CHAPTERVIIIUNWORLDLINESSTHEkeynote ofSt.Matthewvi.is, as we have seen, this: that the true motive of the religious life in all its activities is simply the desire for divine approval. It owns one only master, God, whom it trusts with an absolute confidence. There results from this a complete freedom from the anxieties of the world. It is then an unworldly disposition, as the result of simplicity of motive, that our Lord proceeds to enjoin:“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth consume, and where thieves dig through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also.”In the days when our Lord spoke these words people mostly preserved their money and other treasures by concealing it, as in many parts of Europe they do still. Thusthe task of thieves was, in the main, to “dig through” into places in houses or fields where treasure was likely to be hidden. This is the meaning of our Lord’s metaphor. We are to lay up our store in heaven, where no thief can get at it, and where no natural process of corruption can affect it. Now heaven is God’s throne. It is where His will works centrally and peacefully; and the kingdom of the Christ is the kingdom of heaven, because, though a visible society in the world, God is there specially known and recognized, and His good will towards man is consequently at work with a special freedom and fullness.If then you are asked, what is it to lay up treasure in heaven, I think you may answer with great security: To lay up treasure in heaven is to do acts which promote, or belong to, the kingdom of God; and what our Lord assures us of is that any act of our hands, any thought of our heart, any word of our lips, which promotes the divine kingdom by the ordering whether of our own life or of the world outside—all such activity, though it may seem for the moment to be lost, is really stored up in the divinetreasure-house; and when the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, shall at last appear, that honest effort of ours, which seemed so ineffectual, shall be found to be a brick built into that eternal and celestial fabric.And our Lord gives the answer to a difficulty continually perplexing honest Christians—How am I to learn toloveGod? I want to do my duty, but I do not feel as if I loved God. Our Lord gives the answer, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Act for God: do and say the things that He wills: direct your thoughts and intentions God-ward; and depend upon it, in the slow process of nature all that belongs to you—your instincts, your intelligence, your affections, your feelings—will gradually follow along the line of your action. Act for God: you are alreadyshowinglove to Him and you will learn tofeelit.“The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is the darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”The question of vital importance is therefore simply this: are we single-minded in seeking God? Single-mindedness is what gives clearness and force to life. Put God clearly and simply first in great things and in small. Then your life will be full of light, full of power. And, in fact, you must put God first, or nowhere. Examine any man’s life, of what sort it is. Cross-question it. You will find at last that one motive is dominant. Either, at the last push, he will do God’s will, or he will do that by which he thinks to serve his interests in the world. Now, what a man does at the last analysis or when pushed into a corner, that is what reveals his real motive. The motive on which he then acts is his only real master-principle. There can be only one such in a life. At the bottom it is either God which rules a life or mammon,i.e.money. Thus you must put God first, or, in fact, you are putting Him nowhere; if He is not first, then He can be no more than the superficial decoration of a life really devoted to something else.But how can it be, we ask, that the exclusive service of God in all things will not narrow our life? How can God be so“jealous” without restricting our legitimate freedom of expansion? For this reason: that God contains everything in Himself, the whole sum of being; so that there is no beauty or truth or goodness in the world which does not fall to you to delight in as part of your love and service of God. Loving God and serving Him should lead you to watch for and respond to all the truth and beauty that there is in God’s world, all the traits of excellence in human character, and to own your allegiance to your family, to your friends, to your country, to your Church, and to humanity as a whole.“All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours,” if “ye are Christ’s,” as “Christ isGod’s.”73Never let us fear then that to put God first and serve Him utterly will narrow any faculty or dwarf any capacity. It can but fill with an evergrowing largeness every vital force of our being, every instinct of our life. “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”But we must notice the warning which our Lord gives us as to a possible conditionof our conscience. The light that is in us may be darkness. We so often talk as if we were only obliged to “follow our conscience:” as if no one could lay anything to our charge unless we were acting against the present voice of conscience. But this is a very perilous error. We are also obliged to enlighten our conscience and to keep it enlightened. It is as much liable to error as our uninstructed intelligence, as much liable to failure as our sight. Probably of every ten criminals brought up before judge and jury on account of some crime the majority were not, at the time of its commission, acting against their conscience. They had stifled or darkened that long ago. There is, I believe, nothing to which in our time attention needs to be called more than to the fact that conscience is only afacultyfor knowing God and His will. It is certain, unless it is educated, to give wrong information. And the way to educate it, is to put it to school with the “Light of the world.” Alas! there must be multitudes of respectable and self-enlightened people of whom it is true that the light which is in them is darkness.The result of singleness of mind in seeking God is to be a complete freedom from worldly anxiety. The keynote, as it were, of the passage which concludes this chapter is the phrase, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the rest shall be added unto you.” Look to God first. Obey God. Enthrone Him in unique supremacy in your heart. He is your Father, and as such you can trust Him. If day by day you do His will simply, and cast your care on Him, then you can have a wonderful freedom from anxiety as to your future, and can live at peace—the sort of peace which finds its illustration in the fascinating tranquillity of the flowers of the field, and the light-heartedness of the birds of the air. These are our Lord’s words:“Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment? Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto his stature? And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomonin all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”Anxiety—that is what we are to be freed from. It is not forethought, or “carefulness” in that sense, against which our Lord is warning us, but anxiety. We are to trust God. To do daily the duty of the day, and then trust God for the consequences.Our pattern in this freedom from anxiety is, of course, our Lord Himself. You notice that through all His ministry He looked forward, and lived His life as a whole, on a certain plan; but there was no anxiety as to results. It is a sort of symbol of this attitude of mind that once, amidst the howling storm on the lake, the Master was found asleep on a pillow. It is, as it were, an object lesson of what is said in Psalmcxxvii; which more thananything in the Old Testament expresses our Lord’s meaning in this passage:“It is vain for you that ye rise up early, and so late take rest,And eat the bread of toil:For so he giveth unto his beloved sleep.”That is the motto to write under the picture of Christ in the boat on the stormy sea.Our Lord here, as elsewhere, is manifestly expressing Himself in the proverbial manner. It is the proverbial manner to express a thing by an extreme one-sided instance. We have noticed this repeatedly: and that, for this reason, one proverbial utterance may need to be balanced by another contrary one. Thus, on another occasion our Lord bids us take thought of what His service will involve, looking towards the future like a man who is about to build a house or a king who is preparing for a campaign. Here He is putting the other thought, that we are to cast all our care upon God our Father, who careth on our behalf.But indeed if taking this passage alone you think of the metaphors which our Lord employs—metaphors of the flowersof the field and the birds of the air—you will see that what He means to warn