He goes on to outline +the functions and equipment of the disciples in the future period of +His absence. As to the past sufferings, He indicates a double +necessity for them,--one based on their having been predicted; +another, deeper, based on the fitness of things. These sufferings +made the preaching of repentance and forgiveness possible, and +imposed on His followers the obligation of preaching His name to all +the world. Without the Cross His servants would have no gospel. +Having the Cross, His servants are bound to publish it everywhere. + +The universal reach of His atonement is implied in the commission. +The sacrifice for the world's sin is the sole ground of remission of +sin, and is to be proclaimed to every creature. Mark that here the +same word is employed in connection with proclaiming Christ's Death +as in John's version of this saying (John xx. 23), which is misused +as a fortress of the priestly power of absolution. The plain +inference is that the servant's power of remission is exercised by +preaching the Master's death of expiation. + +The ultimate reach of the message is to be to all nations; the +beginning of the universal gospel is to be at Jerusalem. The whole +history of the world and the Church lies between these two. By that +command to begin at Jerusalem, the connection of the Old with the +New is preserved, the Jewish prerogative honoured, the path made +easier for the disciples, the development of the Church brought into +unison with their natural sentiments and capacities. + +The spirit of the commandment remains still imperative. 'The eyes of +a fool are in the ends of the earth.' A wise and Christlike +beneficence will not gaze far afield, and neglect things close at +our doors. The scoff at the supporters of foreign missions, as if +they quixotically went abroad when they should work at home, has +no point even as regards Christian practice, for it is the people +who work for the distant heathen who also toil for home ones; but it +has still less ground in regard to Christian conceptions of duty, +for the Lord of the harvest has bidden the reapers begin with the +fields nearest them. + +The equipment for work is investiture with divine power. A partial +bestowment of the Spirit, which is the Father's promise, took place +while Jesus spoke. 'I send' refers to something done at the moment; +but the fuller clothing with that garment of power was to be waited +for in expectancy and desire. No man can do the Christian work of +witnessing for and of Christ without that clothing with power. It +was granted as an abiding gift on Pentecost. It needs perpetual +renewal. We may all have it. Without it, eloquence, learning, and +all else, are but as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. + +III. Verses 50-53 give us the transcendent miracle which closes the +earthly life of Jesus. We cannot here enter on the large questions +which it raises, but must content ourselves with simply pointing to +the salient features of Luke's condensed account. The mention of the +place as 'over against Bethany' recalls the many memories of that +village where Jesus had found His nearest approach to a home, where +He had exercised His stupendous life-giving power, whence He had set +out to the upper room and the near Cross. His last act was to bless +His followers. He is the High-priest for ever, and these uplifted +hands meant a sacreder thing than the affectionate good wishes of a +departing friend. He gives the blessings which He invokes. His wish +is a conveyance of good. + +The hands remained in the attitude of benediction while He ascended, +and the last sight of Him, as the cloud wrapped Him round, showed +Him shedding blessing from them. He continues that attitude and act +till He comes again. Two separate motions are described in verse 51. +He was parted from them,--that is, withdrew some little distance on +the mountain, that all might see, and none might hinder, His +departure; and 'was carried up into heaven' by a slow upward +movement, as the word implies. Contrast this with Elijah's rapture. +There was no need of fiery chariot or whirlwind to lift Jesus to the +heavens. He went up where He was before, returning to the glory +which He had with the Father before the world was. The end matches +the beginning. The supernatural birth corresponds with the +supernatural departure. + +We have to think of that Ascension as the entrance of corporeal +humanity into the divine glory, as the beginning of His heavenly +activity for the world, as the token of His work being triumphantly +completed, as the prophecy and pledge of immortal life like His own +for all who love Him. Therefore we may share the joy which flooded +the lately sorrowful disciples' hearts, and, like them, should make +all life sacred, and be continually in the Temple, blessing God, and +have the deep roots of our lives hid with Christ in the glory. + + + + +CHRIST'S WITNESSES + + + 'Ye are witnesses of these things. 49. And, behold, I + send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye + in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with + power from on high.'--LUKE xxiv. 48, 49. + +Luke's account of the Resurrection and subsequent forty days is so +constructed as to culminate in this appointment of the disciples to +their high functions and equipment for it, by the gift of the Holy +Spirit. The Evangelist has evidently in view his second 'treatise,' +and is here preparing the link of connection between it and the +Gospel. Hence this very condensed summary of many conversations lays +stress upon these points--the fulfilment of prophecy in Christ's +life and death; the world-wide destination of the blessings to be +proclaimed in His name; and the appointment and equipment of the +disciples. + +The same notes are again struck in the beginning of the Acts of the +Apostles. The same charge to the disciples, when viewed in +connection with Christ's life on earth, may be considered as its end +and aim; and when viewed in connection with the history of the +Church, as its foundation and beginning. So that we are following in +the line plainly marked out for us by the Evangelist himself, when +we take these words as containing a charge and a gift as really +belonging to all Christians in this day as to the little group on +the road to Bethany, to whom they were first addressed on the +Ascension morning. There are, then, but two points to be looked at +in the words before us; the one the function of the Church, and the +other its equipment for it. + +I. The task of the Church. + +Now, of course, I need not remind you that there is a special sense +in which the office of witness-bearing belonged only to those who +had seen Christ in the flesh, and could testify to the fact of His +Resurrection. I need not dwell upon that further than to remark that +the fact that the designation of the first preachers of the Gospels +was 'witnesses' is significant of a great deal. For witness implies +fact, and the nature of their message, as being the simple +attestation to the occurrence of things that truly happened in the +earth, is wrapped up in that name. They were not speculators, +philosophers, moralists, legislators. They had neither to argue nor +to dissertate, nor to lay down rules for conduct, nor to ventilate +their own fancies. They were witnesses, and their business was to +tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. All +doctrine and all morality will come second. The first form of the +Gospel is, 'How that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the +Scriptures, and that He was raised again the third day, according to +the Scriptures.' First, a history; then a religion; then a morality; +and morality and religion because it is a history of redemption. + +These early Christians were witnesses in another sense. The very +existence of the Church at all was a testimony to that supernatural +fact without which it could not have been. We are often told in +recent years that the belief in the Resurrection grew slowly up +amongst the early Christians. What became of the Church whilst it +was growing? What held it together? How comes it that the fate of +Christ's followers was not the fate of the followers of Theudas and +other people that rose up, 'boasting themselves to be somebody,' +whose followers as a matter of course, 'came to nought' when the +leader was slain? There is only one answer. 'He rose again from the +dead.' Else there is no possibility of accounting for the fact that +the Church as a distinct organisation survived Calvary. The +Resurrection was no gradually evolved hardening of desire and fancy +into fact, but it was the foundation upon which the Church was +built. 'Ye'--by your words and by your existence as a community--'are +the witnesses of these things.' + +But that is somewhat apart from the main purpose of my remarks now. +I desire rather to emphasise the thought that, with modifications in +form, the substance of the functions of these early believers +remains still the office and dignity of all Christian men. 'Ye are +the witnesses of these things.' + +And what is the manner of testimony that devolves upon you and me, +Christian friends? Witness by your lives. Most men take their +notions of what Christianity is from the average of the Christians +round about them. And, if we profess to be Christ's followers, we +shall be taken as tests and specimen cases of the worth of the +religion that we profess. 'Ye are the Epistles of Christ,' and if +the writing be blurred and blotted and often half unintelligible, +the blame will be laid largely at His door. And men will say, and +say rightly, 'If that is all that Christianity can do, we are just +as well without it.' It is our task to 'adorn the doctrine of +Christ,' marvellous as it may seem that anything in our poor lives +can commend that fairest of all beautiful things--and to commend it +to some hearts. Just as some poor black-and-white engraving of a +masterpiece of the painter's brush may, to an eye untrained in the +harmony of colour, be a better interpretation of the artist's +meaning than his own proper work, so our feeble copies of the +transcendent splendour and beauty may suit some purblind and +untrained eyes better than the serener and loftier perfection which +we humbly copy. 'We are the witnesses of these things.' And depend +upon it, mightier than all direct effort, and more unusual than all +utterances of lip, is the witness of the life of all professing +Christians to the reality of the facts upon which they say they base +their faith. + +But beyond that, there is yet another department of testimony which +belongs to each of us, and that is the attestation of personal +experience. That is a form of Christian service which any and every +Christian can put forth. You cannot all be preachers, in the +technical sense. You cannot all be thinkers and strong champions, +argumentative or otherwise, for God's truth. But I will tell you +what you all can be. You can all say, 'Come and hear all ye; and I +will declare what He hath done for my soul.' It does not take +eloquence, gifts, learning, intellectual grasp of the doctrinal side +of Christian truth for a man to say, as the first preacher of Christ +upon earth said, 'Brother! we have found the Messias.' That was all, +and that was enough. That you can say, if you _have_ found Him, +and after all, the witness of personal experience of what faith in +Jesus Christ can make of a man, and do for a man, is the strongest +and most universal weapon placed in the hands of Christian men and +women. There is nothing that goes so far as that, if it be backed up +by a life corresponding, which, like a sounding-board behind a man, +flings his words out into the world'; 'Whether this man be a sinner +or no I know not'; 'I leave all that talk about heights and depths +of argument and controversy to other people, but this one thing I +know'--not I _think,_ not I _believe,_ not I am disposed to come to +the conclusion that--but 'this one thing I _know_, that whereas I +was blind now I see.' There is no getting over that! 'Ye are the +witnesses of these things.' And do not be ashamed of your function, +nor slothful nor cowardly in its discharge. + +May I say a word here about the grounds on which this obligation to +witness rests for us? If Jesus Christ had never said, 'Go ye into +all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,' it would not +have made a bit of difference as to the imperative duty that is laid +upon all Christian men; for that arises, not from that command, +which only gives voice to a previous obligation, but it flows, from +the very nature of things, from the message that we receive from our +links with other men and from the constitution and make of our own +natures. + +It flows directly from the gift that we have received. There are +plenty of truths which, _per se_, carry with them no obligation +to impart them. But any truth in which is wrapped up the possible +happiness of another man, any truth which bears upon moral or +spiritual subjects, carries with it the strongest obligation to +impart it. We have such large insights into God and His love as the +Gospel gives us, not that we may eat our morsel alone, or merely sun +ourselves in the light, and expatiate in the warmth of the beams +that come to us, but that we may share them with all around: 'God, +who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined into +our hearts,' that we may 'give the light of the knowledge of the +glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' + +The obligation arises from the links that knit us all together. 'Am +I my brother's keeper?' Why, the question answers itself. If he is +_your_ 'brother,' you are certainly _his_ 'keeper.' And you cannot +shuffle off the obligation by any irrelevant pitting of one field of +Christian work against another; still less by any criticism, hostile +or friendly, as it may be, of the methods of Christian work, or of the +parity and elevation of the character and motives of the workers. +Humanity is one, linked by a mystic chain, and every link of it should +thrill by a common impulse; and through all the members there should +circulate a common life. That great thought is one of the gains that +the Gospel has brought us, and in the presence of it and our indebtedness +and obligation to every man, woman, and child that bears the form of +man, all geographical limits to Christian witnessing seem supremely +absurd and incongruous. You cannot get rid of your obligation by saying, +'I do not care about foreign missions, I go in for home ones.' And you +cannot get rid of it by chiming in an ignorant second to the talk +that has been going on lately, carping at or criticising methods of +work. It would be a very strange thing if we had hit all at once, in +the very beginning of an enterprise, upon the best of all possible +methods; and it would be a very strange thing if the mission-field +is the only one where there are no lazy workers and selfish motives +and unworthy occupants of high places. All that is true about home +as it is about other places. But grant it all, and back comes the +obligation based upon the nature of the truth that we have received, +upon our links with our brethren, and upon our loyalty to our +Master, and it peals into the ears of every Christian man and woman: +'Thou art a witness of these things'; and 'to this end wert thou +born again, that thou mightest bear witness to the truth.' + +Ah, brethren! the issues of faithfulness to that high function are +sweet and blessed and wonderful. A witnessing Christian will be a +believing Christian; for there is no surer way to deepen my own +convictions about any moral or spiritual truth than to constitute +myself their humble servant to proclaim them. Whosoever is a +believer should be an apostle, and if he is an apostle he will be +tenfold a believer. There is nothing which will give a man a firmer +grasp of the Gospel for his own soul than when he finds that, +ministered by his humble efforts, it produces in other hearts the +same effects which he finds it working upon himself. There is no +page in the great book of the evidences of the truth of Christianity +more conclusive than that which in the last century has been written +by the experience of Christian missions. Let the objectors, Jannes +and Jambres, who withstood Moses, let them do the same with their +enchantments, and then we will discuss the questions of the truth of +the Gospel with them. + +Nor need I do more than remind you of the highest of all blessed +issues which is yet to come. 'Be thou faithful unto death and I will +give thee a crown of life.' Alas! alas! how many of us professing +Christians will have to stand at last without that 'crown of +rejoicing' which they wear who, by their poor work and witness, have +won some souls to the Master. Do you, Christian men, contemplate +entering heaven alone, or bringing your sheaves with you? It will be +sad to stand with hands empty then, because they were idle in the +days of the seed-basket and the reaping-hook, whilst those that +sowed and those that reaped shall rejoice together. 'Ye are the +witnesses of these things': see to it that you do your work. + +II. And now, secondly, and briefly, note the equipment of the +witnesses for their task. + +Our Lord here distinguishes two stages in the endowment. Then and +there they receive the gift of the Divine Spirit, as is more fully +recorded in John's account of these last days, but that gift, rich +and precious as it was, was not yet the full bestowment which they +needed for their task. That came on the day of Pentecost. Mark the +vivid and picturesque word which our Lord here employs: 'Until ye be +_clothed_ with power from on high.' That divine gift coming +down as a vesture, wraps and covers and hides their own weakness, +their own naked and poor personality. + +I can only say a word or two about this matter. The same collocation +of ideas--a witnessing Spirit by whose indwelling energy the +Christian community becomes witnesses, is found (and has been +explained at length by me in former discourses) in the farewell +words of our Lord in the upper chamber. 'The Spirit of Truth which +proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness of Me, and ye also +shall bear witness because ye have been with Me from the beginning.' + +I need only remark here that the only power by which Christians can +discharge their work of witnessing in the world is the power which +clothes them from above. The new life which Jesus Christ brings and +gives to us is the only life which will avail for discharging this +office. Our self-will, the old life of nature, with all its +dependence upon ourselves, is nought in reference to this task. But +when that divine spark enters into men's hearts, then natural +endowments are heightened into supernatural gifts, and new forces +are developed, and new powers are bestowed and the earthen vessel is +filled with new treasure. Without it--and there is a great deal of +so-called Christian witnessing to-day without it--noise, +advertising, skill in getting up externals, and all the other +unworthy methods which Christian churches sometimes stoop to adopt, +are powerless, as they ought to be. You may accomplish a great deal +by fussy activity which calls itself Christian earnestness, and has +not God's Spirit in it. But it is no more growth than are what the +children call 'devil's puff-balls' which they find in the fields in +these autumn mornings; and it will go up in poisonous, brown dust +like these when it is pricked. + +The one condition of Christian churches doing their Christian work +is that they shall be clothed and filled with God's Spirit. Do not +let us rely on machinery; do not let us rely on externals; do not +let us rely on advertising tricks which might do very well for a +cheap shop, but are all out of harmony with the work that we have to +do; but let us rely on this, and on this alone. Holding converse +with God and Christ, we shall come out of the secret place of the +Most High with our faces glowing with the communion, and our lips on +fire to proclaim the sweetnesses that lie within the shrine. + +One word more and I have done. This clothing with the Spirit, which +is the only fitness of the Church for its witnessing work, is only +to be won by much solitary waiting. 'Tarry ye,' or as in the +original it stands even more vividly, _'Sit ye still_ in the +city ... till ye be clothed.' It is because so many Christian +workers are so seldom alone with Christ that so much of their work +is nought, and comes to nought. To draw apart from outward activity +into the solitary place, and sit with Him, is the only means by +which we can keep up the freshness of our own spirits, and be fit +for His service. Mary was being trained for Martha's work when she +sat at Christ's feet; but Martha could not do hers without being +'troubled and careful,' because she was more accustomed to the work +than to the communion that would have made it light. + +So, Christian friends, behold your task and your equipment. I +beseech you, who call yourselves Christ's servants, to lay to heart +your plain and unavoidable obligations. If you have found Jesus, you +are as truly and as individually bound to proclaim Him as if a +definite and direct divine command sounded in your ears. Your +possession of the Gospel as the food of your own souls binds you to +impart it to all the famished. The call to witness comes as straight +to you as it did to the young Pharisee on the road to Damascus when +he heard 'Saul! Saul!' called from the sky. + +May you and I answer as he did, 'Lord! what wilt Thou have _me_ +to do!' + + + + +THE ASCENSION + + + 'And He led them out as far as to Bethany, and He + lifted up His hands, and blessed them. 51. And it + came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted + from them, and carried up into heaven.' + --LUKE xxiv. 50, 51. + + 'And when He had spoken these things, while they + beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him + out of their sight.'--ACTS i. 9. + +Two of the four Evangelists, viz., Matthew and John, have no record +of the Ascension. But the argument which infers ignorance from +silence, which is always rash, is entirely discredited in this case. +It is impossible to believe that Matthew, who wrote as the last word +of his gospel the great words, 'All power is given unto Me in heaven +and in earth ... lo! I am with you alway....' was ignorant of the +fact which alone makes these words credible. And it is equally +impossible to believe that the Evangelist who recorded the tender +saying to Mary, 'Go to My brethren, and say unto them I ascend to My +Father, and your Father,' was ignorant of its fulfilment. The +explanation of the silence is to be sought in a quite different +direction. It comes from the fact that to the Evangelists, rightly, +the Ascension was but the prolongation and the culmination of the +Resurrection. That being recorded, there was no need for the +definite record of this. + +There is another singular point about these records, viz., that Luke +has two accounts, one in the end of his gospel, one in the beginning +of Acts; and that these two accounts are obviously different. The +differences have been laid hold of as a weapon with which to attack +the veracity of both accounts. But there again a little +consideration clears the path. The very places in which they +respectively occur might have solved the difficulty, for the one is +at the end of a book, and the other is at the beginning of a book; +and so, naturally, the one regards the Ascension as the end of the +earthly life, and the other as the beginning of the heavenly. The +one is all suffused with evening light; the other is radiant with +the promise of a new day. The one is the record of a tender +farewell, in the other the sense of parting has almost been absorbed +in the forward look to the new phase of relationship which is to +begin. If Luke had been a secular biographer, the critics would have +been full of admiration at the delicacy of his touch, and the +fineness of keeping in the two narratives, the picture being the +same in both, and the scheme of colouring being different. But as he +is only an Evangelist, they fall foul of him for his 'discrepancies.' +It is worth our while to take both his points of view. + +But there is another thing to be remembered, that, as the appendix +of his account of the Ascension in the book of the Acts, Luke tells +us of the angel's message;--'This same Jesus ... shall ... return.' +So there are three points of view which have to be combined in order +to get the whole significance of that mighty fact: the Ascension as +an end; the Ascension as a beginning; the Ascension as the pledge of +the return. Now take these three points. + +I. We have the aspect of the Ascension as an end. + +The narrative in Luke's gospel, in its very brevity, does yet +distinctly suggest that retrospective and valedictory tone. Note +how, for instance, we are told the locality--'He led them out as far +as Bethany.' The name at once strikes a chord of remembrance. What +memories clustered round it, and how natural it was that the parting +should take place there, not merely because the crest of the Mount +of Olives hid the place from the gaze of the crowded city; but +because it was within earshot almost of the home where so much of +the sweet earthly fellowship, that was now to end, had passed. The +same note of regarding the scene as being the termination of those +blessed years of dear and familiar intercourse is struck in the +fact, so human, so natural, so utterly inartificial, that He lifted +His hands to bless them, moved by the same impulse with which so +often we have wrung a hand at parting, and stammered, 'God bless +you!' And the same valedictory hue is further deepened by the fact +that what Luke puts first is not the Ascension, but the parting. 'He +was parted from them,' that is the main fact; 'and He was carried up +into heaven,' comes almost as a subordinate one. At all events it is +regarded mainly as being the medium by which the parting was +effected. + +So the aspect of the Ascension thus presented is that of a tender +farewell; the pathetic conclusion of three long, blessed years. And +yet that is not all, for the Evangelist adds a very enigmatic word: +'They returned to Jerusalem with great joy.' Glad because He had +gone? No. Glad merely because He had gone up? No. The saying is a +riddle, left at the end of the book, for readers to ponder, and is a +subtle link of connection with what is to be written in the next +volume, when the aspect of the Ascension as an end is subordinate, +and its aspect as a beginning is prominent. So regarded, it filled +the disciples with joy. Thus you see, I think, that without any +illegitimate straining of the expressions of the text, we do come to +the point of view from which, to begin with, this great event must +be looked at. We have to take the same view, and to regard that +Ascension not only as the end of an epoch of sweet friendship, but +as the solemn close and culmination of the whole earthly life. I +have no time to dwell upon the thoughts that come crowding into +one's mind when we take that point of view. But let me suggest, in +the briefest way, one or two of them. + +Here is an end which circles round to, and is of a piece with, the +beginning. 'I came forth from the Father, and am come into the +world; again, I leave the world, and go unto the Father.' The +Ascension corresponds with, and meets the miracle of, the +Incarnation. And as the Word who became flesh, came by the natural +path of human birth, and entered in through the gate by which we all +enter, and yet came as none else has come, by His own will, in the +miracle of His Incarnation, so at the end, He passed out from life +through the gate by which we all pass, and 'was obedient unto death, +even the death of the Cross,' and yet He passed likewise on a path +which none but Himself has trod, and ascended up to heaven, whence +He had descended to earth. He came into the world, not as leaving +the Father, for He is 'the Son of Man which is in heaven,' and He +ascended up on high, not as leaving us, for He is 'with us alway, +even to the end of the world.' Thus the Incarnation and the +Ascension support each other. + +But let me remind you how, in this connection, we have the very same +combination of lowliness and gentleness with majesty and power which +runs through the whole of the story of the earthly life of Jesus +Christ. Born in a stable, and waited on by angels, the subject of +all the humiliations of humanity, and flashing forth through them +all the power of divinity, He ascends on high at last, and yet with +no pomp nor visible splendour to the world, but only in the presence +of a handful of loving hearts, choosing some dimple of the hill +where its folds hid them from the city. As He came quietly and +silently into the world, so quietly and silently He passed thence. +In this connection there is more than the picturesque contrast +between the rapture of Elijah, with its whirlwind, and chariot of +fire and horses of fire, and the calm, slow rising, by no external +medium raised, of the Christ. It was fit that the mortal should be +swept up into the unfamiliar heaven by the pomp of angels and the +chariot of fire. It was fit that when Jesus ascended to His 'own +calm home, His habitation from eternity,' there should be nothing +visible but His own slowly rising form, with the hands uplifted, to +shed benediction on the heads of the gazers beneath. + +In like manner, regarding the Ascension as an end, may we not say +that it is the seal of heaven impressed on the sacrifice of the +Cross? 'Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a +Name, which is above every name; that at the Name of Jesus every +knee should bow.' We find in that intimate connection between the +Cross and the Ascension, the key to the deep saying which carries +references to both in itself, when the Lord spoke of Himself as +being lifted up and drawing all men unto Him. The original primary +reference no doubt was to His elevation on the Cross, 'as Moses +lifted up the serpent.' But the final, and at the time of its being +spoken, the mysterious, reference was to the fact that in descending +to the depth of humiliation He was rising to the height of glory. +The zenith of the Ascension is the rebound from the nadir of the +Cross. The lowliness of the stoop measures the loftiness of the +elevation, and the Son of Man was glorified at the moment when the +Son of Man was most profoundly abased. The Cross and the Ascension, +if I might use so violent a figure, are like the twin stars, of +which the heavens present some examples, one dark and lustreless, +one flashing with radiancy of light, but knit together by an +invisible vinculum, and revolving round a common centre. When He +'parted from them, and was carried up into heaven,' He ended the +humiliation which caused the elevation. + +And then, again, I might suggest that, regarded in its aspect as an +end, this Ascension is also the culmination and the natural +conclusion of the Resurrection. As I have said, the Scripture point +of view with reference to these two is not that they are two, but +that the one is the starting point of the line of which the other is +the goal. The process which began when He rose from the dead, +whatever view we may take of the condition of His earthly life +during the forty days of parenthesis, could have no rational and +intelligible ending, except the Ascension. Thus we should think of +it not only as the end of a sweet friendship, but as the end of the +gracious manifestation of the earthly life, the counterpart of the +Incarnation and descent to earth, the end of the Cross and the +culmination of the Resurrection. The Son of Man, the same that also +descended into the lowest parts of the earth, ascended up where He +was before. + +Now let us turn to the other aspect which the Evangelist gives, when +He ceases to be an Evangelist, and becomes a Church Historian. +_Then_ he considers + +II. The Ascension as a beginning. + +The place which it holds in the Acts of the Apostles explains the +point of view from which it is to be regarded. It is the foundation +of everything that the writer has afterwards to say. It is the basis +of the Church. It is the ground of all the activity which Christ's +servants put forth. Not only its place explains this aspect of it, +but the very first words of the book itself do the same. 'The former +treatise have I made ... of all that Jesus began both to do and +teach'--and now I am to tell you of an Ascension, and of all that +Jesus continued to do and teach. So that the book is the history of +the work of the Lord, who was able to do that work, just because He +had ascended up on high. The same impression is produced if we +ponder the conversation which precedes the account of the Ascension +in the book of Acts, which, though it touches the same topics as are +touched by the words that precede the account in the Gospel, yet +presents them in a different aspect, and suggests the endowments +with which the Christian community is to be invested, and the work +which therefore it is to do, in consequence of the Ascension of +Jesus Christ. The Apostle Peter had caught that thought when, on the +day of Pentecost, he said, 'He, being exalted to the right hand of +the Father, hath shed forth this which ye see and hear,' and +throughout the whole book the same point of view is kept up. 'The +work that is done upon earth He doeth it all Himself.' + +So there is in _this_ narrative nothing about parting, there is +nothing about blessing. There is simply the ascending up and the +significant addition of the reception into the cloud, which, whilst +He was yet plainly visible, and not dwindled by distance into a +speck, received Him out of their sight. The cloud was the symbol of +the Divine Presence, which had hung over the Tabernacle, which had +sat between the cherubim, which had wrapped the shepherds and the +angels on the hillside, which had come down in its brightness on the +Mount of Transfiguration, and which now, as the symbol of the Divine +Presence, received the ascending Lord, in token to the men that +stood gazing up into heaven, that He had passed to the right hand of +the Majesty on high. + +Thus we have to think of that Ascension as being the groundwork and +foundation of all the world-wide and age-long energy which the +living Christ is exercising to-day. As one of the other Evangelists, +or at least, the appendix to his gospel, puts it, He ascended up on +high, and 'they went everywhere preaching the word, the Lord also +working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.' It +is the ascended Christ who sends the Spirit upon men; it is the +ascended Christ who opens men's hearts to hear; it is the ascended +Christ who sends forth His messengers to the Gentiles; it is the +ascended Christ who, to-day, is the energy of all the Church's +powers, the whiteness of all the Church's purity, the vitality of +all the Church's life. He lives, and therefore, there is a Christian +community on the face of the earth. He lives, and therefore it will +never die. + +So we, too, have to look to that risen Lord as being the power by +which alone any of us can do either great or small work in His +Church. That Ascension is symbolically put as being to 'the right +hand of God.' What is the right hand of God? The divine omnipotence. +Where is it? Everywhere. What does sitting at the right hand of God +mean? Wielding the powers of omnipotence. And so He says, 'All power +is given unto Me'; and He is working a work to-day, wider in its +aspects than, though it be the application and consequence of, the +work upon the Cross. He cried there, 'It is finished!' but 'the work +of the ascended Jesus' will never be finished until 'the kingdoms +of this world are become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ.' + +There are other aspects of His work in heaven which space will not +allow me to dwell upon, though I cannot but mention them. By the +Ascension Christ begins to prepare a place for us. How could any of +us stand in the presence of that eternal Light if He were not there? +We should be like some savage or rustic swept up suddenly and put +down in the middle of the glittering ring of courtiers round a +throne, unless we could lift our eyes and recognise a known and +loving face there. Where Christ is, I can be. He has taken one human +nature up into the Glory, and other human natures will therefore +find in it a home. + +The ascended Christ, to use the symbolism which one of the New +Testament writers employs for illustration of a thought far greater +than the symbol--has like a High Priest passed within the veil, +'there to appear in the presence of God for us.' And the +intercession which is far more than petition, and is the whole +action of that dear Lord who identifies as with Himself, and whose +mighty work is ever present before the divine mind as an element in +His dealings, that intercession is being carried on for ever for us +all. So, 'set your affection on things above, where Christ is, +sitting at the right hand of God.' So, expect His help in your work, +and do the work which He has left you to carry on here. So, face +death and the dim kingdoms beyond, without quiver and without doubt, +assured that where the treasure is, there the heart will be also; +and that where the Master is, there the servants who follow in His +steps will be also at last. + +And now there is the third aspect here of + +III. The Ascension as being the pledge of the return. + +The two men in white apparel that stood by gently rebuked the gazers +for gazing into heaven. They would not have rebuked them for gazing, +if they could have seen Him, but to look into the empty heaven was +useless. And they added the reason why the heavens need not be +looked at, as long as there is the earth to stand on: 'For this same +Jesus whom ye have seen go into heaven shall so come in like manner +as ye have seen Him go.' Note the emphatic declaration of identity; +'this _same_ Jesus.' Note the use of the simple human name; +'this same _Jesus_,' and recall the thoughts that cluster round +it, of the ascended humanity, and the perpetual humanity of the +ascended Lord, 'the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,' Note +also the strong assertion, of visible, corporeal return: 'Shall so +come in _like_ manner as ye have seen Him go.' That return is +no metaphor, no mere piece of rhetoric, it is not to be eviscerated +of its contents by being taken as a synonym for the diffusion of His +influence all over a regenerated race, but it points to the return +of the Man Jesus locally, corporeally, visibly. 'We believe that +Thou shalt come to be our Judge'; we believe that Thou wilt come to +take Thy servants home. + +The world has not seen the last of Jesus Christ. Such an Ascension, +after such a life, cannot be the end of Him. 'As it is appointed +unto all men once to die, and after death the Judgment, so Christ +also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall +appear the second time, without sin unto salvation.' As inevitably +as for sinful human nature judgment follows death, so inevitably for +the sinless Man, who is the sacrifice for the world's sins, His +judicial return will follow His atoning work, and He will come +again, having received the Kingdom, to take account of His servants, +and to perfect their possession of the salvation which by His +Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, He wrought for +the world. + +Therefore, brethren, one sweet face, and one great fact--the face of +the Christ, the fact of the Cross--should fill the past. One sweet +face, one great fact--the face of the Christ, the fact of His +Presence with us all the days--should fill the present. One regal +face, one great hope, should fill the future; the face of the King +that sitteth upon the throne, the hope that He will come again, and +'so we shall be ever with the Lord.' + + +END OF VOL. II. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + +This file should be named 7xplk10.txt or 7xplk10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7xplk11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7xplk10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Expositions Of Holy Scripture + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8200] +[This file was first posted on July 1, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + + + + +E-text prepared by Anne Folland, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ST. LUKE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + + + + + + + +VOLUME I: ST. LUKE _Chaps. I to XII_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +ELIJAH COME AGAIN (Luke i. 5-17) + +TRUE GREATNESS (Luke i. 15) + +THE MAGNIFICAT (Luke i. 46-55) + +ZACHARIAS'S HYMN (Luke i. 67-80) + +THE DAYSPRING FROM ON HIGH (Luke i. 78,79) + +SHEPHERDS AND ANGELS (Luke ii. 8-20) + +WAS, IS, IS TO COME (Luke ii. 16; Luke xxiv. 51; Acts i. 11) + +SIMEON'S SWAN-SONG (Luke ii. 29,30) + +THE BOY IN THE TEMPLE (Luke ii. 49) + +JOHN THE PREACHER OF REPENTANCE (Luke iii. 1-14) + +JOHN'S WITNESS TO JESUS, AND GOD'S (Luke iii. 15-22) + +THE TEMPTATION (Luke iv. 1-13) + +PREACHING AT NAZARETH (Luke iv. 21) + +A SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM (Luke iv. 33-44) + +INSTRUCTIONS FOB FISHERMEN (Luke v. 4) + +FEAR AND FAITH (Luke v. 8; John xxi. 7) + +BLASPHEMER, OR--WHO? (Luke v. 17-26) + +LAWS OP THE KINGDOM (Luke vi. 20-31) + +THREE CONDENSED PARABLES (Luke vi. 41-49) + +WORTHY--NOT WORTHY (Luke vii. 4, 6, 7) + +JESUS AT THE BIER (Luke vii. 13-15) + +JOHN'S DOUBTS AND CHRIST'S PRAISE (Luke vii. 18-28) + +GREATNESS IN THE KINGDOM (Luke vii. 28) + +THWARTING GOD'S PURPOSE (Luke vii. 30) + +A GLUTTONOUS MAN AND A WINEBIBBER (Luke vii. 34) + +THE TWO DEBTORS (Luke vii. 41-43) + +LOVE AND FORGIVENESS (Luke vii. 47) + +GO INTO PEACE (Luke vii. 50) + +THE MINISTRY OP WOMEN (Luke viii 2,3) + +ONE SEED AND DIVERSE SOILS (Luke viii. 4-15) + +SEED AMONG THORNS (Luke viii. 14) + +A MIRACLE WITHIN A MIRACLE (Luke viii. 43-48) + +CHRIST TO JAIRUS (Luke viii. 50) + +BREAD FROM HEAVEN (Luke ix. 10-17) + +'THE LORD THAT HEALETH THEE' (Luke ix. 11) + +CHRIST'S CROSS AND OURS (Luke ix. 18-27) + +PRAYER AND TRANSFIGURATION (Luke ix. 29) + +'IN THE HOLY MOUNT' (Luke ix. 30, 31) + +CHRIST HASTENING TO THE CROSS (Luke ix. 51) + +CHRIST'S MESSENGERS: THEIR EQUIPMENT AND WORK (Luke x. 1-11; 17-20) + +NEIGHBOURS FAR OFF (Luke x. 25-37) + +HOW TO PRAY (Luke xi. 1-13) + +THE PRAYING CHRIST (Luke xi. 1) + +THE RICH FOOL (Luke xii. 13-23) + +ANXIOUS ABOUT EARTH, OR EARNEST ABOUT THE KINGDOM (Luke xii. 22-31) + +STILLNESS IN STORM (Luke xii. 29) + +THE EQUIPMENT OF THE SERVANTS (Luke xii. 35-36) + +THE SERVANT-LORD (Luke xii. 37) + +SERVANTS AND STEWARDS HERE AND HEREAFTER (Luke xii. 37, 43, 44) + +FIRE ON EARTH (Luke xii. 49) + + + + +ELIJAH COME AGAIN + + + 'There was, in the days of Herod the king of Judea, a + certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: + and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her + name was Elisabeth. 6. And they were both righteous + before God, walking in all the commandments and + ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7. And they had no + child, because that Elisabeth was barren; and they + both were now well stricken in years. 8. And it came + to pass, that, while he executed the priest's office + before God in the order of his course, 9. According to + the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn + incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. + 10. And the whole multitude of the people were praying + without at the time of incense. 11. And there appeared + unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right + side of the altar of incense. 12. And when Zacharias + saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. + 13. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: + for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall + bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. + 14. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many + shall rejoice at his birth. 15. For he shall be great + in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine + nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy + Ghost, even from his mother's womb. 16. And many of + the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their + God. 17. And he shall go before Him in the spirit and + power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to + the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the + just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.' + --LUKE i. 5-17. + +The difference between the style of Luke's preface (vs. 1-4) and the +subsequent chapters relating to the Nativity suggests that these are +drawn from some Hebrew source. They are saturated with Old Testament +phraseology and constructions, and are evidently translated by Luke. +It is impossible to say whence they came, but no one is more likely +to have been their original narrator than Mary herself. Elisabeth or +Zacharias must have communicated the facts in this chapter, for +there is no indication that those contained in this passage, at all +events, were known to any but these two. + +If we were considering a fictitious story, we should note the +artistic skill which prepared for the appearance of the hero by the +introduction first of his satellite; but the order of the narrative +is due, not to artistic skill, but to the divinely ordered sequence +of events. It was fitting that John's office as Forerunner should +begin even before his birth. So the story of his entrance into the +world prepares for that of the birth which hallows all births. + +I. We have first a beautiful outline picture of the quiet home in +the hill country. The husband and wife were both of priestly +descent, and in their modest lives, away among the hills, were +lovely types of Old Testament godliness. That they are pronounced +'blameless' militates against no doctrine of universal sinfulness. +It is not to be taken as dogma at all, but as the expression of +God's merciful estimate of His servants' characters. These two +simple saints lived, as all married believers should do, yoked +together in the sweet exercise of godliness, and helping each other +to all high and noble things. Hideous corruption of wedlock reigned +round them. Such profanations of it as were shown later by Herod and +Herodias, Agrippa and Bernice, were but too common; but in that +quiet nook these two dwelt 'as heirs together of the grace of life,' +and their prayers were not hindered. + +The most of the priests who appear in the Gospels are heartless +formalists, if not worse; yet not only Annas and Caiaphas and their +spiritual kindred ministered at the altar, but there were some in +whose hearts the ancient fire burned. In times of religious +declension, the few who still are true are mostly in obscure +corners, and live quiet lives, like springs of fresh water rising in +the midst of a salt ocean. John thus sprang from parents in whom the +old system had done all that it could do. In his origin, as in +himself, he represented the consummate flower of Judaism, and +discharged its highest office in pointing to the coming One. + +This 'blameless' pair had a crook in their lot. Childlessness was +then an especial sorrow, and many a prayer had gone up from both +that their solitary home might be gladdened by children's patter and +prattle. But their disappointed hope had not made them sour, nor +turned their hearts from God. If they prayed about it, they would +not murmur at it, and they were not thereby hindered from 'walking +in all God's commandments and ordinances blameless.' Let us learn +that unfulfilled wishes are not to clog our devotion, nor to silence +our prayers, nor to slacken our running the race set before us. + +II. We are carried away from the home among the hills to the crowded +Temple courts. The devout priest has come up to the city, leaving +his aged wife in solitude, for his turn of service has arrived. +Details of the arrangements of the sacerdotal 'courses' need not +detain us. We need only note that the office of burning incense was +regarded as an honour, was determined by lot, and took place at the +morning and evening sacrifice. So Zacharias, with his censer in his +hand, went to the altar which stood in front of the veil, flanked on +the right hand by the table of shewbread, and on the left by the +great lamp-stand. The place, his occupation, the murmur of many +praying voices without, would all tend to raise his thoughts to God; +and the curling incense, as it ascended, would truly symbolise the +going up of his heart in aspiration, desire, and trust. Such a man +could not do his work heartlessly or formally. + +Mark the manner of the angel's appearance. He was not seen as in the +act of coming, but was suddenly made visible standing by the altar, +as if he had been stationed there before; and what had happened was +not that he came, but that Zacharias's eyes were opened. So, when +Elisha's servant was terrified at the sight of the besiegers, the +prophet prayed that his eyes might be opened, and when they were, he +saw what had been there before, 'the mountain full of horses and +chariots of fire.' Not the Temple courts only, but all places are +full of divine messengers, and we should see them if our vision was +purged. But such considerations are not to weaken the supernatural +element in the appearance of this angel with his message. He was +sent, whatever that may mean in regard to beings whose relation to +place must be different from ours. He had an utterance of God's will +to impart. + +It has often been objected to these chapters that they are full of +angelic appearances, which modern thought deems suspicious. But +surely if the birth of Jesus was what we hold it to have been, the +coming into human life of the Incarnate Son of God, it is not legend +that angel wings gleam in their whiteness all through the story, and +angel voices adore the Lord of men as well as angels, and angel eyes +gaze on His cradle, and learn new lessons there. + +III. We have next the angel's message. The devoutest heart is +conscious of shrinking dread when brought face to face with +celestial brightness that has overflowed into our darkness. So 'Fear +not' is the first word on the messenger's lips, and one can fancy +the accent of sweetness and the calm of heart which followed. It has +often been thought that Zacharias had been praying for offspring +while he was burning incense; but the narrative does not say so, and +besides the fact that he had ceased to hope for children (as is +shown by his incredulity), surely it casts a slur on his religious +character to suppose that personal wishes were uppermost at so +sacred a moment. Prayers that he had long ago put aside as finally +refused, now started to life again. God delays often, but He does +not forget. Blessings may come to-day as the result of old prayers +which have almost passed from our memory and our hope. + +Observe how brief is the announcement of the child's birth, +important as that was to the father's heart, and how the prophecy +lingers on the child's future work, which is important for the +world. His name, character, and work in general are first spoken, +and then his specific office as the Forerunner is delineated at the +close. The name is significant. 'John' means 'The Lord is gracious.' +It was an omen, a condensed prophecy, the fulfilment of which +stretched beyond its bearer to Him as whose precursor alone was John +a token of God's grace. + +His character (ver. 15) puts first 'great in the sight of the Lord.' +Then there are some whom God recognises as great, small as we all +are before Him. And His estimate of greatness is not the world's +estimate. How Herod or Pilate or Caesar, or philosophers at Athens, +or rabbis in Jerusalem would have scoffed if they had been pointed +to the gaunt ascetic pouring out words which they would have thought +wild, to a crowd of Jews, and been told that that was the greatest +man in the world (except One)! The elements of greatness in the +estimate of God which is truth, are devotion to His service, burning +convictions, intense moral earnestness, superiority to sensuous +delights, clear recognition of Jesus, and humble self-abnegation +before Him. These are not the elements recognised in the world's +Pantheon. Let us take God's standard. + +John was to be a Nazarite, living not for the senses, but the soul, +as all God's great ones have to be. The form may vary, but the +substance of the vow of abstinence remains for all Christians. To +put the heel on the animal within, and keep it well chained up, is +indispensable, if we are ever to know the buoyant inspiration which +comes from a sacreder source than the fumes of the wine-cup. Like +John, we must flee the one if we would have the other, and be +'filled with the Holy Ghost.' + +The consequence of his character is seen in his work, as described +generally in verse 16. Only such a man can effect such a change, in +a time of religious decay, as to turn many to God. It needs a strong +arm to check the downward movement and to reverse it. No one who is +himself entangled in sense, and but partially filled with God's +Spirit, will wield great influence for good. It takes a Hercules to +stop the chariot racing down hill, and God's Herculeses are all made +on one pattern, in so far that they scorn delights, and empty +themselves of self and sense that they may be filled with the +Spirit. + +John's specific office is described in verse 17, with allusion to +the closing prophecy of Malachi. That prophecy had kindled an +expectation that Elijah, in person, would precede Messias. John was +like a reincarnation of the stern prophet. He came in a similar +epoch. His characteristic, like Elijah's, was 'power,' not +gentleness. If the earlier prophet had to beard Ahab and Jezebel, +the second Elijah had Herod and Herodias. Both haunted the desert, +both pealed out thunders of rebuke. Both shook the nation, and +stirred conscience. No two figures in Scripture are truer brethren +in spirit than Elijah the Tishbite and John the Baptist. + +His great work is to go before the Messiah, and to prepare Israel +for its King. Observe that the name of the coming One is not +mentioned in verse 17. 'Him' is enough. Zacharias knew who 'He' was. +But observe, too, that the same mysterious person is distinctly +called 'The Lord,' which in this connection, and having regard to +the original prophecy in Malachi, can only be the divine name. So, +in some fashion not yet made plain, Messiah's advent was to be the +Lord's coming to His people, and John was the Forerunner, in some +sense, of Jehovah Himself. + +But the way in which Israel was to be prepared is further specified +in the middle clauses of the verse, which are also based on +Malachi's words. The interpretation of 'to turn the hearts of the +fathers to the children' is very doubtful; but the best explanation +seems to be that the phrase means to bring back to the descendants +of the ancient fathers of the nation the ancestral faith and +obedience. They are to be truly Abraham's seed, because they do the +works and cherish the faith of Abraham. The words imply the same +truth which John afterwards launched as a keen-edged dart, 'Think +not to say, We have Abraham to our father.' Descent after the flesh +should lead to kindred in spirit. If it does not, it is nought. + +To turn 'the disobedient to the wisdom of the just' is practically +the same change, only regarded from another point of view. John was +sent to effect repentance, that change of mind and heart by which +the disobedient to the commands of God should be brought to possess +and exercise the moral and religious discernment which dwells only +in the spirits of the righteous. Disobedience is folly. True wisdom +cannot be divorced from rectitude. Real rectitude cannot live apart +from obedience to God. + +Such was God's intention in sending John. How sadly the real effects +of his mission contrast with its design! So completely can men +thwart God, as Jesus said in reference to John's mission, 'The +Pharisees and lawyers frustrated the counsel of God against +themselves, being not baptized of him.' Let us take heed lest we +bring to nothing, so far as we are concerned, His gracious purpose +of redemption in Christ! + + + + +TRUE GREATNESS + + + He shall be great in the sight of the Lord.'--LUKE i. 15. + +So spake the angel who foretold the birth of John the Baptist. 'In +the sight of the Lord'--then men are not on a dead level in His +eyes. Though He is so high and we are so low, the country beneath +Him that He looks down upon is not flattened to Him, as it is to us +from an elevation, but there are greater and smaller men in His +sight, too. No epithet is more misused and misapplied than that of +'a great man.' It is flung about indiscriminately as ribbons and +orders are by some petty State. Every little man that makes a noise +for a while gets it hung round his neck. Think what a set they are +that are gathered in the world's Valhalla, and honoured as the +world's great men! The mass of people are so much on a level, and +that level is so low, that an inch above the average looks gigantic. +But the tallest blade of grass gets mown down by the scythe, and +withers as quickly as the rest of its green companions, and goes its +way into the oven as surely. There is the world's false estimate of +greatness and there is God's estimate. If we want to know what the +elements of true greatness are, we may well turn to the life of this +man, of whom the prophecy went before him that he should be 'great +in the sight of the Lord.' That is gold that will stand the test. + +We may remember, too, that Jesus Christ, looking back on the career +to which the angel was looking forward, endorsed the prophecy and +declared that it had become a fact, and that 'of them that were born +of women there had not arisen a greater than John the Baptist.' With +the illumination of His eulogium we may turn to this life, then, and +gather some lessons for our own guidance. + +I. First, we note in John unwavering and immovable firmness and +courage. + +'What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with +the wind?' Nay! an iron pillar that stood firm whatsoever winds blew +against it. This, as I take it, is in some true sense the basis of +all moral greatness--that a man should have a grip which cannot be +loosened, like that of the cuttle-fish with all its tentacles round +its prey, upon the truths that dominate his being and make him a +hero. 'If you want me to weep,' said the old artist-poet, 'there must +be tears in your own eyes.' If you want me to believe, you yourself +must be aflame with conviction which has penetrated to the very +marrow of your bones. And so, as I take it, the first requisite +either for power with others, or for greatness in a man's own +development of character, is that there shall be this unwavering +firmness of grasp of clearly-apprehended truths, and unflinching +boldness of devotion to them. + +I need not remind you how magnificently, all through the life of our +typical example, this quality was stamped upon every utterance and +every act. It reached its climax, no doubt, in his bearding Herod +and Herodias. But moral characteristics do not reach a climax unless +there has been much underground building to bear the lofty pinnacle; +and no man, when great occasions come to him, develops a courage and +an unwavering confidence which are strange to his habitual life. +There must be the underground building; and there must have been +many a fighting down of fears, many a curbing of tremors, many a +rebuke of hesitations and doubts in the gaunt, desert-loving +prophet, before he was man enough to stand before Herod and say, 'It +is not lawful for thee to have her.' + +No doubt there is much to be laid to the account of temperament, but +whatever their temperament may be, the way to this unwavering +courage and firm, clear ring of indubitable certainty, is open to +every Christian man and woman; and it is our own fault, our own sin, +and our own weakness, if we do not possess these qualities. +Temperament! what on earth is the good of our religion if it is not +to modify and govern our temperament? Has a man a right to jib on +one side, and give up the attempt to clear the fence, because he +feels that in his own natural disposition there is little power to +take the leap? Surely not. Jesus Christ came here for the very +purpose of making our weakness strong, and if we have a firm hold +upon Him, then, in the measure in which His love has permeated our +whole nature, will be our unwavering courage, and out of weakness we +shall be made strong. + +Of course the highest type of this undaunted boldness and unwavering +firmness of conviction is not in John and his like. He presented +strength in a lower form than did the Master from whom his strength +came. The willow has a beauty as well as the oak. Firmness is not +obstinacy; courage is not rudeness. It is possible to have the iron +hand in the velvet glove, not of etiquette-observing politeness, but +of a true considerateness and gentleness. They who are likest Him +that was 'meek and lowly in heart,' are surest to possess the +unflinching resolve which set His face like a flint, and enabled Him +to go unhesitatingly and unrecalcitrant to the Cross itself. + +Do not let us forget, either, that John's unwavering firmness +wavered; that over the clear heaven of his convictions there did +steal a cloud; that he from whom no violence could wrench his faith +felt it slipping out of his grasp when his muscles were relaxed in +the dungeon; and that he sent 'from the prison'--which was the +excuse for the message--to ask the question, 'After all, art Thou He +that should come?' + +Nor let us forget that it was that very moment of tremulousness +which Jesus Christ seized, in order to pour an unstinted flood of +praise for the firmness of his convictions, on the wavering head of +the Forerunner. So, if we feel that though the needle of our compass +points true to the pole, yet when the compass-frame is shaken, the +needle sometimes vibrates away from its true direction, do not let +us be cast down, but believe that a merciful allowance is made for +human weakness. This man was great; first, because he had such +dauntless courage and firmness that, over his headless corpse in the +dungeon at Machaerus, might have been spoken what the Regent Moray +said over John Knox's coffin, 'Here lies one that never feared the +face of man.' + +II. Another element of true greatness that comes nobly out in the +life with which I am dealing is its clear elevation above worldly +good. + +That was the second point that our Lord's eulogium signalised. 'What +went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A man clothed in soft +raiment?' But you would have gone to a palace, if you had wanted to +see that, not to the reed-beds of Jordan. As we all know, in his +life, in his dress, in his food, in the aims that he set before him, +he rose high above all regard for the debasing and perishable +sweetnesses that appeal to flesh, and are ended in time. He lived +conspicuously for the Unseen. His asceticism belonged to his age, +and was not the highest type of the virtue which it expressed. As I +have said about his courage, so I say about his self-denial--Christ's +is of a higher sort. As the might of gentleness is greater than the +might of such strength as John's, so the asceticism of John is lower +than the self-government of the Man that came eating and drinking. + +But whilst that is true, I seek, dear brethren, to urge this old +threadbare lesson, always needed, never needed more than amidst the +senselessly luxurious habits of this generation, needed in few +places more than in a great commercial centre like that in which we +live, that one indispensable element of true greatness and elevation +of character is that, not the prophet and the preacher alone, but +every one of us, should live high above these temptations of gross +and perishable joys, should + + 'Scorn delights and live laborious days.' + +No man has a right to be called 'great' if his aims are small. And +the question is, not as modern idolatry of intellect, or, still +worse, modern idolatry of success, often makes it out to be, Has he +great capacities? or has he won great prizes? but has he greatly +used himself and his life? If your aims are small you will never be +great; and if your highest aims are but to get a good slice of this +world's pudding--no matter what powers God may have given you to +use--you are essentially a small man. + +I remember a vigorous and contemptuous illustration of St. Bernard's, +who likens a man that lives for these perishable delights which John +spurned, to a spider spinning a web out of his own substance, and +catching in it nothing but a wretched prey of poor little flies. +Such a one has surely no right to be called a great man. Our aims +rather than our capacity determine our character, and they who +greatly aspire after the greatest things within the reach of men, +which are faith, hope, charity, and who, for the sake of effecting +these aspirations, put their heels upon the head of the serpent and +suppress the animal in their nature, these are the men 'great in the +sight of the Lord.' + +III. Another element of true greatness, taught us by our type, is +fiery enthusiasm for righteousness. + +You may think that that has little to do with greatness. I believe +it has everything to do with it, and that the difference between men +is very largely to be found here, whether they flame up into the +white heat of enthusiasm for the things that are right, or whether +the only things that can kindle them into anything like earnestness +and emotion are the poor, shabby things of personal advantage. I +need not remind you how, all through John's career, there burned, +unflickering and undying, that steadfast light; how he brought to +the service of the plainest teaching of morality a fervour of +passion and of zeal almost unexampled and magnificent. I need not +remind you how Jesus Christ Himself laid His hand upon this +characteristic, when He said of him that 'he was a light kindled and +shining.' But I would lay upon all our hearts the plain, practical +lesson that, if we keep in that tepid region of lukewarmness which +is the utmost approach to tropical heat that moral and religious +questions are capable of raising in many of us, good-bye to all +chance of being 'great in the sight of the Lord.' We hear a great +deal about the 'blessings of moderation,' the 'dangers of +fanaticism,' and the like. I venture to think that the last thing +which the moral consciousness of England wants today is a +refrigerator, and that what it needs a great deal more than that is, +that all Christian people should be brought face to face with this +plain truth--that their religion has, as an indispensable part of +it, 'a Spirit of burning,' and that if they have not been baptized +in fire, there is little reason to believe that they have been +baptized with the Holy Ghost. + +I long that you and myself may be aflame for goodness, may be +enthusiastic over plain morality, and may show that we are so by our +daily life, by our rebuking the opposite, if need be, even if it +take us into Herod's chamber, and make Herodias our enemy for life. + +IV. Lastly, observe the final element of greatness in this man-absolute +humility of self-abnegation before Jesus Christ. + +There is nothing that I know in biography anywhere more beautiful, +more striking, than the contrast between the two halves of the +character and demeanour of the Baptist; how, on the one side, he +fronts all men undaunted and recognises no superior, and how neither +threats nor flatteries nor anything else will tempt him to step one +inch beyond the limitations of which he is aware, nor to abate one +inch of the claims which he urges; and on the other hand how, like +some tall cedar touched by the lightning's hand, he falls prone +before Jesus Christ and says, 'He must increase, and I must +decrease': 'A man can receive nothing except it be given him of +God.' He is all boldness on one side; all submission and dependence +on the other. + +You remember how, in the face of many temptations, that attitude was +maintained. The very message which he had to carry was full of +temptations to a self-seeking man to assert himself. You remember +the almost rough 'No!' with which, reiteratedly, he met the +suggestions of the deputation from Jerusalem that sought to induce +him to say that he was more than he knew himself to be, and how he +stuck by that infinitely humble and beautiful saying, 'I am a +voice'--that is all. You remember how the whole nation was in a kind +of conspiracy to tempt him to assert himself, and was ready to break +into a flame if he had dropped a spark, for all men were musing in +their heart whether he was the Christ or not,' and all the lawless +and restless elements would have been only too glad to gather round +him, if he had declared himself the Messiah. Remember how his own +disciples came to him, and tried to play upon his jealousy and to +induce him to assert himself: 'Master, He whom thou didst baptize'--and +so didst give Him the first credentials that sent men on His +course--'has outstripped thee, and all men are coming to Him.' And +you remember the lovely answer that opened such depths of unexpected +tenderness in the rough nature: 'He that hath the bride is the +bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom heareth the voice; and that +is enough to fill my cup with joy to the very brim.' And what +conceptions of Jesus Christ had John, that he thus bowed his lofty +crest before Him, and softened his heart into submission almost +abject? He knew Him to be the coming Judge, with the fan in His +hand, who could baptize with fire, and he knew Him to be 'the Lamb +of God which taketh away the sin of the world.' Therefore he fell +before Him. + +Brethren, we shall not be 'great in the sight of the Lord' unless we +copy that example of utter self-abnegation before Jesus Christ. +Thomas a Kempis says somewhere, 'He is truly great who is small in +his own sight, and thinks nothing of the giddy heights of worldly +honour.' You and I know far more of Jesus Christ than John the +Baptist did. Do we bow ourselves before Him as he did? The Source +from which he drew his greatness is open to us all. Let us begin +with the recognition of the Lamb of God that takes away the world's +sin, and with it ours. Let the thought of what He is, and what He +has done for us, bow us in unfeigned submission. Let it shatter all +dreams of our own importance or our own desert. The vision of the +Lamb of God, and it only, will crush in our hearts the serpent's +eggs of self-esteem and self-regard. + +Then, let our closeness to Jesus Christ, and our experience of His +power, kindle in us the fiery enthusiasm with which He baptizes all +His true servants, and let it because we know the sweetnesses that +excel, take from us all liability to be tempted away by the vulgar +and coarse delights of earth and of sense. Let us keep ourselves +clear of the babble that is round about us, and be strong because we +grasp Christ's hand. + +I have been speaking about no characteristic which may not be +attained by any man, woman, or child amongst us. 'The least in the +kingdom of heaven' may be greater than John. It is a poor ambition +to seek to be _called_ 'great.' It is a noble desire to _be_ 'great +in the sight of the Lord.' And if we will keep ourselves close to +Jesus Christ that will be attained. It will matter very little what +men think of us, if at last we have praise from the lips of Him who +poured such praise on His servant. We may, if we will. And then it will +not hurt us though our names on earth be dark and our memories perish +from among men. + + 'Of so much fame in heaven expect the meed.' + + + + +THE MAGNIFICAT + + 'And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, 47. And + my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. 48. For He + hath regarded the low estate of His hand-maiden: for, + behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me + blessed. 49. For He that is mighty hath done to me + great things; and holy is His name, 50. And His mercy + is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. + 51. He hath shewed strength with His arm: He hath + scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. + 52. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and + exalted them of low degree. 53. He hath filled the + hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent + empty away. 54. He hath holpen His servant Israel, in + remembrance of His mercy; 55. As He spake to our + fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.' + --LUKE i. 46-55. + +Birds sing at dawn and sunrise. It was fitting that the last strains +of Old Testament psalmody should prelude the birth of Jesus. To +disbelievers in the Incarnation the hymns of Mary and Zacharias are, +of course, forgeries; but if it be true nothing can be more +'natural' than these. The very features in this song, which are +appealed to as proof of its being the work of some unknown pious +liar or dishonest enthusiast, really confirm its genuineness. +Critics shake their heads over its many quotations and allusions to +Hannah's song and to other poetical parts of the Old Testament, and +declare that these are fatal to its being accepted as Mary's. Why? +must the simple village maiden be a poetess because she is the +mother of our Lord? What is more likely than that she should cast +her emotions into forms so familiar to her, and especially that +Hannah's hymn should colour hers? These old psalms provided the +mould into which her glowing emotions almost instinctively would +run, and the very absence of 'originality' in the song favours its +genuineness. + +Another point may be noticed as having a similar bearing; namely, +the very general and almost vague outline of the consequences of the +birth, which is regarded as being the consummation to Israel of the +mercy promised to the fathers. Could such a hymn have been written +when sad experience showed how the nation would reject their +Messiah, and ruin themselves thereby? Surely the anticipations which +glow in it bear witness to the time when they were cherished, as +prior to the sad tragedy which history unfolded. Little does Mary as +yet know that 'a sword shall pierce through' her 'own soul also,' +and that not only will 'all generations' call her 'blessed,' but +that one of her names will be 'Our Lady of Sorrows.' For her and for +us, the future is mercifully veiled. Only one eye saw the shadow of +the Cross stretching black and grim athwart the earliest days of +Jesus, and that eye was His own. How wonderful the calmness with +which He pressed towards that 'mark' during all His earthly life! + +The hymn is sometimes divided into four strophes or sections: first, +the expression of devout emotion (vs. 46-48a); second, the great +fact from which they arise (vs. 48b-50); third, the consequences of +the fact (vs. 51-53); fourth, its aspect to Israel as fulfilment of +promise. This division is, no doubt, in accordance with the course +of thought, but is perhaps somewhat too artificial for our purposes; +and we may rather simply note that in the earlier part the personal +element is present, and that in the later it fades entirely, and the +mighty deeds of God alone fill the meek singer's eye and lips. We +may consider the lessons of these two halves. + +I. The more personal part extends to the end of verse 50. It +contains three turnings or strophes, the first two of which have two +clauses each, and the third three. The first is verses 46 and 47, +the purely personal expression of the glad emotions awakened by +Elisabeth's presence and salutation, which came to Mary as +confirmation of the angel's annunciation. Not when Gabriel spoke, +but when a woman like herself called her 'mother of my Lord,' did +she break into praise. There is a deep truth there. God's voice is +made more sure to our weakness when it is echoed by human lips, and +our inmost hopes attain substance when they are shared and spoken by +another. We need not attribute to the maiden from Nazareth +philosophical accuracy when she speaks of her 'soul' and 'spirit.' +Her first words are a burst of rapturous and wondering praise, in +which the full heart runs over. Silence is impossible, and speech a +relief. They are not to be construed with the microscopic accuracy +fit to be applied to a treatise on psychology. 'All that is within' +her praises and is glad. She does not think so much of the +stupendous fact as of her own meekly exultant heart, and of God, to +whom its outgoings turn. There are moods in which the devout soul +dwells on its own calm blessedness and on God, its source, more +directly than on the gift which brings it. Note the twofold +act--magnifying and rejoicing. We magnify God when we take into our +vision some fragment more of the complete circle of His essential +greatness, or when, by our means, our fellows are helped to do so. +The intended effect of all His dealings is that we should think more +nobly--that is, more worthily--of Him. The fuller knowledge of His +friendly greatness leads to joy in Him which makes the spirit bound +as in a dance--for such is the meaning of the word 'rejoice'--and +which yet is calm and deep. Note the double name of God--Lord and +Saviour. Mary bows in lowly obedience, and looks up in as lowly, +conscious need of deliverance, and beholding in God both His majesty +and His grace, magnifies and exults at once. + +Verse 48 is the second turn of thought, containing, like the former, +two clauses. In it she gazes on her great gift, which, with maiden +reserve, she does not throughout the whole hymn once directly name. +Here the personal element comes out more strongly. But it is +beautiful to note that the 'lowliness' is in the foreground, and +precedes the assurance of the benedictions of all generations. The +whole is like a murmur of wonder that such honour should come to +her, so insignificant, and the 'behold' of the latter half verse is +an exclamation of surprise. In unshaken meekness of steadfast +obedience, she feels herself 'the handmaid of the Lord.' In +undisturbed humility, she thinks of her 'low estate,' and wonders +that God's eye should have fallen on her, the village damsel, poor +and hidden. A pure heart is humbled by honour, and is not so dazzled +by the vision of future fame as to lose sight of God as the source +of all. Think of that simple young girl in her obscurity having +flashed before her the certainty that her name would be repeated +with blessing till the world's end, and then thus meekly laying her +honours down at God's feet. What a lesson of how to receive all +distinctions and exaltations! + +Verses 49 and 50 end this part, and contain three clauses, in which +the personal disappears, and only the thought of God's character as +manifested in His wonderful act remains. It connects indeed with the +preceding by the 'to me' of verse 49; but the main subject is the +new revelation, which is not confined to Mary, of the threefold +divine glory fused into one bright beam, in the Incarnation. Power, +holiness, eternal mercy, are all there, and that in deeper and more +wondrous fashion than Mary knew when she sang. The words are mostly +quotations from the Old Testament, but with new application and +meaning. But even Mary's anticipations fell far short of the reality +of that power in weakness, that holiness mildly blended with +tenderest pity and pardoning love; that mercy which for all +generations was to stretch not only to 'them that fear Him,' but to +rebels, whom it would make friends. She saw but dimly and in part. +We see more plainly all the rays of divine perfection meeting in, +and streaming out to, the whole world, from her Son 'the effulgence +of the Father's glory.' + +II. The second part of the song is a lyric anticipation of the +historical consequences of the appearance of the Messiah, cast into +forms ready to the singer's hand, in the strains of Old Testament +prophecy. The characteristics of Hebrew poetry, its parallelism, its +antitheses, its exultant swing, are more conspicuous here than in +the earlier half. The main thought of verses 51 to 53 is that the +Messiah would bring about a revolution, in which the high would be +cast down and the humble exalted. This idea is wrought out in a +threefold antithesis, of which the first pair must have one member +supplied from the previous verse. Those who 'fear Him' are opposed +to 'the proud in the imagination of their hearts.' These are thought +of as an army of antagonists to God and His anointed, and thus the +word 'scattered' acquires great poetic force, and reminds us of many +a psalm, such as the Second and One hundred and tenth, where Messiah +is a warrior. + +The next pair represent the antithesis as being that of social +degree, and in it there may be traced a glance at 'Herod the King' +and the depressed line of David, to which the singer belonged, while +the meaning must not be confined to that. The third pair represent +the same opposites under the guise of poverty and riches. Mary is +not to be credited with purely spiritual views in these contrasts, +nor to be discredited with purely material ones. She, no doubt, +thought of her own oppressed nation as mainly meant by the hungry +and lowly; but like all pious souls in Israel, she must have felt +that the lowliness and hunger which Messiah was to ennoble and +satisfy, meant a condition of spirit conscious of weakness and sin, +and eagerly desiring a higher good and food than earth could give. +So much she had learned from many a psalm and prophet. So much the +Spirit which inspired psalmist and prophet spoke in her lowly and +exultant heart now. But the future was only revealed to her in this +wide, general outline. Details of manner and time were all still +blank. The broad truth which she foretold remains one of the salient +historical results of Christ's coming, and is the universal +condition of partaking of His gifts. He has been, and is, the most +revolutionary force in history; for without Him society is +constituted on principles the reverse of the true, and as the world, +apart from Jesus, is down-side up, the mission of His gospel is to +turn it upside-down, and so bring the right side uppermost. The +condition of receiving anything from Him is the humble recognition +of emptiness and need. If princes on their thrones will come to Him +just in the same way as the beggar on the dunghill does, they will +very probably be allowed to stay on them; and if the rich man will +come to Him as poor and in need of all things, he will not be 'sent +empty away.' But Christ is a discriminating Christ, and as the +prophet said long before Mary, 'I ... will bind up that which was +broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; and the fat and the +strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment.' + +The last turn in the song celebrates the faithfulness of God to His +ancient promises, and His help by His Messiah to Israel. The +designation of Israel as 'His servant' recalls the familiar name in +Isaiah's later prophecies. Mary sees in the great wonder of her +Son's birth the accomplishment of the hopes of ages, and an +assurance of God's mercy as for ever the portion of the people. We +cannot tell how far she had learned that Israel was to be counted, +not by descent but disposition. But, in any case, her eyes could not +have embraced the solemn facts of her Son's rejection by His and her +people. No shadows are yet cast across the morning of which her song +is the herald. She knew not the dark clouds of thunder and +destruction that were to sweep over the sky. But the end has not yet +come, and we have to believe still that the evening will fulfil the +promise of the morning, and 'all Israel shall be saved,' and that +the mercy which was promised from of old to Abraham and the fathers, +shall be fulfilled at last and abide with their seed for ever. + + + + +ZACHARIAS'S HYMN + + + 'And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy + Ghost, and prophesied, saying, 68. Blessed be the Lord + God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His + people, 69. And hath raised up an horn of salvation + for us in the house of His servant David; 70. As He + spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have + been since the world began; 71. That we should be + saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that + hate us; 72. To perform the mercy promised to our + fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, 73. The + oath which He sware to our father Abraham, 74. That He + would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of + the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, + 75. In holiness and righteousness before Him, all the + days of our life. 76. And thou, child, shalt be called + the Prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before + the face of the Lord to prepare His ways; 77. To give + knowledge of salvation unto His people, by the + remission of their sins, 78. Through the tender mercy + of our God; whereby the day-spring from on high hath + visited us, 79. To give light to them that sit in + darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet + into the way of peace. 80. And the child grew, and + waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the + day of his shewing unto Israel.'--LUKE i. 67-80. + +Zacharias was dumb when he disbelieved. His lips were opened when he +believed. He is the last of the Old Testament prophets, [Footnote: +In the strictest sense, John the Baptist was a prophet of the Old +dispensation, even though he came to usher in the New. (See Matt. +xi. 9-11.) In the same sense, Zacharias was the last prophet of the +Old dispensation, before the coming of his son to link the Old with +the New.] and as standing nearest to the Messiah, his song takes up +the echoes of all the past, and melts them into a new outpouring of +exultant hope. The strain is more impassioned than Mary's, and +throbs with triumph over 'our enemies,' but rises above the mere +patriotic glow into a more spiritual region. The complete +subordination of the personal element is very remarkable, as shown +by the slight and almost parenthetical reference to John. The father +is forgotten in the devout Israelite. We may take the song as +divided into three portions: the first (vs. 68-75) celebrating the +coming of Messiah, with special reference to its effect in freeing +Israel from its foes; the second (vs. 76, 77), the highly dramatic +address to his unconscious 'child'; the third (vs. 78, 79) returns +to the absorbing thought of the Messiah, but now touches on higher +aspects of His coming as the Light to all who sit in darkness. + +I. If we remember that four hundred dreary years, for the most part +of which Israel had been groaning under a foreign yoke, had passed +since the last of the prophets, and that during all that time devout +eyes had looked wearily for the promised Messiah, we shall be able +to form some faint conception of the surprise and rapture which +filled Zacharias's spirit, and leaps in his hymn at the thought that +now, at last, the hour had struck, and that the child would soon be +born who was to fulfil the divine promises and satisfy fainting +hopes. No wonder that its first words are a burst of blessing of +'the God of Israel.' The best expression of joy, when long-cherished +desires are at last on the eve of accomplishment, is thanks to God. +How short the time of waiting seems when it is past, and how +needless the impatience which marred the waiting! Zacharias speaks +of the fact as already realised. He must have known that the +Incarnation was accomplished; for we can scarcely suppose that the +emphatic tenses 'hath visited, hath redeemed, hath raised' are +prophetic, and merely imply the certainty of a future event. He must +have known, too, Mary's royal descent; for he speaks of 'the house +of David.' + +'A horn' of salvation is an emblem taken from animals, and implies +strength. Here it recalls several prophecies, and as a designation +of the Messiah, shadows forth His conquering might, all to be used +for deliverance to His people. The vision before Zacharias is that +of a victor king of Davidic race, long foretold by prophets, who +will set Israel free from its foreign oppressors, whether Roman or +Idumean, and in whom God Himself 'visits and redeems His people.' +There are two kinds of divine visitations--one for mercy and one for +judgment. What an unconscious witness it is of men's evil +consciences that the use of the phrase has almost exclusively +settled down upon the latter meaning! In verses 71-75, the idea of +the Messianic salvation is expanded and raised. The word 'salvation' +is best construed, as in the Revised Version, as in apposition with +and explanatory of 'horn of salvation.' This salvation has issues, +which may also be regarded as God's purposes in sending it. These +are threefold: first, to show mercy to the dead fathers of the race. +That is a striking idea, and pictures the departed as, in their +solemn rest, sharing in the joy of Messiah's coming, and perhaps in +the blessings which He brings. We may not too closely press the +phrase, but it is more than poetry or imagination. The next issue is +God's remembrance of His promises, or in other words, His fulfilment +of these. The last is that the nation, being set free, should serve +God. The external deliverance was in the eyes of devout men like +Zacharias precious as a means to an end. Political freedom was +needful for God's service, and was valuable mainly as leading to +that. The hymn rises far above the mere impatience of a foreign +yoke. 'Freedom to worship God,' and God worshipped by a ransomed +nation, are Zacharias's ideal of the Messianic times. + +Note his use of the word for priestly 'service.' He, a priest, has +not forgotten that by original constitution all Israel was a nation +of priests; and he looks forward to the fulfilment at last of the +ideal which so soon became impracticable, and possibly to the +abrogation of his own order in the universal priesthood. He knew not +what deep truths he sang. The end of Christ's coming, and of the +deliverance which He works for us from the hand of our enemies, +cannot be better stated than in these words. We are redeemed that we +may be priests unto God. Our priestly service must be rendered in +'holiness and righteousness,' in consecration to God and discharge +of all obligations; and it is to be no interrupted or occasional +service, like Zacharias's, which occupied but two short weeks in the +year, and might never again lead him within the sanctuary, but is to +fill with reverent activity and thankful sacrifice all our days. +However this hymn may have begun with the mere external conception +of Messianic deliverance, it rises high above that here, and will +still further soar beyond it. We may learn from this priest-prophet, +who anticipated the wise men and brought his offerings to the unborn +Christ, what Christian salvation is, and for what it is given us. + +II. There is something very vivid and striking in the abrupt address +to the infant, who lay, all unknowing, in his mother's arms. The +contrast between him as he was then and the work which waited him, +the paternal wonder and joy which yet can scarcely pause on the +child, and hurries on to fancy him in the years to come, going +herald-like before the face of the Lord, the profound prophetic +insight into John's work, are all noteworthy. The Baptist did +'prepare the way' by teaching that the true 'salvation' was not to +be found in mere deliverance from the Roman yoke, but in 'remission +of sin.' He thus not only gave 'knowledge of salvation,' in the +sense that he announced the fact that it would be given, but also in +the sense that he clearly taught in what it consisted. John was no +preacher of revolt, as the turbulent and impure patriots of the day +would have liked him to be, but of repentance. His work was to awake +the consciousness of sin, and so to kindle desires for a salvation +which was deliverance from sin, the only yoke which really enslaves. +Zacharias the 'blameless' saw what the true bondage of the nation +was, and what the work both of the Deliverer and of His herald must +be. We need to be perpetually reminded of the truth that the only +salvation and deliverance which can do us any good consist in +getting rid, by pardon and by holiness, of the cords of our sins. + +III. The thoughts of the Forerunner and his office melt into that of +the Messianic blessings from which the singer cannot long turn away. +In these closing words, we have the source, the essential nature, +and the blessed results of the gift of Christ set forth in a noble +figure, and freed from the national limitations of the earlier part +of the hymn. All comes from the 'bowels of mercy of our God,' as +Zacharias, in accordance with Old Testament metaphor, speaks, +allocating the seat of the emotions which we attribute to the heart. +Conventional notions of delicacy think the Hebrew idea coarse, but +the one allocation is just as delicate as the other. We can get no +deeper down or farther back into the secret springs of things than +this--that the root cause of all, and most especially of the mission +of Christ, is the pitying love of God's heart. If we hold fast by +that, the pain of the riddle of the world is past, and the riddle +itself more than half solved. Jesus Christ is the greatest gift of +that love, in which all its tenderness and all its power are +gathered up for our blessing. + +The modern civilised world owes most of its activity to the +quickening influence of Christianity. The dayspring visits us that +it may shine on us, and it shines that it may guide us into 'the way +of peace.' There can be no wider and more accurate description of +the end of Christ's mission than this--that all His visitation and +enlightenment are meant to lead us into the path where we shall find +peace with God, and therefore with ourselves and with all mankind. +The word 'peace,' in the Old Testament, is used to include the sum +of all that men require for their conscious well-being. We are at +rest only when all our relations with God and the outer world are +right, and when our inner being is harmonised with itself, and +supplied with appropriate objects. To know God for our friend, to +have our being fixed on and satisfied in Him, and so to be +reconciled to all circumstances, and a friend of all men--this is +peace; and the path to such a blessed condition is shown us only by +that Sun of Righteousness whom the loving heart of God has sent into +the darkness and torpor of the benighted wanderers in the desert. +The national reference has faded from the song, and though it still +speaks of 'us' and 'our,' we cannot doubt that Zacharias both saw +more deeply into the salvation which Christ would bring than to +limit it to breaking an earthly yoke, and deemed more worthily and +widely of its sweep, than to confine it within narrower bounds than +the whole extent of the dreary darkness which it came to banish from +all the world. + + + + +THE DAYSPRING FROM ON HIGH + + + 'The day-spring from on high hath visited us, 79. To + give light to them that sit in darkness and in the + shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of + peace.'--LUKE i. 78, 79. + +As the dawn is ushered in by the notes of birds, so the rising of +the Sun of Righteousness was heralded by song, Mary and Zacharias +brought their praises and welcome to the unborn Christ, the angels +hovered with heavenly music over His cradle, and Simeon took the +child in his arms and blessed it. The human members of this choir +may be regarded as the last of the psalmists and prophets, and the +first of Christian singers. The song of Zacharias, from which my +text is taken, is steeped in Old Testament allusions, and redolent +of the ancient spirit, but it transcends that. Its early part is +purely national, and hails the coming of the Messiah chiefly as the +deliverer of Israel from foreign oppressors, though even in it their +deliverance is regarded mostly as the means to an end, and the end +one very appropriate on the lips of a priestly prophet---viz. +sacerdotal service by the whole nation 'in holiness and +righteousness all their days.' + +But in this latter portion, which is separated from the former by +the pathetic, incidental, and slight reference to the singer's own +child, the national limits are far surpassed. The song soars above +them, and pierces to the very heart and kernel of Christ's work. +'The dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them +that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into +the way of peace.' Nothing deeper, nothing wider, nothing truer +about the mission and issue of Christ's coming could be spoken. And +thus we have to look at the three things that lie in this text, as +bearing upon our conceptions of Christ and His work--the darkness, +the dawn, and the directing light. + +I. The darkness. + +Zacharias, as becomes the last of the prophets, and a man whose +whole religious life was nourished upon the ancient Scriptures, +speaks almost entirely in Old Testament phraseology in this song. +And his description of 'them that sit in darkness and the shadow of +death' is taken almost verbally from the great words from the Book +of the Prophet Isaiah, who speaks, in immediate connection with his +prophecy of the coming of the Christ, of 'the people that walk in +darkness and them that dwell,' or sit, 'in the shadow of death, upon +whom the light hath shined.' + +The picture that rises before us is that of a group of travellers +benighted, bewildered, huddled together in the dark, afraid to move +for fear of pitfalls, precipices, wild beasts, and enemies; and so +sighing for the day and compelled to be inactive till it comes. That +is the picture of humanity apart from Jesus Christ, a darkness so +intense, so tragic, that it is, as it were, the very shadow of the +ultimate and essential darkness which is death, and in it men are +sitting torpid, unable to find their way and afraid to move. + +Now darkness, all the world over, is the emblem of three +things--ignorance, impurity, sorrow. And all men who are rent +away from Jesus Christ, or on whom His beams have not yet fallen, +this text tells us, have that triple curse lying upon them. + +Ignorance. Think of what, without Jesus Christ, the world has deemed +of the unseen, and of the God, if there be a God, that may inhabit +there. He has been to them a great Peradventure, a great Terror, a +great Inscrutable, a stone-eyed Fate, a thin, nebulous Nothing, with +no emotion, no attributes, no heart, no ear to hear, the nearest +approach to nonentity, according to the despairing saying of a +master of philosophy, that 'pure Being is equal to pure Nothing.' +And if all men do not rise to such heights of melancholy abstraction +as that, still how little there is of blessed certainty, how little +clearness of conception of a Divine Person that turns to us with +love and tenderness in His heart, apart from Christ and His +teaching! If you take away from civilised men all the knowledge of +God that they owe to Jesus Christ, what have you left? The ladder by +which they climbed is kicked away by a great many people nowadays, +but it is to Him that they owe the very conceptions in the name of +which some of them turn round and deny Him. + +Ignorance of God, ignorance of one's own self and of one's deepest +duties, and ignorance of that solemn future, the fact of which is +plain to most men, but the how of which is such a blank mystery but +for Jesus Christ--these things are elements of the darkness that +wraps the world. Go to heathendom if you want to see the problem +worked out, as to what men know outside of the revelation which +culminates in Jesus Christ. And take your own hearts, dear friends +who stand aside from that sweet Lord and light of our lives, and ask +yourselves, What do I know, with a certainty which is to me as +valid, as--yea! more valid than that given by sense and outward +perceptions? What do I know of God that I do not owe to Jesus +Christ? Nothing. You may guess much, you may hope a little, you may +dread a great deal, you may question more than all, but you will +_know_ nothing. + +Well, then, further, this solemn emblem stands for impurity. And we +have only to consult our own hearts to feel how true it is about us +all, that we dwell in a region all darkened, if not by the coarse +transgressions which men consent to call sins, yet darkened more +subtly and oftentimes more hopelessly by the obscuration of pure +selfishness and living to myself and by myself. Wherever that comes, +it is like the mists that steal up from some poisonous marsh, and +shut out stars and sky, and drape the whole country in a melancholy +veil. It is white but it is poisonous, it is white but it is +darkness all the same. There are other kinds of sin than the sins +that break the Ten Commandments; there are other kinds of sin than +the sins that the world takes cognisance of. The worst poisons are +the tasteless ones, and colourless gases are laden with fatal power. +We may walk in a darkness that may be felt, though there be nothing +in our lives that men call sin, and little there of which our +consciences are as yet educated enough to be ashamed. Rent from God, +man lives to himself, and so is sunk in darkness. + +And what shall I say about the third of the doleful triad of which +this pregnant emblem is the recognised symbol all the world over? +Surely, though earth be full of blessing, and life of possibilities +of joy, no man travels very far along the road without feeling that +the burden of sorrow is a burden that we all have to carry. There +are blessings in plenty, there is mirth more than enough. There is +'the laughter' which is 'the crackling of thorns' under a pot. There +are plenty of distractions and amusements, 'blessings more plentiful +than hope'; but yet the ground tone of every human life, when the +first flush of inexperience and novelty has worn off, apart from +God, is sadness, conscious of itself sometimes, and driven to all +manner of foolish attempts at forgetfulness, unconscious of itself +sometimes, and knowing not what is the disease of which it +languishes. There it is, like some persistent minor in a great piece +of music, wailing on through all the embroidery and lightsomeness of +the cheerfuller and loftier notes. 'Every heart knoweth its own +bitterness,' and every heart _has_ a bitterness of its own to +know. + +I do not understand how it is that men who have no religion in them +can bear their own sorrows and see their neighbours' and not go mad. +Sometimes the world seems to me to be moving round its central sun +with a doleful atmosphere of sighs wherever it goes, and all the +mirth and stir and bustle are but like a thin crust of grass with +flowers upon it, cast across the sulphurous depths of some volcano +that may slumber for a while, but is there all the same. + +Brother! you and I, away from Jesus Christ, have to face the +certainties of ignorance, of sin, of sorrow--ignorance unenlightened, +sin unconquered, sorrow uncomforted. + +And then comes the other tragic, and yet most picturesque emblem in +the representation here: 'They _sit_ in darkness.' Yes! what +can they do, poor creatures? They know not where to go. The light +has left them, inactivity is a necessity. And so, with folded hands, +they wish for the day, or try to forget the night by lighting some +little torch of their own that only serves to make darkness visible, +and dies all too soon, leaving them to lie down in sorrow. + +But, you say, 'What nonsense! Inactivity! look at the fierce energy +of life in our Western lands.' Well, grant it all, there may be +plenty of material activity attendant upon inward stagnation and +torpor. But, again, I would like to ask how much of the most +godless, commercial, artistic, intellectual activity of so-called +civilised and Christian countries is owing to the stimulus and +ferment that Jesus Christ brought. If you want to see how true it is +that men without Him _sit_ in the darkness, go to heathen +lands, and see the stagnation, the torpor, there. + +Now, dear brethren, all this is true about us, in the measure in +which we do not participate by faith and love, welcoming Him into +our hearts in the illumination that Jesus Christ brings. And what I +want to do is to lay upon the hearts and consciences of each of us +here this thought, that the solemn, tragic picture of my text is the +picture of me, separate from Christ, however I may try to conceal it +from myself, and to mask it from other people by busying myself with +inferior knowledges, by avoiding to listen to the answer that +conscience gives to the question as to my moral character, and by +befooling myself with noisy joys and tumultuous pleasures, in which +there is no pleasure. + +II. Now, note secondly, the dayspring, or dawn. + +My text, in the part on which I have just been speaking, links +itself with ancient Messianic prophecy, and this expression, 'the +dayspring from on high.' also links itself with other prophecies of +the same sort. Almost the last word of prophecy before the four +centuries of silence which Mary and Zacharias broke, was, 'Unto you +that fear His name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing +in His beams.' There can be little doubt, I think, that the allusion +of my text is to these all but the last words of the prophet +Malachi. For that final chapter of the Old Testament colours the +song both of Mary and of Zacharias. And it is to be observed that +the Greek translation of the Hebrew uses the same verb, of which the +cognate noun is here employed, for the rising of the Sun of +Righteousness. The picturesque old English word 'dayspring' means +neither more nor less than _sunrising_. And it is here used +practically as a name for Jesus Christ, who is Himself the Sun, +represented as rising over a darkened earth, and yet, with a +singular neglect of the propriety of the metaphor, as descending +from on high, not to shine on us from the sky, but to 'visit us' on +earth. + +Jesus Christ Himself, over and over again, said by implication, and +more than once by direct claim, 'I am the Light of the world.' And +my text is the anticipation, perhaps from lips that did not fully +understand the whole significance of the prophecy which they spoke, +of these later declarations. I have said that the darkness is the +emblem of three baleful things, of the converse of which light is +the symbol. As the darkness speaks to us of ignorance, so Christ, as +the Sun illumines us with the light of 'the knowledge of the glory +of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' For doubt we have blessed +certainty, for a far-off God we have the knowledge of God close at +hand. For an impassive will or a stony-eyed fate we have the +knowledge (and not only the wistful yearning after the knowledge) of +a loving heart, warm and throbbing. Our God is no unemotional +abstraction, but a living Person who can love, who can pity, and we +are speaking more than poetry when we say, God is compassion, and +compassion is God. This we know because 'He that hath seen Me hath +seen the Father.' And the solid certainty of a loving God, tender, +pitying, mighty to help, quick to hear, ready to forgive, waiting to +bless, is borne into our hearts, and comes there, sweet as the +sunshine, when we turn ourselves to the light of Christ. + +In like manner the darkness, born of our own sin, which wraps our +hearts, and shuts out so much that is fair and sweet and strong, +will pass away if we turn ourselves to Him. His light pouring into +our souls will hurt the eye at first, but it will hurt to cure. The +darkness of sin and alienation will pass, and the true light will +shine. + +The darkness of sorrow--well! it will not cease, but He will 'smooth +the raven down of darkness till it smiles,' and He will bring into +our griefs such a spirit of quiet submission as that they shall +change into a solemn scorn of ills, and be almost like gladnesses. +Peace, which is better than exuberant delight, will come to quiet +the sorrow of the soul that trusts in Jesus Christ. The day which is +knowledge, purity, gladsomeness, the cheerful day will be ours if we +hold by Him. We 'are all the children of the light and of the day'; +we 'are not of the night nor of darkness.' + +Brother, it is possible to grope at noontide as in the dark, and in +all the blaze of Christ's revelation still to be left in the +Cimmerian folds of midnight gloom. You can shut your eyes to the +sunshine; have you opened your hearts to its coming? + +I cannot dwell (your time will not allow of it) upon the other +points connected with this description of the day spring, except +just to point out in passing the singular force and depth of the +words--which I suppose are more forcible and deep than he who spoke +them understood at the time that visitation was described. The +dayspring is 'from on high.' This Sun has come down on to the earth. +It has not risen on a far-off horizon, but it has come down and +visited us, and walks among us. This Sun, our life-star, 'hath had +elsewhere its setting, and cometh from afar.' For He that rises upon +us as the Light of life, hath descended from the heavens, and was, +before He appeared amongst men. + +And His coming is a divine visitation. The word here 'hath +_visited_ us' (or 'shall visit us,' as the Revised Version +varies it), is chiefly employed in the Old Testament to describe the +divine acts of self-revelation, and these, mostly redemptive acts. +Zacharias employs it in that sense in the earlier portion of the +song, where he says that 'God hath visited and redeemed His people.' +And so from the use of this word we gather these two thoughts--God +comes to us when Christ comes to us, and His coming is wondrous, +blessed nearness, and nearness to each of us. 'What is man that Thou +shouldst be mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou shouldst +visit him?' said the old Psalmist. We say 'What is man that the +Dayspring from on high should come down upon earth, and round His +immortal beams, should, as it were, cast the veil and obscuration of +a human form; and so walk amongst us, the embodied Light and the +Incarnate God?' 'The dayspring from on high hath visited us.' + +III. Lastly, note the directing by the light. + +'To guide our feet into the way of peace.' This Sun stoops to the +office of the star that moved before the wise men and hovered over +His cradle, and becomes to each individual soul a guide and +director. The picture of my text, I suppose, carries us on to the +morning, when the benighted travellers catch the first gleams of the +rising sun and resume their activity, and there is a cheerful stir +through the encampment and the way is open before them once more, +and they are ready to walk in it. The force of the metaphor, +however, implies more than that, for it speaks to us of the wonder +that this universal Light should become the special guide of each +individual soul, and should not merely hang in the heavens, to cast +the broad radiance of its beams over the whole surface of the earth, +but should move before each man, a light unto _his_ feet and a +lamp to _his_ path, in special manifestation to him of his duty +and his life's pilgrimage. + +There is only one way of peace, and that is to follow His beams and +to be directed by His preceding us. Then we shall realise the most +indispensable of all the conditions of peace--Christ brings you and +me the reconciliation which puts us at peace with God, which is the +foundation of all other tranquillity. And He will guide docile feet +into the way of peace in yet another fashion--in that the following +of His example, the cleaving to Him, the holding by His skirts or by +His hand, and the treading in His footsteps, is the only way by +which the heart can receive the solid satisfaction in which it +rests, and the conscience can cease from accusing and stinging. The +way of wisdom is a path of pleasantness and a way of peace. Only +they who walk in Christ's footsteps have quiet hearts and are at +amity with God, in concord with themselves, friends of mankind, and +at peace with circumstances. There is no strife within, no strained +relations or hostile alienation to God, no gnawing unrest of +unsatisfied desires, no pricks of accusing conscience; for the man +who puts his hand into Christ's hand, and says, 'Order Thou my +footsteps by Thy word'; 'Where Thou goest I will go, and what Thou +commandest I will do.' + +Brother, put thy hand out from the darkness and clasp His, and 'the +darkness shall be light about thee'; and He will fulfil His own +promise when He said, 'I am the Light of the world. He that +followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of +life. + + + + +SHEPHERDS AND ANGELS + + + 'And there were in the same country shepherds abiding + in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. + 9. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and + the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they + were sore afraid. 10. And the angel said unto them, + Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of + great joy, which shall be to all people. 11. For unto + you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, + which is Christ the Lord. 12. And this shall be a sign + unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling + clothes, lying in a manger. 13. And suddenly there was + with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising + God, and saying, 14. Glory to God in the highest, and + on earth peace, good will toward men. 15. And it came + to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into + heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now + go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is + come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. + 16. And they came with haste, and found Mary and + Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 17. And when + they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying + which was told them concerning this child. 18. And all + they that heard it wondered at those things which were + told them by the shepherds. 19. But Mary kept all + these things, and pondered them in her heart. 20. And + the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God + for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it + was told unto them.'--LUKE ii. 8-20. + +The central portion of this passage is, of course, the angels' +message and song, the former of which proclaims the transcendent +fact of the Incarnation, and the latter hymns its blessed results. +But, subsidiary to these, the silent vision which preceded them and +the visit to Bethlehem which followed are to be noted. Taken +together, they cast varying gleams on the great fact of the birth of +Jesus Christ. + +Why should there be a miraculous announcement at all, and why should +it be to these shepherds? It seems to have had no effect beyond a +narrow circle and for a time. It was apparently utterly forgotten +when, thirty years after, the carpenter's Son began His ministry. +Could such an event have passed from memory, and left no ripple on +the surface? Does not the resultlessness cast suspicion on the +truthfulness of the narrative? Not if we duly give weight to the few +who knew of the wonder; to the length of time that elapsed, during +which the shepherds and their auditors probably died; to their +humble position, and to the short remembrance of extraordinary +events which have no immediate consequences. Joseph and Mary were +strangers in Bethlehem. Christ never visited it, so far as we know. +The fading of the impression cannot be called strange, for it +accords with natural tendencies; but the record of so great an +event, which was entirely ineffectual as regards future acceptance +of Christ's claims, is so unlike legend that it vouches for the +truth of the narrative. An apparent stumbling-block is left, because +the story is true. + +Why then, the announcement at all, since it was of so little use? +Because it was of some; but still more, because it was fitting that +such angel voices should attend such an event, whether men gave heed +to them or not; and because, recorded, their song has helped a world +to understand the nature and meaning of that birth. The glory died +off the hillside quickly, and the music of the song scarcely +lingered longer in the ears of its first hearers; but its notes echo +still in all lands, and every generation turns to them with wonder +and hope. + +The selection of two or three peasants as receivers of the message, +the time at which it was given, and the place, are all significant. +It was no unmeaning fact that the 'glory of the Lord' shone lambent +round the shepherds, and held them and the angel standing beside +them in its circle of light. No longer within the secret shrine, but +out in the open field, the symbol of the Divine Presence glowed +through the darkness; for that birth hallowed common life, and +brought the glory of God into familiar intercourse with its +secularities and smallnesses. The appearance to these humble men as +they 'sat simply chatting in a rustic row 'symbolised the +destination of the Gospel for all ranks and classes. + +The angel speaks by the side of the shepherds, not from above. His +gentle encouragement 'Fear not!' not only soothes their present +terror, but has a wider meaning. The dread of the Unseen, which lies +coiled like a sleeping snake in all hearts, is utterly taken away by +the Incarnation. All messages from that realm are thenceforward +'tidings of great joy,' and love and desire may pass into it, as all +men shall one day pass, and both enterings may be peaceful and +confident. Nothing harmful can come out of the darkness, from which +Jesus has come, into which He has passed, and which He fills. + +The great announcement, the mightiest, most wonderful word that had +ever passed angels' immortal lips, is characterised as 'great joy' +to 'all the people,' in which designation two things are to be +noted--the nature and the limitation of the message. In how many +ways the Incarnation was to be the fountain of purest gladness was +but little discerned, either by the heavenly messenger or the +shepherds. The ages since have been partially learning it, but not +till the 'glorified joy' of heaven swells redeemed hearts will all +its sorrow-dispelling power be experimentally known. Base joys may +be basely sought, but His creatures' gladness is dear to God, and if +sought in God's way, is a worthy object of their efforts. + +The world-wide sweep of the Incarnation does not appear here, but +only its first destination for Israel. This is manifest in the +phrase 'all the people,' in the mention of 'the city of David' and +in the emphatic 'you,' in contradistinction both from the messenger, +who announced what he did not share, and Gentiles, to whom the +blessing was not to pass till Israel had determined its attitude to +it. + +The titles of the Infant tell something of the wonder of the birth, +but do not unfold its overwhelming mystery. Magnificent as they are, +they fall far short of 'The Word was made flesh.' They keep within +the circle of Jewish expectation, and announce that the hopes of +centuries are fulfilled. There is something very grand in the +accumulation of titles, each greater than the preceding, and all +culminating in that final 'Lord.' Handel has gloriously given the +spirit of it in the crash of triumph with which that last word is +pealed out in his oratorio. 'Saviour' means far more than the +shepherds knew; for it declares the Child to be the deliverer from +all evil, both of sin and sorrow, and the endower with all good, +both of righteousness and blessedness. The 'Christ' claims that He +is the fulfiller of prophecy, perfectly endowed by divine anointing +for His office of prophet, priest, and king--the consummate flower +of ancient revelation, greater than Moses the law-giver, than +Solomon the king, than Jonah the prophet. 'The Lord' is scarcely to +be taken as the ascription of divinity, but rather as a prophecy of +authority and dominion, implying reverence, but not unveiling the +deepest secret of the entrance of the divine Son into humanity. That +remained unrevealed, for the time was not yet ripe. + +There would be few children of a day old in a little place like +Bethlehem, and none but one lying in a manger. The fact of the +birth, which could be verified by sight, would confirm the message +in its outward aspect, and thereby lead to belief in the angel's +disclosure of its inward character. The 'sign' attested the veracity +of the messenger, and therefore the truth of all his word--both of +that part of it capable of verification by sight and that part +apprehensible by faith. + +No wonder that the sudden light and music of the multitude of the +heavenly host' flashed and echoed round the group on the hillside. +The true picture is not given when we think of that angel choir as +floating in heaven. They stood in their serried ranks round the +shepherds and their fellows on the solid earth, and 'the night was +filled with music,' not from overhead, but from every side. Crowding +forms became all at once visible within the encircling 'glory,' on +every face wondering gladness and eager sympathy with men, from +every lip praise. Angels can speak with the tongues of men when +their theme is their Lord become man, and their auditors are men. +They hymn the blessed results of that birth, the mystery of which +they knew more completely than they were yet allowed to tell. + +As was natural for them, their praise is first evoked by the result +of the Incarnation in the highest heavens. It will bring 'glory to +God' there; for by it new aspects of His nature are revealed to +those clear-eyed and immortal spirits who for unnumbered ages have +known His power, His holiness, His benignity to unfallen creatures, +but now experience the wonder which more properly belongs to more +limited intelligences, when they behold that depth of condescending +Love stooping to be born. Even they think more loftily of God, and +more of man's possibilities and worth, when they cluster round the +manger, and see who lies there. + +'On earth peace.' The song drops from the contemplation of the +heavenly consequences to celebrate the results on earth, and gathers +them all into one pregnant word, 'Peace.' What a scene of strife, +discord, and unrest earth must seem to those calm spirits! And how +vain and petty the struggles must look, like the bustle of an ant-hill! +Christ's work is to bring peace into all human relations, those with +God, with men, with circumstances, and to calm the discords of souls +at war with themselves. Every one of these relations is marred by sin, +and nothing less thorough than a power which removes it can rectify +them. That birth was the coming into humanity of Him who brings peace +with God, with ourselves, with one another. Shame on Christendom that +nineteen centuries have passed, and men yet think the cessation of +war is only a 'pious imagination'! The ringing music of that angel +chant has died away, but its promise abides. + +The symmetry of the song is best preserved, as I humbly venture to +think, by the old reading as in the Authorised Version. The other, +represented by the Revised Version, seems to make the second clause +drag somewhat, with two designations of the region of peace. The +Incarnation brings God's 'good will' to dwell among men. In Christ, +God is well pleased; and from Him incarnate, streams of divine +complacent love pour out to freshen and fertilise the earth. + +The disappearance of the heavenly choristers does not seem to have +been so sudden as their appearance. They 'went away from them into +heaven,' as if leisurely, and so that their ascending brightness was +long visible as they rose, and attestation was thereby given to the +reality of the vision. The sleeping village was close by, and as +soon as the last gleam of the departing light had faded in the +depths of heaven, the shepherds went 'with haste,' untimely as was +the hour. They would not have much difficulty in finding the inn and +the manger. Note that they do not tell their story till the sight +has confirmed the angel message. Their silence was not from doubt; +for they say, before they had seen the child, that 'this thing' is +'come to pass,' and are quite sure that the Lord has told it them. +But they wait for the evidence which shall assure others of their +truthfulness. + +There are three attitudes of mind towards God's revelation set forth +in living examples in the closing verses of the passage. Note the +conduct of the shepherds, as a type of the natural impulse and +imperative duty of all possessors of God's truth. Such a story as +they had to tell would burn its way to utterance in the most +reticent and shyest. But have Christians a less wonderful message to +deliver, or a less needful one? If the spectators of the cradle +could not be silent, how impossible it ought to be for the witnesses +of the Cross to lock their lips! + +The hearers of the story did what, alas! too many of us do with the +Gospel. 'They wondered,' and stopped there. A feeble ripple of +astonishment ruffled the surface of their souls for a moment; but +like the streaks on the sea made by a catspaw of wind, it soon died +out, and the depths were unaffected by it. + +The antithesis to this barren wonder is the beautiful picture of the +Virgin's demeanour. She 'kept all these sayings, and pondered them +in her heart.' What deep thoughts the mother of the Lord had, were +hers alone. But we have the same duty to the truth, and it will +never disclose its inmost sweetness to us, nor take so sovereign a +grip of our very selves as to mould our lives, unless we too +treasure it in our hearts, and by patient brooding on it understand +its hidden harmonies, and spread our souls out to receive its +transforming power. A non-meditative religion is a shallow religion. +But if we hide His word in our hearts, and often in secret draw out +our treasure to count and weigh it, we shall be able to speak out of +a full heart, and like these shepherds, to rejoice that we have seen +even as it was spoken unto us. + + + + +WAS, IS, IS TO COME + + + '... The babe lying in a manger...'--LUKE ii. 16. + + '... While He blessed them, He was parted from them, + and carried up into heaven...'--LUKE xxiv. 51. + + 'This same Jesus... shall so come in like manner as + ye have seen Him go...'--ACTS I. 11. + +These three fragments, which I have ventured to isolate and bring +together, are all found in one author's writings. Luke's biography +of Jesus stretches from the cradle in Bethlehem to the Ascension +from Olivet. He narrates the Ascension twice, because it has two +aspects. In one it looks backward, and is necessary as the +completion of what was begun in the birth. In one it looks forward, +and makes necessary, as its completion, that coming which still lies +in the future. These three stand up, like linked summits in a +mountain. We can understand none of them unless we embrace them all. +If the story of the birth is true, a life so begun cannot end in an +undistinguished death like that of all men. And if the Ascension +from Olivet is true, that cannot close the history of His relations +to men. The creed which proclaims He was 'born of the Virgin Mary' +must go on to say '... He ascended up into heaven'; and cannot pause +till it adds '...From thence He shall come to judge the quick and +the dead.' So we have then three points to consider in this sermon. + +I. Note first, the three great moments. + +The thing that befell at Bethlehem, in the stable of the inn, was a +commonplace and insignificant enough event looked at from the +outside: the birth of a child to a young mother. It had its elements +of pathos in its occurring at a distance from home, among the +publicity and discomforts of an inn stable, and with some cloud of +suspicion over the mother's fair fame. But the outside of a fact is +the least part of it. A little film of sea-weed floats upon the +surface, but there are fathoms of it below the water. Men said, 'A +child is born.' Angels said, and bowed their faces in adoration, +'The Word has become flesh'. The eternal, self-communicating +personality in the Godhead, passed voluntarily into the condition of +humanity. Jesus was born, the Son of God came. Only when we hold +fast by that great truth do we pierce to the centre of what was done +in that poor stable, and possess the key to all the wonders of His +life and death. + +From the manger we pass to the mountain. A life begun by such a +birth cannot be ended, as I have said, by a mere ordinary death. The +Alpha and the Omega of that alphabet must belong to the same fount +of type. A divine conformity forbids that He who was born of the +Virgin Mary should have His body laid to rest in an undistinguished +grave. And so what Bethlehem began, Olivet carries on. + +Note the circumstances of this second of these great moments. The +place is significant. Almost within sight of the city, a stone's +throw probably from the home where He had lodged, and where He had +conquered death in the person of Lazurus; not far from the turn of the +road where the tears had come into His eyes amidst the shouting of the +rustic procession, as He had looked across the valley; just above +Gethsemane, where He had agonised on that bare hillside to which He +had often gone for communion with the Father in heaven. There, in some +dimple of the hill, and unseen but by the little group that surrounded +Him, He passed from their midst. The manner of the departure is yet +more significant than the place. Here were no whirlwind, no chariots +and horses of fire, no sudden rapture; but, as the narrative makes +emphatic, a slow, leisurely, self-originated floating upwards. He was +borne up from them, and no outward vehicle or help was needed; but by +His own volition and power He rose towards the heavens. 'And a cloud +received Him out of their sight'--the Shechinah cloud, the bright +symbol of the Divine Presence which had shone round the shepherds on +the pastures of Bethlehem, and enwrapped Him and the three disciples +on the Mount of Transfiguration. It came not to lift Him on its soft +folds to the heavens, but in order that, first, He might be plainly +seen till the moment that He ceased to be seen, and might not dwindle +into a speck by reason of distance; and secondly, that it might teach +the truth, that, as His body was received into the cloud, so He entered +into the glory which He 'had with the Father before the world was.' +Such was the second of these moments. + +The third great moment corresponds to these, is required by them, +and crowns them. The Ascension was not only the close of Christ's +earthly life which would preserve congruity with its beginning, but +it was also the clear manifestation that, as He came of His own +will, so He departed by His own volition. 'I came forth from the +Father, and am come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go +unto the Father.' Thus the earthly life is, as it were, islanded in +a sea of glory, and that which stretches away beyond the last moment +of visibility, is like that which stretched away beyond the first +moment of corporeity; the eternal union with the eternal Father. But +such an entrance on and departure from earth, and such a career on +earth, can only end in that coming again of which the angels spoke +to the gazing eleven. + +Mark the emphasis of their words. 'This same Jesus,' the same in His +manhood, 'shall so come, in like manner, as ye have seen Him go.' +How much the 'in like manner' may mean we can scarcely dogmatically +affirm. But this, at least, is clear, that it cannot mean less than +corporeally visible, locally surrounded by angel-guards, and +perhaps, according to a mysterious prophecy, to the same spot from +which He ascended. But, at all events, there are the three moments +in the manifestation of the Son of God. + +II. Look, in the second place, at the threefold phases of our Lord's +activity which are thus suggested. + +I need not dwell, in more than a sentence or two, on the first of +these. Each of these three moments is the inauguration of a form of +activity which lasts till the emergence of the next of the triad. + +The birth at Bethlehem had, for its consequence and purpose, a +threefold end: the revelation of God in humanity, the manifestation +of perfect manhood to men, and the rendering of the great sacrifice +for the sins of the world. These three--showing us God; showing +ourselves as we are and as we may be; as we ought to be, and, +blessed be His name, as we shall be, if we observe the conditions; +and the making reconciliation for the sins of the whole world--these +are the things for which the Babe lying in the manger was born and +came under the limitations of humanity. + +Turn to the second of the three, and what shall we say of it? That +Ascension has for its great purpose the application to men of the +results of the Incarnation. He was born that He might show us God +and ourselves, and that He might die for us. He ascended up on high +in order that the benefits of that Revelation and Atonement might be +extended through, and appropriated by, the whole world. + +One chief thought which is enforced by the narrative of the +Ascension is the permanence, the eternity of the humanity of Jesus +Christ. He ascended up where He was before, but He who ascended is +not altogether the same as He who had been there before, for He has +taken up with Him our nature to the centre of the universe and the +throne of God, and there, 'bone of our bone, and flesh of our +flesh,' a true man in body, soul, and spirit, He lives and reigns. +The cradle at Bethlehem assumes even greater solemnity when we think +of it as the beginning of a humanity that is never laid aside. So we +can look confidently to all that blaze of light where He sits, and +feel that, howsoever the body of His humiliation may have been +changed into the body of His glory, He still remains corporeally and +spiritually a true Son of man. Thus the face that looks down from +amidst the blaze, though it be 'as the sun shineth in his strength,' +is the old face; and the breast which is girded with the golden +girdle is the same breast on which the seer had leaned his happy +head; and the hand that holds the sceptre is the hand that was +pierced with the nails; and the Christ that is ascended up on high +is the Christ that loved and pitied adulteresses and publicans, and +took the little child in His gracious arms--'The same yesterday, and +to-day, and for ever.' + +Christ's Ascension is as the broad seal of heaven attesting the +completeness of His work on earth. It inaugurates His repose which +is not the sign of His weariness, but of His having finished all +which He was born to do. But that repose is not idleness. Rather it +is full of activity. + +On the Cross He shouted with a great voice ere He died, 'It is +finished.' But centuries, perhaps millenniums, yet will have to +elapse before the choirs of angels shall be able to chant, 'It is +done: the kingdoms of the world are the kingdoms of God and of His +Christ.' All the interval is filled by the working of that ascended +Lord whose session at the right hand of God is not only symbolical +of perfect repose and a completed sacrifice, but also of perfect +activity in and with His servants. + +He has gone--to rest, to reign, to work, to intercede, and to +prepare a place for us. For if our Brother be indeed at the right +hand of God, then our faltering feet may travel to the Throne, and +our sinful selves may be at home there. The living Christ, working +to-day, is that of which the Ascension from Olivet gives us the +guarantee. + +The third great moment will inaugurate yet another form of activity +as necessary and certain as either of the two preceding. For if His +cradle was what we believe it to have been, and if His sacrifice was +what Scripture tells us it is, and if through all the ages He, +crowned and regnant, is working for the diffusion of the powers of +His Cross and the benefits of His Incarnation, there can be no end +to that course except the one which is expressed for us by the +angels' message to the gazing disciples: He shall so come in like +manner as ye have seen Him go. He will come to manifest Himself as +the King of the world and its Lord and Redeemer. He will come to +inaugurate the great act of Judgment, which His great act of +Redemption necessarily draws after it, and Himself be the Arbiter of +the fates of men, the determining factor in whose fates has been +their relation to Him. No doubt many who never heard His name upon +earth will, in that day be, by His clear eye and perfect judgment, +discerned to have visited the sick and the imprisoned, and to have +done many acts for His sake. And for us who know Him, and have heard +His name, the way in which we stand affected in heart and will to +Christ reveals and settles our whole character, shapes our whole +being, and will determine our whole destiny. He comes, not only to +manifest Himself so as that 'every eye shall see Him,' and to divide +the sheep from the goats, but also in order that He may reign for +ever and gather into the fellowship of His love and the community of +His joys all who love and trust Him here. These are the triple +phases of our Lord's activity suggested by the three great moments. + +III. Lastly, notice the triple attitude which we should assume to +Him and to them. + +For the first, the cradle, with its consequence of the Cross, our +response is clinging faith, grateful memory, earnest following, and +close conformity. For the second, the Ascension, with its +consequence of a Christ that lives and labours for us, and is with +us, our attitude ought to be an intense realisation of the fact of +His present working and of His present abode with us. The centre of +Christian doctrine has, amongst average Christians, been far too +exclusively fixed within the limits of the earthly life, and in the +interests of a true and comprehensive grasp of all the blessedness +that Christianity is capable of bringing to men, I would protest +against that type of thought, earnest and true as it may be within +its narrow limits, which is always pointing men to the past fact of +a Cross, and slurs over and obscures the present fact of a living +Christ who is with us, and in us. One difference between Him and all +other benefactors and teachers and helpers is this, that, as ages go +on, thicker and ever-thickening folds of misty oblivion wrap them, +and their influence diminishes as new circumstances emerge, but this +Christ's power laughs at the centuries, and is untinged by oblivion, +and is never out of date. For all others we have to say--'having +served his generation,' or a generation or two more, 'according to +the will of God, he fell on sleep.' But Christ knows no corruption, +and is for ever more the Leader, and the Companion, and the Friend, +of each new age. + +Brethren! the Cross is incomplete without the throne. We are told to +go back to the historical Christ. Yes, Amen, I say! But do not let +that make us lose our grasp of the living Christ who is with us to-day. +Whilst we rejoice over the 'Christ that died,' let us go on with Paul +to say, 'Yea! rather, that is risen again, and is even at the right +hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.' + +For that future, discredited as the thought of the second corporeal +coming of the Lord Jesus in visible fashion and to a locality has +been by the fancies and the vagaries of so-called Apocalyptic +expositors, let us not forget that it is the hope of Christ's +Church, and that 'they who love His appearing' is, by the Apostle, +used as the description and definition of the Christian character. +We have to look forwards as well as backwards and upwards, and to +rejoice in the sure and certain confidence that the Christ who has +come is the Christ who will come. + +For us the past should be full of Him, and memory and faith should +cling to His Incarnation and His Cross. The present should be full +of Him, and our hearts should commune with Him amidst the toils of +earth. The future should be full of Him, and our hopes should be +based upon no vague anticipations of a perfectibility of humanity, +nor upon any dim dreams of what may lie beyond the grave; but upon +the concrete fact that Jesus Christ has risen, and that Jesus Christ +is glorified. Does my faith grasp the Christ that was--who died for +me? Does my heart cling to the Christ who is--who lives and reigns, +and with whom my life is hid in God? Do my hopes crystallise round, +and anchor upon, the Christ that is to come, and pierce the dimness +of the future and the gloom of the grave, looking onwards to that +day of days when He, who is our life, shall appear, and we shall +appear also with Him in glory? + + + + +SIMEON'S SWAN-SONG + + + 'Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, + according to Thy word: 30. For mine eyes have seen Thy + salvation.'--LUKE ii. 29,30. + +That scene, when the old man took the Infant in his withered arms, +is one of the most picturesque and striking in the Gospel narrative. +Simeon's whole life appears, in its later years, to have been under +the immediate direction of the Spirit of God. It is very remarkable +to notice how, in the course of three consecutive verses, the +operation of that divine Spirit upon him is noted. 'It was revealed +unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he +had seen the Lord's Christ.' 'And he came by the Spirit into the +Temple.' I suppose that means that some inward monition, which he +recognised to be of God, sent him there, in the expectation that at +last he was to 'see the Lord's Christ.' He was there before the +Child was brought by His parents, for we read 'He came by the Spirit +into the Temple, and when the parents brought in the Child Jesus ... +he took Him in his arms.' Think of the old man, waiting there in the +Sanctuary, told by God that he was thus about to have the fulfilment +of his life-long desire, and yet probably not knowing what kind of a +shape the fulfilment would take. There is no reason to believe that +he knew he was to see an infant; and he waits. And presently a +peasant woman comes in with a child in her arms, and there arises in +his soul the voice 'Anoint Him! for this is He!' And so, whether he +expected such a vision or no, he takes the Child in his arms, and +says, 'Lord! Now, now !--after all these years of waiting--lettest +Thou Thy servant depart in peace.' + +Now, it seems to me that there are two or three very interesting +thoughts deducible from this incident, and from these words. I take +three of them. Here we have the Old recognising and embracing the +New; the slave recognising and submitting to his Owner; and the +saint recognising and welcoming the approach of death. + +I. The Old recognising and embracing the New. + +It is striking to observe how the description of Simeon's character +expresses the aim of the whole Old Testament Revelation. All that +was meant by the preceding long series of manifestations through all +these years was accomplished in this man. For hearken how he is +described--'just and devout,' that is the perfection of moral +character, stated in the terms of the Old Testament; 'waiting for +the Consolation of Israel,' that is the ideal attitude which the +whole of the gradual manifestation of God's increasing purpose +running through the ages was intended to make the attitude of every +true Israelite--an expectant, eager look forwards, and in the +present, the discharge of all duties to God and man. 'And the Holy +Ghost was upon him'; that, too, in a measure, was the ultimate aim +of the whole Revelation of Israel. So this man stands as a bright, +consummate flower which had at last effloresced from the roots; and +in his own person, an embodiment of the very results which God had +patiently sought through millenniums of providential dealing and +inspiration. Therefore in this man's arms was laid the Christ for +whom he had so long been waiting. + +And he exhibits, still further, what God intended to secure by the +whole previous processes of Revelation, in that he recognises that +they were transcended and done with, that all that they pointed to +was accomplished when a devout Israelite took into his arms the +Incarnate Messiah, that all the past had now answered its purpose, +and like the scaffolding when the top stone of a building is brought +forth with shouting, might be swept away and the world be none the +poorer. And so he rejoices in the Christ that he receives, and sings +the swan-song of the departing Israel, the Israel according to the +Spirit. And that is what Judaism was meant to do, and how it was +meant to end, in an _euthanasia_, in a passing into the nobler +form of the Christian Church and the Christian citizenship. + +I do not need to remind you how terribly unlike this ideal the +reality was, but I may, though only in a sentence or two, point out +that that relation of the New to the Old is one that recurs, though +in lees sharp and decisive forms, in every generation, and in our +generation in a very special manner. It is well for the New when it +consents to be taken in the arms of the Old, and it is ill for the +Old when, instead of welcoming, it frowns upon the New, and instead +of playing the part of Simeon, and embracing and blessing the +Infant, plays the part of a Herod, and seeks to destroy the Child +that seems to threaten its sovereignty. We old people who are +conservative, if not by nature, by years, and you young people who +are revolutionary and innovating by reason of your youth, may both +find a lesson in that picture in the Temple, of Simeon with the +Infant Christ in his arms. + +II. Further, we have here the slave recognising and submitting to +his Owner. + +Now the word which is here employed for 'Lord' is one that very +seldom occurs in the New Testament in reference to God; only some +four or five times in all. And it is the harshest and hardest word +that can be picked out. If you clip the Greek termination off it, it +is the English word 'despot,' and it conveys all that that word +conveys to us, not only a lord in the sense of a constitutional +monarch, not only a lord in the polite sense of a superior in +dignity, but a despot in the sense of being the absolute owner of a +man who has no rights against the owner, and is a slave. For the +word 'slave' is what logicians call the correlative of this word +'despot,' and as the latter asserts absolute ownership and +authority, the former declares abject submission. So Simeon takes +these two words to express his relation and feeling towards God. +'Thou art the Owner, the Despot, and I am Thy slave.' That relation +of owner and slave, wicked as it is, when subsisting between two +men--an atrocious crime, 'the sum of all villainies,' as the good +old English emancipators used to call it--is the sum of all +blessings when regarded as existing between man and God. For what +does it imply? The right to command and the duty to obey, the +sovereign will that is supreme over all, and the blessed attitude of +yielding up one's will wholly, without reserve, without reluctance, +to that infinitely mighty, and--blessed be God!--infinitely loving +Will Absolute authority calls for abject submission. + +And again, the despot has the unquestioned right of life and death +over his slave, and if he chooses, can smite him down where he +stands, and no man have a word to say. Thus, absolutely, we hang +upon God, and because He has the power of life and death, every +moment of our lives is a gift from His hands, and we should not +subsist for an instant unless, by continual effluence from Him, and +influx into us, of the life which flows from Him, the Fountain of +life. + +Again, the slave-owner has entire possession of all the slave's +possessions, and can take them and do what he likes with them. And +so, all that I call mine is His. It was His before it became mine; +it remains His whilst it is mine, because I am His, and so what +seems to belong to me belongs to Him, no less truly. What, then, do +you do with your possessions? Use them for yourselves? Dispute His +ownership? Forget His claims? Grudge that He should take them away +sometimes, and grudge still more to yield them to Him in daily +obedience, and when necessary, surrender them? Is such a temper what +becomes the slave? What reason has he to grumble if the master comes +to him and says, 'This little bit of ground that I have given you to +grow a few sugar-canes and melons on, I am going to take back +again.' What reason have we to set up our puny wills against Him, if +He exercises His authority over us and demands that we should regard +ourselves not only as sons but also as slaves to whom the owner of +it and us has given a talent to be used for Him? + +Now, all that sounds very harsh, does it not? Let in one thought +into it, and it all becomes very gracious. The Apostle Peter, who +also once uses this word 'despot,' does so in a very remarkable +connection. He speaks about men's 'denying the despot that bought +them.' Ah, Peter! you were getting on very thin ice when you talked +about denial. Perhaps it was just because he remembered his sin in +the judgment hall that he used that word to express the very utmost +degree of degeneration and departure from Jesus. But be that as it +may, he bases the slave-owner's right on purchase. And Jesus Christ +has bought us by His own precious blood; and so all that sounds +harsh in the metaphor, worked out as I have been trying to do, +changes its aspect when we think of the method by which He has +acquired His rights and the purpose for which He exercises them. As +the Psalmist said, 'Oh, Lord! truly I am Thy slave. Thou hast loosed +my bonds.' + +III. So, lastly, we have here the saint recognising and welcoming +the approach of death. + +Now, it is a very singular thing, but I suppose it is true, that +somehow or other, most people read these words, 'Lord! now lettest +Thou Thy servant depart in peace,' as being a petition; 'Lord! now +_let_ Thy servant depart.' But they are not that at all. We +have here not a petition or an aspiration, but a statement of the +fact that Simeon recognises the appointed token that his days were +drawing to an end, and it is the glad recognition of that fact. +'Lord! I see now that the time has come when I may put aside all +this coil of weary waiting and burdened mortality, and go to rest.' +Look how he regards approaching death. 'Thou lettest Thy servant +depart' is but a feeble translation of the original, which is better +given in the version that has become very familiar to us all by its +use in a musical service, the _Nunc Dimittis_; 'Now Thou +_dost send away_' It is the technical word for relieving a +sentry from his post. It conveys the idea of the hour having come +when the slave who has been on the watch through all the long, weary +night, or toiling through all the hot, dusty day, may extinguish his +lantern, or fling down his mattock, and go home to his little hut. +'Lord! Thou dost dismiss me now, and I take the dismission as the +end of the long watch, as the end of the long toil.' + +But notice, still further, how Simeon not only recognises, but +welcomes the approach of death. 'Thou lettest Thy servant depart in +peace.' Yes, there speaks a calm voice tranquilly accepting the +permission. He feels no agitation, no fluster of any kind, but +quietly slips away from his post. And the reason for that peaceful +welcome of the end is 'for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.' That +sight is the reason, first of all, for his being sure that the +curfew had rung for him, and that the day's work was done. But it is +also the reason for the peacefulness of his departure. He went 'in +peace,' because of what? Because the weary, blurred, old eyes had +seen all that any man needs to see to be satisfied and blessed. Life +could yield nothing more, though its length were doubled to this old +man, than the sight of God's salvation. + +Can it yield anything more to us, brethren? And may we not say, if +we have seen that sight, what an unbelieving author said, with a +touch of self-complacency not admirable, 'I have warmed both hands +at the fire of life, and I am ready to depart.' We may go in peace, +if our eyes have seen Him who satisfies our vision, whose bright +presence will go with us into the darkness, and whom we shall see +more perfectly when we have passed from the sentry-box to the home +above, and have ceased to be slaves in the far-off plantation, and +are taken to be sons in the Father's house. 'Thou lettest Thy +servant depart in peace.' + + + + +THE BOY IN THE TEMPLE + + + 'And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought Me! + wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?' + --LUKE ii. 49. + +A number of spurious gospels have come down to us, which are full of +stories, most of them absurd and some of them worse, about the +infancy of Jesus Christ. Their puerilities bring out more distinctly +the simplicity, the nobleness, the worthiness of this one solitary +incident of His early days, which has been preserved for us. How has +it been preserved? If you will look over the narratives there will +be very little difficulty, I think, in answering that question. +Observing the prominence that is given to the parents, and how the +story enlarges upon what they thought and felt, we shall not have +much doubt in accepting the hypothesis that it was none other than +Mary from whom Luke received such intimate details. Notice, for +instance, 'Joseph and His mother knew not of it.' 'They supposed Him +to have been in the company.' 'And when they,' i.e. Joseph and Mary, +'saw Him, they were astonished'; and then that final touch, 'He was +subject to them,' as if His mother would not have Luke or us think +that this one act of independence meant that He had shaken off +parental authority. And is it not a mother's voice that says, 'His +mother kept all these things in her heart,' and pondered all the +traits of boyhood? Now it seems to me that, in these words of the +twelve-year-old boy, there are two or three points full of interest +and of teaching for us. There is-- + +I. That consciousness of Sonship. + +I am not going to plunge into a subject on which certainly a great +deal has been very confidently affirmed, and about which the less is +dogmatised by us, who must know next to nothing about it, the +better; viz. the inter-connection of the human and the divine +elements in the person of Jesus Christ. But the context leads us +straight to this thought--that there was in Jesus distinct growth in +wisdom as well as in stature, and in favour with God and man. And +now, suppose the peasant boy brought up to Jerusalem, seeing it for +the first time, and for the first time entering the sacred courts of +the Temple. Remember, that to a Jewish boy, his reaching the age of +twelve made an epoch, because he then became 'a son of the Law,' and +took upon himself the religious responsibilities which had hitherto +devolved upon his parents. If we will take that into account, and +remember that it was a true manhood which was growing up in the boy +Jesus, then we shall not feel it to be irreverent if we venture to +say, not that here and then, there began His consciousness of His +Divine Sonship, but that that visit made an epoch and a stage in the +development of that consciousness, just because it furthered the +growth of His manhood. + +Further, our Lord in these words, in the gentlest possible way, and +yet most decisively, does what He did in all His intercourse with +Mary, so far as it is recorded for us in Scripture--relegated her +back within limits beyond which she tended to advance. For she said, +'Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing,' no doubt thus +preserving what had been the usual form of speech in the household +for all the previous years; and there is an emphasis that would fall +upon her heart, as it fell upon none other, when He answered: 'Wist +ye not that I must be about My Father's business?' We are not +warranted in affirming that the Child meant all which the Man +afterwards meant by the claim to be the Son of God; nor are we any +more warranted in denying that He did. We know too little about the +mysteries of His growth to venture on definite statements of either +kind. Our sounding-lines are not long enough to touch bottom in this +great word from the lips of a boy of twelve; but this is clear, that +as He grew into self-consciousness, there came with it the growing +consciousness of His Sonship to His Father in heaven. + +Now, dear brethren, whilst all that is unique, and parts Him off +from us, do not let us forget that that same sense of Sonship and +Fatherhood must be the very deepest thing in us, if we are Christian +people after Christ's pattern. We, too, can be sons through Him, and +only through Him. I believe with all my heart in what we hear so +much about now--'the universal Fatherhood of God.' But I believe +that there is also a special relation of Fatherhood and Sonship, +which is constituted only, according to Scripture teaching in my +apprehension, through faith in Jesus Christ, and the reception of +His life as a supernatural life into our souls. God is Father of all +men--thank God for it! And that means, that He gives life to all +men; that in a very deep and precious sense the life which He gives +to every man is not only derived from, but is kindred with, His own; +and it means that His love reaches to all men, and that His +authority extends over them. But there is an inner sanctuary, there +is a better life than the life of nature, and the Fatherhood into +which Christ introduces us means, that through faith in Him, and the +entrance into our spirits of the Spirit of adoption, we receive a +life derived from, and kindred with, the life of the Giver, and that +we are bound to Him not only by the cords of love, but to obey the +parental authority. Sonship is the deepest thought about the +Christian life. + +It was an entirely new thought when Jesus spoke to His disciples of +their Father in heaven. It was a thrilling novelty when Paul bade +servile worshippers realise that they were no longer slaves, but +sons, and as such, heirs of God. It was the rapture of pointing to a +new star flaming out, as it were, that swelled in John's +exclamation: 'Beloved, now are we the sons of God!' For even though +in the Old Testament there are a few occasional references to +Israel's King or to Israel itself as being 'God's son,' as far as I +remember, there is only one reference in all the Old Testament to +parental love towards each of us on the part of God, and that is the +great saying in the 103rd Psalm: 'Like as a father pitieth his +children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.' For the most part +the idea connected in the Old Testament with the Fatherhood of God +is authority: 'If I be a Father, where is Mine honour?' says the +last of the prophets. But when we pass into the New, on the very +threshold, here we get the germ, in these words, of the blessed +thought that, as His disciples, we, too, may claim sonship to God +through Him, and penetrate beyond the awe of Divine Majesty into the +love of our Father God. Brethren, notwithstanding all that was +unique in the Sonship of Jesus Christ, He welcomes us to a place +beside Himself, and if we are the children of God by faith in Him, +then are we 'heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.' + +Now the second thought that I would suggest from these words is-- + +II. The sweet 'must' of filial duty. + +'How is it that ye sought Me?' That means: 'Did you not know where I +should be sure to be? What need was there to go up and down +Jerusalem looking for Me? You might have known there was only one +place where you would find Me. Wist ye not that I _must_ be +about My Father's business?' Now, the last words of this question +are in the Greek literally, as the margin of the Revised Version +tells us, 'in the things of My Father'; and that idiomatic form of +speech may either be taken to mean, as the Authorised Version does, +'about My Father's business,' or, with the Revised Version, 'in My +Father's house.' The latter seems the rendering most relevant in +this connection, where the folly of seeking is emphasised--the +certainty of His place is more to the point than that of His +occupation. But the locality carried the occupation with it, for why +must He be in the Father's house but to be about the Father's +business, 'to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His +Temple'? + +Do people know where to find us? Is it unnecessary to go hunting for +us? Is there a place where it is certain that we shall be? It was so +with this child Jesus, and it should be so with all of us who +profess to be His followers. + +All through Christ's life there runs, and occasionally there comes +into utterance, that sense of a divine necessity laid upon Him; and +here is its beginning, the very first time that the word occurs on +His lips, 'I must.' There is as divine and as real a necessity +shaping our lives because it lies upon and moulds our wills, if we +have the child's heart, and stand in the child's position. In Jesus +Christ the 'must' was not an external one, but He 'must be about His +Father's business,' because His whole inclination and will were +submitted to the Father's authority. And that is what will make any +life sweet, calm, noble. 'The love of Christ constraineth us.' There +is a necessity which presses upon men like iron fetters; there is a +necessity which wells up within a man as a fountain of life, and +does not so much drive as sweetly incline the will, so that it is +impossible for him to be other than a loving, obedient child. + +Dear friend, have we felt the joyful grip of that necessity? Is it +impossible for me not to be doing God's will? Do I feel myself laid +hold of by a strong, loving hand that propels me, not unwillingly, +along the path? Does inclination coincide with obligation? If it +does, then no words can tell the freedom, the enlargement, the +calmness, the deep blessedness of such a life. But when these pull +in two different ways, as, alas! they often do, and I have to say, +'I must be about my Father's business, and I had rather be about my +own if I durst,' which is the condition of a great many so-called +Christian people--then the necessity is miserable; and slavery, not +freedom, is the characteristic of such Christianity. And there is a +great deal of such to-day. + +And now one last word. On this sweet 'must,' and blessed compulsion +to be about the Father's business, there follows: + +III. The meek acceptance of the lowliest duties. + +'He went down to Nazareth, and was subject to them.' That is all +that is told us about eighteen years, by far the largest part of the +earthly life of Christ. Legend comes in, and for once not +inappropriately, and tells us, what is probably quite true, that +during these years, Jesus worked in the carpenter's shop, and as one +story says, 'made yokes,' or as another tells, made light implements +of husbandry for the peasants round Nazareth. Be that as it may, 'He +was subject unto them,' and that was doing the Father's will, and +being 'about the Father's business,' quite as much as when He was +amongst the doctors, and learning by asking questions as well as by +hearkening to their instructions. Everything depends on the motive. +The commonest duty may be 'the Father's business,' when we are doing +manfully the work of daily life. Only we do not turn common duty +into the Father's business, unless we remember Him in the doing of +it. But if we carry the hallowing and quickening influence of that +great 'must' into all the pettinesses, and paltrinesses, and +wearinesses, and sorrows of our daily trivial lives, then we shall +find, as Jesus Christ found, that the carpenter's shop is as sacred +as the courts of the Temple, and that to obey Mary was to do the +will of the Father in heaven. + +What a blessed transformation that would make of all lives! The +psalmist long ago said: 'One thing have I desired of the Lord, and +that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord +all the days of my life.' We may dwell in the house of the Lord all +the days of our lives. We may be in one or other of the many +mansions of the Father's house where-ever we go, and may be doing +the will of the Father in heaven in all that we do. Then we shall be +at rest; then we shall be strong; then we shall be pure; then we +shall have deep in our hearts the joyous consciousness, undisturbed +by rebellious wills, that now 'we are the sons of God,' and the +still more joyous hope, undimmed by doubts or mists, that 'it doth +not yet appear what we shall be'; but that wherever we go, it will +be but passing from one room of the great home into another more +glorious still. 'I must be about my Father's business'; let us make +that the motto for earth, and He will say to us in His own good time +'Come home from the field, and sit down beside Me in My house,' and +so we 'shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.' + + + + +JOHN THE PREACHER OF REPENTANCE + + + 'Now, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius + Cesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and + Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip + tetrarch of Iturea and of the region of Trachonitis, + and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, 2. Annas and + Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came + unto John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. + 3. And he came into all the country about Jordan, + preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission + of sins; 4. As it is written in the book of the words + of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying + in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make + His paths straight. 6. Every valley shall be filled, + and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and + the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways + shall be made smooth; 6. And all flesh shall see the + salvation of God. 7. Then said he to the multitude that + came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of + vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to + come! 8. Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of + repentance; and begin not to say within yourselves, We + have Abraham to our Father: for I say unto you, That + God is able of these stones to raise up children unto + Abraham. 9. And now also the axe is laid unto the root + of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not + forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. + 10. And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do + then? 11. He answereth and saith unto them, He that + hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; + and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. 12. Then + came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, + Master, what shall we do? 13. And he said unto them, + Exact no more than that which is appointed you. 14. And + the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what + shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no + man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with + your wages.'--LUKE iii. 144. + +Why does Luke enumerate so carefully the civil and ecclesiastical +authorities in verses 1 and 2? Not only to fix the date, but, in +accordance with the world-wide aspect of his Gospel, to set his +narrative in relation with secular history; and, further, to focus +into one vivid beam of light the various facts which witnessed to +the sunken civil and darkened moral and religious condition of the +Jews. What more needed to be said to prove how the ancient glory had +faded, than that they were under the rule of such a delegate as +Pilate, of such an emperor as Tiberius, and that the bad brood of +Herod's descendants divided the sacred land between them, and that +the very high-priesthood was illegally administered, so that such a +pair as Annas and Caiaphas held it in some irregular fashion between +them? It was clearly high time for John to come, and for the word of +God to come to him. + +The wilderness had nourished the stern, solitary spirit of the +Baptist, and there the consciousness of his mission and his message +'came to him'--a phrase which at once declares his affinity with the +old prophets. Out of the desert he burst on the nation, sudden as +lightning, and cleaving like it. Luke says nothing as to his garb or +food, but goes straight to the heart of his message, 'The baptism of +repentance unto remission of sins,' in which expression the +'remission' depends neither on 'baptism' alone, nor on 'repentance' +alone. The outward act was vain if unaccompanied by the state of +mind and will; the state of mind was proved genuine by submitting to +the act. + +In verses 7 to 14 John's teaching as the preacher of repentance is +summarised. Why did he meet the crowds that streamed out to him with +such vehement rebuke? One would have expected him to welcome them, +instead of calling them 'offspring of vipers,' and seeming to be +unwilling that they should flee from the wrath to come. But Luke +tells why. They wished to be baptized, but there is no word of their +repentance. Rather, they were trusting to their descent as exempting +them from the approaching storm, so that their baptism would not +have been the baptism which John required, being devoid of +repentance. Just because they thought themselves safe as being +'children of Abraham,' they deserved John's rough name, 'ye +offspring of vipers.' + +Rabbinical theology has much to say about 'the merits of the +fathers.' John, like every prophet who had ever spoken to the nation +of judgments impending, felt that the sharp edge of his words was +turned by the obstinate belief that judgments were for the Gentile, +and never would touch the Jew. Do we not see the same unbelief that +God can ever visit England with national destruction in full force +among ourselves? Not the virtues of past generations, but the +righteousness of the present one, is the guarantee of national +exaltation. + +John's crowds were eager to be baptized as an additional security, +but were slow to repent. If heaven could be secured by submitting to +a rite, 'multitudes' would come for it, but the crowd thins quickly +when the administrator of the rite becomes the vehement preacher of +repentance. That is so to-day as truly as it was so by the fords of +Jordan. John demanded not only repentance, but its 'fruits,' for +there is no virtue in a repentance which does not change the life, +were such possible. + +Repentance is more than sorrow for sin. Many a man has that, and yet +rushes again into the old mire. To change the mind and will is not +enough, unless the change is certified to be real by deeds +corresponding. So John preached the true nature of repentance when +he called for its fruits. And he preached the greatest motive for it +which he knew, when he pressed home on sluggish consciences the +close approach of a judgment for which everything was ready, the axe +ground to a fine edge, and lying at the root of the trees. If it lay +there, there was no time to lose; if it still lay, there was time to +repent before it was swinging round the woodman's head. We have a +higher motive for repentance in 'the goodness of God' leading to it. +But there is danger that modern Christianity should think too little +of 'the terror of the Lord,' and so should throw away one of the +strongest means of persuading men. John's advice to the various +classes of hearers illustrates the truth that the commonest field of +duty and the homeliest acts may become sacred. Not high-flying, +singular modes of life, abandoning the vulgar tasks, but the +plainest prose of jog-trot duty will follow and attest real +repentance. Every calling has its temptations--that is to say, every +one has its opportunities of serving God by resisting the Devil. + + + + +JOHN'S WITNESS TO JESUS, AND GOD'S + + + 'And as the people were in expectation, and all men + mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the + Christ, or not; 16. John answered, saying unto them + all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier + than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not + worthy to unloose: He shall baptize you with the Holy + Ghost, and with fire: 17. Whose fan is in His hand, + and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and will gather + the wheat into His garner; but the chaff He will burn + with fire unquenchable. 18. And many other things, in + his exhortation, preached he unto the people. 19. But + Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias + his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which + Herod had done, 20. Added yet this above all, that he + shut up John in prison. 21. Now, when all the people + were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being + baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, 22. And + the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, like a + dove, upon Him; and a voice came from heaven, which + said, Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well + pleased.'--LUKE iii. 15-22. + +This passage falls into three parts: John's witness to the coming +Messiah (vs. 15-17); John's undaunted rebuke of sin in high places, +and its penalty (vs. 18-20); and God's witness to Jesus (vs. 21, +22). + +I. Luke sharply parts off the Baptist's work as a preacher of +repentance and plain morality from his work as the herald who +preceded the king. The former is delineated in verses 7-14, and its +effect was to set light to the always smouldering expectation of the +Messiah. The people were ready to rally round him if he would say +that he was the coming deliverer. It was a real temptation, but his +unmoved humility, which lay side by side with his boldness, brushed +it aside, and poured an effectual stream of cold water on the +excitement. 'John answered' the popular questionings, of which he +was fully aware, and his answer crushed them. + +In less acute fashion, the same temptation comes to all who move the +general conscience. Disciples always seek to hoist their teacher +higher than is fitting. Adherence to him takes the place of +obedience to his message, and, if he is a true man, he has to damp +down misdirected enthusiasm. + +Mark John's clear apprehension of the limitations of his work. He +baptized with water, the symbol and means of outward cleansing. He +does not depreciate his position or the importance of his baptism, +but his whole soul bows in reverence before the coming Messiah, +whose great office was to transcend his, as the wide Mediterranean +surpassed the little lake of Galilee. His outline of that work is +grand, though incomplete. It is largely based upon Malachi's closing +prophecy, and the connection witnesses to John's consciousness that +he was the Elijah foretold there. He saw that the Messiah would +surpass him in his special endowment. Strong as he was, that other +was to be stronger. Probably he did not dream that that other was to +wield the divine might, nor that His perfect strength was to be +manifested in weakness, and to work its wonders by the might of +gentle, self-sacrificing love. But, though he dimly saw, he +perfectly adored. He felt himself unworthy (literally, insufficient) +to be the slave who untied (or, according to Matthew, 'bore') his +lord's sandals. How beautiful is the lowliness of that strong +nature! He stood erect in the face of priests and tetrarchs, and +furious women, and the headsman with his sword, but he lay prostrate +before his King. + +Strength and royal authority were not all that he had to proclaim of +Messiah. 'He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire.' We +observe that the construction here is different from that in verse +16 ('with water'), inasmuch as the preposition 'in' is inserted, +which, though it is often used 'instrumentaly,' is here, therefore, +more probably to be taken as meaning simply 'in.' The two nouns are +coupled under one preposition, which suggests that they are fused +together in the speaker's mind as reality and symbol. + +Fire is a frequently recurrent emblem of the Holy Spirit, both in +the Old and New Testament. It is not the destructive, but the +vitalising, glowing, transforming, energy of fire, which is +expressed. The fervour of holy enthusiasm, the warmth of ardent +love, the melting of hard hearts, the change of cold, damp material +into its own ruddy likeness, are all set forth in this great symbol. +John's water baptism was poor beside Messiah's immersion into that +cleansing fire. Fire turns what it touches into kindred flame. The +refiner's fire melts metal, and the scum carries away impurities. +Water washes the surface, fire pierces to the centre. + +But while that cleansing by the Spirit's fire was to be Messiah's +primary office, man's freedom to accept or reject such blessing +necessarily made His work selective, even while its destination was +universal. So John saw that His coming would part men into two +classes, according as they submitted to His baptism of fire or not. +The homely image of the threshing-floor, on some exposed, windy +height, carries a solemn truth. The Lord of the harvest has an +instrument in His hand, which sets up a current of air, and the +wheat falls in one heap, while the husks are blown farther, and lie +at the edge of the floor. Mark the majestic emphasis on the Christ's +ownership in the two phrases, '_His_ floor' and '_His_ garner.' + +Notice, too, the fact which determines whether a man is chaff or +wheat--namely, his yielding to or rejecting the fiery baptism which +Christ offers. Ponder that awful emblem of an empty, rootless, +fruitless, worthless life, which John caught up from Psalm I. +Thankfully think of the care and safe keeping and calm repose +shadowed in that picture of the wheat stored in the garner after the +separating act. And let us lay on awed hearts the terrible doom of +the chaff. There are two fires, to one or other of which we must be +delivered. Either we shall gladly accept the purging fire of the +Spirit which burns sin out of us, or we shall have to meet the +punitive fire which burns up us and our sins together. To be +cleansed by the one or to be consumed by the other is the choice +before each of us. + +II. Verses 18-20 show John as the preacher and martyr of +righteousness. Luke tells his fate out of its proper place, in order +to finish with him, and, as it were, clear the stage for Jesus. +Similarly the Baptist's desert life is told by anticipation in +chapter i. 80. That treatment of his story marks his subordination. +His martyrdom is not narrated by Luke, though he knew of it (Luke +ix. 7-9), and this brief summary is all that is said of his heroic +vehemence of rebuke to sin in high places, and of his suffering for +righteousness' sake. John's message had two sides to it, as every +gospel of God's has. To the people he spoke good tidings and +exhortations; to lordly sinners he pealed out stern rebukes. + +It needs some courage to tell a prince to his face that he is foul +with corruption, and, still more, to put a finger on his actual +sins. But he is no prophet who does not lift up his voice like a +trumpet, and speak to hardened consciences. King Demos is quite as +impatient of close dealing with his immorality as Herod was. London +and New York get as angry with the Christian men who fight against +their lust and drunkenness as ever he did, and would not be sorry if +they could silence these persistent 'fanatics' as conveniently as he +could. The need for courage like John's, and plain speech like his, +is not past yet. The 'good tidings' has rebuke as part of its +substance. The sword is two-edged. + +III. The narrative now turns to Jesus, and does not even name John +as having baptized Him. The peculiarities of Luke's account of the +baptism are instructive. He omits the conversation between Jesus and +John, and the fact of John's seeing the dove and hearing the voice. +Like Mark, he makes the divine voice speak directly to Jesus, +whereas Matthew represents it as spoken _concerning_ Him. The +baptism itself is disposed of in an incidental clause (_having +been baptized_). The general result of these characteristics is +that this account lays emphasis on the bearing of the divine witness +as borne to Jesus Himself. It does not deny, but simply ignores, its +aspect as a witness borne to John. + +Another striking point is Luke's mention of Christ's prayer, which +is thus represented as answered by the opened heavens, the +descending dove, and the attesting voice. We owe most of our +knowledge of Christ's prayers to this Evangelist, whose mission was +to tell of the Son of man. Mysteries beyond our plummets are +contained in this story; but however unique it is, it has this which +may be reproduced, that prayer unveiled heaven, and brought down the +dove to abide on the bowed head, and the divine attestation of +sonship to fill the waiting heart. + +We need not dwell on the beautiful significance of the emblem of the +dove. It symbolised both the nature of that gracious, gentle Spirit, +and the perpetuity and completeness of its abode on Jesus. Others +receive portions of that celestial fullness, but itself, as if +embodied in visible form, settled down on Him, and, with meekly +folded wings, tarried there unscared. 