us against is anxiety, not prevision. For think of the growth of the plant; it is always looking towards the future in its own instinctive way; the process by which it grows is a gradual process; all its activity is directed towards the preparation of the seeds by which the permanence of the species is secured. And so with the birds when they build their nests: they are making provision. Everything is done by bird and plant in view of the future, but done with a tranquillity which reposes unconsciously upon the purpose of God. What they do unconsciously we are to do consciously.Here, then, is a lesson specially necessary for our time. There is no greater plague of our generation than the nervous anxiety which characterizes all its efforts. How many people are there who make their health much worse than it would naturally be, because they are always morbidly anxious about their symptoms or some possibility of infection. Again and again it is anxiety about health which is a main cause of our unserviceableness in doing our duty. We ought to be reasonablycareful and to go boldly forward in the peace of God.Again, how many good schemes fail because people are so nervously anxious about their success that they never reach that condition of peaceful persistence in work which is necessary if it is to be fruitful. “Semper agens, semper quietus”—“always at work, always tranquil”—that is the right motto.Once more, as to holidays. What a vast mistake people often make in turning a holiday into an occasion of solicitude; seeking for distraction at the expense of repose, and forgetting that the only central repose for wearied or jaded faculties is the reposing upon the Eternal. There alone is “the central peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation.” People would get much more even of physical good from Sunday and holiday rests, if they used them first of all as occasions for returning to God and finding rest in Him. And this applies to the clergy no less than to the laity. “Be still, then, and know that I am God.” That is what we are to learn. Repose upon God quietly, and do daily the duties of the day, and bear daily the evils of the day, and, like Christ ourLord, though it be through cross and passion, we shall come to the glory which is predestined for us by God.And observe the phrase, “Sufficient unto the day is theevilthereof.” Our Lord is not in any sort of way promising us that we shall not suffer trouble if we put our trust in God. What He tells us is simply that “According to thy day, so shall thy strength be.” We are in God’s hands. God gives us the evil and the good. We are only, like our Lord, to trust in His divine fatherhood; and doing our best to-day, exercising our judgement to the best of our power, we are to repose in His love.
THEkeynote ofSt.Matthewvi.is, as we have seen, this: that the true motive of the religious life in all its activities is simply the desire for divine approval. It owns one only master, God, whom it trusts with an absolute confidence. There results from this a complete freedom from the anxieties of the world. It is then an unworldly disposition, as the result of simplicity of motive, that our Lord proceeds to enjoin:
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth consume, and where thieves dig through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also.”
In the days when our Lord spoke these words people mostly preserved their money and other treasures by concealing it, as in many parts of Europe they do still. Thusthe task of thieves was, in the main, to “dig through” into places in houses or fields where treasure was likely to be hidden. This is the meaning of our Lord’s metaphor. We are to lay up our store in heaven, where no thief can get at it, and where no natural process of corruption can affect it. Now heaven is God’s throne. It is where His will works centrally and peacefully; and the kingdom of the Christ is the kingdom of heaven, because, though a visible society in the world, God is there specially known and recognized, and His good will towards man is consequently at work with a special freedom and fullness.
If then you are asked, what is it to lay up treasure in heaven, I think you may answer with great security: To lay up treasure in heaven is to do acts which promote, or belong to, the kingdom of God; and what our Lord assures us of is that any act of our hands, any thought of our heart, any word of our lips, which promotes the divine kingdom by the ordering whether of our own life or of the world outside—all such activity, though it may seem for the moment to be lost, is really stored up in the divinetreasure-house; and when the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, shall at last appear, that honest effort of ours, which seemed so ineffectual, shall be found to be a brick built into that eternal and celestial fabric.
And our Lord gives the answer to a difficulty continually perplexing honest Christians—How am I to learn toloveGod? I want to do my duty, but I do not feel as if I loved God. Our Lord gives the answer, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Act for God: do and say the things that He wills: direct your thoughts and intentions God-ward; and depend upon it, in the slow process of nature all that belongs to you—your instincts, your intelligence, your affections, your feelings—will gradually follow along the line of your action. Act for God: you are alreadyshowinglove to Him and you will learn tofeelit.
“The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is the darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
The question of vital importance is therefore simply this: are we single-minded in seeking God? Single-mindedness is what gives clearness and force to life. Put God clearly and simply first in great things and in small. Then your life will be full of light, full of power. And, in fact, you must put God first, or nowhere. Examine any man’s life, of what sort it is. Cross-question it. You will find at last that one motive is dominant. Either, at the last push, he will do God’s will, or he will do that by which he thinks to serve his interests in the world. Now, what a man does at the last analysis or when pushed into a corner, that is what reveals his real motive. The motive on which he then acts is his only real master-principle. There can be only one such in a life. At the bottom it is either God which rules a life or mammon,i.e.money. Thus you must put God first, or, in fact, you are putting Him nowhere; if He is not first, then He can be no more than the superficial decoration of a life really devoted to something else.
But how can it be, we ask, that the exclusive service of God in all things will not narrow our life? How can God be so“jealous” without restricting our legitimate freedom of expansion? For this reason: that God contains everything in Himself, the whole sum of being; so that there is no beauty or truth or goodness in the world which does not fall to you to delight in as part of your love and service of God. Loving God and serving Him should lead you to watch for and respond to all the truth and beauty that there is in God’s world, all the traits of excellence in human character, and to own your allegiance to your family, to your friends, to your country, to your Church, and to humanity as a whole.“All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours,” if “ye are Christ’s,” as “Christ isGod’s.”73
Never let us fear then that to put God first and serve Him utterly will narrow any faculty or dwarf any capacity. It can but fill with an evergrowing largeness every vital force of our being, every instinct of our life. “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”
But we must notice the warning which our Lord gives us as to a possible conditionof our conscience. The light that is in us may be darkness. We so often talk as if we were only obliged to “follow our conscience:” as if no one could lay anything to our charge unless we were acting against the present voice of conscience. But this is a very perilous error. We are also obliged to enlighten our conscience and to keep it enlightened. It is as much liable to error as our uninstructed intelligence, as much liable to failure as our sight. Probably of every ten criminals brought up before judge and jury on account of some crime the majority were not, at the time of its commission, acting against their conscience. They had stifled or darkened that long ago. There is, I believe, nothing to which in our time attention needs to be called more than to the fact that conscience is only afacultyfor knowing God and His will. It is certain, unless it is educated, to give wrong information. And the way to educate it, is to put it to school with the “Light of the world.” Alas! there must be multitudes of respectable and self-enlightened people of whom it is true that the light which is in them is darkness.
The result of singleness of mind in seeking God is to be a complete freedom from worldly anxiety. The keynote, as it were, of the passage which concludes this chapter is the phrase, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the rest shall be added unto you.” Look to God first. Obey God. Enthrone Him in unique supremacy in your heart. He is your Father, and as such you can trust Him. If day by day you do His will simply, and cast your care on Him, then you can have a wonderful freedom from anxiety as to your future, and can live at peace—the sort of peace which finds its illustration in the fascinating tranquillity of the flowers of the field, and the light-heartedness of the birds of the air. These are our Lord’s words:
“Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment? Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto his stature? And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomonin all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Anxiety—that is what we are to be freed from. It is not forethought, or “carefulness” in that sense, against which our Lord is warning us, but anxiety. We are to trust God. To do daily the duty of the day, and then trust God for the consequences.
Our pattern in this freedom from anxiety is, of course, our Lord Himself. You notice that through all His ministry He looked forward, and lived His life as a whole, on a certain plan; but there was no anxiety as to results. It is a sort of symbol of this attitude of mind that once, amidst the howling storm on the lake, the Master was found asleep on a pillow. It is, as it were, an object lesson of what is said in Psalmcxxvii; which more thananything in the Old Testament expresses our Lord’s meaning in this passage:
“It is vain for you that ye rise up early, and so late take rest,And eat the bread of toil:For so he giveth unto his beloved sleep.”
“It is vain for you that ye rise up early, and so late take rest,And eat the bread of toil:For so he giveth unto his beloved sleep.”
“It is vain for you that ye rise up early, and so late take rest,
And eat the bread of toil:
For so he giveth unto his beloved sleep.”
That is the motto to write under the picture of Christ in the boat on the stormy sea.
Our Lord here, as elsewhere, is manifestly expressing Himself in the proverbial manner. It is the proverbial manner to express a thing by an extreme one-sided instance. We have noticed this repeatedly: and that, for this reason, one proverbial utterance may need to be balanced by another contrary one. Thus, on another occasion our Lord bids us take thought of what His service will involve, looking towards the future like a man who is about to build a house or a king who is preparing for a campaign. Here He is putting the other thought, that we are to cast all our care upon God our Father, who careth on our behalf.
But indeed if taking this passage alone you think of the metaphors which our Lord employs—metaphors of the flowersof the field and the birds of the air—you will see that what He means to warn us against is anxiety, not prevision. For think of the growth of the plant; it is always looking towards the future in its own instinctive way; the process by which it grows is a gradual process; all its activity is directed towards the preparation of the seeds by which the permanence of the species is secured. And so with the birds when they build their nests: they are making provision. Everything is done by bird and plant in view of the future, but done with a tranquillity which reposes unconsciously upon the purpose of God. What they do unconsciously we are to do consciously.
Here, then, is a lesson specially necessary for our time. There is no greater plague of our generation than the nervous anxiety which characterizes all its efforts. How many people are there who make their health much worse than it would naturally be, because they are always morbidly anxious about their symptoms or some possibility of infection. Again and again it is anxiety about health which is a main cause of our unserviceableness in doing our duty. We ought to be reasonablycareful and to go boldly forward in the peace of God.
Again, how many good schemes fail because people are so nervously anxious about their success that they never reach that condition of peaceful persistence in work which is necessary if it is to be fruitful. “Semper agens, semper quietus”—“always at work, always tranquil”—that is the right motto.
Once more, as to holidays. What a vast mistake people often make in turning a holiday into an occasion of solicitude; seeking for distraction at the expense of repose, and forgetting that the only central repose for wearied or jaded faculties is the reposing upon the Eternal. There alone is “the central peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation.” People would get much more even of physical good from Sunday and holiday rests, if they used them first of all as occasions for returning to God and finding rest in Him. And this applies to the clergy no less than to the laity. “Be still, then, and know that I am God.” That is what we are to learn. Repose upon God quietly, and do daily the duties of the day, and bear daily the evils of the day, and, like Christ ourLord, though it be through cross and passion, we shall come to the glory which is predestined for us by God.
And observe the phrase, “Sufficient unto the day is theevilthereof.” Our Lord is not in any sort of way promising us that we shall not suffer trouble if we put our trust in God. What He tells us is simply that “According to thy day, so shall thy strength be.” We are in God’s hands. God gives us the evil and the good. We are only, like our Lord, to trust in His divine fatherhood; and doing our best to-day, exercising our judgement to the best of our power, we are to repose in His love.
CHAPTERIXCHRISTIAN CHARACTERISTICSTHEseventh chapter—the last which belongs to the Sermon—is occupied with a number of accessory topics. The character of the citizen of the kingdom of God has now been portrayed for us; the relation of this character to the old law has been explained; its main motive or principle has been described. Now there follow some characteristics which flow naturally from the relation in which the citizen of the kingdom stands both towards God and towards man. The first of these is the uncritical temper. “Judge not and ye shall not be judged.”
THEseventh chapter—the last which belongs to the Sermon—is occupied with a number of accessory topics. The character of the citizen of the kingdom of God has now been portrayed for us; the relation of this character to the old law has been explained; its main motive or principle has been described. Now there follow some characteristics which flow naturally from the relation in which the citizen of the kingdom stands both towards God and towards man. The first of these is the uncritical temper. “Judge not and ye shall not be judged.”