'God giveth not the Spirit by +measure unto Him.' + +Our Evangelist does not venture into the deep waters, nor attempt to +tell what was the relation between the Incarnate Word, as it dwelt +in Jesus before that descent, and the Spirit which came upon Him. We +shall be wise if we refrain from speculating on such points, and +content ourselves with knowing that there has been one manhood +capable of receiving and retaining uninterruptedly the whole Spirit +of God; and that He will fill us with the Spirit which dwelt in Him, +in measure and manner corresponding to our need and our faith. + +The heavenly voice spoke to the heart of the man Jesus. What was His +need of it, and what were its effects on Him, we do not presume to +affirm. But probably it originated an increased certitude of the +consciousness which dawned, in His answer to Mary, of His unique +divine sonship. To us it declares that He stands in an altogether +unexampled relation of kindred to the Father, and that His whole +nature and acts are the objects of God's complacency. But He has +nothing for Himself alone, and in Him we may become God's beloved +sons, well pleasing to the Father. + + + + +THE TEMPTATION + + + 4 And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned + from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the + wilderness, 2. Being forty days tempted of the devil. + And in those days He did eat nothing: and when they + were ended, He afterward hungered. 3. And the devil + said unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, command this + stone that it be made bread, 4. And Jesus answered him, + saying, It is written, That man shall not live by + bread alone, but by every word of God. 5. And the + devil, taking Him up into an high mountain, showed + unto Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of + time. 6. And the devil said unto Him, All this power + will I give Thee, and the glory of them: for that is + delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. + 7. If Thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be + Thine. 8. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get + thee behind Me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt + worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou + serve. 9. And he brought Him to Jerusalem and set Him + on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto Him, If + Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down from hence: + 10. For it is written, He shall give His angels charge + over Thee, to keep Thee; 11. And in their hands they + shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy + foot against a stone. 12. And Jesus answering, said + unto Him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord + Thy God. 13. And when the devil had ended all the + temptation, he departed from Him for a season.' + --LUKE iv. 1-13. + +If we adopt the Revised Version's reading and rendering, the whole +of the forty days in the desert were one long assault of Jesus by +Satan, during which the consciousness of bodily needs was suspended +by the intensity of spiritual conflict. Exhaustion followed this +terrible tension, and the enemy chose that moment of physical +weakness to bring up his strongest battalions. What a contrast these +days made with the hour of the baptism! And yet both the opened +heavens and the grim fight were needful parts of Christ's +preparation. As true man, He could be truly tempted; as perfect man, +suggestions of evil could not arise within, but must be presented +from without. He must know our temptations if He is to help us in +them, and He must 'first bind the strong man' if He is afterwards +'to spoil his house.' It is useless to discuss whether the tempter +appeared in visible form, or carried Jesus from place to place. The +presence and voice were real, though probably if any eye had looked +on, nothing would have been seen but the solitary Jesus, sitting +still in the wilderness. + +I. The first temptation is that of the Son of man tempted to +distrust God. Long experience had taught the tempter that his most +taking baits were those which appealed to the appetites and needs of +the body, and so he tries these first. The run of men are drawn to +sin by some form or other of these, and the hunger of Jesus laid Him +open to their power--if not on the side of delights of sense, yet on +the side of wants. The tempter quotes the divine voice at the +baptism with almost a sneer, as if the hungry, fainting Man before +him were a strange 'Son of God.' The suggestion sounds innocent +enough; for there would have been no necessary harm in working a +miracle to feed Himself. But its evil is betrayed by the words, 'If +Thou art the Son of God,' and the answer of our Lord, which begins +emphatically with 'man,' puts us on the right track to understand +why He repelled the insidious proposal even while He was faint with +hunger. To yield to it would have been to shake off for His own sake +the human conditions which He had taken for our sakes, and to seek +to cease to be Son of man in acting as Son of God. He takes no +notice of the title given by Satan, but falls back on His +brotherhood with man, and accepts the laws under which they live as +His conditions. + +The quotation from Deuteronomy, which Luke gives in a less complete +form than Matthew, implies, even in that incomplete form, that bread +is not the only means of keeping a man in life, but that God can +feed Him, as He did Israel in its desert life, with manna; or, if +manna fails, by the bare exercise of His divine will. Therefore +Jesus will not use His power as Son of God, because to do so would +at once take Him out of His fellowship with man, and would betray +His distrust of God's power to feed Him there in the desert. How +soon His confidence was vindicated Matthew tells us. As soon as the +devil departed from Him, 'angels came and ministered unto Him.' The +soft rush of their wings brought solace to His spirit, wearied with +struggle, and once again 'man did eat angels' food.' + +This first temptation teaches us much. It makes the manhood of our +Lord pathetically true, as showing Him bearing the prosaic but +terrible pinch of hunger, carried almost to its fatal point. It +teaches us how innocent and necessary wants may be the devil's +levers to overturn our souls. It warns us against severing ourselves +from our fellows by the use of distinctive powers for our own +behoof. It sets forth humble reliance on God's sustaining will as +best for us, even if we are in the desert, where, according to +sense, we must starve; and it magnifies the Brother's love, who for +our sakes waived the prerogatives of the Son of God, that He might +be the brother of the poor and needy. + +II. The second temptation is that of the Messiah, tempted to grasp +His dominion by false means. The devil finds that he must try a +subtler way. Foiled on the side of the physical nature, he begins to +apprehend that he has to deal with One loftier than the mass of men; +and so he brings out the glittering bait, which catches the more +finely organised natures. Where sense fails, ambition may succeed. +There is nothing said now about 'Son of God.' The relation of Jesus +to God is not now the point of attack, but His hoped--for relation +to the world. Did Satan actually transport the body of Jesus to some +eminence? Probably not. It would not have made the vision of all the +kingdoms any more natural if he had. The remarkable language 'showed +... all ... in a moment of time' describes a physical impossibility, +and most likely is meant to indicate some sort of diabolic +phantasmagoria, flashed before Christ's consciousness, while His +eyes were fixed on the silent, sandy waste. + +There is much in Scripture that seems to bear out the boast that the +kingdoms are at Satan's disposal. But he is 'the father of lies' as +well as the 'prince of this world,' and we may be very sure that his +authority loses nothing in his telling. If we think how many thrones +have been built on violence and sustained by crime, how seldom in +the world's history the right has been uppermost, and how little of +the fear of God goes to the organisation of society, even to-day, in +so-called Christian countries, we shall be ready to feel that in +this boast the devil told more truth than we like to believe. Note +that he acknowledges that the power has been 'given,' and on the +fact of the delegation of it rests the temptation to worship. He +knew that Jesus looked forward to becoming the world's King, and he +offers easy terms of winning the dignity. Very cunning he thought +himself, but he had made one mistake. He did not know what kind of +kingdom Jesus wished to establish. If it had been one of the bad old +pattern, like Nebuchadnezzar's or Caesar's, his offer would have +been tempting, but it had no bearing on One who meant to reign by +love, and to win love by loving to the death. + +Worshipping the devil could only help to set up a devil's kingdom. +Jesus wanted nothing of the 'glory' which had been 'given' him. His +answer, again taken from Deuteronomy, is His declaration that His +kingdom is a kingdom of obedience, and that He will only reign as +God's representative. It defines His own position and the genius of +His dominion. It would come to the tempter's ears as the broken law, +which makes his misery and turns all his 'glory' into ashes. This is +our Lord's decisive choice, at the outset of His public work, of the +path of suffering and death. He renounces all aid from such arts and +methods as have built up the kingdoms of earth, and presents Himself +as the antagonist of Satan and his dominion. Henceforth it is war to +the knife. + +For us the lessons are plain. We have to learn what sort of kingdom +Jesus sets up. We have to beware, in our own little lives, of ever +seeking to accomplish good things by questionable means, of trying +to carry on Christ's work with the devil's weapons. When churches +lower the standard of Christian morality, because keeping it up +would alienate wealthy or powerful men, when they wink hard at sin +which pays, when they enlist envy, jealousy, emulation of the baser +sort in the service of religious movements, are they not worshipping +Satan? And will not their gains be such as he can give, and not such +as Christ's kingdom grows by? Let us learn, too, to adore and be +thankful for the calm and fixed decisiveness with which Jesus chose +from the beginning, and trod until the end, with bleeding but +unreluctant feet, the path of suffering on His road to His throne. + +III. The third temptation tempts the worshipping Son to tempt God. +Luke arranges the temptations partly from a consideration of +locality, the desert and the mountain being near each other, and +partly in order to bring out a certain sequence in them. First comes +the appeal to the physical nature, then that to the finer desires of +the mind; and these having been repelled, and the resolve to worship +God having been spoken by Jesus, Luke's third temptation is +addressed to the devout soul, as it looks to the cunning but shallow +eyes of the tempter. Matthew, on the other hand, in accordance with +his point of view, puts the specially Messianic temptation last. The +actual order is as undiscoverable as unimportant. In Luke's order +there is substantially but one change of place--from the solitude of +the wilderness to the Temple. As we have said, the change was +probably not one of the Lord's body, but only of the scenes flashed +before His mind's eye. 'The pinnacle of the Temple' may have been +the summit that looked down into the deep valley where the enormous +stones of the lofty wall still stand, and which must have been at a +dizzy height above the narrow glen on the one side and the Temple +courts on the other. There is immense, suppressed rage and malignity +in the recurrence of the sneer, 'If Thou art the Son of God' and in +the use of Christ's own weapon of defence, the quotation of +Scripture. + +What was wrong in the act suggested? There is no reference to the +effect on the beholders, as has often been supposed; and if we are +correct in supposing that the whole temptation was transacted in the +desert, there could be none. But plainly the point of it was the +suggestion that Jesus should, of His own accord and needlessly, put +Himself in danger, expecting God to deliver Him. It looked like +devout confidence; it was really 'tempting God'. It looked like the +very perfection of the trust with which, in the first round of this +duel, Christ had conquered; it was really distrust, as putting God +to proof whether He would keep His promises or no. It looked like +the very perfection of that worship with which He had overcome in +the second round of the fight; it wag really self-will in the mask +of devoutness. It tempted God, because it sought to draw Him to +fulfil to a man on self-chosen paths His promises to those who walk +in ways which He has appointed. + +We trust God when we look to Him to deliver us in perils met in meek +acceptance of His will. We tempt Him when we expect Him to save us +from those encountered on roads that we have picked oat for +ourselves. Such presumption disguised as filial trust is the +temptation besetting the higher regions of experience, to which the +fumes of animal passions and the less gross but more dangerous airs +from the desires of the mind do not ascend. Religious men who have +conquered these have still this foe to meet. Spiritual pride, the +belief that we may venture into dangers either to our natural or to +our religious life, where no call of duty takes us, the thrusting +ourselves, unbidden, into circumstances where nothing but a miracle +can save us-these are the snares which Satan lays for souls that +have broken his coarser nets. The three answers with which Jesus +overcame are the mottoes by which we shall conquer. Trust God, by +whose will we live. Worship God, in whose service we get all of this +world that is good for us. Tempt not God, whose angels keep us in +our ways, when they are His ways, and who reckons trust that is not +submission to His ways to be tempting God, and not trusting Him. + +'All the temptation' was ended. So these three made +a complete whole, and the quiver of the enemy was for +the time empty. He departed 'for a season,' or rather, +until an opportunity. He was foiled when he tried +to tempt by addressing desires. His next assault will +be at Gethsemane and Calvary, when dread and the +shrinking from pain and death will be assailed as +vainly. + + + + +PREACHING AT NAZARETH + + + 'And He began to say unto them, This day is this + scripture fulfilled In your ears.'--LUKE iv. 21. + +This first appearance of our Lord, in His public work at Nazareth, +the home of His childhood, was preceded, as we learn from John's +Gospel, by a somewhat extended ministry in Jerusalem. In the course +of it, He cast the money-changers out of the Temple, did many +miracles, had His conversation with Nicodemus, and on His return +towards Galilee met the woman of Samaria at the well. The report of +these things, no doubt, had preceded Him, and kindled the Nazarenes' +curiosity to see their old companion who had suddenly shot up into a +person of importance, and had even made a sensation in the +metropolis. A great man's neighbours are keen critics of, and slow +believers in, his greatness. So it was natural and very prudent that +Jesus should not begin His ministry in Nazareth. + +We can easily imagine the scene that morning in the little village, +nestling among the hills. How many memories would occupy Christ as +He entered the synagogue, where He had so often sat a silent +worshipper! How Mary's eyes would fill with tears if she was there, +and how the companions of His boyhood, who used to play with Him, +would watch Him; all curious, some sympathetic, some jealous, some +contemptuous! + +The synagogue service began with prayer and praise. Then followed +two readings, one from the Law, one from the Prophets. When the +latter point was reached, in accordance with usage, Jesus rose, +thereby signifying His desire to be reader of the Prophetic portion. +We can understand how there would be a movement of quickened +attention as the roll was handed to Him and He turned its sheets. He +'found the place'; that looks as if He sought for it; that is to +say, that it was not the appointed lesson for the day--if there was +such--but that it was a passage selected by Himself. + +I need not enter upon the divergences between Luke's quotation as +given in our English version and the Hebrew. They are partly due to +the fact that he is quoting from memory the Greek version of the +LXX. He inserts, for instance, one clause which is not found in that +place in Isaiah, but in another part of the same prophet. Having +read standing, as was the usage, in token of reverence for the +Scripture, Jesus resumed His seat, not as having finished, but, as +was the usage, taking the attitude of the teacher, which signified +authority. And then, His very first sentence was the most unlimited +assertion that the great words which He had been reading had reached +their full accomplishment in Himself. They are very familiar to our +ears. If we would understand their startling audacity we must listen +to them with the ears of the Nazarenes, who had known Him ever since +He was a child. 'This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.' +Now, it seems to me that this first sermon of our Lord's to His old +fellow-townsmen brings into striking prominence some characteristics +of His whole teaching, to which I desire briefly to direct +attention. + +I. I note Christ's self-assertion. + +To begin in Nazareth with such words as these in my text was +startling enough, but it is in full accord with the whole tone of +our Lord's teaching. If you will carefully search for the most +essential characteristics and outstanding differentia of the words +of Jesus Christ, even if you make all allowance that some make +for the non-historical character of the Gospels, you have this left +as the residuum, that the impression which He made upon the men that +were nearest to Him, and that caught up most fully the spirit of His +teaching, was that the great thing that differentiated it from all +other was His unhesitating persistence in pushing into the very +forefront, His testimony about Himself. I do not think that there is +anything parallel to that anywhere else amongst the men whom the +world recognises as being great religious geniuses or great moral +teachers. What characterises as perfectly unique our Lord's teaching +is not only the blessed things that He said about God or the deep +truths that He said about men and their duty, or the sad things that +He said about men and their destiny, or the radiant hopes that He +unveiled as to men and their possibility, but what He said about +Himself. His message was not so much 'Believe in God and do right,' +as it was 'Believe in Me and follow Me.' + +I need only point you to the Sermon on the Mount, which is popularly +supposed to contain very little of Christ's reference to Himself, and to +remind you how there, in that authoritative proclamation of the laws of +the new kingdom, He calmly puts His own utterances as co-ordinate +with--nay! as superior to--the utterances of the ancient law, and sweeps +aside Moses--though recognising Moses' divine mission--with an 'I say +unto you.' I need only remind you, further, how, at the end of that +'compendium of reasonable morality,' He lays down this principle--that +these sayings of 'Mine' are a rock-foundation, on which whoever builds +shall never be put to confusion. This is but a specimen of the golden +thread, if I may call it so, of self-assertion which runs through the +whole of our Lord's teaching. + +Now, I venture to say that this undeniable characteristic is only +warranted on the supposition that He is the Son of God, and His work +the salvation of the world. If He is so, if 'He that hath seen Me +hath seen the Father,' if the revelation of Himself which He makes +is the Revelation of God, if His death is for the life of the world; +and if, when we honour Him, we honour God; when we trust Him, we +trust God; when we obey Him we obey God; then I can understand His +persistent self-assertion. But otherwise does He not deliberately +intercept emotions which are only rightly directed to God? Does He +not claim prerogatives, such as forgiveness of sins, bestowal of +life, answering of prayer, which are only possessed by the Divine +Being? + +I know that many who will not go with me in my intellectual +formularising of the truth about Christ's nature do bow to Him with +unfeigned reverence. But it seems to me, I humbly confess, that +there is no logical basis for such reverence except the full-toned +recognition that the mystery of His self-assertion is explained by +the mystery of His nature, God manifest in the flesh. I, for my +part, do not see how the moral perfectness of Jesus Christ is to be +saved, in view of that unmistakable strand in His teaching, unless +by such admission. Rather, I feel that the recognition of it brings +us face to face with the tremendous alternative, and that the people +who were moved to indignation by His self-assertion because they +recognised not His divine origin, and said 'This man blasphemeth'; +'This deceiver said,' have more to say in defence of their +conclusion than those who bow before Him with reverence, and declare +Him to be the pattern of all human perfectness, and yet falter when +they are asked to join in the great confession, 'Thou are the +Christ, the Son of the living God.' + +II. Secondly, note here our Lord's sad conception of humanity. + +There are, as it were, two strands running through the prophetic +passage which He quotes, one in reference to Himself, one in +reference to those whom He came to help. To the latter I now turn, +to get our Lord's point of view when He looked upon the facts of +human life. + +No man will ever do much for the world whose ears have not been +opened to hear its sad music. An inadequate conception of its +miseries is sure to lead to inadequate prescriptions for their +remedy. We must bear upon our own hearts the burdens that we seek to +lift off our brothers' shoulders. There is nothing about the +Master's words concerning mankind more pathetic and more plain than +the sad, stern, and yet pitying view which He always took concerning +them and their condition. + +In the passage on which Jesus based His claims, as given by Luke, +one of the clauses is probably not in this place genuine, for 'the +healing of the brokenhearted' should be struck out of the true text. +There are then four symbols employed: the poor, the captives, the +blind, the bruised. And these four are representations of the result +of one fell cause, and that is--sin. + +Sin impoverishes. Our true wealth is God. No man that possesses Him, +by love, and trust, and conformity of will and effort to His +discerned will, is poor, whatever else he has, whatever else he +lacks. And no man who has lost this one durable treasure, the loving +communion with, and possession of, God, in mind and heart and will +and effort, but is a pauper whatever else he possesses. Wherever a +man has sold himself to his own will, and has made himself and his +own inclinations and misread good his centre and his aim, which is +the definition of sin, there bankruptcy and poverty have come. +Thieves sometimes beset travellers from the gold mines, as they are +bringing down their dust or their nuggets to market, and empty the +pockets of the gold, and fill them up with sand. That is what sin +does for us; it takes away our true treasure, and befools us by +giving us what seems to be solid till we come to open the bag; and +then there is no power in it to buy anything for us. 'Why will ye +spend your labour for that which satisfieth not?' The one poverty is +the impoverishment that lays hold of every soul that wrenches +itself, in self-will, apart from God. Sin makes poor. + +Sin not only impoverishes, but imprisons 'the captives.' Ah! you +have only to think of your own experience to find out what that +means. Is there nothing in the set of your affections, in the +mastery that your passion has over you, in the habits of your lives, +which you know as well as God knows it, to be wrong and ruinous, and +of which you have tried to get rid? I know the answer, and every one +of us, if we will look into our own hearts, knows it: we are 'tied +and bound by the chains of our sin.' You do not need to go to +inebriate homes, where there are people that would cut their right +hands off if they could get rid of the craving, and cannot, to find +instances of this bondage. We have only to be honest with ourselves, +and to try to pull the boat against the stream instead of letting it +drift with it, to know the force with which the current runs. A tiny +thread like a spider's draws after it a bit of cotton a little +thicker, and knotted to that there is a piece of pack-thread, and +after that a two-stranded cord, and then a cable that might hold an +ironclad at anchor. That is a parable of how we draw to ourselves, +by imperceptible degrees, an ever-thickening set of manacles that +bind our wills and make us the servants of sin. 'His slaves ye are +whom ye obey.' Sin imprisons. That is, your sin--do not let us +befool ourselves with abstractions--_your_ sin imprisons you. + +Sin blinds. Wherever there comes over a soul the mist of self-will +and self-regard, sight fails; and all the greatest things are +blurred and blotted. The man that is immersed in his own evil is +like one plunged in the ocean. The cold, salt waters are about him, +and above him; and to him the glories of the sky, and the brightness +of the sun, the tenderness of the colouring, are all blotted out. He +who goes through life as some of us do, never seeing God, never +seeing the loftiest beauty of goodness, never beholding with any +clearness of vision the radiant possibilities of the future and its +awful threatenings, may indeed see the things an inch from the point +of his nose; but he is blind and cannot see afar off, and can only +behold, and that darkly, the insignificances that are around him. +Sin blinds. + +And sin bruises. It takes all the health out of us, and makes us, +from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, masses of +'wounds and bruises and putrifying sores.' + +The enchantress having worked all this havoc, then gives us a cup of +illusion which, when we drink, we know not that there is anything +the matter with us. We are like a lunatic in a cell, who thinks +himself a prince in a palace, and though living on porridge and +milk, fancies that he is partaking of all the dainties of a +luxurious table. The deceitfulness of sin is not the least of its +tragical consequences. + +III. Lastly, we have here our Lord's conception of Himself and of +His own work. + +Your time will not allow of my dwelling upon this as I would fain +have done, but let me point out one or two of the salient features +of this initial programme of His. He claims to be the theme and the +fulfilment of prophecy. Now, whatever influences modern notions +about the genesis of the Old Testament, and the characteristics of +its prophetic utterances may have done, they have not touched, and +they never will touch, this one central characteristic of all that +old system, that embedded in it there was an onward-looking gaze, +anticipatory of a higher fulfilment and a further development of all +that it taught. To those of us to whom Christ's words are the end of +all strife I need only point out that, here, He endorses the belief +that prophetic utterances, however they may have had, and did have, +a lower and immediate meaning, were only realised in the whole sweep +and significance in Himself. So He presents Himself before His +acquaintances in the little synagogue at Nazareth, and before the +whole world to all time, as the centre-point and pivot on which the +history of the world, so to speak, revolves; all that was before +converging to Him, all that was after flowing down from Him. 'They +that went before, and they that followed after, cried, Hosanna! +blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord.' + +He claims to possess the whole fullness of the divine Spirit: 'The +Spirit of the Lord is upon Me.' That is a reminiscence, no doubt, of +the experience by the fords of the Jordan, at the Baptism. But it +also opens up a wondrous consciousness, on His part, of a complete +and uninterrupted possession of the divine life in all its fullness, +which involves an entire separation from the miseries and needs of +men. He claims to be the Messiah of the Old Covenant, with all the +fullness of meaning, and loftiness of dignity which clustered round +that word and that thought. He claims not only to proclaim, but to +bestow, the blessings of which He speaks. For He not only comes to +'preach good tidings to the poor,' but 'to heal the broken-hearted,' +and 'to set at liberty all them that are bound.' He is the Gospel +which He utters. He not merely proclaims the favour of heaven, but +He brings 'the acceptable year of the Lord.' + +This, in barest outline--which is all that your time will admit--is +the summary of what Jesus Christ, in that first sermon in the +synagogue at Nazareth, asserted Himself to be. + +He does not detail the means by which He is about to bring the +golden year, the year of Jubilee, 'the acceptable year of the Lord.' +But I venture to say that it is hard to find, in the life of Jesus +Christ, that which fulfils Christ's own programme, as thus +announced, unless you bring in His death on the Cross for the +abolition of sin, His Resurrection for the abolition of death; His +reign in glory for the bestowment on all sinful and bruised souls of +the Spirit of healing and of righteousness. + +These Nazarenes listened. Their hearts and consciences attested the +magnetic power of His personality, and the truth of His word. So do +the hearts and consciences of most of us. They wondered at the 'words +of grace'--whose matter was grace, whose manner was gracious--that +proceeded from His mouth. So do most of us. But they let the incipient +movement of their hearts be arrested by the cold, carping question, +'Is not this Joseph's son?' and all the enthusiasm chilled into +indifference; 'indignation' followed, and some of those who had +almost been drawn to Him, in an hour's time had their hands on His +robe, to cast Him from the brow of the hill on which their village +was built. Every man who comes to the point of feeling some emotions +towards Christ as his Redeemer, as his King, is at a fork of the +road. He may either take to the right, which will lead him to full +communion and acceptance; or he may go to the left, which will carry +him away out into the desert. The critical hour in the alchemist's +laboratory was when the lead in his crucible began to melt. If a +cold current got at it, it resumed its dead solidity, and no gold +could be made. + +Brother! do not let the world's cold currents get at your heart and +freeze it again, if you feel that in any measure it is beginning to +melt into penitence, and to flow with faith. The same voice that in +the synagogue of Nazareth said, 'He hath anointed Me to preach the +Gospel to the poor' speaks to us to-day from heaven, saying, 'I +counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest +be rich ... and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest +see.' + + +*** + +A SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM + + + 'And in the synagogue there was a man which had a + spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud + voice, 34. 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. 35. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy + peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had + thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt + him not. 36. And they were all amazed, and spake among + themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with + authority and power He commandeth the unclean spirits, + and they come out. 37. And the fame of Him went out + into every place of the country round about. 38. And + He arose out of the synagogue, and entered into + Simon's house: and Simon's wife's mother was taken + with a great fever; and they besought Him for her. + 39. And He stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and + it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered + unto them. 40. Now, when the sun was setting, all they + that had any sick with divers diseases brought them + unto Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them, + and healed them. 41. And devils also came out of many, + crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ, the Son of + God. And He, rebuking them, suffered them not to speak: + for they knew that He was Christ. 42. And when it was + day, He departed, and went into a desert place; and the + people sought Him, and came unto Him, and stayed Him, + that He should not depart from them. 43. And He said + unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other + cities also: for therefore am I sent. 44. And He + preached in the synagogues of Galilee.'--LUKE iv.33-44. + +There are seven references to Christ's preaching in the synagogues +in this chapter, and only two in the rest of this Gospel. Probably +our Lord somewhat changed His method, and Luke, as the Evangelist of +the gospel for Gentile as well as Jew, emphasises the change, as +foreshadowing and warranting the similar procedure in Paul's +preaching. This lesson takes us down from the synagogue at Nazareth, +among its hills, to that at Capernaum, on the lakeside, where Jesus +was already known as a worker of miracles. The two Sabbaths are in +sharp contrast. The issue of the one is a tumult of fury and hate; +that of the other, a crowd of suppliants and an eager desire to keep +Him with them. The story is in four paragraphs, each showing a new +phase of Christ's power and pity. + +I. Verses 33-37 present Christ as the Lord of that dark world of +evil. The hushed silence of the synagogue, listening to His gentle +voice, was suddenly broken by shrieks of rage and fear, coming from +a man who had been sitting quietly among the others. Possibly his +condition had not been suspected until Christ's presence roused his +dreadful tyrant. The man's voice is at the demon's service, and only +Jesus recognises who speaks through the wretched victim. We take for +granted the reality of demoniacal possession, as certified for all +who believe Jesus, by His words and acts in reference to it, as well +as forced on us, by the phenomena themselves, which are clearly +distinguishable from disease, madness, or sin. The modern aversion +to the supernatural is quite as much an unreasonable prejudice as +any old woman's belief in witchcraft and Professor Huxley, making +clumsy fun of the 'pigs at Gadara,' is holding opinions in the same +sublime indifference to evidence of facts as the most superstitious +object of his narrow-visioned scorn. + +Napoleon called 'impossible' a 'beast of a word.' So it is in +practical life,--and no less so when glibly used to discredit +well-attested facts. We neither aspire to the omniscience which +pronounces that there can be no possession by evil spirits, nor +venture to brush aside the testimony of the Gospels and the words of +Christ, in order to make out such a contention. + +Note the rage and terror of the demon. The presence of purity is a +sharp pain to impurity, and an evil spirit is stirred to its depths +when in contact with Jesus. Monstrous growths that love the dark +shrivel and die in sunshine. The same presence which is joy to some +may be a very hell to others. We may approach even here that state +of feeling which broke out in these shrieks of malignity, hatred, +and dread. It is an awful thing when the only relief is to get away +from Jesus, and when the clearest recognition of His holiness only +makes us the more eager to disclaim any connection with Him. That is +the hell of hells. In its completeness, it makes the anguish of the +demon; in its rudiments, it is the misery of some men. + +Observe too, the unclean spirit's knowledge, not only of the +birthplace and name, but of the character and divine relationship of +Jesus. That is one of the features of demoniacal possession which +distinguish it from disease or insanity, and is quite incapable of +explanation on any other ground. It gives a glimpse into a dim +region, and suggests that the counsels of Heaven, as effected on +earth, are keenly watched and understood by eyes whose gleam is +unsoftened by any touch of pity or submission. It is most natural, +if there are such spirits, that they should know Jesus while men +knew Him not, and that their hatred should keep pace with their +knowledge, even while by the knowledge the hatred was seen to be +vain. + +Observe Christ's tone of authority and sternness. He had pity for +men, who were capable of redemption, but His words and demeanour to +the spirits are always severe. He accepts the most imperfect +recognition from men, and often seems as if labouring to evoke it, +but He silences the spirits' clear recognition. The confession which +is 'unto salvation' comes from a heart that loves, not merely from a +head that perceives; and Jesus accepts nothing else. He will not +have His name soiled by such lips. + +Note, still further, Christ's absolute control of the demon. His +bare word is sovereign, and secures outward obedience, though from +an unsubdued and disobedient will. He cannot make the foul creature +love, but He can make him act. Surely Omnipotence speaks, if demons +hear and obey. Their king had been conquered, and they knew their +Master. The strong man had been bound, and this is the spoiling of +his house. The question of the wondering worshippers in the +synagogue goes to the root of the matter, when they ask what they +must think of the whole message of One whose word gives law to the +unclean spirits; for the command to them is a revelation to us, and +we learn His Godhead by the power of His simple word, which is but +the forth-putting of His will. + +We cannot but notice the lurid light thrown by the existence of such +spirits on the possibility of undying and responsible beings +reaching, by continued alienation of heart and will from God, a +stage in which they are beyond the capacity of improvement, and +outside the sweep of Christ's pity. + +II. Verses 38 and 39 show us Christ in the gentleness of His healing +power, and the immediate service of gratitude to Him. The scene in +the synagogue manifested 'authority and power,' and was prompted by +abhorrence of the demon even more than by pity for his victim; but +now the Lord's tenderness shines unmingled with sternness. Mark +gives details of this cure, which, no doubt, came from Peter--such +as his joint ownership of the house with his brother, the names of +the companions of Jesus, and the infinitely tender action of taking +the sick woman by the hand and helping her to rise. But Luke, the +physician, is more precise in his description of the case: 'holden +by a great fever.' He traces the cure to the word of rebuke, which, +no doubt, accompanied the clasp of the hand. + +Here again Christ puts forth divine power in producing effects in +the material sphere by His naked word. 'He spake and it was done.' +That truly divine prerogative was put forth at the bidding of His +own pity, and that pity which wielded Omnipotence was kindled by the +beseechings of sorrowing hearts. Is not this miracle, which shines +so lustrously by the side of that terrible scene with the demon, a +picture in one case, and that the sickness of one poor and probably +aged woman, of the great truth that heartens all our appeals to Him? +He who moves the forces of Deity still from His throne lets us move +His heart by our cry. + +Luke is especially struck with one feature in the case--the +immediate return of usual strength. The woman is lying, the one +minute, pinned down and helpless with 'great fever,' and the next is +bustling about her domestic duties. No wonder that a physician +should think so abnormal a case worthy of note. When Christ heals, +He heals thoroughly, and gives strength as well as healing. What +could a woman, with no house of her own, and probably a poor +dependant on her son-in-law, do for her healer? Not much. But she +did what she could, and that without delay. The natural impulse of +gratitude is to give its best, and the proper use of healing and new +strength is to minister to Him. Such a guest made humble household +cares worship; and all our poor powers or tasks, consecrated to His +praise and become the offerings of grateful hearts, are lifted into +greatness and dignity. He did not despise the modest fare hastily +dressed for Him; and He still delights in our gifts, though the +cattle on a thousand hills are His. 'I will sup with him,' says He, +and therein promises to become, as it were, a guest at our humble +tables. + +III. Verses 40 and 41 show us the all-sufficiency of Christ's pity +and power. The synagogue worship would be in the early morning, and +the healing of the woman immediately after, and the meal she +prepared the midday repast. The news had time to spread; and as soon +as the sinking sun relaxed the Sabbatical restrictions, a motley +crowd came flocking round the house, carrying all the sick that +could be lifted, all eager to share in His healing. The same kind of +thing may be seen yet round many a traveller's tent. It did not +argue real faith in Him, but it was genuine sense of need, and +expectation of blessing from His hand; and the measure of faith was +the measure of blessing. They got what they believed He could give. +If their faith had been larger, the answers would have been greater. + +But men are quite sure that they want to be well when they are ill, +and bodily healing will be sought with far more earnestness and +trouble than soul-healing. Crowds came to Jesus as Physician who +never cared to come to Him as Redeemer. Offer men the smaller gifts, +and they will run over one another in their scramble for them; but +offer them the highest, and they will scarcely hold out a languid +hand to take them. + +But the point made prominent by Luke is the inexhaustible fullness +of pity and power, which met and satisfied all the petitioners. The +misery spoke to Christ's heart; and so as the level rays of the +setting sun cast a lengthening shadow among the sad groups, He moved +amidst them, and with gentle touch healed them all. To-day, as then, +the fountain of His pity and healing power is full, after thousands +have drawn from it, and no crowd of suppliants bars our way to His +heart or His hands. He has 'enough for all, enough for each, enough +for ever more.' + +The reference to demoniacs adds nothing to the particulars in the +earlier verses except the evidence it gives of the frequency of +possession then. + +IV. Verses 42-44 show us Jesus seeking seclusion, but willingly +sacrificing it at men's call. He withdraws in early morning, not +because His store of power was exhausted, or His pity had tired, but +to renew His communion with the Father. He needed solitude and +silence, and we need it still more. No work worth doing will ever be +done for Him unless we are familiar with some quiet place, where we +and God alone together can hold converse, and new strength be poured +into our hearts. Our Lord is here our pattern, also, of willingly +leaving the place of communion when duty calls and men implore. We +must not stay on the Mount of Transfiguration when demoniac boys are +writhing on the plain below, and heart-broken fathers wearying for +our coming. A great, solemn 'must' ruled His life, as it should do +ours, and the fulfilment of that for which He 'was sent' ever was +His aim, rather than even the blessedness of solitary communion or +repose of the silent hour of prayer. + + + + +INSTRUCTIONS FOR FISHERMEN + + + 'Now when He had left speaking, He said unto Simon, + Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a + draught.'--LUKE v. 4. + +The day's work begins early in the East. So the sun, as it rose +above the hills on the other side of the lake, shone down upon a +busy scene, fresh with the dew and energy of the morning, on the +beach by the little village of Bethsaida. One group of fishermen was +washing their nets, their boats being hauled up on the strand. A +crowd of listeners was thus early gathered round the Teacher; but +the fishermen, who were His disciples, seem to have gone on with +their work, never minding Christ or the crowd. It is sometimes quite +as religious to be washing nets as to be listening to Christ's +teaching. + +The incident which follows the words of my text, and which is called +the first miraculous draught of fishes, is stamped by our Lord +Himself with a symbolic purpose; for at the end of it He says: 'Fear +not! from henceforth thou shalt catch men.' And that flings back a +flood of light on the whole story; and not only warrants but obliges +us to take it as being by Him intended for the instruction in their +Christian work of these four whom He has chosen to be His workers. +However many of our Lord's miracles may not come under this category +of symbolism (and I, for my part, do not believe that there are any +of them which do not), this one clearly does. We have His own +commentary to compel us to interpret its features as meaning +something beyond what appears on the surface. I take it, then, that +we have here a first vivid code of instructions which our Lord gives +to all His servants who do work for Him; and I wish to look at the +various stages of this incident from that point of view. + +If there are any of my hearers who think to themselves, 'Ah, well! +he is not going to say anything that I have anything to do with,' so +much the worse for you, if you are not a Christian; or, so much the +worse for you if, being a Christian, you are not an active servant. +Jesus Christ had four disciples who were fishermen, and out of them +He made four fishers of men. The obligation is universal. + +I. The Law of Service. + +'Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.' +Now there is nothing more remarkable in the whole narrative than the +matter-of-course fashion in which our Lord takes the disposal of +these men, and orders them about. It is not explicable unless we +fall back upon what Luke does not tell us, but John does, in his +Gospel, that this was by no means the first time that He had come +across Peter and Andrew his brother, or James and John his brother. +We do not need to trouble ourselves with the chronological question +how long before they had been drawn to Him at the fords of Jordan by +the witness of John the Baptist, and by the witness of some of them +to the others. The relationship had been then commenced which is +presupposed by our Lord's authoritative tone here. It leads in the +incident of my text to a closer discipleship, which did not admit of +Simon and John hauling or cleaning their nets any more. They had +been disciples before in a certain loose fashion, a fashion which +permitted them to go home and look after their ordinary avocations. +Hence-forward they were disciples in a much more stringent fashion. +It was because they had already said 'Rabbi! Thou art the Son of +God! Thou art the King of Israel,' that this strange imperative +command, inexplicable, except by the supplement of the last of the +four Gospels, came from Christ's lips and secured immediate +obedience. + +If we thus understand that His authority follows on our +discipleship, and that the words of my text, first of all, insist +upon and assert His right to command and absolutely dispose of the +activities, resources, and persons of all His disciples, we have +learned something that we only need to practise in order to make our +lives noble with a strange nobility, and blessed and sweet with an +unearthly sanctity and blessedness. + +Further, the words of my text not only declare for us thus the +absolute authority of Jesus Christ over all His disciples, but also +reveal His sweet promise and gracious assurance that He cares to +guide, to direct, to prescribe spheres, to determine methods, to +lead those who docilely look to Him and wait upon Him, in paths in +which their activity may most profitably be employed for Him and for +His Church. If there is anything that is declared to us plainly in +the Scriptures, with regard to the relationships between men and +Jesus Christ, it is this, that a docile heart will always be a +guided heart, partly by inward whispers, which only they disbelieve +who limit God in His relation to men, beyond what they have a right +to do; and partly by outward providences which only they disbelieve +who limit God in His power over the external world, beyond what they +have a right to do. He will guide, sometimes with His eye, to which +the loving eye flashes back response; sometimes with His whispered +word, when the noises of earth and the pulsations of self-will are +stilled; sometimes with His rod, which the less sensitive of His +sons do often need; sometimes by successes in paths that we venture +upon tentatively and timidly; and sometimes by failures in paths +into which we rush confidently and presumptuously; but always, the +waiting heart is a guided heart, and if we listen we shall hear +'This is the way, walk ye in it.' And sometimes it is God's will +that we should make mistakes, for these too help us to learn His +will. + +But, further, and more particularly, I do not think that I am unduly +reading too much meaning into this story, if I ask you to put emphasis +upon one word, 'Launch out into the _deep_.' As long as you keep +pottering along, a boat's length from the shore, you will only catch +little fishes. The big ones, and the heavy takes are away out yonder. +Go out there, if you want to get them. Which, being translated, is +this--The same spirit of daring enterprise, which is a condition of +success in secular matters, is no less potent a factor in the success +of Christian men in their enterprises for Jesus Christ. As long as we +keep Him down, within the limits of use and wont, and are horribly +afraid of anything that our great-grandfathers did not use to do, +there will be very few fish in the bottom of the boat. + +Oh, brethren! if one thinks of the world into which it has been +God's providence to put us, a world all seething with new +aspirations and unrest--if we think of the condition of the great +city in which we live, which is only a specimen of the cities of +England, and of the tragical insufficiency of Christian enterprise +and effort, as compared with the overwhelming masses of the +community, surely, surely, there is nothing more wanted to make +Christian people wake up from their old jog-trot habits, and cast +themselves with new earnestness, new daring and enterprise, into +forms of service which conscience and sober wisdom may approve. Of +course, I do not forget that any such new methods must each approve +themselves at the tribunal of the Christian consciousness. It is no +part of my business here to descend into details and particulars, +but I do want to lay on my own heart, and especially on the hearts +of the members of the church of which I have the honour to be the +pastor, and also upon all other Christian people whom my voice may +reach, the solemn responsibility which the conditions of life in our +generation lay upon Christian men and women, 'Launch out into the +deep and let down your nets.' I believe, for my part, that if all +the good, God-fearing, Christ-loving men and women in Manchester +were to hear this voice sounding in their ears, and to obey it, they +would change the face of the city. + +II. The Response. + +Peter, characteristically, speaks out, and says exactly what a +fisherman would be likely to say to a carpenter from Nazareth, that +came down to teach him his business. The landsman would not know +what the fisherman knew well enough, that it was useless to go +fishing in the morning if you had not caught anything all night. +There was very little chance of getting any better success when the +sun's rays were glinting on the surface of the water. + +'We have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing.' Experience +said, 'No! do not.' Christ said, 'Yes! do.' And so when Peter has +made a clean breast of his objection, founded on experience, he goes +on with the consent prompted by the devotion and consecration of +love, 'nevertheless.' A great word that. 'We have toiled all the +night, and have taken nothing; nevertheless at _Thy_ word we will +let down the net. So here goes.' And away they went, breakfastless +perhaps, with their nets half cleaned, and sleepy and tired with the +night's work. + +Here, then, we see obedience that springs delighted to obey, because +it is impelled by love. That is the spirit which can be trusted to +go out into the deep, which does not ask whether things are +recognised and usual or not, but which, if once it is sure of the +Lord's will, takes no counsel of anything else. How should it, +seeing that there is nothing so delightsome to a heart that truly +loves as to know and do the will of its beloved? And that, dear +brethren, is the spirit that all we Christian people need--a deeper, +more vivid, more continual, soul-subduing, muscle-straining +consciousness that Jesus Christ 'loved me and gave Himself for me.' +Then His whisper will be like thunder, and the motto of our lives +will be 'At Thy word, I will!' + +Further, here is obedience that was not in the least degree +depressed by the recognition of past failure. All night long they +had been dropping the net overboard, and drawing it in, and with +horny, wet hands seeking in its meshes, and finding nothing. Then +overboard with it again, and more pulling at the heavy sweeps, till +the dawn began to show, and all in vain. Now the weary task must be +done all over again, though in all the past hours though they were +the best, there has been only failure. + +I think that our Christian courage and consecration would be +immensely increased, if we could learn the lesson of my text; and +feel that, however often in the past I may have broken down, the +word of Christ's command, which thrills into my will, is also the +word of Christ's promise which should stay my heart, and give me the +assurance that past defeat shall be converted into future victory. + +There is an obedience which did not grudge fresh toil before the +effect of past toils had been quite got over. The nets, as I said, +were only half cleaned. It was a pity to begin and dirty them again. +The fishers had had a very hard night's toil. If they had been like +some of us they would have said, 'Oh! I have been working hard all +the night. I cannot possibly do any more this morning.' 'I am so +very busy with my business all the week, that it is perfectly absurd +to talk about my teaching in a Sunday-school.' That was not their +spirit at all. No matter how they had to rub their eyes to get the +sleep out of them, they just bundled the nets into the boat once +more, pushed her down the strand, and shoved her out into the blue +waters at Christ's bidding. And that is the sort of workmen that He +wants, and that you and I should be. + +Further, we have here an obedience that kept the Master's word +sounding in its heart whilst it was at work. 'At Thy word will I let +down the net.' + +Ah! we very often begin working with a very pure motive, and as we +go on, the motive gradually oozes away, and what was begun in the +spirit is continued in the flesh; and what was begun with a true +devotion to Jesus Christ is continued because we were doing it +yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, and +because it is the custom to do it. So we go on. The heart having all +gone out of our service, the blessing is gone out of it too. But if +we will keep our hearts near that Lord and listen to His voice +calling us, wearied or not wearied, beaten before or not beaten +before, and do as He bids us, launch out into the deep, we shall not +toil in vain. + +III. The result. + +Christ's command ever includes His promise. Work done for Him is never +resultless. True, His most faithful servants have often to say, if +they look at their few sheaves with the eye of sense, 'I have spent +my strength for nought.' True, the Apostolic experience is, at the +best, but too exactly repeated, 'Some believed, and some believed not.' +Christ's Gospel always produces its twofold effect, being 'a savour of +life unto life, or of death unto death.' If the great Sower, when He +went forth to sow, expected but a fourth part of the seed to fall into +good ground, His servants need look for no larger results. But still +it remains true that honest, earnest work for Jesus, wisely planned +and prayerfully carried out with self-oblivion and self-surrender, will +not be unblessed. If our labour is 'in the Lord,' it will not be 'in +vain.' Just as pain is a danger signal, pointing to mischief at work +on the body, so failure in achieving the results of Christian service +is, for the most part, an indication of something wrong in method or +spirit. + +But, if we are toiling in loving obedience to Christ's voice, and +seeking His direction as to sphere and manner of service, we may be +quite sure of this, that whether we get, immediately or no, the +outward and visible results which this incident promises to all who +fulfil the conditions, we shall get the results which were +symbolised in the second form of this miraculous draught of fishes. +For, if you remember, there was another incident at the end of +Christ's life, modelled upon this one, and equally significant, +though in a different fashion. On that occasion, when the disciples +had been toiling all the night, and saw, in the dim twilight of the +morning, the questionable figure standing on the shore there, they +were bidden to bring of the fish that they had caught, and when they +came to land they saw a fire of coals, and fish laid thereon, and +bread; and His voice said, 'Come, and eat!' Blessed are the workers +that work for the Master, for living they shall not be left without +His blessing, and dying, 'they rest from their labours'--by the side +of that mysterious fire, and Christ-provided food--'and their works +do follow them, in that they bring of the fish which they have +caught. + + + + +FEAR AND FAITH + + + 'When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, + saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.' + --LUKE v. 8. + + 'Now, when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he + girt his fisher's coat unto him,... and did cast + himself into the sea.'--JOHN xxi. 7. + +These two instances of the miraculous draught of fishes on the Lake +of Gennesareth are obviously intended to be taken in conjunction. +Their similarities and their differences are equally striking and +equally instructive. In the fragment of the incident which I have +selected for our consideration now, we have the same man, in the +same scene and circumstances, in the presence of the same Lord, +acting under the influences of the same motive, and doing two +exactly opposite things. + +In the first case, the miracle at once struck him with the +consciousness that he was now, in some way, he knew not how, in the +immediate presence of the supernatural. That was immediately +followed by a quick spasm and sense of sin, and that again by a +recoil of terror, and that again by the cry, 'Go out of the boat; +for I am a sinful man, O Lord.' + +In the other instance, as soon as he saw (or rather, by the help of +his friend's clearer sight, learned) that that dim and questionable +figure on the morning beach there, was the Lord, the sight brought +back his sin to his mind. But this time the consciousness of sin +sent him splashing over the side, and through the shallow water, to +struggle anyhow to get close to his Lord, not because he thought +more complacently of himself or less loftily of his Master, but +because he had learned that the best place for a sinful man was as +close to Christ as ever he could get. And so, if we put these two +incidents together, we get two or three thoughts that it is worth +our while to dwell upon. + +I. I ask you to notice, first, that instinctive and swift awaking of +conscience. + +This was not Peter's first acquaintance with Jesus Christ, nor his +first enrolment in the ranks of disciples. John's Gospel tells the +very beginning, and how, long before this incident, he had +recognised Jesus Christ to be the King of Israel. This was not his +first experience of a miracle. There had been many wrought in +Capernaum of which probably he was an observer; and he had been at +the wedding of Cana of Galilee; and in many ways and at many times, +no doubt had seen manifestations of our Lord's supernatural power. +But here, in his own boat, with his own nets, about his own sort of +work, the thing came home to him as it never had come home before. +And although he had long ago recognised Jesus Christ as the Messiah, +there is a new, tremulous accession of conviction in that 'O Lord!' +It means more than 'Master,' as he had just called Jesus. It means +more than he knew himself, no doubt, but it means at least a great, +sudden illumination as to who and what Christ was. And so the +consciousness of sin flashes upon him at once, as a consequence of +that new vision of the divine, as manifested in Jesus Christ. The +links of the process of thought are suppressed. We only see the two +ends of it. He passed through a series of thoughts with lightning +rapidity. The beginning was the recognition of Christ as in some +sense the manifestation to him of the Divine Presence, and the end +of it was the recognition of his own sinfulness. He had no new +facts; but new meaning and vitality were given to the facts that had +long been familiar to him. The first result of this was a new +conviction of his own hollowness and evil; and then, side by side +with that sense of demerit and sin, came this other trembling +apprehension of personal consequences. And so, not thinking so much +about the sin as about the punishment that he thought must +necessarily come when the holy and the impure collided, he cried, +'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!' + +Now I take it that you get there, in that one instance, packed into +small and picturesque compass, just the outlines of what it is +reasonable and right that there should always go on in a heart when +it first catches a glimpse of the purity, and holiness, and nearness +of God, and of the awful, solemn verity that we do, each of us for +himself, stand in a living, personal relation to Him. That sudden +conviction may come by a thousand causes. A sunset opening the gates +to the infinite distance may do it. A chance word may do it. A +phrase in a sermon may do it. Some personal sorrow or sickness may +do it. Any accidental push may touch the spring, and then the door +flies open, for we all of us carry, buried deep down in most of us, +and not easily got at, that hidden conviction, only needing the +letting in of air to flame up, that we have indeed to do with a +living God; that we are sinful and He is pure, and that, that being +the case, the discord between us, if we come to close quarters, must +end disastrously for us. + +You remember the grand vision of Isaiah, how, when he saw the King +sitting on His throne, 'high and lifted up, and His train filled the +Temple,' the first thought was, not of rapture at the Apocalypse, +not of adoration of the greatness, not of aspiration after the +purity, not of any desire to join in the 'Holy! Holy! Holy!' of the +burning spirits, but 'Woe is me, for I am undone; for mine eyes have +seen the King; for I am a man of unclean lips.' Ah, brethren! +whenever the commonplaces of our professed religious belief are +turned into realities for us, and these things that we have all been +familiar with from our childhood, flame before us as true and real, +then there comes something analogous to the experience of that other +Old Testament character--'I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the +ear, but now mine eyes see Thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and +repent in dust and ashes.' + +And then there comes, in like manner, and there ought to come, along +with this new vision of a God in His purity, and the new sense of my +own sinfulness, the apprehension of personal evil. For, although it +be the lowest of its functions, it is a function of conscience, not +only to say to me, 'It is wrong to do what is wrong,' but to say, +too, 'If you do wrong, you will have to bear the consequences.' I +believe that a part of the instinctive voice of conscience is the +declaration, not only of a law, but of a Lawgiver, and that part of +its message to me is not only that sin is a transgression of the +law, but that 'the wages of sin is death.' + +Now, let me ask you to ask yourselves whether it is not a strange +and solemn and sad testimony to the reality and universality of the +fact of sin that the sense of impurity and dread of its issues are +the uniform results of any vivid, thrilling consciousness of +nearness to God. And let me ask you to ask yourself one other +question, and that is, whether it is a wise thing to live upon a +surface that may be shattered at any moment; whether that is true +peace which needs but a touch to melt away; whether you are wise +with all this combustible material deep down in your conscience, in +paying no regard to it but living and frolicking, and feasting and +trafficking, and lusting and sinning on the surface, like those +light-hearted, light-headed fools that build their houses on the +slopes of volcanoes when the lava rush may come at any moment? + +II. That brings me to note, secondly, the mistaken cry of fear. + +Peter felt uneasy in the presence of that pure eye, and he also +felt, and was mistaken in feeling, that somehow or other he would be +safer if he was not so near the Master. Well, if it were true that +Jesus Christ brought God near to him, and if it were true that the +proximity of God was the revelation of his blackness and the +premonition and prophecy of evil to himself, would getting Christ +out of the boat help him much? The facts would remain the same. The +departure of the physician does not tend to cure the disease; and +thus the cry,' Go away from me because I am sinful,' was all but +ludicrous if it had not been so tragical in its misapprehension of +the facts of the case and the cure for them. + +Now the parallel to that, with you and me, is--what? How do we +commit this same error? By trying to get rid of the thoughts which +evoke these uncomfortable feelings of being impure and in peril. But +does ceasing to remember the facts make any difference in the facts? +Surely not. Just recall for a moment the many ways in which people +manage to blind themselves to these plain, and to some of us +unwelcome, truths. You may do it by availing yourselves of that +strange power that we all have, of not attending to things that we +do not like to think about. It is a strange thing that a man should +be able to do that; it is a sad thing that any man should be fool +enough to do it. But there are many among my hearers, I have no +doubt whatever, who know that if they were to let their thoughts +dwell on the facts of their own characters and relation to God they +would be uncomfortable, and who, therefore, do their best to keep +such thoughts at a safe distance. So, as soon as the sermon is over, +some of you will begin to criticise me, or to discuss politics, or +gossip, and so get rid of the impressions that the truth might +produce. Or you fling yourselves into business. One of the reasons +for the fierce energy which some men throw into their common +avocations is their knowledge that if they have leisure, there may +come into their chambers, and sit down beside them there, these +unwelcome thoughts, that kill mirth. Some of you try to get rid of +the Christ out of your boat by another way. You plunge into +sensualism, and live in the low, vulgar atmosphere of fleshly +delight and sensuous excitements in order to drown thought. And some +of you do it by the even simpler process of merely giving no heed to +such thoughts when kindled. The fire, unfed and unstirred, goes out. +That is one way in which people come to have consciences, to use the +dreadful words of the New Testament, 'seared as with a hot iron.' If +you will only never listen to it, it will stop speaking after a +while, and then you will have an exemption from all these thoughts. +When Felix first heard about temperance and righteousness and +judgment to come he trembled, but paid no heed to his tremor, and +said, 'Go away for this time, and when I am not busy at anything +else, I will have thee back again.' He did have Paul back again many +a time, and communed with him, but we never read that he trembled +any more. The impression is not always reproduced, although the +circumstances that produced it at first may be. The most +impenetrable armour in which to clothe oneself against the sword of +the Spirit is hammered out of former convictions that were never +acted on. A soul cased in these is very hard to get at. + +But consider the folly of seeking to get rid of truth, however +unwelcome, under the delusion that it ceases to be true because we +cease to look at it. Christ's leaving the boat would not have helped +Peter. The facts remained, however he refused to look at them. If he +could have changed them by getting rid of Him who reminded him of +them, it might have been worth while to send Him away--but to +dismiss the physician is a new way of curing the disease. Pain is an +alarm bell for the physical nature to point to something wrong +there, and this sense of evil, this shrinking from God regarded as +the judge, is the alarm bell in the spiritual nature to warn of +something wrong there. Do you think that you banish the danger for +which the alarm bell is rung because you wrap a clout round the +clapper so as to prevent it from sounding? and do you think that you +make it less true that 'every transgression and disobedience shall +receive its just recompense of reward' by bidding your conscience +hold its peace when it tells you so, or by trying to drown its voice +amidst the shouts of revelry, or the whirr of spindles, or the roar +of traffic? By no means. The facts remain; and nothing except what +deals with the facts is the cure which a wise man will adopt. + +You remember the old story of the king of Babylon who sat feasting +on the night when the city was captured. When the Finger came out +and wrote upon the wall, 'Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin,' it did not +stop the feast. They went on with their rioting, and whilst they +were carousing, the enemy was creeping up the dried bed of the +diverted river, 'and in that night was Belshazzar slain' amidst his +wine-cups, and the flowers on his temples were dabbled with his +blood. No more insane way of curing the consciousness of sin and the +dread of judgment than that of stifling the voice that evokes it was +ever dreamed of in an asylum. + +III. Lastly, notice the right place for a sinful man. + +On the second occasion to which our texts refer we have the Apostle +far more deeply conscious of his sin than he was on the first. He +remembered his denial, and no doubt he remembered also the secret +interview that Jesus Christ had with him on the day of the +Resurrection, when, no doubt, He communicated to him His frank and +full assurance of forgiveness, He knows far more of Christ's dignity +and character and nature after the Resurrection than he had done on +that day, long ago, by the banks of the lake. The deeper sense of +his own sin, and the clearer and loftier view of who and what Jesus +Christ was, send him struggling to his Master, and make him blessed +only at His feet. + +Ah yes, brother! the superficial knowledge of my evil may drive me +away from Jesus Christ; the deepest conviction of it will send me +right into His arms. A partial knowledge of the divine nature as +revealed in Him as judge, and punitive and necessarily antagonistic +to the blackness of my sin, in the lustrous whiteness of His purity, +may drive me away from Him, but the deeper knowledge of God +manifested in Jesus Christ, the long-suffering, the gentle, loving, +pardoning, will send me to Him in all the depth of my self-abasement +and in the confidence in His love as covering over my sin and +accepting me. Where does the child go when it has transgressed +against its mother's word? Into its mother's arms to hide its face +upon her bosom near her heart. 'Against Thee, Thee only have I +sinned'; and therefore to Thee, Thee only will I go. Only in +nearness to Jesus Christ can we get the anodyne that quiets the +conscience--the blessed assurance of forgiveness that lightens us of +our burden and dread, and the power for holiness that will change +our impurity into the likeness of His own purity. He, and He only, +can forgive. He, and He only, brings the loving God into the midst +of unloving men. He, and He only, hath offered the sacrifice in +which all sin is done away. He, and He only, by the communication of +His Spirit and life to me, will make me pure and deliver me from the +burden of my sin. + +And so the man who knows his own need and Christ's grace will not +say, 'Depart from me for I am a sinful man,' but he will say, 'Leave +me never, nor forsake me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord; but in Thee +I have forgiveness and righteousness.' + +Dear friends! that consciousness of demerit once evoked in a man's +heart, however imperfectly, as I believe it is in some of your +hearts now, must issue in one of two things. Either it will send you +further into darkness to get away from the light, as the bats in a +cave will flit to the deepest recesses of it in order to escape the +torch, or it will bring you nearer to Him, and at His feet you will +find cleansing. + +Oh, dear friends!--strangers many of you, but all friends--let me +beseech you that, if the merciful Spirit of God is in any measure +using my poor words to touch your consciences and hearts, you would +not venture to seek escape from the convictions which are stirring +in you by any other way than by betaking yourselves to the Cross. +Let it not be, I pray you, that because you know yourselves to be in +need of forgiveness, and to stand in peril of judgment, you say to +God,' Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.' +But rather do you cast yourselves into Christ's arms and keep near +Him; saying as this same Peter did, on another occasion, 'Lord! to +whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.' + + + + +BLASPHEMER, OR--WHO? + + + 'And it came to pass on a certain day, as He was + teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the + law sitting by, which were come out of every town of + Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem; and the power of + the Lord was present to heal them. 18. And, behold, + men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a + palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to + lay him before Him. 19. And when they could not find + by what way they might bring him in because of the + multitude, they went upon the house-top, and let him + down through the tiling, with his couch, into the + midst before Jesus. 20. And when He saw their faith, + He said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. + 21. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, + saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who + can forgive sins but God alone? 22. But when Jesus + perceived their thoughts, He, answering, said unto + them, What reason ye in your hearts? 23. Whether is + easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, + Rise up and walk! 24. But that ye may know that the + Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (He + said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, + Arise, and take up thy couch, and go unto thine house. + 25. And immediately he rose up before them, and took + up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, + glorifying God. 26. And they were all amazed, and they + glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We + have seen strange things to-day.'--LUKE v. 17-26. + +Luke describes the composition of the unfriendly observers in this +crowd with more emphasis and minuteness than the other Evangelists +do. They were Pharisees and doctors, and they were assembled from +every part of Galilee, and even from Judea, and, what was most +remarkable, from Jerusalem itself. Probably the conflict with the +authorities in the capital recorded in John v. had taken place by +this time, and if so, a deputation from the Sanhedrim would very +naturally be despatched to Capernaum, and its members would as +naturally summon the local lights to sit with them, and watch this +revolutionary young teacher, who had no licence from them, and +apparently not much reverence for them. + +One can easily imagine that these heresy-hunters would be much too +superior persons to mix with the crowd about the door of Peter's +house, and would, as Luke says, be 'sitting by,' near enough to see +and hear, but far enough to show that they had no share in the +vulgar enthusiasm of these provincial peasants. They were too holy +to mingle with the mob, so they kept together by themselves, and +waited hopefully for some heresy or breach of their multitudinous +precepts. They got more than they expected. + +We may note the contrast between their cynical watchfulness and the +glorious manifestations for which they had no eyes. 'The power of +the Lord'--that is, of Christ--'was' (operative) 'in His healing,' +or, according to another reading, 'to heal them.' But the critics +took no heed of that. There is a temper of mind which is sharp-eyed +as a lynx for faults, and blind as a bat to evidences of divine +power in the Gospel or its adherents. Some noses are keen to smell +stenches, and dull to perceive fragrance. The race of such +inquisitors is not extinct. + +They contrast, too, with the earnestness of the four friends who +brought the paralysed man. The former sat cool and critical, because +they had no sense of need either for themselves or for others. The +latter made all the effort they could to fight through the crowd, +and then took to the roof by some outside stair, and hastily +stripping off enough of the tiling, lowered their friend, bed and +all, right down in front of the young Rabbi. The house would be low, +and the roof slight, and Jesus was probably seated in an open inner +court or verandah, At any rate, the description gives a piece of +local colour, and presents no improbability. + +Earnestness in striving to come oneself or to bring a dear one to +Christ's feet seems a supremely absurd waste of energy to a cynical +critic, who feels no need of anything that Christ can give. It looks +rather different to the paralytic on his couch, and to the friends +who long for his healing. + +The first lesson from this incident is that our deepest need is +forgiveness. No doubt, something in the paralytic's case determined +Christ's method with him. Perhaps his sickness had been brought on +by dissipation, and possibly conscience was lashing him with a whip +of scorpions, so that, while his friends sought for his healing, he +himself was more anxious for pardon. It is very unlikely that Jesus +would have offered forgiveness unless He had known that it was +yearned for. But whether that is so or not, we may fairly generalise +the order of givings in this miracle, and draw from it the lesson +that what Jesus then gave first is His chief gift. In most of His +other miracles He gave bodily healing first. First or second, it is +always Christ's chief gift in the beginning of discipleship. His +miracles of bodily healing are parables of that higher miracle. This +incident brings out what is always the order of relative importance, +whether it is that of chronological sequence or not. + +And we all need to lay that truth to heart for ourselves. No +tinkering with superficial discomforts, or culture of intellect and +taste, or success in worldly pursuits, will avail to stanch the deep +wound through which our life-blood is ebbing out. We need something +that goes deeper than all these styptics. Only a power which can +deal with our sense of sin, and soothe that into blessed assurance +of pardon, is strong enough to grapple with our true root of misery. +It is useless to give a man dying of cancer medicine for pimples. +That is what all attempts to make man happy and restful while sin +remains unforgiven, are doing. + +Social reformers need this lesson. Many voices proclaim many gospels +to-day. Culture, economical or social reconstruction, is trumpeted +as the panacea. But it matters comparatively little how society is +organised. If its individual members retain their former natures, +the former evils will come back, whatever its organisation. The only +thorough cure for social evils is individual regeneration. Christ +deals with men singly, and remoulds society by renewing the +individual. The most elaborate machinery may be used for filtering +the black waters. What will be the good of that if the fountain of +blackness is not sealed up, or rather purified, at its hidden +source? Make the tree good, and its fruit will be good. To make the +tree good, you must begin with dealing with sin. + +The second lesson from this incident is that Christ's claim to +forgive sins is either blasphemy or the manifest token of divinity. +These Pharisees scented heresy at once. They were blind to the +pathos of the story, and hard as millstones towards the poor +sufferer's wistful looks. But they pounced at once gleefully on +Christ's words. They were perfectly right in their premises that +forgiveness was a divine prerogative which no man could share. For +sin is the name of evil, when considered in its relation to God. He +only can forgive it, for 'against Thee, Thee only,' as David +confessed, is it committed. True, the same act may be full of +harmful results to men, and may be a breach of human law, but in its +character as sin it refers to God only. Forgiveness is the +outpouring of God's love on a sinner, uninterrupted by his sin. Only +God can pour out that love. + +But the cavillers were quite wrong in their conclusion. He did not +'blaspheme.' The fact that Jesus knew and answered their whispered +or unspoken 'reasonings in their hearts' might have taught them that +here was more than a rabbi, or even a prophet. But He goes on to +reiterate His assertion that He has power to forgive sins. + +Observe that He does not deny their premises. Nor does He, as He was +bound in common honesty to do, set them right if they were wrong in +supposing that He had claimed divine power. A wise religious +teacher, who saw himself misunderstood as asserting that he could +give what he only meant to assure a penitent that God would give, +would have instantly said, 'Do not mistake me. I am only doing what +every servant of God's should and can do, telling this poor brother +that God is ready to forgive. God forbid that I should be supposed +to do more than to declare his forgiveness!' Christ's answer is the +strongest possible contrast to that. He knew what these Pharisees +supposed Him to have meant by His authoritative words, and knowing +it, He repeats them, and points to the miracle about to be done as +their vindication. + +Is there any possible way of escaping from the conclusion that Jesus +solemnly and deliberately laid claim to exercise the divine +prerogative of dispensing pardon? If He did, what shall we say of +Him? Surely there is no third judgment of Him and His words +possible; but either the Pharisees were right, and 'this man,' this +pattern of all meekness and perfect example of humility, blasphemed, +or else Peter was right when he said, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son +of the living God.' + +The third lesson is that the visible effects of Christ's power +attest the reality of His claim to produce the invisible effects of +peaceful assurance of forgiveness. It was equally easy to say, 'Thy +sins are forgiven thee,' and to say, 'Take up thy bed and walk.' It +was equally impossible for a mere man to forgive, and to give the +paralytic muscular force to move. But the one saying could be +tested, and its fulfilment verified by sight. The other could not; +but if the visible impossibility was done, it was a witness that the +invisible one could be. + +The striking way in which our Lord weaves in His command to the +palsied man to take up his bed with His words to the Pharisees is +preserved in all the Gospels, and gives vividness to the narrative, +while it brings out the main purpose of the miracle. It was a +demonstration in the visible sphere of Christ's power in the +invisible. Both were divine acts, and that which could be verified +by sight established the reality of that which could not. + +The same principle may be widely extended. It includes all the +outward effects of Christ's gospel in the world. There are abundance +of these which are patent to fair-minded observers. If one wishes to +know what these are, he has only to contrast heathen lands with +those in which, however imperfectly, Jesus is recognised as King and +Example. The lives of His disciples are full of faults, but they +should, and in a measure, do, witness to the reality of His gifts of +forgiveness and conquest of sin. He has done more to restore +strength to humanity paralysed for good than all other would-be +physicians put together have done; and since He has visibly effected +such manifest changes on outward lives, it is no rash conclusion to +draw that He can change the inward nature. If He has healed the +palsy, that is a work surpassing human power, and it proves that He +can forgive the sin which brought the paralysis, and tied the +helpless sufferer to his couch of pain. + + + + + +LAWS OF THE KINGDOM + + + 'And He lifted up His eyes on His disciples, and said, + Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God, + 21. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be + filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall + laugh. 22. Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, + and when they shall separate you from their company, + and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as + evil, for the Son of man's sake. 23. Rejoice ye in + that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward + is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their + fathers unto the prophets. 24. But woe unto you that + are rich! for ye have received your consolation. + 25. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. + Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and + weep. 26. Woe unto you when all men shall speak well + of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. + 27. But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, + do good to them which hate you, 28. Bless them that + curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use + you. 29. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one + cheek, offer also the other; and him that taketh away + thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also. 30. Give + to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that + taketh away thy goods ask them not again. 31. And as + ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them + likewise.'--LUKE vi. 20-31. + +Luke condenses and Matthew expands the Sermon on the Mount. The +general outline is the same in both versions. The main body of both +is a laying down the law for Christ's disciples. Luke, however, +characteristically omits what is prominent in Matthew, the polemic +against Pharisaic righteousness, and the contrast between the moral +teaching of Christ and that of the law. These were appropriate in a +Gospel which set forth Jesus as the crown of earlier revelation, +while Luke is true to the broad humanities of his Gospel, in setting +forth rather the universal aspect of Christian duty, and gathering +it all into the one precept of love. + +The fragment which forms the present passage falls into two parts--the +description of the subjects of the kingdom and their blessedness, +contrasted with the character of the rebels; and the summing up of +the law of the kingdom in the all-including commandment of love. + +I. The subjects and blessedness of the kingdom, and the rebels. It +is to be well kept in view that the discourse is addressed to 'His +disciples.' That fact remembered would have saved some critics from +talking nonsense about the discrepancy between Luke and Matthew, and +supposing that the former meant merely literal poverty, hunger, and +tears. No doubt he omits the decisive words which appear in Matthew, +who appends 'in spirit' to 'poor,' and 'after righteousness' to +'hunger and thirst,' but there is no ground for supposing that Luke +meant anything else than Matthew. + +Notice that in our passage the sayings are directly addressed to the +disciples, while in Matthew they are cast into the form of general +propositions. In that shape, the additions were needed to prevent +misunderstanding of Christ, as if He were talking like a vulgar +demagogue, flattering the poor, and inveighing against the rich. +Matthew's view of the force of the expressions is involved in Luke's +making them an address _to the disciples.,_ 'Ye poor' at once +declares that our Lord is not thinking of the whole class of +literally needy, but of such of these as He saw willing to learn of +Him. No doubt, the bulk of them were poor men as regards the world's +goods, and knew the pinch of actual want, and had often had to weep. +But their earthly poverty and misery had opened their hearts to +receive Him, and that had transmuted the outward wants and sorrows +into spiritual ones, as is evident from their being disciples; and +these are the characteristics which He pronounces blessed. In this +democratic and socialistic age, it is important to keep clearly in +view the fact that Jesus was no flatterer of poor men as such, and +did not think that circumstances had such power for good or evil, as +that virtue and true blessedness were their prerogatives. + +The foundation characteristic is poverty of spirit, the +consciousness of one's own weakness, the opposite of the delusion +that we are 'rich and increased with goods.' All true subjection to +the kingdom begins with that accurate, because lowly, estimate of +ourselves. Humility is life, lofty mindedness is death. The heights +are barren, rivers and fertility are down in the valleys. + +Luke makes hunger the second characteristic, and weeping the third, +while Matthew inverts that order. Either arrangement suggests +important thoughts. Desire after the true riches naturally follows +on consciousness of poverty, while, on the other hand, sorrow for +one's conscious lack of these may be regarded as preceding and +producing longing. In fact, the three traits of character are +contemporaneous, and imply each other. Outward condition comes into +view, only in so far as it tends to the production of these +spiritual characteristics, and has, in fact, produced them, as it +had done, in some measure, in the disciples. The antithetical +characteristics of the adversaries of the kingdom are, in like +manner, mainly spiritual; and their riches, fullness, and laughter +refer to circumstances only in so far as actual wealth, abundance, +and mirth tend to hide from men their inward destitution, +starvation, and misery. + +But what paradoxes to praise all that flesh abhors, and to declare +that it is better to be poor than rich, better to feel gnawing +desire than to be satisfied, better to weep than to laugh! How +little the so-called Christian world believes it! How dead against +most men's theory and practice Christ goes! These Beatitudes have a +solemn warning for all, and if we really believed them, our lives +would be revolutionised. The people who say, 'Give me the Sermon on +the Mount: I don't care for your doctrines, but I can understand +_it,' have not felt the grip of these Beatitudes. + +Note that the blessings and woes are based on the future issues of +the two states of mind. These are not wholly in the future life, for +Jesus says, 'Yours _is_ the kingdom.' That kingdom is a state +of obedience to God, complete in that future world, but begun here. +True poverty secures entrance thither, since it leads to submission +of will and trust. True hunger is sure of satisfaction, since it +leads to waiting on God, who 'will fulfil the desire of them that +fear Him.' Sorrow which is according to God, cannot but bring us +near Him who 'will wipe away tears from off all faces.' + +On the other hand, they who in condition are prosperous and +satisfied with earth, and in disposition are devoid of suspicion of +their own emptiness, and draw their joys and sorrows from this world +alone, cannot but have a grim awaking waiting for them. Here they +will often feel that earth's goods are no solid food, and that +nameless yearnings and sadness break in on their mirth; and in the +dim world beyond, they will start to find their hands empty and +their souls starving. + +The fourth of Luke's Beatitudes contrasts the treatment received +from men by the subjects and the enemies of the kingdom. Better to +be Christ's martyr than the world's favourite! Alas, how few +Christians wear the armour of that great saying! They would not set +so much store by popularity, nor be so afraid of being on the +unpopular side, if they did. + +II. The second part of the passage contains the summary of the laws +of the kingdom from the lips of the King. Its keynote is love. The +precept follows strikingly on the predictions of excommunication and +hatred. The only weapon to fight hate is love. 'The hate of hate, +the scorn of scorn,' are not Christian dispositions, though Tennyson +tells us that they are the poet's. So much the worse for him if they +are! First, the commandment, so impossible to us unless our hearts +are made Christlike by much dwelling with Christ, is laid down in +the plainest terms. Enmity should only stimulate love, as a gash in +some tree bearing precious balsam makes the fragrant treasure flow. +Who of us has conformed to that law which in three words sums up +perfection? How few of us have even honestly tried to conform to it! + +But the command becomes more stringent as it advances. The sentiment +is worth much, but it must bear fruit in act. So the practical +manifestations of it follow. Deeds of kindness, words of blessing, +and highest of all, and the best help to fulfilling the other two, +prayer, are to be our meek answers to evil. Why should Christians +always let their enemies settle the terms of intercourse? They are +not to be mere reverberating surfaces, giving back echoes of angry +voices. Let us take the initiative, and if men scowl, let us meet +them with open hearts and smiles. 'A soft answer turneth away +wrath.' 'It takes two to make a quarrel.' Frost and snow bind the +earth in chains, but the silent sunshine conquers at last, and evil +can be overcome with good. + +Our Lord goes on to speak of another form of love--namely, patient +endurance of wrong and unreasonableness. He puts that in terms so +strong that many readers are fain to pare down their significance. +Non-resistance is commanded in the most uncompromising fashion, and +illustrated in the cases of assault, robbery, and pertinacious +mendicancy. The world stands stiffly on its rights; the Christian is +not to bristle up in defence of his, but rather to suffer wrong and +loss. This is regarded by many as an impossible ideal. But it is to +be observed that the principle involved is that love has no limits +but itself. There may be resistance to wrong, and refusal of a +request, if love prompts to these. If it is better for the other man +that a Christian should not let him have his way or his wish, and if +the Christian, in resisting or refusing, is honestly actuated by +love, then he is fulfilling the precept when he says 'No' to some +petition, or when he resists robbery. We must live near Jesus Christ +to know when such limitations of the precept come in, and to make +sure of our motives. + +The world and the Church would be revolutionised if even approximate +obedience were rendered to this commandment. Let us not forget that +it _is_ a commandment, and cannot be put aside without disloyalty. + +Christ then crystallises His whole teaching on the subject of our +conduct to others into the immortal words which make our wishes for +ourselves the standard of our duty to others, and so give every man +an infallible guide. We are all disposed to claim more from others +than we give to them. What a paradise earth would be if the two +measuring-lines which we apply to their conduct and to our own were +exactly of the same length! + + + + +THREE CONDENSED PARABLES + + + 'And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy + brother's eye, but perceiveth not the beam that is in + thine own eye? 42. Either, how canst thou say to thy + brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in + thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam + that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out + first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt + thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy + brother's eye. 43. For a good tree bringeth not forth + corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth + good fruit. 44. For every tree is known by his own + fruit: for of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a + bramble-bush gather they grapes. 45. A good man, out + of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that + which is good; and an evil man, out of the evil + treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is + evil; for of the abundance of the heart his mouth + speaketh, 46. And why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do + not the things which I say? 47. Whosoever cometh to + Me, and heareth My sayings, and doeth them, I will + shew you to whom he is like: 48. He is like a man + which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the + foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the + stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not + shake it; for it was founded upon a rock. 49. But he + that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that, + without a foundation, built an house upon the earth; + against which the stream did beat vehemently, and + immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was + great.'--LUKE vi. 41-49. + +Three extended metaphors, which may almost be called parables, close +Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount, and constitute this +passage. These are the mote and the beam, the good and bad trees, +the houses on the rock and on the sand. Matthew puts the first of +these earlier in the sermon, and connects it with other precepts +about judging others. But whichever order is the original, that +adopted by Luke has a clear connection of thought underlying it +which will come out as we proceed. + +I. The striking and somewhat ludicrous image of the beam and the +mote is found in Rabbinical writings, and may have been familiar to +Christ's hearers. But His use of it is deeper and more searching +than the rabbis' was. He has just been speaking of blind guides and +their blind followers. That 'parable,' as Luke calls it, naturally +images another defect which may attach to the eye. A man may be +partly blind because some foreign body has got in. If we might +suppose a tacit reference to the Pharisees in the blind guides, +their self-complacent censoriousness would be in view here; but the +application of the saying is much wider than to them only. + +Verse 41 teaches that the accurate measurement of the magnitude of +our own failings should precede our detection of our brother's. +Christ assumes the commonness of the opposite practice by asking +'why' it is so. And we have all to admit that the assumption is +correct. The keenness of men's criticism of their neighbour's faults +is in inverse proportion to their familiarity with their own. It is +no unusual thing to hear some one, bedaubed with dirt from head to +foot, declaiming with disgust about a speck or two on his +neighbour's white robes. + +Satan reproving sin is not an edifying sight, but Satan criticising +sin is still less agreeable. If only 'he that is without sin among +you' would fling stones, there would be fewer reputations pelted +than there are. Most men know less about their own faults than about +their brother's. They use two pairs of spectacles--one which +diminishes, and is put on for looking at themselves; one which +magnifies, and is worn for their neighbour's benefit. But when their +respective good qualities are to be looked at, the other pair is +used in each case. That is men's way, all the world over. + +Christ's question asks the reason for this all but universal +dishonesty of having two weights and measures for faults. He would +have us ponder on the cause, that we may discover the remedy. He +would have us reflect, that we may get a vivid conviction of the +unreasonableness of the practice. There is nothing in the fact that +a fault is mine which should make it small in my judgment; nor, on +the other hand, in the accident that it is another's, which should +make it seem large. A fault is a fault, whoever it belongs to, and +we should judge ourselves and others by the same rule. Only we +should be most severe in its application to ourselves, for we cannot +tell how much our brother has had, to diminish the criminality of +his sin, and we can tell, if we will be honest, how much we have +had, to aggravate that of ours. So the conscience of a true +Christian works as Paul's did when he said 'Of whom I am chief,' and +is more disposed to make its own motes into beams than to censure +its brother's. + +The reason, so far as there is a reason, can only lie in our +diseased selfishness, which is the source of all sin. And the +blindness to our 'beams' is partly produced by their very presence. +All sin blinds conscience. A man with a beam in his eye would not be +able to see much. One device of sin, practised in order to withdraw +the doer's attention from his own deed, is to make him censorious of +his fellows, and to compound for the sins he is inclined to by +condemning other people's. + +Verse 42 teaches that the conquest of our own discovered evils must +precede efficient attempts to cure other people's. To pose as a +curer of them while we are ignorant of our own faults is, +consciously or unconsciously, hypocrisy, for it assumes a hatred of +evil, which, if genuine, would have found first a field for its +working in ourselves. An oculist with diseased eyes would not be +likely to be a successful operator. 'Physician, heal thyself' would +fit him well, and be certainly flung at him. A cleansed eye will +see the brother's mote clearly, but only in order to help its +extraction. It is a delicate bit of work to get it out, and needs a +gentle hand. + +Our discernment of others' faults must be compassionate, not to be +followed by condemnation nor self-complacency but by loving efforts +to help to a cure. And such will not be made unless we have learned +our own sinfulness, and can go to the wrongdoer in brotherly +humility, and win him to use the 'eye-salve' which our conduct shows +has healed us. + +II. The second compressed parable of the two trees springs from the +former naturally, as stating the general law of which verse 42 gives +one case, namely, that good deeds (such as casting out the mote) can +only come from a good heart (made good by confession of its own +evils and their ejection). It is often said that Christ's teaching +is unlike that of His Apostles in that He places stress on works, +and says little of faith. But how does He regard works? As fruits. +That is to say, they are of value in His eyes only as being products +and manifestations of character. He does not tell us in this parable +how the character which will effloresce in blossoms and set in +fruits of goodness is produced. That comes in the next parable. But +here is sufficiently set forth the great central truth of Christian +ethics that the inward disposition is the all-important thing, and +that deeds are determined as to their moral quality by the character +from which they have proceeded. + +Our actions are our self-revelations. The words are not to be +pressed, as if they taught the entire goodness of one class of men, +so that all their acts were products of their good character, nor +the unmingled evil of another, so that no good of any kind or in any +degree is in them or comes from them. They must be read as embodying +a general truth which is not as yet fully exemplified in any +character or conduct. + +In verse 45 the same idea is presented under a different figure--that +of a wealthy man who brings his possessions out of his store-house. +The application of the figure is significantly varied so as to include +the other great department of human activity. Speech is act. It, too, +will be according to the cast of the inner life. Of course, feigned +speech of all sorts is not in view. The lazy judgment of men thinks +less of words than of deeds. Christ always attaches supreme importance +to them. Intentional lying being excluded, speech is an even more +complete self-revelation than act. When one thinks of the floods of +foul or idle or malicious talk which half drown the world as being +revelations of the sort of hearts from which they have gushed, one +is appalled. What a black, seething fountain that must be which +spurts up such inky waters! + +III. The third parable, of the two houses, shows in part how hearts may +be made 'good.' It is attached to the preceding by verse 46. Speech +does not always come from 'the abundance of the heart.' Many call Him +Lord who do not act accordingly. Deeds must confirm words. If the two +diverge, the latter must be taken as the credible self-revelation. Now +the first noticeable thing here is Christ's bold assumption that His +words are a rock foundation for any life. He claims to give an absolute +and all-sufficient rule of conduct, and to have the right to command +every man. + +And people read such words and then talk about their Christianity +not being the belief of His divinity, but the practice of the Sermon +on the Mount! His words are the foundation for every firm, lasting +life. They are the basis of all true thought about God, ourselves, +our duties, our future. 'That rock was Christ.' Every other +foundation is as sand. Unless we build on Him, we build on +changeable inclinations, short-lived desires, transitory aims, +evanescent circumstances. Only the Christ who ever liveth, and is +ever 'the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,' is fit to be +the foundation of lives that are to be immortal. + +Note the two houses built on the foundations. The metaphor suggests +that each life is a whole with a definite character. Alas, how many +of our lives are liker a heap of stones tilted at random out of a cart +than a house with a plan. But there is a character stamped on every +life, and however the man may have lived from hand to mouth without +premeditation, the result has a character of its own, be it temple +or pig-sty. Each life, too, is built up by slow labour, course by +course. Our deeds become our dwelling-places. Like coral-insects, we +live in what we build. Memory, habit, ever-springing consequences, +shape by slow degrees our isolated actions into our abodes. What do +we build? + +One storm tries both houses. That may refer to the common trials of +every life, but it is best taken as referring to the future +judgment, when God 'will lay judgment to the line, and righteousness +to the plummet'; and whatever cannot stand that test will be +swept away. Who would run up a flimsy structure on some windy +headland in northern seas? The lighthouses away out in ocean are +firmly bonded into living rock. Unless our lives are thus built on +and into Christ, they will collapse into a heap of ruin. 'Behold I +lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious +corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make +haste.' + + + + +WORTHY-NOT WORTHY + + + '... They besought Him ... saying, That he was worthy + for whom He should do this:... 6. I am not worthy that + Thou shouldest enter under my roof: 7. Wherefore + neither thought I myself worthy to come unto Thee....' + --LUKE vii. 4. 6. 7. + +A Roman centurion, who could induce the elders of a Jewish village +to approach Jesus on his behalf, must have been a remarkable person. +The garrison which held down a turbulent people was not usually +likely to be much loved by them. But this man, about whom the +incident with which our texts are connected is related, was +obviously one of the people of whom that restless age had many, who +had found out that his creed was outworn, and who had been drawn to +Judaism by its lofty monotheism and its austere morality. He had +gone so far as to build a synagogue, and thereby, no doubt, incurred +the ridicule of his companions, and perhaps the suspicions of his +superiors. What would the English authorities think of an Indian +district officer that conformed to Buddhism or Brahminism, and built +a temple? That is what the Roman officials would think of our +centurion. And there were other beautiful traits in his character. +He had a servant 'that was dear to him.' It was not only the nexus +of master and servant and cash payments that bound these two +together. And very beautiful is this story, when he himself speaks +about this servant. He does not use the rough word which implies a +bondservant, and which is employed throughout the whole of the rest +of the narrative, but a much gentler one, and speaks of him as his +'boy.' So he had won the hearts of these elders so far as to make +them swallow their dislike to Jesus, and deign to go to Him with a +request which implied His powers at which at all other times they +scoffed. + +Now, we owe to Luke the details which show us that there was a +double deputation to our Lord--the first which approached Him to ask +His intervention, and the second which the centurion sent when he +saw the little group coming towards his house, and a fresh gush of +awe rose in his heart. The elders said, 'He is worthy'; he said, 'I +am not worthy.' The verbal resemblance is, indeed, not so close in +the original as in our versions, for the literal rendering of the +words put into the centurion's mouth is 'not fit.' But still the +evident antithesis is preserved: the one saying expresses the +favourable view that partial outsiders took of the man, the other +gives the truer view that the man took of himself. And so, putting +away the story altogether, we may set these two verdicts side by +side, as suggesting wider lessons than those which arise from the +narrative itself. + +I. And, first, we have here the shallow plea of worthiness. + +These elders did not think loftily of Jesus Christ. The conception +that we have of Him goes a long way to settle whether it is possible +or not for us to approach Him with the word 'worthy' on our lips. +The higher we lift our thought of Christ, the lower becomes our +thought of ourselves. These elders saw the centurion from the +outside, and estimated him accordingly. There is no more frequent, +there is no more unprofitable and impossible occupation, than that +of trying to estimate other people's characters. Yet there are few +things that we are so fond of doing. Half our conversation consists +of it, and a very large part of what we call literature consists of +it; and it is bound to be always wrong, whether it is eulogistic or +condemnatory, because it only deals with the surface. + +Here we have the shallow plea advanced by these elders in reference +to the centurion which corresponds to the equally shallow plea that +some of us are tempted to advance in reference to ourselves. The +disposition to do so is in us all. Luther said that every man was +born with a Pope in his belly. Every man is born with a Pharisee in +himself, who thinks that religion is a matter of barter, that it is +so much work, buying so much favour here, or heaven hereafter. +Wherever you look, you see the working of that tendency. It is the +very mainspring of heathenism, with all its penances and +performances. It is enshrined in the heart of Roman Catholicism, +with its dreams of a treasury of merits, and works of supererogation +and the like. Ay! and it has passed over into a great deal of what +calls itself Evangelical Protestantism, which thinks that, somehow +or other, it is all for our good to come here, for instance on a +Sunday, though we have no desire to come and no true worship in us +when we have come, and to do a great many things that we would much +rather not do, and to abstain from a great many things that we are +strongly inclined to, and all with the notion that we have to bring +some 'worthiness' in order to move Jesus Christ to deal graciously +with us. + +And then notice that the religion of barter, which thinks to earn +God's favour by deeds, and is, alas! the only religion of +multitudes, and subtly mingles with the thoughts of all, tends to +lay the main stress on the mere external arts of cult and ritual. +'He loveth our nation, and hath built us a synagogue'; not, 'He is +gentle, good, Godlike.' 'He has built a synagogue.' That is the type +of work which most people who fall into the notion that heaven is to +be bought, offer as the price. I have no doubt that there are many +people who have never caught a glimpse of any loftier conception than +that, and who, when they think--which they do not often do--about +religious subjects at all, are saying to themselves, 'I do as well +as I can,' and who thus bring in some vague thought of the mercy of +God as a kind of make-weight to help out what of their own they put +in the scale. Ah, dear brethren! that is a wearying, an endless, a +self-torturing, an imprisoning, an enervating thought, and the plea +of 'worthiness' is utterly out of place and unsustainable before God. + +II. Now let me turn to the deeper conviction which silences that +plea. + +'I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof, wherefore +neither thought I myself worthy to come unto Thee.' This man had a +loftier conception of who and what Christ was than the elders had. +To them He was only one of themselves, perhaps endowed with some +kind of prophetic power, but still one of themselves. The centurion +had pondered over the mystic power of the word of command, as he +knew it by experience in the legion, or in the little troop of which +he, though a man under the authority of his higher officers, was the +commander; and he knew that even his limited power carried with it +absolute authority and compelled obedience. And he had looked at +Christ, and wondered, and thought, and had come at last to a dim +apprehension of that great truth that, somehow or other, in this Man +there did lie a power which, by the mere utterance of His will, +could affect matter, could raise the dead, could still a storm, +could banish disease, could quell devils. He did not formulate his +belief, he could not have said exactly what it led to, or what it +contained, but he felt that there was something divine about Him. +And so, seeing, though it was but through mists, the sight of that +great perfection, that divine humanity and human divinity, he bowed +himself and said, 'Lord! I am not worthy.' + +When you see Christ as He is, and give Him the honour due to His +name, all notions of desert will vanish utterly. + +Further, the centurion saw himself from the inside, and that makes +all the difference. Ah, brethren! most of us know our own characters +just as little as we know our own faces, and find it as difficult to +form a just estimate of what the hidden man of the heart looks like +as we find it impossible to form a just estimate of what we look to +other people as we walk down the street. But if we once turned the +searchlight upon ourselves, I do not think that any of us would long +be able to stand by that plea, 'I am worthy.' Have you ever been on +a tour of discovery, like what they go through at the Houses of +Parliament on the first day of each session, down into the cellars +to see what stores of explosive material, and what villains to fire +it, may be lurking there? If you have once seen yourself as you are, +and take into account, not only actions but base tendencies, foul, +evil thoughts, imagined sins of the flesh, meannesses and basenesses +that never have come to the surface, but which you know are bits of +you, I do not think that you will have much more to say about 'I am +worthy.' The flashing waters of the sea may be all blazing in the +sunshine, but if they were drained off, what a frightful sight the +mud and the ooze at the bottom would be! Others look at the dancing, +glittering surface, but you, if you are a wise man, will go down in +the diving-bell sometimes, and for a while stop there at the bottom, +and turn a bull's-eye straight upon all the slimy, crawling things +that are there, and that would die if they came into the light. + +'I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof.' But then, +as I have said, most of us are strangers to ourselves. The very fact +of a course of action which, in other people, we should describe +with severe condemnation, being ours, bribes us to indulgence and +lenient judgment. Familiarity, too, weakens our sense of the +foulness of our own evils. If you have been in the Black Hole all +night, you do not know how vitiated the atmosphere is. You have to +come out into the fresh air to find out that. We look at the errors +of others through a microscope; we look at our own through the wrong +end of the telescope; and the one set, when we are in a cynical +humour, seem bigger than they are; and the other set always seem +smaller. + +Now, that clear consciousness of my own sinfulness ought to underlie +all my religious feelings and thoughts. I believe, for my part, that +no man is in a position to apprehend Christianity rightly who has +not made the acquaintance of his own bad self. And I trace a very +large proportion of the shallow Christianity of this day as well as +of the disproportion in which its various truths are set forth, and +the rising of crops of erroneous conceptions just to this, that this +generation has to a large extent lost--no, do not let me say this +generation, _you and I_--have to a large extent lost, that +wholesome consciousness of our own unworthiness and sin. + +But on the other hand, let me remind you that the centurion's deeper +conviction is not yet the deepest of all, and that whilst the +Christianity which ignores sin is sure to be impotent, on the other +hand the Christianity which sees very little but sin is bondage and +misery, and is impotent too. And there are many of us whose type of +religion is far gloomier than it should be, and whose motive of +service is far more servile than it ought to be, just because we +have not got beyond the centurion, and can only say, 'I am not +worthy; I am a poor, miserable sinner.' + +III. And so I come to the third point, which is not in my text, but +which both my texts converge upon, and that is the deepest truth of +all, that worthiness or unworthiness has nothing to do with Christ's +love. + +When these elders interceded with Jesus, He at once rose and went +with them, and that not because of their intercession or of the +certificate of character which they had given, but because His own +loving heart impelled Him to go to any soul that sought His help. So +we are led away from all anxious questionings as to whether we are +worthy or no, and learn that, far above all thoughts either of undue +self-complacency or of undue self-depreciation, lies the motive for +Christ's gracious and healing approach in + + 'His ceaseless, unexhausted love, + Unmerited and free.' + +This is the truth to which the consciousness of sinfulness and +unworthiness points us all, for which that consciousness prepares +us, in which that consciousness does not melt away, but rather is +increased and ceases to be any longer a burden or a pain. Here, +then, we come to the very bed-rock of everything, for + + 'Merit lives from man to man, + But not from man, O Lord, to Thee.' + +Jesus Christ comes to us, not drawn by our deserts, but impelled by +His own love, and that love pours itself out upon each of us. So we +do not need painfully to amass a store of worthiness, nor to pile up +our own works, by which we may climb to heaven. 'Say not, who shall +ascend up into heaven,' to bring Christ down again, 'but the word is +nigh thee, that if thou wilt believe with thine heart, thou shalt be +saved.' Worthiness or unworthiness is to be swept clean out of the +field, and I am to be content to be a pauper, to owe everything to +what I have done nothing to procure, and to cast myself on the sole, +all-sufficient mercy of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. + +And then comes liberty, and then comes joy. If the gift is given +from no consideration of men's deserts, then the only thing that men +have to do is to exercise the faith that takes it. As the Apostle +says in words that sound very hard and technical, but which, if you +would only ponder them, are throbbing with vitality, 'It is of faith +that it might be by grace.' Since He gives simply because He loves, +the only requisites are the knowledge of our need, the will to +receive, the trust that, in clasping the Giver, possesses the gift. + +The consciousness of unworthiness will be deepened. The more we know +ourselves to be sinful, the more we shall cleave to Christ, and the +more we cleave to Christ, the more we shall know ourselves to be +sinful. Peter caught a glimpse of what Jesus was when he sat in the +boat, and he said, 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!' +But Peter saw both himself and his Lord more clearly, that is more +truly, when, subsequent to his black treachery, his brother Apostle +said to him concerning the figure standing on the beach in the grey +morning, 'It is the Lord,' and he flung himself over the side and +floundered through the water to get to his Master's feet. For that +is the place for the man who knows himself unworthy. The more we are +conscious of our sin, the closer let us cling to our Lord's +forgiving heart, and the more sure we are that we have that love +which we have not earned, the more shall we feel how unworthy of it +we are. As one of the prophets says, with profound meaning, 'Thou +shalt be ashamed and confounded, and never open thy mouth any more +because of thy transgression, when I am pacified towards thee for +all that thou hast done.' The child buries its face on its mother's +breast, and feels its fault the more because the loving arms clasp +it close. + +And so, dear brethren, deepen your convictions, if you are deluded +by that notion of merit; deepen your convictions, if you see your +own evil so clearly that you see little else. Come into the light, +come into the liberty, rise to that great thought, 'Not by works of +righteousness which we have done, but by His mercy He saved us.' +Have done with the religion of barter, and come to the religion of +undeserved grace. If you are going to stop on the commercial level, +'the wages of sin is death'; rise to the higher ground: 'the gift of +God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.' + + + + +JESUS AT THE BIER + + + 'And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, + and said unto her, Weep not. 14. And He came and + touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. + And He said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. + 15. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. + And He delivered him to his mother.'--LUKE vii. 13-15. + +We owe our knowledge of this incident to Luke only. He is the +Evangelist who specially delights in recording the gracious +relations of our Lord with women, and he is also the Evangelist who +delights in telling us of unasked miracles which Christ performed. +Both of these characteristics unite in this story, and it may have +been these, rather than the fact of its being a narrative of a +resurrection, that found for it a place in this Gospel. + +Be that as it may, it is obvious to remark that this miracle was not +wrought with any intention of establishing Christ's claims thereby. +Its motive was simply pity; its purpose was merely to comfort a +desolate woman whose hope and love and defence were lying stretched +on her boy's bier. Was that a sufficient reason for a miracle? +People tell us that a test of a spurious miracle is that it is done +without any adequate purpose to be served. Jesus Christ thought that +to comfort one poor, sorrowful heart was reason enough for putting +His hand out, and dragging the prey from the very jaws of death, so +loftily did He think of human sorrow and of the comforting thereof. + +Now I think we unduly limit the meaning of our Lord's miracles when we +regard them as specially intended to authenticate His claims. They are +not merely the evidences of revelation; they are themselves a large +part of revelation. My purpose in this sermon is to look at this +incident from that one point of view, and to try to set clearly before +our minds what it shows us of the character and work of Jesus Christ. +And there are three things on which I desire to touch briefly. We have +Him here revealed to us as the compassionate Drier of all tears; the +life-giving Antagonist of death; and as the Re-uniter of parted hearts. + +Note, then, these three things. + +I. First of all, look at that wonderful revelation that lies here of +Jesus Christ as the compassionate Drier of all tears. + +The poor woman, buried in her grief, with her eyes fixed on the +bier, has no thought for the little crowd that came up the rocky +road, as she and her friends are hurrying down it to the place of +graves. She was a stranger to Christ, and Christ a stranger to her. +The last thing that she would have thought of would have been +eliciting any compassion from those who thus fortuitously met her on +her sad errand. But Christ looks, and His eye sees far more deeply +and far more tenderly into the sorrow of the desolate, childless +widow than any human eyes looked. And as swift as was His perception +of the sorrow, so swiftly does He throw Himself into sympathy with +it. The true human emotion of unmingled pity wells up in His heart +and moves Him to action. + +And just because the manhood was perfect and sinless, therefore the +sympathy of Christ was deeper than any human sympathy, howsoever +tender it may be; for what unfits us to feel compassion is our +absorption with ourselves. That makes our hearts hard and +insensitive, and is the true, 'witches' mark'--to recur to the old +fable--the spot where no external pressure can produce sensation. +The ossified heart of the selfish man is closed against divine +compassion. Since Jesus Christ forgot Himself in pitying men, and +Himself 'took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses,' He must have +been what none of us are--free from all taint of selfishness, and +from all insensibility born of sin. + +But there is another step to be taken. That pitying Christ, on the +rocky road outside the little Galilean village, feeling all the pain +and sorrow of the lonely mother--that is God! 'Lo! this is our God; +and we have waited for Him.' Ay! waited through all the +uncompassionating centuries, waited in the presence of the false +gods, waited whilst men have been talking about an impassive Deity +careless in the heavens, over whose serene blessedness no shadow can +ever pass. This is our God. No impassive monster that no man can +love or care for, but a God with a heart, a God that can pity, a God +who, wonderful as it is, can and does enter, in the humanity of +Jesus Christ, into a fellow-feeling of our infirmities. + +If Jesus Christ in His pity was only a perfect and lovely example of +unselfish sympathy such as man can exercise, what in the name of +common-sense does it matter to me how much, or how tenderly, He +pitied those past generations? The showers and the sunshine of this +summer will do as much good to the springing corn in the fields to-day +as the pity of a dead, human Christ will do for you and me. In our +weaknesses, in our sorrows great and small, in our troubles and +annoyances, you and I need, dear brethren, a living Jesus to pity +us, there in the heavens, just as He pitied that poor woman outside +the gate of Nain. Blessed be God!, we have Him. The human Christ is +the manifestation of the Divine, and as we listen to the Evangelist +that says, 'When He saw her He had compassion upon her,' we bow our +heads and feel that the old psalmist spoke a truth when He said, +'His compassions fail not,' and that the old prophet spoke a truth, +the depth of which his experience did not enable him to fathom, when +he said that 'in all their afflictions He was afflicted.' + +Then, note that the pitying Christ dries the tears before He raises +the dead. That is beautiful, I think. 'Weep not,' He says to the +woman--a kind of a prophecy that He is going to take away the +occasion for weeping; and so He calls lovingly upon her for some +movement of hope and confidence towards Himself. With what an +ineffable sweetness of cadence in His sympathetic voice these words +would be spoken! How often, kindly and vainly, men say to one +another, 'Weep not,' when they are utterly powerless to take away or +in the smallest degree to diminish the occasion for weeping! And how +often, unkindly, in mistaken endeavour to bring about resignation +and submission, do well-meaning and erring good people say to +mourners in the passion of their sorrow, 'Weep not!' Jesus Christ +never dammed back tears when tears were wholesome, and would bring +blessing. And Jesus Christ never said, 'Dry your tears,' without +stretching out His own hand to do it. + +How does He do it? First of all by the assurance of His sympathy. +Ah! in that word there came a message to the lonely heart, as there +comes a message, dear brethren, to any man or woman among us now who +may be fighting with griefs and cares or sorrows, great or small--the +assurance that Jesus Christ knows all about your pain and will help +you to bear it if you will let Him. The sweet consciousness of +Christ's sympathy is the true antidote to excessive grief. + +And He dries the tears, not only by the assurance of His sympathy, +but by encouraging expectation and hope. When He said, 'Weep not,' +He was pledging Himself to do what was needed in order to stay the +flow of weeping. And He would encourage us, in the midst of our +cares and sorrows and loneliness, not indeed to suppress the natural +emotion of sorrow, nor to try after a fantastic and unreal +suppression of its wholesome signs, but to weep as though we wept +not, because beyond the darkness and the dreariness we see the +glimmering of the eternal day. He encourages expectation as the +antagonist of sorrow, for the curse of sorrow is that it is ever +looking backwards, and the true attitude for all men who have an +immortal Christ to trust, and an immortality for themselves to +claim, is that not 'backward' should their 'glances be, but forward +to their Father's home.' These are the thoughts that dry our tears, +the assurance of the sympathy of Christ, and the joyous expectation +of a great good to be ours, where beyond those voices there is +peace. + +Brother! it may be with all of us--for all of us carry some burden +of sorrow or care--as it is with the hedgerows and wet ploughed +fields to-day; on every spray hangs a raindrop, and in every +raindrop gleams a reflected sun. And so all our tears and sorrows +may flash into beauty, and sparkle into rainbowed light if the smile +of His face falls upon us. + +And then, still further, this pitying Christ is moved by His pity to +bring unasked gifts. No petition, no expectation, not the least +trace of faith or hope drew from Him this mighty miracle. It came +welling up from His own heart. And therein it is of a piece with all +His work. For the divine love of which Christ is the Bearer, the +Agent, and the Channel for us men, 'tarries not for men, nor waiteth +for the sons of men,' but before we ask, delights to bestow itself, +and gives that which no man ever sought, even the miracles of the +Incarnation and Crucifixion of Jesus Christ our Lord. If heaven had +waited until men's prayers had forced its gates ere it sent forth +its greatest gift, it had waited for ever, and all mankind had +perished. God's love flows out of its own expansive and diffusive +nature. Its necessity is to impart itself, and its nature and +property is to give. A measureless desire to bestow itself, and in +itself all good, is the definition of the love of God. And Christ +comes 'to the unthankful and to the evil,' bringing a gift which +none of us have asked, and giving as much of Himself as He can give, +undesired, to every heart, that thereby we may be led to desire +these better gifts which cannot be bestowed unless we seek them. + +So here we have the compassion of the human Christ, which is the +divine compassion, drying all tears and giving unasked blessings. + +II. Note, secondly, the further revelation of our Lord here as being +the life-giving Antagonist of Death. + +There is something exceedingly picturesque, and if I might use the +word, dramatic, in the meeting of these two processions outside the +city gate, the little crowd of mourners hurrying, according to the +Eastern fashion, down the hill to the place of tombs, and the other +little group toiling up the hill to the city. There Life and Death +stand face to face. Jesus Christ puts out His hand, and lays it upon +the bier, not to communicate anything, but simply to arrest its +progress. Is it not a parable of His work in the world? His great +work is to stop the triumphant march of Death--that grim power which +broods like a thundercloud over humanity, and sucks up all +brightness into its ghastly folds, and silences all song. He comes +and says 'Stop'; and it stands fixed upon the spot. He arrests the +march of Death. Not indeed that He touches the mere physical fact. +The physical fact is not what men mean by death. It is not what they +cower before. What the world shrinks from is the physical fact plus +its associations, its dim forebodings, its recoilings from the +unknown regions into which the soul goes from out of 'the warm +precincts of the cheerful day,' and plus the possibilities of +retribution, the certainty of judgment. All these Christ sweeps +away, so that we may say, 'He hath abolished Death,' even though we +all have to pass through the mere externals of dying, for the dread +of Death is gone for ever, if we trust Him. + +And then note, still further, we have Christ here as the Life-giver. +'Young man, I say unto thee, Arise!' + +Christ took various methods of imparting His miraculous power. These +methods varied, as it would appear, according to the religious +necessities of the subjects or beholders of the miracle. Sometimes +He touched, sometimes He employed still more material vehicles, such +as the clay with which He moistened the eyes of the blind man, and +the spittle with which He touched the ears of the deaf. But all +these various methods were but helps to feeble faith, and in the +case of all the raisings from the dead it is the voice alone that is +employed. + +So, then, what is the meaning of that majestic 'I say unto thee, +Arise'? He claims to work by His own power. Unless Jesus Christ +wielded divine authority in a fashion in which no mere human +representative and messenger of God ever has wielded it, for Him to +stand by that bier and utter, 'I say unto thee, Arise!' was neither +more nor less than blasphemy. And yet the word had force. He assumed +to act by His own power, and the event showed that He assumed not +too much. 'The Son quickeneth whom He will.' + +Further, He acts by His bare word. So He did on many other +occasions--rebuking the fever and it departs, speaking to the wind +and it ceases, calling to the dead and they come forth. And who is +He, the bare utterance of whose will is supreme, and has power over +material things? Let that centurion whose creed is given to us in +the earlier portion of this chapter answer the question. 'I say to +my servant, Go! and he goeth; Come! and he cometh; Do this! and he +doeth it. Speak Thou, and all the embattled forces of the universe +will obey Thine autocratic and sovereign behest,' they 'hearken to +His commandments, and do the voice of His word.' + +Then note, still further, that this voice of Christ's has power in +the regions of the dead. Wherever that young man was, he heard; in +whatsoever state or condition he was, his personality felt and +obeyed the magnetic force of Christ's will. The fact that the Lord +spake and the boy heard, disposes, if it be true, of much error, and +clears away much darkness. Then the separation of body and soul +_is_ a separation and not a destruction. Then consciousness is +not a function of the brain, as they tell us. Then man lives wholly +after he is dead. Then it is possible for the spirit to come out of +some dim region, where we know not, in what condition we know not. +Only this we know--that, wherever it is, Christ's will has authority +there; and there, too, is obedience to His commandment. + +And so let me remind you that this Voice is not only revealing as to +Christ's authority and power, and illuminative as to the condition +of the disembodied dead, but it is also prophetic as to the future. +It tells us that there is nothing impossible or unnatural in that +great assurance. 'The hour is coming when they that are in the +graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth.' There shall be +for the dead a reunion with a body, which will bring men again into +connection with an external universe, and be the precursor of a +fuller judgment and an intenser retribution. + +Brethren, that Voice that raised one poor bewildered boy to sit up +on his bier, and begin to speak--broken exclamations possibly, and +stammering words of astonishment--shall be flung, like a trumpet +that scatters marvellous sounds, through the sepulchres of the +nations and compel all to stand before the throne. You and I will +hear it; let us be ready for it. + +III. So, lastly, we have here the revelation of our Lord as the +Reuniter of parted hearts. + +That is a wonderfully beautiful touch, evidently coming from an +eye-witness--'He delivered him to his mother.' That was what it had +all been done for. The mighty miracle was wrought that that poor +weeping woman might be comforted. + +May we not go a step further? May we not say, If Jesus Christ was so +mindful of the needs of a sorrowful solitary soul here upon earth, will +He be less mindful of the enduring needs of loving hearts yonder in the +heavens? If He raised this boy from the dead that his mother's arms +might twine round him again, and his mother's heart be comforted, will +He not in that great Resurrection give back dear ones to empty, +outstretched arms, and thereby quiet hungry hearts? It is impossible +to suppose that, continuing ourselves, we should be deprived of our +loves. These are too deeply engrained and enwrought into the very +texture of our being for that to be possible. And it is as impossible +that, in the great day and blessed world where all lost treasures are +found, hearts that have been sad and solitary here for many a day +shall not clasp again the souls of their souls--'and with God be the +rest.' + +So, though we know very little, surely we may take the comfort of +such a thought as this, which should be very blessed and sweet to +some of us, and with some assurance of hope may feel that the risen +boy at the gate of Nain was not the last lost one whom Christ, with +a smile, will deliver to the hearts that mourn for them, and there +we 'shall clasp inseparable hands with joy and bliss in over-measure +for ever.' 'And so shall we'--they and I, for that is what _we_ +means--' so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one +another with these words.' + + + + +JOHN'S DOUBTS AND CHRIST'S PRAISE + + + 'And the disciples of John shewed him of all these + things. 19. And John calling unto him two of his + disciples, sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou He + that should come? or look we for another? 20. When + the men were come unto Him, they said, John Baptist + hath sent us unto Thee, saying, Art Thou He that + should come? or look we for another? 21. And in the + same hour He cured many of their infirmities and + plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were + blind He gave sight. 22. Then Jesus, answering, said + unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye + have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame + walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead + are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. + 23. And blessed is be, whosoever shall not be offended + in Me. 24. And when the messengers of John were + departed, He began to speak unto the people concerning + John. What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? + A reed shaken with the wind? 25. But what went ye out + for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, + they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live + delicately, are in kings' courts. 26. But what went ye + out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and + much more than a prophet. 27. This is he, of whom it + is written, Behold, I send My messenger before Thy + face, which shall prepare Thy way before Thee. 28. For + I say unto you, Among those that are born of women + there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; + but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater + than he.'--LUKE vii. 18-28. + +We take three stages in this passage--the pathetic message from the +prisoner, Christ's double answer to it, and His grand eulogium on +John. + +I. The message from the prisoner. Had mists of doubt crept over +John's clear conviction that Jesus was the Messiah? Some have +thought it incredible that the man who had seen the descending dove, +and heard the voice proclaiming 'This is My beloved Son,' should +ever have wavered. But surely our own experience of the effect of +circumstances and moods on our firmest beliefs gives us parallels to +John's doubts. A prison would be especially depressing to the +desert-loving Baptist; compelled inaction would fret his spirit; he +would be tempted to think that, if Jesus were indeed the Bridegroom, +he might have spared a thought for the friend of the Bridegroom +languishing in Machaerus. Above all, the kind of works that Jesus +was doing did not fill the _rôle_ of the Messiah as he had +conceived it. Where were the winnowing fan, the axe laid to the +roots of the trees, the consuming fire? This gentle friend of +publicans and sinners was not what he had expected the One mightier +than himself to be. + +Probably his disciples went farther in doubting than he did, but his +message was the expression of his own hesitations, as is suggested +by the answer being directed to him, not to the disciples. It may +have also been meant to stir Jesus, if He were indeed Messiah, to +'take to Himself His great power.' But the most natural explanation +of it is that John's faith was wavering. The tempest made the good +ship stagger. But reeling faith stretched out a hand to Jesus, and +sought to steady itself thereby. We shall not come to much harm if +we carry our doubts as to Him to be cleared by Himself. John's +gloomy prison thoughts may teach us how much our faith may be +affected by externals and by changing tempers of mind, and how +lenient, therefore, should be our judgments of many whose trust may +falter when a strain comes. It may also teach us not to write bitter +things against ourselves because of the ups and downs of our +religious experience, but yet to seek to resist the impression that +circumstances make on it, and to aim at keeping up an equable +temperature, both in the summer of prosperity and the winter of +sorrow. + +II. The twofold answer. Its first part was a repetition of the same +kind of miracles, the news of which had evoked John's message; and +its second part was simply the command to report these, with one +additional fact--that good tidings were preached to the poor. That +seemed an unsatisfactory reply, but it meant just this--to send John +back to think over these deeds of gracious pity and love as well as +of power, and to ask himself whether they were not the fit signs of +the Messiah. It is to be noted that the words which Christ bids the +disciples speak to their master would recall the prophecies in +Isaiah xxxv. 5 and lxi. 1, and so would set John to revise his ideas +of what prophecy had painted Messiah as being. The deepest meaning +of the answer is that love, pity, healing, are the true signs, not +judicial, retributive, destructive energy. John wanted the lightning; +Christ told him that the silent sunshine exerts energy, to which the +fiercest flash is weak. We need the lesson, for we are tempted to +exalt force above love, if not in our thoughts of God, yet in looking +at and dealing with men; and we are slow to apprehend the teaching of +Bethlehem and Calvary, that the divinest thing in God, and the strongest +power among men, is gentle, pitying, self-sacrificing love. Rebuke +could not be softer than that which was sent to John in the form of +a benediction. To take offence at Jesus, either because He is not what +we expect Him to be, or for any other reason, is to shut oneself out +from the sum of blessings which to accept Him brings with it. + +III. Christ's eulogium on John. How lovingly it was timed! The +people had heard John's message and its answer, and might expect +some disparaging remarks about his vacillation. But Jesus chooses +that very time to lavish unstinted praise on him. That is praise +indeed. The remembrance of the Jordan banks, where John had +baptized, shapes the first question. The streams of people would not +have poured out there to look at the tall reeds swaying in the +breeze, nor to listen to a man who was like them. He who would rouse +and guide others must have a firm will, and not be moved by any +blast that blows. Men will rally round one who has a mind of his own +and bravely speaks it, and who has a will of his own, and will not +be warped out of his path. The undaunted boldness of John, of whom, +as of John Knox, it might be said that 'he never feared the face of +man,' was part of the secret of his power. His imprisonment +witnessed to it. He was no reed shaken by the wind, but like another +prophet, was made 'an iron pillar, and brazen walls' to the whole +house of Israel. But he had more than strength of character, he had +noble disregard for worldly ease. Not silken robes, like courtiers', +but a girdle of camels' hair, not delicate food, but locusts and +wild honey, were his. And that was another part of his power, as it +must be, in one shape or other, of all who rouse men's consciences, +and wake up generations rotting away in self-indulgence. John's +fiery words would have had no effect if they had not poured hot from +a life that despised luxury and soft ease. If a man is once +suspected of having his heart set on material good, his usefulness +as a Christian teacher is weakened, if not destroyed. But even these +are not all, for Jesus goes on to attest that John was a prophet, +and something even more; namely, the forerunner of the Messiah. As, +in a royal progress, the nearer the king's chariot the higher the +rank, and they who ride just in front of him are the chiefest, so +John's proximity in order of time to Jesus distinguished him above +those who had heralded him long ages ago. It is always true that, +the closer we are to Him, the more truly great we are. The highest +dignity is to be His messenger. We must not lose sight of the +exalted place which Jesus by implication claims for Himself by such +a thought, as well as by the quotation from Malachi, and by the +alteration in it of the original 'My' and 'Me' to 'Thy' and 'Thee.' +He does not mean that John was the greatest man that ever lived, as +the world counts greatness, but that in the one respect of relation +to Him, and consequent nearness to the kingdom, he surpassed all. + +The scale employed to determine greatness in this saying is position +in regard to the kingdom, and while John is highest of those who +(historically) were without it, because (historically) he was +nearest to it, the least _in_ it is greater than the greatest +without. The spiritual standing of John and the devout men before +him is not in question; it is their position towards the +manifestation of the kingdom in time that is in view. We rejoice to +believe that John and many a saint from early days were subjects of +the King, and have been 'saved into His everlasting kingdom.' But +Jesus would have us think greatly of the privilege of living in the +light of His coming, and of being permitted by faith to enter His +kingdom. The lowliest believer knows more, and possesses a fuller +life born of the Spirit, than the greatest born of woman, who has +not received that new birth from above. + + + + +GREATNESS IN THE KINGDOM + + + 'He that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than + he.'--LUKE vii. 28. + +We were speaking in a preceding sermon about the elements of true +greatness, as represented in the life and character of John the +Baptist. As we remarked then, our Lord poured unstinted eulogium +upon the head of John, in the audience of the people, at the very +moment when he showed himself weakest. 'None born of women' was, in +Christ's eyes, 'greater than John the Baptist.' The eulogium, +authoritative as it was, was immediately followed by a depreciation +as authoritative, from Christ's lips: 'The least in the kingdom is +greater than he.' Greatness depends, not on character, but on +position. The contrast that is drawn is between being _in_ and +being _out_ of the kingdom; and this man, great as he was among +them 'that are born of women,' stood but upon the threshold; +therefore, and only therefore, and in that respect, was he 'less +than the least' who was safely within it. + +Now, there are two things in these great words of our Lord to notice +by way of introduction. One is the calm assumption which He makes of +authority to marshal men, to stand above the greatest of them, and +to allocate their places, because He knows all about them; and the +other is the equally calm and strange assumption of authority which +He makes, in declaring that the least within the kingdom is greater +than the greatest without. For the kingdom is embodied in Him, its +King, and He claimed to have opened the door of entrance into it. +'The kingdom of God,' or of heaven--an old Jewish idea--means, +whatever else it means, an order of things in which the will of God +is supreme. Jesus Christ says, 'I have come to make that real reign +of God, in the hearts of men, possible and actual.' So He presents +Himself in these words as infinitely higher than the greatest +within, or the greatest without the kingdom, and as being Himself +the sovereign arbiter of men's claims to greatness. Greater than the +greatest is He, the King; for if to be barely across the threshold +stamps dignity upon a man, what shall we say of the conception of +His own dignity which He formed who declared that He sat on the +throne of that kingdom, and was its Monarch? + +I. The first thought that I suggest is the greatness of the little +ones in the kingdom. + +As I have said, our Lord puts the whole emphasis of His +classification on men's position. Inside all are great, greater than +any that are outside. The least in the one order is greater than the +greatest in the other. So, then, the question comes, How does a man +step across that threshold? Our Lord evidently means the expression +to be synonymous with His true disciples. We may avail ourselves, in +considering how men come to be in the kingdom, of His own words. +Once He said that unless we _received_ it as little children, +we should never be _within_ it. There the blending of the two +metaphors adds force and completeness to the thought. The kingdom is +without us, and is offered to us; we must receive it as a gift, and +it must come into us before we can be in it. The point of comparison +between the recipients of the kingdom and little children does not +lie in any sentimental illusions about the innocence of childhood, +but in its dependence, in its absence of pretension, in its sense of +clinging helplessness, in its instinctive trust. All these things in +the child are natural, spontaneous, unreflecting, and therefore of +no value. You and I have to think ourselves back to them, and to +work ourselves back to them, and to fight ourselves back to them, +and to strip off their opposites which gather round us in the course +of our busy, effortful life. Then they become worth infinitely more +than their instinctive analogues in the infant. The man's absence of +pretension and consciousness of helplessness and dependent trust are +beautiful and great, and through them the kingdom of God, with all +its lights and glories, pours into his heart, and he himself steps +into it, and becomes a true servant and subject of the King. + +Then there is another word of the Master's, equally illuminative, as +to how we pass into the kingdom, when He spoke to the somewhat +patronising Pharisee that came to talk to Him by night, and +condescended to give the young Rabbi a certificate of approval from +the Sanhedrim, 'We know that Thou art a Teacher come from God.' +Christ's answer was, in effect, 'Knowing will not serve your turn. +There is something more than that wanted: "Except a man be born of +water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."' +So, another condition of entering the kingdom--that is, of coming +for myself into the attitude of lowly, glad submission to God's +will--is the reception into our natures of a new life-principle, so +that we are not only, like the men whom Christ compared with John, +'born of women,' but by a higher birth are made partakers of a +higher life, and born of the Spirit of God. These are the +conditions--on our side the reception with humility, helplessness, +dependent trust like those of children, on God's side the imparting, +in answer to that dependence and trust, of a higher principle of +life--these are the conditions on which we can pass out of the realm +of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. + +This being so, then we have next to consider the greatness that +belongs to the least of those who thus have crossed the threshold, +and have come to exercise joyous submission to the will of God. The +highest dignity of human nature, the loftiest nobility of which it +is capable, is to submit to God's will. 'Man's chief end is to +glorify God.' There is nothing that leads life to such sovereign +power as when we lay all our will at His feet, and say, 'Break, +bend, mould, fashion it as Thou wilt.' We are in a higher position +when we are in God's hand. His tools and the pawns on His board, +than we are when we are seeking to govern our lives at our pleasure. +Dignity comes from submission, and they who keep God's commandments +are the aristocracy of the world. + +Then, further, there comes the thought that the greatness that +belongs to the least of the little ones within the kingdom springs +from their closer relation to the Saviour, whose work they more +clearly know and more fully appropriate. It is often said that the +Sunday-school child who can repeat the great text, 'God so loved the +world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth +in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,' stands far +above prophet, righteous man, and John himself. This is not exactly +true, for knowledge of the truth is not what introduces into the +kingdom; but it is true that the weakest, the humblest, the most +ignorant amongst us, who grasps that truth of the God-sent Son whose +death is the world's life, and who lives, therefore, nestling close +to Jesus Christ, walks in a light far brighter than the twilight +that shone upon the Baptist, or the yet dimmer rays that reached +prophets and righteous men of old. It is not a question of +character; it is a question of position. True greatness is +regulated, by closeness to Jesus Christ, and by apprehension and +appropriation of His work to myself. The dwarf on the shoulders of +the giant sees further than the giant; and 'the least in the +kingdom,' being nearer to Jesus Christ than the men of old could +ever be, because possessing the fuller revelation of God in Him, is +greater than the greatest without. They who possess, even in germ, +that new life-principle which comes in the measure of a man's faith +in Christ, thereby are lifted above saints and martyrs and prophets +of old. The humblest Christian grasps a fuller Christ, and therein +possesses a fuller spiritual life, than did the ancient heroes of +the faith. Christ's classification here says nothing about +individual character. It says nothing about the question as to the +possession of true religion or of spiritual life by the ancient +saints, but it simply declares that because we have a completer +revelation, we therefore, grasping that revelation, are in a more +blessed position, 'God having provided some better thing for us, +that they without us should not be made perfect.' The lowest in a +higher order is higher than the highest in a lower order. As the +geologist digs down through the strata, and, as he marks the +introduction of new types, declares that the lowest specimen of the +mammalia is higher than the highest preceding of the reptiles or of +the birds, so Christ says, 'He that is lowest in the kingdom of +heaven is greater than he.' + +Brethren! these thoughts should stimulate and should rebuke us that +having so much we make so little use of it. We know God more fully, +and have mightier motives to serve Him, and larger spiritual helps +in serving Him than had any of the mighty men of old. We have a +fuller revelation than Abraham had; have we a tithe of his faith? We +have a mightier Captain of the Lord's host with us than stood before +Joshua; have we any of his courage? We have a tenderer and fuller +revelation of the Father than had psalmists of old; are our +aspirations greater after God, whom we know so much better, than +were theirs in the twilight of revelation? A savage with a shell and +a knife of bone will make delicate carvings that put our workers, +with their modern tools, to shame. A Hindoo, weaving in a shed, with +bamboos for its walls and palm leaves for its roof, and a rude loom, +the same as his ancestors used three thousand years ago, will turn +out muslins that Lancashire machinery cannot rival. We are exalted +in position, let us see to it that Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, +and all the saints, do not put us to shame, lest the greatest should +become the guiltiest, and exaltation to heaven should lead to +dejection to hell. + +II. Notice the littleness of the great ones in the kingdom. + +Our Lord here recognises the fact that there will be varieties of +position, that there will be an outer and an inner court in the +Temple, and an aristocracy in the kingdom. 'In a great house there +are not only vessels of gold and silver, but of wood and of clay.' +When a man passes into the territory, it still remains an open +question how far into the blessed depths of the land he will +penetrate. Or, to put away the figure, if as Christian people we +have laid hold of Jesus Christ, and in Him have received the kingdom +and the new life-power, there still remains the question, how much +and how faithfully we shall utilise the gifts, and what place in the +earthly experience and manifestation of His kingdom we shall occupy. +There are great and small within it. + +So it comes to be a very important question for us all, how we may +not merely be content, as so many of us are, with having scraped +inside and just got both feet across the boundary line, but may +become great in the kingdom. Let me answer that question in three +sentences. The little ones in Christ's kingdom become great by the +continual exercise of the same things which admitted them there at +first. If greatness depends on position in reference to Jesus +Christ, the closer we come to Him and the more we keep ourselves in +loving touch and fellowship with Him, the greater in the kingdom we +shall be. Again, the little ones in Christ's kingdom become great by +self-forgetting service. 'He that will be great among you, let him +be your minister.' Self-regard dwarfs a man, self-oblivion magnifies +him. If ever you come across, even in the walks of daily life, +traces in people of thinking much of themselves, and of living +mainly for themselves, down go these men in your estimation at once. +Whether you have a beam of the same sort in your own eye or not, you +can see the mote in theirs, and you lower your appreciation of them +immediately. It is the same in Christ's kingdom, only in an infinitely +loftier fashion. There, to become small is to become great. Again, the +little ones in Christ's kingdom become great, not only by cleaving +close to the Source of all greatness, and deriving thence a higher +dignity by the suppression and crucifixion of self-esteem and +self-regard, but by continual obedience to their Lord's commandment. +As He said on the Sermon on the Mount, 'Whoso shall do and teach one +of the least of these commandments shall be called great in the kingdom +of heaven.' The higher we are, the more we are bound to punctilious +obedience to the smallest injunction. The more we are obedient to +the lightest of His commandments, the greater we become. Thus the +least in the kingdom may become the greatest there, if only, cleaving +close to Christ, he forgets himself, and lives for others, and does +the Father's will. + +III. Lastly, I travel for a moment beyond my text, and note the +perfect greatness of all in the perfected kingdom. + +The very notion of a kingdom of God established in reality, however +imperfectly here on earth, demands that somewhere, and some time, +and somehow, there should be an adequate, a universal and an eternal +manifestation and establishment of it. If, here and now, dotted +about over the world, there are men who, with much hindrance and +many breaks in their obedience, are still the subjects of that +realm, and trying to do the will of God, unless we are reduced to +utter bewilderment intellectually, there must be a region in which +that will shall be perfectly done, shall be continually done, shall +be universally done. The obedience that we render to Him, just +because it is broken by so much rebellion, slackened by so much +indifference, hindered by so many clogs, hampered by so many +limitations, points, by its attainments and its imperfections alike, +to a region where the clogs and limitations and interruptions shall +have all vanished, and the will of the Lord shall be the life and +the light thereof. + +So there rises up before us the fair prospect of that heavenly +kingdom, in which all that here is interrupted and thwarted tendency +shall have become realised effect. + +That state must necessarily be a state of continual advance. For if +greatness consists in apprehension and appropriation of Christ and +His work, there are no limits to the possible expansion and +assimilation of a human heart to Him, and the wealth of His glory is +absolutely boundless. An infinite Christ to be assimilated, and an +indefinite capacity of assimilation in us, make the guarantee that +eternity shall see the growing progress of the subjects of the +kingdom, in resemblance to the King. + +If there is this endless progress, which is the only notion of +heaven that clothes with joy and peace the awful thought of unending +existence, then there will be degrees there too, and the old +distinction of 'least' and 'greatest' in the kingdom will subsist to +the end. The army marches onwards, but they are not all abreast. +They that are in front do not intercept any of the blessings or of +the light that come to the rearmost files; and they that are behind +are advancing and envy not those who lead the march. + +Only let us remember, brother, that the distinction of least and +great in the kingdom, in its imperfect forms on earth, is carried +onwards into the kingdom in its perfect form into heaven. The +highest point of our attainment here is the starting-point of our +progress yonder. 'An entrance shall be ministered'; it may be +'ministered abundantly,' or we may be 'saved yet so as by fire.' Let +us see to it that, being least in our own eyes, we belong to the +greatest in the kingdom. And that we may, let us hold fast by the +Source of all greatness, Christ Himself, and so we shall be launched +on a career of growing greatness, through the ages of eternity. To +be joined to Him is greatness, however small the world may think us. +To be separate from Him is to be small, though the hosannas of the +world may misname us great. + + + + +THWARTING GOD'S PURPOSE + + + 'The Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God + against themselves, being not baptized of Him.' + --LUKE vii. 30. + +Our Lord has just been pouring unstinted praise on the head of John +the Baptist. The eulogium was tenderly timed, for it followed, and +was occasioned by the expression, through messengers, of John's +doubts of Christ's Messiahship. Lest these should shake the people's +confidence in the Forerunner, and make them think of him as weak and +shifting, Christ speaks of him in the glowing words which precede my +text, and declares that he is no 'reed shaken with the wind.' + +But what John was was of less moment to Christ's listeners than was +what they had done with John's message. So our Lord swiftly passes +from His eulogium upon John to the sharp thrust of the personal +application to His hearers. In the context He describes the twofold +treatment which that message had received; and so describes it as, +in the description, to lay bare the inmost characteristics of the +reception or rejection of the message. As to the former, He says +that the mass of the common people, and the outcast publicans, +'justified God'; by which remarkable expression seems to be meant +that their reception of John's message and baptism acknowledged +God's righteousness in accusing them of sin and demanding from them +penitence. + +On the other hand, the official class, the cultivated people, +the orthodox respectable people--that is to say, the dead +formalists--'rejected the counsel of God against themselves.' + +Now the word 'rejected' would be more adequately rendered +'_frustrated,_' thwarted, made void, or some such expression, +as indeed it is employed in other places of Scripture, where it is +translated 'disannulled,' 'made void,' and the like. And if we take +that meaning, there emerge from this great word of the Master's two +thoughts, that to disbelieve God's word is to thwart God's purpose, +and that to thwart His purpose is to harm ourselves. + +I. And I remark, first, that the sole purpose which God has in view +in speaking to us men is our blessing. + +I suppose I need not point out to you that 'counsel' here does not +mean _advice_, but _intention_. In regard to the matter immediately +in hand, God's purpose or _counsel_ in sending the Forerunner was, +first of all, to produce in the minds of the people a true consciousness +of their own sinfulness and need of cleansing; and so to prepare the +way for the coming of the Messiah, who should bring the inward gift +which they needed, and so secure their salvation. The intention +was, first, to bring to repentance, but that was a preparation for +bringing to them full forgiveness and cleansing. And so we may fairly +widen the thought into the far greater and nobler one which applies +especially to the message of God in Jesus Christ, and say that +the only design which God has in view, in the gospel of His Son, is +the highest blessing--that is, the salvation--of every man to whom +it is spoken. + +Now, by the gospel, which, as I say, has thus one single design in +the divine mind, I mean, what I think the New Testament means, the +whole body of truths which underlie and flow from the fact of +Christ's Death, Resurrection, and Ascension, which in brief are +these--man's sin, man's helplessness, the Incarnation of the Son of +God, the Death of Christ as the sacrifice for the world's sin; +Faith, as the one hand by which we grasp the blessing, and the gift +of a Divine Spirit which follows upon our faith, and bestows upon us +sonship and likeness to God, purity of life and character, and +heaven at last. That, as I take it, is in the barest outline what is +meant by the gospel of Jesus Christ. + +And now I want to press upon you, dear friends, that that great and +sublime body of truths made known to us, as I believe, from God +Himself, has one sole object in view and none beside--viz. that +every man who hears it may partake of the salvation and the hope +which it brings. It has a twofold effect, alas! but the twofold +effect does not imply a twofold purpose. There have been schemes of +so-called Christian theology which have darkened the divine +character in this respect, and have obscured the great thought that +God has one end in view, and one only, when He speaks to us in all +good faith, desiring nothing else but only that we shall be gathered +into His heart, and made partakers of His love. He is not willing +that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of +the truth. + +If so, the question comes very sharp and direct to each of us, Is +that gospel fulfilling its purpose in me? There are many subordinate +good things flowing from the Christian revelation, such as blessings +for social outward life, which are as flowers that spring up in its +path; but unless it has effected its one purpose in regard to you +and me, it has failed altogether. God meant His word to save your +soul. Has it done so? It is a question that any man can answer if +he--will be honest with himself. + +Further, this single purpose of the divine speech embraces in its +intention each of the hearers of that message. I want to gather the +wide-flowing generality, 'God so loved the world that He sent His +Son that whosoever believeth,' into this sharp point, 'God so loved +_me_, that He sent His Son that _I_, believing, might have +life eternal.' We shall never understand the universality of +Christianity until we have appreciated the personality and the +individuality of its message to each of us. God does not lose thee in +the crowd, do not thou lose thyself in it, nor fail to apprehend that +_thou_ art personally meant by His broadest declarations. It is +_thy_ salvation that Christ had in view when He became man and +died on the Cross; and it is thy salvation that He had in view when +He said to His servants, 'Go into _all_ the world'--there is +universality--'and preach the Gospel to _every_ creature'--there +is individuality. + +Then, further, God is verily seeking to accomplish this purpose even +now, by my lips, in so far as I am true to my Master and my message. +The outward appearance of what we are about now is that I am trying, +lamely enough, to speak to you. You may judge this service by rules +of rhetoric, or anything else you like. But you have not got to the +bottom of things unless you feel, as I am praying that every one of +you may feel, that even with all my imperfections on my head--and I +know them better than you can tell me them--I, like all true men who +are repeating God's message as they have caught it, neither more nor +less, and have sunk themselves in it, may venture to say, as the +Apostle said: 'Now, then, we are ambassadors for God, as though God +did beseech by us, we pray in Christ's stead.' John's voice was a +revelation of God's purpose, and the voice of every true preacher of +Jesus Christ is no less so. + +II. Secondly, this single divine purpose, or 'counsel,' may be +thwarted. + +'They frustrated the counsel of God.' Of all the mysteries of this +inexplicable world, the deepest, the mother-mystery of all, is, that +given an infinite will and a creature, the creature can thwart the +infinite. I said that was the mystery of mysteries: 'Our wills are +ours we know not how,'--No! indeed we don't!--'Our wills are ours to +make them Thine.' But that purpose necessarily requires the +possibility of the alternative that our wills are ours, and we +_refuse_ 'to make them Thine.' The possibility is mysterious; +the reality of the fact is tragic and bewildering. We need no proof +except our own consciousness; and if that were silenced we should +have the same fact abundantly verified in the condition of the world +around us, which sadly shows that not yet is God's 'will' done 'on +earth as it is in heaven,' but that men can and do lift themselves +up against God and set themselves in antagonism to His most gracious +purposes. And whosoever refuses to accept God's message in Christ +and God's salvation revealed in that message is thus setting himself +in battle array against the infinite, and so far as in him lies +(that is to say, in regard to his own personal condition and +character) is thwarting God's most holy will. + +Now, brethren, I said that there was only one thought in the divine +heart when He sent His Son, and that was to save you and me and all +of us. But that thought cannot but be frustrated, and made of none +effect, as far as the individual is concerned, by unbelief. For +there is no way by which any human being can become participant of +the spiritual blessings which are included in that great word +'salvation,' except by simple trust in Jesus Christ. I cannot too +often and earnestly insist upon this plain truth, which, plain as it +is, is often obscured, and by many people is never apprehended at +all, that when the Apostle says 'It is the power of God unto +salvation to every one that believeth,' he is laying down no +limitation of the universality or of the adequacy of that power, but +is only setting forth the plain condition, inherent in the very +nature of things and in the nature of the blessings bestowed, that +if a man does not trust God he cannot get them, and God cannot give +him them, though His heart yearns to give him them He cannot do it. +How can any man get any good out of a medicine if he locks his teeth +and won't take it? How can any truth that I refuse to believe +produce any effect upon me? How is it possible for the blessings of +forgiveness and cleansing to be bestowed upon men who neither know +their need of forgiveness nor desire to be washed from their sins? +How can there be the flowing of the Divine Spirit into a heart which +is tightly barred against His entrance? In a word, how a man can be +saved with the salvation that the Gospel offers, except on condition +of his simple trust in Christ the Giver, I, for my part, fail to +see. And so I remind you that the thwarting of God's counsel is the +awful prerogative of unbelief. + +Then, note that, in accordance with the context, you do not need to +put yourselves to much effort in order to bring to nought God's +gracious intention about you. 'They thwarted the counsel of God, +being _not_ baptized of Him.' They did not _do_ anything. They simply +did nothing, and that was enough. There is no need for violent +antagonism to the counsel. Fold your hands in your lap, and the gift +will not come into them. Clench them tightly, and put them behind +your back, and it cannot come. A negation is enough to ruin a man. You +do not need to do anything to slay yourselves. In the ocean, when the +lifebelt is within reach, simply forbear to put out your hand to it, +and down you will go, like a stone, to the very bottom. 'They rejected +the counsel,' 'being _not_'--and that was all. + +Further, the people who are in most danger of frustrating God's gracious +purpose are not blackguards, not men and women steeped to the eyebrows +in the stagnant pool of sensuous sin, but clean, respectable +church-and-chapel-going, sermon-hearing, doctrine-criticising Pharisees. +The man or woman who is led away by the passions that are lodged in +his or her members is not so hopeless as the man into whose spiritual +nature there has come the demon of self-complacent righteousness, or +who, as is the case with many a man and woman sitting in these pews +now, has listened to, or at all events, has _heard_, men +preaching, as I am trying to preach, ever since childhood, and has +never done anything in consequence. These are the hopeless people. The +Pharisees--and there are hosts of their great-great-grandchildren in +all our congregations--'the Pharisees ... frustrated the counsel of +God.' + +III. Lastly, this thwarting brings self-inflicted harm. + +A little skiff of a boat comes athwart the bows of a six thousand +ton steamer, with triple-expansion engines, that can make twenty +knots an hour. What will become of the skiff, do you think? You can +thwart God's purpose about yourself, but the great purpose goes on +and on. And 'Who hath hardened himself against Him and prospered?' +You can thwart the purpose, but it is kicking against the pricks. + +Consider what you lose when you will have nothing to do with that +divine counsel of salvation. Consider not only what you lose, but +what you bring upon yourself; how you bind your sin upon your +hearts; how you put out your hands, and draw disease and death +nearer to yourselves; how you cannot turn away from, or be +indifferent to, the gracious, sweet, pleading voice that speaks to +you from the Cross and the Throne, without doing damage--in many +more ways than I have time to enlarge upon now--to your own +character and inward nature. And consider how there lie behind dark +and solemn results about which it does not become me to speak, but +which it still less becomes me--believing as I do--to suppress. +'After death the judgment'; and what will become of the thwarters of +the divine counsel then? + +These wounds, many, deep, deadly as they are, are self-inflicted. +There do follow, on God's message and unbelief of it, awful +consequences; but these are not His intention. They are the results +of our misuse of His gracious word. 'Oh, Israel!' wailed the +prophet, 'thou hast destroyed _thyself_' Man's happiness or woe +is his own making, and his own making only. There is no creature in +heaven or earth or hell that is chargeable with your loss but +yourself. We are our own betrayers, our own murderers, our own +accusers, our own avengers, and--I was going to say, and it is true +--our own hell. + +Dear friends! this message comes to you once more now, that Jesus +Christ has died for your sins, and that if you will trust Him as +your Saviour, and obey Him as your Sovereign, you will he saved with +an everlasting salvation. Even through my lips God speaks to you. +What are you going to do with His message? Are you going to receive +it, and 'justify' Him, or are you going to reject it, and thwart +Him? You thwart Him if you treat my words now as a mere sermon to be +criticised and forgotten; you thwart Him if you do anything with His +message except take it to your heart and rest wholly upon it. Unless +you do you are suicides; and neither God, nor man, nor devil is +responsible for your destruction. He can say to you, as His servant +said: 'Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean.' Jesus Christ +is calling to every one of us, 'Turn ye! turn ye! Why will ye die? +As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.' + + + + +A GLUTTONOUS MAN AND A WINEBIBBER + + + 'The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye + say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a + friend of publicans and sinners!'--LUKE vii. 34. + +Jesus Christ very seldom took any notice of the mists of calumny +that drifted round Him. 