THEUNCRITICALTEMPERWe should observe that in the parallel passage inSt.Lukevi.this exhortation follows very suggestively upon a description of the character of God which corresponds to an earlier passage inSt.Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount. “Ye shall be the sons of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and the evil. Be ye merciful, even as your Father is merciful. And judge not,”&c.That is to say, God is not critical; He does the best for every one. He gives to every one the gifts he can appreciate. This is to be embodied in the temper of the disciple.“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”Manifestly, what is in our Lord’s mind is the temper and character of the Pharisee. The Pharisee was in his way a strict religionist, a strict observer of religion. But you may almost say that the Pharisee tested progress in religion by the capacity to condemn other people.“This multitude which knoweth not the law isaccursed.”74The Pharisee hadpassed through a certain probation in learning. He had, as it were, passed his examinations and stood his tests; and now he was in a position to set every one else in his proper and subordinate place. That was the very test of his progress, that he was able to “despise others”; and it followed that he could be, in regard to his owninnercharacter, lax and self-satisfied. He had attained the right standard; he was performing the right observances. So long as he did these things, he need not be over-scrupulous in examining himself. Therefore the Pharisee was both critical and hypocritical; critical with regard to others, with regard to himself hypocritical.Our Lord, then, did not mean to make of His disciples a new kind of Pharisee. He did not mean that His disciples, as they grew to learn and follow the strictness of their Master’s standard, should come to be supercilious like the Pharisees, and, like them, morally hollow. Therefore He warns against these two easily combined characteristics.On the contrary, the temper which our Lord approves is the humility whichmakes the best of others, and is severe with itself. You, He seems to say, have every opportunity to know your own failings; therefore look stringently to yourself, “the mote, or the beam, that is in thine own eye.” That “bulks big” enough in your own vision. To consider it prevents you from over-estimating yourself, and humbles you in your own sight. Let it also take out of your heart and off your lips all the readiness to criticize and condemn other people.Make the best of others. For that is, in fact, what our Lord means by “judge not.” It is what we should most naturally express by “Do not be critical.” Because a thing is strange or new to you, because it does not fall in with your ideas, do not condemn it off-hand, but try to appreciate it with sympathy first of all. Make the best of every thing and every person. And there is no doubt that if after looking for the good points in any idea, or undertaking, or person, you are at last bound to condemn, the weight attaching to your adverse verdict will depend very largely on whether you have escaped the reputation of being a “critical”and censorious person. The condemnation of one who is always finding fault carries no moral weight.I say, If at last you are bound to condemn, and that may be the Christian’s duty. For here, again, as throughout this Sermon, we must notice our Lord’s proverbial method, otherwise we may misinterpret altogether the temper which our Lord here commends. There is a temper of universal toleration very prevalent in our age, both in conversation and in literature; which can indeed tolerate everything, because it has no fixed standards of right and wrong, of true and false, at all. But it is clear enough that this was not what our Lord meant to recommend; it would be so utterly antagonistic to His own character. No one is severer in discriminating judgement than our Lord when the occasion requires it. More than this, our Lord did deliberately intend that His Church, and the members of His Church, should have standards of goodness and truth which should enable them—aye, which should require them when duty called—to condemn their own brethren. A passage inSt.Matthew’s Gospel whichhas been referred to already is clear upon this. “If thy brother trespass against thee”—are you to say, “It is of no account. It is not my business to condemn?” No. When it is not a question of the love of criticizing or of uncharitable judgement, but of maintaining the law of right and wrong, then it becomes our business to judge, and after consideration and patience to condemn.“Go, shew him his fault between thee and him alone; if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church: and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican. Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed inheaven.”75Our Lord does here actually commit to the Church—as on an earlier occasion toSt.Peter as the chief and representative apostle—not the right, but the duty, to bind and to loose: that is, to pass judgements as to what is right and what is wrong, what is to be permitted and what is not to be permitted, in theChristian society. Again, after His resurrection He gives to His apostles the power and the duty to apply these judgements to persons, to absolve and to retainsins.76Thus the Church, and each of its members, is not indeed to be censorious in temper, or to make the worst of people; but, when occasion requires, is to maintain the moral standard. So it is thatSt.Paul expressly tells the Corinthian Church that, as a Christian society, they are to judge, not those that are without, but those that are within their own body:and he severely condemns them because they had let pass, or tolerated, a serious moral offence without discriminating judgement being passed uponit.77It is the same where doctrine is concerned. The New Testament continually warns Christians that they are to have standards of judgement;to test all things, and hold fast that which isright;78to test the spirits whether they be ofGod.79And if any teacher come with a doctrine calculated to subvert the principles which lie at the basis of theChristian life,St.Paul andSt.John alike recommend an attitude towards him which cannot exactly be described as tolerance.“As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man preacheth unto you any gospel other than that which ye received, let him be anathema.”“If any one cometh unto you, and bringeth not this teaching, receive him not into your house, and give him no greeting: for he that giveth him greeting partaketh in his evilworks.”80These injunctions are given in view of cases where fundamental matters of principle are at stake.About minor mattersSt.Paul adopts a tone of the widesttoleration.81There is then a duty of judgement: while on the other hand our Lord condemns the critical and censorious temper. Is it not true that a candid conscience finds very little difficulty in distinguishing the duty of judgement from the sin of censoriousness and criticism? And is it not the case that those who have the lowest and vaguest standards of what is true and right, are yet very often the most critical in judgement of other people?We are then to be anxious to make the best of others: and our Lord hereagain recognizes that law which we have so often heard from His lips, that God deals with us as we deal with our fellow-men.“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you.”This describes no doubt how God will deal with us. And from the parallel passage ofSt.Luke we should gather that the retaliation will not be confined to God. As we deal with other men, so other men also will deal with us.“And judge not, and ye shall not be judged: and condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: release, and ye shall be released: give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to youagain.”82From all sides you get as you give. If you deal with men in the critical, censorious, narrow temper, men will deal so with you. If you make the best of others, others will make the best of you.
We should observe that in the parallel passage inSt.Lukevi.this exhortation follows very suggestively upon a description of the character of God which corresponds to an earlier passage inSt.Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount. “Ye shall be the sons of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and the evil. Be ye merciful, even as your Father is merciful. And judge not,”&c.That is to say, God is not critical; He does the best for every one. He gives to every one the gifts he can appreciate. This is to be embodied in the temper of the disciple.
“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
Manifestly, what is in our Lord’s mind is the temper and character of the Pharisee. The Pharisee was in his way a strict religionist, a strict observer of religion. But you may almost say that the Pharisee tested progress in religion by the capacity to condemn other people.“This multitude which knoweth not the law isaccursed.”74The Pharisee hadpassed through a certain probation in learning. He had, as it were, passed his examinations and stood his tests; and now he was in a position to set every one else in his proper and subordinate place. That was the very test of his progress, that he was able to “despise others”; and it followed that he could be, in regard to his owninnercharacter, lax and self-satisfied. He had attained the right standard; he was performing the right observances. So long as he did these things, he need not be over-scrupulous in examining himself. Therefore the Pharisee was both critical and hypocritical; critical with regard to others, with regard to himself hypocritical.
Our Lord, then, did not mean to make of His disciples a new kind of Pharisee. He did not mean that His disciples, as they grew to learn and follow the strictness of their Master’s standard, should come to be supercilious like the Pharisees, and, like them, morally hollow. Therefore He warns against these two easily combined characteristics.
On the contrary, the temper which our Lord approves is the humility whichmakes the best of others, and is severe with itself. You, He seems to say, have every opportunity to know your own failings; therefore look stringently to yourself, “the mote, or the beam, that is in thine own eye.” That “bulks big” enough in your own vision. To consider it prevents you from over-estimating yourself, and humbles you in your own sight. Let it also take out of your heart and off your lips all the readiness to criticize and condemn other people.
Make the best of others. For that is, in fact, what our Lord means by “judge not.” It is what we should most naturally express by “Do not be critical.” Because a thing is strange or new to you, because it does not fall in with your ideas, do not condemn it off-hand, but try to appreciate it with sympathy first of all. Make the best of every thing and every person. And there is no doubt that if after looking for the good points in any idea, or undertaking, or person, you are at last bound to condemn, the weight attaching to your adverse verdict will depend very largely on whether you have escaped the reputation of being a “critical”and censorious person. The condemnation of one who is always finding fault carries no moral weight.
I say, If at last you are bound to condemn, and that may be the Christian’s duty. For here, again, as throughout this Sermon, we must notice our Lord’s proverbial method, otherwise we may misinterpret altogether the temper which our Lord here commends. There is a temper of universal toleration very prevalent in our age, both in conversation and in literature; which can indeed tolerate everything, because it has no fixed standards of right and wrong, of true and false, at all. But it is clear enough that this was not what our Lord meant to recommend; it would be so utterly antagonistic to His own character. No one is severer in discriminating judgement than our Lord when the occasion requires it. More than this, our Lord did deliberately intend that His Church, and the members of His Church, should have standards of goodness and truth which should enable them—aye, which should require them when duty called—to condemn their own brethren. A passage inSt.Matthew’s Gospel whichhas been referred to already is clear upon this. “If thy brother trespass against thee”—are you to say, “It is of no account. It is not my business to condemn?” No. When it is not a question of the love of criticizing or of uncharitable judgement, but of maintaining the law of right and wrong, then it becomes our business to judge, and after consideration and patience to condemn.
“Go, shew him his fault between thee and him alone; if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church: and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican. Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed inheaven.”75
Our Lord does here actually commit to the Church—as on an earlier occasion toSt.Peter as the chief and representative apostle—not the right, but the duty, to bind and to loose: that is, to pass judgements as to what is right and what is wrong, what is to be permitted and what is not to be permitted, in theChristian society. Again, after His resurrection He gives to His apostles the power and the duty to apply these judgements to persons, to absolve and to retainsins.76Thus the Church, and each of its members, is not indeed to be censorious in temper, or to make the worst of people; but, when occasion requires, is to maintain the moral standard. So it is thatSt.Paul expressly tells the Corinthian Church that, as a Christian society, they are to judge, not those that are without, but those that are within their own body:and he severely condemns them because they had let pass, or tolerated, a serious moral offence without discriminating judgement being passed uponit.77
It is the same where doctrine is concerned. The New Testament continually warns Christians that they are to have standards of judgement;to test all things, and hold fast that which isright;78to test the spirits whether they be ofGod.79And if any teacher come with a doctrine calculated to subvert the principles which lie at the basis of theChristian life,St.Paul andSt.John alike recommend an attitude towards him which cannot exactly be described as tolerance.
“As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man preacheth unto you any gospel other than that which ye received, let him be anathema.”
“If any one cometh unto you, and bringeth not this teaching, receive him not into your house, and give him no greeting: for he that giveth him greeting partaketh in his evilworks.”80
These injunctions are given in view of cases where fundamental matters of principle are at stake.About minor mattersSt.Paul adopts a tone of the widesttoleration.81
There is then a duty of judgement: while on the other hand our Lord condemns the critical and censorious temper. Is it not true that a candid conscience finds very little difficulty in distinguishing the duty of judgement from the sin of censoriousness and criticism? And is it not the case that those who have the lowest and vaguest standards of what is true and right, are yet very often the most critical in judgement of other people?
We are then to be anxious to make the best of others: and our Lord hereagain recognizes that law which we have so often heard from His lips, that God deals with us as we deal with our fellow-men.
“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you.”
This describes no doubt how God will deal with us. And from the parallel passage ofSt.Luke we should gather that the retaliation will not be confined to God. As we deal with other men, so other men also will deal with us.
“And judge not, and ye shall not be judged: and condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: release, and ye shall be released: give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to youagain.”82
From all sides you get as you give. If you deal with men in the critical, censorious, narrow temper, men will deal so with you. If you make the best of others, others will make the best of you.