'When He was reviled He reviled not again.' +If ever He did allude to them it was for the sake of the people who +were harming themselves by uttering them. So here, without the +slightest trace of irritation, He quotes a malignant charge which +was evidently in the popular mouth, and of which we should never +have known if He had not repeated it; not with anger, but simply in +order that He might point to the capricious inconsistency of finding +fault with John and Himself on precisely opposite grounds. The +former did not suit because he came neither eating nor drinking. +Well, if His asceticism did not please, surely the geniality of a +Christ who comes doing both will be hailed. But He is rejected like +the other. What is the cause of this dislike that can look two +different ways at once? Not the traits that it alleges, but +something far deeper, a dislike to the heavenly wisdom of which John +and Jesus were messengers. The children of wisdom would see that +there was right in both courses; the children of folly would condemn +them both. If the message is unwelcome, nothing that the messenger +can say or do will be right. + +The same kind of thing is common to-day. Never mind consistency, +find fault with Christianity on all its sides, and with all its +preachers, though you have to contradict yourself in doing so. +Object to this man that he is too learned and doctrinal; to that one +that he is too illiterate, and gives no food for thought; to this +one that he is always thundering condemnation; to that one that he +is always running over with love; to this one that he is perpetually +harping upon duties; to that other one that he is up in the clouds, +and forgets the tasks of daily life; to this one that he is +sensational; to that one that he is dull; and so on, and so on. The +generation that liked neither piping nor mourning has its +representatives still. + +But my business now is not with the inconsistency of the objectors +to John and Jesus, but simply with this caricature which He quotes +from them of some of His characteristics. It is a distorted +refraction of the beam of light that comes from His face, through +the muddy, thick medium of their prejudice. And if we can, I was +going to say, pull it straight again, we shall see something of His +glories. I take the two clauses of my text separately because they +are closely connected with our design, and cover different ground. + +I. I ask you to note, first, the enemies' attestation to Christ's +genial participation in the joys and necessities of common life. + +'The Son of man came eating and drinking.' There is nothing that +calumny, if it be malignant enough, cannot twist into an accusation; +and out of glorious and significant facts, full of lessons and +containing strong buttresses of the central truth of the Gospel, +these people made this charge, 'a winebibber and gluttonous.' The +facts were facts; the inferences were slanders. + +Notice how precious, how demonstrative of the very central truth of +Christianity, is that plain fact, 'The Son of man came eating and +drinking.' Then that pillar of all our hope, the Incarnation of the +word of God, stands irrefragable. Sitting at tables, hungering in +the wilderness, faint by the well, begging a draught of water from a +woman, and saying on His Cross 'I thirst!'--He is the Incarnation of +Deity, the manifestation of God in the flesh. Awe and mystery and +reverence and hope and trust clasp that fact, in which prejudice and +dislike could only find occasion for a calumny. + +By eating and drinking He declared that 'forasmuch as the children +were partakers of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise took part in +the same.' If it is true that every spirit that confesseth that +Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God,' then it is true that +no miracle in His life, nor any of the supernatural glories which we +are accustomed to regard as evidences of His majesty, are more +blessed, or more important as revelations of His nature, than the +fact that 'the Son of man came eating and drinking.' + +But, still further, mark how the truth which gave colour to the +slander attests that Jesus Christ presents to the world the highest +type of manhood. The ideal for life is not the suppression, but the +consecration, of material satisfactions and pleasures of appetite. +And they are likest to the Master who, like the Master, come eating +and drinking, and yet ever hold all appetites and desires rigidly +under control, and subordinate them all to loftier purposes. John +the Baptist could be an ascetic; the Pattern Man must not be. + +The highest type of religion, as it is shown to us in His perfect +life, includes the acceptance of all pure material blessings. +Asceticism is second best; the religion that can take and keep +secondary all outward and transitory sources of enjoyment, and can +hallow common life, is loftier than all pale hermits and emaciated +types of sanctity, who preserve their purity only by avoiding things +which it were nobler to enjoy and to subdue. + +There is nothing more striking about the Old Testament than the fact +that its heroes and saints were kindly with their kind, and took +part in common life, accepting, enjoying its blessings. They were +warriors, statesmen, shepherds, vinedressers; 'they bought, they +sold, they planted, they builded; they married and were given in +marriage,' and all the while they were the saints of God. That was a +nobler type of religion than the one that came after it, into which +Jesus Christ was born. When devotion cools it crusts; and the crust +is superstition and formalism and punctilious attention to the +proprieties of worship and casuistry, instead of joyful obedience to +a law, and abstinence from, instead of sanctification of, earthly +delights and supplies. + +So, protesting against all that, and showing the more excellent way, +and hallowing the way because He trod it, 'the Son of man came +eating and drinking.' Hence-forward every table may be a communion +table, and every meal may be a sacrament, eaten in obedience to His +dying injunction: 'This do in remembrance of Me.' If we can feel +that Christ sits with us at the feast, the feast will be pure and +good. If it is of such a sort as that we dare not fancy Him keeping +us company there, it is no place for us. Wherever Jesus Christ went +the consecration of His presence lingers still; whatever Jesus +Christ did His servants may do, if in the same spirit and in the +same manner. + +He hallowed infancy when He lay an infant in His mother's arms; He +hallowed childhood when, as a boy, He was obedient to His parents; +He hallowed youth during all those years of quiet seclusion and +unnoticed service in Nazareth; He hallowed every part of human life +and experience by bearing it. Love is consecrated because He loved; +tears are sacred because He wept; life is worship, or may be made +so, because He passed through it; and death itself is ennobled and +sanctified because He has died. + +Only let us remember that, if we are to exercise this blessed +hallowing of common things, of which He has set us the example, we must +use them as He did; that is, in such sort as that our communion with +God shall not be broken thereby, and that nothing in them shall darken +the vision and clip the wings of the aspiring and heavenward-gazing +spirit. Brethren! the tendency of this day--and one rejoices, in many +respects, that it is so--is to revolt against the extreme of narrowness +in the past that prescribed and proscribed a great many arbitrary and +unnecessary abstinences and practices as the sign of a Christian +profession. But whilst I would yield to no man in my joyful application +of the principle that underlies that great fact that 'He came eating +and drinking,' I do wish at this point to put in a _caveat_ which +perhaps may not be so welcome to some of you as the line of thought +that I have been pursuing. It is this: it is an error to quote +Christ's example as a cover for luxury and excess, and grasping at +material enjoyments which are not innocent in themselves, or are mixed +up with much that is not innocent. There is many a table spread by +so-called Christian people where Jesus Christ will not sit. Many a +man darkens his spirit, enfeebles his best part, blinds himself to the +things beyond, by reason of his taking the liberty, as he says, which +Christianity, broadly and generously interpreted, gives, of +participating in all outward delights. I have said that asceticism is +not the highest, but it is sometimes necessary. It is better to enjoy +and to subdue than to abstain and to suppress, but abstinence and +suppression are often essential to faithfulness and noble living. If +I find that my enjoyment of innocent things harms me, or is tending to +stimulate cravings beyond my control; or if I find that abstinence from +innocent things increases my power to help a brother, and to fight +against a desolating sin; or if things good and innocent in +themselves, and in some respects desirable and admirable, like the +theatre, for instance, are irretrievably intertwisted with evil +things, then Christ's example is no plea for our sharing in such. It +is better for us to cut off the offending hand, and so, though +maimed, to enter into life, than to keep two hands and go into the +darkness of death. Jesus Christ 'came eating and drinking,' and +therefore the highest and the best thing is that Christian people +should innocently, and with due control, and always keeping +themselves in touch with God, enjoy all outward blessings, only +subject to this law, 'whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, +to do all to the glory of God,' and remembering this warning, 'He +that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.' + +II. Now, secondly, notice the enemies' witness that Christ is the +Friend of outcasts. + +As I said about the other charge, so I say of this, the facts were +facts, the inferences were errors. The slanderers saw, as nobody +could help seeing, that there was a strange kind of mutual +attraction between Jesus and publicans and sinners; that harlots as +well as little children seemed to be drawn to Him; and that He +obviously delighted in the company of those at whose presence, +partly from pride, partly from national enmity, partly from +heartless self-righteousness, Pharisaism gathered its dainty skirts +around itself in abhorrence, lest a speck should fall upon their +purity. That being the fact, low natures, who always misunderstand +lofty ones, because they can only believe in motives as low as their +own, said of Jesus, 'Ah! you can tell what sort of a man He is by +the company He keeps. He is the friend of publicans because He is a +bad Jew; the friend of sinners because He likes their wicked ways.' + +There was a mysterious sense of sympathy which drew Jesus Christ to +these poor people and drew them to Him. It would have been a long +while before any penitent woman would have come in and wept over +the feet of Gamaliel and his like. It would have been a long while +before any sinful men would have found their way, with tears and yet +with trust, to these self-righteous hypocrites. But perfect purity +somehow draws the impure, though assumed sanctity always repels +them. And it is a sign, not that a man is bad, but that he is good +in a Christlike fashion, if the outcasts that durst not come near +your respectable people find themselves drawn to Him. Oh! if there +were more of us liker Jesus Christ in our purity, there would be +more of us who would deserve the calumny which is praise--'the +friend of sinners.' + +It was an attestation of His love, as I need not remind you. I +suppose there is nothing more striking in the whole wonderful and +unique picture of Jesus Christ drawn in the Gospels than the way in +which two things, which we so often fancy to be contradictory, blend +in the most beautiful harmony in Him--viz. infinite tenderness and +absolute condemnation of transgression. To me the fact that these +two characteristics are displayed in perfect harmony in the life of +Jesus Christ as written in these Gospels, is no small argument for +believing the historical veracity of the picture there drawn. For I +do not know a harder thing for a dramatist, or a romancer, or a +legend-monger to effect than to combine, in one picture--without +making the combination monstrous-these two things, perfect purity +and perfect love for the impure. + +But, dear brethren, remember, that if we are to believe Jesus +Christ's own words, that strange love of His, which embraced in its +pure clasp the outcasts, was not only the love of a perfect Man, but +it was the love of God Himself. 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the +Father.' When we see Jesus Christ looking across the valley to the +city, with tears in His sad and gentle eyes; and when we see harlots +and sinners coming near Him with new hope, and a strange +consciousness of a fascination which He wields; and when we see Him +opening His heart to all the impure, just as He laid His clean hand +on the leper's ulcers, let us rejoice to believe that the Friend of +publicans and sinners is God manifest in the flesh. + +Then, still further, this wondrous, seeking love of His for all the +outcasts is the sign to us of His boundless hopefulness concerning +the most degraded. + +The world talks of races too low to be elevated, of men too hardened +to be softened. Jesus Christ walks through the hospitals of this +world, and nowhere sees incurables. His hope is boundless, because, +first of all, He sees the dormant possibilities that slumber in the +most degraded; and because, still more, He knows that He bears in +Himself a power that will cleanse the foulest and raise the most +fallen. There are some metals that resist all attempts to volatilise +them by the highest temperature producible in our furnaces. Carry +them up into the sun and they will all pass into vapour. No man or +woman who ever lived, or will live, is so absolutely besotted, and +held by the chains of his or her sins, as that Jesus cannot set them +free. His hope for outcasts is boundless, because He knows that +every sin can be cleansed by His precious blood. Therefore, +Christianity should know nothing of desperate cases. There should be +no incurables in our estimate of the world, but our hope should be +as boundless as the Master's, who drew to Himself the publicans +and sinners, and made them saints. + +I need not remind you how this is the unique glory of Christ and of +Christianity. Men have been asking the question whether Christianity +is played out or not. What has been the motive power of all the +great movements for the elevation of mankind that have occurred for +the last nineteen centuries? What was it that struck the fetters of +the slaves? What is it that sends men out amongst savage tribes? Has +there ever been found a race of men so degraded that the message of +Christ's love could not find its way into their hearts? Did not +Darwin subscribe to the Patagonian Mission--a mission which takes in +hand perhaps the lowest types of humanity in the world--and did he +not do it because his own eyes had taught him that in this strange +superstition that we call the Gospel there is a power that, somehow +or other, nothing else can wield? Brethren! if the Church begins to +lose its care for, and its power of drawing, outcasts and sinners, +it has begun to lose its hold on Christ. The sooner such a Church +dies the better, and there will be few mourners at its funeral. + +The Friend of publicans and sinners has set the example to all of us +His followers. God be thanked that there are signs to-day that +Christian people are more and more waking up to the consciousness of +their obligations in regard to the outcasts in their own and other +lands. Let them go to them, as Jesus Christ did, with no false +flatteries, but with plain rebukes of sin, and yet with manifest +outgoing of the heart, and they will find that the same thing which +drew these poor creatures to the Master will draw others to the +feeblest, faintest reflection of Him in His servants. + +And, last of all, dear friends, let each think that Jesus Christ is +my Friend, and your Friend, because He is the Friend of sinners, and +we are sinners. If He did not love sinners there would be nobody for +Him to love. The universality of sin, however various in its degrees +and manifestations, makes more wonderful the universal sweep of His +friendship. + +How do I know that He is my Friend? 'Greater love hath no man than +this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,' and when we +were yet enemies He was our Friend, and died for us. How shall we +requite that love? 'Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command +you to do.' All over the Eastern world to this day the name by which +the Patriarch Abraham is known is the 'Friend' or the 'Companion.' +Well for us, for time and for eternity, if, knowing that Jesus is +our Friend, we yield ourselves, in faith and love, to become His +friends! + + + + +THE TWO DEBTORS + + + 'There was a certain creditor which had two debtors; + the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. + 42. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly + forgave them both. Tell Me therefore, which of them + will love him most? 43. Simon answered and said, I + suppose that he to whom he forgave most.'--LUKE vii.41-43. + +We all know the lovely story in which this parable is embedded. A +woman of notoriously bad character had somehow come in contact with +Jesus Christ, and had by Him been aroused from her sensuality and +degradation, and calmed by the assurance of forgiveness. So, when +she heard that He was in her own town, what could she do but hasten +to the Pharisee's house, and brave the cruel, scornful eyes of the +eminently respectable people that would meet her there? She carries +with her part of the spoils and instruments of her sinful adornment, +to devote it to His service; but before she can open the cruse, her +heart opens, and the hot tears flow on His feet, inflicting an indignity +where she had meant an honour. She has nothing at hand to repair the +fault, she will not venture to take her poor garment, which might have +done it, but with a touch, she loosens her long hair, and with the +ingenuity and self-abasement of love, uses that for a towel. Then, +gathering confidence from her reception, and carried further than she +had meant, she ventures to lay her sinful lips on His feet, as if asking +pardon for the tears that would come--the only lips, except those of +the traitor, that are recorded as having touched the Master. And only +then does she dare to pour upon Him her only wealth. + +What says the Pharisee? Has he a heart at all? He is scandalised at +such a scene at his respectable table; and no wonder, for he could +not have known that a change had passed upon the woman, and her evil +repute was obviously notorious. He does not wonder at her having +found her way into his house, for the meal was half public. But he +began to doubt whether a Man who tolerates such familiarities from +such a person could be a prophet; or if He were, whether He could be +a good man. 'He would have known her if He had been a prophet,' +thinks he. The thought is only a questionably true one. 'If He had +known her, He would have thrust her back with His foot,' he thinks; +and that thought is obviously false. But Simon's righteousness was +of the sort that gathers up its own robes about it, and shoves back +the poor sinner into the filth. 'She is a sinner,' says he. No, +Simon! she _was_ a sinner, but she _is_ a penitent, and is +on the road to be a saint, and having been washed, she is a great +deal cleaner than thou art, who art only white-washed. + +Our Lord's parable is the answer to the Pharisee's thought, and in +it Jesus shows Simon that He knows him and the woman a great deal +better than he did. There are three things to which briefly I ask +your attention--the common debt, in varying amounts; the common +insolvency; and the love, like the debt, varying in amount. Now, +note these things in order. + +I. There is, first of all, the common debt. + +I do not propose to dwell at all upon that familiar metaphor, +familiar to us all from its use in the Lord's Prayer, by which sin +and the guilt of sin are shadowed forth for us in an imperfect +fashion by the conception of debt. For duty neglected is a debt to +God, which can only be discharged by a penalty. And all sin, and its +consequent guilt and exposure to punishment, may be regarded under +the image of indebtedness. + +But the point that I want you to notice is that these two in our +parable, though they are meant to be portraits of Simon and the +woman, are also representatives of the two classes to one or other +of which we all belong. They are both debtors, though one owes but a +tenth of what the other does. That is to say, our Lord here draws a +broad distinction between people who are outwardly respectable, +decent, cleanly living, and people who have fallen into the habit, +and are living a life, of gross and open transgression. There has +been a great deal of very pernicious loose representation of the +attitude of Christianity in reference to this matter, common in +evangelical pulpits. And I want you to observe that our Lord draws a +broad line and says, 'Yes! you, Simon, are a great deal better than +that woman was. She was coarse, unclean, her innocence gone, her +purity stained. She had been wallowing in filth, and you, with your +respectability, your rigid morality, your punctilious observance of +the ordinary human duties, you were far better than she was, and had +far less to answer for than she had.' Fifty is only a tenth of five +hundred, and there is a broad distinction, which nothing ought to be +allowed to obliterate, between people who, without religion, are +trying to do right, to keep themselves in the paths of morality and +righteousness, to discharge their duty to their fellows, controlling +their passions and their flesh, and others who put the reins upon +the necks of the horses and let them carry them where they will, and +live in an eminent manner for the world and the flesh and the devil. +And there is nothing in evangelical Christianity which in the +smallest degree obliterates that distinction, but rather it +emphasises it, and gives a man full credit for any difference that +there is in his life and conduct and character between himself and +the man of gross transgression. + +But then it says, on the other side, the difference which does +exist, and is not to be minimised, is, after all, a difference of +degree. They are both debtors. They stand in the same relation to +the creditor, though the amount of the indebtedness is extremely +different. We are all sinful men, and we stand in the same relation +to God, though one of us may be much darker and blacker than the +other. + +And then, remember, that when you begin to talk about the guilt of +actions in God's sight, you have to go far below the mere surface. +If we could see the infinite complexity of motives--aggravations on +the one side and palliations on the other--which go to the doing of +a single deed, we should not be so quick to pronounce that the +publican and the harlot are worse than the Pharisee. It is quite +possible that an action which passes muster in regard to the +morality of the world may, if regard be had (which God only can +exercise) to the motive for which it is done, be as bad as, if not +worse than, the lust and the animalism, drunkenness and debauchery, +crime and murder, which the vulgar scales of the world consider to +be the heavier. If you once begin to try to measure guilt, you will +have to pass under the surface appearance, and will find that many a +white and dazzling act has a very rotten inside, and that many a +very corrupt and foul one does not come from so corrupt a source as +at first sight might seem to be its origin. Let us be very modest in +our estimate of the varying guilt of actions, and remember that, +deep down below all diversities, there lies a fundamental identity, +in which there is no difference, that all of us respectable people +that never broke a law of the nation, and scarcely ever a law of +propriety, in our lives, and the outcasts, if there are any here +now, the drunkards, the sensualists, all of us stand in this respect +in the same class. We are all debtors, for we have 'all sinned and +come short of the glory of God,' A viper an inch long and the +thickness of whipcord has a sting and poison in it, and is a viper. +And if the question is whether a man has got small-pox or not, one +pustule is as good evidence as if he was spotted all over. So, +remember, he who owes five hundred and he who owes the tenth part of +it, which is fifty, are both debtors. + +II. Now notice the common insolvency. + +'They had nothing to pay.' Well, if there is no money, 'no effects' +in the bank, no cash in the till, nothing to distrain upon, it does +not matter very much what the amount of the debt is, seeing that +there is nothing to meet it, and whether it is fifty or five hundred +the man is equally unable to pay. And that is precisely our +position. + +I admit, of course, that men without any recognition of God's +pardoning mercy, or any of the joyful impulse that comes from the +sense of Christ's redemption, or any of the help that is given by +the indwelling of the Spirit who sanctifies may do a great deal in +the way of mending their characters and making themselves purer and +nobler. But that is not the point which my text contemplates, +because it deals with a past. And the fact that lies under the +metaphor of my text is this, that none of us can in any degree +diminish our sin, considered as a debt to God. What can you and I do +to lighten our souls of the burden of guilt? What we have written we +have written. Tears will not wash it out, and amendment will not +alter the past, which stands frowning and irrevocable. If there be a +God at all, then our consciences, which speak to us of demerit, +proclaim guilt in its two elements--the sense of having done wrong, +and the foreboding of punishment therefor. Guilt cannot be dealt +with by the guilty one: it must be Some One else who deals with it. +He, and only He against whom we have sinned, can touch the great +burden that we have piled upon us. + +Brother! we have nothing to pay. We may mend our ways; but that does +not touch the past. We may hate the evil; that will help to keep us +from doing it in the future, but it does not affect our +responsibility for what is done. We cannot touch it; there it stands +irrevocable, with this solemn sentence written over the black pile, +'Every transgression and disobedience shall receive its just +recompense of reward.' We have nothing to pay. + +But my text suggests, further, that a condition precedent to +forgiveness is the recognition by us of our penniless insolvency. +Though it is not distinctly stated, it is clearly and necessarily +implied in the narrative, that the two debtors are to be supposed as +having come and held out a couple of pairs of empty hands, and sued +in _formâ pauperis_. You must recognise your insolvency if you +expect to be forgiven. God does not accept dividends, so much in the +pound, and let you off the rest on consideration thereof. If you are +going to pay, you have to pay all; if He is going to forgive, you +have to let Him forgive all. It must be one thing or the other, and +you and I have to elect which of the two we shall stand by, and +which of the two shall be applied to us. + +Oh, dear friends! may we all come and say, + + Nothing in my hand I bring, + Simply to Thy Cross I cling. + +III. And so, lastly, notice the love, which varies with the +forgiveness. + +'Tell Me which of them will love him most.' Simon does not penetrate +Christ's design, and there is a dash of supercilious contempt for the +story and the question, as it seems to me, in the languid, half-courteous +answer:--'I suppose, if it were worth my while to think about such a +thing, that he to whom he forgave the most.' He did not know what a +battery was going to be unmasked. Jesus says, 'Thou hast rightly judged.' + +The man that is most forgiven is the man that will love most. Well, +that answer is true if all other things about the two debtors are +equal. If they are the same sort of men, with the same openness to +sentiments of gratitude and generosity, the man who is let off the +smaller debt will generally be less obliged than the man who is let +off the larger. But it is, alas! not always the case that we can +measure benefits conferred by gratitude shown. Another element comes +in--namely, the consciousness of the benefit received--which +measures the gratitude far more accurately than the actual benefit +bestowed. And so we must take both these things, the actual amount +of forgiveness, so to speak, which is conferred, and the depth of +the sense of the forgiveness received, in order to get the measure +of the love which answers it. So that this principle breaks up into +two thoughts, of which I have only just a word or two to say. + +First, it is very often true that the greatest sinners make the +greatest saints. There have been plenty of instances all down the +history of the world, and there are plenty of instances, thank God, +cropping up every day still in which some poor, wretched outcast, +away out in the darkness, living on the husks that the swine do eat, +and liking to be in the pigstye, is brought back into the Father's +house, and turns out a far more loving son and a far better servant +than the man that had never wandered away from it. 'The publicans +and the harlots' do often yet 'go into the Kingdom of God before' +the respectable people. + +And there are plenty of people in Manchester that you would not +touch with a pair of tongs who, if they could be got hold of, would +make far more earnest and devoted Christians than you are. The very +strength of passion and feeling which has swept them wrong, rightly +directed, would make grand saints of them, just as the very same +conditions of climate which, at tropics, bring tornadoes and +cyclones and dreadful thunder-storms, do also bring abundant +fertility. The river which devastates a nation, dammed up within +banks, may fertilise half a continent. And if a man is brought out +of the darkness, and looks back upon the years that are wasted, that +may help him to a more intense consecration. And if he remembers the +filth out of which Jesus Christ picked him, it will bind him to that +Lord with a bond deep and sacred. + +So let no outcast man or woman listening to me now despair. You can +come back from the furthest darkness, and whatever ugly things you +have in your memories and your consciences, you may make them +stepping-stones on which to climb to the very throne of God. Let no +respectable people despise the outcasts; there may be the making in +them of far better Christians than we are. + +But, on the other hand, let no man think lightly of sin. Though it +can be forgiven and swept away, and the gross sinner may become the +great saint, there will be scars and bitter memories and habits +surging up again after we thought they were dead; and the old ague +and fever that we caught in the pestilential land will hang by us +when we have migrated into a more wholesome climate. It is never +good for a man to have sinned, even though, through his sin, God may +have taken occasion to bring him near to Himself. + +But the second form of this principle is always true--namely, that +those who are most conscious of forgiveness will be most fruitful of +love. The depth and fervour of our individual Christianity depends +more largely on the clearness of our consciousness of our own +personal guilt and the firmness of our grasp of forgiveness than +upon anything else. + +Why is it that such multitudes of you professing Christians are such +icebergs in your Christianity? Mainly for this reason--that you have +never found out, in anything like an adequate measure, how great a +sinner you are, and how sure and sweet and sufficient Christ's +pardoning mercy is. And so you are like Simon--you will ask Jesus to +dinner, but you will not give Him any water for His feet or ointment +for His head. You will do the conventional and necessary pieces of +politeness, but not one act of impulse from the heart ever comes +from you. You discharge 'the duties of religion.' What a phrase! You +discharge the duties of religion. Ah! My brother, if you had been +down into the horrible pit and the miry clay, and had seen a hand +and a face looking down, and an arm outstretched to lift you; and if +you had ever known what the rapture was after that subterraneous +experience of having your feet set upon a rock and your goings +established, you would come to Him and you would say, 'Take me all, +O Lord! for I am all redeemed by Thee.' 'To whom little is forgiven +the same loveth little.' Does not that explain the imperfect +Christianity of thousands of us? + +Fifty pence and five hundred pence are both small sums. Our Lord had +nothing to do here with the absolute amount of debt, but only with the +comparative amount of the two debts. But when He wanted to tell the +people what the absolute amount of the debt was, he did it in that +other story of the Unfaithful Servant. He owed his lord, not fifty +pence (fifty eightpences or thereabouts), not five hundred pence, but +'ten thousand talents,' which comes to near two and a half millions +of English money. And that is the picture of our indebtedness to God. +'We have nothing to pay.' Here is the payment--that Cross, that dying +Christ. Turn your faith there, my brother, and then you will get ample +forgiveness, and that will kindle love, and that will overflow in +service. For the aperture in the heart at which forgiveness enters in +is precisely of the same width as the one at which love goes out. +Christ has loved us all, and perfectly. Let us love Him back again, +who has died that we might live, and borne our sins in His own body. + + + + +LOVE AND FORGIVENESS + + + 'Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved + much.'--LUKE vii. 47. + +This story contains three figures, three persons, who may stand for +us as types or representatives of the divine love and of all its +operation in the world, of the way in which it is received or rejected, +and of the causes and consequences of its reception or rejection. There +is the unloving, cleanly, respectable, self-complacent Pharisee, with +all his contempt for 'this woman.' There is the woman, with gross sin +and mighty penitence, the great burst of love that is flowing out of +her heart sweeping away before it, as it were, all the guilt of her +transgressions. And, high over all, brooding over all, loving each, +knowing each, pitying each, willing to save and be the Friend and +Brother of each, is the embodied and manifested divine Love, the +knowledge of whom is love in our hearts, and is 'life eternal.' So that +now I have simply to ask you to look with me, for a little while, at +these three persons as representing for us the divine love that comes +forth amongst sinners, and the twofold form in which that love is +received. There is, first, Christ the love of God appearing amongst +men, the foundation of all our love to Him. Then there is the woman, +the penitent sinner, lovingly recognising the divine love. And then, +last, there is the Pharisee, the self-righteous man, ignorant of +himself, and empty of all love to God. These are the three figures to +which I ask your attention now. + +I. We have Christ here standing as a manifestation of the divine +love coming forth amongst sinners. His person and His words, the +part He plays in this narrative, and the parable that He speaks in +the course of it, have to be noticed under this head. + +First, then, you have this idea--that He, as bringing to us the love +of God, shows it to us, as not at all dependent upon our merits or +deserts: 'He frankly forgave them both' are the deep words in which +He would point us to the source and the ground of all the love of +God. Brethren, have you ever thought what a wonderful and blessed +truth there lies in the old words of one of the Jewish prophets, 'I +do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for Mine holy +Name's sake'? The foundation of all God's love to us sinful men, +that saying tells us, lies not in us, nor in anything about us, not +in anything external to God Himself. He, and He alone, is the cause +and reason, the motive and the end, of His own love to our world. +And unless we have grasped that magnificent thought as the +foundation of all our acceptance in Him, I think we have not yet +learnt half of the fullness which, even in this world, may belong to +our conceptions of the love of God--a love that has no motive but +Himself; a love that is not evoked even (if I may so say) by regard +to His creatures' wants; a love, therefore, which is eternal, being +in that divine heart before there were creatures upon whom it could +rest; a love that is its own guarantee, its own cause--safe and +firm, therefore, with all the firmness and serenity of the divine +nature-incapable of being affected by our transgression, deeper than +all our sins, more ancient than our very existence, the very essence +and being of God Himself. 'He frankly forgave them both.' If you +seek the source of divine love, you must go high up into the +mountains of God, and learn that it, as all other of His (shall I +say) emotions, and feelings, and resolutions, and purposes, owns no +reason but Himself, no motive but Himself; lies wrapped in the +secret of His nature, who is all-sufficient for His own blessedness, +and all whose work and being is caused by, and satisfied, and +terminates in His own fullness. 'God is love': therefore beneath all +considerations of what we may want--deeper and more blessed than all +thoughts of a compassion that springs from the feeling of human +distress and the sight of man's misery--lies this thought of an +affection which does not need the presence of sorrow to evoke it, +which does not want the touch of our finger to flow out, but by its +very nature is everlasting, by its very nature is infinite, by its +very nature must be pouring out the flood of its own joyous fullness +for ever and ever! + +Then, again, Christ standing here for us as the representative and +revelation of this divine love which He manifests to us, tells us, +too, that whilst it is not caused by us, but comes from the nature +of God, it is not turned away by our sins. 'This man, if he were a +prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that +toucheth Him,' says the unloving and self-righteous heart, 'for she +is a sinner.' Ah! there is nothing more beautiful than the +difference between the thought about sinful creatures which is +natural to a holy being, and the thought about sinful creatures +which is natural to a self-righteous being. The one is all contempt; +the other, all pity. He knew what she was, and therefore He let her +come close to Him with the touch of her polluted hand, and pour out +the gains of her lawless life and the adornments of her former +corruption upon His most blessed and most holy head. His knowledge +of her as a sinner, what did it do to His love for her? It made that +love gentle and tender, as knowing that she could not bear the +revelation of the blaze of His purity. It smoothed His face and +softened His tones, and breathed through all His knowledge and +notice of her timid and yet confident approach. 'Daughter, I know +all about it--all thy wanderings and thy vile transgressions: I know +them all, and My love is mightier than all these. They may be as the +great sea, but my love is like the everlasting mountains, whose +roots go down beneath the ocean, and My love is like the everlasting +heaven, whose brightness covers it all over.' God's love is Christ's +love; Christ's love is God's love. And this is the lesson that we +gather--that that infinite and divine loving-kindness does not turn +away from thee, my brother and my friend, because thou art a sinner, +but remains hovering about thee, with wooing invitations and with +gentle touches, if it may draw thee to repentance, and open a +fountain of answering affection in thy seared and dry heart. The +love of God is deeper than all our sins. 'For His great love +wherewith He loved us, when we were dead in sins, He quickened us.' + +Sin is but the cloud behind which the everlasting sun lies in all +its power and warmth, unaffected by the cloud; and the light will +yet strike, the light of His love will yet pierce through, with its +merciful shafts bringing healing in their beams, and dispersing all +the pitchy darkness of man's transgression. And as the mists gather +themselves up and roll away, dissipated by the heat of that sun in +the upper sky, and reveal the fair earth below--so the love of +Christ shines in, molting the mist and dissipating the fog, thinning +it off in its thickest places, and at last piercing its way right +through it, down to the heart of the man that has been lying beneath +the oppression of this thick darkness, and who thought that the fog +was the sky, and that there was no sun there above. God be thanked! +the everlasting love of God that comes from the depth of His own +being, and is there because of Himself, will never be quenched +because of man's sin. + +And so, in the next place, Christ teaches us here that this divine +love, when it comes forth among sinners, necessarily manifests +itself first in the form of forgiveness. There was nothing to be +done with the debtors until the debt was wiped out; there was no +possibility of other gifts of the highest sort being granted to +them, until the great score was cancelled and done away with. When +the love of God comes down into a sinful world, it must come first +and foremost as pardoning mercy. There are no other terms upon which +there can be a union betwixt the loving-kindness of God, and the +emptiness and sinfulness of my heart, except only this--that first +of all there shall be the clearing away from my soul of the sins +which I have gathered there, and then there will be space for all +other divine gifts to work and to manifest themselves. Only do not +fancy that when we speak about forgiveness, we simply mean that a +man's position in regard to the penalties of sin is altered. That is +not all the depth of the scriptural notion of forgiveness. It +includes far more than the removal of outward penalties. The heart +of it all is, that the love of God rests upon the sinner, unturned +away even by his sins, passing over his sins, and removing his sins +for the sake of Christ. My friend, if you are talking in general +terms about a great divine loving-kindness that wraps you round--if +you have a great deal to say, apart from the Gospel, about the love +of God as being your hope and confidence--I want you to reflect on +this, that the first word which the love of God speaks to sinful men +is pardon; and unless that is your notion of God's love, unless you +look to that as the first thing of all, let me tell you, you may +have before you a very fair picture of a very beautiful, tender, +good-natured benevolence, but you have not nearly reached the height +of the vigour and yet the tenderness of the Scripture notion of the +love of God. It is not a love which says, 'Well, put sin on one +side, and give the man the blessings all the same,' not a love which +has nothing to say about that great fact of transgression, not a +love which gives it the go-by, and leaves it standing: but a love +which passes into the heart through the portal of pardon, a love +which grapples with the fact of sin first, and has nothing to say to +a man until it has said that message to him. + +And but one word more on this part of my subject--here we see the +love of God thus coming from Himself; not turned away by man's sins; +being the cause of forgiveness; expressing itself in pardon; and +last of all, demanding service. 'Simon, thou gavest Me no water, +thou gavest Me no kiss, My head thou didst not anoint: I expected +all these things from thee--I desired them all from thee: My love +came that they might spring in thy heart; thou hast not given them; +My love is wounded, as it were disappointed, and it turns away from +thee!' Yes, after all that we have said about the freeness and +fullness, the unmerited, and uncaused, and unmotived nature of that +divine affection--after all that we have said about its being the +source of every blessing to man, asking nothing from him, but giving +everything to him; it still remains true, that God's love, when it +comes to men, comes that it may evoke an answering echo in the human +heart, and 'though it might be much bold to enjoin, yet for love's +sake rather beseeches' us to give unto Him who has given all unto +us. There, then, stands forth in the narrative, Christ as a +revelation of the divine love amongst sinners. + +II. Now, in the second place, let us look for a moment at 'this +woman' as the representative of a class of character--the penitent +lovingly recognising the divine love. + +The words which I have read as my text contain a statement as to the +woman's character: 'Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she +loved much.' Allow me just one word of explanation, in the shape of +exposition, on these words. Great blunders have been built upon +them. I dare say you have seen epitaphs--(I have)--written often on +gravestones with this misplaced idea on them--'Very sinful; but +there was a great deal of love in the person; and for the sake of +the love, God passed by the sin!' Now, when Christ says 'She loved +much,' He does not mean to say that her love was the cause of her +forgiveness--not at all. He means to say that her love was the proof +of her forgiveness, and that it was so because her love was a +consequence of her forgiveness. As, for instance, we might say, 'The +woman is in great distress, for she weeps'; but we do not mean +thereby that the weeping is the reason of the distress, but the +means of our knowing the sorrow. It is the proof because it is the +consequence. Or (to put it into the simplest shape) the love does +not go before the forgiveness, but the forgiveness goes before the +love; and because the love comes after the forgiveness, it is the +sign of the forgiveness. That this is the true interpretation, you +will see if you look back for a moment at the narrative which +precedes, where He says, 'He frankly forgave them both: tell me, +therefore, which of them will love him most?' Pardon is the +pre-requisite of love, and love is a consequence of the sense of +forgiveness. + +This, then, is the first thing to observe: all true love to God is +preceded in the heart by these two things--a sense of sin, and an +assurance of pardon. Brethren, there is no love possible--real, +deep, genuine, worthy of being called love of God--which does not +start with the belief of my own transgression, and with the thankful +reception of forgiveness in Christ. You do nothing to get pardon for +yourselves; but unless you have the pardon you have no love to God. +I know that sounds a very hard thing--I know that many will say it +is very narrow and very bigoted, and will ask, 'Do you mean to tell +me that the man whose bosom glows with gratitude because of earthly +blessings, has no love--that all that natural religion which is in +people, apart from this sense of forgiveness in Christ, do you mean +to tell me that this is not all genuine?' Yes, most assuredly; and I +believe the Bible and man's conscience say the same thing. I do not +for one moment deny that there may be in the hearts of those who are +in the grossest ignorance of themselves as transgressors, certain +emotions of instinctive gratitude and natural religiousness, directed +to some higher power dimly thought of as the author of their blessings +and the source of much gladness: but has that kind of thing got any +living power in it? I demur to its right to be called love to God at +all, for this reason--because it seems to me that the object that is +loved is not God, but a fragment of God. He who but says, 'I owe to +Him breath and all things; in Him I live and move, and have my being,' +has left out one-half at least of the Scriptural conception of God. +Your God, my friend, is not the God of the Bible, unless He stands +before you clothed in infinite loving-kindness indeed; but clothed +also in strict and rigid justice. Is your God perfect and entire? If +you say that you love Him, and if you do so, is it as the God and +Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Have you meditated on the depths of +the requirements of His law? Have you stood silent and stricken at +the thought of the blaze of His righteousness? Have you passed through +all the thick darkness and the clouds with which He surrounds His +throne, and forced your way at last into the inner light where He +dwells? Or is it a vague divinity that you worship and love? Which? +Ah, if a man study his Bible, and try to find out for himself, from +its veracious records, who and what manner of God the living God is, +there will be no love in his heart to that Being except only when he +has flung himself at His feet, and said, 'Father of eternal purity, +and God of all holiness and righteousness, forgive Thy child, a +sinful broken man--forgive Thy child, for the sake of Thy Son!' That, +and that alone, is the road by which we come to possess the love of +God, as a practical power, filling and sanctifying our souls; and +such is the God to whom alone our love ought to be rendered; and I +tell you (or rather the Bible tells you, and the Gospel and the +Cross of Christ tell you), there is no love without pardon, no +fellowship and sonship without the sense of sin and the +acknowledgment of foul transgression! + +So much, then, for what precedes the love of Christ in the heart; +now a word as to what follows. 'Her sins, which are many, are +forgiven; for she loved much.' The sense of sin precedes +forgiveness: forgiveness precedes love; love precedes all acceptable +and faithful service. If you want to do, love. If you want to know, +love. This poor woman knew Christ a vast deal better than that +Pharisee there. He said, 'This man is not a prophet; He does not +understand the woman.' Ay, but the woman knew herself better than +the Pharisee knew himself, knew herself better than the Pharisee +knew her, knew Christ, above all, a vast deal better than he did. +Love is the gate of all knowledge. + +This poor woman brings her box of ointment, a relic perhaps of past +evil life, and once meant for her own adornment, and pours it on His +head, lavishes offices of service which to the unloving heart seem +bold in the giver and cumbersome to the receiver. It is little she +can do, but she does it. Her full heart demands expression, and is +relieved by utterance in deeds. The deeds are spontaneous, welling +out at the bidding of an inward impulse, not drawn out by the force +of an external command. It matters not what practical purpose they +serve. The motive of them makes their glory. Love prompts them, love +justifies them, and His love interprets them, and His love accepts +them. The love which flows from the sense of forgiveness is the +source of all obedience as well as the means of all knowledge. + +Brethren, we differ from each other in all respects but one, 'We +have all sinned and come short of the glory of God'; we all need the +love of Christ; it is offered to us all; but, believe me, the sole +handle by which you can lay hold of it, is the feeling of your own +sinfulness and need of pardon. I preach to you a love that you do +not need to buy, a mercy that you do not need to bribe, a grace that +is all independent of your character, and condition, and merits, +which issues from God for ever, and is lying at your doors if you +will take it. You are a sinful man; Christ died for you. He comes to +give you His forgiving mercy. Take it, be at rest. So shalt thou +love and know and do, and so shall He love and guide thee! + +III. Now one word, and then I have done. A third character stands +here--the unloving and self-righteous man, all ignorant of the love +of Christ. + +He is the antithesis of the woman and her character. You remember +the traditional peculiarities and characteristics of the class to +which he belonged. He is a fair specimen of the whole of them. +Respectable in life, rigid in morality, unquestionable in orthodoxy; +no sound of suspicion having ever come near his belief in all the +traditions of the elders; intelligent and learned, high up among the +ranks of Israel! What was it that made this man's morality a piece +of dead nothingness? What was it that made his orthodoxy just so +many dry words, from out of which all the life had gone? What was +it? This one thing: there was no love in it. As I said, Love is the +foundation of all obedience; without it, morality degenerates into +mere casuistry. Love is the foundation of all knowledge; without it, +religion degenerates into a chattering about Moses, and doctrines, +and theories; a thing that will neither kill nor make alive, that +never gave life to a single soul or blessing to a single heart, and +never put strength into any hand for the conflict and strife of +daily life. There is no more contemptible and impotent thing on the +face of the earth than morality divorced from love, and religious +thoughts divorced from a heart full of the love of God. Quick +corruption or long decay, and in either case death and putrefaction, +are the end of these. You and I need that lesson, my friends. It is +of no use for us to condemn Pharisees that have been dead and in +their graves for nineteen hundred years. The same thing besets us +all; we all of us try to get away from the centre, and dwell +contented on the surface. We are satisfied to take the flowers and +stick them into our little gardens, without any roots to them, when +of course they all die out! People may try to cultivate virtue +without religion, and to acquire correct notions of moral and +spiritual truth; and partially and temporarily they may succeed, but +the one will be a yoke of bondage, and the other a barren theory. I +repeat, love is the basis of all knowledge and of all right-doing. +If you have got that firm foundation laid in the soul, then the +knowledge and the practice will be builded in God's own good time; +and if not, the higher you build the temple, and the more aspiring +are its cloud-pointing pinnacles, the more certain will be its +toppling some day, and the more awful will be the ruin when it +comes. The Pharisee was contented with himself, and so there was no +sense of sin in him, therefore there was no penitent recognition of +Christ as forgiving and loving him, therefore there was no love to +Christ. Because there was no love, there was neither light nor heat +in his soul, his knowledge was barren notions, and his painful +doings were soul-destructive self-righteousness. + +And so it all comes round to the one blessed message: My friend, God +hath loved us with an everlasting love. He has provided an eternal +redemption and pardon for us. If you would know Christ at all, you +must go to Him as a sinful man, or you are shut out from Him +altogether. If you _will_ go to Him as a sinful being, fling +yourself down there, not try to make yourself better, but say, 'I am +full of unrighteousness and transgression; let Thy love fall upon me +and heal me'; you will get the answer, and in your heart there shall +begin to live and grow up a root of love to Him, which shall at last +effloresce into all knowledge and unto all purity of obedience; for +he that hath had much forgiveness, loveth much; and 'he that loveth +knoweth God,' and 'dwelleth in God, and God in Him'! + + + + +GO INTO PEACE + + + 'And He said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee: + go in peace.'--LUKE vii. 50. + +We find that our Lord twice, and twice only, employs this form of +sending away those who had received benefits from His hand. On both +occasions the words were addressed to women: once to this woman, who +was a sinner, and who was gibbeted by the contempt of the Pharisee +in whose house the Lord was; and once to that poor sufferer who +stretched out a wasted hand to lay upon the hem of His garment, in +the hope of getting healing--filching it away unknown to the Giver. +In both cases there is great tenderness; in the latter case even +more so than in the present, for there He addressed the tremulous +invalid as 'daughter'; and in both cases there is a very remarkable +connection hinted at between faith and peace; 'Thy faith hath saved +thee, go in peace.' + +Now, there are three things that strike me about these words; the +first of them is this-- + +I. The dismissal of the woman. + +One might have expected that our Lord would have flung the shield of +His companionship, for a little while, at any rate, over this +penitent, and so have saved her from the scoffs and sneers of her +neighbours, who knew that she was a sinner. One might have supposed +that the depth of her gratitude, as expressed by her costly offering +and by her tears, would have spoken to His heart, and that He would +have let her stop beside Him for a little while; but no! Jesus said +to her in effect; 'You have got what you wished; go away, and take +care of it.' Such a dismissal is in accordance with the way in which +He usually acted. For very seldom indeed, after He had gathered the +first nucleus of four disciples, do we find that He summoned any +individual to His side. Generally He broke the connection between +Himself and the recipients of His benefits at as early a moment as +possible, and dismissed them. And that was not only because He did +not wish to be surrounded and hampered by a crowd of slightly +attached disciples, but for two other reasons; one, the good of the +people themselves, and the other, that, scattered all over northern +Palestine, they might in their several circles become centres of +light and evangelists for the King. He dispersed them that He might +fling the seed broadcast over the land. + +Jesus Christ says to us, if we have been saved by our faith, 'Go!' +And He intends two things thereby. First, to teach us that it is +good for us to stand by ourselves, to feel responsibility for the +ordering of our lives, not to have a visible Presence at our sides +to fall back upon, but to grow by solitude. There is no better way +of growing reliant, of becoming independent of circumstances, and in +the depths of our own hearts being calm, than by being deprived of +visible stay and support, and thus drawing closer and closer to our +unseen Companion, and leaning harder and heavier upon Him. 'It is +expedient for you that I go away.' For solitude and self-reliance, +which is bottomed upon self-distrust and reliance upon Him, are the +things that make men and women strong. So, if ever He carries us +into the desert, if ever He leaves us forsaken and alone, as we +think, if ever He seems--and sometimes He does with some people, and +it is only seeming--to withdraw Himself from us, it is all for the +one purpose, that we may grow to be mature men and women, not always +children, depending upon go-carts of any kind, and nurses' hands and +leading-strings. Go, and alone with Christ realise by faith that you +are not alone. Christian men and women, have you learned that +lesson--to be able to do without anybody and anything because your +whole hearts are filled, and your courage is braced up and +strengthened by the thought that the absent Christ is the present +Christ? + +There is another reason, as I take it, for which this separation of +the new disciple from Jesus was so apparently mercilessly and +perpetually enforced. At the very moment when one would have thought +it would have done this woman good to be with the Lord for a little +while longer, she is sent out into the harshly judging world. Yes, +that is always the way by which Christian men and women that have +received the blessing of salvation through faith can retain it, and +serve Him--by going out among men and doing their work there. The +woman went home. I dare say it was a home, if what they said about +her was true, that sorely needed the leavening which she now would +bring. She had been a centre of evil. She was to go away back to the +very place where she had been such, and to be a centre of good. She +was to contradict her past by her present which would explain itself +when she said she had been with Jesus. For the very same reason for +which to one man that besought to be with Him, He said, 'No, no! go +away home and tell your friends what great things God has done for +you,' He said to this woman, and He says to you and me, 'Go, and +witness for Me.' Communion with Him is blessed, and it is meant to +issue in service for Him. 'Let us make here three tabernacles,' said +the Apostle; and there was scarcely need for the parenthetical +comment, 'not knowing what he said.' But there was a demoniac boy +down there with the rest of the disciples, and they had been trying +in vain to free him from the incubus that possessed him, and as long +as that melancholy case was appealing to the sympathy and help of +the transfigured Christ, it was no time to stop on the Mount. +Although Moses and Elias were there, and the voice from God was +there, and the Shechinah cloud was there, all were to be left, to go +down and do the work of helping a poor, struggling child. So Jesus +Christ says to us, 'Go, and remember that work is the end of +emotion, and that to do the Master's will in the world is the surest +way to realise His presence.' + +II. Now, the second point I would suggest is-- + +The region into which Christ admitted this woman. It is remarkable +that in the present case, and in that other to which I have already +referred, the phraseology employed is not the ordinary one of that +familiar Old Testament leave-taking salutation, which was the +'goodbye' of the Hebrews, 'Go in peace.' But we read occasionally in +the Old Testament a slight but eloquent variation. It is not 'Go in +peace,' as our Authorised Version has it, but 'Go into peace,' and +that is a great deal more than the other. 'Go in peace' refers to +the momentary emotion; 'Go into peace' seems, as it were, to open +the door of a great palace, to let down the barrier on the borders +of a land, and to send the person away upon a journey through all +the extent of that blessed country. Jesus Christ takes up this as He +does a great many very ordinary conventional forms, and puts a +meaning into it. Eli had said to Hannah, 'Go into peace.' Nathan had +said to David, 'Go into peace.' But Eli and Nathan could only wish +that it might be so; their wish had no power to realise itself. +Christ takes the water of the conventional salutation and turns it +into the wine of a real gift. When He says, 'Go into peace,' He puts +the person into the peace which He wishes them, and His word is like +a living creature, and fulfils itself. + +So He says to each of us: 'If you have been saved by faith, I open +the door of this great palace. I admit you across the boundaries of +this great country. I give you all possible forms of peace for +yours.' Peace with God--that is the foundation of all--then peace +with ourselves, so that our inmost nature need no longer be torn in +pieces by contending emotions, 'I dare not' waiting upon 'I would,' +and 'I ought' and 'I will' being in continual and internecine +conflict; but heart and will, and calmed conscience, and satisfied +desires, and pure affections, and lofty emotions being all drawn +together into one great wave by the attraction of His love, as the +moon draws the heaped waters of the ocean round the world. So our +souls at rest in God may be at peace within themselves, and that is +the only way by which the discords of the heart can be tuned to one +key, into harmony and concord; and the only way by which wars and +tumults within the soul turn into tranquil energy, and into peace +which is not stagnation, but rather a mightier force than was ever +developed when the soul was cleft by discordant desires. + +In like manner, the man who is at peace with God, and consequently +with himself, is in relations of harmony with all things and with +all events. 'All things are yours if ye are Christ's.' 'The stars in +their courses fought against Sisera,' because Sisera was fighting +against God; and all creatures, and all events, are at enmity with +the man who is in antagonism and enmity to Him who is Lord of them +all. But if we have peace with God, and peace with ourselves, then, +as Job says, 'Thou shalt make a league with the beasts of the field, +and the stones of the field shall be at peace with thee.' 'Thy faith +hath saved thee; go into peace.' + +Remember that this commandment, which is likewise a promise and a +bestowal, bids us progress in the peace into which Christ admits us. +We should be growingly unperturbed and calm, and 'there is no joy +but calm,' when all is said and done. We should be more and more +tranquil and at rest; and every day there should come, as it were, a +deeper and more substantial layer of tranquillity enveloping our +hearts, a thicker armour against perturbation and calamity and +tumult. + +III. And now there is one last point here that I would suggest, +namely: + +The condition on which we shall abide in the Land of Peace. + +Our Lord said to both these women: 'Thy faith hath saved thee.' To +the other one it was even more needful to say it than to this poor +penitent prostitute, because that other one had the notion that, +somehow or other, she could steal away the blessing of healing by +contact of her finger with the robe of Jesus. Therefore He was +careful to lift her above that sensuous error, and to show her what +it was in her that had drawn healing 'virtue' from Him. In substance +He says to her: 'Thy faith, not thy forefinger, has joined thee to +Me; My love, not My garment, has healed thee.' + +There have been, and still are, many copyists of the woman's mistake who +have ascribed too much healing and saving power to externals--sacraments, +rites, and ceremonies. If their faith is real and their longing earnest, +they get their blessing, but they need to be educated to understand +more clearly what is the human condition of receiving Christ's saving +power, and that robe and finger have little to do with it. + +The sequence of these two sayings, the one pointing out the channel +of all spiritual blessing, the other, the bestowment of the great +blessing of perfect peace, suggests that the peace is conditional on +the faith, and opens up to us this solemn truth, that if we would +enjoy continuous peace, we must exercise continuous faith. The two +things will cover precisely the same ground, and where the one stops +the other will stop. Yesterday's faith does not secure to-day's +peace. As long as I hold up the shield of faith, it will quench all +the fiery darts of the wicked, but if I were holding it up +yesterday, and have dropped it to-day, then there is nothing between +me and them, and I shall be wounded and burned before long. No past +religious experience avails for present needs. If you would have +'your peace' to be 'as the waves of the sea,' your trust in Christ +must be continuous and strong. The moment you cease trusting, that +moment you cease being peaceful. Keep behind the breakwater, and you +will ride smoothly, whatever the storm. Venture out beyond it, and +you will be exposed to the dash of the waves and the howling of the +tempest. Your own past tells you where the means of blessing are. It +was your faith that saved you, and it is as you go on believing that +you 'Go into peace'. + + + + +THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN + + + 'And certain women, which had been healed of evil + spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out + of whom went seven devils, 3. And Joanna the wife of + Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, + which ministered unto Him of their substance.' + --LUKE viii. 2,3. + +The Evangelist Luke has preserved for us several incidents in our +Lord's life in which women play a prominent part. It would not, I +think, be difficult to bring that fact into connection with the main +characteristics of his Gospel, but at all events it is worth +observing that we owe to him those details, and the fact that the +service of these grateful women was permanent during the whole of +our Lord's wandering life after His leaving Galilee. An incidental +reference to the fact is found in Matthew's account of the +Crucifixion, but had it not been for Luke we should not have known +the names of two or three of them, nor should we have known how +constantly they adhered to Him. As to the women of the little group, +we know very little about them. Mary of Magdala has had a very hard +fate. The Scripture record of her is very sweet and beautiful. +Delivered by Christ from that mysterious demoniacal possession, she +cleaves to Him, like a true woman, with all her heart. She is one of +the little group whose strong love, casting out all fear, nerved +them to stand by the Cross when all the men except the gentle +Apostle of love, as he is called, were cowering in corners, afraid +of their lives, and she was one of the same group who would fain +have prolonged their ministry beyond His death, and who brought the +sweet spices with them in order to anoint Him, and it was she who +came to the risen Lord with the rapturous exclamation, 'Rabboni, my +Master.' By strange misunderstanding of the Gospel story, she has +been identified with the woman who was a sinner in the previous +chapter in this book, and her fair fame has been blackened and her +very name taken as a designation of the class to which there is no +reason whatever to believe she belonged. Demoniacal possession was +neither physical infirmity nor moral evil, however much it may have +simulated sometimes the one or the other. + +Then as to Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, old Church +tradition tells us that she was the consort of the nobleman whose +son Christ healed at Capernaum. It does not seem very likely that +Herod's steward would have been living in Capernaum, and the +narrative before us rather seems to show that she herself was the +recipient of healing from His hands. However that may be, Herod's +court was not exactly the place to look for Christian disciples, was +it? But you know they of Caesar's household surrounded with their +love the Apostle whom Nero murdered, and it is by no means an +uncommon experience that the servants' hall knows and loves the +Christ that the lord in the saloon does not care about. + +And then as for Susanna, is it not a sweet fate to be known to all +the world for ever more by one line only, which tells of her service +to her Master? + +So I will try to take out of these little incidents in our text some +plain lessons about this matter of Christian service and ministry to +Christ, with which it seems to be so full. It will apply to +missionary work and all other sorts of work, and perhaps will take +us down to the bottom of it all, and show us the foundation on which +it should all rest. + +Let me ask you for a moment to look with me first of all at the +centre figure, as being an illustration of--what shall I say? may I +venture to use a rough word and say the pauper Christ?--as the great +Pattern and Motive for us, of the love that becomes poor. We very +often cover the life of our Lord with so much imaginative reverence +that we sometimes lose the hard angles of the facts of it. Now, I +want you to realise it, and you may put it into as modern English as +you like, for it will help the vividness of the conception, which is +a simple, prosaic fact, that Jesus Christ was, in the broadest +meaning of the word, a pauper; not indeed with the sodden poverty +that you can see in our slums, but still in a very real sense of the +word. He had not a thing that He could call His own, and when He +came to the end of His life there was nothing for His executioners +to gamble for except His one possession, the seamless robe. He is +hungry, and there is a fig-tree by the roadside, and He comes, +expecting to get His breakfast off that. He is tired, and He borrows +a fishing-boat to lie down and sleep in. He is thirsty, and He asks +a woman of questionable character to give Him a draught of water. He +wants to preach a sermon about the bounds of ecclesiastical and +civil society, and He says, 'Bring Me a penny.' He has to be +indebted to others for the beast of burden on which He made His +modest entry into Jerusalem, for the winding sheet that wrapped Him, +for the spices that would embalm Him, for the grave in which He lay. +He was a pauper in a deeper sense of the word than His Apostle when +he said, 'Having nothing, and yet possessing all things, as poor, +and yet making many rich.' For let us remember that the great +mystery of the Gospel system--the blending together in one act and +in one Person all the extremes of lowliness and of the loftiness +which go deep down into the very profundities of the Gospel, is all +here dramatised, as it were, and drawn into a picturesque form on +the very surface; and the same blending together of poverty and +absolute love, which in its loftiest form is the union in one Person +of Godhead and of manhood, is here for us in this fact, that all the +dark cloud of poverty, if I may so say, is shot through with strange +gleams of light like sunshine caught and tangled in some cold, wet +fog, so that whenever you get some definite and strange mark of +Christ's poverty, you get lying beside it some definite and strange +mark of His absoluteness and His worth. For instance, take the +illustration I have already referred to--He borrows a fishing-boat +and lies down, weary, to sleep on the wooden pillow at the end of +it; aye, but He rises and He says, 'Peace, be still,' and the waves +fall. He borrows the upper room, and with a stranger's wine and +another man's bread He founds the covenant and the sacrament of His +new kingdom. He borrows a grave; aye, but He comes out of it, the +Lord both of the dead and of the living. And so we have to say, +'Consider the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was +rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty +might become rich.' + +The noblest life that was ever lived upon earth-I hope you and I +think it is a great deal more than that, but we all think it is that +at any rate--the noblest life that was ever lived upon earth was the +life of a poor man. Remember that pure desires, holy aspirations, +noble purposes, and a life peopled with all the refinement and +charities that belong to the spirit, and that is ever conscious of +the closest presence of God and of the innate union with Him, is +possible under such conditions, and so remember that the pauper +Christ is, at the least, the perfect Man. + +But then what I more immediately intended was to ask you to take +that central figure with this external fact of His poverty, of the +depth of His true inanition, the emptying of Himself for our sakes, +as being the great motive, and Oh! thank God that with all humility, +we may venture to say, the great Pattern to which you and I have to +conform. There is the reason why we say, 'I love to speak His name,' +there is the true measure of the devotion of the consecration and +the self-surrender which He requires. Christ gave all for us even to +the uttermost circumference of external possession, and standing in +the midst of those for whose sakes He became poor, He turns to them +with a modest appeal when He says, 'Minister unto Me, for I have +made Myself to need your ministrations for the sake of your +redemption.' So much, then, for the first point which I would desire +to urge upon you from this incident before us. + +Now, in the next place, and pursuing substantially the same course +of thought, let me suggest to you to look at the love--the love here +that stoops to be served. + +It is a familiar observation and a perfectly true one that we have no +record of our Lord's ever having used miraculous power for the supply +of His own wants, and the reason for that, I suppose, is to be found +not only in that principle of economy and parsimony of miraculous +energy, so that the supernatural in His life was ever pared down to +the narrowest possible limits, and inosculated immediately with the +natural, but it is also to be found in this--let me put it into very +plain words--that Christ liked to be helped and served by the people +that He loved, and that Christ knew that they liked it as well as He. +It delighted Him, and He was quite sure that it delighted them. You +fathers and mothers know what it is when one of your little children +comes, and seeing you engaged about some occupation says, 'Let me +help you.' The little hand perhaps does not contribute much to the +furtherance of your occupation. It may be rather an encumbrance than +otherwise, but is not there a gladness in saying 'Yes, here, take +this and do this little thing for me'? And do not we all know how +maimed and imperfect that love is which only gives, and how maimed +and imperfect that love is which only receives, so that there must +be an assumption of both attitudes in all true commerce of affection, +and that same beautiful flashing backwards and forwards from the two +poles which makes the sweetness of our earthly love find its highest +example there in the heavens. There are the two mirrors facing each +other, and they reverberate rays from one polished surface to another, +and so Christ loves and gives, and Christ loves and takes, and His +servants love and give, and His servants love and take. Sometimes we +are accustomed to speak of it as the highest sign of our Lord's true, +deep conviction that He has given so much to us. It seems to me we may +well pause and hesitate whether the mightiness and the wonderfulness +of His love to us are shown more in that He gives everything to us, +or in that He takes so much from us. It is much to say, 'The Son of +man came not to be ministered unto but to minister'; I do not know +but that it is more to say that the Son of man let this record be +written: 'Certain women also which ministered to Him of their +substance.' At all events there it stands and for us. What although +we have to come and say, 'All that I bring is Thine'; what then? +Does a father like less to get a gift from his boy because he gave +him the shilling to buy it? And is there anything that diminishes +the true sweetness of our giving to Christ, and as we may believe +the true sweetness to Him of receiving it from us, because we have +to herald all our offerings, all our love, aspirations, desires, +trust, conformity, practical service, substantial help, with the +old acknowledgment, 'All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have +we given Thee.' + +Now, dear friends, all these principles which I have thus +imperfectly touched upon as to the necessity of the blending of the +two sides in all true commerce of love, the giving and bestowing the +expression of the one affection in both hearts, all bears very +directly upon the more special work of Christian men in spreading +the name of Christ among those who do not know it. You get the same +economy of power there that I was speaking about. The supernatural +is finished when the divine life is cast into the world. 'I am come +to fling fire upon the earth,' said He, 'and oh, that it were +already kindled!' _There_ is the supernatural; after that you +have to deal with the thing according to the ordinary laws of human +history and the ordinary conditions of man's society. God trusts the +spread of His word to His people; there will not be one moment's +duration of the barely, nakedly supernatural beyond the absolute +necessity. Christ comes; after that you and I have to see to it, and +then you say, 'Collections, collections, collections, it is always +collections. This society and that society and the other society, +there is no end of the appeals that are made. Charity sermons--men +using the highest motives of the Gospel for no purpose but to get a +shilling or two out of people's pockets. I am tired of it.' Very +well; all I have to say is, first of all, 'Ye have not resisted unto +blood'; some people have had to pay a great deal more for their +Gospel than you have. And another thing, a man that had lost a great +deal more for his Master than ever you or I will have to do, said, +'Unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace +given, that I should preach amongst the heathen the unsearchable +riches of Christ.' Ah! a generous, chivalrous spirit, a spirit +touched to fine issues by the fine touch of the Lord's love, will +feel that it is no burden; or if it be a burden, it is only a burden +as a golden crown heavy with jewels may be a burden on brows that +are ennobled by its pressure. This grace is given, and He has +crowned us with the honour that we may serve Him and do something +for Him. + +Dear brethren! of all the gracious words that our Master has spoken +to us, I know not that there is one more gracious than when He said, +'Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature'; and +of all the tender legacies that He has left His Church, though there +be included amongst these His own peace and His own Spirit, I know +not that there is any more tender or a greater sign of His love +towards us and His confidence in us than when departing to the far +country to receive a kingdom and to return, He gave authority to His +servants, and to every man his work.' + +And so, in the next place, let me ask you to look for a moment at +the complement to this love that stoops to serve and delights to +serve--the ministry or service of our love. Let me point to two +things. + +It seems to me that the simple narrative we have before us goes very +deep into the heart of this matter. It gives us two things--the +foundation of the service and the sphere of the service. + +First there is the foundation--'Certain women which had been healed +of evil spirits and infirmities.' Ah, there you come to it! The +consciousness of redemption is the one master touch that evokes the +gratitude which aches to breathe itself in service. There is no +service except it be the expression of love. That is the one great +Christian principle; and the other is that there is no love that +does not rest on the consciousness of redemption; and from these +two--that all service and obedience are the utterance and eloquence +of love, and that all love has its root in the sense of redemption--you +may elaborate all the distinct characteristics and peculiarities +of Christian ethics, whereby duty becomes gladness. 'I will,' and 'I +ought' overlap and cover each other like two of Euclid's triangles; +and whatsoever He commands that I spring to do; and so though the +burden be heavy, considered in regard to its requirements, and +though the yoke do often press, considered _per se_, yet +because the cords that fasten the yoke to our neck are the cords of +love, I can say, 'My burden is light.' One of the old psalms puts it +thus; 'O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; Thou hast loosed my bonds; +and because Thou hast loosed, therefore O hear me; speak, Lord, for +Thy servant heareth.' + +So much then for the foundation--now for the sphere. 'Ah,' you say, +'there is no parallel there, at any rate. These women served Him +with personal ministration of their substance.' Well, I think there +is a parallel notwithstanding. If I had time I should like to dwell +upon the side thoughts connected with that sphere of service, and +remind you how very prosaic were their common domestic duties, +looking after the comfort of Christ and the travel-stained Twelve +who were with Him--let us put it into plain English--cooking their +dinners for them, and how that became a religious act. Take the +lesson out of it, you women in your households, and you men in your +counting-houses and behind your counters, and you students at your +dictionaries and lexicons. The commonest things done for the Master +flash up into worship, or as good old George Herbert puts it-- + + 'A servant with this clause + Makes drudgery divine; + Who sweeps a room, as for Thy cause, + Makes that and th' action fine.' + +But then beyond that, is there any personal ministration to do? If +any of you have ever been in St. Mark's Convent at Florence, I dare +say you will remember that in the Guest Chamber the saintly genius +of Fra Angelico has painted, as an appropriate frontispiece, the two +pilgrims on the road to Emmaus, praying the unknown man to come in +and partake of their hospitality; and he has draped them in the +habit of his order, and he has put Christ as the Representative of +all the poor and wearied and wayworn travellers that might enter in +there and receive hospitality, which is but the lesson, 'Inasmuch as +ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have +done it unto Me.' + +And there is another thing, dear friends. Do we not minister to Him +best when we do the thing that is nearest His heart and help Him +most in the purpose of His life and in His death? What would you +think of a would-be helper of some great reformer who said: 'I will +give you all sorts of material support; but I have not a grain of +sympathy with the cause to which you have devoted your life. I think +it is madness and nonsense: I will feed you and house you and make +you comfortable, but I do not care one rush for the object for which +you are to be housed and fed and made comfortable.' Jesus Christ let +these poor women help Him that He might live to bear the Cross; He +lets you and me help Him for that for which on the Cross He died; +'This honour have all the saints'; The foundation of our service is +the consciousness of redemption; its sphere is ministering to Him in +that which is nearest His heart. + +And then, brethren, there is another thing that does not so +immediately belong to the incident before us, but which suggests +itself to me in connection with it. We have tried to show the motive +and the pattern, the foundation and the sphere, of the service: let +me add a last thought--the remembrance and the record of it. + +How strange that is, that just as a beam of light coming into a room +would enable us to see all the motes dancing up and down that lay in +its path, so the beam from Christ's life shoots athwart the society +of His age, and all those little insignificant people come for a +moment into the full lustre of the light. Years before and years +afterward they lived, and we do not know anything about them; but +for an instant they crossed the illuminated track and there they +blazed. How strange Pharisees, officials, and bookmen of all sorts +would have felt if anybody had said to them: 'Do you see that +handful of travel-stained Galileans there, those poor women you have +just passed by the way? Well, do you know that these three women's +names will never perish as long as the world lasts?' So we may learn +the eternity of work done for Him. Ah, a great deal of it may be +forgotten and unrecorded! How many deeds of faithful love and noble +devotion are all compressed into those words, 'which ministered unto +Him'! It is the old story of how life shrinks, and shrinks, and +shrinks in the record. How many acres of green forest ferns in the +long ago time went to make up a seam of coal as thick as a sixpence? +But still there is the record, compressed indeed, but existent. + +And how many names may drop out and not be associated with the work +which they did? Do you not think that these anonymous 'many others +which ministered' were just as dear to Jesus Christ as Mary and +Joanna and Susannah? A great many people helped Him whose deeds are +related in the Gospel, but whose names are not recorded. But what +does it matter about that? With many 'others of my fellow-labourers +also,' says St. Paul; 'whose names'--well, I have forgotten them; +but that is of little consequence; they 'are in the Lamb's book of +life.' And so the work is eternal, and will last on in our blessed +consciousness and in His remembrance who will never forget any of +it, and we shall self-enfold the large results, even if the rays of +dying fame may fade. + +And there is one other thought on this matter of the eternity of the +work on which I would just touch for an instant. + +How strange it must be to these women now! If, as I suppose, you and +I believe, they are living with Christ, they will look up to Him and +think, 'Ah! we remember when we used to find your food and prepare +for your household comforts, and there Thou art on the throne! How +strange and how great our earthly service seems to us now!' So it +will be to us all when we get up yonder. We shall have to say, +'Lord, when saw I Thee?' He will put a meaning into our work and a +majesty into it that we know nothing about at present. So, brethren, +account the name of His slaves your highest honour, and the task +that love gives you your greatest joy. When we have in our poor love +poorly ministered unto Him who in His great love greatly died for +us, then, at the last, the wonderful word will be fulfilled: 'Verily +I say unto you, He shall gird Himself and make them to sit down to +meat and will come forth and serve them.' + + + + +ONE SEED AND DIVERSE SOILS + + + 'And when much people were gathered together, and were + come to Him out of every city, He spake by a parable: + 5. A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, + some fell by the wayside; and it was trodden down, and + the fowls of the air devoured it. 6. And some fell upon + a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered + away, because it lacked moisture. 7. And some fell + among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and + choked it. 8. And other fell on good ground, and sprang + up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when He had said + these things, He cried, He that hath ears to hear, let + him hear. 9. And His disciples asked Him, saying, What + might this parable be? 10. And He said, Unto you it is + given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but + to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, + and hearing they might not understand. 11. Now the + parable is this; The seed is the word of God. 12. Those + by the way-side are they that hear: then cometh the + devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, + lest they should believe and be saved. 13. They on the + rock are they which, when they hear, receive the word + with joy; and these have no root, which for a while + believe, and in time of temptation fall away. 14. And + that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they + have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares, and + riches, and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit + to perfection. 15. But that on the good ground are + they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard + the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.' + --LUKE viii. 4-16. + +Luke is particular in dating this parable as spoken at a time when +crowds resorted to Jesus, and the cities of Galilee seemed emptied +out to hear Him. No illusions as to the depth or worth of this +excitement beset Him. Sadly He looked on the eager multitudes, +because He looked through them, and saw how few of them were +bringing 'an honest and good heart' for the soil of His word. Just +because He saw the shallowness of the momentary enthusiasm, He spoke +this pregnant parable from a heavy heart, and as He tells us in His +explanation of it to the disciples (ver. 10), uses the parabolic +garb as a means of hiding the truth from the unsusceptible, and of +bringing it home to those who were prepared to receive it. Every +parable has that double purpose of obscuring and revealing. The +obscuring is punitive, but the punishment is meant to be remedial. +God never cheats men by a revelation that does not reveal, and the +very hiding is meant to stimulate to a search which cannot be vain. + +The broad outstanding fact of the parable is tragic. Three failures +and one success! It may be somewhat lightened by observing that the +proportion which each 'some' bears to the whole seed-basketful is +not told; but with all alleviation, it is sad enough. What a lesson +for all eager reformers and apostles of any truth, who imagine that +they have but to open their mouths and the world will listen! What a +warning for any who are carried off their feet by their apparent +'popularity'! What a solemn appeal to all hearers of God's message! + +I. Commentators have pointed out that all four kinds of soil might +have been found close together by the lake, and that there may have +been a sower at work within sight. But the occasion of the parable +lay deeper than the accident of local surroundings. A path through a +cornfield is a prosaic enough thing, but one who habitually holds +converse with the unseen, and ever sees it shining through the seen, +beholds all things 'apparelled in celestial light,' and finds deep +truths in commonplace objects. The sower would not intentionally +throw seed on the path, but some would find its resting-place there. +It would lie bare on the surface of the hard ground, and would not +be there long enough to have a chance of germinating, but as soon as +the sower's back was turned to go up the next furrow, down would +come the flock of thievish birds that fluttered behind him, and bear +away the grains. The soil might be good enough, but it was so hard +that the seed did not get in, but only lay on it. The path was of +the same soil as the rest of the field, only it had been trodden +down by the feet of passengers, perhaps for many years. + +A heart across which all manner of other thoughts have right of way +will remain unaffected by the voice of Jesus, if He spoke His +sweetest, divinest tones, still more when He speaks but through some +feeble man. The listener hears the words, but they never get farther +than the drum of his ear. They lie on the surface of his soul, which +is beaten hard, and is non-receptive. How many there are who have +been listening to the preaching of the Gospel, which is in a true +sense the sowing of the seed, all their lives, and have never really +been in contact with it! Tramp, tramp, go the feet across the path, +heavy drays of business, light carriages of pleasure, a never-ending +stream of traffic and noise like that which pours day and night +through the streets of a great city, and the result is complete +insensibility to Christ's voice. + +If one could uncover the hearts of a congregation, how many of them +would be seen to be occupied with business or pleasures, or some +favourite pursuit, even while they sit decorously in their pews! How +many of them hear the preacher's voice without one answering thought +or emotion! How many could not for their lives tell what his last +sentence was! No marvel, then, that, as soon as its last sound has +ceased, down pounce a whole covey of light-winged fancies and +occupations, and carry off the poor fragments of what had been so +imperfectly heard. One wonders what percentage of remembrances of a +sermon is driven out of the hearers' heads in the first five minutes +of their walk home, by the purely secular conversation into which +they plunge so eagerly. + +II. The next class of hearers is represented by seed which has had +somewhat better fate, inasmuch as it has sunk some way in, and begun +to sprout. The field, like many a one in hilly country, had places +where the hard pan of underlying rock had only a thin skin of earth +over it. Its very thinness helped quick germination, for the rock +was near enough to the surface to get heated by the sun. So, with +undesirable rapidity, growth began, and shoots appeared above ground +before there was root enough made below to nourish them. There was +only one possible end for such premature growth--namely, withering +in the heat. No moisture was to be drawn from the shelf of rock, and +the sun was beating fiercely down, so the feeble green stem drooped +and was wilted. + +It is the type of emotional hearers, who are superficially touched +by the Gospel, and too easily receive it, without understanding what +is involved. They take it for theirs 'with joy,' but are strangers +to the deep exercises of penitence and sorrow which should precede +the joy. 'Lightly come, lightly go,' is true in Christian life as +elsewhere. Converts swiftly made are quickly lost. True, the most +thorough and permanent change may be a matter of a moment; but, if +so, into that moment emotions will be compressed like a great river +forced through a mountain gorge, which will do the work of years. + +Such surface converts fringe all religious revivals. The crowd +listening to our Lord was largely made up of them. These were they +who, when a ground of offence arose, 'went back, and walked no more +with Him.' They have had their successors in all subsequent times of +religious movement. Light things are caught up by the wind of a +passing train, but they soon drop to the ground again. Emotion is +good, if there are roots to it. But 'these have no root.' The Gospel +has not really touched the depths of their natures, their wills, +their reason, and so they shrivel up when they have to face the toil +and self-sacrifice inherent in a Christian life. + +III. The third parcel of seed advanced still farther. It rooted and +grew. But the soil had other occupants. It was full of seeds of +weeds and thorns (not thorn _bushes_). So the two crops ran a +race, and as ill weeds grow apace, the worse beat, and stifled the +green blades of the springing corn, which, hemmed in and shut out +from light and air, came to nothing. + +The man represented has not made clean work of his religion. He has +received the good seed, but has forgotten that something has to be +grubbed up and cast out, as well as something to be taken in, if he +would grow the fair fruits of Christian character. He probably has +cut down the thorns, but has left their roots or seeds where they +were. He has fruit of a sort, but it is scanty, crude, and green. +Why? Because he has not turned the world out of his heart. He is +trying to unite incompatibles, one of which is sure to kill the +other. His 'thorns' are threefold, as Luke carefully distinguishes +them into 'cares and riches and pleasures,' but they are one in +essence, for they are all 'of this life.' If he is poor, he is +absorbed in cares; if rich, he is yet more absorbed in wealth, and +his desires go after worldly pleasures, which he has not been +taught, by experience of the supreme pleasure of communion with God, +to despise. + +Mark that this man does not 'fall away.' He keeps up his Christian +name to the end. Probably he is a very influential member of the +church, universally respected for his wealth and liberality, but his +religion has been suffocated by the other growth. He has fruit, but +it is not to 'perfection.' If Jesus Christ came to Manchester, one +wonders how many such Christians He would discover in the chief +seats in the synagogues. + +IV. The last class avoids the defects of the three preceding. The +soil is soft, deep, and clean. The seed sinks, roots, germinates, +has light and air, and brings forth ripened grain. The 'honest and +good heart' in which it lodges has been well characterised as one +'whose aim is noble, and who is generously devoted to his aim' +(Bruce, _The Parabolic Teaching of Christ_, p. 33). Such a soul +Christ recognises as possible, prior to the entrance into it of the +word. There are dispositions which prepare for the reception of the +truth. But not only the previous disposition, but the subsequent +attitude to the word spoken, is emphasised by our Lord. 'They having +heard the word, hold it fast.' Docilely received, it is steadily +retained, or held with a firm grip, whoever and whatever may seek to +pluck it from mind or heart. + +Further, not only tenacity of grasp, but patient perseverance of +effort after the fruit of Christian character, is needed. There must +be perseverance in the face of obstacles within and without, if +there is to be fruitfulness. The emblem of growth does not suffice +to describe the process of Christian progress. The blade becomes the +ear, and the ear the full corn, without effort. But the Christian +disciple has to fight and resist, and doggedly to keep on in a +course from which many things would withdraw him. The nobler the +result, the sorer the process. Corn grows; character is built up as +the result, first of worthily receiving the good seed, and then of +patient labour and much self-suppression. + +These different types of character are capable of being changed. The +path may be broken up, the rock blasted and removed, the thorns +stubbed up. We make ourselves fit or unfit to receive the seed and +bear fruit. Christ would not have spoken the parable if He had not +hoped thereby to make some of His hearers who belonged to the three +defective classes into members of the fourth. No natural, +unalterable incapacity bars any from welcoming the word, housing it +in his heart, and bringing forth fruit with patience. + + + + +SEED AMONG THORNS + + + 'And that which fell among thorns are they, which, + when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with + cares, and riches, and pleasures of this life, and + bring no fruit to perfection.'--Luke viii. 14. + +No sensible sower would cast his seed among growing thorn-bushes, +and we must necessarily understand that the description in this +verse is not meant to give us the picture of a field in which these +were actually growing, but rather of one in which they had been +grubbed up, and so preparation been made for the sowing of the seed. +They had been grubbed up, but they had not been grubbed out. The +roots were there, although the branches and the stems had been cut +down, or if the roots were not there, abundant seeds were lying +buried, and when the good seed was sown it went into ground full of +them--and that was the blunder out of which all the mischief came. + +I. These three different instances of failure in this parable +represent to us, first, the seed carried off at the very beginning, +before it has sunk into the ground and before it has had time to +germinate. It lies on the surface and it goes at once. But suppose +it is safely piloted past that first danger, then comes another +peril. It gets a little deeper into the ground, but there is a shelf +of rock an inch or two below the skin of soil, and the poor little +rootlets cannot get through that, and so when the hot Syrian sun +shines down upon the field, there is an unnatural heat, and a swift +vegetation. There is growth, but the same sun that at first +stimulated the unnaturally rapid growth, gets a little hotter or +continues to pour down during the fervid summer and dries up the +premature vegetation which it had called into feeble life. That +second seed went further on the road towards fruit. + +But suppose a seed is piloted past that second risk, there comes +this third one. This seed gets deeper still, and does take root, and +does grow, and does bear fruit. That is to say, this is a picture of +a real Christian, in whom the seed of the kingdom, which is the word +of God, has taken root, and to whom there has been the communication +of the divine life that is in the seed; and yet that, too, comes to +grief, and our parable tells us how--by three things, the thorns, +the growth of the thorns, and the choking of the word. + +Luke puts the interpretation of the thorns even more vividly than +the other Evangelists, because he represents them as being three +different forms of one thing, 'cares and riches and pleasures,' +which all come into the one class, 'of this life.' Or, in other +words, the present world, with all its various appeals to our animal +and sensual nature, with all its possible delights for part of our +being, a real and important part of it; and with all the troubles +and anxieties which it is cowardly for us to shirk, and impossible +for us to escape--this world is ever present to each of us, and if +there is anything in us to which it appeals, then certainly the +thorns will come up. The cares and the wealth and the pleasures are +three classes of one thing. Perhaps the first chiefly besets +struggling people; the second mainly threatens well-to-do people; +the third, perhaps, is most formidable to leisurely and idle people. +But all three appeal to us all, for in every one of us there are the +necessary anxieties of life, and every one of us knows that there is +real and substantial good to a part of our being, in the possession +of a share of this world's wealth, without which no man can live, +and all of us carry natures to which the delights of sense do +legitimately and necessarily appeal. + +So the soil for the growth of the thorns is always in us all. But +what then? Are these things so powerful in our hearts as that they +become hindrances to our Christian life? That is the question. The +cares and the occupation of mind with, and desire for, the wealth +and the pleasures are of God's appointment. He did not make them +thorns, but you and I make them thorns; and the question for us is, +has our Christianity driven out the undue regard to this life, +regarded in these three aspects--undue in measure or in any other +respect, by which they are converted into hindrances that mar our +Christian life? Dear brethren, it is not enough to say, 'I have +received the word into my heart.' There is another question besides +that--Has the word received into your heart cast out the thorns? Or +are they and the seed growing there side by side? The picture of my +text is that of a man who, in a real fashion, has accepted the +Gospel, but who has accepted it so superficially as that it has not +exercised upon him the effect that it ought to produce, of expelling +from him the tendencies which may become hindrances to his Christian +life. If we have known nothing of 'the expulsive power of a new +affection,' and if we thought it was enough to cut down the thickest +and tallest thorn-bushes, and to leave all the seeds and the roots +of them in our hearts, no wonder if, as we get along in life, they +grow up and choke the word. 'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon'; that +is just putting into a sentence the lesson of my text. + +II. Further, note the growth of the thorns. Luke employs a very +significant phrase. He says, 'When they have heard they _go +forth_, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of +this life.' That is to say, the path of daily life upon which we all +have to walk, the common duties which necessarily draw us to +themselves, will certainly stimulate the growth of the thorns if +these are not rooted out. Life is full of appeals to our desires +after earthly good or pleasure, to our greed after earthly gain, to +our dread of earthly sorrow, of pain, of loss, and of poverty. As +surely as we are living, and have to go out into the world day by +day, so surely will the thorns grow if they are left in us. And so +we come back to the old lesson that because we are set in this +world, with all its temptations that appeal so strongly to many +needs and desires of our nature, we must make thorough work of our +religion if it is to be of any good to us at all, and we are not to +go on the Christian pilgrimage with one foot upon the higher level +and the other upon the lower, like a man walking with one foot on +the kerbstone and the other on the roadway. Let us be one thing or +the other, out and out, thorough and consistent. If we have the +seed in our hearts, remember that _we_ are responsible for its +growth. + +Let us make certain that we have cast out the thorns. There is an +old German proverb, the vulgarity of which may be excused for its +point. 'You must not sit near the fire if your head is made of +butter.' We should not try to walk through this wicked world without +making very certain that we have stubbed the thorns out of our +hearts. Oh, dear friends! here is the secret to the miserable +inconsistencies of the great bulk of professing Christians. They +have got the seed in, but they have not got the thorns out. + +III. Lastly, mark the choking of the growth. Of course it is rapid, +according to the old saying, 'Ill weeds grow apace.' 'They are +choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life and +bring no fruit to perfection.' The weeds grow faster than the seed. +'Possession is nine-tenths of the law,' and they have got possession +of the soil, and their roots go far and strike deep, and so they +come up, with their great, strong, coarse, quick-growing stems and +leaves, and surround the green, infant, slender shoot, and keep the +air and light out from it, and exhaust all the goodness of the soil, +which has not nutriment in it enough for the modest seed and for the +self-asserting thorn. And so the thorn beats in the race, and grows +inches whilst the other grows hairbreadths. Is not that a true +statement of our experience? If Christian men and women permit as +much of their interest and affection and effort and occupation of +mind to go out towards the world and worldly things, as, alas! most +of us do, no wonder if the tiny, yellow, rather than green, blade is +choked and gets covered with parasitical disease, and perhaps dies +at last. You cannot grow two crops on one field. Some of us have +tried; it will never do. It must be one thing or another, and we +must make up our minds whether we are going to cultivate corn or +thorn. May God help us to make the right choice of the crop we +desire to bear! + +Our text tells us that this man, represented by the seed among +thorns, was a Christian, did, and does, bear fruit, but, as Luke +says, 'brings no fruit to perfection.' The first seed never grew at +all; the second got the length of putting forth a blade; this one +has got as far as the ear, but not so far as 'the full corn in the +ear.' It has fruited, but the fruit is green and scanty, not +ripened, as it ought to be, since it grows under such a sky and was +taken out of such a seed-basket as our seed has come from. It brings +forth no fruit _to perfection_';--is not that a picture of so +many Christian people? One cannot say that they are not Christians. +One cannot say that there are no signs of a divine life in them. One +cannot say but that they do a good many things that are right and +pure, and obviously the result of a Divine Spirit working upon them; +but all that they do just falls short of the crowning grace and +beauty. There is always something about it that strikes one as being +incomplete. They are Christian men and Christian women bringing +forth many of the fruits of the Christian life, but the climax +somehow or other is always absent. The pyramid goes up many stages, +but there is never the gilded summit flashing in the light--'No +fruit to perfection.' + +Dear brethren, let us take our poor, imperfect services, and lay +them down at the Master's feet, and ask Him to help us to make clean +work of these hearts of ours, and to turn out of them all our +worldly hankerings after the seen and temporal. Then we shall bear +fruit that He will gather into His garner. The cares and the +pleasures and the wealth that terminate in, and are occupied with, +this poor fleeting present are small and insignificant. Let us try +to yield ourselves up wholly to the higher influences of that Divine +Spirit, and in true consecration receive the engrafted word. And +then He will give to us to drink of that river of His pleasures, +drinking of which we shall not thirst, nor need to come to any of +earth's fountains to draw. If the Saviour comes in in His power, He +will cast out the uncleanness that dwells in us and make us fruitful +as He would have us to be. + + + + +A MIRACLE WITHIN A MIRACLE + + + 'And a woman, having an issue of blood twelve years, + which had spent all her living upon physicians, + neither could be healed of any, 44. Came behind Him, + and touched the border of His garment: and immediately + her issue of blood stanched. 45. And Jesus said, Who + touched Me? When all denied, Peter, and they that were + with Him, said, Master, the multitude throng Thee and + press Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me? 46. And + Jesus said, Somebody hath touched Me: for I perceive + that virtue is gone out of Me. 47. And when the woman + saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and, + falling down before Him, she declared unto Him before + all the people for what cause she had touched Him, and + how she was healed immediately. 48. And He said unto + her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made + thee whole; go in peace.'--LUKE viii. 43-48. + +The story of Jairus's daughter is, as it were, cut in two by that of +the poor invalid woman. What an impression of calm consciousness of +power and of leisurely dignity is made by Christ's having time to +pause, even on His way to a dying sufferer, in order to heal, as if +parenthetically, this other afflicted one! How Jairus must have +chafed at the delay! He had left his child 'at the point of death' +and here was the Healer loitering, as it must have seemed to a +father's agony of impatience. + +But Jesus, with His infinite calm and as infinite power, can afford +to let the one wait and even die, while He tends the other. The +child shall receive no harm, and her sister in sorrow has as great a +claim on Him as she. He has leisure of heart to feel for each, and +power for both. We do not rob one another of His gifts. Attending to +one, He does not neglect another. + +This miracle illustrates the genuineness and power of feeble and +erroneous faith, and Christ's merciful way of strengthening and +upholding it. The woman, a poor, shrinking creature, has been made +more timid by long illness, disappointed hopes of cure, and by +poverty. She does not venture to stop Jesus, as He goes with an +important official of the synagogue to heal his daughter, but creeps +up in the crowd behind Him, puts out a wasted, trembling hand to +touch the tasselled fringe of His robe--and she is whole. + +She would fain have glided away with a stolen cure, but Jesus forced +her to stand out before the throng, and with all their eyes on her, +to conquer diffidence and womanly reticence, and tell all the truth. +Strange contrast, this, to His usual avoidance of notoriety and +regard for shrinking weakness! But it was true kindness, for it was +the discipline by which her imperfect faith was cleared and +confirmed. + +It is easy to point out the imperfections in this woman's faith. It +was very ignorant. She was sure that this Rabbi would heal her, but +she expected it to be done by the material contact of her finger +with His robe. She had no idea that Christ's will, much less His +love, had anything to do with His cures. She thinks that she may +carry away the blessing, and He be none the wiser. It is easy to +say, What blank ignorance of Christ's way of working! what grossly +superstitious notions! Yes, and with them all what a hunger of +intense desire to be whole, and what absolute confidence that a +finger-tip on His robe was enough! + +Her faith was very imperfect, but the main fact is that she had it. +Let us be thankful for a living proof of the genuineness of ignorant +and even of superstitious faith. There are many now who fall with +less excuse into a like error with this woman's, by attaching undue +importance to externals, and thinking more of the hem of the garment +and its touch by a finger than of the heart of the wearer and the +grasp of faith. But while we avoid such errors, let us not forget +that many a poor worshipper clasping a crucifix may be clinging to +the Saviour, and that Christ does accept faith which is tied to +outward forms, as He did this woman's. + +There was no real connection between the touch of her finger and her +healing, but she thought that there was, and Christ stoops to her +childish thought, and lets her make the path for His gift. +'According to thy faith be it unto thee': His mercy, like water, +takes the shape of the containing vessel. + +The last part of the miracle, when the cured woman is made the bold +confessor, is all shaped so as to correct and confirm her imperfect +faith. We note this purpose in every part of it. She had thought of +the healing energy as independent of His knowledge and will. +Therefore she is taught that He was aware of the mute appeal, and of +the going out of power in answer to it. The question, 'Who touched +me?' has been regarded as a proof that Jesus was ignorant of the +person; but if we keep the woman's character and the nature of her +disease in view, we can suppose it asked, not to obtain information, +but to lead to acknowledgment, and that without ascribing to Him in +asking it any feigning of ignorance. + +The contrast between the pressure of the crowd and the touch of +faith has often been insisted on, and carries a great lesson. The +unmannerly crowd hustled each other, trod on His skirts, and elbowed +their way to gape at Him, and He took no heed. But His heart +detected the touch, unlike all the rest, and went out with healing +power towards her who touched. We may be sure that, though a +universe waits before Him, and the close-ranked hosts of heaven +stand round His throne, we can reach our hands through them all, and +get the gifts we need. + +She had shrunk from publicity, most naturally. But if she had stolen +away, she would have lost the joy of confession and greater +blessings than the cure. So He mercifully obliges her to stand +forth. In a moment she is changed from a timid invalid to a +confessor. A secret faith is like a plant growing in the dark, the +stem of which is blanched and weak, and its few blossoms pale and +never matured. 'With the mouth confession is made unto salvation.' + +Christ's last word to her is tender. He calls her 'Daughter'--the +only woman whom He addressed by such a name. He teaches her that her +faith, not her finger, had been the medium through which His healing +power had reached her. He confirms by His authoritative word the +furtive blessing: '_Be_ whole of thy plague.' And she goes, +having found more than she sought, and felt a loving heart where she +had only seen a magic-working robe. + + + + +CHRIST TO JAIRUS + + + 'When Jesus heard it, He answered, saying, Fear not: + believe only, and she shall be made whole.' + --LUKE viii. 60. + +The calm leisureliness of conscious power shines out very +brilliantly from this story of the raising of Jairus's daughter. The +father had come to Jesus, in an agony of impatience, and besought +Him to heal his child, who lay 'at the point of death.' Not a moment +was to be lost. Our Lord sets out with him, but on the road pauses +to attend to another sufferer, the woman who laid her wasted finger +on the hem of Christ's robe. How Jairus must have chafed at the +delay, and thought every moment an eternity; and perhaps said hard +things In his heart about Christ's apparent indifference! Delay +seemed to be fatal, for before Christ had finished speaking to the +woman, the messenger comes with a word which appears to me to have +in it a touch of bitterness and of blame. 'Trouble not the Master' +sounds as if the speaker hinted that the Master was thinking it a +trouble, and had not put Himself much about to meet the necessity. +But one's gain shall not be another's loss, and Christ does not let +any applicant to Him suffer whilst He attends to any other. Each has +an equal claim on His heart. So He turns to the father with the +words that I have read for my text. + +They are the first of three sayings of our Lord round which this +whole narrative is remarkably grouped. I have read the first, but I +mean to speak about all three. There is a word of encouragement +which sustains a feeble faith: there is a word of revelation which +smooths the grimness of death; 'She is not dead but sleepeth'; and +there is a word of power which goes into the darkness, and brings +back the child; 'Maiden, arise!' Now, I think if we take these +three, we get the significance of this whole incident. + +I. First, then, the word of cheer which sustains a staggering faith. + +'When Jesus heard this, He said unto him, Fear not, believe only, +and she shall be made whole.' How preposterous this rekindling of +hope must have seemed to Jairus when the storm had blown out the +last flickering spark! How irrelevant, if it were not cruel, the +'Fear not!' must have sounded when the last possible blow had +fallen. And yet, because of the word in the middle, embedded between +the obligation to hope and the prohibition to fear, neither the one +nor the other is preposterous, 'Only believe.' That is in the +centre; and on the one side,' Fear not!'--a command ridiculous +without it; and on the other side, 'Hope!' an injunction impossible +apart from faith. + +Jesus Christ is saying the very same things to us. His fundamental +commandment is 'Only believe,' and there effloresce from it the two +things, courage that never trembles, and hope that never despairs. +'Only believe'--usually He made the outflow of His miraculous power +contingent upon the faith, either of the sufferer himself or of some +others. There was no necessity for the connection. We have instances +in His life of miracles wrought without faith, without asking, simply +at the bidding of His own irrepressible pity. But the rule in regard +to His miracles is that faith was the condition that drew out the +miraculous energy. The connection between our faith and our experience +of His supernatural, sustaining, cleansing, gladdening, enlightening +power is closer than that. For without our trust in Him, He can do +no mighty works upon us, and there must be confidence, on our part, +before there is in our experience the reception into our lives of His +highest blessings; just because they are greater and deeper, and belong +to a more inward sphere than these outward and inferior miracles of +bodily healing. Therefore the connection between our faith and His +gifts to us is inevitable, and constant, and the commandment 'Only +believe,' assumes a more imperative stringency, in regard to our +spiritual experience, than it ever did in regard to those who felt +the power of His miracle-working hand. So it stands for us, as the +one central appeal and exhortation which Christ, by His life, by the +record of His love, by His Cross and Passion, by His dealings and +pleadings with us through His Spirit, and His providence to-day, is +making to us all. 'Only believe'--the one act that vitally knits the +soul to Christ, and makes it capable of receiving unto itself the +fullness of His loftiest blessings. + +But we must note the two clauses which stand on either side of this +central commandment. They deal with two issues of faith. One forbids +fear, the other gives fuel for the fire of hope. On the one hand, +the exhortation, 'Fear not,' which is the most futile that +can be spoken if the speaker does not touch the cause of the fear, +comes from His lips with a gracious power. Faith is the one +counterpoise of fear. There is none other for the deepest dreads +that lie cold and paralysing, though often dormant, in every human +spirit; and that ought to lie there. If a man has not faith in God, +in Christ, he ought to have fear. For there rise before him, +solitary, helpless, inextricably caught into the meshes of this +mysterious and awful system of things--a whole host of possible, or +probable, or certain calamities, and what is he to do? stand there +in the open, with the pelting of the pitiless storm coming down upon +him? The man is an idiot if he is not afraid. And what is to calm +those rational fears, the fear of wrath, of life, of death, of what +lies beyond death? You cannot whistle them away. You cannot ignore +them always. You cannot grapple with them in your own strength. +'Only believe,' says the Comforter and the Courage-bringer. The +attitude of trust banishes dread, and nothing else will effectually +and reasonably do it. 'I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear.' Him +who can slay and who judges. You have, and you cannot break, a +connection with God. He ought to be one of two things--your +ghastliest dread or your absolute trust. 'Only believe then,' 'fear +not.' Believe not, _then_ be afraid; for you have reason to be. + +Men say, 'Oh! keep your courage up'; and they contribute no means to +keep it up: Christ says 'Fear not; only believe,' and gives to faith +the courage which He enjoins. Like a child that never dreams of any +mischief being able to reach it when the mother's breast is beneath +its head, and the mother's arms are round its little body, each of +us may rest on Christ's breast, and feel His arm round about us. +Then we may smile at all that men call evils; and whether they are +possible, or probable, or certain, we can look at them all and say, +'Ah! I have circumvented you.' 'All things work together for good to +them that' trust Christ. 'Fear not; only believe.' + +But on the other hand, from that simple faith will spring up also +hope that cannot despair. 'She shall be made whole.' Irreversible +disasters have no place in Christian experience. There are no +irrevocable losses to him who trusts. There are no wounds that +cannot be stanched, when we go to Him who has the balm and the +bandage. Although it is true that dead faces do not smile again upon +us until we get beyond earth's darkness, it is also true that bonds +broken may be knit in a finer fashion, if faith instead of sense +weaves them together; and that in the great future we shall find +that the true healing of those that went before was not by +deliverance from, but by passing through, the death that emancipates +from the long disease of earthly life. + +Brethren! if we trust Christ we may 'hope perfectly.' If we do not +trust Him our firmest hopes are as spiders' webs that are swept away +by a besom; and our deepest desires remain unfulfilled. 'Only +believe,' then, on the one side, 'Fear not,' and on the other side +'Hope ever.' + +II. We have here a word of revelation which softens the grimness of +death. + +Our Lord reaches the house of affliction, and finds it a house of +hubbub and noise. The hired mourners, with their shrill shrieks, +were there already, bewailing the child. The tumult jarred upon His +calmness, and He says 'Weep not; she is not dead but sleepeth.' One +wonders how some people have read those words as if they declared +that the apparent physical death was only a swoon or a faint, or +some kind of coma, and that so there was no miracle at all in the +case. 'They laughed Him to scorn; knowing that she was dead.' You +can measure the hollowness of their grief by its change into +scornful laughter when a promise of consolation began to open before +them. And you can measure their worth as witnesses to the child's +resurrection by their absolute certainty of her death. + +But notice that our Lord never forbids weeping unless He takes away +its cause. 'Weep not,' is another of the futile forms of words with +which men try to encourage and comfort one another. There is nothing +more cruel than to forbid tears to the sad heart. Jesus Christ never +did that except when He was able to bring that which took away +occasion for weeping. He lets grief have its way. He means us to run +rivers of waters down our cheeks when He sends us sorrows. We shall +never get the blessing of these till we have felt the bitterness of +them. We shall never profit by them if we stoically choke back the +manifestations of our grief, and think that it is submissive to be +dumb. Let sorrow have way. Tears purge the heart from which their +streams come. But Jesus Christ says to us all, 'Weep not,' because +He comes to us all with that which, if I may so say, puts a rainbow +into the tear-drops, and makes it possible that the great paradox +should be fulfilled in our hearts, 'As sorrowful yet always +rejoicing.' Weep not; or if you weep, let the tears have +thankfulness as well as grief in them. It is a difficult +commandment, but it is possible when His lips tell us not to weep, +and we have obeyed the central exhortation, 'Only believe.' + +Note, further, in this second of our Lord's words, how He smooths +away the grimness of death. I do not claim for Him anything like a +monopoly of that most obvious and natural symbolism which regards +death as a sleep. It must have occurred to all who ever looked upon +a corpse. But I do claim that when He used the metaphor, and by His +use of it modified the whole conception of death in the thoughts of +His disciples, He put altogether different ideas into it from that +which it contained on the lips of others. He meant to suggest the +idea of repose-- + + 'Sleep, full of rest from head to foot.' + +The calm immobility of the body so lately racked with pain, or +restless in feverish tossings, is but a symbol of the deeper +stillness of truer repose which remaineth for the people of God and +laps the blessed spirits who 'sleep in Jesus.' He meant to suggest +the idea of separation from this material world. He did not mean to +suggest the idea of unconsciousness. A man is not unconscious when +he is asleep, as dreams testify. He meant, above all, if sleep, then +waking. + +So the grim fact is smoothed down, not by blinking any of its +aspects, but by looking deeper into them. They who, only believing, +have lived a life of courage and of hope, and have fronted sorrows, +and felt the benediction of tears, pass into the great darkness, and +know that they there are rocked to sleep on a loving breast, and, +sleeping in Jesus, shall wake with the earliest morning light. + +This is a revelation for all His servants. And how deeply these +words, and others like them which He spake at the grave of Lazarus +and at other times, were dinted into the consciousness of the +Christian Church, is manifested by the fact, not only that they are +recurrently used by Apostles in their Epistles, but that all through +the New Testament you scarcely ever find the physical fact of +dissolution designated by the name 'death,' but all sorts of +gracious paraphrases, which bring out the attractive and blessed +aspects of the thing, are substituted. It is a 'sleep'; it is a +'putting off the tabernacle'; it is a 'departure'; it is a pulling +up of the tent-pegs, and a change of place. We do not need the ugly +word, and we do not need to dread the thing that men call by it. The +Christian idea of death is not the separation of self from its +house, of the soul from the body, but the separation of self from +God, who is the life. + +III. So, lastly, the life-giving word of power. + +'Maiden, arise!' All the circumstances of the miracle are marked by +the most lovely consideration, on Christ's part, of the timidity of +the little girl of twelve years of age. It is because of that that +He seeks to raise her in privacy, whereas the son of the widow of +Nain and Lazarus were raised amidst a crowd. It is because of that +that He selects as His companions in the room only the three chief +Apostles as witnesses, and the father and mother of the child. It is +because of that that He puts forth His hand and grasps hers, in +order that the child's eyes when they open should see only the +loving faces of parents, and the not less loving face of the +Master; and that her hand, when it began to move again, should +clasp, first, His own tender hand. It is for the same reason that +the remarkable appendix to the miracle is given--'He commanded that +they should give her food.' Surely that is an inimitable note of +truth. No legend-manufacturer would have dared to drop down to such +a homely word as that, after such a word as 'Maiden, arise!' An +economy of miraculous power is shown here, such as was shown when, +after Lazarus came forth, other hands had to untie the grave-clothes +which tripped him as he stumbled along. Christ will do by miracle +what is needful and not one hairs-breadth more. In His calm majesty +He bethinks Himself of the hungry child, and entrusts to others the +task of giving her food. That homely touch is, to me, indicative of +the simple veracity of the historian. + +But the life-giving word itself; what can we say about it? Only this +one thing: here Jesus Christ exercises a manifest divine prerogative. +It was no more the syllables that He spoke than it was the touch of +His hand that raised the child. What was it? The forth-putting of +His will, which went away straight into the darkness; and if the +disembodied spirit was in a locality, went straight there; and somehow +or other, laid hold of the spirit, and somehow or other, reinstated it +in its home. Christ's will, like the king's writ, runs through all the +universe. 'He spake, and it was done';--whose prerogative is that? +God's; and God manifest in the flesh exercised it. The words of the +Incarnate Word have power over physical things. + +Here, too, are the prelude and first-fruits of our resurrection. Not +that there are not wide differences between the raising of this +child, and that future resurrection to which Christian hope looks +forward, but that in this one little incident, little, compared with +the majestic scale of the latter, there come out these two things--the +demonstration that conscious life runs on, irrespective of the accident +of its being united with or separated from a bodily organisation; and +the other, that Jesus Christ has power over men's spirits, and can +fit them at His will to bodies appropriate to their condition. Time +is no element in the case. What befalls the particles of the human +frame is no element in the case. 'Thou sowest not the body that shall +be.' But if that Lord had the power which He showed in that one +chamber, with that one child, then, as a little window may show us +great matters, so we see through this single incident the time when +'they that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come +forth.' + +Brethren! there is a higher lesson still; He that gives and gives +again, physical life, does so as a symbol of the highest gift which +He can bestow upon us all. If we 'only believe,' then, 'you hath He +quickened which were dead in trespasses and sins ... and for His +great love wherewith He loved us.... He hath raised us up together, +and made us sit together, in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.' + + + + +BREAD FROM HEAVEN + + + 'And the apostles, when they were returned, told Him + all that they had done. And He took them, and went + aside privately into a desert place belonging to the + city, called Bethsaida. 11. And the people, when they + knew it, followed Him; and He received them, and spake + unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that + had need of healing. 12. And when the day began to + wear away, then came the twelve, and said unto Him, + Send the multitude away, that they may go into the + towns and country round about, and lodge, and get + victuals; for we are here in a desert place. 13. But He + said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said, We + have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we + should go and buy meat for all this people. 14. (For + they were about five thousand men.) And He said to His + disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company. + 15. And they did so, and made them all sit down. + 16. Then He took the five loaves, and the two fishes; + and, looking up to heaven, He blessed them, and brake, + and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude. + 17. And they did eat, and were all filled: and there + was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve + baskets.'--LUKE ix. 10-17. + +The Apostles needed rest after their trial trip as evangelists. John +the Baptist's death had just been told to Christ. The Passover was +at hand, and many pilgrims were on the march. Prudence and care for +His followers as well as Himself suggested a brief retirement, and +our Lord sought it at the Eastern Bethsaida, a couple of miles up +the Jordan from its point of entrance to the lake. Matthew and Mark +tell us that He went by boat, which Luke does not seem to have +known. Mark adds that the curious crowd, which followed on foot, +reached the place of landing before Him, and so effectually +destroyed all hope of retirement. It was a short walk round the +north-western part of the head of the lake, and the boat would be in +sight all the way, so that there was no escape for its passengers. + +Luke records the self-oblivious cordiality of Christ's reception of +the intrusive crowd. Without a sigh or sign of impatience, He +'welcomed them'--a difficult thing to do, and one which few of us +could have achieved. The motives of most of them can have been +nothing higher than what leads vulgar people of all ranks and +countries to buzz about distinguished men, utterly regardless of +delicacy or considerateness. They want to see the notoriety, no +matter what it costs him. But Jesus received them patiently, +because, as Mark touchingly tells, He was 'moved with pity,' and saw +in their rude crowding round Him the token of their lack of guides +and teachers. They seemed to Him, not merely a mob of intrusive +sight-seers, but like a huddled mass of unshepherded sheep. + +Christ's heart felt more lovingly than ours because His eye saw +deeper, and His eye saw deeper because His heart felt more lovingly. +If we would live nearer Him, we should see, as He did, enough in +every man to draw our pity and help, even though he may jostle and +interfere with us. + +The short journey to Bethsaida would be in the early morning, and a +long day of toil followed instead of the hoped-for quiet. Note that +singular expression, 'Them that had need of healing He healed.' Why +not simply 'them that were sick'? Probably to bring out the thought +that misery made unfailing appeal to Him, and that for Him to see +need was to supply it. His swift compassion, His all-sufficient +power to heal, and the conditions of receiving His healing, are all +wrapped up in the words. Coming to the miracle itself, we may throw +the narrative into three parts--the preliminaries, the miracle, and +the abundant overplus. + +I. Our Lord leads up to the miracle by forcing home on the minds of +the disciples the extent of the need and the utter inadequacy of +their resources to meet it, and by calling on them and the crowd for +an act of obedience which must have seemed to many of them +ludicrous. John shows us that He had begun to prepare them, at the +moment of meeting the multitude, by His question to Philip. That had +been simmering in the disciples' minds all day, while they leisurely +watched Him toiling in word and work, and now they come with their +solution of the difficulty. Their suggestion was a very sensible one +in the circumstances, and they are not to be blamed for not +anticipating a miracle as the way out. However many miracles they +saw, they never seem to have expected another. That has been thought +to be unnatural, but surely it is true to nature. They moved in a +confusing mixture of the miraculous and the natural which baffled +calculation as to which element would rule at any given moment. +Their faith was feeble, and Christ rebuked them for their slowness +to learn the lesson of this very miracle and its twin feeding of the +four thousand. They were our true brothers in their failure to grasp +the full meaning of the past, and to trust His power. + +The strange suggestion that the disciples should feed the crowd must +have appeared to them absurd, but it was meant to bring out the +clear recognition of the smallness of their supply. Therein lie +great lessons. Commands are given and apparent duties laid on us, in +order that we may find out how impotent we are to do them. It can +never be our duty to do what we cannot do, but it is often our duty +to attempt tasks to which we are conspicuously inadequate, in the +confidence that He who gives them has laid them on us to drive us to +Himself, and there to find sufficiency. The best preparation of His +servants for their work in the world is the discovery that their own +stores are small. Those who have learned that it is their task to +feed the multitude, and who have said 'We have no more than such and +such scanty resources,' are prepared to be the distributors of His +all-sufficient supply. + +What a strange scene that must have been as the hundred groups of +fifty each arranged themselves on the green grass, in the setting +sunlight, waiting for a meal of which there were no signs! It took a +good deal of faith to seat the crowd, and some faith for the crowd +to sit. How expectant they would be! How they would wonder what was +to be done next! How some of them would laugh, and some sneer, and +all watch the event! We, too, have to put ourselves in the attitude +to receive gifts of which sense sees no sign; and if, in obedience +to Christ's word, we sit down expecting Him to find the food, we +shall not be disappointed, though the table be spread in the +wilderness, and neither storehouse nor kitchen be in sight. + +II. The miracle itself has some singular features. Like that of the +draught of fishes, it was not called forth by the cry of suffering, +nor was the need which it met one beyond the reach of ordinary +means. It was certainly one of the miracles most plainly meant to +strike the popular mind, and the enthusiasm excited by it, according +to John's account, was foreseen by Christ. Why did He evoke +enthusiasm which He did not mean to gratify? For the very purpose of +bringing the carnal expectations of the crowd to a head, that they +might be the more conclusively disappointed. The miracle and its +sequel sifted and sent away many 'disciples,' and were meant to do +so. + +All the accounts tell of Christ's 'blessing.' Matthew and Mark do +not say what He blessed, and perhaps the best supplement is 'God,' +but Luke says that He blessed the food. What He blesses is blessed; +for His words are deeds, and communicate the blessing which they +speak. The point at which the miraculous multiplication of the food +came in is left undetermined, but perhaps the difference in the +tenses of the verbs hints at it. 'Blessed' and 'brake' are in the +tense which describes a single act; 'gave' is in that which +describes a continuous repeated action. The pieces grew under His +touch, and the disciples always found His hands full when they came +back with their own empty. But wherever the miraculous element +appeared, creative power was exercised by Jesus; and none the less +was it creative, because there was the 'substratum' of the loaves +and fishes. Too much stress has been laid on their being used, and +some commentators have spoken as if without them the miracle could +not have been wrought. But surely the distinction between pure +creation and multiplication of a thing already existing vanishes +when a loaf is 'multiplied' so as to feed a thousand men. + +The symbolical aspect of the miracle is set forth in the great +discourse which follows it in John's Gospel. Jesus is the 'Bread of +God which came down from heaven.' That Bread is broken for us. Not +in His Incarnation alone, but in His Death, is He the food of the +world; and we have not only to 'eat His flesh,' but to 'drink His +blood,' if we would live. Nor can we lose sight of the symbol of His +servants' task. They are the distributors of the heaven-sent bread. +If they will but take their poor stores to Jesus, with the +acknowledgment of their insufficiency, He will turn them into +inexhaustible supplies, and they will find that 'there is that +scattereth, and yet increaseth.' What Christ blesses is always +enough. + +III. The abundance left over is significant. Twelve baskets, such as +poor travellers carried their belongings in, were filled; that is to +say, each Apostle who had helped to feed the hungry had a basketful +to bring off for future wants. The 'broken pieces' were not crumbs +that littered the grass, but the portions that came from Christ's +hands. + +His provision is more than enough for a hungry world, and they who +share it out among their fellows have their own possession of it +increased. There is no surer way to receive the full sweetness and +blessing of the Gospel than to carry it to some hungry soul. These +full baskets teach us, too, that In Christ's gift of Himself as the +Bread of Life there is ever more than at any given moment we can +appropriate. The Christian's spiritual experiences have ever an +element of infinity in them; and we feel that if we were able to +take in more, there would be more for us to take. Other food cloys +and does not satisfy, and leaves us starving. Christ satisfies and +does not cloy, and we have always remaining, yet to be enjoyed, the +boundless stores which neither eternity will age nor a universe +feeding on them consume. The Christian's capacity of partaking of +Christ grows with what it feeds on, and he alone is safe in +believing that 'To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more +abundant.' + + + + +THE LORD THAT HEALETH THEE' + + + 'He healed them that had need of healing.'--Luke ix. 11. + +Jesus was seeking a little quiet and rest for Himself and His +followers. For that purpose He took one of the fishermen's boats to +cross to the other side of the sea. But the crowd, inconsiderate and +selfish, like all crowds, saw the course of the boat, and hurried, +as they could easily do, on foot round the head of the lake, to be +ready for Him wherever He might land. So when He touched the shore, +there they all were, open-mouthed and mostly moved by mere +curiosity, and the prospect of a brief breathing-space vanished. + +But not a word of rebuke or disappointment came from His lips, and +no shade of annoyance crossed His spirit. Perhaps with a sigh, but +yet cheerfully, He braced Himself to work where He had hoped for +leisure. It was a little thing, but it was the same in kind, though +infinitely smaller in magnitude, as that which led Him to lay aside +'the glory that He had with the Father before the world was,' and +come to toil and die amongst men. + +But what I especially would note are Luke's remarkable words here. +Why does he use that periphrasis, 'Them that had need of healing,' +instead of contenting himself with straightforwardly saying, 'Them +that were sick,' as do the other Evangelists? Well, I suppose he +wished to hint to us the Lord's discernment of men's necessities, +the swift compassion which moved to supply a need as soon as it was +observed, and the inexhaustible power by which, whatsoever the +varieties of infirmity, He was able to cure and to bring strength. +'He healed them that had need of healing,' because His love could +not look upon a necessity without being moved to supply it, and +because that love wielded the resources of an infinite power. + +Now, all our Lord's miracles are parables, illustrating upon a lower +platform spiritual facts; and that is especially true about the +miracles of healing. So I wish to deal with the words before us as +having a direct application to ourselves, and to draw from them two +or three very old, threadbare, neglected lessons, which I pray God +may lead some of us to recognise anew our need of healing, and +Christ's infinite power to bestow it. There are three things that I +want to say, and I name them here that you may know where I am +going. First, we all need healing; second, Christ can heal us all; +third, we are not all healed. + +I. We all need healing. + +The people in that crowd were not all diseased. Some of them He +taught; some of them He cured; but that crowd where healthy men +mingled with cripples is no type of the condition of humanity. +Rather we are to find it in that Pool of Bethesda, with its five +porches, wherein lay a multitude of impotent folk, tortured with +varieties of sickness, and none of them sound. Blessed be God! we +are in _Bethesda_, which means 'house of mercy,' and the +fountain that can heal is perpetually springing up beside us all. +There is a disease, dear brethren, which affects and infects all +mankind, and it is of that that I wish to speak to you two or three +plain, earnest words now. Sin is universal. + +What does the Bible mean by sin? Everything that goes against, or +neglects God's law. And if you will recognise in all the acts of +every life the reference, which really is there, to God and His +will, you will not need anything more to establish the fact that +'all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.' Whatever +other differences there are between men, there is this fundamental +similarity. Neglect--which is a breach--of the law of God pertains +to all mankind. Everything that we do ought to have reference to +Him. _Does_ everything that we do have such reference? If not, +there is a quality of evil in it. For the very definition of sin is +living to myself and neglecting Him. He is the centre, and if I +might use a violent figure, every planet that wrenches itself away +from gravitation towards, and revolution round, that centre, and +prefers to whirl on its own axis, has broken the law of the +celestial spheres, and brought discord into the heavenly harmony. +All men stand condemned in this respect. + +Now, there is no need to exaggerate. I am not saying that all men +are on the same level. I know that there are great differences in +the nobleness, purity, and goodness of lives, and Christianity has +never been more unfairly represented than when good men have called, +as they have done with St. Augustine, the virtues of godless men, +'splendid vices.' But though the differences are not unimportant, +the similarity is far more important. The pure, clean-living man, +and the loving, gentle woman, though they stand high above the +sensuality of the profligate, the criminal, stand in this respect on +the same footing that they, too, have to put their hands on their +mouths, and their mouths in the dust, and cry 'Unclean!' I do not +want to exaggerate, and sure I am that if men will be honest with +themselves there is a voice that responds to the indictment when I +say sadly, in the solemn language of Scripture, 'we all have sinned +and come short of the glory of God.' For there is no difference. If +you do not believe in a God, you can laugh at the old wife's notion +of 'sin.' If you do believe in a God, you are shut up to believe +this other thing, 'Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.' + +And, brethren, if this universal fact is indeed a fact, it is the +gravest element in human nature. It matters very little, in +comparison, whether you and I are wise or foolish, educated or +illiterate, rich or poor, happy or miserable. All the superficial +distinctions which separate men from one another, and are all right +in their own places, dwindle away into nothing before this solemn +truth that in every frame there is a plague spot, and that the +leprosy has smitten us all. + +But, brethren, do not let us lose ourselves in generalities. All +means each, and each means me. We all know how hard it is to bring +general truths to bear, with all their weight, upon ourselves. That +is an old commonplace: 'All men think all men mortal but +themselves'; and we are quite comfortable when this indictment is +kept in the general terms of universality--'All have sinned.' +Suppose I sharpen the point a little. God grant that the point may +get to some indurated conscience here. Suppose, instead of reading +'All have sinned,' I beseech each one of my hearers to strike out +the general word, and put in the individual one, and to say +'_I_ have sinned.' You have to do with this indictment just as +you have to do with the promises and offers of the Gospel--wherever +there is a 'whosoever' put your pen through it, and write your own +name over it. The blank cheque is given to us in regard to these +promises and offers, and we have to fill in our own names. The +charge is handed to us, in regard to this indictment, and if we are +wise we shall write our own names there, too. + +Dear brethren, I leave this on your consciences, and I will venture to +ask that, if not here, at any rate when you get quietly home to-night, +and lie down on your beds, you would put to yourselves the question, +'Is it I?' And sure I am that, if you do, you will see a finger +pointing out of the darkness, and hear a voice sterner than that of +Nathan, saying 'Thou art the man.' + +II. Christ can heal us all. + +I was going to use an inappropriate word, and say, the _superb_ ease +with which He grappled with, and overcame, all types of disease is a +revelation on a lower level of the inexhaustible and all-sufficient +fullness of His healing power. He can cope with all sin-the world's +sin, and the individual's. And, as I believe, He alone can do it. + +Just look at the problem that lies before any one who attempts to +stanch these wounds of humanity. What is needed in order to deliver +men from the sickness of sin? Well! that evil thing, like the fabled +dog that sits at the gate of the infernal regions, is three-headed. +And you have to do something with each of these heads if you are to +deliver men from that power. + +There is first the awful power that evil once done has over us of +repeating itself on and on. There is nothing more dreadful to a +reflective mind than the damning influence of habit. The man that +has done some wrong thing once is a _rara avis_ indeed. If +once, then twice; if twice, then onward and onward through all the +numbers. And the intervals between will grow less, and what were +isolated points will coalesce into a line; and impulses wax as +motives wane, and the less delight a man has in his habitual form of +evil the more is its dominion over him, and he does it at last not +because the doing of it is any delight, but because the _not_ +doing of it is a misery. If you are to get rid of sin, and to eject +the disease from a man, you have to deal with that awful degradation +of character, and the tremendous chains of custom. That is one of +the heads of the monster. + +But, as I said, sin has reference to God, and there is another of +the heads, for with sin comes guilt. The relation to God is +perverted, and the man that has transgressed stands before Him as +guilty, with all the dolefulness that that solemn word means; and +that is another of the heads. + +The third is this--the consequences that follow in the nature of +penalty. 'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' So long +as there is a universal rule by God, in which all things are +concatenated by cause and effect, it is impossible but that 'Evil +shall slay the wicked.' And that is the third head. These three, +habit, guilt, and penalty, have all to be dealt with if you are +going to make a thorough job of the surgery. + +And here, brethren, I want not to argue but to preach. Jesus Christ +died on the Cross for you, and your sin was in His heart and mind +when He died, and His atoning sacrifice cancels the guilt, and +suspends all that is dreadful in the penalty of the sin. Nothing +else--nothing else will do that. Who can deal with guilt but the +offended Ruler and Judge? Who can trammel up consequences but the +Lord of the Universe? The blood of Jesus Christ is the sole and +sufficient oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole +world. + +That disposes of two of the monster's heads. What about the third? +Who will take the venom out of my nature? What will express the +black drop from my heart? How shall the Ethiopian change his skin or +the leopard his spots? How can the man that has become habituated to +evil 'learn to do well'? Superficially there may be much +reformation. God forbid that I should forget that, or seem to +minimise it. But for the thorough ejection from your nature of the +corruption that you have yourselves brought into it, I believe--and +that is why I am here, for I should have nothing to say if I did not +believe it--I believe that there is only one remedy, and that is +that into the sinful heart there should come, rejoicing and +flashing, and bearing on its broad bosom before it all the rubbish +and filth of that dunghill, the great stream of the new life that is +given by Jesus Christ. He was crucified for our offences, and He +lives to bestow upon us the fullness of His own holiness. So the +monster's heads are smitten off. Our disease and the tendency to it, +and the weakness consequent upon it, are all cast out from us, and +He reveals Himself as 'the Lord who healeth thee.' + +Now, dear brethren, you may say 'That is all very fine talking.' +Yes! but it is something a great deal more than fine talking. For +nineteen centuries have established the fact that it is so; and with +all their imperfections there have been millions, and there are +millions to-day, who are ready to say, 'Behold! it is not a +delusion; it is not rhetoric, _I_ have trusted in Him and He +has made _me_ whole.' + +Now, if these things that I have been saying do fairly represent the +gravity of the problem which has to be dealt with in order to heal +the sicknesses of the world, then there is no need to dwell upon the +thought of how absolutely confined to Jesus Christ is the power of +thus dealing. God forbid that I should not give full weight to all +other methods for partial reformation and bettering of humanity. I +would wish them all God-speed. But, brethren, there is nothing else +that will deal either with my sin in its relation to God, or in its +relation to my character, or in its relation to my future, except +the message of the Gospel. There are plenty of other things, very +helpful and good in their places, but I do want to say, in one word, +that there is nothing else that goes deep enough. + +Education? Yes! it will do a great deal, but it will do nothing in +regard to sin. It will alter the type of the disease, because the +cultured man's transgressions will be very different from those of +the illiterate boor. But wise or foolish, professor, student, +thinker, or savage with narrow forehead and all but dead brain, are +alike in this, that they are sinners in God's sight. I would that I +could get through the fence that some of you have reared round you, +on the ground of your superior enlightenment and education and +refinement, and make you feel that there is something deeper than +all that, and that you may be a very clever, and a very well +educated, a very highly cultured, an extremely thoughtful and +philosophical sinner, but you are a sinner all the same. + +And again, we hear a great deal at present, and I do not desire that +we should hear less, about social and economic and political +changes, which some eager enthusiasts suppose will bring the +millennium. Well, if the land were nationalised, and all 'the means +of production and distribution' were nationalised, and everybody got +his share, and we were all brought to the communistic condition, +what then? That would not make men better, in the deepest sense of +the word. The fact is, these people are beginning at the wrong end. +You cannot better humanity merely by altering its environment for +the better. Christianity reverses the process. It begins with the +inmost man, and it works outwards to the circumference, and that is +the thorough way. Why! suppose you took a company of people out of +the slums, for instance, and put them into a model lodging-house, +how long will it continue a model? They will take their dirty habits +with them, and pull down the woodwork for firing, and in a very +short time make the place where they are as like as possible to the +hovel whence they came. You must change the men, and then you can +change their circumstances, or rather they will change them for +themselves. Now, all this is not to be taken as casting cold water +on any such efforts to improve matters, but only as a protest +against its being supposed that these _alone_ are sufficient to +rectify the ills and cure the sorrows of humanity. 'Ye have healed +the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly.' The patient is +dying of cancer, and you are treating him for a skin disease. It is +Jesus Christ alone who can cure the sins, and therein the sorrows, +of humanity. + +III. Lastly, we are not all healed. + +That is only too plain. All the sick in the crowd round Christ were +sent away well, but the gifts He bestowed so broadcast had no +relation to their spiritual natures, and gifts that have relation to +our spiritual nature cannot be thus given in entire disregard of our +actions in the matter. + +Christ cannot heal you unless you take His healing power. He did on +earth sometimes, though not often, cure physical disease without the +requirement of faith on the part of the healed person or his +friends, but He cannot (He would if He could) do so in regard to the +disease of sin. There, unless a man goes to Him, and trusts Him, and +submits his spirit to the operation of Christ's pardoning and +hallowing grace, there cannot be any remedy applied, nor any cure +effected. That is no limitation of the universal power of the +Gospel. It is only saying that if you do not take the medicine you +cannot expect that it will do you any good, and surely that is plain +common-sense. There are plenty of people who fancy that Christ's +healing and saving power will, somehow or other, reach every man, +apart from the man's act. It is all a delusion, brethren. If it +could it would. But if salvation could be thus given, independent of +the man, it would come down to a mere mechanical thing, and would +not be worth the having. So I say, first, if you will not take the +medicine you cannot get the cure. + +I say, second, if you do not feel that you are ill you will not take +the medicine. A man crippled with lameness, or tortured with fever, +or groping in the daylight and blind, or deaf to all the sounds of +this sweet world, could not but know that he was a subject for the +healing. But the awful thing about our disease is that the worse you +are the less you know it; and that when conscience ought to be +speaking loudest it is quieted altogether, and leaves a man often +perfectly at peace, so that after he has done evil things he wipes +his mouth and says, 'I have done no harm.' + +So, dear brethren, let me plead with you not to put away these poor +words that I have been saying to you, and not to be contented until +you have recognised what is true, that you--_you_, stand a +sinful man before God. + +There is surely no madness comparable to the madness of the man that +prefers to keep his sin and die, rather than go to Christ and live. +We all neglect to take up many good things that we might have if we +would, but no other neglect is a thousandth part so insane as that +of the man who clings to his evil and spurns the Lord. Will you look +into your own hearts? Will you recognise that awful solemn law of +God which ought to regulate all our doings, and, alas! has been so +often neglected, and so often transgressed by each of us? Oh! if +once you saw yourselves as you are, you would turn to Him and say, +'Heal me'; and you would be healed, and He would lay His hand upon +you. If only you will go, sick and broken, to Him, and trust in His +great sacrifice, and open your hearts to the influx of His healing +power, He will give you 'perfect soundness'; and your song will be, +'Bless the Lord, O my soul.... Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; +who healeth thy diseases.' + +May it be so with each of us! + + + + +CHRIST'S CROSS AND OURS + + + 'And it came to pass, as He was alone praying, His + disciples were with Him; and He asked them, saying, + Whom say the people that I am I 19. They answering, + said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and + others say, that one of the old prophets is risen + again. 20. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I + am? Peter answering, said, The Christ of God. 21. And + He straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell + no man that thing; 22. Saying, The Son of man must + suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, + and chief priests, and scribes, and be slain, and be + raised the third day. 23. And He said to them all, If + any man will come after Me. let him deny himself, and + take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24. For + whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but + whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same + shall save it. 25. For what is a man advantaged, if he + gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast + away? 26. For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me, and of + My words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when + He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father's, + and of the holy angels. 27. But I tell you of a truth, + there be some standing here, which shall not taste of + death, till they see the kingdom of God.'--Luke ix. 18-27. + +This passage falls into three distinct but closely connected parts: +the disciples' confession of Christ by Peters mouth, the revelation +to them of Christ's sufferings as necessarily involved in His +Messiahship, and His extension to them of the law of suffering as +necessarily involved in discipleship. Luke dwells much more lightly +than Matthew on the first of these stages, omitting the eulogium and +benediction on Simon Bar-Jona, and the great words about the rock on +which the Church is built, but he retains the essentials, and +emphasises the connection of the three parts by his very brevity in +regard to the first. + +I. Luke has special interest in recording Christ's prayers, and +though he does not tell us where the great confession was made, he +tells what Jesus did before it was made. We may well suppose that +His solitary thoughts had been busied with the sufferings on which +He was soon to enter, and that His resolve to impart the knowledge +of these to His followers was felt by Him to be a sharp trial of +their loyalty. The moment was a fateful one. How should fateful +moments be prepared for but by communion with the Father? No doubt +the feebleness of the disciples was remembered in His petitions. + +Jesus' double question was intended, first, to make the disciples +feel the gulf which separated them from the rest of the nation, and +so to make them hold the faster by their unshared faith, and be +ready to suffer for it, if needful, as probably it would be. It +braces true men to know that they are but a little company in the +midst of multitudes who laugh at their belief. That Jesus should +have seen that it was safe to accentuate the disciples' isolation +indicates the reality which He discerned in their faith, imperfect +as it was. + +'Whom say ye that I am?' Jesus brings them to articulate utterance +of the thought that had been slowly gathering distinctness in their +minds. We see our beliefs more clearly, and hold them more firmly, +when we put them into definite words. The question acted like a +chemical element dropped into a solution, which precipitates its +solid matter. Nebulous opinions are gathered up into spheres of +light by the process of speaking them. That question is all-important +for us. Our conceptions of Christ's nature and office determine our +relation to Him and our whole cast of life. True, we may say that He +is Lord, and not be His disciples, but we are not His disciples as He +would have us unless His Messiahship stands out clear and axiomatic +in our thoughts of Him. The conviction must pass into feeling, and +thence into life, but it must underlie all real discipleship. +Doctrine is not Christianity, but it is the foundation of +Christianity. The Apostolic confession here is the 'irreducible +minimum' of the Christian creed. + +It does not contain more than Nathanael had said at the beginning, +but here it is spoken, not as Peter's private belief, but he is the +mouthpiece of all. 'Whether it were I or they, so we' believe. This +confession summed up the previous development of the disciples, and +so marked the end of one stage and the beginning of another. Christ +would have them, as it were, take stock of their convictions, as +preliminary to opening a new chapter of teaching. + +II. That new chapter follows at once. The belief in Him as Messiah +is the first story of the building, and the second is next piled on +it. The new lesson was a hard one for men whose hopes were coloured +by Jewish dreams of a kingdom. They had to see all these vulgar +visions melting away, and to face a stern, sad reality. The very +fact that He was the Messiah necessarily drew after it the fact of +suffering. Whence did the 'must' arise? From the divine purpose, +from the necessities of the case, and the aim of His mission. These +had shaped prophetic utterances, and hence there was yet another +form of the 'must,' namely, the necessity for the Messiah's +fulfilling these predictions. + +No doubt our Lord led His saddened listeners to many a prophetic +saying which current expositions had smoothed over, but which had +for many years set before Him His destiny. What a scene that would +be--the victim calmly pointing to the tragic words which flashed +ominous new meanings to the silent hearers, stricken with awe and +grief as the terrible truth entered their minds! What had become of +their dreams? Gone, and in their place shame and death. They had +fancied a throne; the vision melted into a cross. + +We note the minute particularity of Jesus' delineation, and the +absolute certainty in His plain declaration of the fact and time of +the Resurrection. It is not wonderful that that declaration should +have produced little effect. The disciples were too much absorbed +and confounded by the dismal thought of His death to have ears for +the assurance of His Resurrection. Comfort coming at the end of the +announcement of calamities so great finds no entrance into, nor room +in, the heart. We all let a black foreground hide from us a brighter +distance. + +III. The Master's feet mark the disciples' path. If suffering was +involved in Messiahship, it is no less involved in discipleship. The +cross which is our hope is also our pattern. In a very real sense we +have to be partakers of the sufferings of Christ, and no faith in +these as substitutionary is vital unless it leads to being conformed +to His death. The solemn verses at the close of this lesson draw out +the law of Christian self-denial as being inseparable from true +discipleship. + +Verse 23 lays down the condition of following Jesus as being the +daily bearing, by each, of his own cross. Mark that self-denial is +not prescribed for its own sake, but simply as the means of +'following.' False asceticism insists on it, as if it were an end; +Christ treats it as a means. Mark, too, that it is 'self' which is +to be denied--not this or that part of our nature, but the central +'self.' The will is the man, and _it_ is to be brought into +captivity to Jesus, so that the true Christian says, 'I live; yet +not I, but Christ liveth in me.' That is much deeper, harder, +wholesomer teaching than separate austerities or forsakings of this +or that. + +Verse 24 grounds this great requirement on the broad principle that +to make self the main object of life is the sure way to ruin +oneself, and that to slay self is the road to true life. Note that +it is he who '_would_ save' his life that loses it, because the +desire is itself fatal, whether carried out or not; while it is he +who _does_ 'lose' his life for Christ that preserves it, +because even if the extreme evil has been suffered, the possession +of our true lives is not imperilled thereby. No doubt the words +refer primarily to literal death, and threaten the cowards who +sacrifice their convictions for the sake of keeping a whole skin +with the failure of their efforts, while they promise the martyr +dying in the arena or at the stake a crown of life. But they go far +beyond that. They carry the great truth that to hug self and to make +its preservation our first aim is ruinous, and the corresponding +one, that to slay self for Christ's sake is to receive a better +self. Self-preservation is suicide; self-immolation is not only +self-preservation, but self-glorification with glory caught from +Jesus. Give yourselves to Him, and He gives you back to yourselves, +ennobled and transfigured. + +Verse 25 urges obedience to the precept, by an appeal to reasonable +self-regard and common-sense. The abnegation enjoined does not +require that we should be indifferent to our own well-being. It is +right to consider what will 'profit,' and to act accordingly. The +commercial view of life, if rightly taken, with regard to all a +man's nature through all the duration of it, will coincide +accurately with the most exalted. It 'pays' to follow Christ. +Christian morality has not the hypersensitive fear of appealing to +self-interest which superfine moralists profess nowadays. And the +question in verse 25 admits of only one answer, for what good is the +whole world to a dead man? If our accounts are rightly kept, a world +gained shows poorly on the one side, against the entry on the other +of a soul lost. + +Verse 26 tells in what that losing oneself consists, and enforces +the original exhortation by the declaration of a future appearance +of the Son of man. He of whom Christ is then ashamed loses his own +soul. To live without His smile is to die, to be disowned by Him is +to be a wreck. To be ashamed of Jesus is equivalent to that base +self-preservation which has been denounced as fatal. If a man +disavows all connection with Him, He will disavow all connection +with the disavower. A man separated from Jesus is dead while he +lives, and hereafter will live a living death, and possess neither +the world for which he sacrificed his own soul nor the soul for +which he sacrificed it. + +We cannot but note the authoritative tone of our Lord in these +verses. He claims the obedience and discipleship of all men. He +demands that all shall yield themselves unreservedly to Him, and +that, even if actual surrender of life is involved, it shall be +gladly given. He puts our relation to Him as determining our whole +present and future. He assumes to be our Judge, whose smile is life, +whose averted face darkens the destiny of a man. Whom say ye that He +who dared to speak thus conceived Himself to be? Whom say ye that He +is? + +Verse 27 recalls us from the contemplation of that far-off +appearance to something nearer. Remembering the previous +announcement of our Lord's sufferings, these words seem intended to +cheer the disciples with the hope that the kingdom would still be +revealed within the lifetime of some then present. Remembering the +immediately preceding words, this saying seems to assure the +disciples that the blessed recompense of the life of self-crucifying +discipleship is not to be postponed to that future, but may be +enjoyed on earth. Remembering Christ's word, 'Except a man be born +again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,' we doubt whether there is +any reference here to the destruction of Jerusalem, as is commonly +understood. Are not the words rather a declaration that they who are +Christ's true disciples shall even here enter into the possession of +their true selves, and find the Messianic hopes more than fulfilled? +The future indicated will then be no more remote than the completion +of His work by His death and Resurrection, or, at the farthest, the +descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, by which the fuller life of +renewed natures was bestowed on those who were following Jesus in +daily self-surrender. + + + + +PRAYER AND TRANSFIGURATION + + + 'And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was + altered.'--LUKE ix. 29. + +This Evangelist is especially careful to record the instances of our +Lord's prayers. That is in accordance with the emphasis which he +places on Christ's manhood. In this narrative of the Transfiguration +it is to Luke that we owe our knowledge of the connection between +our Lord's prayer and the radiance of His face. It may be a question +how far such transfiguration was the constant accompaniment of our +Lord's devotion. It is to be remembered that this is the only time +at which others were present while He prayed, and perhaps it may be +that whensoever, on the mountain top or in the solitude of the +wilderness, He entered into closer communion with His heavenly +Father, that radiance shone from His face, though no eye beheld and +no tongue has recorded the glory. + +But that is a mere supposition. However that may be, it would seem +that the light on Christ's face was not merely a reflection caught +from above, but it was also a rising up from within of what always +abode there, though it did not always shine through the veil of +flesh. And in so far it presents no parallel with anything in our +experience, nor any lesson for us. But to regard our Lord's +Transfiguration as only the result of the indwelling divinity +manifested is to construe only one half of the fact that we have to +deal with, and the other half does afford for us a precious lesson. +'As He prayed the fashion of His countenance was altered'; and as we +pray, and in the measure in which we truly and habitually do hold +communion, shall we, too, partake of His Transfiguration. + +The old story of the light that flashed upon the face of the +Lawgiver, caught by reflection from the light of God in which He +walked, is a partial parallel to Christ's Transfiguration, and both +the one and the other incident, amongst their other lessons, do also +point to some mysterious and occult relation between the indwelling +soul and the envious veil of flesh which, under certain +circumstances, might become radiant with the manifestation of that +indwelling power. + +I. The one great lesson which I seek now to enforce from this +incident is, that communion with God transfigures. + +Prayer is more than petitions. It is not necessarily cast into words +at all. In its widest, which is its truest sense, it is the attitude +and exercise of devout contemplation of God and intercourse in +heart, mind, and will with Him, a communion which unites aspiration +and attainment, longing and fruition, asking and receiving, seeking +and finding, a communion which often finds itself beggared for +words, and sometimes even seems to transcend thought. How different +is such an hour of rapt communion with the living God from the +miserable notions which so many professing Christians have of +prayer, as if it were but spoken requests, more or less fervent and +sincere, for things that they want! The noblest communion of a soul +with God can never be free from the consciousness of need and +dependence. Petition must ever be an element in it, but supplication +is only a corner of prayer. Such conscious converse with God is the +very atmosphere in which the Christian soul should always live, and +if it be an experience altogether strange to us we had better ask +ourselves whether we yet know the realities of the Christian life, +or have any claim to the name. 