RESERVE INCOMMUNICATINGRELIGIOUSPRIVILEGESThe next characteristic of the temperof the Christian follows by way of contrast on what has gone before. It is reserve in communicating religious privileges.“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you.”There are high privileges which many men cannot appreciate; and if you press these upon them, you must not be surprised if, indignant with you for having given them something which seems so worthless, they take violent reprisals upon you.We ask the question, Has our Lord, in inculcating the uncritical temper, inculcated the undiscriminating temper also? Certainly not. That which the Christian has received is of inestimable worth. The kingdom of God, as our Lord told us, is like a pearl of great price, which when a man hath found, for joy thereof he goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that pearl. The Christian knows what it is to be a Christian, admitted into the fellowship of God, illuminated by His truth, empowered by His Spirit. In the light of God in which he lives he cannot butgaze out into the world with a discrimination like his Lord’s.Our Lord, we notice, gave men the best they were capable of receiving. To all the world, if they had but the faith to trust His power, He gave the outpouring of that power in works of healing. He had compassion on them; He gave them what alone they were capable of appreciating—kindness, goodness. But did He teach all men the highest truth? No. He sifted, He discriminated them, till He had got those to deal with who really had ears to hear the highest truth, and then He told it them. Our Lord did not cast His pearls before swine, lest they should turn again and rend Him.Thus we are to put before men what they are capable of appreciating. Not by any merits of ours, God has given us admission to His fellowship; He has given us great things and small things. We are not to be selfish misers, we are to be anxious to communicate all; but we are to be discriminating. Kindness, self-sacrifice, care for their interests, and their whole life—that all men can appreciate, and we are to give it to all. But we are not to shriek the highesttruths of religion at the street corner. We are to wait till people show a desire for the deepest things before we offer them religion. There is to be reserve in communicating religious privileges and religious truths.Such was the method of the early Church. It went out into the world. It let all the world see the beauty of its life, the glory of its brotherhood, the splendour of its liberality. It made men feel that Christians were the friends of God. But it did not teach them the secrets of its life—its Creed, its Eucharist, its Prayer—till they were ready for them, and showed their readiness at least by inquiry. The Church would explain herself in apologies and dissipate misconceptions, but it was not her way to press her innermost truths upon the indifferent.At the same time the Church has not an esoteric system, like the Pagan mysteries, or the schools of Gnosticism. These Gnostics would have only the intellectual admitted to the mysteries of God. That was not the Church’s way; her way was to teacheveryman (who would come with faith), that she might present everyman perfectly initiated in JesusChrist.83The Church believed that nothing was necessary for the highest union with God but a simple sense of sin and faith in God, in His Son, in His Spirit. Nothing was necessary but these qualities of wanting and trusting, which are possible to all men. Her cry was—“Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” Only, let them come thirsty!And surely that method which belonged to the early Church—although no doubt it was capable of being abused—is yet the true and best method. Let the Church show her compassion and goodness and geniality to all men, but not press upon them the mysteries of God until, under her discipline and teaching, they begin to show some disposition to receive them. This is a principle which admits of very different applications in a heathen country, in preaching religion among nominal Christians, and in the social intercourse of individuals; but it admits of some application everywhere. And above all let us take care that the Church appears before men’s eyes as offering provision of spiritual privileges not forthose who can pay for them, but for those who have some measure of spiritual appetite.
The next characteristic of the temperof the Christian follows by way of contrast on what has gone before. It is reserve in communicating religious privileges.
“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you.”
There are high privileges which many men cannot appreciate; and if you press these upon them, you must not be surprised if, indignant with you for having given them something which seems so worthless, they take violent reprisals upon you.
We ask the question, Has our Lord, in inculcating the uncritical temper, inculcated the undiscriminating temper also? Certainly not. That which the Christian has received is of inestimable worth. The kingdom of God, as our Lord told us, is like a pearl of great price, which when a man hath found, for joy thereof he goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that pearl. The Christian knows what it is to be a Christian, admitted into the fellowship of God, illuminated by His truth, empowered by His Spirit. In the light of God in which he lives he cannot butgaze out into the world with a discrimination like his Lord’s.
Our Lord, we notice, gave men the best they were capable of receiving. To all the world, if they had but the faith to trust His power, He gave the outpouring of that power in works of healing. He had compassion on them; He gave them what alone they were capable of appreciating—kindness, goodness. But did He teach all men the highest truth? No. He sifted, He discriminated them, till He had got those to deal with who really had ears to hear the highest truth, and then He told it them. Our Lord did not cast His pearls before swine, lest they should turn again and rend Him.
Thus we are to put before men what they are capable of appreciating. Not by any merits of ours, God has given us admission to His fellowship; He has given us great things and small things. We are not to be selfish misers, we are to be anxious to communicate all; but we are to be discriminating. Kindness, self-sacrifice, care for their interests, and their whole life—that all men can appreciate, and we are to give it to all. But we are not to shriek the highesttruths of religion at the street corner. We are to wait till people show a desire for the deepest things before we offer them religion. There is to be reserve in communicating religious privileges and religious truths.
Such was the method of the early Church. It went out into the world. It let all the world see the beauty of its life, the glory of its brotherhood, the splendour of its liberality. It made men feel that Christians were the friends of God. But it did not teach them the secrets of its life—its Creed, its Eucharist, its Prayer—till they were ready for them, and showed their readiness at least by inquiry. The Church would explain herself in apologies and dissipate misconceptions, but it was not her way to press her innermost truths upon the indifferent.
At the same time the Church has not an esoteric system, like the Pagan mysteries, or the schools of Gnosticism. These Gnostics would have only the intellectual admitted to the mysteries of God. That was not the Church’s way; her way was to teacheveryman (who would come with faith), that she might present everyman perfectly initiated in JesusChrist.83The Church believed that nothing was necessary for the highest union with God but a simple sense of sin and faith in God, in His Son, in His Spirit. Nothing was necessary but these qualities of wanting and trusting, which are possible to all men. Her cry was—“Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” Only, let them come thirsty!
And surely that method which belonged to the early Church—although no doubt it was capable of being abused—is yet the true and best method. Let the Church show her compassion and goodness and geniality to all men, but not press upon them the mysteries of God until, under her discipline and teaching, they begin to show some disposition to receive them. This is a principle which admits of very different applications in a heathen country, in preaching religion among nominal Christians, and in the social intercourse of individuals; but it admits of some application everywhere. And above all let us take care that the Church appears before men’s eyes as offering provision of spiritual privileges not forthose who can pay for them, but for those who have some measure of spiritual appetite.