'Truly, our fellowship is with the +Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ,' and if we have no share in +that fellowship we do not belong to the class of whom it is the mark +and possession. + +Of course, such communion is not to be attained or maintained without +effort. Sense wars against it. Tasks which are duties interrupt the +enjoyment of it in its more conscious forms. The hard-working man +may well say, 'How can I, with my business cares calling--for my +undivided attention all day long, keep up such communion?' The +toiling mother may well say, 'How can I, in my little house, with my +children round me, and never a quiet minute to myself, get such?' +True, it is hard, and the highest and sweetest forms of communion +cannot be reached by us while so engaged, and therefore we all need +seasons of solitude and repose, in which, being left alone, we may +see the Great Vision, and, the clank of the engines being silenced, +we may hear the Great Voice saying, 'Come up hither.' Such seasons +the busiest have on one day in every week, and such seasons we shall +contrive to secure for ourselves daily, if we really want to be +intimate with our heavenly Friend. + +And for the rest it is not impossible to have real communion with +God in the midst of anxious cares and absorbing duties; it is +possible to be like the nightingales, that sing loudest in the trees +by the dusty roadsides, possible to be in the very midst of anxiety +and worldly work, and yet to keep our hearts in heaven and in touch +with God. We do not need many words for communion, but we do need to +make efforts to keep ourselves near Him in desire and aspiration, +and we need jealous and constant watchfulness over our motives for +work, and our temper and aim in it, that neither the work nor our +way of doing it may draw us away. There will be breaches in the +continuity of our conscious communion, but there need not be any in +the reality of our touch with God. For He can be with us, 'like some +sweet, beguiling melody, so sweet we know not we are listening to +it.' There may be a real contact of the spirit with Him, though it +would be hard at the moment to put it into words. + +'As He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered.' Such +communion changes and glorifies a man. The very secret of the Gospel +way of making men better is--transfiguration by the vision of God. +Yes! to be much with God is the true way to mend our characters, and +to make them like His. I do not under-value the need of effort in +order to correct faults and acquire virtues. We do not receive +sanctification as we receive justification, by simple faith. For the +latter the condition is 'Only believe,' for the former it is 'Work +out your own salvation.' No man is cured of his evil tendencies +without a great deal of hard work conscientiously directed to +curbing them. + +But all the hard work, and all the honest purpose in the world, will +not do it without this other thing, the close communion with God, +and incomparably the surest way to change what in us is wrong, and +to raise what in us is low, and to illumine what in us is dark, is +to live in habitual beholding of Him who is righteousness without +flaw, and holiness supreme, and light without any darkness at all. +That will cure faults. That will pull the poison fangs out of +passions. That will do for the evil in us what the snake-charmers do +by subtle touches, turn the serpent into a rigid rod that does not +move nor sting. That will lift us up high above the trifles of life, +and dwarf all here that imposes upon us with the lie that it is +great, and precious, and permanent; and that will bring us into +loving contact with the living 'Beauty of holiness,' which will +change us into its own fair likeness. + +We see illustrations of this transforming power of loving communion +in daily life. People that love each other, and live beside each +other, and are often thinking about one another, get to drop into +each other's ways of looking at things; and even sometimes you will +catch strange imitations and echoes of the face and voice, in two +persons thus knit together. And if you and I are bound to God by a +love which lasts, even when it does not speak, and which is with us +even when our hands are busy with other things, then be sure of +this, we shall get like Him whom we love. We shall be like Him even +here, for even here we shall see Him. Partial assimilation is the +condition of vision; and the vision is the condition of growing +assimilation. The eye would not see the sun unless there were a +little sun imaged on the retina. And a man that sees God gets like +the God he sees; 'for we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a +glass (or, rather, mirroring as a glass does) the glory of God, are +changed into the same image.' The image on the mirror is only on the +surface; but if my heart is mirroring God He sinks in, and abides +there, and changes me from glory to glory. So it is when we keep +near Christ, who is manifest in the flesh, that we get liker Him day +by day, and the fashion of our countenances will be altered. + +Now there is a test for our Christianity. Does my religion alter me? +If it does not, what right or reason have I to believe that it is +genuine at all? Is there a process of purifying going on in my +inward nature? Am I getting any more like Jesus Christ than I was +ten years ago? I say I live with Him and by Him. If I do I shall +become like Him. Do not work at the hopeless task of purifying +yourselves without His help, but go and stay in the sun if you want +to get warm. Lo as the bleachers do, spread the foul cloth on the +green grass, below the blazing sunshine, and that will take all the +dirt out. Believing and loving, and holding fast by Jesus Christ in +true communion, we, too, become like Him we love. + +II. Another thought is suggested by these words--namely, that this +transfiguring will become very visible in the life if it be really +in our inmost selves. + +Even in the most literal sense of the words it will be so. Did you +never see anybody whose face was changed by holier and nobler +purposes coming into their lives? I have seen more than one or two +whose features became as the face of an angel as they grew more and +more unselfish, and more and more full of that which, in the most +literal sense of the words, was in them the beauty of holiness. The +devil writes his mark upon people's faces. The world and the flesh +do so. Go into the streets and look at the people that you meet. +Care, envy, grasping griping avarice, discontent, unrest, blotches +of animalism, and many other prints of black fingers are plain +enough on many a face. And on the other hand, if a man or a woman +get into their hearts the refining influences of God's grace and +love by living near the Master, very soon the beauty of expression +which is born of consecration and unselfishness, the irradiation of +lofty emotions, the tenderness caught from Him, will not be lacking, +and some eyes that look upon them will recognise the family +likeness. + +But that may be said to be mere fancy. Perhaps it is, or perhaps +there is truth in it deeper and more far-reaching than we know. +Perhaps the life fashions the body, and the 'body of our glory' may +be moulded in immortal loveliness by the perfect Christ-derived life +within it. But be that as it may, the main point to be observed here +is rather this. If we have the real, transforming influence of +communion with Jesus Christ in our hearts, it will certainly rise to +the surface, and show itself in our lives. As oil poured into water +will come to the top, so that inward transforming will not continue +hidden within, 'The king's daughter is all-glorious _within_, +but also 'her _clothing_ is of wrought gold.' The inward life, +beautiful because knit to Him, will have corresponding with it and +flowing from it an outward life of manifest holy beauty. + +'His name shall be in their foreheads,' stamped there, where +everybody can see it. Is that where you and I carry Christ's name? +It is well that it should be in our hearts, it is hypocrisy that it +should be in our foreheads unless it is in our hearts first. But if +it be in the latter it will surely be in the former. + +Now, dear friends, there is a simple and sure touchstone for us all. +Do not talk about communion with Christ being the life of your +religion, unless the people that have to do with you, your brothers +and sisters, or fathers and mothers, your wives and children, your +servants or your masters, would endorse it and say 'Yes! I take +knowledge of him, he has been with Jesus.' Do you think that it is +easier for anybody to believe in, and to love God, 'whom he hath not +seen' because of you, 'his brother whom he hath seen'? The Christ in +the heart will be the Christ in the face and in the life. + +Alas! why is it that so little of this radiance caught from heaven +shines from us? There is but one answer. It is because our communion +with God in Christ is so infrequent, hurried, and superficial. We +should be like those luminous boxes which we sometimes see, shining +in the dark with light absorbed from the day; but, like them, we +need to be exposed to the light and to lie in it if we are to be +light. 'Now are ye light in the Lord,' and only as we abide in Him +by continuous communion shall we resemble Him or reflect Him. + +III. The perfection of communion will be the perfection of visible +transformation. + +Possibly the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ had an element of +prophecy in it, and pointed onwards to the order of things when His +glorified humanity should be enthroned on the throne of the +universe, and have left the limitations of flesh with the folded +grave-clothes in the empty sepulchre. As the two majestic forms of +the Lawgiver and the Prophet shared His glory on Hermon, and held +converse with Him there, so we may see in that mysterious group +wrapped in the bright cloud the hint of a hope which was destined to +grow to clearness and certainty. Christ's glorified bodily humanity +is the type to which all His followers will be conformed. Gazing on +Him they shall be like Him, and will grow liker as they gaze. +Through eternal ages the double process will go on, and they shall +become ever more assimilated, and therefore capable of truer, +completer vision, and ever seeing Him more fully as He is, and +therefore progressively changed into more perfect resemblance. Nor +will that blessed change into advancing glory be shut up in their +hearts nor lack beholders. For in that realm of truth and reality +all that is within will be visible, our life will no longer fall +beneath our aspirations, nor practice be at variance with the +longings and convictions of our best selves. Then the Christlike +spirit will possess a body which is its glad and perfect servant, +and through which its beauty will shine undimmed. 'When Christ, who +is our life, shall be manifested, then shall we also be manifested +with Him in glory.' + + + + +'IN THE HOLY MOUNT' + + + 'And, behold, there talked with Him two men, which + were Moses and Elias: 31. Who appeared in glory, and + spake of His decease which He should accomplish at + Jerusalem.'--LUKE ix. 30, 31. + +The mysterious incident which is commonly called the Transfiguration +contained three distinct portions, each having its own special +significance and lesson. The first was that supernatural change in +the face and garments of our Lord from which the whole incident +derives its name. The second was the appearance by His side of these +two mighty dead participating in the strange lustre in which He +walked, and communing with Him of His death. And the last was the +descent of the bright cloud, visible as bright even amidst the +blazing sunshine on the lone hillside, and the mysterious attesting +Voice that spoke from out of its depths. + +I leave untouched altogether the first and the last of these three +portions, and desire briefly to fix our attention on this central +one. Now it is to be observed that whilst all the three Synoptic +Evangelists tell us of the Transfiguration, of the appearance of +Moses and Elias, and of the Cloud and the Voice, only Luke knows, +or at least records, and therefore alone probably knows, what it was +that they spoke of. Peter and James and John, the only human +witnesses, were lying dazed and drunken with sleep, whilst Christ's +countenance was changed; and during all the earlier portion at all +events of His converse with Moses and Elias. And it was only when +these were about to depart that the mortals awoke from their +slumber. So they probably neither heard the voices nor knew their +theme, and it was reserved for this Evangelist to tell us the +precious truth that the thing about which Lawgiver, Prophet, and the +Greater than both spake in that mysterious communion was none other +than the Cross. + +I think, then, that if we look at this incident from the point of +view which our Evangelist enables us to take, we shall get large and +important lessons as to the significance of the death of Jesus +Christ, in many aspects, and in reference to very many different +persons. I see at least four of these. This incident teaches us what +Christ's death was to Himself; what it was in reference to previous +revelation; what it was in reference to past generations; and what +it may be in reference to His servants' death. And upon these four +points I desire briefly to touch now. + +I. First, then, I see here teaching as to what the death of the Lord +Jesus Christ was in reference to Himself. + +What was it that brought these men--the one who had passed in a +whirlwind to heaven, and the other who had been led by a mysterious +death to slumber in an unknown grave--what was it that brought these +men to stand there upon the side of the slopes of Hermon? It was not +to teach Christ of the impending Cross. For, not to touch upon other +points, eight days before this mysterious interview He had foretold +it in the minutest details to His disciples. It was not for the sake +of Peter and James and John, lying coiled in slumber there, that +they broke the bands of death, and came back from 'that bourne from +which no traveller returns,' but it was for Christ, or for +themselves, or perhaps for both, that they stood there. + +You remember that in Gethsemane 'there appeared an angel from heaven +strengthening Him.' And one of the old devout painters has +marvellously embraced the deepest meaning of that vision when he has +painted for us the strengthening angel displaying in the heavens the +Cross on which He must die, as if the holding of it up before Him as +the divine will gave the strength that He needed. And I think in +some analogous way we are to regard the mission and message to Jesus +of these two men in our text. We know that clear before Him, all His +life long, there stood the certainty of the Cross. We know that He +came, not merely to teach, to minister, to bless, to guide, but that +He came to give His life a ransom for many. But we know, too, that +from about this point of time in His life the Cross stood more +distinctly, if that may be, before Him; or at all events, that it +pressed more upon His vision and upon His spirit. And doubtless +after that time when He spoke to the disciples so plainly and +clearly of what was coming upon Him, His human nature needed the +retirement of the mountain-side and prayer which preceded and +occasioned this mysterious incident. Christ shrank from His Cross +with sinless, natural, human shrinking of the flesh. That never +altered His purpose nor shook His will, but He needed, and He got, +strength from the Father, ministered once by an angel from heaven, +and ministered, as I suppose, another time by two men who looked at +death from the other side, and 'who spoke to Him of His decease +which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.' + +And now it is to be noticed that the words which our Evangelist +employs are remarkable, and one of them, at least, is all but +unique. The expression translated in my text 'decease' is the same +Greek word which, untranslated, names the second book of the Old +Testament--_Exodus_. And it literally means neither more nor +less than a departure or 'going out.' It is only employed in this +one passage and in another one to which I shall have occasion to +refer presently, which is evidently based and moulded upon this one, +to signify _death_. And the employment of it, perhaps upon +these undying tongues of the sainted dead--or, at all events, in +reference to the subject of their colloquy--seems to us to suggest +that part of what they had to say to the Master and what they had to +hear from Him was that His death was His departure in an altogether +unique, solitary, and blessed sense. 'I came forth from the Father, +and I am come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the +Father.' Not dragged by any necessity, but of His own sovereign +will, He passes from earth to the state where He was before. And as +He stands there on the mountain with His radiant face and His white +robes, this thought as to His death brings to Him comfort and +strength, even whilst He thinks of the suffering of the Cross. + +But, still further, the other word which is here employed helps us +to understand what our Lord's death was to Him; 'He should +_accomplish_' it as a thing to be fulfilled. And that involves +two ideas, the one that Christ in His death was consciously +submitting to a gladly accepted divine _must_, and was accomplishing +the purpose of Love which dwelt in the heavens and sent Him, as well +as His own purpose of love which would redeem and save. The necessity +of the death of Christ if sin is to be put away, if we are ever to have +a hope of immortality, the necessity of the death of Christ if the +mercy of God is to pour out upon a sinful and rebellious world, the +necessity of the death of Christ, if the deep purposes of the divine +heart are ever to be realised, and the yearning compassion of the +Saviour's soul is ever to reach its purpose--all lie in that great +word that 'His decease' was by Him to be 'accomplished.' This is the +fulfilling of the heart of God, this is the fulfilling of the +compassion of the Christ. It is the accomplishment of the divine +purpose from eternity. + +Still further, the word, as I think, suggests another kind of +fulfilment. He was to 'accomplish' His death. That is to say, every +drop of that bitter cup, drop by drop, bitterness by bitterness, +pang by pang, desolation by desolation, He was to drink; and He +drank it. Every step of that road sown with ploughshares and live +coals He was to tread, with bleeding, blistered, slow, unshrinking +feet. And He trod it. He _accomplished_ it; hurrying over none +of the sorrow, perfunctorily doing none of the tasks. And after the +weary moments had ticked themselves away, and the six hours of +agony, when the minutes were as drops of blood falling slowly to the +ground, were passed, He inverted the cup, and it was empty, and He +said 'It is finished'; and He gave up the ghost, having +accomplished His decease in Jerusalem.' + +II. Further, note in this incident what that death is in regard to +previous revelation. + +I need not remind you, I suppose, that we have here the two great +representative figures of the past history of Israel--the Lawgiver, +who, according to the Old Testament, was not only the medium of +declaring the divine will, but the medium of establishing Sacrifice +as well as Law, and the Prophet, who, though no written words of his +have been preserved, and nothing of a predictive and Messianic +character seems to have dropped from His lips, yet stood as the +representative and head of the great prophetic order to which so +much of the earlier revelation was entrusted. And now here they two +stand with Christ on the mountain; and the theme about which they +spake with Him there is the theme of which the former revelation had +spoken in type and shadow, in stammering words, 'at sundry times and +in divers manners,' to the former generations--viz. the coming of +the great Sacrifice and the offering of the great Propitiation. All +the past of Israel pointed onwards to the Cross, and in that Cross +its highest word was transcended, its faintest emblems were +explained and expressed, its unsolved problems which it had raised +in order that they might be felt to be unsolved, were all answered, +and that which had been set forth but in shadow and symbol was given +to the world in reality for evermore. In Moses Law and Sacrifice, +and in Elijah the prophetic function, met by the side of Christ, +'and spake of His decease.' + +Now, dear friends, let me say one word here before I pass on. There +is a great deal being said nowadays about the position of the Old +Testament, the origin of its ritual, and other critical, and, to some +extent, historical, questions. I have no doubt that we have much to +learn upon these subjects; but what I would now insist upon is this, +that all these subjects, about which people are getting so excited, +and some of them so angry, stand, and may be dealt with, altogether +apart from this central thought, that the purpose and meaning, the +end and object of the whole preliminary and progressive revelation of +God from the beginning, are to lead straight up to Jesus Christ and +to His Cross. And if we understand that, and feel that 'the testimony +of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,' and that law and sacrifice, +commandments and altar, Sinai and Zion, the fiery words that were +spoken in the wilderness, and the perpetual burnt-offering that went +up in the Temple, had one mission--viz. to 'prepare the way of the +Lord'--we have grasped the essential truth as to the Old Revelation; +and if we do not understand that, we may be as scholarly and erudite +and original as we please, but we miss the one truth which is worth +grasping. The relation between the Old revelation and the New is this, +that Christ was pointed to by it all, and that in Himself He sums up +and surpasses and antiquates, because He fulfils, all the past. + +Therefore Moses and Elijah came to witness as well as to encourage. +Their presence proclaimed that Christ was the meaning of all the +past, and the crown of the divine revelation. And they faded away, +and Jesus was found alone standing there, as He stands for ever +before all generations and all lands, the sole, the perfect, the +eternal Revealer of the heart and will of God. 'God, who at sundry +times and in divers manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets, +hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.' + +III. Again, we have here set before us the death of Christ in its +relation to past generations. + +I need not dwell upon anything that was mysterious or anomalous in +the last moments upon earth of either Moses or Elijah. I do not +suppose that there is any reference to the undoubted peculiarities +which existed in the case of both. But they came from that dim +region where the dead were waiting for the coming of the Saviour, +and by some means, we know not how, were clothed with something that +was like an immortal body, and capable of entering into this +material universe. There they stood, witnesses that Christ's death +was of interest to all those sleeping generations in the past. We +know not anything, or scarcely anything, of the condition of the +sainted dead who died before Christ came. But this is clear, that +these two came from the land where silent expectancy had ruled, and +came perhaps to carry back to their brethren the tidings that the +hour was ready to strike, and that soon amongst them there would +stand the Eternal Life. + +But, be that as it may, does not that group on the mountain-side +teach us this, that the Cross of Jesus Christ had a backward as well +as a forward power, and that for all the generations who had died, +'not having received the promises, but having seen them and saluted +them from afar,' the influence of that Sacrifice had opened the +gates of the Kingdom where they were gathered in hope, even as it +opens for us, and all subsequent generations, the gates of the +paradise of God? + +I know not whether there be truth in the ancient idea that when the +Master died He passed into that _Hades_ where were assembled +the disembodied spirits of the righteous dead, and led captivity +captive, taking them with Him into a loftier Paradise. But this I am +sure of, that Christ's Cross has always been the means and channel +whereby forgiveness and hope and heaven have been given to men, and +that the old dream of the devout painter which he has breathed upon +the walls of the convent in Florence is true in spirit whatever it +may be in letter, that the Christ who died went down into the dark +regions, burst the bars and broke the gates of iron, and crushed the +demon porter beneath the shattered portal, and that out of the dark +rock-hewn caverns there came streaming the crowds of the sainted +dead, with Adam at their head, and many another who had seen His day +afar off and been glad, stretching out eager hands to grasp the +life-giving hand of the Redeemer that had come to them too. + +Moses and Elias were the 'first-fruits of them that slept,' and +there were others, when the bodies of the saints rose from the grave +and appeared in the Holy City unto many. And their presence, and the +presence of these two there, typified for us the great fact that the +Cross of Christ is the redemption of pre-Christian as well as of +Christian ages; and that He is the Lord both of the dead and of the +living. + +IV. And so, lastly, this incident may suggest also what that death +of Jesus Christ may be in reference to the deaths of His servants. + +I do not find that thought in the words of our text, but in the +reference to them which is made in the second epistle attributed to +Peter, who was present at the Transfiguration. There is a very +remarkable passage in that Epistle, in the context of which there +are distinct verbal allusions to the narrative of the Transfiguration, +and in it the writer employs the same word to describe his own death +which is employed here. It is the only other instance in Scripture +of its use in that sense. And so I draw this simple lesson; that +mighty death which was accomplished upon Calvary, which is the crown +and summit of all Revelation, beyond which God has nothing that He +can say or do to make men sure of His heart and recipients of +forgiveness, which was the channel of pardon for all past ages, and +the hope of the sainted dead--that death may turn for us our departure +into its own likeness. For us, too, all the grimness, all the darkness, +all the terror, may pass away, and it may become simply a change of +place, and a going home to God. If we believe that Jesus died, we +believe that He has thereby smoothed and softened and lessened our +death into a sleep in Him. + +Nor need we forget the special meaning of the word. If we have set +our hopes upon Christ, and, as sinful men and women, have cast the +burden of our sins, and the weight of our salvation, on His strong +arm, then life will be blessed, and death, when it comes, will be a +true Exodus, the going out of the slaves from the land of bondage, +and passing through the divided sea, not into a weary wilderness, +but into the light of the love and the blessedness of the land where +our Brother is King, and where we shall share His reign. + +I have been speaking to you of what Christ's death is in many +regions of the universe, in many eras of time. My brother, what is +Christ's death to you? Can you say, 'The life that I live in the +flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave +Himself for me?' + + + + +CHRIST HASTENING TO THE CROSS + + + 'And it came to pass, when the time was come that He + should be received up, He stedfastly set His face to + go to Jerusalem.'--LUKE ix. 51. + +There are some difficulties, with which I need not trouble you here, +as to bringing the section of this Gospel to which these words are +the introduction, into its proper chronological place in relation to +the narratives; but, putting these on one side for the present, +there seems no doubt that the Evangelist's intention here is to +represent the beginning of our Lord's last journey from Galilee to +Jerusalem--a journey which was protracted and devious, and the +narrative of which in this Gospel, as you will perceive, occupies a +very large portion of its whole contents. + +The picture that is given in my text is that of a clear knowledge of +what waited Him, of a steadfast resolve to accomplish the purpose of +the divine love, and that resolve not without such a shrinking of +some part of His nature that He had 'to _set_ His face to go to +Jerusalem.' + +The words come into parallelism very strikingly with a great +prophecy of the Messiah in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, where we +read, 'The Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be +confounded'--or, as the words have been rendered, 'shall not suffer +myself to be overcome by mockery'--'therefore have I set my face +like a flint.' In the words both of the Prophet and of the +Evangelist there is the same idea of a resolved will, as the result +of a conscious effort directed to prevent circumstances which tended +to draw Him back, from producing their effect. The graphic narrative +of the Evangelist Mark adds one more striking point to that picture +of high resolve. He tells us, speaking of what appears to be the +final epoch in this long journey to the Cross, '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.' What a picture +that is, Christ striding along the steep mountain path far in +advance--impelled by that same longing which sighs so wonderfully +in His words, 'How am I straitened till it be accomplished,'--with +solemn determination in the gentle face, and His feet making haste to +run in the way of the Father's commandments! And lagging behind, the +little group, awed into almost stupor, and shrinking in +uncomprehending terror from that light of unconquerable resolve and +more than mortal heroism that blazed in His eyes! + +If we fix, then, on this picture, and as we are warranted in doing, +regard it as giving us a glimpse of the very heart of Christ, I +think it may well suggest to us considerations that may tend to make +more real to us that sacrifice that He made, more deep to us that +love by which He was impelled, and may perhaps tend to make our love +more true and our resolve more fixed. 'He set His face to go to +Jerusalem.' + +I. First, then, we may take, I think, from these words, the thought +of the perfect clearness with which all through Christ's life He +foresaw the inevitable and purposed end. + +Here, indeed, the Evangelist leaps over the suffering of the Cross, +and thinks only of the time when He shall be lifted up upon the +throne; but in that calm and certain prevision which, in His +manhood, the Divine Son of God did exercise concerning His own +earthly life, between Him and the glory there ever stood the black +shadow thrown by Calvary. When He spoke of being 'lifted up,' He +ever meant by that pregnant and comprehensive word, at once man's +elevation of Him on the accursed tree, and the Father's elevation of +Him upon the throne at His right hand! The future was, if I may so +say, in His eye so foreshortened that the two things ran into one, +and the ambiguous expression did truly connote the one undivided act +of prescient consciousness in which He at once recognised the Cross +and the throne. And so, when the time was come that He should be +received up, He 'steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.' + +Now, there is another thing to be noticed. That vision of the +certain end which here fills His mind and impels His conduct, was by +no means new with Him. Modern unbelieving commentators and critics +upon the Gospels have tried their best to represent Christ's life +as, at a certain point in it, being modified by His recognition of +the fact that His mission was a failure, and that there was nothing +left for Him but martyrdom! I believe that that is as untrue to the +facts of the Gospel story upon any interpretation of them, as it is +repulsive to the instincts of devout hearts; and without troubling +you with thoughts about it I need only refer to two words of His. +When was it that He said, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I +will build it up'? When was it that He said, 'As Moses lifted up the +serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted +up'? The one saying was uttered at the very beginning of His public +work, and the other in His conversation with Nicodemus. On the +testimony of these two sayings, if there were none else, I think +there is no option but to believe that from the first there stood +clear before Him the necessity and the certainty of the Cross, and +that it was no discovery made at a certain point of His course. + +And then, remember that we are not to think of Him as, like many an +earthly hero and martyr, regarding a violent and bloody death as +being the very probable result of faithful boldness, but to believe +that He, looking on from the beginning to that end, regarded it +always as being laid upon Him by a certain divine necessity, into +which necessity He entered with the full submission and acquiescence +of His own will, and from the beginning knew that Calvary was the +work for which He had come, and that His love would fail of its +expression, and the divine purpose would fail of its realisation, +and His whole mission would fail of all its meaning, unless He died +for men. The martyr looks to the scaffold and says, 'It stands in my +way, and I must either be untrue to conscience or I must go there, +and so I will go.' Christ said, 'The Cross is in My path, and on it +and from it I shall exercise the influence, to exercise which I have +come into the world, and there I shall _do_ the thing which I +came forth from the Father to do.' He thought of His death not as +the end of His work, but as the centre-point of it; not as the +termination of His activity, but as its climax, to which all the +rest was subordinated, and without which all the rest was nought. He +does not die, and so seal a faithful life by an heroic death,--but +dies, so bearing and bearing away man's sin. He regarded from the +beginning 'the glory that should follow,' and the suffering through +which He had to wade to reach it, in one and the same act of +prescience, and said, 'Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is +written of Me.' + +And I think, dear friends, if we carried with us more distinctly +than we do that one simple thought, that in all the human joys, in +all the apparently self-forgetting tenderness, of that Lord who had +a heart for every sorrow and an ear for every complaint, and a hand +open as day and full of melting charity for every need--that in +every moment of that life, in the boyhood, in the dawning manhood, +in the maturity of His growing human powers--there was always +present one black shadow, towards which He ever went straight with +the consent of His will and with the clearest eye, we should +understand something more of how His life as well as His death was a +sacrifice for us sinful men! + +We honour and love men who crush down their own sorrows in order to +help their fellows. We wonder with almost reverence when we see some +martyr, in sight of the faggots, pause to do a kindness to some +weeping heart in the crowd, or to speak a cheering word. We admire +the leisure and calm of spirit which he displays. But all these +pale, and the very comparison may become an insult, before that +heart which ever discerned Calvary, and never let the sight hinder +one deed of kindness, nor silence one gracious word, nor check one +throb of sympathy. + +II. Still further, the words before us lead to a second +consideration, which I have just suggested in my last sentence--Our +Lord's perfect willingness for the sacrifice which He saw before +Him. + +We have here brought into the narrowest compass, and most clearly +set forth, the great standing puzzle of all thought, which can only +be solved by action. On the one side there is the distinctest +knowledge of a divine purpose that _will_ be executed; on the +other side there is the distinctest consciousness that at each step +towards the execution of it He is constrained by no foreign and +imposed necessity, but is going to the Cross by His own will. 'The +Son of Man must be lifted up.' 'It _became_ Him to make the +Captain of salvation perfect through sufferings.' 'It _behoved_ +Him to be made in all points like His brethren.' The Eternal Will of +the Father, the purpose purposed before the foundation of the world, +the solemn prophecies from the beginning of time, constituted the +necessity, and involved the certainty, of His death on the Cross. +But are we, therefore, to think that Jesus Christ was led along the +path that ended there, by a force which overbore and paralysed His +human will? Was not His life, and especially His death, +_obedience_? Was there not, therefore, in Him, as in us all, +the human will that could cheerfully submit; and must there not, +then, have been, at each step towards the certain end, a fresh act +of submission and acceptance of the will of the Father that had sent +Him? + +'Clear knowledge of the end as divinely appointed and certain'; yes, +one might say, and if so, there could have been no voluntariness in +treading the path that leads to it. 'Voluntariness in treading the +path that leads to it, and if so, there could have been no divine +ordination of the end.' Not so! When human thought comes, if I may +so say, full butt against a stark, staring contradiction like that, +it is no proof that either of the propositions is false. It is only +like the sign-boards that the iceman puts upon the thin ice, +'dangerous!' a warning that that is not a place for us to tread. We +have to keep a firm hold of what is certified to us, on either side, +by its appropriate evidence, and leave the reconciliation, if it can +ever be given to finite beings, to a higher wisdom, and, perchance, +to another world! + +But that is a digression from my more immediate purpose, which is +simply to bring before our minds, as clearly as I can, that perfect, +continuous, ever-repeated willingness, expressing itself in a chain +of constant acts that touch one upon the other, which Christ +manifested to embrace the Cross, and to accomplish what was at once +the purpose of the Father's will and the purpose of His own. + +And it may be worth while, just for a moment, to touch lightly upon +some of the many points which bring out so clearly in these Gospel +narratives the wholly and purely voluntary character of Christ's +death. + +Take, for instance, the very journey which I am speaking of now. Christ +went up to Jerusalem, says my text. What did He go there for? He went, +as you will see, if you look at the previous circumstance,--He went in +order, if I might use such a word, to precipitate the collision, and to +make His Crucifixion certain. He was under the ban of the Sanhedrim; +but perfectly safe as long as He had stopped up among the hills of +Galilee. He was as unsafe when He went up to Jerusalem as John Huss +when he went to the Council of Constance with the Emperor's safe-conduct +in his belt; or as a condemned heretic would have been in the old days, +if he had gone and stood in that little dingy square outside the palace +of the Inquisition at Rome, and there, below the obelisk, preached his +heresies! Christ had been condemned in the council of the nation; but +there were plenty of hiding-places among the Galilean hills, and the +frontier was close at hand, and it needed a long arm to reach from +Jerusalem all the way across Samaria to the far north. Knowing that, +He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and, if I might use +the expression, went straight into the lion's mouth. Why? Because He +chose to die. + +And, then, take another circumstance. If you will look carefully at +the Scripture narrative, you will find that from about this point in +His life onwards there comes a distinct change in one very important +respect. Before this He shunned publicity; after this He courted it. +Before this, when He spoke in veiled words of His sufferings, He +said to His disciples, 'Tell no man till the Son of man be risen +from the dead.' Hereafter though there are frequent prophecies of +His sufferings, there is no repetition of that prohibition. He goes +up to Jerusalem, and His triumphal entry adds fuel to the fire. His +language at the last moment appeals to the publicity of His final +visit to that city--'Was I not daily with you in the Temple and ye +laid no hands upon Me?' Everything that He could do He does to draw +attention to Himself--everything, that is to say, within the limits +of the divine decorum, which was ever observed in His life, of whom +it was written long, long ago, 'He shall not strive, nor cry, nor +cause His voice to be heard in the streets.' There is, then, a most +unmistakable change to be felt by any who will carefully read the +narratives in their bearing upon this one point--a resolve to draw +the eyes of the enemy upon Himself. + +And to the same purpose, did you ever notice how calmly, with full +self-consciousness, distinctly understanding what He is doing, +distinctly knowing to what it will lead, He makes His words ever +heavier and heavier, and more and more sharply pointed with +denunciations, as the last loving wrestle between Himself and the +scribes and Pharisees draws near to its bloody close? Instead of +softening He hardens His tones--if I dare use the word, where all is +the result of love--at any rate He keeps no terms; but as the danger +increases His words become plainer and sterner, and approach as near +as ever _His_ words could do to bitterness and rebuke. It was +then, whilst passionate hate was raging round Him, and eager eyes +were gleaming revenge, that He poured out His sevenfold woes upon +the 'hypocrites,' the 'blind guides,' the 'fools,' the 'whited +sepulchres,' the 'serpents,' the 'generation of vipers,' whom He +sees filling up the measure of their fathers in shedding His +righteous blood. + +And again, the question recurs--Why? And again, besides other +reasons, which I have not time to touch upon here, the answer, as it +seems to me, must unmistakably be, Because He willed to die, and He +willed to die because He loved us. + +The same lesson is taught, too, by that remarkable incident +preserved for us by the Gospel of John, of the strange power which +accompanied His avowal of Himself to the rude soldiers who had come +to seize Him, and which struck them to the ground in terror and +impotence. One flash comes forth to tell of the sleeping lightning +that He will not use, and then having revealed the might that could +have delivered Him from their puny arms, He returns to His attitude +of self-surrender for our sakes, with those wonderful words which +tell how He gave up Himself that we might be free, 'If ye seek Me, +let these go their way.' The scene is a parable of the whole work of +Jesus; it reveals His power to have shaken off every hand laid upon +Him, His voluntary submission to His else impotent murderers, and +the love which moved Him to the surrender. + +Other illustrations of the same sort I must leave untouched at +present, and only remind you of the remarkable peculiarity of the +language in which all the Evangelists describe the supreme moment +when Christ passed from His sufferings. 'When He had cried with a +loud voice, He yielded up the ghost,'--He sent away the spirit--'He +breathed out' (His spirit), 'He gave up the ghost.' In simple truth, +He 'committed His spirit' into the Father's hand. And I believe that +it is an accurate and fair comment to say, that that is no mere +euphemism for death, but carries with it the thought that He was +_active_ in that moment; that the nails and the spear and the +Cross did not kill Christ, but that Christ _willed_ to die! And +though it is true on the one side, as far as men's hatred and +purpose are concerned. 'Whom with wicked hands ye have crucified and +slain'; on the other side, as far as the deepest verity of the fact +is concerned, it is still more true, 'I have power to lay it down, +and I have power to take it again.' + +But at all events, whatever you may think of such an exposition as +that, the great principle which my text illustrates for us at an +earlier stage is, at least, irrefragably established--that our dear +Lord, when He died, died, because He _willed_ to do so. He was +man and therefore He _could_ die; but He was not man in such +fashion as that He _must_ die. In His bodily frame was the +possibility, not the necessity, of death. And that being so, the +very fact of His death is the most signal proof that He is Lord of +death as well as of life. He dies not because He must, He dies not +because of faintness and pain and wounds. These and they who +inflicted them had no power at all over Him. He chooses to die; and +He wills it because He wills to fulfil the eternal purpose of divine +love, which is His purpose, and to bring life to the world. His hour +of weakness was His hour of strength. They lifted Him on a cross, +and it became a throne. In the moment when death seemed to conquer +Him, He was really using it that He might abolish it. When He gave +tip the ghost, He showed Himself Lord of death as marvellously and +as gloriously as when He burst its bands and rose from the grave; +for this grisly shadow, too, was His servant, and He says to him, +'Come, and he cometh; do this, and he doeth it.' 'Thou didst +overcome the sharpness of death' when Thou didst willingly bow Thy +head to it, and didst die not because Thou _must_, but because +Thou _wouldest_. + +III. Still further, let me remind you how, in the language of this +verse, there is also taught us that there was in Christ a natural +human shrinking from the Cross. + +The steadfast and resolved will held its own, overcoming the natural +human reluctance. 'He _set_ His face.' People are afraid to +talk--and the instinct, the reverent instinct, is right, however we +may differ from the application of it--people are afraid to talk, as +if there was any shrinking in Christ from the Cross. I believe there +was. Was the agony in Gethsemane a reality or a shadow, when He +said, 'O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass?' What did +that prayer mean, if there was not something in His nature that +recoiled from the agony and mysterious horror of these awful hours? +Let us take heed lest in our reverence we destroy the very notion on +which our hope rests--that of Christ as suffering. For that one word +involves all that I say--Did Christ _suffer_ or did He not? If +He suffered, then human nature shrank from it. The two ideas are +correlative, you cannot part them--suffering and reluctance, a +perfectly innocent, natural, inevitable, human instinct, inseparable +from corporeity, that makes men recoil from pain. 'He endured the +Cross,' says the Book--if there was not reluctance what was there to +'endure'? 'Despising the shame'--if there was not something from +which He shrank, what was there to 'despise'? 'He _set_ His +face'--if there was not something in Him that hung back, what need +was there for the hardening of the countenance? If Christ has +suffered, then His flesh and blood quivered beforehand with the +pangs and shrank from these, and He would have been spared the cup. +Such instinctive recoil is not evil, it is not rebellion, it is not +unwillingness to submit to the Father's will. His whole being clave +to that, and never swerved from it for one moment. But still, +because the path was darkened by mysterious blackness, and led to a +Cross, therefore He, even He, who did always the things that pleased +the Father, and ever delighted to do His will, needed to '_set_ +His face' to go up to the mountain of sacrifice. + +And now, if you will take along with that the other thought that I +suggested at the beginning of these remarks, and remember that this +shrinking must have been as continuous as the vision, and that this +overcoming of it must have been as persistent and permanent as the +resolve, I think we get a point of view from which to regard that +life of Christ's--full of pathos, full of tender appeals to our +hearts and to our thankfulness. + +All along that consecrated road He walked, and each step represented +a separate act of will, and each separate act of will represented a +triumph over the reluctance of flesh and blood. As we may say, every +time that He planted His foot on the flinty path the blood flowed. +Every step was a pain like that of a man enduring the ordeal and +walking on burning iron or sharp steel. + +The old taunt of His enemies, as they stood beneath His Cross, might +have been yielded to--'If Thou be the Son of God, come down and we +will believe.' I ask why did not He? I know that, to those who think +less loftily of Christ than we who believe Him to be the Son of God, +the words sound absurd--but I for one believe that the only thing +that kept Him there, the only answer to that question is--Because He +loved me with an everlasting love, and died to redeem me. Because of +that love, He came to earth; because of that love, He tabernacled +among us; because of that love, He gazed all His life long on the +Cross of shame; because of that love, He trod unfaltering, with +eager haste and solemn resolve, the rough and painful road; because +of that love, He listened not to the voice that at the beginning +tempted Him to win the world for Himself by an easier path; because +of that love, He listened not--though He could have done so--to the +voices that at the end taunted Him with their proffered allegiance +if He would come down from the Cross; because of that love, He gave +up His spirit. And through all the weariness and contumely and pain, +that love held His will fixed to its purpose, and bore Him over +every hindrance that barred His path. Many waters quench it not. +_That_ love is stronger than death; mightier than all opposing +powers; deep and great beyond all thought or thankfulness. It +silences all praise. It beggars all recompense. To believe it is +life. To feel it is heaven. + +But one more remark I would make on this whole subject. We are far +too much accustomed to think of our Saviour as presenting only the +gentle graces of human nature. He presents those that belong to the +strong side of our nature just as much. In Him are all power, manly +energy, resolved consecration; everything which men call heroism is +there. 'He steadfastly set His face.' And everything which men call +tenderest love, most dewy pity, most marvellous and transcendent +patience, is all there too. The type of manhood and the type of +womanhood are both and equally in Jesus Christ; and He is _the_ +Man, whole, entire, perfect, with all power breathed forth in all +gentleness, with all gentleness made steadfast and mighty by His +strength. 'And he said unto me, Behold the lion of the tribe of +Judah. And I beheld, and lo, a lamb!'--the blended symbols of kingly +might, and lowly meekness, power in love, and love in power. The +supremest act of resolved consecration and heroic self-immolation +that ever was done upon earth--an act which we degrade by +paralleling it with any other--was done at the bidding of love that +pitied us. As we look up at that Cross we know not whether is more +wonderfully set forth the pitying love of Christ's most tender +heart, or the majestic energy of Christ's resolved will. The blended +rays pour out, dear brethren, and reach to each of us. Do not look +to that great sacrifice with idle wonder. Bend upon it no eye of +mere curiosity. Beware of theorising merely about what it reveals +and what it does. Turn not away from it carelessly as a twice-told +tale. But look, believing that all that divine and human love pours +out its treasure upon you, that all that firmness of resolved +consecration and willing surrender to the death of the Cross was for +you. Look, believing that you had then, and have now, a place in His +heart, and in His sacrifice. Look, remembering that it was because +He would save you, that Himself He could not save, + +And as, from afar, we look on that great sight, let His love melt +our hearts to an answering fervour, and His fixed will give us, too, +strength to delight in obedience, to set our faces like a flint. Let +the power of His sacrifice, and the influence of His example which +that sacrifice commends to our loving copy, and the grace of His +Spirit whom He, since that sacrifice, pours upon men, so mould us +that we, too, like Him, may 'quit us like men, be strong,' and all +our strength and 'all our deeds' be wielded and 'done in charity.' + + + + +CHRIST'S MESSENGERS: THEIR EQUIPMENT AND WORK + + + 'After these things, the Lord appointed other seventy + also, and sent them two and two before His face into + every city and place whither He Himself would come. + 2. Therefore said He unto them, The harvest truly is + great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore + the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth + labourers into His harvest. 3. Go your ways: behold, I + send you forth as lambs among wolves. 4. Carry neither + purse, nor scrip, nor shoes; and salute no man by the + way. 5. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, + Peace be to this house. 6. And if the son of peace be + there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall + turn to you again. 7. And in the same house remain, + eating and drinking such things as they give: for the + labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to + house. 8. And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they + receive you, eat such things as are set before you: + 9. And heal the sick that are therein; and say unto + them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. 10. But + into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you + not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, + and say, 11. Even the very dust of your city, which + cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: + notwithstanding, be ye sure of this, that the kingdom + of God is come nigh unto you.... 17. And the seventy + returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils + are subject unto us through Thy name. 18. And He said + unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from + heaven. 19. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on + serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the + enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you. + 20. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the + spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, + because your names are written in heaven.' + --LUKE x. 1-11: 17-20. + +The mission of the Seventy is clearly distinguished from and +contrasted with that of the Twelve by the word 'others' in verse 1, +which points back to Luke ix.1. The Twelve were prohibited from +going beyond Jews; the Seventy were under no such restriction, and +were probably sent to the half-Gentile districts on the east of +Jordan. The number of twelve had reference to the number of the +tribes; that of seventy may have referred to the number of the +elders, but it has also been suggested that its reference is to the +supposed number of the nations. The appointment of the Twelve was to +a permanent office; that of the Seventy to a transitory mission. +Much of the charge given to either is given to both, as is most +natural, since they had the same message, and both were sent to +prepare for Christ's personal ministry. But though the Seventy were +sent out but for a short time, permanent principles for the +guidance, not only of Christian workers, but of all Christian lives, +are embodied in the charge which they received. + +We note, first, that all personal service should be preceded by +intense realisation of the immense field, and of the inadequacy, of +Christian effort, which vision will culminate in prayer for more +toilers to be 'sent forth.' The word implies a certain measure of +compulsion, for an overmastering impulse is always needed to +overcome human reluctance and laziness. No man has ever done large +service for God who has not felt that, like the prophet, he was laid +hold of by the Spirit, and borne away, whether he would or no. 'I +must speak,' is felt by every true messenger of God. The prayer was +answered by the sending of the pray-ers, as it often is. Note how +Jesus implies that He is Lord of the harvest, in that His sending +them is the answer to the petition. Note, too, the authority which +He claims to exercise supreme sovereignty over the lives of men. He +has the right to fling them into deadly peril for no other purpose +than to proclaim His name. Lambs, ringed round by wolves with white, +gleaming teeth, have little chance of life. Jesus gives His servants +full warning of dangers, and on the very warning builds an +exhortation to quiet confidence; for, if the sentence ends with +'lambs in the midst of wolves,' it begins with 'I send you forth,' +and that is enough, for He will defend them when He seeth the wolf +coming. Not only so, but He will also provide for all their needs, +so they want no baggage nor money, nor even a staff. A traveller +without any of these would be in poor case, but they are not to +carry such things, because they carry Jesus. He who sends them forth +goes with them whom He sends. Now, this precept, in its literal +form, was expressly abolished afterwards (Luke xxii. 36), but the +spirit of it is permanent. If Christ sends us, we may trust Him to +take care of us as long as we are on His errands. + +Energetic pursuit of their work, unimpeded by distractions of social +intercourse, is meant by the prohibition of saluting by the way. +That does not mean churlish isolation, but any one who has ever seen +two Easterns 'saluting' knows what a long-drawn-out affair it is. +How far along the road one might have travelled while all that empty +ceremony was being got through! The time for salutations is when the +journey is over. They mean something then. The great effect of the +presence of Christ's servants should be to impart the peace which +they themselves possess. We should put reality into conventional +courtesies. All Christians are to be peacemakers in the deepest +sense, and especially in regard to men's relations with God. The +whole scope of our work may be summed up as being to proclaim and +bring peace with God, with ourselves, with all others, and with +circumstances. The universality of our message is implied in the +fact that the salutation is to be given in every house entered, and +without any inquiry whether a 'son of peace' is there. The reflex +blessedness of Christian effort is taught in the promise that the +peace, vainly wished for those who would not receive it, is not +wasted like spilt water, but comes back like a dove, to the hand of +its sender. If we do no other person good, we bless ourselves by all +work for others. + +The injunctions as to conduct in the house or city that receives the +messengers carry two principles of wide application. First, they +demand clear disinterestedness and superiority to vulgar appetites. +Christ's servants are not to be fastidious as to their board and +lodging. They are not to make demands for more refined diet than +their hosts are accustomed to have, and they are not to shift their +quarters, though it were from a hovel to a palace. The suspicion +that a Christian worker is fond of good living and sensuous delights +robs his work of power. But the injunction teaches also that there +is no generosity in those who hear the message giving, and no +obligation laid on those who deliver it by their receiving, enough +to live and work on. The less we obviously look for, the more shall +we probably receive. A high-minded man need not scruple to take the +'hire'; a high-minded giver will not suppose that he has hired the +receiver to be his servant. + +The double substance of the work is next briefly stated. The order +in which its two parts stands is remarkable, for the healing of the +sick is put first, and the proclamation of the nearness of the +kingdom second. Possibly the reason is that the power to heal was a +new gift. Its very priority in mention may imply that it was but a +means to an end, a part of the equipment for the true and proper +work of preaching the coming of the kingdom and its King. At all +events, let us learn that Jesus wills the continual combination of +regard to the bodily wants and sicknesses, and regard to the +spiritual needs of men. + +The solemn instructions as to what was to be done in the case of +rejection breathe a spirit the reverse of sanguine. Jesus had no +illusions as to the acceptance of the message, and He will send no +man out to work hiding from him the difficulties and opposition +probably to be encountered. Much wisdom lies in deciding when a field +of labour or a method of work should be abandoned as hopeless--for +the present and for the individual worker, at all events. To do it +too soon is cowardice; to delay it too long is not admirable +perseverance, but blindness to plain providences. To shake off the +dust is equivalent to severing all connection. The messenger will +not bring away the least thing belonging to the city. But whatever +men's unbelief, it does not affect the fact, but it does affect +their relation to the fact. The gracious message was at first that +'the kingdom of God is come nigh _unto you_,' but the last +shape of it leaves out 'unto you': for rejection of the word cuts +off from beneficial share in the word, and the kingdom, when it +comes, has no blessing for the unbelieving soul. + +The return of the Seventy soon followed their being sent forth. They +came back with a childish, surprised joy, and almost seem to have +thought that Jesus would be as much astonished and excited as they +were with the proof of the power of His name. They had found that +they could not only heal the sick, but cast out demons. Jesus' +answer is meant to quiet down their excitement by teaching them that +He had known what they were doing whilst they were doing it. When +did He behold Satan fall from heaven? The context seems to require +that it should be at the time when the Seventy were casting out +demons. The contest between the personal Source of evil and Jesus +was fought out by the principals, not by their subordinates, and it +is already victoriously decided in Christ's sight. Therefore, as the +sequel of His victory, He enlarges His gifts to His servants, +couching the charter in the words of a psalm (Ps. xci.). Nothing can +harm the servant without the leave of the Master, and if any evil +befall him in his work, the evil in the evil, the poison on the +arrow-head, will be wiped off and taken away. But great as are the +gifts to the faithful servant, they are less to be rejoiced in than +his personal inclusion among the citizens of heaven. Gifts and +powers are good, and may legitimately be rejoiced in; but to possess +eternal life, and to belong to the mother-city of us all, the New +Jerusalem, is better than all gifts and all powers. + + + + +NEIGHBOURS FAR OFF + + + 'And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted + Him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal + life? 26. He said unto him, What is written in the law? + how readest thou? 27. And he, answering, said, Thou + shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and + with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with + all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 28. And He + said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and + thou shalt live. 29. But he, willing to justify + himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? + 30. And Jesus, answering, said, A certain man went down + from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, + which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and + departed, leaving him half dead. 31. And by chance + there came down a certain priest that way; and when he + saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32. And + likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and + looked on him, and passed by on the other side. 33. But + a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he + was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, + 34. And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring + in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and + brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35. And on + the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence, + and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care + of him: and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come + again, I will repay thee. 36. Which now of these three, + thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among + the thieves! 37. And he said. He that showed mercy on + him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.' + --LUKE x. 25-37. + +The lawyer's first question was intended to 'tempt' Jesus, which +here seems to mean, rather, 'to test'; that is, to ascertain His +orthodoxy or His ability. Christ walks calmly through the snare, as +if not seeing it. His answer is unimpeachably orthodox, and withal +just hints in the slightest way that the question was needless, +since one so learned in the law knew well enough what were the +conditions of inheriting life. The lawyer knows the letter too well +to be at a loss what to answer. But it is remarkable that he gives +the same combination of two passages which Jesus gives in His last +duel with the Pharisees (Matt. xxii; Mark xii.). Did Jesus adopt +this lawyer's summary? Or is Luke's narrative condensed, omitting +stages by which Jesus led the man to so wise an answer? + +Our Lord's rejoinder has a marked tone of authority, which puts the +lawyer in his right place. His answer is commended, as by one whose +estimate has weight; and his practice is implicitly condemned, as by one +who knows, and has a right to judge. 'This do' is a sharp sword-thrust. +It also unites the two 'loves' as essentially one, by saying 'This'-not +'these'--'do.' The lawyer feels the prick, and it is his defective +practice, not his question, which he seeks to 'justify.' He did not +think that his love to God needed any justification. He had fully done +his duty there, but about the other half he was less sure. So he tried +to ride off, lawyer-like, on a question of the meaning of words. 'Who +is my neighbour?' is the question answered by the lovely story of the +kindly Samaritan. + +I. The main purpose, then, is to show how far off men may be, and +yet be neighbours. The lawyer's question, 'Who is my neighbour?' is +turned round the other way in Christ's form of it at the close. It +is better to ask 'Whose neighbour am I?' than 'Who is my neighbour?' +The lawyer meant by the word 'a person whom I am bound to love.' He +wanted to know how far an obligation extended which he had no mind +to recognise an inch farther than he was obliged. Probably he had in +his thought the Rabbinical limitations which made it as much duty to +'hate thine enemy' as to 'love thy neighbour.' Probably, too, he +accepted the national limitations, which refused to see any +neighbours outside the Jewish people. + +'Neighbourhood,' in his judgment, implied 'nearness,' and he wished to +know how far off the boundaries of the region included in the command +lay. There are a great many of us like him, who think that the +obligation is a matter of geography, and that love, like force, is +inversely as the square of the distance. A good deal of the so-called +virtue of 'patriotism' is of this spurious sort. But Christ's way of +putting the question sweeps all such limitations aside. 'Who became +neighbour to' the wounded man? 'He who showed mercy on him,' said the +lawyer, unwilling to name the Samaritan, and by his very reluctance +giving the point to his answer which Christ wished to bring out. We +are not to love because we are neighbours in any geographical sense, +but we become neighbours to the man farthest from us when we love and +help him. The relation has nothing to do with proximity. If we prove +ourselves neighbours to any man by exercising love to him, then the +relation intended by the word is as wide as humanity. We recognise +that A. is our neighbour when a throb of pity shoots through our +heart, and thereby we become neighbours to him. + +The story is not, properly speaking, a parable, or imaginary +narrative of something in the physical world intended to be +translated into something in the spiritual region, but it is an +illustration (by an imaginary narrative) of the actual virtue in +question. Every detail is beautifully adapted to bring out the +lesson that the obligation of neighbourly affection has nothing to +do with nearness either of race or religion, but is as wide as +humanity. The wounded man was probably a Jew, but it is significant +that his nationality is not mentioned. He is 'a certain man,' that +is all. The Samaritan did not ask where he was born before he helped +him. So Christ teaches us that sorrow and need and sympathy and help +are of no nationality. + +That lesson is still more strongly taught by making the helper a +Samaritan. Perhaps, if Jesus had been speaking in America, he would +have made him a negro; or, if in France, a German; or, if in +England, a 'foreigner.' It was a daring stroke to bring the despised +name of 'Samaritan' into the story, and one sees what a hard morsel +to swallow the lawyer found it, by his unwillingness to name him +after all. + +The nations have not yet learned the deep, simple truth of this +parable. It absolutely forbids all limitations of mercy and help. It +makes every man the neighbour of every man. It carries in germ the +great truth of the brotherhood of the race. 'Humanity' is a purely +Christian word, and a conception that was never dreamed of before +Christ had showed us the unity of mankind. We slowly approximate to +the realisation of the teaching of this story, which is oftener +admired than imitated, and perhaps oftenest on the lips of people +who obey it least. + +II. Another aspect of the parable is its lesson as to the true +manifestations of neighbourliness. The minutely detailed account of +the Samaritan's care for the half-dead man is not only graphic, but +carries large lessons. Compassionate sentiments are very well. They +must come first. The help that is given as a matter of duty, without +the outgoing of heart, will be worth little, and soon cease to flow; +but the emotion that does not drive the wheels of action, and set to +work to stanch the sorrows which cause it to run so easily, is worth +still less. It hardens the heart, as all feeling unexpressed in +action does. If the priest and Levite had gone up to the man, and +said, 'Ah, poor fellow, poor fellow! how sorry we are for you! +somebody ought to come and help you,' and so had trudged on their +way, they would have been worse than they are painted as being. + +The various acts are enumerated as showing the genius of true love. +We notice the swift, cool-headed deftness of the man, his having at +hand the appliances needed, the business-like way in which he goes +about his kindness, his readiness to expend his wine and oil, his +willingness to do the surgeon's work, his cheerful giving up of his +'own beast,' while he plodded along on foot, steadying the wounded +man on his ass; his care for him at the inn; his generosity, and +withal his prudence, in not leaving a great sum in the host's hands, +but just enough to tide over a day or two, and his wise hint that he +would audit the accounts when he came back. This man's quick +compassion was blended with plenty of shrewdness, and was as +practical as the hardest, least compassionate man could have been. +There is need for organisation, 'faculty,' and the like, in the work +of loving our neighbour. A thousand pities that sometimes Christian +charity and Christian common-sense dissolve partnership. The +Samaritan was a man of business, and he did his compassion in a +business-like fashion, as we should try to do. + +III. Another lesson inwrought into the parable is the divorce +between religion and neighbourliness, as shown in the conduct of the +priest and Levite. Jericho was one of the priestly cities, so that +there would be frequent travellers on ecclesiastical errands. The +priest was 'going down' (that is from Jerusalem), so he could not +plead a 'pressing public engagement' at the Temple. The verbal +repetition of the description of the conduct of both him and the +Levite serves to suggest its commonness. They two did exactly the +same thing, and so would twenty or two hundred ordinary passers by. +They saw the man lying in a pool of blood, and they made a wide +circuit, and, even in the face of such a sight, went on their way. +Probably they said to themselves, 'Robbers again; the sooner we get +past this dangerous bit, the better.' We see that they were +heartless, but they did not see it. We do the same thing ourselves, +and do not see that we do; for who of us has not known of many +miseries which we could have done something to stanch, and have left +untouched because our hearts were unaffected? The world would be a +changed place if every Christian attended to the sorrows that are +plain before him. + +Let professing Christians especially lay to heart the solemn lesson +that there does lie in their very religion the possibility of their +being culpably unconcerned about some of the world's wounds, and +that, if their love to God does not find a field for its +manifestation in active love to man, worship in the Temple will be +mockery. Philanthropy is, in our days, often substituted for +religion. The service of man has been put forward as the only real +service of God. But philanthropic unbelievers and unphilanthropic +believers are equally monstrosities. What God hath joined let not +man put asunder. That simple 'and,' which couples the two great +commandments, expresses their indissoluble connection. Well for us +if in our practice they are blended in one! + +It is not spiritualising this narrative when we say that Jesus is +Himself the great pattern of the swift compassion and effectual +helpfulness which it sets forth. Many unwise attempts have been made +to tack on spiritual meanings to the story. These are as irreverent +as destructive of its beauty and significance. But to say that +Christ is the perfect example of that love to every man which the +narrative portrays, has nothing in common with these fancies. It is +only when we have found in Him the pity and the healing which we +need, that we shall go forth into the world with love as wide as +His. + + + + +HOW TO PRAY + + + 'And it came to pass, that, as He was praying in a + certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples + said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also + taught His disciples. 2. And He said unto them, When + ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed + be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in + heaven, so in earth. 3. Give us day by day our daily + bread. 4. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive + every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into + temptation; but deliver us from evil. 5. And He said + unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall + go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend + me three loaves; 6. For a friend of mine in his journey + is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? + 7. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me + not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me + in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. 8. I say unto you, + Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his + friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and + give him as many as he needeth. 9. And I say unto you, + Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall + find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10. For + every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh + findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. + 11. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a + father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, + will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12. Or if he + shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13. If + ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto + your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father + give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him!--LUKE xi. 1-13. + +Christ's praying fired the disciples with desire to pray like Him. +There must have been something of absorption and blessedness in His +communion with the Father which struck them with awe and longing, +and which they would fain repeat. Do our prayers move any to taste +the devotion and joy which breathe through them? But low conceptions +mingled with high desires in their request. They think that if He +will give them a form, that will be enough; and they wish to be as +well off as John's disciples, whose relation to their master seems +to them parallel with theirs to Jesus. + +Our Lord's answer meets and transcends their wish. He does give them +a model prayer, and He adds encouragements to pray which inculcate +confidence and persistence. The passage, then, falls into two parts--the +pattern prayer (vs. 2-4), and the spirit of prayer as enforced by some +encouragements (vs. 5-13). The material is so rich that we can but +gather the surface wealth. Deep mines must lie unexplored here. + +I. The pattern of prayer. We call it the Lord's Prayer, but it is so +only in the sense that He gives it. It is our prayer for our use. +His own prayers remain unrecorded, except those in the upper room +and at Gethsemane. This is the type to which His servants' prayers +are to be conformed. 'After this manner pray ye,' whether in these +words or not. And the repetition of the words is often far enough +away from catching their spirit. To suppose that our Lord simply met +the disciples' wish by giving them a form misconceives the genius of +His work. He gave something much better; namely, a pattern, the +spirit of which we are to diffuse through all our petitions, + +Two salient features of the prayer bring out the two great +characteristics of all true Christian prayer. First, we note the +invocation. It is addressed to the Father. Our prayers are, then, +after the pattern only when they are the free, unembarrassed, +confident, and utterly frank whispers of a child to its father. +Confidence and love should wing the darts which are to reach heaven. +That name, thoroughly realised, banishes fear and self-will, and +inspires submission and aspiration. To cry,' Abba, Father,' is the +essence of all prayer. Nothing more is needed. + +The broad lesson drawn from the order of requests is the second +point to be noticed. If we have the child's spirit, we shall put the +Father's honour first, and absolutely subordinate our own interests +to it. So the first half of the prayer, like the first half of the +Decalogue, deals with God's name and its glory. Alas! it is hard +even for His child to keep this order. Natural self-regard must be +cast out by love, if we are thus to pray. How few of us have reached +that height, not in mere words, but in unspoken desires! + +The order of the several petitions in the first half of the prayer +is significant. God's name (that is, His revealed character) being +hallowed (that is, recognised as what it is), separate from all +limitation and creatural imperfection, and yet near in love as a +Father is, the coming of His kingdom will follow; for where He is +known and honoured for what He is He will reign, and men, if they +rightly knew Him, would fall before Him and serve Him. The hallowing +of His name is the only foundation for His kingdom among us, and all +knowledge of Him which does not lead to submission to His rule is +false or incomplete. + +The outward, visible establishment of God's kingdom in human society +follows individual acquaintance with His name. The doing of God's +will is the sign of His kingdom having come. The ocean is blue, like +the sky which it mirrors. Earth will be like heaven. + +The second half of the prayer returns to personal interests; but +God's child has many brethren, and so His prayer is, not for 'me' +and 'my,' but for 'us' and 'ours.' Our first need, if we start from +the surface and go inwards, is for the maintenance of bodily life. +So the petition for bread has precedence, not as being most, but +least, important. We are to recognise God's hand in blessing our +daily toil. We are to limit our desires to necessaries, and to leave +the future in His hands. Is this 'the manner' after which Christians +pray for perishable good? Where would anxious care or eager rushing +after wealth be, if it were? + +A deeper need, the chief in regard to the inner man, is deliverance +from sin, in its two aspects of guilt and power. So the next +petition is for pardon. Sin incurs debt. Forgiveness is the +remission of penalty, but the penalty is not merely external +punishment. The true penalty is separation from God, and His +forgiveness is His loving on, undisturbed by sin. If we truly call +God Father, the image of His mercifulness will be formed in us; and +unless we are forgiving, we shall certainly lose the consciousness +of being forgiven, and bind our sins on our backs in all their +weight. God's children need always to pray 'after this manner, 'for +sin is not entirely conquered. + +Pardon is meant to lead on to holiness. Hence the next clause in +effect prays for sanctification. Knowing our own weakness, we may +well ask not to be placed in circumstances where the inducements to +sin would be strong, even while we know that we may grow thereby, if +we resist. The shortened form of the prayer in Luke, according to +the Revised Version, omits 'deliver us from evil'; but that clause +is necessary to complete the idea. Whether we read 'evil' or 'the +evil one,' the clause refers to us as tempted, and, as it were, in +the grip of an enemy too strong for us. God alone can extricate us +from the mouth of the lion. He will, if we ask Him. The only evil is +to sin away our consciousness of sonship and to cling to the sin +which separates us from God. + +II. A type of prayer is not all that we need. The spirit in which we +pray is still more important. So Jesus goes on to enjoin two things +chiefly; namely, persistence and filial confidence. He presents to +us a parable with its application (vs. 5-10), and the germ of a +parable with its (vs. 11-13). Observe that these two parts deal with +encouragements to confidence drawn, first, from our own experience +in asking, and, second, with encouragements drawn from our own +experience in giving. In the former we learn from the man who will +not take 'no,' and so at last gets 'yes'; in the latter, from the +Father who will certainly give His child what he asks. + +In the parable two points are to be specially noted--the persistent +suppliant pleads not for himself so much as for the hungry +traveller, and the man addressed gives without any kindliness, from +the mere wish to be left at peace. As to both points, an _a +fortiori_ argument is implied. If a man can so persevere when +pleading for another, how much more should we do so when asking for +ourselves! And if persistence has such power with selfish men, how +much more shall it avail with Him who slumbers not nor sleeps, and +to whom we can never come at an inopportune moment, and who will +give us because we are His friends, and He ours! The very ugliness +of character ascribed to the owner of the loaves, selfish in his +enjoyment of his bed, in his refusal to turn out on an errand of +neighbourliness, and in his final giving, thus serves as a foil to +the character of Him to whom our prayers are addressed. + +The application of the parable lies in verses 9 and 10. The efforts +enjoined are in an ascending scale, and 'ask' and 'knock' allude to +the parable. To 'seek' is more than to ask, for it includes active +exertion; and for want of seeking by conduct appropriate to our +prayers, we often ask in vain. If we pray for temporal blessings, +and then fold our hands, and sit with our mouths open for them to +drop into, we shall not get them. If we ask for higher goods, and +rise from our knees to live worldly lives, we shall get them as +little. Knocking is more than either, for it implies a continuous +hammering on the door, like Peter's when he stood in the morning +twilight at Mary's gate. Asking and seeking must be continuous if +they are to be rewarded. + +Verse 10 grounds the promise of verse 9 on experience. It is he who +asks that gets. In men's giving it is not universally true that +petitions are answered, nor that gifts are not given unasked. Nor is +it true about God's lower gifts, which are often bestowed on the +unthankful, and not seldom refused to His children. But it is +universally true in regard to His highest gifts, which are never +withheld from the earnest asker who adds to his prayers fitting +conduct, and prays always without fainting, and which are not and +cannot be given unless desire for them opens the heart for their +reception, and faith in God assures him who prays that he cannot ask +in vain. + +The germ of a parable with its application (vs. 11-13) draws +encouragement from our own experience in giving. It guards against +misconceptions of God which might arise from the former parable, and +comes back to the first word of the Lord's Prayer as itself the +guarantee of every true desire of His child being heard and met. +Bread, eggs, and fish are staple articles of food. In each case +something similar in appearance, but useless or hurtful, is +contrasted with the thing asked by the child. The round loaves of +the East are not unlike rounded, wave-washed stones, water-serpents +are fishlike, and the oval body of a quiescent scorpion is similar +to an egg. Fathers do not play tricks with their hungry children. +Though we are all sinful, parental love survives, and makes a father +wise enough to know what will nourish and what would poison his +child. + +Alas! that is only partially true, for many a parent has not a +father's heart, and is neither impelled by love to give good things +to, nor to withhold evil ones from, his child. But it is true with +sufficient frequency to warrant the great _a fortiori_ argument +which Jesus bases on it. Our heavenly Father's love, the archetype +of all parental affection, is tainted by no evil and darkened by no +ignorance. He loves perfectly and wisely, therefore He cannot but +give what His child needs. + +But the child often mistakes, and thinks that stones are bread, +serpents fish, and scorpions eggs. So God often has to deny the +letter of our petitions, in order not to give us poison. Luke's +version of the closing promise, in which 'the Holy Spirit' stands +instead of Matthew's 'good things,' sets the whole matter in the +true light; for that Spirit brings with Him all real good, and, +while many of our desires have, for our own sakes, to be denied, we +shall never hold up empty hands and have to let them fall still +empty, if we desire that great encyclopediacal gift which our loving +Father waits to bestow. It cannot be given without our petition, it +will never be withheld from our petition. + + + + +THE PRAYING CHRIST + + + '... As He was praying in a certain place, when He + ceased, one of His disclples said unto Him, Lord, + teach us to pray.'--LUKE xi. 1. + +It is noteworthy that we owe our knowledge of the prayers of Jesus +principally to the Evangelist Luke. There is, indeed, one solemn +hour of supplication under the quivering shadows of the olive-trees +in Gethsemane which is recorded by Matthew and Mark as well; and +though the fourth Gospel passes over that agony of prayer, it gives +us, in accordance with its ruling purpose, the great chapter that +records His priestly intercession. But in addition to these +instances the first Gospel furnishes but one, and the second but +two, references to the subject. All the others are found in Luke. + +I need not stay to point out how this fact tallies with the many +other characteristics of the third Gospel, which mark it as +eminently the story of the Son of Man. The record which traces our +Lord's descent to Adam rather than to Abraham; which tells the story +of His birth, and gives us all we know of the 'child Jesus'; which +records His growth in wisdom and stature, and has preserved a +multitude of minute points bearing on His true manhood, as well as +on the tenderness of His sympathy and the universality of His work, +most naturally emphasises that most precious indication of His +humanity--His habitual prayerfulness. The Gospel of the King, which +is the first Gospel, or of the Servant, which is the second, or of +the Son of God, which is the fourth, had less occasion to dwell on +this. Royalty, practical Obedience, Divinity, are their respective +themes. Manhood is Luke's, and he is ever pointing us to the +kneeling Christ. + +Consider, then, for a moment, how precious the prayers of Jesus are, +as bringing Him very near to us in His true manhood. There are deep +and mysterious truths involved with which we do not meddle now. But +there are also plain and surface truths which are very helpful and +blessed. We thank God for the story of His weariness when He sat on +the well, and of His slumber when, worn out with a hard day's work, +He slept on the hard wooden pillow in the stern of the fishing-boat +among the nets and the litter. It brings Him near to us when we read +that He thirsted, and nearer still when the immortal words fall on +our wondering ears, 'Jesus wept.' But even more precious than these +indications of His true participation in physical needs and human +emotion, is the great evidence of His prayers, that He too lived a +life of dependence, of communion, and of submission; that in our +religious life, as in all our life, He is our pattern and +forerunner. As the Epistle to the Hebrews puts it, He shows that He +is not ashamed to call us brethren by this, that He too avows that +He lives by faith; and by His life--and surely pre-eminently by His +prayers--declares, I will put my trust in Him.' We cannot think of +Christ too often or too absolutely as the object of faith; and as +the hearer of our cries; but we may, and some of us do, think of Him +too seldom as the pattern of faith, and as the example for our +devotion. We should feel Him a great deal nearer us; and the fact of +His manhood would not only be grasped more clearly by orthodox +believers, but would be felt in more of its true tenderness, if we +gave more prominence in our thoughts to that picture of the praying +Christ. + +Another point that may be suggested is, that the highest, holiest +life needs specific acts and times of prayer. A certain fantastical +and overstrained spirituality is not rare, which professes to have +got beyond the need of such beggarly elements. Some tinge of this +colours the habits of many people who are scarcely conscious of its +presence, and makes them somewhat careless as to forms and times of +public or of that of private worship. I do not think that I am wrong +in saying that there is a growing laxity in that matter among people +who are really trying to live Christian lives. We may well take the +lesson which Christ's prayers teach us, for we all need it, that no +life is so high, so holy, so full of habitual communion with God, +that it can afford to do without the hour of prayer, the secret +place, the uttered word. If we are to 'pray without ceasing,' by the +constant attitude of communion and the constant conversion of work +into worship, we must certainly have, and we shall undoubtedly +desire, special moments when the daily sacrifice of doing good +passes into the sacrifice of our lips. The devotion which is to be +diffused through our lives must be first concentrated and evolved in +our prayers. These are the gathering-grounds which feed the river. +The life that was all one long prayer needed the mountain-top and +the nightly converse with God. He who could say, 'The Father hath +not left Me alone, for I do always the things that please Him,' felt +that He must also have the special communion of spoken prayer. What +Christ needed we cannot afford to neglect. + +Thus Christ's own prayers do, in a very real sense, 'teach us to +pray.' But it strikes me that, if we will take the instances in +which we find Him praying, and try to classify them in a rough way, +we may gain some hints worth laying to heart. Let me attempt this +briefly now. + +First, then, the praying Christ teaches us to pray as a rest after +service. + +The Evangelist Mark gives us, in his brief, vivid way, a wonderful +picture in his first chapter of Christ's first Sabbath-day of +ministry in Capernaum. It was crowded with work. The narrative goes +hurrying on through the busy hours, marking the press of rapidly +succeeding calls by its constant reiteration--'straightway,' +'immediately,' 'forthwith,' 'anon,' 'immediately.' He teaches in the +synagogue; without breath or pause He heals a man with an unclean +spirit; then at once passes to Simon's house, and as soon as He +enters has to listen to the story of how the wife's mother lay sick +of a fever. They might have let Him rest for a moment, but they are +too eager, and He is too pitying, for delay. As soon as He hears, He +helps. As soon as He bids it, the fever departs. As soon as she is +healed, the woman is serving them. There can have been but a short +snatch of such rest as such a house could afford. Then when the +shadows of the western hills began to fall upon the blue waters of +the lake, and the sunset ended the restrictions of the Sabbath, He +is besieged by a crowd full of sorrow and sickness, and all about +the door they lie, waiting for its opening. He could not keep it +shut any more than His heart or His hand, and so all through the +short twilight, and deep into the night, He toils amongst the dim, +prostrate forms. What a day it had been of hard toil, as well as of +exhausting sympathy! And what was His refreshment? An hour or two +of slumber; and then, 'in the morning, rising up a great while +before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and +there prayed' (Mark i. 35). + +In the same way we find Him seeking the same repose after another +period of much exertion and strain on body and mind. He had +withdrawn Himself and His disciples from the bustle which Mark +describes so graphically. 'There were many coming and going, and +they had no leisure, so much as to eat.' So, seeking quiet, He takes +them across the lake into the solitudes on the other side. But the +crowds from all the villages near its head catch sight of the boat in +crossing, and hurry round; and there they all are at the landing-place, +eager and exacting as ever. He throws aside the purpose of rest, and +all day long, wearied as He was, 'taught them many things.' The closing +day brings no respite. He thinks of their hunger, before His own +fatigue, and will not send them away fasting. So He ends that day of +labour by the miracle of feeding the five thousand. The crowds gone to +their homes, He can at last think of Himself; and what is His rest? He +loses not a moment in 'constraining' His disciples to go away to the +other side, as if in haste to remove the last hindrance to something +that He had been longing to get to. 'And when He had sent them +away, He departed into a mountain to pray' (Mark vi. 46; Matt. xiv. 23). + +That was Christ's refreshment after His toil. So He blended +contemplation and service, the life of inward communion and the life +of practical obedience. How much more do we need to interpose the +soothing and invigorating influences of quiet communion between +the acts of external work, since our work may harm us, as His never +did Him. It may disturb and dissipate our communion with God; it may +weaken the very motive from which it should arise; it may withdraw +our gaze from God and fix it upon ourselves. It may puff us up with +the conceit of our own powers; it may fret us with the annoyances of +resistance; it may depress us with the consciousness of failure; and +in a hundred other ways may waste and wear away our personal +religion. The more we work the more we need to pray. In this day of +activity there is great danger, not of doing too much, but of +praying too little for so much work. These two--work and prayer, +action and contemplation--are twin-sisters. Each pines without the +other. We are ever tempted to cultivate one or the other +disproportionately. Let us imitate Him who sought the mountain-top +as His refreshment after toil, but never left duties undone or +sufferers unrelieved in pain. Let us imitate Him who turned from the +joys of contemplation to the joys of service without a murmur, when +His disciples broke in on His solitude with, 'all men seek Thee,' +but never suffered the outward work to blunt His desire for, nor to +encroach on the hour of, still communion with His Father. Lord, +teach us to work; Lord, teach us to pray. + +The praying Christ teaches us to pray as a preparation for important +steps. + +Whilst more than one Gospel tells us of the calling of the Apostolic +Twelve, the Gospel of the manhood alone narrates (Luke vi. 12) that +on the eve of that great epoch in the development of Christ's +kingdom, 'He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all +night in prayer to God.' Then, 'when it was day,' He calls to Him +His disciples, and chooses the Twelve. + +A similar instance occurs, at a later period, before another great +epoch in His course. The great confession made by Peter, 'Thou art +the Christ, the Son of the living God,' was drawn forth by our Lord +to serve as basis for His bestowment on the Apostles of large +spiritual powers, and for the teaching, with much increased detail +and clearness, of His approaching sufferings. In both aspects it +distinctly marks a new stage. Concerning it, too, we read, and again +in Luke alone (ix. 18), that it was preceded by solitary prayer. + +Thus He teaches us where and how we may get the clear insight into +circumstances and men that may guide us aright. Bring your plans, your +purposes to God's throne. Test them by praying about them. Do nothing +large or new--nothing small or old either, for that matter--till you +have asked there, in the silence of the secret place, 'Lord, what +wouldest Thou have me to do?' There is nothing bitterer to parents +than when children begin to take their own way without consulting them. +Do you take counsel of your Father, and have no secrets from Him. It +will save you from many a blunder and many a heartache; it will make +your judgment clear, and your step assured, even in new and difficult +ways, if you will learn from the praying Christ to pray before you +plan, and take counsel of God before you act. + +Again, the praying Christ teaches us to pray as the condition of +receiving the Spirit and the brightness of God. + +There were two occasions in the life of Christ when visible signs +showed His full possession of the Divine Spirit, and the lustre of +His glorious nature. There are large and perplexing questions +connected with both, on which I have no need to enter. At His +baptism the Spirit of God descended visibly and abode on Jesus. At +His transfiguration His face shone as the light, and His garments +were radiant as sunlit snow. Now on both these occasions our Gospel, +and our Gospel alone, tells us that it was whilst Christ was in the +act of prayer that the sign was given: 'Jesus being baptized, and +praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended' (iii. +21, 22). 'As He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, +and His raiment was white and glistening' (ix. 29). + +Whatever difficulty may surround the first of these narratives +especially, one thing is clear, that in both of them there was a +true communication from the Father to the man Jesus. And another +thing is, I think, clear too, that our Evangelist meant to lay +stress on the preceding act as the human condition of such +communication. So if we would have the heavens opened over our +heads, and the dove of God descending to fold its white wings, and +brood over the chaos of our hearts till order and light come there, +we must do what the Son of Man did--pray. And if we would have the +fashion of our countenances altered, the wrinkles of care wiped out, +the traces of tears dried up, the blotches of unclean living healed, +and all the brands of worldliness and evil exchanged for the name of +God written on our foreheads, and the reflected glory irradiating +our faces, we must do as Christ did--pray. So, and only so, will +God's Spirit fill our hearts, God's brightness flash in our faces, +and the vesture of heaven clothe our nakedness. + +Again, the praying Christ teaches us to pray as the preparation for +sorrow. Here all the three Evangelists tell us the same sweet and +solemn story. It is not for us to penetrate further than they carry +us into the sanctities of Gethsemane. Jesus, though hungering for +companionship in that awful hour, would take no man with Him there; +and He still says, 'Tarry ye here, while I go and pray yonder.' But +as we stand afar off, we catch the voice of pleading rising through +the stillness of the night, and the solemn words tell us of a Son's +confidence, of a man's shrinking, of a Saviour's submission. The +very spirit of all prayer is in these broken words. That was truly +'The Lord's Prayer' which He poured out beneath the olives in the +moonlight. It was heard when strength came from heaven, which He +used in 'praying more earnestly.' It was heard when, the agony past +and all the conflict ended in victory, He came forth, with that +strange calm and dignity, to give Himself first to His captors and +then to His executioners, the ransom for the many. + +As we look upon that agony and these tearful prayers, let us not +only look with thankfulness, but let that kneeling Saviour teach us +that in prayer alone can we be forearmed against our lesser sorrows; +that strength to bear flows into the heart that is opened in +supplication; and that a sorrow which we are made able to endure is +more truly conquered than a sorrow which we avoid. We have all a +cross to carry and a wreath of thorns to wear. If we want to be fit +for our Calvary--may we use that solemn name?--we must go to our +Gethsemane first. + +So the Christ who prayed on earth teaches us to pray; and the Christ +who intercedes in heaven helps us to pray, and presents our poor +cries, acceptable through His sacrifice, and fragrant with the +incense from His own golden censer. + + 'O Thou by whom we come to God, + The Life, the Truth, the Way; + The path of prayer Thyself hast trod; + Lord! teach us how to pray.' + + + + +THE RICH FOOL + + + 'And one of the company said unto Him, Master, speak + to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. + 14. And He said unto him, Man, who made Me a judge or + a divider over you? 15. And He said unto them, Take + heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life + consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he + possesseth. 16. And He spake a parable unto them, + saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth + plentifully: 17. And he thought within himself, saying, + What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow + my fruits! 18. And he said, This will I do: I will pull + down my barns, and build greater; and there will I + bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19. And I will say + to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many + years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. + 20. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy + soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those + things be, which thou hast provided! 21. So is he that + layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward + God. 22. And He said unto his disciples, Therefore I + say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye + shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. + 23. The life is more than meat, and the body is more + than raiment'--LUKE xii. 13-23. + +What a gulf between the thoughts of Jesus and those of this +unmannerly interrupter! Our Lord had been speaking solemnly as to +confessing Him before men, the divine help to be given, and the +blessed reward to follow, and this hearer had all the while been +thinking only of the share in his father's inheritance, out of +which he considered that his brother had cheated him. Such +indifference must have struck a chill into Christ's heart, and how +keenly he felt it is traceable in the curt and stern brushing aside +of the man's request. The very form of addressing him puts him at a +distance. 'Man' is about as frigid as can be. Our Lord knew the +discouragement of seeing that His words never came near some of His +hearers, and had no power to turn their thoughts even for a minute +from low objects. 'What do I care about being confessed before the +angels, or about the Holy Spirit to teach me? What I want is my +share of the paternal acres. A rabbi who will help me to these is +the rabbi for me.' John Bunyan's 'man with the muck-rake' had his +eyes so glued to the ground and the muck that he did not see the +crown hanging above him. How many of us find the sermon time a good +opportunity for thinking about investments and business! + +Christ's answer is intentionally abrupt and short. It deals with +part only of the man's error, the rest of which, being an error to +which we are all exposed, and which was the root of the part special +to him, is dealt with in the parable that follows. Because the man +was covetous, he could see in Jesus nothing more than a rabbi who +might influence his brother. Our sense of want largely shapes our +conception of Christ. Many to-day see in Him mainly a social (and +economical) reformer, because our notion of what we and the world +need most is something to set social conditions right, and so to +secure earthly well-being. They who take Jesus to be first and +foremost 'a judge or a divider' fail to see His deepest work or +their own deepest need. He will be all that they wish Him to be, if +they will take Him for something else first. He will 'bid' men +'divide the inheritance' with their brethren after men have gone to +Him for salvation. + +But covetousness, or the greedy clutching at more and more of +earthly good, has its roots in us all, and unless there is the most +assiduous weeding, it will overrun our whole nature. So Jesus puts +great emphasis into the command, 'Take heed, and keep yourselves,' +which implies that without much 'heed' and diligent inspection of +ourselves (for the original word is 'see'), there will be no +guarding against the subtle entrance and swift growth of the vice. +We may be enslaved by it, and never suspect that we are. Further, +the correct reading is 'from _all_ covetousness,' for it has +many shapes, besides the grossest one of greed for money. The reason +for the exhortation is somewhat obscure in construction, but plain +in its general meaning, and sufficiently represented by the +Authorised and Revised Versions. The Revised Version margin gives +the literal translation, 'Not in a man's abundance consisteth his +life, from the things which he possesseth,' on which we may note +that the second clause is obviously to be completed from the first, +and that the difference between the two seems to lie mainly in the +difference of prepositions, 'from' or 'out of in the second clause +standing instead of 'in' in the first, while there may be also a +distinction between 'abundance' and 'possessions' the former being a +superfluous amount of the latter. The whole will then mean that life +does not _consist in_ possessions, however abundant, nor does +it _come out of_ anything that simply belongs to us in outward +fashion. Not what we possess, but what we are, is the important +matter. + +But what does 'life' mean? The parable shows that we cannot leave +out the notion of physical life. No possessions keep a man alive. +Death knocks at palaces and poor men's hovels. Millionaires and +paupers are huddled together in his net. But we must not leave out +the higher meaning of life, for it is eminently true that the real +life of a man has little relation to what he possesses. Neither +nobleness nor peace nor satisfaction, nor anything in which man +lives a nobler life than a dog, has much dependence on property of +any sort. Wealth often chokes the channels by which true life would +flow into us. 'We live by admiration, hope, and love,' and these may +be ours abundantly, whatever our portion of earth's riches. +Covetousness is folly, because it grasps at worldly good, under the +false belief that thereby it will secure the true good of life, but +when it has made its pile, it finds that it is no nearer peace of +heart, rest, nobleness, or joy than before, and has probably lost +much of both in the process of making it. The mad race after wealth, +which is the sin of this luxurious, greedy, commercial age, is the +consequence of a lie--that life does consist in the abundance of +possessions. It consists in knowing 'Thee the only true God, and +Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.' Is there any saying of Jesus +Christ's more revolutionary, or less believed by His professed +followers, than this? + +The story of the rich fool is not a parable in the narrower meaning +of that word--that is, a description of some event or thing in the +natural sphere, transferred by analogy to the spiritual--but an +imaginary narrative exemplifying in a concrete instance the +characteristics of the class of covetous men. The first point noted +is that accumulated wealth breeds anxiety rather than satisfaction. +The man is embarrassed by his abundance. The trouble of knowing how +to keep it is as great as the labour of acquiring it, and the +enjoyment of it is still in the future. Many a rich man is more +worried about his securities than he was in making his money. There +are so many 'bags with holes' that he is at his wits' end for +investments, and the first thing he looks at in his morning's paper +is the share list, the sight of which often spoils his breakfast. + +The next point is the selfish and arrogant sense of possession, as +betrayed by the repetition of 'my'--my fruits, my barns, my corn, +and my goods. He has no thought of God, nor of his own stewardship. +He recognises no claim on his wealth. If he had looked a little +beyond himself, he would have seen many places where he could have +bestowed his fruits. Were there no poor at his gates? He had better +have poured some riches into the laps of these than have built a new +barn. Corn laid up would breed weevils; dispersed, it would bring +blessings. + +Again, this type of covetous men is a fool because he reckons on +'many years.' The goods may last, but will he? He can make sure that +they will suffice for a long time, but he cannot make sure of the +long time. Again, he blunders tragically in his estimate of the +power of worldly goods to satisfy. 'Eat, drink,' might be said to +his body, but to say it to his soul, and to fancy that these +pleasures of sense would put it at ease, is the fatal error which +gnaws like a worm at the root of every worldly life. The word here +rendered 'take thine ease' is cognate with Christ's in His great +promise, 'Ye shall find rest unto your souls.' Not in abundance of +worldly goods, but in union with Him, is that rest to be found which +the covetous man vainly promises himself in filled barns and +luxurious idleness. + +There is a grim contrast between what the rich man said and what God +said. The man's words were empty breath; God's are powers, and what +He says is a deed. The divine decree comes crashing into the +abortive human plans like a thunder-clap into a wood full of singing +birds, and they are all stricken silent. So little does life consist +in possessions that all the abundance cannot keep the breath in a +man for one moment. His life is 'required of him,' not only in the +sense that he has to give it up, but also inasmuch as he has to +answer for it. In that requirement the selfishly used wealth will be +'a swift witness against' him, and instead of ministering to life +or ease, will 'eat his flesh as fire.' Molten gold dropping on flesh +burns badly. Wealth, trusted in and selfishly clutched, without +recognition of God the giver or of others' claims to share it, will +burn still worse. + +The 'parable' is declared to be of universal application. Examples +of it are found wherever there are men who selfishly lay up +treasures for their own delectation, and 'are not rich toward God.' +That expression is best understood in this connection to mean, not +rich in spiritual wealth, but in worldly goods used with reference +to God, or for His glory and service. So understood, the two +phrases, laying up treasure for oneself and being rich towards God, +are in full antithesis. + + + + +ANXIOUS ABOUT EARTH, OR EARNEST ABOUT THE KINGDOM + + + 'And He said unto His disciples, Therefore I say unto + you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; + neither for the body, what ye shall put on. 23. The + life is more than meat, and the body is more than + raiment. 24. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow + nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and + God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the + fowls? 25. And which of you with taking thought can + add to his stature one cubit? 26. If ye then be not + able to do that thing which is least, why take ye + thought for the rest? 27. Consider the lilies how they + grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto + you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed + like one of these. 28. If then God so clothe the grass, + which is to-day in the field, and to-morrow is cast + into the oven; how much more will He clothe you, O ye + of little faith! 29. And seek not ye what ye shall eat, + or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. + 30. For all these things do the nations of the world + seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need + of these things. 31. But rather seek ye the kingdom of + God; and all these things shall he added unto you.' + --LUKE xii. 22-31. + +The parable of the rich fool was spoken to the multitude, but our +Lord now addresses the disciples. 'Therefore' connects the following +with the foregoing teachings. The warnings against anxiety are +another application of the prohibition of laying up treasure for +self. Torturing care is the poor man's form of worldliness, as +luxurious self-indulgence is the rich man's. There are two kinds of +gout, as doctors tell us--one from high living, and one from poverty +of blood. This passage falls into two parts--the prohibition against +anxious care (vs. 22-31), and the exhortation to set the affections +on the true treasure (vs. 31-34). + +I. The first part gives the condemnation of anxiety about earthly +necessities. The precept is first stated generally, and then +followed by a series of reasons enforcing it. As to the precept, we +may remark that the disciples were mostly poor men, who might think +that they were in no danger of the folly branded in the parable. +They had no barns bursting with plenty, and their concern was how to +find food and clothing, not what to do with superfluities. Christ +would have them see that the same temper may be in them, though it +takes a different shape. Dives and Lazarus may be precisely alike. + +The temper condemned here is 'self-consuming care,' the opposite of +trust. Its misery is forcibly expressed by the original meaning of +the Greek word, which implies being torn in pieces, and thus paints +the distraction and self-inflicted harrassment which are the lot of +the anxious mind. Prudent foresight and strenuous work are equally +outside this prohibition. Anxiety is so little akin to foresight +that it disables from exercising it, and both hinders from seeing +what to do to provide daily bread, and from doing it. + +The disciples' danger of being thus anxious may be measured by the +number and variety of reasons against it given by Jesus. The first +of these is that such anxiety does not go deep enough, and forgets +how we come to have lives to be fed and bodies to be clothed. We +have received the greater, life and body, without our anxiety. The +rich fool could keep his goods, but not his 'soul' or 'life.' How +superficial, then, after all, our anxieties are, when God may end +life at any moment! Further, since the greater is given, the less +which it needs will also be given. The thought of God as 'a faithful +creator' is implied. We must trust Him for the 'more'; we may trust +Him for the less. + +The second reason bids us look with attention at examples of +unanxious lives abundantly fed. Perhaps Elijah's feathered +providers, or the words of the Psalmist (Ps. cxlvii. 9), were in +Christ's mind. The raven was one of the 'unclean' birds, and of ill +omen, from Noah's days, and yet had its meat in due season, though +that meat was corpses. Notice the allusions to the preceding parable +in 'sow not, neither reap,' and in 'neither have storehouse nor +barn.' In these particulars the birds are inferior to us, and, so to +speak, the harder to care for. If they who neither work nor store +still get their living, shall not we, who can do both? Our superior +value is in part expressed by the capacity to sow and reap; and +these are more wholesome occupations for a man than worrying. + +How lovingly Jesus looked on all creatures, and how clearly He saw +everywhere God's hand at work! As Luther said, 'God spends every +year in feeding sparrows more than the revenues of the King of +France.' + +The third reason is the impotence of anxiety (ver. 25). It is +difficult to decide between the two possible renderings here. That +of 'a cubit' to the 'stature' corresponds best with the growth of +the lilies, while 'age' preserves an allusion to the rich fool, and +avoids treating the addition of a foot and a half to an ordinary +man's height as a small thing. But age is not measured by cubits, +and it is best to keep to 'stature.' + +At first sight, the argument of verse 23 seems to be now inverted, +and what was 'more' to be now 'least.' But the supposed addition, if +possible, would be of the smallest importance as regards ensuring +food or clothing, and measured by the divine power required to +effect it, is less than the continual providing which God does. That +smaller work of His, no anxiety will enable us to do. How much less +can we effect the complicated and wide-reaching arrangements needed +to feed and clothe ourselves! Anxiety is impotent. It only works on +our own minds, racking them in vain, but has no effect on the +material world, not even on our own bodies, still less on the +universe. + +The fourth reason bids us look with attention at examples of +unanxious existence clothed with beauty. Christ here teaches the +highest use of nature, and the noblest way of looking at it. The +scientific botanist considers how the lilies grow, and can tell all +about cells and chlorophyll and the like. The poet is in raptures +with their beauty. Both teach us much, but the religious way of +looking at nature includes and transcends both the others. Nature is +a parable. It is a visible manifestation of God, and His ways there +shadow His ways with us, and are lessons in trust. + +The glorious colours of the lily come from no dyer's vats, nor the +marvellous texture of their petals from any loom. They are inferior +to us in that they do not toil or spin, and in their short +blossoming time. Man's 'days are as grass; as a flower of the field +so he flourisheth'; but his date is longer, and therefore he has a +larger claim on God. 'God clothes the grass of the field' is a truth +quite independent of scientific truths or hypotheses about how He +does it. If the colours of flowers depend on the visits of insects, +God established the dependence, and is the real cause of the +resulting loveliness. + +The most modern theories of the evolutionist do not in the least +diminish the force of Christ's appeal to creation's witness to a +loving Care in the heavens. But that appeal teaches us that we miss +the best and plainest lesson of nature, unless we see God present +and working in it all, and are thereby heartened to trust quietly in +His care for us, who are better than the ravens because we have to +sow and reap, or than the lilies because we must toil and spin. + +Verse 29 adds to the reference to clothing a repeated prohibition as +to the other half of our anxieties, and thus rounds off the whole +with the same double warning as in verse 22. But it gives a striking +metaphor in the new command against 'being of doubtful mind.' The +word so rendered means to be lifted on high, and thence to be tossed +from height to depth, as a ship in a storm. So it paints the +wretchedness of anxiety as ever shuttlecocked about between hopes +and fears, sometimes up on the crest of a vain dream of good, +sometimes down in the trough of an imaginary evil. We are sure to be +thus the sport of our own fancies, unless we have our minds fixed on +God in quiet trust, and therefore stable and restful. + +Verse 30 gives yet another reason against not only anxiety, but +against that eager desire after outward things which is the parent +of anxiety. If we 'seek after' them, we shall not be able to avoid +being anxious and of doubtful mind. Such seeking, says Christ, is +pure heathenism. The nations of the world who know not God make +these their chief good, and securing them the aim of their lives. If +we do the like, we drop to their level. What is the difference +between a heathen and a Christian, if the Christian has the same +objects and treasures as the heathen? That is a question which a +good many so-called Christians at present would find it hard to +answer. + +But the crowning reason of all is kept for the last. Much of what +precedes might be spoken by a man who had but the coldest belief in +Providence. But the great and blessed faith in our Father, God, +scatters all anxious care. How should we be anxious if we know that +we have a Father in heaven, and that He knows our needs? He +recognises our claims on Him. He made the needs, and will send the +supply. That is a wide truth, stretching far beyond the mere earthly +wants of food and raiment. My wants, so far as God has made me to +feel them, are prophecies of God's gifts. He has made them as doors +by which He will come in and bless me. How, then, can anxious care +fret the heart which feels the Father's presence, and knows that its +emptiness is the occasion for the gift of a divine fullness? Trust +is the only reasonable temper for a child of such a father. Anxious +care is a denial of His love or knowledge or power. + +II. Verses 31-34 point out the true direction of effort and +affection, and the true way of using outward good so as to secure +the higher riches. It is useless to tell men not to set their +longings or efforts on worldly things unless you tell them of +something better. Life must have some aim, and the mind must turn to +something as supremely good. The only way to drive out heathenish +seeking after perishable good is to fill the heart with the love and +longing for eternal and spiritual good. The ejected demon comes back +with a troop at his heels unless his house be filled. To seek 'the +kingdom,' to count it our highest good to have our wills and whole +being bowed in submission to the loving will of God, to labour after +entire conformity to it, to postpone all earthly delights to that, +and to count them all but loss if we may win it--this is the true +way to conquer worldly anxieties, and is the only course of life +which will not at last earn the stern judgment, 'Thou fool.' + +That direction of all our desires and energies to the attainment of +the kingdom which is the state of being ruled by the will of God, is +to be accompanied with joyous, brave confidence. How should they +fear whose desires and efforts run parallel with the 'Father's good +pleasure'? They are seeking as their chief good what He desires, as +His chief delight, to give them. Then they may be sure that, if He +gives that, He will not withhold less gifts than may be needed. He +will not 'spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar,' nor allow His +children, whom He has made heirs of a kingdom, to starve on their +road to their crown. If they can trust Him to give them the kingdom, +they may surely trust Him for bread and clothes. + +Mark, too, the tenderness of that 'little flock.' They might fear +when they contrasted their numbers with the crowds of worldly men; +but, being a flock, they have a shepherd, and that is enough to +quiet anxiety. + +Seeking and courage are to be crowned by surrender of outward good +and the use of earthly wealth in such manner as that it will secure +an unfailing treasure in heaven. The manner of obeying this command +varies with circumstances. For some the literal fulfilment is best; +and there are more Christian men to-day whose souls would be +delivered from the snares if they would part with their possessions +than we are willing to believe. + +Sometimes the surrender is rather to be effected by the conscientious +consecration and prayerful use of wealth. That is for each man to +settle for himself. But what is not variable is the obligation to set +the kingdom high above all else, and to use all outward wealth, as +Christ's servants, not for luxury and self-gratification, but as in +His sight and for His glory. Let us not be afraid of believing what +Jesus and His Apostles plainly teach, that wealth so spent here is +treasured in heaven, and that a Christian's place in the future life +depends upon this among other conditions--how he used his money here. + + + + +STILLNESS IN STORM + + '... Neither be ye of doubtful mind.'--LUKE xii. 29. + +I think that these words convey no very definite idea to most +readers. The thing forbidden is not very sharply defined by the +expression which our translators have employed, but the original +term is very picturesque and precise. + +The word originally means 'to be elevated, to be raised as a +meteor,' and comes by degrees to mean to be raised in one special +way--namely, as a boat is tossed by a tough sea. So there is a +picture in this prohibition which the fishermen and folk dwelling by +the Sea of Galilee with its sudden squalls would understand: 'Be +not pitched about'; now on the crest, now in the trough of the wave. + +The meaning, then, is substantially identical with that of the +previous words, 'Take no thought for your life,' with this +difference, that the figures by which the thing prohibited is +expressed are different, and that the latter saying is wider than +the former. + +The former prohibits 'taking thought,' by which our Lord of course +means not reasonable foresight, but anxious foreboding. And the word +which He uses, meaning at bottom as it does, 'to be distracted or +rent asunder,' conveys a striking picture of the wretched state to +which such anxiety brings a man. Nothing tears us to pieces like +foreboding care. Then our text forbids the same anxiety, as well as +other fluctuations of feeling that come from setting our hopes and +hearts on aught which can change; and its figurative representation +of the misery that follows on fastening ourselves to the perishable, +is that of the poor little skiff, at one moment high on the crest of +the billow, at the next down in the trough of the sea. + +So both images point to the unrest of worldliness, and while the +unrest of care is uppermost in the one, the other includes more than +simply care, and warns us that all occupation with simply creatural +things, all eager seeking after 'what ye shall eat or what ye shall +drink' or after more refined forms of earthly good, brings with it +the penalty and misery of 'for ever tossing on the tossing wave.' +Whosoever launches out on to that sea is sure to be buffeted about. +Whoso sets his heart on the uncertainty of anything below the +changeless God will without doubt be driven from hope to fear, from +joy to sorrow, and his soul will be agitated as his idols change, +and his heart will be desolate when his idols perish. + +Our Lord, we say, forbids our being thus tossed about. He seems to +believe that it is in our own power to settle whether we shall be or +no. That sounds strange; one can fancy the answer: 'What is the use +of telling a man not to be buffeted about by storm? Why, he cannot +help it. If the sea is running high the little boat cannot lie quiet +as if in smooth water. Do not talk to me about not being moved, +unless you can say to the tumbling sea of life, "Peace, be still!" +and make it + + "quite forget to rave, + While birds of peace sit brooding on the charmed wave."' + +The objection is sound after a fashion. Change there must be, and +fluctuation of feeling. But there is such a thing as 'peace +subsisting at the heart of endless agitation.' You may remember the +attempt that was made some years ago to build a steamer in which +the central saloon was to hang perfectly still while the outer hull +of the ship pitched and rolled with the moving sea. It was a +failure, but the theory was sound and looked practicable. At any +rate, it is a parable of what may be in our lives. If I might +venture, without seeming irreverence, to modernise and so to +illustrate this command of our Lord's, I would say, that He here +bids us do for our life's voyage across a stormy sea, exactly what +the 'Bessemer' ship was an attempt to do in its region--so to poise +and control the oscillations of the central soul that however the +outward life may be buffeted about, there may be moveless rest +within. He knows full well that we must have rough weather, but He +would have us counteract the motion of the sea, and keep our hearts +in stillness. 'In the world ye shall have tribulation,' but in Him +ye may have peace. + +He does not wish us to be blind to the facts of life, but to take +_all_ the facts into our vision. A partial view of the so-called +facts certainly will lead to tumultuous alternations of hope and +fear, of joy and sorrow. But if you will take them all into account, +you can be quiet and at rest. For here is a fact as real as the +troubles and changes of life: 'Your Father knoweth that ye have +need of these things.' Ah! the recognition of that will keep our +inmost hearts full of sweet peace, whatever may befall the outward +life. Only take all the facts of your condition, and accept Christ's +word for that greatest and surest of all--the loving Father's +knowledge of your needs, and it will not be hard to obey Christ's +command, and keep yourself still, because fixed on Him. + +But now consider the teachings here as to the true source of the +agitation which our Lord forbids. The precept itself affords no +light on that subject, but the context shows us the true origin of +the evil. + +The first point to observe is how remarkably our Lord identifies +this anxiety and restlessness which He forbids with what at first +sight seems its exact opposite, namely a calmness and peace which he +also condemns as wholly bad. The whole series of warnings of which +our text is part begins with the story of the rich man whose ground +brought forth plentifully. His fault was not that he was tossed +about with care and a doubtful mind, but the very opposite. His sin +was in saying, 'Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; +take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.' + +Notice, then, that our Lord begins by pointing out the great madness +and the great sin of being thus at rest, and trusting in earthly +possessions: and then with a 'Therefore, I say unto you,' He turns +to the opposite pole of worldly feeling, and shows us how, although +opposite, it is yet related. The warning, 'Take no thought for your +life' follows as an inference from the picture of the folly of the +man that lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. + +That is to say, the two faults are kindred and in some sense the +same. The rich fool stretching himself out to rest on the pile of +his possessions, and the poor fool tossing about on the billows of +unquiet thought, are at bottom under the influence of the same +folly, though their circumstances are opposite, and their moods seem +to be so too. + +The one man is just the other turned inside out. When he is rich and +has got plenty of outward goods, he has no anxiety, because he +thinks that they are supreme and all-sufficient. When he is poor and +has not got enough of them, he has no rest, because he thinks that +they are supreme and all-sufficient. Anxious care and satisfied +possession are at bottom the very same thing. The man who says, 'My +mountain stands strong,' because he has got a quantity of money or +the like; and the man who says, 'Oh, dear me, what is going to +become of me?' because he thinks he has not got enough, only need to +exchange circumstances and they will exchange cries. + +The same figure is concave or convex according to the side from +which you look at it. From one it swells out into rounded fullness; +from the other it gapes as in empty hungriness. So the rich fool of +the preceding parable and the anxious, troubled man of my text are +the same man looked at from opposite sides or set in opposite +circumstances. The root of both the rest of the one and of the +anxiety of the other is the over-estimate of outward good. + +Then, still further, notice how our Lord here brands this forbidden +fluctuation of feeling as being at bottom pure heathenism. Most +significant double reasons for our text follow it, introduced by a +double 'for.' The first reason is, 'For all these things do the +nations of the world seek after'; the second is, 'For your Father +knoweth that ye have need of these things.' The former points the +lesson of the contradiction between such trouble of mind and the +position of disciples. For pure heathens it is all natural; for men +who do not know that they have a Father in heaven, there is nothing +strange or anomalous in care and anxiety, nor in the race after +riches. But for you, it is in diametrical contradiction to all your +professions, in flagrant inconsistency with all your belief, in flat +denial of that mighty truth that you have a Father who cares for +you, and that His love is enough. Every time you yield to such cares +or thoughts you are going down to the level of pure heathenism. That +is a sharp saying. Our Lord's steady hand wields the keen +dissecting-knife here, and lays bare with unsparing cuts the ugly +growth. We give the thing condemned a great many honourable names, +such as 'laying up for a rainy day,' or 'taking care for the future +of my children,' or 'providing things honest in the sight of all +men,' and a host of others, with which we gloss and gild over +unchristian worldly-mindedness. + +There are actions and feelings which are rightly described by such +phrases, that are perfectly right, and against them Jesus Christ +never said a word. + +But much of what we deceive ourselves by calling reasonable +foresight is rooted distrust of God, and much practical heathenism +creeps into our lives under the guise of 'proper prudence.' The +ordinary maxims of the world christen many things by names of +virtues and yet they remain vices notwithstanding. + +I do not know that there is any region in which Christian men have +more to be on their guard, lest they be betrayed into deadening +inconsistencies, than this of the true limits of care for material +wealth, and of provision for the future outward life. + +Those of us, especially, who are engaged in business, and who live +in our great commercial cities, have hard work to keep from dropping +down to the heathen level which is adopted on all sides. It is not +easy for such a man to resist the practical belief that money is the +one thing needful, and he the happy man who has made a fortune. The +false estimate of worldly good is in the air about us, and we have +to be on our guard, or else, before we know where we are, we shall +have breathed the stupefying poison and feel its narcotic influence +slackening the pulses and dimming the eye of our spirits. We need +special watchfulness and prayer, or we shall not escape this subtle +danger, which is truly for many of us 'the pestilence that walketh +in darkness.' + +So be not tossed about by these secularities, for the root of them +all is heathenish distrust of your Father in heaven. + +Then, finally, we have the cure for all agitation. Christ here puts in +our own hands, in that thought, 'Your Father knoweth that ye have need +of these things,' the one weapon with which we can conquer. There is +the true anchorage for tempest-tossed spirits, the land-locked haven +where they can ride, whatever winds blow and waves break outside the bar. + +I remarked that our Lord here seemed to give an injunction which the +facts of life would prevent our obeying, and so it would be, had He +not pointed us to that firm truth, which, if we believe it, will +keep us unmoved. There is no more profitless expenditure of breath +than the ordinary moralist's exhortations to, or warnings against, +states of feeling and modes of mind. Our emotions are very partially +under our direct control. Life cannot be calm by willing to be so. +But what we can do is to think of a truth which will sway our moods. +If you can substitute some other thought for the one which breeds +the emotion you condemn, it will fall silent of itself, just as the +spindles will stop if you shut off steam, or the mill-wheel if you +turn the stream in another direction. So Christ gives us a great +thought to cherish, knowing that if we let it have fair play in our +minds, we shall be at rest: 'Your Father knoweth that ye have need +of these things.' Surely that is enough for calmness. Why should, or +how can we be, troubled if we believe that? + +'He knows.' What a wonderful confidence in His heart and resources +is silently implied in that word! If He knows that you need, you may +be quite sure that you will not want. 'He knows'; and His fatherly +heart is our guarantee that to know and to supply our need, are one +and the same thing with Him; and His deep treasure of exhaustless +good is our guarantee that our need can never go beyond His +fullness, nor He ever, like us, see a sorrow He cannot comfort, a +want that He cannot meet. + +Enough that He knows; 'the rest goes without saying.' The whole +burden of solicitude is shifted off our shoulders, if once we get +into the light of that great truth. A man is made restful in the +midst of all the changes and storms of life, not by trying to work +himself into tranquillity, not by mere dint of coercing his feelings +through sheer force of will, not by ignoring any facts, but simply +by letting this truth stand before his mind. It scatters cares, as +the silent moon has power, by her mild white light, to clear away a +whole skyful of piled blacknesses. + +One other word of practical advice, as to how to carry out this +injunction, is suggested by the context, which goes on, 'Seek ye +first the kingdom of God.' + +A boat will roll most when, from lack of a strong hand at the helm, +she has got broadside to the run of the sea. There she lies rocking +about just as the blow of the wave may fall, and drifting wherever +the wind may take her. There are two directions in which she will be +comparatively steady; one, when her head is kept as near the wind as +may be, and the other when she runs before it. Either will be +quieter than washing about anyhow. May we make a parable out of +that? If you want to have as little pitching and tossing as possible +on your voyage, keep a good strong hand on the tiller. Do not let +the boat lie in the trough of the sea, but drive her right against +the wind, or as near it as she will sail. That is to say, have a +definite aim to which you steer, and keep a straight course for +that. So Christ says to us here. Be not filled with agitations, but +seek the Kingdom. The definite pursuit of the higher good will +deaden the lower anxieties. The active energies called out in the +daily efforts to bring my whole being under the dominion of the +sovereign will of God, will deliver me from a crowd of tumultuous +desires and forebodings. I shall have neither leisure nor +inclination to be anxious about outward things, when I am engaged +and absorbed in seeking the kingdom. So 'bear up and steer right +onward,' and it will be smooth sailing. + +Sometimes, too, we shall have to try the other tack, and run +_before_ the storm, which again will give us the minimum of +commotion. That, being translated, is, 'Let the winds and the waves +sometimes have their way.' Yield to them in the sweetness of +submission and the strength of resignation. Even when all the stormy +winds strive on the surface sea, recognise them as God's messengers +'fulfilling His word.' Submission is not rudderless yielding to the +gale, that tosses us on high and sinks us again, as the waves list. +This frees us from their power, even while they roll mountains high. + +Then keep firm trust in your Father's knowledge; strenuously seek +the kingdom. In quietness accept the changeful methods of his +unchanging providence. Thus shall your hearts be kept in peace +amidst the storm of life, with the happy thought, '_So_ He +bringeth them unto their desired haven.' + + + + +THE EQUIPMENT OF THE SERVANTS + + + 'Let your loins be girded about, and your lights + burning; 36. And ye yourselves like unto men that wait + for their Lord.'--Luke xii. 35, 36. + +These words ought to stir us like the sound of a trumpet. But, by long +familiarity, they drop upon dull ears, and scarcely produce any effect. +The picture that they suggest, as an emblem of the Christian state, is +a striking one. It is midnight, a great house is without its master, +the lord of the palace is absent, but expected back, the servants are +busy in preparation, each man with his robe tucked about his middle, +in order that it may not interfere with his work, his lamp in his hand +that he may see to go about his business and his eye ever turned to +the entrance to catch the first sign of the coming of his master. Is +that like your Christian life? If we are His servants that is what we +ought to be, having three things--girded loins, lighted lamps, waiting +hearts. These are sharp tests, solemn commandments, but great +privileges, for blessedness as well as strength, and calm peace whatever +happens, belong to those who obey these injunctions and have these +things. + +I. The girded loins. + +Every child knows the long Eastern dress; and that the first sign +that a man is in earnest about any work would be that he should +gather his skirts around him and brace himself together. + +The Christian service demands concentration. It needs the fixing of +all a man's powers upon the one thing, the gathering together of all +the strength of one's nature, and binding it with cords until its +softest and loosest particles are knit together, and become strong. +Why! you can take a handful of cotton-down, and if you will squeeze +it tight enough, it will be as hard and as heavy as a bullet and +will go as far, and have as much penetrating power and force of +impact. The reason why some men hit and make no dint is because they +are not gathered together and braced up by a vigorous concentration. + +The difference between men that succeed and men that fail in +ordinary pursuits is by no means so much intellectual as moral; and +there is nothing which more certainly commands any kind of success +than giving yourselves with your whole concentrated power to the +task in hand. If we succeed in anything we must focus all our power +on it. Only by so doing, as a burning-glass does the sun's rays, +shall we set anything on fire. + +And can a vigorous Christian life be grown upon other conditions +than those which a vigorous life of an ordinary sort demands? Why +should it be easier to be a prosperous Christian than to be a +prosperous tradesman? Why should there not be the very same law in +operation in the realm of the higher riches and possessions that +rules in the realm of the lower? 'Gird up the loins _of your +mind_,' says the Apostle, echoing the Master's word here. The +first condition of true service is that you shall do it with +concentrated power. + +There is another requirement, or perhaps rather another side of the +same, expressed in the figure. One reason why a man tucked up his +robe around his waist, when he had anything to do that needed all +his might, was that it might not catch upon the things that +protruded, and so keep him back. Concentration, and what I may call +detachment, go together. In order that there shall be the one, there +must be the other. They require each other, and are, in effect, but +the two sides of the same thing contemplated in regard to hindrances +without, or contemplated in regard to the relation of the several +parts of a man's nature to each other. + +Observe that Luke immediately precedes the text with:--'Sell that ye +have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a +treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief +approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, +there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about.' That +is to say, do not let your affections go straggling anywhere and +everywhere, but gather them together, and that you may gather them +together tear away the robe from the briars and thorns which catch +you as you pass, and gird the long flowing skirts close to +yourselves in order that they may not be caught by these hindrances. +There is no Christian life worth living except upon condition of +wrenching oneself away from dependence upon idolatry of, or longing +for, perishable things. The lesson of my text is the same as the +solemn lesson which the beloved Apostle sharpened his gentle lips to +pronounce when he said, 'If any man love the world, the love of the +Father is not in him.' 'Gird up your loins,' detach heart, desire, +effort from perishable things, and lift them above the fleeting +treasures and hollow delusive sparkles of earth's preciousness, and +set them on the realities and eternities at God's right hand. 'For +where the treasure is, there will the heart be also,' and only that +heart can never be stabbed by disappointment, nor bled to death by +losses, whose treasure is as sure as God and eternal as Himself. +'Let your loins be girded about.' + +And then there is another thing suggested, which is the consequence +of these two. The girding up of the loins is not only the symbol of +concentration and detachment, but of that for which the +concentration and the detachment are needful--viz. alert readiness +for service. The servant who stands before his lord with his belt +buckled tight indicates thereby that he is ready to run whenever and +wherever he is bid. Our girded loins are not merely in order to give +strength to our frame, but in order that, having strength given to +our frame, we may be ready for all work. That which is needful for +any faithful discharge of any servant's duty is most of all needful +for the discharge of the highest duty and the noblest service to the +Master who has the right to command all our service. + +There are three emblems in Scripture to all of which this metaphor +applies. The soldier, before he flings himself into the fight, takes +in another hole in his leather belt in order that there may be +strength given to his spine, and he may feel himself all gathered +together for the deadly struggle, and the Christian soldier has to +do the same thing. 'Stand therefore, having your loins girt about +with truth.' + +The traveller, before he starts upon his long road, girds himself, +and gathers his robes round him; and we have to 'run with +perseverance the race set before us'; and shall never do it if our +garments, however delicately embroidered, are flapping about our +feet and getting in our way when we try to run. + +The servant has to be _succinct_, girded together for his work, +even as the Master, when He took upon Him the form of a servant, +'took a towel and girded Himself.' His servants have to follow His +example, to put aside the needless vesture and brace themselves with +the symbol of service. So as soldiers, pilgrims, servants, the +condition of doing our work is, girding up the loins. + +II. Further, there are to be the burning lamps. + +If we follow the analogy of Scripture symbolism, significance +belongs to that emblem, making it quite worthy to stand by the side +of the former one. You remember Christ's first exhortation in the +Sermon on the Mount immediately following the Beatitudes: 'Ye are +the salt of the earth, ye are the light of the world. Men do not +light a candle, and put it under a bushel. _Let your light so +shine before men_, that they may see your good deeds.' If we +apply that key to decipher the hieroglyphics, the burning lamps +which the girded servants are to bear in the darkness are the whole +sum of the visible acts of Christian people, from which there may +flash the radiance of purity and kindness, 'So shines a good deed in +a naughty world.' The lamp which the Christian servant is to bear is +a character illuminated from above (for it is a kindled lamp, and +the light is derived), and streaming out a brilliance into the +encircling murky midnight which speaks of hospitable welcome and of +good cheer in the lighted hall within. + +Now, what is the connection between that exhibition of a lustrous +and pure Christian character and the former exhortation? Why this, +if you do not gird your loins your lamp will go out. Without the +concentrated effort and the continually repeated detachment and the +daily renewed 'Lord! here am I, send me,' of the alert and ready +servant, there will be no shining of the life, no beauty of the +character, but dimness will steal over the exhibition of Christian +graces. Just as, often, in the wintry nights, a star becomes +suddenly obscured, and we know not why, but some thin vaporous cloud +has come between us and it, invisible in itself but enough to blur +its brightness, so obscuration will befall the Christian character +unless there be continual concentration and detachment. Do you want +your lights to blaze? You trim them--though it is a strange mixture +of metaphor--you trim them when you gird your loins. + +III. Lastly, the waiting hearts. + +An attitude of expectancy does not depend upon theories about the +chronology of prophecy. It is Christ's will that, till He comes, we +know 'neither the day nor the hour.' We may, as I suppose most of us +do, believe that we shall die before He comes. Be it so. That need +not affect the attitude of expectance, for it comes to substantially +the same thing whether Christ comes to us or we go to Him. And the +certain uncertainty of the end of our individual connection with +this fleeting world stands in the same relation to our hopes as the +coming of the Master does, and should have an analogous effect on +our lives. Whatever may be our expectation as to the literal coming +of the Lord, that future should be very solid, very real, very near +us in our thoughts, a habitual subject of contemplation, and ever +operative upon our hearts and conduct. + +Ah! if we never, or seldom, and then sorrowfully, look forward to +the future, and contemplate our meeting with our Master, I do not +think there is much chance of our having either our loins girt, or +our lamps burning. + +One great motive for concentration, detachment, and alertness of +service, as well as for exhibiting the bright graces of the +Christian character, is to be found in the contemplation of the two +comings of the Lord. We should be ever looking back to the Cross, +forward to the Throne, and upwards to the Christ, the same on them +both. If we have our gathering together with Him ever in view, then +we shall be willing to yield all for Him, to withdraw ourselves from +everything besides for the excellency of His knowledge; and +whatsoever He commands, joyfully and cheerfully to do. + +The reason why such an immense and miserable proportion of +professing Christians are all unbraced and loose-girt, and their +lamps giving such smoky and foul-smelling and coarse radiance, is +because they look little back to the Cross, and less forward to the +Great White Throne. But these two solemn and sister sights are far +more real than the vulgar and intrusive illusions of what we call +the present. That is a shadow, they are the realities; that is but a +transitory scenic display, like the flashing of the Aurora Borealis +for a night in the wintry sky, these are the fixed, unsetting stars +that guide our course. Therefore let us turn away from the lying +present, with its smallnesses and its falsities, and look backwards +to Him that died, forward to Him that is coming. And, as we nourish +our faith on the twofold fact, a history and a hope, that Christ has +come, and that Christ shall come, we shall find that all devotion +will be quickened, and all earnestness stirred to zeal, and the dim +light will flame into radiance and glory. + +He comes in one of two characters which lie side by side here, as +they do in fact. To the waiting servants He comes as the Master who +shall gird Himself and go forth and serve them; to those who wait +not, He comes as a thief, not only in the suddenness nor the +unwelcomeness of His coming, but as robbing them of what they would +fain keep, and dragging from them much that they ought never to have +had. And it depends upon ourselves whether, we waiting and watching +and serving and witnessing for Him, He shall come to us as our Joy, +or as our Terror and our Judge. + + + + +THE SERVANT-LORD + + + Verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and + make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth, + and serve them.--LUKE xii. 37. + +No one would have dared to say that except Jesus Christ. For surely, +manifold and wonderful as are the glimpses that we get in the New +Testament of the relation of perfect souls in heaven to Him, none of +them pierces deeper, rises higher, and speaks more boundless +blessing, than such words as these. Well might Christ think it +necessary to preface them with the solemn affirmation which always, +upon His lips, points, as it were, an emphatic finger to, or +underlines that which He is about to proclaim. 'Verily I say unto +you,' if we had not His own word for it, we might hesitate to +believe. And while we have His own word for it, and do not hesitate +to believe, it is not for us to fathom or exhaust, but lovingly and +reverently and humbly, because we know it but partially, to try to +plumb the unfathomable depth of such words. 'He shall gird Himself, +and cause them to sit down to meat; and come forth and serve them.' + +I. Then we have, first of all, the wonderful revelation of the +Servant-Lord. + +For the name of dignity is employed over and over again in the +immediate context, and so makes more wonderful the assumption here +of the promise of service. + +And the words are not only remarkable because they couple so closely +together the two antagonistic ideas, as we fancy them, of rule and +service, authority and subordination, but because they dwell with +such singular particularity of detail upon all the stages of the +menial office which the Monarch takes upon Himself. First, the +girding, assuming the servant's attire; then the leading of the +guests, wondering and silent, to the couches where they can recline; +then the coming to them as they thus repose at the table, and the +waiting upon their wants and supplying all their need. It reminds us +of the wonderful scene, in John's Gospel, where we have coupled +together in the same intimate and interdependent fashion the two +thoughts of dignity and of service--'Jesus, knowing that the Father +had given all things into His hand, and that He came from God and +went to God,' made this use of His consciousness and of His +unlimited and universal dominion, that 'He laid aside His garments, +and took a towel, and girded Himself, and washed the disciples' +feet'; thus teaching what our text teaches in still another form, +that the highest authority means the lowliest service, that the +purpose of power is blessing, that the very sign and mark of dignity +is to stoop, and that the crown of the Universe is worn by Him who +is the Servant of all. + +But beyond that general idea which applies to the whole of the +divine dealings and especially to the earthly life of Him who came, +not to be ministered unto, but to minister, the text sets forth +special manifestations of Christ's ministering love and power, which +are reserved for heaven, and are a contrast with earth. The Lord who +is the Servant girds Himself. That corresponds with the commandment +that went before, 'Let your loins be girded,' and to some extent +covers the same ground and suggests the same idea. With all +reverence, and following humbly in the thoughts that Christ has +given us by the words, one may venture to say that He gathers all +His powers together in strenuous work for the blessing of His +glorified servants, and that not only does the metaphor express for +us His taking upon Himself the lowly office, but also the employment +of all that He is and has there in the heavens for the blessing of +the blessed ones that sit at His table. + +Here upon earth, when He assumed the form of a Servant in His +entrance into humanity, it was accompanied with the emptying Himself +of His glory. In the symbolical incident in John's Gospel, to which +I have already referred, He laid aside His garments before He +wrapped around Him the badge of service. But in that wondrous +service by the glorified Lord there is no need for divesting ere He +serves, but the divine glories that irradiate His humanity, and by +which He, our Brother, is the King of kings and the Lord of the +Universe, are all used by Him for this great, blessed purpose of +gladdening and filling up the needs of the perfected spirits that +wait, expectant of their food, upon Him. His girding Himself for +service expresses not only the lowliness of His majesty and the +beneficence of His power, but His use of all which He has and is for +the blessing of those whom He keeps and blesses. + +I need not remind you, I suppose, how in this same wonderful picture +of the Servant-Lord there is taught the perpetual--if we may so say, +the increased--lowliness of the crowned Christ. When He was here on +earth, He was meek and holy; exalted in the heavens, He is, were it +possible, meeker and more lowly still, because He stoops from a +loftier elevation. The same loving, gentle, gracious heart, holding +all its treasures for its brethren, is the heart that now is girded +with the golden girdle of sovereignty, and which once was girt with +the coarse towel of the slave. Christ is for ever the Servant, +because He is for ever the Lord of them that trust in Him. Let us +learn that service is dominion; that 'he that is chiefest among us' +is thereby bound to be 'the servant' and the helper 'of all.' + +II. Notice, the servants who are served and serve. + +There are two or three very plain ideas, suggested by the great +words of my text, in regard to the condition of those whom the Lord +thus ministers to, and waits upon. I need not expand them, because +they are familiar to us all, but let me just touch them. 'He shall +make them to sit down to meat.' The word, as many of you know, +really implies a more restful attitude--'He shall make them recline +at meat.' What a contrast to the picture of toil and effort, which +has just been drawn, in the command,' Let your loins be girded +about, and your lamps burning, and ye yourselves as men that wait +for their Lord!' Here, there must be the bracing up of every power, +and the careful tending of the light amid the darkness and the gusts +that threaten to blow it out, and every ear is to be listening and +every eye strained, for the coming of the Lord, that there may be no +unpreparedness or delay in flinging open the gates. But then the +tension is taken off and the loins ungirded, for there is no need +for painful effort, and the lamps that burn dimly and require +tending in the mephitic air are laid aside, and 'they need no +candle, for the Lord is the light thereof'; and there is no more +intense listening for the first foot-fall of One who is coming, for +He has come, and expectation is turned into fellowship and fruition. +The strained muscles can relax, and instead of effort and weariness, +there is repose upon the restful couches prepared by Him. Threadbare +and old as the hills as the thought is, it comes to us toilers with +ever new refreshment, like a whiff of fresh air or the gleam of the +far-off daylight at the top of the shaft to the miner, cramped at +his work in the dark. What a witness the preciousness of that +representation of future blessedness as rest to us all bears to the +pressure of toil and the aching, weary hearts which we all +carry! The robes may flow loose then, for there is neither pollution +to be feared from the golden pavement, nor detention from briars or +thorns, nor work that is so hard as to be toil or so unwelcome as to +be pain. There is rest from labour, care, change, and fear of loss, +from travel and travail, from tired limbs and hearts more tired +still, from struggle and sin, from all which makes the unrest of +life. + +Further, this great promise assures us of the supply of all wants +that are only permitted to last long enough to make a capacity for +receiving the eternal and all-satisfying food which Christ gives the +restful servants. Though 'they hunger no more,' they shall always +have appetite. Though they 'thirst no more,' they shall ever desire +deeper draughts of the fountain of life. Desire is one thing, +longing is another. Longing is pain, desire is blessedness; and that +we shall want and know ourselves to want, with a want which lives +but for a moment ere the supply pours in upon it and drowns it, is +one of the blessednesses to which we dare to look forward. Here we +live, tortured by wishes, longings, needs, a whole menagerie of +hungry mouths yelping within us for their food. There we wait upon +the Lord, and He gives a portion in due season. + +The picture in the text brings with it all festal ideas of light, +society, gladness, and the like, on which I need not dwell. But let +me just remind you of one contrast. The ministry of Christ, when He +was a servant here upon earth, was symbolised by His washing His +disciples' feet, an act which was part of the preparation of the +guests for a feast. The ministry of Christ in heaven consists, not +in washing, for 'he that is washed is clean every whit' there, and +for ever more--but in ministering to His guests that abundant feast +for which the service and the lustration of earth were but the +preparation. The servant Christ serves us here by washing us from +our sins in His own blood, both in the one initial act of +forgiveness and by the continual application of that blood to the +stains contracted in the miry ways of life. The Lord and Servant +serves His servants in the heavens by leading them, cleansed to His +table, and filling up every soul with love and with Himself. + +But all that, remember, is only half the story. Our Lord here is not +giving us a complete view of the retributions of the heavens, He is +only telling us one aspect of them. Repose, society, gladness, +satisfaction, these things are all true. But heaven is not lying +upon couches and eating of a feast. There is another use of this +metaphor in this same Gospel, which, at first sight, strikes one as +being contradictory to this. Our Lord said: 'Which of you, having a +servant ploughing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, +when he is come from the field, go and sit down to meat, and will +not rather say unto him, make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird +thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward +thou shalt eat and drink.' These two representations are not +contradictory. Put the two halves together like the two pictures in +a stereoscope and, as you look, they will go together into one solid +image, of which the one part is the resting at the table of the +feast, and the other part is that entrance into heaven is not +cessation, but variation, of service. It was dirty, cold, muddy work +out there in the field ploughing, and when the man comes back with +his soiled, wet raiment and his weary limbs a change of occupation +is rest. It is better for him to be set to 'make ready wherewith I +may eat and drink,' than to be told to sit down and do nothing. + +So the servants are served, and the servants serve. And these two +representations are not contradictory, but they fill up the +conception of perfect blessedness. For remember, if we may venture +to say so, that the very same reason which makes Christ the Lord +serve His servants makes the servants serve Christ the Lord. For love, +which underlies their relationship, has for its very life-breath doing +kindnesses and good to its objects, and we know not whether it is more +blessed to the loving heart to minister to, or to be ministered to by, +the heart which it loves. So the Servant-Lord and the servants, +serving and served, are swayed in both by the same motive and rejoice +in the interchange of offices and tokens of love. + +III. Mark the earthly service which leads to the heavenly rest. + +I have already spoken about Christ's earthly service, and reminded +you that there is needed, first of all, that we should partake in +His purifying work through His blood and His Spirit that dwells in +us, ere we can share in His highest ministrations to His servants in +the heavens. But there is also service of ours here on earth, which +must precede our receiving our share in the wonderful things +promised here. And the nature of that service is clearly stated in +the preceding words, 'Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when +He cometh shall find'--doing what? Trying to make themselves better? +Seeking after conformity to His commandments? No! 'Whom the Lord +when He cometh shall find _watching_.' It is character rather +than conduct, and conduct only as an index of character--disposition +rather than deeds--that makes it possible for Christ to be hereafter +our Servant-Lord. And the character is more definitely described in +the former words. Loins girded, lights burning, and a waiting which +is born of love. The concentration and detachment from earth, which +are expressed by the girded loins, the purity and holiness of +character and life, which are symbolised by the burning lights, and +the expectation which desires, and does not shrink from, His coming +in His Kingdom to be the Judge of all the earth--these things, being +built upon the acceptance of Christ's ministry of washing, fit us +for participation in Christ's ministry of the feast, and make it +possible that even we shall be of those to whom the Lord, in that +day, will come with gladness and with gifts. 'Blessed are the +servants whom the Lord shall find so watching.' + + + + +SERVANTS AND STEWARDS HERE AND HEREAFTER + + + 'Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when He + cometh, shall find watching: Verily I shall say unto + you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit + down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. + + Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He cometh, + shall find so doing. 44. Of a truth I say unto you, + that He will make him ruler over all that he hath. + --LUKE xii. 37, 43, and 44. + +You will, of course, observe that these two passages are strictly +parallel in form. Our Lord evidently intends them to run side by +side, and to be taken together. The divergences are as significant +and instructive as the similarities, and the force of these will be +best brought out by just recalling, in a sentence or two, the +occasion for the utterance of the second of the two passages which I +have taken for my text. When our Lord had finished His previous +address and exhortations, Peter characteristically pushed his oar in +with the question, 'Do these commandments refer to us, the Apostles, +or to all,' the whole body of disciples? Our Lord admits the +distinction, recognises in His answer that the 'us,' the Twelve, +were nearer Christ than the general mass of His followers, and +answers Peter's question by reiterating what He has been saying in a +slightly different form. He had spoken before about servants. Now He +speaks about 'stewards,' because the Apostles did stand in that +relation to the other disciples, as being slaves indeed, like the +rest of the household, but slaves in a certain position of +authority, by the Master's appointment, and charged with providing +the nourishment which, of course, means the religious instruction, +of their fellow-servants. + +So, notice that the first benediction is upon the 'servants,' the +second is upon the servants who are 'stewards.' The first +exhortation requires that when the Master comes He shall find the +servants watching; the second demands that when He comes He shall +find the stewards doing their work. The first promise of reward +gives the assurance that the watching servants shall be welcomed +into the house, and be waited on by the Master himself; the second +gives the assurance that the faithful steward shall be promoted to +higher work. We are all servants, and we are all, if we are +Christian men, stewards of the manifold grace of God. + +So, then, out of these two passages thus brought together, as our +Lord intended that they should be, we gather two things: the twofold +aspect of life on earth--watchfulness and work; and the twofold hope +of life in heaven--rest and rule. 'Blessed is that servant whom his +Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching.' 'Blessed is that steward +whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find'--not merely watching, +but--'so doing.' + +I. The twofold attitude here enjoined. + +The first idea in watchfulness is keeping awake; and the second is +looking out for something that is coming. Both these conceptions are +intertwined in both our Lord's use of the metaphor of the watching +servant, and in the echoes of it which we find abundantly in the +Apostolic letters. The first thing is to keep ourselves awake all +through the soporific night, when everything tempts to slumber. Even +the wise virgins, with trimmed lamps and girt loins, do in some degree +succumb to the drowsy influences around them, and like the foolish +ones, slumber, though the slumbers of the two classes be unlike. +Christian people live in the midst of an order of things which tempts +them to close the eyes of their hearts and minds to all the real and +unseen glories above and around them, and that might be within them, +and to live for the comparatively contemptible and trivial things of +this present. Just as when a man sleeps, he loses his consciousness +of solid external realities, and passes into a fantastic world of his +own imaginations, which have no correspondence in external facts, and +will vanish like + + 'The baseless fabric of a dream, + If but a cock shall crow,' + +so the men who are conscious only of this present life and of the +things that are seen, though they pride themselves on being wide +awake, are, in the deepest of their being, fast asleep, and are +dealing with illusions which will pass and leave nought behind, as +really as are men who lie dreaming upon couches, and fancy +themselves hard at work. Keep awake; that is the first thing; which, +being translated into plain English, points just to this, that +unless we make a dead lift of continuous effort to keep firm grasp +of God and Christ, and of all the unseen magnificences that are +included in these two names, as surely as we live we shall lose our +hold upon them, and fall into the drugged and diseased sleep in +which so many men around us are plunged. It sometimes seems to one +as if the sky above us were raining down narcotics upon us, so +profoundly are the bulk of men unconscious of realities, and +befooled by the illusions of a dream. + +Keep yourselves awake first, and then let the waking, wide-opened +eye, be looking forward. It is the very _differentia_, so to +speak, the characteristic mark and distinction of the Christian +notion of life, that it shifts the centre of gravity from the +present into the future, and makes that which is to come of far more +importance than that which is, or which has been. No man is living +up to the height of his Christian responsibilities or privileges +unless there stands out before him, as the very goal and aim of his +whole life, what can never be realised until he has passed within +the veil, and is at rest in the 'secret place of the Most High.' To +live for the future is, in one aspect, the very definition of a +Christian. + +But the text reminds us of the specific form which that future +anticipation is to take. It is not for us, as it is for men in the +world, to fix our hopes for the future on abstract laws of the +progress of humanity, or the evolution of the species, or the +gradual betterment of the world, and the like. All these may be +true: I say nothing about them. But what we have to fill our future +with is that 'that same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye +have seen Him go.' It is much to be lamented that curious +chronological speculations have so often discredited that great +central hope of the Church, which is properly altogether independent +of them; and that, because people have got befogged in interpreting +such symbols as beasts, and horses, and trumpets, and seals, and the +like, the Christian Church as a whole should so feebly be holding by +that great truth, without which, as it seems to me, the truth which +many of us are tempted to make the exclusive one, loses half its +significance. No man can rightly understand the whole contents of +the blessed proclamation, 'Christ has come,' unless he ends the +sentence with 'and Christ will come.' Blessed is 'that servant whom +the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching.' + +Of course I need not remind you that much for which that second +coming of the Lord is precious, and an object of hope to the world +and the Church, is realised by the individual in the article of +death. Whether Christ comes to the world or I go to Christ, the +important thing is that there result union and communion, the reign +of righteousness and peace, the felicities of the heavenly state. +And so, dear brethren, just because of the uncertainty that drapes +the future, and which we are often tempted to make a reason for +dismissing the anticipation of it from our minds, we ought the more +earnestly to give heed that we keep that end ever before us, and +whether it is reached by His coming to us, or our going to Him, +anticipate, by the power of realising faith grasping the firm words +of Revelation, the unimaginable, and--until it is experienced--the +incommunicable blessedness revealed in these great, simple words, +'So shall we ever be with the Lord.' + +But, then, look at the second of the aspects of Christian duty which +is presented here, that watchfulness is to lead on to diligent work. + +The temptation for any one who is much occupied with the hope of +some great change and betterment in the near future is to be +restless and unable to settle down to his work, and to yield to +distaste of the humdrum duties of every day. If some man that kept a +little chandler's shop in a back street was expecting to be made a +king to-morrow, he would not be likely to look after his poor trade +with great diligence. So we find in the Apostle Paul's second +letter--that to the Thessalonians--that he had to encounter, as well +as he could, the tendency of hope to make men restless, and to +insist upon the thought--which is the same lesson as is taught us by +the second of our texts--that if a man hoped, then he had with +quietness to work and eat his own bread, and not be shaken in mind. + +'Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find +so doing.' It may seem humble work to serve out hunches of bread and +pots of black broth to the family of slaves, when the steward is +expecting the coming of the master of the house, and his every nerve +is tingling with anticipation. But it is steadying work, and it is +blessed work. It is better that a man should be found doing the +homeliest duty as the outcome of his great expectations of the +coming of his Master, than that he should be fidgeting and restless +and looking only at that thought till it unfits him for his common +tasks. Who was it who, sitting playing a game of chess, and being +addressed by some scandalised disciple with the question, 'What +would you do if Jesus Christ came, and you were playing your game?' +answered, 'I would finish it'? The best way for a steward to be +ready for the Master, and to show that he is watching, is that he +should be 'found so doing' the humble task of his stewardship. The +two women that were squatting on either side of the millstone, and +helping each other to whirl the handle round in that night were in +the right place, and the one that was taken had no cause to regret +that she was not more religiously employed. The watchful servant +should be a working servant. + +II. And now I have spent too much time on this first part of my +discourse; so I must condense the second. Here are two aspects of +the heavenly state, rest and rule. + +'Verily I say unto you, He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit +down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.' I do not know +that there is a more wonderful promise, with more light lying in its +darkness, in all Scripture than that. Jesus Christ continues in the +heavens to be found in 'the form of a servant.' As here He girded +Himself with the towel of humiliation in the upper room, so there He +girds Himself with the robes of His imperial majesty, and uses all +His powers for the nourishment and blessedness of His servants. His +everlasting motto is, 'I am among you as one that serveth.' On earth +His service was to wash His disciples' feet; in heaven the pure foot +contracts no stain, and needs no basin: but in heaven He still +serves, and serves by spreading a table, and, as a King might do at +some ceremonial feasts, waiting on the astonished guests. + +I say nothing about all the wonderful ideas that gather round that +familiar but never-to-be-worn-into-commonplace emblem of the feast. +Repose, in contrast with the girded loins and the weary waiting of +the midnight watch; nourishment, and the satisfaction of all +desires; joy, society--all these things, and who knows how much +more, that we shall have to get there to understand, lie in that +metaphor, 'Blessed is that servant' who is served by the Master, and +nourished by His presence? + +But modern popular presentations of the future life have far too +predominantly dwelt upon that side of it. It is a wonderful +confession of 'the weariness, the fever, and the fret,' the hunger +and loneliness of earthly experience, that the thought of heaven as +the opposite of all these things should have almost swallowed up the +other thought with which our Lord associates it here. He would not +have us think only of repose. He unites with that representation, so +fascinating to us weary and heavy-laden, the other of administrative +authority. He will set him 'over all that he hath.' + +The steward gets promotion. 'On twelve thrones judging the twelve +tribes of Israel'--these are to be the seats, and that is to be the +occupation of the Twelve. 'Thou hast been faithful over a few +things; I will make thee ruler over many things.' The relation +between earthly faithfulness and heavenly service is the same in +essence as that between the various stages of our work here. The +reward for work here is more work; a wider field, greater +capacities. And what depths of authority, of new dignity, of royal +supremacy, lie in those solemn and mysterious words, I know not--'He +will set him over all that he hath.' My union with Christ is to be +so close as that all His is mine and I am master of it. But at all +events this we can say, that faithfulness here leads to larger +service yonder; and that none of the aptitudes and capacities which +have been developed in us here on earth will want a sphere when we +pass yonder. + +So let watchfulness lead to faithfulness, and watchful faithfulness +and faithful watchfulness will lead to repose which is activity, and +rule which is rest. + + + + +FIRE ON EARTH + + + 'I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, + if it be already kindled!'--LUKE xii. 49. + +We have here one of the rare glimpses which our Lord gives us into +His inmost heart, His thought of His mission, and His feelings about +it. If familiarity had not weakened the impression, and dulled the +edge, of these words, how startling they would seem to us! 'I am +come'--then, He was, before He came, and He came by His own +voluntary act. A Jewish peasant says that He is going to set the +world on fire-and He did it. But the triumphant certitude and +consciousness of a large world-wide mission is all shadowed in the +next clause. I need not trouble you with questions as to the precise +translation of the words that follow. There may be differences of +opinion about that, but I content myself with simply suggesting that +a fair representation of the meaning would be, 'How I wish that it +was already kindled!' There is a longing to fulfil the purpose of +His coming and a sense that something has to be done first, and what +that something if, our Lord goes on to say in the next verse. This +desirable end can only be reached through a preliminary painful +ordeal, 'but I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I +straitened till it be accomplished.' If I might use such an +incongruous figure, the fire that is to flash and flame through the +world emerges from the dark waters of that baptism. Our Lord goes on +still further to dwell upon the consequence of His mission and of +His sufferings. And that, too, shadows the first triumphant thought +of the fire that He was to send on earth. For, the baptism being +accomplished, and the fire therefore being set at liberty to flame +through the world, what follows? Glad reception? Yes, and angry +rejection. Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell +you, nay! but rather division.' The fire, the baptism, and the +sword; these three may sum up our Lord's vision of the purpose, +means, and mingled result of His mission. But it is only with regard +to the first of these that I wish to speak now. + +I. The fire which Christ longed to cast upon the earth. + +Now, opinions differ as to what is meant by this fire Some would +have, it to mean the glow of love kindled in believing hearts, and +others explain it by other human emotions or by the transformation +effected in the world by Christ's coming. But while these things are +the results of the fire kindled on earth, that fire itself means not +these effects, but the cause of them. It is _brought_ before it +kindles a flame on earth. + +He does not kindle it simply in humanity, but He launches it into +the midst of humanity. It is something from above that He flings +down upon the earth. So it is not merely a quickened intelligence, a +higher moral life, or any other of the spiritual and religious +transformations which are effected in the world by the mission of +Christ that is primarily to be kept in view here, but it is the +Heaven-sent cause of these transformations and that flame. If we +catch the celestial fire, we shall flash and blaze, but the fire +which we catch is not originated on earth. In a word it is God's +Divine Spirit which Christ came to communicate to the world. + +I need not remind you, I suppose, how such an interpretation of the +words before us is in entire correspondence with the symbolism both +of the Old and New Testament. I do not dwell upon the former at all, +and with regard to the latter I need only remind you of the great +words by which the Forerunner of the Lord set forth His mighty work, +in contrast with the superficial cleansing which John himself had to +proclaim. 'I indeed baptize you with water, but He shall baptize you +with the Holy Ghost and with fire.' I need only point to the +Pentecost, and the symbol there, of which the central point was the +cloven tongues, which symbolised not only the speech which follows +from all deep conviction, but the descent from above of the Spirit +of God, who is the Spirit of burning, on each bowed and willing +head. With these analogies to guide us, I think we shall not go far +wrong if we see in the words of my text our Lord's great symbolical +promise that the issue of His mission shall be to bring into the +heart of the world, so to speak, and to lodge in the midst of +humanity which is one great whole, a new divine influence that shall +flame and burn through the world. + +So, then, my text opens out into thoughts of the many-sided +applications of this symbol. What hopes for the world and ourselves +are suggested by that fire? Let us stick to the symbol closely, and +we shall then best understand the many-sided blessings that flash +and coruscate in the gift of the Spirit. + +It is the gift of life. No doubt, here and there in Scripture, fire +stands for a symbol of destroying power. But that is a less frequent +use than that in which it stands as a symbol of life. In a very real +sense life is warmth and death is cold. Is not respiration a kind of +combustion? Do not physiologists tell us that? Is not the centre of +the system and the father of all physical life that great blazing +sun which radiates heat? And is not this promise, 'I will send fire +on the earth,' the assurance that into the midst of our death there +shall come the quick energy of a living Spirit which shall give us +to possess some shadow of the immortal Being from which itself +flows? + +But, beyond that, there is another great promise here, of a +quickening energy. I use the word 'quickening,' not in the sense of +life-giving, but in the sense of stimulating. We talk about 'the +flame of genius,' the 'fervour of conviction,' about 'fiery zeal,' +about 'burning earnestness,' and the like; and, conversely, we speak +of 'cold caution,' and 'chill indifference,' and so on. Fire means +love, zeal, swift energy. This, then, is another side of this great +promise, that into the torpor of our sluggish lives He is waiting to +infuse a swift Spirit that shall make us glow and flame with +earnestness, burn with love, aspire with desire, cleave to Him with +the fervour of conviction, and be, in some measure, like those +mighty spirits that stand before the Throne, the seraphim that burn +with adoration and glow with rapture. A fire that shall destroy all +our sluggishness, and change it into swift energy of glad obedience, +may be kindled in our spirits by the Holy Spirit whom Christ gives. + +Still farther, the promise of my text sets forth, not only life-giving +and stimulating energy, but purifying power. Fire cleanses, as many +an ancient ritual recognised. For instance, the thought that underlay +even that savage 'passing the children through the fire to Moloch' was, +that thus passed, humanity was cleansed from its stains. And that is +true. Every man must be cleansed, if he is cleansed at all, by the +touch of fire. If you take a piece of foul clay, and push it into a +furnace, as it warms it whitens, and you can see the stains melting +off it as the fire exercises its beneficent and purifying mastery. So +the promise to us is of a great Spirit that will come, and by +communicating His warmth will dissipate our foulness, and the sins +that are enwrought into the substance of our natures will exhale from +the heated surface, and disappear. The ore is flung into the blast +furnace, and the scum rises to the surface, and may be ladled off, +and the pure stream, cleansed because it is heated, flows out +without scoriae or ash. All that was 'fuel for the fire' is burned; +and what remains is more truly itself and more precious. And so, +brother, you and I have, for our hope of cleansing, that we shall be +passed through the fire, and dwell in the everlasting burnings of a +Divine Spirit and a changeless love. + +The last thought suggested by the metaphor is that it promises not +only life-giving, stimulating, purifying, but also transforming and +assimilating energy. For every lump of coal in your scuttles may be +a parable; black and heavy, it is cast into the fire, and there it +is turned into the likeness of the flame which it catches and itself +begins to glow, and redden, and crackle, and break into a blaze. +That is like what you and I may experience if we will. The incense +rises in smoke to the heavens when it is heated: and our souls +aspire and ascend, an odour of a sweet smell, acceptable to God, +when the fire of that Divine Spirit has loosed them from the bonds +that bind them to earth, and changed them into His own likeness, We +all are 'changed from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the +Lord.' + +So I think if you take these plain teachings of this symbol you +learn something of the operations of that Divine Spirit to which our +Lord pointed in the great words of my text. + +II. And now I have a second thought to suggest--viz., what Christ +had to do before His longing could be satisfied. + +He longed, but the longing wish was not able to bring that on which +it was fixed. He had come to send this divine fire upon the earth; +but there was something that stood in the way; and something needed +to be done as a preliminary before the ultimate purpose of His +coming could be accomplished. What that was, as I have already tried +to point out, the subsequent verse tells us. I do not need, nor +would it be congruous with my present purpose, to comment upon it at +any length. We all know what He meant by the 'baptism,' that He had +to be baptized with, and what were the dark waters into which He had +to pass, and beneath which His sacred head had to be plunged. We all +know that by the 'baptism' He meant His passion and His Cross. I do +not dwell, either, upon the words of pathetic human shrinking with +which His vision of the Cross is here accompanied, but I simply wish +to signalise one thing, that in the estimation of Jesus Christ +Himself it was not in His power to kindle this holy fire in humanity +until He had died for men's sins. That must come first; the Cross +must precede Pentecost. There can be no Divine Spirit in His full +and loftiest powers poured out upon humanity until the Sacrifice has +been offered on the Cross for the sins of the world. We cannot read +all the deep reasons in the divine nature, and in human receptivity, +which make that sequence absolutely necessary, and that preliminary +indispensable. But this, at least, we know, that the Divine Spirit +whom Christ gives uses as His instrument and sword the completed +revelation which Christ completed in His Cross, Resurrection, and +Ascension, and that, until His weapon was fashioned, He could not +come. + +That thought is distinctly laid down in many places in Scripture, to +which I need not refer in more than a word. For instance, the +Apostle John tells us that, when our Lord spoke in a cognate figure +about the rivers of water which should flow from them who believed +on Him, He spake of that Holy Spirit who 'was not given because that +Jesus was not yet glorified.' We remember the words in the upper +chamber, 'If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, +but if I depart I will send Him unto you.' But enough for us that He +recognised the necessity, and that here His baptism of suffering +comes into view, not so much for what it was itself, the sacrifice +for the world's sin, as for that to which it was the necessary +preliminary and introduction, the bestowment on humanity of the gift +of the Divine Spirit. The old Greek legend of the Titan that stole +fire from heaven tells us that he brought it to earth in a reed. Our +Christ brings the heavenly fire in the fragile, hollow reed of His +humanity, and the reed has to be broken in order that the fire may +blaze out. 'How I wish that it were kindled! but I have a baptism to +be baptized with.' + +III. Lastly, what the world has to do to receive the fire. + +Take these triumphant words of our Lord about what He was to do +after His Cross, and contrast with them the world as it is to-day, +ay! and the Church as it is to-day. What has become of the fire? Has +it died down into grey ashes, choked with the cold results of its +own former flaming power? Was Jesus Christ deceiving Himself? was He +cherishing an illusion as to the significance and permanence of the +results of His work in the world? No! There is a difference between +B.C. and A.D. which can only be accounted for by the fulfilment of +the promise in my text, that He did bring fire and set the world +aflame. But the condition on which that fire will burn either +through communities, society, humanity, or in an individual life, is +trust in Him that gives it, and cleaving to Him, and the appropriate +discipline. 'This spake He of the Holy Spirit which they that +believe on Him should receive.' + +And they that do _not_ believe upon Him--what of them? The fire +is of no advantage to them. Some of you do as people in Swiss +villages do where there is a conflagration--you cover over your +houses with incombustible felts or other materials, and deluge them +with water, in the hope that no spark may light on you. There is no +way by which the fire can do its work on us except our opening our +hearts for the Firebringer. When He comes He brings the vital spark +with Him, and He plants it on the hearth of our hearts. Trust in +Him, believe far more intensely than the most of Christian people of +this day do in the reality of the gift of supernatural divine life +from Jesus Christ. I do believe that hosts of professing Christians +have no firm grip of this truth, and, alas! very little verification +of it in their lives. Your heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit to +them that ask Him. 'Covet earnestly the best gifts'; and take care +that you do not put the fire out--'quench not the Holy Spirit,' as +you will do if you 'fulfil the lusts of the flesh.' I remember once +being down in the engine-room of an ocean-going steamer. There were +the furnaces, large enough to drive an engine of five or six +thousand horsepower. A few yards off there were the refrigerators, +with ice hanging round the spigots that were put in to test the +temperature. Ah! that is like many a Christian community, and many +an individual Christian. Here is the fire; there is the frost. +Brethren, let us seek to be baptized with fire, lest we should be +cast into it, and be consumed by it. + + +END OP VOL. I. + + + + + + +VOLUME II: ST. LUKE _Chaps. XIII to XXIV_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +TRUE SABBATH OBSERVANCE (Luke xiii. 10-17) + +THE STRAIT GATE (Luke xiii. 22-30). + +CHRIST'S MESSAGE TO HEROD (Luke xiii. 32, 33) + +THE LESSONS OF A FEAST (Luke xiv. 1-14) + +EXCUSES NOT REASONS (Luke xiv. 18) + +THE RASH BUILDER (Luke xiv. 28) + +THAT WHICH WAS LOST (Luke xv. 4, 8, 11) + +THE PRODIGAL AND HIS FATHER (Luke xv. 11-24) + +GIFTS TO THE PRODIGAL (Luke xv. 22, 23) + +THE FOLLIES OF THE WISE (Luke xvi. 8) + +TWO KINDS OF RICHES (Luke xvi. 10-12) + +THE GAINS OF THE FAITHFUL STEWARD (Luke xvi. 12) + +DIVES AND LAZARUS (Luke xvi. 19-31) + +MEMORY IN ANOTHER WORLD (Luke xvi 25) + +GOD'S SLAVES (Luke xvii. 9-10) + +WHERE ABE THE NINE? (Luke xvii. 11-19) + +THREE KINDS OF PRAYING (Luke xviii. 1-14) + +ENTERING THE KINGDOM (Luke xviii. 15-30) + +THE MAN THAT STOPPED JESUS (Luke xviii. 40-41) + +MELTED BY KINDNESS (Luke xix. 5) + +THE TRADING SERVANTS (Luke xix. 16, 18) + +THE REWARDS OF THE TRADING SERVANTS (Luke xix. 17,19) + +A NEW KIND OP KING (Luke xix. 37-48) + +TENANTS WHO WANTED TO BE OWNERS (Luke xx. 9-19) + +WHOSE IMAGE AND SUPERSCRIPTION? (Luke xx. 24) + +WHEN SHALL THESE THINGS BE? (Luke xxi. 20-36) + +THE LORD'S SUPPER (Luke xxii. 7-20) + +PARTING PROMISES AND WARNINGS (Luke xxii. 24-37) + +CHRIST'S IDEAL OF A MONARCH (Luke xxii. 25, 26) + +THE LONELY CHRIST (Luke xxii. 28) + +A GREAT FALL AND A GREAT RECOVERY (Luke xxii. 32) + +GETHSEMANY (Luke xxii. 39-58) + +THE CROSS THE VICTORY AND DEFEAT OF DARKNESS (Luke xxii. 53) + +IN THE HIGH PRIEST'S PALACE (Luke xxii. 54-71) + +CHRIST'S LOOK (Luke xxii. 61) + +'THE RULERS TAKE COUNSEL TOGETHER' (Luke xxiii. 1-12) + +A SOUL'S TRAGEDY (Luke xxiii. 9) + +JESUS AND PILATE (Luke xxiii. 13-26) + +WORDS FROM THE CROSS (Luke xxiii. 33-46) + +THE DYING THIEF (Luke xxiii. 42) + +THE FIRST EASTER SUNRISE (Luke xxiv. 1-12) + +THE LIVING DEAD (Luke xxiv. 5-6) + +THE RISEN LORD'S SELF-REVELATION TO WAVERING DISCIPLES (Luke xxiv. +13-32) + +DETAINING CHRIST (Luke xxiv. 28, 29) + +THE MEAL AT EMMAUS (Luke xxiv, 30, 31) + +PETER ALONE WITH JESUS (Luke xxiv. 34) + +THE TRIUMPHANT END (Luke xxiv. 36-53) + +CHRIST'S WITNESSES (Luke xxiv. 48,49) + +THE ASCENSION (Luke xxiv. 50, 51; Acts i. 9) + + + + +TRUE SABBATH OBSERVANCE + + + 'And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the + Sabbath. 11. And, behold, there was a woman which had + a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed + together, and could in no wise lift up herself. + 12. And when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him, and + said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine + infirmity. 13. And He laid His hands on her: and + immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. + 14. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with + indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the + Sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six + days in which men ought to work: in them therefore + come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day. + 15. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou + hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath + loose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him + away to watering! 16. And ought not this woman, being + a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, + these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the + Sabbath day? 17. And when He had said these things, all + His adversaries were ashamed: and all the people + rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by + Him.'--LUKE xiii. 10-17. + +This miracle was wrought, unasked, on a woman, in a synagogue, and +by all these characteristics was specially interesting to Luke. He +alone records it. The narrative falls into two parts--the miracle, +and the covert attack of the ruler of the synagogue, with our Lord's +defence. + +What better place than the synagogue could there be for a miracle of +mercy? The service of man is best built on the service of God, and +the service of God is as truly accomplished in deeds of human +kindness done for His sake as in oral worship. The religious basis +of beneficence and the beneficent manifestation of religion are +commonplaces of Christian practice and thought from the beginning, +and are both set forth in our Lord's life. He did not substitute +doing good to men for worshipping God, as a once much-belauded +but now all-but-forgotten anti-Christian writer has done; but He +showed us both in their true relations. We have Christ's authority +for regarding the woman's infirmity as the result of demoniacal +possession, but the case presents some singular features. There +seems to have been no other consequence than her incapacity to stand +straight. Apparently the evil power had not touched her moral +nature, for she had somehow managed to drag herself to the synagogue +to pray; she 'glorified God' for her cure, and Christ called her 'a +daughter of Abraham,' which surely means more than simply that she +was a Jewess. It would seem to have been a case of physical +infirmity only, and perhaps rather of evil inflicted eighteen years +before than of continuous demoniacal possession. + +But be that as it may, there is surely no getting over our Lord's +express testimony here, that purely physical ills, not distinguishable +from natural infirmity, were then, in some instances, the work of a +malignant, personal power. Jesus knew the duration of the woman's +'bond' and the cause of it, by the same supernatural knowledge. That +sad, bowed figure, with eyes fixed on the ground, and unable to look +into His face, which yet had crawled to the synagogue, may teach us +lessons of patience and of devout submission. She might have found +good excuses for staying at home, but she, no doubt, found solace in +worship; and she would not have so swiftly 'glorified God' for her +cure, if she had not often sought Him in her infirmity. They who wait +on Him often find more than they expect in His house. + +Note the flow of Christ's unasked sympathy and help. We have already +seen several instances of the same thing in this Gospel. The sight +of misery ever set the chords of that gentle, unselfish heart +vibrating, as surely as the wind draws music from the Aeolian harp +strings. So it should be with us, and so would it be, if we had in +us 'the law of the Spirit of life in Christ' making us 'free from +the law of' self. But His spontaneous sympathy is not merely the +perfection of manhood; it is the revelation of God. Unasked, the +divine love pours itself on men, and gives all that it can give to +those who do not seek, that they may be drawn to seek the better +gifts which cannot be given unasked. God 'tarrieth not for man, nor +waiteth for the sons of men,' in giving His greatest gift. No +prayers besought Heaven for a Saviour. God's love is its own motive, +and wells up by its inherent diffusiveness. Before we call, He +answers. + +Note the manner of the cure. It is twofold--a word and a touch. The +former is remarkable, as not being, like most of the cures of +demoniacs, a command to the evil spirit to go forth, but an +assurance to the sufferer, fitted to inspire her with hope, and to +encourage her to throw off the alien tyranny. The touch was the +symbol to her of communicated power--not that Jesus needed a vehicle +for His delivering strength, but that the poor victim, crushed in +spirit, needed the outward sign to help her in realising the new +energy that ran in her veins, and strengthened her muscles. +Unquestionably the cure was miraculous, and its cause was Christ's +will. + +But apparently the manner of cure gave more place to the faith of +the sufferer, and to the effort which her faith in Christ's word and +touch heartened her to put forth, than we find in other miracles. +She 'could in no wise lift herself up,' not because of any +malformation or deficiency in physical power, but because that +malign influence laid a heavy hand on her will and body, and crushed +her down. Only supernatural power could deliver from supernatural +evil, but that power wrought through as well us OB her; and when she +believed that she was loosed from her infirmity, and had received +strength from Jesus, she was loosed. + +This makes the miracle no less, but it makes it a mirror in which +the manner of our deliverance from a worse dominion of Satan is +shadowed. Christ is come to loose us all from the yoke of bondage, +which bows our faces to the ground, and makes us unfit to look up. +He only can loose us, and His way of doing it is to assure us that +we are free, and to give us power to fling off the oppression in the +strength of faith in Him. + +Note the immediate cure and its immediate result. The 'back bowed +down always' for eighteen weary years is not too stiff to be made +straight at once. The Christ-given power obliterates all traces of +the past evil. Where He is the physician, there is no period of +gradual convalescence, but 'the thing is done suddenly'; and, though +in the spiritual realm, there still hang about pardoned men remains +of forgiven sin, they are 'sanctified' in their inward selves, and +have but to see to it that they work out in character and conduct +that 'righteousness and holiness of truth' which they have received +in the new nature given them through faith. + +How rapturous was the gratitude from the woman's lips, which broke +in upon the formal, proper, and heartless worship of the synagogue! +The immediate hallowing of her joy into praise surely augurs a +previously devout heart. Thanksgiving generally comes thus swiftly +after mercies, when prayer has habitually preceded them. The +sweetest sweetness of all our blessings is only enjoyed when we +glorify God for them. Incense must be kindled, to be fragrant, and +our joys must be fired by devotion, to give their rarest perfume. + +The cavils of the ruler and Christ's defence are the second part of +this incident. Note the blindness and cold-heartedness born of +religious formalism. This synagogue official has no eye for the +beauty of Christ's pity, no heart to rejoice in the woman's +deliverance, no ear for the music of her praise. All that he sees is +a violation of ecclesiastical order. That is the sin of sins in his +eyes. He admits the reality of Christ's healing power, but that does +not lead him to recognition of His mission. What a strange state of +mind it was that acknowledged the miracle, and then took offence at +its being done on the Sabbath! + +Note, too, his disingenuous cowardice in attacking the people when +he meant Christ. He blunders, too, in his scolding; for nobody had +come to be healed. They had come to worship; and even if they had +come for healing, the coming was no breach of Sabbath regulations, +whatever the healing might be. There are plenty of people like this +stickler for propriety and form, and if you want to find men blind +as bats to the manifest tokens of a divine hand, and hard as +millstones towards misery, and utterly incapable of glowing with +enthusiasm or of recognising it, you will find them among +ecclesiastical martinets, who are all for having 'things done +decently and in order,' and would rather that a hundred poor +sufferers should continue bowed down than that one of their +regulations should be broken in lifting them up. The more men are +filled with the spirit of worship, the less importance will they +attach to the pedantic adherence to its forms, which is the most +part of some people's religion. + +Mark the severity, which is loving severity, of Christ's answer. He +speaks to all who shared the ruler's thoughts, of whom there were +several present (v. 17, 'adversaries'). Piercing words which +disclose hidden and probably unconscious sins, are quite in place on +the lips into which grace was poured. Well for those who let Him +tell them their faults now, and do not wait for the light of +judgment to show themselves to themselves for the first time. + +Wherein lay these men's hypocrisy? They were pretending zeal for the +Sabbath, while they were really moved by anger at the miracle, which +would have been equally unwelcome on any day of the week. They were +pretending that their zeal for the Sabbath was the result of their +zeal for God, while it was only zeal for their Rabbinical niceties, +and had no religious element in it at all. They wished to make the +Sabbath law tight enough to restrain Jesus from miracles, while they +made it loose enough to allow them to look after their own +interests. + +Men may be unconscious hypocrites, and these are the most hopeless. +We are all in danger of fancying that we are displaying our zeal for +the Lord, when we are only contending for our own additions to, or +interpretations of, His will. There is no religion necessarily +implied in enforcing forms of belief or conduct. + +Our Lord's defence is, first of all, a conclusive _argumentum ad +hominem_, which shuts the mouths of the objectors; but it is much +more. The Talmud has minute rules for leading out animals on the +Sabbath: An ass may go out with his pack saddle if it was tied on +before the Sabbath, but not with a bell or a yoke; a camel may go +out with a halter, but not with a rag tied to his tail; a string of +camels may be led if the driver takes all the halters in his hand, +and does not twist them, but they must not be tied to one another--and +so on for pages. If, then, these sticklers for rigid observance of the +Sabbath admitted that a beast's thirst was reason enough for work to +relieve it, it did not lie in their mouths to find fault with the +relief of a far greater human need. + +But the words hold a wider truth, applicable to our conduct. The +relief of human sorrow is always in season. It is a sacred duty +which hallows any hour. 'Is not this the fast [and the feast too] +that I have chosen ... to let the oppressed go free, and that ye +break every yoke?' The spirit of the words is to put the exercise of +beneficence high above the formalities of worship. + +Note, too, the implied assertion of the dignity of humanity, the +pitying tone of the 'lo, these eighteen years,' the sympathy of the +Lord with the poor woman, and the implication of the terrible +tragedy of Satan's bondage. If we have His Spirit in us, and look at +the solemn facts of life as He did, all these pathetic +considerations will be present to our minds as we behold the misery +of men, and, moved by the thoughts of their lofty place in God's +scheme of things, of their long and dreary bondage, of the evil +power that holds them fast, and of what they may become, even sons +and daughters of the Highest, we shall be fired with the same +longing to help which filled Christ's heart, and shall count that +hour consecrated, and not profaned, in which we are able to bring +liberty to the captives, and an upward gaze of hope to them that +have been bowed down. + + + + +THE STRAIT GATE + + + 'And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, + and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23. Then said one unto + Him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And He said + unto them, 24. Strive to enter in at the strait gate: + for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and + shall not he able. 25. When once the Master of the + house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye + begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, + saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and He shall answer + and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: + 26. Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk + in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets. + 27. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence + ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity. + 28. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when + ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the + prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves + thrust out. 29. And they shall come from the east, and + from the west, and from the north, and from the south, + and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. 30. And, + behold, there are last which shall be first and there + are first which shall be last.'--LUKE xiii. 22-30 + +'Are there few that be saved?' The questioner's temper and motives +may be inferred from the tone of Christ's answer, which turns +attention from a mere piece of speculative curiosity to the grave +personal aspect of the condition of 'salvation,' and the possibility +of missing it. Whether few or many went in, there would be many left +out, and among these some of the listeners. Jesus speaks to 'them,' +the multitude, not to the questioner. The men who approach solemn +subjects lightly, and use them as material for raising profitless +questions for the sake of getting religious teachers in a corner, +exist still, and are best answered after Christ's manner. + +Of course, the speaker meant by being 'saved' participation in +Messiah's kingdom, regarded in the carnal Jewish fashion; and our +Lord's reply is primarily directed to setting forth the condition of +entrance into that kingdom, as the Jew expected it to be manifested +on earth. But behind that immediate reference lies a solemn +unveiling of the conditions of salvation in its deepest meaning, and +of the danger of exclusion from it. + +I. We note, first, the all-important exhortation with which Christ +seeks to sober a frivolous curiosity. In its primary application, the +'strait gate' may be taken to be the lowliness of the Messiah, and the +consequent sharp contrast of His kingdom with Jewish high-flown and +fleshly hopes. The passage to the promised royalty was not through a +great portal worthy of a palace, but by a narrow, low-browed wicket, +through which it took a man trouble to squeeze. For us, the narrow +gate is the self-abandonment and self-accusation which are +indispensable for entrance into salvation. + +'The door of faith' is a narrow one; for it lets no self-righteousness, +no worldly glories, no dignities, through. Like the Emperor at Canossa, +we are kept outside till we strip ourselves of crowns and royal robes, +and stand clothed only in the hair-shirt of penitence. Like Milton's +rebel angels entering their council chamber, we must make ourselves +small to get in. We must creep on our knees, so low is the vault; we +must leave everything outside, so narrow is it. We must go in one by +one, as in the turnstiles at a place of entertainment. The door opens +into a palace, but it is too strait for any one who trusts to himself. + +There must be effort in order to enter by it. For everything in our +old self-confident, self-centred nature is up in arms against the +conditions of entrance. We are not saved by effort, but we shall not +believe without effort. The main struggle of our whole lives should +be to cultivate self-humbling trust in Jesus Christ, and to 'fight +the good fight of faith.' + +II. We note the reason for the exhortation. It is briefly given in +verse 24 (last clause), and both parts of the reason there are +expanded in the following verses. Effort is needed for entrance, +because many are shut out. The questioner would be no better for +knowing whether few would enter, but he and all need to burn in on +their minds that many will _not_. + +Very solemnly significant is the difference between _striving_ +and _seeking_. It is like the difference between wishing and +willing. There may be a seeking which has no real earnestness in it, +and is not sufficiently determined, to do what is needful in order +to find. Plenty of people would like to possess earthly good, but +cannot brace themselves to needful work and sacrifice. Plenty would +like to 'go to heaven,' as they understand the phrase, but cannot +screw themselves to the surrender of self and the world. Vagrant, +halfhearted seeking, such as one sees many examples of, will never +win anything, either in this world or in the other. We must strive, +and not only seek. + +That is true, even if we do not look beyond time; but Jesus carries +our awed vision onwards to the end of the days, in the expansion of +his warning, which follows in verses 25-27. No doubt, the words had +a meaning for His hearers in reference to the Messianic kingdom, and +a fulfilment in the rejection of the nation. But we have to discern +in them a further and future significance. + +Observe that the scene suggested differs from the similar parable of +the virgins waiting for their Lord, in that it does not describe a +wedding feast. Here it is a householder already in his house, and, +at the close of the day, locking up for the night. Some of his +servants have not returned in time, have not come in through the +narrow gate, which is now not only narrow, but closed by the +master's own hand. The translation of that is that, by a decisive +act of Christ's in the future, the time for entrance will he ended. +As in reference to each stage of life, specific opportunities are +given in it for securing specific results, and these can never be +recovered if the stage is past; so mortal life, as a whole, is the +time for entrance, and if it is not used for that purpose, entrance +is impossible. If the youth will not learn, the man will be +ignorant. If the sluggard will not plough because the weather is +cold, he will 'beg in harvest.' If we do not strive to enter at the +gate, it is vain to seek entrance when the Master's own hand has +barred it. + +The language of our Lord here seems to shut us up to the conclusion +that life is the time in which we can gain our entrance. It is no +kindness to suggest that perhaps He does not shut the door quite +fast. We know, at all events, that it is wide open now. + +The words put into the mouths of the excluded sufficiently define +their characters, and the reasons why they sought in vain. Why did +they want to be in? Because they wished to get out of the cold +darkness into the warm light of the bountiful house. But they +neither knew the conditions of entrance nor had they any desire +after the true blessings within. Their deficiencies are plainly +marked in their pleas for admission. At first, they simply ask for +entrance, as if thinking that to wish was to have. Then, when the +Householder says that He knows nothing about them, and cannot let +strangers in, they plead as their qualification that they had eaten +and drunk in His presence, and that He had taught in their streets. +In these words, the relations of Christ's contemporaries are +described, and their immediate application to them is plain. + +Outward connection with Jesus gave no claim to share in His kingdom. +We have to learn the lesson which we who live amidst a widely +diffused, professing Christianity sadly need. No outward connection +with Christ, in Christian ordinances or profession, will avail to +establish a claim to have the door opened for us. A man may be a +most respectable and respected church-member, and have listened to +Christian teaching all his days, and have in life a vague wish to be +'saved,' and yet be hopelessly unfit to enter, and therefore +irremediably shut out. + +The Householder's answer, in its severity and calmness, indicates +the inflexible impossibility of opening to such seekers. It puts +stress on two things--the absence of any vital relationship between +Him and them, and their moral character. He knows nothing about +them, and not to be known by the Master of the house is necessarily +to be shut out from His household. They are known of the Shepherd +who know Him and hear His voice. They who are not must stay in the +desert. Such mutual knowledge is the basis of all righteousness, and +righteousness is the essential condition of entrance. + +These seekers are represented as still working iniquity. They had +not changed their moral nature. They wished to enter heaven, but +they still loved evil. How could they come in, even if the door had +been open? Let us learn that, while faith is the door, without +holiness no man shall see the Lord. The worker of iniquity has only +an outward relation to Jesus. Inwardly he is separated from Him, +and, at last, the outward relation will be adjusted to the inward, +and departure from Him will be inevitable, and that is ruin. + +III. Boldly and searchingly personal as the preceding words had +been, the final turn of Christ's answer must have had a still +sharper and more distasteful edge. He had struck a blow at Jewish +trust in outward connection with Messiah as ensuring participation +in His kingdom. He now says that the Gentiles shall fill the vacant +places. Many Jews will be unable to enter, for all their seeking, +but still there will be many saved; for troops of hated Gentiles +shall come from every corner of the earth, and the sight of them +sitting beside the fathers of the nation, while Israel after the +flesh is shut out, will move the excluded to weeping--the token of +sorrow, which yet has in it no softening nor entrance-securing +effect, because it passes into 'gnashing of teeth,' the sign of +anger. Such sorrow worketh death. + +Such fierce hatred, joined with stiff-necked obstinacy, has +characterised the Jew ever since Jerusalem fell. 'If God spared not +the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee.' Israel +was first, and has become last. The same causes which sent it from +the van to the rear have worked like effects in 'Christendom,' as +witness Asia Minor and the mosques into which Christian churches +have been turned. + +These causes will produce like effects wherever they become +dominant. Any church and any individual Christian who trusts in +outward connection with Christ, and works iniquity, will sooner or +later fall into the rear, and if repentance and faith do not lead it +or him through the strait gate, will be among those 'last' who are +so far behind that they are shut out altogether. Let us 'be not +high-minded, but fear.' + + + + +CHRIST'S MESSAGE TO HEROD + + + 'And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, + Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and + to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. + 33. Nevertheless I must walk to-day, and to-morrow, + and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet + perish out of Jerusalem.'--LUKE xiii. 32, 33. + +Even a lamb might be suspicious if wolves were to show themselves +tenderly careful of its safety. Pharisees taking Christ's life under +their protection were enough to suggest a trick. These men came to +Christ desirous of posing as counterworking Herod's intention to +slay Him. Our Lord's answer, bidding them go and tell Herod what He +immediately communicates to them, shows that He regarded them as in +a plot with that crafty, capricious kinglet. And evidently there was +an understanding between them. For some reason or other, best known +to his own changeable and whimsical nature, the man who at one +moment was eagerly desirous to see Jesus, was at the next as eagerly +desirous to get Him out of his territories; just as he admired and +murdered John the Baptist. The Pharisees, on the other hand, desired +to draw Him to Jerusalem, where they would have Him in their power +more completely than in the northern district. If they had spoken +all their minds they would have said, 'Go hence, or else we cannot +kill Thee.' So Christ answers the hidden schemes, and not the +apparent solicitude, in the words that I have taken for my text. +They unmask the plot, they calmly put aside the threats of danger. +They declare that His course was influenced by far other +considerations. They show that He clearly saw what it was towards +which He was journeying. And then, with sad irony, they declare that +it, as it were, contrary to prophetic decorum and established usage +that a prophet should be slain anywhere but in the streets of the +bloody and sacred city. + +There are many deep things in the words, which I cannot touch in the +course of a single sermon; but I wish now, at all events, to skim +their surface, and try to gather some of their obvious lessons. + +I. First, then, note Christ's clear vision of His death. + +There is some difficulty about the chronology of this period with +which I need not trouble you. It is enough to note that the incident +with which we are concerned occurred during that last journey of our +Lord's towards Jerusalem and Calvary, which occupies so much of this +Gospel of Luke. At what point in that fateful journey it occurred +may be left undetermined. Nor need I enter upon the question as to +whether the specification of time in our text, 'to-day, and to-morrow, +and the third day,' is intended to be taken literally, as some +commentators suppose, in which case it would be brought extremely +near the goal of the journey; or whether, as seems more probable from +the context, it is to be taken as a kind of proverbial expression for +a definite but short period. That the latter is the proper +interpretation seems to be largely confirmed by the fact that there +is a slight variation in the application of the designation of time +in the two verses of our text, 'the third day' in the former verse +being regarded as the period of the perfecting, whilst in the latter +verse it is regarded as part of the period of the progress towards +the perfecting. Such variation in the application is more congruous +with the idea that we have here to deal with a kind of proverbial +expression for a limited and short period. Our Lord is saying in +effect, 'My time is not to be settled by Herod. It is definite, and +it is short. It is needless for him to trouble himself; for in three +days it will be all over. It is useless for him to trouble himself, +or for you Pharisees to plot, for until the appointed days are past +it will not be over, whatever you and he may do.' The course He had +yet to run was plain before Him in this last journey, every step of +which was taken with the Cross full in view. + +Now the worst part of death is the anticipation of death; and it +became Him who bore death for every man to drink to its dregs that +cup of trembling which the fear of it puts to all human lips. We +rightly regard it as a cruel aggravation of a criminal's doom if he +is carried along a level, straight road with his gibbet in view at +the end of the march. But so it was that Jesus Christ travelled +through life. + +My text comes at a comparatively late period of His history. A few +months or weeks at the most intervened between Him and the end. But +the consciousness which is here so calmly expressed was not of +recent origin. We know that from the period of His transfiguration +He began to give His death a very prominent place in His teaching, +but it had been present with Him long before He thus laid emphasis +upon it in His communications with His disciples. For, if we accept +John's Gospel as historical, we shall have to throw back His first +public references to the end to the very beginning of His career. +The cleansing of the Temple, at the very outset of His course, was +vindicated by Him by the profound words, 'Destroy this Temple, and +in three days I will raise it up.' During the same early visit to +the capital city He said to Nicodemus, 'As Moses lifted up the +serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted +up.' So Christ's career was not like that of many a man who has +begun, full of sanguine hope as a possible reformer and benefactor +of his fellows, and by slow degrees has awakened to the +consciousness that reformers and benefactors need to be martyrs ere +their ideals can be realised. There was no disillusioning in +Christ's experience. From the commencement He knew that He came, not +only to minister, but also 'to give His life a ransom for the many.' +And it was _not_ a mother's eye, as a reverent modern painter +has profoundly, and yet erroneously, shown us in his great work in +our own city gallery--it was not a mother's eye that first saw the +shadow of the Cross fall on her unconscious Son, but it was Himself +that all through His earthly pilgrimage knew Himself to be the Lamb +appointed for the sacrifice. This Isaac toiled up the hill, bearing +the wood and the knife, and knew where and who was the Offering. + +Brethren, I do not think that we sufficiently realise the importance +of that element in our conceptions of the life of Jesus Christ. What +a pathos it gives to it all! What a beauty it gives to His +gentleness, to His ready interest in others, to His sympathy for all +sorrow, and tenderness with all sin! How wonderfully it deepens the +significance, the loveliness, and the pathos of the fact that 'the +Son of Man came eating and drinking,' remembering everybody but +Himself, and ready to enter into all the cares and the sorrows of +other hearts, if we think that all the while there stood, grim and +certain, before Him that Calvary with its Cross! Thus, through all +His path, He knew to what He was journeying. + +II. Then again, secondly, let me ask you to note here our Lord's own +estimate of the place which His death holds in relation to His whole +work. + +Notice that remarkable variation in the expression in our text. 'The +third day I shall be _perfected_.... It cannot be that a +prophet _perish_ out of Jerusalem.' Then, somehow or other, the +'perishing' is 'perfecting.' There may be a doubt as to the precise +rendering of the word translated by 'perfecting'; but it seems to me +that the only meaning congruous with the context is that which is +suggested by the translation of our Authorised Version, and that our +Lord does not mean to say 'on the third day I shall complete My work +of casting out devils and curing diseases,' but that He masses the +whole of His work into two great portions--the one of which +includes all His works and ministrations of miracles and of mercy; +and the other of which contains one unique and transcendent fact, +which outweighs and towers above all these others, and is the +perfecting of His work, and the culmination of His obedience, +service, and sacrifice. + +Now, of course, I need not remind you that the 'perfecting' thus +spoken of is not a perfecting of moral character or of individual +nature, but that it is the same perfecting which the Epistle to the +Hebrews speaks about when it says, 'Being made perfect, He became +the Author of eternal salvation to all them which obey Him.' That is +to say, it is His perfecting in regard to office, function, work for +the world, and not the completion or elevation of His individual +character. And this 'perfecting' is effected in His 'perishing.' + +Now I want to know in what conceivable sense the death of Jesus Christ +can be the culmination and crown of His work, without which it would +be a torso, an incomplete fragment, a partial fulfilment of the +Father's design, and of His own mission, unless it be that that death +was, as I take it the New Testament with one voice in all its parts +declares it to be, a sacrifice for the sins of the world. I know of +no construing of the fact of the death on the Cross which can do +justice to the plain words of my text, except the old-fashioned +belief that therein He made atonement for sin, and thereby, as the +Lamb of God, bore away the sins of the world. + +Other great lives may be crowned by fair deaths, which henceforward +become seals of faithful witness, and appeals to the sentiments of +the heart, but there is no sense that I know of in which from +Christ's death there can flow a mightier energy than from such a +life, unless in the sense that the death is a sacrifice. + +Now I know there has been harm done by the very desire to exalt +Christ's great sacrifice on the Cross; when it has been so separated +from His life as that the life has not been regarded as a sacrifice, +nor the death as obedience. Rather the sacrificial element runs +through His whole career, and began when He became flesh and +tabernacled amongst us; but yet as being the apex of it all, without +which it were all-imperfect, and in a special sense redeeming men +from the power of death, that Cross is set forth by His own word. +For Him to 'perish' was to 'be perfected.' As the ancient prophet +long before had said, 'When His soul shall make an offering for +sin,' then, paradoxical as it may seem, the dead Man shall 'see,' +and 'shall see His seed.' Or, as He Himself said, 'If a corn of +wheat fall into the ground it abideth alone, but if it die it +bringeth forth much fruit.' + +I do not want to insist upon any theories of Atonement. I do want to +insist that Christ's own estimate of the significance and purpose +and issue of His death shall not be slurred over, but that, +recognising that He Himself regarded it as the perfecting of His +work, we ask ourselves very earnestly how such a conception can be +explained if we strike out of our Christianity the thought of the +sacrifice for the sins of the world. Unless we take Paul's gospel, +'How that He died for our sins according to the Scriptures,' I for +one do not believe that we shall ever get Paul's results, 'Old +things are passed away; all things are become new.' If you strike +the Cross off the dome of the temple, the fires on its altars will +soon go out. A Christianity which has to say much about the life of +Jesus, and knows not what to say about the death of Christ, will be +a Christianity that will neither have much constraining power in our +lives, nor be able to breathe a benediction of peace over our +deaths. If we desire to be perfected in character, we must have +faith in that sacrificial death which was the perfecting of Christ's +work. + +III. And so, lastly, notice our Lord's resolved surrender to the +discerned Cross. + +There is much in this aspect in the words of my text which I cannot +touch upon now; but two or three points I may briefly notice. + +Note then, I was going to say, the superb heroism of His calm +indifference to threats and dangers. He will go hence, and relieve +the tyrant's dominions of His presence; but He is careful to make it +plain that His going has no connection with the futile threatenings +by which they have sought to terrify Him. 'Nevertheless'--although I +do not care at all for them or for him--'nevertheless I must journey +to-day and tomorrow! But that is not because I fear death, but +because I am going to My death; for the prophet must die in +Jerusalem.' We are so accustomed to think of the 'gentle Jesus, meek +and mild' that we forget the 'strong Son of God.' If we were talking +about a man merely, we should point to this calm, dignified answer +as being an instance of heroism, but we do not feel that that word +fits Him. There are too many vulgar associations connected with it, +to be adapted to the gentleness of His fixed purpose that blenched +not, nor faltered, whatsoever came in the way. + +Light is far more powerful than lightning. Meekness may be, and in +Him was, wedded to a will like a bar of iron, and a heart that knew +not how to fear. If ever there was an iron hand in a velvet glove it +was the hand of Christ. And although the perspective of virtues +which Christianity has introduced, and which Christ exhibited in His +life, gives prominence to the meek and the gentle, let us not forget +that it also enjoins the cultivation of the 'wrestling thews that +throw the world.' 'Quit you like men; be strong; let all your deeds +be done in charity.' + +Then note, too, the solemn law that ruled His life. 'I _must_ +walk.' That is a very familiar expression upon His lips. From that +early day when He said, 'Wist ye not that I _must_ be about My +Father's business,' to that last when He said, 'The Son of Man +_must_ be lifted up,' there crops out, ever and anon, in the +occasional glimpses that He allows us to have of His inmost spirit, +this reference of all His actions to a necessity that was laid upon +Him, and to which He ever consciously conformed. That necessity +determined what He calls so frequently 'My time; My hour'; and +influenced the trifles, as they are called, as well as the great +crises, of His career. It was the Father's will which made the Son's +_must_. Hence His unbroken communion and untroubled calm. + +If we want to live near God, and if we want to have lives of peace +amidst convulsions, we, too, must yield ourselves to that all +encompassing sovereign necessity, which, like the great laws of the +universe, shapes the planets and the suns in their courses and their +stations; and holds together two grains of dust, or two motes that +dance in the sunshine. To gravitation there is nothing great and +nothing small. God's _must_ covers all the ground of our lives, +and should ever be responded to by our 'I will.' + +And that brings me to the last point, and that is, our Lord's glad +acceptance of the necessity and surrender of the Cross. What was it +that made Him willing to take that 'must' as the law of His life? +First, a Son's obedience; second, a Brother's love. There was no +point in Christ's career, from the moment when in the desert He put +away the temptation to win the kingdoms of the world by other than +the God-appointed means, down to the last moment when on His dying +ears there fell another form of the same temptation in the taunt, +'Let Him come down from the cross, and we will believe on Him'; when +He could not, if He had chosen to abandon His mission, have saved +Himself. No compulsion, no outward hand impelling Him, drove Him +along that course which ended on Calvary; but only that He would +save others, and therefore 'Himself He cannot save.' + +True, there were natural human shrinkings, just as the weight and +impetus of some tremendous billow buffeting the bows of the ship +makes it quiver; but this never affected the firm hand on the +rudder, and never deflected the vessel from its course. Christ's +'soul was troubled,' but His will was fixed, and it was fixed by His +love to us. Like one of the men who in after ages died for His dear +sake, He may be conceived as refusing to be bound to the stake by +any bands, willing to stand there and be destroyed because He wills. +Nothing fastened Him to the Cross but His resolve to save the world, +in which world was included each of us sitting listening and +standing speaking, now. Oh, brethren! shall not we, moved by such +love, with like cheerfulness of surrender, give ourselves to Him who +gave Himself for us? + + + + +THE LESSONS OF A FEAST + + + 'And it came to pass, as He went into the house of one + of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day, + that they watched Him. 2. And, behold, there was a + certain man before Him which had the dropsy. 3. And + Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, + saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? 4. And + they held their peace. And He took him, and healed him, + and let him go; 5. And answered them, saying, Which of + you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and + will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day? + 6. And they could not answer Him again to these things. + 7. And He put forth a parable to those which were + bidden, when He marked how they chose out the chief + rooms; saying unto them, 8. When thou art bidden of any + man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room, + lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; + 9. And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, + Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take + the lowest room. 10. But when thou art bidden, go and + sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade + thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up + higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence + of them that sit at meat with thee. 11. For whosoever + exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth + himself shall be exalted. 12. Then said He also to him + that bade Him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, + call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy + kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid + thee again, and a recompense be made thee. 13. But when + thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the + lame, the blind: 14. And thou shalt be blessed; for + they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be + recompensed at the resurrection of the just.' + --LUKE xiv. 1-14. + +Jesus never refused an invitation, whether the inviter were a +Pharisee or a publican, a friend or a foe. He never mistook the +disposition of His host. He accepted 'greetings where no kindness +is,' and on this occasion there was none. The entertainer was a spy, +and the feast was a trap. What a contrast between the malicious +watchers at the table, ready to note and to interpret in the worst +sense every action of His, and Him loving and wishing to bless even +them! The chill atmosphere of suspicion did not freeze the flow of +His gentle beneficence and wise teaching. His meek goodness remained +itself in the face of hostile observers. The miracle and the two +parables are aimed straight at their errors. + +I. How came the dropsical man there? Possibly he had simply strayed +in to look on at the feast, as the freedom of manners then would +permit him to do. The absence of any hint that he came hoping for a +cure, and of any trace of faith on his part, or of speech to him on +Christ's, joined with his immediate dismissal after his cure, rather +favours the supposition that he had been put as the bait of the +trap, on the calculation that the sight of him would move Jesus to +heal him. The setters of the snare were 'watching' whether it would +work, and Jesus 'answered' their thoughts, which were, doubtless, +visible in their eyes. His answer has three stages--a question which +is an assertion, the cure, and another affirming question. All three +are met with sulky silence, which speaks more than words would have +done. The first question takes the 'lawyers' on their own ground, +and in effect asserts that to heal did not break the Sabbath. Jesus +challenges denial of the lawfulness of it, and the silence of the +Pharisees confesses that they dare not deny. 'The bare fact of +healing is not prohibited,' they might have said, 'but the acts +necessary for healing are.' But no acts were necessary for this +Healer's power to operate. The outgoing of His will had power. Their +finespun distinctions of deeds lawful and unlawful were spiders' +webs, and His act of mercy flew high above the webs, like some fair +winged creature glancing in the sunshine, while the spider sits in +his crevice balked. The broad principle involved in Jesus' first +question is that no Sabbath law, no so-called religious restriction, +can ever forbid helping the miserable. The repose of the Sabbath is +deepened, not disturbed, by activity for man's good. + +The cure is told without detail, probably because there were no +details to tell. There is no sign of request or of faith on the +sufferer's part; there seems to have been no outward act on Christ's +beyond 'taking' him, which appears simply to mean that He called him +nearer, and then, by a simple exercise of His will, healed him. +There is no trace of thanks or of wonder in the heart of the +sufferer, who probably never had anything more to do with his +benefactor. Silently he comes on the stage, silently he gets his +blessing, silently he disappears. A strange, sad instance of how +possible it is to have a momentary connection with Jesus, and even +to receive gifts from His hand, and yet to have no real, permanent +relation to Him! + +The second question turns from the legal to a broader consideration. +The spontaneous workings of the heart are not to be dammed back by +ceremonial laws. Need calls for immediate succour. You do not wait +for the Sabbath's sun to set when your ox or your ass is in a pit. +(The reading 'son' instead of 'ox,' as in the Revised Version +margin, is incongruous.) Jesus is appealing to the instinctive wish +to give immediate help even to a beast in trouble, and implies that +much more should the same instinct be allowed immediate play when +its object is a man. The listeners were self-condemned, and their +obstinate silence proves that the arrow had struck deep. + +II. The cure seems to have taken place before the guests seated +themselves. Then came a scramble for the most honourable places, on +which He looked with perhaps a sad smile. Again the silence of the +guests is noticeable, as well as the calm assumption of authority +by Jesus, even among such hostile company. Where He comes a guest, +He becomes teacher, and by divine right He rebukes. The lesson is +given, says Luke, as 'a parable,' by which we are to understand that +our Lord is not here giving, as might appear if His words are +superficially interpreted, a mere lesson of proper behaviour at a +feast, but is taking that behaviour as an illustration of a far +deeper thing. Possibly some too ambitious guest had contrived to +seat himself in the place of honour, and had had to turn out, and, +with an embarrassed mien, had to go down to the very lowest place, +as all the intermediate ones were full. His eagerness to be at the +top had ended in his being at the bottom. That is a 'parable,' says +Jesus, an illustration in the region of daily life, of large truths +in morals and religion. It is a poor motive for outward humility and +self-abasement that it may end in higher honour. And if Jesus was +here only giving directions for conduct in regard to men, He was +inculcating a doubtful kind of morality. The devil's + + darling sin + Is the pride that apes humility.' + +Jesus was not recommending that, but what is crafty ambition, +veiling itself in lowliness for its own purposes, when exercised in +outward life, becomes a noble, pure, and altogether worthy, thing in +the spiritual sphere. For to desire to be exalted in the kingdom is +wholly right, and to humble one's self with a direct view to that +exaltation is to tread the path which He has hallowed by His own +footsteps. The true aim for ambition is the honour that cometh from +God only, and the true path to it is through the valley; for 'God +resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.' + +III. Unbroken silence still prevailed among the guests, but again +Jesus speaks as teacher, and now to the host. A guest does not +usually make remarks on the composition of the company, Jesus could +make no 'recompense' to His entertainer, but to give him this +counsel. Again, He inculcated a wide general lesson under the guise +of a particular exhortation appropriate to the occasion. Probably +the bulk of the guests were well-to-do people of the host's own +social rank, and, as probably, there were onlookers of a lower +degree, like the dropsical man. The prohibition is not directed +against the natural custom of inviting one's associates and equals, +but against inviting them only, and against doing so with a sharp +eye to the advantages to be derived from it. That weary round of +giving a self-regarding hospitality, and then getting a return +dinner or evening entertainment from each guest, which makes up so +much of the social life among us, is a pitiful affair, hollow and +selfish. What would Jesus say--what does Jesus say--about it all? +The sacred name of hospitality is profaned, and the very springs of +it dried up by much of our social customs, and the most literal +application of our Lord's teaching here is sorely needed. + +But the words are meant as a 'parable,' and are to be widened out to +include all sorts of kindnesses and helps given in the sacred name +of charity to those whose only claim is their need. 'They cannot +recompense thee'--so much the better, for, if an eye to their doing +so could have influenced thee, thy beneficence would have lost its +grace and savour, and would have been simple selfishness, and, as +such, incapable of future reward. It is only love that is lavished +on those who can make no return which is so free from the taint of +secret regard to self that it is fit to be recognised as love in the +revealing light of that great day, and therefore is fit to be +'recompensed in the resurrection of the just.' + + + + +EXCUSES NOT REASONS + + + 'They all with one consent began to make excuse. + --LUKE xiv. 18. + +Jesus Christ was at a feast in a Pharisee's house. It was a strange +place for Him--and His words at the table were also strange. For He +first rebuked the guests, and then the host; telling the former to +take the lower rooms, and bidding the latter widen his hospitality +to those that could not recompense him. It was a sharp saying; and +one of the other guests turned the edge of it by laying hold of our +Lord's final words: 'Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection +of the just,' and saying, no doubt in a pious tone and with a devout +shake of the head, 'Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the +Kingdom of God.' It was a very proper thing to say, but there was a +ring of conventional, commonplace piety about it, which struck +unpleasantly on Christ's ear. He answers the speaker with that +strange story of the great feast that nobody would come to, as if He +had said, 'You pretend to think that it is a blessed thing to eat +bread in the Kingdom of God, Why! You will not eat bread when it is +offered to you.' + +I dare say you all know enough of the parable to make it unnecessary +for me to go over it. A great feast is prepared; invitations, more +or less general, are sent out at first, everything is ready; and, +behold, there is a table, and nobody to sit at it. A strange +experience for a hospitable man! And so he sends his servants to +beat up the unwilling guests, and, one after another, with more or +less politeness, refuses to come. + +I need not follow the story further. In the latter part of the +parable our Lord shadows the transference of the blessings of the +Kingdom to the Gentiles, outcasts as the Jews thought them, skulking +in the hedges and tramping on the highways. In the first part He +foreshadows the failure of His own preaching amongst His own people. +But Jews and Englishmen are very much alike. The way in which these +invited guests treated the invitation to this feast is being +repeated, day by day, by thousands of men round us; and by some of +ourselves. 'They all, with one consent, began to make excuse.' + +I. The first thing that I would desire you to notice is the +strangely unanimous refusal. + +The guests' conduct in the story is such as life and reality would +afford no example of. No set of people, asked to a great banquet, +would behave as these people in the parable do. Then, is the +introduction of such an unnatural trait as this a fault in the +construction of narrative? No! Rather it is a beauty, for the very +point of the story is the utter unnaturalness of the conduct +described, and the contrast that is presented between the way in +which men regard the lower blessings from which these people are +represented as turning, and in which they regard the loftier +blessings that are offered. Nobody would turn his hack upon such a +banquet if he had the chance of going to it. What, then, shall we +say of those who, by platoons and regiments, turn their backs upon +this higher offer? The very preposterous unnaturalness of the +conduct, if the parable were a true story, points to the deep +meaning that lies behind it: that in that higher region the +unnatural is the universal, or all but universal. + +And, indeed, it is so. One would almost venture to say that there is +a kind of law according to which the more valuable a thing is the +less men care to have it; or, if you like to put it into more +scientific language, the attraction of an object is in the inverse +ratio to its worth. Small things, transitory things, material +things, everybody grasps at; and the number of graspers steadily +decreases as you go up the scale in preciousness, until, when you +reach the highest of all, there are the fewest that want them. Is +there anything lower than good that merely gratifies the body? Is +there anything that the most of men want more? Are there many things +lower in the scale than money? Are there many things that pull more +strongly? Is not truth better than wealth? Are there more pursuers +of it than there are of the former? For one man who is eager to +know, and counts his life well spent, in following knowledge + + 'Like a sinking star, + Beyond the furthest bounds of human thought,' + +there are a hundred who think it rightly expended in the pursuit +after the wealth that perishes. Is not goodness higher than truth, +and are not the men that are content to devote themselves to +becoming wise more numerous than those that are content to devote +themselves to becoming pure? And, topmost of all, is there anything +to be compared with the gifts that are held out to us in that great +Saviour and in His message? And is there anything that the mass of +men pass by with more unanimous refusal than the offered feast which +the great King of humanity has provided for His subjects? What is +offered for each of us, pressed upon us, in the gift of Jesus +Christ? Help, guidance, companionship, restfulness of heart, power +of obedience, victory over self, control of passions, supremacy over +circumstances, tranquillity deep and genuine, death abolished, +Heaven opened, measureless hopes following upon perfect fruition, +here and hereafter. These things are all gathered into, and their +various sparkles absorbed in, the one steady light of that one great +encyclopaediacal word--Salvation. These gifts are going begging, +lying at our doors, offered to every one of us, pressed upon all on +the simple condition of taking Christ for Saviour and King. And what +do we do with them? 'They all, with one consent, began to make +excuse.' + +One hears of barbarous people that have no use for the gold that +abounds in their country, and do not think it half as valuable as +glass beads. That is how men estimate the true and the trumpery +treasures which Christ and the world offer. I declare it seems to me +that, calmly looking at men's nature, and their duration, and then +thinking of the aims of the most of them, we should not be very far +wrong if we said an epidemic of insanity sits upon the world. For +surely to turn away from the gold and to hug the glass beads is very +little short of madness. 'This their way is their folly, and their +posterity approve their sayings.' + +And now notice that this refusal may be, and often in fact is, +accompanied with lip recognition of the preciousness of the +neglected things. That Pharisee who put up the pillow of his pious +sentiment--a piece of cant, because he did not feel what he was +saying--to deaden the cannon-ball of Christ's word, is only a +pattern of a good many of us who think that to say, 'Blessed is he +that eateth bread in the Kingdom of God,' with the proper unctuous +roll of the voice, is pretty nearly as good as to take the bread +that is offered to us. There are no more difficult people to get at +than the people, of whom I am sure I have some specimens before me +now, who bow their heads in assent to the word of the Gospel, and by +bowing them escape its impact, and let it whistle harmlessly over. +You that believe every word that I or my brethren preach, and never +dream of letting it affect your conduct--if there be degrees in that +lunatic asylum of the world, surely you are candidates for the +highest place. + +II. Now, secondly, notice the flimsy excuses. + +'They all, with one consent, began.' I do not suppose that they had +laid their heads together, or that our Lord intends us to suppose +that there was a conspiracy and concert of refusal, but only that +without any previous consultation, all had the same sentiments, and +offered substantially the same answer. All the reasons that are +given come to one and the same thing--viz. occupation with present +interests, duties, possessions, or affections. There are differences +in the excuses which are not only helps to the vividness of the +narrative, but also express differences in the speakers. One man is +a shade politer than the others. He puts his refusal on the ground +of necessity. He 'must,' and so he courteously prays that he may be +held excused. The second one is not quite so polite; but still there +is a touch of courtesy about him too. He does not pretend necessity +as his friend had done, but he simply says, 'I _am_ going'; and +that is not quite so courteous as the former answer, but still he +begs to be excused. The last man thinks that he has such an +undeniable reason that he may be as brusque as he likes, and so he +says, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come' and I do +not make any apologies. So with varying degrees of apparent +recognition of the claims of host and feast, the ground of refusal +is set forth as possessions in two cases, and as affections in the +third; and these so fill the men's hearts and minds that they have +no time to attend to the call that summons them to the feast. + +Now it is obvious to note that the alleged necessity in one of these +excuses was no necessity at all. Who made the 'must'? The man himself. +The field would not run away though he waited till to-morrow. The +bargain was finished, for he had bought it. There was no necessity +for his going, and the next day would have done quite as well as +to-day; so the 'must' was entirely in his own mind. That is to say, +a great many of us mask inclinations under the garb of imperative +duties and say, 'We are so pressed by necessary obligations and +engagements that we really have not got any time to attend to these +higher questions which you are trying to press upon us.' You remember +the old story. 'I must live,' said the thief. 'I do not see the +necessity,' said the judge. A man says, 'I _must_ be at business +to-morrow morning at half-past eight. How can I think about religion?' +Well, if you really _must_, you _can_ think about it. But if you +are only juggling and deceiving yourself with inclinations that pose as +necessities, the sooner the veil is off the better, and you understand +whereabouts you are, and what is your true position in reference to the +Gospel of Jesus Christ. + +But then let me, only in a word, remind you that the other side of +the excuse is a very operative one. 'I have married a wife, and +therefore I cannot come.' There are some of us around whom the +strong grasp of earthly affections is flung so embracingly and +sweetly that we cannot, as we think, turn our loves upward and fix +them upon God. Fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, parents and +children, remember Christ's deep words, 'A man's foes shall be they +of his own household'; and be sure that the prediction is fulfilled +many a time by the hindrances of their love even more than by the +opposition of their hatred. + +All these excuses refer to legitimate things. It is perfectly right +that the man should go and see after his field, perfectly right that +the ten bullocks should be harnessed and tried, perfectly right that +the sweetness of wedded love should be tasted and drunk, perfectly +wrong that any of them should be put as a reason for not accepting +Christ's offer. Let us take the lesson that legitimate business and +lawful and pure affections may ruin a soul, and may constitute the +hindrance that blocks its road to God. + +Brethren, I said that these were flimsy excuses. I shall have to +explain what I mean by that in a moment. As excuses they are flimsy; +but as reasons which actually operate with hundreds of people, +preventing them from being Christians, they are not flimsy; they are +most solid and real. Our Lord does not mean them as exhaustive. +There are a great many other grounds upon which different types of +character turn away from the offered blessings of the Gospel, which +do not come within view of the parable. But although not exhaustive +they are widely operative. I wonder how many men and women there are +listening to me now of whom it is true that they are so busy with +their daily occupations that they have not time to be religious, and +of how many men, and perhaps more especially women, among us at this +moment it is true that their hearts are so ensnared with loves that +belong to earth--beautiful and potentially sacred and elevating as +these are--that they have not time to turn themselves to the one +eternal Lover of their souls. Let me beseech you, dear friends--and +you especially who are strangers to this place and to my voice--to +do what I cannot, and would not if I could, lay these thoughts on +your own hearts, and ask yourselves, 'Is it I?' + +And then before I pass from this point of my discourse, remember +that the contrariety between these duties and the acceptance of the +offered feast existed only in the imagination of the men that made +them. There is no reason why you should not go to the feast and see +after your field. There is no reason why you should not love your +wife and go to the feast. God's summons comes into collision with +many wishes, but with no duties or legitimate occupations. The more +a man accepts and lives upon the good that Jesus Christ spreads +before him, the more fit will he be for all his work, and for all +his enjoyments. The field will be better tilled, the bullocks will +be better driven, the wife will be more wisely, tenderly, and +sacredly loved if in your hearts Christ is enthroned, and whatsoever +you do you do as for Him. It is only the excessive and abusive +possession of His gifts and absorption in our duties and relations +that turns them into impediments in the path of our Christian life. +And the flimsiness of the excuse is manifest by the fact that the +contrarity is self-created. + +III. Lastly, note the real reason. + +I have said that as pretexts the three explanations were +unsatisfactory. When a man pleads a previous engagement as a reason +for not accepting an invitation, nine times out of ten it is a +polite way of saying, 'I do not want to go.' It was so in this case. +How all these absolute impossibilities, which made it perfectly out +of the question that the three recreants should sit down at the +table, would have melted into thin air if, by any chance, there had +come into their minds a wish to be there! They would have found +means to look after the field and the cattle and the home, and to be +in their places notwithstanding, if they had wanted. The real reason +that underlies men's turning away from Christ's offer is, as I said +in the beginning of my remarks, that they do not care to have it. +They have no inclinations and no tastes for the higher and purer +blessings. + +Brother, do not let us lose ourselves in generalities. I am talking +about you, and about the set of your inclinations and tastes. And I +want you to ask yourself whether it is not a fact that some of you +like oxen better than God; whether it is not a fact that if the two +were there before you, you would rather have a good big field made +over to you than have the food that is spread upon that table. + +Well then what is the cause of the perverted inclination? Why is it +that when Christ says, 'Child, come to Me, and I will give thee +pardon, peace, purity, power, hope, Heaven, Myself,' there is no +responsive desire kindled in the heart? Why do I not want God? Why +do I not care for Jesus Christ? Why do the blessings about which +preachers are perpetually talking seem to me so shadowy, so remote +from anything that I need, so ill-fitting to anything that I desire? +There must be something very deeply wrong. This is what is wrong, +your heart has shaken itself loose from dependence upon God; and you +have no love as you ought to have for Him. You prefer to stand +alone. The prodigal son, having gone away into the far country, +likes the swine's husks better than the bread in his father's house, +and it is only when the supply of the latter coarse dainty gives out +that the purer taste becomes strong. Strange, is it not? but yet it +is true. + +Now there are one or two things that I want to say about this +indifference, resulting from preoccupation and from alienation, and +which hides its ugliness behind all manner of flimsy excuses. One is +that the reason itself is utterly unreasonable. I have said the true +reason is indifference. Can anybody put into words which do not +betray the absurdity of the position, the conduct of the man who +says, 'I do not want God; give me five yoke of oxen. That is the +real good, and I will stick by that.' There is one mystery in the +world, and if it were solved everything would be solved; and that +mystery is that men turn away from God and cleave to earth. No +account can be given of sin. No account can be given of man's +preference for the lesser and the lower; and neglect of the greater +and the higher, except to say it is utterly inexplicable and +unreasonable. + +I need not say such indifference is shameful ingratitude to the +yearning love which provides, and the infinite sacrifice by which +was provided, this great feast to which we are asked. It cost Christ +pains, and tears, and blood, to prepare that feast, and He looks to +us, and says to us, 'Come and drink of the wine which I have +mingled, and eat of the bread which I have provided at such a cost.' +There are monsters of ingratitude, but there are none more +miraculously monstrous than the men who look, as some of us are +doing, untouched on Christ's sacrifice, and listen unmoved to +Christ's pleadings. + +The excuses will disappear one day. We can trick our consciences; we +can put off the messengers; we cannot deceive the Host. All the thin +curtains that we weave to veil the naked ugliness of our +unwillingness to accept Christ will be burnt up one day. And I pray +you to ask yourselves, 'What shall I say when He comes and asks me, +"Why was thy place empty at My table"?' 'And he was speechless.' Do +not, dear brethren, refuse that gift, lest you bring upon yourselves +the terrible and righteous wrath of the Host whose invitation you +are slighting, and at whose table you are refusing to sit. + + + + +THE RASH BUILDER + + + 'Which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not + down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have + sufficient to finish it?'--LUKE xiv. 28. + +Christ sought for no recruits under false pretences, but rather +discouraged than stimulated light-hearted adhesion. His constant +effort was to sift the crowds that gathered round Him. So here great +multitudes are following Him, and how does He welcome them? Does He +lay Himself out to attract them? Luke tells us that He _turned_ +and faced the following multitude; and then, with a steady hand, +drenched with cold water the too easily kindled flame. Was that +because He did not wish them to follow Him? He desired every soul in +that crowd for His own, and He knew that the best way to attract is +sometimes to repel; and that a plain statement of the painful +consequences of a course will quench no genuine enthusiasm, but may +turn a mere flash in the pan into a purpose that will flame through +a life. + +So our Lord lays down in stringent words the law of discipleship as +being self-sacrifice; the abandonment of the dearest, and the +acceptance of the most painful. And then He illustrates the law by +these two expanded similes or condensed parables, of the rash +builder and the rash soldier. Each contains a side of the Christian +life, and represents one phase of what a true disciple ought to be. +I wish to look with you now at the first of these two comparisons. + +I. Consider then, first, the building, or the true aim of +discipleship. + +The building of the tower represents what every human life ought to +aim at, the rearing up of a strong, solid structure in which the +builder may dwell and be at rest. + +But then remember we are always building, consciously or +unconsciously. By our transitory actions we are all rearing up a +house for our souls in which we have to dwell; building character +from out of the fleeting acts of conduct, which character we have to +carry with us for ever. Soft invertebrate animals secrete their own +shells. That is what we are doing-making character, which is the +shield of self, as it were; and in which we have to abide. + +My friend, what are you building? A prison; a mere garden-house of +lustful delights; or a temple fortress in which God may dwell +reverenced, and you may abide restful? Observe that whilst all men +are thus unconsciously and habitually rearing up a permanent abode +by their transient actions, every life that is better than a brute's +ought to have for its aim the building up of ourselves into firm +strength. The development of character is what we ought to ask from, +and to secure by, this fleeting life of ours. Not enjoyment; that is +a miserable aim. Not the satisfaction of earthly desires; not the +prosperity of our business or other ordinary avocations. The demand +that we should make upon life, and the aim which we should have +clearly before us in all that we do, is that it may contribute to +the formation of a pure and noble self, to the development of +character into that likeness to Jesus Christ, which is perfection +and peace and blessedness. + +And while that is true about all life, it is eminently true in +regard to the highest form of life, which is the Christian life. +There are dreadful mistakes and imperfections in the ordinary vulgar +conception of what a Christian is, and what he is a Christian for. +What do you think men and women are meant to be Christians for? That +they may get away from some material and outward hell? Possibly. +That they may get celestial happiness? Certainly. But are these the +main things? By no means. What people are meant to be Christians for +is that they may be shaped into the likeness of Jesus Christ; or to +go back to the metaphor of my text, the meaning and aim of Christian +discipleship is not happiness, but the building up of the tower in +which the man may dwell. + +Ah, friend; is that your notion of what a Christian is; and of what +he is a Christian for, to be like the Master? Alas! alas! how few of +us, honestly and continually and practically, lay to heart the +stringent and grand conception which underlies this metaphor of our +Lord's, who identifies the man that was thinking of being His +disciple with the man that sits down intending to build a tower. + +II. So, secondly, note the cost of the building, or the conditions +of discipleship. + +Building is an expensive amusement, as many a man who has gone +rashly in for bricks and mortar has found out to his cost. And the +most expensive of all sorts of building is the building up of +Christian character. That costs more than anything else, but there +are a number of other things less noble and desirable, which share +with it, to some extent, in the expenditure which it involves. + +Discipleship demands constant reference to the plan. A man that +lives as he likes, by impulse, by inclination, or ignobly yielding +to the pressure of circumstances and saying, 'I could not help +myself, I was carried away by the flood,' or 'Everybody round about +me is doing it, and I could not be singular'--will never build +anything worth living in. It will be a born ruin--if I may so say. +There must be continual reference to the plan. That is to say, if a +man is to do anything worth doing, there must be a very clear marking +out to himself of what he means to secure by life, and a keeping of +the aim continually before him as his guide and his pole-star. Did +you ever see the pretty architect's plans, that were all so white and +neat when they came out of his office, after the masons have done with +them-all thumb-marked and dirty? I wonder if your Bibles are like +that? Do we refer to the standard of conduct with anything like the +continual checking of our work by the architect's intention, which +every man who builds anything that will stand is obliged to practise? +Consult your plan, the pattern of your Master, the words of your +Redeemer, the gospel of your God, the voice of judgment and conscience, +and get into the habit of living, not like a vegetable, upon what +happens to be nearest its roots, nor like a brute, by the impulses of +the unreasoning nature, but clear above these put the understanding, +and high above that put the conscience, and above them all put the +will of the Lord. Consult your plan if you want to build your tower. + +Then, further, another condition is continuous effort. You cannot +'rush' the building of a great edifice. You have to wait till the +foundations get consolidated, and then by a separate effort every +stone has to be laid in its bed and out of the builder's hands. So +by slow degrees, with continuity of effort, the building rises. + +Now there has been a great deal of what I humbly venture to call +one-sidedness talked about the way by which Christian character is +to be developed and perfected. And one set of the New Testament +metaphors upon that subject has been pressed to the exclusion of the +others, and the effortless growth of the plant has been presented as +if it were the complete example of Christian progress. I know that +Jesus Christ has said: 'First the blade, then the ear; after that +the full corn in the ear.' But I know that He has also said, 'Which +of you, intending to build a tower'--and that involves the idea of +effort; and that He has further said, 'Or what king, going to make +war against another king'--and that involves the idea of antagonism +and conflict. And so, on the whole, I lay it down that this is one +of the conditions of building the tower, that the energy of the +builder should never slacken, but, with continual renewal of effort, +he should rear his life's building. + +And then, still further, there is the fundamental condition of all; +and that is, self-surrender. Our Lord lays this down in the most +stringent terms in the words before my text, where He points to two +directions in which that spirit is required to manifest itself. One +is detachment from persons that are dearest, and even from one's own +selfish life; the other is the acceptance of things that are most +contrary to one's inclinations, against the grain, painful and hard +to bear. And so we may combine these two in this statement: If any +man is going to build a Christlike life he will have to detach +himself from surrounding things and dear ones, and to crucify self +by suppression of the lower nature and the endurance of evils. The +preceding parable which is connected in subject with the text, the +story of the great supper, and the excuses made for not coming to +it, represents two-thirds of the refusals as arising from the undue +love for, and regard to, earthly possessions, and the remaining +third as arising from the undue love to, and regard for, the +legitimate objects of affection. And these are the two chords that +hold most of us most tightly. It is not Christianity alone, dear +brethren, that says that if you want to do anything worth doing, you +must detach yourself from outward wealth. It is not Christianity +alone that says that, if you want to build up a noble life, you must +not let earthly love dominate and absorb your energy; but it is +Christianity that says so most emphatically, and that has best +reason to say so. + +Concentration is the secret of all excellence. If the river is to +have any scour in it that will sweep away pollution and corruption, +it must not go winding and lingering in many curves, howsoever +flowery may be the banks, nor spreading over a broad bed, but you +must straighten it up and make it deep that it may run strong. And +if you will diffuse yourself all over these poor, wretched worldly +goods, or even let the rush of your heart's outflow go in the +direction of father and mother, wife and children, brethren and +sisters, forgetting Him, then you will never come to any good nor be +of use in this world. But if you want to be Christians after +Christ's pattern, remember that the price of the building is rigidly +to sacrifice self, 'to scorn delights and live laborious days,' and +to keep all vagrant desires and purposes within rigid limits, and +absolutely subordinated to Himself. + +On the other hand, there is to be the acceptance of what is painful +to the lower nature. Unpleasant consequences of duty have to be +borne, and the lower self, with its appetites and desires, has to be +crucified. The vine must be mercilessly pruned in tendrils, leaves, +and branches even, though the rich sap may seem to bleed away to +waste, if we are to grow precious grapes out of which may be +expressed the wine of the Kingdom. We must be dead to much if we are +to be alive to anything worth living for. + +Now remember that Christ's demand of self-surrender, self-sacrifice, +continuous effort, rigid limitation, does not come from any mere +false asceticism, but is inevitable in the very nature of the case, +and is made also by all worthy work. How much every one of us has +had to shear off our lives, how many tastes we have had to allow to +go ungratified, how many capacities undeveloped, in how many +directions we have had to hedge up our way, and not do, or be this, +that, or the other; if we have ever done anything in any direction +worthy the doing! Concentration and voluntary limitation, in order +to fix all powers on the supreme aim which judgment and conscience +have enjoined is the condition of all excellence, of all sanity of +living, and eminently of all Christian discipleship. + +III. Further, note the failures. + +The tower of the rash builder stands a gaunt, staring ruin. + +Whosoever throws himself upon great undertakings or high aims, +without a deliberate forecast of the difficulties and sacrifices +they involve, is sure to stop almost before he has begun. Many a man +and woman leaves the starting-point with a rush, as if they were +going to be at the goal presently, and before they have run fifty +yards turn aside and quietly walk out of the course. I wonder how +many of you began, when you were lads or girls, to study some +language, and stuck before you had got through twenty pages of the +grammar, or to learn some art, and have still got the tools lying +unused in a dusty corner. And how many of you who call yourselves +Christians began in the same fashion long ago to run the race? 'Ye +did run well.' What did hinder you? What hindered Atalanta? The +golden apples that were flung down on the path. Oh, the Church is +full of these abortive Christians; ruins from their beginning, +standing gaunt and windowless, the ground-plan a great palace, the +reality a hovel that has not risen a foot for the last ten years. I +wonder if there are any stunted Christians of that sort in this +congregation before me, who began under the influence of some +impulse or emotion, genuine enough, no doubt, but who had taken no +account of how much it would cost to finish the building. And so the +building is not finished, and never will be. + +But I should remark here that what I am speaking about as failure is +not incomplete attainment of the aim. For all our lives have to +confess that they incompletely attain their aim; and lofty aims, +imperfectly realised, and still maintained, are the very salt of +life, and beautiful 'as the new moon with a ragged edge, e'en in its +imperfection beautiful.' Paul was an old man and an advanced +Christian when he said, 'Not as though I had already attained, +either were already perfect, but I follow after.' And the highest +completeness to which the Christian builder can reach in this life +is the partial accomplishment of his aim and the persistent +adherence to and aspiration after the unaccomplished aim. It is not +these incomplete but progressive and aspiring lives that are +failures, but it is the lives of men who have abandoned high aims, +and have almost forgotten that they ever cherished them. + +And what does our Lord say about such? That everybody laughs at +them. It is not more than they deserve. An out-and-out Christian +will often be disliked, but if he is made a mock of there will be a +_soupçon_ of awe and respect even in the mockery. Half-and-half +Christians get, and richly deserve, the curled lip and sarcasm of a +world that knows when a man is in earnest, and knows when he is an +incarnate sham. + +IV. Lastly, I would have you observe the inviting encouragement +hidden in the apparent repelling warning. + +If we read my text isolated, it may seem as if the only lesson that +our Lord meant to be drawn from it was a counsel of despair. 'Unless +you feel quite sure that you can finish, you had better not begin.' +Is that what He meant to say? I think not. He did mean to say, 'Do +not begin without opening your eyes to what is involved in the +beginning.' But suppose a man had taken His advice, had listened to +the terms, and had said, 'I cannot keep them, and I am going to +fling all up, and not try any more'--is that what Jesus Christ +wanted to bring him to? Surely not. And that it is not so arises +plainly enough from the observation that this parable and the +succeeding one are both sealed up, as it were, with 'So likewise, +whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he +cannot be My disciple.' + +Now, if I may so say, there are two kinds of 'forsaking all that we +have.' One is the forsaking by which we become disciples; and the +other the forsaking by which we continue true disciples. The +conviction that they had not sufficient to finish is the very +conviction that Christ wished to root in the minds of the crowds. +He exhibits the difficulties in order that they may feel they cannot +cope with them. What then? That they may 'forsake' all their own +power to cope with them. + +That is the first kind of 'forsaking all that we have.' That makes a +disciple. The recognition of my own utter impotence to do the things +which yet I see must be done, is the underside of trust in Him. And +that trust in Him brings the power that makes it possible for us to +do the things which we cannot of ourselves do, and the consciousness +of the impotence to do which is the first step toward doing them. It +is the self-sufficient man who is sure to be bankrupt before he has +finished his building; but he who has no confidence in himself, and +recognises the fact that he cannot build, will go to Jesus Christ +and say, 'Lord, I am poor and needy. Come Thou Thyself and be my +strength.' Such a forsaking of all that we have in the recognition +of our own poverty and powerlessness brings into the field an Ally +for our reinforcement that has more than the twenty thousand that +are coming against us, and will make us strong. + +And then, if, knowing our weakness, our misery, our poverty, and +cleaving to Jesus Christ in simple confidence in His divine power +breathed into our weakness, and His abundant riches lavished upon +our poverty, we cast ourselves into the work to which He calls us by +His grace, then we shall find that the sweet and certain assurance +that we have Him for the possession and the treasure of our lives +will make parting with everything else, not painful, but natural and +necessary and a joy, as the expression of our supreme love to Him. +It should not, and would not be difficult to fling away paste gems +and false riches if our hands were filled with the jewels that +Christ bestows. And it will not be difficult to slay the old man +when the new Christ lives in us, by our faith and submission. + +So, dear brethren, it all comes to this. We are all builders; what +kind of a work is your life's work going to turn out? Are you +building on the foundation, taking Jesus Christ for the anchor of +your hope, for the basis of your belief, for the crown of your aims, +for your all and in all? Are you building upon Him? If so, then the +building will stand when the storm comes and the 'hail sweeps away +the refuges' that other men have built elsewhere. But are you +building on that foundation the gold of self-denial, the silver of +white purity, the precious stones of variously-coloured and +Christlike virtues? Then your work will indeed be incomplete, but +its very incompleteness will be a prophecy of the time when 'the +headstone shall be brought forth with shoutings'; and you may humbly +trust that the day which 'declares every man's work of what sort it +is' will not destroy yours, but that it will gleam and flash in the +light of the revealing and reflecting fires. See to it that you are +building _for_ eternity, _on_ the foundation, _with_ the fair stones +which Jesus Christ gives to all those who let Him shape their lives. He +is at once, Architect, Material, Foundation; and in Him 'every several +building fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord.' + + + + +'THAT WHICH WAS LOST' + + + 'An hundred sheep ... ten pieces of silver,... two + sons.'--LUKE XV. 4,8,11. + +The immediate occasion of these three inimitable parables, which have +found their way to the heart of the world, needs to be remembered in +order to grasp their import and importance. They are intended to +vindicate Christ's conduct in associating with outcasts and +disreputable persons whom His Pharisaical critics thought a great +deal too foul to be touched by clean hands. They were not meant to +set forth with anything like completeness either what wanderers had +to do to go back to God, or what God had done to bring wanderers back +to Himself. If this had been remembered, many misconceptions, +widespread and mischievous, especially affecting the meaning of the +last of the three parables--that of the Prodigal Son--would have been +avoided. The purpose of the parables accounts for Christ's accepting +the division which His antagonists made of men, into 'righteous,' like +themselves, and 'unclean,' like the publicans and sinners. There was a +far deeper truth to be spoken about the condition of humanity than +that. But for the purposes of His argument Christ passes it by. The +remembrance of the intention of the parables explains their +incompleteness as a statement of what people call 'the way of +salvation.' They were not meant to teach us that, but they were meant +to show us that a human instinct which prizes lost things because they +are lost has something corresponding to it in the divine nature, and +so to vindicate the conduct of Christ. + +I venture to isolate these three statements of the subjects of the +parables, because I think that looking at the threefold aspect in +which the one general thought is presented may help us to some +useful considerations. + +I. I ask you, then, to look with me, first, at the varying causes of +loss. + +The sheep was lost, the _drachma_ was lost, the son was lost. +But in each case the reason for the loss was different. Whilst I +would avoid all fanciful inserting into our Lord's words of more +than they can fairly bear, I would also avoid superficial evacuating +them of any of their depth of significance. So I think it is not +unintentional nor unimportant that in these three metaphors there +are set forth three obviously distinct operative causes for man's +departure from God. + +The sheep did not intend to go anywhere, either to keep with or to +leave the shepherd. It simply knew that grass was sweet, and that +there, ahead of it, was another tuft, and it went after that. So it +nibbled itself away out of the path, out of the shepherd's care, out +of the flock's companionship. It was heedless; and therefore it was +lost. + +Now that is a fair statement of facts in regard to thousands of men, +of whom I have no doubt there are some listening to me now. They do +not intend any mischief, they have no purpose of rebellion or +transgression, but they live what we call animal lives. The sheep +knows only where the herbage is abundant and fresh: and it goes +there. An animal has no foresight, and is the happier because it +cannot look before and after. It has only a rudimentary conscience, +if it has that. Its inclinations are restrained by no sense of +obligation. Many men live just so, without restraint upon appetite, +without checking of inclination, without foresight except of the +material good which a certain course of conduct may get. So, all +unwitting, meaning no mischief, they wander further and further from +the right road, and find themselves at last in a waterless desert. + +Dear friends, am I speaking to any now who have too much yielded to +inclinations, who have been unwilling to look forward to the end, +and ask themselves what all will come to at the last, and who +scarcely know what it is to take heed unto their ways, except in so +far as worldly prudence may dictate certain courses of conduct for +the purpose of securing certain worldly and perishable ends? I would +plead, especially with the younger portion of my congregation, to +take the touching picture of this first parable as a solemn prophecy +of what certainly befalls every man who sets out upon his path +without careful consideration of whither it leads to at the last; +and who lives for the present, in any of its forms, and who lets +himself be led by inclinations or appetites. The animal does so, +and, as a rule, its instincts are its sufficient guide. But you and +I are blessed or cursed, as the case may be, with higher powers, +which, if we do not use, we shall certainly land in the desert. If a +man who is meant to guide himself by intelligence, reason, will, +foresight, conscience, chooses to go down to the level of the beast, +the faculties that serve the beast will not serve the man. And even +the sheep is lost from the flock if it yields only to these. + +But how it speaks of the Lord's tender sympathy for the wanderers +that He should put in the forefront of the parables this explanation +of the condition of men, and should not at first charge it upon them +as sin, but only as heedlessness and folly! There is much that in +itself is wrong and undesirable, the criminality of which is +diminished by the fact that it was heedlessly done, though the +heedlessness itself is a crime. + +Now turn to the second parable. The coin was heavy, so it fell; it +was round, so it rolled; it was dead, so it lay. And there are +people who are things rather than persons, so entirely have they +given up their wills, and so absolutely do they let themselves be +determined by circumstances. It was not the _drachma_ that lost +itself, but it was the law of gravitation that lost it, and it had +no power of resistance. This also is an explanation--partial, as I +shall have to show you in a moment, but still real,--of a great deal +of human wandering. There are masses of men who have no more power +to resist the pressure of circumstances and temptations than the +piece of silver had when it dropped from the woman's open palm and +trundled away into some dark corner. That lightens the darkness of +much of the world's sin. + +But for you to abnegate the right and power of resisting +circumstances is to abdicate the sovereignty with which God has +crowned you. All men are shaped by externals, but the shape which +the externals impose upon us is settled by ourselves. Here are two +men, for instance, exposed to precisely the same conditions: but one +of them yields, and is ruined; the other resists, and is raised and +strengthened. As Jesus Christ, so all things have a double +operation. They are 'either a savour of life unto life or a savour +of death unto death.' There is the stone. You may build upon it, or +you may stumble over it: you take your choice. Here is the adverse +circumstance. You may rule it, or you may let it rule you. +Circumstances and outward temptations are the fool's masters, and +the wise man's servants. It all depends on the set of the sail and +the firmness of the hand that grasps the tiller, which way the wind +shall carry the ship. The same breeze speeds vessels on directly +opposite courses, and so the same circumstances may drive men in two +contrary directions, sending the one further and further away from, +and drawing the other nearer and nearer to, the haven of their +hearts. + +Dear friends, as we have to guard against the animal life of +yielding to inclinations and inward impulse, of forgetting the +future, and of taking no heed to our paths, so, unless we wish to +ruin ourselves altogether, we have to fight against the mechanical +life which, with a minimum of volition, lets the world do with us +what it will. And sure I am that there are men and women in this +audience at this time who have let their lives be determined by +forces that have swept them away from God. + +In the third parable the foolish boy had no love to his father to +keep him from emigrating. He wanted to be his own master, and to get +away into a place where he thought he could sow his wild oats and no +news of it ever reach the father's house. He wanted to have the +fingering of the money, and to enjoy the sense of possession. And so +he went off on his unblessed road to the harlots and the swine's +trough. + +And _that_ is no parable; that is a picture. The other two were +parabolical representations; this is the thing itself. For +carelessness of the bonds that knit a heart to God; hardness of an +unresponsive heart unmelted by benefits; indifference to the +blessedness of living by a Father's side and beneath His eye; the +uprising of a desire of independence and the impatience of control; +the exercise of self will--these are causes of loss that underlie +the others of which I have been speaking, and which make for every +one of us the essential sinfulness of our sin. It is rebellion, and +it is rebellion against a Father's love. + +Now, notice, that whilst the other two that we have been speaking +about do partially explain the terrible fact that we go away from +God, their explanation is only partial, and this grimmer truth +underlies them. There are modern theories, as there were ancient +ones, that say: 'Oh! sin is a theological bugbear. There is not any +such thing. It is only indifference, ignorance, error.' And then +there are other theorists that say: 'Sin! There is no sin in +following natural laws and impulses. Circumstances shape men; +heredity shapes them. The notion that their actions are criminal is +a mere figment of an exploded superstition.' + +Yes! and down below the ignorance, and inadvertence, and error, and +heredity, and domination of externals, there lies the individual +choice in each case. The man knows--however he sophisticates +himself, or uses other people to provide him with sophistries--that +he need not have done that thing unless he had chosen to do it. You +cannot get beyond or argue away that consciousness. And so I say +that all these immoral teachings, which are very common to-day, omit +from the thing that they profess to analyse the very characteristic +element of it, which is, as our Lord taught us, not the following +inclination like a silly sheep; not the rolling away, in obedience +to natural law, like the drachma; but the rising up of a rebellious +will that desires a separation, and kicks against control, as in the +case of the son. + +So, dear friends, whilst I thankfully admit that much of the +darkness of human conduct may be lightened by the representations of +our two first parables, I cannot but feel that we have to leave to +God the determination in each case of how far these have diminished +individual criminality; and that we have to remember for ourselves +that our departure from God is not explicable unless we recognise +the fact that we have chosen rather to be away from Him than to be +with Him; and that we like better to have our goods at our own +disposal, and to live as it pleases ourselves. + +II. So note, secondly, the varying proportions of loss and +possession. + +A hundred sheep; ten drachmas; two sons. The loss in one case is 1 +per cent., a trifle; in the other case 10 per cent., more serious; +in the last case 50 per cent., heartbreaking. Now, I do not suppose +that our Lord intended any special significance to be attached to +these varying numbers. Rather they were simply suggested by the cast +of the parable in which they respectively occurred. A hundred sheep +is a fair average flock; ten pieces of silver are the modest hoard +of a poor woman; two sons are a family large enough to represent the +contrast which is necessary to the parable. But still we may +permissibly look at this varying proportion in order to see whether +it, too, cannot teach us something. + +It throws light upon the owner's care and pains in seeking. In one +aspect, these are set forth most strikingly by the parable in which +the thing lost bears the smallest proportion to the thing still +retained. The shepherd might well have said: 'One in a hundred does +not matter much. I have got the ninety and nine.' But he went to +look for it. But, in another aspect, the woman, of course, has a +more serious loss to face, and possibly seeks with more anxiety. And +when you come up to the last case, where half the household is +blotted out, as it were, then we can see the depth of anxiety and +pains and care which must necessarily follow. + +But beyond the consideration that the ascending proportion suggests +increasing pains and anxiety, there is another lesson, which seems +to me even more precious, and it is this, that it matters very +little to the loser how much he keeps, or what the worth of the lost +thing is. There is something in human nature which makes anything +that is lost precious by reason of its loss. Nobody can tell how +large a space a tree fills until it is felled. If you lose one tiny +stone out of a ring, or a bracelet, it makes a gap, and causes +annoyance altogether disproportionate to the lustre that it had when +it was there. A man loses a small portion of his fortune in some +unlucky speculation, and the loss annoys him a great deal more than +the possession solaced him, and he thinks more about the hundreds +that have vanished than about the thousands that remain. Men are +made so. It is a human instinct, that apart altogether from the +consideration of its intrinsic worth, and the proportion it bears to +that which is still possessed, the lost thing draws, and the loser +will take any pains to find it. + +So Christ says, When a woman will light a candle and sweep the house +and search diligently till she finds her lost sixpence (for the +drachma was worth little more), and will bring in all her neighbours +to rejoice with her, that is like God; and the human instinct which +prizes lost things, not because of their value, but because they are +lost, has something corresponding to it in the heart of the Majesty +of the heavens. It is Christ's vindication, of course, as I need not +remind you, of His own conduct. He says in effect, to these +Pharisees, 'You are finding fault with Me for doing what we all do. +I am only acting in accordance with a natural human instinct; and +when I thus act God Himself is acting in and through Me.' + +If I had time, I think I could show that this principle, brought out +in my texts, really sweeps away one of the difficulties which modern +science has to suggest against Evangelical Christianity. We hear it +said, 'How can you suppose that a speck of a world like this, amidst +all these flaming orbs that stud the infinite depths of the heavens, +is of so much importance in God's sight that His Son came down to +die for it?' The magnitude of the world, as compared with others, +has nothing to do with the question. God's action is determined by +its moral condition. If it be true that here is sin, which rends men +away from Him, and that so they are lost, then it is supremely +natural that all the miracles of the Christian revelation should +follow. The _rationale_ of the Incarnation lies in this, 'A +certain man had a hundred sheep.... One of them went astray ... and +He went into the wilderness and found it.' + +III. Now I meant to have said a word about the varying glimpses that +we have here, into God's claims upon us, and His heart. + +Ownership is the word that describes His relation to us in the first +two parables; love is the word that describes it in the third. But +the ownership melts into love, because God does not reckon that He +possesses men by natural right of creation or the like, unless they +yield their hearts to Him, and give themselves, by their own joyful +self-surrender, into His hands. But I must not be tempted to speak +upon that matter; only, before I close, let me point you to that +most blessed and heart-melting thought, that God accounts Himself to +have lost something when a man goes away from Him. + +That word 'the lost' has another, and in some senses a more +tragical, significance in Scripture. The lost are lost to themselves +and to blessedness. The word implies destruction; but it also +carries with it this, that God prizes us, is glad to have us, and, I +was going to say, feels an incompleteness in His possessions when +men depart from Him. + +Oh, brethren, surely such a thought as that should melt us; and if, +as is certainly the case, we have strayed away from Him into green +pastures, which have ended in a wilderness, without a blade of +grass; or if we have rolled away from Him in passive submission to +circumstances; or if we have risen up in rebellion against Him, and +claimed our separate right of possession and use of the goods that +fall to us, if we would only think that He considers that He has +lost us, and prizes us because we are lost to Him, and wants to get +us back again, surely, surely it would draw us to Himself. Think of +the greatness of the love into which the ownership is merged, as +measured by the infinite price which He has paid to bring us back, +and let us all say, 'I will arise and go to my Father.' + + + + +THE PRODIGAL AND HIS FATHER + + + 'And He said, A certain man had two sons: 12. And the + younger of them said to his father, Father, give me + the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he + divided unto them his living. 13. And not many days + after the younger son gathered all together, and took + his journey into a far country, and there wasted his + substance with riotous living. 14. And when he had + spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; + and he began to be in want. 15. And he went and joined + himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him + into his fields to feed swine. 16. And he would fain + have filled his belly with the husks that the swine + did eat: and no man gave unto him. 17. And when he + came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of + my father's have bread enough, and to spare, and I + perish with hunger! 18. I will arise and go to my + father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned + against Heaven, and before thee, 19. And am no more + worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy + hired servants. 20. And he arose, and came to his + father. But when he was yet a great way off, his + father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell + on his neck, and kissed him. 21. And the son said unto + him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy + sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. + 22. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth + the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on + his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23. And bring hither + the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be + merry: 24. For this my son was dead, and is alive + again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to + be merry.'--LUKE xv. 11-24. + +The purpose of the three parables in this chapter has to be kept in +mind. Christ is vindicating His action in receiving sinners, which +had evoked the murmurings of the Pharisees. The first two parables, +those of the lost sheep and the lost drachma, appeal to the common +feeling which attaches more importance to lost property just because +it is lost than to that which is possessed safely. This parable +rises to a higher level. It appeals to the universal emotion of +fatherhood, which yearns over a wandering child just because he has +wandered. + +We note a further advance, in the proportion of one stray sheep to +the ninety-nine, and of one lost coin to the nine, contrasted with +the sad equality of obedience and disobedience in the two sons. One +per cent., ten per cent., are bearable losses, but fifty per cent. +is tragic. + +I. The first part (vs. 11-16) tells of the son's wish to be his own +master, and what came of it. The desire to be independent is good, +but when it can only be attained by being dependent on him whose +authority is irksome, it takes another colour. This foolish boy +wished to be able to use his father's property as his own, but he +had to get the father's consent first. It is a poor beginning of +independence when it has to be set up in business by a gift. + +That is the essential absurdity in our attempts to do without God +and to shake off His control. We can only get power to seem to do it +by misusing His gifts. When we say, 'Who is Lord over us?' the +tongues which say it were given us by Him. The next step soon +followed. 'Not many days after,' of course, for the sense of +ownership could not be kept up while near the father. A man who +wishes to enjoy worldly good without reference to God is obliged, in +self-defence, to hustle God out of his thoughts as soon and as +completely as possible. + +The 'far country' is easily reached; and it is far, though a step +can land us in it. A narrow bay may compel a long journey round its +head before those on its opposite shores can meet. Sin takes us far +away from God, and the root of all sin is that desire of living to +one's self which began the prodigal's evil course. + +The third step in his downward career, wasting his substance in riotous +living, comes naturally after the two others; for all self-centred life +is in deepest truth waste, and the special forms of gross dissipation +to which youth is tempted are only too apt to follow the first sense +of being their own masters, and removed from the safeguards of their +earthly father's home. Many a lad in our great cities goes through the +very stages of the parable, and, when a mother's eye is no longer on +him, plunges into filthy debauchery. But living which does not outrage +the proprieties may be riotous all the same; for all conduct which +ignores God and asserts self as supreme is flagrantly against the +very nature of man, and is reckless waste. + +Such a 'merry' life is sure to be 'short.' There is always famine in +the land of forgetfulness of God, and when the first gloss is off +its enjoyments, and one's substance is spent, its pinch is felt. The +unsatisfied hunger of heart, which dogs godless living, too often +leads but to deeper degradation and closer entanglement with low +satisfactions. Men madly plunge deeper into the mud in hope of +finding the pearl which has thus far eluded their search. + +A miserable thing this young fool had made of his venture, having +spent his capital, and now being forced to become a slave, and being +set to nothing better than to feed swine. The godless world is a +hard master, and has very odious tasks for its bondsmen. The unclean +animals are fit companions for one who made himself lower than they, +since filth is natural to them and shameful for him. They are better +off than he is, for husks do nourish them, and they get their fill, +but he who has sunk to longing for swine's food cannot get even +that. The dark picture is only too often verified in the experience +of godless men. + +II. The wastrel's returning sanity is described in verses 17-20_a_. +'He came to himself.' Then he had been beside himself before. It is +insanity to try to shake off God, to aim at independence, to wander +from Him, to fling away our 'substance,' that is, our true selves, +and to starve among the swine-troughs. He remembers the bountiful +housekeeping at home, as starving men dream of feasts, and he thinks +of himself with a kind of pity and amazement. + +There is no sign that his conscience smote him, or that his heart +woke in love to his father. His stomach, and it only, urged him to +go home. He did, indeed, feel that he had been wrong, and had +forfeited the right to be called a son, but he did not care much for +losing that name, or even for losing the love to which it had the +right, if only he could get as much to eat as one of the hired +servants, whose relation to the master was less close, and, in +patriarchal times, less happy, than that of slaves born in the +house. + +One good thing about the lad was that he did not let the grass grow +under his feet, but, as soon as he had made the resolution, began to +carry it into effect. The bane of many a resolve to go back to God +is that it is 'sicklied o'er' by procrastination. The ragged +prodigal has not much to leave which need hold him, but many such a +one says, 'I will arise and go to my father to-morrow,' and lets all +the to-morrows become yesterdays, and is sitting among the swine +still. + +Low as the prodigal's motive for return was, the fact of his return +was enough. So is it in regard to our attitude to the gospel. Men +may be drawn to give heed to its invitations from the instinct of +self-preservation, or from their sense of hungry need, and the +belief that in it they will find the food they crave for, while +there may be little consciousness of longing for more from the +Father than the satisfaction of felt wants. The longing for a place +in the Father's heart will spring up later, but the beginning of +most men's taking refuge in God as revealed in Christ is the gnawing +of a hungry heart. The call to all is, 'Ho, every one that +thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come +ye, buy, and eat.' + +III. The climax of the parable, for which all the rest is but as +scaffolding, is the father's welcome (vs. 20_b_-24). Filial +love may die in the son's heart, but paternal yearning lives in the +father's. The wanderer's heart would be likely to sink as he came +nearer the father's tent. It had seemed easy to go back when he +acted the scene in imagination, but every step homewards made the +reality more difficult. + +No doubt he hesitated when the old home came in sight, and perhaps +his resolution would have oozed out at his finger ends if he had had +to march up alone in his rags, and run the gauntlet of servants +before he came to speech with his father. So his father's seeing him +far off and running to meet him is exquisitely in keeping, as well +as movingly setting forth how God's love goes out to meet His +returning prodigals. That divine insight which discerns the first +motions towards return, that divine pity which we dare venture to +associate with His infinite love, that eager meeting the shamefaced +and slow-stepping boy half-way, and that kiss of welcome before one +word of penitence or request had been spoken, are all revelations of +the heart of God, and its outgoings to every wanderer who sets his +face to return. + +Beautifully does the father's welcome make the son's completion of +his rehearsed speech impossible. It does not prevent his expression +of penitence, for the more God's love is poured over us, the more we +feel our sin. But he had already been treated as a son, and could +not ask to be taken as a servant. Beautifully, too, the father gives +no verbal answer to the lad's confession, for his kiss had answered +it already; but he issues instructions to the servants which show +that the pair have now reached the home and entered it together. + +The gifts to the prodigal are probably significant. They not only +express in general the cordiality of the welcome, but seem to be +capable of specific interpretations, as representing various aspects +of the blessed results of return to God. The robe is the familiar +emblem of character. The prodigal son is treated like the high-priest +in Zechariah's vision; his rags are stripped off, and he is clothed +anew in a dress of honour. 'Them he also justified: and whom he +justified, them he also sanctified.' The ring is a token of wealth, +position, and honour. It is also a sign of delegated authority, and +is an ornament to the hand. So God gives His prodigals, when they +come back, an elevation which unforgiven beings do not reach, and +sets them to represent Him, and arrays them in strange beauty. No +doubt the lad had come back footsore and bleeding, and the shoes +may simply serve to keep up the naturalness of the story. But probably +they suggest equipment for the journey of life. That is one of the +gifts that accompany forgiveness. Our feet are shod with the +preparedness of the gospel of peace. + +Last of all comes the feast. Heaven keeps holiday when some poor +waif comes shrinking back to the Father. The prodigal had been +content to sink his sonship for the sake of a loaf, but he could not +get bread on such terms. He had to be forgiven and bathed in the +outflow of his father's love before he could be fed; and, being thus +received, he could not but be fed. The feast is for those who come +back penitently, and are received forgivingly, and endowed richly by +the Father in heaven. + + + + +GIFTS TO THE PRODIGAL + + + '... Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and + put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23. And + bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it....' + --LUKE XV. 22, 23. + +God's giving always follows His forgiving. It is not so with us. We +think ourselves very magnanimous when we pardon; and we seldom go on +to lavish favours where we have overlooked faults. Perhaps it is right +that men who have offended against men should earn restoration by acts, +and should have to ride quarantine, as it were, for a time. But I +question whether forgiveness is ever true which is not, like God's, +attended by large-hearted gifts. If pardon is only the non-infliction +of penalty, then it is natural enough that it should be considered +sufficient by itself, and that the evildoer should not be rewarded +for having been bad. But if pardon is the outflow of the love of the +offended to the offender, then it can scarcely be content with simply +giving the debtor his discharge, and turning him into the world +penniless. + +However that may be with regard to men, God's forgiveness is +essentially the communication of God's love to us sinners, as if we +had never sinned at all. And, that being so, that love cannot stay +its working until it has given all that it can bestow or we can +receive. God does not do things by halves; and He always gives when +He forgives. + +Now that is the great truth of the last part of this immortal +parable. And it is one of the points in which it differs from, and +towers high above, the two preceding ones. The lost sheep was +carried back to the pastures, turned loose there, needed no further +special care, and began to nibble as if nothing had happened. The +lost drachma was simply put back in the woman's purse. But the lost +son was pardoned, and, being pardoned, was capable of receiving, and +received, greater gifts than he had before. These gifts are very +remarkably detailed in the words of our text. + +Now, of course, it is always risky to seek for a spiritual +interpretation of every point in a parable, many of which points are +mere drapery. But, on the other hand, we may very easily fall into the +error of treating as insignificant details which really are meant to +be full of instruction. And I cannot help thinking--although many +would differ from me,--that this detailed enumeration of the gifts +to the prodigal is meant to be translated into the terms of spiritual +experience. So I desire to look at them as suggesting for us the +gifts of God which accompany forgiveness. I take the catalogue as +it stands--the Robe, the Ring, the Shoes, the Feast. + +I. First, the Robe. + +'Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him.' That was the +command. This detail, of course, like all the others, refers back +to, and casts light upon, the supposed condition of the spendthrift +when he came back. There he stood, ragged, with the stain of travel +and the stench of the pig-sty upon his garments, some of them, no +doubt, remains of the tawdry finery that he had worn in the world; +wine-spots, and stains, and filth of all sorts on the rags. The +father says, 'Take them all off him, and put the best robe upon +him.' What does that mean? + +Well, we all know the very familiar metaphor by which qualities of +mind, traits of character, and the like are described as being the +dress of the spirit. We talk about being 'arrayed in purity,' 'clad +in zeal,' 'clothed with humility,' 'vested with power,' and so on. +If we turn to Scripture, we find running through it a whole series +of instances of this metaphor, which guide us at once to its true +meaning. Zechariah saw in vision the high priest standing at the +heavenly tribunal, clad in filthy garments. A voice said, 'Take away +the filthy garments from him,' and the interpretation is added: +'Behold! I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will +clothe thee with a change of raiment.' You remember our Lord's +parable of the man with a wedding garment. You remember the Apostle +Paul's frequent use of the metaphor of 'putting off the old man, +putting on the new.' You remember, finally, the visions of the last +days, in which the Seer in Patmos saw the armies in heaven that +followed their victorious Commander, 'clothed in fine linen, white and +pure, which is the righteousness of the saints.' If we put all these +together, surely I am not forcing a meaning on a non-significant +detail, when I say that here we have shadowed for us the great thought, +that the result of the divine forgiveness coming upon a man is that he +is clothed with a character which fits him to sit down at his Father's +table. They tell us that forgiveness is impossible, because things +done must have their consequences, and that character is the slow +formation of actions, precipitated, as it were, from our deeds. That +is all true. But it does not conflict with this other truth that there +may and does come into men's hearts, when they set their faith on +Jesus Christ, a new power which transforms the nature and causes +old things to pass away. + +God's forgiveness revolutionises a life. Similar effects follow even +human pardons for small offences. Brute natures are held in by +penalties, and to them pardon means impunity, and impunity means +licence, and licence means lust. But wherever there is a heart with +love to the offended in it, there is nothing that will so fill it +with loathing of its past self as the assurance that the offended, +though loved, One loves, and is not offended, and that free +forgiveness has come. Whether is it the rod or the mother's kiss +that makes a child hate its sin most? And if we lift our thoughts to +Him, and think how He, up there in the heavens, + + 'Who mightest vengeance best have took,' + +bends over us in frank, free forgiveness, then surely that, more +than all punishments or threatenings or terrors, will cause us to +turn away from our evil, and to loathe the sins which are thus +forgiven. The prophet went very deep when he said, 'Thou shalt be +ashamed and confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of +thine iniquity, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou +hast done, saith the Lord.' + +But not only so, there is given along with forgiveness, and wrapped +up in it, a new power, which makes all things new, and changes a +man. It would be a poor Gospel for me to stand up and preach if I +had only to proclaim to men the divine forgiveness; and if that only +meant that hell's door was barred and some outward heaven was flung +open. But the true Gospel offers forgiveness as preliminary to the +bestowal of the highest gifts of God. The pardoned man is stripped +of his rags and clothed with a new nature which God Himself bestows. + +That is what we all need. We have not all been in the pig-sty; we +have not all fallen into gross sin. We _have_ all turned our +backs on our Father; we _have_ all wanted to be independent; we +_have_ all preferred the far-off land to being near home. And, +dear brethren, the character that you have made for yourselves +clings to you like the poisoned Nessus' shirt to Hercules. You +cannot strip it off. You may get part of it away, but you cannot +entirely cast it from your limbs, nor free yourselves from the +entanglements of its tatters. Go to God, and He will smile away your +sin, and His forgiving love will melt the stains and the evil, as +the sun this morning drank up the mists; and they who come knowing +themselves to be foul, and needing forgiveness, will surely receive +from Him 'the fine linen white and pure, the righteousness of +saints.' + +II. The Ring. + +This prodigal lad only wanted to be placed in the position of a +slave, but his father said, 'Put a ring on his finger.' The ring is +an emblem of wealth, position, honour; that is one signification of +this gift to the penitent. Still further, it is an ornament to the +hand on which it glistens; that is another. It is a sign of +delegated authority and of representative character; as when Joseph +was exalted to be the second man in Egypt, and Pharaoh's signet ring +was plucked off and placed upon his finger. All these thoughts are, +as it seems to me, clustered in, and fairly deducible from, this one +detail. + +Freedom, exaltation, dignity of position are expressed. And that +opens up a thought which needs to be set forth with many +reservations, and much guarding, but still is true--viz., that, by +the mercy and miraculous loving-kindness and quickening power of God +in the Gospel, it is possible that the lower a man falls the higher +he may rise. I know, of course, that it is better to be innocent +than to be cleansed. I know, and every man that looks into his own +heart knows, that forgiven sins may leave scars; that the memory may +be loaded with many a foul and many a painful remembrance; that the +fetters may be stricken off the limbs, but the marks of them, and +the way of walking that they compelled, may persist long after +deliverance. But I know, too, that redeemed men are higher in final +position than angels that never fell; and that, though it is too +much to say that the greater the sinner the greater the saint, it +still remains true that sin repented and forgiven may be, as it +were, an elevation upon which a man may stand to reach higher than, +apparently, he otherwise would in the divine life. + +And so, though I do not say to any man, Make the experiment; for, +indeed, the poorest of us has sins enough to get all the benefit out +of repentance and forgiveness which is included in them, yet, if +there is any man here--and I hope there is--saying to himself, +'I have got too low down ever to master this, that, or the other +evil; I have stained myself so foully that I cannot hope to have the +black marks erased,' I say to such; 'Remember that the man who ended +with a ring on his finger, honoured and dignified, was the man that +had herded with pigs, and stank, and all but rotted, with his +fleshly crimes.' And so nobody need doubt but that for him, however +low he has gone, and however far he has gone, there is restoration +possible to a higher dignity than the pure spirits that never +transgressed at any time God's commandment will ever attain; for he +who has within himself the experience of repentance, of pardon, and +who has come into living contact with Jesus Christ as Redeemer, can +teach angels how blessed it is to be a child of God. + +Nor less distinctly are the other two things which I have referred +to brought out in this metaphor. Not only is the ring the sign of +dignity, but it is also the sign of delegated authority and +representative character. God sets poor penitents to be His +witnesses in His world, and to do His work here. And a ring is an +ornament to the hand that wears it; which being translated is this: +where God gives pardon, He gives a strange beauty of character, to +which, if a man is true to himself, and to his Redeemer, he will +assuredly attain. There should be no lives so lovely, none that +flash with so many jewelled colours, as the lives of the men and +women who have learned what it is to be miserable, what it is to +repent, what it is to be forgiven. So, though our 'hands have been +full of blood,' as the prophet says, though they have dabbled in all +manner of pollution, though they have been the ready instruments of +many evil things, we may all hope that, cleansed and whitened, even +our hands will not want the lustre of that adornment which the +loving father clasped upon the fingers of his penitent boy. + +III. Further, 'Shoes on his feet.' + +No doubt he had come back barefooted and filthy and bleeding, and it +was needful for the 'keeping' of the narrative that this detail +should appear. But I think it is something more than drapery. + +Does it not speak to us of equipment for the walk of life? God +_does_ prepare men for future service, and for every step that +they have to take, by giving to them His forgiveness for all that +is past. The sense of the divine pardon will in itself fit a man, as +nothing else will, for running with patience the race that is set +before him. God does communicate, along with His forgiveness, to +every one who seeks it, actual power to 'travel on life's common way +in cheerful godliness'; and his feet are 'shod with the preparedness +of the gospel of peace.' + +Ah, brethren, life is a rough road for us all, and for those whose +faces are set towards duty, and God, and self-denial, it is +especially so, though there are many compensating circumstances. +There are places where sharp flints stick up in the path and cut the +feet. There are places where rocks jut out for us to stumble over. +There are all the trials and sorrows that necessarily attend upon +our daily lives, and which sometimes make us feel as if our path +were across heated ploughshares, and every step was a separate +agony. God will give us, if we go to Him for pardon, that which will +defend us against the pains and the sorrows of life. The bare foot +is cut by that which the shod foot tramples upon unconscious. + +There are foul places on all our paths, over which, when we pass, if +we have not something else than our own naked selves, we shall +certainly contract defilement. God will give to the penitent man, if +he will have it, that which will keep his feet from soil, even when +they walk amidst filth. And if, at any time, notwithstanding the +defence, some mud should stain the foot, and he that is washed needs +again to wash his feet, the Master, with the towel and the basin, +will not be far away. + +There are enemies and dangers in life. A very important part of the +equipment of the soldier in antiquity was the heavy boot, which +enabled him to stand fast, and resist the rush of the enemy. God +will give to the penitent man, if he will have it, that which will +set his foot upon a rock, 'and establish his goings,' and which +'will make him able to withstand in the evil day, and having done +all, to stand.' + +Brethren, defence, stability, shielding from pains, and protection +against evil are all included in this great promise, which each of +us may realise, if we will, for ourselves. + +IV. Lastly, the Feast. + +Now that comes into view in the parable, mainly as teaching us the +great truth that Heaven keeps holiday, when some poor waif comes +shrinking back to his Father. But I do not touch upon that truth +now, though it is the main significance of this last part of the +story. + +The prodigal was half starving, and the fatted calf was killed 'for +him,' as his ill-conditioned brother grumbled. Remember what it was +that drove him back--not his heart, nor his conscience, but his +stomach. He did not bethink himself to go back, because dormant +filial affection woke up, or because a sense that he had been wrong +stirred in him, but because he was hungry; and well he might be, +when 'the husks that the swine did eat' were luxuries beyond his +reach. Thank God for the teaching that even so low a motive as that +is accepted by God; and that, if a man goes back, even for no better +reason--as long as he does go back, he will be welcomed by the +Father. This poor boy was quite content to sink his sonship for the +sake of a loaf; and all that he wanted was to stay his hunger. So he +had to learn that he could not get bread on the terms that he +desired, and that what he wished most was not what he needed first. +He had to be forgiven and bathed in the outflow of his father's love +before he could be fed. And, being thus received, he could not fail +to be fed. So the message for us is, first, forgiveness, and then +every hunger of the heart satisfied; all desires met; every needful +nourishment communicated, and the true bread ours for ever, if we +choose to eat. 'The meek shall eat and be satisfied.' + +I need not draw the picture--that picture of which there are many +originals sitting in these pews before me--of the men that go for +ever roaming with a hungry heart, through all the regions of life +separate from God; and whether they seek their nourishment in the +garbage of the sty, or whether fastidiously they look for it in the +higher nutriment of mind and intellect and heart, still are +condemned to be unfilled. + +Brethren, 'Why do you spend your money for that ... which satisfies +not?' Here is the true way for all desires to be appeased. Go to God +in Jesus Christ for forgiveness, and then everything that you need +shall be yours. 'I counsel thee to buy of Me ... white raiment that +thou mayest be clothed.' 'He that eateth of this bread shall live +for ever.' + + + + +THE FOLLIES OF THE WISE + + + 'The children of this world are in their generation + wiser than the children of light.'--LUKE xvi. 8. + +The parable of which these words are the close is remarkable in that +it proposes a piece of deliberate roguery as, in some sort, a +pattern for Christian people. The steward's conduct was neither more +nor less than rascality, and yet, says Christ, 'Do like that!' + +The explanation is to be found mainly in the consideration that what +was faithless sacrifice of his master's interests, on the part of the +steward, is, in regard to the Christian man's use of earthly gifts, +the right employment of the possessions which have been entrusted to +him. But there is another vindication of the singular selection of +such conduct as an example, in the consideration that what is praised +is not the dishonesty, but the foresight, realisation of the facts of +the case, promptitude, wisdom of various kinds exhibited by the +steward. And so says our Lord--shutting out the consideration of ends, +and looking only for a moment at means,--the world can teach the +Church a great many lessons; and it would be well for the Church if +its members lived in the fashion in which the men of the world do. +There is eulogium here, a recognition of splendid qualities, +prostituted to low purposes; a recognition of wisdom in the adaptation +of means to an end; and a limitation of the recognition, because it is +only _in their generation_ that 'the children of this world are +wiser than the children of light.' + +I. So we may look, first, at these two classes, which our Lord +opposes here to one another. + +'The children of this world' would have, for their natural +antithesis, the children of another world. The 'children of light' +would have, for their natural antithesis, 'the children of +darkness.' But our Lord so orders His words as to suggest a double +antithesis, one member of which has to be supplied in each case, and +He would teach us that whoever the children of this world may be, +they are 'children of darkness'; and that the 'children of light' +are so, just because they are the children of another world than +this. Thus He limits His praise, because it is the sons of darkness +that, in a certain sense, are wiser than the enlightened ones. And +that is what makes the wonder and the inconsistency to which our +Lord is pointing. We can understand a man being a consistent, +thorough-paced fool all through. But men whose folly is so dashed +and streaked with wisdom, and others whose wisdom is so spotted and +blurred with folly, are the extraordinary paradoxes which experience +of life presents to us. + +The children of this world are of darkness; the children of light +are the children of another world. Now I need not spend more than a +sentence or two in further explaining these two antitheses. I do not +intend to vindicate them, or to vindicate our Lord's distinct +classification of men into these two halves. What does He mean by +the children of this world? The old Hebrew idiom, the children of +so-and-so, simply suggests persons who are so fully possessed and +saturated with a given quality, or who belong so entirely to a given +person, as that they are spoken of as if they stood to it, or to +him, in the relation of children to their parents. And a child of +this world is a man whose whole thoughts, aims, and objects of life +are limited and conditioned by this material present. But the word +which is employed here, translated rightly enough 'world,' is not +the same as that which is often used, especially in John's writings, +for the same idea. Although it conveys a similar idea, still it is +different. The characteristic quality of the visible and material +world which is set forth by the expression here employed is its +transiency. 'The children of this epoch' rather than 'of this world' +is the meaning of the phrase. And it suggests, not so much the +inadequacy of the material to satisfy the spiritual, as the absurdity +of a man fixing his hopes and limiting his aims and life-purpose +within the bounds of what is destined to fade and perish. Fleeting +wealth, fleeting honours, mortal loves, wisdom, and studies that pass +away with the passing away of the material; these, however elevating +some of them may be, however sweet some of them may be, however +needful all of them are in their places, are not the things to which +a man can safely lash his being, or entrust his happiness, or wisely +devote his life. And therefore the men who, ignoring the fact that +they live and the world passes, make themselves its slaves, and +itself their object, are convicted by the very fact of the +disproportion between the duration of themselves and of that which +is their aim, of being children of the darkness. + +Then we come to the other antithesis. The children of light are so +in the measure in which their lives are not dependent exclusively +upon, nor directed solely towards, the present order and condition +of things. If there be a _this,_ then there is a _that_. If there be an +age which is qualified as being present, then that implies that there +is an age or epoch which is yet to come. And that coming 'age' should +regulate the whole of our relations to that age which at present is. For +life is continuous, and the coming epoch is the outcome of the present. +As truly as 'the child is father of the man,' so truly is Eternity the +offspring of Time, and that which we are to-day determines that which +we shall be through the ages. He that recognises the relations of the +present and the future, who sees the small, limited things of the +moment running out into the dim eternity beyond, and the track +unbroken across the gulfs of death and the broad expanse of countless +years, and who therefore orders the little things here so as to secure +the great things yonder, he, and only he, who has made time the +'lackey to eternity,' and in his pursuit of the things seen and +temporal, regards them always in the light of things unseen and eternal, +is a child of light. + +II. The second consideration suggested here is the limited and +relative wisdom of the fools. + +The children of this world, who are the children of darkness, and +who at bottom are thoroughly unwise, considered relatively, 'are +wiser than the children of light.' The steward is the example. 'A +rogue is always'--as one of our thinkers puts it--'a roundabout +fool.' He would have been a much wiser man if he had been an +honester one; and, instead of tampering with his lord's goods, had +faithfully administered them. + +But, shutting out the consideration of the moral quality of his +action, look how much there was in it that was wise, prudent, and +worthy of praise. There were courage, fertility of resource, a clear +insight into what was the right thing to do. There was a wise +adaptation of means to an end. There was promptitude in carrying out +the wise means that suggested themselves to him. The design was bad. +Granted. We are not talking about goodness, but about cleverness. +So, very significantly, in the parable the person cheated cannot +help saying that the cheat was a clever one. The 'lord,' although he +had suffered by it, 'commended the unjust steward, because he had +done wisely.' + +Did you never know in Manchester some piece of sharp practice, about +which people said, 'Ah, well, he is a clever fellow,' and all but +condoned the immorality for the sake of the smartness? The lord and +the steward belong to the same level of character; and vulpine +sagacity, astuteness, and qualities which ensure success in material +things seem to both of them to be of the highest value. 'The children +of this world, _in their generation'_--but only in it--are wiser +than the children of light.' + +Now I draw a very simple, practical lesson, and it is just this, +that if Christian men, in their Christian lives, would practise the +virtues that the world practises, in pursuit of its shabby aims and +ends, their whole Christian character would be revolutionised. Why, +a boy will spend more pains in learning to whistle than half of you +do in trying to cultivate your Christian character. The secret of +success religiously is precisely the same as the secret of success +in ordinary things. Look at the splendid qualities that go to the +making of a successful housebreaker. Audacity, resource, secrecy, +promptitude, persistence, skill of hand, and a hundred others, are +put into play before a man can break into your back kitchen and +steal your goods. Look at the qualities that go to the making of a +successful amuser of people. Men will spend endless time and pains, +and devote concentration, persistence, self-denial, diligence, to +learning how to play upon some instrument, how to swing upon a +trapeze, how to twist themselves into abnormal contortions. Jugglers +and fiddlers, and circus-riders and dancers, and people of that sort +spend far more time upon efforts to perfect themselves in their +profession, than ninety-nine out of every hundred professing +Christians do to make themselves true followers of Jesus Christ. +They know that nothing is to be got without working for it, and +there is nothing to be got in the Christian life without working for +it any more than in any other. + +Shut out the end for a moment, and look at the means. From the ranks +of criminals, of amusers, and of the purely worldly men of business +that we come in contact with every day, we may get lessons that +ought to bring a blush to all our cheeks, when we think to ourselves +how a wealth of intellectual and moral qualities and virtues, such +as we do not bring to bear on our Christian lives, are by these men +employed in regard of their infinitely smaller pursuits. + +Oh, brethren! we ought to be our own rebukes, for it is not only +other people who show forth in other fields of life the virtues that +would make so much better Christians of us, if we used them in ours, +but that we ourselves carry within ourselves the condemning +contrast. Look at your daily life! Do you give anything like the +effort to grow in the knowledge of your Lord and Saviour, Jesus +Christ, that you do to make or maintain your position in the world? +When you are working side by side with the children of this world +for the same objects, you keep step with them, and are known to be +diligent in business as they are. When you pass into the church, +what do you do there? Are we not ice in one half of our lives, and +fire in the other? We may well lay to heart these solemn words of +our Lord, and take shame when we think that not only do the unwise, +who choose the world as their portion, put us to shame in their +self-denial, their earnestness, their absorption, their clear +insight into facts, their swiftness in availing themselves of every +opportunity, their persistence and their perseverance, but that we +rebuke ourselves because of the difference between the earnestness +with which we follow the things that are of this world, and the +languor of our pursuit after the things that are unseen and eternal. + +Of course the reasons for the contrast are easy enough to apprehend, +and I do not need to spend time upon them. The objects that so have +power to stimulate and to lash men into energy, continuously through +their lives, lie at hand, and a candle near will dim the sunshine +beyond. These objects appeal to sense, and such make a deeper +impression than things that are shown to the mind, as every picture-book +may prove to us. And we, in regard to the aims of our Christian life, +have to make a continual effort to bring and keep them before us, or +they are crowded out by the intrusive vulgarities and dazzling +brilliances of the present. And so it comes to pass that the men who +hunt after trifles that are to perish set examples to the men who say +that they are pursuing eternal realities. 'Go to the ant, thou sluggard, +consider her ways and be wise.' Go to the men of the world, thou +Christian, and do not let it be said that the devil's scholars are more +studious and earnest than Christ's disciples. + +III. Lastly, note the conclusive folly of the partially wise. + +'In their generation,' says Christ; and that is all that can be said, +The circle runs round its 360 degrees, and these people take a segment +of it, say forty-five degrees, and all the rest is as non-existent. If +I am to call a man a wise man out and out, there are two things that I +shall have to be satisfied about concerning him. The one is, what is +he aiming at? and the other, how does he aim at it? In regard to the +means, the men of the world bear the bell, and carry away the supremacy. +Let in the thought of the end, and things change. Two questions reduce +all the world's wisdom to stark, staring insanity. The first question +is, 'What are you doing it for?' And the second question is, 'And +suppose you get it, what then?' Nothing that cannot pass the barrier +of these two questions satisfactorily is other than madness, if taken +to be the aim of a man's life. You have to look at the end, and the +whole circumference of the circle of the human being, before you serve +out the epithets of 'wise' and 'foolish.' + +I need not dwell on the manifest folly of men who give their lives +to aims and ends of which I have already said that they are +disproportioned to the capacity of the pursuer. Look at yourselves, +brothers; these hearts of yours that need an infinite love for their +satisfaction, these active spirits of yours that can never be at +rest in creatural perfection; these troubled consciences of yours +that stir and moan inarticulately over unperceived wounds until they +are healed by Christ. How can any man with a heart and a will, and a +progressive spirit and intellect, find what he needs in anything +beneath the stars? 'Whose image and superscription hath it? They say +unto Him, Caesar's'; we say 'God's.' 'Render unto God the things +that are God's.' The man who makes anything but God his end and aim +is relatively wise and absolutely foolish. + +Let me remind you too, that the same sentence of folly passes, if we +consider the disproportion between the duration of the objects and +of him who makes them his aim. You live, and if you are a wise man, +your treasures will be of the kind that last as long as you. 'They +call their lands after their own name; they think that their houses +shall continue for ever. They go down into the dust. Their glory +shall not descend after them,' and, therefore, 'this, their way, is +their folly.' + +Brethren, all that I would say may be gathered into two words. Let +there be a proportion between your aims and your capacity. That +signifies, let God be your end. And let there be a correspondence +between your end and your means. That signifies, 'Thou shalt love +the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with +all thy strength, and with all thy mind.' Or else, when everything +comes to be squared up and settled, the epitaph on your gravestone +will deservedly be; 'Thou fool !' + + + + +TWO KINDS OF RICHES + + + 'He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful + also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is + unjust also in much. 11. If therefore ye have not been + faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to + your trust the true riches? 12. And if ye have not been + faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give + you that which is your own?'--LUKE xvi. 10-12. + +That is a very strange parable which precedes my text, in which our +Lord takes a piece of crafty dishonesty on the part of a steward who +had been embezzling his lord's money as in some sense an example for +us Christian people, There are other instances in which He does the +same thing, finding a soul of goodness in things evil, as, for +instance, in the parable of the Unjust Judge. Similar is the New +Testament treatment of war or slavery, both of which diabolical +things are taken as illustrations of what in the highest sphere are +noble and heavenly things. + +But having delivered the parable, our Lord seems, in the verses that +I have read, to anticipate the objection that the unfaithfulness of +the steward can never be an example for God's stewards; and in the +words before us, amongst other things, He says substantially this, +that whilst the steward's using his lord's wealth in order to help +his lord's debtors was a piece of knavery and unfaithfulness, in us +it is not unfaithfulness, but the very acme of faithfulness. In the +text we have the thought that there are two kinds of valuable things +in the world, a lower and a higher; that men may be very rich in +regard to the one, and very poor in regard to the other. In respect +to these, 'There is that maketh himself rich, and yet hath nothing; +there is that maketh himself poor, and yet hath great riches.' More +than that, the noblest use of the lower kind of possessions is to +secure the possession of the highest. And so He teaches us the +meaning of life, and of all that we have. + +Now, there are three things in these words to which I would turn +your attention--the two classes of treasure, the contrast of +qualities between these two, and the noblest use of the lower. + +I. The Two Classes of Treasure. + +Now, we shall make a great mistake if we narrow down the +interpretation of that word 'mammon' in the context (which is 'that +which is least,' etc., here) to be merely money. It covers the whole +ground of all possible external and material possessions, whatsoever +things a man can only have in outward seeming, whatsoever things +belong only to the region of sense and the present. All that is in +the world, in fact, is included in the one name. And you must widen +out your thoughts of what is referred to here in this prolonged +contrast which our Lord runs between the two sets of treasures, so +as to include, not only money, but all sorts of things that belong +to this sensuous and temporal scene. And, on the other hand, there +stands opposite to it, as included in, and meant by, that which is +'most,' 'that which is the true riches,' 'that which is your own'; +everything that holds of the unseen and spiritual, whether it be +treasures of intellect and lofty thought, or whether it be pure and +noble aims, or whether it be ideals of any kind, the ideals of art, +the aspirations of science, the lofty aims of the scholar and the +student--all these are included. And the very same standard of +excellence which declares that the treasures of a cultivated +intellect, of a pure mind, of a lofty purpose, are higher than the +utmost of material good, and that 'wisdom is better than rubies,' +the very same standard, when applied in another direction, declares +that above the treasures of the intellect and the taste are to be +ranked all the mystical and great blessings which are summoned up in +that mighty word salvation. And we must take a step further, for +neither the treasures of the intellect, the mind, and the heart, nor +the treasures of the spiritual life which salvation implies, can be +realised and reached unless a man possesses God. So in the deepest +analysis, and in the truest understanding of these two contrasted +classes of wealth you have but the old antithesis: the world--and +God. He that has God is rich, however poor he may be in reference to +the other category; and he that has Him not is poor, however rich he +may be. 'The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places,' says the +Psalmist; and 'I have a goodly heritage,' because he could also say, +'God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.' So there +is the antithesis, the things of time and sense, the whole mass of +them knit together on the one hand; the single God alone by Himself +on the other. Of these two classes of valuable things our Lord goes +on next to tell us the relative worth. For we have here + +II. The Contrast between the Two. + +That contrast is threefold, as you observe, 'that which is least.' +or, perhaps better, 'that which is very little.' and 'that which is +much.' That is a contrast in reference to degree. But degree is a +shallow word, which does not cover the whole ground, nor go down +to the depths. So our Lord comes next to a contrast in regard to +essential nature, 'the unrighteous mammon' and 'the true riches.' +But even these contrasts in degree and in kind do not exhaust all +the contrasts possible, for there is another, the contrast in +reference to the reality of our possession: 'that which is +another's'; 'that which is your own.' Let us, then, take these three +things, the contrast in degree, the contrast in kind, the contrast +in regard to real possession. + +First, then, and briefly, mental and spiritual and inward blessings, +salvation, God, are more than all externals. Our Lord gathers all +the conceivable treasures of earth, jewels and gold and dignities, +and scenes of sensuous delights, and everything that holds to the +visible and the temporal, and piles them into one scale, and then He +puts into the other the one name, God; and the pompous nothings fly +up and are nought, and have no weight at all. Is that not true? Does +it need any demonstration, any more talk about it? No! + +But then comes in sense and appeals to us, and says, 'You cannot get +beyond my judgment. These things are good.' Jesus Christ does not +say that they are not, but sense regards them as far better than +they are. They are near us, and a very small object near us, by the +laws of perspective, shuts out a mightier one beyond us. We in +Manchester live in a community which is largely based on, and +actuated and motived in its diligence by the lie that material good +is better than spiritual good, that it is better to be a rich man +and a successful merchant than to be a poor and humble and honest +student; that it is better to have a balance at your bankers than to +have great and pure and virginal thoughts in a clean heart; that a +man has done better for himself when he has made a fortune than when +he has God in his heart. And so we need, and God knows it was never +more needed in Manchester than to-day, that we should preach and +preach and preach, over and over again, this old-fashioned +threadbare truth, which is so threadbare and certain that it has +lost its power over the lives of many of us, that all that, at its +mightiest, is very little, and that this, at its least, is very +much. Dear brethren, you and I know how hard it is always, +especially how hard it is in business lives, to keep this as our +practical working faith. We say we believe, and then we go away and +live as if we believed the opposite. I beseech you listen to the +scale laid down by Him who knew all things in their measure and +degree, and let us settle it in our souls, and live as if we had +settled it, that it is better to be wise and good than to be rich +and prosperous, and that God is more than a universe of worlds, if +we have Him for our own. + +But to talk about a contrast in degree degrades the reality, for it +is no matter of difference of measurement, but it is a matter of +difference of kind. And so our Lord goes on to a deeper phase of the +contrast, when He pits against one another 'the unrighteous mammon' +and 'the true riches.' Now, there is some difficulty in that +contrast. The two significant terms do not seem to be precise +opposites, and possibly they are not intended to be logically +accurate counterparts of each other. But what is meant by 'the +unrighteous mammon'? I do not suppose that the ordinary explanation +of that verse is quite adequate. We usually suppose that by so +stigmatising the material good, He means to suggest how hard it is +to get it--and you all know that--and how hard it is to keep it, and +how hard it is to administer it, without in some measure falling +into the sin of unrighteousness. But whilst I dare say that may be +the signification intended, if we were to require that the word here +should be a full and correct antithesis to the other phrase, 'the +true riches,' we should need to suppose that 'unrighteous' here +meant that which falsely pretended to be what it was not. And so we +come to the contrast between the deceitfulness of earthly good and +the substantial reality of the heavenly. Will any fortune, even +though it goes into seven figures, save a man from the miseries, the +sorrows, the ills that flesh is heir to? Does a great estate make a +man feel less desolate when he stands by his wife's coffin? Will any +wealth 'minister to a mind diseased'? Will a mountain of material +good calm and satisfy a man's soul? You see faces just as +discontented, looking out of carriage windows, as you meet in the +street. 'Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.' There is no +proportion between abundance of external good of any kind and happy +hearts. We all know that the man who is rich is not happier than the +poor man. And I, for my part, believe that the raw material of +happiness is very equally distributed through the world, and that it +is altogether a hallucination by which a poor man thinks, 'If I were +wealthy like that other man, how different my life would be.' No, it +would not; you would be the same man. The rich man that fancies that +because he is rich he is 'better off,' as they say, than his poor +brother, and the poor man who thinks that he would be 'better off' +if he were richer than he is now, are the same man turned inside +out, so to speak; and common to both of them is that fallacy, that +wealth and material good contribute much to the real blessedness and +nobleness of the man who happens to own it. + +But then, perhaps, we have rather to regard this unrighteous mammon +as so designated from another point of view. You will remember that +all through the context our Lord has been insisting on the notion of +stewardship. And I take it that what He means here is to remind us +that whenever we claim any of our possessions, especially our +external ones, as our own, we thereby are guilty of defrauding both +God and man, and are unrighteous, and it is unrighteous thereby. +Stewardship is a word which describes our relation to all that we +have. Forget that, and then whatever you have becomes 'the +unrighteous mammon.' There is the point in which Christ's teaching +joins hands with a great deal of unchristian teaching in this +present day which is called Socialism and Communism. Christianity is +not communistic. It asserts as against other men your right of +property, but it limits that right by this, that if you interpret +your right of property to mean the right to 'do what you like with +your own,' ignoring your stewardship to God, and the right of your +fellows to share in what you have, then you are an unfaithful +steward, and your mammon is unrighteous. And that principle, the +true communism of Christianity, has to be worked into modern society +in a way that some of us do not dream of, before modern society will +be organised on Christian principles. These words of my text are no +toothless words which are merely intended to urge Christian people +on to a sentimental charity, and to a niggardly distribution of part +of their possessions: but they underlie the whole conception of +ownership, as the New Testament sets it forth. Wherever the +stewardship that we owe to God, and the participation that we owe to +men, are neglected in regard to anything that we have, there God's +good gifts are perverted and have become 'unrighteous mammon.' + +And, then, on the other hand, our Lord sets forth here the contrast +in regard to 'the true riches', which are such, inasmuch as they +really correspond to the idea of wealth being a true good to a man, +and making him rich to all the intents of bliss. He that has the +treasures of a pure mind, of a lofty aim, of a quiet conscience, of +a filled and satisfied and therefore calmed heart; he that has the +treasure of salvation; he that has the boundless wealth of God---he +has the bullion, while the poor rich people that have the material +good have the scrip of an insolvent company, which is worth no more +than the paper on which it is written. There are two currencies--one +solid metal, the other worthless paper. The one is 'true riches,' +and the other the 'unrighteous mammon.' + +Then there is a last contrast, and that is with regard to the +reality of our possession. On the one hand, that which I fondly call +my own is by our Lord stamped with the proprietor's mark, of +somebody else, 'that which is Another's.' It was His before He gave +it, it was His when He gave it, it is His after He has given it. My +name is never to be written on my property so as to erase the name +of the Owner. I am a steward; I am a trustee; it all belongs to Him. +That is one rendering of this word. But the phrase may perhaps point +in another direction. It may suggest how shadowy and unreal, as +being merely external, and how transitory is our ownership of wealth +and outward possessions. A man says, 'It is mine.' What does he mean +by that? It is not his own in any real sense. I get more good out of +a rich man's pictures, or estate, if I look at them with an eye that +loves them, than he does. The world belongs to the man that can +enjoy it and rightly use it. And the man that enjoys it and uses it +aright is the man who lives in God. Nothing is really yours except +that which has entered into the substance of your soul, and become +incorporated with your very being, so that, as in wool dyed in the +grain, the colour will never come out. What I am, that I have; what +I only have, that, in the deepest sense, I have not. 'Shrouds have +no pockets,' says the Spanish proverb. 'His glory will not descend +after him,' says the psalm. That is a poor possession which only is +outward whilst it lasts, and which ends so soon. But there is wealth +that comes into me. There are riches that cannot be parted from me. +I can make my own a great inheritance, which is wrought into the +very substance of my being, and will continue so inwrought, into +whatsoever worlds or states of existence any future may carry me. +So, and only so, is anything my own. Let these contrasts dominate +our lives. + +I see our space is gone; I must make this sermon a fragment, and +leave what I intended to have made the last part of it for possible +future consideration. Only let me press upon you in one closing word +this, that the durable riches are only found in God, and the riches +that can be found in God are brought to every one of us by Him 'in +whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' of goodness +and grace. If we will make ourselves poor, by consciousness of our +need, and turn with faith to Jesus, then we shall receive from Him +those riches which are greatest, which are true, which are our own +in that they pass into our very being, in that they were destined +for us from all eternity by the love of God; and in having them we +shall be rich indeed, and for ever. + + + + +THE GAINS OF THE FAITHFUL STEWARD + + + 'If ye have not been faithful in that which is another + man's, who shall give you that which is your own?' + --LUKE xvi. 12. + +In a recent sermon on this context I dealt mainly with the threefold +comparison which our Lord runs between the higher and the lower kind +of riches. The one is stigmatised as 'that which is least,' the +unrighteous mammon,' 'that which is another's'; whilst the higher is +magnified as being 'that which is most,' 'the true riches,' 'your +own.' What are these two classes? On the one hand stand all +possessions which, in and after possession, remain outside of a man, +which may survive whilst he perishes, or perish while he survives. +On the other hand are the riches which pass into him, and become +inseparable from him. Noble aims, high aspirations, pure thoughts, +treasures of wisdom, treasures of goodness--these are the real +wealth corresponding to man's nature, destined for his enrichment, +and to last with him for ever. But we may gather the whole contrast +into two words: the small, the 'unrighteous,' the wealth which being +mine is not mine but remains another's, and foreign to me, is the +world. The great riches, the 'true riches,' the good destined for +me, and for which I am destined, is God. In these two words you have +the antithesis, the real antithesis, God _versus_ the world. + +Now let us turn rather to the principle which our Lord here lays +down, in reference to these two classes of good, or of possessions. +He tells us that the faithful use of the world helps us to the +possession of God; or, to put it into other words, that how we +handle money and what money can buy, has a great deal to do with our +religious enjoyment and our religious life, and that that is true, +both in regard to our partial possession of God here and now, and to +our perfect possession of Him in the world to come. + +Now I wish to say one or two very plain things about this matter, +and I hope that you will not turn away from them because they are +familiar and trite. Considering how much of your lives, especially +as regards men of business, is taken up with money, its acquisition, +its retention, its distribution, there are few things that have more +to do with the vigour or feebleness of your Christian life than the +way in which you handle these perishable things. + +I wish to say a word or two, first, about + +I. What our Lord means by this faithfulness to which He attaches +such tremendous issues. + +Now, you will remember, that the starting point of my text is that +parable of the unjust steward, whose conduct, knavish as it was, is +in some sense presented by our Lord to His disciples, and to us, as +a pattern. But my text, and the other two verses which are parallel +with it, seem to have amongst their other purposes this: to put in a +caveat against supposing that it is the unfaithfulness of the +steward which is recommended for our imitation. And so the first +point that is suggested in regard to this matter of faithfulness +about the handling of outward good is that we have to take care that +it is rightly acquired, for though the unjust steward was commended +for the prudent use that he made of dishonestly acquired gain, it is +the prudent use, and not the manner of the acquisition which we are +to take as our examples. Initial unfaithfulness in acquisition is +not condoned or covered over by any pious and benevolent use +hereafter. Mediaeval barons left money for masses. Plenty of +Protestants do exactly the same thing. Brewers will build +cathedrals, and found picture galleries, and men that have made +their money foully will fancy that they atone for that by leaving it +for some charitable purpose. The caustic but true wit of a Scottish +judge said about a great bequest which was supposed to be--whether +rightly or wrongly, I know not--of that sort, that it was 'the +heaviest fire insurance premium that had been paid in the memory of +man.' 'The money does not stink,' said the Roman Emperor, about the +proceeds of an unsavoury tax. But the money unfaithfully won does +stink when it is thrown into God's treasury. 