IMPARTIALCONSIDERATENESSTheChristianis to be discriminating, but not niggardly. On the contrary, recognizing the readiness of God to give in response to human prayer and effort, he will exhibit a like impartial benevolence towards all men. This is the last of the three characteristics of the Christian character which our Lord enjoins: impartial benevolence proceeding from its own experience and knowledge of the divine character.“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets.”As reported bySt.Luke, our Lord gives a commentary on “Knock, and it shallbe opened unto you.” For He gives us the parable of one who comes at an inconveniently late hour, and knocks at the door of a neighbour’s house, and demands food for a friend who has unexpectedly arrived. And our Lord represents how the owner of the house is at last unwillingly overcome by the importunity of the applicant, and consents to rise and give his neighbour what he wants.Our Lord then in His proverbial way lays down the general principle that importunity—asking, seeking, knocking—at last overcomes all obstacles and obtains what it wants. And we notice that our Lord first arouses attention by the indiscriminate assertion of this general principle. Having done that, when the attention of men was arrested, He on different occasions—for those who had ears to hear—modified it, or gave it its more definite meaning.Such modifications or exacter definitions are the following: “All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for,believe that ye have received them and ye shall have them” (St.Markxi.24). “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall bedone unto you” (St.Johnxv.7). “Hitherto have ye asked nothingin my name: ask, and ye shall receive” (St.Johnxvi.24). It is not too much to say that all these three statements are in effect identical. To ask in Christ’s name is to ask in accordance with Christ’s will, and this brings the third statement into identity with the second. We can only, as intelligent sons of our Father, “believe that we have received” requests which we know to be in accordance with His mind. Thus the first statement, in common with the other two, makes the effective prayer the prayer which rises in intelligent correspondence with the revealed will and character of God.Even in this passage may be found a suggestion to the same purpose. “What man is there of you,” asks our Lord, “who, when his son asks a loaf or a fish, will give him”—something that looks like what he has asked for, but is in fact wholly useless or noxious? If then human fathers are to be relied upon in this way, much more is our heavenly Father to be relied upon to give good things to them that ask Him. But there is a converse to that statement. If ason asks for something harmful, what will a wise father do? Not give him what he asks for, but give him according to his request as it is interpreted by his own larger wisdom. So it is with God. He must hear and answer prayers, not simply as they are ignorantly offered, but as interpreted for our good in accordance with His wise purposes. Roman Catholics and Anglicans and Eastern Christians and Nonconformists may be praying for unity among Christians, each according to their own preconceptions. God will be attentive to the good-will of their prayers: they will not, as has been suggested, “neutralize one another:” for God will answer them according to His own wisdom.Very suggestive then is the version of this saying of our Lord which is given bySt.Luke: “Shall not your Father which is in heaven give”—not good things, but—“the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?”It is often said, we know, that the Sermon on the Mount contains no dogmas, no doctrines. But it implies, in a remarkable way, two cardinal Christian doctrines: the Godhead of Christ and the “fallen” state of man. The Godhead ofChrist, as has been and will again be noticed, is involved in the authoritative tone in which He speaks. And a significant expression in this paragraph is unintelligible unless all men, even the best, may be assumed to be sinful. For our Lord is talking about good parents who will do their best for their children: yet He says “If ye,being evil.” Now, I do not know any words which could more forcibly imply—all the more forcibly because incidentally, or by the way—that our Lord thought of us all as having something evil and corrupt in our nature as it is; so that every one of us needs regeneration and conversion, in order that we may become what our Lord would have us. The intimation seems to me to be indeed the more emphatic because, as I say, it is uttered by the way. “If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more....”Finally, on these considerations of the divine goodness, our Lord bases our duty towards our fellow-men.“Therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets.”Our conduct towards our fellow-men is to be the reflection of that benevolence which we have learned and experienced in our own relations to God.In the maxim in which our Lord expresses our social duty there are several points which require notice.(1) In its negative form it had been already announced both among the Jews and among the Greeks:“Do not do unto others what you would not have them do untoyourselves.”84But one great superiority of our Lord over other teachers lies in the positive character of His teachings. His will is not simply that men should abstain from wrong-doing, but rather that they should be occupied in right-doing.(2) Here, as elsewhere, our Lord is proverbial; and this maxim must not be interpreted “at the foot of the letter.” Nothing in common life is more annoying than when people do so interpret and act upon it; with the result that they behave as if every one must agree with them inwhat they like or dislike. What is meant of course is that we are to act towards others with the same considerateness which we would desire that others should exhibit towards us.(3) We must realize that here we have the very kernel of Christian social duty. There was a great truth announced by the philosopher Immanuel Kant: “So act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never as a means only.” We are to treat all men always as ends in themselves; never as means merely towards some other end which we have in view, whether it be production, or convenience, or pleasure. Now this is only putting into a philosophical form what our Lord states more simply, more practically. We are to take the same thought for others that we would have others take for ourselves. We are to make no exceptions in our own favour. We are to love our neighbour as ourselves. We are to remember that every one in God’s sight counts for one; and that nobody counts for more than one. This, I say, is the principle of all Christian social conduct. It is the principle ofjustice; that is, of equal consideration. We could go on drawing out its applications for hours, and never have exhausted them. And it cannot be said that it is at present within reasonable distance of being realized in what is called Christian society. We have a more or less true ideal of what our own human life ought to be—of what opportunities we ought to have for the development of our faculties—of what home and school and college, youth and married life and old age, work and rest, ought to mean for ourselves and our families. We are to make these ideals universal. We are so to limit our desires that what we want for ourselves we can reasonably expect also for others. We are to be as truly zealous and active for other classes or other individuals as we are for our own class or our own family or ourselves. The service which we expect from others, we are to see that we render in some real sense to them, and that without respect of persons. This maxim is not inconsistent with inequality of position or (within limits) of wealth—for men are differently constituted in their capacities and wants—but it does demand equality of consideration.(4) “This,” our Lord says, “is the law and the prophets,” that is, this is the principle in which the true spirit of the Old Testament culminates. There was, of course, much in the Old Testament narrower than this and on a lower level; and, as we have seen, our Lord occupied a large part of this sermon in showing us those points in which the Christian law is to supersede the legislation of the Old Testament. But the Old Testament represents throughout a process of growth; and this is the point towards which it tends and in which it culminates. AsSt.Paul says,“If there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended”—summed up, or accomplished—“in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour asthyself.”85
TheChristianis to be discriminating, but not niggardly. On the contrary, recognizing the readiness of God to give in response to human prayer and effort, he will exhibit a like impartial benevolence towards all men. This is the last of the three characteristics of the Christian character which our Lord enjoins: impartial benevolence proceeding from its own experience and knowledge of the divine character.