'The price of a dog +shall not come into the sanctuary of the Lord.' Do not think that +money doubtfully won is consecrated by being piously spent. + +But there are more things than that here, for our Lord sums up the +whole of a Christian man's duties in regard to the use of this +external world and all its good, in that one word 'faithful,' which +implies discharge of responsibility, recognition of obligation, the +continual consciousness that we are not proprietors but stewards. +Unless we carry that consciousness with us into all the phases of +our connection with perishable goods they become--as I shall have to +show you in a moment,--hindrances instead of helps to our possession +of God. + +I am not going to talk revolutionary socialism, or anything of that +sort, but I am bound to reiterate my own solemn conviction that +until, practically as well as theoretically, the Christian Church in +all its branches brings into its creed, and brings out in its +practice, the great thought of stewardship, especially in regard to +material and external good, but also in regard to the durable riches +of salvation, the nations will be full of unrest, and thunder-clouds +heavily boding storm and destruction will lower on the horizon. What +we have, we have that we may impart; what we have in all forms of +having, we have because we have received. We are distributing +centres, that is all--I was going to say like a nozzle, perforated +with many holes, at the end of the spout of a watering-can. That is +a Christian man's relation to his possessions. We are stewards. +'It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful' + +Now let me ask you to notice-- + +II. The bearing of this faithfulness in regard to the lower wealth +on our possession of the higher. + +Jesus says in this context, twice over, that faithfulness with +regard to the former is the condition of our being entrusted with +the latter. Now, remember, by way of illustration of this thought, +what all this outward world of goodness and beauty is mainly meant +for. What? It is all but scaffolding by which, and within the area +of which, the building may arise. The meaning of the world is to +make character. All that we have, aye! and all that we do, and the +whole of the events and circumstances with which we come in contact +here on earth, are then lifted to their noblest function, and are +then understood in their deepest meaning when we look upon them as +we do upon the leaping-poles and bars and swings of a gymnasium,--as +meant to develop thews and muscles, and make men of us. That is what +they are here for, and that is what we are here for. Not enjoyment, +and not sorrow, except in so far as these two are powers in +developing character, not plunging ourselves in the enjoyments of +sense. Wealth and poverty, gain and loss, love gratified and love +marred, possessions sweet, when preserved, and possessions that +become sweeter by being removed; all these are simply meant as +whetstones on which the keen blade may be sharpened, as forces +against which, trying ourselves, our deftness and strength may be +increased. They are all meant to make us men, and if we faithfully +use these externals with a recognition of their source, with a wise +estimate of their subordination so as that our desires shall not +cleave to them solely, and with a fixed determination to use them as +ministers to make ourselves nobler, wiser, stronger, liker to God +and His Christ, then the world will minister to our possession of +God, and being 'faithful in that which is least,' we shall thereby +be more capable of receiving that which is greatest. But if, on the +other hand, we so forget our true wealth, and become so besotted and +absorbed in our adhesion to, and our desires after, fleeting good, +then the capacities that were noble will fade and shrivel, being +unused; aims and purposes that were elevated and pure will die out +unsatisfied; windows in our souls which commanded a wide, glorious +prospect will gradually be bricked up; burdens which hinder our +running will be piled upon our backs, and the world will have +conquered us, whilst we are dreaming that we have conquered the +world. You look at a sea anemone in a pool on the rocks when the +tide is out, all its tendrils outstretched, and its cavity wide +open. Some little bit of seaweed, or some morsel of half-putrefying +matter, comes in contact with it, and instantly every tentacle is +retracted, and the lips are tightly closed, so that you could not +push a bristle in. And when your tentacles draw themselves in to +clutch the little portion of worldly good, of whatever sort it is, +that has come into your hold, there is no room to get God in there, +and being 'unfaithful in that which is least' you have made it +impossible that you should possess 'that which is most.' Ah! there +are some of us that were far better Christians long ago, when we +were poorer men, than we are to-day, and there are some of us that +know what it is to have the heart so filled with baser liquors that +there is no room for the ethereal nectar. If the world has filled my +soul, where is God to dwell? + +There is another way in which we may look at this matter. I have +said that the main use of these perishable and fragmentary good +things around us is to develop character, by our administration of +them. Another way of putting the same thought is that their main use +is to show us God. If we faithfully use the lesser good it will +become transparent, and reveal to us the greater. We hear a great +deal about deepening the spiritual life by prayers, and conventions, +and Bible readings and the like. I have no word to say except in +full sympathy with all such. But I do believe that the best means, +the most powerful means, by which the great bulk of Christian men +could deepen their spiritual lives would be a more honest and +thoroughgoing attempt to 'be faithful in that which is least.' We +have so much to do with it necessarily, that few, if any, things +have more power in shaping our whole characters than our manner of +administering the wealth, the material good, that comes to our +hands. + +And so, dear brethren, I beseech you remember that the laws of +perspective are such as that a minute thing near at hand shuts out +the vision of a mighty thing far off, and a hillock by my side will +hide the Himalayas at a distance, and a sovereign may block out God; +and 'that which is least' has the diabolical power of seeming +greater to us than, and of obscuring our vision of, 'that which is +most.' + +May I remind you that all these thoughts about the bearing of +faithfulness in administering the lower of our possessions, on the +attainment of higher, apply to us whatever be the amount of these +outward goods that we have? I suppose there were not twelve poorer +men in all Palestine that day than the twelve to whom my text was +originally addressed. Three of them had left their nets and their +fishing-boats, one of them we know had left his counting-house, as a +publican, and all his receipts and taxes behind him. What they had +we know not, but at all events they were the poor of this world. Do +not any of you that happen to be modestly or poorly off think that +my sermon is a sermon for rich men. It is not what we have, but how +we handle it, that is in question. 'The cares of this world, and the +deceitfulness of riches,' were bracketed together by Jesus Christ as +the things that 'choke the word,' and make it unfruitful. The poor +man who wants, and the rich man who uses unfaithfully, are alike hit +by the words of my text. + +Now, further, let me ask you to look at + +III. The bearing of faithfulness in this life on the fuller +possession of our true riches in the life hereafter. + +There lies under this whole context a striking conception of life +here in its relation to the life hereafter, A father sets his son, +or a master sets his apprentice, to some small task, an experiment +made upon a comparatively worthless body, supplies him with material +which it does not much matter whether he spoils or not, and then if +by practice the hand becomes deft, he is set to better work. God +sets us to try our 'prentice hands here in the world, and if we +administer that rightly, not necessarily perfectly, but so as to +show that there are the makings of a good workman in us by His +gracious help, then the next life comes, with its ampler margin, +with its wider possibilities, with its nobler powers, and there we +are set to use in loftier fashion the powers which we made our own +being here. 'Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make +thee ruler over many things.' + +I have said that the great use of the world and all its wealth is to +make character. I have said that that character determines our +capacity for the possession of God. I have said that our +administration of worldly wealth is one chief factor in determining +our character. Now I say that that character persists. There are +great changes, changes the significance and the scope and the +consequences of which we can never know here. But the man remains, +in the main direction of his being, in the character which he has +made for himself by his use of God's world and of Christ's Spirit. +And so the way in which we handle the trivialities and temporalities +here has eternal consequences. We sit in a low room with the +telegraph instrument in front of us, and we click off our messages, +and they are recorded away yonder, and we shall have to read them +one day. Transient causes produce permanent effects. The seas which +laid down the great sandstone deposits that make so large a portion +of the framework of this world have long since evaporated. But the +footprints of the seabird that stalked across the moist sand, and +the little pits made by the raindrops that fell countless +millenniums ago on the red ooze, are there yet, and you may see them +in our museums. And so our faithfulness, or our unfaithfulness, here +has made the character which is eternal, and on which will depend +whether we shall, in the joys of that future life, possess God in +fullness, or whether we shall lose Him, as our portion and our +Friend. + +Now, dear brethren, do not forget that all this that I have been +saying is the second page in Christ's teaching; and the first page +is an entirely different one. I have been saying that we make +character, and that character determines our possession of God and +His grace. But there is another thing to be said. The central +thought of Christ's gospel is that God, in His sweetness, in His +pardoning mercy, in His cleansing Spirit, is given to the very men +whose characters do not deserve it. And the same Lord who said, 'If +ye have not been faithful in that which is least, who shall give you +that which is greatest?' says also from the heavens,' I counsel thee +to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.' My +text, and the principle that is involved in it, do not contradict +the great truth that we are saved by simple faith, however unworthy +we are. That is the message to begin with. And unless you have +received it you are not standing in the place where the message that +I have been insisting upon has a personal bearing on you. But if you +have taken Christ for your salvation, remember, Christian brother +and sister, that it is not the same thing in regard either to your +Christian life on earth, or to your heavenly glory, whether you have +been living faithfully as stewards in your handling of earth's +perishable good, or whether you have clung to it as your real +portion, have used it selfishly, and by it have hidden God from your +hearts. To Christian men is addressed the charge that we trust not +in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, and that we be +'rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, +that we lay up in store for ourselves a good foundation against the +time to come'; and so 'lay hold on the life that is life indeed.' + + + + +DIVES AND LAZARUS + + + 'There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in + purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every + day: 20. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, + which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21. And + desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the + rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked + his sores. 22. And it came to pass, that the beggar + died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's + bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23. And + in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and + seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. + 24. And he cried, and said, Father Abraham, have mercy + on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of + his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am + tormented in this flame. 25, But Abraham said, Son, + remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good + things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is + comforted, and thou art tormented. 26. And besides all + this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: + so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; + neither can they pass to us, that would come from + thence. 27. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, + father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's + house: 28. For I have five brethren; that he may + testify unto them lest they also come into this place + of torment. 29. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses + and the prophets; let them hear them. 30. And he said, + Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the + dead, they will repent. 31. And he said unto him, If + they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they + be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.' + --Luke xvi. 19-31. + +This, the sternest of Christ's parables, must be closely connected +with verses 13 and 14. Keeping them in view, its true purpose is +plain. It is meant to rebuke, not the possession of wealth, but its +heartless, selfish use. Christ never treats outward conditions as +having the power of determining either character or destiny. What a +man does with his conditions settles what he is and what becomes of +him. Nor does the parable teach that the use of wealth is the only +determining factor, but, as every parable must do, it has to isolate +the lesson it teaches in order to burn it into the hearers. + +There are three parts in the story--the conduct of the rich man, his +fate, and the sufficiency of existing warnings to keep us from his +sin and his end. + +I. Properly speaking, we have here, not a parable--that is, a +representation of physical facts which have to be translated into +moral or religious truths--but an imaginary narrative, embodying a +normal fact in a single case. The rich man does not stand for +something else, but is one of the class of which Jesus wishes to set +forth the sin and fate. It is very striking that neither he nor the +beggar is represented as acting, but each is simply described. The +juxtaposition of the two figures carries the whole lesson. + +It has sometimes been felt as a difficulty that the one is not said +to have done anything bad, nor the other to have been devout or +good; and some hasty readers have thought that Jesus was here +teaching the communistic doctrine that wealth is sin, and that +poverty is virtue. No such crude trash came from His lips. But He +does teach that heartless wallowing in luxury, with naked, starving +beggars at the gate, is sin which brings bitter retribution. The +fact that the rich man does nothing is His condemnation. He was not +damned because he had a purple robe and fine linen undergarments, +nor because he had lived in abundance, and every meal had been a +festival, but because, while so living, he utterly ignored Lazarus, +and used his wealth only for his own gratification. Nothing more +needs to be said about his character; the facts sufficiently show +it. + +Still less needs to be said about that of Lazarus. In this part of +the narrative he comes into view simply as the means of bringing out +the rich man's heartlessness and self-indulgence. For the purposes +of the narrative his disposition was immaterial; for it is not our +duty to help only deserving or good people. Manhood and misery are +enough to establish the right to sympathy and succour. There may be +a hint of character in the name 'Lazarus,' which probably means 'God +is help.' Since this is the only name in the parables, it is natural +to give it significance, and it most likely suggests that the beggar +clung to God as his stay. It may glance, too, at the riddle of life, +which often seems to mock trust by continued trouble. Little outward +sign had Lazarus of divine help, yet he did not cast away his +confidence. No doubt, he sometimes got some crumbs from Dives' +table, but not from Dives. That the dogs licked his sores does not +seem meant as either alleviation or aggravation, but simply as +vividly describing his passive helplessness and utterly neglected +condition. Neither he nor any one drove them off. + +But the main point about him is that he was at Dives' gate, and +therefore thrust before Dives' notice, and that he got no help. The +rich man was not bound to go and hunt for poor people, but here was +one pushed under his nose, as it were. Translate that into general +expressions, and it means that we all have opportunities of +beneficence laid in our paths, and that our guilt is heavy if we +neglect these. 'The poor ye have always with you.' The guilt of +selfish use of worldly possessions is equally great whatever is the +amount of possessions. Doing nothing when Lazarus lies at our gate +is doing great wickedness. These truths have a sharp edge for us as +well as for the 'Pharisees who were covetous'; and they are wofully +forgotten by professing Christians. + +II. In the second part of the narrative, our Lord follows the two, +who had been so near each other and yet so separated, into the land +beyond the grave. It is to be especially noticed that, in doing so, +He adopts the familiar Rabbinical teaching as to Hades. He does not +thereby stamp these conceptions of the state of the dead with His +assent; for the purpose of the narrative is not to reveal the +secrets of that land, but to impress the truth of retribution for +the sin in question. It would not be to a group of Pharisaic +listeners that He would have unveiled that world. + +He takes their own notions of it--angel bearers, Abraham's bosom, +the two divisions in Hades, the separation, and yet communication, +between them. These are Rabbis' fancies, not Christ's revelations. +The truths which He wished to force home lie in the highly +imaginative conversation between the rich man and Abraham, which +also has its likeness in many a Rabbinical legend. + +The difference between the ends of the two men has been often +noticed, and lessons, perhaps not altogether warranted, drawn from +it. But it seems right to suppose that the omission of any notice of +the beggar's burial is meant to bring out that the neglect and +pitilessness, which had let him die, left his corpse unburied. +Perhaps the dogs that had licked his sores tore his flesh. A fine +sight that would be from the rich man's door! The latter had to die +too, for all his purple, and to be swathed in less gorgeous robes. +His funeral is mentioned, not only because pomp and ostentation went +as far as they could with him, but to suggest that he had to leave +them all behind. 'His glory shall not descend after him.' + +The terrible picture of the rich man's torments solemnly warns us of +the necessary end of a selfish life such as his. The soul that lives +to itself does not find satisfaction even here; but, when all +externals are left behind, it cannot but be in torture. That is not +drapery. Character makes destiny, and to live to self is death. +Observe, too, that the relative positions of Dives and Lazarus are +reversed--the beggar being now the possessor of abundance and +delights, while the rich man is the sufferer and the needy. + +Further note that the latter now desires to have from the former the +very help which in life he had not given him, and that the +retribution for refusing succour here is its denial hereafter. There +had been no sharing of 'good things' in the past life, but the rich +man had asserted his exclusive rights to them. They had been 'thy +good things' in a very sinful sense, and Lazarus had bean left to +carry his evil things alone. There shall be no communication of good +now. Earth was the place for mutual help and impartation. That world +affords no scope for it; for there men reap what they have sown, and +each character has to bear its own burden. + +Finally, the ineffaceableness of distinctions of character, and +therefore of destiny, is set forth by the solemn image of the great +gulf which cannot be crossed. It is indeed to be remembered that our +Lord is speaking of 'the intermediate state,' before resurrection +and final judgment, and that, as already remarked, the intention of +the narrative is not to reveal the mysteries of the final state. But +still the impression left by the whole is that life here determines +life hereafter, and that character, once set and hardened here, +cannot be cast into the melting-pot and remoulded there. + +III. The last part of the narrative teaches that the fatal sin of +heartless selfishness is inexcusable. The rich man's thought for his +brethren was quite as much an excuse for himself. He thought that, +if he had only known, things would have been different. He shifts +blame from himself on to the insufficiency of the warnings given +him. And the two answers put into Abraham's mouth teach the +sufficiency of 'Moses and the prophets,' little as these say about +the future, and the impossibility of compelling men to listen to a +divine message to which they do not wish to listen. + +The fault lies, not in the deficiency of the warnings, but in the +aversion of the will. No matter whether it is Moses or a spirit from +Hades who speaks, if men do not wish to hear, they will not hear. +They will not be persuaded--for persuasion has as much, or more, to +do with the heart and inclination than with the head. We have as +much witness from heaven as we need. The worst man knows more of +duty than the best man does. Dives is in torments because he lived +for self; and he lived for self, not because he did not know that it +was wrong, but because he did not choose to do what he knew to be +right. + + + + +MEMORY IN ANOTHER WORLD + + + 'Abraham said, Son, remember!'--LUKE xvi. 25. + +It is a very striking thought that Christ, if He be what we suppose +Him to be, knew all about the unseen present which we call the +future, and yet was all but silent in reference to it. Seldom is it +on His lips at all. Of arguments drawn from another world He has +very few. Sometimes He speaks about it, but rather by allusion than +in anything like an explicit revelation. This parable out of which +my text is taken, is perhaps the most definite and continuous of His +words about the invisible world; and yet all the while it lay there +before Him; and standing on the very verge of it, with it spread out +clear before His gaze, He reads off but a word or two of what He +sees, and then shuts it in in darkness, and says to us, in the spirit +of a part of this parable, 'You have Moses and the prophets--hear +them: if these are not enough, it will not be enough for you if all +the glories of heaven and all the ghastliness of hell are flashed and +flamed before you.' We, too, if we are to 'prophesy according to the +proportion of faith,' must not leave out altogether references to a +future life in its two departments, and such motives as may be based +upon them; only, I think, we ought always to keep them in the same +relative amount to the whole of our teaching in which Christ kept them. + +This parable, seeing that it _is_ a parable, of course cannot +be trusted as if it were a piece of simple dogmatic revelation, to +give us information, facts, so as to construct out of it a theory of +the other world. We are always in the double danger in parables, of +taking that for drapery which was meant to be essence, and taking +that for essence which was meant to be drapery. And so I do not +profess to read from this narrative any very definite and clear +knowledge of the future; but I think that in the two words which I +have ventured to take as a text, we get the basis of very impressive +thoughts with regard to the functions of memory in another world. + +'Son, remember!' It is the voice, the first voice, the perpetual +voice, which meets every man when he steps across the threshold of +earth into the presence chamber of eternity. All the future is so +built upon and interwoven with the past, that for the saved and for +the lost alike this word might almost be taken as the motto of their +whole situation, as the explanation of their whole condition. Memory +in another world is indispensable to the gladness of the glad, and +strikes the deepest note in the sadness of the lost. There can be no +need to dwell at any length on the simple introductory thought, that +there must be memory in a future state. Unless there were +remembrance, there could be no sense of individuality. A man cannot +have any conviction that he is himself, but by constant, though +often unconscious, operation of this subtle act of remembrance. +There can be no sense of personal identity except in proportion +as there is clearness of recollection. Then again, if that future +state be a state of retribution, there must be memory. Otherwise, +there might be joy, and there might be sorrow, but the why and the +wherefore of either would be entirely struck out of a man's +consciousness, and the one could not be felt as reward, nor the +other as punishment. If, then, we are to rise from the grave the +same men that we are laid in it, and if the future life has this for +its characteristic, that it is a state either of recompense and +reward, or of retribution and suffering, then, for both, the +clearness and constant action, of memory are certainly needed. But +it is not to the simple fact of its existence that I desire to +direct your attention now. I wish, rather, to suggest to you one or +two modifications under which it must apparently work in another +world. When men remember _there_, they will remember very +differently from the way in which they remember _here_. Let us +look at these changes-constituting it, on the one hand, an +instrument of torture; and, on the other, a foundation of all our +gladness. + +I. First, in another state, memory will be so widened as to take in +the whole life. + +We believe that what a man is in this life, he is more in another, +that tendencies here become results yonder, that his sin, that his +falsehood, that his whole moral nature, be it good or bad, becomes +there what it is only striving to be here. We believe that in this +present life our capacities of all sorts are hedged in, thwarted, +damped down, diluted, by the necessity which there is for their +working through this material body of ours. We believe that death is +the heightening of a man's stature--if he be bad, the intensifying +of his badness; if he be good, the strengthening of his goodness. We +believe that the contents of the intellectual nature, the capacities +of that nature also, are all increased by the fact of having done +with earth and having left the body behind. It is, I think, the +teaching of common-sense, and it is the teaching of the Bible. True, +that for some, that growth will only be a growth into greater power +of feeling greater sorrow. Such an one grows up into a Hercules; but +it is only that the Nessus shirt may wrap round him more tightly, +and may gnaw him with a fiercer agony. But whether saved or lost--he +that dies is greater than when yet living; and all his powers are +intensified and strengthened by that awful experience of death and +by what it brings with it. + +Memory partakes in the common quickening. There are not wanting +analogies and experiences in our present life to let us see that, in +fact, when we talk about forgetting we ought to mean nothing more +than the temporary cessation of conscious remembrance. Everything +which you do leaves its effect with you for ever, just as long-forgotten +meals are in your blood and bones to-day. Every act that a man performs +is there. It has printed itself upon his soul, it has become a part of +himself: and though, like a newly painted picture, after a little while +the colours sink in, why is that? Only because they have entered into +the very fibre of the canvas, and have left the surface because they +are incorporated with the substance, and they want but a touch of +varnish to flash out again! We forget _nothing_, in the sense of not +being able, some time or another, to recall it; we forget much in the +sense of ceasing for a time to have it in our thoughts. + +For we know, in our own case, how strangely there come swimming up +before us, out of the depths of the dim waters of oblivion--as one +has seen some bright shell drawn from the sunless sea-caves, and +gleaming white and shapeless far down before we had it on the +surface--past thoughts, we know not whence or how. Some one of the +million of hooks, with which all our life is furnished, has laid +hold of some subtle suggestion which has been enough to bring them +up into consciousness. We said we had forgotten them. What does it +mean? Only that they had sunk into the deep, beneath our +consciousness, and lay there to be brought up when needful. There is +nothing more strange than the way in which some period of my life, +that I supposed to be an entire blank--if I will think about it for +a little while, begins to glimmer into form. As the developing +solution brings out the image on the photographic plate, so the mind +has the strange power, by fixing the attention, as we say (a short +word which means a long, mysterious thing) upon that past that is +half-remembered and half-forgotten, of bringing it into clear +consciousness and perfect recollection. And, there are instances, +too, of a still more striking kind, familiar to some of us how in +what people call morbid states, men remember their childhood, which +they had forgotten for long years. You may remember that old story +of the dying woman beginning to speak in a tongue unknown to all +that stood around her bed. When a child she had learned some +northern language, in a far-off land. Long before she had learned to +shape any definite remembrances of the place, she had been taken +away, and not having used, had forgotten the speech. But at last +there rushed up again all the old memories, and the tongue of the +dumb was loosed, and she spake! People would say, 'the action of +disease.' It may be, but that explains nothing. Perhaps in such +states the spirit is working in a manner less limited by the body +than in health, and so showing some slight prelude of its powers +when it has shuffled off this mortal coil. But be that as it may, +these morbid phenomena, and the other more familiar facts already +referred to, unite to show us that the sphere of recollection is +much wider than that occupied at any given moment by memory. +Recollection is the servant of Memory, as our great poet tells us in +his wise allegory, and + + 'does on him still attend, + To reach whenever he for ought does send.' + +We cannot lay aside anything that we have ever done or been so +utterly but that that servant can find it and bring it to his lord. +We forget nothing so completely but that we shall be able to recall +it. Of that awful power we may say, without irreverence, 'Thou hast +set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy +countenance.' + +The fragmentary remembrances which we have now, lift themselves +above the ocean of forgetfulness like islands in some Archipelago, +the summits of sister hills, though separated by the estranging sea +that covers their converging sides and the valleys where their roots +unite. The solid land is there, though hidden. Drain off the sea, +and there will be no more isolated peaks, but continuous land. In +this life we have but the island memories heaving themselves into +sight, but in the next the Lord shall 'cause the sea to go back by +the breath of His mouth,' and the channels of the great deep of a +human heart's experiences and actions shall be laid bare. 'There +shall be no more sea'; but the solid land of a whole life will +appear when God says, 'Son, remember!' + +So much, then, for my first consideration--namely, that memory in a +future state will comprehend the whole of life. Another thing is, +that memory in a future state will probably be so rapid as to +embrace all the past life at once. We do not know, we have no +conception of, the extent to which our thinking, and feeling, and +remembrance, are made tardy by the slow vehicle of this bodily +organisation in which the soul rides. But we have in our own lives +instances enough to make us feel that there lie in us dormant, +mysterious powers by which the rapidity of all our operations of +thought and feeling will be enhanced marvellously, like the +difference between a broad-wheeled waggon and an express train! At +some turning point of your life, when some great joy flashed, or +some great shadow darkened upon you all at once; when some crisis +that wanted an instantaneous decision appeared--why, what regions of +thought, purpose, plan, resolution; what wilderness of desolate +sorrow, and what paradises of blooming gladness, your soul has gone +through in a moment. Well, then, take another illustration: A +sleeper, feeling a light finger laid upon his shoulder, does not +know what it is; in an instant he awakes and says, 'Is it you?' but +between that touch and that word there may be a whole life run +through, a whole series of long events dreamt and felt. As on the +little retina of an eye there can be painted on a scale +inconceivably minute, every tree and mountain-top in the whole wide +panorama--so, in an instant, one may run through almost a whole +lifetime of mental acts. Then, again, you remember that +illustration, often used on this subject, about the experience of +those who have been brought face to face with sudden death, and +escaped it. The drowning man, when he comes to himself, tells us, +that in the interval betwixt the instant when he felt he was going +and the passing away of consciousness, all his life stood before +him; as if some flash in a dark midnight had lighted up a whole +mountain country--there it all was! Ah, brethren! we know nothing +yet about the rapidity with which we may gather before us a whole +series of events; so that although we have to pass from one to +another, the succession may be so swift, as to produce in our own +minds the effect of all being co-existent and simultaneous. As the +child flashing about him a bit of burning stick, may seem to make a +circle of flame, because the flame-point moves so quickly--so +memory, though it does go from point to point, and dwells for some +inconceivably minute instant on each part of the remembrance, may +yet be gifted with such lightning speed, with such rapidity and +awful quickness of glance, as that to the man himself the effect +shall be that his whole life is spread out there before him in one +instant, and that he, Godlike, sees the end and the beginning side +by side. Yes; from the mountain of eternity we shall look down, and +behold the whole plain spread before us. Down here we get lost and +confused in the devious valleys that run off from the roots of the +hills everywhere, and we cannot make out which way the streams are +going, and what there is behind that low shoulder of hill yonder: +but when we get to the summit peak, and look down, it will all shape +itself into one consistent whole, and we shall see it all at once. +The memory shall be perfect--perfect in the range of its grasp, and +perfect in the rapidity with which it brings up all its objects +before us at every instant. + +Once more: it seems as if, in another world, memory would not only +contain the whole life, and the whole life simultaneously; but would +perpetually attend or haunt us. A constant remembrance! It does not +lie in our power even in this world, to decide very much whether we +shall remember or forget. It does not come within a man's will to +forget or to remember. He cannot say, 'I will remember'; for if he +could, he would have remembered already. He cannot say, 'I will +forget'; for the very effort fixes his attention on the obnoxious +thing. All that we can do, when we seek to remember, is to wander +back to somewhere about that point in our life where the shy thing +lurks, and hope to catch some sight of it in the leafy coverts: and +all we can do, when we want to forget, is to try and fill our mind +with other subjects, and in the distractions of them to lose the +oppressive and burdensome thoughts. But we know that that is but a +partial remedy, that we cannot succeed in doing it. There are +presences that will not be put by. There are memories that +_will_ start up before us, whether we are willing or not. Like +the leprosy in the Israelite's house, the foul spot works its way +out through all the plaster and the paint; and the house is foul +because it is there. Oh, my friend! you are a happy and a singular +man if there is nothing in your life that you have tried to bury, +and the obstinate thing _will_ not be buried, but meets you +again when you come away from its fancied grave. I remember an old +castle where they tell us of a foul murder committed in a vaulted +chamber with a narrow window, by torchlight one night; and there, +they say, there are the streaks and stains of blood on the black +oak floor; and they have planed, and scrubbed, and planed again, and +thought they were gone--but there they always are, and continually +up comes the dull reddish-black stain, as if oozing itself out +through the boards to witness to the bloody crime again! The +superstitious fable is a type of the way in which a foul thing, a +sinful and bitter memory--gets ingrained into a man's heart. He +tries to banish it, and gets rid of it for a while. He goes back +again, and the spots are there, and will be there for ever; and the +only way to get rid of them is to destroy the soul in which they +are. + +Memory is not all within the power of the will on earth: and +probably, memory in another world is still more involuntary and +still more constant. Why? Because I read in the Bible that there is +work in another world for God's servants to do; but I do not read +that there is work for anybody else but God's servants to do. The +work of an unforgiven sinner is done when he dies, and that not only +because he is going into the state of retribution, but because no +rebel's work is going to be suffered in that world. The time for +that is past. And so, if you will look, all the teachings of the +Bible about the future state of those who are not in blessedness, +give us this idea--a monotonous continuance of idleness, shutting +them up to their own contemplations, the memories of the past and +the agonies of the future. There are no distractions for such a man +in another world. He has thought, he has conscience, he has +remembrance. He has a sense of pain, of sin, of wrong, of loss. He +has one 'passive fixed endurance, all eternal and the same'; but I +do not read that his pain is anodyned and his sorrow soothed by any +activity that his hand finds to do. And, in a most tragic sense, we +may say, 'there is neither work, nor labour, nor device,' in that +dark world where the fruits of sin are reaped in monotonous +suffering and ever-present pain. A memory, brethren, that +i>will_ have its own way--what a field for sorrow and lamentation +that is, when God says at last, 'Now go--go apart; take thy life +with thee; read it over; see what thou hast done with it!' One old +Roman tyrant had a punishment in which he bound the dead body of the +murdered to the living body of the murderer, and left them there +scaffolded. And when that voice comes, 'Son, remember!' to the +living soul of the godless, unbelieving, impenitent man, there is +bound to him the murdered past, the dead past, his own life; and, in +Milton's awful and profound words, + + 'Which way I fly is hell--myself am hell!' + +There is only one other modification of this awful faculty that I +would remind you of; and that is, that in a future life memory will +be associated with a perfectly accurate knowledge of the consequences +and a perfectly sensitive conscience as to the criminality of the +past. You will have cause and consequence put down before you, meeting +each other at last. There will be no room then to say, 'I wonder how +such and such a thing will work out,' 'I wonder how such a thing can +have come upon me'; but every one will have his whole life to look +back upon, and will see the childish sin that was the parent of the +full-grown vice, and the everlasting sorrow that came out of that +little and apparently transitory root. The conscience, which here +becomes hardened by contact with sin, and enfeebled because unheeded, +will then be restored to its early sensitiveness and power, as if the +labourer's horny palm were to be endowed again with the softness of +the infant's little hand. If you will take and think about that, +brother, _there_ is enough--without any more talk, without any +more ghastly, sensual external figures--_there_ is enough to make +the boldest tremble; a memory embracing all the past, a memory rapidly +grasping and constantly bringing its burden, a judgment which admits +of no mistakes, and a conscience which has done with palliations and +excuses! + +It is not difficult to see how that is an instrument of torture. It +is more difficult to see how such a memory can be a source of +gladness; and yet it can. The old Greeks were pressed with that +difficulty: they said to themselves, If a man remembers, there can +be no Elysium for him. And so they put the river of forgetfulness, +the waters of Lethe, betwixt life and the happy plains. Ah, +_we_ do not want any river of oblivion betwixt us and everlasting +blessedness. Calvary is on this side, and that is enough! Certainly +it is one of the most blessed things about 'the faith that is in Christ +Jesus,' that it makes a man remember his own sinfulness with penitence, +not with pain--that it makes the memory of past transgressions full +of solemn joy, because the memory of _past_ transgressions but brings +to mind the depth and rushing fullness of that river of love which has +swept them all away as far as the east is from the west. Oh, brother, +brother! you cannot forget your sins; but it lies within your own +decision whether the remembrance shall be thankfulness and blessedness, +or whether it shall be pain and loss for ever. Like some black rock that +heaves itself above the surface of a sunlit sea, and the wave runs +dashing over it, and the spray, as it falls down its sides, is all +rainbowed and lightened, and there comes beauty into the mighty +grimness of the black thing;--so a man's transgressions rear themselves +up, and God's great love, coming sweeping itself against them and over +them, makes out of the sin an occasion for the flashing more brightly +of the beauty of His mercy, and turns the life of the pardoned penitent +into a life of which even the sin is not pain to remember. So, then, +lay your hand upon Christ Jesus. Put your heart into His keeping. Go +to Him with your transgressions, He will forget them, and make it +possible for you to remember them in such a way that the memory will +become to you the very foundation of all your joy, and will make +heaven's anthem deeper and more harmonious when you say, 'Now unto +Him that hath washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath +made us kings and priests unto God, unto Him be glory for ever and +ever!' And, on the other hand, _if not_, then, 'Son, remember!' +will be the word that begins the future retribution, and shuts you +up with a wasted past, with a gnawing conscience, and an upbraiding +heart: to say, + + 'I backward cast my ee + On prospects drear! + And forward, though I canna see, + I guess and fear!' + + + + +GOD'S SLAVES + + + 'Doth He thank that servant because he did the things + that were commanded him! I trow not. 10. So likewise + ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are + commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we + have done that which was our duty to do.' + --LUKE xvii. 9-10. + +There are two difficulties about these words. One is their apparent +entire want of connection with what precedes--viz., the disciples' +prayer, 'Lord, increase our faith,' and the other is the harshness +and severity of tone which marks them, and the view of the less +attractive side of man's relation to God which is thrown into +prominence in them. He must be a very churlish master who never says +'Thank you,' however faithful his servant's obedience may be. And he +must be a very inconsiderate master, who has only another kind of +duty to lay upon the shoulders of the servant that has come in after +a long day's ploughing and feeding of cattle. Perhaps, however, the +one difficulty clears away the other, and if we keep firm hold of +the thought that the words of my text, and those which are +associated with them, are an answer to the prayer, 'Lord, increase +our faith,' the stern and somewhat repelling characteristics of the +words may somewhat change. + +I. So I look, first, at the husk of apparent harshness and severity. +The relation between master and hired servant is not the one that is +in view, but the relation between a master and the slave who is his +property, who has no rights, who has no possessions, whose life and +death and everything connected with him are at the absolute disposal +of his master. It is a foul and wicked relation when existing +between men, and it has been full of cruelty and atrocities. But +Jesus Christ lays His hand upon it, and says, 'That is the relation +between men and God; that is the relation between men and Me.' + +And what is involved therein? Absolute authority; so that the slave +is but, as it were, an animated instrument in the hand of the +master, with no will of his own, and no rights and no possessions. +That is not all of our relation to God, blessed be His Name! But +that is _in_ our relation to Him, and the highest title that a +man can have is the title which the Apostles in after days bound +upon their foreheads as a crown of honour--'A slave of Jesus +Christ.' + +Then, if that relation is laid as being the basis of all our +connection with God, whatever else there may be also involved, these +two things which in the human relation are ugly and inconsiderate, +and argue a very churlish and selfish nature on the part of the +human master, belong essentially to our relation to God. 'Which of +you, having a servant, ploughing or feeding cattle, will say unto +him ... when he has come from the field, Go (immediately) and sit +down to meat, and will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith +I may sup, and gird thyself and serve me, till I have eaten and +drunken: and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?' You will get your +supper by-and-by, but you are here to work, says the master, and +when you have finished one task, that does not involve that you are +to rest; it involves only that you are to take up another. And +however wearisome has been the ploughing amongst the heavy clods all +day long, and tramping up and down the furrows, when you come in you +are to clean yourself up, and get my supper ready, 'and afterward +thou shalt eat and drink.' + +As I have said, such a speech would argue a harsh human master, but is +there not a truth which is not harsh in it in reference to us and God? +Duty never ends. The eternal persistence through life of the obligation +to service is what is taught us here, as being inherent in the very +relation between the Lord and Owner of us all and us His slaves. +Moralists and irreligious teachers say grand things about the eternal +sweep of the great law of duty. The Christian thought is the higher +one, 'Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon +me,' and wherever I am I am under obligation to serve Thee, and no past +record of work absolves me from the work of the present. From the +cradle to the grave I walk beneath an all-encompassing, overarching +firmament of duty. As long as we draw breath we are bound to the +service of Him whose slaves we are, and whose service is perfect freedom. + +Such is the bearing of this apparently repulsive representation of +our text, which is not so repulsive if you come to think about it. +It does not in the least set aside the natural craving for +recreation and relaxation and repose. It does not overlook God's +obligation to keep His slave alive, and in good condition for doing +His work, by bestowing upon him the things that are needful for him, +but it does meet that temptation which comes to us all to take that +rest which circumstances may make manifestly not God's will, and it +says to us, 'Forget the things that are behind, and reach forth unto +the things that are before.' You have done a long day's work with +plough or sheep-crook. The reward for work is more work. Come away +indoors now, and nearer the Master, prepare His table. 'Which of +you, having a servant, will not do so with him?' And that is how He +does with us. + +Then, the next thought here, which, as I say, has a harsh exterior, +and a bitter rind, is that one of the slave doing his work, and +never getting so much as 'thank you' for it. But if you lift this +interpretation too, into the higher region of the relation between +God and His slaves down here, a great deal of the harshness drops +away. For what does it come to? Just to this, that no man among us, +by any amount or completeness of obedience to the will of God +establishes claims on God for a reward. You have done your duty--so +much the better for you, but is that any reason why you should be +decorated and honoured for doing it? You have done no more than your +duty. 'So, likewise, ye, when ye have done all things that are +commanded you'--even if that impossible condition were to be +realised--'say we are unprofitable servants'; not in the bad sense +in which the word is sometimes used, but in the accurate sense of +not having brought any profit or advantage, more than was His +before, to the Master whom we have thus served. It is a blessed +thing for a man to call _himself_ an unprofitable servant; it +is an awful thing for the Master to call him one. If _we_ say +'we are unprofitable servants,' we shall be likely to escape the +solemn words from the Lord's lips: 'Take ye away the unprofitable +servant, and cast him into outer darkness.' There are two that may +use the word, Christ the Judge, and man the judged, and if the man +will use it, Christ will not. 'If we judge ourselves we shall not be +judged.' + +Now, although, as I have said about the other part of this text, +it is not meant to exhaust our relations to God, or to say the +all-comprehensive word about the relation of obedience to blessedness; +it is meant to say + + 'Merit lives from man to man, + And not from man, O Lord! to Thee.' + +No one can reasonably build upon his own obedience, or his own work, +nor claim as by right, for reward, heaven or other good. So my text +is the anticipation of Paul's teaching about the impossibility of a +man's being saved by his works, and it cuts up by the root, not only +the teaching as to a treasure of 'merits of the saints,' and 'works +of supererogation,' and the like; but it tells us, too, that we must +beware of the germs of that self-complacent way of looking at +ourselves and our own obedience, as if they had anything at all to +do with our buying either the favour of God, or the rewards of the +faithful servant. + +II. Now, all that I have been saying may sound very harsh. Let us +take a second step, and try if we can find out the kernel of grace +in the harsh husk. + +I hold fast by the one clue that Jesus Christ is here replying to +the Apostle's prayer, 'Lord, increase our faith.' He had been laying +down some very hard regulations for their conduct, and, naturally, +when they felt how difficult it would be to come within a thousand +miles of what He had been bidding them, they turned to Him with that +prayer. It suggests that faith is there, in living operation, or +they would not have prayed to Him for its increase. And how does He +go about the work of increasing it? In two ways, one of which does +not enter into my present subject. First, by showing the disciples +the power of faith, in order to stimulate them to greater effort for +its possession. He promised that they might say to the fig tree, 'Be +thou plucked up and planted in the sea,' and it should obey them. +The second way was by this context of which I am speaking now. How +does it bear upon the Apostles' prayer? What is there in this +teaching about the slave and his master, and the slave's work, and +the incompatibility of the notion of reward with the slave's +service, to help to strengthen faith? There is this that this +teaching beats down every trace of self-confidence, and if we take +it in and live by it, makes us all feel that we stand before God, +whatever have been our deeds of service, with no claims arising +from any virtue or righteousness of our own. We come empty-handed. +If the servant who has done all that is commanded has yet to say, 'I +can ask nothing from Thee, because I have done it, for it was all in +the line of my duty,' what are we to say, who have done so little +that was commanded, and so much that was forbidden? + +So, you see, the way to increased faith is not by any magical +communication from Christ, as the Apostles thought, but by taking +into our hearts, and making operative in our lives, the great truth +that in us there is nothing that can make a claim upon God, and that +we must cast ourselves, as deserving nothing, wholly into His +merciful hands, and find ourselves held up by His great unmerited +love. Get the bitter poison root of self-trust out of you, and then +there is some chance of getting the wholesome emotion of absolute +reliance on Him into you. Jesus Christ, if I might use a homely +metaphor, in these words pricks the bladder of self-confidence which +we are apt to use to keep our heads above water. And it is only when +it is pricked, and we, like the Apostle, feel ourselves beginning to +sink, that we fling out a hand to Him, and clutch at His +outstretched hand, and cry, 'Lord, save me, I perish!' One way to +increase our faith is to be rooted and grounded in the assurance +that duty is perennial, and that our own righteousness establishes +no claim whatever upon God. + +III. Finally, we note the higher view into which, by faith, we come. + +I have been saying, with perhaps vain repetition, that the words of +our text and context do not exhaust the whole truth of man's +relation to God. They do exhaust the truth of the relation of God to +any man that has not faith in his heart, because such a man is a +slave in the worst sense, and any obedience that he renders to God's +will externally is the obedience of a reluctant will, and is hard +and harsh, and there is no end _to_ it, and no good _from_ +it. But if we accept the position, and recognise our own impotence, +and non-desert, and humbly say, 'Not by works of righteousness which +we have done, but by His mercy He saves us,' then we come into a +large place. The relation of master and slave does not cover all the +ground _then_. 'Henceforth, I call you not slaves, but friends,' And +when the wearied slave comes into the house, the new task is not +a new burden, for he is a son as well as a slave; but the work is +a delight, and it is a joy to have something more to do for his Father. +If our service is the service of sons, sweetened by love, then there +will be abundant thanks from the Father, who is not only our owner, +but our lover. + +For Christian service--that is to say, service based upon faith and +rendered in love--_does_ minister delight to our Father in +heaven, and He Himself has called it an 'odour of a sweet smell, +acceptable unto God.' And if our service on earth has been thus +elevated and transformed from the compulsory obedience of a slave +to the joyful service of a son, then our reception when at sundown +the plough is left in the furrow and we come into the house will be +all changed too. 'Which of you, having a servant, will say to him, +Go and sit down to meat, and will not rather say to him, Make ready +whilst I eat and drink?' That is the law for earth, but for heaven +it is this, 'Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He +cometh, shall find watching. Verily, I say unto you, that He shall +gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth +and serve them.' The husk is gone now, I think, and the kernel is +left. Loving service is beloved by God, and rewarded by the +ministering, as a servant of servants, to us by Him who is King of +kings and Lord of lords. + +'Lord, increase our faith,' that we may so serve Thee on earth, and +so be served by Thee in heaven. + + + + +WHERE ARE THE NINE? + + + 'And it came to pass, as He went to Jerusalem, that He + passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. + 12. And as He entered into a certain village, there met + Him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: + 13. And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, + Master, have mercy on us. 14. And when He saw them, He + said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. + And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were + cleansed. 15. And one of them, when he saw that he was + healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified + God. 16. And fell down on his face at His feet, giving + Him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. 17. And Jesus + answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where + are the nine? 18. There are not found that returned to + give glory to God, save this stranger. 19. And He said + unto him, Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee + whole.'--LUKE xvii. 11-19. + +The melancholy group of lepers, met with in one of the villages on +the borders of Samaria and Galilee, was made up of Samaritans and +Jews, in what proportion we do not know. The common misery drove +them together, in spite of racial hatred, as, in a flood, wolves +and sheep will huddle close on a bit of high ground. Perhaps they +had met in order to appeal to Jesus, thinking to move Him by their +aggregated wretchedness; or possibly they were permanently +segregated from others, and united in a hideous fellowship. + +I. We note the lepers' cry and the Lord's strange reply. Of course +they had to stand afar off, and the distance prescribed by law +obliged them to cry aloud, though it must have been an effort, for +one symptom of leprosy is a hoarse whisper. Sore need can +momentarily give strange physical power. Their cry indicates some +knowledge. They knew the Lord's name, and had dim notions of His +authority, for He is addressed as Jesus and as Master. They knew +that He had power to heal, and they hoped that He had 'mercy,' which +they might win for themselves by entreaty. There was the germ of +trust in the cry forced from them by desperate need. But their +conceptions of Him, and their consciousness of their own +necessities, did not rise above the purely physical region, and He +was nothing to them but a healer. + +Still, low and rude as their notions were, they did present a point +of contact for Christ's 'mercy,' which is ever ready to flow into +every heart that is lowly, as water will into all low levels. Jesus +seems to have gone near to the lepers, for it was 'when He saw,' not +when He heard, them that He spoke. It did not become Him to 'cry, +nor cause His voice to be heard in the street,' nor would He cure as +from afar, but He approaches those whom He heals, that they may see +His face, and learn by it His compassion and love. His command +recognised and honoured the law, but its main purpose, no doubt, was +to test, and thereby to strengthen, the leper's trust. To set out to +the priest while they felt themselves full of leprosy would seem +absurd, unless they believed that Jesus could and would heal them. +He gives no promise to heal, but asks for reliance on an implied +promise. He has not a syllable of sympathy; His tender compassion is +carefully covered up. He shuts down, as it were, the lantern-slide, +and not a ray gets through. But the light was behind the screen all +the while. We, too, have sometimes to act on the assumption that +Jesus has granted our desires, even while we are not conscious that +it is so. We, too, have sometimes to set out, as it were, for the +priests, while we still feel the leprosy. + +II. We note the healing granted to obedient faith. The whole ten set +off at once. They had got all they wanted from the Lord, and had no +more thought about Him. So they turned their backs on Him. How +strange it must have been to feel, as they went along, the gradual +creeping of soundness into their bones! How much more confidently +they must have stepped out, as the glow of returning health asserted +itself more and more! The cure is a transcendent, though veiled, +manifestation of Christ's power; for it is wrought at a distance, +without even a word, and with no vehicle. It is simply the silent +forth-putting of His power. 'He spake, and it was done' is much, for +only a word which is divine can affect matter. But 'He willed, and +it was done,' is even more. + +III. We note the solitary instance of thankfulness. The nine might +have said, 'We are doing what the Healer bade us do; to go back to +Him would be disobedience.' But a grateful heart knows that to +express its gratitude is the highest duty, and is necessary for its +own relief. How like us all it is to hurry away clutching our +blessings, and never cast back a thought to the giver! This leper's +voice had returned to Him, and his 'loud' acknowledgments were very +different from the strained croak of his petition for healing. He +knew that he had two to thank--God and Jesus; he did not know that +these two were one. His healing has brought him much nearer Jesus +than before, and now he can fall at His feet. Thankfulness knits us +to Jesus with a blessed bond. Nothing is so sweet to a loving heart +as to pour itself out in thanks to Him. + +'And he was a Samaritan.' That may be Luke's main reason for telling +the story, for it corresponds to the universalistic tendency of his +Gospel. But may we not learn the lesson that the common human +virtues are often found abundantly in nations and individuals +against whom we are apt to be deeply prejudiced? And may we not +learn another lesson--that heretics and heathen may often teach +orthodox believers lessons, not only of courtesy and gratitude, but +of higher things? A heathen is not seldom more sensitive to the +beauty of Christ, and more touched by the story of His sacrifice, +than we who have heard of Him all our days. + +IV. We note Christ's sad wonder at man's ingratitude and joyful +recognition of 'this stranger's' thankfulness. A tone of surprise as +well as of sadness can be detected in the pathetic double questions. +'Were not _the_ ten'--all of them, the ten who stood there but +a minute since--'cleansed? but where are the nine?' Gone off with +their gift, and with no spark of thankfulness in their selfish +hearts. 'Were there none found that returned to give glory to God, +save this stranger?' The numbers of the thankless far surpass those +of the thankful. The fewness of the latter surprises and saddens +Jesus still. Even a dog knows and will lick the hand that feeds it, +but 'Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider.' We increase +the sweetness of our gifts by thankfulness for them. We taste them +twice when we ruminate on them in gratitude. They live after their +death when we bless God and thank Jesus for them all. We impoverish +ourselves still more than we dishonour Him by the ingratitude which +is so crying a fault. One sorrow hides many joys. A single crumpled +rose-leaf made the fairy princess's bed uncomfortable. Some of us +can see no blue in our sky if one small cloud is there. Both in +regard to earthly and spiritual blessings we are all sinners by +unthankfulness, and we all lose much thereby. + +Jesus rejoiced over 'this stranger,' and gave him a greater gift at +last than he had received when the leprosy was cleared from his +flesh. Christ's raising of him up, and sending him on his way to +resume his interrupted journey to the priest, was but a prelude to +'Thy faith hath made thee whole,' or, as the Revised Version margin +reads, 'saved thee.' Surely we may take that word in its deepest +meaning, and believe that a more fatal leprosy melted out of this +man's spirit, and that the faith which had begun in a confidence +that Jesus could heal, and had been increased by obedience to the +command which tried it, and had become more awed and enlightened +by experience of bodily healing, and been deepened by finding a +tongue to express itself in thankfulness, rose at last to such +apprehension of Jesus, and such clinging to Him in grateful love, +as availed to save 'this stranger' with a salvation that healed +his spirit, and was perfected when the once leprous body was left +behind, to crumble into dust. + + + + +THREE KINDS OP PRAYING + + + 'And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that + men ought always to pray, and not to faint; 2. Saying, + There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, + neither regarded man: 3. And there was a widow in that + city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine + adversary. 4. And he would not for a while: but + afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not + God, nor regard man; 5. Yet because this widow + troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual + coming she weary me. 6. And the Lord said, Hear what + the unjust judge saith. 7. And shall not God avenge + His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, + though He bear long with them! 8. I tell you that He + will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son + of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth? + 9. And He spake this parable unto certain which + trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and + despised others: 10. Two men went up into the temple + to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. + 11. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, + God, I thank thee, that I am not as Other men are, + extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this + publican. 11. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes + of all that I possess. 13. And the publican, standing + afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto + heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be + merciful to me a sinner. 14. I tell you, this man went + down to his house justified rather than the other: for + every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and + he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.' + --LUKE xviii. 1-14. + +The two parables in this passage are each prefaced by Luke's +explanation of their purpose. They are also connected by being both +concerned with aspects of prayer. But the second was apparently not +spoken at the same time as the first, but is put here by Luke as in +an appropriate place. + +I. The wearisome widow and the unrighteous judge. The similarities +and dissimilarities between this parable and that in chapter xi. 5-8 +are equally instructive. Both take a very unlovely character as open +to the influence of persistent entreaty; both strongly underscore +the unworthiness and selfishness of the motive for yielding. Both +expect the hearers to use common-sense enough to take the sleepy +friend and the worried judge as contrasts to, not parables, of Him +to whom Christians pray. But the judge is a much worse man than the +owner of the loaves, and his denial of the justice which it was his +office to dispense is a crime; the widow's need is greater than the +man's, and the judge's cynical soliloquy, in its unabashed avowal of +caring for neither God nor man, and being guided only by regard to +comfort, touches a deep depth of selfishness. The worse he was, the +more emphatic is the exhortation to persistence. If the continual +dropping of the widow's plea could wear away such a stone as that, +its like could wear away anything. Yes, and suppose that the judge +were as righteous and as full of love and wish to help as this judge +was of their opposites; suppose that instead of the cry being a +weariness it was a delight; suppose, in short, that, to go back to +chapter xi., we 'call on Him as Father who, without respect of +persons, judgeth': then our 'continual coming' will surely not be +less effectual than hers was. + +But we must note the spiritual experience supposed by the parable to +belong to the Christian life. That forlorn figure of the widow, with +all its suggestions of helplessness and oppression, is Christ's +picture of His Church left on earth without Him. And though of +course it is a very incomplete representation, it is a true +presentation of one side and aspect of the devout life on earth. 'In +the world ye shall have tribulation,' and the truer His servants are +to Him, and the more their hearts are with Christ in God, the more +they will feel out of touch with the world, and the more it will +instinctively be their 'adversary.' If the widow does not feel the +world's enmity, it will generally be because she is not a 'widow +indeed.' + +And another notable fact of Christian experience underlies the +parable; namely that the Church's cry for protection from the +adversary is often apparently unheard. In chapter xi. the prayer was +for supply of necessities, here it is for the specific blessing of +protection from the adversary. Whether that is referred to the needs +of the Church or of the individual, it is true that usually the help +sought is long delayed. It is not only 'souls under the altar' that +have to cry 'How long, O Lord, dost Thou not avenge?' One thinks of +years of persecution for whole communities, or of long, weary days +of harassment and suffering for individuals, of multitudes of +prayers and groans sent up into a heaven that, for all the answers +sent down, might as well be empty, and one feels it hard to hold by +the faith that 'verily, there is a God that' heareth. + +We have all had times when our faith has staggered, and we have +found no answer to our heart's question: 'Why tarry the wheels of +His chariot?' Many of us have felt what Mary and Martha felt when +'Jesus abode still two days in the place where He was' after He had +received their message, in which they had been so sure of His coming +at once when He heard that 'he whom Thou lovest is sick,' that they +did not ask Him to come. The delays of God's help are a constant +feature in His providence, and, as Jesus says here, they are but too +likely to take the life out of faith. + +But over against these we have to place Jesus' triumphant assurance +here: 'He will avenge them speedily.' Yes, the longest delay may yet +be 'right early,' for heaven's clock does not beat at the same rate +as our little chronometers. God is 'the God of patience,' and He has +waited for millenniums for the establishment of His kingdom on +earth; His 'own elect' may learn long-suffering from Him, and need +to take to heart the old exhortation, 'If the vision tarry, wait for +it, for it will surely come, and will not tarry.' Yes, God's delays +are not delays, but are for our profit that we may always pray and +not faint, and may keep alight the flame of the sure hope that the +Son of man cometh, and that in His coming all adversaries shall be +destroyed, and the widow, no longer a widow, but the bride, go in to +the feast and forget her foes, and 'the days of her mourning be +ended.' + +II. The Pharisee and the publican. + +Luke's label on this parable tells us that it was spoken to a group +of the very people who were personated in it by the Pharisee. One +can fancy their faces as they listened, and how they would love the +speaker! Their two characteristics are self-righteousness and +depreciation of every one else, which is the natural result of such +trust in self. The self-adulation was absolute, the contempt was +all-embracing, for the Revised Version rightly renders 'set +_all_ others at nought.' That may sound exaggerated, but the +way to judge of moral characteristics is to take them in their +fullest development and to see what they lead to then. The two +pictures heighten each other. The one needs many strokes to bring +out the features, the other needs but one. Self-righteousness takes +many shapes, penitence has but one emotion to express, one cry to +utter. + +Every word in the Pharisee's prayer is reeking with self-complacency. +Even the expression 'prayed with himself' is significant, for it +suggests that the prayer was less addressed to God than to himself, +and also that his words could scarcely be spoken in the hearing of +others, both because of their arrogant self-praise and of their +insolent calumnies of 'all the rest.' It was not prayer to God, but +soliloquy in his own praise, and it was in equal parts adulation of +himself and slander of other men. So it never went higher than the +inner roof of the temple court, and was, in a very fatal sense, 'to +himself.' + +God is complimented with being named formally at first, and in the +first two words, 'I thank thee,' but that is only formal +introduction, and in all the rest of his prayer there is not a trace +of praying. Such a self-satisfied gentleman had no need to ask for +anything, so he brought no petitions. He uses the conventional +language of thanksgiving, but his real meaning is to praise himself +to God, not to thank God for himself. God is named once. All the +rest is I, I, I. He had no longing for communion, no aspiration, no +emotion. + +His conception of righteousness was mean and shallow. And as St. +Bernard notes, he was not so much thankful for being righteous as +for being alone in his goodness. No doubt he was warranted in +disclaiming gross sins, but he was glad to be free from them, not +because they were sins, but because they were vulgar. He had no +right to fling mud either on 'all the rest' or on 'this publican,' +and if he had been really praying or giving thanks he would have had +enough to think of in God and himself without casting sidelong and +depreciatory glances at his neighbours. He who truly prays 'sees no +man any more,' or if he does, sees men only as subjects for +intercession, not for contempt. The Pharisee's notion of +righteousness was primarily negative, as consisting in abstinence +from flagrant sins, and, in so far as it was positive, it dealt +entirely with ceremonial acts. Such a starved and surface conception +of righteousness is essential to self-righteousness, for no man who +sees the law of duty in its depth and inwardness can flatter himself +that he has kept it. To fast twice a week and to give tithes of all +that one acquired were acts of supererogation, and are proudly +recounted as if God should feel much indebted to the doer for paying +Him more than was required. The Pharisee makes no petitions. He +states his claims, and tacitly expects that God will meet them. + +Few words are needed to paint the publican; for his estimate of +himself is simple and one, and what he wants from God is one thing, +and one only. His attitude expresses his emotions, for he does not +venture to go near the shining example of all respectability and +righteousness, nor to lift his eyes to heaven. Like the penitent +psalmist, his iniquities have taken hold on him, so that he is 'not +able to look up.' Keen consciousness of sin, true sorrow for sin, +earnest desire to shake off the burden of sin, lowly trust in God's +pardoning mercy, are all crowded into his brief petition. The arrow +thus feathered goes straight up to the throne; the Pharisee's prayer +cannot rise above his own lips. + +Jesus does not leave His hearers to apply the 'parable,' but drives +its application home to them, since He knew how keen a thrust was +needed to pierce the triple breastplate of self-righteousness. The +publican was 'justified'; that is, accounted as righteous. In the +judgment of heaven, which is the judgment of truth, sin forsaken is +sin passed away. The Pharisee condensed his contempt into +'_this_ publican'; Jesus takes up the 'this' and turns it into +a distinction, when He says, '_this man_ went down to his house +justified.' God's condemnation of the Pharisee and acceptance of the +publican are no anomalous aberration of divine justice, for it is a +universal law, which has abundant exemplifications, that he that +exalteth himself is likely to be humbled, and he that humbles +himself to be exalted. Daily life does not always yield examples +thereof, but in the inner life and as concerns our relations to God, +that law is absolutely and always true. + + + + +ENTERING THE KINGDOM + + + 'And they brought unto Him also infants, that He would + touch them: but when His disciples saw it, they rebuked + them. 16. But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, + Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid + them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. + 17. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive + the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise + enter therein. 18. And a certain ruler asked Him, + saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit + eternal life? 19. And Jesus said unto him, Why callest + thou Me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. + 20. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit + adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false + witness, Honour thy father and thy mother. 21. And he + said, All these have I kept from my youth up. 22. Now + when Jesus heard these things, He said unto him, Yet + lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and + distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure + in heaven: and come, follow Me. 23. And when he heard + this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. + 24. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful He + said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter + into the kingdom of God? 25. For it is easier for a + camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich + man to enter into the kingdom of God. 26. And they + that heard it said, Who then can be saved? 27. And He + said, The things which are impossible with men are + possible with God. 28. Then Peter said, Lo, we have + left all, and followed Thee. 29. And He said unto + them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath + left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or + children, for the kingdom of God's sake, 30. Who shall + not receive manifold more in this present time, and in + world to come life everlasting.'--LUKE xviii. 15-30. + +In this section Luke rejoins the other two Evangelists, from whom +his narrative has diverged since Luke ix. 51. All three bring +together these two incidents of the children in Christ's arms and +the young ruler. Probably they were connected in time as well as in +subject. Both set forth the conditions of entering the kingdom, +which the one declares to be lowliness and trust, and the other to +be self-renunciation. + +I. We have the child-likeness of the subjects of the kingdom. No +doubt there was a dash of superstition in the impulse that moved the +parents to bring their children to Jesus, but it was an eminently +natural desire to win a good man's blessing, and one to which every +parent's heart will respond. It was not the superstition, but the +intrusive familiarity, that provoked the disciples' rebuke. A great +man's hangers-on are always more careful of his dignity than he is, +for it increases their own importance. + +The tender age of the children is to be noted. They were 'babes,' +and had to be brought, being too young to walk, and so having +scarcely yet arrived at conscious, voluntary life. It is 'of such' +that the subjects of the kingdom are composed. What, then, are the +qualities which, by this comparison, Jesus requires? Certainly not +innocence, which would be to contradict all his teaching and to shut +out the prodigals and publicans, and clean contrary to the whole +spirit of Luke's Gospel. Besides, these scarcely conscious infants +were not 'innocent,' for they had not come to the age of which +either innocence or guilt can be predicated. What, then, had they +which the children of the kingdom must have? + +Perhaps the sweet and meek little 131st Psalm puts us best on the +track of the answer. It may have been in our Lord's mind; it +certainly corresponds to His thought. 'My heart is not haughty, nor +mine eyes lofty.... I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a +weaned child with his mother.' The infant's lowliness is not yet +humility; for it is instinct rather than virtue. It makes no claims, +thinks no lofty thoughts of self; in fact, has scarcely begun to +know that there is a self at all. On the other hand, clinging trust +is the infant's life. It, too, is rudimentary and instinctive, but +the impulse which makes the babe nestle in its mother's bosom may +well stand for a picture of the conscious trust which the children +of the kingdom must have. The child's instinct is the man's virtue. +We have + + 'To travel back + And tread again that ancient track,' + +regaining as the conscious temper of our spirits those excellences +of humility and trust of which the first faint types may be seen in +the infant in arms. The entrance gate is very low, and, if we hold +our heads high, we shall not get through it. It must be on our hands +and knees that we go in. There is no place in the kingdom for those +who trust in themselves. We must rely wholly on God manifest in His +Son. + +So intent is Luke in pointing the lesson that he passes by in +silence the infinitely beautiful and touching incident which the +world perhaps knows better than any other in our Lord's life--that +of His taking the infants in His arms and blessing them. In many +ways that incident would have been peculiarly suitable for this +Gospel, which delights to bring out the manhood and universal +beneficence of Jesus. But if Luke knew of it, he did not care to +bring in anything which would weaken the lesson of the conditions of +entering the kingdom. + +II. We have self-renunciation as the condition of entering the +kingdom. The conversation with the ruler (vs. 18-23) sets forth its +necessity; the sad exclamation to the bystanders (vs. 24-27) teaches +its difficulty; and the dialogue with Peter as representing the +twelve (vs. 28-30), its reward. + +(1) The necessity of self-renunciation. The ruler's question has +much blended good and evil. It expresses a true earnestness, a +dissatisfaction with self, a consciousness of unattained bliss and a +longing for it, a felt readiness to take any pains to secure it, a +confidence in Christ's guidance--in short, much of the child spirit. +But it has also a too light estimate of what good is, a mistaken +notion that 'eternal life' can be won by external deeds, which +implies fatal error as to its nature and his own power to do these. +This superficial estimate of goodness, and this over confidence in +his ability to do good acts, are the twin mistakes against which +Christ's treatment of him is directed. + +Adopting Luke's version of our Lord's answer, the counter-question, +which begins it, lays hold of the polite address, which had slipped +from the ruler's lips as mere form, and bids him widen out his +conceptions of 'good.' Jesus does not deny that He has a right to +the title, but questions this man's right to give it Him. The ruler +thought of Jesus only as a man, and, so thinking, was too ready with +his adjective. Conventional phrases of compliment may indicate much +of the low notions from which they spring. He who is so liberal with +his ascriptions of goodness needs to have his notions of what it is +elevated. Jesus lays down the great truth which this man, in his +confidence that he by his own power could do any good needed for +eternal life, was perilously forgetting. God is the only good, and +therefore all human goodness must come from Him; and if the ruler is +to do 'good,' he must first be good, by receiving goodness from God. + +But the saying has an important bearing on Christ's character. The +world calls Him good. Why? There is none good but God. So we are +face to face with this dilemma--Either Jesus Christ is God manifest +in the flesh, or He is not good. + +Having thus tried to deepen his conceptions, and awaken his +consciousness of imperfection, our Lord meets the man on his own +ground by referring him to the Law, which abundantly answered his +inquiry. The second half of the commandments are alone quoted +by Him; for they have especially to do with conduct, and the +infractions of them are more easily recognised than those of the +first. The ruler expected that some exceptional and brilliant deeds +would be pointed out and he is relegated to the old homely duties, +which it is gross crime not to do. + +A shade of disappointment and impatience is in his protestation that +he had done all these ever since he was a lad. No doubt he had, and +his coming to Jesus confessed that though he had, the doing had not +brought him 'eternal life.' Are there not many youthful hearts which +would have to say the same, if they would be frank with themselves? +They have some longings after a bliss and calm which they feel is +not theirs. They have kept within the lines of that second half of +the Decalogue, but that amount and sort of 'good thing' has not +brought peace. Jesus looks on all such as He did on this young man, +'loves' them, and speaks further to them as He did to him. What +was lacking? The soul of goodness, without which these other things +were 'dead works.' And what is that soul? Absolute self-renunciation +and following Christ. For this man the former took the shape of +parting with his wealth, but that external renunciation in itself +was as 'dead' and impotent to bring eternal life as all his other +good acts had been. It was precious as a means to an end--the +entrance into the number of Christ's disciples; and as an expression +of that inward self-surrender which is essential for discipleship. + +The real stress of the condition is in its second half, 'Follow me.' +He who enters the company of Christ's followers enters the kingdom, +and has eternal life. If he does not do that, he may give his goods +to feed the poor, and it profiteth him nothing. Eternal life is not +the external wages for external acts, but the outcome and consequence +of yielding self to Jesus, through whom goodness, which keeps the +law, flows into the soul. + +The requirement pierced to the quick. The man loved the world more +than eternal life, after all. But though he went away, he went +sorrowful; and that was perhaps the presage that he would come back. + +(2) Jesus follows him with sad yearning, and, we may be sure, still +sought to draw him back. His exclamation is full of the charity +which makes allowance for temptation. It speaks a universal truth, +never more needed than in our days, when wealth has flung its golden +chains round so many professing Christians. How few of us believe +that it gets harder for us to be disciples as we grow richer! There +are multitudes in our churches who would be far nearer Christ than +they are ever likely to be, if they would literally obey the +injunction to get rid of their wealth. + +We are too apt to take such commands as applicable only to the +individuals who received them, whereas, though, no doubt, the +spirit, and not the letter, is the universal element in them, there +are far more of us than we are willing to confess, who need to obey +the letter in order to keep the spirit. What a depth of vulgar +adoration of the power of money is in the disciples' exclamation, +'If rich men cannot get into the kingdom, who can get in!' Or +perhaps it rather means, If self-renunciation is the condition, who +can fulfil it? The answer points us all to the only power by which +we can do good, and overcome self; namely by God's help. God is +'good,' and we can be good too, if we look to Him. God will fill our +souls with such sweetness that earth will not be hard to part with. + +(3) The last paragraph of this passage teaches the reward of +self-renunciation. Peter shoves his oar in, after his fashion. It +would have been better if he had not boasted of their surrender, +but yet it was true that they had given up all. Only a fishing-boat +and a parcel of old nets, indeed, but these were all they had to +give; and God's store, which holds His children's surrendered +valuables, has many things of small value in it--cups of cold water +and widows' mites lying side by side with crowns and jewels. + +So Jesus does not rebuke the almost innocent self-congratulation, +but recognises in it an appeal to his faithfulness. It was really a +prayer, though it sounded like a vaunt, and it is answered by +renewed assurances. To part with outward things for Christ's sake or +for the kingdom's sake--which is the same thing--is to win them +again with all their sweetness a hundred-fold sweeter. Gifts given +to Him come back to the giver mended by His touch and hallowed by +lying on His altar. The present world yields its full riches only to +the man who surrenders all to Jesus. And the 'eternal life,' which +the ruler thought was to be found by outward deeds, flows +necessarily into the heart which is emptied of self, that it may be +filled with Him who is the life, and will be perfected yonder. + + + + +THE MAN THAT STOPPED JESUS + + + 'And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be brought + unto Him: and when he was come near, He asked him, + 41. Saying, What wilt thou that I shall do unto + thee?'--LUKE xviii. 40-41. + +This story of the man that stopped Christ is told by the three +'Synoptic' Evangelists, and it derives a special value from having +occurred within a week of the Crucifixion. You remember how +graphically Mark tells how the blind man hears who is passing and +immediately begins to cry with a loud voice to Christ to have mercy +upon him; how the officious disciples--a great deal more concerned +for the Master's dignity than He was Himself--tried to silence him; +and how, with a sturdy persistence and independence of externals +which often goes along with blindness, 'he cried the more a great +deal' because they did try, and then how he won the distinction of +being the man that stopped Christ. When Jesus stood still, and +commanded him to be called, the crowd wheeled right round at once, and +instead of hindering, encumbered him with help, and bade him to 'rise, +and be of good cheer.' Then he flings away some poor rag that he had +had to cover himself sitting there, and wearing his under-garment +only, comes to Christ, and Jesus asks, 'What do you want?' A promise +in the shape of a question. Bartimaeus knows what he wants, and +answers without hesitation, and so he gets his request. + +Now, I think in all this incident, and especially in its centre +part, which I have read, there are great lessons for us. And the +first of them is, I see here a wonderful revelation of Christ's +quick sympathy at a moment when He was most absorbed. + +I said that all this occurred within a week of our Lord's +Crucifixion. If you will recall the way in which that last journey +to Jerusalem is described in the Evangelists, you will see that +there was something very extraordinary about the determination and +tension of spirit which impelled Jesus along the road, all the +way from Galilee. Mark says that the disciples followed and were +amazed. There was something quite unlike what they had been +accustomed to, in His face and bearing, and it was so strange to +them that they were puzzled and frightened. We read, too, that their +amazement and fright prevented them from going very near Him on the +road; 'as they _followed_ they were afraid.' Then the story +goes on to tell how James and John, with their arrogant wish, did +draw closer to Him, the rest of them lagging behind, conscious of a +certain unaccustomed distance between Him and them, which only the +ambitious two dared to diminish. Further, one of the Evangelists +speaks of His face being 'set' to go to Jerusalem, the gentle +lineaments fixed in a new expression of resolution and absorption. +The Cross was flinging its shadow over Him. He was bracing Himself +up for the last struggle. If ever there was a moment of His life +when we might have supposed that He would be oblivious of externals, +and especially of the individual sorrows of one poor blind beggar +sitting by the roadside, it was that moment. But however plunged in +great thoughts about the agonising suffering that He was going to +front, and the grand work that He was going to do, and the great +victory that He was going to win so soon, He had + + 'A heart at leisure from itself + To soothe and sympathise.' + +Even at that supreme hour He stood still and commanded him to be +called. I wonder if it is saying too much to say that in the +exercise of that power of healing and helping Bartimaeus, Jesus +found some relief from the pressure of impending sorrow. + +Brethren, is not that a lesson for us all? It is not spiritualising, +allegorising, cramming meanings into an incident that are not in it, +when we say--Think of Jesus Christ as one of ourselves, knowing that +He was going to His death within a week, and then think of Him +turning to this poor man. Is not that a pattern for us? We are often +more selfish in our sorrows than in our joys. Many of us are inclined, +when we are weighed down by personal sorrows, to say, 'As long as I +have this heavy weight lying on my heart, how can you expect me to +take an interest in the affairs of others, or to do Christian work, +or to rise to the calls of benevolence and the cries of need?' We do +not expect _you_ to do it; but Jesus Christ did it, 'leaving us +an example that we should follow in His steps.' Next to the blessed +influences of God's own Spirit, and the peace-bringing act of submission, +there is no such comfort for sorrow, as to fling ourselves into others' +griefs, and to bear others' burdens. Our Lord, with His face set like +a flint, on the road to the Cross, but yet sufficiently free of heart +to turn to Bartimaeus, reads a lesson that rebukes us all, and should +teach us all. + +Further, do we not see here a beautiful concrete instance, on the +lower plane, of the power of earnest desire. + +No enemy could have stopped Christ on that road; no opposition could +have stopped Him, no beseeching on the part of loving and ignorant +friends, repeating the temptation in the wilderness--or the foolish +words of Peter, 'This shall not be unto Thee,' could have stopped +Him. He would have trodden down all such flimsy obstacles, as a lion +'from the thickets of Jordan' crashes through the bulrushes, but +this cry stopped Him, 'Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me, +and the Cross and all else that He was hastening to, great as it was +for the world, had to wait its turn, for something else had to be +done first. There was noise enough on the road, the tramp of many +feet, the clatter of many eager tongues, but the voice of one poor +man sitting in the dust there by the roadside, found its way through +all the noise to Christ's ears. 'Which things are an allegory.' +There is an ocean of praise always, as I might so say breaking upon +Christ's Throne, but the little stream of my petitions flows +distinguishable through all that sea. As one of our poets says, we +may even think of Him as 'missing my little human praise' when the +voice of one poor boy was not heard. Surely amidst all the +encouragements that we have to believe that our cry is not sent up +into an empty heaven, nor into deaf ears, and that all the multitude +of creatures that wait before that Throne do not prevent the +individualising knowledge and the individualising love of Jesus +Christ from coming straight to every one of us, this little incident +is not the least instructive and precious. He that heard Bartimaeus +will hear us. + +In like manner, may I not say that here we have an illustration of +how Christ, who has so much besides to do, would suspend other work, +if it were needful, in order to do what we need? As I have said, the +rest had to wait. Bartimaeus stopped Christ. And our hand, if it be +the hand of faith, put out to the hem of the garment as Jesus of +Nazareth passeth by, will so far stop Him as that He will do what we +wish, if what we wish is in accordance with our highest good. There +was another man in Jericho who stopped Christ, on that same journey; +for not only the petition of Bartimaeus, but the curiosity--which +was more than curiosity--of Zacchaeus, stopped Him, and He who stood +still, though He had His face set like a flint to go to Jerusalem, +because Bartimaeus cried, stood still and looked up into the +sycamore tree where the publican was--the best fruit that ever it +bore--and said, 'Zacchaeus; come down, I must abide at thy house.' +Why _must_ He abide? Because He discerned there a soul that He +could help and save, and that arrested Him on His road to the Cross. + +So, dear friends, amidst all the work of administering the universe +which He does, and of guiding and governing and inspiring His +Church, which He does, if you ask for the supply of your need He +would put that work aside for a moment, if necessary, to attend to +you. That is no exaggeration; it is only a strong way of putting the +plain truth that Christ's love individualises each of its objects; +and lavishes itself upon each one of us; as if there were no other +beings in the universe but only our two selves. + +And then, remember too, that what Bartimaeus got was not taken from +anyone else. Nobody suffered because Jesus paused to help him. They +sat down in ranks, five thousand of them, and as they began to eat, +those that were first served would be looked upon with envious eye +by the last 'ranks,' who would be wondering if the bits of bread and +the two small fishes were enough to go round. But the first group +was fed full and the last group had as much, and they took up 'of +the fragments that remained, twelve baskets full.' + + 'Enough for all, enough for each, + Enough for evermore.' + +There is one more thought rising out of this story. It teaches a +wonderful lesson as to the power which Christ puts into the hand of +believing prayer. + +'What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?' He had asked the same +question a little while before, under very different circumstances. +When James and John came and tried to beguile Him into a blind +promise, because they knew that It was not likely that they would +get what they asked if they said it out at first. He avoided the +snare with that same question, To them the question was a refusal; +they had said: 'Master, we will that Thou wouldst do whatever we +should desire'; and He said: 'What is it that ye desire? Let Me know +that first.' But when blind Bartimaeus cried, Jesus smiled down upon +him--though his sightless eyeballs could not see the smile, there +would be a smile in the cadence of His words--and He said: 'What +wouldst thou that I should do for thee?' To this suppliant that +question was a promise--'I will do what you want.' He puts the key +of the royal treasure-house into the hand of faith, and says, 'Go in +and help yourself. Take what you will.' + +Only, of course, we must remember that there are limitations in the +very nature of the case, imposed not arbitrarily, but because the +very nature of the truest gifts creates them, and these limitations +to some of us sound as if they took all the blessedness out of the +act of prayer. 'We know,' says one of the Apostles, 'that if we ask +anything according to His will He heareth us.' Some of us think that +that is a very poor kind of charter, but it sets the necessary limit +to the omnipotence of faith. 'What wouldst thou that I should do for +thee?' Unless our answer always, and at bottom, is, 'Not my will, +but Thine,' we have not yet learnt the highest blessing, nor the +truest meaning, of prayer. For to pray does not mean to insist, to +press our wishes on God, but it means, first, to desire that our +wills may be brought into harmony with His. The old Rabbis hit upon +great truths now and then, and one of them said, 'Make God's will +thy will, that He may make thy will His will.' If any poor, blind +Bartimaeus remembers that, and asks accordingly, he has the key to +the royal treasury in his possession, and he may go in and plunge +his hand up to the wrist in jewels and diamonds, and carry away bars +of gold, and it will all be his. + +When this man, who had no sight in his eyeballs, knew that whatever +he wanted he should have, he did not need to pause long to consider +what it was that he wanted most. If you and I had that Aladdin's +lamp given to us, and had only to rub it for a mighty spirit to come +that would fulfil our wishes, I wonder if we should be as sure of +what we wanted. If we were as conscious of our need as the blind man +was of his, we should pause as little in our response to the +question: 'What wouldst thou that I should do for thee?' 'Lord! Dost +Thou not see that mine eyes are dark? What else but sight can I +want?' Jesus still comes to us with the same question. God grant +that we may all say; 'Lord, how canst Thou ask us? Dost Thou not see +that my soul is stained, my love wandering, my eyeballs dim? Give me +Thyself!' If we thus ask, then the answer will come as quickly to us +as it did to this blind man: 'Go thy way! Thy faith hath saved +thee,' and that 'Go thy way' will not be dismissal from the Presence +of our Benefactor, but our 'way' will be the same as Bartimaeus' +was, when he received his sight, and 'followed Jesus in the way.' + + + + +MELTED BY KINDNESS + + + 'And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up, and saw + him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come + down; for to-day I must abide at thy house.' + --LUKE xix. 5. + +It is characteristic of Luke that only he tells the story +of Zacchaeus. He always dwells with special interest on incidents +bringing out the character of Christ as the Friend of outcasts. His +is eminently the Gospel of forgiveness. For example, we owe to Him +the three supreme parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the +prodigal son, as well as those of the Pharisee and the publican +praying in the Temple; and of the good Samaritan. It is he that +tells us that all the publicans and sinners came near to Jesus to +hear Him; and he loses no opportunity of enforcing the lesson with +which this incident closes, 'The Son of Man is come to seek and to +save that which was lost.' It is because of the light that it throws +upon that great thought that he tells this fascinating story of +Zacchaeus. I need not repeat it. We all remember it, and the +quaintness and grotesqueness of part of it fix it in people's +memories. We know how the rich tax gatherer, pocketing his dignity, +and unable to see over the heads of the crowd, scrambled up into the +branches of the sycamore tree that overhung the road; and there was +found by the eye of love, and surprised by the words of kindness, +which melted him down, and made a new man of him on the spot. The +story seems to me to be full of teaching, to which I desire to turn +your attention at this time. + +I. First, note the outcast, drawn by imperfect motives to Jesus +Christ. + +It has been supposed that this man was a Gentile, but his Jewish +name establishes his origin. And, if so, the fact that he was a +publican and a Jew says a good deal about his character. There are +some trades which condemn, to a certain extent, the men who engage +in them. You would not expect to find a man of sensitive honour +acting as a professional spy; or one of earnest religious character +keeping a public-house. You would not expect to find a very good Jew +condescending to be the tool of the Roman Government. Zacchaeus was +at the head of the revenue office in Jericho, a position of +considerable importance, inasmuch as there was a large volume of +trade through that city from its situation near the fords of the +Jordan, and from the fertility of the plain in which it stood. He +had made some money, and probably made it by very questionable +means. He was the object, not undeservedly, of the execration and +suspicion of his countrymen. Italians did not love Italians who took +service under Austria. Irishmen did not love Irishmen who in the bad +old days used to collect church cess. And so Jews had no very kind +feeling towards Jews who became Caesar's servants. That a man should +be in such a position indicated that he cared more for money than +for patriotism, religion, or popular approval. His motto was the +motto of that Roman Emperor who said, 'Money has no smell,' out of +whatever cesspool it may have been fished up. But the consciousness +of being encompassed by universal hatred would induce the object of +it to put on an extra turn of the screw, and avenge upon individuals +the general hostility. So we may take it for granted that Zacchaeus, +the head of the Jericho custom-house, and rich to boot, was by no +means a desirable character. + +What made him want to see Jesus Christ? He said to himself, curiosity; +but probably he was doing himself injustice, and there was something +else working below than merely the wish to see what sort of man was +this Rabbi Joshua from Galilee that everybody was talking about. Had +he heard that Jesus had a soft place in His heart for his class? Or +was he, perhaps, beginning to get tired of being the butt of universal +hatred, and finding that money scarcely compensated for that? Or was +there some reaching out towards some undefined good, and a +dissatisfaction with a very defined present, though unnamed, evil? +Probably so. Like some of us, he put the trivial motive uppermost +because he was half ashamed of the half-conscious better one. + +I wonder if there are any here now who said to themselves that they +would come out of curiosity to hear the preacher, or from some such +ordinary motive, and who all the while have, lying deep below that, +another reason altogether, a dim feeling that it is not all right +between them and God, and that here may be the place to have it put +right? At all events, from whatsoever imperfect motives little +Zacchaeus was perched up in the sycamore there, he went to +see Christ, and he got more than he went for. Unconsciously we may +be drawn, and imperfect motives may lead us to a perfect Saviour. + +He sets us an example in another way. Do not be too punctilious +about dignity in pursuing aims that you know to be good. It would be +a sight to bring jeers and grins on the faces of the crowd to see +the rich man of the custom-house sitting up amongst the leaves. But +he did not mind about that if he got a good look at the Rabbi when +He passed. People care nothing for ridicule if their hearts are set +upon a thing. I wish there were more of us who did not mind being +laughed at if only what we did helped us to see Jesus Christ. Do not +be afraid of ridicule. It is not a test of truth; in nine cases out +of ten it is the grimace of fools. + +II. Then, further, notice the self-invited Guest. + +When the little procession stopped under the sycamore tree, +Zacchaeus would begin to feel uncomfortable. He may have had +experience in past times of the way in which the great doctors of +orthodoxy were in the habit of treating a publican, and may have +begun to be afraid that this new one was going to be like all the +rest, and elicit some kind of mob demonstration against him. The +crowd would be waiting with intense curiosity to see what would pass +between the Rabbi and the revenue collector. They would all be very +much astonished. 'Zacchaeus! make haste and come down. To-day I must +abide at thy house.' Perhaps it was the first time since he had been +a child at his mother's knee that he had heard his name pronounced +in tones of kindness. There was not a ragged beggar in Jericho who +would not have thought himself degraded by putting his foot across +the threshold that Jesus now says He will cross. + +It is the only time in which we read that Jesus volunteered to go +into any house. He never offers to go where He is not wanted, any +more than He ever stays away where He is. And so the very fact of +His saying 'I will abide at thy house,' is to me an indication +that, deep down below Zacchaeus' superficial and vulgar curiosity, +there was something far more noble which our Lord fosters into life +and consciousness by this offer. + +Many large truths are suggested by it on which we may touch. We have +in Christ's words an illustration of His individualising knowledge. +'Zacchaeus, come down.' There is no sign that anybody had told Christ +the name, or that He knew anything about Zacchaeus before by human +knowledge. But the same eye that saw Nathanael under the fig-tree +saw Zacchaeus in the sycamore; and, seeing in secret, knew without +being told the names of both. Christ does not name men in vain. He +generally, when He uses an individual's name in addressing him, means +either to assert His knowledge of his character, or His authority +over him, or in some way or other to bespeak personal adhesion and +to promise personal affection. So He named some of His disciples, +weaving a bond that united each single soul to Himself by the act. +This individualising knowledge and drawing love and authority are all +expressed, as I think, in that one word 'Zacchaeus.' And these are as +true about us as about him. The promises of the New Testament, the +words of Jesus Christ, the great, broad, universal 'whosoevers' of +His assurance and of His commandments are as directly meant for each +of us as if they were in an envelope with our names upon them and put +into our hands. We, too, are spoken to by Him by our names, and for +us, too, there may be a personal bond of answering love that knits us +individually to the Master, as there certainly is a bond of personal +regard, compassion, affection, and purpose of salvation in His heart +in regard of each single soul of all the masses of humanity. I should +have done something if I should have been able to gather into a point, +that blessedly pierced some heart to let the life in, the broad truths +of the Gospel. 'Whosoever will, let him come.' Say to yourself, 'That +is me.' 'Whosoever cometh I will in no wise cast out.' Say to yourself, +'That is me.' And in like manner with all the general declarations, +and especially with that chiefest of them all, 'God so loved the world +that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him +should not perish.' Read it as you may--and you will never read it +right until you do--'God so loved _me_'--John, Mary, or whatever +be your name--'Jesus so loved _me_ that if _I_ believe upon +Him _I_ shall not perish, but have everlasting life.' + +Then, note, further, how here we get the revelation, in a concrete +form, of Christ's perfect willingness and desire to make common +cause, and dwell with the most degraded and outcast. I have said +that this is the only instance in which He volunteered to be a +guest. Pharisees asked Him, and He did not refuse. The publican's +dwelling, which was tabooed, He opened the door of by His own hand. +And that is what He always does. + +This little incident may be taken to be, not merely a symbol of His +whole dealings, but an illustration, in small, of the same principle +which has its largest embodiment and illustration in the fact of His +Incarnation and Manhood. Why did Jesus Christ take flesh and dwell +among us? Because He desired to seek and to save that which is lost. +Why did He go into the publican's house, and brave the sneers of the +crowd, and associate Himself with the polluted? For the same reason. +Microscopic crystals and gigantic ones are due to the same forces +working in the same fashion. This incident is more than a symbol; it +is a little instance of the operation of the law which finds its +supreme and transcendent instance in the fact that the Eternal Son +of God bowed the heavens and came down 'and dwelt among us, and we +beheld His glory.' + +His example is our pattern. A Christian church which does not +imitate its Master in its frank and continual willingness to +associate itself with the degraded and the outcast has lost one of +the truest signs of its being vitalised with the life of Christ. +There is much in this day in the condition of Christian communities +to make men dissatisfied and fearful. But there is one thing which, +though in all its developments one cannot sympathise with it, is in +its essence wholly good, and that is the new and quickened +consciousness that a church which does not address itself to the +outcasts has no business to live; and that Christian people who are +too proud of their righteousness to go amongst the unclean and the +degraded are a great deal more of Pharisees than Christians, and +have need to learn which be the first principles of the religion +which they profess. Self-righteousness gathers up its skirts in holy +horror; perfect righteousness goes cheerily and without fear amongst +the outcasts, for where should the physician go but to the sick, and +where should Christ be found but in the house of the publican? + +Further, the saying of our Lord suggests His recognition of the +great law that ruled His life. Chronology here is of much +importance. We do not generally remember that the scene with +Zacchaeus was within about a week of the Crucifixion. Our Lord was +on that last journey to Jerusalem to die, during the whole of which +there was over His demeanour a tension of holy impatience, +altogether unlike His usual manner, which astonished and amazed the +disciples as they followed Him. He set His face like a flint to go +to Jerusalem; and strode before them on the way as if He were eager +to reach the culmination of His sufferings and of His work. Thus +borne on the wings of the strong desire to be perfected on the +Cross, He is arrested on His path. Nothing else was able to stop +Him, but 'To-day I _must_ abide in thy house.' There was a soul +to be saved; and the world's sacrifice had to wait till the single +soul was secured. Christ hurrying, if I may use the word, at all +events steadfastly and without wavering, pressing towards the Cross, +let His course be stopped by this need. The highest 'must' was +obedience to the Father's will, and parallel with that need there +was the other, of rescuing the Father's prodigal sons. So this elder +Brother owned the obligation, and paused on the road to Calvary, to +lodge in the house of Zacchaeus. Let us learn the sweet lesson, +and take the large consolations that lie in such a thought. + +Again, the utterance of this self-invited Guest suggests His +over-abundant fulfilment of timid, half-conscious desires. I said at +the beginning of my remarks that only curiosity was on the surface; +but that the very fact that our Lord addressed Himself to the man +seemed to imply that He descried in him something more than mere vulgar +curiosity. And the glad leap with which Zacchaeus came down from his +tree might have revealed to Zacchaeus himself, as no doubt it did to +some of the bystanders, what it was that he had been dimly wishing. +So with us all there are needs, longings, half-emerging wishes, that +have scarcely come into the field of consciousness, but yet have +power enough to modify our actions. Jesus Christ understands all +about us, and reads us better than we do ourselves; and is ready to +meet, and by meeting to bring into full relief, these vague feelings +after an undefined good. Brethren, He is to us, if we will let Him +be, all that we want; and He is to us all that we need, although we +only half know that we need it, and never say to ourselves that we +wish it. + +There is a last thought deducible from these words of our Lord's; +and that is, His leaving a man to decide whether he will have Him or +no. 'Make haste and come down, for to-day I _must_ abide at thy +house. Yes! but if Zacchaeus had stuck in his tree, Christ's 'must' +would not have been fulfilled. He would have gone on to Jerusalem if +the publican had not scrambled down in haste. He forces Himself on +no man; He withholds Himself from no man. He respects that awful +prerogative of being the architects of our own evil and our own +good, by our own free and unconstrained choice. + +Did you ever think that it was now or never with this publican; that +Jesus Christ was never to go through the streets of Jericho any +more; that it was Zacchaeus' last chance; and that, if he had not +made haste, he would have lost Christ for ever? And so it is yet. +There may be some in this place at this moment to whom Jesus Christ +is now making His last appeal. I know not; no man knows. A Rabbi +said, when they asked him when a man should repent, 'Repent on the +last day of your lives.' And they said, 'But we do not know when +that will be.' And he said, 'Then repent _now_.' So I say, +because some of you may never hear Christ's Gospel again, and +because none of us know whether we shall or not; make sure work of +it _now_, and do not let Jesus Christ go out of the city and +up the road between the hills yonder; for if once the folds of the +ravine shut Him from sight He will never be back in Jericho, or seen +by Zacchaeus any more for ever. + +III. And so, lastly, notice the outcast melted by kindness. + +We do not know at what stage in our Lord's intercourse with the +publican he 'stood and said, Half of my goods I give to the poor,' +and so on. But whensoever it was, it was the sign of the entire +revolution that had been wrought upon him by the touch of that +loving hand, and by the new fountain of sympathy and love +that he had found in Jesus Christ. + +Some people have supposed, indeed, that his words do not mark a vow +for the future, but express his practice in the past. But it seems +to me to be altogether incongruous that Zacchaeus should advertise +his past good in order to make himself out to be not quite so bad as +people thought him, and, therefore, not so unworthy of being +Christ's host. Christ's love kindles sense of our sin, not +complacent recounting of our goodness. So Zacchaeus said, 'Lord! +Thou hast loved me, and I wonder. I yield, and fling away my black +past; and, so far as I can, make restitution for it.' + +The one transforming agency is the love of Christ received into the +heart. I do not suppose that Zacchaeus knew as much about Jesus +Christ even after the conversation as we do; nor did he see His love +in that supreme death on the Cross as we do. But the love of the +Lord made a deep dint in his heart, and revolutionised his whole +nature. The thing that will alter the whole current and set of a +man's affections, that will upset his estimate of the relative value +of material and spiritual, and that will turn him inside out and +upside down, and make a new man of him, is the revelation of the +supreme love that in Jesus Christ has come into the world, with an +individualising regard to each of us, and has died on the Cross for +the salvation of us all. Nothing else will do it. People had frowned +on Zacchaeus, and it made him bitter. They had execrated and +persecuted him; and his only response was setting his teeth more +firmly and turning the screw a little tighter when he had the +chance. You can drive a man into devilry by contempt. If you want to +melt him into goodness, try love. The Ethiopian cannot change his +skin, but Jesus Christ can change his heart, and that will change +his skin by degrees. The one transforming power is faith in the love +of Jesus Christ. + +Further, the one test of a true reception of Him is the abandonment +of past evil and restitution for it as far as possible. People say +that our Gospel is unreal and sentimental, and a number of other +ugly adjectives. Well! If it ever is so, it is the fault of the +speakers, and not of the Gospel. For its demands from every man that +accepts it are intensely practical, and nothing short of a complete +turning of his back upon his old self, shown in the conclusive +forsaking of former evil, however profitable or pleasant, and +reparation for harm done to men, satisfies them. + +It is useless to talk about loving Jesus Christ and trusting Him, +and having the sweet assurance of forgiveness, and a glorious hope +of heaven, unless these have made you break off your bad habits of +whatsoever sort they may be, and cast them behind your backs. Strong +emotion, sweet deep feeling, assured confidence in the sense of +forgiveness and the hope of heaven, are all very well. Let us see +your faith by your works; and of these works the chief is--Behold +the evil that I did, I do it no more: 'Behold! Lord! the half of my +goods I give to the poor.' There was a young ruler, a chapter before +this, who could not make up his mind to part with wealth in order to +follow Christ. This man has so completely made up his mind to follow +Christ that he does not need to be bidden to give up his worldly +goods. The half given to the poor, and fourfold restoration to those +whom he had wronged, would not leave much. How astonished Zacchaeus +would have been if anybody had said to him that morning, 'Zacchaeus! +before this night falls you will be next door to a pauper, and you +will be a happier man than you are now!' + +So, dear friends, like him, all of us may, if we will, and if we +need, make a sudden right-about-face that shall alter the complexion +of our whole future. People tell us that sudden conversions are +suspicious. So they may be in certain cases. But the moment when a +man makes up his mind to change the direction in which his face is +set will always be a moment, however long may be the hesitation, and +the meditation, and the preparation that led up to it. + +Jesus Christ is standing before each of us as truly as He did before +that publican, and is saying to us as truly as He said to him, 'Let +Me in.' 'Behold! I stand at the door and knock. If any man open ... +I will enter.' If He comes in He will teach you what needs to be +turned out if He is to stop; and will make the sacrifice blessed and +not painful; and you will be a happier and a richer man with Christ +and nothing than with all beside and no Christ. + + + + +THE TRADING SERVANTS + + + 'Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath + gained ten pounds.... And the second came, saying, + Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds.' + --LUKE xix.16, 18. + +The Evangelist, contrary to his usual practice, tells us what was +the occasion of this parable. It was spoken at Jericho, on our +Lord's last journey to Jerusalem, Bethany was but a day's march +distant; Calvary but a week ahead. An unusual tension of spirit +marked our Lord's demeanour, and was noticed by the disciples with +awe. It infected them, and the excitable crowd, which was more than +usually excitable because on its way to the passover festival. The +air was electric, and everybody felt that something was impending. +They 'thought that the kingdom of God should _immediately_ +appear.' So Christ spoke this parable to damp down that expectation +which might easily flash up into the flame of rebellion. He tells +them His real programme. He was to go a long way off to receive +the kingdom. That was a familiar experience amongst the nations +tributary to Rome, and more than one of the Herodian family had +passed through it. In the meantime there was to be a period of +expectancy. It was to be a long time, for he had to go to a 'far +country,' and it was to be extended enough for the servants to turn +their money over many times during His absence. When He did return +it was not to do what they expected. They thought that the kingdom +meant Jewish lordship over subject nations. He teaches them that it +meant the destruction of the rebellious citizens, and a rigid +scrutiny of the servants' faithfulness. + +Now, the words of my two texts bring out in connection with this +outline of the future some large lessons which I desire to draw. + +I. Notice the small capital that the servants receive to trade with. + +It was a pound apiece, which, numismatic authorities tell us, is +somewhat about the same value as some £6 odd of English money; +though, of course, the purchasing power would be considerably +greater. A small amount, and an equal amount to every servant--these +are the two salient points of this parable. They make the broad +distinction between it and the other parable, which is often mixed +up with it, the parable of the talents. There, instead of the amount +being excessively small, it is exceedingly great; for a talent was +worth some £400, and ten talents would be £4000, a fair capital for +a man to start with. The other point of difference between the two +parables, which belongs to the essence of each, is that while the +gift in the one case is identical, in the other case it is graduated +and different. + +Now, to suppose that these are but two varying versions of the same +parable, which the Evangelists have manipulated is, in my judgment, +to be blind to the plainest of the lessons to be drawn from them. + +There are two sorts of gifts. In one, all Christian men, the +Master's servants, are alike; in another, they differ. Now, what is +the thing in which all Christians are alike? What gift do they all +possess equally; rich and poor, largely endowed or slenderly +equipped; 'talented'--as we use the word from the parable--or not? +The rich man and the poor, the wise man and the foolish, the +cultured man and the ignorant, the Fijian and the Englishman, have +one thing alike--the message of salvation which we call the Gospel +of the blessed Lord. That is the 'pound.' We all stand upon an equal +platform there, however differently we are endowed in respect of +capacities and other matters. All have it; and all have the same. + +Now if that is the interpretation of this parable, there are +considerations that flow from that thought, and on which I would +dwell for a moment. + +The first of them is the apparent smallness of the gift. You may +feel a difficulty in accepting that explanation, and may have been +saying to yourselves that it cannot be correct, because Jesus Christ +would never compare the unspeakable gift of His message of salvation +through Him, to that paltry sum. But throw yourselves back to the +moment of utterance, and I think you will feel the pathos and power +of the metaphor. Here was that handful of disciples set in the midst +of a hostile world, dead against them, with its banded superstitions, +venerable idolatries, systematised philosophies, the force of the +mightiest instruments of material power that the world had ever seen, +in the organisation and military power of Rome. And there stood twelve +Galilean men, with their simple, unlettered message; one poor 'pound,' +and that was all. 'The foolishness of preaching,' the message which to +'the Jews was a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks was folly,' was all +that they were equipped with. Their Master, who left them to seek a +Kingdom, had so little to bestow, before He received His crown, that +all that He could spare them was that small sum. They had to go into +business in a very poor way. They had to be content to do a very +insignificant retail trade. 'The foolishness of God is wiser than men; +and the weakness of God is stronger than men.' The old experience of +the leather sling and the five stones out of the brook, in the hand of +the stripling, that made short work of the brazen armour of the giant, +and penetrated with a whizz into his thick skull, and laid him +prostrate, was to be repeated. 'He called his servants, and gave +them'--a pound apiece! If you and I, Christian men and women, were +true to the Master's legacy, and believed that we have in it more +wealth than the treasures of wisdom and knowledge or force which the +world has laid up, we should find that our mite was more than they all +have in their possession. + +Further, the texts suggest the purpose for which the pound is given. +The servants had to live on it themselves, no doubt. So have we. +They had to trade with it. So have we. Now that means two things. +We get the Gospel, not as some of us lazily suppose, in order to +secure that we shall not be punished for our past sins whilst we +live, and go to heaven when we die. We get it, not only to enjoy its +consolations and its sweetness, but to do business with. + +And there are two ways in which this trading is to be done by us. +The main one is the honest application of the principles and powers +of the Gospel to the moulding of our own characters, and the making +us better, purer, gentler, more heavenly-minded, and more +Christlike. That is the first trading that we have to carry on with +the Word. We get it not for an indolent assent, as so many of us +misuse it. We receive it not merely to say, 'Oh I believe it,' and +there an end, but that we may bring it to bear upon all our conduct, +and that it may be the chief formative influence in our characters. +Christian people! is that what you do with your Christianity? Is the +Gospel moulding you, hour by hour, moment by moment? Have you +brought all its great truths to bear upon your daily lives? Have +you inwrought its substance into, not merely your understandings +or your emotions, but your daily conduct? Is it indeed the life of +your lives, and the leaven that is leavening your whole character? +You have it to trade with; see that you do not wrap it in a napkin, +and stow it idly away in some corner. + +Then there is the other way of trading and that is, telling it to +others. That is an obligation incumbent on all Christians. There may +be differences in regard to other gifts, which determine the manner +in which each shall use the equal gift which we all possess alike. +But these are of subordinate importance. The main thing is to feel +that the possession of Christian faith, which is our way of +receiving the pound, carries with it indissolubly the obligation of +Christian evangelism. However it may be discharged, discharged it is +to be, by every true servant. I am sometimes half disposed to think +that it would have been better for the Church if there had never +been any men in my position, on whom the mass of unspiritual, idle +because busy, and silent because little-loving, Christian professors +contentedly roll the whole obligation to preach God's Gospel. My +brethren, the world is not going to be evangelised by officials. +Until all Christian people wake up to the sense that they have the +'pound' to trade with, there will be nothing adequate done to bring +the world to the obedience and the love of Jesus Christ. You say you +have the Gospel; if you have it what are you doing with it? + +Self-centred Christianity, if such a thing were possible, is a +mistake. It is generally a sham; it is always a crime. A man that +puts away his pound, and never goes out and says, 'Come, share with +me in the wealth that I have found in Jesus Christ' will be like a +miser that puts his hoardings into an old stocking, and hides it in +the ground somewhere. When he goes to dig it up, he is only too +likely to find that all the coins have slipped out. If you want to +keep your Christianity, let the air into it. If you want it to +increase, sow it. There are hosts of you who would be far happier +Christian people, if you came out of your shells and traded with +your pound. + +II. Observe the varying profits of the trading. + +The one man says, 'Thy pound hath gained ten pounds.' The other +says, 'Thy pound hath gained five pounds.' And the others who are +not mentioned, no doubt, had also varying results to present. Now +that inequality of profits from an equal capital to start with, is +but a picturesque way of saying what is, alas! too obviously true, +that Christian people do not all stand on the same level in regard +to the use they have made of, and the benefits they have derived +from, the one equal gift which was bestowed upon them. It is +the same to every one at the beginning, but differences develop as +they go on. One man makes twice as much out of it as another does. + +Now, let us distinctly understand what sort of differences these are +which our Lord signalises here. Let me clear away a mistake which +may interfere with the true lessons of this parable, that the +differences in question are the superficial ones in apparent results +which follow from difference of endowments, or from difference of +influential position. That is the kind of meaning that is often +attached to the 'ten pounds' or the 'five pounds' in the text. We +think that the ten pounder is the man who has been able to do some +large spiritual work for Jesus Christ, that fills the world with its +greatness, the man who has been set in some most conspicuous place, +and by reason of intellectual ability or other talent has been able +to gather in many souls into the kingdom; but that is not Christ's +way of estimating. We should be going dead in the teeth of +everything that He teaches if we thought that such as these were the +differences intended. No, no! Every man that co-operates in a great +work with equal diligence and devotion has an equal place in his +eyes. The soldier that clapped Luther on the back as he was going +into the Diet of Worms, and said, 'You have a bigger fight to fight +than we ever had; cheer up, little monk!' stands on the same level +as the great reformer, if what he did was done from the game motive +and with as full consecration of himself. The old law of Israel +states the true principle of Christian recompense: they that 'abide +by the stuff' have the same share in the spoil as they 'that go down +into the battle.' All servants who have exercised equal faithfulness +and equal diligence stand on the same level and have the same +success; no matter how different may be their estimation in the eyes +of men; no matter how different may be the conspicuousness of the +places that they fill in the eyes of the world whilst they live, or +in the records of the Church when they are dead. Equal diligence +will issue in equal results in the development of character, and the +only reason for the diversity of results is the diversity of +faithfulness and of zeal in trading with the pound. + +Notice, too, before I go further, how all who trade make profits. +There are no bad debts in that business. There are no investments +that result in a loss. Everybody that goes into it makes something +by it; which is just to say that any man who is honest and earnest +in the attempt to utilise the powers of Christ's Gospel for his own +culture, or for the world's good, will succeed in reality, however +he may seem to fail in appearance. There are no commercial failures +in this trading. The man with his ten pounds of profit made them +because he worked hardest. The man that made the five made all that +his work entitled him to. There was no one who came and said, 'Lord! +I put thy pound into my little shop, and I did my best with it, and +it is all gone!' Every Christian effort is crowned with success. + +III. Lastly, we have here the final declaration of profits. + +The master has come back. He is a king now, but he is the master +still, and he wants to know what has become of the money that was +left in the servants' hands. Now, that is but a metaphorical way of +bringing to our minds that which we cannot conceive of without +metaphor--viz., the retribution that lies beyond the grave for us +all. Although we cannot conceive it without metaphor, we may reach, +through the metaphor to some apprehension, at any rate, of the facts +that lie behind it. There are two points in reference to this final +declaration of profits suggested here. + +The first is this, that all the profit is ascribed to the capital. +Neither of the two men say: 'I, with thy pound, have gained,' but +'Thy pound hath gained.' That is accurately true. For if I accept, +and live by, any great moral truth or principle, it is the principle +or the truth that is the real productive cause of the change in my +life and character. I, by my acceptance of it, simply put the belt +on the drum that connects my loom with the engine, but it is the +engine that drives the looms and the shuttle, and brings out the web +at last. And so, Christian people who, with God's grace in their +hearts, have utilised the 'pound,' and thereby made themselves +Christlike, have to say, 'It was not I, but Christ in me. It was the +Gospel, and not my faith in the Gospel, that wrought this change.' +Is it your teeth or your dinner that nourishes you? Is it the Gospel +or your trust in the Gospel that is the true cause of your +sanctifying? + +With regard to the other aspect of this trading, the same thing is +true. Is it my word or Christ's Word ministered by me that helps any +of my hearers who are helped? Surely! surely! there is no question +about that. It is the 'pound' that gains the 'pounds.' 'Paul +planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So, then, +neither is he that planteth anything nor he that watereth, but God +that giveth the increase.' + +The other consideration suggested by these words is the exact +knowledge of the precise results of a life, which is possessed at +last. Each servant knew precisely what was the net outcome of his +whole activity. That is exactly what we do not know here, and never +shall, and never can know. But yonder all illusions will have +vanished; and there will be two sorts of disillusionising then. Men, +for instance, of my profession, whose names are familiar, and who +hold high places in the esteem of the Church, and may be tempted to +suppose that they have done a great deal--I am afraid that many of +us will find, when we get yonder, that we have not done nearly so +much as our admirers in this world, and we ourselves, were sometimes +tempted to think that we had done. The searching light that comes in +will show a great many seamy places in the cloth that looks very +sound when it is inspected in the twilight. And there will be +another kind of disillusionising. Many a man has said, 'Lord! I have +laboured in vain, and spent my strength for nought,' who will find +out that he was mistaken, and that where he saw failure there were +solid results; that where he thought the grain had perished in the +furrows, it had sprung up and borne fruit unto life everlasting. +'Lord! when saw we Thee in prison, and visited Thee?' We never knew +that we had done anything of the sort. 'Behold! I was left alone,' +said the widowed Jerusalem when she was restored to her husband, +'these'--children that have gathered round me--'where had they +been?' We shall know, for good or bad, exactly the results of our +lives. + +We shall have to tell them. The slothful servant, too, was under +this compulsion of absolute honesty. If he had not been so, do you +think he would have ventured to stand up before his master, a king +now, and insult him to his face? But he had to turn himself inside +out, and tell then what he had thought in his inmost heart. So +'every one of us shall give an account of himself to God'; and like +a man in the bankruptcy court, we shall have to explain our books, +and go into all our transactions. We are working in the dark today. +Our work will be seen as it is, in the light. The coral reef rises +in the ocean, and the creatures that made it do not see it. The +ocean will be drained away, and the reef will stand up sheer and +distinct. + +My brother! 'I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire'--and +when you have bought your pound, see that you use it; for 'it is +required in stewards that a man be found faithful.' + + + + +THE REWARDS OF THE TRADING SERVANTS + + + 'Because thou hast been faithful in a very little, + have thou authority over ten cities... Be thou also + over five cities.'--LUKE xix. 17, 19. + +The relation between this parable of the pounds and the other of the +talents has often been misunderstood, and is very noteworthy. They +are not two editions of one parable variously manipulated by the +Evangelists, but they are two parables presenting two kindred and +yet diverse aspects of one truth. They are neither identical, as +some have supposed, nor contradictory, as others have imagined; but +they are complementary. The parable of the talents represents the +servants as receiving different endowments; one gets five; another +two; another one. They make the same rate of profit with their +different endowments. The man that turned his two talents into four +did just as well as he that turned his five into ten. In either case +the capital is doubled. Since the diligence is the same, the rewards +are the same, and to each is given the identical same eulogium and +the same entrance into the joy of his Lord. So the lesson of that +parable is that, however unequal are our endowments, there may be as +much diligence shown in the use of the smallest as in the greatest, +and where that is the case, the man with the small endowments will +stand on the same level of recompense as the man with the large. + +But that is not all. This parable comes in to complete the thoughts. +Here all the servants get the same gift, the one pound, but they +make different profits out of it, one securing twice as much as the +other. And, inasmuch as the diligence has been different, the +rewards are different. So the lesson of this parable is that unequal +faithfulness in the use of the same opportunities results in unequal +retribution and reward. Unequal faithfulness, I say, because, of +course, in both parables it is presupposed that the factor in +producing the profit is not any accidental circumstance, but the +earnestness and faithfulness of the servant. Christ does not pay for +results; He pays for motives. And it is not because the man has made +a certain number of pounds, but because in making them he has shown +a certain amount of faithfulness, that he is rewarded. Christ does +not say, 'Well done! good and _successful_ servant,' but 'Well +done! good and _faithful_ servant.' + +So, keeping these two sides of the one truth in view, I desire now +to draw out two or three of the lessons which seem to me to lie in +the principle laid down in my texts, of the unequal results of the +unequal diligence of these servants. + +I. I would note the solemn view of this present life that underlies +the whole. + +'Thou hast been faithful in a very little; have thou authority over +five cities.' Well, that rests upon the thought that all our present +life here is a stewardship, which in its nature is preparatory to +larger work yonder. And that is the point of view from which alone +it is right to look at, and possible to understand, this else +unintelligible and bewildering life on earth. Clearly enough, to +anybody that has eyes in his head, moral ends are supreme in man's +relation to nature, and in man's life. We are here for the sake of +making character, and of acquiring aptitudes and capacities which +shall be exercised hereafter. The whole of our earthly career is the +exercise of stewardship in regard to all the gifts with which we +have been entrusted, in order that by the right exercise of that +stewardship we may develop ourselves and acquire powers. + +Now if it is clear that the whole meaning and end of the present +life are to make character, and that we have to do with the material +and the transient only, in order that, like the creatures that build +up the coral reefs, we may draw from the ever-varying waves of the +ocean that welters around us solid substance which we can pile up +into an enduring monument--is this process of making character, and +developing ourselves, to be cut short by such a contemptible thing +as the death of the body? One very distinguished evolutionist, who +has been forced onwards from his position to a kind of theism, +declares that he is driven to a belief in immortality because he +must believe in the reasonableness of God's work. And it seems to me +that if indeed--as is plainly the case--moral ends are supreme in +our life's history, it brings utter intellectual bewilderment and +confusion to suppose that these ends are kept in view up till the +moment of death, and that then down comes the guillotine and cuts +off all. God does not take the rough ore out of the mine, and deal +with it, and change it to polished steel, and shape His weapons, and +then take them when they are at their highest temper and their +sharpest edge, and break them across His knee. No! if here we are +shaped, it is because yonder there is work for the tool. + +So all here is apprenticeship, and the issues of to-day are recorded +in eternity. We are like men perched up in a signal-box by the side +of the line; we pull over a lever here, and it lifts an arm half a +mile off. The smallest wheel upon one end of a shaft may cause +another ten times its diameter to revolve, at the other end of the +shaft through the wall there. Here we prepare, yonder we achieve. + +II. Note the consequent littleness and greatness of this present. + +'Thou hast been faithful in a very little.' Some of you may remember +a recent sermon on the previous part of this parable, in which I +tried to bring out an explanation of the small sum with which these +servants were entrusted--the pound apiece for their little retail +businesses--and found reason to believe that the interpretation of +that gift was the Gospel of Jesus Christ which, in comparison with +the world's wisdom and philosophies and material forces, seemed such +a very insignificant thing. If we keep that interpretation in view +in treating my present text, then there is hinted to us the contrast +between the necessary limitations and incompletenesses even of the +revelation of God in Jesus Christ which we have here, and the flood +of glory and of light, which shall pour upon our eyes when the veil +of flesh and sense has dropped away. Here we know in part; here, +even with the intervention of the Eternal and Incarnate Word of God, +the Revealer of the Father, we see as in a glass darkly; there face +to face. The magnificences and the harmonies of that great +revelation of God in Jesus Christ, which transcends all human +thought and all worldly wisdom, are but a point, in comparison with +the continent of illumination which shall come to us hereafter. 'The +moon that rules the night' is the revelation that we have to-day, +the reflection and echo of the sun that will rule the unsetting day +of the heavens. + +But I pass from that aspect of the words before us to the other, +which, I suppose, is rather to be kept in view, in which the +faithfulness in a very little points to the smallness of this +present, as measured against that infinite future to which it +conducts. Much has been said upon that subject, which is very +antagonistic to the real ideas of Christianity. Life here, and this +present, have been depreciated unduly, untruly, and unthankfully. +And harm has been done, not only to the men who accept that +estimate, but to the world that scoffs at it. There is nothing in +the Bible, which is at all in sympathy with the so-called religious +depreciation of the present, but there is this--'the things that are +seen are temporal; the things that are unseen are eternal.' The +lower hills look high when beheld from the flat plain that stretches +on this side of them; but, if the mist lifts, the great white peaks +come out beyond them, glittering in the sunshine, and with the +untrodden snows on their inaccessible pinnacles; and nobody thinks +about the green foothills, with the flowers upon them, any more. +Brethren, think away the mist, for you can, and open your eyes, and +see the snow-clad hills of eternity, and then you will understand +how low is the elevation of the heights in the foreground. The +greatness of the future makes the present little, but the little +present is great, because its littleness is the parent of the great +future. 'The child is father of the man'; and earth's narrow range +widens out into the infinitude of eternity and of heaven. The only +thing that gives real greatness and sublimity to our mortal life is +its being the vestibule to another. Historically you will find that, +wherever faith in a future life has become dim, as it has become dim +in large sections of the educated classes to-day, there the general +tone of strenuous endeavour has dropped, and the fatal feeling of +'It is not worth while' begins to creep over society. 'Is life worth +living?' is the question that is asked on all sides of us to-day. +And the modern recrudescence of pessimism has along with it, as one +of the main thoughts which cut the nerves of effort, doubt of, and +disbelief in, a future. It is because the very little opens out into +the immeasurably great, and the passing moments tick us onwards into +an unpassing eternity, that the moments are worth living through, +and the fleeting insignificances of earth's existence become solemn +and majestic as the portals of heaven. + +III. Notice the future form of activity prepared for by faithful +trading. + +'Thou hast been faithful in a very little; have thou authority over +ten cities.' Now I do not need to spend a word in dwelling on the +contrast between the two pictures of the huckster with his little +shop and the pound of capital to begin with, and the vizier that has +control of ten of the cities of his master. That is too plain to +need any enforcement. We are all here, all us Christian people +especially, like men that keep a small shop, in a back street, with +a few trivial things in the window, but we are heirs of a kingdom. +That is what Christ wants us to lay to heart, so that the little +shop shall not seem so very small, and its smoky obscurity shall be +irradiated by true visions of what it will lead to. + +Nor do I wish to risk any kind of fanciful and precarious +speculations as to the manner and the sphere of the authority that +is here set forth; only I would keep to one or two plain things. +Faithfulness here prepares for participation in Christ's authority +hereafter. For we are not to forget that whilst the master, the +nobleman, was away seeking the kingdom, all that he could give his +servants was the little stock-in-trade with which he started them, +and that it is because he has won his kingdom that he is able to +dispense to them the larger gifts of dominion over the ten and the +five cities. The authority is delegated, but it is more than that-- +it is shared. For it is participation in, and not merely delegation +from, the King and His rule, that is set forth in this and in other +places of Scripture, for 'they shall sit down with Me on My throne, +even as I also overcame and am set down with My Father on His +throne.' + +If, then, the rule set forth, in whatever sphere and in whatever +fashion it may be exercised, is participation in Christ's authority, +let us not forget that therefore it is a rule of which the manifestation +is service. In heaven as on earth, and for the Lord in heaven as for the +Lord on earth, and for the servants in heaven as for the servants on +earth, the law stands irrefragable and eternal--'If any man will be +chief among you, let him be your minister.' The authority over the ten +cities is the capacity and opportunity of serving and helping every +citizen in them all. What that help may be let us leave. It is better +to be ignorant than to speculate about matters where there is no +possibility of certainty. Ignorance is more impressive than knowledge, +only be sure that no dignity can live amidst the pure light of the +heavens, except after the fashion of the dignity of the Lord of all, +who there, as here, is the servant of all. + +But there is a thought in connection with this great though dim +revelation of the future, which may well be laid to heart by us. And +that is, that however close and direct the dependence on, and the +communion with, Jesus Christ, the King of all His servants, in that +future state is, it shall not be so close and direct as to exclude +room for the exercise of brotherly sympathy and brotherly aid. We +shall have Christ for our life and our light and our glory. But +there, as here, we shall help one another to have Him more fully, +and to understand Him more perfectly. What further lies in these +great words, I do not venture to guess. Enough to know that Christ +will be all in all, and that Christ in each will help the others to +know Christ more fully. + +Only remember, we have to take this great conception of the future +as being one that implies largely increased and ennobled activity. A +great deal of very cheap ridicule has been cast upon the Christian +conception of the future life as if it was an eternity of idleness +and of repose. Of repose, yes; of idleness, no! For it is no +sinecure to be the governor of ten cities. There will be a good deal +of work to be done, in order to discharge that office properly. Only +it will be work that does not disturb repose, and at one and the +same moment His servants will serve in constant activity, and gaze +upon His face in calm contemplation. Christ's session at the right +hand of God does not interfere with Christ's continual activity +here. And, in like manner, His servants shall rest from their +labours, but not from their work; they shall serve Him undisturbed, +and shall repose, but not idly. + +IV. Lastly, our texts remind us of the variety in recompense which +corresponds to diversity in faithfulness. + +I need but say a word about that. The one man gets his ten cities +because his faithfulness has brought in ten pounds. The other gets +five, corresponding to his faithfulness. As I said, our Lord pays, +not for results, except in so far as these are conditioned and +secured by the diligence of His servants. And so we come to the old +familiar, and yet too often forgotten, conception of degrees in +dignity, degrees in nearness to Him. That thought runs all through +the New Testament representations of a future life, sometimes more +clearly, sometimes more obscurely, but generally present. It is in +entire accordance with the whole conception of that future, because +the Christian notion of it is not that it is an arbitrary reward, +but that it is the natural outcome of the present; and, of course, +therefore, varying according to the present, of which it is the +outcome. We get what we have wrought for. We get what we are capable +of receiving, and what we are capable of receiving depends upon what +has been our faithfulness here. + +Now, that is perfectly consistent with the other side of the truth +which the twin parable sets forth--viz., that the recompenses of the +future are essentially one. All the servants, who were entrusted +with the Talents, received the same eulogium, and entered into the +same joy of their Lord. That is one side of the truth. And the other +is, that the degree in which Christian people, when they depart +hence, possess the one gift of eternal life, and Christ-shared joy +is conditioned by their faithfulness and diligence here. Do not let +the Gospel that says 'The gift of God is eternal life' make you +forget the completing truths, that the measure in which a man +possesses that eternal life depends on his fitness for it, and that +fitness depends on his faithfulness of service and his union with +his Lord. + +We obscure this great truth often by reason of the way in which we +preach the deeper truth on which it rests--forgiveness and +acceptance all unmerited, through faith in Jesus Christ. But the two +things are not contradictory; they are complementary. No man +will be faithful as a steward who is not full of faith as a penitent +sinner. No man will enter into the joy of his Lord, who does not +enter in through the gate of penitence and trust, but, having +entered, we are ranked according to the faithfulness of our service +and diligence of stewardship. 'Wherefore, giving all diligence, make +your calling and election sure, for so an entrance shall be +ministered unto you _abundantly_ into the everlasting kingdom +of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' + + + + +A NEW KIND OF KING + + + 'And when He was come nigh, even now at the descent of + the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the + disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud + voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; + 38. Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the + name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the + highest. 38. And some of the Pharisees from among the + multitude said unto Him, Master, rebuke Thy disciples. + 40. And He answered and said unto them, I tell you + that, if these should hold their peace, the stones + would immediately cry out. 41. And when He was come + near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, 42. Saying, + If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy + day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now + they are hid from thine eyes. 43. For the days shall + come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench + about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in + on every side, 44. And shall lay thee even with the + ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall + not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou + knewest not the time of thy visitation. 45. And he + went into the temple, and began to cast out them that + sold therein, and them that bought; 46. Saying unto + them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: + but ye have made it a den of thieves. 47. And He + taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and + the scribes and the chief of the people sought to + destroy Him, 48. And could not find what they might + do: for all the people were very attentive to hear + Him.'--LUKE xix. 37-48. + +'He went on before.' What concentrated determination, and almost +eagerness, impelled His firm and swift steps up the steep, weary +road! Mark tells that the disciples followed, 'amazed'--as they well +might be--at the unusual haste, and strange preoccupation on the +face, set as a flint. + +Luke takes no notice of the stay at Bethany and the sweet seclusion +which soothed Jesus there. He dwells only on the assertion of +royalty, which stamped an altogether unique character on the +remaining hours of Christ's life. + +I. The narrative brings into prominence Christ's part in originating +the triumphal entry (vs. 30-34). He sent for the colt with the +obvious intention of stimulating the people to just such a +demonstration as followed. + +As to the particulars, we need only note that the most obvious +explanation of His knowledge of the circumstances that the +messengers would encounter, is that it was supernatural. Only one +other explanation is possible; namely, that the owners of the animal +were secret disciples, with whom our Lord had arranged to send for +it, and had settled a sign and countersign, by which they would know +His messengers. But that is a less natural explanation. + +Note the remarkable blending of dignity and poverty in 'The Lord +hath need of him.' It asserts sovereign authority and absolute +rights, and it confesses need and penury. He is a King, but He has +to borrow even a colt to make His triumphal entry on. Though He was +rich, for our sakes He became poor. + +Jesus then deliberately brought about His public entry. He thereby +acts in a way perfectly unlike His whole previous course. And He +stirs up popular feelings at a time when they were specially +excitable by reason of the approaching Passover and its crowds. +Formerly He had avoided the danger which He now seems to court, and +had gone up to the feast 'as it were in secret.' But it was fitting +that once, for the last time, He should assert before the gathered +Israel that He was their King, and should make a last appeal. +Formerly He had sought to avoid attracting the attention of the +rulers; now He knows that the end is near, and deliberately makes +Himself conspicuous, though--or we might say because--He knew that +thereby He precipitated His death. + +The nature of His dominion is as plainly taught by the humble pomp +as is its reality. A pauper King, who makes His public entrance into +His city mounted on a borrowed ass, with His followers' clothes for +a saddle, attended by a shouting crowd of poor peasants, for weapons +or banners had but the branches plucked from other people's trees, +was a new kind of king. + +We do not need Matthew's quotation of the prophet's vision of the +meek King coming to Zion on an ass, to understand the contrast of +this kingdom with such a dominion as that of Rome, or of such +princes as the Herods. Gentleness and peace, a sway that rests not +on force nor wealth, are shadowed in that rustic procession and the +pathetic poverty of its leader, throned on a borrowed colt, and +attended, not by warriors or dignitaries, but by poor men unarmed, +and saluted, not with the blare of trumpets, but with the shouts of +joyful, though, alas! fickle hearts. + +II. We have the humble procession with the shouting disciples and +the background of hostile spies. The disciples eagerly caught at the +meaning of bringing the colt, and threw themselves with alacrity +into what seemed to them preparation for the public assertion of +royalty, for which they had long been impatient. Luke tells us that +they lifted Jesus on to the seat which they hurriedly prepared, +while some spread their garments in the way--the usual homage to a +king: + + 'Ride on triumphantly; behold, we lay + Our lusts and proud wills in Thy way.' + +How different the vision of the future in their minds and His! They +dreamed of a throne; He knew it was a Cross. Round the southern +shoulder of Olivet they came, and, as the long line of the Temple +walls, glittering in the sunshine across the valley, burst on the +view, and their approach could be seen from the city, they broke +into loud acclamations, summoning, as it were, Jerusalem to welcome +its King. + +Luke's version of their chant omits the Jewish colouring which it +has in the other Gospels, as was natural, in view of his Gentile +readers. Christ's royalty and divine commission are proclaimed from +a thousand throats, and then up swells the shout of praise, which +echoes the angels' song at Bethlehem, and ascribes to His coming, +power to make peace in heaven with an else alienated world, and thus +to make the divine glory blaze with new splendour even in the +highest heavens. + +Their song was wiser than they knew, and touched the deepest, +sweetest mysteries of the unity of the Son with the Father, of +reconciliation by the blood of His Cross, and of the new lustre +accruing to God's name thereby, even in the sight of principalities +and powers in heavenly places. They meant none of these things, +but they were unconscious prophets. Their shouts died away, and +their faith was almost as short-lived. With many of them, it +withered before the branches which they waved. + +High-wrought emotion is a poor substitute for steady conviction. But +cool, unemotional recognition of Christ as King is as unnatural. If +our hearts do not glow with loyal love, nor leap up to welcome Him; +if the contemplation of His work and its issues on earth and in +heaven does not make our dumb tongues sing--we have need to ask +ourselves if we believe at all that He is the King and Saviour of +all and of us. There were cool observers there, and they make the +foil to the glad enthusiasm. Note that these Pharisees, mingling in +the crowd, have no title for Jesus but 'Teacher.' He is no king to +them. To those who regard Jesus but as a human teacher, the +acclamations of those to whom He is King and Lord always sound +exaggerated. + +People with no depth of religious life hate religious emotion, and +are always seeking to repress it. A very tepid worship is warm +enough for them. Formalists detest genuine feeling. Propriety is +their ideal. No doubt, too, these croakers feared that this tumult +might come to formidable size, and bring down Pilate's heavy hand on +them. + +Christ's answer is probably a quoted proverb. It implies His entire +acceptance of the character which the crowd ascribed to Him, His +pleasure in their praises, and, in a wider aspect, His vindication +of outbursts of devout feeling, which shock ecclesiastical martinets +and formalists. + +III. We see the sorrowing King plunged in bitter grief in the very +hour of His triumph. Who can venture to speak of that infinitely +pathetic scene? The fair city, smiling across the glen, brings +before His vision the awful contrast of its lying compassed by +armies and in ruins. He hears not the acclamation of the crowd. 'He +wept,' or, rather, 'wailed,'--for the word does not imply tears so +much as cries. That sorrow is a sign of His real manhood, but it is +also a part of His revelation of the very heart of God. The form is +human, the substance divine. The man weeps because God pities. +Christ's sorrow does not hinder His judgments. The woes which wring +His heart will nevertheless be inflicted by Him. Judgment is His +'strange work,' alien from His desires; but it is His work. The eyes +which are as a flame of fire are filled with tears, but their glance +burns up the evil. + +Note the yearning in the unfinished sentence, 'If thou hadst known.' +Note the decisive closing of the time of repentance. Note the minute +prophetic details of the siege, which, if ever they were spoken, are +a distinct proof of His all-seeing eye. And from all let us fix in +our hearts the conviction of the pity of the judge, and of the +judgment by the pitying Christ. + +IV. We have Christ's exercise of sovereign authority in His Father's +house. Luke gives but a summary in verses 45-48, dwelling mainly on +two points. First he tells of casting out the traders. Two things +are brought out in the compressed narrative--the fact, and the +Lord's vindication of it. As to the former, it was fitting that at +the end of His career, as at the beginning, He should cleanse the +Temple. The two events are significant as His first and last acts. +The second one, as we gather from the other Evangelists, had a +greater severity about it than the first. + +The need for a second purifying indicated how sadly transient had +been the effect of the first, and was thus evidence of the depth of +corruption and formalism to which the religion of priests and people +had sunk. Christ had come to cleanse the Temple of the world's +religion, to banish from it mercenaries and self-interested +attendants at the altar, and, in a higher application of the +incident, to clear away all the degradations and uncleannesses which +are associated with worship everywhere but in His Church, and which +are ever seeking, like poisonous air, to find their way in thither +also, through any unguarded chink. + +The vindication of the act is in right royal style. The first +cleansing was defended by Him by pointing to the sanctity of 'My +Father's house'; the second, by claiming it as 'My house.' The +rebuke of the hucksters is sterner the second time. The profanation, +once driven out and returning, is deeper; for whereas, in the first +instance, it had made the Temple 'a house of merchandise,' in the +second it turned it into a 'den of robbers.' Thus evil assumes a +darker tint, like old oak, by lapse of time, and swiftly becomes +worse, if rebuked and chastised in vain. + +The second part of this summary puts in sharp contrast three +things--Christ's calm courage in continuous teaching in the Temple, +the growing bitter hatred of the authorities, who drew in their train +the men of influence holding no office, and the eager hanging of the +people on His words, which baffled the murderous designs of the +rulers. The same intentional publicity as in the entrance is +obvious. Jesus knew that His hour was come, and willingly presents +Himself a sacrifice. Meekly and boldly He goes on the appointed way. +He sees all the hate working round Him, and lets it work. The day's +task of winning some from impending ruin shall still be done. So +should His servants live, in patient discharge of daily duty, in the +face of death, if need be. + +The enemies, who heard His words and found in them only food for +deeper hatred, may warn us of the possibilities of antagonism to Him +that lie in the heart, and of the terrible judgment which they drag +down on their own heads, who hear, unmoved, His daily teaching, and +see, unrepentant, His dying love. The crowd that listened, and, in +less than a week yelled 'Crucify Him,' may teach us to take heed how +we hear, and to beware of evanescent regard for His teaching, which, +if it do not consolidate into resolved and thoroughgoing acceptance +of His work and submission to His rule, will certainly cool into +disregard, and may harden into hate. + + + + +TENANTS WHO WANTED TO BE OWNERS + + + 'Then began He to speak to the people this parable; A + certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to + husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long + time. 10. And at the season he sent a servant to the + husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of + the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent + him away empty. 11. And again he sent another servant: + and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, + and sent him away empty. 12. And again he sent a third: + and they wounded him also, and cast him out. 13. Then + said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will + send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him + when they see him. 14. But when the husbandmen saw him, + they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the + heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may + be ours. 15. So they cast him out of the vineyard, and + killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the + vineyard do unto them? 16. He shall come and destroy + these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to + others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid. + 17. And he beheld them, and said, what is this then that + is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the + same is become the head of the corner? 18. Whosoever + shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on + whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. + 19. And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour + sought to lay hands on Him; and they feared the people: + for they perceived that He had spoken this parable + against them.'--LUKE xx. 9-19. + +As the crisis came near, Jesus increased His severity and plainness +of speech. This parable, which was spoken very near the end of the +protracted duel with the officials in the Temple, is transparent in +its application, and hit its mark immediately. The rulers at once +perceived that it was directed against them. The cap fitted too well +not to be put on. But it contains prophecy as well as history, and +the reference to Jesus' impending fate is almost as transparent as +the indictment of the rulers, while the prediction of the +transference of the vineyard to others is as easy of translation as +either of the other points. + +Such plain speaking was fitting for last words. The urgency of +Christ's pleading love, as much as the intensity of His moral +indignation, made them plain. + +I. We note, first, the vineyard, its lord and its tenants. The +metaphor was familiar, for Isaiah had 'sung a song touching' Israel +as God's vineyard, and other prophets had caught up the emblem, so +that it had become a commonplace, known by all. The parable +distinctly alludes to Isaiah's words, and almost reproduces them. +Matthew's version enlarges on details of the appliances provided by +the owner, which makes the parallel with Isaiah still more +noticeable. But Luke summarises these into the simple 'planted.' +That covers the whole ground. + +God had given Israel a system of revelation, law, and worship, which +was competent to produce in those who received it, the fruit of +obedience and thankfulness. The husbandmen are primarily the rulers, +as the scribes and chief priests perceived; but the nation which +endorsed, by permitting their action, is included. The picture drawn +applies to us as truly as to the Jews. The transference of the +vineyard to another set of tenants, which Christ threatened at the +close of the parable, has been accomplished, and so we, by our +possession of the Gospel, are entrusted with the vineyard, and are +responsible for rendering the fruits of holy living and love. + +The owner 'let it out, and went into another country for a long +time.' That is a picturesque way of saying that we have apparent +possession, and are left free to act, God not being manifestly close +to us. He stands off, as it were, from the creatures whom He has +made, and gives them room to do as they will. But all our +possessions, as well as the revelation of Himself in Christ, are +only let to us, and we have rent to pay. + +The collectors sent for the fruit are, of course, the series of +prophets. Luke specifies three--a round number, indicating +completeness. He says nothing about the times between their +missions, but implies that the three covered the whole period till +the sending of the son. Their treatment was uniform, as the history +of Israel proved. The habit of rejecting the prophets was +hereditary. + +There is such a thing as national solidarity stretching through +ages. The bold charge made by Stephen was only an echo of this +parable, when he cried, 'As your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the +prophets did not your fathers persecute?' Each generation made the +ancestral sin its own, and staggered under a heavier burden of +guilt, till, at last, came a generation which had to bear the +penalty of all the blood of prophets shed from the beginning. +Nations live, though their component atoms die, and only national +repudiation of bequeathed sins can avert the crash which, sooner or +later, avenges them. + +The husbandmen treated the messengers with increasing contumely and +cruelty. Content with beating the first, they added shameful +treatment in the second case, and proceeded to wounding in the +third. If God's repeated appeals do not melt, they harden, the +heart. The persistence of His messengers leads to fiercer hatred, if +it does not produce yielding love. There is no bitterness equal to +that of the man who has often stiffened conscience against the +truth. + +II. So far, no doubt could be entertained of the meaning of the +scathing parable. There was probably as little about that of the +next part. We cannot but notice the broad distinction which Jesus +draws between Himself and the mightiest of the prophets. They were +the owner's 'slaves'; He was His 'beloved Son.' The writer of the +Epistle to the Hebrews begins his letter with the same contrast, +which he may have learned from the parable. It is a commonplace for +us, but let us ponder how it must have sounded to that hostile, +eager crowd, and ask ourselves how such assumptions can be +reconciled with the 'sweet reasonableness' of Jesus if he belonged +to the same category as an Isaiah or a Micah. + +The yearning of divine love for the fruit of reverence and obedience +is wonderfully expressed by the bold putting of an uncertain hope +into the owner's mouth. He must have known that he was running a +risk in sending his son, but he so much desires to bring the +dishonest workmen back to their duty that he is willing to run it. +The highly figurative expression is meant to emphasise God's longing +for men's hearts, and His patient love which 'hopeth all things' and +will not cease from effort to win us so long as an arrow remains in +His quiver. + +III. Our Lord now passes to prophecy. Deep sadness is in His tone as +He tells how the only effect of His coming had been to stir up +opposition. They 'saw Him' and were they touched? No, they only +gripped their privileges the tighter, and determined more fiercely +to assert their ownership. + +Nothing is more remarkable in the parable than the calmness of Jesus +in announcing His impending fate. He knows it all, and His voice has +no tremor, as He tells it as though He were speaking of another. The +very announcement that He penetrated the murderous designs hidden in +many of the hearers' hearts would tend to precipitate their +execution of these; but He is ready for the Cross, and its nearness +has no terror, not because He was impassive, or free from the +shrinking proper to flesh, but because He was resolved to save. +Therefore He was resolved to suffer. + +The husbandmen's reasonings with one another bring into plain words +thoughts which probably were not consciously held by any even of the +rulers. They open the question as to how far the rulers knew the +truth of Christ's claims. They at least knew what these were, and +they had fought down dawning convictions which, fairly dealt with, +would have broadened into daylight. They would not have been so +fiercely antagonistic if they had not been pricked by an uneasy +doubt whether, after all, perhaps there was something in these +claims. + +Nothing steels men against admitting a truth so surely as the +suspicion that, if they were to inquire a little farther, they might +find themselves believing it. Knowledge and ignorance blended in +these rulers as in us all. If they had not known at all, they would +not have needed the Saviour's dying prayer for their forgiveness; if +they had known fully, its very ground would have been taken away. + +The motive put into their mouths is the wish to seize the vineyard +for their own; and was not the very soul of the rulers' hostility +the determination to keep hold of the prerogatives of their offices, +while priests and people alike were deaf to Jesus, because they +wished to be no more troubled by being reminded of their obligations +to render obedience to God? The root of all rejection of Christ is +the desire of self-will to reign supreme. Men resent being reminded +that they are tenants, and are determined to assert ownership. + +Jesus carries the hearers beyond the final crime which filled the +measure of sin, and exhausted the resources of God. The sharp turn +from narrative to question, in verse 15, not only is like the sudden +thrust of a spear, but marks the transition from the present and +immediate future to a more distant day. The slaying of the heir was +the last act of the vine-dressers. The owner would act next. Luke, +like Mark, puts the threatening of retribution into Christ's lips, +while Matthew makes it the answer of the rulers to his question. +Luke alone gives the exclamation, 'God forbid!' The ready answer in +Matthew, and the pious interjection in Luke, have the same purpose,--to +blunt the application of the parable to themselves by appearing to be +unconcerned. + +Their levity and reluctance to take home the lesson moved our Lord +to sternness, which burned in His steadfast eyes as He looked on +them, and must have been remembered by some disciple whose memory +has preserved that look for us. It was the prelude to a still less +veiled prophecy of the fall of Israel. Jesus lays His hand on the +ancient prophecy of the stone rejected by the builders, and applies +it to Himself. He is the sure foundation of which Isaiah had spoken. +He is the stone rejected by Israel, but elevated to the summit of +the building, and there joining two diverging walls. + +The solemn warning closing the parable had its special meaning in +regard to Israel, but its dread force extends to us. To fall on the +stone while it lies lowly on the earth is to lame one's self, but to +have it fall on a man when it rushes down from its elevation is ruin +utter and irremediable. 'If they escaped not who refused Him that +spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from +Him that speaketh from heaven.' + + + + +WHOSE IMAGE AND SUPERSCRIPTION? + + + 'Whose image and superscription hath it?'--Luke xx. 24. + +It is no unusual thing for antagonists to join forces in order to +crush a third person obnoxious to both. So in this incident we have +an unnatural alliance of the two parties in Jewish politics who were +at daggers drawn. The representatives of the narrow conservative +Judaism, which loathed a foreign yoke, in the person of the +Pharisees and Scribes, and the Herodians, the partisans of a +foreigner and a usurper, lay their heads together to propose a +question to Christ which they think will discredit or destroy Him. +They would have answered their own question in opposite ways. One +would have said, 'It _is_ lawful to give tribute to Caesar'; +the other would have said, 'It is not.' But that is a small matter +when malice prompts. They calculate, 'If He says, No! we will +denounce Him to Pilate as a rebel. If He says, Yes! we will go to +the people and say, Here is a pretty Messiah for you, that has no +objection to the foreign yoke. Either way we shall end Him.' + +Jesus Christ serenely walks through the cobwebs, and lays His hand +upon the fact. 'Let Me see a silver penny!'--which, by the bye, was +the amount of the tribute--'Whose head is that?' The currency of the +country proclaims the monarch of the country. To stamp his image on +the coin is an act of sovereignty. 'Caesar's head declares that you +are Caesar's subjects, whether you like it or not, and it is too +late to ask questions about tribute when you pay your bills in +his money.' 