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets.”
As reported bySt.Luke, our Lord gives a commentary on “Knock, and it shallbe opened unto you.” For He gives us the parable of one who comes at an inconveniently late hour, and knocks at the door of a neighbour’s house, and demands food for a friend who has unexpectedly arrived. And our Lord represents how the owner of the house is at last unwillingly overcome by the importunity of the applicant, and consents to rise and give his neighbour what he wants.
Our Lord then in His proverbial way lays down the general principle that importunity—asking, seeking, knocking—at last overcomes all obstacles and obtains what it wants. And we notice that our Lord first arouses attention by the indiscriminate assertion of this general principle. Having done that, when the attention of men was arrested, He on different occasions—for those who had ears to hear—modified it, or gave it its more definite meaning.
Such modifications or exacter definitions are the following: “All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for,believe that ye have received them and ye shall have them” (St.Markxi.24). “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall bedone unto you” (St.Johnxv.7). “Hitherto have ye asked nothingin my name: ask, and ye shall receive” (St.Johnxvi.24). It is not too much to say that all these three statements are in effect identical. To ask in Christ’s name is to ask in accordance with Christ’s will, and this brings the third statement into identity with the second. We can only, as intelligent sons of our Father, “believe that we have received” requests which we know to be in accordance with His mind. Thus the first statement, in common with the other two, makes the effective prayer the prayer which rises in intelligent correspondence with the revealed will and character of God.
Even in this passage may be found a suggestion to the same purpose. “What man is there of you,” asks our Lord, “who, when his son asks a loaf or a fish, will give him”—something that looks like what he has asked for, but is in fact wholly useless or noxious? If then human fathers are to be relied upon in this way, much more is our heavenly Father to be relied upon to give good things to them that ask Him. But there is a converse to that statement. If ason asks for something harmful, what will a wise father do? Not give him what he asks for, but give him according to his request as it is interpreted by his own larger wisdom. So it is with God. He must hear and answer prayers, not simply as they are ignorantly offered, but as interpreted for our good in accordance with His wise purposes. Roman Catholics and Anglicans and Eastern Christians and Nonconformists may be praying for unity among Christians, each according to their own preconceptions. God will be attentive to the good-will of their prayers: they will not, as has been suggested, “neutralize one another:” for God will answer them according to His own wisdom.
Very suggestive then is the version of this saying of our Lord which is given bySt.Luke: “Shall not your Father which is in heaven give”—not good things, but—“the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?”
It is often said, we know, that the Sermon on the Mount contains no dogmas, no doctrines. But it implies, in a remarkable way, two cardinal Christian doctrines: the Godhead of Christ and the “fallen” state of man. The Godhead ofChrist, as has been and will again be noticed, is involved in the authoritative tone in which He speaks. And a significant expression in this paragraph is unintelligible unless all men, even the best, may be assumed to be sinful. For our Lord is talking about good parents who will do their best for their children: yet He says “If ye,being evil.” Now, I do not know any words which could more forcibly imply—all the more forcibly because incidentally, or by the way—that our Lord thought of us all as having something evil and corrupt in our nature as it is; so that every one of us needs regeneration and conversion, in order that we may become what our Lord would have us. The intimation seems to me to be indeed the more emphatic because, as I say, it is uttered by the way. “If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more....”
Finally, on these considerations of the divine goodness, our Lord bases our duty towards our fellow-men.
“Therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets.”
Our conduct towards our fellow-men is to be the reflection of that benevolence which we have learned and experienced in our own relations to God.
In the maxim in which our Lord expresses our social duty there are several points which require notice.
(1) In its negative form it had been already announced both among the Jews and among the Greeks:“Do not do unto others what you would not have them do untoyourselves.”84But one great superiority of our Lord over other teachers lies in the positive character of His teachings. His will is not simply that men should abstain from wrong-doing, but rather that they should be occupied in right-doing.
(2) Here, as elsewhere, our Lord is proverbial; and this maxim must not be interpreted “at the foot of the letter.” Nothing in common life is more annoying than when people do so interpret and act upon it; with the result that they behave as if every one must agree with them inwhat they like or dislike. What is meant of course is that we are to act towards others with the same considerateness which we would desire that others should exhibit towards us.
(3) We must realize that here we have the very kernel of Christian social duty. There was a great truth announced by the philosopher Immanuel Kant: “So act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never as a means only.” We are to treat all men always as ends in themselves; never as means merely towards some other end which we have in view, whether it be production, or convenience, or pleasure. Now this is only putting into a philosophical form what our Lord states more simply, more practically. We are to take the same thought for others that we would have others take for ourselves. We are to make no exceptions in our own favour. We are to love our neighbour as ourselves. We are to remember that every one in God’s sight counts for one; and that nobody counts for more than one. This, I say, is the principle of all Christian social conduct. It is the principle ofjustice; that is, of equal consideration. We could go on drawing out its applications for hours, and never have exhausted them. And it cannot be said that it is at present within reasonable distance of being realized in what is called Christian society. We have a more or less true ideal of what our own human life ought to be—of what opportunities we ought to have for the development of our faculties—of what home and school and college, youth and married life and old age, work and rest, ought to mean for ourselves and our families. We are to make these ideals universal. We are so to limit our desires that what we want for ourselves we can reasonably expect also for others. We are to be as truly zealous and active for other classes or other individuals as we are for our own class or our own family or ourselves. The service which we expect from others, we are to see that we render in some real sense to them, and that without respect of persons. This maxim is not inconsistent with inequality of position or (within limits) of wealth—for men are differently constituted in their capacities and wants—but it does demand equality of consideration.
(4) “This,” our Lord says, “is the law and the prophets,” that is, this is the principle in which the true spirit of the Old Testament culminates. There was, of course, much in the Old Testament narrower than this and on a lower level; and, as we have seen, our Lord occupied a large part of this sermon in showing us those points in which the Christian law is to supersede the legislation of the Old Testament. But the Old Testament represents throughout a process of growth; and this is the point towards which it tends and in which it culminates. AsSt.Paul says,“If there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended”—summed up, or accomplished—“in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour asthyself.”85