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.' + +Does not the other side of Christ's answer--'to God the things that +are God's'--rest upon a similar fact? Does not the parallelism +require that we should suppose that the destiny of things to be +devoted to God is stamped upon them, whatever they are, at least as +plainly as the right of Caesar to exact tribute was inferred from +the fact that his money was the currency of the country? The thought +widens out in a great many directions, but I want to confine it to +one special line of contemplation, and to take it as suggesting to +each of us this great truth, that the very make of men shows that +they belong to God, and are bound to yield themselves to Him. If the +answer to the question be plain, and the conclusion irresistible, +about the penny with the image of Tiberius, the answer is no less +plain, nor the conclusion less irresistible, when we turn the +interrogation within, and, looking at our own being, say to +ourselves, 'Whose image and superscription hath _it_?' + +I. First, then, note the image stamped upon man, and the consequent +obligation. + +We can very often tell what a thing is for by noticing its make. The +instructed eye of an anatomist will, from a bone, divine the sphere +in which the creature to whom it belonged was intended to live. Just +as plainly as gills or lungs, fins or wings, or legs and arms, +declare the element in which the creature that possesses them is +intended to move, so plainly stamped upon all our natures is this, +that God is our Lord since we are made in a true sense in His image, +and that only in Him can we find rest. + +I need not remind you, I suppose, of the old word, 'Let us make man +in our own image.' Nor need I, I suppose, insist at any length upon +the truth that though, by the fact of man's sin, the whole glory and +splendour of the divine image in which he was made is marred and +defaced, there still remain such solemn, blessed, and awful +resemblances between man and God that there can be no mistake as to +which beings in the universe are the most kindred; nor any +misunderstanding as to who it is after whose likeness we are formed, +and in whose love and life alone we can be blessed. + +I am not going to weary you with thoughts for which, perhaps, the +pulpit is not the proper place; but let me just remind you of one or +two points. Is there any other being on this earth that can say of +itself 'I am'? God says '_I am that I am'_. You and I cannot +say that, but we alone, in this order of things, possess that solemn +and awful gift, the consciousness of our personal being. And, +brethren, whoever is able to say to himself 'I am' will never know +rest until he can turn to God and say 'Thou art,' and then, laying +his hand in the Great Father's hand, venture to say '_We_ are.' +We are made in His image, in that profoundest of all senses. + +But to come to something less recondite. We are like God in that we +can love; we are like Him in that we can perceive the right, and +that the right is supreme; we are like Him in that we have the power +to say 'I will.' And these great capacities demand that the creature +who thus knows himself to be, who thus knows the right, who thus can +love, who thus can purpose, resolve, and act, should find his home +and his refuge in fellowship with God. + +But if you take a coin, and compare it with the die from which it +has been struck, you will find that wherever in the die there is a +relief, in the coin there is a sunken place; and conversely. So +there are not only resemblances in man to the divine nature, which +bear upon them the manifest marks of his destiny, but there are +correspondences, wants, on our side, being met by gifts upon His; +hollow emptinesses in us being filled, when we are brought into +contact with Him, by the abundance of His outstanding supplies and +gifts. So the poorest, narrowest, meanest life has in it a depth of +desire, an ardour, and sometimes a pain and a madness of yearning +and longing which nothing but God can fill. Though we often +misunderstand the voice, and so make ourselves miserable by vain +efforts, our 'heart and our flesh,' in every fibre of our being, +'cry out for the living God.' And what we all want is some one Pearl +of great price into which all the dispersed preciousness and +fragmentary brilliances that dazzle the eye shall be gathered. We +want a Person, a living Person, a present Person, a sufficient +Person, who shall satisfy our hearts, our whole hearts, and that at +one and the same time, or else we shall never be at rest. + +Because, then, we are made dependent, because we possess these wild +desires, because immortal thirst attaches to our nature, because we +have consciences that need illuminating, wills that are only free +when they are absolutely submissive, hearts that are dissatisfied, +and left yearning, after all the sweetnesses of limited, transient, +and creatural affections, we bear on our very fronts the image of +God; and any man that wisely looks at himself can answer the +question, 'Whose image and superscription hath it?' in but one way. +'In the image of God created He him.' + +Therefore by loving fellowship, by lowly trust, by ardour of love, +by submissiveness of obedience, by continuity of contemplation, by +the sacrifice of self, we must yield ourselves to God if we would +pay the tribute manifestly owing to the Emperor by the fact that His +image and superscription are upon the coin. + +II. And so let me ask you to look, in the next place, at the +defacement of the image and the wrong expenditure of the coin. + +You sometimes get into your hands money on which there has been +stamped, by mischief, or for some selfish purpose, the name of some +one else than the king's or queen's which surrounds the head upon it. +And in like manner our nature has gone through the stamping-press +again, and another likeness has been deeply imprinted upon it. The +image of God, which every man has, is in some senses and aspects +ineffaceable by any course of conduct of theirs. But in another +aspect it is not like the permanent similitude stamped upon the +solid metal of the penny, but like the reflection, rather, that +falls upon some polished plate, or that is cast upon the white sheet +from a lantern. If the polished plate be rusty and stained, the +image is faint and indistinct; if it be turned away from the light +the image passes. And that is what some of you are doing. By living +to yourselves, by living day in and day out without ever remembering +God, by yielding to passions, lusts, ambitions, low desires, and the +like, you are doing your very best to erase the likeness which still +lingers in your nature. Is there any one here that has yielded to +some lust of the flesh, some appetite, drunkenness, gluttony, +impurity, or the like, and has so sold himself to it, as that that +part of the divine image, the power of saying 'I will,' has pretty +nearly gone? I am afraid there must be some who, by long submission +to passion, have lost the control that reason and conscience and a +firm steady purpose ought to give. Is there any man here who, by +long course of utter neglect of the divine love, has ceased to feel +that there is a heart at the centre of the universe, or that He has +anything to do with it? Brethren, the awful power that is given +to men of degrading themselves till, lineament by lineament, the +likeness in which they are made vanishes, is the saddest and most +tragical thing in the world. 'Like the beasts that perish,' says one +of the psalms, the men become who, by the acids and the files of +worldliness and sensuality and passion, have so rubbed away the +likeness of God that it is scarcely perceptible in them. Do I speak +to some such now? If there is nothing else left there is this, a +hunger for absolute good and for the satisfaction of your desires. +That is part of the proof that you are made for God, and that only +in Him can you find rest. + +All occupations of heart and mind and will and active life with +other things to the exclusion of supreme devotion to God are, then, +sacrilege and rebellion. The emperor's head was the token of +sovereignty and carried with it the obligation to pay tribute. Every +fibre in your nature protests against the prostitution of itself to +anything short of God. You remember the story in the Old Testament +about that saturnalia of debauchery, the night when Babylon fell, +when Bel-shazzar, in the very wantonness of godless insolence, could +not be satisfied with drinking his wine out of anything less sacred +than the vessels that had been brought from the Temple at Jerusalem. +That is what many of us are doing, taking the sacred cup which is +meant to be filled with the wine of the kingdom and pouring into it +the foaming but poisonous beverages which steal away our brains and +make us drunk, the moment before our empire totters to its fall and +we to our ruin. 'All the consecrated things of the house of the Lord +they dedicated to Baal,' says one of the narratives in the Book of +Chronicles. That is what some of us are doing, taking the soul that +is meant to be consecrated to God and find its blessedness there, +and offering it to false gods in whose service there is no +blessedness. + +For, dear friends, I beseech you, lay this to heart that you cannot +thus use the Godlike being that you possess without bringing down +upon your heads miseries and unrest. The raven, that black bird of +evil omen, went out from the ark, and flew homeless over the +weltering ocean. The souls that seek not God fly thus, strangers and +restless, through a drowned and lifeless world. The dove came back +with an olive branch in its beak. Souls that are wise and have made +their nests in the sanctuary can there fold their wings and be at +peace. As the ancient saint said, 'We are made for God, and only in +God have we rest.' 'Oh, that thou hadst hearkened to me, then had +thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the +sea.' Cannot you see the blessed, gentle gliding of the full stream +through the meadows with the sunshine upon its ripples? Such is the +heart that has yielded itself to God. In solemn contrast to that +lovely image, the same prophet has for a repeated refrain in his +book, 'The wicked is like the troubled sea which cannot rest,' but +goes moaning round the world, and breaking in idle foam upon every +shore, and still is unquiet for evermore. Brethren, only when we +render to God the thing that is God's--our hearts and ourselves-have +we repose. + +III. Now, lastly, notice the restoration and perfecting of the +defaced image. + +Because man is like God, it is possible for God to become like man. +The possibility of Revelation and of Redemption by an incarnate +Saviour depend upon the reality of the fact that man is made in the +image of God. Thus there comes to us that divine Christ, who lays +'His hands upon both' and being on the one hand the express image of +His person, so that He can say, 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the +Father,' on the other hand 'was in all points made like unto His +brethren,' with only the exception that the defacement which had +obliterated the divine image in them left it clear, untarnished, and +sharply cut in Him. + +Therefore, because Jesus Christ has come, our Brother, 'bone of our +bone, and flesh of our flesh,' made like unto us, and in our +likeness presenting to us the very image of God and eradiation of +His light, therefore no defacement that it is possible for men or +devils to make on this poor humanity of ours need be irrevocable and +final. All the stains may be blotted out, all the usurping +superscriptions may be removed and the original imprint restored. +The dints may be elevated, the too lofty points may be lowered, the +tarnish and the rust may be rubbed off, and, fairer than before, the +likeness of God may be stamped on every one of us, 'after the image +of Him that created us,' if only we will turn ourselves to that dear +Lord, and cast our souls upon Him. Christ hath become like us that +we might become like Him, and therein be partakers of the divine +nature. 'We all, reflecting as a glass does the glory of the Lord, +may be changed into the same image from glory to glory.' + +Nor do the possibilities stop there, for we look forward to a time +when, if I might pursue the metaphor of my text, the coinage shall +be called in and reminted, in new forms of nobleness and of +likeness. We have before us this great prospect, that 'we shall be +like Him, for we shall see Him as He is'; and in all the glories of +that heaven we shall partake, for all that is Christ's is ours, and +'we that have borne the image of the earthly shall also bear the +image of the heavenly.' + +I come to you, then, with this old question: 'Whose image and +superscription hath it?' and the old exhortation founded thereupon: +'Render therefore to God the thing that is God's'; and yield +yourselves to Him. Another question I would ask, and pray that you +may lay it to heart, 'To what purpose is this waste?' What are you +doing with the silver penny of your own soul? Wherefore do ye 'spend +it for that which is not bread?' Give yourselves to God; trust +yourselves to the Christ who is like you, and like Him. And, resting +upon His great love you will be saved from the prostitution of +capacities, and the vain attempts to satisfy your souls with the +husks of earth; and whilst you remain here will be made partakers of +Christ's life, and growingly of His likeness, and when you remove +yonder, your body, soul, and spirit will be conformed to His image, +and transformed into the likeness of His glory, 'according to the +mighty working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto +Himself.' + + + + +WHEN SHALL THESE THINGS BE? + + + 'And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, + then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. 21. Then + let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and + let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and + let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. + 22. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things + which are written may he fulfilled. 23. But woe unto + them that are with child, and to them that give suck, + in those days! for there shall be great distress in the + land, and wrath upon this people. 24. And they shall + fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away + captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be + trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the + Gentiles be fulfilled. 25. And there shall be signs in + the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon + the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea + and the waves roaring; 26. Men's hearts failing them + for fear, and for looking after those things which are + coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be + shaken. 27. And then shall they see the Son of man + coming in a cloud, with power and great glory. 28. And + when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, + and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth + nigh. 29. And He spake to them a parable; Behold the + fig-tree, and all the trees; 30. When they now shoot + forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer + is now nigh at hand. 31. So likewise ye, when ye see + these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of + God is nigh at hand. 32. Verily I say unto you, This + generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled. + 33. Heaven and earth shall pass away; but My words + shall not pass away. 34. And take heed to yourselves, + lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with + surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, + and so that day come upon you unawares. 35. For as a + snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face + of the whole earth. 36. Watch ye therefore, and pray + always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all + these things that shall come to pass, and to stand + before the Son of Man.'--LUKE xxi. 20-36. + +This discourse of our Lord's is in answer to the disciples' double +question as to the time of the overthrow of the Temple and the +premonitory signs of its approach. The former is answered with the +indefiniteness which characterises prophetic chronology; the +latter is plainly answered in verse 20. + +The whole passage divides itself in four well-marked sections. + +I. There is the prediction of the fall of Jerusalem (vs. 20-24). The +'sign' of her 'desolation' was to be the advance of the enemy to her +walls. Armies had been many times encamped round her, and many times +been scattered; but this siege was to end in capture, and no angel +of the Lord would stalk by night through the sleeping host, to +stiffen sleep into death, nor would any valour of the besieged +avail. Their cause was to be hopeless from the first. Flight was +enjoined. Usually the inhabitants of the open country took refuge in +the fortified capital when invasion harrowed their fields; but this +time, for 'them that are in the country' to 'enter therein' was to +throw away their last chance of safety. The Christians obeyed, and +fled, as we all know, across Jordan to Pella. The rest despised +Jesus' warning--if they knew it,---and perished. + +Mark the reason for the exhortation not to resist, but to flee: +These are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may +be fulfilled.' That is to say, the besiegers are sent by God to +execute His righteous and long-ago-pronounced judgments. Therefore +it is vain to struggle against them. Behind the Roman army is the +God of Israel. To dash against their cohorts is to throw one's self +on the thick bosses of the Almighty's buckler, and none who dare do +that can 'prosper.' Submission to His retributive hand is the only +way to escape being crushed by it. Chastisement accepted is +salutary, but kicking against it drives the goad deeper into the +rebellious limb. + +So great is the agony to be, that what should be a joy, the birth of +children, will be a woe, and the sweet duties of motherhood a curse, +while the childless will be happier than the fugitives burdened with +helpless infancy. We should note, too, that the 'distress' which +comes upon the land is presented in darker colours, and traced to +its origin, in (God's)'wrath' dealt out 'unto this people.' Happier +they who 'fall by the edge of the sword' than they who are led +'captive into all the nations.' + +A gleam of hope shoots through the stormy prospect, for the treading +down of Jerusalem by the Gentiles has a term set to it. It is to +continue 'till the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.' That +expression is important, for it clearly implies that these 'times' +are of considerable duration, and it thus places a period of +undefined extent between the fall of Jerusalem and the subsequent +prophecy. The word used for 'times' generally carries with it the +notion of opportunity, and here seems to indicate that the break-up +of the Jewish national existence would usher in a period in which +the 'Gentiles' would have the kingdom of God offered to them. The +history of the world since the city fell is the best comment on this +saying. + +II. Since the 'times of the Gentiles' are thus of indefinite +duration, they make a broad line of demarcation between what +precedes and what follows them. Clearly the prophecy in verses 25-27 +is separated in time from the fall of Jerusalem, and it is no +objection to that view that the separation is not more emphatically +pointed out by our Lord. These verses distinctly refer to His last +coming to judgment. Verse 27 is too grand and too distinctly cast in +the mould of the other predictions of that coming to be interpreted +of His ideal coming in the judgments on the city. + +The 'signs in sun and moon and stars' may refer in accordance with a +familiar symbolism, to the overthrow of royalties and dominions; the +sea roaring may, in like manner, symbolise agitations among the +people; but the 'cloud' and the 'power and great glory' with which +the Son of man comes, can mean nothing else than what they mean in +other prophetic passages; namely, His visible appearance, invested +with the shekinah light, and wielding divine authority before the +gaze of a world. + +The city's fall, then, was the initial stage of a process, the +duration of which is undefined here, but implied to be considerable, +and of which the closing stage is the personal coming of Jesus. The +same conclusion is supported by verse 28, which treats that fall as +the beginning of the fulfilment of the prophecy. + +III. That verse forms a transition to the section containing the +illustrative parable and the reiteration of the assurance that +Christ's words would certainly be fulfilled. The disciples might +naturally quake at the prospect, and wonder how they could face the +reality. Jesus gives them strong words of cheer, which apply to all +dreaded contingencies and to all social convulsions. What is a +messenger of destruction to Christless men and institutions is a +harbinger of full 'redemption' to His servants. Earthquakes but open +their prison doors and loose their bands, they should not shake +their hearts. + +Historically the fall of Jerusalem was a powerful factor in the +deliverance of the Church from Jewish swaddling-bands which hampered +its growing limbs. For all Christians the destruction of what can +perish brings fuller vision and possession of what cannot be shaken. +To Christ's friends, all things work for good. So the parable which +at first sight seems strangely incongruous becomes blessedly +significant and fitting. The gladsome blossoming of the trees, the +herald of the glories of summer, is a strange emblem of such a +tragedy, and summer itself is a still stranger one of that solemn +last judgment. But the might of humble trust in Him who comes to +judge makes His coming summer-like in the light and warmth with +which it floods the soul, and the rich fruitage which it produces +there. + +Observe, too, that the parable confirms the idea of a process having +stages, for the lesson of the blossoming fig-tree is not that summer +has come, but that it is nigh. + +The solemn assurance in verse 32, made more weighty by the 'Verily I +say,' seems at first sight to bring the final judgment within the +lifetime of the generation of the hearers. But it is noteworthy that +the expression 'till all things are fulfilled' is almost verbally +identical with that in verse 22, which refers only to the +destruction of Jerusalem, and is therefore most naturally +interpreted as having the same restricted application here. The +difference between the two phrases is significant, since in the +former the certainty of fulfilment is deduced from the fact of 'the +things' being written--that is, they must be accomplished because +they have been foretold in Scripture,--whereas in the latter Christ +rests the certainty of fulfilment on His own word. That majestic +assurance in verse 33 comes well from His lips, and makes claim that +His word shall outlast the whole present material order, and be +fulfilled in every detail. Think of a mere man saying that! + +IV. Exhortations corresponding to the predictions follow. Christ's +revelation of the future was neither meant to gratify idle curiosity +nor to supply a timetable in advance, but to minister encouragement +and to lead to watchfulness. Whether 'that day' (ver. 34) is +understood of the fall of Jerusalem or of the final coming of the +Lord, it will come 'as a snare' upon men who are absorbed with the +earth which they inhabit. They will be captured by it, as a covey of +birds in a field busily picking up grain, are netted by one sudden +fling of the fowler's net. A wary eye would have saved them. + +The exhortation is as applicable to us, for, whatever are our views +about unfulfilled prophecy, death comes to us all at a time which we +know not, as the Book of Ecclesiastes, using the same figure, says; +'Man knoweth not his time ... as the birds that are caught in the +snare.' Hearts must be kept above the grosser satisfactions of sense +and the less gross cares of life, being neither stupefied with +gorging earth's good, nor preoccupied with its gnawing anxieties, +both of which are destructive of the clear realisation of the +certain future. We are to preserve an attitude of wakefulness and of +expectancy, and, as the sure way to it, and to clearing our hearts +of perishable delights and shortsighted, self-consuming cares, we +are to keep them in a continual posture of supplication. If our +study of unfulfilled prophecy does that for us, it will have done +what Jesus means it to do; if it does not it matters little what +theories about its chronology we may adopt. + +The two stages which we have tried to point out in this passage are +clearly marked at the close, where escaping 'all these things that +shall come to pass' and standing 'before the Son of man' are +distinguished. True, both stages were to be included in the +experience of Christ's hearers, but they are none the less separate +stages. + +Luke's version of this great discourse gives less prominence to the +final coming than does Matthew's, and does not blend the two stages +so inextricably together; but it gives no hint of the duration of +the 'times of the Gentiles,' and might well leave the impression +that these were brief. Now in this close setting together of a +nearer and a much more remote future, with little prominence given +to the interval between, our Lord is but bringing His prophecy into +line with the constant manner of the older prophets. They and He +paint the future in perspective, and the distance, seen behind the +foreground, seems nearer than it really is. The spectator does not +know how many weary miles have to be traversed before the distant +blue hills are to be reached, nor what deep gorges lie between. + +Such bringing together of events far apart in time of fulfilment +rests in part on the fact that there have been many 'days of the +Lord,' many 'comings of Christ,' each of which is a result on a +small scale of the same retributive action of the Judge of all, as +shall be manifested on the largest scale in the last and greatest +day of the Lord. Therefore the true use of all these predictions is +that which Christ enforces here; namely, that they should lead us to +prayerful watchfulness and to living above earth, its goods and +cares. + + + + +THE LORD'S SUPPER + + + 'Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the + passover must be killed. 8. And He sent Peter and + John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we + may eat. 9. And they said unto Him, Where wilt thou + that we prepare? 10. And He said unto them, Behold, + when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man + meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into + the house where he entereth in. 11. And ye shall say + unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto + thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the + passover with My disciples? 12. And he shall shew you + a large upper room furnished: there make ready. + 13. And they went, and found as He had said unto them: + and they made ready the passover. 14. And when the + hour was come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles + with Him. 15. And He said unto them, With desire I + have desired to eat this passover with you before I + suffer: 16. For I say unto you, I will not any more + eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of + God. 17. And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and + said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: + 18. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit + of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. + 19. And He took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, + and gave unto them, saying, This is My body which is + given for you: this do in remembrance of Me. + 20. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This + cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed + for you.'--LUKE xxii. 7-20. + +Paul had his account of the Last Supper direct from Christ. Luke +apparently had his from Paul, so that the variations from Matthew and +Mark are invested with singular interest, as probably traceable to +the Lord of the feast Himself. Our passage has three sections--the +preparation, the revelation of Christ's heart, and the institution +of the rite. + +I. The Preparation.--Peculiar to Luke are the names of the disciples +entrusted with it, and the representation of the command, as +preceding the disciples' question 'Where?' The selection of Peter +and John indicates the confidential nature of the task, which comes +out still more plainly in the singular directions given to them. +Luke's order of command and question seems more precise than that of +the other Gospels, as making our Lord the originator instead of +merely responsive to the disciples' suggestion. + + +How is the designation of the place which Christ gives to be +understood? Was it supernatural knowledge, or was it the result of +previous arrangement with the 'goodman of the house'? Most probably +the latter; for he was in so far a disciple that he recognised Jesus +as 'the Master,' and was glad to have Him in his house, and the +chamber on the roof was ready 'furnished' when they came. Why this +mystery about the place? The verses before our passage tell the +reason. + +Judas was listening, too, for the answer to 'Where?' thinking that +it would give him the 'opportunity' which he sought 'to betray Him +in the absence of the multitude.' Jesus had much to say to His +disciples, and needed the quiet hours in the upper room, and +therefore sent away the two with directions which revealed nothing +to the others. If He had told the group where the house was, the +last supper might never have been instituted, nor the precious +farewell words, the holy of holies of John's Gospel, ever been +spoken. Jesus takes precautions to delay the Cross. He takes none to +escape it, but rather sets Himself in these last days to bring it +near. The variety in His action means no change in His mind, but +both modes are equally the result of His self-forgetting love to us +all. So He sends away Peter and John with sealed orders, as it were, +and the greedy ears of the traitor are balked, and none know the +appointed place till Jesus leads them to it. The two did not come +back, but Christ guided the others to the house, when the hour was +come. + +II. Verses 14-18 give a glimpse into Christ's heart as He partook, +for the last time, of the Passover. He discloses His earnest desire +for that last hour of calm before He went out to face the storm, and +reveals His vision of the future feast in the perfect kingdom. That +desire touchingly shows His brotherhood in all our shrinking from +parting with dear ones, and in our treasuring of the last sweet, sad +moments of being together. That was a true human heart, 'fashioned +alike' with ours, which longed and planned for one quiet hour before +the end, and found some bracing for Gethsemane and Calvary in the +sanctities of the Upper Room. But the desire was not for Himself +only. He wished to partake of that Passover, and then to transform +it for ever, and to leave the new rite to His servants. + +Our Lord evidently ate of the Passover; for we cannot suppose that +His words in verse 15 relate to an ungratified wish, but, as +evidently, that eating was finished before He spoke. We shall best +conceive the course of events if we suppose that the earlier stages +of the paschal ceremonial were duly attended to, and that the Lord's +Supper was instituted in connection with its later parts. We need +not discuss what was the exact stage at which our Lord spoke and +acted as in verses 15-17. It is sufficient to note that in them He +gives what He does not taste, and that, in giving, His thoughts +travel beyond all the sorrow and death to reunion and perfected +festal joys. These anticipations solaced His heart in that supreme +hour. 'For the joy that was set before Him' He 'endured the Cross,' +and this was the crown of His joy, that all His friends should share +it with Him, and sit at His table in His kingdom. + +The prophetic aspect of the Lord's Supper should never be left out +of view. It is at once a feast of memory and of hope, and is also a +symbol for the present, inasmuch as it represents the conditions of +spiritual life as being participation in the body and blood of +Christ. This is where Paul learned his 'till He come'; and that hope +which filled the Saviour's heart should ever fill ours when we +remember His death. + +III. Verses 19 and 20 record the actual institution of the Lord's +Supper. Note its connection with the rite which it transforms. The +Passover was the memorial of deliverance, the very centre of Jewish +ritual. It was a family feast, and our Lord took the place of the +head of the household. That solemnly appointed and long-observed +memorial of the deliverance which made a mob of slaves into a nation +is transfigured by Jesus, who calls upon Jew and Gentile to forget +the venerable meaning of the rite, and remember rather His work for +all men. It is strange presumption thus to brush aside the Passover, +and in effect to say, 'I abrogate a divinely enjoined ceremony, and +breathe a new meaning into so much of it as I retain.' Who is He who +thus tampers with God's commandments? Surely He is either One having +a co-ordinate authority, or----? But perhaps the alternative is best +left unspoken. + +The separation of the symbols of the body and blood plainly +indicates that it is the death of Jesus, and that a violent one, +which is commemorated. The double symbol carries in both its parts +the same truth, but with differences. Both teach that all our hopes +are rooted in the death of Jesus, and that the only true life of our +spirits comes from participation in His death, and thereby in His +life. But in addition to this truth common to both, the wine, which +represents His blood, is the seal of the 'new covenant.' Again we +mark the extraordinary freedom with which Christ handles the most +sacred parts of the former revelation, putting them aside as He +wills, to set Himself in their place. He declares, by this rite, +that through His death a new 'covenant' comes into force as between +God and man, in which all the anticipations of prophets are more +than realised, and sins are remembered no more, and the knowledge of +God becomes the blessing of all, and a close relationship of mutual +possession is established between God and us, and His laws are +written on loving hearts and softened wills. + +Nor is even this all the meaning of that cup of blessing; for blood +is the vehicle of life, and whoso receives Christ's blood on his +conscience, to sprinkle it from dead works, therein receives, not +only cleansing for the past, but a real communication of 'the Spirit +of life' which was 'in Christ' to be the life of his life, so as +that he can say, 'I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' Nor +is even this all; for, as wine is, all the world over, the emblem of +festivity, so this cup declares that to partake of Christ is to have +a fountain of joy in ourselves, which yet has a better source than +ourselves. Nor is this all; for 'this cup' is prophecy as well as +memorial and symbol, and shadows the new wine of the kingdom and the +marriage supper of the Lamb. + +'This is My body' could not have meant to the hearers, who saw Him +sitting there in bodily form, anything but 'this is a symbol of My +body.' It is but the common use of the word in explaining a +figurative speech or act. 'The field is the world; the tares are the +children of the wicked one; the reapers are the angels,'--and so in +a hundred cases. + +Luke alone preserves for us the command to 'do this,' which at once +establishes the rite as meant to be perpetual, and defines the true +nature of it. It is a memorial, and, if we are to take our Lord's +own explanation, only a memorial. There is nothing here of +sacramental efficacy, but simply the loving desire to be remembered +and the condescending entrusting of some power to recall him to +these outward symbols. Strange that, if the communion were so much +more, as the sacramentarian theory makes it, the feast's own Founder +should not have said a word to hint that it was. + +And how deep and yet lowly an insight into His hold on our hearts +the institution of this ordinance shows Him to have had! The Greek +is, literally, 'In order to My remembrance.' He knew that--strange +and sad as it may seem, and impossible as, no doubt, it did seem to +the disciples--we should be in constant danger of forgetting Him; +and therefore, in this one case, He enlists sense on the side of +faith, and trusts to these homely memorials the recalling, to our +treacherous memories, of His dying love. He wished to live in our +hearts, and that for the satisfaction of His own love and for the +deepening of ours. + +The Lord's Supper is a standing evidence of Christ's own estimate of +where the centre of His work lies. We are to remember His death. Why +should it be selected as the chief treasure for memory, unless it +was something altogether different from the death of other wise +teachers and benefactors? If it were in His case what it is in all +others, the end of His activity for blessing, and no part of His +message to the world, what need is there for the Lord's Supper, and +what meaning is there in it, if Christ's death were not the +sacrifice for the world's sin? Surely no view of the significance +and purpose of the Cross but that which sees in it the propitiation +for the world's sins accounts for this rite. A Christianity which +strikes the atoning death of Jesus out of its theology is sorely +embarrassed to find a worthy meaning for His dying command, 'This do +in remembrance of Me.' + +But if the breaking of the precious alabaster box of His body was +needed in order that 'the house' might be 'filled with the odour of +the ointment,' and if His death was the indispensable condition of +pardon and impartation of His life, then 'wheresoever this gospel +shall be preached in the whole world, there,' as its vital centre, +shall His death be proclaimed, and this rite shall speak of it for a +memorial of Him, and 'show the Lord's death till He come.' + + + + +PARTING PROMISES AND WARNINGS + + + 'And there was also a strife among them, which of them + should be accounted the greatest. 25. And He said unto + them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over + them; and they that exercise authority upon them are + called benefactors. 26. But ye shall not be so: but he + that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; + and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. 27. For + whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he + that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am + among you as He that serveth. 28. Ye are they which + have continued with Me in My temptations. 29. And I + appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath + appointed unto Me; 30. That ye may eat and drink at My + table in My kingdom and sit on thrones judging the + twelve tribes of Israel. 31. And the Lord said, Simon, + Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he + may sift you as wheat: 32. But I have prayed for thee, + that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, + strengthen thy brethren. 33. And he said unto Him, + Lord, I am ready to go with Thee, both into prison, + and to death. 34. And He said, I tell thee, Peter, the + cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt + thrice deny that thou knowest Me. 35. And He said unto + them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and + shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. + 36. Then said He unto them, But now, he that hath a + purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he + that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy + one. 37. For I say unto you, that this that is written + must yet be accomplished in Me, And He was reckoned + among the transgressors: for the things concerning Me + have an end.'--LUKE xxii. 24-37. + +It was blameworthy, but only too natural, that, while Christ's heart +was full of His approaching sufferings, the Apostles should be +squabbling about their respective dignity. They thought that the +half-understood predictions pointed to a brief struggle immediately +preceding the establishment of the kingdom, and they wished to have +their rank settled in advance. Possibly, too, they had been +disputing as to whose office was the menial task of presenting the +basin for foot-washing. So little did the first partakers of the +Lord's Supper 'discern the Lord's body,' and so little did His most +loving friends share His sorrows. + +I. Our Lord was not so absorbed in His anticipations of the near +Cross as to be unobservant of the wrangling among the Apostles. Even +then His heart was enough at leisure from itself to observe, to +pity, and to help. So He at once turns to deal with the false ideas +of greatness betrayed by the dispute. The world's notion is that the +true use and exercise of superiority is to lord it over others. +Tyrants are flattered by the title of benefactor, which they do not +deserve, but the giving of which shows that, even in the world, some +trace of the true conception lingers. It was sadly true, at that +time, that power was used for selfish ends, and generally meant +oppression. One Egyptian king, who bore the title Benefactor, was +popularly known as Malefactor, and many another old-world monarch +deserved a like name. + +Jesus lays down the law for His followers as being the exact +opposite of the world's notion. Dignity and pre-eminence carry +obligations to serve. In His kingdom power is to be used to help +others, not to glorify oneself. In other sayings of Christ's, +service is declared to be the way to _become_ great in the +kingdom, but here the matter is taken up at another point, and +greatness, already attained on whatever grounds, is commanded to be +turned to its proper use. The way to become great is to become +small, and to serve. The right use of greatness is to become a +servant. That has become a familiar commonplace now, but its +recognition as the law for civic and other dignity is all but +entirely owing to Christianity. What conception of such a use of +power has the Sultan of Turkey, or the petty tyrants of heathen +lands? The worst of European rulers have to make pretence to be +guided by this law; and even the Pope calls himself 'the servant of +servants.' + +It is a commonplace, but like many another axiom, universal +acceptance and almost as universal neglect are its fate. Ingrained +selfishness fights against it. Men admire it as a beautiful saying, +and how many of us take it as our life's guide? We condemn the +rulers of old who wrung wealth out of their people and neglected +every duty; but what of our own use of the fraction of power we +possess, or our own demeanour to our inferiors in world or church? +Have all the occupants of royal thrones or presidential chairs, all +peers, members of Parliament, senators, and congressmen, used their +position for the public weal? Do we regard ours as a trust to be +administered for others? Do we feel the weight of our crown, or are +we taken up with its jewels, and proud of ourselves for it? Christ's +pathetic words, giving Himself as the example of greatness that +serves, are best understood as referring to His wonderful act of +washing the disciples' feet. Luke does not record it, and probably +did not know it, but how the words are lighted up if we bring them +into connection with it! + +II. Verses 28 to 30 naturally flow from the preceding. They lift a +corner of the veil, and show the rewards, when the heavenly form of +the kingdom has come, of the right use of eminence in its earthly +form. How pathetic a glimpse into Christ's heart is given in that +warm utterance of gratitude for the imperfect companionship of the +Twelve! It reveals His loneliness, His yearning for a loving hand to +grasp, His continual conflict with temptations to choose an easier +way than that of the Cross. He has known all the pain of being +alone, and feeling in vain for a sympathetic heart to lean on. He +has had to resist temptation, not only in the desert at the +beginning, or in Gethsemane at the end, but throughout His life. He +treasures in His heart, and richly repays, even a little love dashed +with much selfishness, and faithfulness broken by desertion. We do +not often speak of the tempted Christ, or of the lonely Christ, or +of the grateful Christ, but in these great words we see Him as being +all these. + +The rewards promised point onwards to the perfecting of the kingdom +in the future life. We notice the profound thought that the kingdom +which His servants are to inherit is conferred on them, '_as_ +My Father hath appointed unto Me,'--that is, that it is a kingdom +won by suffering and service, and wielded by gentleness and for +others. 'If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.' The +characteristics of the future royalty of Christ's servants are given +in highly figurative language. A state of which we have no +experience can only be revealed under forms drawn from experience; +but these are only far-off approximations, and cannot be pressed. + +The sacred Last Supper suggested one metaphor. It was the last on +earth, but its sanctity would be renewed in heaven, and sadness and +separation and the following grief would not mar the perfect, +perpetual, joyful feast. What dim visions of rule and delegated +authority may lie in the other promise of judging the twelve tribes +of Israel, we must wait till we go to that world to understand. But +this is clear, that continuing with Jesus here leads to everlasting +companionship hereafter, in which all desires shall be satisfied, +and we shall share in His authority and be representatives of His +glory. + +III. But Jesus abruptly recalls Himself and the Twelve from these +remoter prospects of bliss to the nearer future of trial and +separation. The solemn warning to Peter follows with startling +suddenness. Why should they be fighting about precedence when they +were on the verge of the sorest trial of their constancy? And as for +Peter, who had, no doubt, not been the least loud-voiced in the +strife, he needed most of all to be sobered. Our narrow limits +forbid our doing even partial justice to the scene with him; but we +note the significant use of the old name 'Simon,' reminding the +Apostle of his human weakness, and its repetition, giving emphasis +to the address. + +We note, too, the partial withdrawal of the veil which hides the +spirit world from us, in the distinct declaration of the agency of a +personal tempter, whose power is limited, though his malice is +boundless, and who had to obtain God's permission ere he could +tempt. His sieve is made to let the wheat through, and to retain the +chaff. It will be hard to empty this saying of its force. Christ +taught the existence and operation of Satan; but He taught, too, +that He Himself was Satan's victorious antagonist and our prevailing +intercessor. He is so still. He does not seek to avert conflict from +us, but prays that our faith fail not, and Himself, too, fulfils the +prayer by strengthening us. + +Faith, then, conquers, and withstands Satan's sifting. If it holds +out, we shall not fall, though all the winds howl round us. We are +not passive between the two antagonists, but have to take our share +in the struggle. Partial failures may be followed by recovery, and +even tend to increase our power to strengthen other tempted ones, by +the experience gained of our own weakness, which deepens humility +and forbearance with others' faults, and by the experience of +Christ's strength, which makes us able to direct them to the source +of all safety. + +Peter's passionate avowal of readiness to bear anything, if only he +was with Christ, is the genuine utterance of a warm impulsive heart, +which took too little heed of Christ's solemn warning, and fancied +that the tide of present feeling would always run as strong as now. +Emotion fluctuates. Steadfast devotion is chary of mortgaging the +future by promises. He who knows himself is slow to say, 'I will,' +for he knows that 'Oh that I may!' is fitter for his weakness. Very +likely, if Peter had been offered fetters or the scaffold then and +there, he would have accepted them bravely; but it was a different +thing in the raw, cold morning, after an agitating night, and the +Master away at the far end of the great hall. A flippant maid's +tongue was enough to finish him then. + +It is sometimes easier to bear a great load for Christ than a small +one. Some of us could be martyrs at the stake more easily than +confessors among sneering neighbours. Jesus had spared the Apostle +in the former warning of his fall, but He spoke plainly at last, +since the former had been ineffectual; and He addressed him by his +new name of Peter, as if to heighten the sin of denial by recalling +the privileges bestowed. + +IV. The last part of the passage deals with the new conditions +consequent on Christ's departure. The Twelve had been exempt from +the care of providing for themselves while He was with them, but now +they are to be launched into the world alone, like fledglings from +the nest. Not that His presence is not with them or with us, but +that His absence throws the task of providing for wants and guarding +against dangers on themselves, as had not been the case during the +blessed years of companionship. Hence the injunctions in verse 36 +lay down the permanent law for the Church, while verse 37 assigns as +its reason the speedy fulfilment of the prophecies of Messiah's +sufferings. + +Substantially the meaning of the whole is: 'I am on the point of +leaving you, and, when I am gone, you must use common-sense means +for provision and protection. I provided for you while I was here, +without your co-operation. Remember how I did so, and trust Me to +provide in future, through your co-operation.' + +The life of faith does not exclude ordinary prudence and the use of +appropriate means. It is more in accord with Christ's mind to have a +purse to keep money in, and a wallet for food-stores, than to go +out, as some good people do, saying, 'The Lord will provide.' Yes, +He will; but it will be by blessing your common-sense and effort. As +to the difficulty felt in the injunction to buy a sword, our Lord +would be contradicting His whole teaching if He was here commanding +the use of arms for the defence of His servants or the promotion of +His kingdom. That He did not mean literal swords is plain from His +answer to the Apostles, who produced the formidable armament of two. + +'It is enough.' A couple are plenty to fight the Roman Empire with. +Yes, two too many, as was soon seen. The expression is plainly an +intensely energetic metaphor, taking line with purse and scrip. The +plain meaning of the whole is that we are called on to provide +necessary means of provision and defence, which He will bless. The +only sword permitted to His followers is the sword of the Spirit. + + + + +CHRIST'S IDEAL OF A MONARCH +[Footnote: Preached on the occasion of the death of Queen Victoria.] + + + 'And He said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles + exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise + authority upon them are called benefactors. 26. But ye + shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, + let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he + that doth serve.'--LUKE xxii. 25-26. + +There have been sovereigns of England whose death was a relief. There +have been others who were mourned with a certain tepid and decorous +regret. But there has never been one on whose bier have been heaped +such fragrant wreaths of universal love and sorrow as have been laid +upon hers whom we have not yet learned to call by another name than +that which has been musical for all these years--the Queen. Why has +her people's love thus compassed her? Surely, chiefly because they +felt and saw that Christ's ideal of rule, as stated in these words +of our text, was her ideal, which she had gone far to realise. Here +is the secret of her hold upon her people. Here is the reason why, +from almost all the world, tributes have come, and as has been well +said, 'They that loved not England loved her.' + +Now it would be impossible for me to speak words remote from the +thought that has been filling the nation's mind in these days. I can +add nothing to the many eloquent and just appreciations to which we +have listened in this past week, but I can draw your attention to +the underlying secret which moulded and shaped that life. And it +becomes the pulpit to do so. We Christians ought to infuse a +Christian element into everything. We should 'not sorrow as others,' +nor should we admire as others. We all unite in praising her, but +eulogiums which ignore the ground of the virtues which they extol +are superficial and misleading. I ask you to turn to the revelation +of the secret of the nation's love and sorrow suggested by the words +of my text. + +Christ sets forth, in two sharply contrasted pictures, the world's +ideal of a king and His ideal. The upper room was a strange place, +and the eve of Calvary was a still stranger time, for disciples to +squabble about pre-eminence. The Master was absorbed in the thought +of His Cross, the servants were quarrelling about their places in +His Kingdom. Perhaps it was the foot-washing that brought about the +unseemly strife that arose among them, each desiring to hand on the +menial office to another. Jesus Christ did it Himself; and to that, +perhaps, refer the touching words which Luke gives as following the +text; 'I am among you as he that serveth,' with the towel round His +loins, and the basin in His hand. + +The world's ideal of a King. + +Now, the one picture which He draws for us here, the world's ideal +of a king, is the portrait familiar enough to all who know anything +about that ancient order of society, of tyrants and despots, in +Assyria, Babylonia. Pharaohs and all the little kings round about +Judaea; the vile old Herod and his equally vile brood, were recent +or living examples of what the Master said when He sketched 'the +kings of the Gentiles,' They 'lord it over them.' Arrogant +superiority, imperious masterfulness, irresponsible wills, caprices +ungoverned, an absolute oblivion of duties, no thought of +responsibilities--these were the features of that ancient type of +monarch: and which, in spite of all constitutional hedges and +limitations, there is abundant room for the repetition of, even in +so-called Christian countries. + +And then, side by side with that, comes another characteristic: +'They that exercise authority upon them are called "benefactors."' +They demand titles which shall credit them with virtues that they +never try to possess, and live in a region filled with the fumes +from a thousand venal censers of a flattery which intoxicates and +makes giddy. A king in Egypt, very near our Lord's time, had borne +the title 'benefactor,' the very word that is employed here; even as +many a most ungracious sovereign has been called 'Your Most Gracious +Majesty.' + +The position tempts to such a type. And although the world has +outgrown it, yet, as I have said, there is ample room for the +recurrence to the old and obsolete form, unless a mightier hindrance +than human nature knows, come in to prevent it. An ancient prophet +lamented over the shepherds of Israel 'that do feed themselves,' and +indignantly asked, 'should not the shepherds feed the sheep?' He +meant precisely the same contrast which is drawn out at length in +these two pictures that we have before us now. + +The Christian conception. + +'Ye shall not be so.' The Christian conception is in sharp contrast +to, and the Christian realisation of the conception, should be the +absolute opposite of that type to which I have already referred. 'He +that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger'; that +suggests modesty and meekness of demeanour in bearing the loftiest +office. 'And he that is chief as he that doth serve'; that expresses +an activity, not self-regarding and self-centred, but ever used for +others. The simple words of Jesus Christ are the noblest expression +of, and, as I believe, have been the mightiest impulse in producing, +the modern recognition which, thank God! is becoming more and more +pronounced every day amongst us, that power means duty, that +elevation means the obligation to stoop, that true authority +expresses itself in service. We see that conviction growing in all +classes in England. Those who are lifted high are learning to-day, +as they never learned before, the responsibilities and obligations +of their position. And those who are low are beginning to apply the +principle as they never did before, and to test the worthiness of +the lofty, highly-endowed, wealthy, and noble, by their discharge of +the obligations of their position. And although it anticipates what +I have to say subsequently, I cannot but ask here, who shall say how +the Queen's example of authority becoming service has steadied the +Empire, and made a peaceful transition from the old type of +authority to the new, a possibility? Although not directly stated in +my text, there is implied in it another thought, namely, that whilst +power obliges to service, service brings power. He that uses his +influence, his authority, his capacities, his possessions, not for +himself, but for his brothers, will find that by the service he has +garnered in a harvest of authority, and power of command which +nothing else can ever give. + +Christ's ideal of a monarch. + +And now I may turn, without passing beyond the bounds of the pulpit +on such an occasion as the present, to look at the great illustration +of the Christian ideal which the royal life now closed has given. I +venture to say that, without exaggeration, and without irreverence, +our Queen might have taken for her own the declaration of our Lord +Himself on this occasion, 'I am among you as one that serveth.' She +served her people by the diligent discharge of the duties that were +laid upon her. During a strenuous reign of sixty-three years, she +left no arrears, nothing neglected, nothing postponed, nothing undone. +In sorrow as in joy, when life was young, and the love of husband and +family joys were new, as when husband and children were taken away, +and she was an old woman, lonelier because of her throne, she laboured +as 'ever in the great Taskmaster's eye.' That was serving her nation +by the will of God. She served her people by that swift, sincere +sympathy which claimed a share alike in great national and in small +private sorrows. Was there some shipwreck or some storm, that widowed +humble fisherfolk in their villages? The Queen's sympathy was the +first to reach them. Were the blinds drawn down in some colliery +village because of an explosion? The Queen's message was there to +bring a gleam of light into darkened homes. Did some great name in +literature or science pass away? Who but she was first to recognise +the loss, to speak gracious words of appreciation? Did some poor +shepherd die, in the strath where she made her Highland home? The +widowed Queen was beside the widowed peasant, to share and to solace. +Knowing sorrow herself only too well, she had learned to run to the +help of the wretched. Dowered doubly with a woman's gift of sympathy, +she had not let the altitude of a throne freeze its flow. + +She served her people yet more by letting them feel that she took +them into her confidence, spreading before them in the days of her +widowhood the cherished records that her happy pen had written in +the vanished days of her wifehood, opening her heart to us in mute +petition that we might give our hearts to her. She served her people +by the simplicity of her tastes and habits in these days of +senseless luxury, and fierce, sensuous excitement of living. She +served her people by the purity of her life, and so far as she could +by putting a barrier around her Court, across which nothing that was +foul could pass. 'He that worketh iniquity shall not tarry in my +house,' said an ancient king on taking his throne. And our Queen, to +the utmost of her power, said the same; and frowned down--stern for +once in a righteous cause--impurity in high places. Una had her +lion, and this protest of a woman's delicacy against the vices of +modern society is not the least of the services for which we have to +thank her. + +Let me remind you that all this patient self-surrender had its root +in Christian faith. She had taken her Lord for her example because +her faith had knit her to Him as her Saviour. + +Therefore she, as no other English sovereign, conquered the heart of +the nation, and was best loved by the best men and women. Never was +there a more striking confirmation of the truth that whoever in any +region reigns to serve will serve to reign. + +And now, before I close, let me remind you that the principles which +I have been trying to express grip us in our several spheres, quite +as tightly as they do those who may be more largely endowed, or more +loftily placed than ourselves. There is no ideal for a Christian +monarch which is not the ideal also for a Christian peasant. That +which is the duty of the highest is no less the duty of the lowest. +For us all it remains true that what we have we are bound to use, +not for ourselves, but as recognising both our stewardship to God +and the solidarity of humanity; to use for Him, that is to say, for +men. This is the secret of all high, noble, blessed life for +evermore. + +And, brethren, whilst I for one heartily rejoice in the growing +consciousness of responsibility which is being diffused through all +ranks of society today, and, bless God, for one impulse to that +recognition which, as I believe, came from the life now peacefully +closed, I shall be no doubt charged by some of you with old-fashioned +narrowness if I reiterate my own earnest conviction that we can rely +on nothing to bring about a thoroughgoing, a widely-diffused, and a +permanent altruism--to use the modern word--except the force that +comes from the motive which Jesus Christ Himself adduced, in this very +conversation, when He said, 'I am among you as he that serveth.' There +is our example, aye! and more than our example, lodged in Him, and +available for us, by our simple faith in Him. In love that seeks to +copy, lies the only power that will cast out self, that 'anarch old,' +from his usurped seat in our hearts, and will throne Jesus Christ +there. It needs a mighty lever to heave a planet from its orbit, and +to set it circling round another sun; and there is nothing that will +deliver any man, in any rank of life, from the dominion of self, +except submission to the dominion of Him who, because He died to +serve, deserves, and has won, the supreme right of authority and +dominion over human life. + +To use anything for self is to miss its highest goodness, and to mar +ourselves. To use anything for Christ and our brethren is to find +its sweetest sweetness, and to bless ourselves to the very +uttermost. Self-absorption is self-destruction; self-surrender is +self-acquisition. + +If we can truly say, 'I am among you as he that serveth,' if all our +possessions suggest to us obligations and all our powers impose on +us duties: then be we prince or peasant, rich or poor, entrusted +with many talents or with but one, we shall make the best of life +here, and pass to higher authority, which is nobler service +hereafter. Be the servant of all, and all are yours; serve Christ, +and possess yourselves--these are the lessons from that royal life +of service. May we learn them! May the King walk in his mother's +steps and hearken to 'the oracle which his mother taught him! + + + + +THE LONELY CHRIST + + + 'Ye are they which have continued with Me in My + temptations'--LUKE xxii 28. + +We wonder at the disciples when we read of the unseemly strife for +precedence which jars on the tender solemnities of the Last Supper. +We think them strangely unsympathetic and selfish; and so they were. +But do not let us be too hard on them, nor forget that there was a +very natural reason for the close connection which is found in the +gospels between our Lord's announcements of His sufferings and this +eager dispute as to who should be the greatest in the kingdom. They +dimly understood what He meant, but they did understand this much, +that His 'sufferings' were immediately to precede His 'glory'--and +so it is not, after all, to be so much wondered at if the apparent +approach of these made the settlement of their places in the +impending kingdom seem to them a very pressing question. We should +probably have thought so too, if we had been among them. + +Perhaps, too, the immediate occasion of this strife who should be +accounted the greatest, which drew from Christ the words of our text, +may have been the unwillingness of each to injure his possible claim +to pre-eminence by doing the servant's tasks at the modest meal. May +we not suppose that the basin and the towel were refused by one after +another, with muttered words growing louder and angrier: 'It is not +my place,' says Peter; 'you, Andrew, take it--and so from hand to +hand it goes, till the Master ends the strife and takes it Himself to +wash their feet. Then, when He had sat down again, He may have spoken +the words of which our text is part--in which He tells the wrangling +disciples what is the true law of honour in His kingdom, namely, +_service_, and points to Himself as the great example. With what +emphasis the pathetic incident of the foot-washing invests the clause +before our text: 'I am among you as he that serveth.' On that +disclosure of the true law of pre-eminence in His kingdom there +follows in this and following verses the assurance, that, unseemly as +their strife, there was reward for them, and places of dignity there, +because in all their selfishness and infirmity, they had still clung +to their Master. + +This being the original purpose of these words, I venture to use +them for another. They give us, if I mistake not, a wonderful +glimpse into the heart of Christ, and a most pathetic revelation of +His thoughts and experiences, all the more precious because it is +quite incidental and, we may say, unconscious. + +I. See then, here, the tempted Christ. + +In one sense, our Lord is His own perpetual theme. He is ever +speaking of Himself, inasmuch as He is ever presenting what He is to +us, and what He claims of us. In another sense, He scarcely ever +speaks of Himself, inasmuch as deep silence, for the most part, lies +over His own inward experiences. How precious, therefore, and how +profoundly significant is that word here--'in My temptations'! So He +summed up all His life. To feel the full force of the expression, it +should be remembered that the temptation in the wilderness was past +before His first disciple attached himself to Him, and that the +conflict in Gethsemane had not yet come when these words were +spoken. The period to which they refer, therefore, lies altogether +within these limits, including neither. After the former, 'Satan,' +we read, 'departed from Him for a season.' Before the latter, we +read, 'the prince of this world cometh.' The space between, of which +people are so apt to think as free from temptation, is the time of +which our Lord is speaking now. The time when His followers +'companied with Him' is to His consciousness the time of His +'temptations.' + +That is not the point of view from which the Gospel narratives +present it, for the plain reason that they are not autobiographies, +and that Jesus said little about the continuous assaults to which He +was exposed. It is not the point of view from which we often think +of it. We are too apt to conceive of Christ's temptations as all +gathered together--curdled and clotted, as it were, at the two ends +of His life, leaving the space between free. But we cannot +understand the meaning of that life, nor feel aright the love and +help that breathe from it, unless we think of it as a field of +continual and diversified temptations. + +How remarkable is the choice of the expression! To Christ, His life, +looking back on it, does not so much present itself in the aspect of +sorrow, difficulty or pain, as in that of temptation. He looked upon +all outward things mainly with regard to their power to help or to +hinder His life's work. So for us, sorrow or joy should matter +comparatively little. The evil in the evil should be felt to be sin, +and the true cross and burden of life should be to us, as to our +Master, the appeals it makes to us to abandon our tasks, and fling +away our filial dependence and submission. + +This is not the place to plunge into the thorny questions which +surround the thought of the tempted Christ. However these may be +solved, the great fact remains, that His temptations were most real +and unceasing. It was no sham fight which He fought. The story of +the wilderness is the story of a most real conflict; and that +conflict is waged all through His life. True, the traces of it are +few. The battle was fought on both sides in grim silence, as +sometimes men wage a mortal struggle without a sound. But if there +were no other witness of the sore conflict, the Victor's shout at +the close would be enough. His last words, 'I have overcome the +world,' sound the note of triumph, and tell how sharp had been the +strife. So long and hard had it been that He cannot forget it even +in heaven, and from the throne holds forth to all the churches the +hope of overcoming, 'even as I also overcame.' As on some +battlefield whence all traces of the agony and fury have passed +away, and harvests wave, and larks sing where blood ran and men +groaned their lives out, some grey stone raised by the victors +remains, and only the trophy tells of the forgotten fight, so that +monumental word, 'I have overcome' stands to all ages as the record +of the silent, life-long conflict. + +It is not for us to know how the sinless Christ was tempted. There +are depths beyond our reach. This we can understand, that a sinless +manhood is not above the reach of temptation; and this besides, +that, to such a nature, the temptations must be suggested from +without, not presented from within. The desire for food is simply a +physical craving, but another personality than His own uses it to +incite the Son to abandon dependence for His physical life on God. +The trust in God's protection is holy and good, and it may be truest +wisdom and piety to incur danger in dependence on it, when God's +service calls, but a mocking voice without suggests, under the cloak +of it, a needless rushing into peril at no call of conscience, and +for no end of mercy, which is not religion but self-will. The desire +to have the world for His own lay in Christ's deepest heart, but the +enemy of Christ and man, who thought the world his already, used it +as giving occasion to suggest a smoother and shorter road to win all +men unto Him than the 'Via Dolorosa' of the Cross. So the sinless +Christ was tempted at the beginning, and so the sinless Christ was +tempted, in various forms of these first temptations, throughout His +life. The path which He had to tread was ever before Him, the shadow +of the Cross was flung along His road from the first. The pain and +sorrow, the shame and spitting, the contradiction of sinners against +Himself, the easier path which needed but a wish to become His, the +shrinking of flesh--all these made their appeal to Him, and every +step of the path which He trod for us was trodden by the power of a +fresh consecration of Himself to His task and a fresh victory over +temptation. + +Let us not seek to analyse. Let us be content to worship, as we +look, Let us think of the tempted Christ, that our conceptions of +His sinlessness may be increased. His was no untried and cloistered +virtue, pure because never brought into contact with seducing evil, +but a militant and victorious goodness, that was able to withstand +in the evil day. Let us think of the tempted Christ that our +thankful thoughts of what He bore for us may be warmer and more +adequate, as we stand afar off and look on at the mystery of His +battle with our enemies and His. Let us think of the tempted Christ +to make the lighter burden of our cross, and our less terrible +conflict easier to bear and to wage. So will He 'continue with +_us_ in _our_ temptations,' and patience and victory flow to us from +Him. + +II. See here the lonely Christ. + +There is no aspect of our Lord's life more pathetic than that of His +profound loneliness. I suppose the most utterly solitary man that +ever lived was Jesus Christ. If we think of the facts of His life, +we see how His nearest kindred stood aloof from Him, how 'there were +none to praise, and very few to love'; and how, even in the small +company of His friends, there was absolutely none who either +understood Him or sympathised with Him. We hear a great deal about +the solitude in which men of genius live, and how all great souls +are necessarily lonely. That is true, and that solitude of great men +is one of the compensations which run through all life, and make the +lot of the many little, more enviable than that of the few great. +'The little hills rejoice together on every side,' but far above +their smiling companionships, the Alpine peak lifts itself into the +cold air, and though it be 'visited all night by troops of stars,' +it is lonely amid the silence and the snow. Talk of the solitude of +pure character amid evil, like Lot in Sodom, or of the loneliness of +uncomprehended aims and unshared thoughts--who ever experienced that +as keenly as Christ did? That perfect purity must needs have been +hurt by the sin of men as none else have ever been. That loving +heart yearning for the solace of an answering heart must needs have +felt a sharper pang of unrequited love than ever pained another. +That spirit to which the things that are seen were shadows, and the +Father and the Father's house the ever-present, only realities +must have felt itself parted from the men whose portion was in this +life, by a gulf broader than ever opened between any other two souls +that shared together human life. + +The more pure and lofty a nature, the more keen its sensitiveness, +the more exquisite its delights, and the sharper its pains. The more +loving and unselfish a heart, the more its longing for companionship: +and the more its aching in loneliness. + +Very significant and pathetic are many points in the Gospel story +bearing on this matter. The very choice of the Twelve had for its +first purpose, 'that they should be with Him,' as one of the +Evangelists tells us. We know how constantly He took the three who +were nearest to Him along with Him, and that surely not merely that +they might be 'eyewitnesses of His majesty' on the holy mount, or of +His agony in Gethsemane, but as having a real gladness and strength +even in their companionship amid the mystery of glory as amid the +power of darkness. We read of His being alone but twice in all the +gospels, and both times for prayer. And surely the dullest ear can +hear a note of pain in that prophetic word: 'The hour cometh that ye +shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone'; +while every heart must feel the pitiful pathos of the plea, 'Tarry +ye here, and watch with Me.' Even in that supreme hour, He longs for +human companionship, however uncomprehending, and stretches out His +hands in the great darkness, to feel the touch of a hand of flesh +and blood--and, alas, for poor feeble love!--He gropes for it in +vain. Surely that horror of utter solitude is one of the elements of +His passion grave and sorrowful enough to be named by the side of +the other bitterness poured into that cup, even as it was pain +enough to form a substantive feature of the great prophetic picture: +'I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for +comforters, but I found none.' + +So here, a deep pain in His loneliness is implied in these words of +our text which put the disciples' participation in the glories of +His throne as the issue of their loyal continuance with Him in the +conflict of earth. These, and these only, had been by His side, and +so much does He care for their companionship, that therefore they +shall share His dominion. + +That lonely Christ sympathises with all solitary hearts. If ever we +feel ourselves misunderstood and thrown back upon ourselves; if ever +our hearts' burden of love is rejected; if our outward lives be +lonely and earth yields nothing to stay our longing for companionship; +if our hearts have been filled with dear ones and are now empty or +filled only with tears, let us think of Him and say, 'Yet I am not +alone.' He lived alone, alone He died, that no heart might ever be +solitary any more. 'Could ye not watch with Me?' was His gentle rebuke +in Gethsemane. 'Lo, _I_ am with _you_ always,' is His mighty +promise from the throne. In every step of life we may have Him for +a companion, a friend closer than all others, nearer us than our very +selves, if we may so say--and in the valley of the shadow of death we +need fear no evil, for He will be with us. + +III. See here the grateful Christ. + +I almost hesitate to use the word, but there seems a distinct ring +of thanks in the expression, and in the connection. And we need not +wonder at that, if we rightly understand it. There is nothing in it +inconsistent with our Lord's character and relations to His +disciples. Do you remember another instance in which one seems to +hear the same tone, namely, in the marked warmth with which He +acknowledges the beautiful service of Mary in breaking the fragrant +casket of nard upon His head? + +All true love is glad when it is met, glad to give, and glad to +receive. Was it not a joy to Jesus to be waited on by the +ministering women? Would He not thank them because they served Him +for love? I trow, yes. And if any one stumbles at the word +'grateful' as applied to Him, we do not care about the word so long +as it is seen that His heart was gladdened by loving friends, and +that He recognised in their society a ministry of love. + +Notice, too, the loving estimate of what these disciples had done. +Their companionship had been imperfect enough at the best. They had +given Him but blind affection, dashed with much selfishness. In an +hour or two they would all have forsaken Him and fled. He knew all +that was lacking in them, and the cowardly abandonment which was so +near. But He has not a word to say of all this. He does not count +jealously the flaws in our work, or reject it because it is +incomplete. So here is the great truth clearly set forth, that +where there is a loving heart, there is acceptable service. It is +possible that our poor, imperfect deeds shall be an odour of a sweet +smell, acceptable, well-pleasing to Him. Which of us that is a +father is not glad at his children's gifts, even though they be +purchased with his own money, and be of little use? They mean love, +so they are precious. And Christ, in like manner, gladly accepts +what we bring, even though it be love chilled by selfishness, and +faith broken by doubt,--submission crossed by self-will. The living +heart of the disciples' acceptable service was their love, far less +intelligent and entire than ours may be. They were joined to their +Lord, though with but partial sympathy and knowledge, in His +temptations. It is possible for us to be joined to Jesus Christ more +closely and more truly than they were during His earthly life. Union +with Him here is union with Him hereafter. If we abide in Him amid +the shows and shadows of earth, He will continue with us in our +temptations, and so the fellowships begun on earth will be perfected +in heaven, 'if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be +glorified together.' + + + + +A GREAT FALL AND A GREAT RECOVERY + + + 'But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; + and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.' + --Luke xxii. 32. + +Our Lord has just been speaking words of large and cordial praise of +the steadfastness with which His friends had continued with Him in +His temptations, and it is the very contrast between that +continuance and the prevision of the cowardly desertion of the +Apostle which occasioned the abrupt transition to this solemn appeal +to him, which indicates how the forecast pained Christ's heart. He +does not let the foresight of Peter's desertion chill His praise of +Peter's past faithfulness as one of the Twelve. He does not let the +remembrance of Peter's faithfulness modify His rebuke for Peter's +intended and future desertion. He speaks to him, with significant +and emphatic reiteration of the old name of Simon that suggests +weakness, unsanctified and unhelped: 'Simon, Simon, Satan hath +desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.' _There_ is +a glimpse given, a corner of the curtain being lifted, into a dim +region in which faith should not refuse to discern so much light as +Christ has given, because superstition has so often fancied that it +saw what it only dreamed. But passing from that, the words before us +seem to me to suggest a threefold thought of the Intercessor for +tempted souls; of the consequent re-illumination of eclipsed faith; +and of the larger service for which the discipline of fall and +recovery fits him who falls. Let me say a word or two about each of +these thoughts. + +I. We have the Intercessor for tempted souls. + +Notice that majestic 'but' with which my text begins, 'Satan hath +desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, _but_ I +have prayed for thee.' He presents Himself, then, as the Antagonist, +the confident and victorious Antagonist, of whatsoever mysterious, +malignant might may lie beyond the confines of sense, and He says, +'My prayer puts the hook in leviathan's nose, and the malevolent +desire to sift, in order that not the chaff but the wheat may +disappear, comes all to nothing by the side of My prayer.' + +Note the discrimination of the intercession. He 'hath desired to +have you'--that is plural; 'I have prayed for thee'--that is +singular. The man that was in the greatest danger was the man +nearest to Christ's heart, and chiefly the object of Christ's +intercession. So it is always--the tenderest of His words, the +sweetest of His consolations, the strongest of His succours, the +most pleading and urgent of His petitions, the mightiest gifts of +His grace, are given to the weakest, the neediest, the men and women +in most sorrow and stress and peril, and they who want Him most +always have Him nearest. The thicker the darkness, the brighter His +light; the drearier our lives, the richer His presence; the more +solitary we are, the larger the gifts of His companionship. Our +need is the measure of His prayer. 'Satan hath desired to have you, +but thou, Peter, dost stand in the very focus of the danger, and so +on _thee_ are focussed, too, the rays of My love and care.' Be +sure, dear friends, that it is always so for us, and that when you +want Christ most, Christ is most to you. + +Then, I need not touch at any length upon that great subject on which +none of us can speak adequately or with full comprehension--viz. our +Lord as the Intercessor for us in all our weakness and need. We +believe in His continual manhood, we believe that He prayed upon +earth, we believe that He prays in heaven. His prayer is no mere +utterance of words: it is the presentation of a fact, the bringing +ever before the Infinite Divine Mind, as it were, of His great work +of sacrifice, as the condition which determines, and the channel +through which flows, the gift of sustaining grace from God Himself. +And so we may be sure that whensoever there come to any of us trials, +difficulties, conflicts, temptations, they are known to our Brother in +the skies, and the stormier the gales that threaten us, the closer He +wraps His protection round us. We have an Advocate and an Intercessor +before the Throne; His prayer is always heard. Oh, brethren! how +different our endurance would be, if we vividly believed that Christ +was praying for us! How it would take the sting out of sorrow, and +blunt the edge of temptation, if we realised that! O for a faith that +shall rend the heavens, and rise above the things seen and temporal, +and behold the eternal order of the universe, the central Throne, and +at the right hand of God, the Intercessor for all who love and trust +Him! + +II. Notice again the consequent re-illumination of eclipsed faith. + +'I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.' Did it fail? If +we look only at Peter's denial, we must answer, Yes. If we look at +the whole of the future life of the Apostle, we answer, No. Eclipse +is not extinction; the momentary untruthfulness to one's deepest +convictions is not the annihilation of these convictions. Christ's +prayer is never vain, and Christ's prayer was answered just because +Peter, though he fell, did not lie in the mud, but staggered to his +feet again, and with sore weeping and many an agony of shame, +struggled onward, with unconquerable hope, in the path from which, +for a moment, he strayed. Better one great outburst like his, the +nature of which there is no possibility of mistaking, than the going +on, as so many professing Christians do, from year to year, walking +in a vain show of godliness, and fancying themselves to be +disciples, when all the while they are recreants and apostates. +There is more chance of the recovery of a good man that has fallen +into some sin, 'gross as a mountain, open, palpable,' than there is +of the recovery of those who let their religion trickle out of them +in drops, and never know that their veins are empty until the heart +ceases to beat at all. + +Here, then, we have two large lessons from which we may take strength, +taught us by this darkening and re-illumination of an eclipsed faith. +One is that the sincerest love, the truest desire to follow Jesus, +the firmest faith, may be overborne, and the whole set of a life +contradicted for a time. Thank God, there is a vast difference between +conduct which is inconsistent with being a Christian and conduct which +is incompatible with being a Christian. It is dangerous, perhaps, to +apply the difference too liberally in judging ourselves; it is +imperative to apply it always in judging our fellows. But if it be +true that Peter meant, down to the very bottom of his heart, all that +he said when he said, 'I will lay down my life for Thee,' while yet +within a few hours afterwards the sad prophecy of our Lord was +fulfilled--'Thou shalt deny Me thrice!'--let us take the lesson, not, +indeed, to abate our horror of the sin, but on the one hand to cut +the comb of our own self-confidence, and on the other hand to judge +with all charity and tenderness the faults of our brethren. 'Be not +high-minded, but fear,' and when we look into the black gulf into +which Peter fell bodily, let us cry, 'Hold Thou me up and I shall be +safe.' + +The other lesson is that the deepest fall may be recovered. Our Lord in +the words of our text does not definitely prophesy what He subsequently +declares in plain terms, the fall of Peter, but He implies it when He +says, 'when thou art converted'--or, as the Revised Version reads it +much more accurately, 'when once thou hast turned again strengthen +thy brethren.' Then, the Apostle's face had been turned the wrong way +for a time, and he needed to turn right-about-face in order to renew +the old direction of his life. He came back for two reasons--one because +Christ prayed for him, and the other because he 'turned himself.' For +the only way back is through the valley of weeping and the dark lane +of penitence; and whosoever has denied with Peter, or at least grovelled +with Peter, or perhaps grovelled much more than Peter, 'denying the +Lord that bought him' by living as if He was not his Lord, will never +come back to the place that Peter again won for himself, but by the +road by which Peter went. 'The Lord turned and looked upon him,' and +Christ's face, with love and sorrow and reproach in it, taught him his +sin, and bowed his heart, 'and he went out and wept bitterly.' + +Peter and Judas both 'went out'; the one 'went out and hanged +himself,' because his conviction of his sin was unaccompanied with a +faith in his Master's love, and his repentance was only remorse; and +the other 'went out and wept bitterly,' and so came back with a +clean heart. And on the Resurrection morning he was ready for the +message: 'Go, tell His disciples, _and Peter_, He goeth before +you into Galilee.' And the Lord appeared to him, in that conversation, +the existence of which was known, though the particulars were unknown, +to the rest; and when 'He appeared unto Cephas,' spoke his full +forgiveness. There is the road back for all wanderers. + +III. The last thought is, the larger service for which such an +experience will fit him who falls. + +'Strengthen thy brethren when once thou hast turned again.' I need +not remind you how nobly the Apostle fulfilled this commandment. +Satan desired to have him, that he might sift him as wheat; but +Satan's sifting was in order that he might get rid of the wheat and +harvest the chaff. His malice worked indirectly the effect opposite +to his purpose, and achieved the same result as Christ's winnowing +seeks to accomplish--namely, it got rid of the chaff and kept the +wheat. Peter's vanity was sifted out of him, his self-confidence was +sifted out of him, his rash presumption was sifted out of him, his +impulsive readiness to blurt out the first thought that came into +his head was sifted out of him, and so his unreliableness and +changeableness were largely sifted out of him, and he became what +Christ said he had in him the makings of being--'Cephas, a rock,' +or, as the Apostle Paul, who was never unwilling to praise the +others, said, a man 'who looked like a pillar.' He 'strengthened his +brethren,' and to many generations the story of the Apostle who +denied the Lord he loved has ministered comfort. To how many tempted +souls, and souls that have yielded to temptation, and souls that, +having yielded, are beginning to grope their way back again out of +its vulgar delights and surfeiting sweetnesses, and find that there +is a desert to be traversed before they can again reach the place +where they stood before, has that story ministered hope, as it will +minister to the very end! The bone that is broken is stronger, they +tell us, at the point of junction, when it heals and grows again, +than it ever was before. And it may well be that a faith that has +made experience of falling and restoration has learned a depth of +self-distrust, a firmness of confidence in Christ, a warmth of +grateful love which it would never otherwise have experienced. + +The Apostle about whom we have been speaking seems to have carried +in his mind and memory an abiding impression from that bitter +experience, and in his letter when he was an old man, and all that +past was far away, he writes many words which sound like echoes and +reminiscences of it. In the last chapter of his epistle, in which he +speaks of himself as a witness of the sufferings of Christ, there +are numbers of verses which seem to point to what had happened in +the Upper Room. 'Ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.' +Jesus Christ had then said, 'He that is the greater among you, let +him be as the younger.' Peter says, 'Be clothed with humility'; he +remembers Christ wrapping a towel around Him, girding Himself, and +taking the basin. He says, 'God resisteth the proud,' and he +remembers how proud he had been, with his boast: 'Though all should +... yet will not I,' and how low he fell because he was 'fool' +enough to 'trust in his own heart.' 'Be sober, be vigilant; because +your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking +whom he may devour: whom resist, steadfast in the faith.' 'The God +of all grace stablish, strengthen, settle you.' He thus strengthened +his brethren when he reminded them of the temptation to which he +himself had so shamefully succumbed, and when he referred them for +all their strength to the source of it all, even God in Christ. + + + + +GETHSEMANE + + + 'And He came out, and went, as He was wont, to the + mount of Olives; and His disciples also followed Him. + 40. And when He was at the place, He said unto them, + Pray that ye enter not into temptation. 41. And He + was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and + kneeled down, and prayed, 42. Saying, Father, If Thou + be willing, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless, not + My will, but Thine, be done. 43. And there appeared an + angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him. 44. And, + being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly: and His + sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down + to the ground. 45. And when He rose up from prayer, + and was come to His disciples, He found them sleeping + for sorrow. 46. And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise + and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. 47. And while + He yet spake, beheld a multitude, and he that was + called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and + drew near unto Jesus to kiss Him. 48. But Jesus said + unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a + kiss? 49. When they which were about Him saw what would + follow, they said unto Him, Lord, shall we smite with + the sword? 50. And one of them smote a servant of the + high priest, and cut off his right ear. 51. And Jesus + answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And He touched + his ear, and healed him. 52. Then Jesus said unto the + chief priests, and captains of the temple, and the + elders, which were come to Him, Be ye come out, as + against a thief, with swords and staves? 53. When I + was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth + no hands against Me; but this is your hour, and the + power of darkness.'--Luke xxii. 39-53. + +'Put off thy shoes from off thy feet.' Cold analysis is out of place +here, where the deepest depth of a Saviour's sorrows is partly +disclosed, and we see Him bowing His head to the waves and billows +that went over Him, for our sakes. Luke's account is much condensed, +but contains some points peculiar to itself. It falls into two +parts--the solemn scene of the agony, and the circumstances of the +arrest. + +I. We look with reverent awe and thankfulness at that soul-subduing +picture of the agonising and submissive Christ which Luke briefly +draws. Think of the contrast between the joyous revelry of the +festival-keeping city and the sadness of the little company which +crossed the Kedron and passed beneath the shadow of the olive-trees +into the moonlit garden. Jesus needed companions there; but He needed +solitude still more. So He is 'parted from them'; but Luke alone +tells us how short the distance was--'as it were a stone's throw,' +and near enough for the disciples to see and hear something before +they slept. + +That clinging to and separation from His humble friends gives a +wonderful glimpse into Christ's desolation then. And how beautiful +is His care for them, even at that supreme hour, which leads to the +injunction twice spoken, at the beginning and end of His own +prayers, that they should pray, not for Him, but for themselves. He +never asks for men's prayers, but He does for their love. He thinks +of His sufferings as temptation for the disciples, and for the +moment forgets His own burden, in pointing them the way to bear +theirs. Did self-oblivious love ever shine more gloriously in the +darkness of sorrow? + +Luke omits the threefold withdrawal and return, but notes three +things--the prayer, the angel appearance, and the physical effects +of the agony. The essentials are all preserved in his account. The +prayer is truly 'the Lord's prayer,' and the perfect pattern for +ours. Mark the grasp of God's fatherhood, which is at once appeal +and submission. So should all prayer begin, with the thought, at all +events, whether with the word 'Father' or no. Mark the desire that +'this cup' should pass. The expression shows how vividly the +impending sufferings were pictured before Christ's eye. The keenest +pains of anticipation, which make so large a part of so many +sorrows, were felt by Him. He shrank from His sufferings. Did He +therefore falter in His desire and resolve to endure the Cross? A +thousand times, no! His will never wavered, but maintained itself +supreme over the natural recoil of His human nature from pain and +death. If He had not felt the Cross to be a dread, it had been no +sacrifice. If He had allowed the dread to penetrate to His will, He +had been no Saviour. But now He goes before us in the path which all +have, in their degree, to travel, and accepts pain that He may do +His work. + +That acceptance of the divine will is no mere 'If it must be so, let +it be so,' much as that would have been. But He receives in His +prayer the true answer--for His will completely coincides with the +Father's, and 'mine' is 'thine.' Such conformity of our wills with +God's is the highest blessing of prayer and the true deliverance. +The cup accepted is sweet; and though flesh may shrink, the inner +self consents, and in consenting to the pain, conquers it. + +Luke alone tells of the ministering angel; and, according to some +authorities, the forty-third and forty-fourth verses are spurious. +But, accepting them as genuine, what does the angelic appearance +teach us? It suggests pathetically the utter physical prostration +of Jesus. Sensuous religion has dwelt on that offensively, but let +us not rush to the opposite extreme, and ignore it. It teaches us +that the manhood of Jesus needed the communication of divine help as +truly as we do. The difficulty of harmonising that truth with His +divine nature was probably the reason for the omission of this verse +in some manuscripts. It teaches the true answer to His prayer, as so +often to ours; namely, the strength to bear the load, not the +removal of it. It is remarkable that the renewal of the solemn +'agony' and the intenser earnestness of prayer follow the +strengthening by the angel. + +Increased strength increased the conflict of feeling, and the +renewed and intensified conflict increased the earnestness of the +prayer. The calmness won was again disturbed, and a new recourse to +the source of it was needed. We stand reverently afar off, and ask, +not too curiously, what it is that falls so heavily to the ground, +and shines red and wet in the moonlight. But the question +irresistibly rises, Why all this agony of apprehension? If Jesus +Christ was but facing death as it presents itself to all men, His +shrinking is far beneath the temper in which many a man has fronted +the scaffold and the fire. We can scarcely save His character for +admiration, unless we see in the agony of Gethsemane something much +more than the shrinking from a violent death, and understand how +there the Lord made to meet on Him the iniquity of us all. If the +burden that crushed Him thus was but the common load laid on all +men's shoulders, He shows unmanly terror. If it were the black mass +of the world's sins, we can understand the agony, and rejoice to +think that our sins were there. + +II. The arrest. Three points are made prominent--the betrayer's +token, the disciples' resistance, the reproof of the foes, and in +each the centre of interest is our Lord's words. The sudden bursting +in of the multitude is graphically represented. The tumult broke the +stillness of the garden, but it brought deeper peace to Christ's +heart; for while the anticipation agitated, the reality was met with +calmness. Blessed they who can unmoved front evil, the foresight of +which shook their souls! Only they who pray as Jesus did beneath +the olives, can go out from their shadow, as He did, to meet the +foe. + +The first of the three incidents of the arrest brings into strong +prominence Christ's meek patience, dignity, calmness, and effort, +even at that supreme moment, to rouse dormant conscience, and save +the traitor from himself. Judas probably had no intention by his +kiss of anything but showing the mob their prisoner; but he must +have been far gone in insensibility before he could fix on such a +sign. It was the token of friendship and discipleship, and no doubt +was customary among the disciples, though we never hear of any lips +touching Jesus but the penitent woman's, which were laid on His +feet, and the traitor's. The worst hypocrisy is that which is +unconscious of its own baseness. + +Every word of Christ's answer to the shameful kiss is a sharp spear, +struck with a calm and not resentful hand right into the hardened +conscience. There is wistful tenderness and a remembrance of former +confidences in calling Him by name. The order of words in the +original emphasises the kiss, as if Jesus had said, 'Is that the +sign you have chosen? Could nothing else serve you? Are you so dead +to all feeling that you can kiss and betray?' The Son of man flashes +on Judas, for the last time, the majesty and sacredness against +which he was lifting his hand. 'Betrayest thou?' which comes last in +the Greek, seeks to startle by putting into plain words the guilt, +and so to rend the veil of sophistications in which the traitor was +hiding his deed from himself. Thus to the end Christ seeks to keep +him from ruin, and with meek patience resents not indignity, but +with majestic calmness sets before the miserable man the hideousness +of his act. The patient Christ is the same now as then, and meets +all our treason with pleading, which would fain teach us how black +it is, not because He is angry, but because He would win us to turn +from it. Alas that so often His remonstrances fall on hearts as +wedded to their sin as was Judas's! + +The rash resistance of the disciple is recorded chiefly for the sake +of Christ's words and acts. The anonymous swordsman was Peter, and +the anonymous victim was Malchus, as John tells us. No doubt he had +brought one of the two swords from the upper room, and, in a sudden +burst of anger and rashness, struck at the man nearest him, not +considering the fatal consequences for them all that might follow. +Peter could manage nets better than swords, and missed the head, in +his flurry and in the darkness, only managing to shear off a poor +slave's ear. When the Church takes sword in hand, it usually shows +that it does not know how to wield it, and as often as not has +struck the wrong man. Christ tells Peter and us, in His word here, +what His servants' true weapons are, and rebukes all armed +resistance of evil. 'Suffer ye thus far' is a command to oppose +violence only by meek endurance, which wins in the long run, as +surely as the patient sunshine melts the thick ice, which is ice +still, when pounded with a hammer. + +If 'thus far' as to His own seizure and crucifying was to be 'suffered,' +where can the breaking-point of patience and non-resistance be fixed? +Surely every other instance of violence and wrong lies far on this side +of that one. The prisoner heals the wound. Wonderful testimony that not +inability to deliver Himself, but willingness to be taken, gave Him +into the hands of His captors! Blessed proof that He lavishes benefits +on His foes, and that His delight is to heal all wounds and stanch +every bleeding heart! + +The last incident here is Christ's piercing rebuke, addressed, not to +the poor, ignorant tools, but to the prime movers of the conspiracy, +who had come to gloat over its success. He asserts His own innocence, +and hints at the preposterous inadequacy of 'swords and staves' to +take Him. He is no 'robber,' and their weapons are powerless, unless +He wills. He recalls His uninterrupted teaching in the Temple, as if +to convict them of cowardice, and perchance to bring to remembrance +His words there. And then, with that same sublime and strange majesty +of calm submission which marks all His last hours, He unveils to +these furious persecutors the true character of their deed. The +sufferings of Jesus were the meeting-point of three worlds--earth, +hell, and heaven. 'This is your hour.' But it was also Satan's hour, +and it was Christ's 'hour,' and God's. Man's passions, inflamed from +beneath, were used to work out God's purpose; and the Cross is at +once the product of human unbelief, of devilish hate, and of divine +mercy. His sufferings were 'the power of darkness.' + +Mark in that expression Christ's consciousness that He is the light, +and enmity to Him darkness. Mark, too, His meek submission, as +bowing His head to let the black flood flow over Him. Note that +Christ brands enmity to Him as the high-water mark of sin, the +crucial instance of man's darkness, the worst thing ever done. Mark +the assurance that animated Him, that the eclipse was but for an +'hour.' The victory of the darkness was brief, and it led to the +eternal triumph of the Light. By dying He is the death of death. +This Jonah inflicts deadly wounds on the monster in whose maw He lay +for three days. The power of darkness was shivered to atoms in the +moment of its proudest triumph, like a wave which is beaten into +spray as it rises in a towering crest and flings itself against the +rock. + + + + +THE CROSS THE VICTORY AND DEFEAT OF DARKNESS + + + 'This is your hour, and the power of darkness.' + --Luke xxii. 53. + +The darkness was the right time for so dark a deed. The surface +meaning of these pathetic and far-reaching words of our Lord's in +the garden to His captors is to point the correspondence between the +season and the act. As He has just said, 'He had been daily with +them in the Temple,' but in the blaze of the noontide they laid no +hands upon Him. They found a congenial hour in the midnight. But the +words go a great deal deeper than allusive symbolism of that sort. +Looking at them as giving us a little glimpse into the thoughts and +feelings of Christ, we can scarcely help tracing in them the very +clear consciousness that He was the Light, and that all antagonism +to Him was the work of darkness in an eminent and especial sense. +But whilst this unobscured consciousness, which no mere man could +venture so unqualifiedly to assert, is manifest in the words, there +is also in them, to my ear, a tone of majestic resignation, as if He +said, 'There! do your worst!' and bowed His head, as a man might do, +standing breast high in the sea, that the wave might roll over Him. +And there is in them, too, a shrinking as of horror from the surging +upon Him of the black tide to which He bows His head. + +But whilst thus pathetic and significant in their indication of the +feelings of our Lord, they have a wider and a deeper meaning still, +I think, if we ponder them; inasmuch as they open before us some +aspects of His sufferings and eminently of His Cross, which it +becomes us all to lay to heart. And it is to these that I desire to +turn your attention for a few moments. + +I. I see in them, then, first, this great thought, that the Cross of +Jesus Christ is the centre and the meeting-point for the energies of +three worlds. + +'This is your hour.' Now our Lord habitually speaks of His +sufferings, and of other points in His life, as being 'My hour,' by +which, of course, He means the time appointed to Him by God for the +doing of an appointed work. And that idea is distinctly to be +attached to the use of the word here. But, on the other hand, there +is emphasis laid on '_your_,' and that hour is thereby designated as +a time in which they could do as they would. It was their opportunity, +or, as we say in our colloquialism, now was their time when, unhindered, +they might carry into effect their purposes. + +So there is given us the thought of His passion and death as being +the most eminent and awful instance of men being left unchecked to +work out whatsoever was in their evil hearts, and to carry into +effect their blackest purposes. + +But, on the other hand, there goes with the phrase the idea to which +I have already referred; and 'this is their hour,' not merely in the +sense that it was their opportunity, but also that it was the hour +appointed by God and allotted them for their doing the thing which +their unhindered evil passions impelled them to do. And so we are +brought face to face with the most eminent instance of that great +puzzle that runs through all life--how God works out His lofty +designs by means of responsible agents, 'making the wrath of men to +praise Him,' and girding Himself with the remainder. + +Nor is that all. For the next words of my text bring in a third set +of powers as in operation. 'This is your hour' lets us see man +overarched by the abyss of the heavens, 'and the power of darkness' +lets us see the deep and awful forces that are working beneath and +surging upwards into humanity, and opens the subterranean volcanoes. +I do not say that there is any reference here to a personal +Antagonist of good, in whom these dark tendencies are focussed, but +there is a distinct reference to 'the darkness' as a whole, a kind +of organic whole, which operates upon men. Even when they think +themselves to be freest, and are carrying out their own wicked +designs, they are but the slaves of impulses that come straight from +the dark kingdom. If I may turn from the immediate purpose of my +sermon for a moment, I pray you to consider that solemn aspect of +our life, a film between two firmaments, like the earth with the +waters above and the waters beneath. On the one side it is open and +pervious to heavenly influences, and moulded by the overarching and +sovereign will, and on the other side it is all honeycombed beneath +with, and open to, the uprisings of evil, straight from the +bottomless pit. + +But if we turn to the more immediate purpose of the words, think for +a moment of the solemn and wonderful aspect which the Cross of +Christ assumes, thus contemplated. Three worlds focus their energies +upon it--heaven, earth, hell. Looked at from one side it is all +radiant and glorious, as the transcendent exhibition of the divine +love and sweetness and sacrifice and righteousness and tenderness. +But the sunshine that plays upon it shifts and passes, and looked at +from another point of view it is swathed in blackness, as the most +awful display of man's unbridled antagonism to the good. And looked +at from yet another, it assumes a still more lurid aspect as the +last stroke which the kingdom of darkness attempted to strike in +defence of its ancient and solitary reign. So earth, heaven, hell, +the God that works through man's evil passions, and yet does not +acquit them though He utilises them to a lofty issue; man that is +evil and thinks himself free; and the kingdom of darkness that uses +him as its slave--all hare part in that cross, which is thus the +result of such diametrically opposite forces. + +The divine government which reached its most beneficent ends through +the unbridled antagonism of sinful men, and made even the dark +counsels of the kingdom of darkness tributary to the diffusion of the +light, works ever in the same fashion. Antagonism and obedience both +work out its purposes. Let us learn to bow before that all-encompassing +Providence in whose great scheme both are included. Let us not confuse +ourselves by the attempt to make plain to our reason the harmony of the +two certain facts--man's freedom and God's sovereignty. Enough for us +to remember that the sin is none the less though the issue may coincide +with the divine purpose, for sin lies in the motive, which is ours, not +in the unintended result, which is God's. Enough for us to realise the +tremendous solemnity of the lives we live, with all sweet heavenly +influences falling on them from above, and all sulphurous suggestions +rising into them from the fires beneath, and to see to it that we keep +our hearts open to the one, and fast closed against the other. + +'This is your hour'--a time in which you feel yourselves free, and +yet are instruments in the hands of God, and also are tools in the +claws of evil. + +II. Still further, my text brings before us the thought that the +Cross is the high-water mark of man's sin. + +'This is the power of darkness'--the specimen instance of what it +would and can do. Strange to think that, amidst all the black +catalogue of evil deeds that have been done in this world from the +beginning, there is one deed which is the worst, and that it is this +one! Not that the doers were 'sinners above all men': for that is a +question of knowledge and of motives, but that the deed in itself +was the worst thing that ever man did. Of course I take for granted +the belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; that He came from +heaven, that He lived a life of perfect purity and beauty, and that +He died on the Cross as the Gospel tells us. And taking these things +for granted, is it not true that His rejection, His condemnation, +and His death do throw the most awful and solemn light upon what +poor humanity left to itself, and yielding to the suggestions and +the impulses of the kingdom of darkness, does when it comes in +contact with the Light? + +It is the great crucial instance of the incapacity of the average +man to behold spiritual beauty and lofty elevation of character. +People lament over the blindness of embruted souls to natural +beauty, to art, to high thinking, and so on; but all these, tragic +as they are, are nothing as compared with this stunning fact, that +perfect righteousness and perfect tenderness and ideal beauty of +character walked about the world for thirty and three years, and +that all the wise and religious men who came across Him thought that +the best thing they could do was to crucify Him. So it has ever been +from the days of Cain and Abel. As the Apostle John asks, 'Wherefore +slew be him?' For a very good reason, 'Because his own works were +evil, and his brother's righteous.' That is reason enough for +killing any prophets and righteous men. It was so in the past, and +in modified forms it is so today. The plain fact is that humanity +has in it a depth of incapacity to behold, and of angry +indisposition to admire, lofty and noble lives. The power of the +darkness to blind men is set forth once in the superlative degree +that we may all beware of it in the lower instances, by that fact, +the most tragical in the history of the world, 'the Light shineth in +the darkness, and the darkness apprehendeth it not.' + +And not only does that Cross mark the high-water mark of man's +blindness, and of man's hatred to the lofty and the true and the good, +but it marks, too, the awful power that seems, by the very make of the +world, to be lodged on the side of evil and against good. The dice +seem to be so terribly loaded. Virtue and beauty and truth and +tenderness, and all that is noble and lofty and heart-appealing, have +no chance against a mere piece of savage brutality. And that fact, +which has been repeated over and over again from the beginning, and +so largely makes the misery of mankind, reaches its very climax, and +most solemn and awful illustration, in the fact that a handful of +ruffians and a detachment of Roman soldiers were able to put an end +to the life of God manifest in the flesh. If we have nothing more to +say about Jesus than that He lived upon earth and did works of goodness +and of beauty for a few short years, and then died, and there an end, +it seems to me that the story of the Death of Christ is the most +despairing page in the whole history of humanity, and that it +accentuates and makes still more dreadful the dreadful old puzzle of +how it comes that, in a world with a God in it, evil seems to be so +riotously preponderant and good seems to be ever trodden under foot. +Either the Death of Christ, if He died and did not rise again, is the +strongest argument in the history of mankind for rank atheism, or +else it is true that He rose, the King of humanity, glorified and +exalted by the vain attempts of His foes. + +And now notice that this high-water mark, as I have called it, or +climax of human sin, was reached through very common and ordinary +transgressions. Judas betrayed Christ because he had always felt +uncomfortable with his earthly tendencies beside that pure spirit, +and also because he wanted to jingle the thirty pieces of silver in +his pocket. The priests did Him to death because He claimed the +Messiahship and to be the Son of God, and their formalism rose +against Him, and their blindness to all spiritual elevation made +them hate Him. Pilate sent Him to the Cross because he was a coward, +and thought that the life of a Jewish peasant was a small thing to +give in order to secure his position. And the mob howled at His +heels, and wagged their heads as they passed by, oblivious of His +miracles and His benevolence, simply because of the vulgar hatred of +anything that is lofty, and because they were so absorbed in +material things that they had no eyes for that radiant beauty. In +the whole list of these motives there is not a sin that you and I do +not commit, nor is there any one of them which may not be +reproduced, and as a matter of fact, is reproduced, by hundreds and +thousands in this professedly Christian land. + +Oh, brethren! the actual murderers are not the worst criminals, +though their deed be the worst, considered in itself. Those Roman +soldiers who nailed His hands to the Cross, and went back to their +barracks that night, quite comfortable and unconscious that they had +been doing anything beyond their routine military duty, were +innocent and white-handed compared with the men and women among us, +who, with the additional evidence of the Cross, and the empty grave, +and the throne in the heavens, and the Christian Church, still stand +aloof and say, 'We see no beauty in Him that we should desire Him.' +Take care lest your attitude to Jesus Christ bring the level of your +criminality close up to that high-water mark, or carry it even +beyond it, for it is possible to 'crucify the Son of God afresh,' +and they who do so have the greater guilt. + +III. Now, lastly, my text suggests that the temporary triumph of the +darkness is the eternal victory of the light. + +'_This_ is your hour'--not the next. 'This is your +_hour_.' Sixty minutes tick, and it will be gone. When Christ +was beaten He was Conqueror, and as He looked upon His Cross He +said, 'I have overcome the world.' The eclipse which hung over the +little hill and the land of Palestine, during the long hours of that +slowly passing day, ended before He died. And His death was but the +passing for a brief moment of the shadow of death across the bright +luminary which, when the shadow has passed, shines out and 'with new +spangled beams, flames in the forehead of the morning sky.' The +darkness triumphed, and in its triumph it was overcome. + +He, by dying, is the death of death. This Jonah inflicted a mortal +wound on the loathly monster in whose maw He lay for three days. He, +by bearing the penalty of sin, takes away the penalty of it for us +all. He, in the quenching of the light of His life in the night of +death, reveals God more than even He did in His life, and is never +more truly the Illuminator of mankind than when He lies in the +darkness of the grave and brings immortality to light. He, by His +death, delivers men from the kingdom of darkness, and translates +them into His own kingdom; giving them new powers for holiness, new +hopes, inspiriting them to rebellion against the tyrants that have +dominion over them; and thus conquering when He falls. The power of +the darkness is broken like a crested wave, toppling over at its +highest and dissolving in ineffectual spray. + +So we have encouragement for all momentary checks and defeats, if +there be such in our experience, when we are doing Christ's work. +The history of the Church repeats in all ages, generation after +generation, the same law to which the Master submitted: 'Except a +corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone; but if +it die it bringeth forth much fruit.' We conquer when we are +overcome; Christ conquered so, and His servants after Him. + +And now apply all these principles which I have so imperfectly +stated to your own personal lives. Men and the kingdom of darkness +over-reached and outwitted themselves when they slew Jesus Christ. +And so all antagonism to Him, whether it be theoretical or whether +it be practical, and alienation of heart only, is suicidal folly. +When it most succeeds it is nearest the breaking point of utter +failure, like a man sawing off the branch on which he sits. Every +man that sets himself against God in Christ, either to argue Him +down and talk Him out of existence, or to 'break His bands asunder +and cast away His cords,' has begun a Sisyphean task which will +never come to any good. All sin is essentially irrational and +opposed to the whole motion of the universe, and must necessarily be +annihilated and come to nothing. The coarse title of one of our old +English plays carries a great truth in it; 'The Devil is an Ass,' +and for the man that obeys the kingdom of darkness the right epitaph +is 'Thou fool! Oh, brothers! do not fling yourselves into that +hopeless struggle. Put yourselves on the right side in this age-long +conflict, of which the issue was determined before evil was, and was +accomplished when Christ died. For be sure of this, that as +certainly as 'The darkness is past, and the true Light now shineth,' +so certainly all they that fight against the light--and all men +fight against it who shut their eyes to it--are engaged in a +conflict of which only one issue is possible, and that is defeat, +bitter, complete, absolute. Rather let us all, though we be evil, +and though there be a bad self in us that knows itself to be evil +and hates the Light--let us all go to it. It may pain the eye, but +it is the only cure for the ophthalmia. Let us go to it, spread +ourselves out before it, and say, 'Search me, O Christ, and try me, +and see if there be any wicked way in me. Lead me, a blind man, into +the light.' And His answer will come: 'I am the Light of the world; +he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the +Light of life.' + + + + +IN THE HIGH PRIEST'S PALACE + + + 'Then took they Him, and led Him, and brought Him into + the high priest's house. And Peter followed afar off. + 55. And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of + the hall, and were set down together, Peter sat down + among them. 56. But a certain maid beheld him as he + sat by the fire, and earnestly looked upon him, and + said, This man was also with Him. 57. And he denied + Him, saying, Woman, I know Him not. 58. And, after a + little while, another saw him, and said, Thou art also + of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not. 59. And about + the space of one hour after another confidently + affirmed, saying, Of a truth this fellow also was with + Him; for he is a Galilean. 60. And Peter said, Man, I + know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he + yet spake, the cock crew. 61. And the Lord turned, and + looked upon Peter: and Peter remembered the word of + the Lord, how He had said unto him, Before the cock + crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice. 62. And Peter went + out, and wept bitterly. 63. And the men that held + Jesus mocked Him and smote Him. 64. And when they had + blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face, and + asked Him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote + Thee? 65. And many other things blasphemously spake + they against Him. 66. And as soon as it was day, the + elders of the people, and the chief priests, and the + scribes, came together, and led Him into their + council, 67. Saying, Art Thou the Christ? tell us. And + He said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not believe: + 68. And If I also ask you, ye will not answer Me, nor + let Me go. 69. Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on + the right hand of the power of God. 70. Then said they + all, Art Thou then the Son of God? And He said unto + them, Ye say that I am. 71. And they said, What need + we any further witness? for we ourselves have heard of + His own mouth.'--LUKE xxii. 54-71. + +The present passage deals with three incidents, each of which may be +regarded either as an element in our Lord's sufferings or as a +revelation of man's sin. He is denied, mocked, and formally rejected +and condemned. A trusted friend proves faithless, the underlings of +the rulers brutally ridicule His prophetic claims, and their masters +vote Him a blasphemer for assenting His divinity and Messiahship. + +I. We have the failure of loyalty and love in Peter's denials. I may +observe that Luke puts all Peter's denials before the hearing by the +council, from which it is clear that the latter was later than the +hearing recorded by Matthew and John. The first denial probably took +place in the great hall of the high priest's official residence, at +the upper end of which the prisoner was being examined, while the +hangers--on huddled round the fire, idly waiting the event. + +The morning air bit sharply, and Peter, exhausted, sleepy, sad, and +shivering, was glad to creep near the blaze. Its glinting on his +face betrayed him to a woman's sharp eye, and her gossiping tongue +could not help blurting out her discovery. Curiosity, not malice, +moved her; and there is no reason to suppose that any harm would +have come to Peter, if he had said, as he should have done, 'Yes, I +am His disciple.' The day for persecuting the servants was not yet +come, but for the present it was Jesus only who was aimed at. + +No doubt, cowardice had a share in the denials, but there was more +than that in them. Peter was worn out with fatigue, excitement, and +sorrow. His susceptible nature would be strongly affected by the +trying scenes of the last day, and all the springs of life would be +low. He was always easily influenced by surroundings, and just as, +at a later date, he was 'carried away' by the presence at Antioch of +the Judaisers, and turned his back on the liberal principles which +he had professed, so now he could not resist the current of opinion, +and dreaded being unlike even the pack of menials among whom he sat. +He was ashamed of his Master and hid his colours, not so much for +fear of bodily harm as of ridicule. Was there not a deeper depth +still in his denials, even the beginnings of doubt whether, after +all, Jesus was what he had thought Him? Christ prayed that Peter's +'faith' should not 'fail' or be totally eclipsed, and that may +indicate that the assault was made on his 'faith' and that it +wavered, though it recovered steadfastness. + +If he had been as sure of Christ's work and nature as when he made +his great confession, he could not have denied Him. But the sight of +Jesus bound, unresisting, and evidently at the mercy of the rulers, +might well make a firmer faith stagger. We have not to steel +ourselves to bear bodily harm if we confess Christ; but many of us +have to run counter to a strong current flowing around us, and to be +alone in the midst of unsympathising companions ready to laugh and +gibe, and some of us are tempted to waver in our convictions of +Christ's divinity and redeeming power, because He still seems to +stand at the bar of the wise men and leaders of opinion, and to be +treated by them as a pretender. It is a wretched thing to be +persecuted out of one's Christianity in the old-fashioned fire and +sword style; but it is worse to be laughed out of it or to lose it, +because we breathe an atmosphere of unbelief. Let the doctors at the +top of the hall and the lackeys round the fire who take their +opinions from them say what they like, but let them not make us +ashamed of Jesus. + +Peter slipped away to the gateway, and there, apparently, was again +attacked, first by the porteress and then by others, which +occasioned the second denial, while the third took place in the same +place, about an hour afterwards. One sin makes many. The devil's +hounds hunt in packs. Consistency requires the denier to stick to +his lie. Once the tiniest wing tip is in the spider's web, before +long the whole body will be wrapped round by its filthy, sticky +threads. + +If Peter had been less confident, he would have been more safe. If +he had said less about going to prison and death, he would have had +more reserve fidelity for the time of trial. What business had he +thrusting himself into the palace? Over-reliance on self leads +us to put ourselves in the way of temptations which it were wiser to +avoid. Had he forgotten Christ's warnings? Apparently so. Christ +predicts the fall that it may not happen, and if we listen to Him, +we shall not fall. + +The moment of recovery seems to have been while our Lord was passing +from the earlier to the later examination before the rulers. In the +very floodtide of Peter's oaths, the shrill cock-crow is heard, and +at the sound the half-finished denial sticks in his throat. At the +same moment he sees Jesus led past him, and that look, so full of +love, reproof, and pardon, brought him back to loyalty, and saved +him from despair. The assurance of Christ's knowledge of our sins +against Him melts the heart, when the assurance of His forgiveness +and tender love comes with it. Then tears, which are wholly humble +but not wholly grief, flow. They do not wash away the sin, but they +come from the assurance that Christ's love, like a flood, has swept +it away. They save from remorse, which has no healing in it. + +II. We have the rude taunts of the servants. The mockery here comes +from Jews, and is directed against Christ's prophetic character, +while the later jeers of the Roman soldiers make a jest of His +kingship. Each set lays hold of what seems to it most ludicrous in +His pretensions, and these servants ape their masters on the +judgment seat, in laughing to scorn this Galilean peasant who +claimed to be the Teacher of them all. Rude natures have to take +rude ways of expression, and the vulgar mockery meant precisely the +same as more polite and covert scorn means from more polished +people; namely, rooted disbelief in Him. These mockers were +contented to take their opinions on trust from priests and rabbis. +How often, since then, have Christ's servants been objects of +popular odium at the suggestion of the same classes, and how often +have the ignorant people been misled by their trust in their +teachers to hate and persecute their true Master! + +Jesus is silent under all the mockery, but then, as now, He knows +who strikes Him. His eyes are open behind the bandage, and see the +lifted hands and mocking lips. He will speak one day, and His speech +will be detection and condemnation. Then He was silent, as patiently +enduring shame and spitting for our sakes. Now He is silent, as +long-suffering and wooing us to repentance; but He keeps count and +record of men's revilings, and the day comes when He whose eyes are +as a flame of fire will say to every foe, 'I know thy works.' + +III. We have the formal rejection and condemnation by the council. +The hearing recorded in verses 66 to 71 took place 'as soon as it +was day,' and was apparently a more formal official ratification of +the proceedings of the earlier examination described by Matthew and +John. The ruler's question was put simply in order to obtain +material for the condemnation already resolved on. Our Lord's answer +falls into two parts, in the first of which He in effect declines to +recognise the _bona fides_ of His judges and the competency of +the tribunal, and in the second goes beyond their question, and +claims participation in divine glory and power. 'If I tell you, ye +will not believe'; therefore He will not tell them. + +Jesus will not unfold His claims to those who only seek to hear them +in order to reject, not to examine, them. Silence is His answer to +ingrained prejudice masquerading as honest inquiry. It is ever so. +There is small chance of truth at the goal if there be foregone +conclusions or biased questions at the starting-point. 'If I ask +you, ye will not answer.' They had taken refuge in judicious but +self-condemning silence when He had asked them the origin of John's +mission and the meaning of the One Hundred and Tenth Psalm, and +thereby showed that they were not seeking light. Jesus will gladly +speak with any who will be frank with Him, and let Him search their +hearts; but He will not unfold His mission to such as refuse to +answer His questions. But while thus He declines to submit Himself +to that tribunal, and in effect accuses them of obstinate blindness +and a fixed conclusion to reject the claims which they were +pretending to examine, He will not leave them without once more +asserting an even higher dignity than that of Messiah. As a prisoner +at their bar, He has nothing to say to them; but as their King and +future Judge, He has something. They desire to find materials for +sentence of death, and though He will not give these in the +character of a criminal before His judges, He also desires that the +sentence should pass, and He will declare His divine prerogatives +and fall possession of divine power in the hearing of the highest +court of the nation. + +It was fitting that the representatives of Israel, however +prejudiced, should hear at that supreme moment the full assertion of +full deity. It was fitting that Israel should condemn itself, by +treating that claim as blasphemy. It was fitting that Jesus should +bring about His death by His twofold claim--that made to the +Sanhedrim, of being the Son of God, and that before Pilate, of being +the King of the Jews. + +The whole scene teaches us the voluntary character of Christ's +Death, which is the direct result of this tremendous assertion. It +carries our thoughts forward to the time when the criminal of that +morning shall be the Judge, and the judges and we shall stand at His +bar. It raises the solemn question, Did Jesus claim truly when He +claimed divine power? If truly, do we worship Him? If falsely, what +was He? It mirrors the principles on which He deals with men +universally, answering 'him that cometh, according to the multitude +of his idols,' and meeting hypocritical pretences of seeking the +truth about Him with silence, but ever ready to open His heart and +the witness to His claims to the honest and docile spirits who are +ready to accept His words, and glad to open their inmost secrets to +Him. + + + + +CHRIST'S LOOK + + + 'And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter.' + --Luke xxii. 61. + +All four Evangelists tell the story of Peter's threefold denial and +swift repentance, but we owe the knowledge of this look of Christ's +to Luke only. The other Evangelists connect the sudden change in the +denier with his hearing the cock crow only, but according to Luke +there were two causes co-operating to bring about that sudden +repentance, for, he says, 'Immediately, while he yet spake, the cock +crew. And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter.' And we cannot +doubt that it was the Lord's look enforcing the fulfilment of His +prediction of the cock-crow that broke down the denier. + +Now, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to weave a consecutive +whole out of the four versions of the story of Peter's triple +denial. But this at least is clear from them all, that Jesus was +away at the upper, probably the raised, end of the great hall, and +that if any of the three instances of denial took place within that +building, it was at such a distance that neither could the words be +heard, nor could a look from one end of it to the other have been +caught. I think that if we try to localise, and picture the whole +scene ourselves, we are obliged to suppose that that look, which +smote Peter into swift collapse of penitence, came as the Lord Jesus +was being led bound down the hall out through the porch, past the +fire, and into the gloomy archway, on His road to further suffering. +As He was thus brought for a moment close to him, 'the Lord turned +and looked upon Peter,' and then He passed from his sight for ever, +as he would fear. + +I wish, then, to deal--although it must be very imperfectly and +inadequately--with that look that changed this man. And I desire to +consider two things about it: what it said, and what it did. + +I. What it said.--It spoke of Christ's knowledge, of Christ's pain, +of Christ's love. + +Of Christ's knowledge--I have already suggested that we cannot +suppose that the Prisoner at one end of the hall, intensely occupied +with the questionings and argumentation of the priests, and with the +false witnesses, could have heard the denial, given in tones subdued +by the place, at the other end. Still less could He have heard the +denials in louder tones, and accompanied with execrations, which +seemed to have been repeated in the porch without. But as He passed +the Apostle that look said: 'I heard them all--denials and oaths and +passion; I heard them all.' No wonder that after the Resurrection, +Peter, with that remembrance in his mind, fell at the Master's feet +and said, 'Lord! Thou knowest all things. Thou didst know what Thou +didst not hear, my muttered recreancy and treason, and my blurted +out oaths of denial. Thou knowest all things.' No wonder that when +he stood up amongst the Apostles after the Resurrection and the +Ascension, and was the mouthpiece of their prayers, remembering this +scene as well as other incidents, he began his prayer with 'Thou, +Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men.' But let us remember that +this--call it, if you like, supernatural--knowledge which Jesus +Christ had of the denial, is only one of a great body of facts in +His life, if we accept these Gospels, which show that, as one of the +Evangelists says, at almost the beginning of his history, 'He needed +not that any man should testify of man, for He knew what was in +man.' It is precisely on the same line, as His first words to Peter, +whom He greeted as he came to Him with 'Thou art Simon; thou shalt +be Cephas.' It is entirely on the same line as the words with which +He greeted another of this little group, 'When thou wast under the +fig-tree I saw thee.' It is on the same line as the words with which +He penetrated to the unspoken thoughts of His churlish entertainer +when He said, 'Simon! I have somewhat to say unto thee.' It +is on the lines on which we have to think of that Lord now as +knowing us all. He looks still from the judgment-seat, where He does +not stand as a criminal, but sits as the supreme and omniscient +Arbiter of our fates, and Judge of our actions. And He beholds us, +each of us, moment by moment, as we go about our work, and often, by +our cowardice, by our faithlessness, by our inconsistencies, 'deny +the Lord that bought' us. It is an awful thought, and therefore do +men put it away from them: 'Thou God seest me.' But it is stripped +of all its awfulness, while it retains all its purifying and +quickening power, when we think, as our old hymn has it: + + 'Though now ascended up on high, + He bends on earth a Brother's eye.' + +And we have not only to feel that the eye that looks upon us is +cognisant of our denials, but that it is an eye that pities our +infirmities, and knowing us altogether, loves us better than we +know. Oh! if we believed in Christ's look, and that it was the look +of infinite love, life would be less solitary, less sad, and we +should feel that wherever His glance fell there His help was sure, +and there were illumination and blessedness. The look spoke of +Christ's knowledge. + +Again, it spoke of Christ's pain. Peter had not thought that he was +hurting his Master by his denials; he only thought of saving +himself. And, perhaps, if it had come into his loving and impulsive +nature, which yielded to the temptation the more readily because of +the same impulsiveness which also led it to yield swiftly to good +influences, if he had thought that he was adding another pang to the +pains of his Lord whom he had loved through all his denial, even his +cowardice would have plucked up courage to 'confess, and deny not +but confess,' that he belonged to the Christ. But he did not +remember all that. And now there came into his mind--from that look, +the bitter thought, 'I have wrung His heart with yet another pang, +and at this supreme moment, when there is so much to rack and pain; +I have joined the tormentors.' + +And so, do we not pain Jesus Christ? Mysterious as it is, yet it +seems as if, since it is true that we please Him when we are obeying +Him, it must be somehow true that we pain Him when we deny Him, and +some kind of shadow of grief may pass even over that glorified +nature when we sin against Him, and forget Him, and repay His love +with indifference, and reject His counsel. We know that in His +earthly life there was no bitterer pang inflicted upon Him than the +one which the Psalmist prophesied, 'He that ate bread with Me hath +lifted up his heel against Me.' And we know that in the measure in +which human nature is purified and perfected, in that measure does +it become more susceptible and sensitive to the pain of faithless +friends. Chilled love, rejected endeavours to help--which are, +perhaps, the deepest and the most spiritual of sorrows which men can +inflict upon one another, Jesus Christ experienced in full measure, +heaped up and running over. And we, even we today, may be 'grieving +the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of +redemption.' Christ's knowledge of the Apostle's denials brought +pain to His heart. + +Again, the look spoke of Christ's love. There was in it saddened +disapprobation, but there was not in it any spark of anger; nor +what, perhaps, would be worse, any ice of withdrawal or indifference. +But there even at that supreme moment, lied against by false witnesses, +insulted and spit upon by rude soldiers, rejected by the priests as +an impostor and a blasphemer, and on His road to the Cross, when, if +ever, He might have been absorbed in Himself, was His heart at leisure +from itself, and in divine and calm self-oblivion could think of helping +the poor denier that stood trembling there beneath His glance. That +is of a piece with the majestic, yet not repelling calm, which marks +the Lord in all His life, and which reaches its very climax in the +Passion and on the Cross. Just as, whilst nailed there, He had leisure +to think of the penitent thief, and of the weeping mother, and of the +disciple whose loss of his Lord would be compensated by the gaining +of her to take care of, so as He was being borne to Pilate's judgment, +He turned with a love that forgot itself, and poured itself into the +denier's heart. Is not that a divine and eternal revelation for us? +We speak of the love of a brother who, sinned against seventy times +seven, yet forgives. We bow in reverence before the love of a mother +who cannot forget, but must have compassion on the son of her womb. We +wonder at the love of a father who goes out to seek the prodigal. But +all these are less than that love which beamed lambent from the eye +of Christ, as it fell on the denier, and which therein, in that one +transitory glance, revealed for the faith and thankfulness of all +ages an eternal fact. That love is steadfast as the heavens, firm as +the foundations of the earth. 'Yea! the mountains may depart and the +hills be removed, but My loving kindness shall not depart, neither +shall the covenant of My peace be removed.' It cannot be frozen, +into indifference. It cannot be stirred into heat of anger. It +cannot be provoked to withdrawal. Repelled, it returns; sinned +against, it forgives; denied, it meekly beams on in self-revelation; +it hopeth all things, it beareth all things. And He who, as He +passed out to Pilate's bar, cast His look of love on the denier, is +looking upon each of us, if we would believe it, with the same look, +pitiful and patient, reproachful, and yet forgiving, which unveils +all His love, and would fain draw us in answering love, to cast +ourselves at His feet, and tell Him all our sin. + +And now, let us turn to the second point that I suggested. + +II. What the look did. + +First, it tore away the veil that hid Peter's sin from himself. He +had not thought that he was doing anything wrong when he denied. He +had not thought about anything but saving his own skin. If he had +reflected for a moment no doubt he would have found excuses, as we +all can do. But when Christ stood there, what had become of the +excuses? As by a flash he saw the ugliness of the deed that he +himself had done. And there came, no doubt, into his mind in +aggravation of the denial, all that had passed from that very first +day when he had come to Christ's presence, all the confidences that +had been given to him, how his wife's mother had been healed, how he +himself had been cared for and educated, how he had been honoured +and distinguished, how he had boasted and vowed and hectored the day +before. And so he 'went out and wept bitterly.' + +Now _our_ sin captures us by lying to us, by blinding our +consciences. You cannot hear the shouts of the men on the bank +warning you of your danger when you are in the midst of the rapids, +and so our sin deafens us to the still small voice of conscience. +But nothing so surely reveals to us the true moral character of any +of our actions, be they right or wrong, as bringing them under +Christ's eye, and thinking to ourselves. 'Durst I do that if He +stood there beside me and saw it?' Peter could deny Him when He was +at the far end of the hall. He could not have denied Him if he had +had Him by his side. And if we will take our actions, especially any +of them about which we are in doubt, into His presence, then it will +be wonderful how conscience will be enlightened and quickened, how +the fiend will start up in his own shape, and how poor and small the +motives which tempted so strongly to do wrong will come to look, +when we think of adducing them to Jesus. What did a maid-servant's +flippant tongue matter to Peter then? And how wretchedly inadequate +the reason for his denial looked when Christ's eye fell upon him. +The most recent surgical method of treating skin diseases is to +bring an electric light, ten times as strong as the brightest street +lights, to bear upon the diseased patch, and fifty minutes of that +search-light clears away the disease. Bring the beam from Christ's +eye to bear on your lives, and you will see a great deal of leprosy, +and scurf, and lupus, and all that you see will be cleared away. The +look tore down the veil. + +What more did it do? It melted the denier's heart into sorrow. I can +quite understand a conscience being so enlightened as to be +convinced of the evil of a certain course, and yet there being none +of that melting into sorrow, which, as I believe, is absolutely +necessary for any permanent victory over sins. No man will ever +conquer his evil as long as he only shudderingly recoils from it. He +has to be broken down into the penitential mood before he will +secure the victory over his sin. You remember the profound words in +our Lord's pregnant parable of the seeds, how one class which +transitorily was Christian, had for its characteristic that +immediately with joy they received the word. Yes; a Christianity +that puts repentance into a parenthesis, and talks about faith only, +will never underlie a permanent and thorough moral reformation. +There is nothing that brings 'godly sorrow,' so surely as a glimpse +of Christ's love; and nothing that reveals the love so certainly as +the 'look.' You may hammer at a man's heart with law, principle, and +moral duty, and all the rest of it, and you may get him to feel that +he is a very poor creature, but unless the sunshine of Christ's love +shines down upon him, there will be no melting, and if there is no +melting there will be no permanent bettering. + +And there was another thing that the look did. It tore away the veil +from the sin; it made rivers of water flow from the melted heart in +sorrow of true repentance; and it kept the sorrow from turning into +despair. Judas 'went out and hanged himself.' Peter 'went out and +wept bitterly.' What made the one the victim of remorse, and the +other the glad child of repentance? How was it that the one was +stiffened into despair that had no tears, and the other was saved +because he could weep? Because the one saw his sin in the lurid +light of an awakened conscience, and the other saw his sin in the +loving look of a pardoning Lord. And that is how you and I ought to +see our sins. Be sure, dear friend, that the same long-suffering, +patient love is looking down upon each of us, and that if we will, +like Peter, let the look melt us into penitent self-distrust and +heart-sorrow for our clinging sins, then Jesus will do for us, as He +did for that penitent denier on the Resurrection morning. He will +take us apart by ourselves and speak healing words of forgiveness +and reconciliation, so that we, like him, will dare in spite of our +faithlessness, to fall at His feet and say, 'Lord, Thou knowest all +things; Thou knowest that I, erst faithless and treacherous, love +Thee; and all the more because Thou hast forgiven the denial and +restored the denier.' + + + + +'THE RULERS TAKE COUNSEL TOGETHER' + + + 'And the whole multitude of them arose, and led Him + unto Pilate. 2. And they began to accuse Him, saying, + We found this fellow perverting the nation, and + forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that He + Himself is Christ a King. 3. And Pilate asked Him, + saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And He answered + him and said, Thou sayest it. 4. Then said Pilate to + the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault + in this man. 5. And they were the more fierce, saying, + He stirreth up the people teaching throughout all + Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place. 6. When + Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man were + a Galilean. 7. And as soon as he knew that He belonged + unto Herod's jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who + himself also was at Jerusalem at that time. 8. And + when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he + was desirous to see Him of a long season, because he + had heard many things of Him; and he hoped to have + seen some miracle done by Him. 9. Then he questioned + with Him in many words; but He answered him nothing. + 10. And the chief priests and scribes stood and + vehemently accused Him. 11. And Herod with his men of + war set Him at nought, and mocked Him, and arrayed Him + in a gorgeous robe, and sent Him again to Pilate. + 12. And the same day Pilate and Herod were made + friends together: for before they were at enmity + between themselves.'--LUKE xxiii. 1-12. + +Luke's canvas is all but filled by the persecutors, and gives only +glimpses of the silent Sufferer. But the silence of Jesus is +eloquent, and the prominence of the accusers and judges heightens +the impression of His passive endurance. We have in this passage the +Jewish rulers with their murderous hate; Pilate contemptuously +indifferent, but perplexed and wishing to shirk responsibility; and +Herod with his frivolous curiosity. They present three types of +unworthy relations to Jesus Christ. + +I. We see first the haters of Jesus. So fierce is their hatred that +they swallow the bitter pill of going to Pilate for the execution of +their sentence. John tells us that they began by trying to get +Pilate to decree the crucifixion without knowing Jesus' crime; but +that was too flagrant injustice, and too blind confidence in them, +for Pilate to grant. So they have to manufacture a capital charge on +the spot, and they are equal to the occasion. By the help of two +lies, and one truth so twisted as to be a lie, they get up an +indictment, which they think will be grave enough to compel the +procurator to do as they wish. + +Their accusation, if it had been ever so true, would have been +ludicrous on their lips; and we may be sure that, if it had been +true, they would have been Jesus' partisans, not His denouncers.' +The Gracchi complaining of sedition' are nothing to the Sanhedrim +accusing a Jew of rebellion against Rome. Every man in that crowd +was a rebel at heart, and would have liked nothing better than to +see the standard of revolt lifted in a strong hand. Pilate was not +so simple as to be taken in by such an accusation from such +accusers, and it fails. They return to the charge, and the 'more +urgent' character of the second attempt is found in its statement of +the widespread extent of Christ's teaching, but chiefly in the +cunning introduction of Galilee, notoriously a disaffected and +troublesome district. + +What a hideous and tragic picture we have here of the ferocity of +the hatred, which turned the very fountains of justice and guardians +of a nation into lying plotters against innocence, and sent these +Jewish rulers cringing before Pilate, pretending loyalty and +acknowledging his authority! They were ready for any falsehood and +any humiliation, if only they could get Jesus crucified. And what +had excited their hatred? Chiefly His teachings, which brushed aside +the rubbish both of ceremonial observance and of Rabbinical +casuistry, and placed religion in love to God and consequent love to +man; then His attitude of opposition to them as an order; and +finally His claim, which they never deigned to examine, to be the +Son of God. That, they said, was blasphemy, as it was, unless it +were true,--an alternative which they did not look at. So blinded +may men be by prejudice, and so mastered by causeless hatred of Him +who loves them all! + +These Jewish rulers were men like ourselves. Instead of shuddering +at their crime, as if it were something far outside of anything +possible for us, we do better if we learn from it the terrible +depths of hostility to Jesus, the tragic blindness to His character +and love, and the degradation of submission to usurpers, which must +accompany denial of His right to rule over us. 'They hated Me +without a cause,' said Christ; but He pointed to that hatred as sure +to be continued towards Him and His servants as long as 'the world' +continues the world. + +II. We have Pilate, indifferent and perplexed. Luke's very brief +account should be supplemented by John's, which shows us how +important the conversation, so much abbreviated by Luke, was. Of +course Pilate knew the priests and rulers too well to believe for a +moment that the reason they gave for bringing Jesus to him was the +real one, and his taking Jesus apart to speak with Him shows a wish +to get at the bottom of the case. So far he was doing his duty, but +then come the faults. These may easily be exaggerated, and we should +remember that Pilate was the most ignorant, and therefore the least +guilty, of all the persons mentioned in this passage. He had +probably never heard the name of Jesus till that day, and saw +nothing but an ordinary Jewish peasant, whom his countrymen, like +the incomprehensible and troublesome people they were, wished, for +some fantastic reason, to get killed. + +But that dialogue with his Prisoner should have sunk deeper into his +mind and heart. He was in long and close enough contact with Jesus +to have seen glimpses of the light, which, if followed, would have +led to clear recognition. His first sin was indifference, not +unmingled with scorn, and it blinded him. Christ's lofty and +wonderful explanation of the nature of His kingdom and His mission +to bear witness to the truth fell on entirely preoccupied ears, +which were quick enough to catch the faintest whispers of treason, +but dull towards 'truth.' When Jesus tried to reach his conscience +by telling him that every lover of truth would listen to His voice, +he only answered by the question, to which he waited not for an +answer, 'What is truth?' + +That was not the question of a theoretical sceptic, but simply of a +man who prided himself on being 'practical,' and left all talk about +such abstractions to dreamers. The limitations of the Roman +intellect and its characteristic over-estimate of deeds and contempt +for pure thought, as well as the spirit of the governor, who would +let men think what they chose, as long as they did not rebel, spoke +in the question. Pilate is an instance of a man blinded to all lofty +truth and to the beauty and solemn significance of Christ's words, +by his absorption in outward life. He thinks of Jesus as a harmless +fanatic. Little did he know that the truth, which he thought +moonshine, would shatter the Empire, which he thought the one solid +reality. So called practical men commit the same mistake in every +generation. 'All flesh is as grass;... the word of the Lord endureth +for ever.' + +Further, Pilate sinned in prostituting his office by not setting +free the prisoner when he was convinced of His innocence. 'I find no +fault in this man,' should have been followed by immediate release. +Every moment afterwards, in which He was kept captive, was the +condemnation of the unjust judge. He was clearly anxious to keep his +troublesome subjects in good humour, and thought that the judicial +murder of one Jew was a small price to pay for popularity. Still he +would have been glad to have escaped from what his official training +had taught him to recoil from, and what some faint impression, made +by his patient prisoner, gave him a strange dread of. So he grasps +at the mention of Galilee, and tries to gain two good ends at once +by handing Jesus over to Herod. + +The relations between Antipas and him were necessarily delicate, +like those between the English officials and the rajahs of native +states in India; and there had been some friction, perhaps about +'the Galileans, whose blood' he 'had mingled with their sacrifices.' +If there had been difficulties in connection with such a question of +jurisdiction, the despatch of Jesus to Herod would be a graceful way +of making the _amende honorable_, and would also shift an +unpleasant decision on to Herod's shoulders. Pilate would not be +displeased to get rid of embarrassment, and to let Herod be the tool +of the priests' hate. + +How awful the thought is of the contrast between Pilate's +conceptions of what he was doing and the reality! How blind to +Christ's beauty it is possible to be, when engrossed with selfish +aims and outward things! How near a soul may be to the light, and +yet turn away from it and plunge into darkness! How patient that +silent prisoner, who lets Himself be bandied about from one tyrant +to another, not because they had power, but because He loved the +world, and would bear the sins of every one of us! How terrible the +change when these unjust judges and He will change places, and +Pilate and Herod stand at His judgment-seat! + +III. We have the wretched, frivolous Herod. This is the murderer of +John Baptist--'that fox,' a debauchee, a coward, and as cruel as +sensuous. He had all the vices of his worthless race, and none of +the energy of its founder. He is by far the most contemptible of the +figures in this passage. Note his notion of, and his feeling to, +Jesus. He thought of our Lord as of a magician or juggler, who might +do some wonders to amuse the vacuous _ennui_ of his sated +nature. Time was when he had felt some twinge of conscience in +listening to the Baptist, and had almost been lifted to nobleness by +that strong arm. Time was, too, when he had trembled at hearing of +Jesus, and taken Him for his victim risen from a bloody grave. But +all that is past now. The sure way to stifle conscience is to +neglect it. Do that long and resolutely enough, and it will cease to +utter unheeded warnings. There will be a silence which may look like +peace, but is really death. Herod's gladness was more awful and +really sad than Herod's fear. Better to tremble at God's word than +to treat it as an occasion for mirth. He who hates a prophet because +he knows him to be a prophet and himself to be a sinner, is not so +hopeless as he who only expects to get sport out of the messenger of +God. + +Then note the Lord's silence. Herod plies Jesus with a battery of +questions, and gets no answer. If there had been a grain of +earnestness in them all, Christ would have spoken. He never is +silent to a true seeker after truth. But it is fitting that +frivolous curiosity should be unanswered, and there is small +likelihood of truth being found at the goal when there is nothing +more noble than that temper at the starting-point. Christ's silence +is the penalty of previous neglect of Christ's and His forerunner's +words. Jesus guides His conduct by His own precept, 'Give not that +which is holy unto the dogs'; and He knows, as we never can, who +come into that terrible list of men to whom it would only add +condemnation to speak of even His love. The eager hatred of the +priests followed Jesus to Herod's palace, but no judicial action is +recorded as taking place there. Their fierce earnestness of hate +seems out of place in the frivolous atmosphere. The mockery, in +which Herod is not too dignified to join his soldiers, is more in +keeping. But how ghastly it sounds to us, knowing whom they +ignorantly mocked! Cruelty, inane laughter, hideous pleasure in an +innocent man's pain, disregard of law and justice--all these they +were guilty of; and Herod, at any rate, knew enough of Jesus to give +a yet darker colouring to his share in the coarse jest. + +But how the loud laugh would have fallen silent if some flash had +told who Jesus was! Is there any of our mirth, perhaps at some of His +servants, or at some phase of His gospel, which would in like manner +stick in our throats if His judgment throne blazed above us? Ridicule +is a dangerous weapon. It does more harm to those who use it than to +those against whom it is directed. Herod thought it an exquisite jest +to dress up his prisoner as a king; but Herod has found out, by this +time, whether he or the Nazarene was the sham monarch, and who is the +real one. Christ was as silent under mockery as to His questioner. He +bears all, and He takes account of all. He bears it because He is the +world's Sacrifice and Saviour. He takes account of it, and will one +day recompense it, because He is the world's King, and will be its +Judge. Where shall we stand then--among the silenced mockers, or +among the happy trusters in His Passion and subjects of His dominion? + + + + +A SOUL'S TRAGEDY + + + 'Then Herod questioned with Him in many words; but He + answered him nothing.'--LUKE xxiii. 9. + +Four Herods play their parts in the New Testament story. The first +of them is the grim old tiger who slew the infants at Bethlehem, and +soon after died. This Herod is the second--a cub of the litter, with +his father's ferocity and lust, but without his force. The third is +the Herod of the earlier part of the Acts of the Apostles, a +grandson of the old man, who dipped his hands in the blood of one +Apostle, and would fain have slain another. And the last is Herod +Agrippa, a son of the third, who is only remembered because he +once came across Paul's path, and thought it such a good jest that +anything should be supposed capable of making a Christian out of +_him_. + +There is a singular family likeness in the whole of them, and a very +ugly likeness it is. This one was sensual, cruel, cunning, infirm of +purpose, capricious like a child or a savage. Roman policy amused +him with letting him play at being a ruler, but kept him well in +hand. And I suppose he was made a worse man by the difficulties of +his position as a subject-prince. + +Now I wish to put together the various incidents in this man's life +recorded in the Gospels, and try to gather some lessons from them +for you. + +I. First, I take him as an example of half-and-half convictions, and +of the inner discord that comes from these. + +I do not need to remind you of the shameful story of his repudiation +of his own wife, and of his disgusting alliance with the wife of his +half-brother, who was herself his niece. She was the stronger +spirit, a Biblical Lady Macbeth, the Jezebel to this Ahab; and, to +complete the parallel, Elijah was not far away. John the Baptist's +outspoken remonstrances of course made an implacable enemy of +Herodias, who did all she could to compass his death, but was unable +to manage that, though she secured his imprisonment. The reason for +her inability is given by the Evangelist Mark, in words which are +very inadequately rendered by our Authorised Version, but may be +found more correctly translated in the Revised Version. It is there +said that King 'Herod feared John'--the gaoler afraid of his +prisoner!--'knowing that he was a just man and a holy'--goodness is +awful. The worst men know it, and it extorts respect. 'And kept him +safe'--from Herodias, that is. 'And when he heard him he was +perplexed'--drawn this way and that way by these two magnets, +alternately veering to lust and to purity, hesitating between the +kisses of the beautiful temptress at his side and the words of the +prophet. And yet, with strange inconsistency, in all his +vacillations 'he heard him gladly'; for his better part approved the +nobler voice. And so he staggered on, having religion enough to +spoil some of his sinful delights, but not enough to shake them off. + +That is a picture for which in its essence many a man and woman +among us might have sat. For I suppose that there is nothing more +common than these half-and-half convictions which, like inefficient +bullets, get part way through the armoured shell of a ship, and +there stick harmless. Many of us have the clearest convictions in +our understandings, which have never penetrated to that innermost +chamber of all, where the will sits sovereign. It is so about little +things, it is so about great ones. Nothing is more common than that +a man shall know perfectly well that some possibly trivial habit +stands in the way of something that it is his interest or his duty +to pursue; but the knowledge lies inoperative in the outermost part +of him. It is so in regard to graver things. The majority of the +slaves of any vice whatsoever know perfectly well that they ought to +give it up, and yet nothing comes of the conviction. + +'He was much perplexed.' What a picture that is of the state of +unrest and conflict into which such half-and-half impressions of +duty cast a man. Such a one is like a vessel with its head now East, +now West, because there is some weak or ignorant steersman at the +helm. I know nothing more sure to produce inward unrest and +disturbance and desolation than that a man's knowledge of duty +should be clear, and his obedience to that knowledge partial. If we +have John down in the dungeon, if conscience is not allowed to be +master, there may be feasting and revelry going on above, but the +stern voice will come up through the grating now and then, and that +will spoil all the laughter. 'When he heard him, he was much +perplexed.' + +The reason for these imperfect convictions is generally found, as +Herod shows us, in the unwillingness to get rid of something which +has fastened its claws around us, and which we love too well, +although we know it is a serpent, to shake off. If Herod had once +been man enough to screw himself up, and say to Herodias, 'Now you +pack, and go about your business!' everything else would have come +right in time. But he could not make up his mind to sacrifice the +honeyed poison, and so everything went wrong in time. My friend, how +many of us are prevented from following out our clearest convictions +because they demand a sacrifice? 'If thine eye cause thee to +stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for +thee.' + +And then, further, note that these irresolute convictions and +shirking of plain duty are not atoned for by, though they are often +accompanied with, a strange acquiescence in, and approval of, God's +truth. Herod fancied, inconsistently enough, that he was making +some kind of compensation for disobedience to the message, by liking +to listen to the messenger. And there are a great many of us, all +whose Christianity consists in giving ear to the words which we +never think of obeying. I wonder how many of you there are who fancy +that you have no more concern with this sermon of mine than +approving or disapproving of it, as the case may be; and how many of +us there are who, all our lives long, have substituted criticism of +the Gospel as ministered by us poor preachers--be it approving or +disapproving criticism--for obedience to the Christ and acceptance +of His salvation. + +II. We see in Herod an example of the utter powerlessness of such +partial convictions and reformation. + +I am not going to tell over again the ghastly story of John's death, +which no other words than the Evangelist's can tell half so +powerfully. I need only remind you of the degradation of the poor +child Salome to the position of a dancing girl, the half-tipsy +generosity of the excited monarch, the grim request from lips so +young and still reddened by the excitement of the dance, Herod's +unavailing sorrow, his fantastic sense of honour which scrupled to +break a wicked promise, but did not scruple to kill a righteous man, +and the ghastly picture of the girl carrying a bleeding head--such a +gift!--to her mother. + +But out of that jumble of lust and blood I desire to gather one +lesson. There you have--in an extreme form, it is true--a tremendous +illustration of what half-and-half convictions may come to. Whether +or no we ever get anything like as far on the road as this man did +matters very little. The process which brought him there is the +thing that I seek to point to. It was because he had so long +tampered with the voice of his conscience that it was lulled into +silence at that last critical moment. And this is always the case, +that if a man is false to the feeblest conviction that he has in +regard to the smallest duty, he is a worse man all over ever after. +We cannot neglect any conviction of what we ought to do, without +lowering the whole tone of our characters and laying ourselves open +to assaults of evil from which we would once have turned shuddering +and disgusted. A partial thaw is generally followed by intenser +frost. An abortive insurrection is sure to issue in a more grinding +tyranny. A soul half melted and then cooled off is less easy to melt +than it was before. And so, dear brethren, remember this, that if +you do not swiftly and fully carry out in life and conduct +whatsoever you know you ought to be or do, you cannot set a limit to +what, some time or other, if a strong and sudden temptation is +sprung upon you, you may become. 'Is thy servant a dog that he +should do this thing?' Yes! But he did it. No mortal reaches the +extreme of evil all at once, says the wise old proverb; and the path +by which a man is let down into depths that he never thought it was +possible that he should traverse is by the continual neglect of the +small admonitions of conscience. Neglected convictions mean, sooner +or later, an outburst of evil. + +John's murder may illustrate another thing too--viz. how simple, +facile weakness of character may be the parent of all enormities. +Herod did not want to kill John. He very much wanted to keep him +alive. But he was not man enough to put his foot down, and say, +'There! I have said it; and there is to be no more talk about +slaying this prophet of God.' So the continual drop, drop, drop, of +Herodias' suggestions and wishes wore a hole, in the loose-textured +stone at last; and he did the thing that he hated to do and had long +fought against. Why? Because he was a poor weak creature. + +The lesson from this is one that I would urge upon all you young +people especially, that in a world like this, where there are so +many more voices soliciting us to evil than inviting us to good, to +be weak is, in the long run, to be wicked. So do you cultivate the +wholesome habit of saying 'No,' and do not be afraid of anything but +of hurting your conscience and sinning against God. + +III. Once more, we have in Herod an example of the awakening of +conscience. + +When Jesus began to be talked about beyond the narrow limits of the +shores of the Sea of Galilee, and especially when He began to +organise the Apostolate, and His name was spread abroad, some +rumours reached even the court, and there were divergent opinions +about Him. One man said, It is Elias; and another said, It is a +prophet, 'and Herod said, It is John, whom I beheaded. He has risen +from the dead, and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves +in him.' + +Ah, brethren! when a man has, away back in the chambers of his +memory, some wrong thing, be it great or be it little, he is at the +mercy of any chance or accident to have it revived in all its +vividness. It is an awful thing to walk this world with a whole +magazine of combustibles in our memories, on which any spark may +fall and light lurid and sulphurous flames. A chance thing may do +it, a scent, a look upon a face, a sound, or any trifle may bring +all at once before the wrongdoer that ancient evil. And no lapse of +time makes it less dreadful when it is unveiled. The chance thrust +of a boat-hook that gets tangled in the grey hairs of a corpse, +brings it up grim to the surface. Press a button, by accident, upon +a wall in some old castle, and a door flies open that leads away +down into black depths. You and I have depths of that sort in our +hearts. Then there are no more illusions about whose fault the deed +was. When Herod killed John, he said, 'Oh! It is not I! It is +Herodias. It is Salome. It is my oath. It is the respect I bear to +the people who heard me swear. I must do it, but I am not +responsible.' But when, in 'the sessions of silent thought,' the +deed came back to him, Salome and Herodias, the oath, and the +company were all out of sight, and he said, 'I! _I_ did it.' + +That is what we all shall have to do some day, in this world +possibly, in the next certainly. Men sophisticate themselves with +talk about palliations, and excuses, and temptations, and companions +and the like. And philosophers sophisticate themselves nowadays +with a great many learned explanations, which tend to show that a +man is not to blame for the wrong things he does. But all that +rubbish gets burned up when conscience wakes, and the doer says, +'Whom _I_ beheaded.' + +Brethren, unless we take refuge in the great sacrifice for the sins +of the world which Jesus Christ has made, we shall, possibly in this +life, and certainly hereafter, be surrounded by a company of our own +evil deeds risen from the dead, and every one of them will shake its +gory locks at us, and say, '_Thou_ didst it.' + +IV. The last lesson that I gather from this man's life is the final +insensibility which these half-and-half convictions tend to produce. + +Jesus Christ was sent by Pilate to Herod as a kind of peace-offering. +The two had been squabbling about some question of jurisdiction; and +so, partly to escape from the embarrassment of having to deal with +this enigmatical Prisoner, and partly out of a piece of politic +politeness, Pilate sends Jesus to Herod, because He was in his +jurisdiction. Think of the Lord of men and angels being handed about +from one to the other of these two scoundrels, as a piece of politeness! + +When Christ stands before Herod, note that all its former +convictions, partial or entire, and all its terrors superficial or +deep, have faded clean away from this frivolous soul. All that he +feels now is a childish delight in having this well-known Man before +him, and a hope that, for his delectation, Jesus will work a +miracle; much as he might expect a conjurer to do one of his tricks! +That is what killing John came to--an incapacity to see anything in +Jesus. + +'And he asked Him many questions, and Jesus answered him nothing.' +He locked His lips. Why? He was doing what He Himself enjoined: +'Give not that which is holy to the dogs. Cast not your pearls +before swine.' He said nothing, because He knew it was useless to +say anything. So the Incarnate Word, whose very nature and property +it is to speak, was silent before the frivolous curiosity of the man +that had been false to his deepest convictions. + +It is a parable, brother, of what is being repeated over and over +again amongst us. I dare not say that Jesus Christ is ever +absolutely dumb to any man on this side of the grave; but I dare not +refrain from saying that this condition of insensibility to His +words is one that we may indefinitely approach, and that the surest +way to approach it and to reach it is to fight down, or to neglect, +the convictions that lead up to Him. John was the forerunner of +Christ, and if Herod had listened to John, to him John would have +said: 'Behold the Lamb of God!' To you I say it, and beseech you to +take that Lamb of God as the Sacrifice for your sins, for the Healer +and Cleanser of your memories and your consciences, for the Helper +who will enable you joyfully to make all sacrifices to duty, and to +carry into effect every conviction which His own merciful hand +writes upon your hearts. And oh, dear friends, many of you strangers +to me, to whom my voice seldom comes, let me plead with you not to +be content with 'hearing' any of us 'gladly,' but to do what our +words point to, and to follow Christ the Saviour. If you hear the +Gospel, however imperfectly, as you are hearing it proclaimed now, +and if you neglect it as--must I say?--you are doing now, you will +bring another film over your eyes which may grow thick enough to +shut out all the light; you will wind another fold about your hearts +which may prove impenetrable to the sword of the Spirit; you will +put another plug in your ears which may make them deaf to the music +of Christ's voice. Do what you know you ought to do, yield +yourselves to Jesus Christ. And do it now, whilst impressions are +being made, lest, if you let them sleep, they may never return. +Felix trembled when Paul reasoned; but he waved away the messenger +and the message, and though he sent for Paul often, and communed +with him, he never trembled any more. + + 'There is a tide in the affairs of men + Which, taken at the flood,' + +would lead us into the haven of rest in Christ; and, if allowed to +pass, may leave us, stranded and shipwrecked, among the rocks. + + + + +JESUS AND PILATE + + + 'And Pilate, when he had called together the chief + priests and the rulers and the people, 14. Said unto + them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that + perverteth the people: and, behold, I having examined + Him before you, have found no fault in this man + touching those things whereof ye accuse Him: 15. No, + nor yet Herod; for I sent you to him: and lo, nothing + worthy of death is done unto Him. 16. I will therefore + chastise Him, and release Him. 17. (For of necessity + he must release one unto them at the feast.) 18. And + they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this + man, and release unto us Barabbas: 19. (Who for a + certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was + cast into prison.) 20. Pilate therefore, willing to + release Jesus, spake again to them. 21. But they cried, + saying, Crucify Him, crucify Him. 22. And he said unto + them the third time, Why, what evil hath He done? I + have found no cause of death in Him: I will therefore + chastise Him, and let Him go. 23. And they were + instant with loud voices, requiring that He might he + crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief + priests prevailed. 24. And Pilate gave sentence that + it should be as they required. 25. And he released + unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast + into prison, whom they had desired; but he delivered + Jesus to their will. 26. And as they led Him away, + they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out + of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that + he might bear it after Jesus.'--LUKE xxiii. 13-26. + +Luke here marks out three stages of the struggle between Pilate and +the Jews. Thrice did he try to release Jesus; thrice did they yell +their hatred and their demand for His blood. Then came the shameful +surrender by Pilate, in which, from motives of policy, he +prostituted Roman justice. Knowingly he sacrificed one poor Jew to +please his turbulent subjects; unknowingly he slew the Christ of +God. + +I. The first weak attempt to be just. + +Pilate invested it with a certain formality by convoking a +representative gathering of all classes, 'chief priests and the +rulers and the people.' The nation was summoned to decide solemnly +whether they would or would not put their Messiah to death, and a +Roman governor was their summoner. Surely the irony of fate (or, +rather, of Providence) could go no further than that. Pilate's +_résumé_ of the proceedings up to the moment of his speaking is +not without a touch of sarcasm, in the contrast between 'ye' and 'I' +and 'Herod.' It is almost as if he had said, 'Why, herein is a +marvellous thing, that you should have a quicker scent for rebellion +than I or Herod!' He was evidently suspicious of the motives which +induced the 'rulers' to take the new role of eager defenders of +Roman authority, and ready to suspect something below such an +extraordinary transformation. Jews delivering up a Jew because he +was an insurgent against Caesar,--there must be something under +that! He lays stress on their having heard his examination of the +accused, as showing that he had gone into the matter thoroughly, +that the charges had broken down to their knowledge. He represents +his sending Jesus to Herod as done from the high motive of securing +the completest possible investigation, instead of its being a +despicable attempt to shirk responsibility and to pay an empty +compliment to an enemy. He reiterates his conviction of Jesus' +innocence, and then, after all this flourish about his own +carefulness to bring judicial impartiality to bear on the case, he +makes the lame and impotent conclusion of offering to 'chastise +Him.' + +What for? The only course for a judge convinced of a prisoner's +innocence is to set him free. But this was a bribe to the accusers, +offered in hope that the smaller punishment would content them. +Pilate knew that he was perpetrating flagrant injustice in such a +suggestion, and he tried to hide it by using a gentle word. +'Chastise' sounds almost beneficent, but it would not make the +scourging less cruel, nor its infliction less lawless. Compromises +are always ticklish to engineer, but a compromise between justice +and injustice is least likely of all to answer. This one signally +failed. The fierce accusers of Jesus were quick to see the sign of +weakness, both in the proposal itself and in their being asked if it +would be acceptable to them. Not so should a Roman governor have +spoken. If pressure had made the iron wall yield so far, a little +more and it would fall flat, and let them at their victim. + +Pilate was weak, vacillating, did not know what he wished. He wished +to do right, but he wished more to conciliate, for he knew that he +was detested, and feared to be accused to Rome. The other side knew +what they wanted, and were resolute. Encouraged by the hesitation +of Pilate, they 'cried out all together.' One hears the strident +yells from a thousand throats shrieking out the self-revealing and +self-destroying choice of Barabbas. He was a popular hero for the +very reason that he was a rebel. He had done what his admirers had +accused Jesus of doing, and for which they pretended that they had +submitted Him to Pilate's judgment. The choice of Barabbas convicts +the charges against Jesus of falsehood and unreality. The choice of +Barabbas reveals the national ideal. They did not want a Messiah +like Jesus, and had no eyes for the beauty of His character, nor +ears for the words of grace poured into His lips. They had no +horror of 'a murderer,' and great admiration for a rebel. Barabbas +was the man after their own heart. A nation that can reject Jesus +and choose Barabbas is only fit for destruction. A nation judges +itself by its choice of heroes. The national ideal is potent to +shape the national character. We to-day are sinking into an abyss +because of our admiration for the military type of hero; and there +is not such an immense difference between the mob that rejected +Jesus and applauded Barabbas and the mobs that shout round a +successful soldier, and scoff at the law of Christ if applied to +politics. + +II. The second, weaker attempt. + +Pilate repeated his proposal of release, but it was all but lost in +the roar of hatred. Note the contrast between 'Pilate spoke' (v. 20) +and 'they shouted.' It suggests his feeble effort swept away by the +rush of ferocity. And they have gathered boldness from his +hesitation, and are now prescribing the mode of Christ's punishment. +Now first the terrible word 'Crucify' is heard. Both Matthew and +Mark tell us that the priests and rulers had 'stirred up' the people +to choose Barabbas, but apparently the mob, once roused, needed no +further stimulant. + +Crowds are always cruel, and they are as fickle as cruel. The very +throats now hoarse with fiercely roaring 'Crucify Him' had been +strained by shouting 'Hosanna' less than a week since. The branches +strewed in His path had not had time to wither. 'The voice of the +people is the voice of God,'--sometimes. But sometimes it sounds +very like the voice of the enemy of God, and one would have more +confidence in it if it did not so often and so quickly speak, not +only 'in divers,' but in diverse, 'manners.' To make it the arbiter +of men's merit, still more to trim one's course so as to catch the +breeze of the popular breath, is folly, or worse. Men admire what +they resemble, or try to resemble, and Barabbas has more of his sort +than has Jesus. + +III. The final yielding. + +It is to Pilate's credit that he kept up his efforts so long. Luke +wishes to impress us with his persistency, as well as with the fixed +determination of the Jews, by his note of 'the third time.' Thrice was +the choice offered to them, and thrice did they put away the possibility +of averting their doom. But Pilate's persistency had a weak place, for +he was afraid of his subjects, and, while willing to save Jesus, was +not willing to imperil himself in doing it. Self-interest takes the +strength out of resolution to do right, like a crumbling stone in a +sea wall, which lets in the wave that ruins the whole structure. + +Pilate had come to the end of his shifts to escape pronouncing +sentence. The rulers had refused to judge Jesus according to their +law. Herod had sent Him back with thanks, but unsentenced. The Jews +would not have Him, but Barabbas, released, nor would they accept +scourging in lieu of crucifying. So he has to decide at last whether +to be just and fear not, or basely to give way, and draw down on his +head momentary applause at the price of everlasting horror. Luke +notices in all three stages the loud cries of the Jews, and in this +last one he gives special emphasis to them. 'Their voices +prevailed.' What a condemnation for a judge! He 'gave sentence that +what they asked for should be done.' Baseness in a judge could go no +farther. The repetition of the characterisation of Barabbas brings +up once more the hideousness of the people's choice, and the tragic +words 'to their will' sets in a ghastly light the flagrant injustice +of the judge, and yet greater crime of the Jews. To deliver Jesus to +their will was base; to entertain such a 'will' towards Jesus was +more than base,--it was 'the ruin of them, and of all Israel.' Our +whole lives here and hereafter turn on what is our 'will' to Him. + + + + +WORDS FROM THE CROSS + + + 'And when they were come to the place which is called + Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the malefactors, + one on the right hand, and the other on the left. + 34. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they + know not what they do. And they parted His raiment, + and cast lots. 35. And the people stood beholding. And + the rulers also with them derided Him, saying, He saved + others; let Him save Himself, if He be Christ, the + chosen of God. 36. And the soldiers also mocked Him, + coming to Him and offering Him vinegar. 37. And saying, + if Thou be the king of the Jews, save Thyself. 38. And + a superscription also was written over Him in letters + of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF + THE JEWS. 39. And one of the malefactors which were + hanged railed on Him, saying, If Thou be Christ, save + Thyself and us. 40. But the other answering rebuked + him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art + in the same condemnation? 41. And we indeed justly; + for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this + Man hath done nothing amiss. 42. And he said unto + Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy + kingdom. 43. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say + unto thee, To-day shall thou be with Me in paradise. + 44. And it was about the sixth hour, and there was + darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. + 45. And the sun was darkened, and the vail of the + temple was rent in the midst. 46. And when Jesus had + cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy + hands I commend My spirit: and having said thus, He + gave up the ghost.'--LUKE xxiii. 33-46. + +The calm tone of all the narratives of the Crucifixion is very +remarkable. Each Evangelist limits himself to the bare recording of +facts, without a trace of emotion. They felt too deeply to show +feeling. It was fitting that the story which, till the end of time, +was to move hearts to a passion of love and devotion, should be told +without any colouring. Let us beware of reading it coldly! This +passage is more adapted to be pondered in solitude, with the +thought, 'All this was borne for me,' than to be commented on. But a +reverent word or two is permissible. + +Luke's account is noticeably independent of the other three. The +three sayings of Christ's, round which his narrative is grouped, are +preserved by him alone. We shall best grasp the dominant impression +which the Evangelist unconsciously had himself received, and sought +to convey, by gathering the whole round these three words from the +Cross. + +I. The first word sets Jesus forth as the all-merciful Intercessor +and patient friend of sinners. It is very significantly set in the +centre of the paragraph (vs. 33-38) which recounts the heartless +cruelty and mockery of soldiers and rulers. Surrounded by that +whirlwind of abuse, contempt and ferocious glee at His sufferings, +He gave back no taunt, nor uttered any cry of pain, nor was moved to +the faintest anger, but let His heart go out in pity for all who +took part in that wicked tragedy; and, while 'He opened not His +mouth' in complaint or reviling, He did open it in intercession. But +the wonderful prayer smote no heart with compunction, and, after it, +the storm of mocking and savage triumph hurtled on as before. + +Luke gathers all the details together in summary fashion, and piles +them on one another without enlarging on any. The effect produced is +like that of a succession of breakers beating on some lonely rock, +or of blows struck by a battering-ram on a fortress. + +'They crucified Him,'--there is no need to say who 'they' were. +Others than the soldiers, who did the work, did the deed. Contempt +gave Him two malefactors for companions and hung the King of the +Jews in the place of honour in the midst. Did John remember what his +brother and he had asked? Matter-of-fact indifference as to a piece +of military duty, and shameless greed, impelled the legionaries to +cast lots for the clothes stripped from a living man. What did the +crucifying of another Jew or two matter to them? Gaping curiosity, +and the strange love of the horrible, so strong in the vulgar mind, +led the people, who had been shouting Hosanna! less than a week ago, +to stand gazing on the sight without pity but in a few hearts. + +The bitter hatred of the rulers, and their inhuman glee at getting +rid of a heretic, gave them bad preeminence in sin. Their scoff +acknowledged that He had 'saved others,' and their hate had so +blinded their eyes that they could not see how manifestly His +refusal to use His power to save Himself proved Him the Son of God. +He could not save Himself, just because He would save these scoffing +Rabbis and all the world. The rough soldiers knew little about Him, +but they followed suit, and thought it an excellent jest to bring +the 'vinegar,' provided in kindness, to Jesus with a mockery of +reverence as to a king. The gibe was double-barrelled, like the +inscription over the Cross; for it was meant to hit both this +Pretender to royalty and His alleged subjects. + +And to all this Christ's sole answer was the ever-memorable prayer. +One of the women who bravely stood at the Cross must have caught the +perhaps low-voiced supplication, and it breathed so much of the +aspect of Christ's character in which Luke especially delights that +he could not leave it out. It opens many large questions which +cannot be dealt with here. All sin has in it an element of +ignorance, but it is not wholly ignorance as some modern teachers +affirm. If the ignorance were complete, the sin would be +nonexistent. The persons covered by the ample folds of this prayer +were ignorant in very different degrees, and had had very different +opportunities of changing ignorance for knowledge. The soldiers and +the rulers were in different positions in that respect. But none +were so entirely blind that they had no sin, and none were so +entirely seeing that they were beyond the reach of Christ's pity or +the power of His intercession. In that prayer we learn, not only His +infinite forgivingness for insults and unbelief levelled at Himself, +but His exaltation as the Intercessor, whom the Father heareth +always. The dying Christ prayed for His enemies; the glorified +Christ lives to make intercession for us. + +II. In the second saying Christ is revealed as having the keys of +Hades, the invisible world of the dead. How differently the same +circumstances work on different natures! In the one malefactor, +physical agony and despair found momentary relief in taunts, flung +from lips dry with torture, at the fellow-sufferer whose very +innocence provoked hatred from the guilty heart. The other had been +led by his punishment to recognise in it the due reward of his +deeds, and thus softened, had been moved by Christ's prayer, and by +his knowledge of Christ's innocence, to hope that the same mercy +which had been lavished on the inflicters of His sufferings, might +stretch to enfold the partakers in it. + +At that moment the dying thief had clearer faith in Christ's coming +in His kingdom than any of the disciples had. Their hopes were +crumbling as they watched Him hanging unresisting and gradually +dying. But this man looked beyond the death so near for both Jesus +and himself, and believed that, after it, He would come to reign. We +may call him the only disciple that Christ then had. + +How pathetic is that petition, 'Remember me'! It builds the hope of +sharing in Christ's royalty on the fact of having shared in His +Cross. 'Thou wilt not forget Thy companion in that black hour, which +will then lie behind us.' Such trust and clinging, joined with such +penitence and submission, could not go unrewarded. + +From His Cross Jesus speaks in royal style, as monarch of that dim +world. His promise is sealed with His own sign-manual, 'Verily, I +say.' It claims to have not only the clear vision of, but the +authority to determine, the future. It declares the unbroken +continuance of personal existence, and the reality of a state of +conscious blessedness, in which men are aware of their union with +Him, the Lord of the realm and the Life of its inhabitants. It +graciously accepts the penitent's petition, and assures him that +the companionship, begun on the Cross, will be continued there. +'With Me' makes 'Paradise' wherever a soul is. + +III. The third word from the Cross, as recorded by Luke, reveals +Jesus as, in the act of dying, the Master of death, and its +Transformer for all who trust Him into a peaceful surrender of +themselves into the Father's hands. The circumstances grouped round +the act of His death bring out various aspects of its significance. +The darkness preceding had passed before He died, and it bore rather +on His sense of desertion, expressed in the unfathomably profound +and awful cry, 'Why hast Thou forsaken Me?' The rent veil is +generally taken to symbolise the unrestricted access into the +presence of God, which we have through Christ's death; but it is +worth considering whether it does not rather indicate the divine +leaving of the desecrated shrine, and so is the beginning of the +fulfilment of the deep word, 'Destroy this Temple.' + +But the centre-point of the section is the last cry which, in its +loudness, indicated physical strength quite incompatible with the +exhaustion to which death by crucifixion was generally due. It thus +confirms the view which sees, both in the words of Jesus and in the +Evangelist's expression for His death, clear indications that He +died, not because His physical powers were unable to live longer, +but by the exercise of His own volition. He died because He chose, +and He chose because He loved and would save. As St. Bernard says, +'Who is He who thus easily falls asleep when He wills? To die is +indeed great weakness, but to die thus is immeasurable power. Truly +the weakness of God is stronger than men.' + +Nor let us forget that, in thus dying, Jesus gave us an imitable +example, as well as revealed inimitable power. For, if we trust +ourselves, living and dying, to Him, we shall not be dragged +reluctantly, by an overmastering grasp against which we vainly +struggle, out of a world where we would fain stay, but we may +yield ourselves willingly, as to a Father's hand, which draws His +children gently to His own side, and blesses them, when there, with +His fuller presence. + + + + +THE DYING THIEF + + + 'And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou + comest into Thy kingdom.'--LUKE xxiii, 42. + +There is an old and true division of the work of Christ into three +parts--prophet, priest, and king. Such a distinction manifestly +exists, though it may be overestimated, or rather, the statement of +it may be exaggerated, if it be supposed that separate acts of His +discharge these separate functions, and that He ceases to be the one +before He becomes the other. Rather it is true that all His work is +prophetic, that all His work is priestly, and that His prophetic and +priestly work is the exercise of His kingly authority. But still the +division is a true one, and helps to set before us, clearly and +definitely, the wide range of the benefits of Christ's mission and +death. It is noteworthy that these three groups round the Cross, the +third of which we have to speak of now--that of the 'daughters of +Jerusalem,' that of the deriding scribes and the indifferent +soldiers, and this one of the two thieves--each presents us Christ +in one of the three characters. The words that He spoke upon the +Cross, with reference to others than Himself, may be gathered +around, and arranged under, that threefold aspect of Christ's work. +The _prophet_ said, 'Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, +but weep for yourselves, for the days are coming.' The _priest_ +said, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. 'The +_king_, in His sovereignty, ruled the heart of that penitent +man from His Cross, and while the crown shone athwart the smoke and +the agony of the death, the king 'opened the gates of the kingdom +of heaven unto all believers' when He said, 'This day shalt thou be +with Me in Paradise!' + +We shall not attempt, in dealing with this incident, to paint +pictures. I have a far more important thing to do than even to try +to bring vividly before your minds the scene on that little hill of +Calvary. It is the meaning that we are concerned with, and not the +mere externals. I take it for granted, then, that we know the +details:--the dying man in his agony, beginning to see dimly, as his +soul closed upon earthly things, who this was--patient, loving, +mighty there in His sufferings; and using his last breath to cry, +'Lord, remember me!'--and the sufferer throned in the majesty of His +meekness, and divinity of His endurance; calm, conscious, full of +felt but silent power, accepting homage, bending to the penitence, +loving the sinner, and flinging open the gates of the pale kingdoms +into which He was to pass, with these His last words. + +First, then, we see here an illustration of the Cross in its power +of drawing men to itself. It is strange to think that, perhaps, at +that moment the only human being who thoroughly believed in Christ +was that dying robber. The disciples are all gone. The most faithful +of them are recreant, denying, fleeing. A handful of women are +standing there, not knowing what to think about it, stunned but +loving; and alone (as I suppose), alone of all the sons of men, the +crucified malefactor was in the sunshine of faith, and could say +'I believe!' As everything of the future history of the world and of +the Gospel is typified in the events of the Crucifixion, it was +fitting that here again and at the last there should be a prophetic +fulfilment of His own saying, 'I, if I be lifted up, will draw all +men unto Me.' + +But mark, here we have a striking instance of the universal law of +the progress of the Gospel, in the two-fold effort of the +contemplation of the Cross. By its foot was to be seen the derision +of the scribes and the stupor of the soldiery; and now here are the +two thieves--the one chiming in with the universal reproaches; and +the other beholding the same event, having the same circumstances +displayed before him, and they influence him _thus_. Brethren, +it is just the history of the Gospel wherever it goes. It is its +history now, and among us. The Gospel is preached equally to every +man. The same message comes to us all, offering us the same terms. +Christ stands before each of us in the same attitude. And what is +the consequence? A parting of the whole mass of us, some to one side +and some to the other. So, when you take a magnet, and hold it to an +indiscriminate heap of metal filings, it will gather out all the +iron, and leave behind all the rest. 'I, if I be lifted up,' said +He, 'will draw all men unto Me.' The attractive power will go out +over the whole race of His brethren; but from some there will be no +response. In some hearts there will be no yielding to the +attraction. Some will remain rooted, obstinate, steadfast in their +place; and to some the lightest word will be mighty enough to stir +all the slumbering pulses of their sin-ridden hearts, and to bring +them, broken and penitent, for mercy to His feet. To the one He is +'a savour of life unto life, and to the other a savour of death unto +death.' The broadest doctrine of the universal adaptation, and the +universal intention too, of the Gospel, as the 'power of God unto +salvation,' contains hidden in its depths this undeniable fact, +that, be the cause what it may (and as I believe, the cause lies +with us, and is our fault) this separating, judging effect follows +from all faithful preaching of Christ's words. He came to judge the +world, 'that they which see not' (as He Himself said) 'might see, +and they which see might be made blind,' And on the Cross that +process went on in two men, alike in necessity, alike in +criminality, alike in this, that Death's icy finger was just being +laid upon their heart, to stop all the flow of its wild blood and +passion, but different in this, that the one of them turned himself, +by God's grace, and laid hold on the Gospel that was offered to him, +and the other turned himself away, and derided, and died. + +And now, there is another consideration. If we look at this man, this +penitent thief, and contrast him, his previous history, and his present +feelings, with the people that stood around, and rejected and scoffed, +we get some light as to the sort of thing that unfits men for perceiving +and accepting the Gospel when it is offered to them. Remember the other +classes of persons who were there. There were Roman soldiers, with very +partial knowledge of what they were doing, and whose only feeling was +that of entire indifference; and there were Jewish Rabbis, Pharisees, +Priests, and people, who knew a little more of what they were doing, +and whose feeling was derision and scorn. Now, if we mark the ordinary +scriptural representation, especially as to the last class, we cannot +help seeing that there comes out this principle:--The thing of all +others that unfits men for the reception of Christ as a Saviour, and +for the simple reliance on His atoning blood and divine mercy, is not +gross, long profligacy, and outward, vehement transgression; but it is +self-complacency, clean, fatal self-righteousness and self-sufficiency. + +Why was it that Scribes and Pharisees turned away from Him? For +three reasons. Because of their pride of wisdom. 'We are the men who +know all about Moses and the traditions of the elders; we judge this +new phenomenon not by the question, How does it come to our +consciences, and how does it appeal to our hearts? but we judge it +by the question, How does it fit our Rabbinical learning and subtle +casuistical laws? _We_ are the Priests and the Scribes; and the +people that know not the law, _they_ may accept a thing that +only appeals to the common human heart, but for us, in our +intellectual superiority, living remote from the common wants of the +lower class, not needing a rough outward Gospel of that sort, we can +do without such a thing, and we reject it.' They turned away from +the Cross, and their hatred darkened into derision, and their +menaces ended in a crucifixion, not merely because of a pride of +wisdom, but because of a complacent self-righteousness that knew +nothing of the fact of sin, that never had learned to believe itself +to be full of evil, that had got so wrapped up in ceremonies as to +have lost the life; that had degraded the divine law of God, with +all its lightning splendours, and awful power, into a matter of +'mint and anise and cummin.' They turned away for a third reason. +Religion had become to them a mere set of traditional dogmas, to +think accurately or to reason clearly about which was all that was +needful. Worship having become ceremonial, and morality having +become casuistry, and religion having become theology, the men were +as hard as a nether millstone, and there was nothing to be done with +them until these three crusts were peeled off the heart, and, close +and burning, the naked heart and the naked truth of God came into +contact. + +Brethren, change the name, and the story is true about _us_. +God forbid that I should deny that every form of gross, sensual +immorality, 'hardens all within' (as one poor victim of it said), +'and petrifies the feeling.' God forbid that I should seem to be +speaking slightingly of the exceeding sinfulness of such sin, or to +be pouring contempt upon the laws of common morality. Do not +misapprehend me so. Still it is not sin in its outward forms that +makes the worst impediment between a man and the Cross, but it is +sin plus self-righteousness which makes the insurmountable obstacle +to all faith and repentance. And oh! in our days, when passion is +tamed down by so many bonds and chains; when the power of society +lies upon all of us, prescribing our path, and keeping most of us +from vice, partly because we are not tempted, and partly because we +have been brought up like some young trees behind a wall, within the +fence of decent customs and respectable manners,--we have far more +need to tell orderly, respectable moral men--'My brother, that thing +that you have is worth nothing, as settling your position before God'; +than to stand up and thunder about crimes which half of us never heard +of, and perhaps only an infinitesimal percentage of us have ever +committed. All sin separates from God, but the thing that makes the +separation permanent is not the sin, but the ignorance of the sin. +Self-righteousness, aye, and pride of wisdom, they--they have perverted +many a nature, many a young man's glowing spirit, and have turned him +away from the Gospel. If there be a man here who is looking at the +simple message of peace and pardon and purity through Christ, and is +saying to himself, Yes; it may fit the common class of minds that +require outward signs and symbols, and must pin their faith to forms; +but for me with my culture, for me with my spiritual tendencies, for +me with my new lights, _I_ do not want any objective redemption; +_I_ do not want anything to convince _me_ of a divine love, and I +do not need any crucified Saviour to preach to _me_ that God is +merciful!--this incident before us has a very solemn lesson in it for +him. And if there be a man here who is living a life of surface +blamelessness, it has as solemn a lesson for him. Look at the Scribe, +and look at the Pharisee--religious men in their way, wise men in +their way, decent and respectable men in their way; and look at that +poor thief that had been caught in the wilderness amongst the caves +and dens, and had been brought red-handed with blood upon his sword, +and guilt in his heart, and nailed up there in the short and summary +process of a Roman jurisprudence;--and think that Scribe, and Pharisee, +and Priest, saw nothing in Christ; and that the poor profligate wretch +saw this in Him,--innocence that showed heavenly against his diabolical +blackness; and his heart stirred, and he laid hold of Him in the stress +of his mighty agony--as a drowning man catches at anything that +protrudes from the bank; and he held and shook it, and the thing was +fast, and he was safe! Not transgression shuts a man out from mercy. +Transgression, which belongs to us all, makes us subjects for the +mercy; but it is pride, self-righteousness, trust in ourselves, which +'bars the gates of mercy on mankind'; and the men that _are_ condemned +are condemned not only because they have transgressed the commandments +of God, but '_this_ is the condemnation, that light came into the +world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds +were evil.' + +And then (and but a word) we see here, too, the elements of which +acceptable faith consists. One does not exactly know by what steps +or through what process this poor dying thief passed, which issued +in faith--whether it was an impression from Christ's presence, +whether it was that he had ever heard anything about Him before, or +whether it was only that the wisdom which dwells with death was +beginning to clear his eyes as life ebbed away. But however he +_came_ to the conviction, mark what it was that he believed and +expressed,--I am a sinful man; all punishment that comes down upon me +is richly deserved: This man is pure and righteous; 'Lord, remember +me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom!' That is all--that is all. That +is the thing that saves a man. How much he _did_ know--whether he +knew all the depth of what he was saying, when he said 'Lord!' is a +question that we cannot answer; whether he understood what the +'kingdom' was that he was expecting, is a question that we cannot +solve; but this is clear--the intellectual part of faith may be dark +and doubtful, but the moral and emotional part of it is manifest and +plain. There was, '_I_ am nothing--_Thou_ art everything: I bring +myself and my emptiness unto Thy great fullness: fill it and make me +blessed!' Faith has that. Faith has in it repentance--repentance has in +it faith too. Faith has in it the recognition of the certainty and the +justice of a judgment that is coming down crashing upon every human +head; and then from the midst of these fears, and sorrows, and the +tempest of that great darkness, there rises up in the night of terrors, +the shining of one perhaps pale, quivering, distant, but divinely given +hope, 'My Saviour! My Saviour! He is righteous: He has died--He lives! +I will stay no longer; I will cast myself upon Him!' + +Once more--this incident reminds us not only of the attractive power +of the Cross, but of the prophetic power of the Cross. We have here +the Cross as pointing to and foretelling the Kingdom. Pointing out, +and foretelling: that is to say, of course, and only, if we accept +the scriptural statement of what these sufferings were, the Person +that endured them, and the meaning of their being endured. But the +only thing I would dwell upon here, is, that when we think of Christ +as dying for us, we are never to separate it from that other solemn +and future coming of which this poor robber catches a glimpse. They +crowned Him with thorns, and they gave Him a reed for His sceptre. +That mockery, so natural to the strong practical Romans in dealing +with one whom they thought a harmless enthusiast, was a symbol which +they who did it little dreamed of. The crown of thorns proclaims a +sovereignty founded on sufferings. The sceptre of feeble reed speaks +of power wielded in gentleness. The Cross leads to the crown. The +brow that was pierced by the sharp acanthus wreath, therefore wears +the diadem of the universe. The hand that passively held the mockery +of the worthless, pithless reed, therefore rules the princes of the +earth with the rod of iron. He who was lifted up to the Cross, was, +by that very act, lifted up to be a Ruler and Commander to the +peoples. For the death of the Cross God hath highly exalted Him to +be a Prince and a Saviour. The way to glory for Him, the power by +which He wields the kingdom of the world, is precisely through the +suffering. And therefore, whensoever there arises before us the +image of the one, oh! let there rise before us likewise the image of +the other. The Cross links on to the kingdom--the kingdom lights up +the Cross. My brother, the Saviour comes--the Saviour comes a King. +The Saviour that comes a King is the Saviour that has been here and +was crucified. The kingdom that He establishes is all full of +blessing, and love, and gentleness; and to us (if we will unite the +thoughts of Cross and Crown) there is opened up not only the +possibility of having boldness before Him in the day of judgment, +but there is opened up this likewise--the certainty that He 'shall +receive of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.' Oh, remember +that as certain as the historical fact--He died on Calvary; so +certain is the prophetic fact--He shall reign, and you and I will +stand there! I durst not touch that subject. Take it into your own +hearts; and think about it--a kingdom, a judgment-seat, a crown, a +gathered universe; separation, decision, execution of the sentence. +And oh! ask yourselves, 'When that gentle eye, with lightning in its +depths, falls upon _me_, individualises _me_, summons out _me_ to its +bar--how shall I stand?' 'Herein is our love made perfect, that we may +have boldness before Him in the day of judgment,' 'Lord, remember me +when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.' + +Finally. Here is the Cross as revealing and opening the true +Paradise.--'This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.' We have no +concern at present with the many subtle inferences as to the state +of the dead, and as to the condition of our Lord's human spirit before +the Resurrection, which have been drawn from these words. To me they +do seem fairly to bear the broad and single conclusion that the spirits +of the saved do enter at death into a state of conscious presence with +their Saviour, and therefore of joy and felicity. But beyond this we +have no firm ground for going. It is of more practical worth to note +that the penitent's vague prayer is answered, and over-answered. He +asks, 'When Thou comest'--whensoever that may be--'remember me.' 'I +shall stand afar off; do not let me be utterly forgotten.' Christ +answers--'Remember thee! thou shalt be _with Me_, close to My side. +Remember thee _when_ I come!--_this day_ shalt thou be with Me.' + +And what a contrast that is--the conscious blessedness rushing in +close upon the heels of the momentary darkness of death. At the one +moment there hangs the thief writhing in mortal agony; the wild +shouts of the fierce mob at his feet are growing faint upon his ear; +the city spread out at his feet, and all the familiar sights of +earth are growing dim to his filmy eye. The soldier's spear comes, +the legs are broken, and in an instant there hangs a relaxed corpse; +and the spirit, the spirit--is where? Ah! how far away; released +from all its sin and its sore agony, struggling up at once into such +strange divine enlargement, a new star swimming into the firmament +of heaven, a new face before the throne of God, another sinner +redeemed from earth! The conscious immediate blessedness of the +departed--be he what he may, be his life whatsoever it may have +been--who at last, dark, sinful, standing with one foot on the verge +of eternity, and poising himself for the flight, flings himself into +the arms of Christ--the everlasting blessedness, the Christ-presence +and the Christ-gladness, that is the message that the robber leaves +to us from his cross. Paradise is opened to us again. The Cross is +the true 'tree of life.' The flaming cherubim, and the sword that +turneth every way, are gone, and the broad road into the city, the +Paradise of God, with all its beauties and all its peaceful joy--a +better Paradise, 'a statelier Eden,' than that which we have lost, +is flung open to us for ever. + +Do not trust a death-bed repentance, my brother. I have stood by +many a death-bed, and few indeed have they been where I could have +believed that the man was in a condition physically (to say nothing +of anything else) clearly to see and grasp the message of the +Gospel. There is no limit to the mercy. I know that God's mercy is +boundless. I know that 'whilst there is life there is hope.' I know +that a man, going--swept down that great Niagara--if, before his +little skiff tilts over into the awful rapids, he can make one great +bound with all his strength, and reach the solid ground--I know he +may be saved. It is an awful risk to run. A moment's miscalculation, +and skiff and voyager alike are whelming in the green chaos below, +and come up mangled into nothing, far away down yonder upon the +white turbulent foam. '_One_ was saved upon the Cross,' as the +old divines used to tell us, 'that none might despair; and only one, +that none might presume.' _'Now_ is the accepted time, and +_now_ is the day of salvation!' + + + + +THE FIRST EASTER SUNRISE + + + 'Now, upon the first day of the week, very early in + the morning, they came onto the sepulchre, bringing + the spices which they had prepared, and certain others + with them. 2. And they found the stone rolled away + from the sepulchre. 3. And they entered in, and found + not the body of the Lord Jesus. 4. And it came to pass, + as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two + men stood by them in shining garments: 5. And as they + were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, + they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the + dead? 6. He is not here, but is risen: remember how He + spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, 7. Saying, + The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of + sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise + again. 8. And they remembered His words, 9. And + returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things + unto the eleven, and to all the rest. 10. It was Mary + Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, + and other women that were with them, which told these + things unto the apostles. 11. And their words seemed + to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. + 12. Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and + stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by + themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that + which was come to pass.'--LUKE xxiv. 1-12. + +No Evangelist narrates the act of Resurrection. Apocryphal Gospels +cannot resist the temptation of describing it. Why did the Four +preserve such singular reticence about what would have been +irresistible to 'myth' makers? Because they were not myth-makers, +but witnesses, and had nothing to say as to an act that no man had +seen. No doubt, the Resurrection took place in the earliest hours of +the first day of the week. The Sun of Righteousness rose before the +Easter Day sun. It was midsummer day for Him, while it was but +spring for earth's calendar. That early rising has no setting to +follow. + +The divergences of the Evangelists reach their maximum in the accounts +of the Resurrection, as is natural if we realise the fragmentary +character of all the versions, the severely condensed style of +Matthew's, the incompleteness of the genuine Mark's, the evidently +selective purpose in Luke's, and the supplementary design of John's. +If we add the perturbed state of the disciples, their separation from +each other, and the number of distinct incidents embraced in the +records, we shall not wonder at the differences, but see in them +confirmation of the good faith of the witnesses, and a reflection of +the hurry and wonderfulness of that momentous day. Differences there +are; contradictions there are not, except between the doubtful verses +added to Mark and the other accounts. We cannot put all the pieces +together, when we have only them to guide us. If we had a complete +and independent narrative to go by, we could, no doubt, arrange our +fragments. But the great certainties are unaffected by the small +divergences, and the points of agreement are vital. They are, for +example, that none saw the Resurrection, that the first to know of +it were the women, that angels appeared to them at the tomb, that +Jesus showed Himself first to Mary Magdalene, that the reports of the +Resurrection were not believed. Whether the group with whom this +passage has to do were the same as that whose experience Matthew +records we leave undetermined. If so, they must have made two visits +to the tomb, and two returns to the Apostles,--one, with only the +tidings of the empty sepulchre, which Luke tells; one, with the +tidings of Christ's appearance, as in Matthew. But harmonistic +considerations do not need to detain us at present. + +Sorrow and love are light sleepers, and early dawn found the brave +women on their way. Nicodemus had bound spices in with the body, and +these women's love-gift was as 'useless' and as fragrant as Mary's +box of ointment. Whatever love offers, love welcomes, though Judas +may ask 'To what purpose is this waste?' Angel hands had rolled away +the stone, not to allow of Jesus' exit, for He had risen while it +was in its place, but to permit the entrance of the 'witnesses of +the Resurrection.' So little did these women dream of such a thing +that the empty tomb brought no flash of joy, but only perplexity to +their wistful gaze. 'What does it mean?' was their thought. They and +all the disciples expected nothing less than they did a Resurrection, +therefore their testimony to it is the more reliable. + +Luke marks the appearance of the angels as sudden by that 'behold.' +They were not seen approaching, but at one moment the bewildered +women were alone, looking at each other with faces of dreary wonder, +and the next, 'two men' were standing beside them, and the tomb was +lighted by the sheen of their dazzling robes. Much foolish fuss has +been made about the varying reports of the angels, and 'contradictions' +have been found in the facts that some saw them and some did not, that +some saw one and some saw two, that some saw them seated and some saw +them standing, and so on. We know so little of the laws that govern +angelic appearances that our opinion as to the probability or veracity +of the accounts is mere guess-work. Where should a flight of angels +have gathered and hovered if not there? And should they not 'sit in +order serviceable' about the tomb, as around the 'stable' at Bethlehem? +Their function was to prepare a way in the hearts of the women for the +Lord Himself, to lessen the shock,--for sudden joy shocks and may +hurt,--as well as to witness that these 'things angels desire to look +into.' + +Their message flooded the women's hearts with better light than +their garments had spread through the tomb. Luke's version of it +agrees with Mark and Matthew in the all-important central part, 'He +is not here, but is risen' (though these words in Luke are not +beyond doubt), but diverges from them otherwise. Surely the message +was not the mere curt announcement preserved by any one of the +Evangelists. We may well believe that much more was said than any or +all of them have recorded. The angels' question is half a rebuke, +wholly a revelation, of the essential nature of 'the Living One,' +who was so from all eternity, but is declared to be so by His +rising, of the incongruity of supposing that He could be gathered +to, and remain with, the dim company of the dead, and a blessed +word, which turns sorrow into hope, and diverts sad eyes from the +grave to the skies, for all the ages since and to come. The angels +recall Christ's prophecies of death and resurrection, which, like so +many of His words to the disciples and to us, had been heard, and +not heard, being neglected or misinterpreted. They had questioned +'what the rising from the dead should mean,' never supposing that it +meant exactly what it said. That way of dealing with Christ's words +did not end on the Easter morning, but is still too often practised. + +If we are to follow Luke's account, we must recognise that the women +in a company, as well as Mary Magdalene separately, came back first +with the announcement of the empty tomb and the angels' message, and +later with the full announcement of having seen the Lord. But apart +from the complexities of attempted combination of the narratives, +the main point in all the Evangelists is the disbelief of the +disciples, 'Idle tales,' said they, using a very strong word which +appears only here in the New Testament, and likens the eager story +of the excited women to a sick man's senseless ramblings. That was +the mood of the whole company, apostles and all. Is that mood likely +to breed hallucinations? The evidential value of the disciples' +slowness to believe cannot be overrated. + +Peter's race to the sepulchre, in verse 12 of Luke xxiv., is omitted +by several good authorities, and is, perhaps, spurious here. If +allowed to stand as Luke's, it seems to show that the Evangelist had +a less complete knowledge of the facts than John. Mark, Peter's +'interpreter,' has told us of the special message to him from the +risen, but as yet unseen, Lord, and we may well believe that that +quickened his speed. The assurance of forgiveness and the hope of a +possible future that might cover over the cowardly past, with the +yearning to sob his heart out on the Lord's breast, sent him swiftly +to the tomb. Luke does not say that he went in, as John, with one of +his fine touches, which bring out character in a word, tells us that +he did; but he agrees with John in describing the effect of what +Peter saw as being only 'wonder,' and the result as being only that +he went away pondering over it all, and not yet able to grasp the +joy of the transcendent fact. Perhaps, if he had not had a troubled +conscience, he would have had a quicker faith. He was not given to +hesitation, but his sin darkened his mind. He needed that secret +interview, of which many knew the fact but none the details, ere he +could feel the full glow of the Risen Sun thawing his heart and +scattering his doubts like morning mists on the hills. + + + + +THE LIVING DEAD + + + 'Why seek ye the living among the dead! 6. He is not + here, but is risen.'--LUKE xxiv. 5,6. + +We can never understand the utter desolation of the days that lay +betwixt Christ's Death and His Resurrection. Our faith rests on +centuries. We know that that grave was not even an interruption to +the progress of His work, but was the straight road to His triumph +and His glory. We know that it was the completion of the work of +which the raising of the widow's son and of Lazarus were but the +beginnings. But these disciples did not know that. To them the +inferior miracles by which He had redeemed others from the power of +the grave, must have made His own captivity to it all the more +stunning; and the thought which such miracles ending so must have +left upon them, must have been something like, 'He saved others; +Himself He cannot save.' And therefore we can never think ourselves +fully back to that burst of strange sudden thankfulness with which +these weeping Marys found those two calm angel forms sitting with +folded wings, like the Cherubim over the Mercy-seat, but +overshadowing a better propitiation, and heard the words of my text, +'Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is +risen.' + +But yet, although the words before us, in the full depth and +preciousness of their meaning, of course could only be once +fulfilled, we may not only gather from them thoughts concerning that +one death and resurrection, but we may likewise apply them, in a +very permissible modification of meaning, to the present condition +of all who have departed in His faith and fear; since for us, too, +it is true that, whenever we go to an open grave, sorrowing for those +whom we love, or oppressed with the burden of mortality in any shape, +if our eyes are anointed, we can see there sitting the quiet angel +forms; and if our ears be purged from the noise of earth, we can hear +them saying to us, in regard to all that have gone away, 'Why seek ye +the living in these graves? They are not here; they are risen, as He +said.' The thoughts are very old, brethren. God be thanked that they +_are_ old! Perhaps to some of you they may come now with new power, +because they come with new application to your own present condition. +Perhaps to some of you they may sound very weak, and 'words weaker +than your grief will make grief more';--but such as they are, let us +look at them for a moment or two together now. + +The first thought, then, that these words of the angel messengers, +and the scene in which we find them, suggest, is this--The dead are +the living. + +Language, which is more accustomed and adapted to express the +appearances than the realities of things, leads us astray very much +when we use the phrase 'the dead' as if it expressed the continuance +of the condition into which men pass in the act of dissolution. It +misleads us no less, when we use it as if it expressed in itself the +whole truth even as to that act of dissolution. 'The dead' and 'the +living' are not names of two classes which exclude each other. Much +rather, there are _none_ who are _dead_. The dead are the living who +have died. Whilst they were dying they lived, and after they were dead +they lived more fully. All live unto God. 'God is not the God of the +dead, but of the living.' Oh, how solemnly sometimes that thought comes +up before us, that all those past generations which have stormed across +this earth of ours, and then have fallen into still forgetfulness, live +yet. Somewhere at this very instant, they now verily _are_! We say, +'They _were_, they _have been_'. There are no have beens! Life is life +for ever. _To be_ is eternal being. Every man that has died is at this +instant in the full possession of all his faculties, in the intensest +exercise of all his capacities, standing somewhere in God's great +universe, ringed with the sense of God's presence, and feeling in +every fibre of his being that life, which comes after death, is not less +real, but more real, not less great, but more great, not less full or +intense, but more full and intense, than the mingled life which, lived +here on earth, was a centre of life surrounded with a crust and +circumference of mortality. The dead are the living. They lived whilst +they died; and after they die, they live on for ever. + +Such a conviction has as a matter of fact been firmly grasped as an +unquestionable truth and a familiar operative belief only within the +sphere of the Christian revelation. From the natural point of view +the whole region of the dead is 'a land of darkness, without any +order, where the light is as darkness.' The usual sources of human +certainty fail us here. Reason is only able to stammer a +peradventure. Experience and consciousness are silent. 'The simple +senses' can only say that it looks as if Death were an end, the +final Omega. Testimony there is none from any pale lips that have +come back to unfold the secrets of the prison-house. + +The history of Christ's Death and Resurrection, His dying words +'_This day_ thou shalt be with Me in Paradise,' the full +identity of being with which He rose from the grave, the manhood +changed and yet the same, the intercourse of the forty days before +His ascension, which showed the continuance of all the old love +'stronger than death,' and was in all essential points like His +former intercourse with His disciples, though changed in form and +introductory to the times when they should see Him no more in the +flesh-these teach us, not as a peradventure, nor as a dim hope, nor +as a strong foreboding which may be in its nature prophetic, but as +a certainty based upon a historical fact, that Death's empire is +partial in its range and transitory in its duration. But, after we +are convinced of that, we can look again with new eyes even on the +external accompaniments of death, and see that sense is too hasty in +its conclusion that death is the final end. There is no reason from +what we see passing before our eyes then to believe, that it, with +all its pitifulness and all its pain, has any power at all upon the +soul. True, the spirit gathers itself into itself, and, poising +itself for its flight, becomes oblivious of what is passing round +about it. True, the tenant that is about to depart from the house in +which he has dwelt so long, closes the windows before he goes. But +what is there in the cessation of the power of communication with an +outer world--what is there in the fact that you clasp the nerveless +hand, and it returns no pressure; that you whisper gentle words that +you think might kindle a soul under the dull, cold ribs of death +itself, and get no answer--that you look with weeping gaze to catch +the response of affection from out of the poor filmy, closing, +tearless eyes there, and look in vain--what is there in all that to +lead to the conviction that _the spirit_ is participant of that +impotence and silence? Is not the soul only self-centring itself, +retiring from, the outposts, but not touched in the citadel? Is it +not only that as the long sleep of life begins to end, and the +waking eye of the soul begins to open itself on realities, the +sights and sounds of the dream begin to pass away? Is it not but +that the man, in dying, begins to be what he fully is when he is +dead, 'dead unto sin,' dead unto the world, that he may 'live unto +God' that he may live with God, that he may live really? And so we +can look upon that ending of life, and say, 'It is a very small +thing; it only cuts off the fringes of my life, it does not touch +_me_ at all' It only plays round about the husk, and does not +get at the core. It only strips off the circumferential mortality, +but the soul rises up untouched by it, and shakes the bands of death +from off its immortal arms, and flutters the stain of death from +off its budding wings, and rises fuller of life _because of +death_, and mightier in its vitality in the very act of +submitting the body to the law, 'Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt +thou return.' + +Touching but a part of the being, and touching that but for a +moment, death is no state, it is an act. It is not a condition, it +is a transition. Men speak about life as 'a narrow neck of land, +betwixt two unbounded seas': they had better speak about death as +that. It is an isthmus, narrow and almost impalpable, on which, for +one brief instant, the soul poises itself; whilst behind it there +lies the inland lake of past being, and before it the shoreless +ocean of future life, all lighted with the glory of God, and making +music as it breaks even upon these dark, rough rocks. Death is but a +passage. It is not a house, it is only a vestibule. The grave has a +door on its inner side. We roll the stone to its mouth and come +away, thinking that we have left them there till the Resurrection. +But when the outer access to earth is fast closed, the inner portal +that opens on heaven is set wide, and God says to His child, 'Come, +enter into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee ... until the +indignation be overpast!' Death is a superficial thing, and a +transitory thing--a darkness that is caused by the light, and a +darkness that ends in the light--a trifle, if you measure it by +duration; a trifle if you measure it by depth. The death of the mortal +is the emancipation and the life of the immortal. Then, brethren, we +may go with the words of my text, and look upon every green hillock +below which any that are dear to us are lying, and say to ourselves, +'Not _here_--God be thanked, no--not here: living, and not dead; +_yonder_, with the Master!' Oh, we think far too much of the grave, +and far too little of the throne and the glory! We are far too much +the creatures of sense; and the accompaniments of dissolution and +departure fill up our hearts and our eyes. Think them all away, +believe them all away, love them all away. Stand in the light of +Christ's life, and Christ's death, and Christ's rising, till you +feel, 'Thou art a shadow, not a substance--no real thing at all.' +Yes, a shadow; and where a shadow falls there must be sunlight above +to cast it. Look up, then, above the shadow Death, above the sin and +separation from God, of which it is the shadow! Look up to the +unsetting light of the Eternal life on the throne of the universe, +and see bathed in it the living dead in Christ! + +God has taken them to Himself, and we ought not to think (if we +would think as the Bible speaks) of death as being anything else +than the transitory thing which breaks down the brazen walls and +lets us into liberty. For, indeed, if you will examine the New +Testament on this subject, I think you will be surprised to find how +very seldom--scarcely ever--the word 'death' is employed to express +the mere fact of the dissolution of the connection between soul and +body. It is strange, but significant, that the Apostles, and Christ +Himself, so rarely use the word to express that which we exclusively +mean by it. They use all manner of other expressions as if they felt +that the _fact_ remains, but that all that made it death has +gone away. In a real sense, and all the more real because the +external fact continues, Christ 'hath abolished death.' Two men may go +down to the grave together: of one this may be the epitaph, 'He that +believeth in Christ shall never die'; and of the other--passing through +precisely the same physical experience and appearance, the dissolution +of soul and body, we may say,--'There, that is death--death as God +sent it, to be the punishment of man's sin.' The outward fact remains +the same, the whole inner character of it is altered. As to them that +believe, though they have passed through the experience of painful +separation--slow, languishing departure, or suddenly being caught up +in some chariot of fire; not only are they living now, but they never +died at all! Have you understood 'death' in the full, pregnant sense +of the expression, which means not only that _shadow_, the +separation of the body from the soul; but that _reality_, the +separation of the soul from life, because of the separation of the +soul from God? + +Then, secondly, this text, indeed the whole incident, may set before +us the other consideration that since they have died, they live a +better life than ours. + +I am not going to enter here, at any length, or very particularly, +into what seem to me to be the irrefragable scriptural grounds for +holding the complete, uninterrupted, and even intensified +consciousness of the soul of man, in the interval between death and +the Resurrection. 'Absent from the body, present with the Lord.' +'This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.' These words, if there +were none other, are surely enough; seeing that of all that dark +region we know only what it pleases God to tell us in the Bible, and +seeing that it does not please Him to give us more than hints and +glimpses of any part of it. But putting aside all attempts to +elaborate a full doctrine of the intermediate state from the few +Scripture expressions that bear on it, I merely allege, in general +terms, that the present life of departed saints is fuller and nobler +than that which they possessed on earth. They are even now, whatever +be the details of their condition, 'the spirits of just men made +perfect.' As yet the body is not glorified--but the spirits of the +perfected righteous are now parts of that lofty society whose head +is Christ, whose members are the angels of God, the saints on earth +and the equally conscious redeemed who 'sleep in Jesus.' + +In what particulars is their life now higher than it was? First, +they have close fellowship with Christ; then, they are separated +from this present body of weakness, of dishonour, of corruption; +then, they are withdrawn from all the trouble, and toil, and care of +this present life; and then, and not least surely, they have death +behind them, not having that awful figure standing on their horizon +waiting for them to come up with it. These are some of the elements +of the life of the sainted dead. What a wondrous advance on the life +of earth they reveal if we think of them! They are closer to Christ; +they are delivered from the body, as a source of weakness; as a +hinderer of knowledge; as a dragger-down of all the aspiring +tendencies of the soul; as a source of sin; as a source of pain. +They are delivered from all the necessity of labour which is agony, +of labour which is disproportionate to strength, of labour which +often ends in disappointment, of labour which is wasted so often in +mere keeping life in, of labour which at the best is a curse, though +it be a merciful curse too. They are delivered from that 'fear of +death' which, though it be stripped of its sting, is never +extinguished in any soul of man that lives; and they can smile at +the way in which that narrow and inevitable passage bulked so large +before them all their days, and after all, when they came to it, was +so slight and small! If these are parts of the life of them that +'sleep in Jesus,' if they are fuller of knowledge, fuller of wisdom, +fuller of love and capacity of love, and object of love; fuller of +holiness, fuller of energy, and yet full of rest from head to foot; +if all the hot tumult of earthly experience is stilled and quieted, +all the fever beating of this blood of ours for ever at an end; all +the 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune' done with for ever, +and if the calm face which we looked last upon, and out of which the +lines of sorrow, and pain, and sickness melted away, giving it a +nobler nobleness than we had ever seen upon it in life, is only an +image of the restful and more blessed being into which they have +passed,--if the dead are thus, then 'Blessed are the dead!' + +No wonder that one aspect of that blessedness--the '_sleeping_ +in Jesus'--has been the one that the weary have laid hold of at all +times; but do not let us forget what lies even in that figure of +sleep, or distort it as if it meant to express a less vivid life +than that here below. I think we sometimes misunderstand what the +Bible means when it speaks about death as a sleep, by taking it to +express the idea that that intermediate state is one of a kind of +depressed consciousness, and of a less full vitality than the +present. Not so. Sleep is rest, that is one reason for the +scriptural application of the word to death. Sleep is the cessation +of all connection with the external world, that is another reason. +As we play with the names of those that are familiar to us, so a +loving faith can venture to play, as it were, with the awful name of +Him who is King of Terrors, and to minimise it down to that shadow +and reflection of itself which we find in the nightly act of going +to rest. That may be another reason. But sleep is not unconsciousness; +sleep does not touch the spirit. Sleep sets us free from relations to +the outer world but the soul works as hard, though in a different way, +when we slumber as when we wake. People who know what it is to dream, +ought never to fancy that when the Bible talks about death as sleep, it +means to say to us that death is unconsciousness. By no means. Strip the +man of the disturbance that comes from a fevered body, and he will have +a calmer soul. Strip him of the hindrances that come from a body which +is like an opaque tower around his spirit, with only a narrow slit here +and a narrow door there--five poor senses, with which he can come into +connection with an outer universe; and, then surely, the spirit will have +wider avenues out to God, and larger powers of reception, because it +has lost the earthly tabernacle which, just in proportion as it brought +the spirit into connection with the earth to which the tabernacle +belongs, severed its connection with the heavens that are above. +They who have died in Christ live a fuller and a nobler life, by the +very dropping away of the body; a fuller and a nobler life, by the +very cessation of care, change, strife and struggle; and, above all, +a fuller and nobler life, because they 'sleep _in Jesus_,' and +are gathered into His bosom, and wake with Him yonder beneath the +altar, clothed in white robes, and with palms in their hands, +'waiting the adoption--to wit, the redemption of the body.' For +though death be a progress--a progress to the spiritual existence; +though death be a birth to a higher and nobler state; though it be +the gate of life, fuller and better than any which we possess; +though the present state of the departed in Christ is a state of +calm blessedness, a state of perfect communion, a state of rest and +satisfaction;--yet it is not the final and perfect state, either. + +And, therefore, in the last place, the better life, which the dead +in Christ are living now, leads on to a still fuller life when they +get back their glorified bodies. + +The perfection of man is body, soul, and spirit. That is man, as God +made him. The spirit perfected, the soul perfected, without the +bodily life, is but part of the whole. For the future world, in all +its glory, we have the firm basis laid that it, too, is to be in a +real sense a material world, where men once more are to possess +bodies as they did before, only bodies through which the spirit +shall work conscious of no disproportion, bodies which shall be fit +servants and adequate organs of the immortal souls within, bodies +which shall never break down, bodies which shall never hem in nor +refuse to obey the spirits that dwell in them, but which shall add +to their power, and deepen their blessedness, and draw them closer +to the God whom they serve and the Christ after the likeness of +whose glorious body they are fashioned and conformed. 'Body, soul, +and spirit,' the old combination which was on earth, is to be the +perfect humanity of heaven. The spirits that are perfected, that are +living in blessedness, that are dwelling in God, that are sleeping +in Christ, at this moment are waiting, stretching out (I say, not +longing, but) expectant hands of faith and hope; for that they would +not be unclothed, but clothed upon with their house which is from +heaven, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. + +We have nothing to say, now and here, about what that bodily +condition may be--about the differences and the identities between +it and our present earthly house of this tabernacle. Only +_this_ we know-reverse all the weakness of flesh, and you get +some faint notion of the glorious body. It is sown in corruption, +dishonour, and weakness. It is raised in incorruption, glory, and +power. Nay, more, it is sown a natural body, fit organ for the +animal life or nature, which stands connected with this material +universe; 'it is raised a spiritual body,' fit servant for the +spirit that dwells in it, that works through it, that is perfected +in its redemption. + +Why, then, seek the living among the dead? 'God giveth His beloved +sleep'; and in that peaceful sleep, realities, not dreams, come +round their quiet rest, and fill their conscious spirits and their +happy hearts with blessedness and fellowship. And when thus lulled +to sleep in the arms of Christ they have rested till it please Him +to accomplish the number of His elect, then, in His own time, He +will make the eternal morning to dawn, and the hand that kept them +in their slumber shall touch them into waking, and shall clothe them +when they arise according to the body of His own glory; and they +looking into His face, and flashing back its love, its light, its +beauty, shall each break forth into singing as the rising light of +that unsetting day touches their transfigured and immortal heads, in +the triumphant thanksgiving 'I am satisfied, for I awake in Thy +likeness.' + +'Therefore, comfort one another with these words,' and remember that +_we_ are of the day, not of the night; let us not, then, sleep +as do others; but let us reckon that Christ hath died for us, that +whether we wake on earth or sleep in the grave, or wake in heaven, +we may live together with Him! + + + + +THE RISEN LORD'S SELF-REVELATION TO WAVERING DISCIPLES + + + 'And, behold, two of them went that same day to a + village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about + threescore furlongs. 14. And they talked together of + all these things which had happened. 15. And it came + to pass, that, while they communed together and + reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them. + 16. But their eyes were holden that they should not + know Him. 17. And He said unto them, What manner of + communications are these that ye have one to another, + as ye walk, and are sad? 18. And the one of them, + whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto Him, Art + Thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known + the things which are come to pass there in these days? + 19. And He said unto them, What things? And they said + unto Him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a + prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the + people: 20. And how the chief priests and our rulers + delivered Him to be condemned to death, and have + crucified Him. 21. But we trusted that it had been He + which should have redeemed Israel: and besides all + this, to-day is the third day since these things were + done. 22. Yea, and certain women also of our company + made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; + 23. And when they found not His body, they came, + saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, + which said that He was alive. 24. And certain of them + which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it + even so as the women had said: but Him they saw not. + 26. Then He said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart + to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 26. Ought + not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter + into His glory? 27. And beginning at Moses and all the + prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures + the things concerning Himself. 28. And they drew nigh + unto the village, whither they went: and He made as + though He would have gone further. 29. But they + constrained Him, saying, Abide with us: for it is + toward evening, and the day is far spent. And He went + in to tarry with them. 30. And it came to pass, as He + sat at meat with them, He took bread, and blessed it, + and brake, and gave to them. 31. And their eyes were + opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished out of + their sight. 32 And they said one to another, Did not + our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by + the way and while He opened to us the scriptures?' + --LUKE xxiv. 13-32. + +These two disciples had left their companions after Peter's return +from the sepulchre and before Mary Magdalene hurried in with her +tidings that she had seen Jesus. Their coming away at such a crisis, +like Thomas's absence that day, shows that the scattering of the +sheep was beginning to follow the smiting of the shepherd. The +magnet withdrawn, the attracted particles fall apart. What arrested +that process? Why did not the spokes fall asunder when the centre +was removed? John's disciples crumbled away after his death. When +Theudas fell, all his followers 'were dispersed' and came to nought. +The Church was knit more closely together after the death that, +according to all analogy, should have scattered it. Only the fact +of the Resurrection explains the anomaly. No reasonable men would +have held together unless they had known that their Messianic hopes +had not been buried in Christ's grave. We see the beginnings of the +Resurrection of these hopes in this sweet story. + +I. We have first the two sad travellers and the third who joins +them. Probably the former had left the group of disciples on purpose +to relieve the tension of anxiety and sorrow by walking, and to get +a quiet time to bring their thoughts into some order. They were like +men who had lived through an earthquake; they were stunned, and +physical exertion, the morning quiet of the country, and the absence +of other people, would help to calm their nerves, and enable them to +realise their position. Their tone of mind will come out more +distinctly presently. Here it is enough to note that the 'things +which had come to pass' filled their minds and conversation. That +being so, they were not left to grope in the dark. 'Jesus Himself +drew near, and went with them.' Honest occupation of mind with the +truth concerning Him, and a real desire to know it, are not left +unhelped. We draw Him to our sides when we wish and try to grasp the +real facts concerning Him, whether they coincide with our +prepossessions or not. + +It is profoundly interesting and instructive to note the +characteristics of the favoured ones who first saw the risen Lord. +They were Mary, whose heart was an altar of flaming and fragrant +love; Peter, the penitent denier; and these two, absorbed in +meditation on the facts of the death and burial. What attracts +Jesus? Love, penitence, study of His truth. He comes to these with +the appropriate gifts for them, as truly--yea, more closely--as of +old. Perhaps the very doubting that troubled them brought Him to +their help. He saw that they especially needed Him, for their faith +was sorely wounded. Necessity is as potent a spell to bring Jesus as +desert. He comes to reward fixed and fervent love, and He comes, +too, to revive it when tremulous and cold. + +'Their eyes were holden,' says Luke; and similarly 'their eyes were +opened' (ver. 31). He makes the reason for His not being recognised +a subjective one, and his narrative affords no support to the theory +of a change in our Lord's resurrection body. How often does Jesus +still come to us, and we discern Him not! Our paths would be less +lonely, and our thoughts less sad, if we realised more fully and +constantly our individual share in the promise,' I am with you +always.' + +II. We have next the conversation (vs. 17-28). The unknown new-comer +strikes into the dialogue with a question which, on some lips, would +have been intrusive curiosity, and would have provoked rude retorts. +But there was something in His voice and manner which unlocked +hearts. Does He not still come close to burdened souls, and with a +smile of love on His face and a promise of help in His tones, ask us +to tell Him all that is in our hearts? 'Communications' told to Him +cease to sadden. Those that we cannot tell to Him we should not +speak to ourselves. + +Cleopas naively wonders that there should be found a single man in +Jerusalem ignorant of the things which had come to pass. He forgot +that the stranger might know these, and not know that they were +talking about them. Like the rest of us, he fancied that what was +great to him was as great to everybody. What _could_ be the +subject of their talk but the one theme? The stranger assumes +ignorance, in order to win to a full outpouring. Jesus wishes us to +put all fears and doubts and shattered hopes into plain words to +Him. Speech to Christ cleanses our bosoms of much perilous stuff. +Before He speaks in answer we are lightened. + +Very true to nature is the eager answer of the two. The silence once +broken, out flows a torrent of speech, in which love and grief, +disciples' pride in their Master, and shattered hopes, incredulous +bewilderment and questioning wonder, are blended. + +That long speech (vs. 19-24) gives a lively conception of the two +disciples' state of mind. Probably it fairly represented the thought +of all. We note in it the limited conception of Jesus as but a +prophet, the witness to His miracles and teaching (the former being +set first, as having more impressed their minds), the assertion of +His universal appreciation by the 'people,' the charging of the +guilt of Christ's death on 'our rulers,' the sad contrast between +the officials' condemnation of Him and their own fond Messianic +hopes, and the despairing acknowledgment that these were shattered. + +The reference to 'the third day' seems to imply that the two had +been discussing the meaning of our Lord's frequent prophecy about +it. The connection in which they introduce it looks as if they were +beginning to understand the prophecy, and to cherish a germ of hope +in His Resurrection, or, at all events, were tossed about with +uncertainty as to whether they dared to cherish it. They are chary +of allowing that the women's story was true; naively they attach +more importance to its confirmation by men. 'But Him they saw not,' +and, so long as He did not appear, they could not believe even +angels saying 'that He was alive.' + +The whole speech shows how complete was the collapse of the +disciples' Messianic hopes, how slowly their minds opened to admit +the possibility of Resurrection, and how exacting they were in the +matter of evidence for it, even to the point of hesitating to accept +angelic announcements. Such a state of mind is not the soil in which +hallucinations spring up. Nothing but the actual appearance of the +risen Lord could have changed these sad, cautious unbelievers to +lifelong confessors. What else could have set light to these rolling +smoke-clouds of doubt, and made them flame heaven-high and world-wide? + +'The ingenuous disclosure of their bewilderment appealed to their +Companion's heart, as it ever does. Jesus is not repelled by doubts +and perplexities, if they are freely spoken to Him. To put our +confused thoughts into plain words tends to clear them, and to bring +Him as our Teacher. His reproach has no anger in it, and inflicts no +pain, but puts us on the right track for arriving at the truth. If +these two had listened to the 'prophets,' they would have understood +their Master, and known that a divine 'must' wrought itself out in +His Death and Resurrection. How often, like them, do we torture +ourselves with problems of belief and conduct of which the solution +lies close beside us, if we would use it? + +Jesus claimed 'all the prophets' as His witnesses. He teaches us to +find the highest purpose of the Old Testament in its preparation for +Himself, and to look for foreshadowings of His Death and +Resurrection there. What gigantic delusion of self-importance that +was, if it was not the self-attestation of the Incarnate Word, to +whom all the written word pointed! He will still, to docile souls, +be the Interpreter of Scripture. They who see Him in it all are +nearer its true appreciation than those who see in the Old Testament +everything but Him. + +III. We have finally the disclosure and disappearance of the Lord. +The little group must have travelled slowly, with many a pause on +the road, while Jesus opened the Scriptures; for they left the city +in the morning, and evening was near before they had finished their +'threescore furlongs' (between seven and eight miles). His presence +makes the day's march seem short. + +'He made as though He would have gone further,' not therein assuming +the appearance of a design which He did not really entertain, but +beginning a movement which He would have carried out if the +disciples' urgency had not detained Him. Jesus forces His company on +no man. He 'would have gone further' if they had not said 'Abide +with us.' He will leave us if we do not keep Him. But He delights to +be held by beseeching hands, and our wishes 'constrain' Him. Happy +are they who, having felt the sweetness of walking with Him on the +weary road, seek Him to bless their leisure and to add a more +blissful depth of repose to their rest! + +The humble table where Christ is invited to sit, becomes a sacred +place of revelation. He hallows common life, and turns the meals +over which He presides into holy things. His disciples' tables +should be such that they dare ask their Lord to sit at them. But +how often He would be driven away by luxury, gross appetite, trivial +or malicious talk! We shall all be the better for asking ourselves +whether we should like to invite Jesus to our tables. He is there, +spectator and judge, whether invited or not. + +Where Jesus is welcomed as guest He becomes host. Perhaps something +in gesture or tone, as He blessed and brake the bread, recalled the +loved Master to the disciples' minds, and, with a flash, the glad +'It is He!' illuminated their souls. That was enough. His bodily +presence was no longer necessary when the conviction of His risen +life was firmly fixed in them. Therefore He disappeared. The old +unbroken companionship was not to be resumed. Occasional +appearances, separated by intervals of absence, prepared the +disciples gradually for doing without His visible presence. + +If we are sure that He has risen and lives for ever, we have a +better presence than that. He is gone from our sight that He may be +seen by our faith. That 'now we see Him not' is advance on the +position of His first disciples, not retrogression. Let us strive to +possess the blessing of 'those who have not seen, and yet have +believed.' + + + + +DETAINING CHRIST + + + 'And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they + went: and He made as though He would have gone further. + 29. But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us: + for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. + And He went in to tarry with them.'--LUKE xxiv. 28, 29. + +Of course, a chance companion, picked up on the road, is dropped when +the journey's end is reached. When these two disciples had come to +Emmaus, perhaps arriving at some humble inn or caravanserai, or +perhaps at the home of one of them, it would have been an unmannerly +intrusion for the Stranger who had met them on the road, and could +accompany them there without rudely forcing Himself on them, to have +inflicted His company further on them unless they had wished it. And so +'He made as though He would have gone further,' not pretending what +He did not mean, but doing what was but natural and proper in the +circumstances. But Jesus had a further motive for showing His intention +of parting company at the door of t he house in Emmaus. He desired to +evoke the expression of the desire of His two fellow-walkers that He +should tarry with them. Having evoked it, then with infinite +willingness omnipotence lets itself be controlled by feebleness, and +Jesus suffers Himself to be constrained by those whom, unknown to +themselves, He was gently and mightily constraining. 'He _made as +though,'_ unfortunately suggests to an English reader the idea of +acting a part, and of seeming to intend what was not really intended. +But there is no such thought in Luke's mind. + +The first suggestion that strikes one from this incident is just +this: Jesus Christ will certainly leave us if we do not detain Him. + +It is no more certain that that walk to Emmaus had its end, and that +that first day of the week, day of Resurrection though it was, was +destined to close in sunset and evening darkness, than that all +seasons of quickened intercourse with Jesus Christ, all times when +duty and grace and privilege seem to be very great and real, all +times when we awake more than ordinarily to the recognition of the +Presence of the Lord with us and of the glories that lie beyond, +tend to end and to leave us bare and deprived of the vision, unless +there be on our parts a distinct and resolute effort to make +perpetual that which in its nature is transient and comes to a +close, unless we avert its cessation. All motion tends to rest, and +Christian feeling falls under the same law. Nay, the more thrilling +the moment's experience the more exhausting is it, and the more +certain to be followed by depression and collapse. 'Action and +reaction are equal and contrary.' The height of the wave determines +the depth of the trough. Therefore Christian people have to be +specially careful towards the end of a time of special vitality and +earnestness; because, unless they by desire and by discipline of +their minds interpose, the natural result will be deadness in +proportion to the previous excitement. 'He made as though He would +have gone further,' and He certainly will unless His retreating +skirts be grasped at by the outstretched hands of faith and desire, +and the prayer go after Him, 'Abide with us for it is toward +evening.' + +That is quite true, too, in another application of the incident. +Convictions, spiritual experiences of a rudimentary sort, certainly +die away and leave people harder and worse than they were before, +unless they be fostered and cherished and brought to maturity and +invested with permanence by the honest efforts of the subjects of +the same. The grace of God, in the preaching of His Gospel, is like +a flying summer shower. It falls upon one land and then passes on +with its treasures and pours them out somewhere else. The religious +history of many countries and of long centuries is a commentary +written out in great and tragic characters on the profound truth +that lies in the simple incident of my text. Look at Palestine, look +at Asia Minor, at the places where the Gospel first won its +triumphs; look at Eastern Europe. What is the present condition of +these once fair lands but an illustration of this principle, that +Christ who comes to men in His grace is kept only by the earnestness +and faithfulness and desire of the men to whom He comes? + +And you and I, dear brethren, both as members of a Christian +community and in our individual capacity, have our religious +blessings on the same conditions as Ephesus and Constantinople had +theirs, and may fling them away by the same negligence as has ruined +large tracts of the world through long ages of time. Christ will +certainly go unless you keep Him. + +Then further, notice from my text this other thought, that Christ +seeks by His action to stimulate our desires for Him. + +'He made as though He would have gone further.' But while His feet were +directed to the road His heart remained with His two fellow-travellers +whom He was apparently leaving, and His wish was that the sight of His +retiring figure might kindle in their hearts great outgoings of desire +to which He would so gladly yield. It is the same action on His part, +only under a slightly different form, but actuated by the same motive +and the same in substance, as we find over and over again in the +gospels. You remember the instances. I need only refer to them in a word. + +Here is one: the dark lake, the rising moon behind the Eastern +hills, a figure coming out of the gloom across the stormy sea, and +when He reached the tossing fishing cobble it seemed as if He would +have passed by; and He would, but that the cry flung out over the +dark water stopped Him. + +Here are two blind men sitting by the roadside crying 'Thou Son of +David, have mercy upon us.' Not a word, not even a glance over His +shoulder, no stopping of His resolved stride; onwards towards +Jerusalem, Pilate, and Calvary. Because He did not heed their cry? +Because He did not infinitely long to help them? No. The purpose of +His apparent indifference was attained when 'they cried the more +earnestly, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon us.' + +Here is another. A woman half mad with anguish for her demon-ridden +daughter, calling after Him with the shrill shriek of Eastern sorrow +and disturbing the fine nerves of the disciples, but causing no +movements nor any sign that He even heard, or if He heard, heeded, +the ear-piercing and heart-moving cries. Why was that ear which was +always open to the call of misery closed now? Because He wished to +bring her to such an agony of desire as might open her heart very +wide for an amplitude of blessing; and so He let her cry, knowing +that the longer she called the more she would wish, and that the +more she wished the more He would bestow. + +And that is what He does with us all sometimes: seeming to leave our +wishes and our yearnings all unnoticed. Then the devil says to us, +'What's the use of crying to Him? He does not hear you.' But faith +hears the promise: 'Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it,' though +to sense there seems to be 'no voice nor any that answered.' + +Christ has no other reason in any of the delays and trying +prolongations of His answers than to make us capable of larger +blessing, because delay deepens our longing. He is infinitely +wishful to-day, as He was on that Resurrection evening, to draw near +to every heart and pour upon it the whole sunlit cataract of the +mighty fact that He lives to bless. But He cannot come to us unless +we desire Him, and He cannot give to us more of Himself than we +wish; and therefore He is obliged, as the first thing, to make our +desires larger and fuller, and then He will answer them. 'He could +there do no mighty works because of their unbelief.' + +Our faithlessness limits His power; our faith is the measure of our +capacity. + +Lastly, the text reminds us that Jesus Christ is glad to be forced. + +'They _constrained_': a very strong word, kindred to the other +one which our Lord Himself employs when He speaks about the 'kingdom +of heaven suffering violence, and the violent taking it by force.' +That bold expression gives emphatic utterance to the truth that +there is a real power lodged in the desires of humble hearts that +desire Him, so as that they can prescribe to Him what He shall do +for them and how much of Himself He shall give them. Our feebleness +can in a measure set in motion and regulate the energy of +Omnipotence. 'They constrained Him.' + +Do you remember who it was that was called 'a prince with God' and +how he won the title and was able to prevail? We, too, have the +charter given to us that we can--I speak it reverently--guide God's +hand and compel Omnipotence to bless us. We master Nature by +yielding to it and utilising its energies. We have power with God by +yielding to Him and conforming our desires to the longings of His +heart and asking the things that are according to His will. +'Concerning the work of My hands _command_ ye Me.' And what we, +leaning on His promise and in unison with His mighty purpose of +love, desire, _that_ will as certainly come down to us as every +stream must pour into the lowest levels and fill the depressions in +its course. + +You can make sure of Christ if two things are yours. He will always +remain with us if, on the one hand, we wish for Him honestly and +really to be with us all the day long, which would be extremely +inconvenient for some of us; and if, on the other hand, we take care +not to do the acts nor cultivate the tempers which drive Him away. +For 'How can two walk together except they be agreed?' And how can +we ask Him to come in and sit down in a house which is all full of +filth and worldliness? Turn the demons out and open the door, and +anything is more likely than that the door will stand gaping and the +doorway be unfilled by the meek presence of the Christ that enters +in. + +The old prayer is susceptible of application to our community and to +our individual hearts. When Israel prayed, 'Arise, O Lord, into Thy +rest; Thou and the Ark of Thy strength,' the answer was prompt and +certain. 'This is My rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have +desired it.' But the divine desire was not accomplished till the +human desire opened the Temple gates for the entrance of the Ark. + +'He made as though He would have gone further'; but they constrained +Him, and then He entered in. + + + + +THE MEAL AT EMMAUS + + + 'And it came to pass, as He sat at meat with them, He + took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to + them. 31. And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; + and He vanished out of their sight.'--LUKE xxiv. 30, 31. + +Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the Gospel accounts of +our Lord's intercourse with His disciples, in the interval between +the Resurrection and His Ascension, is the singular union of mystery +and simplicity which they present. There is a certain air of +remoteness and depth over all the intercourse, as if it meant more, +and was intended to teach more, than appears on the surface, as I +believe it was intended. And yet, at the same time, there is, along +with that, in most singular combination, the very utmost simplicity, +amounting almost sometimes to baseness and rudeness, as for +instance, here. Some poor house of entertainment, possibly, at any +rate, some poor man's house, in a little country village; the +company these two talkative, and yet despondent disciples; the fare +and the means of manifestation a bit of barley-bread; and out of +these materials are woven lessons that will live in the Church in +all ages. 'He took bread and blessed it, and brake.' These are the +words, almost verbatim, of the institution of the Lord's Supper. +They are the words, almost verbatim, with which more than one of the +Evangelists describes the miraculous feeding of the four and the +five thousand; and it was the old familiar act, expressed by the +Evangelist by the old familiar words, that opened the disciples' +eyes, and they knew Him. How simply the process of discovery is +told! It was quite natural that a casual stranger upon the road +should not say who He was; it was quite as natural that when He +entered into the closer relationship of sitting with the disciples +at the table, and sharing their hospitality, they should expect, as +indeed they did expect, that as they had been frank with Him, He +would be frank with them, and they would find out now who this +unknown teacher and apparent Rabbi was. And so, as it would seem, in +silence, or at least with nothing of any moment, the meal went on, +but all at once, at some point in the meal, the guest assumes the +position of the master of the house, takes upon Himself the function +and office of host, interrupts the progress of the meal by the +solemn prayer of blessing; and whilst the singularity of the action +drew their attention, perhaps some little peculiarity in His way of +doing it, or something else, opened the door for a whole stream of +associations and half-dormant remembrances to rush in, and they +remembered what they had heard of the last supper,--for these two +were not at it,--and they remembered what they had seen,--miraculous +feedings; and they remembered no doubt how He had always done with +them in the happy old days when He communed with them. At all +events, by the natural action of breaking the bread and sharing +it amongst them, the subjective hindrances which had stood in the +way of their recognising Him dropped away like scales from their +eyes, and they beheld Him, and then, without a word, He vanished out +of their sight, and the wearied, hungry men girded up their loins +and rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the brethren the story. + +Now, I think that, taking the event as it stands before us, and +especially marking the obviously intended parallelism in expression, +and I hare no doubt in action, between former miracles, the +institution of the Lord's Supper, and this neither sacramental nor +religious meal in the little village--I think we may get some +lessons worth pondering. + +I confine myself quite simply to the three points of the narrative:-- + + The distribution of the bread; + The discovery; + And the disappearance. + +'He took bread and blessed it, and brake and gave to them, and their +eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished out of their +sight.' + +I. Look, then, for a moment or two at the thoughts which I think are +intended to be conveyed to us by that first point--the action of +breaking and distributing the bread. + +I have said, incidentally, in my previous remarks, that there is a +singular air of remoteness, removedness, mystery, reticence, about +our Lord's relations to His disciples in the interval of these forty +days; and I suppose that that change from the frankness of His +former relations and the close contact in which the Apostles and +disciples had been brought during all the previous three years--I +suppose that that was intended to be the beginning of the +preparation of weaning and preparing them to do without Him +altogether. And along with that removedness, there is also, as I +take it, and as I have already said, a great depth of significance +about the whole of these events which lead people to deal with them +as being symbols, types, exhibitions on a material platform of great +spiritual truths; and although the habit of finding symbolical +meaning in historical events, especially as applied to the Gospels, +has been full of all manner of mischief, yet that there is that +element is not to be denied; and whilst we have to keep it down and +be very careful in our application of it, lest in finding ingenious +fanciful meanings, we lose the plain prose, which is always the best +and the most important, yet that element is there, and we have to +take heed that we do not push the denial of it to excess, as the +recognition of it has often been pushed. And so, from these two +points of view. I think the thing should be looked at. The plain +prose, then, of the matter is this--that at a given point in this +humble road-side meal, our Lord having been guest, having been +constrained to enter in by the loving importunity of these people, +becomes the host, takes upon Himself the position of the head of the +household, and in that position so acts as to bring to the disciples' +remembrance former deeds of miracles, and the institution of the +ordinance of the Lord's Supper, and that was the means of their +recognition. + +Well, then, if so, I think that we may say fairly that in this +breaking and distribution of the bread, there is first of all this +lesson--the old familiar blessed intercourse between Him and them +had not been put an end to then by all that had passed during these +three mysterious days; but they were as they used to be in regard to +the closeness of their relationship and the reality of their +intercourse. No doubt, in the former years, Christ had been in the +habit of always acting as the Head of the little family. When they +gathered for their frugal meals, He was the master, they the +disciples; He the elder brother, and they gathered about Him. And He +assumes the old position; and if we will try for a moment to throw +ourselves into their position and to see with their eyes, we shall +understand the pathetic beauty--I was going to say the poetic +beauty, but perhaps you would not like that word to be applied to +the history of our Redeemer--the pathetic beauty of the deed. They +had been thinking of themselves as forsaken of Him; the grave had +broken off all their sweet and blessed intercourse; they were alone +now. 'We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed +Israel.' He is gone! Even the poor consolation of looking upon the +place where He lies is denied us; for whatever may be doubtful this +is certain, that the grave is open and the body is not there. And so +they felt lost and scattered; and there comes to them this gleam of +consolation--I take my place amongst you just as I used to do; 'I am +He that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore.' +We used to sit together at the table; let that be repeated here once +more that you may learn, and all the world through you may learn, +that the accident of death, which affects only the externals of +society, has no power over the reality of the bond that knits even +two human hearts with love together, still less a power over the +reality of the bond that binds us to our Master. Death vanishes as a +nothing in their intercourse; they stand where they were; the +fellowship is unbroken; the society is the same; all that there used +to be of love and friendship, of peaceful concord, of true +association; it abides for ever! + +Thus, heavy with meaning and full of immortal hope may be the +simplest act wrought with the simplest materials, when the dead +Christ who lives takes His old place in the midst of His disciples, +and once again as He used to do, parts the bread between them. And, +dear brethren, though it has nothing to do with my present purpose, +may this thought not add a wider application to our text; may it not +be a comfort and hope to many of us to remember that the grim shadow +that stretches athwart our path, and gathers into its blackness so +many of our sunny sparkling joys, and takes the light and the +movement and the colour out of them, is only a shadow, and that the +substance lives in the shadow as it used to live in the sunshine, +and passes through the shadow and comes out on the other side, +blazing in more than its former lustre, and rich with more than its +former preciousness? For all whom we have loved and lost, the death +which was a nothing in regard to Christ's intercourse with His +disciples, is a nothing, too, in regard to our real intercourse and +sense of society and unity with them. They live in Him, and they are +more worthy to be loved than ever they were before. He who has +conquered Death for Himself has conquered it for us all; and every +true and pure human affection rooted in Him is as immortal as the +love that binds souls to Himself. Therefore, let us remember that +they sit at His table, and that we shall sit there some day too. + +II. Well, then, still further, another idea that I think belongs to +this first part of our thoughts as to the profound significance of our +Lord's here assuming the office and function of host, is this--we are +thereby taught the same lesson that we are taught by His institution +of the Communion, and taught by the whole details of His relation to +His disciples upon earth--that the true idea of the relation which +results from Him and His Presence is that of the Family. + +He takes His place at the head of the table; He is the Lord of the +household, though it be but a household of two men, and they belong +to the family and the society which He founds. Now it seems to me +that next to the great lesson which the Lord's Supper teaches us in +reference to our individual dependence upon Him, His death as being +all our hope and all our life, this is the most important lesson +that it teaches--the simplicity of the rite, the fact that it was +based upon the Jewish rite, which was a purely domestic one; the +fact that our Lord steps into the place of the head of the household +by His very presiding at the Passover service amongst His disciples; +the fact that He parts the common materials of the common meal and +uses them and it as the symbols of His death, and of our life +thereby--all that teaches us the same thing which the whole strain +of His teaching and the whole strain of the New Testament sets +forth--that the Church of Christ is then understood when we think of +it as being one family in Him, bound together by the bands of a +close brotherhood, relying upon Him as the fountain of its life; +having fellowship with one Father through that elder Brother; +pledged, therefore, to all fraternal kindness and frankness of +communion and of mutual help, and gladdened by the hope of +journeying onwards to Him. We cannot, of course, apply the analogy +round and round; but of all the forms of human association which +Christ has honoured and glorified by laying His hand upon them, and +showing that they are symbols of the society that He founds, and of +which He is the centre, it is not the kingdom, but the family that +is the nearest approach to the Church of the living God. + +And you and I, Christian men and women, if we come and sit at that +table of our Lord, let us remember that we thereby declare, not only +for ourselves that we enter into individual relations of reliance +upon Him, and draw our life from Him, but that we pledge ourselves +to the family bond, to be true to the brotherhood, that we declare +ourselves the sons of God and the brethren of all that are partakers +of the like precious faith. The thing has become a word, a name +amongst us. I wonder if any of you remember the bitter saying of one +of our modern teachers; he says that he found out somehow or other +how much less 'brethren' in the Church meant than 'brothers' out of +it. Let us learn the lesson and take the rebuke, and remember that +if the Lord's Supper means anything, it means that we belong to the +household of faith, and are members of the great family in heaven +and in earth. + +III. Well, then, still further connected with this first idea of the +lesson and significance of the distribution of the bread, I think we +may take another consideration, which is, in fact, only another +application of the one I have already been suggesting--Where Christ +is invited as a guest, He becomes the host. + +They constrained Him to abide with them; they made Him welcome to +their rude hospitality. It was little--a hut where poor men lay, a +bit of barley-bread. But it was theirs, and they gave it Him; and He +entered in and supped with them, and then, in the middle of it, the +relations were inverted, and they that had been showing the +hospitality became the guests, and the table that had been theirs +became His. 'And He took the bread and gave it to them.' You have +the same inversion of relation in that first miracle that He wrought +at Cana of Galilee, where invited as a guest, at a point in the +entertainment He provides the supplies for the further conduct of +it. You remember the words which contain the spiritual application +of the same thought--'Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any +man open the door, I will enter in and sup with him and he with Me.' +To put away the metaphor, it amounts to this--our Master never comes +empty-handed. Where He is invited, He comes to bestow; where He is +welcomed, He comes with His gifts; where we say, 'Do Thou take what +I offer,' He says, 'Do thou take Myself.' All His requirements are +veiled promises; all His commandments are assurances of His gifts. +He bestows that He may receive; He seems to take that He may enrich. +They that give to Christ receive back again more than all that they +gave, according to the profound words, 'There is no man that hath +left father or mother, or wife or children, or houses or lands, for +My sake and the Gospel's, but shall receive a hundredfold more in +this life, and in the world to come life everlasting.' The Christ +that is asked to come in order to receive, abides in order to +bestow. + +And then there is a second point, going on with the flow of this +little narrative before us, about which a word or two may be said. +The consequence of this assumption of the position of master, host, +bestower is--'Their eyes were opened, and they knew Him.' The +discovery of His person follows on the distribution of His gifts. + +Now, there is one point to be remarked before I deal with the +lessons which I think are capable of being gathered from this part +of our subject, and that is, that this narrative gives no sort of +support, as it seems to me, to the ordinary notion that, subsequent +to the Resurrection, there had passed upon our Lord's corporeal +frame any change whatsoever as the commencement of the glorification +of His earthly body. If you observe, the course of the narrative +takes pains to point out to us distinctly, that whatever may have +been the reason why they did not recognise Him at first, that reason +was entirely in them, and not at all in Him. It is not that He was +changed; it is that 'their eyes were holden'; and when they did +recognise Him, it is not that any change whatsoever is recorded as +having passed upon Him, but 'their eyes were opened, and they knew +Him.' And the same thing may be said, as I believe, about the whole +of the appearances, mysterious as they were, of our Lord, in the +interval between the Resurrection and the Ascension. I do not think, +for my part, (although I would by no means speak with confidence +about a matter that is so fragmentarily dealt with in Scripture), +but I do not think, for my part, that the narrative gives any +support whatsoever to the idea of any change analogous to that which +takes place upon us at our resurrection, having begun to take place +upon our Lord so long as He remained upon earth. The Ascension and +the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, in His case, are parts of one +process. He was raised with the body with which He was crucified; He +ascended up on high, and there the glorification, as far as +Scripture teaches, is, I conceive, commenced. At all events, there +is nothing in our narrative to support the idea of an incipient +transformation having begun with the Resurrection. + +But, passing by that, which has nothing to do with my main present +purpose, I may notice just one or two considerations in reference to +this discovery of our Lord. And the first and main one that I would +suggest is this--Where Christ is loved and desired, the veriest +trifles of common life may be the means of His discovery. We know not +what was the special point which brought dormant remembrance to life +again, and quickened the associations of the two, so that they knew +Jesus; even as we do not know what was the hindrance, whether +supernatural or whether by reason of their own fault, which prevented +the earlier recognition; but this at least we see, that in all +probability something in the manner of taking the bread and breaking +it, the well-remembered action of the Master, brought back to mind +the whole of the former relation, and a rush of associations and +memories pulled away the veil and scaled off the mists from their +eyes. And so, dear brethren, if we have loving, and waiting, and +Christ-desiring spirits, everything in this world--the common meal, +the events of every day, the most veritable trifles of our earthly +relationships--they will all have hooks and barbs, as it were, which +will draw after them thoughts of Him. There is nothing so small but +that to it there may be attached some filament which will bring after +it the whole majesty and grace of Christ and His love. Whether ye eat +or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all in remembrance of Him, and do +all to His glory. Oh, if we had in our inmost spirits a closer +fellowship with Him, and a truer relation to Him, we should be more +quick of apprehension. And, as in regard to those that we love, when +they are away from us, the fold of a garment, some bit of cloth lying +about the room, something upon the table, some common incident of the +day that used to be done in company with them, may bring a flood of +memories that sometimes is too strong for a weak heart, so with the +Lord, if we loved Him--everything would be (as it is to those whose +ears are purged) vocal with His name, and everything would be flushed +with the light that falls from His face, and everything would suffice +to remind us of our love, our hope, our joy. Especially let us +remember that He has entrusted--with strange humility and with +wonderful knowledge of us, and with the truest sympathy and tenderness +for our weakness--He has entrusted a large portion of our most +spiritual remembrance and recognition of Him to material things. Did it +ever strike you what a depth of what I may call Christ's condescension +there lay in this? 'Take this bread and this wine, and if you will not +remember Me because I loved you so well, if you will not remember Me +because I died for you, if earthly things and material realities will +drive Me out of your thoughts, at least remember Me because and when +earthly things and material realities become My agents and My +memorials. If you forget the Cross, perhaps a bit of bread will remind +you of Me; and I am not too proud to spurn the remembrance that roots +itself even in the material things of earth and by such means as that.' +'He took the bread and brake it.' They had listened to all His words +upon the road, and it never occurred to them who He was; they had walked +beside Him all day long, and even their burning hearts did not make them +suspect that it was the Master. It must needs be so--they whom wisdom +and truth and His spiritual Presence cannot teach to recognise, may be +led to recognise Him by the movement of His hands with the barley loaf, +and some intonation of His voice in blessing it. 'This do in remembrance +of Me' is the word of that deep pity that knows our frame and remembers +that we are dust, and is a word of the most marvellous condescension +that ever was uttered in human ears. + +IV. And then there is the final consideration here upon which I +touch but for a moment. The distribution and the discovery are +followed by the disappearance of the Lord, 'They knew Him, and'--and +what? And He let their hearts run over in thankful words? No. 'They +knew Him,' and so they all went back to Jerusalem happy together? +No. 'They knew Him, and--He vanished out of their sight.' Yes, for +two reasons. First, because when Christ's Presence is recognised +sense may be put aside. 'It is expedient for you that I go away.' +You and I, dear brethren, need no visible manifestation; we have +lost nothing though we have lost the bodily Presence of our Master. +It is more than made up to us, as He Himself assures us, and as we +shall see ourselves if we think for a moment, by the clearer +knowledge of His spiritual verity and stature, by the deeper +experience of the profounder aspects of His mission and message, by +the indwelling Spirit, and by the knowledge of Him working evermore +for us all. His going is a step in advance. 'If I go not away the +Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him +unto you.' The earthly manifestation was only the basis and the +platform for that which is purer and deeper in kind, and more +precious and powerful; and when the platform has been laid, then +there is no need for the continuance thereof. And so, when He was +manifested to the heart He disappeared from the eyes; and we, who +have not beheld Him, stand upon no lower level than they who did, +for the voice of our experience is, 'Whom having not seen we love; +in whom, though now we see Him not, yet believing, we rejoice with +joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.' + +And for another reason.--When Christ is discerned there is work to +be done. 'Their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and He vanished +out of their sight; and ... they rose up that same hour; and +returned to Jerusalem' and said, He was known to us in breaking of +bread, and He talked with us by the way. Yes, the vision of Christ +binds us to work, and while the more close and intimate and silent +communion has its rights and its place in life, it is never to be +made a substitute for the active exercise of our Christian vocation +to bear witness of Him, and to tell His name to those who need the +consolation of His Resurrection, and the joyful news that He lives +to bless. So then that meal by the wayside may stand as type and +symbol of the way in which we, like the two pedestrians on the road +and at the table, may have heart intercourse with Jesus, and may be +impelled thereby to labour for Him. + +There was another time, after the Resurrection, when in like manner +we read that our Lord took bread, and blessed and brake and gave it +to them; and that was in that mysterious meal upon the shores of the +Galilean Lake, which has always been recognised as having a +symbolical meaning--though the exposition and detail have often been +exaggerated and made absurd. In the one case it was two travellers +who met their Lord; it was in an inn that the recognition took +place; it was a brief moment of vision, followed by disappearance, +and the disappearance led on to work; but in the other story it was +when the morning broke that the Lord was manifest; it was after the +night of toil that His form appeared; His words to them were, 'Bring +of the fruits of your labours and lay them upon the beach at My +feet.' And in the light of the eternal morning, after the weary +night of toil, they who on earth in their journey and pilgrimage +have had Him walking with them as third in their sweet society, and +sitting with them in the tents and changeful residences of earth, +may expect to find Him waiting for them upon the shore; and, as one +says, 'It is the Lord!' and another dashes through the water to +reach Christ, the invitation to all of them will be, 'Come and sit +with Me at My table in My kingdom; I provide the meal, and you add +to it by that which you have caught.' 'They rest from their labours +and their works do follow them.' And so 'they go no more out, but +are ever with the Lord.' + + + + +PETER ALONE WITH JESUS + + + 'The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.' + --LUKE xxiv. 34. + +The other appearances of the risen Lord to individuals on the day of +Resurrection are narrated with much particularity, and at +considerable length. John gives us the lovely account of our Lord's +conversation with Mary Magdalene, Luke gives us in full detail the +story of the interview with the two travellers on the road to +Emmaus. Here is another appearance, known to 'the eleven, and them +that were with them' on the Resurrection evening, and enumerated by +Paul in his list of the appearances of the Lord, the account of +which was the common gospel of himself and all the others, and yet +deep silence is preserved in regard to it. No word escaped Peter's +lips as to what passed in the conversation between the denier and +his Lord. That is very significant. + +The other appearances of the risen Lord to individuals on the day of +Resurrection suggest their own reasons. He appeared first to Mary +Magdalene because she loved much. The love that made a timid woman +brave, and the sorrow that filled her heart, to the exclusion of +everything else, drew Jesus to her. The two on the road to Emmaus +were puzzled, honest, painful seekers after truth. It was worth +Christ's while to spend hours of that day of Resurrection in +clearing, questioning, and confirming sincere minds. Does not this +other appearance explain itself? The brief spasm of cowardice and +denial had changed into penitence when the Lord looked, and the +bitter tears that fell were not only because of the denial, but +because of the wound of that sharp arrow, the poisoned barb of which +we are happy if we have not felt the thought--'He will never know +how ashamed and miserable I am; and His last look was reproach, and +I shall never see His face any more.' To respond to, and to satisfy, +love, to clear and to steady thought, to soothe the agony of a +penitent, were worthy works for the risen Lord. I venture to think +that such a record of the use of such a day bears historical truth +on its very face, because it is so absolutely unlike what myth-making +or hallucination, or the excited imagination of enthusiasts would +have produced, if these had been the sources of the story of the +Resurrection. But apart from that, I wish in this sermon to try to +gather the suggestions that come to us from this interview, and from +the silence which is observed concerning them. + +With regard to-- + +I. The fact of the appearance itself. + +We can only come into the position rightly to understand its +precious significance, if we try to represent to ourselves the state +of mind of the man to whom it was granted. I have already touched +upon that; let me, in the briefest possible way, recapitulate. As I +have said, the momentary impulse to the cowardly crime passed, and +left a melted heart, true penitence, and profound sorrow. One sad +day slowly wore away. Early on the next came the message which +produced an effect on Peter so great, that the gospel, which in some +sense is his gospel (I mean that 'according to Mark') alone contains +the record of it--the message from the open grave: 'Tell my +disciples _and Peter_ that I go before you into Galilee.' There +followed the sudden rush to the grave, when the feet made heavy by a +heavy conscience were distanced by the light step of happy love, and +'the other disciple did outrun Peter.' The more impulsive of the two +dashed into the sepulchre, just as he afterwards threw himself over +the side of the boat, and floundered through the water to get to his +Lord's feet, whilst John was content with looking, just as he +afterwards was content to sit in the boat and say, 'It is the Lord.' +But John's faith, too, outran Peter's, and he departed 'believing,' +whilst Peter only attained to go away 'wondering.' And so another +day wore away, and at some unknown hour in it, Jesus stood before +Peter alone. + +What did that appearance say to the penitent man? Of course, it said +to him what it said to all the rest, that death was conquered. It +lifted his thoughts of his Master. It changed his whole atmosphere +from gloom to sunshine, but it had a special message for him. It +said that no fault, no denial, bars or diverts Christ's love. Peter, +no doubt, as soon as the hope of the Resurrection began to dawn upon +him, felt fear contending with his hope, and asked himself, 'If He +is risen, will He ever speak to me again?' And now here He is with a +quiet look on His face that says, 'Notwithstanding thy denial, see, +I have come to thee.' + +Ah, brethren! the impulsive fault of a moment, so soon repented of, +so largely excusable, is far more venial than many of our denials. +For a continuous life in contradiction to our profession is a +blacker crime than a momentary fall, and they who, year in and year +out, call themselves Christians, and deny their profession by the +whole tenor of their lives, are more deeply guilty than was the +Apostle, But Jesus Christ comes to us, and no sin of ours, no denial +of ours, can bar out His lingering, His reproachful, and yet His +restoring, love and grace. All sin is inconsistent with the +Christian profession. Blessed be God; we can venture to say that no +sin is incompatible with it, and none bars off wholly the love that +pours upon us all. True; we may shut it out. True; so long as the +smallest or the greatest transgression is unacknowledged and +unrepented, it forms a non-conducting medium around us, and isolates +us from the electric touch of that gracious love. But also true; it +is there hovering around us, seeking an entrance. If the door be +shut, still the knocking finger is upon it, and the great heart of +the Knocker is waiting to enter. Though Peter had been a denier, +because he was a penitent the Master came to him. No fault, no sin, +cuts us off from the love of our Lord. + +And then the other great lesson, closely connected with this, but +yet capable of being treated separately for a moment, which we +gather from the fact of the interview, is that Jesus Christ is +always near the sorrowing heart that confesses its evil. He knew of +Peter's penitence, if I might so say, in the grave; and, therefore, +risen, His feet hasted to comfort and to soothe him. As surely as +the shepherd hears the bleat of the lost sheep in the snowdrift, as +surely as the mother hears the cry of her child, so surely is a +penitent heart a magnet which draws Christ, in all His potent +fullness and tenderness, to itself. He that heard and knew the tears +of the denier, and his repentance, when in the dim regions of the +dead, no less hears and knows the first faint beginnings of sorrow +for sin, and bends down from His seat on the right hand of God, +saying, 'I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is +of a humble and contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, +and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.' No fault bars +Christ's love. Christ is ever near the penitent spirit; and whilst +he is yet a great way off, He has compassion, and runs and falls on +his neck and kisses him. + +Now let us look at-- + +II. The interview of which we know nothing. + +We know nothing of what did pass; we know what must have passed. +There is only one way by which a burdened soul can get rid of its +burden. There is only one thing that a conscience-stricken denier +can say to his Saviour. And--blessed be God!--there is only one +thing that a Saviour can say to a conscience-stricken denier. There +must have been penitence with tears; there must have been full +absolution and remission. And so we are not indulging in baseless +fancies when we say that we know what passed in that conversation, +of which no word ever escaped the lips of either party concerned. So +then, with that knowledge, just let me dwell upon one or two +considerations suggested. + +One is that the consciousness of Christ's love, uninterrupted by our +transgression, is the mightiest power to deepen penitence and the +consciousness of unworthiness. Do you not think that when the +Apostle saw in Christ's face, and heard from His lips, the full +assurance of forgiveness, he was far more ashamed of himself than he +had ever been in the hours of bitterest remorse? So long as there +blends with the sense of my unworthiness any doubt about the free, +full, unbroken flow of the divine love to me, my sense of my own +unworthiness is disturbed. So long as with the consciousness of +demerit there blends that thought--which often is used to produce +the consciousness, viz., the dread of consequences, the fear of +punishment--my consciousness of sin is disturbed. But sweep away +fear of penalty, sweep away hesitation as to the divine love, then I +am left face to face with the unmingled vision of my own evil, and +ten thousand times more than ever before do I recognise how black my +transgression has been; as the prophet puts it with profound truth, +'Thou shalt be ashamed and confounded, and never open thy mouth any +more, because of thy sins, when I am pacified towards thee for all +that thou hast done.' If you would bring a man to know how bad he +is, do not brandish a whip before his face, or talk to him about an +angry God. You may bray a fool in a mortar, and his foolishness will +not depart from him. You may break a man down with these violent +pestles, and you will do little more. But get him, if I may continue +the metaphor, not into the mortar, but set him in the sunshine of +the divine love, and that will do more than break, it will melt the +hardest heart that no pestle would do anything but triturate. The +great evangelical doctrine of full and free forgiveness through +Jesus Christ produces a far more vital, vigorous, transforming +recoil from transgression than anything besides. 'Do we make void +the law through faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law.' + +Then, further, another consideration may be suggested, and that is +that the acknowledgment of sin is followed by immediate forgiveness. +Do you think that when Peter turned to his Lord, who had come from +the grave to soothe him, and said, 'I have sinned,' there was any +pause before He said, 'and thou art forgiven'? The only thing that +keeps the divine love from flowing into a man's heart is the barrier +of unforgiven, because unrepented, sin. So soon as the acknowledgment +of sin takes away the barrier--of course, by a force as natural as +gravitation--the river of God's love flows into the heart. The +consciousness of forgiveness may be gradual; the fact of forgiveness +is instantaneous. And the consciousness may be as instantaneous as +the fact, though it often is not. 'I believe in the forgiveness of +sins'; and I believe that a man, that you, may at one moment be held +and bound by the chains of sin, and that at the next moment, as when +the angel touched the limbs of this very Apostle in prison, the +chains may drop from off ankles and wrists, and the prisoner may be +free to follow the angel into light and liberty. Sometimes the change +is instantaneous, and there is no reason why it should not be an +instantaneous change, experienced at this moment, by any man or woman +among us. Sometimes it is gradual. The Arctic spring comes with a +leap, and one day there is thick-ribbed ice, and a few days after +there are grass and flowers. A like swift transformation is within +the limits of possibility for any of us, and--blessed be God! within +the experience of a good many of us. There is no reason why it should +not be that of each of us, as well as of this Apostle. + +Then there is one other thought that I would suggest, viz., that the +man who is led through consciousness of sin and experience of +uninterrupted love which is forgiveness, is thereby led into a +higher and a nobler life. Peter's bitter fall, Peter's gracious +restoration, were no small part of the equipment which made him what +we see him in the days after Pentecost--when the coward that had +been ashamed to acknowledge his Master, and all whose impulsive and +self-reliant devotion passed away before a flippant servant-girl's +tongue, stood before the rulers of Israel, and said: 'Whether it be +right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, +judge ye!' The sense of sin, the assurance of pardon, shatter a +man's unwholesome self-confidence, and develop his self-reliance +based upon his trust in Jesus Christ. The consciousness of sin, and +the experience of pardon, deepen and make more operative in life the +power of the divine love. Thus, the publicans and the harlots do go +into the Kingdom of God many a time before the Pharisees. So let us +all be sure that even our sins and faults may be converted into +stepping stones to higher things. + +III. Lastly, notice the deep silence in which this interview is +shrouded. + +I have already pointed to the occupations of that Resurrection day +as bearing on their face the marks of veracity. It seems to me that +if the story of the Resurrection is not history, the talk between +the denier and the Master would have been a great deal too tempting +a subject for romancers of any kind to have kept their hands off. If +you read the apocryphal gospels you will see how eager they are to +lay hold of any point in the true gospels, and spin a whole farrago +of rubbish round about it. And do you think they could ever have let +this incident alone without spoiling it by expanding it, and putting +all manner of vulgarities into their story about it? But the men who +told the story were telling simple facts, and when they did not know +anything they said nothing. + +But why did not Peter say anything about it? Because nobody had +anything to do with it but himself and his Master. It was his +business, and no one else's. The other scene by the lake reinstated +him in his office, and it was public because it concerned others +also; but what passed when he was restored to his faith was of no +concern to any one but the Restorer and the restored. And so, dear +friends, a religion which has a great deal to say about its +individual experiences is in very slippery places. The less you +think about your emotions, and eminently the less you talk about +them, the sounder, the truer, and the purer they will be. Goods in a +shop-window get fly-blown very quickly, and lose their lustre. All +the deep secrets of a man's life, his love for his Lord, the way by +which he came to Him, his penitence for his sin, like his love for +his wife, had better speak in deeds than in words to others. Of +course while that is true on one side, we are not to forget the +other side. Reticence as to the secret things of my own personal +experience is never to be extended so as to include silence as to +the fact of my Christian profession. Sometimes it is needful, wise, +and Christlike for a man to lift the corner of the bridal curtain, +and let in the day to some extent, and to say, 'Of whom I am chief, +but I obtained mercy.' Sometimes there is no such mighty power to +draw others to the faith which we would fain impart, as to say, +'Whether this Man be a sinner or no, I know not; but one thing I +know, that whereas I was blind now I see.' Sometimes--always--a man +must use his own personal experience, cast into general forms, to +emphasise his profession, and to enforce his appeals. So very +touchingly, if you will turn to Peter's sermons in the Acts, you +will find that he describes himself there (though he does not hint +that it is himself) when he appeals to his countrymen, and says, 'Ye +denied the Holy One and the Just.' The personal allusion would make +his voice vibrate as he spoke, and give force to the charge. +Similarly, in the letter which goes by his name--the second of the +two Epistles of Peter--there is one little morsel of evidence that +makes one inclined to think that it is his, notwithstanding the +difficulties in the way, viz., that he sums up all the sins of the +false teachers whom he is denouncing in this: 'Denying the Lord that +bought them.' But with these limitations, and remembering that the +statement is not one to be unconditionally and absolutely put, let +the silence with regard to this interview teach us to guard the +depths of our own Christian lives. + +Now, dear brethren, have you ever gone apart with Jesus Christ, as +if He and you were alone in the world? Have you ever spread out all +your denials and faults before Him? Have you ever felt the swift +assurance of His forgiving love, covering over the whole heap, which +dwindles as His hand lies upon it? Have you ever felt the increased +loathing of yourselves which comes with the certainty that He has +passed by all your sins? If you have not, you know very little about +Christ, or about Christianity (if I may use the abstract word) or +about yourselves; and your religion, or what you call your religion, +is a very shallow and superficial and inoperative thing. Do not +shrink from being alone with Jesus Christ. There is no better place +for a guilty man, just as there is no better place for an erring +child than its mother's bosom. When Peter had caught a dim glimpse +of what Jesus Christ was, he cried: 'Depart from me, for I am a +sinful man, O Lord!' When he knew his Saviour and himself better, he +clung to Him because he was so sinful. Do the same, and He will say +to you: 'Son, thy sins be forgiven thee; Daughter, thy faith hath +made thee whole. Go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.' + + + + +THE TRIUMPHANT END + + + 'And as they thus spake, Jesus Himself stood in the + midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. + 37. But they were terrified and affrighted, and + supposed that they had seen a spirit. 38. And He said + unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts + arise in your hearts? 39. Behold My hands and My feet, + that it is I Myself: handle Me, and see; for a spirit + hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have. 40. And + when He had thus spoken, He shewed them His hands and + His feet. 41. And while they yet believed not for joy, + and wondered, He said unto them, Have ye here any + meat? 42. And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, + and of an honeycomb. 43. And He took it, and did eat + before them. 44. And He said unto them, These are the + words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with + you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were + written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and + in the psalms, concerning Me. 45. Then opened He their + understanding, that they might understand the + scriptures, 46. And said unto them, Thus it is written, + and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from + the dead the third day: 47. And that repentance and + remission of sins should be preached in His name among + all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48. And ye are + witnesses of these things. 49. And, behold, I send the + promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye in the + city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from + on high. 50. And He led them out as far as to Bethany; + and He lifted up His hands, and blessed them. 51. And + it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted + from them, and carried up into heaven. 52. And they + worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great + joy: 53. And were continually in the temple, praising + and blessing God.'--LUKE xxiv. 36-53. + +There are no marks of time in this passage, and, for anything that +appears, the narrative is continuous, and the Ascension might have +occurred on the evening of the Resurrection. But neither is there +anything to forbid interpreting this close of Luke's Gospel by the +fuller details contained in the beginning of his other treatise, the +Acts, where the space of forty days interposes between the +Resurrection and the Ascension. It is but reasonable to suppose that +an author's two books agree, when he gives no hint of change of +opinion, and it is reasonable to regard the narrative in this +passage as a summary of the whole period of forty days. If so, it +contains three things,--the first appearance of the risen Lord to +the assembled disciples (vs. 36-43), a condensed summary of the +teachings of the risen Lord (vs. 44-49), and an equally compressed +record of the Ascension (vs. 50-53). + +I. The proofs of the Resurrection graciously granted to incredulous +love (vs. 36-43). The disciples were probably assembled in the upper +room, where the Lord's Supper had been instituted, and which became +their ordinary meeting-place (Acts i.) up till Pentecost. What +sights that room saw! There, when night had come, they were +discussing the strange reports of the Resurrection, when, all +suddenly, they saw Jesus, not coming or moving, but standing in the +midst. Had He come in unnoticed by them in their eager talk? The +doors were shut. How had this calm Presence become visible all at +once? + +So little were they the enthusiastic, credulous people whom modern +theories which explain away the Resurrection assume them to have +been, that even His familiar voice in His familiar salutation, +tenfold more significant now than ever before, did not wake belief +that it was verily He. They fled to the ready refuge of supposing +that they saw 'a spirit.' Our Lord has no rebukes for their +incredulity, but patiently resumes His old task of instruction, and +condescends to let them have the evidence of two senses, not +shrinking from their investigating touch. When even these proofs +were seen by Him to be insufficient, He added the yet more cogent +one of 'eating before them.' Then they were convinced. + +Now their incredulity is important, and the acknowledgment shows the +simple historical good faith of the narrator. A witness who at first +disbelieved is all the more trustworthy. These hopeless mourners who +had forgotten all Christ's prophecies of His Resurrection, and were +so fixed in their despair that the two from Emmaus could not so far +kindle a gleam of hope as to make them believe that their Lord stood +before them, were not the kind of people in whom hallucination would +operate, as modern deniers of the Resurrection make them out to have +been. What changed their mood? A fancy? Surely nothing less than a +solid fact. Hallucination may lay hold on a solitary, morbid mind, +but it does not attack a company, and it scarcely reaches to +fancying touch and the sight of eating. + +Note Luke's explanation of the persistent incredulity, as being 'for +joy.' It is like his notice that the three in Gethsemane 'slept for +sorrow.' Great emotion sometimes produces effects opposite to what +might have been expected. Who can wonder that the mighty fact which +turned the black smoke of despair into bright flame should have +seemed too good to be true? The little notice brings the disciples +near to our experience and sympathy. Christ's loving forbearance and +condescending affording of more than sufficient evidence show how +little changed He was by Death and Resurrection. He is as little +changed by sitting at the right hand of God. Still He is patient +with our slow hearts. Still He meets our hesitating faith with +lavish assurances. Still He lets us touch Him, if not with the hand +of sense, with the truer contact of spirit, and we may have as firm +personal experience of the reality of His life and Presence as had +that wondering company in the upper room. + +II. Verses 44-49 are best taken as a summary of the forty days' +teaching. They fall into stages which are distinctly separated. +First we have (ver. 44) the reiteration of Christ's earlier +teaching, which had been dark when delivered, and now flashed up +into light when explained by the event. 'These are my words which I +spake,' and which you did not understand or note. Jesus asserts that +He is the theme of all the ancient revelation. If we suppose that +the present arrangement of the Old Testament existed then, its +present three divisions are named; namely, Law, Prophets, and +Hagiographa, as represented by its chief member. But, in any case, +He lays His hand on the whole book, and declares that He, and His +Death as sacrifice, are inwrought into its substance. 'The testimony +of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.' Whatever views we hold as to +the date and manner of origin of the Old Testament books, we miss +the most pregnant fact about them if we fail to recognise that they +all point onwards to Him. + +Another stage is marked by that remarkable expression, 'He opened +their mind.' His teaching was not, like ours, from without only. He +gave not merely instruction, but inspiration. It was not enough to +spread truth before the disciples. He did more; He made them able to +receive it. He gives no lesser gifts from the throne than He gave in +the upper room, and we may receive, if our minds are kept expectant +and in touch with Him, the same inward eye to see wondrous things +out of the Word. + +Verse 46, by its repetition of 'and He said,' seems to point to +another stage, in which the teaching as to the meaning of the Old +Testament passes into instructions for the future. Already Jesus had +hinted at the cessation of the old close intercourse in that +pathetic 'while I was yet with you,' and now He goes on to outline +the functions and equipment of the disciples in the future period of +His absence. As to the past sufferings, He indicates a double +necessity for them,--one based on their having been predicted; +another, deeper, based on the fitness of things. These sufferings +made the preaching of repentance and forgiveness possible, and +imposed on His followers the obligation of preaching His name to all +the world. Without the Cross His servants would have no gospel. +Having the Cross, His servants are bound to publish it everywhere. + +The universal reach of His atonement is implied in the commission. +The sacrifice for the world's sin is the sole ground of remission of +sin, and is to be proclaimed to every creature. Mark that here the +same word is employed in connection with proclaiming Christ's Death +as in John's version of this saying (John xx. 23), which is misused +as a fortress of the priestly power of absolution. The plain +inference is that the servant's power of remission is exercised by +preaching the Master's death of expiation. + +The ultimate reach of the message is to be to all nations; the +beginning of the universal gospel is to be at Jerusalem. The whole +history of the world and the Church lies between these two. By that +command to begin at Jerusalem, the connection of the Old with the +New is preserved, the Jewish prerogative honoured, the path made +easier for the disciples, the development of the Church brought into +unison with their natural sentiments and capacities. + +The spirit of the commandment remains still imperative. 'The eyes of +a fool are in the ends of the earth.' A wise and Christlike +beneficence will not gaze far afield, and neglect things close at +our doors. The scoff at the supporters of foreign missions, as if +they quixotically went abroad when they should work at home, has +no point even as regards Christian practice, for it is the people +who work for the distant heathen who also toil for home ones; but it +has still less ground in regard to Christian conceptions of duty, +for the Lord of the harvest has bidden the reapers begin with the +fields nearest them. + +The equipment for work is investiture with divine power. A partial +bestowment of the Spirit, which is the Father's promise, took place +while Jesus spoke. 'I send' refers to something done at the moment; +but the fuller clothing with that garment of power was to be waited +for in expectancy and desire. No man can do the Christian work of +witnessing for and of Christ without that clothing with power. It +was granted as an abiding gift on Pentecost. It needs perpetual +renewal. We may all have it. Without it, eloquence, learning, and +all else, are but as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. + +III. Verses 50-53 give us the transcendent miracle which closes the +earthly life of Jesus. We cannot here enter on the large questions +which it raises, but must content ourselves with simply pointing to +the salient features of Luke's condensed account. The mention of the +place as 'over against Bethany' recalls the many memories of that +village where Jesus had found His nearest approach to a home, where +He had exercised His stupendous life-giving power, whence He had set +out to the upper room and the near Cross. His last act was to bless +His followers. He is the High-priest for ever, and these uplifted +hands meant a sacreder thing than the affectionate good wishes of a +departing friend. He gives the blessings which He invokes. His wish +is a conveyance of good. + +The hands remained in the attitude of benediction while He ascended, +and the last sight of Him, as the cloud wrapped Him round, showed +Him shedding blessing from them. He continues that attitude and act +till He comes again. Two separate motions are described in verse 51. +He was parted from them,--that is, withdrew some little distance on +the mountain, that all might see, and none might hinder, His +departure; and 'was carried up into heaven' by a slow upward +movement, as the word implies. Contrast this with Elijah's rapture. +There was no need of fiery chariot or whirlwind to lift Jesus to the +heavens. He went up where He was before, returning to the glory +which He had with the Father before the world was. The end matches +the beginning. The supernatural birth corresponds with the +supernatural departure. + +We have to think of that Ascension as the entrance of corporeal +humanity into the divine glory, as the beginning of His heavenly +activity for the world, as the token of His work being triumphantly +completed, as the prophecy and pledge of immortal life like His own +for all who love Him. Therefore we may share the joy which flooded +the lately sorrowful disciples' hearts, and, like them, should make +all life sacred, and be continually in the Temple, blessing God, and +have the deep roots of our lives hid with Christ in the glory. + + + + +CHRIST'S WITNESSES + + + 'Ye are witnesses of these things. 49. And, behold, I + send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye + in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with + power from on high.'--LUKE xxiv. 48, 49. + +Luke's account of the Resurrection and subsequent forty days is so +constructed as to culminate in this appointment of the disciples to +their high functions and equipment for it, by the gift of the Holy +Spirit. The Evangelist has evidently in view his second 'treatise,' +and is here preparing the link of connection between it and the +Gospel. Hence this very condensed summary of many conversations lays +stress upon these points--the fulfilment of prophecy in Christ's +life and death; the world-wide destination of the blessings to be +proclaimed in His name; and the appointment and equipment of the +disciples. + +The same notes are again struck in the beginning of the Acts of the +Apostles. The same charge to the disciples, when viewed in +connection with Christ's life on earth, may be considered as its end +and aim; and when viewed in connection with the history of the +Church, as its foundation and beginning. So that we are following in +the line plainly marked out for us by the Evangelist himself, when +we take these words as containing a charge and a gift as really +belonging to all Christians in this day as to the little group on +the road to Bethany, to whom they were first addressed on the +Ascension morning. There are, then, but two points to be looked at +in the words before us; the one the function of the Church, and the +other its equipment for it. + +I. The task of the Church. + +Now, of course, I need not remind you that there is a special sense +in which the office of witness-bearing belonged only to those who +had seen Christ in the flesh, and could testify to the fact of His +Resurrection. I need not dwell upon that further than to remark that +the fact that the designation of the first preachers of the Gospels +was 'witnesses' is significant of a great deal. For witness implies +fact, and the nature of their message, as being the simple +attestation to the occurrence of things that truly happened in the +earth, is wrapped up in that name. They were not speculators, +philosophers, moralists, legislators. They had neither to argue nor +to dissertate, nor to lay down rules for conduct, nor to ventilate +their own fancies. They were witnesses, and their business was to +tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. All +doctrine and all morality will come second. The first form of the +Gospel is, 'How that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the +Scriptures, and that He was raised again the third day, according to +the Scriptures.' First, a history; then a religion; then a morality; +and morality and religion because it is a history of redemption. + +These early Christians were witnesses in another sense. The very +existence of the Church at all was a testimony to that supernatural +fact without which it could not have been. We are often told in +recent years that the belief in the Resurrection grew slowly up +amongst the early Christians. What became of the Church whilst it +was growing? What held it together? How comes it that the fate of +Christ's followers was not the fate of the followers of Theudas and +other people that rose up, 'boasting themselves to be somebody,' +whose followers as a matter of course, 'came to nought' when the +leader was slain? There is only one answer. 'He rose again from the +dead.' Else there is no possibility of accounting for the fact that +the Church as a distinct organisation survived Calvary. The +Resurrection was no gradually evolved hardening of desire and fancy +into fact, but it was the foundation upon which the Church was +built. 'Ye'--by your words and by your existence as a community--'are +the witnesses of these things.' + +But that is somewhat apart from the main purpose of my remarks now. +I desire rather to emphasise the thought that, with modifications in +form, the substance of the functions of these early believers +remains still the office and dignity of all Christian men. 'Ye are +the witnesses of these things.' + +And what is the manner of testimony that devolves upon you and me, +Christian friends? Witness by your lives. Most men take their +notions of what Christianity is from the average of the Christians +round about them. And, if we profess to be Christ's followers, we +shall be taken as tests and specimen cases of the worth of the +religion that we profess. 'Ye are the Epistles of Christ,' and if +the writing be blurred and blotted and often half unintelligible, +the blame will be laid largely at His door. And men will say, and +say rightly, 'If that is all that Christianity can do, we are just +as well without it.' It is our task to 'adorn the doctrine of +Christ,' marvellous as it may seem that anything in our poor lives +can commend that fairest of all beautiful things--and to commend it +to some hearts. Just as some poor black-and-white engraving of a +masterpiece of the painter's brush may, to an eye untrained in the +harmony of colour, be a better interpretation of the artist's +meaning than his own proper work, so our feeble copies of the +transcendent splendour and beauty may suit some purblind and +untrained eyes better than the serener and loftier perfection which +we humbly copy. 'We are the witnesses of these things.' And depend +upon it, mightier than all direct effort, and more unusual than all +utterances of lip, is the witness of the life of all professing +Christians to the reality of the facts upon which they say they base +their faith. + +But beyond that, there is yet another department of testimony which +belongs to each of us, and that is the attestation of personal +experience. That is a form of Christian service which any and every +Christian can put forth. You cannot all be preachers, in the +technical sense. You cannot all be thinkers and strong champions, +argumentative or otherwise, for God's truth. But I will tell you +what you all can be. You can all say, 'Come and hear all ye; and I +will declare what He hath done for my soul.' It does not take +eloquence, gifts, learning, intellectual grasp of the doctrinal side +of Christian truth for a man to say, as the first preacher of Christ +upon earth said, 'Brother! we have found the Messias.' That was all, +and that was enough. That you can say, if you _have_ found Him, +and after all, the witness of personal experience of what faith in +Jesus Christ can make of a man, and do for a man, is the strongest +and most universal weapon placed in the hands of Christian men and +women. There is nothing that goes so far as that, if it be backed up +by a life corresponding, which, like a sounding-board behind a man, +flings his words out into the world'; 'Whether this man be a sinner +or no I know not'; 'I leave all that talk about heights and depths +of argument and controversy to other people, but this one thing I +know'--not I _think,_ not I _believe,_ not I am disposed to come to +the conclusion that--but 'this one thing I _know_, that whereas I +was blind now I see.' There is no getting over that! 'Ye are the +witnesses of these things.' And do not be ashamed of your function, +nor slothful nor cowardly in its discharge. + +May I say a word here about the grounds on which this obligation to +witness rests for us? If Jesus Christ had never said, 'Go ye into +all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,' it would not +have made a bit of difference as to the imperative duty that is laid +upon all Christian men; for that arises, not from that command, +which only gives voice to a previous obligation, but it flows, from +the very nature of things, from the message that we receive from our +links with other men and from the constitution and make of our own +natures. + +It flows directly from the gift that we have received. There are +plenty of truths which, _per se_, carry with them no obligation +to impart them. But any truth in which is wrapped up the possible +happiness of another man, any truth which bears upon moral or +spiritual subjects, carries with it the strongest obligation to +impart it. We have such large insights into God and His love as the +Gospel gives us, not that we may eat our morsel alone, or merely sun +ourselves in the light, and expatiate in the warmth of the beams +that come to us, but that we may share them with all around: 'God, +who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined into +our hearts,' that we may 'give the light of the knowledge of the +glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' + +The obligation arises from the links that knit us all together. 'Am +I my brother's keeper?' Why, the question answers itself. If he is +_your_ 'brother,' you are certainly _his_ 'keeper.' And you cannot +shuffle off the obligation by any irrelevant pitting of one field of +Christian work against another; still less by any criticism, hostile +or friendly, as it may be, of the methods of Christian work, or of the +parity and elevation of the character and motives of the workers. +Humanity is one, linked by a mystic chain, and every link of it should +thrill by a common impulse; and through all the members there should +circulate a common life. That great thought is one of the gains that +the Gospel has brought us, and in the presence of it and our indebtedness +and obligation to every man, woman, and child that bears the form of +man, all geographical limits to Christian witnessing seem supremely +absurd and incongruous. You cannot get rid of your obligation by saying, +'I do not care about foreign missions, I go in for home ones.' And you +cannot get rid of it by chiming in an ignorant second to the talk +that has been going on lately, carping at or criticising methods of +work. It would be a very strange thing if we had hit all at once, in +the very beginning of an enterprise, upon the best of all possible +methods; and it would be a very strange thing if the mission-field +is the only one where there are no lazy workers and selfish motives +and unworthy occupants of high places. All that is true about home +as it is about other places. But grant it all, and back comes the +obligation based upon the nature of the truth that we have received, +upon our links with our brethren, and upon our loyalty to our +Master, and it peals into the ears of every Christian man and woman: +'Thou art a witness of these things'; and 'to this end wert thou +born again, that thou mightest bear witness to the truth.' + +Ah, brethren! the issues of faithfulness to that high function are +sweet and blessed and wonderful. A witnessing Christian will be a +believing Christian; for there is no surer way to deepen my own +convictions about any moral or spiritual truth than to constitute +myself their humble servant to proclaim them. Whosoever is a +believer should be an apostle, and if he is an apostle he will be +tenfold a believer. There is nothing which will give a man a firmer +grasp of the Gospel for his own soul than when he finds that, +ministered by his humble efforts, it produces in other hearts the +same effects which he finds it working upon himself. There is no +page in the great book of the evidences of the truth of Christianity +more conclusive than that which in the last century has been written +by the experience of Christian missions. Let the objectors, Jannes +and Jambres, who withstood Moses, let them do the same with their +enchantments, and then we will discuss the questions of the truth of +the Gospel with them. + +Nor need I do more than remind you of the highest of all blessed +issues which is yet to come. 'Be thou faithful unto death and I will +give thee a crown of life.' Alas! alas! how many of us professing +Christians will have to stand at last without that 'crown of +rejoicing' which they wear who, by their poor work and witness, have +won some souls to the Master. Do you, Christian men, contemplate +entering heaven alone, or bringing your sheaves with you? It will be +sad to stand with hands empty then, because they were idle in the +days of the seed-basket and the reaping-hook, whilst those that +sowed and those that reaped shall rejoice together. 'Ye are the +witnesses of these things': see to it that you do your work. + +II. And now, secondly, and briefly, note the equipment of the +witnesses for their task. + +Our Lord here distinguishes two stages in the endowment. Then and +there they receive the gift of the Divine Spirit, as is more fully +recorded in John's account of these last days, but that gift, rich +and precious as it was, was not yet the full bestowment which they +needed for their task. That came on the day of Pentecost. Mark the +vivid and picturesque word which our Lord here employs: 'Until ye be +_clothed_ with power from on high.' That divine gift coming +down as a vesture, wraps and covers and hides their own weakness, +their own naked and poor personality. + +I can only say a word or two about this matter. The same collocation +of ideas--a witnessing Spirit by whose indwelling energy the +Christian community becomes witnesses, is found (and has been +explained at length by me in former discourses) in the farewell +words of our Lord in the upper chamber. 'The Spirit of Truth which +proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness of Me, and ye also +shall bear witness because ye have been with Me from the beginning.' + +I need only remark here that the only power by which Christians can +discharge their work of witnessing in the world is the power which +clothes them from above. The new life which Jesus Christ brings and +gives to us is the only life which will avail for discharging this +office. Our self-will, the old life of nature, with all its +dependence upon ourselves, is nought in reference to this task. But +when that divine spark enters into men's hearts, then natural +endowments are heightened into supernatural gifts, and new forces +are developed, and new powers are bestowed and the earthen vessel is +filled with new treasure. Without it--and there is a great deal of +so-called Christian witnessing to-day without it--noise, +advertising, skill in getting up externals, and all the other +unworthy methods which Christian churches sometimes stoop to adopt, +are powerless, as they ought to be. You may accomplish a great deal +by fussy activity which calls itself Christian earnestness, and has +not God's Spirit in it. But it is no more growth than are what the +children call 'devil's puff-balls' which they find in the fields in +these autumn mornings; and it will go up in poisonous, brown dust +like these when it is pricked. + +The one condition of Christian churches doing their Christian work +is that they shall be clothed and filled with God's Spirit. Do not +let us rely on machinery; do not let us rely on externals; do not +let us rely on advertising tricks which might do very well for a +cheap shop, but are all out of harmony with the work that we have to +do; but let us rely on this, and on this alone. Holding converse +with God and Christ, we shall come out of the secret place of the +Most High with our faces glowing with the communion, and our lips on +fire to proclaim the sweetnesses that lie within the shrine. + +One word more and I have done. This clothing with the Spirit, which +is the only fitness of the Church for its witnessing work, is only +to be won by much solitary waiting. 'Tarry ye,' or as in the +original it stands even more vividly, _'Sit ye still_ in the +city ... till ye be clothed.' It is because so many Christian +workers are so seldom alone with Christ that so much of their work +is nought, and comes to nought. To draw apart from outward activity +into the solitary place, and sit with Him, is the only means by +which we can keep up the freshness of our own spirits, and be fit +for His service. Mary was being trained for Martha's work when she +sat at Christ's feet; but Martha could not do hers without being +'troubled and careful,' because she was more accustomed to the work +than to the communion that would have made it light. + +So, Christian friends, behold your task and your equipment. I +beseech you, who call yourselves Christ's servants, to lay to heart +your plain and unavoidable obligations. If you have found Jesus, you +are as truly and as individually bound to proclaim Him as if a +definite and direct divine command sounded in your ears. Your +possession of the Gospel as the food of your own souls binds you to +impart it to all the famished. The call to witness comes as straight +to you as it did to the young Pharisee on the road to Damascus when +he heard 'Saul! Saul!' called from the sky. + +May you and I answer as he did, 'Lord! what wilt Thou have _me_ +to do!' + + + + +THE ASCENSION + + + 'And He led them out as far as to Bethany, and He + lifted up His hands, and blessed them. 51. And it + came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted + from them, and carried up into heaven.' + --LUKE xxiv. 50, 51. + + 'And when He had spoken these things, while they + beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him + out of their sight.'--ACTS i. 9. + +Two of the four Evangelists, viz., Matthew and John, have no record +of the Ascension. But the argument which infers ignorance from +silence, which is always rash, is entirely discredited in this case. +It is impossible to believe that Matthew, who wrote as the last word +of his gospel the great words, 'All power is given unto Me in heaven +and in earth ... lo! I am with you alway....' was ignorant of the +fact which alone makes these words credible. And it is equally +impossible to believe that the Evangelist who recorded the tender +saying to Mary, 'Go to My brethren, and say unto them I ascend to My +Father, and your Father,' was ignorant of its fulfilment. The +explanation of the silence is to be sought in a quite different +direction. It comes from the fact that to the Evangelists, rightly, +the Ascension was but the prolongation and the culmination of the +Resurrection. That being recorded, there was no need for the +definite record of this. + +There is another singular point about these records, viz., that Luke +has two accounts, one in the end of his gospel, one in the beginning +of Acts; and that these two accounts are obviously different. The +differences have been laid hold of as a weapon with which to attack +the veracity of both accounts. But there again a little +consideration clears the path. The very places in which they +respectively occur might have solved the difficulty, for the one is +at the end of a book, and the other is at the beginning of a book; +and so, naturally, the one regards the Ascension as the end of the +earthly life, and the other as the beginning of the heavenly. The +one is all suffused with evening light; the other is radiant with +the promise of a new day. The one is the record of a tender +farewell, in the other the sense of parting has almost been absorbed +in the forward look to the new phase of relationship which is to +begin. If Luke had been a secular biographer, the critics would have +been full of admiration at the delicacy of his touch, and the +fineness of keeping in the two narratives, the picture being the +same in both, and the scheme of colouring being different. But as he +is only an Evangelist, they fall foul of him for his 'discrepancies.' +It is worth our while to take both his points of view. + +But there is another thing to be remembered, that, as the appendix +of his account of the Ascension in the book of the Acts, Luke tells +us of the angel's message;--'This same Jesus ... shall ... return.' +So there are three points of view which have to be combined in order +to get the whole significance of that mighty fact: the Ascension as +an end; the Ascension as a beginning; the Ascension as the pledge of +the return. Now take these three points. + +I. We have the aspect of the Ascension as an end. + +The narrative in Luke's gospel, in its very brevity, does yet +distinctly suggest that retrospective and valedictory tone. Note +how, for instance, we are told the locality--'He led them out as far +as Bethany.' The name at once strikes a chord of remembrance. What +memories clustered round it, and how natural it was that the parting +should take place there, not merely because the crest of the Mount +of Olives hid the place from the gaze of the crowded city; but +because it was within earshot almost of the home where so much of +the sweet earthly fellowship, that was now to end, had passed. The +same note of regarding the scene as being the termination of those +blessed years of dear and familiar intercourse is struck in the +fact, so human, so natural, so utterly inartificial, that He lifted +His hands to bless them, moved by the same impulse with which so +often we have wrung a hand at parting, and stammered, 'God bless +you!' And the same valedictory hue is further deepened by the fact +that what Luke puts first is not the Ascension, but the parting. 'He +was parted from them,' that is the main fact; 'and He was carried up +into heaven,' comes almost as a subordinate one. At all events it is +regarded mainly as being the medium by which the parting was +effected. + +So the aspect of the Ascension thus presented is that of a tender +farewell; the pathetic conclusion of three long, blessed years. And +yet that is not all, for the Evangelist adds a very enigmatic word: +'They returned to Jerusalem with great joy.' Glad because He had +gone? No. Glad merely because He had gone up? No. The saying is a +riddle, left at the end of the book, for readers to ponder, and is a +subtle link of connection with what is to be written in the next +volume, when the aspect of the Ascension as an end is subordinate, +and its aspect as a beginning is prominent. So regarded, it filled +the disciples with joy. Thus you see, I think, that without any +illegitimate straining of the expressions of the text, we do come to +the point of view from which, to begin with, this great event must +be looked at. We have to take the same view, and to regard that +Ascension not only as the end of an epoch of sweet friendship, but +as the solemn close and culmination of the whole earthly life. I +have no time to dwell upon the thoughts that come crowding into +one's mind when we take that point of view. But let me suggest, in +the briefest way, one or two of them. + +Here is an end which circles round to, and is of a piece with, the +beginning. 'I came forth from the Father, and am come into the +world; again, I leave the world, and go unto the Father.' The +Ascension corresponds with, and meets the miracle of, the +Incarnation. And as the Word who became flesh, came by the natural +path of human birth, and entered in through the gate by which we all +enter, and yet came as none else has come, by His own will, in the +miracle of His Incarnation, so at the end, He passed out from life +through the gate by which we all pass, and 'was obedient unto death, +even the death of the Cross,' and yet He passed likewise on a path +which none but Himself has trod, and ascended up to heaven, whence +He had descended to earth. He came into the world, not as leaving +the Father, for He is 'the Son of Man which is in heaven,' and He +ascended up on high, not as leaving us, for He is 'with us alway, +even to the end of the world.' Thus the Incarnation and the +Ascension support each other. + +But let me remind you how, in this connection, we have the very same +combination of lowliness and gentleness with majesty and power which +runs through the whole of the story of the earthly life of Jesus +Christ. Born in a stable, and waited on by angels, the subject of +all the humiliations of humanity, and flashing forth through them +all the power of divinity, He ascends on high at last, and yet with +no pomp nor visible splendour to the world, but only in the presence +of a handful of loving hearts, choosing some dimple of the hill +where its folds hid them from the city. As He came quietly and +silently into the world, so quietly and silently He passed thence. +In this connection there is more than the picturesque contrast +between the rapture of Elijah, with its whirlwind, and chariot of +fire and horses of fire, and the calm, slow rising, by no external +medium raised, of the Christ. It was fit that the mortal should be +swept up into the unfamiliar heaven by the pomp of angels and the +chariot of fire. It was fit that when Jesus ascended to His 'own +calm home, His habitation from eternity,' there should be nothing +visible but His own slowly rising form, with the hands uplifted, to +shed benediction on the heads of the gazers beneath. + +In like manner, regarding the Ascension as an end, may we not say +that it is the seal of heaven impressed on the sacrifice of the +Cross? 'Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a +Name, which is above every name; that at the Name of Jesus every +knee should bow.' We find in that intimate connection between the +Cross and the Ascension, the key to the deep saying which carries +references to both in itself, when the Lord spoke of Himself as +being lifted up and drawing all men unto Him. The original primary +reference no doubt was to His elevation on the Cross, 'as Moses +lifted up the serpent.' But the final, and at the time of its being +spoken, the mysterious, reference was to the fact that in descending +to the depth of humiliation He was rising to the height of glory. +The zenith of the Ascension is the rebound from the nadir of the +Cross. The lowliness of the stoop measures the loftiness of the +elevation, and the Son of Man was glorified at the moment when the +Son of Man was most profoundly abased. The Cross and the Ascension, +if I might use so violent a figure, are like the twin stars, of +which the heavens present some examples, one dark and lustreless, +one flashing with radiancy of light, but knit together by an +invisible vinculum, and revolving round a common centre. When He +'parted from them, and was carried up into heaven,' He ended the +humiliation which caused the elevation. + +And then, again, I might suggest that, regarded in its aspect as an +end, this Ascension is also the culmination and the natural +conclusion of the Resurrection. As I have said, the Scripture point +of view with reference to these two is not that they are two, but +that the one is the starting point of the line of which the other is +the goal. The process which began when He rose from the dead, +whatever view we may take of the condition of His earthly life +during the forty days of parenthesis, could have no rational and +intelligible ending, except the Ascension. Thus we should think of +it not only as the end of a sweet friendship, but as the end of the +gracious manifestation of the earthly life, the counterpart of the +Incarnation and descent to earth, the end of the Cross and the +culmination of the Resurrection. The Son of Man, the same that also +descended into the lowest parts of the earth, ascended up where He +was before. + +Now let us turn to the other aspect which the Evangelist gives, when +He ceases to be an Evangelist, and becomes a Church Historian. +_Then_ he considers + +II. The Ascension as a beginning. + +The place which it holds in the Acts of the Apostles explains the +point of view from which it is to be regarded. It is the foundation +of everything that the writer has afterwards to say. It is the basis +of the Church. It is the ground of all the activity which Christ's +servants put forth. Not only its place explains this aspect of it, +but the very first words of the book itself do the same. 'The former +treatise have I made ... of all that Jesus began both to do and +teach'--and now I am to tell you of an Ascension, and of all that +Jesus continued to do and teach. So that the book is the history of +the work of the Lord, who was able to do that work, just because He +had ascended up on high. The same impression is produced if we +ponder the conversation which precedes the account of the Ascension +in the book of Acts, which, though it touches the same topics as are +touched by the words that precede the account in the Gospel, yet +presents them in a different aspect, and suggests the endowments +with which the Christian community is to be invested, and the work +which therefore it is to do, in consequence of the Ascension of +Jesus Christ. The Apostle Peter had caught that thought when, on the +day of Pentecost, he said, 'He, being exalted to the right hand of +the Father, hath shed forth this which ye see and hear,' and +throughout the whole book the same point of view is kept up. 'The +work that is done upon earth He doeth it all Himself.' + +So there is in _this_ narrative nothing about parting, there is +nothing about blessing. There is simply the ascending up and the +significant addition of the reception into the cloud, which, whilst +He was yet plainly visible, and not dwindled by distance into a +speck, received Him out of their sight. The cloud was the symbol of +the Divine Presence, which had hung over the Tabernacle, which had +sat between the cherubim, which had wrapped the shepherds and the +angels on the hillside, which had come down in its brightness on the +Mount of Transfiguration, and which now, as the symbol of the Divine +Presence, received the ascending Lord, in token to the men that +stood gazing up into heaven, that He had passed to the right hand of +the Majesty on high. + +Thus we have to think of that Ascension as being the groundwork and +foundation of all the world-wide and age-long energy which the +living Christ is exercising to-day. As one of the other Evangelists, +or at least, the appendix to his gospel, puts it, He ascended up on +high, and 'they went everywhere preaching the word, the Lord also +working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.' It +is the ascended Christ who sends the Spirit upon men; it is the +ascended Christ who opens men's hearts to hear; it is the ascended +Christ who sends forth His messengers to the Gentiles; it is the +ascended Christ who, to-day, is the energy of all the Church's +powers, the whiteness of all the Church's purity, the vitality of +all the Church's life. He lives, and therefore, there is a Christian +community on the face of the earth. He lives, and therefore it will +never die. + +So we, too, have to look to that risen Lord as being the power by +which alone any of us can do either great or small work in His +Church. That Ascension is symbolically put as being to 'the right +hand of God.' What is the right hand of God? The divine omnipotence. +Where is it? Everywhere. What does sitting at the right hand of God +mean? Wielding the powers of omnipotence. And so He says, 'All power +is given unto Me'; and He is working a work to-day, wider in its +aspects than, though it be the application and consequence of, the +work upon the Cross. He cried there, 'It is finished!' but 'the work +of the ascended Jesus' will never be finished until 'the kingdoms +of this world are become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ.' + +There are other aspects of His work in heaven which space will not +allow me to dwell upon, though I cannot but mention them. By the +Ascension Christ begins to prepare a place for us. How could any of +us stand in the presence of that eternal Light if He were not there? +We should be like some savage or rustic swept up suddenly and put +down in the middle of the glittering ring of courtiers round a +throne, unless we could lift our eyes and recognise a known and +loving face there. Where Christ is, I can be. He has taken one human +nature up into the Glory, and other human natures will therefore +find in it a home. + +The ascended Christ, to use the symbolism which one of the New +Testament writers employs for illustration of a thought far greater +than the symbol--has like a High Priest passed within the veil, +'there to appear in the presence of God for us.' And the +intercession which is far more than petition, and is the whole +action of that dear Lord who identifies as with Himself, and whose +mighty work is ever present before the divine mind as an element in +His dealings, that intercession is being carried on for ever for us +all. So, 'set your affection on things above, where Christ is, +sitting at the right hand of God.' So, expect His help in your work, +and do the work which He has left you to carry on here. So, face +death and the dim kingdoms beyond, without quiver and without doubt, +assured that where the treasure is, there the heart will be also; +and that where the Master is, there the servants who follow in His +steps will be also at last. + +And now there is the third aspect here of + +III. The Ascension as being the pledge of the return. + +The two men in white apparel that stood by gently rebuked the gazers +for gazing into heaven. They would not have rebuked them for gazing, +if they could have seen Him, but to look into the empty heaven was +useless. And they added the reason why the heavens need not be +looked at, as long as there is the earth to stand on: 'For this same +Jesus whom ye have seen go into heaven shall so come in like manner +as ye have seen Him go.' Note the emphatic declaration of identity; +'this _same_ Jesus.' Note the use of the simple human name; +'this same _Jesus_,' and recall the thoughts that cluster round +it, of the ascended humanity, and the perpetual humanity of the +ascended Lord, 'the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,' Note +also the strong assertion, of visible, corporeal return: 'Shall so +come in _like_ manner as ye have seen Him go.' That return is +no metaphor, no mere piece of rhetoric, it is not to be eviscerated +of its contents by being taken as a synonym for the diffusion of His +influence all over a regenerated race, but it points to the return +of the Man Jesus locally, corporeally, visibly. 'We believe that +Thou shalt come to be our Judge'; we believe that Thou wilt come to +take Thy servants home. + +The world has not seen the last of Jesus Christ. Such an Ascension, +after such a life, cannot be the end of Him. 'As it is appointed +unto all men once to die, and after death the Judgment, so Christ +also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall +appear the second time, without sin unto salvation.' As inevitably +as for sinful human nature judgment follows death, so inevitably for +the sinless Man, who is the sacrifice for the world's sins, His +judicial return will follow His atoning work, and He will come +again, having received the Kingdom, to take account of His servants, +and to perfect their possession of the salvation which by His +Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, He wrought for +the world. + +Therefore, brethren, one sweet face, and one great fact--the face of +the Christ, the fact of the Cross--should fill the past. One sweet +face, one great fact--the face of the Christ, the fact of His +Presence with us all the days--should fill the present. One regal +face, one great hope, should fill the future; the face of the King +that sitteth upon the throne, the hope that He will come again, and +'so we shall be ever with the Lord.' + + +END OF VOL. II. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + +This file should be named 8xplk10.txt or 8xplk10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8xplk11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8xplk10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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